Thee met Aimée

Iets lekkers met een bite!

Thee met Aimée

Showoff post: Chocolate crinkles

Oh, what a happy birthday I had last time. One of the many awesome gifts I received, was the first cook book that stemmed from BBC’s The Great British Bake Off — which just so happens to be one of my favorite tv shows. I can not even begin to explain why this book is so great and how many amazing recipes it contains. However, here’s a little peek of the chocolate crinkles, a cookie I had never had before. It slightly resembles the more crunchy corners of a brownie, and can be considered the love child of a brownie & cookie.

20130428_114031

If you’d like to make these yourself, check out this recipe by Ruth Clemens, the runner up on The Bake Off. And if you just so happen to be in more of a brownie-kind-of-mood, check out my brownie recipe.

20130426_225256

20130426_231139

Showoff post: Thomas The Tank Engine-birthday cake

For Jake’s second birthday, his mom asked me if I could bake him a Thomas cake. I was really happy about her request, because it allowed me to get creative and use some extra bright, primal colors. As you can see in the pictures, it turned out quite alright! Jake got Thomas, and the guests got a light chocolate cake with rich chocolate and vanilla buttercream.

Thomas-1

Thomas-2
Thomas-3

 

Crispy, crunchy oatmeal cookies

Oatmeal cookies may be just as famous as the legendary chocolate chip, but they’re not in the Netherlands. We use oatmeal to make porridge, and that’s about it. That is why I wanted to try a little baking with oatmeal myself, and naturally I started with cookies. Like I wrote in one of my previous posts, I am almost religiously in favor of crunchy cookies: This led me to this recipe on SmittenKitchen, a deliciously inspiring baking blog. I made some minor changes, converted the volume amounts to SI units and tried & tested a few variations. I hope you like them, and that you will share your own variations in the comments below!

Oatmeal-cookies-9

Oatmeal-cookies-1Ingredients:

–          1 cup / 128 g all-purpose flour

–          1 teaspoon baking powder

–          1/4 teaspoon salt

–          1 3/4 sticks / 200 g butter (slightly softened)

–          1 cup / 200 g sugar

–          1/4 cup packed / 50 g light brown sugar

–          1 large egg

–          1 teaspoon vanilla extract

–          2 1/2 cups / 225 g old-fashioned rolled oats

 

–          6 ounces / 170 g white chocolate, chopped

–          + 1/2 cup / 70 g hazelnuts

Oatmeal-cookies-7

You can play around with the addition of chocolate and nuts. I have tried these two varieties and my friends and family loved them.

 

Variety 1:

1/2 cup / 75 g white chocolate

+ 1/2  cup / 70 g toasted hazelnuts

+ 70 g ‘kandijsuiker’ : These are very crunchy sugar crystals, I’m not sure about a non-Dutch equivalent… Basically, you could use anything sweet and crunchy

 

Variety 2:

1/2 cup / 70 g toasted almonds

+ 1/4 cup / 70 g peanut butter

+ 50 g ‘kandijsuiker’

 

These amounts will yield about 24 portions (2 tablespoons of dough each). Bake them at 350 degrees Fahrenheit or 175 Celcius for 13-16 minutes.

Oatmeal-cookies-2

Oatmeal-cookies-3

Oatmeal-cookies-4

 

Oatmeal-cookies-5

 

Oatmeal-cookies-6

Oatmeal-cookies-8

Showoff post: Baby shower / child’s birthday cupcakes

Nijntje cupcakes 2Over the past months, I’ve also been making themed cupcakes. These ‘Nijntje’ cupcakes (a famous figure from children’s books) were for a boy’s third birthday, and the Mickey Mouse cupcakes were made for the guests of a babyshower. Contact me at theemetaimee [ at ] gmail.com if you would like to order your own themed cupcakes!

Nijntje cupcakes 1

Mickey Mouse cupcake

Oreo cheesecake

Last year I took my first trip to the US, to California to be precise. There was one thing on top of my tourist-wish list: Visiting the Cheesecake Factory. The menu totally threw me off! Back here in the Netherlands, generally, we’re only familiar with the basic New York cheesecake, so I had a very very hard time choosing which cheesecake to try. Needless to say, I went for the Oreo cheesecake, and until this day I cannot get the mind-blowing taste out of my head. It honestly was one of the best pieces of cake I have ever tasted.

