seriously the best ever triple chocolate chip cookies

with just a tiny little healthy twist... naturally... i ve got to be able to give myself an excuse for indulging in these babies

as autumn was suddenly right on our doorstep, there was no way i could deny my urge to bake these cookies, and chocolate definitely had to be the main ingredient.

i do have a little recipe i always turn to, but this time i wanted a double whammy, chocolate cookie dough AND chocolate chips... ofcourse there s dozens of recipes out there, but this one jumped out at me screaming (not quite Halloween yet, but still, it was screaming) to be tested. whose better then to try out than Ms Nigella Lawson s big cookies.

so that s exactly what i did:

and they came out as she promised, but there was something a little overpowering about them, pure chocolate in the dough, pure chocolate chips (and loads of them) mixed in, you really need a huge glass of cold milk or a good mug of something hot and sweet to counterbalance that.

then i thought i might just want to add a little bit more sweetness, not by adding sugar, but using the bittersweet chocolate only in the dough, and exchanging white and milk chocolate chips for the pure ones, then adding pine-nuts and dried cranberries for the 'health' kick... plus an extra soon-to-be-not-so-secret ingredient...

wow, if i may say so myself, these turned out to be the best ever chocolate chips cookies i d ever made (i probably need to have a go at a few other recipes before i should be saying this, but hey, when a cookie is good, a cookie is good)

here s my recipe:

INGREDIENTS:

125 grams dark chocolate
150 grams plain flour
30 grams cocoa powder, sieved (not the drinking chocolate kind thingy)
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
125 grams unsalted butter, softened
125 grams light brown sugar
1 medium sized egg
1 heaped tablespoon full-fat cream cheese (yes, the secret ingredient)
45 grams milk chocolate chips, or a bar cut into little chunks
125 grams white chocolate chips, or a bar cut into little chunks
100 grams dried cranberries
80 grams pine-nuts

METHOD:

1. preheat the oven to 170°C
2. melt the 125 grams of dark chocolate au-bain-Marie
3. mix the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda and salt in a bowl
4. cream the butter and sugar in another bowl
5. add the slightly cooled melted chocolate to the creamed butter and sugar, and mix well
6. beat in the egg and the cream cheese
7. mix in the dry ingredients and lastly add the chocolate chips, cranberries and pine-nuts, and mix to distribute all ingredients evenly
8. using an icecream scoop, place equal mounds of the dough on a lined baking sheet. do not flatten the mounds and leave enough space in-between because they will spread a little. i scooped 6 per tray and got 21 cookies out of the one recipe, although Nigella says she gets only 12 cookies; she must have a huge icecream scoop! bake for 17 minutes.
9. once baked, leave to cool slightly and then transfer the cookies to a wire rack to cool completely before storing in airtight container, or gobble up one or two immediately

ok... yumm....

there s chocolate, and then there s cardamom

for Christmas, i received the Hummingbird Bakery Cake Days cookery, well baking actually, book from my son. as you can imagine, i was over the moon and decided to make their malted chocolate cupcakes as a dessert for New Year s Eve dinner.

they so worked a treat, and although i sometimes find that instructions in cookery books can be faulty, this one delivered!

see?

and then i caught a cold... and have been sniffling for the past week. and Sam caught it too. so we ve been sniffling together.

the stormy weather didn t help either.

yesterday though, we were so tired of being cooped up inside, that we went on a day-trip to Zeeland, hoping to get our colds driven out by the stiff breeze of the Oosterschelde.

it worked... well, a little.

this morning i woke up determined to make a cake from the first Hummingbird Bakery book (because of course i couldn t wait for my next birthday to come along so i could get that as a gift again... and i d went and bought this one, he he he...)

thinking i might as well use up the buttermilk i d used in the cupcakes, i wanted to make a simple buttermilk cake.

nothing easier than a simple cake, right?

wrong!

there was nothing wrong with the recipe. nothing at all. it made for a lighter batter, and even said that i could add fruits or nuts and it would work. i had some apples left so i thought i might add those, and i have something with cardamom these days.

however, i guess my cold was still influencing my judgment, and it was still pretty early this morning (as if that s an excuse) but i pre-heated the oven to 130°C instead of 170°C!?!

stupid, stupid, stupid...

it was only after 50 minutes, way over the time suggested in the book, that i realized the cake was not rising properly, and then i noticed the temperature knob of the oven was turned too low!

