Peanut Butter Cups

Posted on by Hannah

Peanutbuttercups are both my strong point and my biggest weakness.

‘How’s that possible?’ you might wonder. But the answer is quite simple.
I make them myself. And they’re too freakin’ delicious.

20160222_0048-1From the moment they reach the inside of my mouth, I get the most satisfying feeling ever. When I bite through a cold chocolate peanut butter cup, this tingling sensation slides all over my spine, like as if a unicorn is tickling my back with it’s sparkly manes. And then the instant feeling of tension relief kicks in, like as if you turned into a big, sleepy Snorlax.
And that’s why Peanutbuttercups are dangerous -I always say it in 1 breath-.20160222_0087-1They’re like kryptonite. But since I still haven’t figured out what kryptonite exactly does, I might as well just say fair and square that Peanutbuttercups make me fat.
They’re half chocolate, half peanut butter, and irresistible due to the simple fact that they’re bite sized and packed with everything you shouldn’t be eating when dieting. Luckily for me I don’t do diets, and I also hate people looking miserable whilst they’re on a diet.
So what I do is this.
Every once in a while I buy a lot of chocolate, and a lot of peanut butter; make 3 batches of 12 Peanutbuttercups; eat the first batch with my mom, and then just hand them out to miserable looking people to see them flourish like beautiful flowers. Some might say I’m a hero, but I like to refer to myself as the proud owner of the best Peanutbuttercup recipe ever. Point – Blank – Period.20160222_0091-1They’re better than Reese’s. BAMM, I said it. Sue me! (or not)
But seriously tho. They are. And I’ve already converted some of the most stubborn peanutbutterhaters (yes, they exist. Weirdly enough in fairly big amounts in Belgium). So it’s about time that you try them too!

Peanut Butter Cups

Ingredients

  • 250 g creamy peanut butter
  • 27 g unsalted butter
  • 50 g powdered sugar
  • 350 g dark chocolate chips
  • 200 g milk chocolate
  • a pinch of salt

Instructions

  1. Mix 150 g of peanut butter, powdered sugar, butter and salt in a bowl, and set apart.
  2. Melt the dark and milk chocolate with the rest of the peanut butter in a separate bowl.
  3. Take a cupcake pan and fill them with cupcake liners.
  4. Put 1 tablespoon of chocolate in a cupcake liner (or a mini-cupcake liner for little peanutbuttercups), put a tablespoon of peanutbutter mixture on top of the chocolate layer, and finish off with another layer of chocolate -also about a tablespoon, so the peanut butter isn’t visible any more-. And again for the other peanutbuttercups.
  5. Place the pan with peanutbuttercups and immediately place them in the fridge to let them set. If you leave them out of the fridge, you’ll have grainy chocolate, and you wouldn’t want that right 😉 .

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Peanut Butter Cups

Ingrediënten

  • 250 g gladde pindakaas
  • 27 g ongezouten boter
  • 50 g poedersuiker
  • 350 g zwarte chocolade
  • 200 g melk chocolade
  • snuifje zout

Instructies

  1. Meng 150 g pindakaas, boter, poedersuiker en zout in een kom, en zet apart.
  2. Smelt de zwarte en melk chocolade samen met de rest van de pindakaas, en zet deze ook apart.
  3. Zet 12 cupcake papiertjes in een muffintin.
  4. Doe een eetlepel van de gesmolten chocolade in één van de cupcakepapiertjes, en leg er daarna een eetlepel pindakaasmengsel op. Eindig weer met een eetlepel chocolademengsel, en zorg ervoor dat alle pindakaas bedekt is. En dit voor elke peanutbuttercup.
  5. Doe de muffintin meteen in de ijskast, zodat de peanutbuttercups niet korrelig worden als ze stollen.
  6. Eet ze lekker op als ze gestold zijn 😉 . Smakelijk!

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This is a recipe for about 12 large peanutbuttercups, or 24 small ones.

My pictures look a bit weird, but I wanted to shoot them as quickly as possible so that my mom wouldn’t have eaten them before I took the pictures, because she is fast.

I don’t know where exactly I got the recipe from, but it’s an ancient one. I think I might have been the first Belgian person in history to make peanutbuttercups ever. And no, I’m not shitting.