It took me a few tries, but I think this recipe approaches the sublime original, without being too hard to make yourself.


Ingredients:

–   2 packs of Oreos (2x 176 grams, or 32 cookies)

–   70 g butter, melted

–   250 g mascarpone

–   200 g crème fraîche

–   200 g cream cheese

–   200 g powdered sugar

–   4 eggs, yolks and whites separated

–   2 tbsp corn starch [or ‘maizena’ in Dutch]

–   two vanilla pods (or 2 tsp of essence)


Method:

Crush half of the Oreos, including the cream in the middle, (1 pack = 4×4 cookies = 176 grams) and mix the crumbs with 70 grams of melted unsalted butter. Press them in a springform pan lined with baking paper, and let the crust harden in the fridge while you start making your filling. You could of course use more cookies, for a thicker deliciously dark crust.

This cheesecake filling can be used to make one regular-sized cake (22-24 cm diameter) or you could make party bites: this filling is enough for 45 small ones (in a muffin/cupcake tin).

Mix the egg whites until stiff. In a separate bowl, mix together the cheeses, sugar, egg yolks, corn starch and vanilla. Make sure the mixture turns out smooth. Then gently fold in the stiff egg whites, and transfer it into the crust. Next, you can break some Oreos into large chunks and spread these over the cheesecake mixture – don’t worry, they’re meant to kind of sink in. Now bake the cheesecake for 1.5 hours at 150°C (or 25 minutes at 160°C if you’re making small ones). After baking, the cake may not look too firm, but know that it will set when cooled. Leave the cheesecake in the oven after baking for about two hours so it cools slowly. Then move it to the fridge for at least another two hours. Finish the cake of with some powdered sugar and Oreos on top.

German apple pastry: Apfelschnitten

Although the American kitchen is well known for its home baking, the baking tradition is said to have originated from the German/Austrian immigrants. Classics like Scharzwalder Kirschtorte (chocolate and cherry liquor cake), Sachertorte (chocolate cake with apricot jam) and of course apple pastries like Apfelschnitten/Apfelkuchen are famous around the globe. And what about ‘the original’ New York cheesecake? Not to offend anyone, but the Germans already had their Kasekuchen.

As a baking fanatic and foody, of course I feel drawn to trying all these classics, and today I’ll share a great recipe for Apfelschnitten. They’re not difficult to make, and really practical at a party: everyone can just grab a piece and eat it without a plate and fork.

I used a 38,5 by 26 cm square oven pan (1001 cm squared, which resulted in about 18 servings), but you could of course adjust the ingredients to fit your baking pan.

Ingredients:

For the crust

74 g raisins, soaked in 74 ml rum

370 g flour

225 g sugar

2 eggs

165 g butter

pinch of salt

zest of 1/2 lemon

74 g raspberry jam

For the pound cake layer

53 g butter

90 g butter

1 egg

zest of 1/2 lemon

144 g flour

5 g baking powder

30 g almond powder

1/2 tsp cinnamon

111 ml milk

For the topping

5 medium-sized, sweet apples

74 g apricot jam

2 tbsp water

  1. For the crust: mix together the flour, sugar, eggs, butter, salt and zest, and knead into a ball. Roll it out on a flour dusted worktop, and cover the (baking paper-covered) bottom of the pan. Poke some holes with a fork, and apply a layer of rasperry jam. Let the crust sit in the fridge for at least 30 minutes.
  2. For the pound cake layer: mix together the butter, sugar, egg and zest. In a separate bowl, mix together the flour, baking powder, almond powder and cinnamon, and add to the butter mixture. Mix in the milk, and spread the cake mixture over the chilled crust.
  3. Sprinkle the raisins onto the cake layer.
  4. Cut the apples into wedges, and lay them onto the cake layer party covering each other, like roof tiles.
  5. Bake the Apfelschnitten (which literary translates as ‘apple wedges’) for about 40 minutes at 200 degrees Celsius.
  6. For a nice, shiny finish, heat the apricot jam with some water and cover the top of the Apfelschnitten.

 

 

Peanut butter cookies with chocolate chips

Here in The Netherlands, there’s not an awful lot of variation going when it comes to peanut butter. We have your regular peanut butter sandwich, and we use peanut butter to make an Indonesian peanut (sateh) sauce. That’s about it.

