Tag Archives: chocolate chips

Dec15

The Best White Chocolate & Cranberry Cookies

Posted on December 15, 2014 by Kathrin

The Best White Chocolate & Cranberry Cookies

Hello everyone!!

This year I took part in The Great Food Blogger Cookie Swap!

It’s a great opportunity to get to know other food bloggers in your own country (and in my case even Austria!) and to taste their awesome cookie creations!

Each participant has to send a dozen cookies of their choice to each of the three recipients that were chosen for him and the participant will get three packages filled each with different cookies from three other participants! You won’t know who will send you cookies, what type of cookies you’ll get or where they are from – it’s a fantastic surprise!

AND to make it even better we’re all doing it for a great cause: to support Cookies For Kid’s Cancer!

Well, I chose to make White Chocolate & Cranberry Cookies, a recipe that was slightly adapted from Del’s Cooking Twist. Del’s pictures looked sooo yummy, just like the perfect cookie and then she even calls them THE BEST – I just had to try them. So I made them – 4 times the recipe at once as I wasn’t sure how many cookies I would get and I needed enough to send them. Well let’s just say I made PLENTY. But – and I’m definitly not lying – they really were the best!!

So what you’re waiting for – grab some butter, sugar and a big bowl and start baking!!

The bloggers I send them to were:

Julia from Verily Me

Sönne from Spätzlegirl

and Laura from Laura kocht

The Best White Chocolate & Cranberry Cookies

Prep time

15 mins

Cook time

15 mins

Total time

30 mins

They are sooo good!! Stop reading and start baking!

Author: Kathrin @ ginger, lemon & spice

Recipe type: Cookies

Ingredients

170g (3/4 cup) unsalted butter, melted
125g (2/3 cup) light brown sugar
50g (1/4 cup) granulated sugar
2 tsp vanilla extract (or 2P. vanilla sugar)
1 egg
1 egg yolk
270g (2¼ cups) plain flour
1⅕ tsp cornstarch
1 tsp baking soda
pinch of salt
1 cup white chocolate chips or chopped
½ cup cranberries

Instructions

Whisk together butter and sugars until disolved. Add vanilla, egg and egg yolk. Stir until well combined.
Then add flour, cornstarch, baking soda and salt and mix carefully to combine.
At last mix in white chocolate and cranberries.
Take a large sheet of cling film and place your dough in the middle and flatten it out a bit until you get a disk in the thickness of 2cm. Place in fridge at least for 2 hours, preferably overnight.
When ready to bake: Preheat oven to 160°C (325° F) and line 2 baking sheets with baking paper.
Form balls that are higher than wide and place them with enough space in between on the baking sheets. Bake for approx. 8-12 min, depending on the size of your balls and how chewy you want your cookies. If you want them very chewy they should look slightly underbaked in the middle when you take them out and they will sink in a bit.
Enjoy!

The Best White Chocolate & Cranberry Cookies by Ginger, Lemon & Spice

And what type of cookies did I get?

There were Mocca Melting Moments from Kevin of Law of Baking

Orange and Cinnamon Stars from Kathy of Kathys Küchenkampf

and Marshmallow and Chocolate Cookies from Katja of Hoetus Poetus

Have a great evening!

~ Kathrin

Mar22

Peanut Butter Cups

Posted on March 22, 2013 by gingerlemonandspice

Peanut Butter Cups

Hey there!

How are you? My ‘vacation’ time that I spent at my parents house is over and I am back in working mode. There will be more exams soon!! I am not looking forward to that – but at least those will be the last ones I have to write for my Masters Degree.

Let’s talk about more pleasant topics. Reese’s peanut butter cups! I have heard so much about them but never actually tried one of my own until January, when a friend of mine returned from a trip to New York. She took several packages with her because she liked them so much!! I have read a lot about them on all the american food blogs I read – you clearly can’t read those blogs without stumbling on them 😉 In Germany it is very difficult to get Reese’s at all. I could imagine that they are sold on the internet, but it never felt important enough for me to try. But still: sweet peanut butter and chocolate together sounded fantastic!!

So when I tried my first Peanut Butter cups I just thought: Luckily I don’t have a whole package, they are addictive!

Last week my friend celebrated her birthday and I wanted to give her something made by myself. I knew she already ate up all her peanut butter cups and I have read that it was not so difficult to make those on my own, so I just tried! I think they went really well!! All the taste testers said they liked them very much! I used dark chocolate which seems to be a little less sugary then the one used in the original one and also the chocolate was hard after the 1,5 hours the cups sat on the balcony to set. I guess you could whisk a little bit of cream into the chocolate to make it a little softer if you want the cups to be more like the originals, but I liked them the way they were!!

