My inspiration for this dish came from my friend who desperately needed to use up all the canned pumpkin and started adding it practically everywhere. The combination of oatmeal and pumpkin intrigued me to the point that I was thinking about it everyday for about a week before I finally bought some canned pumpkin and decided to try it out. The rest just came together easily since it was a no-brainer for me that pumpkin should be paired with classic Pumpkin Pie spices like cinnamon, ginger, cloves and nutmeg. The final component, or maybe it's better to call it a technique, was a spontaneous decision. I've had my Brûlée torch for quite some time and only used it twice in the last few years. I also thought that the crunch of hard, caramelized sugar would pair nicely with the soft texture of oatmeal. The result was fantastic, warm and satisfying oatmeal that can easily double as a dessert. I know it's a strange choice to use those fall flavours in May, but the temperature dropped to +5 here in Toronto over the weekend and it really felt more like autumn than spring.

For 1 large serving

• Rolled oats - 1/2 cup
• Soy milk - 3/4 cup
• Canned pumpkin puree - 1/2 cup
• Vanilla extract - 1/4 teaspoon
• Cinnamon - 1/4 teaspoon
• Ground dry ginger - 1/8 teaspoon
• Nutmeg - a pinch
• Ground cloves - a pinch
• Salt - a pinch
• Dark brown suger - 1 + 2 teaspoons

- In a small pot, whisk together the milk and pumpkin puree.
- Add all the spices and 1 teaspoon of brown sugar. Heat the mixutre.
- Add the oatmeal and cook whicking occasionally for about 7-10 minutes until the oatmeal is soft and the liquid is absorbed.
- Pour the cooked oatmeal into a bowl and spread the remaining 2 teaspoons of brown sugar on top. Torch the sugar until it hardens. Alternatively, place the bowl under a broiler for couple of minutes to melt and caramelize the sugar.

Comments
- Regular milk or any other type of non-dairy milk can be used in this recipe. Water can also be used.
- Use the spices according to your taste. I don't like cloves too much and next time I am going to omit that spice.
- Canned pumpkin can be substituted for normal pumpkin, which should be baked and processed in a blender.

I really like classic combination of salty peanut butter and sweet jam. I try not to eat peanut butter and jam sandwiches because unfortunately once I start, I cannot stop. One, two, three sandwiches is never enough and although my brain knows the limit, my stomach doesn't. So, I rarely allow myself to have this simple and tasty treat. Almost a year ago I saw this recipe on a food network show and I instantly knew that I had to make it. Finally, a few weeks ago I got around to baking this delicious bread pudding for breakfast. It tasted really good, like a warm peanut butter and jam sandwich with custard. This custard, however, was also something that bothered me a little bit in this dessert. The top crusty layer of the dish was divine, whereas the custard was... well... custardy. I think that next time I'll take a bigger dish and pour the mixture in single layer so that there's less custard bits and more crunchy parts. I used soy milk in this pudding but it can be made with whole milk instead.

recipe adapted from an episode of Fresh with Anna Olson

for 6-8 servings

• Unsalted butter- 3 tablespoons
• Peanut butter- 2/3 cup
• Soy milk at room temperature- 1-3/4 cup
• Eggs at room temperature- 3 large
• Sugar - 1/3 cup
• Vanilla extract- 1 teaspoon
• Cubed baguette - 6 cups
• Raspberry jam or other fruit jam- 2/3 cup

- Preheat oven to 350°F (180C).
- Melt butter and brush pan with some of it.
- Add peanut butter to remaining melted butter and heat over low heat until fluid.
- Remove from heat and whisk in soy milk, then whisk in eggs, sugar and vanilla.
- Toss mixture with diced bread and let sit 10 minutes.
- Spoon mixture into prepared pan and dollop jam over bread, pressing in slightly to incorporate just a touch.
- Place pan in a larger dish and fill it with an inch of hot tap water.
- Bake for about 50 minutes, until golden on top and set.
- Let pudding sit for at least 30 minutes before serving.
- Pudding can be served warm or chilled.

