Chocolate Fruit Bark - Christmas Foodie Gift!

For Christmas I always love showing off what a domestic goddess I am spoiling my loved ones with some homemade baking ;) Over the years I have treated my family and friends to Christmas Rocky Road (link), Biscotti (link) and the most amazing festive chocolate crinkle cookies (link). I think foodie treats make for wonderful festive gifts. This year I found all my recipes on Pinterest and when I spotted this Chocolate Fruit Bark recipe, I knew it was something that I had to make. Easy as 1-2-3 and delicious...PERFECT!

 

Doesn't this look scrumptious? This chocolate bark recipe uses dark chocolate with 51 percent cocoa and adds some dazzle to it with dried apricots and figs, raisins, and cashews. The addition of the dried fruit and nuts spreads out the chocolate’s intensity, and adds in a healthy dose of antioxidants and finer; so need to feel too guilty when enjoying it!

What You’ll Need:

• 1-2 bars of good quality cooking chocolate
• 1/2 cup dried apricots, chopped
• 1/2 cup dried figs, chopped
• 1 cup mix of raisins, cranberries and mixed nuts

Tools:

• 1 large baking sheet
• Parchment paper

What to Do:

• Melt chocolate over a double boiler or in your microwave until its smooth.
• Pour chocolate over parchment paper-lined baking sheet, spreading so it so that it is about 1/2 cm thick.
• Evenly sprinkle dried fruit and cashews over the chocolate.
• Place the bark into the refrigerator for about 20 minutes, or until the chocolate harden.

I went for the super easy microwave option. I found this great Lindt cooking chocolate at my supermarket. I just broke the bars (I used two to make a good quantity) into pieces, placed that into a bowl and microwaved in short intervals of 20-30 seconds on medium-high power and stirred after each interval until the chocolate was melted.

About halfway ready....gooey runny chocolate, omg!

Perfect, all melted and only took about 2-3 minutes!

 

Now onto the toppings! For my slightly Christmasy chocolate bark I chopped up some dried apricots, dried figs and used an already mixed bag of raisins, cranberries, pecans and cashew nuts. However you can really let your imagination run wild and use any topping you fancy. Some other ideas could be adding; candied orange peel, cherries, hazelnuts, almonds and pistachios. Even more contemporary toppings are: cocoa nibs, toffee pieces, candied ginger, crushed peppermint candy and other dried fruits such as pineapple, blueberries, strawberries plus even toasted pumpkin seeds, cereal and pime nuts. Anything is possible!

Now once your chocolate is melted, just pour it onto a baking sheet which is on a tray of some sort and smooth it out, I just used the back of a spoon to do this.

Sprinkle your toppings onto the chocolate and you're basically done already! Now all that's left to do is just place the tray with your chocolate creation into the fridge to cool and lick that chocolate bowl clean ;)

When the chocolate bark has cooled and hardened, just snap into pieces and enjoy! Yummy....

I wrapped mine into little cellophane bags, added a cute Christmas tag and TADA a lovely and delicious Christmas present!

Will you be making any foodie gifts this Christmas?

 

Mint winters day OOTD & new cross bracelet

For those of you who follow me on Twitter or Instagram, you would have already seen my picture post of two bargains I picked up in the H&M sale last week. I was quickly popping into my local store buy some socks (of all necessities) and got distracted by the sales racks where I found this lovely cropped mint knitted jumper for only £15! Even though it's now winter and you might see mint as more of a spring colour I see no reason why to shy away from brightening my winter days with colourful outfits. This is me in my new jumper on Sunday, where I combined the mint jumper with my favourite bright pink winter wooly snood scarf.

Do you like this colourful look for winter?

To keep warm I paired it with my super snug tan UGG boots!

I have also been meaning to show you this new fine side cross bracelet that I got from ASOS a few weeks back. It is from their ASOS collection and you can get it in silver, gold and rose gold. It looks more gold in this photo but mine is the rose gold one.

Get it here for only £6 (link)

I was back home (yet again!) this weekend to celebrate St Nicolas with my family. It is my favourite Dutch tradition because it is an evening full of laughs, presents and the most yummy St Nicolas treats!

I definitely indulged in a fair amount of Speculaas this weekend....

Dutch Speculaas Chunks - you can find my recipe here (link). The gym is definitely calling my name this week after my indulgent but fun family weekend but hell it was worth it ;)

Birthday Celebrations =

Instead of moping about turning yet another year older, I decided to just embrace it by throwing a party to celebrate my birthday with some of my closest friends in London. And when I think celebration; I think of champagne or bubbles! So when I found out about a company that could provide cold flowing Prosecco (Italian sparkling wine) by the keg making it available on tap in the convenience of your own house; the idea of my birthday ‘Prosecco Party’ was born! So me and my flatmate ordered two kegs to be delivered to our house and it was set up with a cooler and tap to allow the bubbles to flow all night long.....

