My Best Brownies

Posted on July 30, 2015 by elsje

There are so many brownie recipes. I have tried so many recipes, for me this recipe’s gives me the best brownies. Slightly dense and moist in the middle, a crunchy top and appropriately chewy.

Best Brownies (makes 18 brownies)

For the batter:

100 grams of dark chocolate in chunks
150 grams of butter
4 eggs
200 grams of sugar
1 tsp vanilla essence
100 grams of flour
55 grams coco powder
1 pinch of salt

Optional filling

70 grams chopped almonds, walnuts, hazelnuts and/or peanuts
70 grams of chocolate, whichever you prefer
Alternatively you can mix in chuncks of your favorite candy bar (I like Snickers, but any other chocolate candy bar could work)

Every recipe calls for a different order for mixing the ingredients. In my experience it doesn’t really matter how you combine the ingredients, just make sure you don’t cook the eggs with the hot melted chocolate.

Preheat your oven at 190 degrees C.
Melt your chocolate and butter above simmering water.
Line your baking tin (I use a rectangular 15 cm by 30 cm baking tin).
Take your melted chocolate of the heat, let it cool for a few minutes.
Mix in the vanilla essence, sugar, this lowers the temperature of the chocolate a little more.
Combine with the eggs, flour, salt and coco powder.
Stir in the optional filling.
Pour the batter in the baking tin and bake for 30 to 40 minutes.

Your cooking time depends on how dense you like your brownies. Sometimes I slightly undercook my brownies. This way I can warm them up later (and cook them a bit more) in the microwave and serve them warm with vanilla ice cream or clotted cream.

Pea Puff Pies

Posted on July 23, 2015 by elsje

This is a recipe that I invented in order to finish our leftovers. Feel free to use any form of leftover vegetables and meat for this recipe. I have also made similar pies using cauliflower, broccoli, spring union or asparagus.

You can also make a delicious vegetarian version by replacing the meat with some tasty nuts or maybe a stronger cheese.

I serve these pies in individual ramekins, this way I can accommodate everyone’s busy schedule. But you could easily make one large pie, just increase your cooking time slightly so the pie is cooked and warm in the middle.

These pies are a simplified version of a soufflé. The egg makes them puff up beautifully and creates a light texture. The measurements below are an indication. Feel free to adjust them to your taste. Add more egg for more rise and a more “eggy” flavor.

This recipe only needs stirring and measurements are not crucial so you could easily make these together with your toddler. For more toddler cooking tips, read this post.

For a simple dinner, serve your Pea Puff Pies with some HP sauce and a tasty salad. You could make these pies as a starter, especially if you use a more fancy vegetable like asperagus.

Pea Puff Pies (for 4 small pies)

150 gram of mashed potato
2 free range eggs
100 grams of grated cheese (keep some aside for on the top)
100 grams of shredded chicken
150 gram of peas (or any other veg you like)
Salt and pepper to taste

Simply warm mix your ingredients and spoon the batter into the greased ramekins. Sprinkle some cheese on top.

After preparing your pies you can keep them for a few days in the fridge until you are ready to eat them.

Bake your pies in a 220 degrees C oven for 10 to 15 minutes or until puffed up and golden.

Enjoy!

4 principles for a tasty salad

Posted on July 21, 2015 by elsje

A good salad is about balance and contrast. If you keep the following 4 principles in mind, you can make special salads every day of the year.

Don’t combine too many ingredients, the best salads have around 5 main ingredients. This ensures you taste every ingredients shines.
Make a simple dressing that compliments your ingredients. If you insist on using a complex dressing like a ceasar dressing, keep your salad even more simple: using up to 3 ingredients. For more information on ceasar salad read about my dutch ceasar salad here.
Balance your flavors. Make sure you have a sharp/spicy, sweet, salty, sour, savory and bitter component in your ingredients and dressing.
Sparpness can come from unions, chili or pepper.
Sweet can come form honey in your dressing or some fruit or sultanas.
Salty can come from some cheese, bacon,salty nuts or even sea salt.
Sour can come from sertain lettuce leaves or butter milk in your dressing.
Savory kan come from nuts, croutons or bacon.
Bitter notes can come from your choice of leaves, cheese or fruits like grapefruit.
Balance your textures. Make sure you have a variety of textures. Croutons or nuts for some bite, soft cheese or pears, creamy dressing and crunchy lettuce or cucumber.

The other day I made a tasty well balanced salad using endive leaves, feta cheese , union, tomatoe and bacon with a simple honey mustard dressing. For the honey mustard dressing combine equal quantities of mustard and honey. For a more runny dressing add water of (butter) milk to this mixture.

No fuss tomato sauce

Posted on July 15, 2015 by elsje

This is the easiest way to make tomato sauce ever! You make it with fresh ingredients and the flavor is so intense. The bog secret is that the ingredients are not fried but roasted. You can use this sauce with your pasta or as a pizza sauce. Both my son and my husband have approved this recipe, it is finger licking good!

