First Steps
I have used „First Steps“ as the title for this post since, although I have been running for years, starting to train for the Brussels 20k at the end of May really feels like starting to run from scratch. I will be honest, since finishing the half-marathon in October I took quite an extended break from running. Not only had I just moved from London to Brussels, within a few weeks of my arrival in Brussels I moved flats there as well, I was also still settling into a new job and combine that with rainy November weather and slight boredom with running and suddenly it was January and my running shoes were catching dust. It was one of my resolutions for 2010 to run more since even if I struggle to get out of bed sometimes for an early morning run before work, I always feel better if I do go for my scheduled runs and quite like the smug feeling I get from having worked out while others are still snoozing! 2 months of long hours meant 2010 has not made it easy to fit running into my day but I am determined to stop making excuses and simply find the time to run! And I am looking forward to running more again: while on holiday in Thailand I would look at people running on the beach with envy and I practically devoured my first copy of Runner’s World when back home. I am also looking forward to run around my favourite routes in London – it’s been over 7 months since I last ran there! I sure miss running along the Regent’s Canal, running around the ponds in Victoria Park … I even miss zigzagging around the tourists on the South Bank!
Tuesday was my first actual training run. I had a full day of viewings so wasn’t overly enthusiastic to head to the gym for an easy 3.5 Miles as the plan suggested. But, in the end I got my lazy butt of the sofa and headed to the gym. My “easy” 3.5 Miles were everything but easy. My legs surely remembered how to run but my breathing was all over the place. I finished the 3.5 Miles but had to take a couple of walk breaks! I just hope I can get my fitness back in time for the 20k run while taking things easy so I avoid risking an injury! Previously I have always used the training plans from Runners World (which can be found here). While I like these for the amount of information and instructions they provide I think this time round I like the simplicity of the Hal Higdon training plan. Since I have been running for a while now I have a good idea of what pace I should have for the different sessions (and the Runner’s World’s pace calculator (which can be found here) comes in handy time and time again) and know that one thing I need to pay close attention to is to make sure I get my long runs in, listen to my body and make sure the tempo sessions are done the right way.
Running more is also part of my adopting a healthier lifestyle so I am looking forward to the odd bit of cross-training – probably swapping 1 of the easy runs a week for some ellipticating or meeting up with my good old friend the Stairmaster, who knows, I might even do a bit of rowing! At the same time, I will still try and do Pilates 2-3 times a week. Thanks to various websites and books, I can easily do this at home so hopefully long hours at work or April showers won’t stop me from doing this. Also, I have just discovered that Love Film has a huge selection of workout DVDs – the perfect excuse for me to finally sign up to this!
Today started with a steaming bowl of Carrot Cake Porridge. I love love love carrot cake and figured that grated carrots could be a great addition to my morning bowl of oaty goodness. After a quick search on google I realized that I was clearly not the first person to have thought this up and once I tried it, I knew why – this tastes great – the sweetness of the carrots works really well (I like my porridge sweet anyway), it adds volume to my bowl of oats (I am a sucker for big portions and the healthier the better) and is a great way to get some veggies into my body. Besides, I tend to buy carrots in those big 1lb or 1kg bags and there are only so many carrots dipped in hummus that I can eat in a week so this will be great for using any leftover carrots!
I am not going to provide a recipe (since a) cooking porridge is dead easy and b) everyone likes a different consistency for their porridge) but for anyone who would like to try this: simply add 1-2 medium-sized grated carrots to your oats before cooking as well as a pinch of cinnamon, allspice and ground ginger. As for toppings, I went with my usual peanut butter, chopped apple and some cold milk. Holy YUM!
On the left: carrot cake porridge sans toppings, on the right: carrot cake porridge avec toppings!
I’m back!
Alessandro and I got back from Thailand late last night. I am spending a few days with him in Italy before I fly back to London for good on Monday, just in time to hopefully finalize the flathunting since I start work again on Monday 29th. I have gazillions of photos from our trip and have spent most of this morning sorting through them so there will certainly be a post dedicated to a best-of from Thailand and Cambodia! Since I am still living out of suitcases and boxes I doubt there will be new recipes any time soon but I am certainly looking forward to getting back into the kitchen! As much as I loved the food in Thailand and eating out a lot, I really miss simple foods like a steaming bowl of Porridge in the morning ande a good old mixed salad! Other than my favourite foods I also miss working up a good sweat. Despite good intentions, I didn’t do any Pilates while I was away and didn’t even pack my running shoes. We did 2 bicycle trips of about 40km each and did lots of snorkelling, swimming and climbing up and down steep temple steps … but that is certainly not the same as going for a good run! Besides, my sister signed us up for the Brussels 20k that takes place at the end of May so it is definitely time for me to get back into shape!