Here you can see our own 'Prosecco bar' attached to two (20 litre) kegs!
 Fore more information on how to rent-a-keg of Prosecco, click here.

My birthday celebrations officially kicked off already on Friday when I received a lovely bunch of flowers from a friend of mine delivered to work. Also it is a Dutch tradition to provide cake or sweets to your office to treat co-workers on your birthday so the night before I baked a delicious (if I say so myself) Lemon Syrup Cake. It was super easy to make and disappeared rather quickly at work :)

The recipe is from Nigella Lawson and you can download the recipe here.

The girls at the office also got me this amazing birthday card.....

Appropriate much? :)

On Saturday was the night of the party; where the drinks flowed, the music pumped and the laughs and chatter was all around. It continued on until the wee hours of the morning and I loved spending my birthday with some of my favourite people! I didn't end up getting many pictures because when 'hosting' you tend to get so busy mingling with everyone but here a couple of shots from the night!

I treated myself to a new dress for the party! I wanted something fun and colourful and this turquoise knitted panel bodycon dress from Lipsy fit the bill perfectly. It was £48 and you can buy it here.

Many many people crammed into our house!

And then my wonderful friends even surprised me with hummingbird cupcakes, candles and singing me Happy Birthday! I feel truly blessed to have so many amazing friends in my life ♥  It was the best birthday ever and I am excited to see what my 28th life year will bring me :)

Happy Hump Day! xoxo

Baking success: The Best Banana Bread recipe!

Recently my flat-mate bragged to a friend of hers about my apparent baking skills, which all of a sudden culminated in some kind of banana bread bake-off! I am a huge fan of banana bread; it's the perfect mix between cake and bread which basically means it becomes excusable to have cake for breakfast, lunch, afternoon tea or dessert ;) So being involved in this funny bake-off meant my Banana Bread just had to impress. The other weekend when I was at Granger & Co in Notting Hill (review here) I had the most delicious Chocolate Banana Bread so my mission was to recreate this recipe! 

Lucky me I found the actual recipe by Bill Granger, from his cookbook 'Bills Food' online. 

Banana bread on it's own is already pretty yummy so when it's teamed up with chocolate,  you know it's going to be pretty special.

So this weekend I got my bake on and produced this b.e.a.u.t.y. of a loaf....

Sweet but not too sweet, bread-like but lovely and moist on the inside!!

Banana bread is the perfect accompaniment to that afternoon coffee or cuppa, and they're also brilliant to have ready-sliced in the freezer, so they can be taken out the night before to take to work or even lightly toasted straight from frozen when you need a quick pick-me-up :)

Check out all the little chocolate chips...they really made this Banana Bread super indulgent!

Game over!!! Because there is no doubt that this is one of the best banana breads out there ;)

Bill Granger's Choc Banana Bread

INGREDIENTS 
♥ 250g (2 cups) plain (all-purpose) flour
♥ 2 teaspoons baking powder
♥ 125g unsalted butter, softened
♥ 250g (1 cup) caster (superfine) sugar
♥ 4 ripe bananas, mashed
♥ 2 eggs, lightly beaten
♥ 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
♥ 175g (1 cup) good-quality dark or milk chocolate chips

METHOD
Serves: 8
1. Preheat the oven to 180°C (350°F/Gas 4).
2. Sift the flour and baking powder into a large bowl.
3. Mix the butter, sugar, banana, eggs, vanilla extract and chocolate chips in a separate bowl.
4. Add to the dry ingredients and stir to combine, being careful not to over mix.
5. Pour the batter into a non-stick, or lightly greased and floured, loaf tin and bake for 1 hour 15 minutes, or until the bread is cooked when tested with a skewer.
6. Leave to cool in the tin for 5 minutes before turning out onto a wire rack to cool.

Best served in thick slices, toasted with a slab of butter!!
For an easy printable version of the recipe click here!

