Everyone likes muffins (in Poland called babeczki). They came to Poland from the USA and Great Britain, where they are very popular. They can have different fillings: sweet, such as with chocolate, fruity or dry with meat, cheese and vegetables. All varieties taste excellent. It is interesting that in the USA, Canada, Australia and New Zealand "English muffins" are known as fried yeasty pikelets, served hot with butter.

Today I discovered that I could use a popular baking pan for muffins "with dimples" to make a sweet interesting dessert or hot dinner. French pastry molded in the shape of small baskets with a pear-cheese filling with walnuts looked almost identical to muffins and was delicious. As with muffins, you can use different fillings. You should remember that if you use juicy fruits like strawberries, raspberries or blueberries, you should put a bit of crumbled sponge cake on the French pastry in order to soak up the juice.

Ingredients for 15 "almost muffins"

1 pack of chilled French pastry

1 egg yolk

5 pears

150g of gorgonzola cheese

10 walnuts

1 tablespoon of butter

You get used to good things very fast. For some reason, I have of late been baking a lot of sweet things at the weekend: cakes, muffins and cookies. Last weekend before Christmas I was lazy. I didn't want to bake anything. My children were indignant. What do you mean there is no dessert? On Sunday I was filled with remorse and moved by the sad faces of my children, so I prepared a colourful chocolate dessert.

Basic ingredients, 15 minutes of preparation, a few minutes in the fridge and my children's faces – invaluable. I recommend it to every hard-working mother.

Ingredients:

250 ml of 30% cream

150g of mascarpone cheese

150g of chocolate

1 tablespoon of caster sugar

colourful chocolate drops

In the dim and distant past, children were scared of wolves, old coots or Buka from "Moominvalley". Today's children don't fear anything. Watching certain cartoons I wonder who they are made for. Bogeymen, monsters, dragons ... and I miss classic Polish characters like Bolek, Lolek and Reksio. What do you think: what are modern parents afraid of? Apart from extreme things, maybe they are afraid of ordinary white sugar? Sometimes, without reflection, we add it to tea or coffee. Today we look for sugar everywhere and in most products we find it.

Mostly we worry about our children, visualizing them in the future with tooth decay and being hugely overweight. We could completely ban sweets. We could propose one "sweet day" in the week. There are as many solutions as there are parents. Sometimes we and our children would like to have something sweet. It is probably easier for most of us in most cases if we go for chocolate. If we add dried fruits and nuts to the chocolate it will be go some way towards soothing our conscience. Therefore, it is my proposal for today. Please remember, however, that to protect our children against sugar you should not eat all of it by yourself.

Ingredients:

150 g of chocolate

20 g of pumpkin seeds

60 g of sunflower seeds

I didn't know that cake with pineapple from a tin is an American invention. First I made it, then I did some digging and now I know all about it. In the original recipe, it is an upturned cake. I made my own version with pineapple slices on top, just like I usually do when making cakes with fruit. Next time I will do it the American way.

This is one of those cakes which is tastier the next day, when the cake is moist from the fruit. It is simple, cheap and perfect with afternoon coffee at home.

Ingredients:

125g of butter

270g of flour

4 eggs

1 teaspoon of baking powder

125g of sugar

3 tablespoons of desiccated coconut

1 tablespoon of vanilla sugar

3 tablespoon of caster sugar

1 tin of pineapple

The banana has been known in Europe since the XIX century and despite such a short history, it has gained ground on European tables through its excellent taste and rich nutritional value. It contains magnesium and potassium, which have a positive impact on our heart, and substances which reduce cholesterol.

When you have low spirits – get a banana. These fruits contain tryptophan – an amino acid which our body converts into serotonin – a happiness hormone.

People grow only 20 from almost 800 known species of banana, each of which differs in size, shape, colour and pulp and starch content. There are bananas which taste like apple, red bananas and inedible bananas which are used for the production of paper and rope.

In the kitchen bananas have universal application. In our latitude we use them mainly for desserts. We add them to salads, fruit cocktails and cakes. Until recently I didn't like hot bananas. Recently I have prepared grilled bananas with brown sugar and ice cream. This quick and simple dessert was very tasty. I decided to explore this further and prepared bananas in French pastry. Again I was not disappointed. I found an inspiring recipe on the blog arabeskawaniliowa.

Ingredients:

1 pack of chilled French pastry

6 bananas