Tag Archives: Cinnamon

Jan 10 2012

“Rakomelo”-Perfect for the winter’s cold

“RAKOMELO“

Do it like the Greeks… Drink “rakomelo” and you ‘ll never catch a cold !

Here’s a Greek traditional, safe recipe that combines only three ingredients!!!

INGREDIENTS:

1 cup of “raki”

 

 

 

 

1 tablespoon of honey

 

 

 

 

 

a pinch of cinnamon

 

 

 

 

 

HOW TO:

In a pot and in low heat, warm the “raki” but be careful not to boil it.

If it warms too much and splashes around, its alcohol may blaze up.

Remove from heat and add the honey and cinnamon. Blend well. That’s it.

Make sure you drink it hot. There’s nothing better for cold treatment.

Jan 4 2012

KADAIFI (or KATAIFI)-Delicious Greek pastry

INGREDIENTS:

500 gr “kadaifi” dough

1 cup of Aegina pistachio, minced

250 gr butter of milk (or simple butter)

¼ cup of sugar

1 tbsp cinnamon

For the syrup:

4 cups of water

6 & 1/2 cups of sugar

1 lemon skin       

2 cinnamon sticks

1 tsp of honey

¼ cup of Aegina pistachio, minced for decoration

HOW TO:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

Unravel the “kadaifi” dough and divide into 5 equal pieces and those 5 pieces into 6 smaller ones.

In a bowl, mix together the cinnamon, pistachio and sugar.

Soften the butter into a small casserole. Be careful not to burn it.

With a brush, butter the first piece and place in the middle a tsp of the mixed ingredients (cinnamon,pistachio etc)

                      

Roll it, closing both edges so that the filling stays inside. Don’t roll it very firmly, more like a caress.

Continue the process with the rest of the dough pieces.

Place all of them into a well-buttered baking pan and sprinkle with the rest of the butter.

Cover them with a silver foil and bake into a preheated oven in 160 C. for 30 minutes. Uncover and continue baking for another 30 minutes.

Take the pan out of the oven and leave it to cool down. Prepare the syrup.

Boil all the ingredients for 5-7 minutes. Take it off the heat and with a large spoon slowly pour it on the “kadaifi”.

Finally, sprinkle with the pistachio for decoration. Leave it to cool down and serve into small pieces. If you like, you can assort it with vanilla ice cream. It’s simply D-E-L-I-C-I-O-U-S !!!

Dec 30 2011

Crispy Apple Chips-Kids friendly !

 I found this inexpensive, kid-friendly recipe on the internet. Because I love apples, I decided to go for it.

It is crispy, easy and the kids love it because it look like a sweet. The happy thing is that they can eat tons of them. Enjoy !

Five apples, I prefer the green ones, they are my favourite.

Cut them into chips.

Spread the apples on two baking sheets so the chips stay in a single layer.

For 25 chips 

Ingredients:

  • 1/2 cup sugar
  • 1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
  • 1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
  • Granny Smith apples, washed but not peeled

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 250 degrees. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

In a shallow dish, combine the sugar, cinnamon and ginger. Set aside.

Cut a thin slice from the bottom of the apple to form a flat surface. Place the apple on a cutting board. Using a small sharp knife, place a knife at the top of the apple and slice downward vertically to make 1/16-inch thick slices, working your way in toward the core. As the core appears, turn the apple. Repeat on all sides and with all apples.

Dip the apple slices in the sugar mixture, turning to coat each side. Place the slices about 1/2 inch apart on the prepared baking sheet. Bake for 35 minutes. Turn the slices and bake for about 40 more minutes, until the sugar melts and glazes the apples. The slices should become crisp when set aside to cool for several minutes. If some of the apple slices are thicker than 1/16 inch, they may not become completely crisp, but will still taste fine or, if you prefer, you can bake the thicker slices for a few additional minutes. Set aside to cool completely.

 

 

Extra tip: For more flavor, serve with ice-cream, vanilla.  Delicious !!

 

Dec 23 2011

It’s Christmas,time for MELOMAKARONA

MELOMAKARONA

They are traditionally served at Christmas in all over Greece.

Now that Christmas is on the way, why not venturing a delicious Greek dessert.

Ingredients: 400 gr. Orange juice (fresh or bottled) 530 gr. sunflower (for a healthier, “Mediterranean” flavor, use olive oil or half sunflower-half olive oil) 1.200 gr. flour 30 gr. powdered sugar ½ teaspoon soda 1 teaspoon cinnamon 1/6 teaspoon clove (no more because it has strong flavor) 50 gr. butter melted one orange zest nuts cut into chubby chunks

Syrup: 500 gr. water 700 gr. sugar 1 orange cut in two pieces 2-3 small cinnamon sticks 100 gr. honey Tools: A sieve (like the one for powder)

METHOD I feel like no matter which recipe’s variation you will choose, the delight is guaranteed. “Melomakarona” ‘s catch is in their sweetening process. They must be well covered with syrup but crunchy inside. They are considered to be the top Christmas delicacy and no Greek house can do without them. Try them and good luck.

For the syrup: In a casserole, we boil the water with the sugar, the orange and the cinnamon sticks. We boil them for only 1 minute and we withdraw from fire. We add the honey and let aside to cool down. We can prepare the syrup from the previous day, if we want to.

For the “Melomakarona”: In a large, deep bowl we pour all the liquids with the butter. We add the powdered sugar and all the spices. We mix them together with our hands adding the flour. We continue to hand-mix “gently”. At this point we don’t use a mixer so that our pastry won’t thicken.

We give our “melomakarona” a small oval shape.  

Then, we “gently” press them onto the sieve to give them the characteristic shape    

(they will look as if they have been squeezed onto a sports-racket).

We place them on a greaseproof cooking paper and we bake in a preheated oven for about 30 minutes at 180C (we must see a dark golden color).

As soon as we take them out of the oven and they are still very hot, we deep them into the cold syrup.

We make sure that they are covered with the syrup on all sides and we let them for 1 minute. We take them out and we let them on the sieve to drain.

Final touch: On a large Christmas (or not) plate we pour some honey and sprinkle a lot of the chubby cut nuts.

We roll over the upper side of the “melomakarona” so that it is covered completely with the honey and nuts.

We continue this process with all of our “melomakarona”.

*TIP: Due to the syrup, the “melomakarona” can stay fresh and juicy only 8 to 10 days. So, if you want to have fresh “melomakarona” every week, you can do this: After you take them out of the oven, continue with the sweetening process only with half of them. The rest of them, keep them in the refrigerator. When it’s time to serve them too, don’t forget to heat them in the oven before you deep them in the cold syrup. Remember: they must always be hot before we deep them into the cold syrup. Otherwise, the moisture will not let them become crunchy on the inside.