Comments
- As I mentioned above, I think it would taste better in a bigger dish with bread cubes spread in an even layer.
- Also, one more cup of bread would be fine to add to this amount of custard.
- The result is intensely peanut-buttery.
- The pudding tastes better the next day reheated.

I don't really like apples. They are probably my least favourite fruit. Well, actually I don't like fruit too much. If I have a choice between vegetables and fruit, I'd definitely go for veggies. I'd rather eat a whole tomato or a cucumber than an apple or a pear. Still, not all fruit are so low on my list of favourites. I absolutely adore mangoes and I love juicy and perfectly ripe watermelon; I crave tangerines during winters and nectarines when it's warm. Apples, however, are rarely present on my kitchen counter. But I must admit, that when it comes to pies, apples are one of my favourite choices and they only come second to cherries. So, what a girl can do when she suddenly craves that apple pie taste, but has absolutely no desire to make a pie? A Baked Apple of course! Well, the "of course" part apparently is not that obvious as it turned out that some people have never even heard of such a thing as Baked Apple.

recipe for one serving

• Apple, washed and cored - 1
• Dates, pitted and chopped - 2
• Pecans, chopped - 1.5 table spoons
• Lemon juice - 1/2 lemon
• Brown sugar - 1/2 teaspoon
• Cinnamon - 1/4 teaspoon

- Preheat the oven to 180C (350F).
- Pour the lemon juice inside the apple.
- Mix the dates and pecans together.
- Place the nut mixture into the apple.
- Mix the sugar and cinnamon together, sprinkle on top of the filling.
- Place the apple in an ovenproof dish.
- Bake for around 30 minutes until the apple is soft and the skin is wrinkled.

I already mentioned earlier that cookbook that I got a few months ago - "Cakes & Loaves" - and completely forgot about. Now I am trying to remedy this situation and use it more. So, I decided to make a sweet cake from the book. I am very partial to ground almond sin baking, so when I saw a recipe that combined ground almonds and matcha powder, I knew that I just had to try it. It took me a few years of hunting in Toronto to finally buy this famous Matcha Green Tea powder, but when I finally got my hands on it, I only made one dessert with the ingredient and that was it. Lately, however, I've been drinking a lot of green tea which tastes exactly like Green Tea Ice Cream and I've been craving desserts with that same flavour.

The cake turned out absolutely perfect. Ground almonds give unique texture to the cake, white chocolate is not too pronounced but still noticable and it smells and tastes like green tea. The cake stayed soft and tender even after a few days on my kitchen table.

This recipe was a little bit strange. Although, I followed the insturctions to the letter, the batter that I got was way too thin. It was more like a pancake batter, than normal cake batter, so I had to add a full cup of dry ingredients to make it into a normal cake batter consistency. I'll list my measurements here, but just in case, don't add all the dry ingredients at the same time, add them gradually to make sure that the batter is not too stiff.

recipe adapted from "Cakes & Loaves" by Ilona Chovancova

• Butter, melted - 10 tablespoons (150g)
• White chocolate, melted - 75 g
• Eggs - 3
• Sugar - 3/4 cups + 2 tablespoons
• Flour - 1 cup + 1/4 cup
• Ground almonds - 1 cup + 1/4 cup
• Green tea powder (Matcha) - 3 teaspoons
• Baking powder - 1/2 teaspoons
• Baking soda - 1/2 teaspoons
• Milk - 3 tablespoons
• Salt - a pinch

- Preheat the ove to 180C (350F).
- Butter and flour a cake pan.
- Beat together the eggs and sugar in a large bowl until light, fluffy, and doubled in volume.
- Gradually add the flour, ground almonds, baking powder, baking soda, salt, milk, and melted butter. Mix until the flour is incorporated.
- Divide the batter into two equal portions.
- Fold the green tea into one portion, and fold the white chocolate into the other.
- Pour the white chocolate batter into a prepared pan and cover with the green tea batter.
- Use a fork or a metal skewer to swirl the batters for a marbled effect.
- Bake for 40-60 minutes or until a wooden toothpick comes out dry when inserted in the middle of the cake. Cover with foil if the cake is not baked through but the top begins to brown too much.
- Let cool in the pan slightly before turning out.