aaargh!

could i rescue this one?

not quite, as you can see here

sunk quite a bit, huh?

but it tastes great, and i m thinking it s the cardamom. there s something about cardamom that saves the day anytime. that little bit of the exotic, that little hint of something elusive, i love it.

and it works in this cake, even though it doesn t quite look the part (it actually really looks like a cake i would ve baked way back when, ha ha)

BUTTERMILK CAKE with APPLES, CINNAMON AND CARDAMOM
(adapted from the Hummingbird Bakery Cookbook)

INGREDIENTS:

120 gr butter, softened
330 gr fine white caster sugar
3 whole eggs
200 gr plain flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
120 ml buttermilk
1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 large apple, cut into smallish pieces
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground cardamom seeds
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

METHOD:

1. preheat the oven to 170°C (NOT 130°C!!!) and prepare a loaf tin of 13x23cm by either lining with baking parchment or buttering and flouring
2. beat the butter and sugar together until light and pale
3. add the eggs one by one and beat in well
4. sieve the flour together with the baking soda, salt, cardamom and cinnamon
5. add the flour mixture to the butter/sugar/egg mixture alternating with the buttermilk
6. mix in well
7. flour the apple pieces and fold into the batter
8. pour the cake mixture into your tin and bake for about 35-40 minutes or until the center is springy to the touch. for extra certainty you might want to insert a wooden skewer in the middle and if that comes out clean, your cake is done
9. leave to cool in the tin for about ten minutes and then turn out to cool completely on a rack

next time, i promise, this one will come out PURR-fect!

little cheesecake pots

the run-up to Christmas is hectic. even without kids, well, one kid who s now more out of the house than in... it s hectic.

making Christmas cards, buying gifts, decorating the house, deciding on a menu (although the past years it s been a yummy collaboration with my mom-in-law), well, you know how it is.

which is why this easy little sweet pot is such a joy to make, and to eat.

if you re a fan of cheesecakes, but don t want to make a whole cake and wait for it to cool until set, here s a solution:

LEMONY CHEESECAKE POTS WITH RASPBERRIES

INGREDIENTS:

100 gr digestive biscuits, crushed
30 gr butter, melted
300 gr Philadelphia cream cheese
3 tablespoons lemon curd
handful of fresh or frozen raspberries
1 tablespoon of sugar

METHOD:

1. mix the crushed bisuits with the melted butter and divide between little pots or ramekins (just to make a crust, as thin or as thick as you like) and leave to chill in the fridge until set
2. mix the cream cheese with the lemon curd and taste. adjust by either adding a little more lemon curd or sweeten with a little icing sugar
3. divide between the pots or ramekins and chill
4. heat the fresh or frozen raspberries with a little splash of water and the sugar until the fruit just collapses, leave to cool
5. when ready to serve, divide the raspberries between the pots and dive in ;-)

sweet and simple, but just that little bit indulgent, just enough to get one thru these crazy days.

in case i don t get to post before the end of this year, let me wish you a Merry Christmas and may 2012 bring you all you ever wanted, and above all, happy cooking days!

'all-hallows-even'

the day has come, the one moment in the year when the physical and the supernatural worlds are supposed to be closest and magical things can happen...

every living thing (this side of the equator) is preparing for winter.

but today there will be just a little celebration before the quiet.

with some of the season s bounty.

(of which i had two left... yes, well)

APPLE CINNAMON AND GINGER MUFFINS

INGREDIENTS

250 gr self-raising flour
125 gr golden caster sugar
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon sea-salt
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground dried ginger
130 ml milk
50 ml rapeseed (canola) oil, or sunflower oil
1 large free-range egg
1 medium eating apple, peeled, cored, cut into smallish chunks
2 tablespoons of coarse sugar mixed with a teaspoon of ground cinnamon

METHOD

1. prepare a 12-cup muffin tin by lining with paper cups and heat the oven to 180°C
2. sieve the dry ingredients into a large bowl
3. beat the wet ingredients together and mix in with the dry, combine, but do not overmix
4. add the apple pieces and mix gently
5. divide the batter into the prepared tin, it should be just enough to fill all 12 cups
6. sprinkle with the cinnamon-sugar
7. bake for about 15 minutes or until a wooden skewer stuck in the middle comes out clean
7. leave to cool on a wire rack, but lukewarm these are also very nice, (i like mine with a cup of coffee)

meanwhile, we ve gone back to 'winter-time', the clocks have been set back an hour, and the evenings close in a lot earlier now.

