Saturday 11 June 2016

Buttermilk Chocolate Cookies

I made some cupcakes last week to celebrate the last day of school and the last day of our Alexander Technique teacher, the amazing Penny O'Connor. They went over very well but left me with about half a tub of buttermilk in the fridge with absolutely no purpose. Realizing it was about to go off I decided to spend my Friday night in baking cookies with it and watching Inside Amy Schumer. I found a recipe that consisted of mainly things I already had that didn't seem like a lot of work which after a day of dress shopping on the dreaded Oxford Street and a trip to the gym was all I could muster. These are amazingly gooey and chewy and fudgey and chocolatey and all the things a cookie should be and I just ate three.


Enjoy with a cup of "T"!

Buttermilk Chocolate Cookies


Ingredients

2 cups all purpose flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 C butter
3/4 C cocoa powder
2 C sugar
1 tsp vanilla
2/3 C buttermilk
100g chocolate chips
100g milk chocolate chips


Instructions

  • Line baking sheets with parchment paper and preheat your oven to 180º
  • Whisk the flour and baking soda together in a small bowl.
  • Place the cocoa powder into a large bowl, melt the butter and add it to the cocoa whisking until smooth.
  • Add the sugar, vanilla, and buttermilk, and continue to whisk until all ingredients are combined.
  • Add in the flour, a little at a time, and mix thoroughly after each addition.
  • Add the chocolate chips and stir.
  • Form the dough into 1 inch balls and place them onto the baking sheet 2 inches apart. 
  • Bake the cookies for 10-15 minutes. 
  • Allow to cool on the baking sheet for three minutes, and then transfer the cookies to a wire rack to completely cool. 

Tuesday 29 March 2016

Beware The Eggs of March

My favourite thing about Spring is not the warming temperature nor the blossoming daffodils or even the fact that it's my birthday. No, dear reader(s) my favourite thing about Spring is that it means I can make and (over)indulge in one of my favourite seasonal Easter treats: Cadbury Crack. This is not your average annual Easter cookie or cupcake, this is the mother of all Easter treats and it combines pretzels, toffee, chocolate, coconut and mini eggs and it's so delicious you will eat it until you feel sick and then keep going. It's the mini eggs that make it Easter otherwise you could eat it all year round but then I'd probably have diabetes and weight about a thousand pounds.

Cadbury Crack


1 bag salted pretzels (if you can find the stick ones their easier to lay flat)
1 1/4 cup salted butter
1 1/4 cup packed dark brown sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
250 g baking chocolate
1/2 cup shredded coconut
1 family sized bag of mini eggs (300g)

-Preheat oven to 200ºC.
-Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and evenly spread the pretzels across the pan.
-In a medium sized pot melt the butter and sugar and bring to a boil. Let boil for 2-3 minutes until thickened. Add the vanilla and stir.
-Pour the mixture evenly over the pretzels and bake for approximately 6 minutes. Meanwhile, melt the chocolate.
-Remove the toffee and pretzels from the oven and allow to cool until no longer bubbling. Then pour the chocolate over the top. Sprinkle with coconut and crushed mini eggs and refrigerate for at least one hour before breaking into small pieces and binging.
Don't eat in bed if you're not willing to wash chocolate out of your sheets!

Hoppy Easter!
  -Holly

Based off of a recipe by HoneyBear lane available here

Sunday 10 January 2016

Roman Holly-day Pasta

Paired nicely with the Ravenswood Zinfandel
Okay, I don't want to cause anyone any shock but I made something that didn't require baking. *gasp*. Okay, I didn't do it alone but I still did at least 50% of the work so it counts. Mum got me an Audrey Hepburn book from the library to read over Christmas which is exactly what I did. Audrey At Home: Memories of My Mother's Kitchen is written by Audrey's youngest son Luca and is filled with lots of her recipes and stories of what she was like at home. It's a great read and will make you crave pasta which is why when it was suggested to make something from the book, I jumped at the chance. (Not literally jumped, I was on a boat).

