Ingredients:
500 grams (17,5 oz) all-purpose flour
1 package instant dry yeast
A pinch of salt
220 ml. (8 fl. oz) milk, at room temperature
2 medium eggs, lightly beaten, at room temperature
100 grams (3,5 oz) honey
100 grams (3,5 oz) canola oil or other flavorless oil of your choice
Zest from 1 orange
100 grams (3,5 oz) mini chocolate chips or shredded chocolate
200 grams (7 oz) candied orange peel, finely chopped or raisins, soaked in rum overnight

In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a bread hook, add the flour, salt and yeast. Beat for 15 seconds to distribute the yeast evenly within the flour. Add the milk, eggs, oil and honey and beat for about 5 minutes until all is well combined. Continue beating for another 20-25 minutes or until you have super smooth and shiny dough. Dough will be a bit sticky, but don’t get tempted to add extra flour. Within the last minute add the chocolate chips and orange peel/raisins and beat to combine, about a minute.
Remove the bowl from the mixer and scrape the dough to the center of the bowl using a rubber spatula. Dust lightly with flour and cover the bowl loosely with plastic wrap. Allow to rest in a warm place until doubled in size, about 1 hour.
After rising, gently take the dough out of the bowl, using your hands, greased with oil and place on a large kneading board or on your counter. Don’t knead the dough and be gentle with it, you don’t want to deflate it too much.
Divide the dough into equal parts, as many as you like, depending on how many breads you are making and their size. I would recommend you to make two breads, because dough rises additionally during baking, so if you use it for one whole Easter bread it will turn out pretty huge. This dough makes two perfect medium sized breads. In order to do that, you will need to divide dough into 4 equal pieces. Gently roll each piece into a long rope, twisting it as you go. Attach two ropes at the ends, then twist them to make some sort of braid. Connect both ends to make a wreath and gently transfer onto a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Repeat steps for the other two pieces of dough, which will leave you with two medium size wreaths.
Set them aside to rise again for about 30-45 minutes, depending on the temperature of the room.
Preheat your oven to 170C.
After the second rise, brush wreaths with lightly beaten egg and sprinkle some sugar on top.
Bake for 30 minutes, lowering the temperature of the oven if you see the tops starting to burn.
Remove from the oven and allow to cool to room temperature before serving.

Add all ingredients in a large bowl. Mix by hand until all ingredients are well combined. Start kneading the dough until when poked with your finger it slowly bounces back (add extra flour for the kneading and dough seems too moist). Then your dough is ready (6-7 minutes). Form it into a ball and put in a greased bowl. Cover loosely with plastic wrap.
Let dough rest and rise in the warmest room you have.
Once your dough is double in size and super soft (it will take about 1 to 2 hours) you can divide it into equal size balls, depending on how many pizzas you are making and how thin you want the crust. This dough will easily make 5 extra thin large pizzas or about 3 thicker large pizzas.
Roll each ball of dough on a floured kneading board or your counter, then transfer to a greased pizza tray.
You can make your pizza extra tasty by stuffing the edges of the crust with mozzarella cheese.
To do that, place mozzarella strips around the edges of the pizza, then roll the edges of the dough up and over each strip, then press down to seal. Let rolled pizza dough rest for about 10-15 minutes.
Then, brush rolled pizzas with olive oil, spread one layer of tomato sauce and then add whatever else you prefer on it and bake for about 20 minutes.
Use this recipe to make the best tomato sauce for your pizza!
QUICK NOTE: I’ve been in a hurry in the past and used this dough without waiting for it to rise, just knead, roll and bake and I have to say that it’s really delicious too, but not so fluffy and doesn’t rise as much in the oven as if left for a few hours in a warm place.
So, if you don’t have the time to wait for the dough to rise, you can totally try the “knead, roll and bake” option.
ANOTHER NOTE: Feel free to freeze any left over pizza dough. In order to use the freezer dough you need to:
Option 1: Remove it from the freezer the night before and put in the fridge to thaw. Remove from the fridge 30 minutes before using.
Option 2: Quickly defrost in regular or microwave oven.