When baking banana bread you can also just follow your tastebuds and experiment by adding a little bit of whatever you fancy, be that a few roughly chopped walnuts (or any other nut) here or some slivers of dried apricot or raisins there. As long as the loaves are baked until they're still a little moist in the middle, you can't go wrong. I promise you this, you won't regret baking this Banana Bread and the (lucky) people you feed it to are bound to be impressed. Just a little tip; you might as well make two loafs while you are at it because the first one is bound to disappear in seconds....ENJOY :)

"Vegetables are a must on a diet. I suggest carrot cake, zuchini bread, and pumpkin pie!!"
Happy Hump Day :) xoxo

Christmas Biscotti Recipe =

At Christmas time I love preparing baking treats as little gifts for my family and friends. Last year I made delicious 'white chocolate rocky road' which was a huge hit with my family. So this year I was again on the look-out to find something to bake that I could wrap up and place under the tree for them to enjoy! When I found this recipe I was excited because I had never made biscotti before and with the additions of cranberries, pistachios and white chocolate it made it perfect for Christmas...

Christmas Biscotti

♥ Ingredients:

3-1/4 cups flour

1 tbsp baking powder 

1/2 tsp salt

1-1/2 cups sugar 

145g (5 oz) unsalted butter, melted

3 large eggs 

1 tbsp vanilla extract 

zest of one orange 

3/4 cup white chocolate chips 

1/2 cup dried cranberries 

1 cup green pistachios 

♥ Directions:

Start by sifting together the flour, baking powder, and salt. In a separate bowl use a hand (or stand) mixer to beat the sugar and melted butter together. Then and the eggs, vanilla extract and orange zest. Beat on medium-high until combined. Now add all the dry ingredients, and mix on low speed just until it's combined. If you over-mix the biscotti will start to get tough. By the end of the mixing you should have a stiff, but slightly sticky dough. Time for mix-ins! Add the dried cranberries, the pistachios and 1/2 cup of the white chocolate chips. 

Doesn't the look of this bowl just scream Christmas? Stir until everything is mixed together!

Preheat the oven to 180C (350F) degrees, and cover a baking tray with parchment paper. Divide the dough in half and form it into two rough logs on the baking paper and use your hands or a scraper to press each into a bar roughly 30cm by 10cm. Bake the Christmas biscotti logs for 30 minutes, until they're golden brown.

After they come out of the oven, let them cool for at least a half-hour before slicing them. Use a very sharp serrated knife to cut the biscotti into 5cm slices. If you use a lot of downward pressure the logs have a tendency to crack, so try not to press down and instead to just gently saw back and forth. Place the sliced Christmas biscotti back on the baking sheet and return it to the oven for 15 minutes to crisp up. Now at this point don't let your dad in charge. I did this and said to my dad please take them out of the oven after 5 minutes because I was heading out to quickly visit someone for a Christmas Eve cup of coffee. But when I got home to marvel at my perfect biscuits, he'd somehow forgotten them in the oven and they were soooooo burned. Black and inedible. He did feel very guilty so had quickly whipped up more of the recipe so we could re-bake. I was mad but it's Christmas so HAD to forgive him ;)

Anyway after they are baked, the Christmas biscotti is technically done, but I like to add just a little decoration. Melt the remaining 1/4 cup of white chocolate chips and drizzle the cooled biscotti with white chocolate! Yummmmm....

Now you can wrap them up in cellophane to present them to family and friends. These biscotti are delicious on their own or 'dunked' into a cup of tea or coffee! Let me know if you make them and how they turn out :) Hope you have all had an amazing Christmas!!! xoxo

Perfect Christmas Crinkle Cookies!

Here is the recipe for the delicious Christmas Crinkle Cookies I made this morning. I'd found this recipe a little while back on one of my favourite food blogs 'Iowa Girl Eats'.  They just looked so pretty and seemed surprisingly easy to make so I wanted to give it a go myself. And guess what, they taste just as good (if not better) as they look!! A soft, fudge-brownie  style cookie....yummmm. Enjoy :)

Chocolate Crinkle Cookies
Makes approximately 25 cookies

♥ Ingredients:
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 cup granulated sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 cup vegetable oil
2 eggs
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup icing sugar

♥ Directions:

In a bowl mix together cocoa, sugar, vanilla and vegetable oil. Beat in the eggs, one at a time, until mixture is smooth. In a separate bowl, sift together flour, baking powder and salt. Mix into wet ingredients in 3 batches, mixing until just combined in between each batch. Cover the dough and chill for at least 4 hours, or overnight.

Preheat oven to 180C (350F) degrees. Scoop out one tablespoon of dough, roll it into a ball between your palms and roll in icing sugar. 

I was so excited one I started to see the cracks appearing in the cookies!!

Place on a non-stick sprayed, or parchment paper lined, baking sheet and bake for 8-10 minutes. Let cookies cool on the baking sheet for 2-3 minutes before removing to a cooling rack.  

And then show them off to all your friends and family, they are bound to be impressed ;) 
And they will dissapear in no time. Mmmmmmmm! xoxo

What I love about NY Eve?$

Hi darlings! 