Moving moving moving
And then, since I clearly haven’t accumulated enough airmiles with my recent trips to Minneapolis and Japan, Alessandro and I are heading to Thailand for 2 weeks at the beginning of March. After our whirlwind tour of Japan that left us a little exhausted (though totally in love with Japan) we are planning to take things much more easy with Thailand. After flying into Bangkok we plan to head to Krabi for some much needed sun and beaches … we’ll probably spend about 1 week there. Then, the plan is to head north again, visit the floating markets, then make our way to Chang Mai (elephants might be the means of transport … who knows) and hopefully cross the border into Cambodia and visit Angkor Wat. Nothing set in stone though and I think I prefer it that way this time round. I am just looking forward to discovering a new place, trying new food, spending quality time with Alessandro, sleeping in and enjoying the gorgeous weather Thailand promises! So, I will probably be a bit MIA over the next 3-4 weeks, but I promise to post some pictures on my return and let you know of any tips I have for Thailand! Once I am set up in my new flat, I will make sure and post some more recipes again as well.
For now, I hope you enjoy the photos I took during our trip to Japan.
First of all, don’t you love this guy’s hairstyle? This was at Tsukiji Fish Market, maybe 5.30 in the morning at the latest and this guy is rocking his hair Elvis-style. How cool.
Above is a picture of a whole tuna at Tsukiji Fish Market. It took 5 big guys to lift the fish from its cart, and we saw bigger fish being taken to the tuna auction. Quite a weird sight considering my first encounter with tuna was of the canned variety!! (I am glad to say I have moved on from that and am these days a huge fan of both grilled tuna and tuna sashimi!).
So, not only do I love love love foreign supermarkets and can’t literally spend hours on vacation browsing the aisles of grocery stores, discovering products I don’t know, admiring packaging design etc. … I also have a strange affinity for foreign roadsigns, streetlamps, mail-boxes etc. So apologies if these photos aren’t as exciting for you as they are for me! (Besides, at least I haven’t made you endure a full post on streetlights yet (hey here is a good idea for a post on a rainy day!).
Yeay, a Japanese pylome, and a Japanese mailbox! Go me!
Toky Tower 2009. Tokyo Tower 2010. Unlike our friend Carme, I didnt have the smart idea of getting a local newsreporter to play around with my camera and take a great picture of Toky Tower on New Year’s Eve … so I only have these point-and-shoot photos. I am actually quite happy with this though. My little point-and-shoot certainly doesnt need to hide, picture quality is pretty good. Oh and in case anyone is wondering – yes, Tokyo Tower IS a replica of the Eiffel Tower, but it’s about 9m shorter! (No idea why …)
This is very much a representation of what Japanese food was like. On the one hand we had amazing dinners, including an opulent meal in a Ryokan in Tokyo … on the other hand we slurped noodles surrounded by Japanese students in bars where you place and pay for your order using a vending machine!
There are tons more photos from my trip to Japan, but maybe I’ll save those for a future post with tips on where to go in Japan and what to do, what to eat etc.
Black sesame madeleines
So, a little while ago I promised a post about my trip to Japan. And then life happened, or more precisely, work happened. And with trying to catch up with sleep as well as still working long hours and having visitors over again and spending an impromptu weekend in London looking for a new flat … the blog kind of took a backseat! But, a promise is a promise. So here we go. AND. I even have a new recipe to share!
So our trip to Japan was short but sweet – we took in as much as was possible on a trip that lasted barely longer than a week. We managed to explore Tokyo a fare bit, made it out to Nikko for a great day out from the hustle and bustle that is Tokyo, caught the Shinkansen to Kyoto and spent a slow afternoon watching deer in Nara. In addition we managed to try as many different Japanese dishes as possible while also picking up tons and tons of presents for our family and friends (definitely a bad idea to tell everyone their Christmas presents would be coming from Japan!).
