Rich Chocolate Tart

Hello Sweet lades and gentlemen,

I decided that I don't want to keep it as a secret anymore. I love chocolate. Well, this is not really a secret is it? Everybody loves chocolate. And you can make so many different things with it: Hot Chocolate, Mousse au Chocolat, Chocolate cake, Chocolate Truffles, Chocolate Cookies...the list goes on and on. Then, when I was in France I discovered the perfection of chocolate. A real "Tarte au Chocolat" is the holy grail of every chocolate lover. Especially, when it is served hot! I could eat one whole cake within minutes.

Many people think that making a classic Chocolate Tart with a perfectly soft core is a well kept secret and so did I. But I tried out many different recipes and finally I developed the perfect way to make Chocolate Tart. There are only two important things: Only use high quality dark chocolate and keep an eye on the time. Using high quality dark chocolate gives it the original, rich and creamy flavor. And I found out that 14-15 minutes in the oven is the perfect time. If you follow these directions, the Chocolate Tart can't go wrong. When the Tart came right out of the oven, I garnished it with some red berries and I sprinkled a little bit of "Fleur de sel" on top of it. Fleur de sel, the flower of salt, is a high quality sea salt, it brings out the flavors of the chocolate perfectly and it looks pretty as well.
Eating a piece of this lightly salted, rich Chocolate Tart makes me feel like I'm on holiday in France, sitting in a beautiful Café on the pier, enjoying the fresh sea air and the taste of dark chocolate. It truly is perfection. Moments like these, are the little things in life that make it worth living.


Ingredients:

300g dark chocolate
300g unsalted butter
150g sugar
6       eggs
3tbs  all purpose flour




Preparation:

Over a water bath, melt the butter, chocolate and sugar. Make sure that I does not get too hot and the chocolate does not burn on the bottom. Then, beat the eggs for about 4-5 minutes until they are really light and fluffy. After the chocolate-butter mixture has cooled a little bit, pur the eggs in there and mix it all with a hand mixer. Now, sift the flour in there and mix again until it is all incorporated.
Fill the mixture in a springform and place it in the fridge until the oven is preheated to 200°. Then, after about 14-15 minutes baking time the outside should be cooked and the inside should be still really soft and wet. That is exactly how you want it. Let it cool for just a few minutes and serve warm.

Rich Cherry Cheesecake

Good evening sweet ladys and gentlemen,

I am really sorry that I did not write a blogpost last Sunday... I have been to a beautiful wedding a few hours from where I live and my whole week was quite busy so I had hardly any time to do something blog related. But this today I am coming with something special! 

As it is holiday season, my husband and I had a lot of family over this weekend and I did a whole lot of baking. I find it so nice to have a lot of family around me. The air is filled with laughs and giggles and everyone is happy and excited...Candles are burning on a beautiful table setting, cakes and other sweet treats are laid out beautifully on some vintage plates and the air smells of coffee and a warm fire is burning in the corner of the room. To me, this is one of these moments that make life so worth living. Everything is perfect, everybody is happy and all worries are gone for a moment. 

The Power Of Family 

Family is, 

heaven sent from our father above, 

bonded by the power of love.

No matter what family has each others back,…

by Antony Smith - Family Friend Poems

For our afternoon tea I made different treats. One of them was a very dense and creamy cheesecake, topped of with a rich and fruity cherry sauce. The crust is made of crushed butter cookies, almonds and a lot of cinnamon. The filling contains a lot of heavy cream cheese as well as fresh vanilla which gives a perfectly rich aroma. And the cherry sauce on top, I am being honest with you guys.. It is the perfect cheesecake for the holiday season. Seriously, everybody loved the cake and it was gone within minutes. The combination of cheesecake and cherries is like a firework of flavors. The Cherries are very fruity and a little bit sour, then the cheesecake filling is soft, creamy and perfectly sweet. Not to mention the crust, whose wintery flavors like almonds and cinnamon harmonise perfectly with the other flavors of the cake.

Ingredients for the crust: 

100g butter cookies (crushed or blended)

100g grated almonds 

150g butter

2 tsp cinnamon

Ingredients for the filling:

4 large eggs

800g cream cheese

100g sour cream 

180g sugar

Seeds of 1 vanilla bean

6 tbs all purpose flour

3 tbs maple sirup

pinch of salt and cinnamon

Ingredients for the sauce:

1 glass jar cherries (about 680-700g with juice)

2-3 tbs instant galantine 

juice of half a lemon

Preparation:

Preheat your oven to 160°. Then, start by mixing the crushed cookies and almonds with the melted butter and cinnamon. Mix it all well and then, fill it in a baking tin and press it down with a spoon or your hands and put it in the fridge. Now you are ready to make the filling. Thereto, put all the ingredients in a large bowl and mix it all at once with a hand mixer. Make sure, that you don't over mix it as it should be as dense and creamy as possible and there should be no air in it. After that, you are ready to pour it all in the baking tin and bake it for about 60-70 minutes depending on your type of oven. Just make sure it is a little bit brown on the sides and cooked in the middle.

