Cheesecake (oven)

A very easy and yet tasty cheesecake. If you eat a piece of this cake, you won't be able to stop eating until you have finished it all! :) This cake is perfect for those occasions where you need to feed 20 people and you do not want to spend the day on the kitchen. It is easy, tasty and you can easily double the quantities and a make a huge quantity of delicious cheesecake!




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Before we start:

• Difficulty: very low
  
• Preparation: 10 min
• Cooking: 1 hour
• Cost: cheap

Ingredients (serves 6-8):
1 package of Philadelphia cheese
1/4 litre of liquid cream
3 eggs
1 unflavoured yoghurt
1 "yoghurt" of sugar (fill in the yoghurt recipient with sugar)
1 "yoghurt" of milk (fill in the yoghurt recipient with sugar)
1 "yoghurt" of flour (fill in the yoghurt recipient with sugar)

Preparation:

• Heat the oven (180° with circulating heat)
• Mix all the ingredients with a mixer and put them into an oven-proof dish. Only fill the dish up to 2/3 of its capacity!
• Put the dish in the low part of the oven (to prevent the upper part of the pie from burning)

• Wait until the pie as nice golden color all over its surface.

• Get out of the oven and wait for the pie to get cold before eating it.

Comments:

You could add marmalade on top of the cheesecake once it is cold. It tastes even better several hours after finished!

Fresh raspberry tart

Versión Española

I had always been afraid of tarts. I thought that they were very difficult to make: prepare correctly the pastry, bake it, make a tasty filling... But then we tried it once with Aida and, although we didn't get the result expected, we ended up preparing something eatable and quite good. So now, although I take a lot of care to bake a tart (I still take it quite seriously), I dare to bake them. It is not as difficult as it seems!

These cake was quite tasty. I ate it with vanilla ice cream and was really good! I ate it cold, but I can imagine how good it would be a warm cake with the ice cream. Mmmmmmmm... And doesn't it look cute???

Before we start:

• Difficulty: medium
  
• Preparation time: 45 min
• Cooking time: 25 min (cooking) + 30 min (cooling)
  
• Cost: cheap
• Origin: International
  
• Recipe obtained from: Baking Bible, "Fresh raspberry criss-cross tart"

Ingredients (serves 6-8):

230g plain flour
Half teaspoon baking powder
60g almonds, finely grounded
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
100g golden caster sugar
115 butter, chilled and diced
1 medium egg + 1 egg yolk
Icing sugar, for sprinkling

For the filling:
350g strawberries
1 rounded tablespoon cornflour
1-2 teaspoons caster sugar, or to taste


Preparation:

• Put the flour, baking powder, almonds, cinnamon and sugar in a bowl.
  
• Add the pieces of chilled butter and work with the fingertips until mixture resembles fine crumbs.
  
• Add the egg and yolk and mix to make a soft dough. Cover the dough with a tea towel and chill for at least 30 minutes (until firm enough to roll out).
• Turn out the dough on to a floured work surface and roll it out fairly thickly to a circle about 25cm diameter. This is easily done if dough is plae between sheets of baking parchment.
  
• Use the pastry to line a 21,5cm loose-based flan tin, pressing the dough on to the base and sides. Trim off the excess pastry and use small pieces to repair any tears or holes, saving the remainder to make the strips of pastry lattice later. Chill the base and excess pastry for around 15 minutes.
  
• Meanwhile, prepare the filling, mixing the fresh raspberries with the sugar and cornflour. Don't worry if the mixture is quite white: corn flour is used to absorb the water that raspberries let go when baked.After baking, raspberries will recover their color.
  
• Re-roll the excess pastry and cur it into wide strips. I pinched them with my fingers to make them look nicer...
• Damp the top edge of the pastry with water, spoon the filling into the pastry (squashing a little bit the raspberries with a fork) and arrange the pastry strips in a lattice on top, pressing the ends onto the top edge to seal (they will glue to the base thanks to the water).
• Bake the tart on a preheated oven at 190ºC until golden, about 25 minutes.
  