And I’d like to conclude this post with this.
Dear Peanut Butter. Thank you for existing. ❤

Brownie Cupcakes with a Raspberry Frosting

Posted on by Hannah

‘Love me!‘

That’s what this cupcake would probably say if it could speak. And let’s be honest, how could you possibly not love a thing filled with chocolate goodness and topped with creamy raspberry frosting? Plus, they’re Valentine’s day proof!20160124_0010-1

Normally, I’m not really the person to celebrate Valentine’s day – because I’m pretty much the anti-Christ of romance, unintentionally of course -, but I think every excuse is a good one to bake something special 😉 . And chocolate’s the best excuse of them all! 20160124_0007-1

So let me be your savior for today.
If you still haven’t got a clue how to make the heart of your (potential) beloved one beat faster -whether or not due to the high amount of incorporated sugar- on the 14th of February, then just go with these delicious and easy to make brownie cupcakes. You only need 1 bowl to make them, 30 minutes to bake them, and an awful lot of love to infuse them with. 20160124_0060-1

And the very best thing about these cupcakes is that I pimped them to match the Valentine’s day theme, but that they’re equally good without the raspberry frosting! Any frosting -or none at all- would suit these little chocolate bombs, so knock yourself out by trying other types of frosting like a peanut butter one or salted caramel!

Bonus: if you change the topping of the cupcakes, you’ve pretty much got yourself an excuse to ignore all social activity on Valentine’s day and enjoy yourself with your new brownie friends in front of the TV all day.

So no more excuses. Get up, stand up, and bake for the love of chocolate! ❤

Brownie Cupcakes with a Raspberry Frosting

Ingredients

Brownie Cupcakes (12)

  • 150 g (5 ounces) dark chocolate
  • 115 g (1/2 cup) unsalted butter
  • 200 g (1 cup) granulated sugar
  • 1 tbsp vanilla extract
  • 3 large eggs
  • 105 g (3/4 cup) all purpose flour
  • 1 pinch of salt

Raspberry Frosting

  • 170 g (1/2 cup) unsalted butter, softened to room temperature
  • 375 g  (3 cups) powdered sugar
  • 3 tbsp heavy cream
  • 2 tsp vanilla extract
  • 1 pinch of salt
  • 165 g (1/2 cup) raspberry jam

Instructions

Brownie Cupcakes

  1. Preheat the oven at 170°C/340°F.
  2. Melt the chocolate together with the butter until just melted and take off the heat. Add the sugar and vanilla extract, and stir until well incorporated.
  3. Beat the eggs into the mixture one by one and after you’ve mixed the batter well, incorporate the flour and salt. Whisk until the mixture is smooth.
  4. Pour the batter into 12 cupcake liners that are placed in a ramequin and bake them for about 25 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean.

Raspberry frosting

  1. Beat the softened butter for about 3 – 4 minutes until creamy (preferably in a cool environment) and add the sugar, cream, vanilla, and salt while the mixer is still running. Beat until this mixture is quite fluffy, and add the raspberry jam. Beat for another 2 minutes until the jam is incorporated, and put your frosting into a piping bag.
  2. Pipe your frosting onto the cool cupcakes and top them off with a pinch of love. Enjoy!

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Browniecupcakes met Frambozen Frosting

Ingrediënten

Browniecupcakes (12)

  • 150 g pure chocolade
  • 115 g boter
  • 200 g kristalsuiker
  • 1 tl vanille-extract
  • 3 eieren
  • 105 g bloem
  • snuifje zout

Frambozen frosting

  • 170 g ongezouten boter, op kamertemperatuur
  • 375 g  bloemsuiker
  • 3 el room
  • 2 tl vanille extract
  • 1 snuifje zout
  • 165 g frambozenconfituur

Instructies

Browniecupcakes

  1. Verwarm de oven voor op 175°C.
  2. Doe de chocolade en boter in een kom en smelt ze (ofwel au bain-marie, of in de microgolfoven) tot ze glad is.
  3. Voeg de suiker en het vanille extract toe aan het chocolademengesel en roer tot alles geïncorporeerd is. Voeg daarna de eieren 1 voor 1 toe en mix elke keer goed, alvorens de bloem en het zout toe te voegen.
  4. Zorg dat het beslag een gladde consistentie heeft, en giet ze daarna in 12 papieren cupcakevormpjes die in een bakvorm/ramequinvorm geplaatst zijn.
  5. Bak de cupcakes ongeveer 25 minuten, of tot een tandenstoker er schoon uitkomt. Laat ze daarna afkoelen alvorens de frosting aan te brengen.