Now, let the cake cool completely. In the mean time, pur the juice from the cherries in a small sauce pan, then stir in the galantine with a whisk. As it thickens, add the cherries and stir them gently. 

Now you are ready to pur them on top of the cake and place it in the fridge until you serve it. 

Cinnamon and Cointreau Chocolate Almonds

Hello my sweet ladys and gentlemen,

this weekend my husband and I went to a really nice winter market. We had so much delicious food and the best blueberry mulled wine with awesome spices in it. The atmosphere was so nice and I really enjoyed wandering around the streets with all the little market stands, fairy lights all over and the sweet scent of hot wine punch, gingerbread and roasted almonds. It was all so perfectly cozy and magical. I loved it!
And of course we had to get some delicious chocolate covered almonds...but why not try to make some at home? It couldn't be that difficult. So I searched through the internet and read thousands of recipes. Then, I came to a conclusion and created my own personal recipe.
First, I turned on some relaxing Michael Bublé music. Then, I roasted some almonds in Contreau Orange liqueur. After letting them cool, I melted some milk chocolate and added vanilla extract and cinnamon in a pan. After that, I poured the delightfully smelling almonds in the sweet chocolate melt and stirred them in there until they were all completely covered in chocolatey goodness to then, roll them in an awesome composition of powdered sugar and different spices...
Seriously, this is amazing. You can create your own custom made Chocolate Almonds and you can decide what ever flavor you want.
Surely, it makes a little mess but why not dare to try something new and discover the joy of a home that smells like a winter fair itself?

Ingredients: 

500g plain almonds

3 tbs Cointreau Orange liqueur

100g chocolate

pinch of salt

a few drops of vanilla extract

100g powdered sugar 

2 tsp cinnamon

1 tsp anise

1/2 tsp nutmeg 

Preparation:

Pour all the almonds in a medium sized pan and then, pour the liqueur over them. Now, roast them until they are lightly brown and it smells kind of roasty. Set them aside and let them cool completely. Then, in another pan, melt the chocolate and add the 1 tsp of cinnamon, a pinch of salt and vanilla extract. Now, you are ready to pur the almond in there, remove the pan from the heat and stir until all the almonds are covered completely.
Then, put them one after another on a lined baking tray and let it cool.
Now, yore ready to put powdered sugar, 1 tsp of cinnamon, 1tsp anise and 1/2 tsp of nutmeg in a large bowl and mix it really well together. After that, put all the almonds in there, place a lid on top of the bowl and now shake and swing the bowl around until all the almonds are rolled and covered in the coat of winter flavors.



 Now have some fun and scare the winter blues away! :) 

Fluffy Apple Pancakes

Hello ladys and gentlemen,

as my number of Instagram followers rose quite fast in the last days, I felt like making something special to celebrate it and say tank you. I wanted to make something special, something that I didn't write about already. I have written about various kinds of cake, about cookies and waffles and about healthy breakfasts and smoothies. But something was still missing. Pancakes!!

Everybody loves pancakes right? I haven't made some in a really long time and I mean, there is nothing better on a sunday morning after a long weekend sleep right? So the decision was: I'm making pancakes. But no regular, boring pancakes. I wanted something different, something a bit more celebratory. On special occasions, my mum used to make large pancakes with apple slices inside and I used to eat so much that I could barely walk any more. So, why not try to make some fancy apple pancakes myself and top them off with some melting butter and maple sirup? Now that's celebratory!

I find baking and cooking very relaxing and it is almost therapy for me. There's nothing better after a stressful week than preparing something delicious in the kitchen and letting your imagination flow. I love it so much to think about recipes that I want to try and things that I want to make. Creating own dishes has something magical. It is like my own world inside my head. A little space where only I can decide how to make something and where there is no stress, no limits...There's no creation that would be too crazy...Everything is possible.
So come on in, hop on the cloud of fluffy pancake goodness and warme apples, dunked in butter and maple sirup. Set yourself free and enjoy that little moment of joy.

 Ingredients:

250g all purpose flour

3 eggs (separated)

4 tbs natural yoghurt

4 tbs sugar

3 tsp baking powder

pinch of salt

some cinnamon

2 apples (sliced)

                                                                                    Preparation:

In a large bowl, mix the egg yolks, yoghurt, sugar, cinnamon and milk together. Then, add flour and baking powder. Now, with a clean hand mixer, beat the egg whites and salt until it becomes really white and stiff. After that, fold the egg white in the batter mixture until it is all incorporated.