• Remove from oven and sprinkle with sugar.
  
• Serve warm of at room temperature.
  

Comments:

The book recommends not to wash the fruits if possible. They should be picked over well, checking for blemishes and bugs.

Eat the tart within 2 days of baking.

Tart before baking (color white will disappear after baking)

Giant double chocolate nut biscuits

Versión Española

These cookies are just delicious. I brought them once as a present for my parents, once to Miguel's colleagues and once as a birthday present to Miguel's brother (Quique) and they all agreed that these cookies are really tasty! For special occasions, put them in an airtight container, wrap it in nice paper and you will have a nice hand made present! And even if you put salt instead of sugar, they will not dare to complain, after all the effort you have made!




Before we start:

• Difficulty: easy
  
• Preparation time: 30 min
• Cooking time:12-15 min
• Cost: cheap
• Origin: International
  
• Recipe obtained from: Baking Bible, "Giant double chocolate nut biscuits"

Ingredients (makes 16):
140g plain chocolate, chopped
100g butter, at room temperature
80g golden caster sugar
80g dark brown muscovado sugar
1 large egg, beaten
Half teaspoon vanilla essence
150g plain flour
a pinch of salt
Half teaspoon baking powder
50g pecans or walnuts, chopped
100g plain dark chocolate, chopped into chunks


Preparation:

• Melt the 140g chocolate in a heat proof bowl over a saucepan of steaming, not boiling, water. Remove the bowl from the heat and let cool.
  
• Beat the butter until creamy using a wooden spoon or electric mixer. Add the sugars and beat again until light and fluffy. Gradually beat in the egg, vanilla essence and melted chocolate.
  
• Sift the flour, salt and baking powder into the mixture and stir. When throughly mixed, stir in the chopped nuts and chocolate chunks.
  
• Put heaped tablespoons of the dough, spaced well apart, on two oven trays covered in baking paper.
  
• Bake for 12-15 minutes in preheated oven at 180ºC. Cookies are ready when they are just firm, so do not over bake them, as they harden outside the oven.
  
• Remove from the oven and let cool on the baking sheets for a couple of minutes until firm enough to transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

Comments:

Although it may seem that cookies are not ready, bake them only for the time indicated, or they will be too dry.

I used 75% chocolate as I like bitter chocolate, but any good quality plain chocolate will do. I used plain chocolate chunks, but white chocolate can also be used.

According to the book, cookies can be stored in an airtight container for one week, or frozen for up to 1 month.

Spanish Tortilla

Version española

One classic: tortilla de patatas (Spanish potato omelet). I hope all non Spanish fans of the blog will enjoy this recipe ... if you ever try to do a tortilla following my recipe, add a comment to the blog telling us how it went! You could even send us a photo of the result ... we would really love it :D

I must warn you: each Spanish home has its own tortilla recipe. They are all pretty similar to mine (my mom's in fact) but not exactly the same. Some people add pepper or chorizo ... others do not use onions (which I personally adore in this recipe!). So just tell you that you can innovate and change the recipe and it will still be a typical Spanish tortilla! :)

Before we start:

• Difficulty: easy-medium
  
• Preparation time: 20 min
• Cooking time: 20-30 min
  
• Cost: very cheap
• Origin: Spain
  
• Recipe obtained from: my mom
  

Ingredients (serves 2):

1. 4 big potatoes
2. 2 eggs
3. 1 onion
4. A lot of olive oil
5. Salt

Preparation:

• Cut the onion in half and then thinly slices. Now peel the potatoes using a potato peeler, cut it in halves and slice each half them into thin half-rounds. When they are sliced, rub them in a clean tea cloth to get them dry. If the potatoes are going to wait a bit until you cook them, you can keep them in water.

• Next, fill half the frying pan with olive oil and heat it. When hot, add the potatoes and onions (the potatoes need to be submerged in the oil).
  
