tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2251501631435737922023-11-16T17:37:47.948+01:00of Cookies & Cakes(...and all esle she bakes)Korlinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11695102510616415431noreply@blogger.comBlogger12125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-225150163143573792.post-30917654313251222652012-12-21T16:21:00.000+01:002012-12-21T16:32:51.737+01:00Brown butter cupcakes & caramel-apple topping<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_PpOKaDJ7E56LvXlK1Iys2EYzbjk3fK4C7zLGwB-XEo49Rr33zpb27RVqP7n1fSfHI_OReDbO9gKlre5IdU-hIUMlznNWfwyb5D6UPNnoKafinmLJLekBVue3heqmyxUYVMuDOIlDjw/s1600/cupcakes.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_PpOKaDJ7E56LvXlK1Iys2EYzbjk3fK4C7zLGwB-XEo49Rr33zpb27RVqP7n1fSfHI_OReDbO9gKlre5IdU-hIUMlznNWfwyb5D6UPNnoKafinmLJLekBVue3heqmyxUYVMuDOIlDjw/s400/cupcakes.png" width="300" /></a></div>
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
This is another one of my go-to cupcake recipes: brown butter cupcakes. The batter is so extremely delicious that I have to be careful not to eat half the batter before I manage to fill it into cupcake liners. The dough may actually be a tiny tad more delicious than the actual cupcakes... which are amazing, too, though.<br />
<br />
They are the perfect canvas for any kind of frosting - they don't overshadow extravagant frostings but are so yummy on their own that a simple vanilla or chocolate frosting would totally suffice.<br />
<br />
The cupcakes taste a bit of vanilla and caramel, which is why I like to pair them with a caramelised apple topping.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<a name='more'></a><br />
<br />
The recipe for the brown butter cupcakes is from one of my favourite cupcake blogs, <a href="http://www.cupcakeproject.com/2011/08/brown-butter-cupcakes-if-youve-ever.html" target="_blank">The Cupcake Project</a>. They're relatively easy to make and so far, people have loved them (either that or I have been lied to).<br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">
<b><span style="color: #8a3258;"><span style="font-size: 1.2em;">All you'll need for the cupcakes (minus the icing) is this:</span></span></b></span><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi6st4RyGxE4uXQS6J_4tMvZgAMjTYLzKQUV-5dZwLBoglG7ZpHs1ktwcC3D4FQLkdk9L6plWHd4AIQUSNm2YgENa9s-sFB_HuUv73nP6LmdzRsMs0AXTDH_aC3NDwB_HuOGusEwIP9tQ/s1600/Zutaten.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi6st4RyGxE4uXQS6J_4tMvZgAMjTYLzKQUV-5dZwLBoglG7ZpHs1ktwcC3D4FQLkdk9L6plWHd4AIQUSNm2YgENa9s-sFB_HuUv73nP6LmdzRsMs0AXTDH_aC3NDwB_HuOGusEwIP9tQ/s640/Zutaten.png" width="512" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"></span><br />
<ul><span style="font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">
<li>1/2 cup/113 g butter, unsalted (doesn't even have to be room temperature!)</li>
<li>1 1/2 cups/150 g of cake flour, not self-rising (I don't own cake flour and I don't think it's a thing here in Germany. So I always follow the tip I found on <a href="http://www.whisk-kid.com/p/baking-tips.html" target="_blank">Whisk Kid</a>: just take out 2 tablespoons of flour for every cup of flour and replace it with 2 tablespoons of cornflour)</li>
<li>1 teaspoon of baking powder</li>
<li>1/2 teaspoon of baking soda (bicarbonate of soda)</li>
<li>1/4 teaspoon salt</li>
<li>2 egg whites</li>
<li>1 cup/225 g of sugar</li>
<li>1 packet/10 g of vanilla sugar</li>
<li>1/2 cup whole milk</li>
</span></ul>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif;">
</span>
<br />
<div style="font-size: 13px;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif;">Now. Where does the "brown butter" come in? Right now. </span></div>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif;">
</span>
<br />
<div style="font-size: 13px;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">
<b>1.</b> Take the butter and melt it in a pan over medium heat. You will have to heat the butter for quite a while, about 10-15 minutes after it has melted completely. Stir occasionally so it doesn't actually burn - the goal is to merely brown the butter, not burn it. It's a bit hard to tell the colour of the butter while it boils so you can tell best whether it's done by the look of the bubbles. At first the bubbles are big but what you want is for the butter to form foam-like small bubbles - then it's done. This is the progress of your butter, from top left to bottom right:</div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjMXl03WlYsswXesuhphoZDXibp3lAQigfE3AWMGP-YJi9Ny_U62CdlQgmjc8Knwy_H-U3J6pQq4ablFb3SoCdu8NUEJVbC61NoqPJ-n8OeUkFbV7-HceyGwo7rvi0tmY3CARZB1NY7Hg/s1600/IMG_1683.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjMXl03WlYsswXesuhphoZDXibp3lAQigfE3AWMGP-YJi9Ny_U62CdlQgmjc8Knwy_H-U3J6pQq4ablFb3SoCdu8NUEJVbC61NoqPJ-n8OeUkFbV7-HceyGwo7rvi0tmY3CARZB1NY7Hg/s640/IMG_1683.JPG" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Browning butter.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div style="font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">
<b>2.</b> Take the butter off the heat and let it cool down. Not so much that it gets firm again, just from "freakin hot" to "slightly warm".</div>
<div style="font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">
<b>3.</b> In the meantime, sift together flour, cornflour, baking powder, baking soda and salt (not in your main mixing bowl).</div>
<div style="font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">
<b>4. </b>With an electric mixer, beat your egg whites until they are frothy.</div>
<div style="font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">
<b>5. </b>While still beating the egg whites, slowly add the sugar in a steady drizzle.</div>
<div style="font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">
<br /></div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj7qL_lWM69dFF90axvwlcGvwGJbaQ5S_iZRJiqFh4HCXUPN8UFncDV7a_HfMpshPcdrFnWuZr8VikDcyFteduku68MjiR7UAhT33NulELDLwpFViVASbn3zwI3vS8snZfapwsPHVj3rw/s1600/IMG_1737.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj7qL_lWM69dFF90axvwlcGvwGJbaQ5S_iZRJiqFh4HCXUPN8UFncDV7a_HfMpshPcdrFnWuZr8VikDcyFteduku68MjiR7UAhT33NulELDLwpFViVASbn3zwI3vS8snZfapwsPHVj3rw/s640/IMG_1737.JPG" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Left: light and frothy egg white. <br />
Middle: slowly adding the sugar. <br />
Right: consistency after the sugar has been added.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div style="font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">
<b>6. </b>In a steady stream, add the brown butter while still beating the dough on medium-low.</div>
<div style="font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">
<b>7.</b> Alternating with the milk, mix in the flour mixture.</div>
<div style="font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">
<br /></div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-fW0n1VNtj0dvgtfFW1Asr7BPXJbvcZzHS6R3Jzk4J2r6J5r3Seex-p0Hj2hFDlJXMnzwQ00vmi4fVJzdCZgjA6Bg7ha7LkcdM4LKf3mv_RgBRORfHgeI8zbouGnV6yl_EjxtzfaajA/s1600/IMG_1738.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-fW0n1VNtj0dvgtfFW1Asr7BPXJbvcZzHS6R3Jzk4J2r6J5r3Seex-p0Hj2hFDlJXMnzwQ00vmi4fVJzdCZgjA6Bg7ha7LkcdM4LKf3mv_RgBRORfHgeI8zbouGnV6yl_EjxtzfaajA/s400/IMG_1738.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The finished batter.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div style="font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">
<b>8.</b> Fill the cupcake liners about three quarters full.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiWf_Mgk_faev55Gdp7ibuLNj1Db-2-8BCcfo-zWYgPHeACilfSkq2HULM6L-VanVW2irKE1wvx1CEayA85wZhb0aBMGNDuYUSEJE7gAyuTHiK4yZcEodotmN7WV0YPgq6h7MdzPmucyQ/s1600/IMG_1739.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiWf_Mgk_faev55Gdp7ibuLNj1Db-2-8BCcfo-zWYgPHeACilfSkq2HULM6L-VanVW2irKE1wvx1CEayA85wZhb0aBMGNDuYUSEJE7gAyuTHiK4yZcEodotmN7WV0YPgq6h7MdzPmucyQ/s320/IMG_1739.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">
<b>9.</b> Bake at 180 °C/350 F for about 20 minutes.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhuTN7wNnkaM1LibpPOq-XmaS3sIf__rhJbt_tLnN8SD9fcxlX4c0SjKw2sGGDAKpu3AqBN7UVaiSlc9kWWTAWIQq-6lrxXK_Uy6ZAm-eMzZWFFv2CVrp8jMZ_LpDHGO7OVgkox2LwAFQ/s1600/finished+cupcakes.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhuTN7wNnkaM1LibpPOq-XmaS3sIf__rhJbt_tLnN8SD9fcxlX4c0SjKw2sGGDAKpu3AqBN7UVaiSlc9kWWTAWIQq-6lrxXK_Uy6ZAm-eMzZWFFv2CVrp8jMZ_LpDHGO7OVgkox2LwAFQ/s320/finished+cupcakes.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">
The consistency of the finished cupcakes is nice and fluffy:</div>
<div style="font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh54iuZ5EmwIw-rRbFTjMv5hrRAoa1QmWQIlMC9AiZg5tH2ti8EzooMqLjCm0592pbK_HaVWlnAsxX9pdagl5HrsnmVYkJDqJEHAb6R18qAB4-YW3dHWZW3PxQXOqIgh852y-VFtaSWNg/s1600/IMG_1740.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh54iuZ5EmwIw-rRbFTjMv5hrRAoa1QmWQIlMC9AiZg5tH2ti8EzooMqLjCm0592pbK_HaVWlnAsxX9pdagl5HrsnmVYkJDqJEHAb6R18qAB4-YW3dHWZW3PxQXOqIgh852y-VFtaSWNg/s320/IMG_1740.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>
<div style="font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">
<br /></div>
<div>
<div style="font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">
<b><span style="color: #8a3258;"><span style="font-size: 1.2em;">Extra tipp:</span></span></b></span> Usually when I make those, I fold in minced caramelised almonds. I would've done it this time, too, but ran out of time. It's a crowd-pleaser, believe me. Just cut up almonds (or just buy almond slivers), brown them slightly in a frying pan, carefully add sugar and caramelised them. With the help of a spatula, spread them on a baking sheet to cool down (careful, melted sugar is HOT and the worst thing you can do to a ceramic glass cooktop). If necessary, break them apart into small pieces once they've cooled down (cos mine always stick together). Fold them into the dough as a last step before filling the batter into the cupcake liners.</div>
<div style="font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">
<b><span style="color: #8a3258;"><span style="font-size: 1.2em;">Caramelised apple topping:</span></span></b></span></div>
<div style="font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">
<br /></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">Sadly, without pictures. But it's dead easy. Just slice an apple rather thinly and fry it with a bit of butter and quite a bit of sugar in a frying pan for a bit. Turn the slices so they don't burn. Once they look caramel-coloured, take them off the heat and let them cool for a bit. Turn the whole thing (apple slices and whatever juices have formed) into a mush with the help of a food processor. If you can be bothered, put the mush into a pan and over medium-high heat, try and reduce the mush while constantly stirring it (the less water i has, the moe you can mix into </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">your frosting without the frosting getting too thin).</span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Now whip up a basic cream cheese frosting:</span></div>
<br />
<ul>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">1/2 cup/1 stick/113 g of butter, room temperature</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">220 g of cream cheese</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">vanilla extract if desired</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">3-4 cups of powdered sugar (have more on hand to adjust the stiffness once the apple sauce is added)</span></li>
</ul>
<br />
<div>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Add the apple sauce, a table spoon at a time until you're satisfied with the taste and consistency - you may have to add another couple of cups of confectioners' sugar. It won't easily be brought to piping consistency without having the apple flavour diluted too much, so better aim for a spreading consistency.</span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Spread the frosting on the cupcakes - voilà. There you go, an autumnal, wintery cupcake.</span></div>
<div style="font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif;">
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgCVDGTrgXqNsCSYNZbxpeRtQhH_W6saxgyHZiFkAYq6jROAnffCXtccw6GLfhHzS3Y7DdmQJupZ5ugNDJFpudZxT9f5Sw0bbdW08xvMtcBjA10TDBouTo5B0-BkNx2rIThuPaPJ_S5rw/s1600/signature+smallest.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="78" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgCVDGTrgXqNsCSYNZbxpeRtQhH_W6saxgyHZiFkAYq6jROAnffCXtccw6GLfhHzS3Y7DdmQJupZ5ugNDJFpudZxT9f5Sw0bbdW08xvMtcBjA10TDBouTo5B0-BkNx2rIThuPaPJ_S5rw/s200/signature+smallest.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>
<div style="font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif;">
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></div>
</div>
Korlinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11695102510616415431noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-225150163143573792.post-19520034846633270272012-12-13T12:07:00.000+01:002012-12-13T12:14:19.698+01:00Icebox biscuits: lemon and chocolate<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Advent season = biscuit season! </span></div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEilPuKL3WwKICyPJlk2MK3kMXF6b7ir0AuJInrFqD54B85QUhELkYktOJgHGGa4XVo2iXlC851SCn6QaDGWafQJN8uu7OSzpWm-IqxazdSRHiZWRA1Wj-eHE66BkiXRESJD4BRHjMHjsg/s1600/IMG_1727.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEilPuKL3WwKICyPJlk2MK3kMXF6b7ir0AuJInrFqD54B85QUhELkYktOJgHGGa4XVo2iXlC851SCn6QaDGWafQJN8uu7OSzpWm-IqxazdSRHiZWRA1Wj-eHE66BkiXRESJD4BRHjMHjsg/s400/IMG_1727.JPG" width="400" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Chocolate icebox biscuits.</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">The great thing about icebox biscuits is that you can prepare the dough well in advance and have it in the freezer for up to one month. Prepare the dough at the beginning of December and should you find yourself in a buscuits-needing emergency - tadaa! Just whip out the dough, cut the frozen dough in slices (that is if you're really short on time - if you have another hour you could also defrost the dough and cut out shapes with cookie cutters) and put them into the oven for 10ish minutes. There you go. Freshly baked biscuits in less than 20 minutes. Having said that, I took some more time with mine to make 'em pretty.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br />
</span><br />
<a name='more'></a><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">I had my flat warming coming up for which I planned a baking extravaganza - but I was short on time. So I needed to bake things I could prepare in advance and just keep in the freezer until needed. Cue ice box biscuits. I prepared the dough for lemon biscuits and chocolate biscuits two weeks before the party and actually baked them one or two days before the party.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br />
The recipes are from Martha Stewart: <a href="http://www.marthastewart.com/315074/lemon-icebox-cookies" target="_blank">lemon icebox cookies</a> and <a href="http://www.marthastewart.com/346411/chocolate-cookie-dough" target="_blank">chocolate cookie dough</a>.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br />
</span><br />
<div>
<b><span style="color: #8a3258;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: 1.2em;">For the lemon biscuits you'll need:</span></span></b></div>
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">