My favourite part of the whole trip was probably the Golden Pavillon in Kyoto – after several days of trying to avoid the crowds that resulted in us leaving our hotel at 7 in the morning in order to not have to queue at traffic lights to cross the street, the Golden Pavillon was a real oasis of calm. Sure, there were lots of people, mainly tourists, but seeing the Golden Pavillon just as the sun was about to set was so so so beautiful. Food-wise I think my highlights were a dish of steamed Japanese sweet potato with vanilla ice cream as well as a small bowl of black sesame ice cream we tried on one of our last days in Tokyo. I had many sweets / drinks involving Matcha powder as well and whereas I like this a lot, I can’t say I am crazy about it. One thing I certainly didn’t like too much was the Matcha Latte – tastewise its great, green tea and milk certainly go together much better than I thought. However, since the Matcha does not dissolve in water, you end up with a rather chalky drink. Not ideal if you ask me!
One of my favourite things to see in Tokyo was certainly Kappabashi-Dori.
For me this was in many ways a dream come true – a whole street lined with shops selling all sorts of kitchen and baking accessories, ceramics, Japanese knifes etc etc etc. (and, it is a long long long street, don’t think we ever made it to the end!). I was in heaven! Unfortunate only, the first time we came, most stores were shut as it was New Year’s Eve and the second time we went, it was already a little late in the evening and lots of shops had started to pack up for the day. Nevertheless Alessandro managed to buy a couple of scarily sharp Japanese knifes both for himself and as presents and I managed to pick up some mini (really really mini, so cute!) Bundt pans, some tart moulds as well as a Ginko leaf cutter (my mom adores Ginko so I am hoping I can use this for a Ginko-inspired Birthday cake).
Kappabashi-Dori also has many stores selling the plastic food models used in the display cases of restaurants all over Japan and that make a fantastic souveni (quite pricey though!). We ended up buying some fake garlic for Alessandro’s aunt and picked up a fake macaron for my macaron-loving sister. Check out the fake sushi in the picture above – don’t you just want to tuck into that salmon nigiri?
…
As for workouts … the only success story that I have to share is that I am getting better and better at Pilates again. I use both Alycea Ungaro’s book “Pilates in Motion” as well as video workouts from www.pilatesonfifth.com – the videos have been my life savers these past few weeks. All too often I decided against hitting the gym in the morning in favour of an extra hour of sleep … any exercise plans I had for the evening were often cancelled either due to work or meeting friends. But, 2-3 times a week I put on some nice music, change into something comfortable and do one of their 30 or 45 minute workout videos. The great thing is that there are so many videos it never gets boring. Besides I discovered a number of exercises that were knew to me and that I have yet to master! You can even download the videos on your laptop or ipod – something I will certainly do considering how much I move around. I haven’t done any cardio (other than my daily walk to and from work, totalling about 5kms) since my weekend in London 2 weeks ago! Friday night we had some goodbye drinks for a friend who is leaving Brussels. A number of kirr royals later and suddenly it was already 3 am as I stumbled into my bed. Wake up to a blanket of snow and decided against my morning run. Was hoping to fit in some pilates after seeing my sister star in a play but didnt get home until midnight. Relaxing on the sofa now and will shorly do one of the pilates videos before getting ready for bed!
Ah yes, I promised a recipe. So, my brother gave me a madeleine mould for Christmas. I hesitated a bit to use the mould since I had heard several times how tricky madeleines are to bake. But having looked at recipes py Pierre Herme, Lenotre as well as various food blogs and recipe sites, I decided that this could not be that hard after all. Also, I had picked up a large bag of black sesame in Japan and was looking for recipes to incorporate this into. So, voila, black sesame madeleines. And how did these turn out? Simply great! I ended up taking these with me to London as a thank you to my friends for having me stay on their couch and these were gone in a second. While being as moist as normal madeleine the roasted and ground black sesame seeds added both a fragrant nutty aroma as well as a bit of crunch to these madeleines!
