Elderberry liqueur

I have been making elderberry syrup for few years now. Just about this time of the year, when I go to village in the last days of May, I pick up about hundred elderberry flowers and make sweet syrup that every member of my family loves to drink.
This year, me and my father-in-law picked up much larger amount than necessary. I dried one part of it for tea, and wondered what to do with other 40-something sweet smelling flowers. I got the idea that I could make liqueur. I mean, since we make cherry liqueur, green nuts liqueur, why not make an elderberry liqueur as well?!
So, if you have clean elderberry flowers at hand, here is what you need to do to get really nice, sweet, syrupy liqueur!
40 elderberry flowers
3 liter water
3 kilograms sugar
1 lemon (just juice)
4 packages citric acid (40 grams)
1/2 liter alcohol (I have used local plum brandy, but vodka is fine as well)

Let flowers sit in water for 24 hours. After that, filer the water to remove flowers and cook the water with sugar until sugar melts completely. Remove the foam that will create on the surface and let it cool down. After it has cooled, add lemon juice, citric acid and alcohol, and mix well. Pour into bottles and voila, you have 4 liter elderberry liqueur!

Baklava with apples and nuts

Baklava is a traditional Turkish dessert that is also popular in the Balkans, thanks to the fact that better part of Balkan was part of Ottoman empire for almost 5 centuries. During this long period of time, cultures have intertwined and baklava is one of these transfers-and it is very popular in both of these worlds until the present time.
Ingredients:
1 package baklava pastry (thin sheets of pastry, approximately 15 sheets)
1/2 kilo apples, grated
1/2 nuts, grounded
1/2 kg sugar
cinnamon, 1 lemon, raisins
sun seed oil
Syrup: 
1/2 liter water
1/2 kilo sugar
1 lemon-juice
Saute apples with 300 grams sugar, 1 spoon cinnamon and lemon juice for approximately 10 minutes.

Place 2 sheets of pastry on a greased casserole. Sprinkle with oil, then cover with thin layer of apples. Place another two sheets of pastry and sprinkle with nuts. Sprinkle sugar and raisins over nuts, and cover with another two sheets of pastry. Then continue in the same order until you use all the ingredients. You will finish with sheets of pastry, which you will also sprinkle with oil. Use a sharp knife to cut baklava in small squares, and then put it in the oven heated on 180 degrees Celsius. Bake until golden brown.
Syrup: Bring all the ingredients to boil. Let it boil on low heat until all the sugar dissolves. Pour immediately over baked baklava and let it cool over night. Bon appetite!

Quince jam!

You can make fruit jam basically from any fruit-with exception of those that have too much water (like melons, for example). All the others are excellent material for jam, either solo or in combination with other fruits.
Just yesterday, my mother in law brought me about 1 kilogram of fresh golden-jellow quinces.
For two jars of delicious fresh quince jam, besides already mentioned 1 kg of quinces, you will need:
1 kg sugar
1/2 liter water
brandy-if you wish
Put water and sugar on stove to boil. Sugar must melt completely.
Meanwhile, peel quinces and clean of seeds. Cut in smaller pieces and put in boiling water. Cook for about 10-15 minutes-that should be enough for quinces to soften. Mix quinces with hand blender to, add brandy and food conservative (it is not necessary for such a small amount) and cook for another minute or two.
Put jam in clean and dry jars. And that's it!

CHOCOLATE CAKE-ONE OF MANY VERSIONS OUT THERE!

We all love them. As soon as you hear there is chocolate in cake, you know that it just can't be bad! Every cake with chocolate is bound to be tasty and delicious.
this one is not only sweet, but also easy and fast to prepare-improtatnt positive traits in my kitchen :)
So, here it is. For the biscuit you are going to need next ingredients:
3 cups yogurt
2 cups sugar
1 cup vegetable oil
3 cups flour
10 dkg cocoa
1 baking powder
-little bit of oil for greasing the baking pan
Mix all the ingredients together and bake on 180 degrees Celsius for about half an hour.Your biscuit is baked when it starts to separate from edges of the pan. Cover hot biscuit with chocolate glaze:

125 g butter
1 dcl milk
10 dkg sugar
20 dkg dark chocolate
Melt all the ingredients on the low heat.When they combine well together, just evenly spread over the biscuit.Leave in the fridge to cool. Enjoy!

