Kahlua-Banana-Nutella Bundt Cake

After announcing that I'm back on my last post; which was nearly two weeks ago...a lot has happened in my personal life...although, one thing that is really positive is that my eye is healing very nicely after the Retinal surgery, and I'm starting to see better, but it will take at least six months for a full recovery of my eye sight.

Do you ever feel so overwhelmed with things happening around you...especially in your family during the holidays?

I had an urgent and important visit from my younger sister from out of town, staying for nearly a week, just focusing on her issues/problems...forgetting about my own (one of the reasons for not posting)...then, came the horrific tragic news about about the Sandy Hook Elementary School with a gunman on a 'killing spree'...which totally shocked, and paralyzed all of us in the nation, and especially in Connecticut where it took place. I am numb, and feel horrible, sad, angry, can't stop crying for the little 'angels' (I have 2 grandchildren their age) and adults whose lives have been taken so tragically...leaving their family 'heartbroken' forever!

So horrifying, and gut wrenching, that I can't begin to describe my feelings. I could go into a long theory of 'gun control' and 'mental illness' which is already a call for HELP~ I could ask, like a lot of people have asked?

"Why does God allow innocent young children to die in such horror?" "Where was God when this horrific massacre took place?" God established humanity with 'FREE will'...we can choose to do right, or wrong, evil...or good; but there are consequences to our choices. God did intervene...otherwise there would have been more death

We blame firearms, God, and our government, but never blame ourselves as a whole. We cannot ignore mental illness, and need to focus more and getting the help for our children early in life when this kind of problem is detected.

Although some bloggers have posted a 'Silent Monday'...we cannot be silent on any day, when it comes to 'gun control' in our society which has gone out of control in our country. We should have a 'moment of silence' in our own way, or together to honor the 'little angels' and adults that have gone on to their final resting place...so, so sad; our hearts and spirits are broken, and Christmas will never be the same!

 I totally re-created this wonderful bundt cake just from 'tweaking' my banana bread recipe with 1/4 cup of Kahlua liquor; you can substitute 1/4 cup strong coffee in place of the Kahlua. Swirl in 1/2 cup Nutella in the batter, but don't mix it in entirely. Also, be sure to add 1 teaspoon baking powder, and 1 teaspoon baking soda.

 I wanted to link this delicious bundt cake to #BundtAMonth for December to Lora's blog...so sorry; I just don't have the time or energy to do this right now...also posting my recipe. If you would like this recipe I created, do let me know, and I will post it later!

Thank you for all your sweet and caring comments, I am so ashamed for not even visiting my dear friends' blogs, not even my own daughter's @Cake Duchess!

I love you all, dear friends...please forgive me for my silence and 'aloofness.'

Nutella and Banana Panini

This may seem like a strange post, but this morning I was craving something sweet, ans why not  make something 'comforting' fun, and sinfully delicious without a lot of calories. I love Nutella, just like everyone else, but hardly ever use it to make a dessert... even though I have the jar sitting in my cupboard, next to the jar of peanut butter. I also had a whole Challah bread in my freezer, I had it sitting there for over one month. Such a perfect grilled panini with Nutella, and the banana pairing!

I must warn you, this Nutella Panini is not elegant...there's no other way to present it to make it look fancy; it's 'what you see is what you get' kind of a droolworthy awesome grilled sweet sandwich, made exclusively in a Panini Grill that is only for grilled sandwiches. I only ate one small portion, and wrapped up the rest to take over to my little grandson as a great snack when he came out of kindergarten. My daughter also enjoyed it as well!
Notice the perfect grill marks?... can't get better than that!

I'm sure, there must be an actual recipe out there, by I got my inspiration from one of my other favorite sandwich, which is the peanut butter banana sandwich, which I'm sure will taste as yummy, as a grilled panini.

 Nutella and Banana Panini
 recipe by; Elisabeth

Nutella (chocolate hazelnut spread
1 or 2 ripe bananas, sliced
4 (1-inch thick) slices of Challah bread
or white sandwich bread

Spread 1 tablespoon of Nutella on one side of each slice of bread. If you're using a small, or med. banana, you can fill the entire bread slice with the banana slices.Top with the remaining bread slice, spread side down.

Preheat your panini grill, on med. high. This is a 'thrift find' panini grill, which I purchased about a year ago, for $9.99...a real bargain, and it works great!

 Place the panini (sandwich) on the hot grid, close the lid down and grill for about 5 or 6 minutes.

 When you see the grill marks appear, your sandwich is done.