Frambozen frosting

  1. Klop de boter op tot ze romig is in ongeveer 3 – 4 minuten, and voeg er daarna de suiker, room, vanille, en zout aan toe. Klop tot het mengsel fluffy is and voeg de confituur toe aan het mengsel. Klop nog eens 2 minuten tot een mooi geheel en doe de frosting in een spuitzak.
  2. Spuit de frosting op de afgekoelde cupcakes en besprenkel met een snuifje liefde. Smakelijk!

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This recipe makes 12 cupcakes, and a ton of frosting that you can eat straight out of the piping bag.

The brownie cupcake recipe was given to me by the niece of my boyfriend and I’m not sure where she got it from, so thanks niece! The frosting I got from a blog that I can always relate on for good baking recipes, Sally’s Baking Addiction (http://sallysbakingaddiction.com/2014/07/17/raspberry-lemon-cupcakes).

Pictures where taken by me, and I have to give a special thanks to my little sister for helping me throw ingredients on a plate and placing a cupcake in the middle of the mess.

Hopefully we can all spend our Valentine’s day with our only true love… Food.

 

Smoothie Bowl with Homemade Granola

Posted on by Hannah

¡Hola Pola Granola!

This granola has got a story to it, and I’ll start this new year by telling you about my spiritual and healing journey through the universe and layers of time and … no, wait. Just kidding. I’m not really that spiritual. -bummer. But I did do some “crazy” things in 2015!

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So, some time ago, a friend of mine that studies Journalism had to make a documentary as a part of one of her graduation tasks. She decided to go with the topic of Superfoods and the hype that’s been created around it.
We thought it would be fun to do a little experiment by putting me on a Superfood diet for a month, and thereby proving its effectiveness.

Turned out it wasn’t that fun at all.

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I’m not gonna bore you by telling you about how I came to hate “superfoods” in the end (not all of them ofcourse) – you’d have to watch the documentary for that. But I can say that this granola has been a life saver and something that I could eat everyday for a month straight -with “superfoods” in them- without wanting to throw it out of a window. Together with the delicious vegan Lovechock chocolate ❤ and piles of fruit.

But let’s talk crazy delicious granola for now.

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I think by now everybody knows how much I like change, and you can pimp this granola up with so many ingredients, that it turns out to be like the god of all granola recipes. Or something like a chameleon granola or whatever. I’ve already made this recipe with honey, maple syrup, agave syrup, pistachios, mashed banana, pecan nuts, pumpkin spice, faerie dust, chocolate chips, and so on. The possibilities are endless.

And the great thing is that you can eat it for breakfast with some yogurt and fruit, as a snack with a fruit bowl and chocolate, for dinner, for lunch, for pre-lunch, for after-lunch, for dessert; basically just all through the day – and it’s quite a healthy snack too! So no stuffed turkey feeling or sense of guilt, just plain granola.

This recipe is only a guideline to how you could make your granola (it’s how I like it most), but you can easily use different types of nuts, spices or seeds, to whatever suits your mood.

Homemade Granola {Vegan & Sugar-free}

Ingredients

  • 135 g (1 & 1/2 cup) -instant- oatmeal flakes
  • 40 g (3 tbsp) coconut oil
  • 50 g (2/3 cup) agave -/honey/maple syrup
  • 1 tsp vanilla extract
  • 45 g (1/2 cup) pecans -/walnuts/almonds
  • 45 g (1/2 cup) pistachios
  • 3 tbsp puffed quinoa
  • 4 tbsp pumpkin seeds
  • 1 tbsp flax seeds
  • a pinch of salt
  • 50 g (1/2 cup) dried cranberries + 1 tsp coconut oil

