My homemade nutella was so successful that I ate some with a slice of whole wheat bread every morning. Yeah, every single morning! And now that I hit the bottom of the jar, I made some more. But this time, not just hazelnut butter. I’ve made 4 different nut butters, following the same process.

I’m recently obsessed with chickpeas. I always find myself eating something that is made of chickpeas. One example is hummus. The other one is leblebi. And now I have my own homemade leblebi, which was easier to make than I expected.

Leblebi is a Turkish snack, and it’s simply roasted chickpeas. It’s traditionally made by roasting the chickpeas two or three times and resting it after each time for days, which is a complicated process, so you basically buy it from your grocery. But there are two easy ways to make it in your home: using the oven or using the pan. I tried the latter one. I boiled some chickpeas, and I put them in a pan with oil, sea salt and black pepper. Than I sauteed them for about an hour in low heat, and I got some crispy leblebi, which are different from the storebought ones, since they are roasted in special ovens. But if you want to have your leblebi that taste closer to storebought ones, you can roast them in your oven for an hour.

I’m still trying to adapt my new life. In case you don’t know, I have recently graduated and started to work, which primarily means waking up early to me. What I do in the mornings is basically waking up at the latest time possible, and trying not to be late. It means also that I generally sacrifice my breakfasts in order to sleep five more minutes. In such cases, when I was late for school, I used to eat whole grain cereals with oatmeal and low-fat milk. But it’s always nice to invent new things, since I don’t like to eat the same thing every morning. One solution I found was the oatmeal energy bars. And this is the second solution. Homemade Nutella! Well, I have to warn you, it of course does not taste like original creamy yummy Nutella, but if you’re like me and do not want to always eat full-of-additive food, then this is the simplest and the most delicious solution. Yes, I told that it does not taste like Nutella, but it has a very rich and distinct taste (and of course a very rich hazelnut smell!!).

Well, the actual title of this post should be “Sour Cherry Chocolate Chip Honey Semolina Muffins”, which would tell more about the ingredients, but it was so long that I sticked with this one. Since the freezer is full of sour cherries and we can’t eat them raw with sick stomacks (we all have gastritis & reflux in family), it’s better to use them in desserts. This is yet another semolina muffin recipe, if you remember the one with apples. I really like to put semolina in muffins, because semolina gives a nice texture and I think it increases the nice smell I get from the muffins (and I don’t know why).

(And I said I will try to post twice a week… Well, I’ll try next time…)

The second best thing about summer for me is definitely ice cream (The first one is summer vacations, of course). And when we have a lot of fresh sour cherries the garden, it would be shame not to use them in a recipe. So, I decided to make some ice cream with them. But sour cherries, as you know, are a bit “sour”, and I didn’t want to use a lot of sugar to make them eatable, so instead, adding some peaches not only made me put less sugar in it, but also gave a distinct taste to the ice cream. I also drizzled some homemade sour cherry jam before serving.

Wow, is that my blog? When’s the last time I posted here??

After my epic macaron fail, I’d been denying to post any recipes and that wasn’t the only reason. I was so busy with my finals (I graduated by the way!) and then my getaway to Bodrum -such a nice vacation!. Then I started to work and I’ve been trying to adapt this crazy lifestyle since then. I wake up at 7 am. YEAH 7!! Now you may say “What’s wrong about 7? We all wake up at 7.” But remember, for the past 4 years, I was a college student, and I was trying to schedule my classes no earlier than 10 am . If I had to take a class at 9:30 am, I was usually skipping it. Well, things have changed. Now I don’t have the excuse to “skip” the work, obviously. So, I wake up at 7, go to work and come back home at 7 pm, which means I have little time to eat my dinner, do some other things and finally cook for the blog. Actually, I don’t have time to cook. Then I decided to plan my days and I think I’ll cook for the blog 2 days a week, because I really want to improve this blog. The thing is, I don’t really plan the recipes (that’s why it is kitchen “impromptu”) and I don’t bother much about the photos. I just take them, without using any setting, which makes the photos, I think, poor. See, I’m quite lazy..

