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American Cinnamon Rolls

Finally I got to make one iconic dish from the US, cinnamon rolls or cinnamon buns. Yes, I have made them before, but not the classic and traditional version with cream cheese frosting. But finally I got round to it and made the full deal, no extras, but also no substitutions. These are very moist and fluffy cinnamon rolls, we will need to make a tangzhong, which means boiling flour, water and milk, so that the flour can gelatinize. This will help for the rolls to stay extra fresh. Yes, you will add five more minutes of work, but I believe it is so worth it.

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Queque de Platano or Banana Bread from Peru

During Covid and lockdown times, everybody seemed to have baked banana bread. I never published a recipe because I didn’t feel like following a trend. There are sooo many recipes out there, healthier ones, vegan, classic recipes, and some that sound like a decadent cake and have names such as “death by chocolate banana bread”. I finally caved and this has to do with the fact that this banana bread is prepared with plantains instead of bananas. Traditionally Peru and also Chile like to use plantains to make the bread, so I dared to declare this a Peruvian recipe. But I know that there are heated and emotional discussions as to which recipe belongs to which Latin American country. I will just keep out of it and call this queque de platano Peruvian. Please don’t kill me.

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14 Recipes with Citrus Fruits

Have I mentioned that my hubby is a huge fan of citrus fruits? I will admit, I don’t mind them either. It probably comes as no surprise then that I have tons of recipes on my blog with a citrus touch. I love any fresh and yellow, especially in winter. I also don’t mind the vitamins (yeah, I know, we are still talking about cake). I learned not that long ago that lemons, limes and the like are usually harvested in winter, sometimes in January or February. For that reason I thought it might be a good time to share 14 recipes with these fruits, I hope you find something you enjoy!

#1 Lemon Mousse or Lemon Posset

This dessert comes together in minutes and just looks great in the lemons!

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Lemonies or Lemon Brownies

We were fortunate enough to go on vacation in the north of Spain and in Portugal in spring 2023. During our trip I got to see tons of lemon trees. Many seemed to be completely abandoned. Some had half their lemons lying on the floor, which made me hurt. So I started to pick them up. Sometimes I asked whether this was OK if I saw anyone around, but nobody seemed to mind. This resulted in me having lots of lemons during our holidays, so I got to work to use them all properly. Zorra from the blog Kochtopf (in German) publishes a lot of lemon recipes. She lives in Spain and often talks about the abundance of lemons available. So I know I would find something interesting on her blog. The below recipe is from her, I love the fudgy texture of these lemonies. Don’t think of these as a lemon loaf, but rather than brownies with lemon flavor, you will enjoy them. Continue Reading…

Torta Rogel from Uruguay

I am going to introduce torta rogel from Uruguay today. Why do you find many recipes from Uruguay on this blog? Because I was born in this beautiful country in Latin America. Even though I have a German passport, I lived in Uruguay for several years as a child. We happened to live in Montevideo, the capital of Uruguay. Back in the 80s you would occasionally find some horse carriages between the cars and we lived on one of the main streets. My sister and me often paid a visit to the nearby kiosk, we would either get “chicle”, which is chewing gum, or we got breakfast: bread and dulce de leche. Dulce de leche is the peanut butter of Latin America, the caramel made from sweetened milk is used as much in Latin American cuisine as is peanut butter in the U.S. I will never forget how my dad instructed my sister and me to get breakfast: “Go and get bread and dulce de leche from the vaca cow (vaca= Spanish for cow).” We may have spoken German among each other, but a Spanish word would slip in here and there. Sometimes funky creations such as saying the same word in two language would come out of it. But anyway, I love dulce de leche, so I wanted to show you this delicious cake, which contains a lot of it. In this reel you can see how I make it and how it looks.