Well, there are two main things I love about New Years Eve!

1) Oliebollen! 

You might think, huh what on earth is that? Well, oliebollen are small round Dutch doughnuts. They are a traditional food to serve on New Year's Eve in Holland. The name of these tasty treats literally translates to "oil balls." But don't let this unappetizing name fool you, Oliebollen are truly delicious!! They are made by using two spoons to scoop dough and dropping it into a deep fryer filled with hot oil. So a round shaped “oliebol” emerges. In December many 'Oliebollen' stands appear around the country, selling the freshly baked warm doughnuts. A national newspaper even runs a yearly nation wide test that scores the many stands to find where you can buy the best Oliebol for that year! :) This is me and mum enjoying an oliebol in the city of Haarlem a few days ago!

Yesterday on my last day back home, dad & I made fresh homemade 'Oliebollen'. I think I ate about 5 of them, uh-oh ;) In Holland a lot of people make them from the packet because it's so quick and easy! So yes, I admit it, we cheated too and used a packet! All we had to add was water, the raisins and currents and let the dough rise. Then we fried them up in hot oil.....Check out the finished result:

If you want to make these (you know you want to & trust me, you won't regret it!) here is the recipe:

Ingredients:

500 grams flour

25 grams yeast

350 ml milk

250 grams (in total) of currants and raisins

Pinch of salt

Oil for deep-frying (use fresh vegetable/sunflower oil)

Method:

Put the flour in a bowl and make a depression in the centre. Pour in the yeast, which has been dissolved with a little lukewarm milk. Add the remaining milk, salt and stir. Stir the washed currants and raisins into the mix. Beat it to a smooth and airy mass, cover with a damp cloth (eg, a tea towel) and leave to rise in a warm/draft free place/room around 45min to one hour.

Heat the oil in a deep pan or in a deep fryer to 175 degrees C (= 350 degrees F). To check whether the oil is at the right temperature, stand the handle of a wooden spoon in the oil. If little bubbles form around it, the oil is ready. Use two tablespoons or an ice-cream scoop to shape balls and slide them into the hot oil. Fry the balls until they are golden brown, about 2 minutes per side. They should turn over on their own when they are ready to brown on the other side, but keep an eye on them and flip them as necessary. They should be soft and not oil soaked inside. Remove them from the oil with a slotted spoon or similar tool to a paper towel lined plate and repeat with the remaining dough. Serve them warm with a generous dusting of icing sugar! Yummmmmm

2) Celebrating a new start! 

I always see the New Year as a great opportunity to set new goals and resolutions for myself :)

Some of my News Years Resolutions for 2011 are:

♥ Planning more fun travel trips now that I am back in Europe
♥ Start exercising again.....
♥ Making new friends in London 

♥ Not being too hard on myself sometimes; allowing myself to relax & enjoy life a little more!
♥ Finding love?
♥ But most of all....

Here's wishing you more happiness 

Than all my words can tell, 

Not just alone for New Years Eve

But for all the year as well! 

xoxo Roz

Christmas White Chocolate Rocky Road

Hey everyone,

I am happy to report that, very early this morinng, I arrived safe & sound in a freezing and white Holland. After a little power nap I spend the day catching up with friends over Glühwein (= mulled wine) at the beach (which was covered in snow....) Afterwards I wrapped up all my presents, placed them under the tree and did some last minute 'baking'. I love giving people foody presents and when I found this recipe online, I thought it was an excellent idea as a Christmas treat! It's really easy to make, with no baking involved and you can pretty much change the ingredients according to your own preferences. 

Check out my DELICIOUS Christmas White Chocolate Rocky Road:

Ingredients:
♥ 250g white chocolate, chopped
♥ 1/3 cup chopped pistachio kernels, toasted
♥ 1/2 cup dried cranberries
♥ 100g white marshmallows (I used mix of white and pink)

♥ To make them even more festive & Christmassy; I added some silver decorative sugar balls to mine!

Note: You can be pretty flexible with the types and amounts of ingredients you use.

Method:

♥ Line the base and sides of a baking tin with baking paper and allow about a 2cm overhang. 

♥ Place the white chocolate in a heatproof, microwave-safe bowl. Microwave, uncovered, on high for 1 to 2 minutes, stirring every 30 seconds, or until melted and smooth.

♥ Place pistachios, cranberries and marshmallows in a large bowl. Toss them all together. Then add melted chocolate and stir to combine. Press the mixture into the prepared pan. Refrigerate, covered, for 2 hours or until set.

♥ Cut into squares and serve. Or like me, wrap them up in cellophane and give them to people at Christmas! Don't they look yum and Christmassy? ENJOY! Merry Christmas xoxo

Healthy Baked Oatmeal Snack Bars!