Let that sit for about 5-10 minutes. During that time, cut the apples in slices and remove the seeds in the middle. Then, take a large pan, put a good slice of butter in it and heat it up to medium heat. Now, you are ready to bake the pancakes until they are golden brown and delicious. (Put the apple slice in the middle of the pancake, before you turn it the first time)

Pile them all on a plate and at the end, drizzle a lot of strong flavored maple sirup and a piece of butter on top.

                                                                                     Enjoy :)

Spiced Winter Butter Cookies

Hello Sweet Ladys and Gentlemen,

It is the end of november already, which means it is the beginning of the official Winter Cookie baking time! Well, I mean baking different kinds of cookies and biscuits is one of the best things at this time of the year isn't it? All these jummy, warming spices and crunchy roasted nuts, a little bit of sugar that caramelizes on top of a perfectly shaped buttery sweet cookie, browning in the glowing hot oven. A scented candle burning by your side a cozy fireplace in the corner and a steaming hot cup of freshly brewed tea in your hands, while you are waiting for the delicious treats to be ready to enjoy. In the background there is some silent music playing and the birds outside are nibbling on some nuts and seeds you've put out there for them. It is the perfect moment of joy.

This weekend I felt like having the first homemade winter cookies of the year. I love all the spices that you can use...either cinnamon, nutmeg, cardamom, ginger, anise or cloves. All of them, have such an own, special taste that makes every kind of winter baking so special. I bought a little gingerbread man cookie cutter a few weeks a go and he was waiting in the drawer to be used as soon as possible. So, when I was thinking about what to bake on the weekend...I came to the idea of making the first homemade cookies of the year. As november is almost over, it is officially cookie baking time right now. I love all the different kinds of cookies, but my favorite ones are the cinnamon and ginger flavored "Speculoos" from the Netherlands. The taste is just really, really good. It is not too spicy, but just enough to warm your mouth when eating them and they are always perfectly golden brown and taste a little bit like caramel cookies. After a little bit of research, I foud a special spice mix that has cinnamon, ginger,  nutmeg and orange peel in it. I combined it with roasted almonds, unsalted butter, brown sugar and a pinch of salt. Adding this to the flour and egg yolks, made the most perfect and delicious Speculoos Cookie I have ever expected.
On a dark and cold november afternoon, when it is freezing cold outside, there's no better thing than being cuddled in a large, comfy sweater with a cup of hot chocolate in your hands and some of the most decadent and crunchy winter cookies on the side. This brightens up any dark mind.


Ingredients:

400g all purpose flour
100g grated almonds (roasted)
4 eggyolks
200g brown sugar
250g unsalted butter
1 tbs maple sirup
3 tsp winter spice mix
pinch of salt

Preparation:

First of all, preheat your oven to 175 °C. Then, beat egg yolks, butter, sugar and maple syrup until it is all well combined.  Now, add the salt, spice mix and the flour and mix again until it is all incorporated. At last, add the roasted almonds and knead them in with your hands.
Then, roll the dough into a ball, cover it in plastic wrap and let it sit in the fridge for about one hour.
Half an hour before rolling the dough out, get it out of the fridge so it won't be too hard to work with it later. Now, roll it out with a rolling pin and press your different shaped cookie cutters in there. Place the cookies on a lined baking tray and bake them for about 15 minutes. And make sure they don't get too brown on the top because otherwise they would get too hard.
If you want, you can now decorate them with everything you want. Chocolate or icing, sprinkles or crushed nuts and raisins. There are no limits...




                                                                                                    - The Winter tale  -

Trees bared to winter's touch
By winter's breath laid bare
Leaves whisper of winter's heart
Of winter's heart they share

by Frederick Weyer

Roasted Hazelnut Cake with dark Chocolate

Hello Sweet Ladys and Gentlemen,

it is mid november, the leaves on the trees are nearly all gone, its getting colder every day and it is raning all day. Every time I go out the house, there's a freezing cold breeze and a thick layer of fog, covering the tiny houses in the valley down the hill. These days, warming cups of tea, sweet cakes and bisquits are the best treat after a long walk in the dark and grey woods.
Yesterday, I placed some nuts and seeds for the birds on my balcony and all the little titmouses came and had a real feast. I love watching the birds, it is really relaxing and calms me down. Another thing that calms me down is baking. I love playing with my ideas and creating new recipes. It makes me so happy when I make something and someone else loves it. This weekend I felt like making something with nuts and chocolate. When I was a child, my mother used to alsways bake a hazelnut cake and I absoluteley loved it. So I combined the cake my mum used to make with some of my own spices and Ideas.
Out of it, came a perfectly sweet and nutty flavoured cake that made the house smell like happy winter afternoons when I was little.

