All posts filed under: Desserts

cranberry pancake

Fluffy Spelt Cranberry Pancake with Yogurt Whey

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Living in the proximity of three great open markets is a bliss for a foodie. I’ve been pondering if that’s the reason why many foodies live in my neighbourhood. I’m even luckier than most people because all three markets are within a walking distance and I go to each one for different things. Among the open markets is an organic market, which is held every Wednesday in Özgürluk Park. Honestly I don’t buy veggies there because they don’t look really fresh. Would I want fresh non-organic veggies and fruit or would I want wilted and old organic veggies and fruit? My choice is the former, at least here. But I still go there because that’s the place I get my favourite flour, buckwheat and spelt flour. Buckwheat has a nutty and bitter taste and spelt flour has a nutty and sweet taste, and they are good for different occasions. I usually buy spelt flour for making bread but this time I used it in pancakes because I was inspired by my recent guest, who introduced …

Chocolate beetroot cake

Honesty, really good?

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I’ve been thinking about ‘honesty‘ lately. You’ve probably heard enough of the cliché that living in Turkey will change your beliefs in what is right and wrong and what is logical and illogical. I’m still trying to absorb and digest all the confusions. I had so many ups and downs last week that I didn’t have any motivations to write or cook. Thanks to that, I discovered some hidden gem restaurants. The death of my lovely canary who used to wake us me at 7am with beautiful songs to start with, then came the news of my new nephew on the way, which isn’t entirely happy news as it should be…. and then, my good intentions and hopes got quashed by an unexpected tyranny, my naivety, and came the news of moving house. So I rummaged through my tiny bookshelf – nomads don’t have such a thing – and picked up Rumi’s poems to make sense of the things that had happened. I believe that life is fair no matter how badly it treats you from …

persimmon chocolate

First Snow – Chocolate Persimmon Muffins

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Today Yesterday, one day before New Year’s Eve, I woke up to the first snow of winter. It wasn’t much to speak of, let alone to cover the streets and trees with a blanket of white snow, however, it surely made me accept that the cold winter had finally set in. For some reason, I have a history of baking something with chocolate on the first snow day, not that I intend to do. Watching it snow, I felt lucky not having to go out in the wind and cold. I opened the fridge and found only one egg…grrr…I used up all the eggs to make Caramelised Leek Goat Cheese Tart for the Christmas dinner. Oh, yeah, the party was good, crowded with expats married to Turks and their kids, and we had a feast with all the typical Christmas foods, even mulled wine and panettone, which was probably the most popular.We played a present exchange game and I was the last to pick or steal a present. The Canadian lady who got panettone and …

Quince Paste and Quince Braided Bread

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It’s been gloomy and wet for over two weeks. It’s good news for the water reservoirs here that had been dried out. When my head gets clogged up with thoughts, I get into the kitchen and bake. Baking requires more concentration, which is a good therapy for a wandering mind. The lesson I got from my chef mentor still resonates in my head; don’t ever use baking powder or baking soda. I don’t know how many of you would agree with this but now I also much prefer to bake with yeast. The easiest way to create a darn good fruit-stuffed dessert is a strudel using filo pastry, which is sold fresh made in every block and is so handy dandy. But for some whimsical reason, as it often happens to me – perhaps, I don’t like the sameness, – I decided to bake a yeast bread. Then, I saw quinces screaming at me, which were too many for the filling, so I decided to make quince paste, thinking of the possible delivery of Hungarian …

Turkish Melon Yogurt Ice cream

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As you might have read, I went on a guerrilla trip from Istanbul to Bodrum, joining Mr.O’s relatives and friends along the way. When we were coming back to Istanbul, we brought some Aegean foods with us. The things I always pick up at the roadside stalls are tomatoes, melons and watermelons, for which  Canakkale is renowned, while we snack on fresh figs and other fruit close to Izmir while driving. I love a road trip in late August because of the lush landscapes and the sight of fresh food stalls at village markets. I will share photos from a market in Bodrum in another post later. Also, I always look forward to tasting ice cream in Canakkale and Assos, where you can taste the best ice cream in Turkey, which is a slightly different or improved version in my opinion, so fresh and not so sweet. In case you are new to my blog, I can link you to the eternal place in my heart, Assos and how it is the reason I fell …

Bread Butter Pudding with Plums and Yogurt

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Now that Ramadan is over, it’s easier to get my regular sourdough bread, yippee! One day when Mr.O failed his morning mission of getting bread and came home with normal bread, I couldn’t eat more than one slice and left the rest on the kitchen top to go stale on purpose. It sometimes amazes how cooks’ mind scans the foods in the fridge and pantry mentally and synchronize their actions according to what they are going to make without hard thinking. Upon seeing a leftover loaf and pide bread sitting around, Mr.O bugged me to throw them away and he did the pide bread secretly. I even save the whey liquid after yogurt has been eaten, and he doesn’t understand why I keep all that little things. Everything comes in handy for cooks, and that’s why! Two bags of damson plums picked from Mr.O’s parents’ garden were clogging up the fridge because Mr.O doesn’t like plums. He prefers peaches, which have started to come out, giving these plums no chance to be eaten as we …