Want a delicious filling snack without any guilt? 

Then look no further than my amazing Healthy Baked Oatmeal Snack Bars!!! 

Ingredients: 

1 + 1/2 cups rolled oats (old fashioned)

1/2 cup chopped walnuts

3/4 cup dried fruit (I used 1/4 cup chopped dried apricots, 1/4 cup golden raisins, 1/4 cup normal raisins)

1 tsp ground cinnamon

1/4 tsp salt

1 + 1/4 cups skim milk

1 egg 

1 tsp vanilla

Let's start making these yummy and healthy snack bars!

♥ Preheat the oven to 180˚C (350˚F)

♥ Start by adding all dry ingredients in a bowl. Start by adding oats (1), walnuts (2), dried fruit (3 & 4), cinnamon (5) and salt (6)

♥ Mix them all together (7)

♥ In a separate bowl add the milk (8), egg (9) and vanilla (10)

♥ Pour the wet into the dry ingredients (11)

♥ and stir to combine (12)

Super easy right?! 

Now pour the mix into a 23x23cm (9x9inch) baking dish either coated in cooking spray or lined with baking paper. Pop this baby in the preheated oven and bake for 40 minutes. Cut into squares & let it cool! While delicious, the only sweetness in these comes from the dried fruit so you can add in 1/4 – 1/2 cup brown sugar (or honey) if you like, but personally I don't feel it needs it. 

The variations for these bars are endless: cranberries, coconut, all kinds of dried fruit (e.g: dates, apples, cherries, banana) and nuts, seeds etc! (you could even add some chocolate chips...hehe) 

I usually wrap each bar in plastic wrap and put them in the freezer. This means I can easily grab & go for a healthy (but delicious) snack or microwave for instant enjoyment. Note: these are not crunchy like a granola bar, but they are chewy like thick muffin. I can pretty much guarantee that you will love them & whoohoo you actually won't have to feel guilty when you can't stop eating them ;) 

ENJOY xoxo

Original recipe from Kath Eats

Baking: Dutch Speculaas Chunks

Being quite the typical girlie girl, I love cooking and baking! While on my job 'hiatus' I have loved cooking dinner for my parents every night and with the recent colder weather; I have really gotten into the baking spirit! On a dark, cold and rainy day nothing can beat  home baked goodies right? Yummmm.

In the anticipation of winter and St Nicolas here in The Netherlands the shops are filled with lots of lovely wintery 'Speculaas' goodies! Speculaas is a type of distinctively spiced flavoured shortcrust biscuit, traditionally baked for consumption on St Nicholas' Eve in the Netherlands (December 5). However, in recent decades it has become available all year round. Speculaas are thin, very crunchy, slightly browned and, most significantly, have some image or figure stamped on the front side before baking. Overseas speculaas is often sold as Dutch Windmill cookies! Beside the famous Windmill cookies there are various types of Speculaas treats available ranging from cakes, muffins to biscuits in many shapes and sizes. Because I am a HUGE fan of anything Speculaas I wanted to try my hand at baking some myself! 

So today I present to you: Speculaas Chunks! Don't they look amazing? 

Ingredients:

200g self raising flour

100g butter

125g soft brown sugar

a pinch of salt

2 tbsp milk

5 tsp speculaas spice mix (see below)

handful of sliced or halved almonds (optional)

(click image to enlarge)

Next? Time to start baking!! 

1. Cut the butter into pieces, add the self raising flour & cut the butter into smaller pieces using 2 knives.

2. Add the sugar, salt, milk and spice mix.

3. Knead the mixture together with your hands until it forms a nice dough.

4. Make a ball of the dough & wrap this in plastic foil & leave to rest in the fridge for 1-2 hours (this will develop the delicious flavour)

5. Preheat the oven to 170°C (338°F). Take the dough out of the fridge and roll out the on baking paper to create a slab of around 1 cm thickness. 

6. Brush the slab with a little bit more milk (this will give it a nice coating once baked)

7. Optional - Lightly press sliced or halved almonds into the dough

Now place into the oven and bake at 170°C for about 30 minutes.

Leave the Speculaas to cool on a rack. Once cold, break into chunks and ENJOY!

These biscuits are seriously delicious with a cup of hot chocolate/coffee or tea. I introduced some of my friends in NZ to Speculaas & they absolutely loved it! But this posts comes with a small warning: these chunks can be very additive haha! Once I have one bite, I find it hard to restrain myself :p Nom Nom....

Let me know if you try making these, would love to know your thoughts :)

Hope you've all had a great Hump Day! xoxo