Vanilla wonderland

Happy 1st Advent Sunday to all of you! The Christmas countdown has officially started and as you light one by one the candles of your Advent garland, the Home sweet Bakery will unveil four of its easy Christmas recipes. Cooking in this time of the ear can be quite stressful, so why not spare some time on the dessert without giving up on its taste?

The first recipe is a light vanilla pudding with warm berries, perfect after a big meal because jelly and cream free.

Ingredients:

500 ml. milk

70 gr. sugar

3 eggs

3 tbsp of Maizena

1 fresh vanilla pod

frozen berries

Method:

Beat the eggs with the sugar until foamy, then add the Maizena. Start heating the milk with the vanilla pod and when slightly warm remove the vanilla pod and add the other mixture. Keep stirring being careful not to cook the eggs and when compact let it cool. Put your pudding in a big mould or in various smaller ones and place in the fridge for at least a couple of hours. Take the berries out of the freezer and warm them up with a spoon of sugar. When you have a nice warm sauce put it on top of your pudding.

Enjoy this vanilla wonderland

Martina

Pistachio dessert variation

The weekend is approaching and so is Easter! Finally I can start bringing colour into the house and... onto the dining table!!! So which better ingredient then pistachio? Green, delicious, versatile, and Sicilian. So here are some tasty ideas for you (I have tried them all already):

To start with here are some pistachio cupcakes with buttercream icing. An easy combination of vanilla cupcakes dough with some pistachio grenadine inside and outside. Crunchy and creamy all at once.

And now pistachio-vanilla pudding with Sicilian "pasta di pistacchio" and pistachio cream. "Pasta di pistacchio" is basically  nothing other than pistachio marzipan and is typically Sicilian.

Third on my list is this lovely pistachio sponge cake with sugar glaze, shortbread bunnies, and candied roses and violets. This cake is not from me, but from the very talented Annalisa, whose cakes and sweets I adore (I will soon write a post about her baking).

Last but not least this amazing pistachio cake with pistachio cream filling and pistachio grenadine. Pistachio cream is soooo good! It is like Nutella but green. To make it yourself is very expensive, so I suggest you buy it; take a look here.

I like baking with pistachios, they are a wonderful (also expensive) ingredient, and I am "jealous" of these recipes, but if I did inspire you and you would like to have the ingredients and steps for the preparation one of these desserts just leave a comment and I will post! Promise!

Enjoy ♥

Martina