Tiramisu cupcakes

So... Last week I told you all about my go-to basic cupcake recipe. Today I'm going to introduce you to my tiramisu cupcakes, which basically means I'm adding a lot of amaretto and I'm using mascarpone in my frosting :-) And let's be honest, who doesn't love the delicious gooeyness of tiramisu? Sooooooo good!

Now, I came across a recipe (in Dutch) a few years ago (just click here to for the original recipe), and tweaked it to be more to my liking. And I must say I haven't heard any complaints yet, so I must have tweaked something right. 

Now... Let's begin... :-)

Tiramisu cupcakes

Ingredients:

For the cupcakes:

125 grams (4.5 oz) of self-rising flour

125 grams (4.5 oz) of sugar

125 grams (4.5 oz) of butter (at room temperature)

2 eggs (100 grams or 3.5 oz of egg)

2 table spoons of amaretto

2 table spoons of milk

½ table spoon of vanilla extract

For the topping:

300 grams of  mascarpone

100 grams of confectioner’s sugar

75 grams of whipping cream

1 table spoon of amaretto

Chocolate flakes or cocoa powder

Recipe:

So, let's get to work. For starters you just need to follow the recipe of my basic vanilla cupcakes. Just mix the flour, sugar, butter, eggs and vanilla extract until you have a smooth batter.  

Next, add the amaretto and stir it in until the batter is completely smooth again. lastly add the milk and stir until smooth. Easy, right?

This is where you start pre-heating your oven to 170°C or 340°F. Make sure you put the cupcake liners into the cupcake baking pan. I chose a colourful selection of pink, orange and purple just to brighten up the cupcakes even more. Just look how pretty it is...

Now, put the baking pan into the oven for 15 to 20 minutes. When the time is up, make sure to check whether the cupcakes are completely done by checking with a toothpick or a knitting needle. If it comes out clean, the cupcakes are done. Just take them out of the baking pan and put them on a rack to cool down.

This cooling down period gives you plenty of time to clean your baking pan and to start organising and making your mascarpone frosting. So get cleaning and take out your ingredients.

First things first, as you probably know, mascarpone is quite a thick substance, so it's quite important to loosen it up by using your mixer or whisk. 

Then add the confectioner's sugar to the mascarpone and beat with a mixer until you have a smooth and fluffy mixture. Next, add the whipping cream and beat for another few minutes until the mixture is fluffy again (if you take out a table spoonful of the mixture and tip it upside down, the mixture should stay on the spoon). Now, carefully stir in the amaretto and keep stirring until you again have that smooth and fluffy mixture.

It's time to take out your piping bag and start filling it with the mascarpone mixture. Then add a glorious amount of mascarpone cream on top of each cupcake (make sure the cupcakes have completely cooled before you do so. Otherwise the mascarpone cream would just melt and slide off).

Lastly you can finish off your cupcakes with some chocolate flakes or some cocoa powder on top of the frosting. I opted for the chocolate flakes, this time, but cocoa powder is also delicious, trust me...

All that's left to do now, is to devour these delicious treats, so... Enjoy!

Love, Ans xoxo

No-Bake Chocolate Ganache Tart

The other day I was scrolling through Instagram and Pinterest and kept coming across all these beautiful pictures of cakes and desserts. All I kept thinking was: "Maybe I should try making this" and "That looks absolutely divine". So, I decided to look back to the summer and one of my favourite recipes for Luca's birthday: a no-bake chocolate ganache tart. Sounds delicious, doesn't it?

Just look at how happy he is with his birthday cake... Or maybe it was just the idea of getting to blow another candle :-) Anyway, everyone loooooved the tart and, even better, it is super easy to make. Just try it. Now I got the original recipe (in Dutch) from this website (https://www.leukerecepten.nl/recepten/chocoladetaart-met-aardbeien-zonder-oven/). I just tweaked it to be more to my liking :-)

So here goes...

First things first, the easiest way of making the tart is in a baking pan with a removable bottom, For this blogpost I decided to make the miniature version in a earthenware pan, which is also possible, it's just a bit trickier to remove the cake from the pan without the bottom and sides crumbling in your hands...

I bought these pretty little pans at Maisons du Monde in early summer and have been waiting for the perfect opportunity to use them :-) And I must say they worked perfectly.

Now, let's start making the chocolate ganache tart (don't worry, I've included the concise version of the recipe in English and Dutch at the bottom of this post). 

No-Bake Chocolate Ganache Tart

Ingredients:

• 250 grams (or 9 oz) of petit beurre cookies (Graham crackers works as well)
• 100 grams (or 3.5 oz) of melted butter
• 300 grams (or 10.5 oz) of dark chocolate
• 200 ml (or a little under 0,5 pt) of double cream
• Assortment of berries (strawberries, blueberries, raspberries, blackberries) for decorating

Recipe:

We're starting with the preparations, so take your baking pan (with removable bottom) and line it with parchment paper. Make sure the bottom and sides are well-lined so it will be easy afterwards  to remove the tart from the pan.

Now let's start cooking! Take your petit beurre cookies or Graham crackers and put them in a blender. Blitz the cookies or crackers until it looks like course sand. Then put the blitzed cookies in a bowl and put it to the side. Now, melt the butter, making sure you keep an eye on the melting butter, so you don't burn it. 

Next, add the melted butter to the blitzed cookies. I always choose to pour all the butter in at once and then start stirring, but you can add it gradually as well. Just keep stirring that cookie and butter mixture until it resembles wet sand.

