Shortbread biscuits

Being in Scotland, we just couldn't ignore the fact that shortbread biscuits were all around. Both of us received a small package of these simple but delicious biscuits as a welcome gift (next to small wine bottles, a range of teas, and some chocolates) from the owners of the cottage we rented. 

On the 3rd of July, I was to receive my results of the final exams. Not having internet, my mum would call me when she'd received them and at a quarter past 2 in the afternoon I got the long awaited call to tell me I passed and received some very good results. I was over excited and we had a mini celebration at night on 'our' little terrace with tea, wine, shortbread biscuits and chocolates. It was small, not fancy nor decadent but pure bliss knowing nothing was there to worry about under the Scottish sun :)

Home, I wanted to recreate the shortbread biscuits and as they are super simple to whip up, I could serve them in no time. I'm not claiming this is the original recipe but they were great!

Emily enjoying the evening 

Ingredients for 20 small biscuits:
- 120 grams butter
- 60 grams sugar
- 175 grams flour
- pinch of salt
- two extra table spoons of sugar

How to:
Preheat the oven to 180°C.
Cream the butter and the sugar.

When combined, add the flour and the salt and mix with your hands. You'll soon have a heavy dough you can easily shape.
Put the dough on a smooth surface (I used a parchment paper lined table) and form a square shape of about 1 cm thick.
Then you can cut it into 10 long 'fingers' which you can cut in half afterwards to become 20 sort of evenly shaped elongated biscuits.

I rolled mine in a little sugar for extra texture. 

Put the biscuits on a parchment lined baking tray and bake for about 20 minutes or until sides become slightly golden brown.

Leave to cool.

They disappeared very quickly so be fast to taste-test! ;)

Smakelijk!

Speculoos cookie tart

I know you all know Biscoff spread, the spread that has quickly won the hearts (and taste buds) of many over the last few years. Did you know it's Belgian? 

A few years ago we had a TV show about a competition for the best inventions. One of the competitors was a mother who'd invented a tasty spread for her children based on our Belgian speculoos cookies. She didn't win the competition but she did develop the spread with the company that produces the speculoos: Lotus. 

In Belgium it became known as 'speculaaspasta' (speculoos spread) but of course that would be quite hard for an English native to pronounce so Biscoff spread became the regular name in the English speaking world. 

I used this spread to make a cookie tart. I've seen quite some cookie tarts or monster-sized cookies around the blog world, but I wanted to try something different from the chocolate chip variety.

It's something you can whip up in barely a few minutes, it's as simple as that!

Ingredients:
- 6 tablespoons of Biscoff spread
- 100 grams light brown sugar
- 3 tablespoons of Greek yogurt
- 1 teaspoon of baking powder
- 1 teaspoon of corn starch
- 230 grams flour
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1 egg
- 10 speculoos cookies (optional), crumbled

How to:
Preheat the oven to 180°C.
Mix the Biscoff spread with the sugar and the yogurt. Add the egg and mix.
One after the other, mix in the baking powder, the salt, the corn starch and the flour. You'll get a firm dough that doesn't stick to the bowl when stirred.
Butter and flour a round tart tin. 
With your hand, put the dough in the tart form and press the dough with your fingers until it is even all around. Optionally, you can sprinkle the speculoos crumbles over the dough. 

Put in the hot oven and bake for approximately 20 minutes.
It will still be soft in the middle but that's normal. 
Let cool slightly and deform on a plate. 
Cut in wedges and serve.

Smakelijk!

Peanut butter and chocolate chip cookies

Today we're going to Brussels. We are going there to celebrate my sister's graduation and to visit my 'brother-in-law's' (my sister's boyfriend) place. He's a teacher in Brussels and has a place there while my sister is still at home. Most of the times they see each other during the weekends and once a week, when he has a day off. 

To celebrate, we're visiting a Chagall exhibition and are going to eat out in the Matonge area (a neighbourhood in Brussels where there live a lot of people of African/Congolese descend).  

And because we're visiting his place, we cannot go without taking something with us for him. So I baked some cookies. And not just any kind of cookies. My sister is a chocolate cookie fanatic and both of them love to have peanut butter on their bread. So combining these two makes peanut butter and chocolate chip cookies :)

For inspiration, I looked at some recipes and the one on Lovin' from the oven looked good. The pictures looked simply yummy. 

To make these I made a few changes though. I didn't use any milk nor baking soda. Just because the cookie dough seemed creamy enough to add milk and I don't have baking soda. A last change I made was using a real bar of good Belgian chocolate instead of using chocolate chips. Why you may ask? Even though you still have to cut the bar up yourself, I like to know what kind of chocolate is in my cookies. When using a bar I like to eat myself, I know it will be good. Chocolate chips are more of a baking good than a delicacy. And with the good Belgian chocolate around, why not use that right away? 

Because of these changes and the size of my cookies, mine took a while longer to bake too. 

Ingredients:
- 113 grams butter
- about 6 big spoonfuls of peanut butter (same volume as butter)
- 100 grams light brown sugar
- 100 grams granulated sugar
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 egg
- 155 grams all purpose flour
- 100 grams dark chocolate bar (chopped up)

How to:
Preheat the oven to 375°F or 190°C.
Combine the butter, the vanilla extract, the peanut butter and both sugars until they form a creamy dough. Add the egg and combine well. 
Then add the flour and the baking powder slowly (I did this in 3 batches, just to make sure everything was mixed in well).
Lastly, add the chocolate and mix. 
Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and make balls of the dough you just made (I used a table spoon and made balls of the heaping spoonfuls of dough). I recommend using two baking sheets to be sure the cookies are well spaces. They don't really spread much though.

Bake the cookies for a few minutes until you see the balls 'melt' down a bit. Then take a spatula and press the balls down so they are about 1 cm thick.

Bake them further for another 10 minutes or until they feel slightly firm (they firm up while cooling) and are golden brown around the edges.

Ready. They are good eaten warm but cold as well.

They make very crumbly cookies but that's good. 
I ate one with a hot chocolate while watching a movie. Very good combination. 

Smakelijk!