• Toss them around in the oil to get a good coating, then turn the heat down to its medium-low setting, put a lid on the frying pan and let the onions and potatoes cook gently for 20 minutes, or until tender.
  
• Turn them over halfway through and shake the pan from time to time, as they should not brown, but just gently stew in the oil.

• When the onions and potatoes are cooked (test them with a knife to see if they are tender), get them out of the frying pan and put them on a sieve over 10 min to get rid of as much oil as possible. Meanwhile, whisk the eggs into a large bowl.
  
• Then transfer the potatoes to the eggs in the bowl, mix thoroughly and add salt as desired. Taste the mix to verify the salt.
  
• Put the olive oil that is left on a bowl (it is still useful for cooking tortillas any other day!)
  

• Put the frying pan back on the heat, add the rest of the oil and turn the heat up to medium. When the frying pan is hot, pour the potatoes-eggs mix into the frying pan. It needs to cook for over 5-7 minutes.
  

• When the edge of the omelette is golden and it does not stick to the pan, draw the edge in gently with a palette knife. Turn it over to cook the other side.

• And how do we do that?
  

• Give it about 4 minutes more. It should then be cooked through but still moist in the centre. Serve hot or cold, cut in wedges, with a tomato salad and a glass of Spanish red wine!

Comments:

Carefully choose your pan to do the tortilla. It needs to be smaller than the plate you are going to use to turn the tortilla over ... if it is not the case you will have potatoes and eggs all over the kitchen :)
Ideally the pan with a base measurement of 20 cm is perfect (even smaller). If it is too big, it will be hard to turn it over because of the weight.
Try not to use a pan with "open borders" (like the one in the photograph) since it will prevent the edge of the tortilla to get gold and it will make it more difficult for you to turn the mix over.

Sachertorte (variation)

Versión Española

So, here we are! 8 months after creating this blog, we have reached 5000 visitors! Thanks to Google Analytics we have seen that we have visitors not only from Spain and Switzerland (as expected) but also from USA, Austria, France, Italy, Great Britain, Chile, Colombia, Mexico, Southafrica, Portugal, Canada and Argentina. Thanks to all of you for visiting our blog! We would love to have some feedback from you, so feel free to write comments to our recipes or to our blog!

To celebrate this occasion, nothing better than a cooking meeting between the two creators of this blog, to investigate about the recipe of the queen of the chocolate cakes: the Sachertorte! In the book we used as reference (Leiths Baking Bible), this cake is included in the section "Speciality cakes" (because it requires more time and skill). And... we failed in the skill part! We manged to prepare the cake correctly, but it seems that we made a huge mistake when preparing the icing as, instead of a nice and glossy icing, we discovered the recipe to obtain the best eatible earth that I've ever seen in my life! It really looked like earth... That's why this recipe is callled "Sachertorte (variation)"!

As we were not able to tell were we made the mistake to obtain such a disastrous result, we will transcribe the recipe exactly as it is written in the book, expecting that you are more skilled than us and manage to get the expected icing. Good luck!

Before we start:

• Difficulty: advanced
  
• Preparation time: 45 min for the cake + 10min for the glaze + 15min for the icing + cooling time
  
• Cooking time: 50 min
  
• Cost: medium
  
• Origin: Austria, Hotel Sacher Wien
  
• Recipe obtained from: Leiths Baking Bible, "Sachertorte"
  

Ingredients (serves 8-10):

For the cake:
170g plain chocolate, chopped into small pieces
140g butter, softened
115g icing sugar, sifted
6 room-temperature eggs
115 caster sugar
125g plain flour, sifted

For the glaze:
225g apricot jam
Half teaspoon lemon juice

For the icing:
285g granulated sugar
290ml water
225g plain chocolate, chopped into small pieces


Preparation:

• Grease a 23cm spring-form tin and line the base with a disc of baking parchement.
  