Comments
- Original recipe only had 3/4 cups of flour and ground almonds each and also no milk.
- It also required only 40 minutes to bake, but I found that the cake wasn't baked through after 40 minutes and it needed about an hour, but it all depends on the oven.

When I first got interested in food, it wasn't cooking that intrigued me - it was baking. I didn't even like to cook, but baking on the other hand was my passion. It was magic that pulled me in. How do those simple ingredients like eggs, butter and flour mixed together create various beautiful cakes? And what about flourless cakes - sugar, butter and chocolate - how does this mixture create luscious desserts? I still consider it magical!

I was so interested in baking that I actually went to college for baking. I took 10 courses to qualify for a Bakery Arts Certificate (I still have to apply to get it, although I have all the correct courses). It was great and I learned a lot about baking and I am really not afraid of any type of baking now: be it yeasty breads, delicate pastries or flaky tarts.

But the cake recipe that I am about to introduce here goes against everything I learned. It's really not a right way to make a cake batter, but it works and it works beautifully! It's my mom's cake, she used to make it often when I was a child and this is baking magic at its best. One of my favourite things about this cake is the crust, somehow about 3 times out of 5 the crust really become meringue-like and tastes similar to macaroons. I cannot really explain why that happens.

Here it's made with pitted cherries, but my favourite is with apples, pecans and cinnamon. I also tried it with peaches and cardamom and plums and almonds. I'm sure it will be great with almost any fruit that you can put in a pie filling.

For baking form 20x20cm

• Eggs - 3
• Sugar - 1 cup
• Flour - 1 cup
• Baking powder - 1/2 teaspoon (optional)
• Fruit - 2 cups or enough to cover the baking dish or more if mixed with the batter
• Butter for the baking dish

And now for the magical part

- Preheat the over to 350F (180C).
- Butter the baking dish.
- In a big bowl whisk together the eggs and the sugar just until it all comes together, about 30 seconds, no more.
- Add the flour (and baking powder if using) and wisk together just until the flour disappears and there are no more lumps, about 45 seconds, no more.
- The batter will be quite thick and there won't be a lot of it.
- Cover the baking dish with the fruit and spread the batter over. It will barely cover the fruit and it'll look like it's not enough, but it will be great. ALternatively you can mix the fruit with the batter.
- Bake for 45-55 minutes depending on your oven. A toothpick inserted into the cake should come out clean when the cake is ready.
- Cool and enjoy with a glass of cold milk.

Various fillings:

- Pitted sour cherries.
- Apples cut into peaces with pecans and cinnamon.
- Halved plums with almonds inserted into each half.
- Sliced peaches with cinnamon or cardamom.

When I was little I didn't really like cookies. Most likely because we rarely had them in my family. Cookies weren't that popular in Russia. The most popular sweet was candy. We had many different types of candies, each of them wrapped in a colourful paper. Those types of candies are not popular here at all. In North America it's all about big candy bars, whereas in Russia we had tiny morsels of sweet goodness. We had our version of truffles, just much denser and harder than the French truffles. We had little souffle candy dipped in chocolate, they were about 1 inch by 1/2 inch rectangles and only 1/4 inch thickness - perfect size for a little pick me up sweet; my favourite was pineapple flavour, and we also had vanilla, chocolate and orange. There were also a lot of different candies with layers of wafers and chocolate cream fillings. There was something magical about those sweets, I think it was the wrapping, not the typical plastic-like glossy thin paper that we get here around Snickers or Mars bars, no. Each little candy was first wrapped in the thinnest layer of wax paper, then came the silver foil and then the colourful paper wrapping with a picture. Back in USSR we used to collect those paper wrappings much like people collect post stamps here.

