Cupcakes with chocolate

Last weekend I did again some baking, oh the weekends are fantastic for those things ;-) On Sunday I made two batches of kruidnoten, you can read how to make them in my previous post. But on Saturday I made cupcakes with chocolate for all tastes, just mixing things here and there, with ingredients I had at home, they were absolutely delicious!

To make 12 cupcakes you need:

• 200 gr. flour
• 220 gr. caster sugar
• 7 gr. baking powder
• A pinch of salt
• 1 egg
• 180 ml. milk
• 60 ml. sunflower oil
• 1 table spoon vanilla extract
• About 70 gr. pure chocolate (chopped)

Sieve the flour in a bowl and mix with all the dry ingredients, except the chocolate.In another bowl mix the egg, milk, oil and vanilla. Then put all ingredients into one and mix again, only this time with a mixer, the last 10 seconds use the mixer at maximum speed. At last scoop the chopped chocolate and divide the dough into the cupcakes cases. Bake in a 180 degrees preheated oven for about 25 minutes, until gold.
For the topping I had as ingredients

• 150 gr. butter at room temperature
• 140 gr. icing sugar
• 10 gr. cacao powder
• Some chopped white chocolate

Put the butter, icing sugar and cacao in a bowl and mix, with the mixer, until soft and creamy. Then pipe the butter cream on top of the cupcakes, sprinkle with the white chocolate.

Enjoy with a capuccino or a hot chocolate, kids will love it!

Pepernoten or Kruidnoten

Saint Nicolas is approaching and in The Netherlands is big party specially for kids. Of course with those celebrations belong also special sweets, in this case what they call "pepernoten" or "kuidnoten". I always say pepernoten but a Dutch friend point out that actually they are "kuidnoten". In any case they are nice, easy and fun to make, specially if you do that together with children. So last Saturday I made together with my daughter, for the first time in my life, "pepernoten" and they taste fantastic. It was fun as well, so that coming weekend we are planning to do another batch!

Ingredients you need for about 500 gr. "pepernoten":

• 250 gr. self-rising flour
• 100 gr. butter
• 125 gr. bruin sugar
• 50 ml. milk
• 1 and half tablespoon speculaas spices 
• A pinch of salt

Using a mixer, that will make easier, mix the butter until creamy and soft. Then add all the other ingredients to the butter and scoop all together until is well mix, it is actually better if you do this by hand.

Once the dough is ready make small balls, really small (mine were a bit too big actually), don't be afraid of small size, they will rise. Then put them in baking tray that is prepare with baking paper, after that using your finger push a bit the balls, that way they will look like a button.

Bake for about 15 minutes in a 170 degrees preheated oven. Allow to cold down, about another 15 minutes, that way they will get a hard an nice. You can keep them for about a week in an air tight box.

Enjoy!!

Panellets

It has been quite a long time since I wrote something in my blog. What is the excuse this time? Well shortage of time, long working days, weekends busy, holidays, … a lot going on. Also a lack of original recipes and ideas.

Finally this weekend I came up with a good idea, Panellets. This is typical Catalan sweet that you normally eat on November 1^st, the day of “All Saints”. It is not very well known outside Catalonia and this is really a pity because they are actually very good, easy and tasty.

My recipe to make 30 Panellets, ingredients for the base dough: 

• 250 gr. Very fine ground almonds
• 200 gr. Caster sugar
• 150 gr. Potatoes’ or Sweet potato
• Zest of ½ lemon

Clean the potatoes and boil them with skin until they are soft, drain well and peal them, then make puree and allow to cool down completely. After that add the sugar, almond and lemon zest, using a fork mix well but not too long otherwise it will too soft and will not cook well. Before you start making the Panellets you will need to stove your hands with flour.

With this base you can make different kind of Panellets, I made 3, 10 each, with pine nuts, with almonds and last one with coconut.

The ones with pine nuts, you need about 70 gr. pine nuts and 1 egg, split yolk and white egg. Take pieces of the dough and make small balls, soak them into the white egg and then sprinkle all around with the pine nuts. Put in a greased baking tray and paint the top part with the yolk.

Then we have the one with almonds, you need about 80 gr chopped almonds and 1 egg, split yolk and white egg. You prepare exactly the same as the ones with pine nuts.

With the rest of the dought you make the ones with Coco, here you need 60 gr. of grated coconut and white egg. Take about 2/3 of the coconut and mix with the dough using a fork. Once is well mixed, make balls and give them a pyramid form, sprinkle the top part with the rest of the coconut and a bit of flour at the bottom. Paint the top part of the pyramids with the white egg.

Once all Panellets are in the baking tray, bake in a 225 degrees preheated oven for about 9 minutes, until nice and golden.

They are delicious with a glass of muscatel (sweet wine). Enjoy!

If you actually made them, let me know, I am very curious about your results!!