Black Sesame Madeleines
Makes 9
1 tbsp black sesame seeds
40g butter
1 egg
50g sugar
60g plain flour, sifted
Start by lightly toasting the sesame seeds in a dry pan, being careful not to burn them. Basically they seeds are ready when you can smell a warm nutty aroma. This should not take longer than a few minutes. Next, grind the sesame seeds as fine as you like – you can either do this in a food processor or with a pestle and mortar. I didnt grind my seeds too finely because I wanted the madeleines to have a bit of bite! Next you cream together the egg with the sugar until pale and tripled in volume. Sift ofter the flour and carefully incorporate. Melt the butter and let cool down slightly. Pour the cooled but still liquid over the batter, add the ground sesame seeds and carefully incorporate. Place the batter in the fridge for at least 1 hour. Next, preheat the oven to 220 degrees and let the batter come to room temperature. If using a silicon madeleine mould there is no need to butter the mould, otherwise grease the madeleine mould with a small amount of butter and cover with a little flour. Next divide the batter between the 9 moulds and let bake for between 10-15 minutes. Let cool slightly before removing from the moulds and letting the madeleines cool down completely on a baking rack.
Enjoy!
P.S. These are best eaten on the day they are made!
Run, run, run …
As Tracy Chapman already told us:
Don’t you know
You better run, run, run…
Oh I said you better
Run, run, run…
(Tracy Chapman, Talkin’ bout a revolution)
Run 2 – Tuesday 12 January This was supposed to be 15 mins easy followed by 15 mins fast. To know what paces to run at I typed my last 10k time (1h1min59secs) into a pace calculator (check out www.runnersworld.co.uk – so useful) and therefore ran the 15 mins. at 8.5kmh. This was definitely a comfortable pace (and much slower than I usually run on the treadmill even for easy workouts). However, I ran the fast bit at 10kmh … and that was, at least for now, a bit fast I have to admit. It’s annoying to see how much fitness I have lost since the half marathon in October but it’s my fault really for not sticking to a good routine these past few months. I even had to take a walk break! In the end I ran just over 30mins and did about 4.5km. Baby steps but steps nonetheless. In case you were wondering, I am following the 3 times a week 45-60min 10k plan off www.runnersworld.co.uk. I am not training for a specific race yet but hoping to slowly ease myself back into regular running and a schedule helps me stick to a workout routine! Also, I am hoping to join my sister in running the Brussels 20k in May (http://www.20kmdebruxelles.be/) and hope to build up a good base over the next few weeks. I have just had a flyer in the post for the British 10k run in July. Hmmm, very tempting – my friend Laura and I signed up for this 2 years ago when we were both still in London, but then exams and life kind of came in the way (which sounds so lame now, anyway). Since I will be back in London maybe it would be a nice idea to sign up and try to beat my last 10k time? Hmmm, might ask my friend Amelia to join me (though she runs super super fast …).
Run 3 – Thursday 14 January According to my schedule this was supposed to be another Interval Session. But a few stressful days at work meant I was in no shape or form to push myself hard enough. Instead I did my 6.4km run planned for this weekend in the gym and will do my Intervals this weekend instead. The 6.4km were supposed to be easy. After a warm-up of about 500m I ran about 5.4km at 8.5kmh and for the last 1km I increased the speed up to 11kmh. As this was an easy run, I certainly had some energy left for a bit of faster running/sprinting and I quite like ending my runs like that! After my cool-down I did lots of squats and lunges and lots of arm exercises and lots of stretching. Definitely felt a bit sore the next day (more from the exercises than from the run though!) but I quite like that feeling – reminds me that I must have worked hard in the gym!
Today will be a rest day/cross-training day. After some much-wanted retail therapy with my big sister, I am hoping to schlepp myself to the gym for some elliptical/stairmaster/rowing fun. Definitely a good idea since I am planning on lots of cooking and baking related action this weekend! Since I am leaving Brussels at the end of February I figured it was time to start making serious inroads on the pack of flour and sugar I still have in my pantry! (Yes, any excuse to bake is a good excuse! 
).
Visits and some banana bread fit for a half marathon
I had been barely back from Japan when my good friend Laura came to Brussels on a flying visit from the States. Laura and I grew up in the same town in Germany but only met while at university in London and have been friends ever since. Laura recently started a Phd program in Minneapolis so we barely get to hang out these days. I went to see her for Thanksgiving with a friend and now it was my turn to show Laura around Brussels. As Laura enjoys running as much as I do, I thought a sightseeing run around Brussels would be the perfect way to show her my current home while getting some exercise in. Alas, the weather didn’t quite play along and it snowed all day long. Instead we managed to get Laura a free visitor’s pass to my gym and we hit the treadmills (before relaxing in the sauna). Laura was playing around with her new Nike+ gear while I did my first interval session for this year. I can definitely see how my fitness has decreased since my last race. 
