Flourless Chocolate, Nut and Prune Torte

Posted by Ozlem on Dec 5, 2011 in Cakes and Desserts, Uncategorized | 0 comments

We have been well due for a nice, sweet treat:) I saw this lovely torte at the Good Housekeeping magazine; the original recipe used ground hazelnuts in the torte, my version has ground almonds – just because we love it- . It turned out to be a wonderful, moist torte that we enjoyed at the end of a meal with friends. The ground almonds make the torte really moist and torte stays moist for good 3-4 days, if there is any left!

Vanilla ice cream or double cream goes very well by the side.

Serves 8
Preparation time: 25 min Cooking time: 35 min

75gr (3oz) unsalted butter, cut in cubes, plus extra to grease
100gr (3 1/2oz) ground almonds
Handful of whole hazelnuts, blanched to decorate
75gr (3oz) caster sugar
125gr (4oz) good quality plain chocolate, broken into pieces
10ml/ 2 teaspoons rum, optional
3 medium eggs, separated
75gr (3oz) prunes, chopped

Icing sugar to dust

Preheat the oven to 180C/350F/Mark 4

Grease and line a 20.5cm (8in) round tin with baking parchment. Mix the ground almonds with 1 tablespoon of the caster sugar. Set aside.

Next, put the chocolate, butter and rum (if using) into a small pan and melt gently over low heat. Set aside to cool slightly.

Put the egg yolks and the remaining caster sugar into a large bowl and the egg whites into a separate large bowl. Using a handheld electric whisk beat the whites until they hold soft peaks. Next, beat together the yolks and sugar mixture until thick and moussey, about 3 minutes.

Using a large metal spoon, fold the chocolate mixture into the yolk bowl, followed by the ground almonds mixture. Stir a spoonful of whites into the chocolate mixture, and then carefully fold in the rest. Empty mixture into the prepared tin, level the surface, then sprinkle over prunes and the whole hazelnuts.

Bake for 25-30 minutes or until the cake is risen and feels springy to the touch. Take out of the oven and allow to cool completely in the tin. Take out of the tin, peel off the paper and transfer to a serving plate. Dust with icing sugar and serve in slices with cream or ice cream, if you like.

Hope you have a sweet start of the week, Afiyet Olsun!

Madeira Cake with Chocolate Sauce

Posted by Ozlem on Oct 26, 2011 in Cakes and Desserts, Uncategorized | 2 comments

It was our cake bake to raise funds for my son’s class a couple of weeks ago, and I baked the Madeira cake with a little twist. Madeira cake is a lovely simple sponge cake, and it was used to be served with a glass of Madeira wine – today it makes an excellent accompaniment served with tea or coffee. It is best to eat the cake fresh, when it is soft and light.

My little twist to this cake was the addition of a little chocolate sauce over the top – to tempt children (and adults!) for the cake bake. The result was delicious, and the cake disappeared pretty quickly! I hope you could have a go sometime, children enjoy decorating with the cake with the chocolate sauce too.

Serves 6-8
Preparation time: 20 minutes Cooking time: 1 hour

225 gr/8oz plain flour, sifted (and extra 2 tablespoons of flour with the eggs)
5ml/1teaspoon baking powder
175gr/6oz butter, softened
175gr/6oz caster sugar
Grated rind of half a lemon
3 eggs
30ml/2 tablespoons milk

For the chocolate sauce:
100gr/4 oz good quality milk or dark chocolate
10ml/2 teaspoons cocoa powder

Makes 1x7in (17.5cm) round cake

Preheat the oven to 180C/350F/Gas Mark 4

Grease and line a 17.5cm (7in) round tin. Mix together the flour and baking powder. Beat together the butter, sugar and lemon rind until light and fluffy. Beat in the eggs, one at a time, adding 2 tablespoons of flour with the last two. Fold in the remaining flour, and then gently mix in the milk. Turn into the prepared tin and bake for about 1 hour until a skewer comes out clean. Remove from the oven and turn out on the wire rack to cool.

One of the best and easiest ways of melting chocolate is to melt it either in a bain marie or in a bowl over a pan of hot water. Make sure the bowl fits securely over. Break the chocolate into chunks and place them and the cocoa powder in a bowl, sitting over a pan of hot water. Stir until the chocolate is completely melted. Set aside to cool.

