Speculaas-almondpaste Cookiehearts

These wonderfull Speculaas-almondpaste cookies made the whole house smell like Winter.
The lovely spicyness of the Speculaasspices, and the sweetness of the almond paste are sure a winner. Recipe will follow soon.

Pumpkin goodness

Fresh pumpkin gets transformed in pumpkin goodness: rich pumpkin spice muffins filled with chocolate chips. Yummy.

I started off with a fresh pumpkin. To prepare:
1. Cut in half
2. Place cut side down on an oiled bakingsheet, cover with aluminiumfoil.
3. Place in 175 degrees oven
4. Bake for 1,5 hour
5. Take out of oven, leave to cool for a bit, scoop out pumpkin flesh with spoon
6. Mash pumpkinflesh with pureemaker
7. Ready to use.

Pumpkinspice muffins
(www.allrecipes.com)

INGREDIENTS
3/4 cup white sugar
1/4 cup vegetable oil
2 eggs
3/4 cup canned pumpkin
1/4 cup water
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/2 cup semisweet chocolate chips

DIRECTIONS
1. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C).
2. Grease and flour muffin pan or use paper liners.
3. Mix sugar, oil, eggs. Add pumpkin and water.
4. In separate bowl mix together the baking flour, baking soda, baking powder, spices and salt.. 5. Add wet mixture and stir in chocolate chips.
6. Fill muffin cups 2/3 full with batter.
7. Bake in preheated oven for 20 to 25 minutes.

BANANANANANACAKE

BANANACAKE.
This is a really easy recipe, adapted from the Allrecipes website. I really love it.
I added some chopped up dutch semi-sweet chocolate, and it was absolutely delicious. I love it warm when the chocolate is oozing out (see picture), and the top is still dry, but it has a stronger bananaflavour the next day. This cake freezes beautifully, and i like to slice it, wrap it and take pieces with me in my brownbag lunches or long flights.

BANANA-CHOCOLATE CAKE
(adapted from: a number 1 banana cake, allrecipes)
INGREDIENTS
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon baking soda
1 pinch salt
1/2 cup unsalted butter
1 cup white sugar
3/4 cup light brown sugar
2 eggs
4 ripe bananas, mashed
2/3 cup buttermilk (i use vinegar/milk)
1/2 cup chopped up chocolate bars
DIRECTIONS
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease and flour 2 - 8 inch round pans or a 13 by 19 inch rectangle baking pan. I like to put some parchmentpaper on the buttered pan, and let it hang over the edges, so i can lift the finished cake out of the pan using the parchment paper. In a small bowl, whisk together flour, soda and salt; set aside.
In a large bowl, cream butter, white sugar and brown sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in eggs, one at a time. Mix in the bananas. Add flour mixture alternately with the buttermilk to the creamed mixture. Stir in chopped chocolate. Pour batter into the prepared pans/pan.
Bake in the preheated oven for 30 minutes. Remove from oven, and place on a damp tea towel to cool.

To make buttermilk: Add 1 tablespoon of vinegar and enough milk to equal one cup. Stir. Leave to stand for a bit till thickened. Use as buttermilk replacement.

Oatmeal Blueberry Orange bread

Recipe adapted from the booklet that belongs to the Kitchen Aid mixer. I got it from the KitchenAid website, as i don't own a kitchenAid yet. It is a lovely smelling bread with a hint of citrus and bursting with blueberries, and with a crunch from the oatmeal. I love it.

Ingredients:
2 c flour
1 cup rolled oats
1 c sugar
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp allspice
3/4 cup low fat milk
1/2 cup butter or margarine, melted
1 Tbsp grated orange peel
2 eggs
1 1/4 cups fresh or frozen blueberries

Combine dry ingredients in a bowl. Stir well.
Add milk butter, orange peel, and eggs. Stir like a muffin batter, don't overmix. With spoon, gently fold in blueberries.
Spoon batter in 9x5x3 inch baking pan that has been greased on the bottom only. Bake at 350 F for 55 minutes or untill toothpick comes out clean. Cool in pan 10 minutes. Remove from pan and let cool on wire rack.

Really good with some good butter spread on.

I cut it into 10 slices, the original recipe cuts 16 slices out of it, but i quess they would be very small.

Market day

Oh wonderfull saturday market....how you surprised me with small punnets of blueberries for only 80 cent a punnet...instead of the usual 2,50 euro's.
And oh the sheer joy of thinking about what to do with my found treasure....

German Chocolate cake

This is an amazing cake. Moist, chocolaty, nice frosting.
The original recipe came from allrecipes.com, but it needed some modifications.
So, i doubled the amount of chocolate in the cake, used good quality dutch chocolate, i toasted the coconut before using it, and, toasted some more coconut to decorate with. Yummy.
Every one raved about this cake. I made it twice now, and you really only need to frost the middle and the top, as it is a really 'heavy'cake. Really filling. So. Top and middle is enough.

INGREDIENTS
1/2 cup water
8 (1 ounce) squares German sweet chocolate
1 cup butter, softened
2 cups white sugar
4 egg yolks
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup buttermilk
2 1/2 cups cake flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
4 egg whites
1 cup white sugar
1 cup evaporated milk
1/2 cup butter
3 egg yolks, beaten
1 1/3 cups flaked coconut+ extra for decorating
1 cup chopped pecans
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon shortening
1 (1 ounce) square semisweet chocolate

DIRECTIONS
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease and flour 3 - 9 inch round pans. Sift together the flour, baking soda and salt. Set aside. In a small saucepan, heat water and 8 ounces chocolate until melted. Remove from heat and allow to cool.
In a large bowl, cream 1 cup butter and 2 cups sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in 4 egg yolks one at a time. Blend in the melted chocolate mixture and vanilla. Beat in the flour mixture alternately with the buttermilk, mixing just until incorporated.
In a large glass or metal mixing bowl, beat egg whites until stiff peaks form. Fold 1/3 of the whites into the batter, then quickly fold in remaining whites until no streaks remain.
Pour into 3 - 9 inch pans Bake in the preheated oven for 30 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean. Allow to cool for 10 minutes in the pan, then turn out onto wire rack.
To make the Filling: In a saucepan combine 1 cup sugar, evaporated milk, 1/2 cup butter, and 3 egg yolks. Cook over low heat, stirring constantly until thickened. Remove from heat. Stir in coconut, pecans and vanilla. Cool until thick enough to spread.
Spread filling between layers and on top of cake. In a small saucepan, melt shortening and 1 ounce of chocolate. Stir until smooth and drizzle down the sides of the cake.

Korean Food

Wonderfull South Korean food cooked by my sister in law YiHye.
It was Korean thanksgiving today, so she and my brother came over with a storm of food. It was yummy, don't ask me what it was, besides rice and kim Chi.

Picture above: Tuna cakes, Zucchini-pancakes, and Crab-egg-onion eggs

Under: Kim-Chi, Stir fried sour spinach with sesameseeds, sweet and sour beansprouts, tuna close up