Dark Loving

Yes I know, this sounds a bit wrong. And like all things wrong it is soooooo good!
So let me make a nice introduction to this recipe! While I was in Japan, my wonderful, beautifull American roommate introduced me to my doom: Reeses Cups...
*starts drooling*. I loved them so much, she even made her parents ship me some bags al the way from Chigaco Area!!! (still very gratefull, thanks parents!).
But, when I got back to Holland, I only found the normal Reeses here Pete Bakes . And they are not half as good. But thanks to internet, and some searching, I found... A RECIPE!
And even one for a dark chocolate version, which is just plain awesome since I am definitely a dark chocolate lover.
So thanks to , I made my own very nice reeses cups!
I will give the European measurements here, the American measurements and recipe can be found here: Pete Bakes! recipe.

I do need to note that I used about 1/3 less chocolate then in Pete Bakes! recipe. Some chocolate coating came off with the liner, but since I was using extremely dark chocolate, this amount was already very heavy. So for all the dark chocolate lovers out there, DO NOT USE TOO DARK CHOCOLATE!!! Also, with that amount of chocolate, I was able to make around 20 cups. But it will depend on how much chocolate you want around your filling =)
Also, I replaced the graham crackers with digistive cookies, seeing we do not have graham cookies in Holland. But it smelled and tasted just the same as reeses!! *hearts*

Dark Chocolate Cups

around 200 gr dark chocolate
120 gr peanut butter
25 gr powdered sugar
4 tablespoons crushed digistive (this will be around 3/4 whole cookies)



Combine the peanut butter, powdered sugar and cookie crumbs in a blender. Mix untill you have a firm texture which smells very very lovely. Refrain yourself from licking kitchen knife.

Melt the chocolate au bain marie, so you can keep it warmer for a longer time. I recommand to make sure the chocolate does not get to warm. It does not apply very good to the liners when it is very fluid.

Use a brush or a spoon to cover the liners with a good layer of chocolate. Try to get as much as possible up the sides.

But in the freezer for 10 minutes. Take out and devide your peanut butter-cookie filling between the cups. Cover with more chocolate and put back in the freezer for 15 minutes.

Eat on room temperature. Wait, excuse me, nom nom nom nom on roomtemperature =)













NOM

Celebrate with Carrot Cake

Well, hello everybody who drops by! Finally I am doing it for real! Sharing all my love for eat... I mean baking with you guys. I hope you will like the stuff I put up here. I actually planned to put some yummy crunchy Dutch cookie recipe here... But they got eaten before I took pictures... Twice. Hehehe.
But the good thing is, my friend Celia came by the other day and we decided to make this fabulous Carrot Cake, of which the recipe she got from a teacher. And well, of course, we had to add some Dutchness! I put it as an optional at the end of the recipe, and it’s well worth the extra effort!
In the same sense we changed the icing. In the original recipe they use a icing based on mascarpone, but I always think that is a bit on the heavy side. And you want to eat as much cake as you can, not as much icing as you want! So we made a basic icing off egg white with sugar and it is just as fingerlicking good. You don need a dishwasher for that bowl I can tell you!

Carrot Cake
A 4 eggs
300 gr whole wheat flour
300 gr sugar
B 3,5 tsp. backing powder
3 tsp. cardamom
2 tsp. vanilla sugar
3 tsp. cinnamon
150 ml. sunflower oil
500 gr rasped carrot

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees. Prepare a Ø24 cm. springform by covering the bottem with parchment paper. Start by whisking all the ingredients A together until you get a fluffy mass. Add B. If you want to add some Dutchness, you can add the following ingredients:

1 cup walnuts, chopped (keep some for decoration)
½ cup hazelnuts, chopped
½ cup raisins, which have been soaked in water DRAIN BEFORE ADDING. (for awesome taste add a splash of your favorite liquor to the water, I recommend Captain Morgan Spiced Rum)

Put in the oven for one hour or until a needle comes out clean. Let it cool down and remove spring form.

Icing (original recipe)

100 gr mascarpone
125 gr icing sugar
50 gr butter
½ tsp. vanilla sugar

Put all the ingredients at room temperature. Mix together and spread on top of the cooled down cake. Decorate with chopped walnuts and freshly grinded cinnamon.

Icing (Dutchness)

1 egg white
200 gr Icing sugar

Mix together until you have a firm, shiny and kind of chewy kind of … Kind of… Gum? Spread on top of the cooled down cake. Decorate with chopped walnuts and freshly grinded cinnamon.



And then just eat! Remember, you need to get your daily amount of vegetables, so eat half of this cake and you are just fine!

P.S. There are still some things I need to learn with food-blogging… Like, taking more pictures of the making process! But luckily, it is not a very hard recipe, so you will be fine without!