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Dule de Leche Made in a Frying Pan

Dulce de leche is the Nutella of Latin America. I may sound like a broken record, but I don’t get tired of saying this. Dulce de leche is made from sweetened milk and becomes caramel. Just as here in Germany Nutella is spread on bread, you may just eat it by the spoonful or make a lot of baked goods with it, dulce de leche is used the same in Latin America. Yes, I do have fond memories of smearing dulce de leche onto bread. Jam could only be cut (and is called dulce de membrillo), so I spread dulce de leche on my bread and topped it off with some cheese. Yes, I know this sounds crezy, but I loved it. Yes, of course there is already a recipe on my blog for dulce de leche, check out how to make dulce de leche in this blog article. Essentially, we are going to boil sweetened condensed milk for long enough in unopened cans until they become caramel. This usually takes about 3 1/2 hours, so today I am going to introduce a quicker version, making it in a frying pan. This will take about 30-40 minutes. So if you are restrained timewise, this may be for you, but this dulce de leche is more liquid than the one from the can.

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Southern Banana Pudding

Banana pudding from the south is a layer dessert, you will have vanilla wafers (basically vanilla cookies), custard, bananas, and meringue on top. Usually this dessert is served in a casserole. However, since it is only the two of us and because I had never made this dessert before, I decided to serve this pudding in dessert glasses. I also reduced the amount and ended up liking a recipe for only four dessert glasses. If you like a creamy dessert with bananas, this is a recipe you should try. Of course we are going to make the custard ourselves, it is really not as hard as you may think.

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Original Burnt Cheesecake from San Sebastian

Today you will get the best cheesecake from San Sebastian from the Basque country in the north of Spain. This tarta de queso is the same recipe as from the restaurant La Viña. It contains five ingredients: cream cheese, eggs, heavy cream, sugar, and a bit of flour. As the cake is baked at high heat (200-210 degrees Celsius), it has a caramelized (or burnt) surface and thus looks a lot like crème brûlée. Inside though it is extra creamy. As all ingredients only need to be mixed, it is pretty fool-proof and thus perfect for beginners. You may enjoy this cake plain or you can serve with some fruits and/or a fruit sauce. Below recipe is similar to the one from the restaurant, I only reduced the amount of sugar. Feel free to increase the amount if you wish to.

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Donuts from Argentina, bolas de fraile

Today is national Donut Day or Doughnut Day and I am going to celebrate it with donuts from Argentina or Uruguay. They are called bolas de fraile or berlinesas. In Germany donuts are called Berliner, Berliner Pfannkuchen, Kreppl, or Krapfen as this probably already explains where “berlinesas” are from. Apparently, German immigrants took this delicious donut to Argentina. However, one main difference is the filling. Whereas German Berliner are filled with strawberry jam or jelly traditionally, Argentinians will rely on their beloved dulce de leche, which is a caramel made from sweetened milk. A small difference is also how these are dusted with sugar, in Germany you will traditionall dust only the top part with icing sugar whereas in Argentinia regular sugar is used to roll the entire ball in it. Be it as it may, I hope you will enjoy these sweet little yeast treats, which are fried, filled with dulce de leche and rolled in sugar. Regardless of whether Germans brought them or not (another name is bolas de fraile, which literally translates as “balls from Monchs”), these little donuts will for sure sweeten your day.

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The Big Empanada School

I am going to teach you about empanadas today, these are the famous turnovers from Latin America. Empanadas are, I dare say, THE snack of Latin America. Empanadas do require quite a bit of work, first you have to prepare the dough and then the filling, then you need to fill and seal each empanada before it is baked or fried. As many dishes, empanadas are originally from Spain. However, Spanish empanadas have little resemblance with the empanadas from Latin America. Spanish empanadas are similar to a pie. The empanada from Galicia for example is big and round, like a pie, usually filled with chicken and champignons. Often the pie topping has some braided elements and is decorated in some kind of way. This is very different from the empanadas from Latin America. In this article we will have a look at how empanadas are made in Latin America. Of course I will give a lot of recipes at the end of this article.

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