Sopa paraguaya is the national dish from Paraguay and is not a soup, but a cornbread with cheese and onions. It is naturally gluten-free and has some similarities with American cornbread. It is normally served alongside hearty dishes, such as meat (asado) or stews and soups. I highly recommend making it alongside the Paraguayan soup vori vori. It can also be eaten as breakfast. There are many mysteries entwined around the fact that it is called “soup” (sopa in Spanish), but not really being a soup. Below I will give the most common explanation for this rather unusual name.
Lemon and blueberries simply are the best combination, for that reason I wanted to introduce these lemon blueberry muffins. I already have a lemon blueberry cake and lemon blueberry cupcakes on the blog, but I was still missing a great muffin recipe. I decided to serve them with crumbs, you may also sprinkle with sliced almonds or leave the crumbs out and serve plain. I personally liked them best with crumbs.
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Every year for Easter I wonder why I don’t make this soft and fluffy breaided yeast bread more often. It is only the two of us, yet, somehow we gobble it up in no time. Yes, I usually start this wreath two days in advance, but most of the time is just waiting. I have a KitchenAid, so I don’t even have to knead. The main thing to do is get the braiding correctly, but other than that there is not that much to do. I like to do the second rise overnight in the fridge. One trick I have learned is to stick the bread from the fridge immediately into the hot oven. No need to first let it come to room temperature. So convenient as you can make it right for breakfast. I really love this cloud-like bread, so delicious!
Do you like waffles or pancakes? Then you may enjoy Japanese pancakes. They are light and airy, similar to a soufflé, but in pancake form. Japanese seem to like cloud-like food. They also have a cotton cheesecake and will not shy away from a fluffy sponge roll. You may serve these pancakes with fresh fruits, whipped cream, icing sugar, maple syrup and they will be perfect for breakfast or brunch. The only downside is that you need to serve them very fresh as the tend to deflate after a while.
If you are looking for a yeast bread recipe that only requires you to throw together ingredients, look no further. This braided yeast heart may be just for you. No pre-doughs necessary, no extra steps, just letting yeast and time do its magic. But be warned, this recipe requires a total of roughly 8-9 hours. You will have little to do during this time, but you will need to plan accordingly. I even allowed for more time, I first let the dough rise for 6 hours and then placed it already shaped to a heart in the fridge overnight before baking. I was curious, would I taste any difference? I already have a braided yeast bread recipe on my blog that does require pre-doughs, would this recipe be just as good if ingredients are thrown together?
If my company decides to invite for a Mexican celebration of the “dia de los muertos”, so All Saint’s Day, I am in. The most important food in Mexico on this very special occasion? Pan de muerto, this is an enriched sweet yeast dough flavored with orange and anise seed. There are many varieties in Mexico. I volunteered that I would like to make this bread for the event. Because I enjoy baking and I like to try out new recipes from Latin America. So I started doing research, I even did a trial run and then I ended up making my beloved enriched yeast recipe, which I enriched with orange zest. Normally I should have also added anis seeds, but I don’t like the flavor. Feel free to add, I included the instructions below. So let’s get started.
Kanelbullar, this is the Swedish version of cinnamon rolls. The main difference? They are made with cinnamon and cardamom and usually remain plain. They contain coarse sugar and are brushed with a sugar syrup. I made these for World Bread Day! When my Swedish colleague gifted me a Swedish cookbook, the first recipe was kanelbullar. They are so famous in Sweden, they made it to page 1. There even is a “kanelbullar dag”. On October 4th Swedes celebrate this pastry, which has become famous. I hadn’t tried it yet, so I knew immediately that I wanted to make them for World Bread Day. Yes, this is a sweet bread made with an enriched yeast dough.
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I will never forget the first time I was asked in a hotel in Colombia what I wanted for breakfast. I replied: “arepas“, a flatbread made from corn, which there are millions of variations of. The person looked at me in disgust, clearly, there were going to be arepas, duh, the question was how I wanted my eggs. Whether I wanted regular scrambled eggs, or scrambled eggs with sausage, or with tomatoes and spring onions, which is the “huevos pericos.” I had never tried this version and therefore asked for “huevos pericos.” Below I introduce you to the recipe and also outline how a typical breakfast in Colombia looks like and what is going to be served.
A typcial Colombian breakfast: arepa con queso with scrambled eggs and freshly pressed juice
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Have you ever eaten a Uruguayan hot dog? Funnily enough, it is not similar to the Argentinian choripán, but has more resemblance with the New York hot dog as the same type of sausage is used. However, the toppings are completely different. You will find chips in the shape of fries and different sauces. Below I will also give you a recipe for homemade buns. Typically in Uruguay hot dogs are not literally translated as “perros calientes”, but are called “panchos”. I hope you enjoy this version of it.
Argentinian crescents are called medialunas, which translates as half moons. I would say they are a distant cousin of French croissants or the Italian cornettos. However, instead of creating a layer of butter seperately, which is then folded into the dough, we will add it directly to the dough. The whole laminating process, which means that the dough is rolled out and folded and then chilled, is kept to a minimum. We will only do it one round. I think this is the perfect compromise, it gives us some of those flaky layers, but does not require as many resting times as the traditional croissant. However, despite a reduction in resting times, this still is a yeast dough, which means that you will need time before you can finally bite into one. I have to admit, suddenly I had eaten three even though I only wanted to eat one…
















