Chicken wings for on the barbecue

These Chicken wings are really simple but oh so yummy! Perfect for a simple barbecue on a glorious sunny day! Make these a day ahead, but if that's not possible you can just as easily make them in the morning.

Oh, and if your feeling particularly energetic, you can make another batch of the marinade and glaze the wings while grilling them.

Recipe

Ingredients:

2 pounds chicken wings
250 ml (1 cup) sweet chili sauce
1 teaspoon ground coriander
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1 tablespoon seasalt

Instructions:

Mix the chili sauce, coriander, cumin and salt together.

Cut each wing three times to the bone, to make sure the wings are done faster on the barbecue.

Pour the marinade over the chicken wings. Make sure all the wings are well covered by the marinade. Put the wings overnight in the refrigerator.

Drain the chicken wings and grill them for 10-15 minutes on high fire on the barbecue.

World Peace Cookies

 

While browsing the Internet I came across the site of Dorie Greenspan. After clicking happily away on her site and reading different recipes I stumbled across a recipe for World Peace Cookies. 

The name alone made me decide on the spot that I had to try this recipe. I then actually read the recipe and decided that not only did I have to make this recipe, I had to make it IMMEDIATELY! It's a simple recipe with a lot of chocolate and you know I can't resist chocolate!

I urge you to try these cookies. Keep in mind that the dough has to rest in the refrigerator for 3 hours so making the dough ahead of time can be handy! I know 3 hours is a long time, I know that you want to eat these cookies straight away, but you really have to wait. I know you can do it.

 

Recipe

World Peace Cookies

Yield: 36 cookies

Ingredients:

1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 stick plus 3 tablespoons (11 tablespoons) unsalted butter, at room temperature
2/3 cup (packed) light brown sugar
1/4 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon fleur de sel or 1/4 teaspoon fine sea salt
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
5 ounces bittersweet chocolate chips

Instructions:

Sift the flour, cocoa and baking soda together.

Working with a stand mixer, preferably fitted with a paddle attachment, or with a hand mixer in a large bowl, beat the butter on medium speed until soft and creamy. Add both sugars, the salt and vanilla extract and beat for 2 minutes more.

Add the flour, drape a kitchen towel over the stand mixer to protect yourself and your kitchen from flying flour and pulse the mixer at low speed about 5 times, a second or two each time. Take a peek — if there is still a lot of flour on the surface of the dough, pulse a couple of times more; if not, remove the towel.

Continuing at low speed, mix for about 30 seconds more, just until the flour disappears into the dough — for the best texture, work the dough as little as possible once the flour is added, and don’t be concerned if the dough looks a little crumbly.

Toss in the chocolate pieces and mix only to incorporate.

Turn the dough out onto a work surface, gather it together and divide it in half.

Working with one half at a time, shape the dough into logs that are 1 1/2 inches in diameter. Wrap the logs in plastic wrap and refrigerate them for at least 3 hours. (The dough can be refrigerated for up to 3 days or frozen for up to 2 months. If you’ve frozen the dough, you needn’t defrost it before baking — just slice the logs into cookies and bake the cookies 1 minute longer.)

Center a rack in the oven and preheat the oven to 325 degrees F. Line two baking sheets with parchment or silicone mats.

Working with a sharp thin knife, slice the logs into rounds that are 1/2 inch thick. (The rounds are likely to crack as you’re cutting them — don’t be concerned, just squeeze the bits back onto each cookie.) Arrange the rounds on the baking sheets, leaving about 1 inch between them.

Bake the cookies one sheet at a time for 12 minutes — they won’t look done, nor will they be firm, but that’s just the way they should be. Transfer the baking sheet to a cooling rack and let the cookies rest until they are only just warm, at which point you can serve them or let them reach room temperature.

The cookies can be eaten when they are warm or at room temperature — I prefer them at room temperature, when the textural difference between the crumbly cookie and the chocolate bits is greatest — and are best suited to cold milk or hot coffee.

Packed airtight, cookies will keep at room temperature for up to 3 days; they can be frozen for up to 2 months.

