The eccentric Cook

This recipe turned out something way different that it was intended to. But boy, this is waaaay better than the original hazelnut bar was supposed to be. It is a brownie-like delicious chocolate mess with a huge amount of hazelnut. The ideal dessert because let me tell ya, it is better than brownies. So, need I say more?  I'll just go ahead and give you the recipe and dare you to make it today, I mean NOW :) You will so not regret it! Super Chocolatey Hazelnut Bars for a 20x30 cm pan for the dough 250 gram flour 1 tablespoon Dutch cocoa powder - unsweetened 3/4 teaspoon baking powder 1/2 teaspoon baking soda 1/4 teaspoon salt 200 gram dark chocolate 140 gram hazelnut + 30 gram ground hazelnut 250 gram soft butter 150 gram brown sugar 2 eggs 1 teaspoon vanilla for the chocolate cream 150 gram dark chocolate 30 gram butter 1 tablespoon oil Mix the flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda and salt in a bowl.  Beat the butter with the sugar until fluffy. Add in the eggs (

Everyone loves brownies! This is no question, I know so I am sure everyone has a go-to recipe for brownies, as well. The situation is similar to cookies. Each and everyone has different tastes so I am going to describe how mine compares.  The recipe is from a le Cordon Bleu book and I've made it for hundreds of times. It is a huge favorite in my family, I like to under bake it for a few minutes so the middle is a bit wet. It is ah-maaazing! This time I let it bake as it is supposed to be but only because I made it for next day for our small Thanksgiving friendly get-together. It is dense, yet light. Chewy, not cakey with a decadent chocolate flavor. The appearance is not the best but who cares when it tastes like pure heaven? My family calls it ugly but lovely :) Oh and before I forget to add, there is a light chocolate ganache on top that I spread before the brownies cool down so it would absorb most of it. I noticed that this way it is more delicious! ps: using whole wheat flour

This post is yet again an example of how I procrastinate when it comes to studying or making a presentation. Whichever. This is going to be a lovely tale about a "magnifique" cake.  I got my inspiration to make that brown butter walnut sensation from  Procrastobaker . It is seriously one of the best things I've ever baked. I do not think the photos do justice when I tried to catch how breath-taking the cake is once a bite lands in your mouth... It is crispy on the outside and so juicy in the inside and the chocolate-mocha ganache goes just perfectly well with it. I changed the original recipe a bit, as I worked with walnuts and I added a layer of chocolate cream inside the cake, as well. Also, it is important to add that it is best one day after it was made. While it chilled in the fridge. Oh my... It was such a hit! Definitely going to make it again...and again... :) But I won't keep you on your toes and fill you in with this lovely recipe! Brown Butter W

Frankly, I missed baking so much! Even though I needed one baking-free month to lose all the weight I gained due to the excessive baking mania I got over this summer I just cannot stop it! So I decided that I don't have to give up this love of mine but I do have to figure out something that will not leave me end up gaining weight again. What to do, what to do...Bake only in the weekends! And probably I should get a grip and not stuff my face until I can't move...Which didn't really happen today. I ate like 6 of these lovely chocolate rolls...I guess, no dinner for Csilla tonight :P These rolls are from a traditional Hungarian pastry recipe. I called my Grandma to ask for the recipe and as it always happens with Grandma recipes she did not know the measurements...I don't know if it's only with my grandmas but they always work with their eyes so they usually have no idea how much grams I need from this or that... So I turned to an ancient Hungarian cookbook and that

As a newbie to blogging, I was mesmerized, okay I still am, as how the numbers of viewers went up so quickly! It will be 2 months that I started talking about food, sharing recipes, pictures of my attempts...So when I saw my number was at 5000 I was completely, utterly blown away. So that was when I decided that whenever I reach 10 000 then I will make a giveaway! Because for someone who just started blogging seeing that I am not the only one who reads my site is an enormously huge deal. It makes me happy and gives me such a positive feedback that yes! i should keep doing it because it is not only me who I'm doing it for anymore :) So here I am, in my proud moment, announcing that I will be holding a giveaway soon! Why not now? Because I am going to Nepal in 3 days and I would like to give something very special away and I thought what more special could it be than something from Nepal? Right? :) But I am just so excited about it that I wanted to share that a giveaway is coming so

I was an exchange student (ah how many times I've said this sentence...) 5 years ago in the US. I'm not gonna talk about how it was (AMAZING) but then and there I gained sisters! Now I have one living in the States and one living in Germany. And next week we are gonna be reunited! I can't wait, I am so excited! So this week I am going to Germany and was thinking what I should bring. Because basically Germany has everything that Hungary has, if not more. So what to give what to give? I was thinking really hard when a completely random thing came to my mind. I should make some nutella. She loves nutella. Frankly, who doesn't, right? I love it, too although it's been years since I ate any. I can't really explain why because I always think that if I eat just one spoon, I will gain a 100 pounds immediately. But with this thought, I shouldn't be eating any brownies, cookies...etc.  BUT today I tried my homemade Nutella. OH MY GOD. I wouldn't have though

Cakes are so much fun to make! I swear it is a lot more funner than eating it! Okay, I am not a cake junkie at all. So birthdays are all around the corner and who else would offer to make the cakes than me? :P But when it's a birthday it's not my job to choose the cake, unfortunately...And there is a hugely odd amount of love going for the Blackforest Cake. I've always wondered what makes it so popular and why people love it...Well, after tasting my version of it I still wonder... :D Not that it turned out bad, actually it was better than all the other versions I had tried before. Although, I noted a few things. 1. This cake does not require to make it 2 days beforehand. - Usually a cake is better by time 2. I added too much whipped cream gelatin. 3. Or I should have used simple ordinary double cream instead of hulala, my favorite non-deary cream Yep...Otherwise this recipe is really really good!! I advise serving it a few hours later than it is ready and not days l

The name of this cake means something to only those who have tried the traditional Hungarian túró rudi. It is originally a Russian treat. How could I describe it...Sweet farmer cheese coated with chocolate. It doesn't sound the most delicious thing ever but it IS so good!! I don't even know anyone who doesn't like it!! And this cake tastes even better than the bar it got its name from!! I've been wanting to make this cake ever since I saw the recipe . It is in Hungarian so I might as well translate it to English. It is similar to cheesecake but different. Explaining myself today is not going very well...Apperently. So it has a brownie base. Oh my god, it is just the best like this!! So much better than if it was a cookie base. So on that lovely brownies there is a layer of sweet farmer cheese cream then comes a thin layer of chocolate. After that comes another layer of farmer cheese cream and then the top chocolate layer. Since I felt really generous with adding choc

I don't even know where to start...Possibly making chocolate chip cookies is one of the easiest things in life. Even a kid can make those, mostly that there are those pre-made boxes you can buy at the store and all you have to do is add an egg and mix it together. You can't go wrong with that. But is it really worth it? I'm not one who likes way too easy things. I always think that if something is too easy then there must be something wrong going on. Nothing ever is easy in life. And yeah there are so many unpronouncable ingredients in those boxes that all I'm asking is WHY would anyone do that to their body? Okay, I've gotta admit that I actually happen to have one in my house because I was certain that I just can't make the original cookies that taste actually like cookies here in Hungary. I've tried so so so many recipes before and none resembled to the real American ones. So when I was in the US a few months ago, I stored in a few boxes of this and that