Biscuits!

These biscuits are really good! They crumble in your mouth and they're soooo unhealthy! :-P Love them!

White chocolate and cardamom biscuits

125 g butter (softened)
25 g caster sugar
125 g plain flour
60 g cornflour
3 cardamom pods
25 g white chocolate chips
1 tsp orange flower water
50 g white chocolate

Mix the butter and sugar and beat until pale and fluffy. Add the sifted flours (both plain and cornflour) to the butter and sugar and mix until well combined and smooth.

Get the small seeds from the cardamom pods (discarding the husks) and crush them to a fine powder. Add the cardamom, chocolate chips and orange flower water to the butter/flour mix and combine well.

Place the dough in a piece of cling film and form a sausage (size is up to you!).

Leave the "sausage" in the fridge for at least an hour.

Slice the dough into pieces of around 1 cm thick. Place in a baking sheet and bake for 25 minutes. Move to a wire rack to let them cool down.

Once the biscuits are cold, melt the rest of the white chocolate and decorate the biscuits.

Haddock with a bit of spice!

I bought a jar of "mojo verde picante" for Christmas this year and I didn't really know what to do with it (there's a limit on how many potatoes with mojo you feel like eating!) so I found a recipe online for haddock with mojo verde and sort of adapted it... I'm not going to write a proper recipe for it, but I'm adding it to the blog because it's quite nice and a bit different.

Basically you boil some potatoes. Then you mix them with the mojo (up to you how much, depends on your taste for hot food!), mash it and form pancakes. Then fry the pancakes in a pan until they get a bit golden. Then fry the haddock fillet in a bit of oil. And that's it! Pancake on bottom, haddock on top and a bit of mojo to decorate.

Nutella and hazelnut biscuits

I've taken this recipe from the Ma Petite Boulangerie blog... She has the most amazing recipes!!!

I'm back!

After a bit of a break to have a baby :-), I'm back baking! The truth is that I've baked quite a few things since last post, but time is a bit more precious these days to spending updating the blog... I've now been threatened with losing one of my five(!) followers so here we go...

Sundried tomatoes and rosemary loaf

Very tasty bread, and surprisingly, quite spongy and soft. We had it with fresh mozzarella, rocket salad and sundried tomatoes :-) Yummy!

1 tsp fast action yeast
350 g strong white flour
150 g malted flour
1 tsp salt
55 g chopped sundried tomatoes in oil (drained)
2 tbsp tomato oil (from the sundried tomatoes jar)
1 tbps fresh rosemary (chopped)
320 ml water

As usual, I prepare the dough in the breadmaker (white basic - dough setting). Once is finished, take it out and shape it into a round loaf (or any other shape if you prefer). I leave it to prove for 40 minutes and then bake it at 200C (top and bottom oven) for 40 minutes. Then leave it to cool down on a wire rack.

Croissants!

This is my second attempt at making croissants (from scratch, not buying the pastry!) and they are so gooooood!!!

I won't be writing the recipe for the moment, as it is long and a bit complicated, unless someone wants to try!

I think I deserve a prize for making this by following a recipe in Danish (without previous translation), forgetting to add egg and mis-translating fridge for kitchen top :-)

Chocolate muffins - a classic

I have to admit that these are not my favourite muffins, but it was the only recipe for which I had all the ingredients at home :-)
They're still nice and so easy to make, and there are probably very few people in the world who don't like chocolate muffins!

Choco muffins

255 g plain flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
1/2 tsp salt
150 g white granulated sugar
4 tbsp cocoa powder (unsweetened)
1 egg
250 ml milk
1 tsp vanilla essence
90 ml sunflower oil

Sift in a bowl the flower, baking powder, bicarbonate of soda, sugar and cocoa poder.
In another bowl, beat egg and add milk, vanilla and oil.
Pour the wet mix into the flour mix. Stir all together just until combined (it shouldn't be overstirred!).
Fill 12 muffin cups. Bake in the oven for 23 minutes at 185C. I use the fan oven for baking muffins, if you have the top and bottom oven you'll need to increase the temperature 10-15C.

Laura's yummy cheesecake

After a very long break from cooking I'm back :-)...

Last weekend I tried again another of my sister's great recipes, the incredibly versatile cheesecake :-) She claims you can pretty much use anything you have at home, soft cheese, ricotta, yogurts, sour cream and it will still be delicious...

I'll write the ingredients I've used this time, but I'll try it again with variations.

Laura's cheesecake

For the base:
50 g melted butter
4 digestive biscuits
2 tbsp rolled oats
1 tbsp sugar

For the mix:
250 g ricotta
250 g philadelphia
50 g white sugar
2 eggs
zest of 1 lemon
1 tbsp white flour


Crush the biscuits (I use the blender/mixer) and mix them with the melted butter. Add the oats and the sugar.
Grease an oven cake tin (better spring form or the ones that open) with a bit of butter and cover the base with baking paper. Press the biscuits mixture into the base of the tin with the back of a spoon and put in the fridge for about 15 minutes.

Mix the ricotta and the philadelphia with the sugar with electric beaters until it's smooth. Add the eggs, lemon and the flour and mix together.

Pour in the tin and bake for 30 minutes at 180C.

When it's finished, let it cool down out of the oven. Then leave it overnight in the fridge and spread jam (pretty much any jam will do) on the top before serving.