Basic Fried Rice

This recipe is a simple basic fried rice recipe (or Nasi Goreng as we call it). You can add all kinds of things like chicken, satay, shrimp, etc.

By making the bumbu in a foodprocessor it really becomes a piece of cake! And the best part is: it contains ingredients which you can always have in your pantry!

Recipe

Fried Rice

Ingredients:

400 gram (14 ounces) rice

For the bumbu:
1 onion
2 cloves of garlic
1 tablespoon sambal ulek
1/2 teaspoon trassi
1/2 teaspoon ground coriander
1/2 teaspoon ground cumin

1/2 teaspoon sugar (palm or cane)
1/2 tablespoon kecap manis

Vegetable oil

Instructions:

Cook the rice a few hours ahead so it has time to cool down.

In a foodprocessor mix the ingredients for the bumbu until very fine.

In a wok heat about 2 tablespoons of oil. Add the bumbu. Stir fry well. Add the sugar and kecap and stir again. Add the rice, stir fry well until the rice is slightly crisp.

Serve with sweet and sour cucumber, satay, pickled gherkins, shrimp crackers, or whatever tickles your fancy!

Triple Chocolate Cupcakes

Okay, I know the name is insane and bodes ill... but just bear with me on this one...you won't regret it!

I was really craving chocolate and by really craving I mean REALLY craving chocolate... more than on a normal weekday, much more. So I set out on a quest of finding a great chocolate recipe which I could make without having to go to the supermarket. I found a recipe on Joy of Baking which appealed to me, but the cake was based on cocoa. Now I'm not a big fan of cocoa-based cakes...they tend to be dry and not-very-chocolaty-tasting. But the shear amount of cocoa combined with hot water left me feeling optimistic. Although the chocolate frosting also played some part in that. So I decided to try the recipe but add some chocolate chips to the cake batter to make up for the cocoa-based cake batter.

I now have some good news and bad news for you! The good news is that when you make these cupcakes you will love them! The bad news is that you will love the cupcakes...but your thighs probably not. So I suggest that you make sure that there are other people near you who can help you eat these cupcakes, because your thighs will probably never forgive you if you eat them all by yourself....

But then again these cupcakes are worth it!

 

Recipe

Triple Chocolate Cupcakes

Yield: 16 cupcakes

Ingredients:

1/2 cup dutch-processed cocoa
1 cup boiling hot water
1 1/3 cup flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup butter
1 cup sugar
2 large eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
a couple handfuls of chocolate chips

Chocolate Fudge Frosting:
120 gram (4 ounces) chocolate
2/3 cup butter
1 1/3 icing sugar
1 1/2 teaspoon vanilla

Instructions:

Preheat the oven to 190°C (375°F).

In a small bowl stir until smooth the cocoa and the hot water. Let cool to room temperature.

In another bowl mix the flour, baking powder and salt.

Beat the butter and sugar until light and fluffy.

Add the eggs one at a time, beating after each egg until smooth.

Beat in the vanilla.

Add the flour mixture. Beat until just incorporated.

Add the cooled cocoa mixture. Stir until smooth. Add the chocolate chips and stir again.

Line a muffin tray with cupcake papers. Fill the papers 2/3 full. Bake for 16-20 minutes until a tooth pick comes out just clean.

Place the cupcakes on a wire rack to cool.

For the Chocolate Fudge Frosting:

Melt the chocolate in a double boiler or in the microwave. Let cool to room temperature.

Beat the butter until smooth and creamy, about 1 minute.

Add the icing sugar and beat until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes.

Beat in the vanilla.

Add the melted chocolate and beat on low speed until incorporated. Increase speed to medium-high and beat until smooth and glossy, about 2-3 minutes.

With a piping bag and a star-shaped tip pipe the frosting on top of the cooled cupcakes. Store these cupcakes in the refrigerator.


And finally some pictures of the devouring of the cupcakes!

