Chocolate chip cookies / Piškoti s čokoladnimi koščki

Eden od mojih novih pekovskih podvigov je bilo pečenje piškotov s čokoladnimi koščki (cookies). Prebrala sem kar nekaj receptov in se na koncu le odločila za enega, ki pa sem ga po prvem poskusu nekoliko priredila, tako da se sedaj ti piškoti odlični! Vsekakor vam izdam tudi recept!

Ti piškoti so bili prvič ustvarjeni v Ameriki (leta 1930), njihova stvaritev pa je bila pravzaprav pomota, ki se je kasneje izkazala za eno najboljših pomot. :) Za ta odličen sladek prigrizek se lahko zahvalimo Ruth Graves Wakefield in njeni premahjni zalogi "slaščičarske" čokolade. Namreč, ko ji je med peko čokoladnih piškotov le te zmanjkalo, se je domislila, da bi čokolado nadomestila s polomljenimi deli ene od navadnih čokolad v upanju, da se bodo koščki čokolade med peko stopili. Vendar se niso in tako je nastal ta odličen piškot, ki je danes najbolj priljubljena oziroma najbolj znana slaščica v ameriških domovih.

Tipične sestavine tega piškota so maslo, kombinacija  rjavega in belega sladkorja, moka in koščki čokolade. V nekaterih različicah so tudi razni oreščki ali rozine. Moj recept pa je nekoliko drugačen, saj je zmanjšana količina sladkorja (in še ta je samo rjavi), vendar pa so piškoti še vedno dovolj sladki, verjemite mi.

Recept: Masleni piškoti s čokoladnimi koščki (Chocolate chip cookies)

Sestavine:
230g masla (sobne temperature)
160g rjavega sladkorja
2 jajci
1 žlica vanilijevega ekstrakta
300g pirine moke (lahko tudi navadne)
1 žlička pecilnega praška
1/2 žličke soli
300g čokolade (sesekljane na koščke)

Segrej pečico na 190°C.
Z mešalnikom zmiksaj maslo, do kremastega, dodaj sladkor in miksaj dokler zmes ne postane puhasta (cca 2 minuti). Postopoma dodaj jajci in se prepričaj da sta dobro vmešani v zmes. Dodaj vanilijin ekstrakt.
V drugi skledi zmešaj moko, pecilni prašek in sol. Dodaj k jajčno-masleni zmesi in malo zmiskaj da je vse dobro premešano. Dodaj čokoladne koščke in spet dobro premešaj.
Če je masa preveč mehka jo lahko postavimo v hladilnik (za 30 minut - 2 ur).
Pekač obloži s peki papirjem in nanj naloži maso za piškote. Lahko si pomagate z žlico za sladoled, ali pa z navadno žlico. Paziti je potrebno da je med vsakim piškotom dovolj prostora, saj se zelo razlezejo.
Peci na 190°C 10-14 minut oziroma dokler niso robovi zlato rjavi.

Dodatno pojasnilo:
Če si pri nadevanju mase na pekač pomagamo s sladoledno zajemalko (sladoledno žlico), bodo piškoti približno enako veliki in debeli, ter nam tako ne bo treba skrbeti, da bodo nekateri manj zapečeni kot drugi.

Prijetno sladkanje!

One of mine baking challenges was making the famous chocolate chip cookies. I've reed a tone of different recipes and finally decided which one to try. And after the first trial I made some adjustments and so this is kind of one of my own recipes. And the results are delicious! I will reveal my recipe to all of you!

About the cookie. A bet a lot of you didn't know that this cookie was accidentally developed in America (in 1930). The one that we could thank for this delicious mistake is Ruth Graves Wakefield. The story goes that one day, while she was making chocolate cookies, she ran out of baker's chocolate and she thought she could substitute it with chunks of regular chocolate. But the chocolate chunks didn't melt and so the chocolate chip cookie was created. And nowadays this is the favorite dessert in American homes.

The typical ingredients for chocolate chip cookie is butter, brown and white sugar, flour and chunks of chocolate. Some even add raisins or nuts. But my recipe is a bit different from the original because I reduce the amount of sugar and I only used brown one. But believe me the cookie is still sweet enough.

Chocolate chip cookie recipe

Ingredients:

230g butter(room temperature)

160g brown sugar

2 eggs

1 tablespoon vanilla extract

300g millet flour (or use regular white flour)

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 žteaspoonsalt

300gchocolate chunks

Preheat your oven to 190°C.
With stand or hand mixer mix the butter till creamy smooth, add sugar and mix for another 2 minutes or until fluffy. Gradually add eggs and make sure they are incorporated completely. Add vanilla extract.  
In another bowl mix flour, baking powder and salt. Add it to the egg-butter mixture and mix it altogether. Add chocolate chunks and mix again.
If the batter is to soft you can put it in the freezer for 30 minutes up to 2 hours.
Put some parchment paper on baking sheets and drop some cookie batter on it. Use tablespoon or even better use ice cream scoop. Note that you need to leave enough room between the dough because it spreads during baking.
Bake it on 190°C for 10-14 minutes or until the cookies are golden brown around the edges.