• Melt the chocolate in a heathproof bowl fitted over, but not in, a saucepan of steaming water. Remove from the heat and allow to cool slightly.
  
• Cream the butter in a mixing bowl, add the icing sugar and beat well until pale and fluffy. Separate the eggs and add the yolks one at a time, beating well after each addition.
  

• Whisk the egg whites until stiff. Whisk in the caster sugar gradually and whisk again until stiff and shiny.
  

• Working quite quickly but carefully, mix the cooled melted chocolate into the creamed mixture, the fold in the egg whites and flour, using a large metal spoon. Pour into the prepared tin.
  

• Bake in the centre of a pre-heated oven at 180ºC for 50 minutes or until a sharp knife or skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean.

• Remove the cake from the oven and allow to cool in the tin for 10 minutes, then loosen, turn out on to a wire rack and leave to cool completely.
  
• Meanwhile, make the glaze: heat the apricot jam with the lemon juice in a saucepan. Bring up to the boil, then push through a sieve and allow to cool slightly. It should be warm when used.
  
• Make the icing: put the granulated sugar into a thick-bottomed saucepan and add the water. Heat very gently, ensuring that the sugar dissolves before the water boils. Once the sugar has dissolved, bring up to boil and boil to the thread stage (when a little syrup is placed between a wet finger and thumb and the fingers are opened, it should form a sticky thread about 2,5 cm long). The temperature will be aproximately 105 ºC.
• Remove the sugar syrup from the heat and place the pan in a roasting tin filled with warm water. This will prevent the syrup from cooking further. Leave for 1 minute, then add the chocolate and stir constantly until the chocolate has melted and the icing has cooled and achieved a coating consistency.
  
• When the cake is cold, place upside down on a wire rack set over a tray. Paint the top and sides with the warm apricot glaze and allow to cool.
  

• Pour the icing quickly over the cake, tilting it as the icing runs over to ensure a smooth, even covering. Do not disturb the icing once it is on the cake. Allow to set.
  

Comments:

After having burnt our fingers a couple of times (with a blister!) and get a kind of thread, it was quite clear that we didn't get the concept of "thread state" correctly. We should try some other time, but I will avoid putting my fingers in the pan!

Apple jalousie

Versión española

As Noel (my Mexican colleague) said that he will bring guacamole at work tomorrow, to celebrate the "Mexican Independence day" (on the 15th and 16th of September), I've decided to bake something to bring as well.I saw this recipe the same day I bought the book I've used, and I though that I should do it immediately. Well, it has taken some time, but finally here it is!

It is pity that I am not a good photographer, because this cake is really spectacular! And very very tasty! If you ever want to surprise somebody with your cooking skills, you should try it! The ratio success-effort is huge!

Before we start:

• Difficulty: easy
  
• Preparation time: 30 min
• Cooking time: 10 min (for the base) + 20 min (for the jalousie)
  
• Cost: cheap
• Origin: International
  
• Recipe obtained from: Leiths Baking Bible, "Apple and raisin jalousie"
  

Ingredients (serves 4-6):

1 roll of puff pastry
2 medium-size apples
30g butter
60g sugar
juice of half lemon

Dusting:
Milk
Caster sugar


Preparation:

• Cut the pastry into two thin rectangles. One should be smaller, measuring around 13x20cm, and the other should be 17x25 (if you want to take the maximum advantage of the roll of pastry, just cut the rectangles, keeping these proportions, as big as your oven tray allows). Prick the smaller rectangle all over with a fork. Leave in the fridge until firm.
  