</span>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjDRhtnDxHS_txdx4NZTq-CApwkjHUxgD1Ku4ogKhEZn5VaUOEOx34rOBOuoVO-t11tHX3SjIIO7m8Nd93bp3hxo5Y62EFgOyxZoeyqi6fb212ozYN4cL5e-j4iQK3IxcJ3j0KgqlyLuA/s1600/ingredients+lemon2.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjDRhtnDxHS_txdx4NZTq-CApwkjHUxgD1Ku4ogKhEZn5VaUOEOx34rOBOuoVO-t11tHX3SjIIO7m8Nd93bp3hxo5Y62EFgOyxZoeyqi6fb212ozYN4cL5e-j4iQK3IxcJ3j0KgqlyLuA/s400/ingredients+lemon2.png" width="376" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Ingredients for the lemon icebox cookies/biscuits.</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<ul>
<li><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">2 cup/240 g flour</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">1 cup confectioners' sugar</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">1 teaspoon salt (coarse if you have - if not, make it half a teaspoon)</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">1 tablespoon and 1 teaspoon freshly grated lemon zest (you could also use dried lemon zest, that might even be more flavoursome - I wasn't happy with the intensity of lemon flavour, or rather the lack thereof)</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">1 teaspoon freshly squeezed lemon juice</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">1 cup/2 sticks/226 g butter - unsalted and cut into pieces</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">2 large egg yolks</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">some extra flour for dusting the work space</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">some granulated sugar for rolling the dough in before baking</span></li>
</ul>
<div>
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhwDVTOUoeJPdf7aOj3NZOOirqgKI450W3hN-qwN8YbvjO1Zm3YFv1E_QV9I_8Mkw1uWngvRzNnys1rKkFfilfsMtdawK-0qQrf7lKbX_DujNgSrAs6L5tIdIPBukY6NeY46tY-A4_XAQ/s1600/IMG_1719.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhwDVTOUoeJPdf7aOj3NZOOirqgKI450W3hN-qwN8YbvjO1Zm3YFv1E_QV9I_8Mkw1uWngvRzNnys1rKkFfilfsMtdawK-0qQrf7lKbX_DujNgSrAs6L5tIdIPBukY6NeY46tY-A4_XAQ/s320/IMG_1719.JPG" width="320" /></span></a><br />
<div>
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><b>1.</b> Sift flour, confectioners' sugar and salt into a mixing bowl (Martha Stewart recommends blending these ingredients with the lemon zest in a food processor. Seems like a good idea cos then you won't have the little strands of lemon zest stand out in the dough. However, I don't own a food processor. Yet.)</span></div>
</div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><b><br /></b></span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><b>2. </b>Use an electric mixer to blend with lemon zest and butter pieces. Add the butter one cube at a time. The dough will look kinda sandy.</span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><b><br /></b></span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><b>3. </b>Add egg yolks and lemon juice. Blend all until the dough comes together.</span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div>
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjyZOUKCef5i0EmF0uGp3x77G1RcQuK5xjVdKwpE0ztNCAdugYcK4WGkkrMrYOrmeIHMW-fx1o2anKB8dOtlT0NhCZfwfyYOh2vWZjco0FIANaOC7atPc8jb8QeVM9jUa_682mYoiGeKw/s1600/IMG_1720.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjyZOUKCef5i0EmF0uGp3x77G1RcQuK5xjVdKwpE0ztNCAdugYcK4WGkkrMrYOrmeIHMW-fx1o2anKB8dOtlT0NhCZfwfyYOh2vWZjco0FIANaOC7atPc8jb8QeVM9jUa_682mYoiGeKw/s320/IMG_1720.JPG" width="320" /></span></a><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><b>4.</b> Take the dough out and knead it for a bit. Divide the dough in half and form each portion into a log.</span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><b><br /></b></span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><b>5.</b> Wrap logs in clingfilm.</span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><b><br /></b></span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><b>6.</b> Freeze for at least an hour or up to one month.</span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div>
<b><span style="color: #8a3258;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: 1.2em;"><br /></span></span></b>
<b><span style="color: #8a3258;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: 1.2em;"><br /></span></span></b>
<b><span style="color: #8a3258;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: 1.2em;"><br /></span></span></b>
<b><span style="color: #8a3258;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: 1.2em;"><br /></span></span></b>
<b><span style="color: #8a3258;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: 1.2em;"><br /></span></span></b>
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><b><span style="color: #8a3258;"><span style="font-size: 1.2em;"><br /></span></span></b>
<b><span style="color: #8a3258;"><span style="font-size: 1.2em;">Now for the chocolate dough:</span></span></b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">
</span>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgf6s8wqjVf1AtQD9g3rHXmYwczQ7BpXghB8uSHAIj_7JqzenQPStcrv_YPGw3FVaSCMwU1MIBdWgNgbRwkaO3qk3rchTd6mndNx-w-w78ha8NNd4nF0y7PhwkUbXNEjZnx39qIVpTgMg/s400/ingredients+schoko.png" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" width="381" /></span></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Ingredients for the chocolate icebox cookies</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
</div>
<div>
<ul>
<li><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">2 2/3 cups/300 g flour</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">1/3 cup/40 g cocoa powder (unsweetened)</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">1/2 teaspoon salt</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">1 cup/2 sticks/226 g butter, unsalted and room temperature</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">1 cup/225 g sugar</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">1 packet/10 g vanilla sugar</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">1 large egg</span></li>
</ul>
<div>
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><b><br /></b></span>
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><b>1. </b>In a separate bowl, sift (or whisk) together flour, cocoa powder and salt.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><b>2.</b> In your mixing bowl, mix butter, sugar and vanilla sugar until light and fluffy.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><b>3. </b>Add the egg. Beat until combined.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><b>4.</b> Reduce the speed of your electric mixer to low and slowly add the flour mix. Beat until all comes together.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjxWLR1GNcRdJv8W52_jlwC0jafdIxbvr_t7xsoP9NlCfh26qt4v1LL_aIvaVbBhCwHD7UnRzJ2EbOnGs1_3SWDNt0c1J-G1nXH3CATG2QK24AyqP02f7bwDJRUVCUo_YXulnIa_r8Zng/s1600/IMG_1721.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjxWLR1GNcRdJv8W52_jlwC0jafdIxbvr_t7xsoP9NlCfh26qt4v1LL_aIvaVbBhCwHD7UnRzJ2EbOnGs1_3SWDNt0c1J-G1nXH3CATG2QK24AyqP02f7bwDJRUVCUo_YXulnIa_r8Zng/s640/IMG_1721.JPG" width="640" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">The flour-cocoa mixture, the dough before adding the flour mix and the dough once it's done.</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">The same as for the lemon biscuits applies: knead the dough a bit, form logs, wrap in clingfilm and freeze for one hour or up to a month.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<br />
<div>
<b><span style="color: #8a3258;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: 1.2em;">After the freezing.</span></span></b></div>
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">
</span>
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Once you're ready to use the dough, you can either take your time, let the dough defrost and cut out shapes...</span><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjEJhxjliAax_5yiQfhf9TxIUpXywb7IcctTGY0t0CjFYDeJ7Jftqs6_SVXyL4f1aEIUHTab9fHXESKx8KESNOkRkoBAiUkprOOF1RY1RImtRBnLIf-tJmJR3XtMRJNIXUPlJsJPKrMCQ/s1600/IMG_1723.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjEJhxjliAax_5yiQfhf9TxIUpXywb7IcctTGY0t0CjFYDeJ7Jftqs6_SVXyL4f1aEIUHTab9fHXESKx8KESNOkRkoBAiUkprOOF1RY1RImtRBnLIf-tJmJR3XtMRJNIXUPlJsJPKrMCQ/s400/IMG_1723.JPG" width="400" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">...or you can opt for the quick version, where your take the frozen dough, roll it in sugar and cut slices that are about half a centimetre thick:</span><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjtkbks52jZ5v9cd555KcyYXw-NxttMUAoF6gdBRgryMVHEbtJ4pZHKMVnYQ_kFCm8FjlwUPf5UjiIlFBLRVYuEI3xJS9xRSnkhOmg4UBVC9COYVKEYDHI8HfP3IlhZ505RTYpi_CSHDQ/s1600/IMG_1725.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjtkbks52jZ5v9cd555KcyYXw-NxttMUAoF6gdBRgryMVHEbtJ4pZHKMVnYQ_kFCm8FjlwUPf5UjiIlFBLRVYuEI3xJS9xRSnkhOmg4UBVC9COYVKEYDHI8HfP3IlhZ505RTYpi_CSHDQ/s400/IMG_1725.JPG" width="400" /></a></div>
<br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Preheat the oven to about 180 °C/350 F and bake for 10-15 minutes if you used the frozen dough or 8-10 if you used the defrosted dough. In any case, have an eye on them so they don't get too dark (I blindly trusted the indicated baking time but had neglected to consider that even the frozen dough had come to room temperature in the meantime. I had lots of dark brown lemon cookies...).</span>
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"></span><br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj0ORpkac-sj62p1i5xN-8R29NncmTipWXJd0ofcEngpW6Y_kQ3e56i5QmHS_IlodlKQQLrTZfLnApze90fYl18lPmq5amZYihuZMMqQEoj6lWpSGG_Ikic7YyvuEnk0NvTjJ9WX8Sbkw/s1600/IMG_1726.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj0ORpkac-sj62p1i5xN-8R29NncmTipWXJd0ofcEngpW6Y_kQ3e56i5QmHS_IlodlKQQLrTZfLnApze90fYl18lPmq5amZYihuZMMqQEoj6lWpSGG_Ikic7YyvuEnk0NvTjJ9WX8Sbkw/s400/IMG_1726.JPG" width="400" /></a><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Now you could stop there. Or you could melt chocolate in a double-boiler and dip the biscuits halfway into it. I chose dark chocolate for the lemon biscuits and milk chocolate for the chocolate cookies (also a great way to conceal parts that have browned too much...).</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Let dry overnight. Arrange nicely on a plate. Done.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEguL0nK8p423e0ho-FssMd9vW9k5TxEXTnVWrw2D2kwzSzsavWSFHQ9VpTm1gNk_gqIaoVtUU37Ddk7h4am9Pa-oWKibBTeqABtInaGmYxcGlZ0PZGvsD3fvyMaC0BGkadYVeLZGtV12A/s1600/Image+(1).jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEguL0nK8p423e0ho-FssMd9vW9k5TxEXTnVWrw2D2kwzSzsavWSFHQ9VpTm1gNk_gqIaoVtUU37Ddk7h4am9Pa-oWKibBTeqABtInaGmYxcGlZ0PZGvsD3fvyMaC0BGkadYVeLZGtV12A/s640/Image+(1).jpg" width="640" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Assorted biscuits. I tried playing around with gold luster dust (see shimmering heart biscuit in the middle at the top) - but I didn't much like how it turned out. I think they look best without further embellishment.</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
</div>
<div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjLrCSdeLdzhVrnzAbiZiFk4LT1YDyOXS77SGsdH06AfoMrUGdhOInOr4DQ9QOvhkOQ55tFsc73TtZ9PUEPfKallhW2DoNinpaZYxYLMjV9Dj6nYBjlyi7AEmnFnLBvE0_xAHSpjos59A/s1600/signature+smallest.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="78" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjLrCSdeLdzhVrnzAbiZiFk4LT1YDyOXS77SGsdH06AfoMrUGdhOInOr4DQ9QOvhkOQ55tFsc73TtZ9PUEPfKallhW2DoNinpaZYxYLMjV9Dj6nYBjlyi7AEmnFnLBvE0_xAHSpjos59A/s200/signature+smallest.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"></span></div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
Korlinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11695102510616415431noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-225150163143573792.post-73837447980766961152012-12-08T13:50:00.000+01:002012-12-13T12:33:21.198+01:00Baking Extravaganza<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both;">
</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgMRTYm8VRQ3JwYjDQQtmP94VRJi8jpIzFTQU8-9rwZnhVgooGDPCXrywzY3E3ORgRDaURaF6A6Sp8hak3-XK1jpjE6oO2INXX65qDjgOx-_1QXLvks0kR8Y7fGvQIvvyb9oAcS5GqSIg/s1600/IMG_1745.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgMRTYm8VRQ3JwYjDQQtmP94VRJi8jpIzFTQU8-9rwZnhVgooGDPCXrywzY3E3ORgRDaURaF6A6Sp8hak3-XK1jpjE6oO2INXX65qDjgOx-_1QXLvks0kR8Y7fGvQIvvyb9oAcS5GqSIg/s400/IMG_1745.JPG" width="400" /></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
I just wanted to share some impressions from my recent baking extravaganza... detailed posts and how-tos to follow over the next weeks.</div>
<a name='more'></a><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgPe5yL7DWiMR0iUv6hQQlTlwb3oz_unQd5rJ1_e56izT8f7vnl6ExFktUNmAkT1BtdpJIg-suGBL9fDhKUXOn5S4ii9UBrvf3d1H3m_ymqSSZLY2mqRQ3jCo354xBsQaOcPR5QZRmcWA/s1600/IMG_1750.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgPe5yL7DWiMR0iUv6hQQlTlwb3oz_unQd5rJ1_e56izT8f7vnl6ExFktUNmAkT1BtdpJIg-suGBL9fDhKUXOn5S4ii9UBrvf3d1H3m_ymqSSZLY2mqRQ3jCo354xBsQaOcPR5QZRmcWA/s640/IMG_1750.JPG" width="640" /></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both;">
</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgILDqbzzfJUlas53NPkuUId5_VD2O6bePjo55GvyNd-6Dzem1eI0-zFsInUaqpoZAAjLPmaMe4sesu8qmpeU15kjmnv01CIC6IO-zf386X_R10RNo2qZcR1SxrGRFRhrPgle0LqMqlRA/s1600/IMG_1748.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"></a></div>
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgILDqbzzfJUlas53NPkuUId5_VD2O6bePjo55GvyNd-6Dzem1eI0-zFsInUaqpoZAAjLPmaMe4sesu8qmpeU15kjmnv01CIC6IO-zf386X_R10RNo2qZcR1SxrGRFRhrPgle0LqMqlRA/s1600/IMG_1748.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgILDqbzzfJUlas53NPkuUId5_VD2O6bePjo55GvyNd-6Dzem1eI0-zFsInUaqpoZAAjLPmaMe4sesu8qmpeU15kjmnv01CIC6IO-zf386X_R10RNo2qZcR1SxrGRFRhrPgle0LqMqlRA/s640/IMG_1748.JPG" width="640" /></a><br />
<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgbllmZFQ0tASI8qq5WJyBLFr6RJqRrmgHFPbTZ60IhWVv2wfEC8IDVueZ3KjqGcYdq_1k20cimuDl4f51PWiWrJiBBl20mQEZWnKVCglkDoOxp6HscVDaWGw9ioIAz5CHOEslShq4SPA/s1600/IMG_1757.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgbllmZFQ0tASI8qq5WJyBLFr6RJqRrmgHFPbTZ60IhWVv2wfEC8IDVueZ3KjqGcYdq_1k20cimuDl4f51PWiWrJiBBl20mQEZWnKVCglkDoOxp6HscVDaWGw9ioIAz5CHOEslShq4SPA/s640/IMG_1757.JPG" width="640" /></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhlKchdAYLGOS1_c6c45YD4c-LXimQcK5MfLVHNUT2TB09hp7xRLjeeqm-yOEA3YzqAwvdHGw8zXHa3qCq1eZL0Uv0Rn5oE1iDF8CV_BZvcbssvG5IpYRPkiptqWUrSOSzMIE8bAaWSPQ/s1600/IMG_1756.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhlKchdAYLGOS1_c6c45YD4c-LXimQcK5MfLVHNUT2TB09hp7xRLjeeqm-yOEA3YzqAwvdHGw8zXHa3qCq1eZL0Uv0Rn5oE1iDF8CV_BZvcbssvG5IpYRPkiptqWUrSOSzMIE8bAaWSPQ/s640/IMG_1756.JPG" width="640" /></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjpc1YN2QCRJR4xQ8ouIlLst8N0x2sRDjbfmrbuHWecC2YVGKlvChHc0MezPMf-MOT8VmJ9kSsMLQUYnJQutI7wawQRRNbo8kSeICcchMH17NPek2UO3hQFIaGZL-Sc4UYoOZW2JbPPKQ/s1600/IMG_1760.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjpc1YN2QCRJR4xQ8ouIlLst8N0x2sRDjbfmrbuHWecC2YVGKlvChHc0MezPMf-MOT8VmJ9kSsMLQUYnJQutI7wawQRRNbo8kSeICcchMH17NPek2UO3hQFIaGZL-Sc4UYoOZW2JbPPKQ/s640/IMG_1760.JPG" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgCWlh9U06U_SlEdOiggu5opW4LCyuV5O0pkKKkLP7Sf89eSPPF-vM-JOwvERQOBMKqVp_5IfwJsiN_wSHqC_HPkFMlFqEy_neU1DotrspJFrQ-4YYg0YX92aWti_uGVShhtA8zoleDHw/s1600/IMG_1758.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgCWlh9U06U_SlEdOiggu5opW4LCyuV5O0pkKKkLP7Sf89eSPPF-vM-JOwvERQOBMKqVp_5IfwJsiN_wSHqC_HPkFMlFqEy_neU1DotrspJFrQ-4YYg0YX92aWti_uGVShhtA8zoleDHw/s640/IMG_1758.JPG" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />
<b><span style="color: #8a3258;"><span style="font-size: large;">Recipes</span></span></b><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both;">
Find the recipe for the biscuits here: <a href="http://ofcookiesandcakes.blogspot.de/2012/12/icebox-biscuits-lemon-and-chocolate.html" style="font-family: inherit;" target="_blank">icebox biscuits - lemon and chocolate</a>.</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both;">
More recipes to come!</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjGxNi5rnq7fQyZ9WAS0wZq95sKrev7komHHh7QSYf9L0I62pJdUCzUFSjP_NYM8HTz6A-YGqHjZfJDgVfRK-emtdZbcKpNPoSXkxyHs3zd4OI1Q_M-g-5ScMO-VKjygB9ocaMbHbaAEA/s1600/signature+smallest.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="78" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjGxNi5rnq7fQyZ9WAS0wZq95sKrev7komHHh7QSYf9L0I62pJdUCzUFSjP_NYM8HTz6A-YGqHjZfJDgVfRK-emtdZbcKpNPoSXkxyHs3zd4OI1Q_M-g-5ScMO-VKjygB9ocaMbHbaAEA/s200/signature+smallest.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both;">
<br /></div>
Korlinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11695102510616415431noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-225150163143573792.post-20977646526144190632012-12-05T23:05:00.000+01:002012-12-06T14:22:24.176+01:00Cinnamon-chili-cayenne chocolate cupcakes<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjM-hz_zZb_9h-3b0DV9DtbyrwrDEWd9evVJvL_I-bcmUraoK8epFGtWAzGLuqBCAbyC21FG-v1cpch5ZXYy-UXOVWunZcx3_hizxvlKUylD_Ptw-ZI4S1BX0qbgKXHXMFazaYWqLs_TA/s1600/IMG_1712.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjM-hz_zZb_9h-3b0DV9DtbyrwrDEWd9evVJvL_I-bcmUraoK8epFGtWAzGLuqBCAbyC21FG-v1cpch5ZXYy-UXOVWunZcx3_hizxvlKUylD_Ptw-ZI4S1BX0qbgKXHXMFazaYWqLs_TA/s400/IMG_1712.JPG" width="400" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Cinnamon-chili-cayenne chocolate cupcakes</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">These Cupcakes taste like Christmas. I promise. Like a slightly spicy-hot Christmas. Not too chocolatey with a chili-cayenne kick and a distinct cinnamon taste, these cupcakes may even appeal to those who don't like their baked goods too sweet (don't get me wrong, they're still sweet... they're frosted cupcakes, after all. But the slight spiciness distracts from the sweetness a bit.).</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<br />
<a name='more'></a><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">I baked these cupcakes for a friend's friend's birthday party to which I was spontaneously invited. So whaddaya do when you've got a couple of hours and no present? Correct. You bake. Or at least: I bake. A quick glance into my pantry tells me I might manage chocolate cupcakes. So I opted for a Christmas staple of mine: chocolate cupcakes with cinnamon, chili and cayenne pepper.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Usually I make them reeeeeally chocolatey and add some nutmeg and ground pepper as well but I didn't have enough chocolate and only a limited choice of spices.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Right, so here's the recipe:</span>
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi4GgjD5QT55Ov7Gfbofh3ud9xqrvHUnHBtOdLPaJ4sOz98n-2Yv8dZyAcsoRlxznRP7wcQcjVEkAnCvoCWdTnqaNic8_IdVNMWSV9uAXn4l4ODnmMVgfVVpOjPkXHtonK2yFPJ6k2cbA/s1600/Zutaten+mit+Labeln.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="362" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi4GgjD5QT55Ov7Gfbofh3ud9xqrvHUnHBtOdLPaJ4sOz98n-2Yv8dZyAcsoRlxznRP7wcQcjVEkAnCvoCWdTnqaNic8_IdVNMWSV9uAXn4l4ODnmMVgfVVpOjPkXHtonK2yFPJ6k2cbA/s400/Zutaten+mit+Labeln.png" width="400" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">The ingredients you'll need for these Christmas cupcakes</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">
<b><span style="color: #8a3258;"><span style="font-size: 1.2em;">Ingredients:</span></span></b></div>
<ul>
<li><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">1 cup/120 g flour</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">1/4 cup/40 g cornflour</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">1/2 teaspoon baking powder</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">1/4 teaspoon baking soda (i. e. bicarbonate of soda)</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">1/4 teaspoon salt</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">2 large eggs</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">1/2 teaspoon each of ground cinnamon, chili powder, cayenne pepper</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">a dash of nutmeg and a dash of ground pepper if you have</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">1 cup/200 g brown sugar</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">1 packet/10 g vanilla sugar</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">1/2 cup/113 g of unsalted butter at room temperature</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">1/2 cup of sour cream (dear Germans, that is "Schmand")</span></li>
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">(I didn't have a full half cup of sour cream so I added about two, three tablespoons of yoghurt and two tablespoons of curd cheese to get to a half cup of dairy stuff)</span>
<li><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">100 g dark chocolate (use more or add cocoa if you want the cupcake to be a rich chocolate one)</span></li>
</ul>
<div>
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">1. Not in your main mixing bowl, sift together flour, cornflour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and spices.</span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">2. With an electric mixer, beat the eggs with the sugar and vanilla sugar in your large mixing bowl - for about two minutes.</span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">3. Add the butter. Beat for another minute.</span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">4. Add the dry ingredients on low speed.</span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">5. Beat in the sour cream until all is well blended. The dough should be very light, airy and mousse-like.</span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">6. In a double-boiler or the microwave, melt the chocolate.</span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Double-boiler: Put a bit of water in a pan, put a bowl on top so that it sits on the pan but doesn't touch the water. Chop the chocolate, put it into the bowl. Bring the water to the boil. The steam should warm the bowl so that the chocolate melts. Stir occasionally and be careful not to get any water in to the bowl or the chocolate will get all weird and crumbly (that is in fact the technical expression for it).</span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Microwave: Carefully heat it in 30 second intervals, then stir, then put it back in. I recommend 30 second intervals (or less towards the end) because it can easily happen that you "over-microwave" the chocolate. The result will also be that the chocolate will get all weird and crumbly.</span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">7. Let the chocolate cool for a tad so that it isn't too hot when you add it to the dough.</span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">8. Once cooled down to a pleasant warm state, add it to the dough. Keep beating the mixture while adding the chocolate </span><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">in a steady stream</span><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">.</span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjk2YSuGZg-nb7n0IDHn2ttM5kVtal1KsyFKRumQU5qnsi07LaSESDw3mqYAhxLAGo8sBgtB0jGI4loF6MdCGWF9sii3_IBEFeoGTdkK76V6qNrF5tFddcDOZ1uP2FxryG5WgPyOFSXVA/s1600/IMG_1706.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjk2YSuGZg-nb7n0IDHn2ttM5kVtal1KsyFKRumQU5qnsi07LaSESDw3mqYAhxLAGo8sBgtB0jGI4loF6MdCGWF9sii3_IBEFeoGTdkK76V6qNrF5tFddcDOZ1uP2FxryG5WgPyOFSXVA/s400/IMG_1706.JPG" width="400" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Slowly adding the melted chocolate.</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div>
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">At the end, the dough will be extraordinarily fluffy, almost like the perfect mousse au chocolat:</span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhGn3KeBHrdeWF9nUf70mm1UuLY6qvTikUv7TOU-Bf69I6ExlxHnkVqV_mDVy6ZvzSVAWP6h4-EE5DIPQaBcmo-F4QIxcfZp9pn5XcktwA3hh4WvcxAS_TSyVsLFuu4VubMXEzHrzQNvg/s1600/IMG_1707.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhGn3KeBHrdeWF9nUf70mm1UuLY6qvTikUv7TOU-Bf69I6ExlxHnkVqV_mDVy6ZvzSVAWP6h4-EE5DIPQaBcmo-F4QIxcfZp9pn5XcktwA3hh4WvcxAS_TSyVsLFuu4VubMXEzHrzQNvg/s400/IMG_1707.JPG" width="400" /></span></a></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">9. Put cupcake liners into a cupcake tin, fill about halfway/three quarters full. The cupcakes will rise like mad, but sadly fall back down just before done. Bake for 20-25 minutes at 180 °C/350 F (in a fan oven) or until an inserted toothpick comes out clean/they spring back when you lightly press into the top.</span></div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhnq3khjfnDH9jogC4HO5AyUX30lISZkG5mP0X0cZNWjf6aEdNAq6TtX1GGOtx5j9GFssLByCYhX2dK9xNlFR5vqEoAnW3yC4WkJJeUORvpHroL9LzXzLic1ojXDkAPjZyneCQR_is_iA/s1600/IMG_1710.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhnq3khjfnDH9jogC4HO5AyUX30lISZkG5mP0X0cZNWjf6aEdNAq6TtX1GGOtx5j9GFssLByCYhX2dK9xNlFR5vqEoAnW3yC4WkJJeUORvpHroL9LzXzLic1ojXDkAPjZyneCQR_is_iA/s400/IMG_1710.JPG" width="400" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Before baking and after baking. Bottom right shows the nice texture.</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div>
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">When cooled down, you may wanna frost the cupcakes. I topped them with a cream cheese frosting with a very light lemon touch to offset the earthy spices of the actual cake. A classic vanilla buttercream would also be nice, or - if you wanna go all in on Christmas - try a frosting with ginger.</span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhaWMHiSfgKDwz3ETUNa9vUnKB_wd5noe0WeIlY798UmQp6WuUyud3xHkdAwQaP4QHl-8XvLTDHOpHeJtLlXSPw_ielfvmpijuIzDu8BFvm8q-5mKD9EqQjd_zJzYYL4wD2xjpdX0sNRg/s1600/Schoko+chili+zimt+von+nah.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhaWMHiSfgKDwz3ETUNa9vUnKB_wd5noe0WeIlY798UmQp6WuUyud3xHkdAwQaP4QHl-8XvLTDHOpHeJtLlXSPw_ielfvmpijuIzDu8BFvm8q-5mKD9EqQjd_zJzYYL4wD2xjpdX0sNRg/s400/Schoko+chili+zimt+von+nah.jpg" width="400" /></span></a></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Enjoy!</span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj5KmKF2281G7Ucyi8Xk1JuKOhyphenhyphenbrxfg33NH9bjzcGrUMoezh2UA0vYv5pQaud1lmC9vr5851CcKLqVc7dJr_ly6rT-_Clec1iCsLx3ndnVoYH35Um1u0-QkQOxOZnBOyMv74a-PeKhLg/s1600/signature+small.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="78" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj5KmKF2281G7Ucyi8Xk1JuKOhyphenhyphenbrxfg33NH9bjzcGrUMoezh2UA0vYv5pQaud1lmC9vr5851CcKLqVc7dJr_ly6rT-_Clec1iCsLx3ndnVoYH35Um1u0-QkQOxOZnBOyMv74a-PeKhLg/s200/signature+small.jpg" width="200" /></span></a></div>
<div>
<br /></div>
Korlinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11695102510616415431noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-225150163143573792.post-10141897256195915152012-12-05T17:02:00.001+01:002012-12-05T17:08:54.033+01:00Romantic country-style Advent calendar<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgaWz4_qcHhRPTFvYq6BcWDV7ZYNuQxcEJsgZ_Wjngk0RvZzHXSMcNR3Kvcu9bqyEFqsz3BGhTSSZ2b1eKbAN76FkGiAyK9NLss4M_da_PCbxzQSM_Ya7CnzG7uVbezkunpxRx2PgMtCA/s1600/Adventskalender.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgaWz4_qcHhRPTFvYq6BcWDV7ZYNuQxcEJsgZ_Wjngk0RvZzHXSMcNR3Kvcu9bqyEFqsz3BGhTSSZ2b1eKbAN76FkGiAyK9NLss4M_da_PCbxzQSM_Ya7CnzG7uVbezkunpxRx2PgMtCA/s320/Adventskalender.jpg" width="213" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Romantic country-style Advent calendar</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Ok, so this may be a tad late to copy for this year's Advent season but maybe it is something that can inspire for next year? Last week I made this rather feminine, romatic-y calendar with a slight ethereal feel to it... for a guy. So it may not exactly scream "I AM A MANLY ADVENT CALENDAR" - but at least it goes lovely with <i>my</i> interior decoration style - which is feminine shabby chic/country style. Or, as my two best guy buddies put it: "It's a doll's house. I half expect that wall to open and a giant hand to reach in to rearrange stuff."</span><br />
<br />
<br />
<a name='more'></a><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<br />
<div>
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Back to the calendar. Making this is dead easy. The important part is to keep the colours simple so that it seems well put together and elegant. It really would look quite differently with brightly mixed colours. So. Simple steps:</span><br />
<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjgIIWdi8LMMaDNGavWdaorlD4AMW9vK4ereWHra1O7IkDpepisVl9oq7qnyySA1907kEvDienNuS9d6vomfkS34WL47uadcsYICdMTcVhlVG2zcL9Du3fXDxKF3m0ECURd1UQRgzDX9Q/s1600/IMG_1689.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjgIIWdi8LMMaDNGavWdaorlD4AMW9vK4ereWHra1O7IkDpepisVl9oq7qnyySA1907kEvDienNuS9d6vomfkS34WL47uadcsYICdMTcVhlVG2zcL9Du3fXDxKF3m0ECURd1UQRgzDX9Q/s320/IMG_1689.JPG" width="320" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Coat-hanger before and after</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">1. Take an ordinary coat-hanger - needs to be sturdy if you plan on giving slightly heavier gifts. And there will be 24 of them. A wire coat-hanger might not be up to the job.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">2. If it's white you could just leave it like that. I decided to wrap mine in some white organza I found in one of my drawers. To keep the organza in place, I wrapped white ribbon around it.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<span style="clear: right; float: right; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjII4ec4Ni9m7YBMxpPeslQNmASgQHcPQhtsJyFW5HsSYAW1WIl8gTqsMf75dZks54iLgYd7Ku7RfKPy3zCn-TWugi6CwUMdiVetg3SkYT0_uTW8L8xHyvSiq_b8OkJzPaopC53PHYbkA/s1600/IMG_1690.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjII4ec4Ni9m7YBMxpPeslQNmASgQHcPQhtsJyFW5HsSYAW1WIl8gTqsMf75dZks54iLgYd7Ku7RfKPy3zCn-TWugi6CwUMdiVetg3SkYT0_uTW8L8xHyvSiq_b8OkJzPaopC53PHYbkA/s320/IMG_1690.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Advent calendar labels.</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">3. Make 24 labels - make each one unique; the calendar will look more interesting.</span><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEinfyvDyGPIi1d95jYUm8lKEKpnhK85xzdAmF450a9SYusQjugIXB0VIZI2NkdGsYEgERJx5w7hHh-c6-j1yDWQg98qNlpuhA2rLBOWsmM2RhH2eL7p1O_pnqBqvO9CVkzOKymFEDzBzw/s1600/IMG_1698.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEinfyvDyGPIi1d95jYUm8lKEKpnhK85xzdAmF450a9SYusQjugIXB0VIZI2NkdGsYEgERJx5w7hHh-c6-j1yDWQg98qNlpuhA2rLBOWsmM2RhH2eL7p1O_pnqBqvO9CVkzOKymFEDzBzw/s320/IMG_1698.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">You don't need much more than this for your Advent calendar.</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">4. Now all you need is wrapping paper (I suggest two styles which complement one another), white ribbon, scissors, adhesive tape - and, of course, your 24 gifts.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">5. When all presents have been wrapped all that is left is to tie them to the coat-hanger. Finished.</span><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhRSuQJ0EdCp0pu8fK8nC9tWMpKoU1oSDm_4XFK1VGasgWNYEwHTyBa3_ZuV6EB7JISsjxuFuraJ_wYSXEpPb2xD3vvCtS573UnPFa74nO9uFrCPf_JO0bh09s4ytvHf6bIChLYGQcc9Q/s1600/IMG_1695.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhRSuQJ0EdCp0pu8fK8nC9tWMpKoU1oSDm_4XFK1VGasgWNYEwHTyBa3_ZuV6EB7JISsjxuFuraJ_wYSXEpPb2xD3vvCtS573UnPFa74nO9uFrCPf_JO0bh09s4ytvHf6bIChLYGQcc9Q/s320/IMG_1695.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEijloaABE6psN6TZ9sQaT8pxpEKkA_CYBw3gN99fnfY4fuLgEh_VUSlsB73fkGVlQz5GwZbg8t3-stWory46L1A3CbzSLq2m6-4Chpz6IfDVcvKT52zVyjJogN54RrkarpOXkZ-YJtcHQ/s1600/IMG_1696.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEijloaABE6psN6TZ9sQaT8pxpEKkA_CYBw3gN99fnfY4fuLgEh_VUSlsB73fkGVlQz5GwZbg8t3-stWory46L1A3CbzSLq2m6-4Chpz6IfDVcvKT52zVyjJogN54RrkarpOXkZ-YJtcHQ/s320/IMG_1696.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg8xCII54Ua5kt71QWqn4A4sEJcgpP5Fxe4WaW4I5G_Iyp4KCbkUWy38TT-DCSyqZaOwCCzefiCX_3t3Qsq1vdUQIbiEhRuiDoOC7jEreHcmvLlxlvD4S9pNuRhL6TtaeOW91RFQVMteQ/s1600/IMG_1697.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg8xCII54Ua5kt71QWqn4A4sEJcgpP5Fxe4WaW4I5G_Iyp4KCbkUWy38TT-DCSyqZaOwCCzefiCX_3t3Qsq1vdUQIbiEhRuiDoOC7jEreHcmvLlxlvD4S9pNuRhL6TtaeOW91RFQVMteQ/s320/IMG_1697.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgJ2GFdRqRvoBJ_Rv2AZtCcEWAoDJlQojTExrkWTptNchnq9DZI7RTG0q0C0rbypzbnjf80NETKETmNzgGwonW86MDwyFna0mhT1b4dn3PaS0EN6V2xTNYLi-G9wAAVVohggdfbFyQCPg/s1600/IMG_1700.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgJ2GFdRqRvoBJ_Rv2AZtCcEWAoDJlQojTExrkWTptNchnq9DZI7RTG0q0C0rbypzbnjf80NETKETmNzgGwonW86MDwyFna0mhT1b4dn3PaS0EN6V2xTNYLi-G9wAAVVohggdfbFyQCPg/s320/IMG_1700.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Merry Advent season everyone!</span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjdaLySsY6mnaaMp01WWK59KnFSvaZH0SyZwlXFLoyom8oGV_e2m6tc7Wlz0mlOkoB2-Z-rdI2Ujo81ac4nYFCDGCTWoa12Z2-pnhKlLKbsl_FjSYfWuec46VJldWC3d3MEjnq-_wD7Dg/s1600/signature+smallest.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="78" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjdaLySsY6mnaaMp01WWK59KnFSvaZH0SyZwlXFLoyom8oGV_e2m6tc7Wlz0mlOkoB2-Z-rdI2Ujo81ac4nYFCDGCTWoa12Z2-pnhKlLKbsl_FjSYfWuec46VJldWC3d3MEjnq-_wD7Dg/s200/signature+smallest.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
Korlinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11695102510616415431noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-225150163143573792.post-84102305312992956852012-10-03T12:31:00.000+02:002012-10-03T18:08:53.153+02:00Spiced & roasted chickpeas - an easy hostess gift<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjX2zVQTtgIee2v0GmoHDcUWkG4KZ4NYtCLyN8p12MyfrciKHlsiHRwqU7v2A4ksRuP0ZV35_ODbsVumrCRxHlxLxCBMfjz_Yf-Lr4f2jYfRU_eL4SIIVPHjOzl2M3faGV-isr0LC4H7Q/s1600/IMG_0867.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjX2zVQTtgIee2v0GmoHDcUWkG4KZ4NYtCLyN8p12MyfrciKHlsiHRwqU7v2A4ksRuP0ZV35_ODbsVumrCRxHlxLxCBMfjz_Yf-Lr4f2jYfRU_eL4SIIVPHjOzl2M3faGV-isr0LC4H7Q/s640/IMG_0867.JPG" width="640" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Spiced and roasted chickpeas: curry and cayenne pepper on the left, cumin and pepper on the right.</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">I said it before: I try to avoid coming empty-handed when I'm invited over to someone's house for an evening of eating/drinking/playing games/whatever - especially if I don't know them too well. I do it often enough (more often than not) but at least I feel slightly to quite uncomfortable about it. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">(My boyfriend can attest to that: 9 out of 10 times when we meet up to go anywhere it goes like this:</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Me: Oh gosh. I don't have anything for them.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Him: That's ok.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Me: ...I just didn't have time to bake anything!</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Him: Don't worry about it, no one expects you to.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Me: Well, I expect myself to.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Him: ...)</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">So when I was supposed to go to my boyfriend's friend's brother's birthday, I panicked. I had subzero time for baking or anything of that sort. In times like this, I turn to one of my favourite food items: chickpeas.</span><br />
<br />
<a name='more'></a><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Admittedly, it may be a bit meagre for a birthday present, but otherwise spiced and roasted chickpeas are the perfect little hostess gift for an informal evening with friends (note: no, I don't bring something with me everytime I go hang out with my friends. I'm talking about bigger things, with more people or more effort. The more hassle for the host, the nicer of you to contribute with more than just a bottle of wine you picked up five minutes ago).</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Roasted spicy chickpeas are easy. All you need is a can or two of chickpeas (I recommend not going below 450g), spices (whatever you fancy), oil, an oven, 15 to 60 minutes (depending on which way you do it. My version takes 30-40 minutes in the oven and only like 10 min. max. of prep time. You can easily do it in 5).</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjoShHgD6libAC356D52FrBV4E_D6-WrFunoLPs8TM3LXyaKPBGL27N1UIUyRCLWPB-mkGJWwvKuLHgURbSZUFmEd60_OLj8606RVKT5N_Lfnp-c3LUbYhLPKMQ0mcGWdd_ugjltJrokQ/s1600/IMG_0869.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjoShHgD6libAC356D52FrBV4E_D6-WrFunoLPs8TM3LXyaKPBGL27N1UIUyRCLWPB-mkGJWwvKuLHgURbSZUFmEd60_OLj8606RVKT5N_Lfnp-c3LUbYhLPKMQ0mcGWdd_ugjltJrokQ/s640/IMG_0869.JPG" width="640" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Cooked chickpeas, pre-roasting.</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">1. Preheat the oven to 180 °C/350 F.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">2. Take a can of pre-cooked chickpeas (I used a 480g can), drain them, wash them, pat them dry-ish.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">2. Divide them in half. Add a tablespoon of olive oil to each half plus a seasoning of your choice. I chose <b>cumin</b>, a dash of <b>lemon juice</b>, freshly ground <b>pepper </b>and <b>salt </b>for one half and <b>medium curry</b>, <b>cayenne pepper</b> and <b>salt </b>for the other half. Don't be shy with the spices, I think I used about two to three tea spoons of cumin and still found that I could've used more.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">3. Spread the spiced chickpeas on oven racks lined with parchment paper. Make sure they aren't clustering too much.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjLUw7yB-emb8OSzpFmg-2busmgdVHN01HfsW0CBOUfMV0wQbveHNTukLb0J38utB7CIsFnrgPjLppYiluE8c6eXXVvRl4ZRJ-mjcjS1D22M2wqR8EMdYJXk6-vlTK8ItMl6jv_3KIUcA/s1600/IMG_0870.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjLUw7yB-emb8OSzpFmg-2busmgdVHN01HfsW0CBOUfMV0wQbveHNTukLb0J38utB7CIsFnrgPjLppYiluE8c6eXXVvRl4ZRJ-mjcjS1D22M2wqR8EMdYJXk6-vlTK8ItMl6jv_3KIUcA/s320/IMG_0870.JPG" width="320" /></span></a></div>
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">4. Pop them in the oven for 30 to 40 minutes.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">5. Take them out and let them cool.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">6. Some will be crispier than others, but personally, I enjoy the mix of consistency.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">The idea came from <a href="http://www.marthastewart.com/319543/chickpea-nibble" target="_blank">Martha Stewart</a>. She suggests 150°C/300 F for 50 minutes. But at that temperature, I always had to have them in for a bit longer. Try and see which one you prefer. I also just now stumbled across <a href="http://www.marthastewart.com/326845/spicy-roasted-chickpeas" target="_blank">this </a>version, which is much faster, as you toss the chickpeas into boiling oil in the oven at 230°C/450 F for 10-12 minutes. I kinda think that this version screams "accident waiting to happen" all over, but if you're in a hurry (and don't mind drenching your food in oil), give this a try (I will eventually).</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">The chickpeas taste nicely nutty, some are crisp, some are difficult to describe. I love them and so far, wherever I brought them, they have vanished within minutes. They are highly addictive.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">If you make three or four portions with different spices and put them in cute little containers, such as old jam jars, and maybe cover the lid with some pretty fabric leftovers, they make a lovely, low-key yet tasty hostess gift.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Enjoy!</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgHygxcEuG6CceMBDqQVLGZ5VKhCgUTpZHzq0ShvgjXodncntCKY3X7c55MT58cAUqjhEcfv_z7_BSMu5NXpeFx45ThNoMZDZLo2gKicHDySiQHqyZHEbagOSYr4022GEudN_skf3LPKw/s1600/photo.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgHygxcEuG6CceMBDqQVLGZ5VKhCgUTpZHzq0ShvgjXodncntCKY3X7c55MT58cAUqjhEcfv_z7_BSMu5NXpeFx45ThNoMZDZLo2gKicHDySiQHqyZHEbagOSYr4022GEudN_skf3LPKw/s320/photo.jpg" width="320" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Spiced and roasted chick peas</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjG7JzmssrBFRu-X12vTWIcru4iPdEM6OOjHO-m7U2TkB4Vc7_A660UVpLHdsYlfC0YRpQhA3xOl03g476tsu8pjypufNWB9CcZ2ARlnpnq6QQvVA_7WVwDoxnoJhje5-6qYX-H5tXDtQ/s1600/signature+smallest.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="78" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjG7JzmssrBFRu-X12vTWIcru4iPdEM6OOjHO-m7U2TkB4Vc7_A660UVpLHdsYlfC0YRpQhA3xOl03g476tsu8pjypufNWB9CcZ2ARlnpnq6QQvVA_7WVwDoxnoJhje5-6qYX-H5tXDtQ/s200/signature+smallest.jpg" width="200" /></span></a></div>
<br />Korlinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11695102510616415431noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-225150163143573792.post-88644816764624348832012-09-29T11:42:00.001+02:002012-09-29T14:25:02.703+02:00The truth about shabby chic<head>
<script type="text/javascript">
var _gaq = _gaq || [];
_gaq.push(['_setAccount', 'UA-35194809-1']);
_gaq.push(['_trackPageview']);
(function() {
var ga = document.createElement('script'); ga.type = 'text/javascript'; ga.async = true;
ga.src = ('https:' == document.location.protocol ? 'https://ssl' : 'http://www') + '.google-analytics.com/ga.js';
var s = document.getElementsByTagName('script')[0]; s.parentNode.insertBefore(ga, s);
})();
</script>
</head>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi9uahcEOOft-v5PkJNmfc4w-XJFzvQmMBWtbdEpcLcga0VEbH1Rs-oXRkOYpswebxprUwLqRUOfGSIAKTPDFwGTJVg9j2V1GfBUH5kzb4DJZ54-8bFdWZ4uxDqkKPAITzBTUVBhSSnPg/s1600/BigLens.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi9uahcEOOft-v5PkJNmfc4w-XJFzvQmMBWtbdEpcLcga0VEbH1Rs-oXRkOYpswebxprUwLqRUOfGSIAKTPDFwGTJVg9j2V1GfBUH5kzb4DJZ54-8bFdWZ4uxDqkKPAITzBTUVBhSSnPg/s640/BigLens.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">For some pieces of furniture, shabby chic comes natural. This stool belonged to my grandma.</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Alright. You may not believe it, but I baked loads... before I started this blog. It just all comes together at the moment, moving flats and all.</span></div>
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">So, in order to give this blog some life, some content, <i>something</i>, I decided to share my renovation experience.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">The word of the year/past years when it comes to decorating surely is "shabby chic". I opted for this trend cos I like it and, well, sometimes it is <i>so much less work</i>. Unfortunately I didn't take pictures of the one dresser I painted, but trust me. As soon as you decide for shabby chic, only one layer of paint sometimes is all you need, no need to be thorough (unless the piece was originally a hideous orange or something. Cos the base colour will shine though). Just make sure to use a brush, not a roller. You wanna be able to see the strokes. Especially if your base is dark wood and you paint it white...</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Anyways, I realise this is a bit frustrating without pictures, so I will talk you through "shabby chic" with another piece of furniture, a bureau, where I remembered to take pictures fairly early on. Here I did "shabby chic" the old-fashioned way, sandpaper and all. Trust me, not as easy as all the living and decorating magazines would have you to believe. But still easier than being neat and thorough...</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"></span><br />
<a name='more'></a><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">I got this piece of furniture from a friend who was moving into a new flat and got that flat only on the condition that she would take care not only of the entire renovation, but also of getting rid of the previous resident's belongings in that flat. Ummmm... ok. Deal is deal and she was about to through this bureau away, so naturally I took it. I thought that with some paint it would turn out to be really nice. But behold... it didn't need painting! Just a decent scrubbing...</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgTYbb_LhiBwqGfu_6L_59w3vtqllPwccgkscErWoVmuTeImbJatMA0Ltk2ssAL1VnXWw0WfI-2gaqVmtJu9DecGJ64CPw4QnXakH4_EuHnsD3K9hsBIdt0_jk-2Fq-meC6Zq1U3b_ZUg/s1600/dirty+before+clean+after.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgTYbb_LhiBwqGfu_6L_59w3vtqllPwccgkscErWoVmuTeImbJatMA0Ltk2ssAL1VnXWw0WfI-2gaqVmtJu9DecGJ64CPw4QnXakH4_EuHnsD3K9hsBIdt0_jk-2Fq-meC6Zq1U3b_ZUg/s400/dirty+before+clean+after.jpg" width="366" /></span></a></div>
<div class="" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Dirty on the left, clean on the right. A difference of day and night!</span></div>
<div class="" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">So I exchanged my white paint for some concentrated cleaning agent and worked that thing. But now it looked too... clean. Not shabby at all. But not to worry! You helper in need is called Mr. Sandpaper:</span></div>
<div class="" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhyi7SWx1WbjyM-Ds0mDy8-jgQWTGgGFp9EFaPYO8LtbzAYAJ4SesOzQK_xUlC3H67o6wJ1DNMkjffVM9dDpT8AHVWdkcihm6MKp54drlkDlEfiaSliw2IXc-kZQGxZAPmTD6VA9nmcmw/s1600/IMG_0686.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhyi7SWx1WbjyM-Ds0mDy8-jgQWTGgGFp9EFaPYO8LtbzAYAJ4SesOzQK_xUlC3H67o6wJ1DNMkjffVM9dDpT8AHVWdkcihm6MKp54drlkDlEfiaSliw2IXc-kZQGxZAPmTD6VA9nmcmw/s400/IMG_0686.JPG" width="400" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Sandpaper. I used 80 and 40 grade/grit.</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">So, take that sandpaper and <i>really go to town with it</i>. Maybe it was just my ancient bureau with its bombproof old paint, but I *really* had to work it to get any kind of effect. This is my result after a good hour of work (excluding all the scrubbing):</span></div>
<div class="" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi58M7ZWBYi6Suf4lPb5Rg6uE6No1TyFWJCo8T0j2ZivXZ7qnxnOAYg3imL1PkReW4Z1xVsNwpwbqeLIjizUFwSWZLH5YqBSX2Ew2mupRJ17BWI2KU3fuq1DjcQh1MKepADONWsioW4Dg/s1600/IMG_0693.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi58M7ZWBYi6Suf4lPb5Rg6uE6No1TyFWJCo8T0j2ZivXZ7qnxnOAYg3imL1PkReW4Z1xVsNwpwbqeLIjizUFwSWZLH5YqBSX2Ew2mupRJ17BWI2KU3fuq1DjcQh1MKepADONWsioW4Dg/s640/IMG_0693.JPG" width="480" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">After hours of work</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">What? You cannot see my painstaking sanding? Maybe cos I didn't post a before-picture. That and cos the paint appeared to be really thick. Here are some close-ups. I suggest that anyone who *really* wants to go for shabby chic is a bit more daring/aggressive (and persistant) with the sanding:</span></div>
