This delicious pineapple filling is so flavorful and can be whipped up with just a few simple ingredients!
Pastry cream is a delicious pudding-like custard recipe that you never knew you needed! Also called Crème Pâtissière, this French staple is an important part of many desserts, like eclairs and fruit tarts. It is similar to vanilla pudding but much thicker (perfect for piping and filling Bavarian Cream Donuts!) It is made in 10 minutes and uses pantry staples: egg yolks, milk, and cornstarch.
These Biscoff Cupcakes have a delicious Biscoff Crumb baked into the batter, they are filled with Biscoff Cookie Butter, topped with Biscoff Buttercream Frosting.
Sweet and citrusy, this clementine creme patisserie (or pastry cream) is versatile as a filling for pies, cakes, pastries, trifles, and mini desserts.
A thick and creamy vanilla custard, perfect for piping into plump doughnuts or featherlight eclairs
End your meal on a sweet note with these lusciously good cream puffs with delectably indulgent cream puff fillings. They're unbelievably easy to prepare!
Making frangipane is simple and takes only a few minutes with the help of an electric mixer. Follow my simple frangipane recipe and use it in a variety of sweet treats.
Have a little delicious twist in your regular Custard Pastry Cream and make this Coconut Custard Pastry Cream instead. The process is the same with a slight change in one of the major ingredients. …
This easy Mascarpone Puff Pastry is filled with mascarpone frosting and lemon curd, then topped with berries. A note-perfect combination of tart and sweet, this puff pastry is the perfect way to satisfy your cravings!
Simple to make, this entirely-from-scratch Bavarian cream is a perfect filling for cakes, pies, tarts, cream puffs, or even a spoon.
Learn how to make a decadent Kyiv Torte - a Ukrainian hazelnut cake with sponge cake, crunchy meringue center and smooth buttercream!
This cream-filled apple cake is a delightful dessert that combines the tartness of apples with a rich, creamy filling. Perfect for any occasion, this cake is sure to impress your ... Read more
This rich, creamy filling, pastry cream (crème pâtissière), while delicious as is, can also be flavored in an almost infinite number of ways to create the perfect complement to your cake, pie, or pastry. Make sure you have all of your ingredients and equipment on hand before you begin; once the egg yolks begin to cook, they won't wait for you to find your strainer!
You need just a few staple ingredients to make bakery-style creme patissiere at home. It’s an easy recipe that the cheater method for thickening the pastry cream. This makes it super simple for the inexperienced baker.
This sweet nutty Frangipane Almond Cream Filling is so incredibly versatile. Made in under ten minutes it can be flavoured in many different ways and is incredible as a tart filling with fruit.Yield: 360g/1.5 cups
This sweet and nutty almond cream is a classic French recipe that's wonderful tucked inside fruit tarts or croissants.
This delicious Coconut Filling is wonderfully flavorful! We use this in our Almond Joy Cake but it would work for all sorts of recipes!
This Bavarian cream recipe is very versatile and you can use it in many dessert recipes. Bavarian cream takes a little work to make, but once you do it a few times it will be a go cake filling to for you!
Vegan Biscoff Macarons using the French method, filled with biscoff cookie butter!
You don't have to be a pro baker to make pastry cream from scratch. This recipe comes together quickly and can be used as a filling in so many desserts.
This delicious Coconut Filling is wonderfully flavorful! We use this in our Almond Joy Cake but it would work for all sorts of recipes!
This Caramel Pastry Cream is smooth, creamy and full of caramel flavor. It is the perfect filling for tarts, puff pastry, cream puffs, éclairs or even as a twist on banana cream pie!
How to make feuilletine crunch layer for desserts.
This Macanese version of the beloved treats teams all-butter puff pastry with a creamy custard filling.
