500gr  good quality butter, softened
5 tbsp icing sugar
1 egg plus 1 yolk, beaten
1 tsp baking powder
1 small glass ouzo (Greek anise liqueur)
1 tsp vanilla extract
Grated zest of one lemon
100gr peeed almonds, coarsely chopped
700gr flour
1 pinch of salt

One not on the butter: if you really want to make these cookies the Greek way, use goat or sheep butter, if you can find it.

To start these Greek Christmas cookies, work the butter and the sugar with an electric whip for about 15 minutes, until white, smooth and foamy.
Now add the rest of the ingredients. Try and be flexible with the flour, add less or more than the quantity I gave above, as long as you get a soft dough.
Give the dough the form of a crescent and bake these Greek butter cookies for about 20-25 minutes at 180ºC. Ideally, they will have to be white outside (but still cooked inside), so the general rule of taking them out of the oven when they start to be golden on the edges, won’t apply for these Greek almond cookies. This is why you may want to divide them in two batches, to adjust the baking time.

Want more of the same? Check my personal butter cookies recipe and the one for traditional Danish butter cookies.

Here we go with the ingredients:
300gr flour
200gr butter, softened
150gr sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 pinch of salt
Optional: Lemon extract and cane sugar

In a large bowl, pour flour, sugar, salt and mix them together. Add the rest of the ingredients and start working them with an gentle hand, using your fingertips only at first. When the butter is completely amalgamated, with no lumps left, divide the dough in two three parts and give each of them the shape of a salami, and leave them in the fridge for 1 hour covered in cling film.
Now the second part of this Danish cookies recipe. Cut each salami into 1cm thick slices. Add the cane sugar to a dish and make it stick to one side only of each cookie.
Place them on a baking tray with the sugared side facing upwards, and bake at 180ºC for 10 minutes.

Also, check my personal butter cookies recipe and these Greek cookies.

140gr butter, diced
180gr flour
2 egg yolks
1 tsp vanilla extract
70gr sugar
And for the topping:
peach and/or strawberry and/or apricot jam
1 tbsp icing sugar

This is how you make easy butter cookies from scratch. In a large bowl, add the flour, butter, sugar, egg yolks, and vanilla extract. Work the ingredients together until smooth and amalgamated. Form a ball with the dough, cover it with cling-film and leave it in the fridge for at least one hour.
Now the manual part of this recipe for butter cookies: take the ball, divide it in two parts, and give each half the shape of a long stick. Divide each stick into 13-14 parts. I do it by dividing it in half and then each half in half and so on, so I can easily have bits of the same length. Now, form a ball with each piece of dough and flatten it (it should be slightly smaller than a walnut. Using the top side of a wooden spoon, create an indentation on the surface, but make sure you don’t pierce the cookie.
Lay them on a baking tray lined with oven paper and bake at 200ºC for 15 minutes, or until the edges start to be golden. Right of the oven fill the small hole with the jam of your choice and let them cool.
Sprinkle with icing sugar, and this is how to make butter cookies. Don’t forget to check the other two recipes above.

• the cooking temperature has to be 200°C
• the yolks have to be incorporated one at the time
• the whites have to be whipped until very firm, but not all of them together. Just one third first, and then the rest
  after the soufflé mix has been poured in the moulds
• put them immediately in the oven
• and serve them immediately when baked
• the moulds have to be put at the centre of the oven
• and lastly, the golden rule: no matter what happened, never, ever open the oven door.

Also, when soufflé falls, it’s because of the loss of steam inside. To avoid this one effective trick is to caramelize the surface, like with the Catalan cream.

And now let’s go with two chocolate soufflé recipes. The first one is with cream of spumante (an Italian sparkling wine).

Ingredients for 6 people

For the soufflé
150gr dark chocolate
6 eggs, whites and yolks separated
50gr potato flour
60gr sugar
400ml milk
butter and icing sugar for the mould

For the zabaione cream:
6 egg yolks
200gr sugar
250ml spumante

Preheat the oven at 200ºC.
Whip the whites until firm (don’t forget the tip I gave you at the beginning).
Melt the dark chocolate with four tbsp water on a very low heat.
Heat the milk with the sugar in a separate casserole, then add the sifted potato flour, a little at the time, stirring until there are no lumps left. Now, add the milk and flour mix to the melted chocolate, stir for a couple of more minutes on the stove and then take off the heat.
Don’t stop stirring, and add one yolk at the time, then one third of the whites, gently stirring with a wooden spoon with a bottom-up movement – and never with a circular movement.
Take 6 soufflé moulds, grease them with butter and dust them with icing sugar. Pour the mix inside until the brim and bake for 25 minutes.
In the meantime, prepare the spumante cream for this recipe for dark chocolate soufflé.
In a bowl, mix the yolks with the sugar, then cook it using the water-bath technique, stirring with a whip, then gradually add the spumante. Keep on stirring until the cream is smooth, then serve on the side.

