26th Stop: Bulgaria

I feel it my duty to share with you wonderful food bloggers out there who represent their countries so beautifully.  So, here, on my 26th stop to Bulgaria, I present you with a recipe for this cake called Negarche Cake (recipe here), from this website called http://bulgarianfood.net/. 

This is just one of those good old traditional family recipes that says more about its homeland than I ever could.

Thank you and enjoy!!!!

24th Stop: Brazil

OK, this website is so darn cute that I had to share it for my 24th stop...

which is to Brazil. 

Ole!

Now, it's too small to view here, 

so please check it out here.

This website, They Draw & Cook, is genius, so you need to know about it, regardless. 

 

Their subtitle is "Recipes illustrated by artists from around the world."

I know, right?

23rd Stop: Botswana

I very much would love to travel to Botswana "for reals" one day. The wonderful books by one of my favorite authors have made me long for this part of the world. Thank you, Alexander McCall Smith!

 

So, imagine my joy when I found this cookbook.

 Yes, this is the kind of thing I geek-out about:

 

 

My baking motivation is suffering from an overly-dramatic heat exhaustion I know is really plain laziness. Due to this, I have not tried to bake anything from this book (my local library doesn't have it and I am trying not to spend too much money on books! Argghh.  Not easy!) But here is a recipe for a perfectly named treat from this cookbook called Persuasive Fruit Cake.  If you are a fan of Mma Ramotswe you will appreciate this cake name completely. You know it is good because Mma Ramotswe would not make anything bad.  While focusing on Botswana today, I would like to share a blog with you I have found in my recent online culinary travels. I made a reference to this blog in a recent entry. The writer here has tried some recipes from Botswana and even shares photos from her life in Africa. She is awesome and can be found at A Hungry African.

 

 

Be well, my fellow international dessert travelers. 

Monday Morsel:Hello Ireland

 

This lovely bundt is called Chocolate Potato Cake. 

This Irish treat's recipe is found at europeancuisines.com.

Monday Morsel's this month are all about desserts from Ireland. 

Starting with this charming site right here.

22nd Stop Bosnia and Herzegovina

Bosnian Iced Coffee. See that gravel up in that glass? That's part of the deal and it is good. In fact, I think I have finally found a rival for my Starbuck's addiction. That's saying a lot, because I am that person who will spend an entire Saturday trying to emulate a Starbuck's recipe in my kitchen.  I have the blog writers at Scarlet Lillies to thank. I'm not going to be dishonest...if I find a coffee recipe that might represent the country (and by "might" I know I am being flexible) I am visiting...then the coffee recipe has a 90% chance of winning over an actual dessert, like Bosnian Poached Apples, or other bakery item recipe. I love coffee that much. 

 

 

 

I think because the coffee is so super-finely ground, and then brewed over the fire for a good 20 minutes, the flavor rivals a good espresso that could be added to an iced coffee.

 

Look at that gravel brewing:

 

I let this chill in the fridge overnight so I could enjoy the concoction the following morning. (Plus, if you're going to make an iced coffee, the coffee does need to chill.)

 

 

Here it is chilled. I ended up with about half a cup of chilled coffee. Next time I will double the recipe.

      The chilled milk right before I try to froth it.

Now coffee has been merged into the frothy milk.

I added a drizzle of chocolate for good measure

I gulped all of this up in probably less than five minutes. Thank you, again, Scarlet Lillies. This recipe is a delight.  My apologies if any part of this doesn't seem like authentic coffee from Bosnia and Herzegovina.  But I can't help but think folks out there might like this, too!

St. Valentine's Day Around the World

Valentine's Day is a week away, 

do you know where your chocolate is...?

While we're at it, do you know how our international Bakery Traveler friends honor this day?  Are they all about the chocolate like we are?

Find out here.

It Was Bolivia All Along...I Was a Space Cadet

 

This is an image of a "space cadet." For those of you that caught my original entry on the 21st Stop of my Bakery Traveler World Tour, you might have noticed that I, well, actually, goofed. 

For that I apologize. 

Can I blame jet lag? 

