Hello Everybody!

The past weekend it was really cold in New York City (we had – 1 Celsius degrees!) it was also a long weekend due to President’s Day Holiday. What can we do in a long weekend if we cannot go out? In my case, the answer is really easy! I cook! I cooked a good Valentine’s Day Dinner (I choose my meat menú) and I baked a lot of good and easy to make sweets…
I have to be honest… I can say that the past weekend was my “Chocolate Weekend”: Cocoa Tagliatelle for Valentine’s Day dinner (if you have not saw the recipe yet you can find it here), cocoa half moon for the breakfast and, dulcis in fundo, Cupcake with Nutella heart!

It is enough? I think so! Let’s see what I’ve done!

Cocoa Half Moons

This first recipe is a little variation of the classic shortcrust pastry’s recipe. In my opinion, these cookies are perfect for the breakfast because they do not become soggy, but they stay friable even if you put them in the hot cappuccino!

Time to prepare 30 minutes + 30 minutes to rest in fridge – Time to cook 20 minutes

Ingredients for about 40 half moons:

• 250 gr of flour;
• 30 gr of cocoa;
• 100 gr of withe sugar;
• 125 gr of butter;
• 1 egg;
• 5 gr of baking poudre;
• A tea spoon of vanilla extract;
• Powdered sugar (optional).

Useful Tools:

• 1 Bowl;
• Large worktop or pastry board;
• Rolling pin;
• Cookies cutter;
• Cling Wrap;
• Baking tray;
• Baking paper.

Procedure:

At the beginning remove the butter from the fridge at least 20 minutes before work with it. According to the traditional recipes of shortcrust pastry there is a specific order for joining the different ingredients, starting from the butter and the sugar. I often baked the shortcrust pastry quickly and without the recipe and, based on my personal experience, I know that there is a quickly way to do that, and I assure the result is good in any case! This is my method: At first I mixed all the dry ingredients together (flour, cocoa, sugar and baking poudre) in a big bowl; then I cutted some tiny pieces of butter and I put them in the same bowl at last I added the egg. Now the funny part begins! I started to knead the ingredients with energy inside the bowl and when all the ingredients were combined in a sort of ball, I removed the ball from the bowl and I kneaded a little on my worktop until the mixture is smooth and without clumps. It is important to knead the mixture quickly otherwise the butter became too warm and the result is ruined. I wrapped  my ball in the cling wrap and I deposited it in the fridge for 30 minutes.

In the meantime I heated the oven at 180 celsius degree (about 360 Fahrenheit). I took the mixture from the fridge and with a rolling pin I stretched it until its thickness was about 0,7 centimeters. I cutted my cookies with a round cookies cutter and I divided the circles in 2 part (the half moons). I put my half moons on the baking tray covered by baking paper and put it on the oven for about 20 minutes. When the cookies were baked I waited some minutes and I covered it with powdered sugar!

  

Cupcake with Nutella’s Heart

The recipe I’ll show you is not my favorite recipe! Unfortunately my favorite recipe required a special flour (self raising) and I’m not able to find it in NYC, at least in the quality I’m looking for. Otherwise, also with this recipe my cupcakes are really good, beautiful and soft! I didn’t frost my cupcakes because I would like to keep them out the fridge for few days. Actually I did not frost my cupcake also because I thought that the Nutella’s Heart calories are enough!

Time to prepare 20 minutes – Time to cooking 15/20 minutes

Ingredients for 12 cupcakes:

• 120 gr of flour;
• 120 gr of sugar
• 120 gr of butter;
• 2 eggs;
• 60 ml of milk;
• Vanilla extract.

Useful tools:

• Whisk (if it possible an electric one);
• Bowl;
• Baking cups in silicon or metal (or a muffin tray and paper baking cups)
• Container for ice;
• Cling wrap.

Procedure:

At the very beginning I filled 12 compartments of the ice container with a tea spoon of Nutella and I wrapped it with the cling wrap and put it in the freezer for at least 30 minutes. This step is an optional, you can use natural Nutella, but in my opinions the cubes of Nutella are easier to use. It is easier to put them in the right position and move them if we think that the initial position is not good. But this is only my opinion. Anyway, 30 minutes before starting to prepare the cupcake I removed the butter from the fridge. I also Heated the oven at 180 celsius degrees (about 360 Fahrenheit degrees).

   

When the butter was soft i cut it in tiny pieces and i put it in a bowl with the sugar. With the whisk I mixed the two ingredients until they become a cream. At this point I added the eggs (once a time), the milk, the extract of vanilla and at last, a little by little, the flour mixed with the baking powder. I mixed until it was without clumps. I put a very little amount of the mixture in the baking cups and I put my Nutella cubes on it. I covered the cubes and filled the baking cups (not totally filled, filled only for 3/4) with the residual mixture and I baked it for about 20 minutes at 180 Celsius degree (360 Fahrenheit). Let the cupcake cool before serving or before frosting them.

    

These are the creations of my past weekend! I hope you find them useful! All the recipes are quick and easy to make. The cupcakes are one of my favorite sweets…. They are very versatile: they could be the sweets for an afternoon with friends, the replacement of a traditional cake for a birthday! Actually I used the cupcake like Birth cake for my mum’s birthday! I prepared a lot of colored cupcakes (one for every year), I put them in a special structure created for that, I frosted them (in next posts I’ll talk you about this frost because it is awesome!) and I put on the top of every cupcake a little candle! The result was amazing and unconventional! My mum loved it and everyone liked the taste and the presentation of my special cake!

Here some pics!

Regarding the shortcrust pastry (with or without cocoa) it is the base of a bunch of recipes. You must be able to make shortcrust pastry! This is the basic preparation! My first cake was a tart and like me almost everyone I know with baking passion started in the same way! Let me know if you have your recipe for shortcrust pastry or for cupcakes, and tell me how can I improve mine! I hope you enjoy this post and the new section “recipes”. Leave comments and feedbacks! For new ideas, tutorial and recipes…

Stay tuned!

Tricks in this post:
1. Cocoa Half Moon recipe;
2. My short way to made shortcrust pastry;
3. Cupcake recipes;
4. Different usage of cupcakes.