Le Crepes!

Crepes are one of my fondest memories from my first trip to Europe, you literally saw them everywhere, filled with delicious Nutella, or at least those were the ones that caught my attention. Crepes are like a really thin and airy pancake, that you fill with anything you like, but like the chocolate lover that I am, I decided on Chocolate Sauce. My intention was really to make a chocolate mousse and fill them with that, but my pre-prepping failed me, since, I forgot the heavy cream... This Chocolate Sauce is super rich and easy to make, plus you can use it for this or to pour over ice-cream or a cake. I decided to add the chopped walnuts, because it was missing another taste and texture without it, but you could definitely add chopped hazelnuts or skip them completely. When you make them, don't limit yourself to only sweet options, there are many savory ones, my favorite is Ham & Brie, but the options are endless! My last tip is to try and make them the moment your going to eat them, I pre-prepared ones to take for my boyfriend's house as dessert last night, and they're a million times better when they're fresh! Hope you like this recipe!

Let me know!

Xo,

Flor

Since, I mentioned that I did last nights' dessert, I have to give credit to my boyfriend who made delicious homemade hamburgers filled with feta cheese, oregano and basil (he added sweet plantain to his), with oven baked fries! 

Crepe Recipe

1 cup all-purpose flour

1 tablespoon sugar

1/4 teaspoon coarse salt

1 1/2 cups while milk

4 lare eggs

3 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted

Steps

In a blender, combine flour, sugar, salt, milk, eggs, and butter.

Puree until mixture is smooth and bubbles form on top, about 30 seconds. Let batter sit at least 15 minutes at room temperature. You can refrigerate in an airtight container, up to 1 day.

Heat a 12-inch nonstick skillet over medium. Lightly coat with butter, add 1/3 cup batter and swirl to completely cover bottom of skillet. Cook until underside of crepe is golden brown, 2-3 minutes.

Loosen edge of crepe with a rubber spatula, then with your fingertips, quickly flip. Cook 1 minute more. Slide crepe out of skillet and repeat with remaining batter. 

-Recipe from Martha Stewart

Chocolate Sauce

1 cup water

1/2 cup sugar

1/2 cup light corn syrup

3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

2 ounces bittersweet or semisweet chocolate, finely chopped

Steps

In a medium saucepan, whisk together the water, sugar,corn syrup, and cocoa powder.

Bring to a boil over medium heat. Once it's just begun to simmer and boil, remove from heat and stir in the chopped chocolate until melted.

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Baking Post for the Busy Girl

Women are busier than ever, many of us juggling work and school or work and family life, so we don't always have time to bake delicious goods. Imagine yourself preparing for that monthly dinner date with your friends or for that special someone, but you just got out of work and you still have to tidy up, finish cooking and prepare yourself, do you really want to be about 2 hours preparing the dessert? I can surely answer that for you.... NO! So this is the post for that busy girl on the go. Chocolate Cupcakes with Salty Caramel Frosting have never been easier to bake.

Heres the trick, choose your favorite brownie mix and prepare as directed, but instead of pouring it on a brownie pan use a cupcake tray lined with baking cups. Once ready and cool, top them with Salty Caramel, to take them up a notch. Making this caramel is much easier than what it seems and you'll only use a fraction of the time of what it would take you to make everything from scratch. So go ahead and mix half homemade with completely from scratch and I promise you the results will be sheer perfection!


Let me know what you think

Xo
Flor

*I used Ghirardelli Brownie Mix for the Chocolate Cupcakes

Salty Caramel Frosting from New York bakery, Baked

1 cup sugar

2 tablespoons light corn syrup

1/2 cup heavy cream

1 teaspoon fleur de sel

1/4 cup sour cream 

Combine 1/4 cup water, sugar, and corn syrup in a medium saucepan; stir to combine. Bring to a boil over high heat. Cook until the mixture reaches 350 degrees on a candy thermometer, about 10 mins.

Meanwhile, in another small saucepan, mix together cream and salt. Bring cream to a boil and cook until salt has dissolved, 3-5 minutes. Remove from heat and set aside.

When the caramel mixture has reached 350 degrees, remove from heat and allow to cool for 1 minute. Carefully add the hot cream to the caramel; stir to combine. Whisk in sour cream. Cool, and store in an airtight container, it can be refrigerated for up to 3 days.

***Notes:

- You can make mini brownies for a lighter desserts or drizzle the Salty Caramel instead of frosting

- After adding the cream and sour cream the caramel may be too liquid, just heat it up again until it reaches a thicker consistency or the one you desire, but always being careful not to burn the caramel

- I dusted some cocoa powder over them for styling purposes

Coffee & Hazelnut Cake

This Coffee and Hazelnut Cake tastes like heaven! Super moist with just the right amount of buttercream to hazelnut ratio. I won't say it's super easy to make just because it's pretty time consuming, but if you have skinned hazelnuts then it's not so time consuming. You can swap the hazelnuts for some delicious macadamia nuts or go for something that you probably already have in your pantry, like some walnuts. This is a nice twist to the more usual chocolate or vanilla cakes, it's always nice to change things up! If you really like a lot of frosting on your cake or you're baking it for someone who does, you'd probably would like to double the frosting recipe, I personally love the look of just frosting the top and the center of the cake, it looks really effortless and homey, Hope you enjoy the recipe!

Let me know what you think!

Xo

Flor

Coffee & Hazelnut Cake

1 cup skinned hazelnuts

1 1/2 cups self-rising flour

1 tsp baking powder

1 cup unsalted butter, softened

2/3 cup packed brown sugar

4 large eggs, lightly beaten

2 tablespoons milk

2 tablespoons very strong brewed coffee, cooled

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Lightly butter two 8x2" round cake pans, then line the bottom with parchment paper.

Spread the hazelnuts on a baking sheet. Bake for 5-1o minutes until lightly roasted, shaking sheet once and watching carefully to make sure they don't burn. Let cool. Finely chop 2/3 cup of the hazelnuts and set aside for the cake. Coarsely chop the remaining hazelnuts and reserve for the garnish.

Sift together flour and baking powder into a bowl and set aside. In an electric mixer, cream together butter and sugar for about 5 minutes, until very light and fluffy.

Add eggs very slowly,with the electric mixer running, adding 1 tablespoon of flour during the process to prevent curdling. Using a large rubber spatula, fold in the remaining flour, finely chopped hazelnuts, milk, and coffee until well blended.

Spread evenly between the pans and bake for 25-30 minutes or until cakes spring back to the touch or wooden toothpick comes out clean. Remove from oven and let cool slightly in the pans. Turn out on wire racks and remove paper and let cool completely. 

Buttercream

7 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened

1 3/4 cups confectioners' sugar

2 tablespoons very strong brewed coffee, cooled

Directions

Cream butter and sugar together for at least 5 minutes or until really light and airy, then add the coffee. Mix well. 

Spread half the buttercream on to the base of one cake, lay the other on top and finish with remaining buttercream. Sprinkle the coarsely chopped hazelnuts and voilá!