This recipe is enough for a family pasta meal. But you could easily make a large batch and freeze the rest of the sauce. The sauce can also keep in the fridge in a jar for a week.

No fuss tomato sauce

6 tomatoes
1 onion
1 handfull of fresh thyme and rosemary
1 tbsp dried oregano
Honey
Olive oil
Optional: 1 chili pepper for a kick
Salt and pepper to taste

Preheat the oven at 220 degrees C.
Halve all the tomatoes and place them sliced side up on a baking tray.
Peel and quarter the onion and peel the garlic. (Slice the chili in chunky pieces.)
Scatter the other ingredients between the unions.
Sprinkle the tomatoes, onions, garlic and chili with thyme and rosemary.
Drizzle with honey and oil
Bake in the oven for 30 minutes to an hour, untill your ingredients are nicely roasted.
If you are making this in advance, shutdown your oven and let it cool while leaving the tomatoes in.
Blend the roasted ingredients to a smooth paste.
Mix in the oregano, salt and pepper to taste.

Felt Funny bunny

Posted on July 13, 2015 by elsje

I am in the blessed age of my life where many friends are pregnant and busy with babies. This means I have all the more reason to create fun felt figures. I have an entire pinterest board dedicated to fuzzy felty figures!

The other day I already made a bunny for Easter, which ended up in the crib of my friends little girl. Now I created Funny Bunny for another sweet baby.

Looking for more felt ideas? You can download my patterns for Plane baby rattle and cute Cloudette.

Barbecue side dish: beetroot carpaccio

Posted on July 10, 2015 by elsje

Beetroot is a vegetable I had to learn to appreciate. Beetroot carpaccio always does the trick for us and our guests. I make it on a festive and large dish, this recipe serves about 2 people. In these fotographs I used yellow beetroot.

I make this dish very often, so I like to vary the ingredients depending on the contents of my refrigerator. Just discover your own favorite set of ingredients and let me know how it turns out!

Beetroot carpaccio

Three boiled beetroots (boil in water for 75 minutes and then peel)
Use mixed colors of you can.
200 grams white cheese – my favorite is soft goats cheese, but feta cheese works as well. On occasion I have use crumbled Boursin as well.
Generous sprinkling of fresh or dried herbs. I like using mint, basil and/or dill.
2 spring onions finely sliced – although your plain onion would work as well.
Honey
Olive oil
Balsamic vinegar or other sweet vinegar
Optional extras:
- Ribbons of smoked salmon
- Capers

1. Make fine slices of beetroot and arrange these on your plate.

2. Crumble your cheese on the beetroot. I like a generous cover of cheese.

3. Sprinkle on the herbs and onion. (And optional extras.)

4. Drizzle with honey, vinegar and a generous helping of olive oil.

5. Season with freshly crushed black pepper.

Tip: This salad tastes great on a piece of fresh bread too.

Funny farfalle with chanterelle cream sauce

Posted on July 7, 2015 by elsje

I love trying new ingredients, and the other day I found some forest mushrooms in my supermarket. As I love any mushroom, I had to buy and try it.

I decided a simple pasta would do this ingredient justice. My son loved the flavor of the pasta and the sauce, but returned the fried chanterelles to my plate. Oh well, the texture of mushrooms isn’t for everyone, and I was happy to receive extra mushroom.

This recipe would work with any flavorsome mushroom, or even a mix. You can easily leave out the ham for a vegetarian option.

If you are going all out, garnish your pasta with freshly chopped parsley for some freshness and drizzle with some truffle oil.

Funny farfalle with chanterelle cream sauce (serves 2 and 1 toddler)

250 grams of pasta
150 grams chanterelle mushrooms
1 shallot, finely sliced
1 garlic clove, finely sliced
100 grams of ham in fine ribbons
1 glass white wine
150 ml cream
Handful of chopped flatleaf parsley
Some olive oil and a knob of butter

First boil your pasta according to the instructions. While your water boils and your pasta cooks, you can make your sauce.

1. Clean your chanterelle mushrooms and cut them in similar size pieces.
2. Gently fry the chanterelle mushrooms and union in the butter and olive oil until soft. Add salt and pepper to your mushrooms.

3. Add the garlic and the wine. Let this mix stew for a few minutes so the alcohol can evaporate.
4. Stir in the ham and add the cream. You can turn off the heat on your sauce until your pasta is cooked.
Drain your pasta when it is cooked.
5. Warm your sauce and pasta while combining them.

Sprinkle with parsley and dress with some olive oil or truffle oil and enjoy!

Flowers

Posted on June 16, 2015 by elsje

In Holland we are spoiled for choice. We have flower shops full of beautiful and affordable flowers. Still, I think your own picked bouquet is a more personal gift.