Soak cashew nuts in water overnight.
On the next day, drain the cashews and rinse until the water runs clear.
Add to a blender with the rest of the ingredients and blend until smooth and creamy. Strain through a fine sieve and pour in a jar.

NOTE: Add more or less water, depending on your taste and how creamier you want your milk to be. With the proportions above you will get pretty creamy milk, which is great, but I think that it could take on additional 200 ml. and still be super tasty.
Store in the fridge and use within 5 days.

Ingredients:
200 grams boiled and cleaned chestnuts
300 ml. milk
1 vanilla bean

Add chestnuts and milk to a saucepan. Using a knife, scrape seeds from vanilla bean into the pan and add the pod, as well. Simmer for about 30 minutes or until chestnuts are very soft and about half of the milk has been absorbed. Remove from stove and strain, saving the milk in a small bowl. Discard the pod. Puree chestnuts with a hand-held blender or in a food processor, adding some of the milk if necessary. In my experience I always end up using all the milk. Just be careful, though, you don’t want to make your puree too thin.
Cover in plastic wrap and keep in the fridge for up to a week. In case you have a few extra ounces of chestnut puree, just put in a freezer proof box and freeze until you need it.

Ingredients:
1 kg. (35 oz) ripe tomatoes, peeled, seeds free (see notes below)
3 garlic cloves, cleaned, roughly chopped
A handful of fresh basil
5-6 table spoons olive oil
Salt and pepper
1 table spoon cayenne pepper
1 table spoon sugar (optional)

Important part of making a homemade tomato sauce is to have all tomatoes peeled and all seeds and extra water removed. This is an easy job, I promise.
Put a large saucepan with water on the stove on high heat. Let water boil.
Once water is boiling put all tomatoes in it for about 30-50 seconds. Remove from water and place on a large wooden board. Once blanched in the boiling water tomatoes will peel so easy. Peel them all, then chop up roughly, as in the process just remove seeds. Only the “meat” should be used in your tomato sauce, so discard all water, seeds and skin.
Throw the boiling water away and put a couple of table spoons olive oil in the same saucepan. Heat on high heat, then throw in the tomatoes, garlic and basil. Turn heat to medium high and cook for about 30 to 40 minutes as you stir once in a while to make sure your sauce will not burn. Stir more often at the end when almost all water is gone and tomatoes might burn easier.
Season with salt and pepper and cayenne. Add a table spoon of sugar in case your tomatoes are sour. If you are using sweet to taste tomatoes then you might not need the sugar – just go with your instincts and adjust to your taste.
Let the sauce cool off for a bit, then transfer to a large bowl/plastic box or other dish and keep covered in the fridge for up to 5-6 days.
See, it is super easy and I am sure that once you taste this recipe you will never buy a ready-made tomato sauce.

Ingredients:
1 medium pumpkin
A couple of table spoons water

Store in the fridge for up to a week or freeze it.

Ingredients:
1 octopus
5-6 garlic cloves
1 glass of white wine
1 celery (cut into pieces)
Salt & pepper

For pan frying:
2 tables poons olive oil
2 table spoons chives
1 table spoon garlic cloves, cut into smalll pieces
1 tables poon chili sauce (optional)

As I explained earlier, I divided my octopus in two.
The first part I placed in a pot with 300 ml. boiling water, garlic and celery. Boil for 40 minutes.
The second part of the octopus I boiled in 200 ml. of boiling water + one glass of wine, celery and garlic. Boil the octopus for 40 minutes.

Heat the olive oil in a deep pan. Add the garlic, chives and chili. Cook until slightly crisp. Add the octopus and cook on both sides for 3-4 minutes. Season with salt and pepper. Serve warm!

For garnish I prepared a puree of chickpea, potatoes and chives.
3 large potatoes (boiled)
1 can of chickpea
2 table spoons chives (cut into small pieces)
Red pepper powder
Salt and pepper
1 tea spoon garlic powder
1 table spoon butter

Mash all the ingredients with a fork or in a blender. Add all the spices and the butter. I prefer to serve the garnish warm, so you could warm up the puree, and add the butter just before serving. Mix well so the butter melts.