Strawberry & almond muffins with cream cheese frosting and amaretto biscuit crumbs – Zselyke’s name day

Let me show you a small detail from our weekend. We celebrated the name day of my daughter, Zselyke. True, the name day is already over, but the second child is not the first. But I think we could finally make her feel special. The only thing I feel sorry for is that I could not really take photos of the balloons because they flew away too early. I hope you also had a great weekend.

 The soft creamy cheese is a really good match with strawberries: it is the goat’s cheese that makes these muffins really exciting. But the best part is definitely the amaretto biscuit crumbs on the top. And you can prepare them extremely quickly. Although they are not really for children, still, they could try the muffins.

Strawberry & almond muffins with cream cheese frosting and amaretto biscuit crumbs

Ingredients:

For the strawberry & almond muffins:

- 150 g all-purpose flour

- 100 g almond (roasted and ground)

- 2 tsp. baking powder

- ½ tsp. baking soda

- pinch of salt

- 1 egg

- 120 g sugar

- 100 g soft butter

- 180 ml sour cream

- 20 strawberries

For the cream cheese frosting:

- 40 g Philadelphia cream cheese

- 40 g Goat cream cheese

- ½ vanilla bean

- 2 tbsp. powdered sugar

- 15 g butter (cut in cubes)

For the amaretto biscuit crumbs:

- 50 g digestive biscuits

- 2 tbsp. Amaretto liqueur

- 15 g butter (cut in cubes)

Preparation:

1. For the muffins mix the dry ingredients. Beat the egg with the sugar with an electric mixer, then add the butter and the sour cream. Mix in the dry ingredients and fill the cavities of a muffin pan with the batter (it will yield appr. 10 muffins), and hide two strawberries in each of them. Bake the muffins in the oven preheated to 160°C until 30 minutes. Let them come to room temperature.
2. Mix together the ingredients of the frosting with an electric mixer.
3. Crush the biscuits in a food processor. Add the butter and the Amaretto and pulse them in the food processor until crumbs form.
4. Spread the frosting on the muffins and sprinkle them with the Amaretto biscuit crumbs.

Thai chicken & mango stir-fry – let’s stir & fry

This is a typical stir-fry dish with an oriental flavour, with chicken, rice noodles, soy sauce and mango, which makes it even more interesting. A nice friend of mine has already tried my recipe, she added some grated garlic as well – it is always such a strange feeling when somebody tries my recipes, even eats them and then also leaves a comment for me -  anyway, adding some garlic was a very good idea. Next time I would also do it this way.

And if you are interested in photography (in my simple way), please take a moment to look at my new blog: Someway thru a lens

Thai chicken & mango stir-fry

- 400 g chicken breast (sliced)

- 5 tbsp. olive oil

- 4 tbsp. sesame seeds

- 2 + 1/2 tbsp. honey

- 1 big carrot (julienned)

- 80 g rice noodles

- 2 tbsp. sesame oil

- juice of ½ lime

- 2 tbsp. soy sauce

- 1 small mango (julienned)

- salt, pepper

Preparation:

1. Mix 2 tbsp. olive oil with the chicken and the sesame seeds, then fry it on 1 tbsp. oil in two instalments until golden brown. In the last minute of the frying add 1 tbsp. honey to both portions. Remove the chicken from the pan and wipe out the remaining honey from it to prevent burning.

2. On the remaining oil fry the carrot in a way that it would stay crunchy in the middle.

3. Put the rice noodles in hot salty (but not boiling) water for 2 minutes. When they are ready, mix them immediately with the sesame oil.

4. Mix all the ingredients.

Sugar pea “gnocchi” with cream cheese and chive – or let’s cut out pasta also for lunch

Those having no children please stop your ears, because now “such” a story is coming, but I am going to be quick. The dish was prepared because it had already become boring to cut out duck-shaped or Santa-shaped scones for lunch, because it’s fun… I mean the cutting of the dough and such stuff.

I spared you and took no photos of the otherwise hardly recognizable rabbit-shaped “gnocchi” – I’m sure all of you having no children would have left my blog immediately. (Just between ourselves, I was also unable to recognize the “rabbits” after cooking them.)

The dough is a bit tighter than that of the gnocchi and I used sugar peas instead of potatoes; they are a good match with the soft cream cheese flavoured with garlic and with the sour lemon zest.

Sugar pea “gnocchi” with cream cheese and chive

- 450 g sugar peas (without pods)

- 1 tbsp. butter

- 200 g flour

- 250 g ricotta

- 1 onion (finely chopped)

- a pinch of nutmeg (freshly grated)

- salt

- pepper

For the topping:

- 150 g cream cheese

- 1 big clove of garlic (grated)

- 300 g sour cream

- salt

- pepper

Decoration:

- fresh chive (finely chopped)

- lemon zest (grated)

Preparation:

1. Fry the onion and the sugar peas on the butter until soft, then blend them with an immersion blender. With all the other ingredients, knead soft dough, and then cut out round pieces with a round cutter. Cook them in salted hot water within a few minutes.

2. Mix the cream cheese with the other ingredients and spread it on the top of the “gnocchi.”

3. Decorate the dish with chive and lemon zest.