So, all my childhood I had those candies. There were of course cookies, but they weren't as popular and I don't really remember my mom baking cookies except for a few times. It took me quite a few years of living in Canada to fall in love with cookies, but not I absolutely love them whereas my mom is still not a fan.

This is a very easy and tasty recipe for oatmeal cookies. They keep fresh for at least a weak in an airtight container and they have this perfect balance of sugar, so that they are not overly sweet, but sweet enough. I made 1/3 of the recipe plain, 1/3 with chocolate chips and 1/3 with raisins. I like the raisin cookies most, then the plain and then the chocolate.

recipe from sonulya.livejournal.com

for 4-5 dozens depending on the size of the cookies

• Butter, room temperature - 200 g
• Brown sugar, packed - 1 cup
• White surgar - 1/2 cup
• Eggs - 2
• Vanilla extract - 1 teaspoon
• Flour - 1 1/2 cups
• Baking soda - 1 teaspoon
• Cinnamon powder - 1 teaspoon
• Salt - a pinch
• Oats (rolled or quick oats) - 3 cups
• Raisins - 1 cup (optional)
• Pecans or Chocolate Chips - 1 cup (optional)

- Preheat oven to 350F (180C).
- In a big bowl using a mixer mix togher butter and both sugars until it's light and fluffy.
- Add eggs one at a time mixing well between each addition. Add vanilla extract.
- Add flour, salt, baking soda, cinnamon and mix until the flour disappears from the mixture.
- Add oats and raisins and pecans if using and mix. Do not overmix.
- Place tablespoons of dough on baking sheet leaving 1 inch space between them.
- Bakie for 10-12 minutes or until the cookies are golden on top.
- Leave the cookies to cool for a minute on a baking sheet and then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

I love, love, love Harry Potter series and I am not ashamed to admit it. There's something about this universe that J.K. Rowling created. Yes, it's very dark at times, but it's still kind and bright at the same time. The magic just pulls me in and each time I read those books (so far I read them all twice), I don't want to let them go, I don't want the adventures to stop. I really love reading, and I spent my childhood and youth reading a lot of wonderful books, but somehow, although I liked them and reread some of them a few times, I never had an urge to reread a book right after finishing it. But after I turned the last page in the last Harry Potter's book I could only do so much to stop myself from picking up the first book again.

Surprisingly, food is actually a prominent subject in those books. Starting with the first time Harry met Hagrid and they had sizzling, plump, juicy and slightly burnt sausages. Oh, my, just typing those words makes my mouth water. And what about the famous feasts at Hogwarts?

"He had never seen so many things he liked to eat on one table: roast beef, roast chicken, pork chops and lamb chops, sausages, bacon and steak, boiled potatoes, roast potatoes, chips, Yorkshire pudding, peas, carrots, gravy, ketchup and, for some strange reason, mint humbugs."

And although I try not to eat that much meat now and I recently tried being a vegan for a few weeks, it makes my stomach growl. It's a carnivore heaven.

And then there are desserts.

"When everyone had eaten as much as they could, the remains of the food faded from the plates leaving them sparkling clean as before. A moment later the puddings appeared. Blocks of ice cream in every flavour you could think of, apple pies, treacle tarts, chocolate eclair and jam doughnuts, trifle, strawberries, jelly, rice pudding..."

I am not too familiar with British cuisine, so the first time I read about Treacle Tart I didn't think too much about it. But it is Harry's favourite dessert, so I read about it again and again and at some point I looked this word up in a dictionary. I was disappointed - apparently English-Russian dictionary translated the word as molasses and what's so tasty about that? I mean it's a great ingredient for a ginger bread, but for a tart? And only a few months later I accidentally saw a recipe for a Treacle Tart in one of my books and it turned out that despite the name, it's actually made out of Golden Syrup. It took me a long time, but I finally made it and... I can see why it's Harry's favourite!