<div class="" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiJblulN_htXHxr_YuUBl5OkTXsvuyxa2uXidiRpLOYp-ooiTYdosoTuV4OoYwZMHTpYRehwW8L_6SRnKweYKzskx2jqjWCl41xJ1byinIzabjLk7qyDBQJDffOPkHk-1OS7LXOOItvFA/s1600/shabby+chic.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiJblulN_htXHxr_YuUBl5OkTXsvuyxa2uXidiRpLOYp-ooiTYdosoTuV4OoYwZMHTpYRehwW8L_6SRnKweYKzskx2jqjWCl41xJ1byinIzabjLk7qyDBQJDffOPkHk-1OS7LXOOItvFA/s640/shabby+chic.jpg" width="553" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Shabby chic 'how-to'. A bit at least. Be a bit more persistent and daring than I was.</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZwEF2ONdjqeGTrJqRgRi_in5353b3hJe0l1j0G-jmXLxrx3lzivLndXRUKWl3Ghe2cKf0TZaEuXvVdS5TcO2BpO2_MuZRQh4UbDNC300eCARnTVveNI3YPsrfvdMmkH67JZQLhdHlPA/s1600/IMG_0674.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZwEF2ONdjqeGTrJqRgRi_in5353b3hJe0l1j0G-jmXLxrx3lzivLndXRUKWl3Ghe2cKf0TZaEuXvVdS5TcO2BpO2_MuZRQh4UbDNC300eCARnTVveNI3YPsrfvdMmkH67JZQLhdHlPA/s400/IMG_0674.JPG" width="400" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">A bit more evident here, but I suspect the paint here (on the inside) wasn't applied as assiduously as on the outside.</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjtiLuniWsNFnC1WW_mw6hYVyXsafReuHRJsO5a0wx6cGzjt5q2_l2lPeYFGocPB1cpqDR14e22ElZlRlfpypVGD8MMRzN7hL5ko8sy-w2H9YuH0RfbQOfKG4zwObJ81Wz5IXGjnRej5w/s1600/IMG_0675.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjtiLuniWsNFnC1WW_mw6hYVyXsafReuHRJsO5a0wx6cGzjt5q2_l2lPeYFGocPB1cpqDR14e22ElZlRlfpypVGD8MMRzN7hL5ko8sy-w2H9YuH0RfbQOfKG4zwObJ81Wz5IXGjnRej5w/s400/IMG_0675.JPG" width="400" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Close-up of shabby chic.</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br />I was fairly please with the result. Ok, fair enough, not as shabby as it could've been, but like I said, that paint was tough. However, I decided that I wanted dark grey highlights on that set of drawers. You see, my future living room has light grey walls, white dressings and dark grey highlights. Therefore, this now (after scrubbing) light grey bureau needed some dark grey detailing. It has some relief-like features that would be just darling in dark grey. Sooo... let's do it.</span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">First wisdom I wanna impart here: prep the piece to be painted. This will take some time but save *loads* of time when actually painting it. Use masking tape to delimitate the area you want painted. This may be old news - but I initially thought that was for wusses. Nope! Really, really saves time and effort in the end.</span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiGDHGf0GO3_-LPvyrYMUTsfdkZ9wRkDVxW5cnbSGNbVlfXpKjdUtXz2XxlGtcC51x07ODotsPLXHLDd0Nuir3yupHYj7wyYz-MglwMRhgQaJUbX5uExWdQ_oM_BYf16hI7l77HWRMHWA/s1600/prepare+well+text.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="331" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiGDHGf0GO3_-LPvyrYMUTsfdkZ9wRkDVxW5cnbSGNbVlfXpKjdUtXz2XxlGtcC51x07ODotsPLXHLDd0Nuir3yupHYj7wyYz-MglwMRhgQaJUbX5uExWdQ_oM_BYf16hI7l77HWRMHWA/s400/prepare+well+text.png" width="400" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Use masking tape to delimitate your play area</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Right. Now you are presented with opportunity #2 for shabby chic. An alternative to sandingpaper: just don't be thorough. I mentioned it before, here you can see it. One layer of paint yields the desired effect:</span><br />
<div>
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjx8ITds2hcVDk65uVyfWeuGW3tfp0YL2KXA3AWJYGMkeAmBm-lMjLrBJehCMqRsu6Te4nTsvahoJTrKWSPrKcSaBbBSR4PVJuH14A56vQ6WC5mhhXfpq_VwyJsNFtcIVYj6HF6wByHsw/s1600/shabby+chic+2+text.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="465" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjx8ITds2hcVDk65uVyfWeuGW3tfp0YL2KXA3AWJYGMkeAmBm-lMjLrBJehCMqRsu6Te4nTsvahoJTrKWSPrKcSaBbBSR4PVJuH14A56vQ6WC5mhhXfpq_VwyJsNFtcIVYj6HF6wByHsw/s640/shabby+chic+2+text.png" width="640" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Shabby chic thanks to sloppiness/laziness. Wayyyy more obvious when dried and in daylight.</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div>
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">I swear it's much more visible now that it has dried. Again, a more adventurous decorator might be way more aggressive. My inner perfectionist just cannot be suppressed. It's a pain.</span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Another tip, obvious from the picture above: when painting, avoid direct artificial light. The light's reflex will make it tough to evaluate your actual work.</span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Once you're done painting your highlights, wait until you take off the masking tape. I'm of the impatient kind, so I ripped some off right away. Yeah, some colour comes off with it. So better wait.</span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">As far as I'm concerned, you're done! This is what my bureau looks like:</span></div>
<div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjeriAtNGzHeJxWFAh8VmijHxGvZs9xS20z-mpoCf_PNVD5ClXUSxvrrr5Hi2bs-AWnqcJC_k2kxZvR-jCCka8ltRzehkL1RCZqhCvXYUfcOTFhrcd3l1U3JZ_yMy6L_QpCv-Xko-QHnw/s1600/result.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="425" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjeriAtNGzHeJxWFAh8VmijHxGvZs9xS20z-mpoCf_PNVD5ClXUSxvrrr5Hi2bs-AWnqcJC_k2kxZvR-jCCka8ltRzehkL1RCZqhCvXYUfcOTFhrcd3l1U3JZ_yMy6L_QpCv-Xko-QHnw/s640/result.png" width="640" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">(I will post a prettier picture once I have actually moved and the bureau has found its place).</span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">So, back to the title of this post. What is "the truth about shabby chic"? In my opinion, one of the reasons shabby chic is so popular is because it allows you to be sloppy. Too impatient to wait for a layer of paint to dry before applying the next? Meh, just put on the next one after a few minutes. You'll scrape some paint off in the process, but hey, it's "shabby chic". Too lazy to apply paint evenly? No problem, you don't want thorough work with shabby chic. Can't be bothered to paint the old piece of furniture you inherited/found on the flea market at all? Shabby chic! ...the only time shabby chic is more work is when you try to shabby down an otherwise impeccable piece of furniture (like my bureau).</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">If you have any more ideas for the shabby chic look, feel free to share - I'm still amidst renovating/decorating my future flat and could use any advice.</span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgLcOlzU7i-VszLN1iD3ewP25JC7RKSuaE-VwMWfuN6YH24SzGB2W6a5NNXRE1hIF8BzS18MO-toKRkRsHCxpe2ISHJjCuc_o3dYoQqmiherYBey-XNtXSc8def1077WWeI5kXC-WPjgQ/s1600/signature+smallest.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="78" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgLcOlzU7i-VszLN1iD3ewP25JC7RKSuaE-VwMWfuN6YH24SzGB2W6a5NNXRE1hIF8BzS18MO-toKRkRsHCxpe2ISHJjCuc_o3dYoQqmiherYBey-XNtXSc8def1077WWeI5kXC-WPjgQ/s200/signature+smallest.jpg" width="200" /></span></a></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">PS: I will post more things that go with shabby chic over the next few weeks, as it's the main theme of my flat.</span></div>
Korlinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11695102510616415431noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-225150163143573792.post-42723418239535179612012-09-11T23:08:00.001+02:002012-09-29T14:23:42.961+02:00Chocolate biscuits with a zesty, caffeiny and crunchy kick<head>
<script type="text/javascript">
var _gaq = _gaq || [];
_gaq.push(['_setAccount', 'UA-35194809-1']);
_gaq.push(['_trackPageview']);
(function() {
var ga = document.createElement('script'); ga.type = 'text/javascript'; ga.async = true;
ga.src = ('https:' == document.location.protocol ? 'https://ssl' : 'http://www') + '.google-analytics.com/ga.js';
var s = document.getElementsByTagName('script')[0]; s.parentNode.insertBefore(ga, s);
})();
</script>
</head>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiHSw4FeM2itKUhPuJzDLUdUB-kpB1l9HPXPpSpNTMIo_9-HSyH1hC_UDKhwaa2nOK3ueOsSTkcM-cWQy6M5i1Xye8wZEyu2pcdzX5Q1jeZ8vi7u0UWSw1Jr9y7q6P7LwKQUtIaXRS7oA/s1600/keksbild.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="427" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiHSw4FeM2itKUhPuJzDLUdUB-kpB1l9HPXPpSpNTMIo_9-HSyH1hC_UDKhwaa2nOK3ueOsSTkcM-cWQy6M5i1Xye8wZEyu2pcdzX5Q1jeZ8vi7u0UWSw1Jr9y7q6P7LwKQUtIaXRS7oA/s640/keksbild.png" width="640" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Espresso beans and orange chocolate biscuits</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Hello everyone. I originally intended to post once a week - which I still *want* to do but, oh well, life gets in the way sometimes.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">I didn't have time to bake the last weeks, so I have to use my notes on a recipe which I baked shortly before I started this blog. The reason I didn't post this earlier is just that it was only today that I rediscovered my notes under a pile of paper labelled "important stuff"... ooops. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Right. What did I bake? Cookies. Or rather biscuits. As a German who studied Linguistics in the UK, I have my own, although somewhat vague, notion of what is a cookie and what is a biscuit. Cookies for me are chewy and/or chunky. Biscuits are smaller and crisp (though I suspect I may not be alone with this notion).</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"></span><br />
<a name='more'></a><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">So. Biscuits. I baked biscuits. These:</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhll7nksMawvtfgDEtiU2Rm-iTR185k6ZRjvuZ39Bqphq55Nm8-H7IjKT08HOULtCzUlpy7g-HUBVktOByPHNzzudzN4Lvs9t1f9fnO34Ty5jwekyy7jqHQI5BOF7YdDR_0O0joKu4Ddg/s1600/Espresso+Orangen+Kekse.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhll7nksMawvtfgDEtiU2Rm-iTR185k6ZRjvuZ39Bqphq55Nm8-H7IjKT08HOULtCzUlpy7g-HUBVktOByPHNzzudzN4Lvs9t1f9fnO34Ty5jwekyy7jqHQI5BOF7YdDR_0O0joKu4Ddg/s320/Espresso+Orangen+Kekse.jpg" width="280" /></span></a></div>
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"></span>
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">They are chocolate biscuits with orange zest and not too finely ground espresso beans. And they are delicious if I may say so myself. The orange gives them a fresh twist and the ground espresso guarantees some nice, flavour-intense crunch. Overall, I was delighted by the texture. If you don't trust me, let me tell you that I brought these biscuits to my boyfriend's friend's flat-warming party which also served as a birthday party for my boyfriend's friend's roommate. In other words: a flat full of strangers. And not only did my biscuits disappear fairly quickly, but later that evening, a person I had never seen in my life came to me and said "Hey, aren't you the one who brought those biscuits? They were SO. GOOD". There you go. Unbiased strangers confirmed that these are delicious biscuits. Now you can safely bake them :)</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">The original recipe is by <a href="http://www.marthastewart.com/338986/espresso-biscuits" target="_blank">Martha Stewart</a> - I tried baking them strictly according to the recipe once before, back in the UK. They turned out a really strange texture, weren't holding together at all and felt way too greasy. Back then, I still put them to use by incorporating the loose cookie crumbs (because they really had no cohesion whatsoever) in vanilla buttercream and thus creating heavenly (and heavy) cookies'n'cream-like frosting... I might repeat that some time and share it here.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Anyways, that's why I decided to bake them again and to adjust the recipe a bit. I also decided to add orange to make them feel less wintery (it was still summer when I baked them) (originally, I had a mind to use lemon zest, but I didn't have any at hand. It might be worth a try for the future).</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<br />
<div style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">
<b><span style="color: #8a3258;"><span style="font-size: 1.2em;">What you'll need for quite enough biscuits:</span></span></b></div>
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">(sorry, I forgot to write down how many biscuits this yielded)</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<br />
<ul>
<li><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">1 3/4 (215 g) cups all-purpose flour</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">3/4 (100 g) cup Dutch cocoa powder (no added sugar!)</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">1 good tablespoon not too finely ground espresso beans (as finely as you can manage with a mortar will be good)</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">1 cup (2 sticks/226 g) butter (unsalted, room temperature)</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">almost a cup of sugar (almost 200 g)</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">1 sachet of vanilla sugar (about 8 g, alternatively use vanilla extract)</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">orange zest to taste... I forgot how much I used! I used one of those sachets... probably not quite half of it?</span></li>
</ul>
<br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<br />
<div style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">
<b><span style="color: #8a3258;"><span style="font-size: 1.2em;">How to do it:</span></span></b></div>
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">1. Preheat oven to 180 °C (350 F) and line baking sheets with parchment.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">2. Sift flour and cocoa powder together in a small bowl.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">3. In another bowl, mix butter, sugar and vanilla sugar until the mixture is creamy and fluffy, about 3 or 4 minutes (use a paddle attachment for your electric mixer if you have, or whatever attachment you use for biscuit dough, in other words: not the whisk attachment used for cake dough).</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">4. Slowly add flour, orange zest and ground espresso beans. Don't forget to scrape down the sides now and again.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">5. Take a small amount of dough in your hands, roll a ball, place on baking sheet, press down slightly. Do that until no dough remains :)</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">6. Take some sugar (brown, coarse sugar if you have) and sprinkle the biscuit balls.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">7. Take a fork and press the balls further flat. The sugar which you just sprinkled on should prevent the dough from sticking to the fork too much.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">8. Bake for 12 to 15 minutes (I baked them for 15).</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">9. Take the biscuits out of the oven and let them cool down completely. They will be squishy at first, not really stay in shape and fall apart when you try to pick them up - a somewhat glueless mass. But fear not! They will harden and actually become biscuits rather than heaps of crumbs.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">10. Once they're cooled - enjoy :)</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgkVoKOC3R3U9489x3jy9xk5Njx6R2dNdl6pafMxbbaLHNYpJQ1-cqEMryadf2KvE8NGJAKofpKA19pdV4f3FXtlMerYAwMoFE7TyobwiRznF5SHMdIE1a0gqoeMPj3vdZQH_vD70qJcQ/s1600/IMG_8128.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgkVoKOC3R3U9489x3jy9xk5Njx6R2dNdl6pafMxbbaLHNYpJQ1-cqEMryadf2KvE8NGJAKofpKA19pdV4f3FXtlMerYAwMoFE7TyobwiRznF5SHMdIE1a0gqoeMPj3vdZQH_vD70qJcQ/s400/IMG_8128.JPG" width="400" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Yummy. Addictive espresso bean and orange chocolate biscuits from up close.</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">So.... what is everyone else's definition of cookies and biscuits? (And if you do post your opinion, which I would love, please tell me which country you're from! This is a linguistic survey of sorts).</span><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjxzhx7Ci5DozSUAI1qN93CmhVjCSPa6Zi3tOq41gFefE55ey0OFY0Rdy8Pk-dZUZybdD9GjwhxyWSVP_urkt5K3MxUfurjxLwr9U_UdJj3oUNLmO4KTDYpdhpl78HpcNhuZD3HX4AJtQ/s1600/signature+smallest.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="78" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjxzhx7Ci5DozSUAI1qN93CmhVjCSPa6Zi3tOq41gFefE55ey0OFY0Rdy8Pk-dZUZybdD9GjwhxyWSVP_urkt5K3MxUfurjxLwr9U_UdJj3oUNLmO4KTDYpdhpl78HpcNhuZD3HX4AJtQ/s200/signature+smallest.jpg" width="200" /></span></a></div>