Combining the roasted nut aroma with a little bit of dark chocolate and marzipan makes it the perfect cake for the cold season.
It is really simple but it tastes like so much more. A delightful cake that beautifies every sunday coffee table.
I hope that you enjoy this cake as much as I do. Have a great week everyone!

Recipe:

200g grated hazelnuts 

250g all purpose flour

4 eggs

250g unslted butter

200g brown sugar

1 tsp cinnamon

a pinch of salt

3 drops of almond extract

2 tsp baking powder

200g dark chocolate

a piece of fresh marzipan

-A Winter Piece-

When shrieked
  The bleak November winds, and smote the woods,
    And the brown fields were herbless, and the shades
      That met above the merry rivulet
        Were spoiled, I sought, I loved them still; they seemed
          Like old companions in adversity

William Cullen Bryant

 Prepration:

Preheat your oven to 170 °C. Then, put the greated almonds and the cinnamon in a large pan and roast them over medium heat until they get a little bit golden brown. Now, mix the eggs, softened butter and sugar until it gets a light and fluffy consistency. Following, add the dry ingredients (flour, almonds, baking powder) and at last add the salt and almond extract. Mix well, until it is all combined. If the batter is too thick, you can add a little bit of milk. Take a bundt cake pan and grease it with a little bit of butter. Then, pour the batter in it nd smoot the top with a spoon. Bake it for 45-50 minutes, until it gets a little bit brown on top. Let it cool completeley and get it out of the pan. Then, melt the cohocolate, pour it over the cake and make little balls out of the marzipan to decorate the cake.

Maple-Caramel Cheesecake

Hello sweet ladys and gentlemen,

as I did not post any recipe last sunday, I thaught that I would surprise you all with a very special and amazing recipe today! Although I love cheesecake, I realized that I haven't made one in a very long time and I haven't posted a recipe on this blog. What I'm sharing today, is not an ordinary Cheesecake recipe. It is so much more. It is a jummy cookie crust with a layer of the perfect, creamy Cheesecake filling, topped of with a thin layer of decadent melting maple infused caramel and a sprinkle of chopped almonds.
How.Amazing. Is. This. I'm not gonna lie. This cake is by far the best thing I have made in my entire life. Seriously, it tourned out so so good. This cake is to die for.

It is also perfect for fall as the crust tastes like cinnamon, a little bit of nutmeg and hazelnuts. And the caramel topping is made with heavy cream and a lot of delicious maple sirup. I think maple sirup is one of the best ingredients for baking. It has such a warm, fudgy caramel flavour. It is like liquid rose gold that comes out of threes. I had to be careful to not eat all of the caramel before putting it on top of the cake. The maple sirup adds a whole other dimension to the taste of the whole cake, it rounds it up so perfectly. Like a piece from heaven. When the rich and creamy flavours of the cream cheese and the caramel combine in your mouth, time stops.
If you want to enjoy this goodness of a cake as well, just take yourself some time and a little bit of love to make it at home. It's that simple.

Ingredients for the crust:

250g Graham Crackers (blended in a food processor)

2 Tbs grated Hazelnuts

2tsp cinnamon

1tsp nutmeg

1 pinch of salt

100g butter

Ingredients for the filling:

750g Cream cheese

180g Sugar

4  Eggs

1 Tsp vanilla extract

4 Tbs flour

3 Tbs sour cream

Ingredients for the topping: 

150ml Heavy Cream

100ml Milk

4 Tbs dark maple sirup

            180g brown sugar

                                                                                                                                   (chopped almons)

Preparation:

Preheat your oven to 160 °C. Then start by mixing the blended crackers, melted butter and the spices together with your hands and fill it in a round baking tin, press it down with your flat hand and put it in the fridge. Then, mix the eggs and the sugar with a hand mixer until it becomes a light and fluffy consistency. Now, add the cream cheese, sour cream and vanilla extract and mix until it is all combined. At last, add the flour and mix it in until it is all incorporated. Fill it in your prepared baking tin and bake for about 50 minutes.
While the cake is in the oven, start making the caramel topping. Put all the ingredients together into a small sauce pan and cook it until it becomes a lightly thick and creamy consistency. Remember to stir throughout the whole process so the caramel won't burn at the bottom. As soon as you have achieved the perfect consitency, set it side and let it cool completely. (Stir occasionally)
After the cake has cooled completely, you are ready to pour the caramel sauce on top. For decorating purposes, sprinkle some chopped almonds on top.

So here's your "best cake ever". Enjoy!