Note:
If you'll use ice cream scoop for dropping the batter on the baking sheets, the cookies will be the same size which will help you with baking time. Time of baking varies depending on the size of a cookie, so if your cookies are different sizes you'll find some cookies burned when others may still need a few minutes.

Enjoj them! :)

Dan žena / International women's day

V petek 8. marca smo lahko praznovali Dan žena. Dan, ki ga slavimo v znak ženske politične, socialne in ekonomske neodvisnosti. Čeprav je ta dan izgubil svoj politični namen, pa je to odlična priložnost za vse moške in ženske, da  izkažejo svojo ljubezen in občudovanje vsem pomembnim ženskam v svojem življenju. 

Mnogo ljudi na ta dan kupuje rože, bonbonjere in druge malenkosti s katerimi želijo izkazati svojo naklonjenost. V ta namen pa sem jaz spekla čudovito čokoladno torto brez moke, za svoje sostanovalke.

 

Torta je nekoliko rustikalnega videza in za mnoge perfekcioniste (kot sem jaz) ne preveč simpatičnega izgleda. Vendar s časoma priraste k srcu. :) Razlog za tak videz je v preprosti sestavi torte, saj ne vsebuje ne moke in mleka - pravzaprav gre zgolj za mešanico jajc, čokolade, masla in sladkorja. Med peko torta zelo naraste, ko pa jo pustimo da se ohladi se le ta na sredini sesede. Torta je zelo krhka vendar zato nič manj slastna. Za še bolj čokoladni oksu sem torto oblila s čokoladnim oblivom (ganache) kar je torti dalo nekoliko svežine. Je precej težka torta, zato sem zraven postregla vanilijev sladoled, ki je nekoliko ublažil res intenziven čokoladni okus.

Za znanje:

V ameriki imajo za torto dva različna izraza; cake, ki je klasična torta narejena iz plasti biskvita in nadeva, ter tart, ki navadno označuje torto Evropskega izvora, ki vsebuje zelo malo oziroma nič moke (včasih moko nadomestijo oreščki). In zgoraj opisana torta je torej tart :)

 On Friday (8. March) was the International women's day. It's day that celebrates women's political, social and economical achievements and independence. Even though it's international women's day, this holiday is not celebrated worldwide. Even though this holiday lost its political meaning it remains celebrated. International women's day become an occasion for men to express their love for the most important women in their lives (wife, girlfriend, mother, grand mother, sister, etc.). But on these occasion men are not the only one that show love. This holiday become kind of friendship celebration between women.

On this day people mostly bring flowers, chocolate or something small for gifts just to show their appreciation and love. This is why I baked this delicious chocolate tart (flour-less and milk-less cake). Tart usually means cake (that originated from Europe) and has little or no flour.
I decided to bake it for my girl roommates, just to show them how important they are in my life.

 

The tart has this rustical look. If you are more a perfectionist like I am the tart may not look pretty (like usual perfectly round cakes does). But because this cake has no flour and it is actually only made from eggs, chocolate, butter and sugar it's very fragile. During backing this cake rises a lot, but while it cools the center of tart collapse.

For even more chocolate flavor i covered it wit chocolate ganache. And the taste was amazing. I had really strong chocolate flavor, almost like fudge. Beside I served vanilla ice cream, just to ease the intensive chocolate flavor.

Čokoladna sirova torta / Chocolate cheesecake

Veselo in zaljubljeno Valentinovo!

Vsem vam želim veliko ljubezni in prijateljstev ter seveda veliko ljubkih slaščic!

Za ta čudovit praznik zaljubljencev sem za naju z mojim fantom spekla čokoladno sirovo torto s čudovito čokoladno glazuro. Ljubezen in čokolada vendar tako zelo shajata z roko v roki.

Happy Valentine's day!

I wish all of you a lot of love, friendship and of course a lot of lovely cakes!

For this occasion I baked chocolate cheesecake with beautiful dark chocolate ganache glaze. Love and chocolate just work so great together! 

Mufini / Muffins

Pred kakšnim tednom je na obisk prišla moja najboljša prijateljica, ki študira v Angliji. In kot ponavadi nisem imela ničesar kar bi lahko postavila na mizo poleg čaja. Zato sem na hitro preletela kuhinjsko omaro in se odločila, da bom naredila mufine z banano in čokolado.

In seveda, kdo ne mara mufinov?! No, pravzaprav moja prijateljica ni bila edina, ki je prišla na obisk tisti dan. Med tem ko sem pekla mufine, mi je na okno prišla (dobesedno) trkat sinička. Verjetno je res lepo dišalo, saj ni in ni hotela oditi.

