White Chocolate Brownies

As I mentioned in my previous post I am in the middle of the exam week. That means I really need a treat sometimes. And one thing I can really crave is chocolate; especially white chocolate. So I decided to combine this with another wonderful thing: brownies. I never had white chocolate brownies before; I never even saw a recipe. But I used one for normal brownies and just substituted dark chocolate for white chocolate. I also decreased the amount of sugar, because white chocolate is already sweet.
The result: absolutely amazing and addicting! But don't make this to often, because it is not that good for your waistline!

Ingredients (8 brownies)

120 g flour
70 g butter
70 g white chocolate
2 eggs
100 g sugar
1 package vanilla sugar
2 tsp baking powder
pinch of salt

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees.
Whisk the sugar and vanilla sugar together with the eggs.
Melt the butter in a small saucepan and add the chocolate. Continuously whisk until the chocolate has melted. I turned the heat off before all the chocolate was melted because white chocolate can burn easily. If you want to be safe just melt the butter and white chocolate au bain marie.
Add this mixture to the eggs.

Mix together. Add flour, baking powder and a pinch of salt and mix well.
Put the mixture into a well buttered dish.

Put it in the oven for 25 minutes until it is golden brown.

Let it cool for an hour and try to not eat the whole dish at once!

Lemon-Orange Olives

I am in the middle of my exam week which means that I practically live in the library; so that I don't have time to cook... But I can post a small recipe of something I made last week: The olives I put in the fougasse.
The recipe is a little bit of me and a little bit of different kinds of recipes I found on the internet.

Ingredients:

About 200 g olives (only green olives or only black olives, or mixed; whatever you like)
2 cloves of garlic, chopped
1/2 tbsp lemon zest
1/2 tbsp orange zest
4 tbsp olive oil
2 tbsp lemon juice
2 tbsp orange juice
Little bit of chopped red pepper

Mix everything well and let the olives marinate for at least 24 hours.

BBB October bread

I have been following some of the blogs of the bread baking babes and I saw the monthly breads they were baking. Already for a couple of months I wanted to bake one of those breads, but I never seemed to have enough time to bake bread.  Elizabeth is this month's kitchen of the month and the recipe she choose is Fougasse; a recipe I thought I could handle. It seemed easy and fast.
I wanted to make one with something extra so I decided I wanted one with marinated olives. (I will post the recipe for that in the coming days). It was fast, not too easy (I messed up the first try) and absolutely delicious. Especially with a nice glass of red wine!

My favorite bread dough is a recipe I more or less figured out myself with a technique that I read on BreadBasketCase Instead of kneading the bread you whack the dough around 100 times. It is very fun to do and especially nice after a not so great day!

Ingredients:


400 g flour
300 ml lukewarm water
2,5 tsp dry yeast
2 tsp salt
Handful of chopped  marinated olives (optional)
Olive oil

Mix together with a wooden spoon the flour, yeast and water. Add the salt and mix again.

Dump the dough on a lightly floured surface.

And whack the dough around a 100 times with a roller pin until it is a soft and smooth dough. You may have to add some flour, but do not add too much. It will get less sticky.

Now knead the olives through the dough with your hands. The dough will still be a bit sticky. Put it into a lightly greased bowl.

Put a clean towel over it and let it double in size. In a warm environment it will take about an hour, but it was a cold day so it took about 1,5 hours.

After that you carefully shape the bread into a leaf; at least I tried to shape it as a leaf (see picture). Preheat the oven to 230 degrees. Sprinkle the bread with olive oil and put the bread in after only 10 minutes resting. Decrease the temperature to 210 degrees and bake for 15-20 minutes.

Let it cool and eat with some good olive oil and a nice glass of wine!

Fougasse October bread recipe: http://etherwork.net/blog/?p=1414

Lime Panna Cotta

I love desserts and I love making them. I just don't like it when it takes so long to make them. Panna cotta is probably the fastest dessert ever to make (if you do not count the waiting time). Preparing should not take more than 10 minutes. So you can make it in the morning and eat it when you come home in the evening!

You can make the panna cotta with all cream or more cream than milk; it is a matter of preference. I find the panna cotta with only cream too rich.
The original panna cotta is made with vanilla, but you can make your own variations. This is my variation; one of my favorite green things: limes!

Ingredients: (4-6 portions)

3 sheets of gelatine
250 ml milk
250 ml whipping cream
4 tbsp sugar
zest and juice of 1 lime

Soak the gelatine in cold water and put aside. Heat the milk with the whipping cream and add the sugar and stir. As soon as the mixture starts cooking, turn off heat.

Add the zest and juice of the lime. Squeeze the water out of the gelatin and add to the mixture. Stir well until the gelatin is dissolved.

Now put it in a 4-6 different cups and put them in the refrigerator and chill until firm (at least 2 hours, but preferably 4).

No picture of the panna cotta, because I finished it before I could get my camera!

Zuurvlees

My very first recipe here is the typical dish of Maastricht: Zuurvlees (literally: sour meat). I love it and it is ideal for the type of wheather here in Holland; it is cold and in my opinion in that case, nothing tastes better than a stew. So not a fast recipe but it can easily be frozen. So make a lot more than you need so you have a very fast dinner next time!

Ingredients:

1kg beef

3 onions, sliced

4 cloves

4 juniper berries

2 bay leaves

100 ml vinegar

100 ml water

3 tbsp apple butter (stroop in Dutch)

1 or 2 slices of ontbijtkoek (I think it is called ginger bread in English)
butter for baking

pepper and salt

Cut the meat into squares and put them into a dish. Season the meat with pepper and salt and add the water and vinegar. Make sure that the meat is completely covered.

If these measurements are not enough just add more water and vinegar in equal quantities. Add the cloves, berries and bay leaves and let it marinate over night (preferably 24 hours).

Drain the meat and save the juice.

Heat a large pot and melt the butter until brown and add the meat.

Quickly fry the meat until brown. It has to fry not slowly simmer so you should probably fry the meat in portions.

Take the meat out of the pot and fry the onions. Add the meat again and add the juice.

Let it simmer for around 2 hours. Add the apple butter and ginger bread in the end.

If you want it to be sweeter add more apple butter. For a thicker sauce you can add more ginger bread.

Serve it with fries and a green salad.

Follow my cooking adventures!

For a long time I have considered starting a foodblog. I always found excuses not to do it, but not today. I will cook or bake anyway so why not share my adventures with you? This weekend I will upload my first recipe!