<div>
<br /></div>
Korlinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11695102510616415431noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-225150163143573792.post-77573722480114607112012-08-26T17:22:00.001+02:002012-09-29T12:18:06.388+02:00Choc-choc-chocolatey Chocolate Cookies with Coconut Oil<head>
<script type="text/javascript">
var _gaq = _gaq || [];
_gaq.push(['_setAccount', 'UA-35194809-1']);
_gaq.push(['_trackPageview']);
(function() {
var ga = document.createElement('script'); ga.type = 'text/javascript'; ga.async = true;
ga.src = ('https:' == document.location.protocol ? 'https://ssl' : 'http://www') + '.google-analytics.com/ga.js';
var s = document.getElementsByTagName('script')[0]; s.parentNode.insertBefore(ga, s);
})();
</script>
</head>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhsBBgLhjt4gC5taTVIgx9B7n01w6sjUPFpBKx4WNXm_jsLhWtvPY6jy_GzqcfbGer_SP5w8Vcj93ldVF8mTP4_7JCGJevl54cqYowWt400smIOIOW_q6gNFwXNsJBwP3RwwTMd0ZIgQg/s1600/Choc+Coconut+Cookies.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="347" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhsBBgLhjt4gC5taTVIgx9B7n01w6sjUPFpBKx4WNXm_jsLhWtvPY6jy_GzqcfbGer_SP5w8Vcj93ldVF8mTP4_7JCGJevl54cqYowWt400smIOIOW_q6gNFwXNsJBwP3RwwTMd0ZIgQg/s400/Choc+Coconut+Cookies.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Very chocolatey crunchy chocolate cookies with all kinds of chocolate and coconut oil</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">
Since I started baking, I find that I can't eat many store-bought cookies, cakes, brownies or cupcakes anymore. There are only few I can tolerate... the rest just tastes so artificial and full of preservatives. So when a box of uniform-looking chocolate cookies appeared at work, I was suspicious. But - whoa. They tasted SO GOOD. So unlike other store-bought cookies... crunchy, chocolatey (but not too much), not too sweet and a hint of coconut. Delish. In fact, they were so delicious that I only remembered to take a picture when I had already eaten approximately 65% of the cookie. So, apologies for that. This is what they and the package looked like:</div>
<div style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">
<br />
<a name='more'></a><br /></div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg0-aiZZRZpnvEkGipShg1dssBHU1XutppL5PuVBHJylhFXh-nwogaVQnrcKQPWXmLbJ9MWV_iRUJKr_ze6cHrxVbPGiL6OcsP8d74JT6dmgK16_-gefeohs17FYgPSZSFRh97BEVJmdg/s1600/IMG_0549.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg0-aiZZRZpnvEkGipShg1dssBHU1XutppL5PuVBHJylhFXh-nwogaVQnrcKQPWXmLbJ9MWV_iRUJKr_ze6cHrxVbPGiL6OcsP8d74JT6dmgK16_-gefeohs17FYgPSZSFRh97BEVJmdg/s320/IMG_0549.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Surprisingly extremely tasty chocolate cookies by 'knusperreich'. 'Surprisingly', because they are strictly speaking "store bought" or even "ordered online", which in my experience usually equals artificial taste.*</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">
So I really wanted to try and bake similar cookies - this hint of coconut was just perfect. (BTW: it is entirely possible that I was only imagining the coconutty taste since it didn't say anything about coconut...).</div>
<div style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">
So I thought it'd be a really good idea to take a normal chocolate cookies recipe and simply substitue coconut oil for any butter or oil the recipe might call for. After hunting around quite unsuccessfully for coconut oil in several shops, I finally thought to simply go to an Asia store. And tadaa:</div>
<div style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">
<br /></div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEinhvGsXuvFj8kB4wjZKSZAeRrhwkPkoY8iiB-QYdrF6_cw1WUOXRWMIEri7B07DL3qopFeNCiV389kWc1qRX65Z2NlHNbd91diX-Uda5vnaw49H8x2mBzTRjDHXSvH7Imo5uB1_tNPNw/s1600/IMG_0548.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEinhvGsXuvFj8kB4wjZKSZAeRrhwkPkoY8iiB-QYdrF6_cw1WUOXRWMIEri7B07DL3qopFeNCiV389kWc1qRX65Z2NlHNbd91diX-Uda5vnaw49H8x2mBzTRjDHXSvH7Imo5uB1_tNPNw/s320/IMG_0548.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Coconut oil at room temperature.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">
</div>
<div style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">
</div>
<div style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">
</div>
<div style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">
It was only 3.50 Euro for 500 ml - and apparently, coconut oil is great for basically everything: healthier than vegetable oil, good as a conditioner for shiny hair, great as a base for home-made face scrubs, moisturizing, ... etc! (Check out 122 uses of coconut oil <a href="http://www.deliciousobsessions.com/2012/05/122-uses-for-coconut-oil-even-more-of-the-simple-the-strange-and-the-downright-odd/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">here</a>.) So I was pretty excited about my purchase.</div>
<div style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">
Now, for the baking. A general warning up front: I thought I could just take the amount of butter the recipe calls for and use the same amount of oil ...in weight. Nope. What I should have done, maybe, is to find out how much the amount of butter (given in grams) would have been in millilitre and then use the same amount of oil in millilitres. Dunno whether that would have given me drastically different amounts. What I'm trying to say is: the batter and also the baked cookes were quite greasy. But still super delicious. But you may wanna dial down a notch the amount of coconut oil.</div>
<div style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">
The original recipe can be found <a href="http://cookingmantra.com/healthy-sandwiches/chocolate-cookies/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">here </a>(I just did a Google image search for "chocolate cookie" and decided that those looked the most like the knusperreich cookies I was trying to recreate.). I decided to maximise the recipe based on the amount of chocolate I had in hand, which left me with the somewhat awkward factor 1.28 - I multiplied the ingredients by that.</div>
<div style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">
Here are the amounts I used:</div>
<div style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">
<b><span style="color: #8a3258;"><span style="font-size: 1.2em;">Ingredients:</span></span></b></div>
<div style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg757Eoy8k74zivavCaCfCiTpPhUTiqsjYUymGKtFb7tlnE8iUCJp0thL8hv6hBZzllVnvwmAeWZPeZ02NIl1lUa6_w43RVGDELvZFSyaPV4sxY7Yw0wq7lGth791pxqOuJ0LwvXhjEDA/s1600/IMG_0532.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg757Eoy8k74zivavCaCfCiTpPhUTiqsjYUymGKtFb7tlnE8iUCJp0thL8hv6hBZzllVnvwmAeWZPeZ02NIl1lUa6_w43RVGDELvZFSyaPV4sxY7Yw0wq7lGth791pxqOuJ0LwvXhjEDA/s640/IMG_0532.JPG" width="640" /></a></div>
<div style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">
2 eggs (I had to add a second egg because the dough was too crumbly)</div>
<div style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">
160 g light brown sugar</div>
<div style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">
160 g coconut oil (you may wanna start out with much less. Try 100 g maybe? You can always add more later)</div>
<div style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">
160 g dark chocolate</div>
<div style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">
1 package of vanilla sugar (= 8 g)</div>
<div style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">
190 g flour, sifted (I added another two tablespoons later on cos the dough was too greasy. You could add even more)</div>
<div style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">
40 g cocoa powder, sifted</div>
<div style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">
1.28 tsp of baking powder </div>
<div style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">
2 pinches of salt</div>
<div style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">
250 g chocolate chips (I used mainly white chocolate and a bit of dark)</div>
<div style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">
2 tablespoons of dessicated coconut (could use more!)</div>
<div style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">
<b><span style="color: #8a3258;"><span style="font-size: 1.2em;">How to do it:</span></span></b></div>
<div style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">
</div>
<div style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">
1. First, mix oil and sugar. The batter will look soupy.</div>
<div style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjnbCW-UR5k1vabOloukdhfOo6uYvkMsVZ4SZjuBX-eq84A5MDHBfiu_0J_u4Rggu8qKU649Ty2sFiuuolISQi8hKsb3Zb6fGpNdeLj5ApcUoWjFsrP0sCe-fNcChwy6Ub3hHJYkGIMAw/s1600/IMG_0500.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjnbCW-UR5k1vabOloukdhfOo6uYvkMsVZ4SZjuBX-eq84A5MDHBfiu_0J_u4Rggu8qKU649Ty2sFiuuolISQi8hKsb3Zb6fGpNdeLj5ApcUoWjFsrP0sCe-fNcChwy6Ub3hHJYkGIMAw/s320/IMG_0500.JPG" width="240" /></a></div>
<div style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">
2. Melt the dark chocolate in a bains marie (water in a cooking pan, bring to the boil, have the chocolate in a bowl sitting on the pot so that the steam makes the bowl hot enough for the chocolate to melt). Once melted, add it to the "soup" waiting in oyur mixer. It will get even soupier.</div>
<div style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgvCY5GRJeTL5FvfJBE8Rxx64AgEvUaEaq4q7CePNot17JovH7J-zkkB5CW8bU76YnCXRoeh_DWebS5ZufVCmBn3lObhBBF193Nbyg1e_NQYBLUSkz7AXeSRf4XC2YznJMABhezrx-KFA/s1600/IMG_0502.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgvCY5GRJeTL5FvfJBE8Rxx64AgEvUaEaq4q7CePNot17JovH7J-zkkB5CW8bU76YnCXRoeh_DWebS5ZufVCmBn3lObhBBF193Nbyg1e_NQYBLUSkz7AXeSRf4XC2YznJMABhezrx-KFA/s320/IMG_0502.JPG" width="240" /></a></div>
<div style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">
</div>
<div style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">
</div>
<div style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">
3. Add the dry ingredients... the texture of the dough will improve drastically. Now it may even be called 'dough'. Well... except... it turned out to be super greasy and yet really crumbly at the same time.</div>
<div style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjcXW-OwD1f0X5BNOaaxL0G55VqLXYSeMLday3bY1kFPZr1KnWlPqzvlMlra0hhK1cI7IBjAtQ3ACMSIAbyMH5T0pDqI52CwRKIOjm0WbLS_rdp96-j_UI0XeQWwXM_6GmMGKKTs2dVOA/s1600/IMG_0505.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjcXW-OwD1f0X5BNOaaxL0G55VqLXYSeMLday3bY1kFPZr1KnWlPqzvlMlra0hhK1cI7IBjAtQ3ACMSIAbyMH5T0pDqI52CwRKIOjm0WbLS_rdp96-j_UI0XeQWwXM_6GmMGKKTs2dVOA/s320/IMG_0505.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>
<div style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">
</div>
<div style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">
</div>
<div style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">
4. Add the chocolate chips.</div>
<div style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif; text-align: center;">
</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif; text-align: center;">
</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiExn-pGCja6CE63CpVoyGv6tPFQHwIUw1_UUtvZf3DpOxOFVdO1oJ8kae6zV8ZKDZuCPl-hNFcaLAK_ctYHRS0RzNNUdiCiXZfbMNPd5k1XUYUJYEbLzhiFnCTbUzJUThneAgU1KpwTg/s1600/IMG_0496.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiExn-pGCja6CE63CpVoyGv6tPFQHwIUw1_UUtvZf3DpOxOFVdO1oJ8kae6zV8ZKDZuCPl-hNFcaLAK_ctYHRS0RzNNUdiCiXZfbMNPd5k1XUYUJYEbLzhiFnCTbUzJUThneAgU1KpwTg/s320/IMG_0496.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>
<div style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">
</div>
<div style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">
Doesn't really help with the greasy crumbliness... </div>
<div style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgc19WN9VrD6NB2PTfa9S3I9I4RasaemEaPANugRMmdDnNuYMXnQs9t3iHgrOFBCoKOkgztcL0aRQpCwG_GCHAP3r8FggFO8_JDPWX4p3je6agj5Tz_5un9BRnM7e-JlFvhqN9D8e_NOA/s1600/IMG_0509.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgc19WN9VrD6NB2PTfa9S3I9I4RasaemEaPANugRMmdDnNuYMXnQs9t3iHgrOFBCoKOkgztcL0aRQpCwG_GCHAP3r8FggFO8_JDPWX4p3je6agj5Tz_5un9BRnM7e-JlFvhqN9D8e_NOA/s320/IMG_0509.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>
<div style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">
</div>
<div style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">
I added a second egg, to help bind the dough and I also added a bit more flour and dessicated coconut to a) soak up the greasiness and b) enhance the coconut falvour, since coconut oil somehow doesn't taste of coconut at all.</div>
<div style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">
I didn't add enough flour and dessicated coconut... the dough was still cumby greasy and the cookies did not taste of coconut.</div>
<div style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">
5. Shape small balls, place them on a baking sheet, squish them lightly (they will spread on their own) and put them in the oven at 170C/325F for 20 minutes.</div>
<div style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">
<br /></div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjeZEp9_TNVVTdtaBr-5pRQ0gvOKT2dF1XRuP3uNEML8cePoJxn4MWf6bymeqUJEz4Uf0zg5KwV7nxyHScB9b3FqDp9T1m3G7OCqvijns9rgt2cI598NCuS4L7VdhOJJhZYXrrpDD-3ZQ/s1600/IMG_0513.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjeZEp9_TNVVTdtaBr-5pRQ0gvOKT2dF1XRuP3uNEML8cePoJxn4MWf6bymeqUJEz4Uf0zg5KwV7nxyHScB9b3FqDp9T1m3G7OCqvijns9rgt2cI598NCuS4L7VdhOJJhZYXrrpDD-3ZQ/s320/IMG_0513.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">pre-baking</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">
When they come out of the oven, they will fall apart if you try to pick them up. That's ok. They will get firm later on - promised.</div>
<div style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">