This time, I was sure to succeed. I bought Ogita’s book “I Love Macarons”, which is said to be the one of the best guides to make macarons and I really loved it, because it gives you a lot of different macaron options based on a “basic” recipe. It also has some very detailed instructions and I read all of them carefully to finally make some “real” macarons. OK, this is my third trial by now, and I have the worst looking macarons ever! They’re even uglier than the macarons I made by whisking the egg whites using my hand. Yeah, the macarons didn’t crack as the previous ones, but I couldn’t make the foot, or “pied” as the French call it. Ogita says if the batter is too dry, you cannot make the foot; but I don’t even know how I got the batter that dry. I didn’t even whisk the egg whites too much (that can make it dry). And what is worse, according to Ogita, my “things” are not even called macarons because she says: “Without it [pied], the pastry cannot be called a macaron.” So, I just call them macaron-ish-s or (non)macarons! Though these things taste good, in terms of looks the result is a big epic FAIL..

Da-da-da-daaa! Here is a recipe that I made up. I was actually going to bake some vegetables, and decided to make the dish more fun by adding some cream in it. And then I told myself “Why don’t you add a little bit of mustard?”.  And guess what! It was super-delicious and it was really easy to prepare, so I think I’ll put this recipe to “Ulya’s favorites”.

I said I won’t be posting dessert recipes for a while, but these cookies changed my mind. Sinem made those for our project visit to Istanbul, and we all enjoyed them during the flight and at the hotel. Normally, I’m not into those buttery chocolate chip cookies, but these were quite yummy that we all got the recipe from her.

Woaaa! Long time, no see my dear blog. I don’t know what happened to me, I just want to sleep all the time. I actually made this recipe about a week ago, but I was so lazy to post it. But that’s enough. From now on, I’m focusing on my blog. So, I’ve promised to make some savory recipes, and this is one of them.

For the New Year, I bought myself a lot of cookbooks, and one of them is called “Cooking Light Way to Cook”, and it’s really an interesting one. It’s just the book I’ve ever wanted. All kinds of recipes (from salads to desserts) in a healthier way! And I found the pizza dough recipe from that book.

Throughout my 3 years of cooking experience, I didn’t need to use any electrical equipment for mixing, whisking, beating, blending or kneading. Instead, I used my hands and my beater. Actually, if you’re making cakes, muffins or cookies, you don’t really need an electrical mixer. But when it comes to beating egg whites, it ca become a painful job for your hands. And why the egg whites are so important? Because of the macarons of course!! I am quite obsessed with making macarons. Couple of months ago, I had a disappointing macaron trial, and only 5 out of a batch came out clean. Only 5! Why? Because I whisked the egg whites using my hands! And as far as I observed, making perfect macarons moves you to the next level in cooking:) So, I decided to buy a KitchenAid stand mixer, and move to that next level.

I was also hoping that it will help me save a lot of time making cakes and other pastry. But, I was such a fool to assume that KitchenAid will solve all my problems. Well, here’s the result:

I swear this is my last chocolate post and I’m not going to make any chocolate recipe for a very long time! I know I’ve been obsessed with chocolate recipes recently, and it has two reasons. First of all, I have been consuming a lot of chocolate these days, and don’t know why.  Secondly, chocolate making is easy in terms of ingredients; you just melt some chocolate and pour it in molds. Actually, the reason I’m always making desserts rather than savory dishes is that. I always have sugar, flour, eggs, and milk at home, which are the basic things for pastry. Anyway, this is a recipe from Making Artisan Chocolates, which is like my artisan chocolate Bible. It’s originally “turtle tablets”, but I don’t have molds for tablets, I changed the recipe and make little molded chocolates, which have caramel filling. And I used brown sugar when making the caramel, because I didn’t have any white sugar left.

Last week, I was in Italy and I bough a lot of chocolate from Torino after they told me that the city is famous for its chocolate and grissini. So to finish all the chocolates (about 400 grams (14 oz.)), I decided to use them for my mother’s birthday cake. However, some of these chocolates had red pepper in it, so I made a spicy cake.

