Delicious and very easy Russian dessert. Only a few ingredients and several minutes of active time will result in a great dessert suitable for a party. In the original recipe a traditional diary product smetana is used but you can substitute it with other similar products – sour cream, plain yoghurt or crème fraîche.
Scrumptious chocolatey Russian kartoshka cakes made with cocoa powder and condensed sweetened milk will not stay long on the plate! Very easy to assemble, your only challenge when making these non-baking treats will be restraining yourself from eating them during the process. Happy guests would be a reward for these efforts. “Kartoshka” means “potatoes” in Russian and these cakes indeed look like the unpeeled vegetables. However the sweet chocolaty taste has nothing in common with the real “kartoshka”.The original recipe calls for a sponge cake as the base for these treats, but you can also use shortbread cookies. You will also need some butter, cocoa powder and sweetened condensed milk.
Ingredients
2/3 cansweetened condensed milk(270 gr/9.5 oz)
100 gramsbutter, softened(3.5 oz)
500 gramssponge cake or shortbread cookies(16 oz)
5 tbsbitter cocoa powder(the one you need to boil)
2 tbscognac(optional)
Instructions
If you use a sponge cake: Tear the sponge cake into pieces and put in to preheated to 100C (210 F) oven for 20 min to dry the cake a bit. If you use cookies: break the cookies into smaller pieces.
In a bowl beat up the butter and condensed milk using a wooden spoon.
Blitz the prepared sponge cake or cookies in a blender into breadcrumb substance, add cognac. Mix in butter and condensed milk.
Form small potato-like cakes and powder them in cocoa. Put in a fridge for at least one hour.
Tip 1: Chocoholics can add cocoa into the biscuits/sponge cake mixture.
Tip 2: Bitter chocolate instead cocoa. You can melt bitter chocolate (70 per cent cocoa) putting a bowl with chocolate into a pan with water and bringing to boil until complete melting. Cover the cakes with the melted chocolate and leave to cool down.
This Russian finger food has a sharp taste of the cheese and garlic mixture smoothed by a juicy piece of a tomato. Easy to make, these mini-breads will be a guaranteed success at a party or give a new flavoured kick to your movie time snack. This is a more festive variation of grenki rye bread strips.
Prep Time:15 minutes
Cook time:30 minutes
Savoury garlic grenki have little in common with sweet grenki toasts.
Garlic grenki are crunchy breads and are popular finger food in Russia. Quite often they are served as a beer snack in a company of friends. They are also great with a nice bowl or heart warming soup, such as borscht…mmm…yum!
Tantalize your taste buds with easy to make Armenian chicken wraps!
Armenian chicken wrap is a variation of a world-known dish doner kebab or shawarma (also spelt as shaorma).
In Armenian shawarma, widely popular in Russia, the meat and the toppings are wrapped into Armenian flatbread lavash. The wraps are then additionally toasted for a delicious crust. Originally the meat for those chicken wraps is grilled over a vertical spit but for home version you can fry lean chicken breasts in a grill pan.
Easy to make and delicious, Armenian chicken wraps is a great and quick meal, also suitable for gathering of friends!