<br /></div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhSjBqV7No1AbdFiB8yktwtFGglf4qESNEDWliUOSVV0GhcTxOjsLYJGyNOm6VaZNe1rQlSc5ioPsa4ORxk3Yee28CcSYKIC4QS-jBT5q3t2a4HuqrpfU9mXE3J4b6VsVn5NFfdBUcfmg/s1600/IMG_0518.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhSjBqV7No1AbdFiB8yktwtFGglf4qESNEDWliUOSVV0GhcTxOjsLYJGyNOm6VaZNe1rQlSc5ioPsa4ORxk3Yee28CcSYKIC4QS-jBT5q3t2a4HuqrpfU9mXE3J4b6VsVn5NFfdBUcfmg/s320/IMG_0518.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">post-baking</td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"></td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">
</div>
<div style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">
<div style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">
<b><span style="color: #8a3258;"><span style="font-size: 1.2em;">Evaluation:</span></span></b></div>
So. Where they a failure? No! Granted, they tasted (and looked) nothing like the cookies I tried to emulate and yes, they didn't taste of coconut at all... but I loved their crunchy texture and that they weren't too sweet and, boy, they were SO chocolatey! My friends also quite liked them... a lot (or so they said). Nice side-effect: they are so chocolatey that the whole house smelled distinctly of chocolate for a whole day. And everytime I opened the box I kept the cookies in, the smell was overwhelming (in a good way). And everyone who had one of my cookies had a lovely smell of chocolate about them for some time afterwards. So, how could that be a failure? Only thing: a bit less coconut oil and more dessicated coconut next time. Over and out.</div>
<div style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgVYoOqEGRIW3OFSoiWWWtxuOfn-WUBUxPlNKKITR0LhZxaoerbgEcTqi4tbysWtcf26isaFBQWh2smskPcw8fSaDydh-ZRwLwLxHdDnnMkQ_8yxbcZ4GHB9dVjYL-jPWT89ZKQ5cXwJw/s1600/signature+smallest.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="78" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgVYoOqEGRIW3OFSoiWWWtxuOfn-WUBUxPlNKKITR0LhZxaoerbgEcTqi4tbysWtcf26isaFBQWh2smskPcw8fSaDydh-ZRwLwLxHdDnnMkQ_8yxbcZ4GHB9dVjYL-jPWT89ZKQ5cXwJw/s200/signature+smallest.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>
<div style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;">*Disclaimer: I swear I did not receive any payment or cookies from this company as an exchange for advertising them - I just really liked them and I thought that people in Germany who feel similar about store bought cookies might appreciate the news that there are good ones out there.</span></div>
Korlinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11695102510616415431noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-225150163143573792.post-28462856865262698572012-08-20T23:17:00.002+02:002012-09-29T12:17:49.156+02:00Easy hostess/host gift: self-made chili vinegar or chili oil<head>
<script type="text/javascript">
var _gaq = _gaq || [];
_gaq.push(['_setAccount', 'UA-35194809-1']);
_gaq.push(['_trackPageview']);
(function() {
var ga = document.createElement('script'); ga.type = 'text/javascript'; ga.async = true;
ga.src = ('https:' == document.location.protocol ? 'https://ssl' : 'http://www') + '.google-analytics.com/ga.js';
var s = document.getElementsByTagName('script')[0]; s.parentNode.insertBefore(ga, s);
})();
</script>
</head>
<div style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">
</div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi6cMRtGmjjG82XLVRevmvWGyDloY8IAurKN6PcFkGosxHWugQf2vsOeobx8zSJmn4VkLEsxSSdpmW7LiANgSoqk_mKPVS8gGmQuqXGZ3eGzYXwfcROVdNeJ8cBZbTDJAEtupgbmEJ_XQ/s1600/Chiliframed.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi6cMRtGmjjG82XLVRevmvWGyDloY8IAurKN6PcFkGosxHWugQf2vsOeobx8zSJmn4VkLEsxSSdpmW7LiANgSoqk_mKPVS8gGmQuqXGZ3eGzYXwfcROVdNeJ8cBZbTDJAEtupgbmEJ_XQ/s400/Chiliframed.jpg" width="292" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">Self-made chili vinegar</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">
Ok, so this one isn't about baking and doesn't invole an oven in any kind. But, meh, who cares.</div>
<div style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">
I was invited for dinner to a friend's place and usually I don't like turning up to stuff like that empty-handed, especially if I suspect the person may have put some effort in having me over (she did, it was delicious and a lovely evening - so I was very glad I had prepared something for her).</div>
<div style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">
So this time I turned to Martha for inspiration. I like looking at Martha Stewart's website, I like the style and sometimes they have nice ideas. Yes, sometimes I like to browse the crafts pages, the wedding etiquette pages, the hostess gifts section... Does that make me older than I am? Well, I always suspected that I am a little bit 1950s housewife on the inside.</div>
<div style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">
<br />
<a name='more'></a></div>
<div style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">
Anyhow. So. I decided on making chili vinegar, simply because it looked nice, I like spicy stuff myself and, most importantly, I figured I could get the needed ingredients on such short notice (I decided upon a hostess gift some 4 or 5 hours before I was supposed to be there).</div>
<div style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">
It is quite simple. You'll find the original recipe <a href="http://www.marthastewart.com/370777/hot-sauce-hostess-gifts" target="_blank">here</a> - it only talks about infusing vinegar but I suspect that chili-infused oil might be just as big a hit.</div>
<div style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjC7H9g4aDnmgVOv7FplLJthbWYGjadwZk9lWoKbywRQYcKoShPsygtGf_k1Hv-BFh1kOCRcG9GIqj7HJxtSvzDGlfxNFvp-ykm5KRck0vPPN999EkPd5wijuawqwe3C087YlDVnN-QcA/s1600/IMG_8090.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjC7H9g4aDnmgVOv7FplLJthbWYGjadwZk9lWoKbywRQYcKoShPsygtGf_k1Hv-BFh1kOCRcG9GIqj7HJxtSvzDGlfxNFvp-ykm5KRck0vPPN999EkPd5wijuawqwe3C087YlDVnN-QcA/s400/IMG_8090.JPG" width="400" /></a></div>
<br />
<br />
<b><span style="color: #8a3258;"><span style="font-size: 1.2em;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">What you need:</span></span></span></b><br />
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<ul>
<li>pretty bottles</li>
<li>enough white vinegar, rice vingar or oil to fill the bottles</li>
<li>red, yellow and green chilis - Martha says 20 per half litre, but I used much less, just as many as I could fit in each bottle (six big red ones for the bigger bottle and 4 smaller yellow ones for the much smaller bottle - I think even the bigger one was less than half a litre) (I couldn't find any green ones)</li>
<li>decoration as desired </li>
</ul>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiCE5leOPL9qpvYy_QJcOHVJOvp0FbYdGxsjFuNVtOdn-Lq0s2X9UE0Wprm6tVtMgvzic6CDlWDxtDIGXlIs7e0ME-V55E6wT5eCLh7lLnDXta2KRePqPHnZXKUjyflnNr_VYcbSVajGw/s1600/IMG_8102.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiCE5leOPL9qpvYy_QJcOHVJOvp0FbYdGxsjFuNVtOdn-Lq0s2X9UE0Wprm6tVtMgvzic6CDlWDxtDIGXlIs7e0ME-V55E6wT5eCLh7lLnDXta2KRePqPHnZXKUjyflnNr_VYcbSVajGw/s640/IMG_8102.JPG" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Oh-oh, careful, hot! ...not just on your tongue, but also on your eyes, nose, and other sensitive body parts.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<ul>
<li>and, secret tip: one-way gloves! Otherwise: ouch. Trust me. </li>
</ul>
<div style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQBYN9_Bj2syjtLlJaQg8Y0tGc15imaQhtRirJg67eBqn4tCOo9Fv0CLHBwnej_qXw48H332mLwYQrh3shRtmSUBYrw3LjEAl8b4yvpncljBPUs9I4Tf81qQSlA7EobffkwaMzdiKAcw/s1600/IMG_8107.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQBYN9_Bj2syjtLlJaQg8Y0tGc15imaQhtRirJg67eBqn4tCOo9Fv0CLHBwnej_qXw48H332mLwYQrh3shRtmSUBYrw3LjEAl8b4yvpncljBPUs9I4Tf81qQSlA7EobffkwaMzdiKAcw/s640/IMG_8107.JPG" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">There you go. Much better.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<br />
<b><span style="color: #8a3258;"><span style="font-size: 1.2em;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">How to do it:</span></span></span></b><br />
<br />
1. Sterilise the bottles by placing them into hot water for ten minutes (make sure the water goes inside the bottles).<br />
<br />
2. Contrarily to Martha, I decided to cut the chilis in halves, along their length. Ok, not so much "decided" as "was forced to", since otherwise they wouldn't have fit through the bottle neck. Plus I figured that the infusion would get much hotter this way, because of the sliced cells and the seeds.<br />
<br />
3. Once all your chilis are safe and snug in the bottles, bring the vinegar to just boiling, then use a funnel to fill the hot liquid into the bottles.<br />
<br />
4. Let cool and cork the bottles. Wait a few days for the flavour and spiciness to unfold. Not sure how long this will keep, but probably quite a while.<br />
<br />
<br />
So, now the question that is burning (tehehe... burning... pun!) under everyone's nails, I'm sure. Which peppers are hotter - red or yellow? I decided to sacrifice myself in a self-experiment in order to be able to warn my friends who I would present this later to.<br />
In this case (and I'm sure it depends on the different chilis used, etc.), surprisingly, the yellow ones were much, <i>much </i>hotter.<br />
I needed quite a bit of milk to get over it.<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhgpMo41CYE-M7Ypt2zE7aIDvrDHGlHQuidMsQ4-QjB65SV3VZKCR6eoKXegsZIVBkX5n92JwjmgJLF5cMnF21IXO6XYNx_h0SyYZMSnldwf8TpKJFQ09WW1BIgmUGE046e4mRhTNqGeQ/s1600/IMG_8111.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhgpMo41CYE-M7Ypt2zE7aIDvrDHGlHQuidMsQ4-QjB65SV3VZKCR6eoKXegsZIVBkX5n92JwjmgJLF5cMnF21IXO6XYNx_h0SyYZMSnldwf8TpKJFQ09WW1BIgmUGE046e4mRhTNqGeQ/s400/IMG_8111.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Always go for milk or yogurt (or bread) to fit nasty spice heat pain. Why? I've heard it's because the stuff that makes chili taste hot is lipophilic, i.e. soluble in fat, not in water. This means that water cannot "wash the pain away", the stuff that hurts stays put. Something that contains fat does a much better job.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
</div>
<div style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">
<br />
If you've tried infusing things, I'm interested to hear your comments - I think I will go garlic crazy for my next infusion...<br />
<br />
Next time there will be some baking, though. Promised.<br />
<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_eOa9qmDoOOxsVKvhneNjSUT_KzdKwmmmO7qFRJzGIDLL6yBffJRUGEGqUZp2Fek-UPSYl8CdYbhCfchMd8c2he8wvXqkSttlNdpx-DJMY-0KXNR2C30zR0zmViEGH_VO45geUgPE4w/s1600/signature+smallest.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="125" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_eOa9qmDoOOxsVKvhneNjSUT_KzdKwmmmO7qFRJzGIDLL6yBffJRUGEGqUZp2Fek-UPSYl8CdYbhCfchMd8c2he8wvXqkSttlNdpx-DJMY-0KXNR2C30zR0zmViEGH_VO45geUgPE4w/s320/signature+smallest.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br /></div>
</div>
Korlinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11695102510616415431noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-225150163143573792.post-72032606990114266602012-08-13T23:03:00.002+02:002012-09-29T14:24:17.169+02:00Zebra cupcakes with vanilla and chocolate buttercream<head>
<script type="text/javascript">
var _gaq = _gaq || [];
_gaq.push(['_setAccount', 'UA-35194809-1']);
_gaq.push(['_trackPageview']);
(function() {
var ga = document.createElement('script'); ga.type = 'text/javascript'; ga.async = true;
ga.src = ('https:' == document.location.protocol ? 'https://ssl' : 'http://www') + '.google-analytics.com/ga.js';
var s = document.getElementsByTagName('script')[0]; s.parentNode.insertBefore(ga, s);
})();
</script>
</head>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_h3xCh4CmT1sQQHRmOv8o1sh7U1PaQtlqSltA3-ru5cHEm_RIQscEQ6n3FvY3pX0JU60DojktYp5uSLbDZsT8IQOfZuINO6WKeqv0keQ0pmsCYJsPkY5Kv1qXJnAdg18y-BSnbLozdg/s1600/IMG_8086.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_h3xCh4CmT1sQQHRmOv8o1sh7U1PaQtlqSltA3-ru5cHEm_RIQscEQ6n3FvY3pX0JU60DojktYp5uSLbDZsT8IQOfZuINO6WKeqv0keQ0pmsCYJsPkY5Kv1qXJnAdg18y-BSnbLozdg/s640/IMG_8086.JPG" width="640" /></span></a></div>
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">A few weeks ago I came across a recipe for zebra cupcakes. I had made a lovely zebra cake once before (of which no record exists... so I have no choice but to rebake it one day. It is a tough life.) and it had been quite a hit (mostly with myself. I loved it.) so of course I had to try a cupcake version. As a bonus, I topped it of with vanilla and chocolate cream cheese frosting - to keep in line with the zebra theme.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"></span><br />
<a name='more'></a><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Let me give you the recipe first, then my comments.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Unfortunately I don't remember how many cupcakes I got out of this, but the recipe says 16. I think I had slightly more.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<br />
<strong><span style="color: #8a3258;"><span style="font-size: 1.2em;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Ingredients for the cupcakes:</span></span></span></strong><br />
<ul>
<li><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">2 cups flour</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">1 tbsp baking powder</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">4 eggs</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">1 cup sugar</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">8 g vanilla sugar (that's the content of one standard sachet, alternatively use 2 tsp vanilla extract)</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">1 cup milk</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">113 g (= 1/2 cup = 1 stick) butter, melted and cooled</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">1/2 cup vegetable oil (tip: do <i>not </i>use rapeseed oil...)</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">2 tbsp cocoa powder</span></li>
</ul>
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">I found the recipe at <a href="http://www.meganscookin.com/secret-recipe-club-zebra-cupcakes?utm_source=crowdignite.com&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=crowdignite.com">Megan's Cookin' </a>but adapted it slightly, mostly because I had to make do with what I had at home.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Instructions:</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">1. Preheat the oven to 180°C (= 350F) - I use a fan oven so if you don't have one, you might want to adapt the temperature/baking time.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">2. Sift the the flour and baking powder together in a medium bowl. Set aside for now.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">3. Mix eggs, sugar and vanilla sugar on high speed in a large mixing bowl for up to 5 minutes, until it is thick and pale, like this:</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_Us9GV_nZCq4UiB1-mAwy0aYodVbB3P826kws8yiEy3_XsJ3Bm7-8bnsacKTHxf0QjxxN6vlJPI_me2YqQRm6b9R8kvXJvs51EZEk1kqMCdPrMdZeuUSRTqYtrIzim2L54EtnfNi3sg/s1600/IMG_8069.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_Us9GV_nZCq4UiB1-mAwy0aYodVbB3P826kws8yiEy3_XsJ3Bm7-8bnsacKTHxf0QjxxN6vlJPI_me2YqQRm6b9R8kvXJvs51EZEk1kqMCdPrMdZeuUSRTqYtrIzim2L54EtnfNi3sg/s320/IMG_8069.JPG" width="320" /></span></a></div>