While it's still warm, with a serrated knife, cut into half, or thirds...just watch it disappear... Yumm













 Some pre-Christmas visit at Macy's with my grandchildren!

 Last Saturday, at Macy's at City Place, in West Palm Beach...letter to Santa Claus!

Beautiful Christmas tree, at Macy's

I just had to snap this photo...so cool, so Christmasy...this car parked in front of Publix supermarket, after we left Macy's and stopped to buy a few items, at the supermarket. Imagine, the person cramming the Christmas tree into the car...also leaving the windows down and totally leaving down, and all open.

When we came out of the supermarket after 30 minutes, the car with the Christmas tree inside was still parked...isn't this a cute car?...a brand new FIAT! (not mine, of course)...wouldn't mind to own this little beauty:)

Linzer Cookies...and White Christmas Recipe Challenge

I am such a procrastinator...always the last one to join an event, unless someone is pushing me to do so! I did join the Very Good Recipes, as you can see the badge on my sidebar, and I do love this group, and to think that I didn't have to do a thing, just to sign up and they do all the work for you, to feature your blog with your latest posts automatically linked into your own page...now how hard awesome is that!? I'm also entering in this fun event with the Very Good Recipes White Christmas Challenge

Just click on, to see what the challenge is about, and check out the fabulous judges, including my dear friend Veronica, from Quay Po Cooks!

 linking to: Full Plate Thursday, 12-22-2011 @ Miz Helen's Country Cottage
                  Thursday Favorite Things Blog Hop 15 @ Katherines Corner

There's so many different versions of these lovely Viennese cookies that each country calls it their own, but it was actually originated during the 19th century
what was then, the famous well know Austria-Hungary empire! So, there you have the short history on these delicate buttery sandwich cookies...filled with apricot and various other fruit jams.
As a child, I have fond memories of these Linzer cookies, and I don't have my mom's or my aunt's recipes...only just remembering how it was made, so I adapted my version, from a trusted source!



Linzer Cookies

adapted from, Joy of Baking

1 cup (110 grams) blanched sliced almonds
1/4 cup (50 grams)

1 cup (227 grams)  (2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temp.
2/3 cup (135 grams) granulated white sugar, divided
2 large egg yolks
2 cups (220grams) all purpose flour
14 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon (optional)
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
Zest of 1 lemon

Confectioners' icing sugar, for dusting
choice of jams; raspberry (seedless preferred) blackberry
I used organic apricot, and organic blueberry, but you can use
choice of your own, even Nutella, which is great for chocolate lovers,
recipe, continued...

For the almonds:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. (177 degrees C) and rack in the center of the oven. Place almond on a baking sheet and bake for about 8-10 min. until light brown and fragrant. In a food processor, process with sugar, until finely ground.


For the dough:
In a separate bowl, stir your dry ingredients.


In a bowl of your electric mixer, or large bowl, with a hand mixer, beat the butter, and the 2/3 cup sugar, until creamy, and fluffy, beat in the vanilla extract, the egg yolks, and lemon zest. Add the flour mixture beating, just until incorporated. Divide the dough into two rectangular shapes, and wrap in plastic. Refrigerate until firm, at least one hour, or overnight. Remove dough from the refrigerator, and on a lightly floured board, or surface, roll the dough, until it's about 1/4 inch (1cm) thick.

Cut our shapes with a cookie cutter; circle, heart, star, square, or any other shapes you like, making sure to cut a hole in the center (cutter not shown), to let the jam show through!

Cut the shapes, making sure that every-other is cut with a smaller cutter in the center, to make it ready to sandwich the cookies.

Slide the cookies with a spatula (very important, so they stay in shape) on a parchment lined baking sheet, and bake in a 350 degrees, (177C) oven for 8-10 min. until lightly browned. Remove from the oven, to cool.

Re-roll scraps of dough to cut out more cookies, and bake to make more. When they are finished, and cooled on a rack, on the bottom half, spread a small amount of jam, and place cookie with hole, which you already have sprinkled with confectioners' sugar, lightly place on top.
(do not put too much jam on the bottom of the cookies, or it will ooze out when you sandwich it)








Now, I have to run to make Latkes, with my daughter Lora, (Cake Duchess) for Hanukkah...which begins at sundown tonight!
Happy, Hanukkah, to all my Jewish friends, non Jewish friends, as well... and those who celebrate this festive event with extended families, and friends!
Big hugs!