 

 

A week ago i made banana-chocolate chip muffins. What was the occasion?! My best friend came from England only for a few days and of course she came to see me for a few hours. And I had nothing to put on the table beside tee. So I looked through my kitchen and I immediately decided that I am going to make banana-chocolate chip muffins.

And who doesn't like muffins?! Well my friend actually wasn't the only one who came to visit me that evening. While I was baking my muffins the Great tit came to knock on my window. My muffins must have smelled so good because it just didn't want to leave. :)

Macarons

Živijo! Te dni je bila moja misija – peka slavnih francoskih macronov. Gre za beljakov piškot z mandlji s katerim tvorimo nekakšen sendvič, saj med dve plasti piškota napolnimo nadev po želji (jaz sem uporabila kar ganache – čkoloado stopljeno s smetano).

Ko sem preučevala ta poseben »piško«, ki je obnorel svet, sem naletela na vrsto težav, ki lahko vplivajo na to, da ta slaščica ne uspe. Prav zaradi tega dolgega spiska morebitnih težav, pa se to slaščico uvršča med zahtevnejše. Prav zato jo je verjetno moč dobiti le pri priznanih slaščičarskih mojstrih. In priznam, da so me vse te (lahko bi rekli) negativne informacije kar malo prestrašile. Zato sem se kar v naprej pripravila na popolno polomijo. Vendar pa mi je uspelo ravno nasprotno, saj sem uspela izdelati čudovite in okusne macrone.

Torej, zakaj se ti okusni piškoti uvrščajo med zahtevne slaščice?! Maso je pravzaprav zelo lahko pripraviti – zmešamo le sladkor v prahu, mandlje in beljakov sneg. Vendar pa se ravno tu skriva tisti majhen detajl, ki vpliva na to ali bodo macroni uspeli ali ne. Potrebno je namreč paziti, da so zmešane sestavine v pravem količinskem razmerju, da beljake stepemo v ravno prav čvrst sneg, da počakamo dovolj časa preden piškote postavimo v pečico, da je pečica ravno prav ogreta, itd. Po vsem tem pa lahko počasi dobimo idejo zakaj to ni ravno najlažja vrsta slaščice. Vendar pa verjamem, da lahko vsakemu uspe že v prvem poskusu. Konec koncev je uspelo tudi meni. Edino kar bi priporočila vsakomur, je to, da se seznani s to slaščico – zbiranje informacij res pomaga. Zdi se mi, da mi je ravno ta del pripomogel, da so mi macroni uspeli v prvem poskusu. Zato priporočam vsakomur, da prebere veliko različnih receptov različnih ljudi in da se pouči o vseh težavah in tehnikah, ki so potrebne pri peki.

V naslednjem tednu bom te informacije in seveda recept objavila tudi na mojem blogu.

Vendar pa imejte v mislih vedno to, da v kolikor vam ne uspejo v prvem poskusu, so še vedno odličnega okusa, četudi nekoliko nepravilne oblike. 

Hi! So the other day I decided to bake famous French Macarons for the first time. This is very popular pastry all over the world. So what Macaron basically is, is almond flavored meringue sandwich cookie filled with desired filling between two layers.

So when I studied how to make this famous Macaron I noticed that there is a list of thing that can go wrong. I also noticed that this pastry is considered difficult to make and that only great pastry chefs are serving them. So I was a bit intimidated, I’ll admit. And I prepared for a complete disaster. But they turned out perfect. I don’t want to brag or anything, but they really looked perfect and tasted delicious.

So why are they considered so difficult to make?! The batter is actually pretty easy to make. You basically mix powder sugar, almonds and meringue together. But the tricky part is to mix just the right amount of each ingredience, to make just the right meringue, to wait enough time before you bake them, to have the right temperature in the oven, etc. So now you probably get the idea why this isn’t the simplest cookie to make. But if I managed to make them perfect for the first time I am sure you can do it as well. I would just recommend you to read a lot about them (find different recipes from different people, and informations and techniques), because I think this might help you.

Next week I will post all of this informations and of course the recipe on my blog, so you could try this by yourself.

But still if they don’t come out perfect the first time you’ll make them just remember, they are still delicious.

