Peanut Butter Cups and Marzipan Cups

Oh lazy saturday.

An ideal day to make some treats.

Here my first...

... Peanut Butter Cups!

Ingredients:

- bittersweet (dark) chocolate
- peanut butter

I actually don't have the exact measures. I just made some, and then took more chocolate en peanut butter and made more etc.

Method:

Melt the chocolate in your microwave.
Place 2 teaspoons melted chocolate in each mini cupcake liner and carefully spread it with the back of a spoon at the bottom and only 1/4 of the way up the liner.
Place the chocolate-covered liners onto a plate in the fridge to firm up, for about 20 minutes. The chocolate should be hard by now, so divide peanut butter paste into all 12 liners, about 1 teaspoon per liner, pressing down gently to make sure the paste goes everywhere. Place in fridge to firm up, for about 20 minutes.
Top with 2 teaspoons melted chocolate, spreading carefully so that none of the peanut butter can be seen. For decoration, you can use some brésilienne nut (sugar roasted almonds).
Let cups firm up in fridge for at least one hour before enjoying. Store in fridge or freezer.

Then my Mother came up with the idea of using marzipan for filling.
So I did and it turned out delish!

From the inside:

The Peanut Butter Version (the chocolate broke a little bit while slicing the cup in two...):

Nice, no?

:)

I also made some Coconut Macaroons. (Recipe here)

Sweet sweet treats!

I'm off for a few days! Shopping weekend with my lovely sister! See you next wednesday!

Crispy Chocolate Chip Cookies

I love Sundays.

I already look forward to very sunny summery Sundays, but a rainy and cloudy day like today has its charms.

Cloudy, rainy Sundays over here means relaxing, eating, chilling, reading, blogging and the most important thing: baking!

Internet is full of recipes for making chocolate chip cookies. Some make them crispy, some make them chewy.
I didn't know which ones I wanted to bake. I never ate them 'own made', I only ate the prepacked 'American Cookies' you can buy in every grocery store.
They rather looked crispy for my, but after making my own 'American' cookies, I realise that mine are very crispy and those you can buy in the store rather are chewy.

Mine are ok, although I will search for a 'chewier' version to make.
Here the recipe for crispy ones, adapted from Smitten Kitchen.

Crispy Chocolate Chip Cookies
Adapted from Smitten Kitchen.

Ingredients:

- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 3/4 cup butter, melted
- 1 cup packed brown sugar
- 1/2 cup white sugar
- 2 teaspoons of vanilla extract
- 1 egg
- 1 egg yolk
- 2 cups dark chocolate chips

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 325°F (165°C). Line a pan with parchment paper.

2. Sift together the flour, baking soda and salt and set aside. In a medium bowl, cream together the melted butter, brown sugar and white sugar until well blended.

3. Beat in the vanilla, egg, and egg yolk until light and creamy. Mix in the sifted ingredients until just blended.

4. Stir in the chocolate chips by hand using a wooden spoon. Drop cookie dough a tablespoon at a time onto the parchment sheet.

5. Bake cookies for 10 to 12 minutes (check your cookies before they’re done; depending on your scoop size, your baking time will vary) in the preheated oven, or until the edges are lightly toasted.

6. Cool on baking sheets for a few minutes before transferring to wire racks to cool completely.

My brother was so excited about the cookies, he filmed the full baking process in the oven! Crazy!

4-Ingredient-Chocolate-Tart

4-Ingredient-Chocolate-Tart

You give me a vegetable and a some protein (fish, chicken) and I’m happy. I can make a great dish with few ingredients. My recipes, my eats always are very simple. I like that. Just like the following tart I’ve made.

Wanna know how I put chocolate, sugar, eggs and butter into this?


Well, I’ll tell you.

Ingredients:

- 200 gr pure chocolate
- 110 gr fine sugar (white)
- 110 gr unsalted butter
- 4 eggs

Method:

Preheat oven to 180°C. Melt the chocolate and butter au bain marie (I usually cook water with a kettle, drop the chocolate and butter in a bowl and ‘hang’ it into the hot water until the mass is melted).

Separate the egg-whites from the egg yolks. Put half of the sugar (55 gr) in the bowl with the egg-whites and whip until you get a white mass with stiff, firm peaks. Put that bowl for a few minutes into the fridge. Now put the rest of the sugar (55 gr) into the bowl with the egg yolks and also mix this together until the mass becomes white and doubles in quantity.

Mix the chocolate into the egg yolks and stir well. Then stir a couple of spoonfuls of the beaten egg whites into the chocolate mixture to lighten it, and then fold the remaining whites into the chocolate mixture, gently but thoroughly.

Spoon the mixture into a large round baking pan (20 cm Ø). Bake for about 18 minutes in preheated oven. Cool down.

The texture of this tart reminds me of a ‘moelleux’ but a little bit more baked. It is delish!

Enjoy!