Well, I know the eclairs in the photo do not look nice and cool, but their taste is inversely proportional to how they look.. Really.. The reason for their bad appearance is due to a little accident. After I finished making my tiny eclairs, the plate they’re on fell off to the kitchen table and their chocolate glaze was all over the place.. I think I’m never going to make some good looking food..

There are some white and dark chocolates waiting to be used in the kitchen for about a month. Actually, it’s a miracle that these chocolates can survive in the kitchen for a long time. In short, it was the time to use them. So, what I did was quite impromptu, I brushed my chocolate molds with white chocolate, and filled with some nice dark chocolate with almonds. But it was too “plain”. So what should I do to make these boring chocolates extraordinary? I simply added some red hot pepper on tops, and make these chocolates reaally hot!! Enjoy!

Oh, no! Chocolate and orange cake again????? I know, but I think they’re the best couple ever.. Whenever I make something with chocolate and ask myself “What else can I add?”, the mantra repeats in my mind like “orange, orange, orange, orange”. Well, I know it’s not creative at all, but there is a plenty of orange on the kitchen table at this time of the year, and I just can’t resist them!

No, I don’t like jellies. And no, I didn’t like this one too. But the difference of this jelly is; it has agar agar in it rather than gelatine. Agar agar is a gelatinous “thing” made from seaweed, and commonly used in Japan, Malaysia and Indonesia. I first saw them in Luxiare as jello shots. So just for curiosity, I ordered some agar agar from the internet and tried to make something with it.

What I like most about truffles is, they are easy to make and you can let your imagination do the rest! The last time I made truffles, I followed the recipe, but this time it was a real impromptu. I made two types of truffles: hazelnut and white chocolate dip truffles and dark chocolate raisin cocoa dip truffles.

Every new year, I make the same old gingerbread cookies. This year has no difference too! The only little difference is the recipe I used. There was an old recipe I used to make every year, and I really don’t know where I found it. But this year, I decided to use the recipe from Joy of Baking and changed a bit, and the results were interesting. I got some very spicy and crispy cookies and everyone liked them!!

It’s been a long time since my last post, I know.. But I was very busy with my midterms, quizzes and projects, and I didn’t even have time to sleep and thought I was going to die because of headache. Anyway, I’m better now, and am here with an incredible recipe: apple meringue cake!

Being a senior year in college, I have to make my senior project (obviously). Our team is doing a “green” project for Unilever’s Heartbrand (ice-cream), and we have a project proposal meeting tomorrow. Since we are the host of this meeting, we thought it would be nice to serve some treats, other than the usual ones bought from a patisserie.

I don’t know how to name these muffins. The idea popped into my mind while I was trying to sleep (I think a lot about these kind of unnecessary things before I sleep). I thought about putting a layer of sugary-apples between the muffins, and make some apple “layer” muffins. Enjoy!

These bars are like granola bars, but they’re also like fruit&nut bars. So I call them just “oatmeal bars”.

I don’t like those granola bars with a sharp honey taste and lots of oatmeal. And I wanted to make something for the late mornings, when I’m late for school and don’t have time for breakfast (Actually, I’m “always” late for school, but that’s another story). These bars are something that you can just take (and your tea mug) and leave home.

You’re probably thinking right now that I’m obsessed with chocolate and orange. Well, that’s true, but in this case I used these two ingredients just because I had to. I wanted to make a cake, and searched the kitchen. There were only oranges in the fruit case, and I found some bittersweet chocolate, all-purpose flour, and one egg. I took a risk to make a cake with just one egg, but I thought the chocolate would do the same job as eggs and hold the cake. The cake was delicious, although it falls apart easily because of the lack of eggs. I think, you can get the best results by using two eggs, but I haven’t tried it.

Why hypnotic? Because there is something strange with this cake that you cannot stop eating it. It is probably because of the melted chocolate, but I named it “hypnotic” anyway!