Ok wasn’t this an easy chocolate soufflé recipe? Let’s go now with the second one, a chocolate and raspberries

55gr sugar
115gr raspberry jam
3 eggs
115gr dark chocolate
1 tsp vanilla extract
Fresh raspberries to decorate
Butter and icing sugar for the moulds.

Lest’s go ahead with this chocolate soufflé cake

Preheat the oven at 200ºC and prepare the molds like in the previous recipe.
In a bowl, mix the yolks with the sugar and vanilla extract, then melt the dark chocolate on a low heat and add it to the mix.
In another bowl, whip the whites until firm, then add half of them to the chocolate mix (again remember: bottom-up, never circular), amalgamate then add the other half.
Half fill the molds, add a layer of raspberry jam and cover with the rest of the mix to the brim. Bake for about 15-20 minutes.

And this is how to make chocolate soufflé. Enjoy!

For the first one we’ll also use apples. Here are the ingredients.
250gr self-raising flour (or normal flour with ½ tsp baking powder)
85gr butter, softened
10gr sugar
1 whole egg
1 apple
2 tbsp molasses
5 tbsp milk
1 pinch of salt

In a bowl, mix flour with salt and sugar, then add the butter and mix until you have a crumbly mixture. Peel the apple and finely dice it, then add it to the mix.
Whip the egg with the milk and molasses, then add this to the mix, stirring it until you gat a smooth and soft dough.
Preheat the oven at 180ºC. Dust a working surface with flour and stretch the dough with a rolling pin until it’s about 2cm thick. Cut the molasses cookies the shape you like and line them on a backing tray (with a sheet of oven paper underneath), and bake them for 10 minutes. Let them cool on a rack before serving.
The cool thing about these soft molasses cookies is that they won’t be very sweet, also thanks to apple, so they will be even more irresistible. Just make sure the apple is really finely diced (you’ll have to fill cookies, not a pie), and with a regular size.

And the second molasses cookie recipe is for these delicious ginger molasses cookies.

Unlike the in the previous recipe, these are chewy molasses cookies.
180gr flour
½ tbsp baking powder
1 pinch of baker’s ammonia (ammonium bicarbonate)
1 tsp ground ginger, and 1 of ground cinnamon
70gr almonds
40gr butter
50gr cane sugar
6 tbsp molasses
1 pinch of salt

Let’s start this molasses cookies recipe by finely grinding the almonds in a food mixer. Then add flour, spices, baking powder, ammonia and almonds. In a small pan and on a low heat, melt the cane sugar with molasses and butter. Take off the stove and let it cool, then incorporate the flour and knead until you have a kind of hard dough. Wrap it in cling-film, then keep it in the fridge for one hour. Bake the oven at 180ºC. Like before, stretch the dough on a working surface until ½ cm thick. Bake for 10-12 minutes.
And this is how this ginger molasses cookie recipe is done.
Enjoy!

Here you have the ingredients for 8 people:

150gr speculoos (or speculaas biscuits)
60gr softened butter
400gr mascarpone cheese
250gr Philadelphia
100gr icing sugar
2-3 sheets of jelly

Soak the gelatine sheets in cold water. In the meantime grind the biscuits in the food mixer (or with a pestle and mortar), add them to a bowl with the butter and mix.
Grease a loose-bottomed cake tin with butter and line it with oven paper. Pour the biscuit mix in it, level it with the back of a tablespoon.
Put it in the fridge while we prepare the no bake cheesecake filling. Drain and squeeze the gelatine sheets, put them in a pan with 2 tbsp of mascarpone and heat, then take the pan off the stove.
Put the remaining mascarpone in the food mixer with the Philadelphia and icing sugar and work it until smooth and with no lumps. Add the gelatine previously melted in the mascarpone and mix well until amalgamated. Pour the cream in the cake tin and put it…back in the fridge. After all, this is an easy no bake cheesecake recipe,  so there is no oven, just fridge.

And this is how to make no bake cheesecake.

And now the ingredients of this easy pumpkin cake recipe.
For the pastry
250gr butter
Zest of one lemon
3 egg yolks
500gr flour
1 pinch of salt
200gr sugar

For the filling
1 small glass of brandy
1 tsp of cinnamon, one of nutmeg and one of ginger (yes this is a spiced pumpkin cake)
180ml fresh cream
800gr pumpkin
1 small glass marsala wine
1 large egg
70gr sugar

Let’s start with something easy: preheat the oven at 200ºC (it’s for the pumpkin).
The first (and for me the second most boring) thing (the most boring being peeling the pumpkin), is to prepare the pastry.
Sieve the flour into the bowl and add the diced butter. The purists would say that it will have to be super extra cold, but I am a lenient cook and for this recipe for pumpkin cake suggest you to soften it in the microwave for a couple of seconds (and if you want to melt it completely I will turn a blind eye).
Rub the semi-cold butter against the flour with your fingertips until you have a crumbly texture. Add the eggs and the rest of the ingredients and work with your hands until you have a smooth dough. Flatten it with the palm of your hand, cover it with cling film and leave it in the fridge for 30 minutes.
In the meantime, let’s continue this halloween pumpkin cake with the preparation of the filling.
Peel, deseed and dice the pumpkin and bake it in the oven for about 45 minutes, or until tender (keep the oven on at that temperature when you’re done). Transfer to a bowl and mast it with a fork, than add the sugar and the egg and mix. Add the double cream, the spices, and mix, then transfer to a pan and let it thicken on a low heat for about 5-10 minutes. Lastly (if you want), add the liqueurs.
Now take the short crust pastry out of the fridge and stretch it with a rolling pin.