Fast, easy and delicious fruit+yogurt cake!

My kids don't love fresh fruit very much, so I have to trick them in various creative ways to get them to eat recommended fresh fruit daily intake :) Creative ideas include fruit smoothies-that I call fruit yogurt, making home ice-cream with fresh fruit, etc. This cake is one of their favourite treats that gets me to goal the easiest and fastest way.
Ingrediets:
800 grams petit beure biscuits
1 l yogurt
300 grams sugar
500 grams fresh fruit-best combo with yogurt are bananas, fresh raspberries, blackberries, strawberries...
1/2 l sweet cream
Mix yogurt and sugar. Take biscuit, dip it in yogurt and place on the bottom of large square pan (50x30 cm, approximately). Cover bottom of pan with dipped biscuits and then put a layer of fruits (cut bananas in smaller slices, and berries don't need to be cut). Repeat the procedure, finishing with biscuits. Put in the fridge to allow biscuits to soak in yogurt well. After that, cover cake with whipped sweet cream.

Sandocan Baklava-Baklava with poppy seed

This Baklava is somewhat different than the usual one, made with grounded walnuts. This one is made with grounded poppy seed,  and several other ingredients that might seem off and as an unlikely mixture. However, once you try it, you will love it!
Ingredients:
1 package of phyllo dough
5 eggs
2 cups sugar
1 cup vegetable oil
1 cup yogurt
250 grams grounded poppy seed
1 baking powder
And additionally: 1/2 cup milk and 3 spuns vegetable oil-mix together
For syrup: 1/2 l water and 1/2 kg sugar
Mix eggs and sugar. Once the sugar has dissolved and eggs doubled in volume, add oil, yogurt, grounded poppy seed and baking powder.

Lightly grease large cake pan (I use 60 x 43 cm), put 1 layer of phyllo, lightly grease with mixture of milk+oil, put second layer of dough and then drizzle with poppy mixture. Then put another layer of phyllo, lightly oil with milk+oil, then second phyllo and poppy seed mixture on it. Repeat this until you use poppy seed mixture. You should finish with 2 sole layers of phyllo, just oiled with mixture of milk+oil.
You shold then cut cake into triangles before you put it in the oven heated on 180 degrees Celsius.
Bake it to get golden crust, and then soak with hot syrup.

Pancakes!

Pancakes are one of my favourite sweet treats. Big part why is it so lays definitely in the fact that you can prepare them in no time.
Pancakes I prepapre are, obviously, European, so not quite like American pancakes :) But I really love them this way. You can eat them with ice-cream, marmelade, nutella cream, honey, etc. Also, if you prefer salty variations, it is not a problem: just put mayonnaise and some ham, and voila!
Here is my basic recipe for pancakes:
1 egg
1 cup of milk
1 teaspoon salt
3 cups flour
Butter or oil for frying
Mix the above named ingredients until smooth, and then add as much water as you need to get liquid mixture. This way pancakes will be thin and delicate, as they will be easily poured over the buttered skillet and cover its entire surface. Before you begin frying pancakes, make sure to heat the skillet well-it should be hot. Add just a few drops of butter on the surface of skillet, to enable easy turning of pancake, and then pour one measure of pancake mixture to skillet, fry until you notice that edges are lifting. Then turn the panacake over, and fry from the other side. Then put pancake on the plate, butter the skiller and repeat the procedure until you use entire mixture.

What is amount of mixture for one pancake? It really depends on the size of skillet you are using, and how thin you want them to be. This recipe, as I have said, is for European pancakes, i.e. crepes, and they are supposed to be quite thin. You will get the idea from this picture. Enjoy!