• Meanwhile, peel the apples, quarter and core them, and cut them into large chunks. Melt the butter with the sugar and stir in apple and lemon juice. Cover with a lid and cook until the apples are tender but not mushy.
• Place the smallest piece on a tray covered with baking parchment. Bake in a pre-heated oven at 220ºC for about 10 minutes, until crisp and brown. Remove from the oven and turn over onto a baking sheet. Allow to cool. Do not turn off the oven, as it will be required to bake the jalousie.
• Spread the apple filling all over the cooked piece of pastry.
• Lay the larger rectangle of pastry on a board, dust it lightly with flour so that nothing sticks and fold it in the half lengthways, gently. Using a sharp knife, cut through the folded side of the pastry in parallel lines. Leave an uncut margin of about 2.5cm, all around the other edges, so that when you open up the pastry you will have a solid border.
• Lay the cut pastry on top layer of the pastry covered with apple filling and tuck the edges underneath.
• Brush the top layer carefully all over with milk. Sprinkle well with sugar.
• Bake for about 20 minutes, until well browned.

Preparing the filling and cutting the jalousie

Comments:

Original recipe included 50g of raisins and 1 tablespoon of brandy, to be added to the apple mixture before filling the jalousie. I didn't have any brandy and... I forgot to add the raisins (after having even measured the 50g)!

Leftover of puff pastry can be used to make some Puff pastry fingers.

Puff pastry fingers

Versión española

When making the apple jalousie, I had some leftovers of puff pastry, so I decided to make something with them (in the kitchen, nothing has to be thrown away!). And here is the result: some really simple fingers of pastry with some chocolate. Easy, isn't it???

Before we start:

• Difficulty: easy
  
• Preparation time: 10 min
• Cooking time: 10 min
  
• Cost: cheap
• Origin: International
  
• Recipe obtained from: my imagination
  

Ingredients:

Puff pastry
Apricot jam
Chocolate decorations


Preparation:

• Cut the puff pastry in thin rectangles. Arrange well apart on oven tray covered with baking sheet.
  
• Bake them in a pre-heated oven at 220ºC, for about 10 minutes, until crisp and brown.
  Allow to cool.
  
• Add a teaspoon of water to the jam and mix well. Paint the fingers with this mixture. Sprinkle with the chocolate.

Comments:

I do not indicate quantities of the ingredients as it depends on the amounts of leftovers. Use intuition to know how much jam is required to paint the fingers.

Cheese and onion baps

Versión Española

This recipe is not very difficult, but it requires a lot of time to allow dough to rise and some kneading skills (if you don't have a mixer with a dough hook, which is my case). The result are really tasty baps, suitable to make sandwiches or to eat as snacks.

Before we start:

• Difficulty: medium
  
• Preparation time: 30 min
• Cooking time: 7-15 min for baking + 2-2,5 hours for rising
  
• Cost: cheap
• Origin: International
  
• Recipe obtained from: Baking Bible, "Cheese baps with cheddar and onion"

Ingredients (makes 12):

650g unbleached white bread flour, plus extra for dusting
2 teaspoons sea salt
200g mature Cheddar cheese or raclette cheese, grated
40g onions, finely chopped
15g fresh yeast
200ml skimmed milk at room temperature, plus extra for dusting
200ml water at room temperature
Olive oil


Preparation:

• Mix in a large bowl the flour, salt, 150g cheese and onions. Make a well in the centre.
  
• In a small bowl, cream the yeast and the milk to a smooth liquid. Stir in the water, then pour into the well in the flour. Gradually work the flour into the liquid to make a soft but not sticky dough.
  
• Turn out the dough on to a floured work surface and knead for 10 minutes until it feels smooth and elastic.
  
• Put the dough into a lightly greased bowl (with the olive oil), turning it so the entire surface is lightly coated with oil.
  
• Cover with a damp tea towel and let rise until doubled size (it will take between 1'5 - 2 hours).
  
• Turn dough out onto a floured work surface and knead for a few seconds. Divide the dough into 12 equals parts and pat into ovals about 11x8x3 cm. Arrange well apart on two oven trays covered with baking parchment. Brush with milk, then sprinkle with remaining cheese.
  
• Let rise until doubled in size (about 30 minutes).
  
• Press a thumb into the middle of each bap, then bake in a preheated oven at 200ºC for 15 minutes until golden. Remove from the oven an transfer to wire rack to cool.
  