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">4. Lower the mixer's speed and stir in the milk, butter and oil. Don't forget to scrape down the sides of the bowl once in a while. I like to combine the milk and oil in a separate container before stirring it in - this way, I feel that there is less 'oil loss', since the oil floats on top of the milk and cannot leave that much behind. It probably make no difference whatsoever, but that's just how I roll.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh2ywnLhphl8IfAALgbxBbq3XH8AcG4z3RnY5gJKqFK3pe8r0ZGWEmGgzHjxLgdrcYTA7NfUSx36VB0zceQfvfia0XB0z3nTGq43lrusCNR3eKhNPgHUv9D4RQ9vvNDodSrjhdPEuERCw/s1600/IMG_8067.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh2ywnLhphl8IfAALgbxBbq3XH8AcG4z3RnY5gJKqFK3pe8r0ZGWEmGgzHjxLgdrcYTA7NfUSx36VB0zceQfvfia0XB0z3nTGq43lrusCNR3eKhNPgHUv9D4RQ9vvNDodSrjhdPEuERCw/s320/IMG_8067.JPG" width="320" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Melted butter and combined milk and oil.</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">5. Stir wet ingredients into the flour mixture.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">6. Now the recipe calls for you to transfer a third of the batter into another bowl and whisk in the cocoa powder. I think I used just a bit less than half the batter.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">7. Line your cupcake tin with cupcake liners.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">8. Next it says to place one tablespoons of the vanilla batter into the centre of the cupcake liner - I used a teaspoon instead to increase the number of zebra lines. The recipe also asks you to let it stand for a few seconds so that it spreads out slightly - but you'll see that this happens automatically since it will take you a moment to fill all the liners. Now drop one teaspoon of the chocolate batter in the middle of the vanilla. Continue alternating the two batters until the cupcakes are about 3/4 full.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">9. Bake for about 20 minutes, until the cupcakes spring back when you gently push against them with your finger and a toothpick comes out clean.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQyRe2wzRRwOSh5MsbF7vJtc4TkT6HgHIb6iTiHLlEirR8svmwRw9KVCOIXxHlZ1r16SBg5nsXg7jbN3JrKDq2_OT1_B-YWghoE8oHkfo3otkOW7Fbo7lmdlEdncrznLqV3UtCkp1URw/s1600/IMG_8076.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQyRe2wzRRwOSh5MsbF7vJtc4TkT6HgHIb6iTiHLlEirR8svmwRw9KVCOIXxHlZ1r16SBg5nsXg7jbN3JrKDq2_OT1_B-YWghoE8oHkfo3otkOW7Fbo7lmdlEdncrznLqV3UtCkp1URw/s320/IMG_8076.JPG" width="320" /></span></a></div>
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">10. Let cool for a bit before transferring them to a wire rack to cool completely.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<br />
<strong><span style="color: #8a3258;"><span style="font-size: 1.2em;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Now for the frosting:</span></span></span></strong><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">First, take your basic cream cheese frosting:</span><br />
<ul>
<li><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">113 g (= 1 stick or 1/2 cup) of butter at room temperature, smooth!</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">226 g (= 8 oz) of cream cheese at room temperature</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">3 - 4 cups of powdered sugar - sifted!</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">some vanilla sugar/vanilla extract and some dark chocolate (forgot how much I used... about two rows of a bar?)</span></li>
</ul>
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Usually I add 1-2 tablespoons of heavy whipping cream to make it smoother but I had some low fat cheese curd to use up, so I used one or two big tablespoons of that. I figured that the texture and freshness would offset the vanilla and chocolate and the general sweetness nicely. It would probably be better if one didn't use low fat. Will have to try.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">1. Cream butter, cream cheese and curd cheese together.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">2. Add enough powdered sugar for the frosting to become stiff enough for piping.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">3. Divide in half, add vanilla to one half.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">4. Melt the chocolate in a bains marie (meaning you bring a bit of water to the boil in a pot and put a bowl with the chocolate in it on top, so that the hot water steam heats up the bowl and melts the choc)</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">5. Let cool slightly, then whisk into the non-vanilla half of the cream cheese frosting.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">6. Now take two plastic freezer bags. Pop them into a tall glass each and fill in the frostings. Like so:</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjJqosiYuWxUskkILAWoL1Pk9u59Wll5F0S2nx09-uZm6bcll1KCd9ZxdKveCn9w1TLanYxmyxhruZWJwQvoVLOXyZh8PKD8MaQlM8VUtFrkgSn7ZwnrQ0Io3Bklx4lWD7v-N4ZtrrTfA/s1600/IMG_8079.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjJqosiYuWxUskkILAWoL1Pk9u59Wll5F0S2nx09-uZm6bcll1KCd9ZxdKveCn9w1TLanYxmyxhruZWJwQvoVLOXyZh8PKD8MaQlM8VUtFrkgSn7ZwnrQ0Io3Bklx4lWD7v-N4ZtrrTfA/s400/IMG_8079.JPG" width="400" /></span></a></div>
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">7. Cut bog holes in the bottoms of the bags. Take an even bigger freezer bag, cut a hole big enough in it for a piping tip to fit in there (not too big or it will fall through). I used a fairly large star tip.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">8. Now pipe the two frostings rather evenly next to each other in the big freezer bag. It should look somehing like this:</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhrImFfjdbfx0T5oi-th7SoK2L-wC2xD8g_KL3vaiMTWHfnlr55k5U7D88bdNFefgrqBgFuXy5Eb-MNB6Nv3WT_CN6ygUruS3uYA3l67VUGrVvz4BlCF-TpbaJjJHwtSNTEQ7P77-NHPw/s1600/IMG_8080.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhrImFfjdbfx0T5oi-th7SoK2L-wC2xD8g_KL3vaiMTWHfnlr55k5U7D88bdNFefgrqBgFuXy5Eb-MNB6Nv3WT_CN6ygUruS3uYA3l67VUGrVvz4BlCF-TpbaJjJHwtSNTEQ7P77-NHPw/s400/IMG_8080.JPG" width="400" /></span></a></div>
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">9. Now you're ready to pipe onto the cupcakes. After all these steps, they should be cool enough to be frosted...</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjmS3tyfaU4lEnNggYBnZMY2oUVUanfj_T3lRFqfcsCL6KowcPjIJfNmEGa5fu25QAjAXJUXXvRqYkYsE4pdTxx644DCH43-dz4tUr9QDfB2GFgJWhbSkyyShIFsmQcPDP5TIgmRhW7ag/s1600/IMG_8089.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjmS3tyfaU4lEnNggYBnZMY2oUVUanfj_T3lRFqfcsCL6KowcPjIJfNmEGa5fu25QAjAXJUXXvRqYkYsE4pdTxx644DCH43-dz4tUr9QDfB2GFgJWhbSkyyShIFsmQcPDP5TIgmRhW7ag/s640/IMG_8089.JPG" width="480" /></span></a></div>
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">And in case you're wondering what the look like from the inside:</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj1gHo4inYnDYNJ7DA6-fKnririnaxXOAo9iSL__nh-KYfJOSDEo01HbR-maRM7BYdMFJ6TP1vV15Fkxn-4FwCHZIfCLxKQQM8AVEPuRTsAT3uLyRtaidv7ZNGHqBp7kEjnPktGlyKhRg/s1600/IMG_8082.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj1gHo4inYnDYNJ7DA6-fKnririnaxXOAo9iSL__nh-KYfJOSDEo01HbR-maRM7BYdMFJ6TP1vV15Fkxn-4FwCHZIfCLxKQQM8AVEPuRTsAT3uLyRtaidv7ZNGHqBp7kEjnPktGlyKhRg/s400/IMG_8082.JPG" width="400" /></span></a></div>
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">So - my comments. I used canola/rapeseed oil. BIG mistake. While my friends really liked the cupcakes, all I could taste was the oil. I strongly recommend using sunflower oil. Or maybe coconut oil would be amazing. I'll have to try out whether that is going to be too overpowering. Actually... I have never worked with coconut oil, so I haven't the faintest clue whether you taste anything/something/a lot actually. But. Bottom line: hands off the rapeseed oil.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">But otherwise - they were aesthetically very pleasing. So pretty. If you wanna impress relatively easily - bake these. See:</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjlhogb_z0W1h5KoFEsC9ZSAnMaTaFIguDfptBd0QpdimQknHCo8m0KtaWF4jM0eRSgR0ImHkpDYHibrBJBfVx8KnDh9SdN5_pB66pAwV8yZV_4V8fVUrhIoCrbd8RymctAgAkXcXk4UQ/s1600/IMG_8083.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjlhogb_z0W1h5KoFEsC9ZSAnMaTaFIguDfptBd0QpdimQknHCo8m0KtaWF4jM0eRSgR0ImHkpDYHibrBJBfVx8KnDh9SdN5_pB66pAwV8yZV_4V8fVUrhIoCrbd8RymctAgAkXcXk4UQ/s400/IMG_8083.JPG" width="400" /></span></a></div>
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhor8bKSRXw1xiQwm_XwDrdnsWMp_SNuayX8ANtDNiTANZ5bCbAwylusxsC3pp3r9T12wM1n4g0c7_gRSv9HA6DtGOD7SH4EiezAlY7-TN0stdGWs57NwSY4oD2Twbt_UUWC75LkLgy6w/s1600/signature+small.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="125" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhor8bKSRXw1xiQwm_XwDrdnsWMp_SNuayX8ANtDNiTANZ5bCbAwylusxsC3pp3r9T12wM1n4g0c7_gRSv9HA6DtGOD7SH4EiezAlY7-TN0stdGWs57NwSY4oD2Twbt_UUWC75LkLgy6w/s320/signature+small.jpg" width="320" /></span></a></div>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
Korlinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11695102510616415431noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-225150163143573792.post-60073723871451791052012-08-12T20:13:00.001+02:002012-09-29T12:17:13.272+02:00The beginning<head>
<script type="text/javascript">
var _gaq = _gaq || [];
_gaq.push(['_setAccount', 'UA-35194809-1']);
_gaq.push(['_trackPageview']);
(function() {
var ga = document.createElement('script'); ga.type = 'text/javascript'; ga.async = true;
ga.src = ('https:' == document.location.protocol ? 'https://ssl' : 'http://www') + '.google-analytics.com/ga.js';
var s = document.getElementsByTagName('script')[0]; s.parentNode.insertBefore(ga, s);
})();
</script>
</head>
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">So… another baking blog, huh? Does the Internet really need that? Maybe, maybe not. I don’t even think anyone will read this. The thing is just – I have been baking so much and for a while I had some real hits… but for the life of me, I cannot remember the recipes. So I figured, better start writing it down. For my own reference. And some friends have been asking me for recipes – especially for my macaron secret (it’s no secret. It’s no magic. It really just is pure… luck? Persistance? But we’ll come to that) (and I don't even get them right half the time!).</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"></span><br />
<a name='more'></a><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">No one likes long boring intros, so just the quick facts: I started my baking obsession in the exam term of my final bachelor year in Cambridge, simply out of procrastination. Instead of revising, I looked at what I termed “baking ****” (huh, will the use of that word now get me Google hits for “****”..?)*. Instead of studying, I looked at pages of bakeries, baking blogs, baking decoration tutorials… After some months of just looking, I started baking myself. Mostly at night though, when I couldn’t sleep (cos, during the day I had to “write exams”). This continued into my Master’s year. Whenever my old friend insomnia visited me, I turned to the kitchen. I’m sure my grad friends remember my facebook posts of “hey kids. I baked. Help yourself to cookies/caramel cupcakes/self-made <i>Baumkuchen</i>/caramel layer cake with buttercream ruffles in the 5th floor kitchen”… I have pictures to prove it:</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><br /></span>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiTDrm2nj1nhPLh7AAM1oJMqMbFo3ttqlGltH4Mr-5KcMqEArIH_K-CPPHzZ3N-o5uHs4yC08PRbQGCxoT9spAMMpA2hvsrzaRmJXHNvUZD-vfeMILdG7hBf0Ff2Azz-Z81OSnytBxDTw/s1600/caramel+layer+cake+vanilla+buttercream+layer+chocolate-caramel+frosting.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><img alt="Caramel cake with a layer of vanilla buttercream and chocolate-caramel buttercream frosting" border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiTDrm2nj1nhPLh7AAM1oJMqMbFo3ttqlGltH4Mr-5KcMqEArIH_K-CPPHzZ3N-o5uHs4yC08PRbQGCxoT9spAMMpA2hvsrzaRmJXHNvUZD-vfeMILdG7hBf0Ff2Azz-Z81OSnytBxDTw/s320/caramel+layer+cake+vanilla+buttercream+layer+chocolate-caramel+frosting.jpg" title="Caramel cake with a layer of vanilla buttercream and chocolate-caramel buttercream frosting" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: small;">Caramel cake with a layer of vanilla buttercream and chocolate-caramel buttercream frosting</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjSzDkfuMXWvr2NuHwnAxInsBrzzfrJelkWb-0FWYMHcld5MNXWZggYf7KIQogr5V2-5Q7nM4T0zKMRWgIcetclB0A7xXf85XtDmlV3Y_RfkSZ1dmU7TvgCPhsaNIvN1p_y1SWFFZwSlA/s1600/cinnamon-caramel+cupcakes.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="Caramel-cinnamon cupcakes" border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjSzDkfuMXWvr2NuHwnAxInsBrzzfrJelkWb-0FWYMHcld5MNXWZggYf7KIQogr5V2-5Q7nM4T0zKMRWgIcetclB0A7xXf85XtDmlV3Y_RfkSZ1dmU7TvgCPhsaNIvN1p_y1SWFFZwSlA/s320/cinnamon-caramel+cupcakes.jpg" title="Caramel-cinnamon cupcakes" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: small;">Caramel-cinnamon cupcakes</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhJnMi0Wiw7zFrQ4U_Lq20pfqzqoJvJOrisgCbT6ecfOl-gIAHkRsS6n6Gv_La65m1IYczT0UydLTjrUqmVqAKtnJkVKNq5OrhTzxcL9LChqDbzm0InGy4a-BKc7-BrdeqLGz54aYFwEA/s1600/Baumkuchen.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="German Baumkuchen" border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhJnMi0Wiw7zFrQ4U_Lq20pfqzqoJvJOrisgCbT6ecfOl-gIAHkRsS6n6Gv_La65m1IYczT0UydLTjrUqmVqAKtnJkVKNq5OrhTzxcL9LChqDbzm0InGy4a-BKc7-BrdeqLGz54aYFwEA/s320/Baumkuchen.jpg" title="German Baumkuchen" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: small;">German Baumkuchen</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">So. From now on I’ll start documenting my kitchen adventures. It won’t be </span><i style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">that</i><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"> regularly, cos, you know, I have a job and all. But then again, who reads this anyways? Probably not even my best friends ;)</span><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhP2P2mL3SEv0zSZA2_iBQs33Wz3sx-yiIAQ4zu45AcScjwRQ4dfsk7ceWbZpX5BO0DCoumfNy9SPLKeVSUSsgmutJs4EN5WQDl1MwWy8aDFF5FlWn7vSGRS1Y1FnqzgiLm03ctDOroLA/s1600/signature+small.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="78" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhP2P2mL3SEv0zSZA2_iBQs33Wz3sx-yiIAQ4zu45AcScjwRQ4dfsk7ceWbZpX5BO0DCoumfNy9SPLKeVSUSsgmutJs4EN5WQDl1MwWy8aDFF5FlWn7vSGRS1Y1FnqzgiLm03ctDOroLA/s200/signature+small.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"></span>
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"></span>
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">PS: I have to mention three blogs here, which all together got me baking: <a href="http://www.cupcakeproject.com/">The Cupcake Project</a>, <a href="http://www.notquitenigella.com/">Not Quite Nigella</a> and <a href="http://www.bakerella.com/">Bakerella</a>. I followed The Cupcake Project almost from the beginning on and it’s still my go-to blog for recipes (loved the project, love the blog, love the recipes). Not Quite Nigella - I love her recipes for nibbles (her toffee is my go-to hostess gift) and she writes in such a cute way. And you just gotta love looking at Bakerella’s creations – not that I could ever do something like that. I tried. I failed.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">*I had written a word that begins with "p" and rhymes with "horn". A week later it turns out that, yes, writing this <i>will</i> get me visitors from explicit websites. Funny at first, bwildering and unsettling at second, I decided to delete that word here. </span>
Korlinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11695102510616415431noreply@blogger.com4