 

Cinnamon Sugar Pull-Apart Bread

I found another recipe at Annie's eats. And since I hadn't done a lot of groceries yet this was a recipe for which I had all ingredients ready. Something I love! I strongly encourage you to look at her site, because she made a lot of photos of the process, which comes in handy... or you can check out the recipe of Joy the Baker which is were Annie got it from.

I ended up using Annie's recipe because I really hate kneading dough by hand and her recipe uses a stand-mixer. And since I had not used my KitchenAid-mixer in 10 days, I was beginning to develop serious withdrawal symptoms...

The end result can only be described as glorious. It has everything you want. Gooey, sugary, warm, yeasty.... I have to give a warning though... once you start eating..... you can't stop! And I really mean that. Luckily there were four of us... so the impact was minimal, but this is something you don't want to save until the next day.

Make it, love it and devour it....

Recipe

Cinnamon Sugar Pull-Apart Bread

Ingredients:

For the dough:

2 3/4 cups all-purpose flour, plus more as needed

1/4 cup granulated sugar

2 1/4 teaspoon instant yeast

1/2 teaspoon salt

4 tablespoons unsalted butter

1/3 cup whole milk

1/4 cup water

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

2 large eggs, at room temperature

For the filling:

4 tablespoons unsalted butter

1 cup granulated sugar

2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon grated nutmeg

Instructions:

For the dough, combine the flour, sugar, yeast and salt in the bowl of a mixer fitted with a dough hook. Don't put the salt directly on the yeast, that will kill it instantly.

In a saucepan, warm the milk and butter, until the butter is just melted. Set aside and let cool a little.

Add the milk-mixture, water, vanilla and eggs to the mixer bowl.

Mix on low speed until a cohesive dough forms. Continue to knead until smooth and elastic. If necessary you can add a little flour, but keep in mind that this dough has to be sticky... Knead about 3-5 minutes.

Put the dough in a lightly oiled bowl. Turn once to coat and cover the bowl with plastic wrap. Let the dough rise in a warm place until doubled in size, about 1 hour. At this point you can wrap the dough in plastic wrap and put it in the refrigerator for a night. When you take it out of the refrigerator, let stand at room temperature for 30 minutes, then proceed.

Melt the butter until browned. Set aside.

Combine the sugar, cinnamon and nutmeg in a bowl and mix well.

Transfer the dough to a lightly floured work surface and gently deflate. Roll into a ball, cover with a clean towel and let rest for a while (about 5 minutes).

Roll the dough out into a rectangle of about 12x20-inches.

Brush the dough with the butter. Sprinkle the sugar-mixture over the dough in an even layer. It will seem like a lot of sugar, but just keep going....

Slice the dough vertically in to 6 even strips. Stack the strips on top of each other and again cut into 6 equal slices. Stack all the squares on top of each other and set into a lightly greased 9x5-inch loaf pan (or something similar...).. Cover loosely with a towel and let rise in a warm place for 30-45 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 350°F. Transfer the loaf to the oven and bake 30-35 minutes, until the top is golden brown. If the top starts browning to fast, cover loosely with foil at the end of baking. Remove from the oven and let cool for about 20-30 minutes. Run a knife around the edges of the pan to loosen and carefully turn the loaf out, transferring to a serving plate.

You definitely want to serve and eat this warm. It doesn't get much better than this!

Simple Lemon Cupcakes

I had a lemon left over and didn't really know what to do with it, so I started to google. I found a couple of recipes for different sort of lemon cupcakes and although the idea appealed to me...I was feeling a bit lazy and not in the mood to make a lemon curd or a difficult frosting. So in the end I decided I could just use my basic cupcake recipe and add some lemon. I did the same with the frosting. And I have to say... I liked the end result. The cupcakes had a very mild lemon flavor and the frosting was spectacular! Sweet and tang at the same time. I couldn't stop eating it. I made the frosting deliberately thin and pricked holes in the top of the cakes so the frosting could sink into the cupcakes.

Recipe

Lemon Cupcakes

Ingredients:

125 gram (1 stick and 1 tablespoon) soft butter
125 gram (2/3 cup) sugar
2 large eggs
125 gram (1 1/8 cup) self raising flour
Juice and zest of 1 lemon
Icing sugar

Instructions:

Preheat the oven to 200°C (400°F).

