How to prepare homemade hazelnut syrup

Vessy — Mon, 09 Mar 2015 14:38:45 +0000

Hazelnut syrup could be used in many recipes – desserts, cremes, mousses, drinks and even sauces for savory recipes.

If you can’t find hazelnut syrup in your store, you could easily prepare one yourself at home – it is easy and you don’t need anything but water, sugar and hazelnuts.

Ingredients:
500 grams (18 oz) white sugar
500 ml. water
250 grams (9 oz) raw hazelnuts

Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
Place the hazelnuts in the baking sheet and bake in a preheated oven to 180 C (350F) for 15 minutes. Once they start to brown, remove from the oven and peel. Chop the nuts roughly and set aside.
In a large saucepan heat the water and sugar. Stir on medium high until the sugar dissolves.
Once the sugar dissolves turn down the temperature to medium-low and add the hazelnuts.
Cook for about 45 minutes as you stir occasionally – by that time the syrup will be a bit thicker, but it will thickens additionally once it cools off. Basically the more you cook the syrup the stronger hazelnut flavor you will get and the thicker it will becomes.
Strain the syrup into a jar and let it cool completely before you close the jar.
This syrup could be kept in a dark, dry place for about a month.
Syrup could be used in many sweet recipes or for flavoring drinks.

Soft chocolate coffee cookies

Vessy — Fri, 23 Jan 2015 15:23:24 +0000

These are one of the best soft chocolate cookies I have ever made and tasted!!!
When preparing cookies at home, you may learn a few tricks which will make your life easier, but overall this is not a tough job at all. Don’t worry if you don’t get the perfect cookies the first time you prepare them, they will still be delicious most of all because they will be home made, made with love.
But nevertheless, here are a few tips you can use in your cookie cooking.
The main and most important ingredient in the cookie batter is the butter. In order for the cookies to keep their shape, stay thick and soft in the centre, you will need to keep the butter tough and chilled at all times. Woking with cold butter is definitely not an easy job, so I would leave the butter at room temperature to soften, prepare the cookie dough, spread it over the baking sheet and after, I would place the baking sheet in the fridge for 10-15 minutes so the butter firms up again. Then I would continue with the baking itself.
Another important moment here would be the temperature of the oven – when you open the door of your oven, the temperature immediately lowers, which is not good for your cookies.
What I do is heat the over 10-20C above the temperature which is need for baking, then after I place the cookies in the oven I lower it back to the desired temperature.
I hope this will help you get the perfect cookies.
Happy baking!

Ingredients:
130 grams soft butter
340 grams granulated brown sugar
2 tea spoons pure vanilla extract
2 eggs
120 ml. strong espresso coffee
350 grams all purpose flour (more if it’s too sticky)
70 grams cocoa powder
1 tea spoon baking soda
A pinch of salt
250 grams dark chocolate mini chips

Preheat your oven to 350 F.
Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
In a large bowl mix all dry ingredients except for sugar: flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, salt and mini chocolate chips.
In another bowl beat the butter and sugar – make sure the butter is soft, but not melted, otherwise the cookies may loose their shape during the baking.
Add the eggs and vanilla extract to the butter-sugar mixture and mix with a rubber spatula (do not over mix).
Add the butter mixture to the flour and mix with rubber spatula. Gradually add the coffee until the batter is sticky, but not too sticky so it could still be easy to work with using your hands.
Using an ice cream scoop, scoop the batter on the baking sheet as you leave enough space between each cookie, because they will almost double their size while baking.
Now, the trick when baking soft cookies, which include butter as a main ingredient is to have the batter very well chilled before baking. This way the cookies will not lose their shape when you put them in the oven.
I would suggest to place the baking sheet with the spooned cookies in the fridge for about 15 minutes before baking, so the butter firms up. This way the chance of cookies loosing their shape while baking will be definitely less.
* Add more or less coffee and flour depending on how sticky your batter is.
Bake for 9 minutes then let the cookies cool off on a wire rack.
Makes 40 medium size cookies.

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How to prepare homemade hazelnut syrup

Soft chocolate coffee cookies