This is the simplest recipe of rolls in the world. The dough is very easy to cook and it’s very tender, almost melting in the mouth. This is also a very good dough for cookies.

For the dough:

1 stick of butter

1 cup of sugar

1.5 cups of flour (sifted, self-rising)

1 teaspoon of baking powder 

1 teaspoon of vanilla extract

1 egg

1 tablespoon of sour cream

2 tablespoons of water

For the filling:

3-4 apples

1 teaspoon cinnamon powder

1 tablespoon of sugar

½ cup of chopped walnuts

The dough:

Cut 1 stick of butter (or shred), mix it with 1 cup of sugar and  mash the butter with a fork or knife until it will turn into butter crumbs.

Add 1.5 cup of flour, mix very well with butter and sugar.

In a cup mix: 1 egg, 2 tablespoons of water +1 tablespoon of sour cream. Pour into the butter-sugar-flour mixture and knead the dough. The dough will be very tender and fragile. Form out of the dough two balls and put the dough into the freezer for 10 minutes.

Filling:

Wash, peel and chop the apples into the midsized chunks, add sugar, cinnamon and walnuts.

Set aside.

Forming the rolls:

Take out the dough. Take one ball and gently (!) roll it out with the dough roller. Don’t press too hard this dough is fragile. Cut the dough layer into two halves. (This will be your two big rolls that you will cut into the small bite size rolls) on one half of the dough put the apple filling. Put not too much of the filling and put it in a row. Then roll the layer with filling in and cut into the small bite size rolls crosswise.

Put the small rolls roses on a baking dish 4-5 inches away from each other as they will become bigger while baking.

Repeat the same procedure with the second half of your rolled out dough and with the second ball of dough.

 ***Tip from Helen*** I used for the second dough ball cream cheese filling. The filling is very simple to make ¾ of a cream cheese pack and 2-3 tablespoons of sugar mixed. When you mux the cream cheese and sugar spread it on each dough layer and roll it in as I wrote before. The rest of the procedure is the same.***

Baking:

Bake at 350 F for 20 minutes or until golden brown.

Which version to choose?

I honestly can’t decide which rolls are more delicious: with apples and cinnamon and walnuts or with cream cheese. So bake the two versions usually.

It’s very delicious, simple and warm fall dessert.

Enjoy!

Tortilla is a unique ingredient: every dish you incorporate it in is simple, easy to cook , yet very delicious.

These 3 recipes are my favorites when I am on the run and the family needs to have a snack.

Fried tortillas with beef

It’s good to take with you if you decide to go camping or travel by car at the long distances.

You can also cook this dish with fruit, berries, I sometimes use bacon and cheese, whatever you want.

For this dish you will need

Meat ( in my case beef) for 4 tortillas I used ½ pound

1 small onion

1 egg

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon pepper Read full recipe 

Apple hot pockets:

Apple hot pockets are a great fall breakfast for a weekday. with Tortillas you can cook them in minutes in the evening and reheat in the morning.

For the recipe you will need:

4 medium apples;

4 tortillas;

2 tablespoons of sugar;

2 tablespoons of vegetable oil Read more 

 Burrito with sausage, cheese, tomato and basil.

Burritos should be spicy and meaty, but as my family loves burritos and doesn’t loce them too spicy I decided to invent mine.

(Honetly there’s nothing to invent) Just throw in together the delicious vinnagraitte of saucage, tomato, cheese and onion with herbs. Read more

This is a great weekday breakfast. It’s very easy to cook, it’s healthy and very delicious autumn treat.

If you like the cinnamon, you can add it as well, walnuts will also taste amazing in this simple dish.

When I cook it , sometimes, they don’t “live”  till morning family members hunt for them in the evening and at night.

(please note that the pockets in the picture are made of the homemade flour tortillas, so these are a little bit different looking)

For the recipe you will need:

4 medium apples;

4 tortillas;

2 tablespoons of sugar;

2 tablespoons of vegetable oil;

Wash the apples, peel them, then chop into mid sized chunks (take out the apple seeds ptip to chopping the apples).

Mix the chopped apples with sugar( add walnuts, cinnamon at this stage if you want to).

Preheat your oven at 375 F.

Take the baking dish, grease it with 1 tablespoon of oil.

Take your tortilla, put the apple mix on one half of it, cover with the second half and press firmly (BUT DON’T SQUEEZE TOO HARD).

Put your hot pockets on a baking dish, brush tortillas with the vegetable oil (optional), and set to bake for 10 minutes.

