S'mores Bars

I thought I'd let you know about the latest recipe I've tried out. This one is a good 'un! They taste amazing. If found the recipe here on Sugar Cooking's blog and adapted it just a little bit as some of the listed ingredients are not available here in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Instead of Mashmallow Fluff I just used ordinary marshmallows and lined them up over the chocolate as you can see in the picture above. The other ingredient not available here is Graham Cracker Crumbs. Instead I used a local breakfast speciality called Plazma. If you can't get Plazma or Graham Crackers where you live then just smash up some kind of plain biscuits such as digestive biscuits and use that instead.

Christmas Tree Muffins

Two and half weeks til Christmas and it's time for some festive baking! These Christmas Tree Muffins are really tasty with a lovely spongy texture. Just what you need to brighten up your table at a Christmas party.

Ingredients:

Bottom part - Tree trunk

125g flour

15g cocoa powder

1 tsp baking powder

88g sugar

90ml milk

1 egg

50ml sunflower oil

1 tsp vanilla essence

Top part - Branches

125g flour

1 tsp baking powder

88g sugar

90ml milk

1 egg

50ml sunflower oil

1 tsp vanilla essence

green food colouring

Instructions:

1.Heat the oven to 170C

2.Prepare the muffin tin with paper cases.

3.Bottom part:

a. Beat the egg and leave it to one side.

b. Mix together the flour, sugar, cocoa and baking powder.

c. Add in everything else, including the egg, mix well and leave to one side.

4. Top part:

a. Beat the egg and leave it to one side.

b. Mix together the flour, sugar and baking powder.

c. Add in the milk, egg, oil and vanilla essence. Mix well.

d. Add in the green food colouring and mix well. Amount of colouring depends on what kind of colouring you are using. Make it as green as you can!

5. Pour one big spoonful of the 'bottom part' mixture into each paper case. 

6. Pour one big spoonful of the 'top part' mixture over the top of the 'bottom part' mixture in each paper case.

7. Bake for approximately 20 mins.

8. Leave to cool.

9. Enjoy :) - they taste even better when they've stood for 24 hours, if you can be patient and wait that long!

Peanut Butter Choc Chip Shortbread

 These are another great Pinterest find! This recipe comes from the blog 'The view from the Great Island'. If you are American then click the link to see the recipe. If you use European measures then here it is converted:

113g butter
250g peanut butter
188g flour
31g icing sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla essence
1/2 tsp sea salt
120g chocolate chips

Cream the butter and peanut butter until smooth and then add in the vanilla.
In another bowl mix together all the dry ingredients except the choc chips.
Add the dry to the wet and mix until it becomes a dough. I used my hands for this bit!
Add the choc chips and knead the dough until they are all mixed in.
Put the dought onto a sheet of greasproof paper and make it into a log shape. Wrap the dough in the paper, twist the ends to close them and leave in the fridge for at least 15mins.
Take the wrapped log out of the fridge and cut it into discs about 1cm thick. Place them on a baking sheet and bake at 160C for 12-14mins.
Let them cool on the sheet for 5mins before transferring them to a wire rack.

Beware - they are very addictive! I won't tell you how many I've eaten today. I will have to give the rest away as my husband doesn't like peanuts and I really shouldn't eat any more!

Thanks again to 'The view from the Great Island' for sharing such a great recipe!

Raspberry Smores Cheesecake Recipe

 It worked this time! So here's the recipe as promised.

Pie Crust:
185g biscuit crumbs
70g melted butter
55g sugar
a pinch of salt

Add the biscuit crumbs to the melted butter and stir until the crumbs are coated in the butter. Add the sugar and salt and mix well.

Press this mixture into a 24cm flan tin and refrigerate for 45mins.

 Interesting Fact: Biscuit crumbs with milk is popular for breakfast here in Bosnia and Herzegovina so you can buy them ready made - there's no need to buy biscuits and smash them for recipes like this!

 Cheesecake Mixture:
250g chocolate cream cheese
1 egg
50g sugar
2 tbsp sour cream
1/2 tsp vanilla essence
40g melted marshmallows
120g raspberries

 Chocolate Cream Cheese - another local ingredient!

Instructions:
Whisk the cream cheese to get some air into it. Add the egg and keep whisking. Add the sugar, sour cream and vanilla and mix well. Add the raspberries and stir them into the mixture. Melt the marshmallows and then pour them into the mixture and stir well.

Pour the mixture into the flan case and bake for 20-25mins at 180C

Leave to cool on a wire rack. When cool, refrigerate for 1 hour and then serve and enjoy :)

Raspberry Smores Cheesecake Fail!

