Ahoy y’all, another eternity since my last post has passed, I know, I know.
But I am not dead or something. Just had a tough time getting through my finals and guess what? I survived.
Yeah, I was quite busy but now I kind of have my life back – or should I rather say: ‘my life has just started’?
So, to get down a little between the exams, I travelled around quite a bit. Just a little. Okay, I pretty much ate my way through the heart of Europe.
First stop: Heidelberg. Heidelberg is a really beautiful town near the German-French border. You can see a lot of the French and Italian influence – gelato, chocolaterie, épicerie… yes, it is a really romantic and very yummy place to be!
This spice shop is a really fancy little place you find quite hidden in the main shopping street if you go through one of the passages. If there is a place in Germany where you can get every kind of pepper in the world – this is it. There was a really great variety of oils, spices and salt there.
They even had grilled grasshoppers there! Argh!
I did some turbo sightseeing that day since I was on my own and undisturbed, so there was also plenty of time to chill out in cafés. I sat down in the neat chocolaterie YilliY in a tiny street near the main tourist track (it was not that crowded, mind you), where you can enjoy the best hot chocolate and listen to live piano music. The paintings are worth a look, too.
To cool down, you should not miss trying a homemade ice tea from The Fresh Tea Shop or some freshly squeezed juice at a Chiquita stall.
Second stop: Berlin. Well, I was not in Berlin to report what I am eating, so not on the hunt for fancy food, either. But if you come near Wonder Waffle or the sweet crêperie which says ‘Eat Crêpes, No Crap’, make sure you don’t miss these mouthwatering sweets.
I was on a tour through Italy. Yeah, I was, no kidding. (Milan – Sirmione – Verona – Venice) So besides the typical ‘pizza and pasta’, which is of course fantastic, we had some fancier stuff, as well.
Pizza ROLL, anyone?
Or some rick dark choc muffin, or a zabaione mountain tart?
Or crispy cannoli with the creamiest cream?
Hang on, I have one more for you:
Perfect ice cream! It is atually so popular that you have to take a number to order it.
And the last one (for now) is Prague. My most recent trip gave me the opportunity to experience the delight of eating trdelnik, a thin sugared roll of dough – you can’t miss it, its delicious aroma is carried down all the streets!
And finally, some more ice cream – Absinth is a Czech specialty and there are plenty Absinth-flavoured things to buy. Go for the ice cream, it is sweet and creamy. I do not even know if there was actually alcohol inside – but if there was, it must have been quite little.
So that’s it for now. But I shall post more often from now on. I have a neat truffle recipe waiting for you and I will travel some more in less than a fortnight – Berlin, Leipzig and several cities at the Côte d’Azur are waiting to be visited!
I’m not dead.
I’m not dead, but my eating habits sort of are. You know, I’m having a tough time right now, not eating regularly, because I am a slave of my stupid eating-disordered brain.
I had this diet week in February which was Detox, and somehow it made my body gain weight, although I ate less than what the diet plan told me and from that point on I have gained and lost weight and definitely lost my mind on food. But I still love baking – combining flavours, mixing ingredients together and decorating sweets makes me really really happy. But you must excuse that I cannot bake so often – I kind of lost my appetite – craving food is something uncommon for me these days.
Still, I bake for special occasions and I enjoy every second of it, for example these cute mini cupcakes I made to garnish a friend’s present with some sweet delight.
Their name sounds like a tongue twister if you say it out loud and if you repeat it quite a few times, it will blow your mind, just like their taste. Putting kitkat pieces in brownie batter was definitely not my worst idea.
To top the whole thing and underline the hazelnut taste in the candy bar, I put some whipped cream with nutella on top. The Kit-kat piece stuck in the cupcake is just one ore feature to make the delight more intense. So if you have a good friend whose birthday is near or if you just crave something both creamy and chocolatey, you might very well consider this recipe.
Kit-kat Cupcakes
(makes about 30 cupcakes)
225 g (2 sticks) butter
300 g (1 1/3 cup) sugar
2 tsp vanilla extract
4 eggs
85 g (3/4 cup) dark cocoa powder
120 g (1 cup) flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
8 mini Kit-kat bars
Topping:
250 ml heavy cream
2 heaped tbsp nutella or any other nougat cream
5 mini Kit-kat bars
Preheat oven to 175°C (350°F). Cut the Kit-kat bars into chunks and set them aside.
Melt the butter in a microwave. Combine with sugar. Add the eggs one at a time and stir in vanilla. Sift together all dry ingredients and stir them in. At the end, put in the Kit-kat chunks. Line a muffin mold with cups and fill with dough up to 2/3. After about 18 minutes you will have cute mini cupcakes waiting for decoration. Let them babies cool properly.
Beat the heavy cream until stiff and finally stir in the nutella. Place about 1 tsp of topping on each mini cupcake.
Now cut each Kit-kat single bar into half and stick the halves inside the cupcakes, so they stand upright.
Et voilà, adorable sweetness.
I am so glad my bf got me a gorgeous ice cream maker for Christmas, because I adore ice cream.
I love frozen yoghurt.
I love sorbet.
I love soft ice cream.
Ice cream in a cone.
In a bowl.
A big melba.
Just every kind of ice cream (except mint).
It feels just right to make my own one with the machine and it is pretty easy, if you ask me.
You can just toss the ingredients together an freeze them or make a deluxe version with egg yolks (this is the kind that takes more time – but believe me that it is absolutely worth the stress).
This recipe is based on the basic ice cream recipe that I found in the gadget’s manual. It worked pretty good, I just added the molten chocolate toffee to the mass.
Chocolate Toffee Ice Cream
(makes about 750 ml/3 cups)
2 egg yolks
1 tbsp corn starch
100 g (1/2 cup – 1 tbsp) sugar
250 g (8 oz.) chocolate toffee
350 ml (1 2/3 cup) milk
150 ml (2/3 cup) heavy cream
Prepare your ice cream maker. I had to put my bowl in the freezer for 24 hours before I could get started. Be sue sou have this prepared.
Place the egg yolks, corn starch and sugar in a bowl. Whisk by hand or with a mixer until the mass thickens and turns pale (abour 90 seconds) .
Melt the unwrapped chocolate toffee in the microwave, heating it for no more than 30 seconds at a time. Stir before you place the bowl in the microwave for another 30 s. Set the dish aside.
Combine the milk and cream in a medium saucepan and heat until the liquid starts to boil. Remove from heat. Start stirring the egg yolk mass and gently incorporate the hot dairy mixture.
When you have poured in all the milk and cream, add the molten toffee and let it dissolve.
Now pour the mass back into the saucepan and heat one more time while stirring, until the mixture thickens a bit (it should not boil).
Let it cool on the counter and then place it in the fridge for at least 12 hours. (You may not put hot ingredients in the mixing bowl of the ice cream machine.)
Now turn on the mmachine and slowly pour in the prepared ice cream mixture. You should get a nice portion of chocolatey, creamy goodness.