Just thinking about combining peanut butter with sweets like, say, chocolate, makes many shiver — even though they are familiar with Snickers candy bars. But I’m always willing to try new stuff, so when Pinterest inspired me to bake these cookies, I was pretty happy with the result. As you can see in the second picture (in the back), the first batch was thicker than the second, which resulted in a American-style chewy cookie. The second, thinner batch packed more crunch, which I personally prefer.

Ingredients:

133 g flour

1 tsp baking powder

pinch of salt

96 g butter

210 g peanut butter

144 g granulated sugar

85 g light brown sugar

1 egg

1 tsp milk

vanilla extract/a vanilla pod

75 g chocolate chips (optional)

 

Bake these babies at 175 degrees Celsius for 10-12 minutes. I baked them in a cupcake/muffin pan so they would get that perfect round shape.

The ultimate no-nonsense chocolate cupcakes

NOTHING beats chocolate! To me, the ultimate treat is sweet and contains chocolate in some shape or form. These days, cupcakes are all the rage. That’s probably got something to do with the easy preparation -anyone can do it-, ingredients – anyone can get it- and ready to eat serving portions -everywhere can these be served, no plates or cutlery neccessary-.

So here’s hoping this recipe for chocolate cupcakes will inspire you to get baking — from scratch! Yesterday I once again checked the package of one of those cupcake mixes offered in every store now: It really is nothing but self-raising flour and sugar. Please don’t waste your money on those, try this recipe instead!

Ingredients:

For the cake

140 g flour

50 g cocoa powder

1 tbsp baking powder (7 g)

220 g sugar

pinch of salt

1 egg

120 ml coffee (cooled) – I used instant coffee

60 ml (butter)milk – the sourness of buttermilk aids the baking powder

60 ml sunflower oil – but peanutoil or another plain vegetable oil will work just fine

1 vanilla pod’s seeds – I used approximately 2 teaspoons of artificial vanilla flavoring

For the topping

250 g butter (at room temperature)

60 g powdered sugar

250 g custard pudding (in Dutch also known as ‘banketbakkersroom’. You could use instant pudding, custard powder cooked in milk, or make it from scratch)

150 g dark chocolate, melted or nutella, at room temperature, amount to taste

  1. Mix the dry cake ingredients together, mix the wet cake ingredients together, and eventually mix them all together.
  2. Bake the cupcakes in paper liners in a cupcake baking tray – otherwise they will not have the proper shape: 25 minutes at 180 degrees Celsius.
  3. Mix together the butter and powdered sugar for at least 10 minutes.
  4. Add the custard gradually, and keep mixing until your chocolate buttercream is nice and smooth.
  5. Pipe on the buttercream (here’s a video tutorial), or just smear it on.

(This recipe is an adaptation from ‘Rudolph’s Cupcakes‘ by Rudolph van Veen – in Dutch)

Showoff post: Pirate ship birthday cake

This blog is mainly intended to regularly share my tested recipes with other foodies. But although my bakings are mostly meant to be eaten, every once in a while, a creation leaves my kitchen that is almost too cool to be eaten — if I may say so myself. These cakes/pies/cookies are not always very challenging to the home baker but they do deserve to be in the spot light for a bit.

So, those babies go into the ‘Showoff post’-category, and today I’d like to share with you the pirate ship birthday cake I made for my little foster brother, who turned six recently. I gratefully acknowledge the help of my fiancee, who turns out to have a hidden talent for working with fondant.

For the curious cats among you, this is how we got there:

One day ahead, we started molding the sails (just lay them out to dray on empty toilet paper rolls), cannons, and masts (fondant wrapped around a skewer). Next, we used an edible black marker to draw a skull and crossbone on one of the sails, and tylose -edible glue- to fix the sails to the masts.

The base was made out of a regular sponge cake. I used a a little leftover chocolate buttercream (=half custard+half butter+nutella to taste) to form a delicious middle layer and to smear the outside so the fondant would stick.

The ship was made out of a few layers of boat-like shapes (cut out of a flat brownie) and pieced together using some more chocolate buttercream. We then covered the outside with a piece of brown fondant, and drew on a wood structure-look using a skewer.

Needless to say, all the boys -and girls-  were impressed and fighting over who got to eat which part. (btw: those waves are just some whipped cream, piped with a decorating tip intended for piping ribbons)