Instruction

  1. Preheat the oven to 175°C/350F
  2. In a small saucepan over medium heat, warm the coconut oil together with the agave (or substitute) and vanilla extract. Remove from heat when the coconut oil is melted and pour in the oatmeal flakes. Mix all the dry ingredients together on a chopping board -except for the cranberries -, chop them into coarse chunks, and pour them into the oatmeal mixture.
  3. File a baking sheet with parchment paper and spread the mixture evenly onto the sheet.
  4. Bake the granola for about 17 – 23 minutes, but make sure that you check your bake now and then to make sure that the edges don’t burn. If the edges tend to get dark brown but the center is still blank, just take the granola out of the oven, cut the edges off and lay them aside, and put the baking tray back into the oven.
  5. Put the dried cranberries and the tbsp of coconut oil in a little ramequin or something heatproof and put it in the oven with the granola for the last 5 minutes. You could also use other dried fruits or berries.
  6. Once the granola looks golden brown, remove it from the oven, wait until it has cooled off a bit, and add the cranberries. If you don’t like your granola chunky, give it a good toss to break the clumps.
  7. When completely cooled down, store in an airtight container or jar, and devour whenever you feel like it. The granola can be stored for up to a week without losing its crunch!

Smoothie bowl

Simply blend frozen blueberries, raspberries, 1 banana, some Greek or vegan yogurt, and water until smooth, and cover with passion fruit, sliced banana, slices figs, chocolate chunks, or whatever you desire. Making smoothie bowls is a matter of testing out what ingredients you like best and how thick/thin you want your mixture to be. There’s no right amount of fruit or yogurt to use, so knock yourself out on experimenting!

 

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Granola {Vegan & Suikervrij}

Ingrediënten

  • 135 g havermout
  • 40 g kokosolie
  • 50 g agave siroop (/honing/esdoorn siroop)
  • 1 tl vanille essence
  • 45 g pecannoten (/walnoten/amandelnoten/…)
  • 45 g pistachenoten
  • 3 el gepofte quinoa
  • 4 el pompoenzaad
  • 1 el lijnzaad
  • snuifje zout
  • 50 g gedroogde veenbessen + 1 el kokosolie

Instructies

  1. Verwarm de oven voor op 175°C
  2. Doe de kokosolie, agave (of vervanger), en vanille extract in een pan en verwarm op een laag tot medium vuur. Haal van het vuur wanneer de kokosolie gesmolten is en voeg de havermout eraan toe.
  3. Meng de droge ingrediënten -behalve de veenbessen- en hak ze in grove stukken op een snijplank. Voeg ze bij het havermoutmengsel.
  4. Bedek een bakplaat met bakpapier en spreid het mengsel gelijk over de plaat.
  5. Bak de granola 17 – 23 minuten in de oven, maar hou het baksel in de gaten aangezien de randen nogal snel verbranden. Als de randen donkerbruin beginnen te worden maar het midden nog wit is, haal dan de plaat uit de oven, snij de randen van de granola en leg ze opzij. Steek de bakplaat terug in de oven en wacht tot de rest goudbruin is alvorens ze opzij te zetten om te koelen.
  6. Doe de gedroogde veenbessen en el kokosolie in een vuurvast kommetje en steek het de laatste 5 minuten in de oven bij de granola. Je kan natuurlijk ook andere gedroogde vruchten gebruiken!
  7. Als de granola lauw is kan je de veenbessen eraan toevoegen en, afhankelijk of je graag een fijne of grove granola hebt, de granola wat opbreken in stukken en door elkaar mengen.
  8. Wanneer de granola helemaal is afgekoeld kan je ze bewaren in een luchtdichte container of glazen pot, en ze opeten wanneer je maar wil. Ze kan ongeveer een week bewaard worden voor ze haar krokantheid verliest!

Smoothie

Doe bevroren (of verse) bosbessen, frambozen, 1 banaan, wat Griekse of vegan yoghurt , and wat water in een blender en mix het tot een glad mengsel. Voeg er daarna passievrucht, stukjes banaan, stukjes vijgen of wat chocolade aan toe en geniet.
Een goede smoothie maken hangt af van welk fruit je zelf graag eet en welke consistentie je graag drinkt (dik of lopend), dus er bestaan niet echt vaste hoeveelheden voor. Experimenteer en personaliseer je smoothie naar hartelust!

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Credos to myself for taking the pictures! I took them on my doorstep dressed in my onesie while the temperate was like 7°C, so yeah, I deserve a pat on the shoulder.

The original recipe is adapted from http://minimalistbaker.com/banana-bread-granola/ and let me tell you that the version with mashed bananas isn’t that bad either, so try it out! 😉

The chocolate (vegan & sugar-free) is from a Dutch brand named Lovechock (http://www.lovechock.com/en/) and it’s incredibly tasty!

Enjoy!