A couple of days ago I saw a package of really cheap strawberries. What can be cheaper than 99 cents? I couldn't resist, especially because the strawberry smell was intoxicating. In the end they turned out to be quite plain, but the smell, oh, the smell! So, I ended up with a package of berries and no idea on how to use them. In the old days, I'd mix them with some yogurt, but now that I try to eat as vegan as possible (not all the time, but most of the time), that wasn't an option. And then I remembered...

I've seen a few recipes where tofu is used instead of milk or cream. To be honest, I was intrigued, but a little hesitant. I mean it's... Tofu!! I like tofu in soups or fried or even baked, but in dessert? Really?

The "milk"shake turned out amazing! Smooth, creamy, tasty, fresh, light and very filling at the same time. With no "tofu aftertaste" and very much like regular milkshake. I was surprized and amazed at the same time! What a beautiful easy and healthy treat. I made it a few times since then and I am planning on trying it with different fruit in the summer.

For 2 large glasses

• Soft silken tofu, drained - 1 package (500g)
• Icing sugar - 1/3 cup (or to taste... I even think it can be substituted with honey or maple syrup for even healthier treat)
• Strawberries, hulled - 1 package (about 18)

- Blend all the ingredients in a blender until smooth.

Comments

- I'd like to note that it's quite drinkable but quite thick right out of the blender. But after a night in the fridge it becomes almost a mousse consistency and taste like those whipped yogurts! Perfect for breakfast!

So, being vegan is not a reason to forgo desserts. These little "truffle" gems are healthy, nutritious and extremely tasty. And although they are not real truffles, they look and taste just like them. The recipe is very easy and versatile, you can change the fruit, you can add some liqueur, you can dip them in chocolate, or roll them in cookies and/or nuts. You don't even have to make this into truffles; the original recipe was for "brownies". I highly recommend to try this dessert even if you are not vegan, because it's amazing!

recipe adapted from 28 cooks

for 20 "truffles"

• Pitted prunes - 1/2 cup
• Pitted dates - 1/2 cup
• Pecans - 1 cup
• Cocoa powder - 1/2 cup (plus more for rolling)
• maple syrup - 3 tablespoons

- Process all ingredients in a food processor until everything is finely chopped and resembles a dense paste.
- You might need to do it in batches if the mixture is very dense and your processor struggles with it.
- Using a small ice cream scoop, scoop some of the paste, roll into a ball and roll in cocoa powder.
- Enjoy!!

Very easy to make and eveb easier to eat gingerbread. Perfect for sharing during this time of the year. Its aroma fills the kitchen with welcoming, christmassy, fairy-tale smells.

recipe from Nigella Christmas

for 20x30 cm form

• Butter - 150 g
• Golden syrup - 200 g
• Dark molasses - 200 g
• Brown sugar - 125 g
• Fresh ginger, grated - 2 teaspoons
• Ground gigner - 1 teaspoon
• Cinnamon - 1 teaspoon
• Ground cloves - 1/4 teaspoon
• Baking soda  - 1 teaspoon dissolved in 2 tablespoons of warm water
• Milk - 250 ml
• Eggs, lightly mixed - 2
• Flour - 300 g

- Preheat the oven to 335F (170C).
- Butter the baking form.
- In a medium pot melt the butter together with golden syrup, molasses, sugar, fresh ginger, ground ginger, cinnamon and ground cloves. The mixture should become liquid.
- Take the pot from the heat. add the milk, eggs and soda dissolved in water. Mix.
- In a separate big bowl put the flour, pour the liquid mixture on it and mix until the batter is almost mixed and the flour is incorporated.
- The batter will be very liquid, don't worry! The magic will happen in the oven.
- Pour the batter into a prepared form and bake for 45-60 minutes until the cake is risen and the top is springy to the touch.
- It's important to not overbake the bread or otherwise it'll loose its' stickiness.
- Let the gingerbread cool before cutting into 24 pieces.