that meant we needed to take advantage of this day and enjoy some of the final flourishes of nature.

ginkgo... (their fruit really do NOT smell nice, but the nuts are a delicacy)

red agapanthus still in bloom

magnolia seeds ready to pop (aren t these the strangest sight?)

and an old-fashioned little geranium...

there s been a freak snow-storm in the east coast of the States, it s absurdly warm over here for the time of year, down under they re preparing for summer...

but it s a magical time, a hallowed time, stay safe everyone... boooooooh!

happy halloween!

sweetly tart

lemon curd.

sweetly tart and so easy to make it s almost a sin to use shop-bought, although i have often done so, probably because i thought it was going to be complicated.

but that s what happens when you have loads of other stuff to do. full-time job, taking evening classes, housework that needs to get done.

and then i found this recipe on the BBC food website. a couple of friends of mine had already told me it was simple to make, and they had sent me their recipe, but i d misplaced it and today i just had my mind set on making some.

i followed the recipe almost to a tee... except that i didn t quite let it cool down completely before potting, but i think it ll be alright (i hope).

and because i really don t have to add anything, or didn t even tweak amounts, i ll only show how it went in pics. please do take a look at the link and when you have 30 minutes to spare, have a go too.

you ll need 4 organic un-waxed lemons

4 eggs and 1 egg yolk

100 gr unsalted butter

200 gr fine caster sugar

all the zest from the 4 lemons

and all the juice too

melt the butter and the sugar with the lemon juice and the zest in a bowl over simmering water, then slowly add the beaten egg

after stirring constantly until it becomes like a thick custard, leave to cool before potting into sterilized jars

i really did get exactly the amount mentioned in the recipe, which is 2 x 250 gr pots.

hmmm, i think i ll be making some of my favorite cupcakes again soon, with lemon curd, ofcourse.

to market & les coings

weekend markets.

i love them, especially when the sun is shining and the air is crisp. people strolling and looking at what s available. either planning ahead for the week, or just being bowled over and buying the best seasonal produce that s on offer. like i often do, with recipes and the day s dinner already in my head.

then sampling different delicacies: churros and hot chocolate for those who haven t had breakfast yet, oysters and champagne for the chique, Vietnamese spring rolls with a lot of sriracha sauce to wake up, Moroccan pancakes with goat s cheese and honey and a pipingly hot sweet mint tea, typical shrimp croquettes to remind us of the Belgian seaside, ofcourse the baguettes filled with anything you like as a quick lunch, or even the hamburgers and the sausages with loads of fried onions for those with a hangover from the previous night s revelries.

it s all there.

naturally, one needn t worry about not having the right utensils for cooking a warming tajine for example...

or decorating your front porch and your house with flowers. although now is the season for chrysanthemums (my mother s favorite)...

and don t you just want to keep touching these?

but we found us some quinces. i love what they re called in French: les coings (pron. k-WANG)... sometimes i like to go around mumbling 'coing coing coing...' (makes me sound like a duck too, i know)

the fruits are very fragrant, impossible to eat raw because they re so hard, but they make the bestest ever jelly. and since my mom-in-law is the best jam-maker i know... here s her recipe:

QUINCE JELLY

INGREDIENTS

quinces, perhaps easiest to start with about 3 kg
sugar
2 cinnamon sticks
nutmeg
a few cloves
some mace

METHOD:

wash the quinces and cut them into smallish pieces. put them in a large pot with a lid, add the spices and just cover with water. boil until the fruit is soft. strain the leftover water with the fruit through a cheesecloth over a large bowl overnight to catch the juices. measure the juice and mix with about half to three quarters of the weight in sugar (so if you have one liter of juice, add 500 to 750 gr of sugar). boil the syrup until thickened and when a little amount put on a cold saucer immediatly jellifies... it won t react like jam, but will remain a little syrupy, more like a thick honey.
when ready, put into sterilized jars and close, then leave to cool.

my mom-in-law had to make this in batches because there were so many quinces, but she tried different cooking times and the results are pretty interesting. the first came out quite light, then a little more cooking produced a very floral tasting jelly (with the scent of roses) and the last one almost like caramel... all though, very very yummy on buttered toast.

i cannot wait to see what the market will offer next weekend.