Tag: spice

Spicy Pear Muffins

Posted in chocolate, cinnamon, cream cheese frosting, fruit, muffins, pear, spiceTagged , , , Leave a comment

Time to bring back some fruits. These muffins are moist and filled with flavor, and they turned out to be a hit with my father. 

Ingredients
Pear Sauce/Jam
10-12 pears (chopped)
2 tsp cinnamon
2 tsp cardamom

Batter
200 g (7 oz) butter (melted)
100 g (3,5 oz) sugar
3 eggs
300 g (10,5 oz) plain flour
2 tsp vanilla sugar
2 tsp baking powder
2 tsp cinnamon
2 tsp cardamom
1 tsp ground ginger
1/2 tsp nutmeg

2 tbsp of cocoa

Frosting/Decoration
Powdered sugar
Vanilla sugar
Cream Cheese
Water

Chopped Almonds

 

How to do it
Pear Sauce/Jam

  • Chop the pears, and put them in a saucepan.
  • Mix in cinnamon and cardamom.
  • Heat up the pears, and let it simmer until much of the fluids has evaporated.
  • Let the sauce/jam cool down a bit.

Batter

  • Preheat the oven to 200 ºC/ 395 ºF.
  • Melt the butter and let it cool down a bit.
  • In a large bowl, mix together eggs and sugar until you have a thick and fluffy mixture.
  • Stir in the melted butter.
  • In a separate bowl, mix together plain flour, baking powder vanilla sugar and the spices, then slowly add them to the mixture and stir until you have a smooth batter.
  • Carefully stir in the pear sauce/jam with a wooden spoon.
  • With a couple of spoons, transfer the batter to muffins liners in a cupcake/muffins form.
  • When you’ve transferred about 1/2 of the batter into muffins liners, stir in 2 tbsp of cocoa to the rest of the batter. Then transfer the rest of the batter to muffins liners in a cupcake/muffins form.
  • Bake the muffins in the middle of the oven until they have a golden surface, or until a skewer put in the center of the muffins comes out clean, about 15-20 minutes.
  • Take the muffins out of the oven, and let them cool down in the muffins/cupcake form for a few minutes. Then let them cool down on a cooling rack.

Frosting/Decoration

  • Mix together powdered sugar, vanilla sugar (1-2 tsp), cream cheese (about 2 tbsp) and water until you have a smooth, yet fluid, mix.
  • Cover the muffins with the frosting and decorate with chopped almonds.

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Enjoy!

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Last Minute Christmas Cookies

Posted in chocolate, christmas, cinnamon, cookies, holidays, licorice, nuts, spiceTagged , , , , Leave a comment

I don´t know why, but somehow Christmas comes as a surprise every year. This year was no exception, so I needed to make some super fast, super easy Christmas cookies. With 3 main ingredients that can easily be mixed with additional/optional ingredients, these cookies are perfect for some last minute baking.

Ingredients
200 g (7 oz) softened butter
100 g (3,5 oz) powdered sugar
400 g (14 oz) plain flour

Additional/optional ingredients
Cinnamon, cardamom, ground ginger, allspice, chopped chocolate, chopped almonds or other nuts, powdered licorice, cocoa, pearl sugar…

How to do it

  • Mix together softened butter and powdered sugar. I use a stand mixer, but you can also use your hands.
  • Slowly add the plain flour, and mix until you have a smooth dough.
  • Divide the dough into separate pieces, and add any preferred optional ingredients. (I first divided the dough into 2 pieces, then mixed in the spices in one of them. Then I divided the 2 doughs into more pieces, and mixed in chopped chocolate, chopped almonds and powdered licorice to the different pieces.)
  • Roll out the different pieces until they are about 3-4 cm (1,5 inches) diameter, then place them on a cutting board and cover them with plastic foil.

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  • Place the rolls in a cool place for 30-45 minutes.
  • Preheat the oven to 250 ºC/ 480 ºF, and line a baking sheet.
  • Cut the rolls into cookie sized pieces (about 1 cm thick), and place them on the baking sheet.
  • Bake in the middle of the oven until the cookies start to get a golden surface, about 5 minutes.
  • Let the cookies cool down on a cooling rack.

Merry Christmas!