Your dish is ready in 10 minutes. (the tortillas will be crispy and light golden).

Enjoy!

This pizza is a “sister” of my “delicious 30 minute pizza.” It’s cooked from scratch in 30-35 minutes and I just Love this combination of veggies. You can use your combination, but this one is good for me!

The dough is the same:

2.5 cups of sifted flour

1 cup of hot water

0.25 oz. dry yeast

2 tablespoons of olive oil

1 teaspoon of salt

1 teaspoon of sugar

Filling:

1 zucchini;

1/2 small can of mushrooms;

½ carrot (medium);

½ red bell pepper (medium);

¼ of onion (medium);

½ lb. cheese (shredded);

1 teaspoon of tomato sauce

1 teaspoon of mayo

 Pinch of salt, pepper and oregano.

Sift the flour; add sugar, salt and yeast. Pour in hot water and olive oil, Mix well.

Put in the oven for 10-15 minutes (the oven shouldn’t be turned on)

Put on the shelf below the dough a bowl with hot water.

Chop the veggies:  zucchini should be midsized, slice the mushrooms or use canned, finely chop the onion, red bell pepper and garlic. (Garlic should be very well chopped, almost in crumbs)

Take out your dough. Divide into two parts. From this amount of dough you can get 2 pizzas and 5-6 hot pockets with apples or anything you like. (Read about the hot pockets- in my next post!)

Roll out one part of the dough cut it to the size of your pizza form.

Put it in your pizza form and cover the dough with mayo and tomato sauce. Spread it evenly over the dough, season with salt, pepper and sprinkle oregano on top. Put the half of your shredded cheese on top of the tomato-mayo layer, and then add your veggies one by one.

Set to bake in a preheated oven for 15-20 minutes. (The oven should be preheated to 375F)

Before taking the pizza out cover the pie with another cheese layer.

Take out in 3-5 minutes.

Enjoy!

I love puff pastry, do you? You can create literally hundreds of recipes with it and it’s ready in 15 minutes: Apple strudel, croissants, puff pastry baskets and puff pastry fish pie and much more. The recipe of this dough will help you create a lot of awesomely delicious dishes in minutes.

For the dough you’ll need:

2 sticks of frozen butter (unsalted), no margarine.

 1 cup of water

3 cups of flour

1 teaspoon vanilla sugar

For the filling:

2-3 apples

½ cup of sugar

1 teaspoon of cinnamon (optional)

½ cup of finely chopped walnuts (optional)

The batter prep takes some time and effort, but then you’ll be able to freeze it and use for 2-3 weeks easy.

So, Take your butter, cut the sticks in halves and put in the freezer for 15 min.

Mix: water, flour and vanilla sugar.

Put the batter in a freezer for 10 min.

Take out of the freezer ½ stick of butter and the batter.

Put the clear wrap on the surface you are gonna work on, using the dough roller roll the dough out until 1 inch thick. Shred the butter on the rolled out dough and fold in triangle. Put in a freezer for 10-15 minutes (cover it with clear wrap when putting in the freezer). In 15 minutes take another ½ stick of butter, take out the dough, and put the clear wrap on the working surface (the same you used before or new one). Roll out the dough until 1 inch thick; shred the butter, fold in triangle, put for 15 min in the freezer (cover with clear wrap). Repeat the same procedure with the rest 2 halves of the butter sticks. This dough takes some time and effort, but it really is delicious and the best. But, if you don’t have no time for messing with this dough, just buy the ready puff pastry dough. I normally cook this dough over the weekend, because then I can relax roll out my dough go watch TV then repeat, you know… just enjoy this dough preparation procedure…:-))

The dough is ready, when you shred the last 1/2 stick of butter and put it for 15 minutes in the fridge: take it out cut in 3-4 pieces. Use one piece to roll out your dough for the strudel , the other two you can use for the croissants:-) Keep the other parts of the dough in a freeser for as long as you ned. It’s a great dough to fix quick dessert or pie, or cakes, or roll…

But strudel is my favorite. Ususally it doesn’t live for more than 3 hours in my house, croissants may last for 24 h the most.

Enjoy and share with me your ways of using this recipe of dough.

This chocolate chip cookies recipe was borrowed from Allrecipes.com website.

I have changed the ingredients list a little bit, but the best part of this recipe is that it’s very fast, very simple and may be cooked with your eyes closed. You kids will <3 these cookies, they are” crispy on the edges and chewy inside”, as the author Dora said in her description.

