Homemade Biscoff Biscuits

“Hope,
Smiles from the threshold of the year to come,
Whispering ‘it will be happier’…”
― Alfred Tennyson

I’m not sure what possessed me to bake up these goodies. Perhaps I was trying to kill time or perhaps feeling nostalgic about times long gone. I’ve written previously of my enjoyment of Biscoff Cookies, snacks that I first encountered while on one of my trips.

The idea hit me, I wonder if anyone ever tried to make their own version of these biscuits. Sure, enough, someone has. I found a recipe on The Cupcake Project and thought I’d give it a try.

http://www.cupcakeproject.com/2010/07/biscoff-cookies-from-scratch-recipe.html

Biscoff cookies have a sweet, cinnamon sugary flavour of sorts. They are crisp, buttery, light and taste great with a cup of java. I was looking forward to testing these out.

Ingredients

2 C all-purpose flour
2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
1/4 tsp ground ginger
1/4 tsp ground allspice
1/4 tsp ground cloves
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp baking powder
1 C unsalted butter, room temperature
1/2 C sugar
1/4 C firmly packed brown sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract

Tools you will need:

I used a heart and star cookie cutter because I had one on hand and personally like the shape. Feel free to use any shaped cutter you like.

Like many recipes, it began with creaming butter with sugar until like and fluffy.

I then added the flour and spices. I used my go-to pumpkin spice instead. Same spices, but already mixed for me. I like taking the easy route when I can. Once it was mixed, it looked like this:

I promptly formed a dough ball and began to roll it out between some parchment.

Now, I cut the dough and placed onto lined cookie sheets.

These went into the oven at 350 for about 20 minutes.

Now, did the cookies live up to real thing?

They were close. The texture was bang on, that familiar crispy buttery feel. The sweetness was perfect and not too sugary. I think if I ever hit a wave of craving a Biscoff Cookie, I would be quite content to whip up a batch of these to satisfy myself. =)

Milk Chocolate Coffee Cake

“Where you used to be, there is a hole in the world, which I find myself constantly walking around in the daytime, and falling in at night. I miss you like hell.”
— Edna St. Vincent Millay

Christmas has come and gone. Here’s hoping you all have had a good holiday season so far. I’ve been off work for a week now, with one more to go. I’m loving every second of it. It’s been an extremely low-key holiday for me. It’s amazing what a person can do if given countless hours to do whatever they want. I’ve been a bit of hermit this week, spending my time watching movies and re-organizing my home. After filling 10 garbage bags full of unused clothing and shoes, I’ve dared myself to stop any frivolous shopping in 2014. I never keep my resolutions, so we’ll see what happens…

Shockingly, I’ve done very little baking during my time off. I had a wicked craving for cookies so I made a batch of chocolate chip cookies. Aside from that, I’ve made this milk chocolate coffee cake for my mom.

Prep work first. Melt some milk chocolate with about a tablespoon of butter over a double boiler. In this case I just used a Hershey chocolate bar. Feel free to go dark or turn this into a marble cake and use some white chocolate.

You’ll need about a tablespoon of coffee.

And then line a loaf pan so that the cake won’t stick.

In a mixing bowl, cream 3/4 cup of room temp butter and 1 cup brown sugar.

Meanwhile, measure out the dry ingredients. 1 and 1/4 cups flour, 1/2 cup cocoa and 1 teaspoon baking powder.

By now, the butter and sugar should be nice and fluffy, begin adding 3 eggs, one at a time.

Once mixed, add the flour mixture. Mix. Add the coffee. Mix. Then the melted chocolate. Mix.

It will end up looking like this.

You can then pour this into the prepared loaf pan. Bake at 350 for about 40 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.

Voila!

Let cool and then slice. You’ll find this cake light and soft, milk chocolate flavour all the way throughout. Perfect with a cup of coffee or tea. Or perhaps paired with some vanilla ice cream. =)

Colorado Chronicles 2013 – Part IV

It was off to the mountains this day! But before getting on the road for the two-hour car ride west, it was lunch at Wahoo’s Fish Taco. I ate what else? Some fish tacos!