Hungarian Kifli and a Quiet Weekend

While other people were piling up outside, after Thanksgiving dinner at various locations for the famous Black Friday shopping, 24 hours before, I was glad to get home and just chill out after a huge Thanksgiving feast with friends and family. Whatever happened to just the plain old "day after Thanksgiving Sale?"...now it's BLACK FRIDAY!...pretty scary, especially when you have to camp out the day before...luckily, this year they opened the doors at some stores, as early, as 9:00pm on Thursday, and midnight, instead of 4:00am on Friday! Granted, the sales are incredible, 40 to 60% savings, is for sure a bargain. I saw a few incidence on the news last night about an irate customer that was going around with pepper spray...spraying his/ her opponents so they can't get the bargains that she was aiming for: she did get arrested, but that is "bizarre" ...think I'm just going to take advantage on the online shopping, and leave the stress behind!

The reason this is called Hungarian Kifli, which means "crescent"  in English, or "kipfel" in German The dough is either a yeast based type of dough or in this case, is dough that is combined with equal amount of butter, and cream cheese, combined with flour. No eggs used in this recipe. This is the basic dough for the famous Rugelach, as well! On the front row, they are filled with ground walnuts, raisins and apricot jam, and in the back row, shaped like the Rugelach, but slightly bigger, filled with Nutella, which was the kids' favorite!

I also made the fluffiest, and most amazing Sweet Potato Pie, at the same time, with homemade pie crust. Lora and I were able to work alongside at the same time...making pies, and other pastries. As you can see, I got the favorite butcher block table, and she had the entire granite top counter, which she likes to use.

 I did not get a chance to take hardly any photos at the dinner party, but did not want to miss the chance of my son-in-law's Chef Fabrizio's Vegetable Lasagna, that was a huge hit!

 Lora's Cranberry cake...light, and moist, not too sweet, absolutely delicious!

HUNGARIAN KIFLI

1/2 lb. unsalted butter  (cold)
1/2 lb. cream cheese (room temperature)
2 cups all purpose flour
dash of salt (1/2 teaspoon)

In a large food processor, add flour, salt, small pieces of butter, and cream cheese. Do not process, just pulse to combine, little by little, until dough is formed, so that
you can work together into a ball. Wrap in plastic, and refrigerate for a couple hours.

Cut the dough in half, and on a heavily floured work surface work separately, each dough into a disk. No need for plastic wrap to roll the dough.

As you can see, I rolled the dough into a rough circle, without the ease of plastic wrapper, since the dough is not sticky.

This is roughly, about a 12 inch circle.

When you fold the dough back, you can actually see, that the dough does not stick to the surface...you know, you have a nice pliable dough to work with, without the aide of plastic wrap in the top, and bottom!

While you're working your dough...in another room is another little "worker" working his Play dough!

(grandson, Luca)

For the walnut filling:

2 cups chopped walnuts
1 cup white raisins
1/2 cup apricot jam
1/4 cup orange juice
3 Tbsp. sugar

Mix all together in a medium bowl, Take half portion, (or entire portion) to process in a food processor. I use half portion. Spread half the amount, of the walnut mix, onto the dough, leaving about 2 inches of border.

Since I measure this to be a 12 inch circle, it came out to 12 portion of triangles cut. Filling was spread out more to the edge, after photo was taken.

Roll from the outside end, to shape into a crescent, and place on a parchment lined baking pan.

Kiflis nicely stacked up in a row, and ready to be baked.

Before baking the Kifli, brush egg wash over them.
(crack 1 egg, add a Tbsp. water, and mix)


The Kifli doesn't have to be perfectly shaped, as you can see in the photo, as long as it's rolled up, in shaped into a crescent=kifli...that's all that matters. It's the quality of the dough and the filling that makes the difference.

Bake at 350 degrees F. for 20-25 minutes, until golden brown. Makes 2 dozen, large Kifli, or up to 4 dozen, if you make smaller ones. ( In that case, you would have to divide dough in 3 portions, instead of 2)











I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving with your loved ones, and friends. We have so much to be thankful for in our country. Every morning when you wake up, and know you have peace, and not war, and extreme poverty in this land, knowing that our troops are out there in another land fighting for us, when they should be all returned, just know that you are safe...we are thankful for them! Do as much as you can for your family, your friends, and for your country, to make a difference. Let's all care for one-another, and keep our environment, and our land free, and safe! God Bless you all! Have a wonderful weekend!

Related articles

• Rugelach (pastrypixiez.wordpress.com)
• Chocolate Rugelach (carabossesbakeshop.wordpress.com)
• Mini Apple Pies (blogher.com)
• Nut Rolls (bakerunlive.com)
• Apricot walnut rugelach (charlotte.news14.com)