Spekulaas

Christmas in Belgium calls for these fragrant, spicy, crunchy cookies.


Ingredients:

• 110 g butter 
• 150 g brown sugar (variation for my grandfather = sugarfree uses 75gr stevia + 75gr of oat flour and 2 teaspoon of lemon juice) 
• 50 ml milk 
• 250 g flour 
• 10 g baking powder 

Original grounded spice mix for speculaas: 

• 10 g ground cinnamon 
• 5 g ground nutmeg 
• 5 g ground cloves 
• 5 g ground ginger 
• 2 g ground white pepper

Mix the solids, dissolve the liquids and join them together under the rule of five.😉
Let the dough cool for a while in the fridge and spread the dough in 3mm thickness.

Cut the dough in nice looking forms and put it in the oven at 180C.
Or in the case that you don't really feel like losing the time decorating use a ice-cream scoop dispenser

 and once you have your uniform scoops of dough press them down with a spoon's back.

and you will end up with rustic uniform cookies.

Original recipe video.

Gingerbread cookies

Nothing says Merry Christmas better than the smell of  freshly backed ginger bread cookies.
We have been making them since children and we used a recipe I no longer find, hope to find it someday but this one is almost alike.

Ingredients:

• 125gr butter (variation for lactosefree uses soy butter)
• 3 table spoons maple syrup
• 100gr brown sugar (variation for my grandfather or sugarfree uses 50gr stevia + 50gr of oat flour and teaspoon of lemon juice)
• 300gr self-rising flour
• 0.5 teaspoon cinnamon
• 0.5 teaspoon nutmeg
• 2  teaspoon ground ginger
• 1 teaspoon of east

raisins to place as eyes and buttons (leave on water while making the dough to avoid the raisins getting too dry or burn in the oven)

Mix the solids, dissolve the liquids and join them together under the rule of five.😉
Let the dough cool for a while in the fridge and spread the dough in 3mm thickness.
Cut the dough in nice looking forms and put it in the oven at 180C.
Be careful, remove them form the oven as soon as their edges look darker than the center or you smell their delightful fragrance, otherwise they will be over cooked and hard as a rock. Still tasty though.😊

original recepie of cookies

Sugarfree, Lactosefree, Glutenfree, frosting and filling

Sugarfree, Lactosefree, Glutenfree,...
I wanted to find frosting and filling for a baby's first cake (smash cake), but the healthiest I found was made with cream cheese, which I am not ready to give my 1 year old.
So I thought that maybe... just maybe... I could figure out a way to get the smooth feeling of cream without actually using it... and that is when I remembered avocado!



It is so perfect one wonders why no one has ever done it.
So, I have tested and the only issue I could find is the color.

It will be difficult to make a cake that is not greenish.... even using blue berries you end up with something turquoise.
In any case, it is fantastic in texture.

Adding just a little of fruit results in variations of color and taste (sweet level also):

Blue berries - very sweet

Kiwis - bit acid

Using a tough mango instead makes it much less green and almost as smooth, but still dark yellow which should still allow you to reach the other colors:

Boiled carrot - needs added maple syrup

Strawberry

Blue berry

So it is not a perfect rainbow, but she won't notice and she will adore it.😉

I'll add pictures as soon as I have taken them, but so far I only had time to test on a bowl.

Sweet potato breads - Merendeiras

These small sweet potato breads are very typical Portuguese and bring the sent of a new year.
They are soft, filled with vitamins and naturally sweetened, making these the perfect side to a glass of milk in the morning.
Like any bread, these are better eaten shortly after leaving the oven but will be remarkably kept on the deep freezer for a morning of longing.

Ingredients:

• 1kg Boiled sweet potato (keep the water)
• 1kg Flour
• 300g Sugar
• 4 eggs
• 4 cups nuts, dry fruits or/and candy fruit 

Process:
Smash the peeled boiled potatoes in a large bowl.
Beat the sugar with the eggs until the sugar is dissolved.
Add the sugar to the potatoes and stir it all together.
Gradually add the flour and if needed some of the water used to boil the potatoes. Keep in mind that working the dough will render it less dry, so avoid adding water until you have worked a bit the flour into the dough.
The dough is sticky and should be handled with a hand or a tough wooden spoon up from the farthest point of the bowl lower and then towards you in circular involving movements that will introduce air making if fluffier.
You can add all the nuts and fruits and make all of the breads a like, I have a picky son for whom I only add raisins and sometimes prefer to have a version with nuts and another with nuts and fruits. So I add to different parts of the dough different beads.
Once you have your dough turn the oven up to 160C and using a small bowl with flour and a spoon drop a full spoon of dough into the flour and roll it until it is manageable and then lay it on a tray that goes to the oven.

You should end up with something like the picture:

check this movie for details on how to handle the dough.