Easter Recipe You Should Prepare

The month is almost over and EASTER is due!

Oh yes!

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What do you usually do on Easter week and weekend?
Share those in the comments. I’d love to read them

Over the years, I’ve posted Easter recipes including traditional ones that my family prepares EVERY YEAR…

YES. KAAK ASFAR

If you are looking for that recipe and other things to prepare this week for this holiday, I will make your lives easier. Follow the list below to help you plan some Easter gatherings recipes, some traditional Easter recipes, and some fun Easter-inspired ones.


Special Easter Recipes

Maamoul: stuffed Easter cookies

Easter is not the same without Maamoul. These semolina butter cookies are heaven in a bite. Choose your filling; date, pistachio, or walnuts.

PIN - Maamoul Stuffed Easter Cookie - cookin5m2 -9919


Kaak Asfar (Palestinian Yellow Easter Bread)

Maamoul and Kaak Asfar are Easter staple for my family. It never an Easter breakfast without Kaak Asfar with labneh and the colored eggs, followed by Maamoul and coffee.

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Kaak Asfar – Palestinian Easter Bread


Naturally Colored Easter Eggs

The third MUST-HAVE for my family’s Easter table. We get the blessed eggs from Easter Mass at dawn and compete on who has the strongest egg by having a one-on-one egg-cracking contest. Watch out for the family member who is very watchful over his egg, it might be a fake 😉

PIN-Easter eggs natural color - cookin5m2 -9897


Hot Cross Buns

I’ve been a follower of Jamie Oliver’s magazine and his shows. I’ve used one of his recipes to make these with a few changes to suit what I have at home, first, and suit the flavors I want. These Hot Cross Buns are nice pillowy bread buns flavored with great spices, ginger, and sweet dried fruits. Brush the top with honey for a beautiful glossy glaze and cover the sliced halves with a generous spread of butter. Try it and let’s see what you think

The ones pictured here, as I remember, over-proofed and looked a bit weird and tasted yeasty. But that didn’t stop me from sharing


Hot Cross Muffins

A twist on the hot cross buns, also adapted from Jamie Oliver. As I was writing this, a video was released on his channel of Chocolate hot cross buns with melting chocolate inside! Possibilities are endless with these sweet spicy buns


Bourbon Easter Egg Cookie Truffles

Sneak in some booze into your Easter – because why not! – tradition by making these cookie balls with two shot of bourbon. Dress them up for the occasion


Pastel Decorated Chocolate Bark

If you’re not into fancy sweets or you don’t have much time, this is yours. Just melt the chocolate, bring its temperature down a bit and pour it over a baking sheet AND DRESS IT AS CRAZY AS YOU WANT. Break it apart or let your friends take pleasure in the task


EASTER LUNCH INSPIRATION

Coriander Rub Roast Chicken with Trimmings

This is making its way into my family’s Easter lunch tradition, in case we have the stomach capacity after a food-loaded breakfast. Serve it with a zesty salad with ginger and garlic


Marjoram and Pine Cone Roast Chicken

The epitome of spring in a roast recipe. Grab the fresh herbs and grind them into a paste and rub it onto chicken with loads of olive oil and butter. The vegetables at the bottom will roast and crisp up from the fat dripping down from the chicken. Grab the pine cones from the forest, wash them and add them to the tray for an added aroma of pine and wood

PIN- Marjoram and Pine Cone Roast Chicken Recipe - cookin5m2 -1086.jpg


Chicken Breasts in Tomato Sauce

This is one of my favorite easy chicken dishes. Marinate. Grill. Mix. Bake. Serve.
It should be ready in less than an hour


Coriander and Garlic Roasted Vegetables

Serve the above chicken with roasted vegetables with coriander and garlic. For me, roasted vegetables can pass as a main dish if well prepared and paired with something grains or pulses maybe.


Lebanese Roasted Vegetables with Grains and Greens

Speaking of which, roasted vegetables, with quinoa, chickpeas, lentils, or anything. I’m sold! Hold the meat. I’m happily having a salad


Goat Cheese Marinara Cups

A warm entree with delicious flavors and textures. It’s easy, quick and delicious. So what more do you want?


Roasted Strawberries with Labneh Cheesecake Cream

If you’re not making any of the sweets above, use the seasonal strawberries and prepare this fresh dessert. It tastes like a sundae, only BETTER


Whatever you decide to prepare, the most important part is to celebrate the holiday (whether you’re a believer or not) and the family gathering and the delicious food.

Have a blessed week

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Naturally Colored Easter Eggs

It’s Easter again!

PIN-Easter eggs natural color - cookin5m2 -9897

This time of the year when nature wakes up from a long slumber bringing back out all the buds it tucked away inside its tough brown coat from the harsh winter. Trees may look dead, frail and leafless, but they’re busy working in silence, to shine with the most magical season of the year.

After a period of hibernation, work was being done silently.

In the past couple of months, I went back to my 5m² kitchen with a fire to cook something. In the meantime I cooked a new identity, a blossoming one that reflects my constant passion for food and nature. Continue reading

Maamoul; stuffed Easter cookies

PIN - Maamoul Stuffed Easter Cookie - cookin5m2 -9919Maamoul Stuffed Easter Cookie - cookin5m2 -9893

UPDATE: I updated the post photos with recent ones (2017) with the new branding.

After posting about Kaak Asfar, I promised to share another Easter speciality, and since i am a man of my word, here it is: Maamoul. This is an annual recipe we enjoy making, or try to stay away from as much as possible, but we fail. The process is as good as the final product. For those who are not familiar with Maamoul, it is fragrant semolina cookie shells stuffed with slightly sweetened ground dates, pistachios or walnuts with aromas of rose water and orange blossom water. 

Maamoul is only made as an Easter delicacy by Middle Eastern Christians. Taking into consideration the Lebanese sweets shops and brands war over who ruled the billboards, maamoul has got good exposure in the past couple of years. Still, maamoul is scary for all those health freaks and those with health issues: dietitians warning you how much calories one cookie has, your trainer informing you about how many hours on the treadmill you need to burn one cookie, or your cholesterol-filled heart and arteries scream from the fat you eat all year long at the sight of a maamoul cookie. It is so desired yet very much hated. Have you given its feelings a thought? Have you? HAVE YOU? Is that how you treat the guest that only comes once a year?
You only think about yourselves, you selfish fatties! Continue reading

Kaak Asfar (Palestinian Yellow Easter Bread)

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It’s Easter. As Middle Easterns we don’t have those fancy cakes and pastel colored decorations. We do however have recipes we only make at this time of the year like Maamoul, Kaak Asfar and colored eggs.

Continue reading