Rojstnodnevna torta / Birthday cake

Kot sem obljubila, objavljam slike mojega zadnjega projekta – peke in okraševanja torte za fantov rojstni dan. Naredila sem pomarančno torto z glazuro iz temne čokolade. Torta je nekoliko bolj kiselkastega okusa, ker sem uporabila sveže iztisnjen sok pomaranč. Tako, da je okus torte nekoliko kislo-grenko-sladek. Vendar sem popolnoma prevzeta nad okusom. Sprva sem bila nekoliko zaskrbljena, kako bo kombinacija kislo-sladke kreme delovala, vendar sem bila na koncu pozitivno presenečena. Kar pa mi je najbolj všeč je to, da ima res okus po tistih pravih pomarančah. Prav tako sem v biskvit dodala malo cimeta, bolj za aromo. Tokrat sem res nekoliko eksperimentirala pri izdelavi torte. Česar pa sem se rahlo bala je bila uporaba želatine. Ker je še nikoli prej nisem uporabila, sem bila nekoliko skeptična, ali bo zaradi dodanega pomarančnega soka, ki je mojo kremo spremenil v tekočino, vse to sploh postalo kompaktno. In seveda je delovalo.

Za glazuro sem zgolj stopila temno čokolado in dodala nekaj masla, da se na torti ne strdi popolnoma in se zato lažje reže. Glazure nisem naredila tako tekoče kot bi jo morala, zgolj iz razloga, da ne bi mazala rešetke. Tako je bilo preprosteje narediti nekoliko bolj gosto, da sem lahko torto zgolj namazala. :) Lahko bi se reklo, da sem naredila "leno" glazuro.

In seveda, za okrasitev torte, sem izdelala pentljo iz bele čokolade. Zdi se mi, da pentlja res doda neko eleganco torti. Najboljše pri vsem tem pa je, da je narejena iz tankega sloja čokolade, kar pomeni, da jo bo enostavno pojesti. In pravzaprav je dokaj enostavna za izdelavo. Gre za nekoliko packanja in nekaj mirnih živcev, vendar po prvih nekaj zankah ti postane jasna vsa tehnika in od tam naprej gre zlahka.

 Takole je izgledala moja krema v torti :) njami njami

This is how my filling looked inside a cake :)

 Moja "lena" glazura :)

My "lazy" glaze :)

 Končni izdelek in prečudovita pentlja iz bele čokolade.

Final work and my beautiful white chocolate ribbon.

This is the result of my recent work, for my boyfriend’s birthday. I made orange cake (a bit sour because I used real squeezed orange juice) with some dark-chocolate glaze. So it’s kind of sour-bitter-sweet cake. But I actually like a combination. As I was making the filling I wasn’t sure if this is what I was hoping for and if it’s going to taste good, but it turned out great. I also used a bit of cinnamon in the cake, because I thought I would give a nice flavor.  So this time I really experimented a little. So what I was actually so afraid of was using gelatin. Because I used orange juice the filling was really fluid, so I needed to add gelatin. And I was really skeptical if this would work, because I never used it before. But of course it worked. :)

For the glaze I just melted some chocolate and butter, so it doesn’t harden completely on the cake and it is easier to cut it. I didn’t make quite the right chocolate glaze, since mine was a bit thick. But I made it that way so I wouldn’t have to use grid. I named it "lazy" glaze :)

And finally for the decoration, I made beautiful white chocolate ribbon. And it really looks beautiful and simple. And the best part is that it is made out of very thin coat of chocolate so it is easy to eat. And it’s fairly easy to make. A bit messy work too. And till you don’t get used of technique it may cost you a few nerves. But after a first few loops everything works smooth. 

Revolver :)

Torej, čas da razkrijem moj zadnji projekt. Šlo je za izdelavo pištole (natančneje revolverja) iz čokolade. Pomagala sem si s plastičnim modelom pištole, ki sem ga kupila posebej za to priložnost. In rezultat je bil takšen (Na koncu sem dodala še malo metalno srebrne barve, za dodaten učinek).

So, it is time for me to reveal my last project. I was making pistol (more precisely, I was making a revolver) out of chocolate. I used a plastic mold that I bought specially for that occasion. And you can see my results on the two pictures above. For final touch I used some powder metallic silver color.

Chocolate cake with marzipan / Čokoladna torta z marcipanom

This is kind of a Mozart cake, which means it’s a chocolate cake with marzipan. It is my version of this cake and it’s based on the ingredients I had at home. It is also my first time that I made chocolate frosting and it came out great.  Tray on the picture is still dirty from the excess of frosting (because I didn’t use grid underneath.)

Na sliki je prirejena Mozart torta, kar pomeni, da gre v osnovi za čokoladno torto, ki vsebuje marcipan. Gre za mojo priredbo torte, ki je nastala na osnovi sestavin, ki sem jih imela doma. Prav tako pa je to tudi moj prvi poiskus čokoladne glazure, ki je izpadla super, kljub vsem strahovom in dvomom, ki sem jih čutila v sebi. Na sliki je pladenj pod torto še vedno umazan od odvečne glazure, ki je stekla s torte (to pa zato, ker nisem uporabila rešetke ko sem oblivala torto).

My past work

Prvi začetki...

First steps...

Torta za fantov rojstni dan

Birthday cake for my boyfriend

Chocolate cheesecake