Well, I’ve decided to put some recipes from Turkish cuisine, and started with something I really love to eat: “cezerye”. Cezerye is like Turkish delight, but is made from carrot. It is not something you cook at your home, you usually buy these for the religious festivals. I’ve never made these jelly-candies before, and when I found this easy “cezerye” recipe today, I decided to try it.

My artisan chocolate making attempts are continued! I really liked the Earl Grey taste in my previous hand-dipped chocolates, so I used tea again in these truffles. I also added orange zest to strengthen the orangey flavor. Unfortunately, I messed up the kitchen again, but I am happy now eating my truffles and drinking my holy Early Grey tea!

OK, I know I’ve made a lot of muffins recently, but I love to make them. I am experiencing the results of adding honey to my muffins. Well, as far as I noticed, honey makes the muffins look smoother and the edges brown as if you brushed it with egg yolks. Even though my mom claims that the vitamins in honey are vanished when heated, I think it’s still better than processed sugar, which makes these muffins healthier than my carrot cakes. You obviously cannot get the same taste, but you save calories (6 tablespoons of sugar is about 400 calories, while 3/4 cup sugar required for the carrot cake recipe is 600 calories) And this lighter version tastes “acceptable”. In fact, my aunt thinks these taste better than my regular carrot cakes.

This is another impromptu cake I just made up and it didn’t disappoint me. I came by some ripe bananas in the kitchen the other day, and decided to use them in what I do best: muffins! I also added the chocolate chips I’ve recently bought from the coffee shop (I usually use chopped chocolate instead of chocolate-chips, but the girl in the coffee shop insisted me to buy them and I gave it a try). I didn’t want to add sugar to the cake, so I used honey. I don’t usually use honey in my cakes, but this time it really worked and the muffins were neither too sweet nor vapid. This has become one my favorite muffin recipes.

It was another boring night with nothing to do, and apples on the kitchen table. So, it was a “must” to take a risk and make something totally improvisational. I mixed everything that comes into my mind to make a cake, and this is the result. Try!

My homemade refrigerated pizza stock is over now, and I am too lazy to make new pizzas (Waiting for the dough to rise is nervecracking!) And yesterday, when I needed something that can satisfy my usual “pizza-cravings”, I made these bruchetta-pizzas, and they require bread instead of pizza dough. This quick dish is also my parents’ favorite for a Sunday brunch at home.

It was only a year ago when we had our first onion soup in Paris with my mother. It was a traditional French onion soup with beef stock and large onion slices and was very delicious.

Back in Turkey, I ate some other onion soups, and tried to cook it using beef stock. I also added some vinegar according to an anonymous recipe I found on the internet. The result was horrible..

I spent my whole Friday trying to make some flavored white-chocolate ganache. I made chocolate macarons using David Lebovitz’s recipe, and used fig and orange flavored white ganache to assemble the macarons (I simply added 1 orange’s zest orange flavored one, and 2 mashed fresh figs for the fig flavored one).

I used to be a total carnivore, eating meat two times a day, and considering a meal without meat not a “true meal”. But those days are over now, and I have been eating healthier things for a couple of years. And I really love playing with legumes and creating new recipes. One of my favorites is this lentil chickpea patties recipe, and I make veggie burgers with them. Yummy! They’re easily stored in the freezer, and whenever you need them, just cook in a pan or grill for few minutes and prepare your burger. Yummy!

OK, I’ve wanted to make artisan chocolates for a long time. I even had some very-amateur chocolate trials for the past two New Year celebrations, which turned out to be not-so-bad, but I still wanted to learn some real stuff on how to make artisan chocolates. So, I ordered “Making Artisan Chocolates” by Andrew Garrison Shotts, which is a very informative book about chocolate making. After reading some introductory info and seeing the delicious photos in the book, I decided to try some recipes.

It was only three years ago when I first started cooking. I started with simple vegetable dishes, and moved to desserts as I gained some confidence. And the very first cake I made was from a carrot cake recipe I found in AllRecipes. However, my first carrot cake was very sweet, greasy and topped with an ugly cream cheese frosting  that I couldn’t make properly.