This bouquet contained daisies, chive flowers, snapdragons and some plants I couldn’t name if I tried. There are some important attention points when you pick flowers:

Ask permission first, or pick from your own garden
Make sure you wipe of any bugs or little creatures
Cut the flowers at an angle
Cut flowers before their prime, so they open in the vase
Take the leaves off the part of the stem that will be submerged in water
Keep the stems moist
Use greens to bulk up your bouquet
Contrasts make wild flower bouquets beautiful, look for different textures, colors, smells and use different lengths.

Don’t forget to enjoy the process, I know I did!

Father’s favorites

Posted on June 12, 2015 by elsje

In the Netherlands, June 14th will be fathersday this year. Obviously I would like to state that me and my toddler are daddy’s favorites. However, these cookies also go down well. They are a dutch classic: speculaasjes. The dough should be made beforehand, so the spice mix can flavor the entire dough. I recommend making the dough 2 days before fathersday, then making the cookies with your toddlers 1 day before fathersday.

I have this recipe from a dutch classic cooking book aptly named; “Het nieuwe kookboek“. This is a great book for beginners, let’s call it the “silver spoon” of the Netherlands. My toddler and I tested this recipe for valentine’s day and it was a huge hit!

Getting your hands on some real speculaas might be difficult for you, I do promiss you that this festive spice mix will put a smile on your face, it is like cinnamon for grown-ups (although your kids will love it too). For the UK, check out this site, or make your own blend.

Father’s favorite cookies (40 to 50 cookies)

110 grams butter
90 grams of light brown sugar
1 pinch of salt
2 tsp of speculaas spice blend
1 tbsp of beaten egg
100 grams selfraising flower
Almonds, sugar pieces or sugar decoration

Mix all the ingredients and combine into a ball of dough. Wrap the dough in cling film. Let it rest in the fridge for 1 to 4 days. This will allow for the spices to flavor your dough.

Take the dough out of your fridge 1 hour before rolling it out.

Preheat your oven to 170 degrees C.

Roll out the dough to a thickness of 5 mm. Use flower to prevent your dough from sticking. Cut out any shape you like. Place your cookies on a baking sheet lined with grease proof paper. Sprinkle your decorations, sugar and/or almonds on the cookies and lightly press them in.

Bake your cookies for 20 minutes, take them out to cool on the sheet.

Once cooled, the cookies keep for about a week in an air tight container. My son even decorated his own container for daddy.

My favorite high tea recipes

Posted on June 8, 2015 by elsje

For my birthday this year I organised a high tea. I received many compliments for the entire spread. It did take me a whole day to prepare for it, but it was delicious! This is a list of the food I made, and some tips.

Omelet rolls: Mix up eggs, finely sliced chives and some cream to make the egg mix. Fry thin omelets. Let the omelets cool and spread out cream cheese, cover with ham. Roll the omelet up. Wrap your omelet roll in cling film. You can make the rolls 1 to 2 days in advance. For serving, slice and serve these lovely pinwheels.
Fruit punch: Peel and slice your favorite fruits. Make sure you have various colors. Add some fruit juice. Cool your punch and serve it in dainty glasses.
Mini chocolate mousse: Make your favorite mousse recipe and serve in shot glasses or little jam jars. I garnished them with dried cranberries.
Small cups of vichyssoise soup: This simple cold soup is made with potato, onion and leek. I served it in small glasses with a teaspoon of greek yoghurt and some chives.
Scones: My most important tips: don’t knead your dough, rub to combine the flower, sugar and butter, then stir to combine using milk or buttermilk. Wrap your dough in cling film and let it cool for up to 24 hours (in your fridge). This way you can work ahead. Take your dough from the fridge and cut your scone shape quickly then bake right away. Cooling and resting your dough gives you the lightest scones you ever had!
For those who don’t live in the UK: use mascarpone instead of clotted cream.
Savory pies: Using puff pastry line a muffin mold. Fill each cup with ham, peas, cheese. Fill the cups up with eggs and cream. Bake for 20 mins at 220 degrees C.
Pizza squares: Make a large pizza a day before. Warm it up in a 160 degrees C oven for 20 minutes. Cut your pizza into squares and serve.
Cut candy bars into bite size chunks for inexpensive little treats.
Serve with tea, coffee and white wine

For a relaxed party:

Make sure you prepare well in advance and make lists.
Find recipes you can prepare 1 or 2 days in advance that take little assembling.
Ballance hot, cold, sweet and savory dishes.
Don’t try complicated recipes for the first time.
Make sure you have enough refridgerator space.
Make sure you have enough oven space.
Make sure you have enough china. Buy teacups and saucers at your local thrift shop or lend them from friends and family.
Use some disposable plates and cups, for less washing up.

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the art of gifting

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