Here is the recipe:

Peanut Butter Cups like Reese’s

Ingredients:

100g peanut butter smooth

50g butter, softened

30g powdered sugar

1 tablespoon vanilla sugar

400g Kouvertüre Zartbitter (dark chocolate)

about 25 small paper cups (mini muffins cups)

Directions:

1. Melt chocolate in a double boiler with 25g butter.

2. Prepare your piping bag or like I used a frosting plastic bag. I just used a big glas and secoured the bag with with a rubber band.

3. Prepare filling: Whisk peanut butter and the other 25g of butter until well combined. Add the sugars. Mix very well.

4. Pour chocolate into plastic bag and twist the end of the bag so that no chocolate can come out. You can see this on the pictures!

5. Cut one tiny edge of the plastic bag and pipe a little bit of chocolate (just as much as you need to cover the bottom) into the paper cups.

6. Place some peanut butter mixture into the middle of the paper cup. Pour more chocolate on top.

7. Let it sit for at least 45 min. It sets quicker when you put the peanut butter cups somewhere cold like on the balcony in winter. I had some chocolate left which I just piped onto some aluminium foil and let it harden. Next time I need chocolate I just melt it again.

8. Enjoy!

Recipe adapted from Lidl Germany

~Kathrin

Feb8

Orange Ricotta Chocolate Chip Muffins

Posted on February 8, 2013 by gingerlemonandspice

Orange Ricotta Chocolate Chip Muffins

A very warm WELCOME to all my new readers!!

I am sooo excited that you all joint me here and on facebook to follow my little blog! This blog is my heart’s desire and I love to bake and cook, tell my story, photograph and sew to make this blog a part of me and a nice place to be! And this is true, even if it rhymes 😉

For everybody that stumbles on this little site and especially the ones who decide to stay I am soooo very thankful!! It is so nice to see that other people like the same things I do and that encourages me very much!

I would like it best if I could get to know all of you personally, but as this is a very difficult task because you are living all over the globe, I encourage you to leave a quick comment! Don’t be shy! 🙂

Today I want to talk about muffins. Aren’t they great? You can bring them to any celebration and they are never out of place. People love them because they are already in single servings and can be transported easily! But most of all: They taste great!!!

If you have a muffin for yourself, it is just like you have a little cake baked just for you. They are cute, they are easy to make and simple to modify!

What I have here is a recipe which is loaded with a bright orange flavor, rich chocolate taste and is very moist thanks to the use of ricotta!

I used homemade ricotta which I made of the leftover whey I had from making my own camenbert and feta cheese. Also the only oranges I had were blood oranges! That is why the dough had a pretty rosa color and the baked muffins where a light green on the inside, because the color changed from rosa to green during baking.

I was very surprised when I had a bite of my first muffin! And they really tasted very delicious!!

So here it comes:

Orange Ricotta Chocolate Chip Muffins

from two peas & their pod

Ingredientes:

115g unsalted butter, at room temperature

150g granulated sugar

Zest of 1 orange

15 g vanilla sugar (or use 1 teaspoon vanilla extract)

1 cup ricotta cheese

1 large egg

4 tablespoons fresh orange juice

240g white flour

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 cup chocolate chips (I used 125g chopped ‘Kouvertüre’ chocolate, but choc chips are fine)

Glaze:

1 cup powdered sugar

1-2 tablespoons orange or lemon juice

Directions:

1.Preheat oven to 180° C (about 350 degrees F). Line 12 muffin cups with paper liners, or use silicone cups. Set aside.

2. Beat the butter, sugars and zest with an electric mixer until light and fluffy. Add ricotta cheese and mix well. Then add the egg and orange juice.

3. Now it is time to put in the dry ingredients. Flour, baking powder and -soda and salt go in. Don’t overmix! Just stir it in on low speed of the electric mixer.

4. Add the chocolate and just mix it in with a big spoon.

5. Using two large spoons divide the dough between the 12 muffin moulds.

6. Bake muffins for approx. 25-30 minutes. Take a skewer and make the test! If it comes out clean, they are ready!

7. Now prepare the glaze. In a small bowl whisk together the powdered sugar and the citrus juice (not all at once, check consistency!). Drizzle over the muffins. Let it sit until glaze hardens and muffins are cooled down.

Enjoy!!