Comments:

Original recipe added 1 teaspoon mustard powder to the flour. As I don't like mustad, I didn't try it...

Fudgy nut cake

Versión Española

I must admit that this cake requires a bit of skill (or at least, patience), basically in the process of beating the eggs. So it is not recommended for those of you who are starting in the world of the kitchen or for those without patience, as it takes some time to prepare the dough (it took me about an hour since I started until I put the cake in the oven).

I am quite critical with the things I bake but this is an exception: this cake is UNBELIEVABLE! Really, I could eat the whole cake by myself! It's one of the best entries of this blog (of course, for chocolate-lovers!).

Before we start:

• Difficulty: medium
  
• Preparation time: 45 min + cooling time
  
• Cooking time: 35 min
  
• Cost: cheap
• Origin: International
  
• Recipe obtained from: Baking bible

Ingredients (makes 12 small portions):

350g plain chocolate, chopped
175g butter, diced
55g cocoa powder, sifted (plus extra for dusting, if desired)
5 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla essence
210g golden caster sugar
100g mixed nuts, roughly chopped (macadamias, walnuts, almonds, hazelnuts...)
Icing sugar, for dusting


Preparation:

• Melt the chocolate and the butter in a heatproof bowl set over a pan of streaming water (not boiling), stirring frequently. Remove the bowl from heat, stir in the cocoa powder and let cool.
  
• Meanwhile, put the eggs, vanilla essence and sugar in large heatproof bowl and whisk briefly until frothy. Set the bowl over a pan of streaming water (the water should not touch the base of the bowl). Using an electric whisker, whisk the mixture until it is very pale and thick (when the whisk is lifted, it should leave a visible ribbon-like trail).
  
• Remove the bowl from the heat, and whisk for a couple of minutes so the mixture cools.
  
• Using a large metal spoon, carefully fold in the cooled chocolate mixture, followed by nuts, until thoroughly combined.
• Spoon the mixture into prepared springform of 22 cm diameter, covered with baking parchment or greased. Smooth the surface.
  
• Bake in a preheated oven at 180ºC for about 35 minutes or until firm to the touch but moist inside. Do not overcook or the cake will be dry and hard to slice.
  
• Remove from the oven and let cool in the pan.
  
• Unclip the pan, turn out the cake and serve, dusted with icing sugar and cocoa.
  

Comments:

Original recipe is made with 250g sugar. After having tested some of the recipes of the book used, I've come to the conclusion that they tend to make things too sweet (at least, for me) so I always reduce the amount of sugar.

To beat the eggs, I've used a medium-size pan and a big bowl, so that the bowl can be held by the pan's border without touching the water. I suspended the bowl over the pan (to allow steam leave the pan), but sometimes I could rest my arms resting the bowl on the pan. It takes some time to achieve the required texture. Final dough should double the volume of initial dough.

According to the book, this cake can be stored in an airtight container for one week. It is not suitable for freezing.

Almond strawberry-jam cookies

Versión Española

I must admit that, the look of the cookies I obtained, was not the one I had expected. The recipe comes from the book "Home baked" (I recommend this book, not only for the recipes it includes, but for the the pictures it contains, that makes you want to enter the book to be able to taste any of the delights included in there...). Well, in that book, these cookies are really cute: round, with the jam nicely placed in the center... In my case, probably because I smashed them too much while doing the hole in the center, jam ended up spread through the surface of the cookie (instead of remaining in the hole) and they are not as nice as they should. Despite of this, they are very tasty, perfect for breakfast or an afternoon coffee...

Before we start:

• Difficulty: easy
  
• Preparation time: 35 min
• Cooking time: 25 minutes per tray (I used 2 trays) + cooling time
  
• Cost: cheap
• Origin: International
  
• Recipe obtained from: Home baked, "Almond jam cookies"

Ingredients (makes 30):

185 butter, chopped
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
165g caster sugar
2 egg yolks
60g almond meal
225g plain flour
Half teaspoon baking powder
2 teaspoons grated lemon rind
4 tablespoons raspberry jam (approximately)


Preparation:

• Beat butter, extract, sugar and egg yolks in medium bowl with electric mixer, until just combined.
  