Last week I experimented with a new recipe - which, as you can see from the photo, didn't really work. The marshmallows started to burn so I had to take it out of the oven before the cheese had set so it ended up a watery, gooey, but yummy mess! I'm going to try it again today with a few alterations. If it works I'll post the recipe here on my blog asap.

Chocolate and Cinnamon Doughnuts

A couple of months ago I saw a doughnut baking pan in the random everything shop across the road. I didn't buy it, but I did start thinking about making doughnuts. Recently I've seen a lot of lovely looking baked doughnuts on Pinterest and on Thursday we were out shopping and I bough the pan. This morning I read a lot of different baked doughnut recipes and with a bit of mix and match, came up with my own recipe. The main recipes I learned from were this one by Lara Ferroni and this one by loveveggiesandyoga.com.

My recipe goes like this:

Doughnuts - makes 12
100g flour
40g cocoa
80g sugar
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp salt
30g sour cream
60g natural yoghurt
1 egg
1/2 tsp vanilla essence
14g butter, melted.

Grease your doughnut pan thoroughly and preheat the oven to 180C.

In a large bowl mix the flour, cocoa, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon and salt until it is all combined.
Then add the sour cream, yoghurt, egg, vanilla and butter and mix well. At first I thought I would need to add more liquid, but persevere with the mixing and it will come good! It should end up looking like this:

Then you need to put the mixture into the pan. Most of the recipes I read recommended using a piping bag so you get a nice neat circle of dough in each space in the tin. I don't have on so I just used a spoon. You need to fill each space between 1/2 and 2/3 full. If you overfill the hole will disappear when the dough rises.

Put the pan into the oven on the middle shelf and bake for 6-8 minutes. If the dough springs back when pressed, they are done. I was really surprised by how quickly they were ready. They only took 6mins in my oven.

Loosen them round the edges with a knife and then pop them out and leave them to cool on a wire rack. Whilst they are cooling it's time to make the glaze.

Vanilla Glaze
120g icing sugar
1 tsp vanilla essence
5 tsp milk
sugar sprinkles

Add the vanilla to the icing sugar and then add the milk a teaspoon at a time, mixing constantly. When the glaze is liquid enough to drip off a spoon, drip it onto the doughnuts. Beware - this can be very messy! When you have iced all the doughnuts pour sugar sprinkles over them. Leave them for a while so that the icing can set.

And then eat and enjoy!

Cookie Dough Brownies

Don't they look good? I made these last night. I got the idea from a recipe on www.chef-in-training.com, but I didn't stick exactly their recipe. I decided to use my own favourite brownie recipe for the bottom part, and because I use a smaller baking tin I changed the amounts for the topping. I also converted the recipe to European measures. If you want to try making it my way, here's how:

Brownie:
140g butter
280g sugar
120g cocoa
1/4 tsp salt
1 tsp vanilla essence
2 eggs
62g flour

Preheat the oven to 160C and line a 20cm x 20cm baking tin.
In a microwave safe bowl put the butter, sugar, cocoa and salt and then put in the microwave until the butter is melted. Remove from the microwave and mix it all together until it is all combined.
Add the vanilla and mix well.
Add one egg and mix it in completely, then add the second egg and do the same.
Add the flour and mix well until all ingredients are combined and then mix a bit more for good measure.
Pour the brownie mixture into the pan and place on the middle shelf in the oven for 20-25mins.

Cookie Dough Filling:
113g butter
100g brown sugar
56g sugar
2 tbsp milk
1 tsp vanilla extract
125g flour
80g chocolate chips (or 80g chocolate bar cut into small pieces!)

In a large bowl, cream the butter and sugar.
Beat in the milk and vanilla.
Gradually add the flour and mix well.
Finally add the chocolate chips.
When the brownies have cooled, spread this mixture over them and refrigerate until the cookie dough is firm.

Topping:

160g chocolate

15g butter

Melt the chocolate and butter in the microwave and mix until combined.

Spread over the cookie dough and leave to cool.

Once the topping has hardened you can cut the brownies into squares and eat!

Happy Easter!

I ate this creme egg today - so what? Well if you know me well you will know that I love chocolate and eat, or as I can now say, used to eat, an awful lot of it. This Easter is extra happy for me because I have saved this creme egg since the day it was given to me - 4th March and kept it for today. I have finally cracked the self discipline and eating thing and I'm happily getting slimmer (not just cos I saved this creme egg, I am on a diet too!). I can honestly say that eating chocolate less often makes it taste better when you do :)