I am hoping that this will come back quickly though! After the gym we made the most of an all you can eat brunch in downtown Brussels – so good after our workout!
After walking around Brussels’ old workers neighbourhood, Les Marolles, we decided we had enough of the freezing temperatures and headed home to relax a bit on the sofa with a nice cup of hot tea. Since I had two bananas sitting in the fridge that were starting to look unhappy I decided to turn to one of my old favourites: banana bread. When I was training for the Brussels half marathon last year this was one of my go-to pre- as well as post-run snacks. I also love it for breakfast or, for tea, with some cream cheese frosting or fondant icing. Anything goes! This time I had to omit using nuts since there were none left in my cupboards after my Christmas baking extravaganza and the flat was so nice and cosy I did not want to leave the house and get some nuts at the grocery store around the corner …
Banana Bread
Makes 1 large loaf
75 g soft butter
110g brown sugar*
225g plain or wholemeal flour
2 tsb baking powder
2 eggs
4 ripe bananas*, mashed
50 g pecans or other nuts
*You can of course use normal caster sugar but I quite like the caramel undertones that the brown sugar adds to the Banana Bread.
**As soon as I have some sad looking bananas around I put them in the freezer. This stops the ripening process and once you have enough bananas sitting in the freezer to bake some banana bread, simply defrost them overnight in your fridge. Once thawed the bananas will be pretty soft but this will make mixing the batter much easier.
One of the reasons I love making this banana bread is that it’s so simple. Start by heating the oven to 180 degree Celsius. Next beat the butter, sugar, flour, baking powder, eggs and banana together. Stir in the nuts (if using), poor into a loaf tin and bake for about 50 minutes or until a skewer comes out clean.
Please note: I tend to alter the amounts depending on how many bananas I have. On Sunday I only had 2. Baking time reduces to about 35 mins. if you only use half the recipe. Anything smaller and I would pour the batter into muffin or cupcake tins and bake for about 20-25 minutes only (or until a wooden skewer comes out clean after being inserted in the middle).
I wish I could have posted a picture of the banana bread but after two long days at work and more cold weather I have to admit that the banana bread is almost gone. Instead, a picture of a drink perfect for the current weather: Hot Chocolate made with Valrhona Ivoire.
I have always loved white chocolate but have often been frustrated with the poor quality of the white chocolate that is generally available. But that all changed when I moved to Brussels – not only is the white chocolate available in supermarkets far superior to the stuff you can get in the UK, I also discovered an actual Valrhona store on one of my first walks around Brussels (and I even have a discount card now! Hah!). I picked up a bag of Valrhona Ivoire a few weeks ago and when I was rumbling through my cupboard earlier I remembered it and decided to make myself a nice cup of white hot chocolate. The chocolate already comes in teaspoon sized servings which makes portioning super easy. I added about 3-4 pieces to a cup of hot milk, but I would increase the amount for a stronger chocolate taste. This was the perfect way to unwind after a day at work followed by a good workout in the gym surrounded by what can only be all those people who have decided to join a gym in 2010 – my gym has never been this busy! I had to queue for the treadmills! But, I was patient and managed to squeeze a short tempo session in.
Valrhona
Rue du Marché aux Herbes 81
1000 Brussel
02 513 78 92
Enjoy!
Running
In addition to my love of all things food related and in particular baking, running has become a huge part of my life. I recently ran my first half marathon with my sister and hope to take part in more races in the future. Running makes me feel great, makes sure I get outdoors and makes sure I still fit into the skinny jeans I wore in university. Inspired by other people’s New Year’s resolutions, I have decided to make running more one of mine. I also want to finally break the 60 minute mark for 10k. Not a huge achievement for many, but it will be an important one for me. My fastest recorded time during my half marathon training was around 1 h 1 min and 59 secs, so I am certainly not far away. But psychologically it will be a big achievement – I was never sporty in school and certainly not good at running so breaking the 60 minute mark is something I am very excited about! Since I run regularly and am used to a similar speed from my half marathon training, I have set myself 8 weeks to prepare for this and will mainly rely on added speedwork and extending weekly long runs. I will try and post about my runs on a regular basis and keep you updated on my progress. Improving my 10k time will hopefully put me in a good position to tackle a 20k run me and my sister are looking at for the end of May!