• Stir in almond meal, flour and baking powder and mix well.
  
• Roll level tablespoons of mixture into balls and place them about 5cm apart on oven trays covered with baking paper (at least 2 trays will be required).
  
• Using the handle of a wooden spoon (lightly floured), press a hollow in the center of each ball, about 1cm deep and 1,5cm wide. Don't make holes to big, or jam will spread!
  
• Mix jam with rind and spoon carefully the mixture into the cookies.
  
• Bake in pre-heated oven at 170ºC for about 25 minutes or until cookies are browned lightly. Cool on trays.
  

Comments:

In the original recipe, half of the cookies were filled in with apricot jam and the other half with strawberry jam. I made them all with strawberry jam, as I had a jar in the fridge and I wanted to finish it. So, feel free to use other kinds of jam but do not forget the lemond rind. It gives an incredible taste...

I used the egg whites to make some coquitos, as they are not required in the recipe. They are very easy to make and, this way, we do not throw away anything!

These pictures show how these cookies must not be made, as the hole is too big and I put too much jam in it!

Mixed berry muffins

Versión Española

I made these muffins a Friday evening, to eat them for breakfast on Saturday. What a nice pleasure: staying in bed until late, going to the kitchen to prepare a hot chocolate and remembering that there are some muffins waiting for you on the table... Mmmm!

These kind of muffins are not very typical in Spain (at least, not before Starbucks and Mc Donalds appeared in the Iberian Peninsula) but they are really known in other European countries and in the States. They are easy to prepare and are ready to eat in a couple of hours. Great!

Before we start:

• Difficulty: easy
  
• Preparation time: 10 min
• Cooking time: 30 min plus cooling time
  
• Cost: cheap
• Origin: International
  
• Recipe obtained from: Home baked

Ingredients (makes 12 medium-size muffins):

335g flour
3 teaspoons baking powder
220g caster sugar
2 eggs, beaten lightly
100g butter, melted
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
250ml milk
1 teaspoon grated lemon rind
200g mixed berries (fresh or frozen)


Preparation:

• Put muffin papers in a 12-hole-muffin tray.
• Sift flour and raising powder into large bowl. Add sugar, eggs, vanilla extract, butter, milk and lemon rind. Mix until just combined.
  
• Add berries carefully (otherwise they will be smashed and give a lilac colour to the dough!).
  
• Divide muffin mixture among the holes of the tray.
  
• Bake muffins in a pre-heated oven at 200ºC for 30 minutes.
  
• Stand muffins in tray for a few minutes before turning onto wire rack.
  

Comments:

I used a frozen mixture of berries and added them still frozen to the dough (no problem!). My mixture had blackberries, wild strawberries (mini), raspberries, cranberries and redcurrants. Any mixture of berries can be used! Next time I'll try with fresh fruits...

I left apart some of the berries and put some of them on top of each muffins before baking them, to make them look nicer :)

If somebody decides to use this recipe, I recommend to try some uncooked dough. It may not be very healthy, but it is delicious!

Choc brownie muffins (english)

Versión Española

Again: chocolate, chocolate, chocolate! Thanks to Aida that brings to this blog healthy recipes. If it was for me, this blog should be called "With the hands in the chocolate"! I can't avoid it...

I had already included some other recipes of chocolate muffins in this blog. This one is different from the others because not very usual ingredients are used (Nutella, sour cream...) and because I added a mix of different nuts to the dough (the original recipe includes pistachios instead). They are really tasty, soft and not too sweet!