Transfer to a round cake tin (grease it with butter and line it with oven paper first) and press the pastry against the surface. Pierce the bottom with a fork and pour the cream on it. If you have scraps of pastry and an artistic hand, you can draw a cobweb on the surface.
Now the last act for this recipe pumpkin cake: bake the cake for 20 minutes at 200ºC and then lower the temperature at 180ºC for 30 more. If you notice it gets too dark, cover it with cling film.

And this is how to make pumpkin cake recipe from scratch, good night and good luck.

Anyway, these are the ingredients for this pumpkin cheesecake recipe.
For the base:
250gr digestive biscuits
150gr butter
2 tbsp cane sugar

For the cream:
1 tsp cinnamon
4 eggs (2 whole plus 2 yolks)
3 tbsp lemon juice
½ tsp ginger
200ml fresh cream
250gr pumpkin
500gr Philadelphia spread cheese
200gr sugar
1 pinch of salt

To garnish:
100gr dark chocolate

Let’s start from the most boring part: preparing the pumpkin. You’re gonna have to peel it and dice it and remember that the 250 is the net weight without the peel.

Now that you have the diced pumpkin, the thing that will really enhance the flavour of this recipe pumpkin cheesecake will be to cook it with a pressure cooker with a pinch of salt and little water for 10 minutes. If you don’t have one then just boil it in salted water until tender.
In the meantime, add the biscuits to a food mixer and with the sugar and give it a a whizz. Add it to a bowl melt the butter in the microwave and mix, add it to the bowl as well and mix it with a wooden spoon.
Now tale a 24cm loose bottomed cake tin, grease is with butter and line it with oven paper. Pour the base and press it and level it with a spatula or the back of a spoon. Make it adhere on the sides too. Put the tin in the fridge for 30 minutes.

In the meantime preheat the oven at 190ºC and start preparing the cream for this easy pumpkin cheesecake recipe.
In a food mixer, add Philadelphia, sugar, pumpkin, and let it go for a couple of minutes, then add the lemon juice, ginger, cinnamon, salt, double cream, and one egg at the time. When they are all amalgamated, pour the mix in the cake tin and bake for 50 minutes.
Now for those of you who have an artistic talent, you can make this recipe for pumpkin cheesecake more in tune with Halloween by making a chocolate cobweb. Melt the chocolate on a low heat and pour it on a cone made with oven paper. With a smooth hand, draw a web like in the picture, or… something to that effect.

Ok folks this is how to make pumpkin cheesecake

Here is what you’ll need. Consider the ingredients not in absolute term, but as the base, double or triple the proportions depending on how many cherries you want to cover.

10 cherries, pitted
25gr sugar
500ml water
1 tbsp of morello cherries based liqueur, like kirsh or maraschino (but I would also use Alchermes, an Italian liqueur made with sugar, cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg and vanilla).

Pit the cherries (don’t know how to do it? Use a Cherry Pitter) and line them on a serving dish. Melt the sugar and the water in a pan and simmer for 5 minutes. Add the liqueur, mix and pour the hot liquid on the cherries. Gently roll them, transfer them to a different dish (so you’ll get rid of the syrup in excess) and let them cool for one hour. After one hour, melt the chocolate on a low heat, take off the stove and dip the cherries one by one. Set aside on a serving dish, or on small paper ramekins.

And here’s how you do these dark chocolate covered cherries for your next romantic dinner.

180gr dark chocolate 70%
150gr peanut butter
210gr sweetened condensed milk
70gr bitter cocoa powder

Coarsely chop the chocolate and add it to a small heatproof container with the condensed milk and the peanut butter. Put the container in a pan and add half fill with water, the put the pan on a low-medium heat, and let the ingredients melt (this is called bain-marie or water bath technique btw). Once it’s all melted, take the pan off the stove and mix well.

Line a baking tray with oven paper then transfer the sheet on a working surface and pour the fudge on it. Using a spatula, level until it is half cm thick, then cover with an extra sheet of oven paper of the same size and even it out with a rolling pin.

Now transfer the chocolate peanut butter fudge onto the baking tray and then leave it in the fridge for at least two hours. Lastly, cut the fudge into small  rectangles and you’re good to go.

And this is how to make peanut butter fudge, easy….