I will also be posting some Japan photos as soon as I have managed to sort through the massive pile of photos on my digital camera!
Japan Japan here we come!
Alessandro and I are off on our little whirlwind tour of Japan as of tomorrow. We are planning on packing in as much of modern and traditional Japan into 9 days as possible – first off we are spending a few days in Tokyo before hitting a comfortable ryokan in Kyoto.
I will be back in the new year with hopefully lots of photos and fun stories to share! Happy New Year everyone!
Joyeux Noël
So, Christmas is a mere week away and all I have to show for presents is a long shopping list – I have managed to shorten this list a fair bit last weekend, but considering I also have very little to show in terms of festive sweets etc. does nothing to calm my anxiety about the upcoming holiday. Sure, I stocked up on Mince Pies and Christmas Pudding when I was in London two weeks ago, I asked Alessandro to bring some Nougat from Italy, but in terms of making anything myself I have little to show, for now. I have tried out a few things, made White Chocolate Chards with Candy Cane and made some Milk Chocolate Chards with Candy Cane which is just waiting to be cut into smaller pieces, ready for wrapping. But, despite having bought adorable snowflake cookie cutters and investing in decent piping equipment in Minnesota, I have yet to bake actual Christmas cookies. The travels and visits of the last few weeks have certainly gotten in the way of much baking. However, to some extent, despite having moved out of my parents’ house ca. 9 years ago, I still feel that Christmas baking is something that should be done at home, together with my mum and sisters. Not that that ever happens anymore these days with all of us coming home 1-2 days before Christmas, just in time to unpack our suitcases and help prepare our Christmas meal. So me and my sister have no choice but to get started while we are still in Brussels. We will be baking some snowflake shaped cookies full of spices, maybe some Christmas-inspired Cantuccini, and maybe even some Orange-Chocolate Cookies that my oldest sister Judith likes so much and anything else that our ingredients match!
We started the day with breakfast and a round of the Sunday papers. Having lived in the UK for several years while in university, my sister understands how much I miss reading the Sunday papers over a good cup of coffee. It’s probably my favourite activity to do on a Sunday. But, having lived in Brussels for a while already, she knows where to get UK papers. And. With all their innards! The magazines. The Cultural Review. The extras! Belgium’s proximity to Good ol’ Blighty means UK newspapers are not merely reprinted here (which, for anyone who has ever considered buying foreign newspapers in Argentina, can lead to some bizarre results – read buying a collection of printed cardboards which somehow match the number of pages of the paper you were intending on buying) but are actually imported just as they are sold across the Channel (or at least that’s the only way I can explain why we would get the magazines here, but not when I buy the same paper in Germany!). And yes, I normally consider it wrong to read the newspaper you read at home while abroad, but UK Sunday papers fall into a different category. Granted, I read them for the news, but not necessarily for UK news. Besides, on weekends, it’s actually more about the innards than the actual paper (which, I must admit, sometimes has to wait until the end of the next week to be read).
We ended up making lots of different types of Christmas cookies: spicy Snowflakes that we decorated with royal icing, Chocolate Snowball Cookies, Matcha flavoured Sables and, one of my favourites, Cantuccini – flavoured with Orange and filled with dark chocolate and whole pistachios (rather than the more common almonds). I am a huge fan of Cantuccini – they are incredibly easy to make, look very pretty, taste great and (at least as far as I am concerned) can easily be altered to suit the different seasons. A few years ago I also made Cantuccini for Christmas – flavoured with cinnamon, ground ginger etc. This time, I wanted something different and since I love the combination of dark Chocolate, Orange and Pistachio, that’s what I used.
The recipe below makes quite a lot, so feel free to half this.
Tricolore Cantuccini
60g pistachios
60g chopped dark chocolate
3 eggs
100g butter (at room temperature)
400g sugar
200g ground almonds (or, if you have, ground Pistachios)
500g plain flour
grated peel of 2 oranges
Preheat the oven to 180° C.
Cream together the soft butter with the sugar. Add the three eggs once by one and beat until creamy. Mix in the pistachios. Mix together the grated orange peel, ground almonds (or the ground pistachios if using) and the flour until everything comes together. Shape four logs of dough.