I am a traveling gal, after all!

I have fixed my 21st Stop to read Bolivia and not...Brazil.

Brazil is coming up. 

But, gee, I will be stopping at Bosnia and Botswana first.

 

 

21st Stop: Bolivia

I cannot stop eating these cocadas from Bolivia.

They are that good. 

 

These Cocadas, also known as "Coconut Candies," are a common treat in Bolivia.  

As you may know by now, I am all about the easiest international dessert and baked good recipes. This one, from here, fits the bill. Plus - these are so incredibly tasty in a chewy, sweet, toasty coconut-y way. Little Bakery Travelers could help make these and they only take about 20 minutes to bake. Do check your treat 20 minutes in. The first batch I baked for 25 minutes and that was too long. Still good, but probably too crispy. The second batch, some seen in photos here, needed only 20 minutes and were like coconut heaven.

Enjoy.

 

20th Stop: Bhutan

Yes, Virginia, there is a Butter Tea. And it is from Bhutan, and people drink it for its high fat content (because, hello, it's like super freezing there with all those snowy mountains and fat calories can be good, as well all know) and they drink it for its moisturizing qualities (a little butter lip balm never hurt anyone) because the weather will freeze and dry you up.  Butter Tea can renew one's hiking spirit, they say. 

 

As for me...well...the main butter required for this tea was yak butter.  This is a yak:

There are no yaks in the southwest of which I know.  Obviously, plenty reside in the Bhutan area:

 

Thankfully, the recipe I found for this tea said it is okay to use cow butter. Now, that, I've always got on supply. The tea required for this concoction is an easy to find black tea.

 

 

So far, so good. Easy ingredients, easy directions.

First, you boil water, then simmer a couple of tea bags for five minutes. Then you melt the butter. Next, you add the butter, some salt and some milk to the tea, and blend it all together. Doesn't take long.

The hardest part is trying this tea.  The creamy tea is rather deceptive, because it looks disarming in its frothy loveliness, doesn't it? (Too bad the scent isn't as nice.)

My conclusion? The taste is definitely an acquired one. Perhaps I live in the wrong climate to appreciate Butter Tea. However, I did get an idea after sipping this stuff: black tea, butter, and salt could make a gourmet popcorn seasoning. Yes, you heard it hear first folks. My idea!

I got the recipe and learned a little more about Bhutan here.

 

 

19th Stop: Benin

Lemon, sugar, and peanuts make such pretty and simple ingredients. You cannot go wrong with trying Confit d'Arachide (Candied Peanuts) from Benin. It is basically a simple, and perfect little peanut brittle recipe. 

 

Benin is in West Africa.

The above territory became a French Colony in 1872 and achieved independence on 1 August 1960, as the Republic of Benin. You see the French influence in many of the country's recipes, like with the one I share here today.

 

Below, the sugar heats up and melts into a loose honey-like consistency.

Then the lemon juice and peanuts are stirred into the melted sugar.

This mixture is poured onto an oiled baking tray (although I used a parchment-lined tray...less mess). Once the mixture has cooled off, it is broken into pieces and stored in an air-tight container. Super easy and super yummy.

I got the recipe here.  I converted the measurements as best as I could (conversions are not my thing) and here is what I used:

200g sugar = 1 cup sugar

1tsp lemon juice = 1 tsp lemon juice

250g roasted, unsalted, peanuts = 1 1/2 cups peanuts

18th Stop: Belize

Welcome to Belize and its Tropical Coconut Cake.

Above is, essentially, a caramel topping being whipped into shape. 

This cake's topping is amazing if you love caramel and coconut. I imagine you could use this lusciousness for other creations, too. Ice cream, perhaps? It would be tropical, caramel goodness on top of some vanilla ice cream. Instead of hot fudge, go for hot caramel coconut. 

 

I'm telling you, I'm on to something here....

Anyway, below is a photo of the cake right before I started to bake it.

And here is a photo of it all done, after the topping had been broiled to give it a bubbly, lightly brown and crunchy top.  You can see, I've already tried a piece. 