Pour the sauce over the top of the cake and make a pattern with prongs of a fork and leave to set.

Afiyet Olsun,

And a here is a photo from Devon, from the lovely seaside town, Sidmouth. We were there at the weekend; the English coastline is beautiful and it was very relaxing and peaceful.

Special Note: My heartfelt thanks to you all, who expressed their concerns and good wishes for the devastating earthquake at the eastern part of Turkey. It is heartbreaking, and one would hope no more casualties. Prayers and good wishes go for all the folks there, to have the strength to keep going and keep the hope alive.

Maria’s Apple Cake with Cinnamon and Walnuts

Posted by Ozlem on Sep 27, 2011 in Cakes and Desserts, Uncategorized | 2 comments

The UK apple season runs through Autumn and Winter. We have loads of different varieties at the moment and the orchards are packed full of apples. My good friend Sarah gave us a basket full of apples a few weeks ago, and I have been looking to find a good recipe to use them. Then another good friend, Maria, mentioned her mother’s apple cake recipe (from Greece); with use of cinnamon, it sounded yummy and reminded me my mother’s version. Cakes and pastries are favorite tea time treats in Turkey, and we use cinnamon, nuts and fruits in our cakes too.

So with our English apples, we gave it a go for Maria’s apple cake. The result was a lovely, moist apple cake with wonderful smells of cinnamon. This is quite a generous size of a cake and would be great for cake bake, gatherings, parties. Children love to be involved too! We added walnuts though you can skip that if you’d like it nut free (or add another nut of your choice) or add raisins instead. My special thanks to Sarah for the wonderful apples, and Maria, for the lovely recipe:)

Serves 10-12
Preparation time: 20 minutes Cooking time: 45-50 minutes

4-5 medium size apples, peeled and cut in small chunks
Juice if 1/2 lemon
4 eggs, beaten
460gr/1lb plain flour
340gr/12oz caster sugar
115gr/4oz/1/2cup crushed walnuts
15ml/1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
15ml/1tablespoon baking powder
100ml/1/2 cup sunflower oil

Icing sugar to decorate (optional)

Preheat the oven to 180C/350F

Prepare a large size baking tray by greasing it lightly with sunflower oil.

Mix the apples with the lemon juice in a bowl (that will prevent apples to get darker).

In a large mixing bowl, beat the eggs and sugar together until smooth. Add the oil and keep on beating. In a separate bowl, sift the flour and stir in the baking powder, mix well. Add this flour mixture to the sugar/egg/oil mixture, mix well. Finally stir in the apples, walnuts and cinnamon, and combine well.

Pour the cake mixture into the greased baking tray and bake in the preheated oven for about 45 minutes. The cake should rise and turn golden brown at top. You can insert a skewer to see if the cake is cooked – if the skewer comes clean that means it is cooked. If not, cook for a futher 5-10 minutes.

Once cooked, cool down the cake for about 15 minutes. You can dust with the icing sugar if you like. Slice the cake and serve; some vanilla ice cream by the side goes well too.

Afiyet Olsun!

Baked Fresh Figs with Honey and Clotted Cream – Kaymakli Incir Tatlisi

Posted by Ozlem on Sep 12, 2011 in Cakes and Desserts, Uncategorized | 8 comments

I love figs; my grandmother used to have a huge fig tree in her garden and we grandchildren used to love “helping” picking them up. Turkey produces some of the finest figs; they are sweet, juicy and darker than the average fig, especially the Bursa variety. There was an article on Turkey’s dark Bursa figs on the Daily Telegraph a couple of weeks ago, saying that they will be available at M&S; stores until late September – well, did I run to the M&S;? I sure did and got my beloved Turkish figs

Figs are packed with fiber; they are not only delicious but very healthy too. It is so wonderful to eat just plain; what a treat to have them by the salad for lunch or for a special treat. But if you’d like to turn them into an easy, healthy, delicious dessert, here is the recipe, an adaptation from Ghillie Basan’s version:

Serves 2-4
Preparation time: 5-10 minutes Baking time: 5-8 minutes

4 ripe (preferably) Turkish figs
15ml-30ml/1-2 tablespoons clear honey
30ml-45ml/2-3 tablespoons clotted cream (or crème fraiche or plain yoghurt)
1/2 teaspoon lemon juice

Preheat oven to 180F/350C

Wash the figs and pat them dry. Using a sharp knife, cut a deep cross from the top of each fig to the bottom, keeping the skin at the bottom intact. Place the figs upright in a baking dish.