Bake the logs for 18-20 minutes (please note they should still be quite light and soft). Take the tray with the logs out of the often and let the logs cool down. Once cooled down to room temperature, carefully cut the logs into slices of about the width of a finger. Bake the slices for a further 18-20 minutes.
Love love love this with a cup of strong coffee. Or with some ice cream. Or simply when I walk into the kitchen looking for something small to snack on.
Visits
A few weeks ago my friend Domini visited me from London. As one of my first visitors to my new flat in Brussels I took the opportunity and made full use of my kitchen while she was here. On Saturday morning I made a batch of banana/Spekuloos muffins. With Christmas now being seriously close, I thought it was apt to throw some Christmassy spices into some Banana muffins. And, what can I say, this worked a treat. Both flavours worked together really well. These were incredibly nice fresh out of the oven just by themselves with a nice hot cup of tea. I also tried some with cream cheese and jam which was also great. I will definitely make these again.
Banana-Spekuloos Muffin Recipe
This is adapted from the Le Cordon Bleu book “Muffins”- this is probably the best collection of muffin recipes I have ever seen, the recipes are foolproof and produce light and airy and moist muffins that are truly great!
Makes 12 medium-sized muffins
300g plain flour
3 teaspoons baking powder
1.5 teaspoons Spekuloos spice mix*
115g brown sugar
60g butter
2 tablespoons honey
125 ml milk
2 eggs
2 ripe bananas, mashed
Heat the oven to 210 degrees. Grease your muffin tin. Mix flour together with the baking powder, Spekuloos spice mix and sugar. Make a well in the middle. Melt honey and butter on the stove. Mix eggs with the milk in a separate bowl. Pour the honey butter mix, the egg-milk and the mashed banana into the well in the dry ingredients. Quickly mix all the ingredients together (being careful not to overmix them!). Pour the muffin mix into your muffin tray, filling each mould to 2/3. Bake for 20 minutes or until a wooden skewer inserted into the muffins come out clean.
*Spekuloos – Spekuloos is pretty much the national cookie in Belgium. They are thin, light and very crispy biscuits that include a mix of spices similar to the German Lebkuchen spice mixes (read cinnamon, cloves, anise see, cardamom etc.) but are not as spicy. They remind me of Christmas in every way but are eaten throughout the year in Belgium.
The next morning I made a batch of my favourite American style pancakes. A recipe from Jamie Oliver that I have been using since my university days (mainly since it’s one of few recipes that can easily be done for 1 person only).
Domini had hers with sugar and lemon juice. I know this is a very common way to eat pancakes in the UK, but this flavour combination does not work for me. I had mine with chocolate spread or jam (since I forgot to buy Maple Syrup).
Jamie Oliver’s American Style Pancakes
For 2-4 people
3 large eggs
115g plain flour
1 heaped teaspoon baking powder
140ml milk
A pinch of salt
Start by separating the eggs. Add the flour, baking powder and milk to the egg yolks and mix this until a smooth batter forms. Whisk the egg whites until they form stiff peaks, adding the salt. Fold the egg whites into the batter. Fry in a greased pan over medium heat until they are golden and firm on both sides.
When I was still in university, I usually made these pretty big and had them with greek yoghurt, raspberries, maple syrup and pumpkin seeds. Yum!
After a day of, for once, glorious sunshine in Brussels and lots of sightseeing we were lazy and ended up getting takeaway pizza. Once home I made some quick chocolate mousse using Pierre Herme’s recipe and by the time the pizzas were eaten and digested, the mousse was set. These were gone before I could take any pictures, thus the only picture I have is of my little espresso cups scraped clean. Note that due to the use of fresh egg white this does not store well and is best made on the day of consumption.
Pierre Herme’s Chocolate Mousse
For 6 people
170g good quality chocolate
80g full cream milk
1 egg yolk
4 egg whites
2 tablespoons sugar
Let the chocolate melt over a bain-marie (making sure the bowl with the chocolate never actually touches the water). Bring the milk to a boil (I find using the micro-wave is the quickest and easiest solution for such a small amount of milk). Pour the hot milk over the melted chocolate. Let this cool a bit, then add the egg yolk. Mix everything together. Beat the egg whites with the sugar until they reach firm peaks and fold this into the chocolate mixture. Pour into six ramekins and let set in the fridge for at least 1.5 hours.
