Living the Life

One of the blogs that I enjoy a lot is Bakerella , I discovered her site a long time ago when I was looking into red velvet cake, she had a recipe on her blog for Red Velvet Cake Balls which looked so different that I added her to my rss reader and follow her posts all the time. One of those posts was a recipe for Oreo Truffles, which uses ingredients that are a little more over the counter here in Holland. except for the white chocolate bark that my friend in the US sent to me, thanks K.!!! I made only half a recipe, with all the TWD recipes and good food aound here, 36 Oreo Truffles isn't a thing I want to have in the fridge, calling my name every time I open the door :-) The recipe is fairly easy, the tricky thing is to get a nice coating of bark on the balls, which I got the hang of in the end. The truffles are very rich, I might make them smaller next time, I would also experiment a bit with them, like adding a splash of Cointreau orange liquor to the oreo/creamcheese mixture...

Another Tuesday another recipe for Tuesdays with Dorie, this week selected by Leigh of Lemon Tartlet . She choose the Gooey Chocolate Cakes and what a good choice it was, we all loved them here! They were very simple to make, I also made the creme anglaise to go with it. The cakes and the creme anglaise complement each other nicely, as Dorie says, these cakes aren't meant to be served alone. As a lot of other members of the TWD group, I didn't have any chocolate oozing out, but it was close, they were very , very gooey. Ingredients: 1/3 cup all-purpose flour 3 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder 1/4 teaspoon salt 5 ounces bittersweet chocolate, 4 ounces coarsely chopped, 1 ounce very finely chopped 1 stick (8 tablespoons) unsalted butter, cut into 8 pieces 2 large eggs, at room temperature 1 large egg yolk, at room temperature 6 tablespoons sugar Preparations: Getting Ready: Center a rack in the oven and preheat the oven to 400 degrees F. Butter (or spray - it's easier) 6...

The newspaper said that it will be the coldest Easter in 40 years and when I looked out of my window this afternoon, I saw snow! So no spring dish this time, but hot chocolate and not your regular one! Oh no, one made from scratch! Last year on our trip through Mexico I picked up a bag of cocoa beans in Oaxaca, so I could show my niece what chocolate is made of. But what do you with it after that? So they ended up in the back of the pantry. Then last week I ran across a post on the Last Crumb blog where Rose made a chocolate bar from cocoa beans. I knew right away what to do with my cocoa beans! Make hot chocolate with them just like I had at the 20 de Noviembre market in Oaxaca. At that market you can buy bars of chocolate that are used to make the famous Mexican hot chocolate, but there are also places where you can have them grind up your own favorite blend of cocoa, canela (real cinnamon), sugar etc. A lot of the vendors inside the market sell their own blend, and it doesn't ...

I love desserts and I have a couple of favourites, creme brulee, flan and chocolate mousse. When I'm in a restaurant it's always hard to make a choice if two or more are on the menu. I've made both creme brulee and flan before, but never chocolate mousse which is probably the easiest of the three. Recently I bought a 2.5 kilo bag (over 5 lbs.) of good quality dark chocolate chips at the wholesale so I have plenty of chocolate to experiment with. That's why I decided to try a chocolate mousse recipe by Gretchen Siegchrist that I found on about.com a while ago. This recipe produced a very nice mousse, not too light and fluffy. Might be nice with some grated orange peel and a dash of cointreau also, but that will be another time! Ingredients: 1 1/2 cups heavy cream 5 ounces semi-sweet chocolate, finely chopped 1 teaspoon vanilla extract 1/8 teaspoon salt 3 tablespoons sugar Preparation: Pour 1/3 cup of cream into a small saucepan. Heat the cream over high heat until it j...

My sister in law asked when I was making my chocolate chip cookies again. She really likes them and she's not the only one. I love the texture of these cookies, a little crunchy on the outside and nice and chewy in the middle. They are great with a nice glass of milk or a cup of coffee. Ingredients: 1 2/3 cups of flour 3/4 teaspoon baking powder 1/2 teaspoon salt 3/4 cup butter, roomtemperature 3/4 cup packed brown sugar 1/3 cup white sugar 1 egg 1 teaspoon vanilla extract 2 cups milk chocolate chips Preparation: Preheat your oven to 350 F. Sift together the flour, baking powder and salt. Cream the butter with the brown and white sugar until smooth. Beat in the egg and vanilla extract. Gradually mix in the sifted ingredients. Sir in the chocolate chips. Drop heaped tablespoons of batter on a sheet pan lined with parchment or a silicon baking mat, leave space around the heaps, they will flatten and get way bigger! Bake the cookies for 8 to 10 minutes, Let the cookies cool for 5 minu...

Looks like this is "Death by Chocolate" week here :-) Last Friday I made the snickery squares, this time it's Sacherbrownies, both heavy on the chocolate and very rich, but oh, so delicious! I found this recipe while surfing the net on Jessica's Brownie or Die weblog. The moment I saw it I knew it could be a winner. I love Sacher-Torte, I've been to Sacher a couple of times for their speciality and I knew this would be the first thing to make when I got my 8x8 inch square brownie pan, which by the way isn't so easy on this side of the pond. This was the first time ever I made brownies and they came together like a breeze! My team of trusty tasters all liked it a lot! But all agreed, a little goes a long way! I added half a jar of apricot preserves, maybe if I add more it will cut a bit more through the richness of the chocolate. Ingredients: Brownies: 2 oz. (56 grams) unsweetened chocolate, chopped 4 tbs. (57 grams) unsalted butter 1 c. sugar 1 tsp. vanilla...

This is my first Tuesday with Dorie bake. This weeks recipe, Snickery Squares, was choosen by Erin of Dinner & Dessert and can be found on page 120-122 of Dorie Greenspan's Baking: From My House To Yours. Ingredients For the Crust 1 cup all-purpose flour ¼ cup sugar 2 tablespoons confectioners’ sugar ¼ teaspoon salt 1 stick (113 grams) unsalted butter, cut into small pieces and chilled 1 large egg yolk, lightly beaten For the filling 1/3 cup sugar 3 tablespoons water 1 ½ cups salted peanuts about 1 ½ cups store-bought dulce de leche (*) For the topping 7 ounces (200 grams) bittersweet chocolate, coarsely chopped ½ stick (57 grams) unsalted butter, cut into 8 pieces, at room temperature Preparation Getting Ready: Center a rack in the oven and preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Butter an 8-inch square pan and put it on a baking sheet. To make the crust: Toss the flour, sugar, confectioners’ sugar and salt into a food processor and pulse a few times to combine. Toss in the piece...

While surfing the net I found this recipe on Vicious Ange's blog, I'm crazy about chocolate and decided to give it a try. Our local supermarket discontinued Oreo cookies and I couldn't find any reasonable alternative so I made the pie crust from scratch. I don't have 8 cm tart pans so I used 4 12 cm ones. You can only eat half :-) As Ange states on her blog the filling is way too much for the tarts, we used it the next day over pineapple slices and topped with some whipped cream! Here's my version of the recipe: crust: 225 grams flour 2 tablespoons cocoa powder 150 grams unsalted butter 2 tablespoons sugar 2 tablespoons cold water filling: 300 ml whipping cream 1 teaspoon vanilla extract 250 grams dark (over 70%) chocolate, roughly chopped 300 grams raspberries 1 tablespoon icing sugar cocoa powder to dust the tarts Making the crust: Preheat your oven at 190 C. First sift the flour and cocoa, cut in the butter and add enough water to make a smooth dough. Let the do...