Since our cookie and butter mixture is finished now, we can put it in our lined baking pans. Just spread out the mixture on the bottom of the pan first and pat it down firmly and evenly with a spoon. Also make sure to create a cookie edge as well by patting down the cookie mixture on the sides. This always takes a bit longer for me because I keep trying to pat down more cookie mixture to create good, firm sides. The problem is that by doing so I always tear down parts of the sides I've already made... So try to keep your perfectionist side at bay :-)

When you have put the cookie mixture in the baking pan and you have patted it down on the bottom and the sides, you put the baking pan in the fridge for at least 1 hour. 

Time for a little break. I usually take this time to start cleaning the mess I've already made and then put on a load of laundry or read a magazine or a chapter in a book. Relaxing is important too, after all :-)

When you're nearing the end of the hour, you can start on the next stage of the tart: the easiest chocolate ganache you will ever make. All you need is dark chocolate and double cream. That's it. 

So take your double cream, pour it in a saucepan and start heating it. The double cream doesn't need to boil (it can, but it is not necessary), it just needs to be warm enough to melt the chocolate. When heating the double cream, make sure it doesn't burn or boil over. 

Next break the chocolate in pieces and put it in a bowl. When the double cream is warm enough, pour it over the chocolate and start stirring. You need to stir the chocolate and cream until all the chocolate has melted and you have a shiny, gooey chocolate mixture. This is your chocolate ganache. Easy, right?

I am Belgian, so I'm used to really delicious chocolate. My favourite is Côte d'Or, so rich and full of flavour... Yum yum :-)

 

When your chocolate ganache is ready, you take the baking pan with the cookie base out of the fridge. Just pour the ganache over the cookie bottom until almost at the top of the sides. Don't pour it over or you might end up with a chocolate, gooey mess. When the ganache is in the baking pan, put the pan back in the fridge to set for about 3 hours. 

 

Another break for you to do your housekeeping, run some errands... Or you could even make the tart up to this point the day before and then leave it in the fridge overnight. 

When the three hours are up, you can start prepping the berries and decorating the tart to your liking. Before you start putting berries on top of your tart, make sure you carefully take it out of the baking pan, remove the parchment paper and put it on the plate on which you want to serve it. Don't worry if your tart is crumbling slightly, this is perfectly normal. Then you just start putting the berries on the tart until it looks the way you want it to. When the tart is finishe, you can keep it in the fridge for up to 3 days. 

Now, stop your fidgeting and moving berries around and surprise your family and friends with this beautiful and delicious chocolate ganache tart. 

Enjoy!

Love, Ans xoxo

P.S.: You can find the concise version of the recipe right here. Enjoy!

Steak sandwich with homemade chimichurri

Hello again

As promised in my previous post and on my instagram (ansje684) I will share some recipes with you that I have tried out for Luca's third birthday party. The lucky recipe for today is... Steak sandwich with homemade chimichurri... Yum yum! But I have to admit I have always been a sucker for meals concerning steak. It's the only meat keeping me from being a vegetarian...

Now, I decided to try this one because I think fresh herb and veggie sauces or dips are always better than storebought ones. Hence my obsession to make my own chimichurri. And boy, was it easy to make... I'll be writing down the recipe for the steak sandwich with chimichurri, but I'll make sure to be very clear about the ingredients needed for the chimichurri alone. Don't worry ;-)

Why don't you try it at home as well, and let me know what you think. I, for one, love it! :-)

Lots of love

Ans x

Steak sandwich with homemade chimichurri

Ingredients:

- 1 baguette

- 2 steaks

- 1 table spoon of olive oil

- 2 table spoons of lemon mayonaise (storebought)

- 75 grams of arugula

- chimichurri:

     - 1 red pepper (Spanish or other hot kind)

     - 1 clove of garlic

     - 15 grams of coriander/cilantro (fresh)

     - 20 grams of flat leaf parsley (fresh)

     - 2 tea spoons of dried oregano

     - 15 grams of mint leaves (fresh)

     - 6 table spoons of olive oil

     - 2 table spoons of red wine vinegar

Preparation:

1) Make the chimichurri:

     a) Cut the stem off the red pepper, cut in half (lengthwise) and remove the seeds. Cut the

         pepper into pieces (they don't need to be very fine, as the ingredients will afterwards

         be blitzed to make a smooth whole)

     b) Take a high cup and add the red pepper, garlic, coriander/cilantro, flat leaf parsley,

         oregano, mint leaves, 6 table spoons of olive oil and the red wine vinegar. Blitz the 

         ingredients coarsely and season with salt.(I needed to use a bit more olive oil to get

         the right texture, so feel free to add some more until you have the texture you like).

2) Take a skillet and add the table spoon of olive oil. Put the skillet on high heat and cook

     your steak in 4 minutes (2 minutes on each side). Then, take the steak out of the skillet,

     wrap it in tin foil and let it rest for 5 minutes.

3) Cut you baguette in half (lengthwise) and put the bottom half on a wooden board or 

     serving dish. Spread the lemon mayonaise on the bottom half of the baguette and put 

     the arugula on top.

4) Cut your steaks in thin slices and put them on the arugula. Put your homemade 

     chimichurri on the steak (as little or much as you like. As you can see in the pictures, I

     like a lot of chimichurri on my steak ;-) ). Put the top of the baguette on you chimichurri 

     covered steaks. 

5) Cut the baguette in 4 pieces and serve fresh. Enjoy!