Drizzle the honey and the lemon juice over the figs and bake in the oven for about 5-8 minutes. Take out the baking tray from the oven. Spoon a dollop of clotted cream or yoghurt into the middle of each fig, or serve them in bowls and let everyone help themselves with yoghurt or cream.

Afiyet Olsun!

Baklava Uncovered, Gulluoglu – Istanbul

Posted by Ozlem on Jul 28, 2011 in Cakes and Desserts, Uncategorized | 2 comments

This whole post deserves to be dedicated to our Baklava Masterclass with the baklava experts at Gulluoglu. We have been looking forward to our baklava class for months to reveal how the genuine article is made – and here it is!

Gulluoglu Baklava is a family owned store and they have been making “hand made” baklava for 6 generations – the daily production ranges from 2-5 tons, all hand made!
They use organic butter, pure cane sugar – no honey!-, and it is a result of their mastership for 150 years, very impressive.

Here is the baklava making master class

The dough is being pushed thru a special machine (similar for making pasta) to stretch. This is the only step that involves machinery.

Once the pastry is paper thin (2mm width), we start layering on a buttered tray.

The hand rolled pastry is so thin that you can see through my logo,

as well as the flags behind it!

Our baklava master layered 20 sheets of pastry ( and sprinkled melted butter on every 4 sheets) than generously spread finely crushed pistachios (or at some cases walnuts)on the 20th layer.

He cut the sheets first horizontally and poured melted butter over them – cutting helps the butter to penetrate every level. Then he cut vertically and splashed another dose of butter all around. The baklava is now ready to be baked in the oven at 165 C.

In the meantime, the syrup is prepared, consisting of pure cane sugar, lemon juice and water – no honey in it!

Once cooked, hot syrup is poured over the hot baklava, and then let it rested at the cool area.


And here is the real thing; wonderful, melt in the mouth delicious baklava. It is so light that you feel like eating the whole tray! I hope you get a chance to try the real baklava in Turkey:)

Orange Crisps

Posted by Ozlem on Jul 18, 2011 in Cakes and Desserts, Uncategorized | 2 comments

It is the end of school year coming up in England and we thought to bake some biscuits to say thank you to our teachers with the children. Baking for school requires a nut free recipe, and I found this lovely Orange Crisps recipe at the National Trust Tea Time Baking Book by Jane Pettigrew. They are very easy to make and the children really enjoy preparing and cutting out different shapes.

The citrus tang of the juice and zest makes these biscuits irresistible; a lovely treat for yourself or someone you’d like to share with. Apparently, they are also excellent made with lemon juice and rind, instead of orange. We are already looking forward to that one too!

Makes approximately 20-24 biscuits
Preparation time: 20 minutes Baking time: 10 minutes

100gr/5oz butter, softened
150gr/5oz caster or granulated sugar
1 egg yolk
225gr/8oz plain flour, sifted
10ml/2 teaspoons baking powder
Grated rind and juice of half an orange
1 egg white, beaten
100gr/4oz caster sugar for dredging

Preheat the oven to 190 C/375F/Gas Mark 5

Grease two or three baking trays. Beat together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add the egg yolk, flour, baking powder, orange rind and juice. Mix thoroughly to a stiff paste and knead until smooth. On a lightly floured board, roll out to a thickness of 0.5cm (1/4in) and cut into rounds using a 6cm (2 1/2in) cutter.

Place on the prepared trays, leaving room for the biscuits to spread. Brush the top of each with beaten egg white, dredge with caster sugar.

Bake for 10 minutes, until pale golden. Remove from the oven and leave to cool for 5 minutes on the trays before lifting on to a wire rack to cool completely.

Afiyet Olsun!