Mix the butter and the sugar until creamy and fluffy.

Add the lemon zest then add one egg and a spoonful of flour and mix thoroughly. Add the other egg with a spoonful of flour and mix again thoroughly.

Add the rest of the flour, mix well.

When everything is mixed well add in 1 tablespoon of the lemon juice.

Fill a muffin tray with cupcake papers. Fill each paper cup about 2/3 full. Bake for 15-20 minutes.

To prepare the frosting mix some icing sugar with the rest of the lemon juice. You can keep it quite thin.

When the cupcakes are done, transfer them to a cooling rack. With a satay stick prick holes in the top of the cupcakes. Drizzle the frosting over the warm cupcakes and let them cool.

Oreo Truffles

Now I know that Oreo truffles is not a novelty. I know that everybody probably already made them about a dozen times, but I don't care. I'm still going to write about it and give you the recipe!

You see, for me this was the first time a made Oreo truffles.... yes, yes, I'm way behind... as always...I know!

I read a lot of different recipes and made a version that sounded best to me. I also refrigerated and froze the stuffing, so I had absolutely no problem assembling the truffles. It's definitely worth your while to follow all the steps!

Recipe

Oreo Truffles

Ingredients:

8 ounces cream cheese
16.6 ounces Oreo cookies
8 ounces good chocolate for melting
a bunch of cocktail sticks


Instructions:

In a food processor mix the cookies. After a short while take a couple of spoons of not to fine cookie crumbs out and set these aside. Crush the rest until very fine crumbs.

Add the cream cheese and blend with the mixer until it resembles a sticky dough.

Put the mixture in a bowl and refrigerate for about an hour.

After an hour take the mixture out of the refrigerator and start rolling small balls (about 1 inch in diameter). It works best with your hands. Put the balls on a tray you can put in the freezer (I just used a plastic cutting board).

After rolling all the balls, put a cocktail stick in each ball. Put the tray with the balls in the freezer for about another hour.

Melt the chocolate with a double boiler.

Dip each ball into the chocolate. I waited a little while before putting them down on a tray lined with parchment paper, so the chocolate was set a little and didn't run off the truffle anymore.

After finishing the dipping, wait until the chocolate is hard. Then carefully pull out the cocktail sticks. Now put a tiny drop of molten chocolate on top of the truffle and then add a few of the cookie crumbs which you set aside in the beginning.

Keep the truffles in the refrigerator and try not to eat them all at once!

Couscous salad

We just had our first summer-like day.  A whooping 24°C (75°F)! So to honor the beautiful weather I made a couscous salad, which to me always feels like a plate of sunshine.

It's a light, yet filling salad with a lot of cilantro and mint, which I love using, especially in the summer. Try this salad, you will not regret it! Oh, and it's really easy to make, which comes in handy on hot summer days!

Recipe

Couscous Salad

Ingredients:

200 gram (7 ounces) couscous

1 red bell pepper

1 cucumber

2 tomatoes

1 lemon

150 gram (5 ounces) feta cheese

a couple of spring onions

a big bunch of cilantro

a big bunch of mint

olive oil

pepper and salt

Instructions:

Start with chopping the bell pepper, cucumber, tomatoes, feta and spring onions in small pieces and adding it to a big bowl.

Now chop the cilantro and mint. It doesn't have to be to fine, it can be rather course. Set the herbs aside.

Follow the cooking instructions for the couscous. I'm always very lazy and use the foolproof couscous in small portions bags, works every time!

Let the couscous cool a bit before adding it to the chopped vegetables. Before stirring it together, squeeze half a lemon over the couscous then sprinkle some olive oil on top. Add some chopped herbs and some salt and pepper and stir everything together. Taste and if necessary add more lemon juice, olive oil, salt, pepper or herbs.

The end result should be slightly lemony and very aromatic with the cilantro and mint.

Even skeptic people and kids love this salad!