For my birthday already one mont ago, we went to Paris.
We were so lucky, the weather was fantastic. 
So here are a couple of pictures of that amazing trip. 
I warn you already there are a lot of food pictures....

We started off at the Arc de Triomphe 

Back on track with some chocolate dessert, brownies.
The slightly "healthier" version of this one.
AVOCADO Brownies, but I prefer to call them green brownies.




Pre-heat your oven to 180° C.

I'm back with a rather special post.
Lately all most of my friends are studying abroad. Japan, Ireland, Italy welcomed my friends.
Recently my friend Maarten also went on an erasmus. But before he did, he kindly organized a Goodbye Tea Party.

He laid all the different tea beautifully. As a "passionate" baker and chocolate lover, I thought I could bake an indulgent and chocolate dessert. As everybody likes chocolate, sugar,... . I decided to go for brownies.


Preheat your oven to 180°c.
Melt the chocolate and butter in a small saucepan at low temperature. Once melted, let it cool down.
Whisk your eggs in a large mixing bowl. Add the cooled chocolate and butter to your eggs. Mix well together.
Add the salt, sugar and flour. Mix together until you have a beautiful batter.
Add your walnuts (optional).
Pour it in your baking tin.
Bake for about 30 minutes.
Let it cool down properly before to unmould your brownies.
Then bring it with you to your favorite people.




Chocolate and whipped cream does makes us happy people!

As tomorrow it's "the chandeleur" (or candlemas) I though I would share my all-time favorite "crêpes" recipe. 
The coolest part of making these crêpes is the flipping of the crêpes themselves. 
It's a recipe I found in an old cookbook from my great-grandmother. 
I think it's the cookbook from the boerenbond, but I don't know it exactly as the cover is missing. 




Sieve the flour in a big bowl.

Add the sugar and give it a good whisk. 

Make an hole in the center and simply add the eggs and milk. 

Mix everything well.

Your batter is ready.


Now come's the fun part, flipping over the crêpes. 

Grab your special pan for crêpes. You can find here what I mean with the pan. 

Melt some butter in the pan and start baking and flipping over (see below).



Serve immediately.

Sprinkle some white, blonde or brown sugar on your crêpes or spread some marmalade, (if you're being naughty) nutella (or homemade chocolate spread), chestnut-cream,... . 


Ps. Remember that the first crêpe always often fails.



Ps. I tried out a Flipagram. 

It's been a while since I posted something on here. But I've been so busy lately, that I hardly baked something. 
Christmas, New Year, examinations, essays, being ill,... etc. Actually that means life happening. 
But I did took some time to make a "New Year's Log", as I like to call it,  for the New Year's Eve party.
It was with friends and everyone had to make something. I was in charge of the dessert.





I used most inspiration here and here. 


For the vanilla sponge you will need:


For the cream:


For the syrup:




For the meringue I used a recipe of Mercotte




Start of by making your cake. 
Preheat your oven to 180°. 
Whisk the egg yolks with the sugar. 
Whisk the egg whites until stiff but still a bit "fluffy" (as I like to call them).
Add carefully the egg whites to the egg yolks and the sugar. 
Add also carefully the pieces of butter. 
Finally add some vanilla essence. 
Butter and line with baking parchment a swiss roll tin. 


Pour the mixture in the tin. Bake for about 10 minutes. 
In the meantime take already a piece of baking parchment and lay it on the table.
When the sponge is baked, take it out and place "the uncovered" side on the baking parchment (the one lying on the table). Take the other baking parchment off and start to roll over the sponge. Let it be! :)

Now we can start with the indulgent, yes indulgent, cream. 
Whisk the egg yolks with the sugar. Add in the mascarpone. This can take a while. The mixture has to be smooth. 
Whip the cream until stiff. 
Take your gelatin and let them soak in some cold water.
Then take the same sheets and let them melt in the micro-wave for a couple of seconds then put them in a bowl with two tablespoon of the whipped cream. 
Add the gelatin/cream to the mascarpone mixture.
Whisk carefully.
Now add in, time at the time, your whipped cream. 
I advise to let the cream stiffen a bit in the fridge.

If the cream is cold and stiff, the sponge cool  then you can make the syrup.
You simply make a strong espresso. Add some bicherin (as much as you like, but not too much). 



Now it's time to assemble the Tiramisù Log. 
Unroll the sponge and soak it with the syrup (no not the bicerin on its own). You can be generous with the soaking!
Spread the half of the cream on the sponge and wrap the sponge again. 
Now spread the remaining cream on the "LOG". Let it rest in the fridge until serving time.
I optionally made some meringues. But that's completely up to you.  
Before serving dust sprinkle with cacao powder. Add your meringue.






And voilà eat your slice and start PARTYING!!!
I wish you all the very best, that 2015 will be fantastic,.... . You know what I mean. 


Until next time,

XO

So recently we bought an juice extractor. 
We tasted a really tasty ginger, carrot, apple and beetroot juice at a cool lunch spot.
So we felt like we  had to buy an juice extractor.
We choose the Philips HR 1832/00 from the Viva Collection. So far we are very happy of it!

We tried different "recipes", some were good others not.
We found a favorite juice. It's an apple, beetroot, cucumber and ginger juice.




So just wash your fruit and vegetables and throw them into the juicer. 

Mix the juices together.

Add in a splash of water and some ice cubes.

There you have all your veggies in just one glass!

Did I already wrote about my passion for Brussels?
No?!
Well I like it a lot!
So a couple of weeks ago I went on a "day trip" to Brussels.
I was just wandering around the city centre when I spotted a bakery called "Charli".
I decided to go for a good cup of hot chocolate and an blueberry cheesecake!
Look at this! It was to die for!


It was so good I decided to give it a go myself!


For an 18cm baking tin you will need:



Preheat your oven to 200°C.

Mix the biscuits with the butter in the foodprocessor until you get a crumble.

Put that crumble on the bottom and the sides of your baking tin.

Let it rest in the fridge.

In the meantime make your filling. Simply mix the ingredients together.

Now pour the filling on top of your 'crumble'.

And bake for about 25 to 30 minutes.

Let it cool down.

Put some marmelade on the top. Let it rest and cool in the fridge.



Serve!