• Recipes

    • Apple and Blackberry Strudel

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    Apple and Blackberry Strudel
    Yields 6
    As the autumnal nights start to approach, thoughts start turning to comfort food. For those who live in the countryside it’s a great time to go foraging or blackberries. This recipe is a great way to combine blackberries with apples-also plentiful at harvest time, to create a warming and flavorsome dessert. The word “strudel” means whirlpool, which is a great way to describe the beautiful swirls of soft pastry layers inside this delicious dessert. The trick to making a great strudel is to roll the pastry as thinly as possible. But you don’t have to be a top pastry cook to do that- just follow out top tips below and you too can achieve a truly professional looking strudel. It’s much easier than it looks!
    Ingredients
    1. Ready-made puff pastry 500g
    2. Plain flour (for rolling pastry)
    3. Butter 150g
    4. Fresh white breadcrumbs 75g
    5. Cooking apples 400g
    6. Blackberries 100g
    7. Juice and peel of a lemon half
    8. Chopped hazelnuts 50g
    9. Cinnamon ½ tsp
    10. Sugar 50g
    11. Icing sugar for dusting
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    Instructions
    1. Pre-heat oven to 410 F.
    2. Remove pastry from refrigerator and whilst it warms to room temperature, peel, core, quarter and slice the apples and wash the blackberries. Sprinkle the fruit with the lemon juice to avoid discoloration.
    3. Spread a clean tea-towel over the work surface and sieve 2 tbsp. of flour evenly over the tea towel.
    4. Place the pastry in the center of the towel and use a well-floured rolling-pin to roll the pastry out to the edges of the towel. A second linen towel can be used between the pastry and the rolling-pin if necessary. You are aiming for rectangular-shaped pastry base that is so thin that it is nearly transparent. Trim the edges of the pastry.
    5. Melt 50g of the butter and brush over the pastry. Heat a further 50g of butter in a frying pan and fry the breadcrumbs until light brown.
    6. Spread the fried breadcrumbs over the pastry and add the apple slices and blackberries, taking care to keep the outer 5cm of the pastry edge free so that fruit does not leak out when you roll the strudel. Spread the chopped hazelnuts, sugar, cinnamon and grated lemon peel evenly over the fruit.
    7. Carefully lift one of the longer edges of the tea-towel under the pastry and start to roll the strudel, like a Swiss roll. Seal the edges with water so all the fruit is sealed inside the strudel.
    8. Lift the strudel onto a well-greased baking tray and twist into a crescent shape. Brush with 50g melted butter and place in the oven for 20 minutes at 210⁰C. After 20 minutes turn the oven down to 190⁰ C /gas mark 5 and bake for a further 20-30 minutes until crisp and golden.
    9. Remove from the oven and cool for 15 minutes. Dust with icing sugar and serve sliced with whipped cream.
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    Life & Cooking https://lifencooking.com/
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  • Beauty

    • The Best Essential Oils You Must Have

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    essential oils

    Essential oils are an amazing gift of nature with substantially astonishing properties and purposes much more than giving off an enamoring fragrance which makes the ambiance of your home or bathroom enticing. Among the other properties, essential oils which are basically concentrated oils from spices, herbs and other plants exhibit astounding healing properties which certainly […]

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  • Recipes

    • Filled eggplant

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    Filled eggplant
    Eggplant belongs to the group of nightshade vegetables, together with potatoes and tomatoes. Besides having a beautiful and unusual color, it is tasty and nutritious. The eggplant is rich with fiber, B vitamins (B1, B3 and B6), manganese and copper. This vegetable consists of phytonutrients, which have antioxidant activity and also the same ones can protect brain cell membranes. We prepared a delicious recipe for you and we’re sure that you won’t resist to prepare it.
    Ingredients
    1. Eggplant 3
    2. Mixed minced meat 1 lb.
    3. Onion 1
    4. Tomatoes 2
    5. Green Pepper 2
    6. Grounded cheese ⅔ lb.
    7. Eggs 3
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    If you don’t have Buy Me a Pie! app installed you’ll see the list with ingredients right after downloading it
    Instructions
    1. Wash every eggplant, get rid of the stem and cut them lengthwise into two halves. Remove the core from the eggplant and cook it on medium heat in a pan with one tablespoon of cooking oil. Cook until the eggplant core becomes soft (you will need 10-15 minutes). While cooking the core, season it with chopped fresh basil leaves and salt.
    2. In another pan, add a tablespoon of cooking oil and the previously chopped onion; first cook the onion, then add the minced meat. Add spices (pepper and salt) and cook the meat until it becomes brown. Chop the tomatoes and the green pepper into small cubes and mix them with the eggplant marrow and then add the minced meat.
    3. When you get a homogeneous mixture, with a spoon fill each half of eggplant with this filling. In a bowl, beat the eggs and add the grounded cheese. Easily move the spoon over the stuffed eggplant to get a flat surface and then on the same, stir a thick layer of the egg-and-cheese mixture.
    4. Put the stuffed eggplants in an oven tray (previously oiled) and bake in oven on 350 F for 40 minutes.
    5. When baked, let them cool for 5 minutes and serve warm. As an addition to this dish, you can serve cold sour milk in a separate bowl.
    Notes
    1. If you don’t consume meat, use soy crumbles and other vegetables by choice to fill the eggplant halves. Instead of regular milk-based cheese, use vegan parmesan cheese or any other plant-based cheese and exclude the beaten eggs. To have a soft surface, you can mix the cheese with tomato sauce.
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  • Recipes

    • Parmesan Eggs

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    Parmesan Eggs
    These delightful puffs closely resemble meringue, but they are a savory snack. The beaten egg whites create a little cloud for the egg yolks to sit on, making this not only fun to eat, but pretty to look at as well.
    Ingredients
    1. Whole eggs 8
    2. Grated Parmesan cheese 1 T
    3. Salt ½ t
    4. Black pepper to taste
    Add ingredients to shopping list
    If you don’t have Buy Me a Pie! app installed you’ll see the list with ingredients right after downloading it
    Instructions
    1. Preheat your oven to 375 F. Grease a baking sheet and line it with parchment paper.
    2. Crack each egg into two bowls, separating the yolks from the whites. With a hand mixer, beat the egg whites on medium-high speed until stiff peaks form.
    3. Fold the grated Parmesan cheese into the egg whites with a rubber spatula, but do this quickly so that you don’t ruin the stiffness of the whites. Sprinkle with salt.
    4. Use a spoon to scoop the egg whites onto the lined baking sheet. You should be able to get 8 “clouds” out of this. Make sure that the clouds are spaced about one inch apart from each other.
    5. With the back of the spoon, create a little well in each cloud and pour one egg yolk into each.
    6. Bake for 14 minutes (a few minutes less if you want runnier eggs) and remove from oven. Season with salt and black pepper.
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    Life & Cooking https://lifencooking.com/

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  • Beauty

    • Homemade Facial Masks

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    homemade facial masks

    @photo Nurturing your skin is a very important segment of your beauty and your health. Besides creams and serums, face masks are the best friend of the skin. The thing that can frustrate you while choosing the mask is its price or simply a lack of information about what kind of mask you need. Instead […]

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