   We personalized it a bit due to laziness and things we had around but it turned out incredibly delicious and as I return to my life of living off of eggs on toast and smoothies I remember it fondly with just a hint of longing (as I do of the person I made it with).
Seriously, ridiculously good looking

 
Inspired by Audrey Spaghetti al Pomodoro with Chorizo
Serves 2

1 devilishly handsome man to help
.65 kg vine-ripened tomatoes
1/2 onion, peeled
1 celery stalk
1 carrot, peeled
basil leaves, chopped, plus extra for garnish
extra-virgin olive oil
salt
freshly ground black pepper
1/2 large chorizo sausage
500 g spaghetti
parmigiano-reggiano cheese

   Cook tomatoes (we added about a cup of oven roasted cherry tomatoes for sweetness), celery, carrot and onion in a large pan with a lid over it at a high heat for about 10 minutes to soften vegetables.

Remove the lid and continue to boil for 10-15 minutes, stirring with a wooden spoon. Lower the heat to medium-low, and add basil leaves, chorizo and a drizzle of olive oil. The sauce is ready when the bubbles are no longer made of water but rather small craters of sauce. Or whenever.

Remove from stove and season with salt and pepper.

Fill a large pot with cold water and place over a high heat to bring to a boil. Add the pasta and a small handful of sea salt. When done, drain and dish onto plates, topping with sauce, parmigiano and a few extra leaves of basil.

Toffee Mocha Torte, How Obscenely Decadent

Hello Dear Readers! ie. Mum (and Matt?)

    The past few months have been busy with school and moving and I've had next to no time to bake. Luckily, I'm home in Vancouver for a few weeks for the Christmas break so not only do I have spare time to pursue hobbies (such a strange feeling) but I also have all kinds of lovely tools to use!

    I've been invited to a friend's birthday celebration tonight as my one social engagement whilst I'm here and I offered to bring dessert so I'd have an excuse to use my beloved KitchenAid. Bonus, I picked a recipe also requiring coffee so I got to use my espresso machine too, it's so nice being with my loved ones. I'm making a cake I first made a few years ago for Thanksgiving, but that was pre blog so now I have the opportunity to share this delicious and incredibly simple cake with you!

It's about -4ºC outside right now so it's a perfect day to crank Adele, reflect on any deep unrequited love (childhood sweetheart, ex-lover, boss, those shoes you had to leave behind in Selfridges) and allow the warmth of the oven to thaw your cold, dead heart. No, just me?

Toffee Mocha Torte
(serves: a lot)
1 cup butter, softened
2 cups sugar
2 eggs
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla
2 2/3 cups flour
3/4 cocoa powder
2 teaspoons baking soda
1/4 teaspoons salt
1 cup buttermilk
1 cup coffee

1 tbsp strong coffee (or 1 tbsp hot water and 1/2 tsp instant coffee)
2 cups heavy whipping cream
3 tbsp light brown sugar
250 g toffee pieces (in Canada I use Skor bits, I'm hunting for an alternative in the UK)

1. Cream butter and sugar until "fluffy"(when does it ever look fluffy?) Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each one. Beat in vanilla.Then, combine the flour, cocoa, baking soda and salt and add it to the creamed mixture a little at a time alternating with buttermilk or else it will explode everywhere and you'll curse loudly. Beat well after each addition. Stir coffee into batter. 

2. Pour into three greased and floured 22 cm (9 inch) round baking pans. Bake at 180ºC (350ºF) for 20 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. Mine took closer to 30 minutes but I think I used smaller pans and therefore they were thicker. You can see how precise I am about these things.

3. For the whipped cream topping, pour coffee into a large bowl; cool. Add the cream and brown sugar. Beat until stiff peaks form. Place whichever cake you decide should be the bottom layer on a serving plate; top with approximately 1/3 of topping and sprinkle liberally with toffee bits. Repeat until cake is fully formed. Store in the refrigerator. 

4. Transport to venue, put in candles, light, serve to handsome birthday boy and hopefully dazzle with your baking talents.

Happy Baking!

-Holly