***Tip from Helen*** You can make these cookies with oatmeal and they will be fabulous! Just substitute chocolate chips with oatmeal. ***Tip from Helen***

Preparation time: 15 minutes

Cooking time: 25 minutes

Servings: 24 cookies (or more depending on the size you like)

Ingredients:

1 2/3 sticks of butter

1 cup of brown sugar

1 cup of white sugar (optional, but not a must they will be very sweet)

1 teaspoon of vanilla extract

1 teaspoon of baking soda

2 tablespoons of hot water

1 teaspoon of baking powder

1 (2) cups of chocolate chips

1 cup of coconut shred (optional)

2 eggs

2 ½ cups of flour (you can put 3 and your cookies will be more crispy.)

Take the butter out of the fridge, let it become soft. Cut the butter in small pieces and mix it with sugar.  Add vanilla extract and beat in eggs, one after another. Mix baking soda and hot water in a cup and pour into the egg-sugar-butter mixture. Mix very well, add baking powder and flour, stir well, then add coconut shred and chocolate chips (or oatmeal).

Preheat the stove at 350F. Form the cookies with a tablespoon and fingers. (Remember that they will grow 2-3 sizes larger, so leave enough space between your cookies). Bake for 20-25 minutes until golden brown.

 ***Tip from Helen*** If you don’t want your cookies to be very-very sweet add 1 cup of sugar. If you want your cookies to be more soft add less flour and bake them for 20 minutes until light golden brown.*** Tip from Helen***

Enjoy!

In loving memory of My Grandmother Maria.

This pie was a signature recipe of my Grandmother Maria, today would be her birthday , so I decided to bake this pie for the first time in my life. I ate it hundreds of times, but never thought that this deliciousness is so simple to cook.

You can use pretty much any filling : jam, fresh fruit, berries and nuts. (wallnuts add special twist to this pie)

I was baking this pie with cherries, so in my execution it’s sweet and sour shredded pie.

For this recipe you’ll need:

2 cups of flour

1 cup of sugar

1 egg yolk

1 tablespoon of sour cream or mayo

1 teaspoon of vanilla extract

2 tablespoons of water

1 teaspoon of baking powder

1 stick of butter.

Sift flour, add 1 cup of sugar and 1 teaspoon of baking powder, mix everything very well.

Shred the butter and mix it with the flour-sugar-baking powder. In a separate bowl mix: egg yolk,  2 tablespoons of water, 1 tablespoon of sour cream (or mayo), add vanilla extract. Form a batter, split the batter in proportion 2/3 and 1/3. Put it in a fridge for 15-20 mins.

Preheat the stove to 350F,grease the baking dish, take the batter  and spred 2/3 of batter over the baking dish. (as it’s  very tender I was spreading it with my hands)

Filling: take the filling you are planning to use, I’m using cherries, spread over the batter and shred the1/3 of batter over the filling. (So your pie would look like a curly pie).

Bake the pie for 20-25 mins untli the crust is golden brown.

Enjoy! (I enjoyed it a lot)

Bread recipe:
1/2 glass of water
1/2 glass of milk
2 packs or 6 teaspoons of yeast for bread

Flour 1.5 glass or up until the dough will be neither too hard nor too soft ( recommended to take Golden Label flour) Salt 1 teaspoon
Sugar 2 teaspoons
1 tablespoon of olive oil

Mix water and milk, preheat on a minimum heat, but don’t boil.
Turn the heat off and let it stand for a minute. Add yeast, and mix it with the water and milk. Let it stand for 20 minutes . Add salt sugar, olive oil and flour. Let it stand for 3-4 hours.
Prepare the bread form. Smother the form with olive , corn or butter, so that the bread would be easy to take out of the form.
Take out the dough, add a little bit of flour and work with it until it will comer off your hands easily. Make the shape out of the dough: it may be round or square shaped, any shape.
Make 2-3 cuts on the dough to let the air go out of the dough, when it bakes. Cover the dough with plastic wrap including the form where you put it. Let it stand for 1.5 hour.

Ready to eat Crispy Home-made Bread!

Preheat the stove at 350f. Before putting the dough to bake caver it with beaten yolk, so that it would have crust, when baked.
Bake your bread for 20 minutes at 350f and then turn the heat own to 250f let it stay there for 20-40 minutes until it looks nicely baked. Carefully take it out of the stove as it is hot! Put it to cool off and then take it out of the shape.

Enjoy your bread!