My background, Slovakian (Czechoslovakia at the time) on my Mother's side and Northern Serbian (Yugoslavia at that time) on my Father's side, has influenced the way I've eaten since birth. I grew up eating certain things, certain ways, and those have stayed the same all my life, where possible. Due to constant warring through the centuries, these eastern European countries have been overrun repeatedly and have changed hands, so to speak, ethnicities overlapping and influencing. So it is that many of the recipes that come down from both parents sometimes almost overlap. My Mom and Dad both made what their parents called Chicken Paprikash, though the styles were quite different. My paternal grandmother made strudel filled with poppyseeds, or nuts, and sometimes other things, while my maternal grandmother, instead of the very fine and delicate strudel dough, made Slovak Rolls, an enriched bread-like dough that was filled with poppyseeds, or nuts. Similar, but different. Sometimes, like with the "paprikash," the name of the dish overlaps, and sometimes the dish is just very similar but called differently. In this blog, I want to set out a couple of recipes from my North Serbian Grandmother: Machanka (or Tomato Gravy) and Kifli, little flaky fruit filled Christmas pastries), plus two filling varieties. Grandma Hromish Firstly, a little bit about my North Serbian Grandma Hromish. Grandma was married in Kucur, Bačka, Vojvodina at age 15, yet still brought her knowledge of cooking and baking with her. Her pastries were legend; flaky Kifli, nut pita, strudels (that I sadly, have not learned to make) of many varieties and others I have no access to at this late date. She arrived in the US with her first two children in the early years of the 1900s. Grandpa arrived a bit earlier than Grandma. They settled eventually in Ohio, around Celina, and farmed. Grandpa died before I reached two years of age, so I never knew him, but I know they had chickens and eggs and grew vegetables, something my Dad always loved doing. My father was born in Celina, the first of their children born in the U.S. From Grandma I learned to love saffron, as her house smelled of saffron most Sundays as we went to her house for dinner. Soup simmering on the stove, lovely golden from the saffron, with beef or chicken simmering away. She always made homemade noodles and those were always a treat. After serving the soup and noodles, she would Serve the meat from the soup, with more noodles and machanka. I am fairly certain that the word "machanka was actually spelled mačanka; the little mark above the "c" making the sound of "ch," as with the District mentioned above: Bačka. I grew up eating machanka often. It is a sweet sour kind of tomato gravy, eaten with the meat that had been cooked in the soup. This was standard. Later on, as the internet took off, I tried to find any kind of reference to machanka, and the only thing I ever found was a brown gravy, and certainly not Grandma's version. I finally fond only one reference to a tomato based gravy years later. This is similar to that machanka my Grandma made. In flavor, it fits with my memory, though I cannot say how authentic it is. Machanka with chicken and noodles Machanka Makes about 2½ cups 2 tablespoons bacon grease 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour 1 can (6 ounces) tomato paste 2 cups water 1 tablespoon white vinegar 1 tablespoon sugar ½ teaspoon salt freshly ground pepper, to taste In a skillet heated over medium heat, melt the bacon grease and add in the flour, stirring until it is bubbly, figure 1. Off heat, add in the tomato paste (my mom used a large jar of tomato juice rather than the tomato paste and water), figure 2, and stir, mixing thoroughly with the roux, figure 3. Slowly, stir in the water until the whole mixture is smooth, figure 4, and set over the heat to cook until boiling and allow it to cook, stirring constantly until the mixture is thickened and bubbling. Add in the vinegar, sugar and salt, and as much pepper as you choose. Cook for another few minutes to ensure all the raw flour is cooked through, figure 5. Serve over boiled beef or chicken and noodles. Making Machanka ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Kifli I remember these mostly at Christmas, though I know Grandma made them for other special occasions also. They are best if made using fillings made from scratch, as the fillings stay put. If using store bought fillings, they tend to run out. I have two filling recipes below. Makes about 100 little pastries Kifli with Prune or Apricot Filling 1½ tsp instant dry yeast (½ pkt) 3 cups flour ¼ pound lard ¼ pound unsalted butter 1 egg, whisked ¼ cup whipping cream, or heavy whipping cream ¼ cup evaporated milk ½ cup Poppy seed filling, Prune “Lekvar" or Apricot fillings are common Confectioner's Sugar, for rolling and sprinkling Mix instant dried yeast into flour. Work in the lard and butter as for pie dough. Add egg and cream and work with hands just until the dough pulls from sides of the bowl. Do not over mix. Sprinkle your work area with powdered sugar and roll out a portion of the dough. Cut dough into 3-inch squares. Fill these small squares or circles by placing ¾ teaspoon of filling of your choice in the center. Bring up opposing corners, dampen the edge with milk or cream and pinch together, then fold the pinched piece over to ensure they stay closed while baking. Bake on parchment lined cookie sheets for 15 to 18 minutes at 375 degrees. Bottoms will be golden and tops will just start to become golden color. Remove from oven, place on a rack to cool and sprinkle with more confectioner's sugar just before serving. Prune Butter or "Lekvar" Prune Butter or Lekvar Makes approximately 1½ cups 1½ cups pitted prunes ⅔ cup water 1 teaspoon grated lemon zest 3 tablespoons lemon juice ⅓ cup brown sugar Place all ingredients into a saucepan and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat, cover and simmer for 25 to 30 minutes, until most of the water has evaporated. Cool slightly; pour into a food processor. Process until just smooth. Store any unused portions in the refrigerator. Apricot Filling Apricot Filling Makes approximately 1½ cups 1½ cups dried apricots (pitted) ⅔ cup water 1 teaspoon grated lemon zest 3 tablespoons lime juice ⅓ cup granulated sugar Place all ingredients into a saucepan and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat, cover and simmer for 25 to 30 minutes, until most of the water has evaporated. Cool slightly; pour into a food processor. Process until just smooth. Store any unused portions in the refrigerator. My passion is teaching people how to create a harmony of flavors with their cooking, and passing along my love and joy of food, both simple or exotic, plain or fancy. I continue my journey in ethnic and domestic cuisines, continuing my journey to explore diverse culinary experiences and hopefully to start you on a journey of your own. Join me also at A Harmony of Flavors on Facebook, and Pinterest.
Fresh homemade banana curd is one of the best desserts a banana lover can try!