Before we start:

• Difficulty: easy
  
• Preparation time: 15 min
• Cooking time: 20 min
  
• Cost: cheap
• Origin: International
  
• Recipe obtained from: Home baked

Ingredients (makes 12):

300g of flour
4 teaspoons raising powder
35g cocoa powder + extra for dusting (optional)
75g caster sugar
60g butter
100g chocolate bits
75g nuts mix, chopped coarsely (nuts, hazelnuts, pistachios, pine nuts...)
165g Nutella
1 egg, beaten lightly
180ml milk
120g sour cream


Preparation:

• Melt butter in a saucepan or in the microwave.
  
• Sift flour, raising powder, cocoa powder, chocolate bits and nuts into large bowl.
  
• Add melted butter, Nutella, egg, milk and sour cream. Stir well.
  
• Cover with muffin paper a 12-hole muffin pan.
  
• Divide mixture among holes.
  
• Bake muffins for 20 minutes in a pre-heated oven at 200ºC. Take care not to overcook the muffins, they should be slightly moist in the middle.
• Stand muffins in pan for a few minutes before turning onto wire rack.
  
• Take care not to overcook the muffins, they should be slightly moist in the middle.
• Dust with sifted extra cocoa, if desired.
  

Comments:

As said, the original recipe was with pistachios. I used a nut mix because I had lots of nuts at home and I had to used them, but I am sure that with pistachios must be delicious!

Chocolate sandwiches

Versión Española

Chocolate-chocolate-chocolate! That's the easiest description of these cookies: mini-sandwiches made of chocolate biscuits with chocolate cream. A special recipy for chocolate lovers: they are simply de-li-cious!

I've made this recipe a couple of times, always with the same success. It's true that it takes a couple of hours to make them (first preparing the dough, refrigerating it, then baking them, preparing the filling, filling the cookies...) but every minute spent baking them is worth. These cookies are cute and very very tasty. I'd say that, inside a nice box, they would make a perfect present for an special friend...

Before we start:

• Difficulty: medium
  
• Preparation time: 25 min + 30 min (refrigeration)
  
• Cooking time: 10 minutes per tray (I used 3 trays)
  
• Cost: cheap
• Origin: International
  
• Recipe obtained from: Home baked, "Choc-hazelnut cookie sandwiches"

Ingredients (makes 30):

80g butter, chopped
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
55g caster sugar
1 egg
50g hazelnut meal
110g plain flour
25g cocoa powder
Icing sugar and/or cocoa powder for dusting (optional)

Filling:
100g dark eating chocolate
50g butter
110g Nutella


Preparation:

• Beat butter, extract, sugar and egg in a small bowl with electric mixer until light and fluffy.
  
• Stir in hazelnut meal, sifted flour and cocoa powder.
  
• Wrap dough in plastic wrap and refrigerate for about 1 hour or until firm.
  
• Roll dough until 3mm thick. This is easily done if placing the dough between sheets of baking paper.
  
• Using 4cm-fluted cutter, cut rounds from dough.
• Re-roll dough as many times as necessary to use it all.
  
• Place rounds on trays covered with baking paper.
  
• Bake in pre-heated oven at 180-190ºC for 8 minutes.
  
• Stand biscuits on trays 5 minutes, then transfer to wire rack to cool.
  
• Prepare the filling: melt the chocolate and let it cool; beat cooled chocolate, butter and Nutella in a small bowl with electric mixer until thick and glossy.
  
• Spoon filling into piping bag fitted with large fluted tube. Pipe cream onto one biscuit, then close the sandwich with another biscuit. Repeat with remaining biscuits and cream. Do not be afraid of piping too much filling, there is enough for all the cookies.
  
• Sandwiches can be dusted with icing sugar or cocoa powder if desired.
• Let the filling get thick before serving.
  

Comments:

First time I made these cookies I used almond meal instead of hazelnut meal (because I realised too late that I didn't have any hazelnut meal at home).They are not bad, but they are better with hazelnut!

If you don't know how to use a piping bag, fill the sandwiches with a spoon. They will be as cute, but they will be as tasty!

According to the book, biscuits can be stored in an airtight container for up to three days.