 

The actual cake part didn't have much flavor and was a bit of a disappointment to us. It was more "bready" than "cakey." 

It did remain wonderfully moist, but it lacked pizazz which probably a little more sugar would have given it. 

 

But the topping, again, let me repeat, was AMAZING. 

Just make the topping.

Add it to vanilla ice cream. 

Kind of wish I had.

I'm sure the the person behind My Global Kitchens makes a better rendition. She's actually been to Belize and had this there.

I envy that and thank her for her recipe, which you can find at the link above.

17th Stop: Belgium

Hearty. Belgium. This is Pom Koek, also known as Belgian Coffee Cake. It looks like a sweet bread and is more like a heavy sweet quick bread than a coffee cake. The beauty of this recipe, however, is that it actually has coffee in it. Which is very appropriate for Belgium - a country that takes its coffee very seriously. I learned that here. I would love to have coffee in Belgium - especially at a well-know cafe called Caffenation.  I digress. But it's really easy to digress with this recipe because, well, it was just so-so. It is kind of plain. All I could think about while trying this was how much better it would be with peanut butter. I'm not sure that's a great sign. But I like that this is a traditional recipe.

 

The recipe calls for a cup of honey and a cup of coffee. 

Here it is in its doughy form:

Here it is once done and I started thinking about adding peanut butter to it.  A toasted slice of this with peanut butter would fill you up. That would make a nice breakfast on the go.

 

I couldn't taste the coffee at all. Honestly, I used half a cup of honey as a cup of it, in addition to a half cup of sugar, just seemed like way too much sweetening going on for this kind of coffee cake.

 

Belgium:

 

 

Recipe for Pom Koek: http://www.food.com/recipe/pom-koek-belgian-coffee-cake-140852

16th Stop: Belarus

If fruit could be categorized as models, then apples would be supermodels. So photogenic. I'd totally work with them again (but with a different recipe...read on).

 

Belarus:

 

Belarusian Sweet Apple Pie made with Sour Apples:

Everything about this recipe and its style is rustic. Nothing risky. Somewhat plain in flavor (I'd add a little cinnamon to the top if I were to make it again). Still, I'm glad I ran with it because I love apples. 

So pretty - look at 'em all elegantly sliced:

I added butter - something told me this recipe needed it (it did...well, it didn't hurt):

And now...egg, sugar, flour mixture on top (this is where I would have added just a little cinnamon):

All baked:

I convection-baked this at 325 degrees for 60 minutes.

Again, rustic. Bakery Travelers didn't care for this much. I didn't care for it that much, either. Which is sad because I do love apples. However, if you have someone who doesn't care for much flavor in a dessert, then this would be a good choice. I know, hard to believe, but I have met people who actually don't care for dessert. I cannot explain this phenomenon or these people. The phenomenon just is, the people just are.

Recipe is  at: http://www.belarusianfood.com/

15th Stop: Barbados

Hello Barbados! Hello trusty ingredients! 

When I see a recipe with cake mix and pudding, I know it's going to be good. You should know this, too. You will not go wrong with this combo.

Chocolate Rum Cake is a treat traditionally associated with Christmas on this Caribbean island. I researched this to be sure, as it seemed a little "too American" to me at first, what with using cake mix and pudding. I wouldn't steer anyone wrong...not on purpose anyway. Granted, the ingredients represent modern conveniences to which I say, once again, "Hello!"

Mixed all together and put into a bundt pan, the batter looks pretty low here (below), but she rises into quite the beauty. The recipes calls for nuts, by the way, but I didn't feel like adding them. The cake doesn't need them. It's perfect all on its own.

Once out of the oven, the cake gets soaked in a buttery rum sugar glaze. See the glaze soaking into the cake (below). The more glaze that soaks into the cake, the better.

Now she is done. (I am using the pronoun "she" on purpose, as that is a Bajan thing to do.) Look at how proud she stands (below). She might look too unadorned, but her flavor is chocolatey, moist, and rich. No icing needed for this rum-soaked cake.

One last photo, before I ate it:

 Recipe from: http://allrecipes.com/recipe/chocolate-rum-cake/