Bounty Truffles

I hope you like bounty, because if you do, you will love this bite-sized version of the coconut and chocolate bar. In fact, it is very easy to make your own bars at home and they are made in no time.

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These truffles area more elegant mini version of bounty bars and might be the perfect treat for your Valentine. Just imagine to get a bunch of mini candy bars in a box, wouldn’t that be lovely?

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The coconut mass is made in no time, what is more tricky is filling the chocolate hollow spheres. From this recipe, you get about 25-30 truffles, depending on how much filling you put in. Now grab your 4 ingredients and impress your Valentine.

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Bounty Truffles:

160 g (5 oz.) sweetened condensed milk
80 g (3 oz.) ground coconut
30 chocolate hollow spheres
200 g (6 oz.) chocolate coating

Mix condensed milk and coconut flakes in a bowl until they form a thick mass. You might use your hands to make it more even. Now it’s time to fill the hollow spheres, which is the tricky part about those truffles. It works best if you dip your hands in cold water first, then gently press the filling into the spheres.
Melt the chocolate coating in the microwave, not heating it for longer than 30 seconds at a time, or over a water bath. Dip the truffles in the chocolate and place them on a baking sheet until the coating has hardened. You can sprinkle some coconut flakes on top for decoration.

They taste best when cold.

Sweet Pretzel Bites

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These tiny treats may have not the fanciest look, but believe me, they are addictive. This is how they disappear.

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I found the recipe while looking for an Auntie Anne’s copycat and was not disappointed by the result. You can find the source I used as a basic here.

Sweet Pretzel Bites

But I changed the style of a normal sweet pretzel slightly: First, as a tiny-things-lover I made small bite-sized dough buns which make you take one after the other until the bowl is empty. Second, I soaked these little babies with a mixture of milk, and sugar. This made them heavenly moist and sweet.

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Don’t believe me? Try a bunch of them yourself.

Sweet Pretzel Bites

pretzel dough:

500 ml (2 cups) milk
1 1/2 tablespoons (2 packets) active dry yeast
6 tbsp brown sugar
4 tbsp butter, melted
540 g (4 1/2 cups) flour + some more if the dough is still sticky and for dusting the surface
2 tsp fine salt

5 tbsp baking soda
500 ml (2 cups) warm water

for the milk sauce:

2 tablespoons butter, melted
5 tbsp powdered sugar
150 ml (2/3 cups) milk

Heat the milk in a small pan until it reaches about 45°C (110°F). Stir in the yeast and let it sit for about 3 minutes. Add the butter and sugar. Add the flour about 1 cup at a time and the add the salt. This works best if you use the kneading hooks of a handheld or stand mixer. If the dough is still sticky afted adding all the flour, you should use some more, but only until it stops sticking to your handy while you knead it.

Let the dough sit in a warm, moist place for about one hour.

Preheat the oven to 220°C (430°F). Knead the dough with your hands on a floured surface and divide it into 4 pieces. Roll a kind of sausage out of each quarter and cut it into bite sized pieces (about 2,5 cm/1´´ length).
Place one baking sheet on your pans. Mix the baking soda and water in a bowl. In another shallow dish, combine milk, sugar and butter for the sauce.
Dip each little bun in the soda mixture, then set it on the baking sheet and bake for about 6-7 minutes until golden brown.

After taking them out of the oven, dip each pretzel bite into the milk sauce and then let them cool on the counter (if you can resist eating them). You might have some sauce leftover, which should be used for soaking.

Enjoy the goodness with your friends and family!

Lychee Hibiscus Dome

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Yuuuuum! I finally made a real cake this weekend and had a blast while doing so (and while eating it).
This new combination of lychee, hibiscus and a little vanilla transformed my fluffy and light cake into a juicy tropical flavor bomb.

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The basic is a fluffy sponge cake, soaked with the juice from the canned lychee.

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Aaaand on top of it, you form a dome of beaten heavy cream and curd with a spoon. It feels great to just dig in and have a spoonful of this cake. (It should not contain that much fat because of the skinny curd and the sponge cake. – Just sayin’.) I put a little orange food coloring into the cream to make the optical effect more intense and decorated the whole thing with coconut flakes, one hibiscus flower, white chocolate and rose petals. But this is not really nessecary.

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Luchee Hibiscus Dome

sponge cake layer:

85 g (2/3 cup) flour
2 eggs
110 g (1/2 cup) sugar
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp vanilla extract

cream layer:

250 ml (1 cup) heavy cream, beaten
1 pckt. instant yoghurt/curd powder vanilla
500 g (18 oz.) curd (0,2 % fat)
1 can lychee, drained
juice from 1 can lychee
4 hibiscus blossoms in sugar syrup
powdered sugar, to taste

Preheat the oven to 175°C (350°C).

Beat the eggs and sugar in a bowl with a mixer until the mixture is all light and fluffy, for about 90 to 120 seconds.
Stir in vanilla.

Mix baking powde and flour and sift the dry ingredients over the egg mass.
Stir again on medium speed until the flour is incorporated – do not overbeat.

Pour the dough into a slightly greased round pan with 26 cm (10´´) diameter. Bake for 12 – 15 minutes until a toothpicker comes out clean. Let the cake layer cool on the counter.

To prepare the cream, beat the heavy cream until stiff. Then add the vanilla powder (I used ‘Paradise cream’) and stir. The cream will become thicker, but that is exactly what you need to get a steady dome.

Purée the drained lychee fruit and stir it in the cream, add the curd. Chop the hibiscus blossoms and stir them in. You can add some orange food colouring to for an optical effect.

Stab a couple of wholes into the sponge layer by using a fork. Soak it with most of the lychee juice from the can. Now place the cream on top of the cake. You get a kind of dome by putting one heaped tbsp in the center after the other. Decorate and let set in the fridge for about 2-3 hours