VANILLA CUPCAKES WITH COFFEE FROSTING.

Ingredients:

400g Self-Raising Flour
1.5 cups of caster sugar
3 eggs
1 cup of milk
200g softened butter
2 tsp of vanilla essence, or vanilla bean paste. [I personally prefer essence, but this is up to you! :)]

And for the icing:

200g icing sugar
300g softened butter
2 handfuls of roasted coffee beans, plus some more for decoration.
[I have a coffee bean grinder at home (I’m a massive coffee drinker/lover) so I ground my beans just before putting them in the icing so that they would taste as fresh as possible. I suppose you could use instant coffee… {but really, instant coffee?!}] 

To do:

1. Preheat oven to 180C (356F) 
2. Line muffin pans with patty cases. (This recipe makes about 24 - so two trays :))
3. Cream the butter, sugar, vanilla essence and eggs. [Normally, one would use an electric mixer. I used my arm.]
4. Add the flour and milk and combine. I don’t suggest using an electric mixer here.
5. Spoon the mixture into patty cases and bake! This usually takes about 20 minutes, but to double check, lightly tap the top of a cupcake - if it springs back up, it’s cooked! :)

YOU NOW HAVE CUPCAKES!

For the frosting:

1. Grind the coffee beans. Or use instant coffee, that’s totally cool too. [Hint: You can buy quality ground coffee at your supermarket. If you want to make your icing legit, I suggest you use it. :D]
2. Combine the icing sugar and the butter until it becomes a paste-like frosting mixture. (There should be seemingly more butter than necessary - if it’s already dry, you’ll need more butter)
3. Put in the ground beans into the mixture. MIX!
4. You have frosting xD

Frost the cupcakes with the frosting and decorate with coffee beans. You’re done! :)

(There is usually more frosting than you actually need - as a result, you have a lovely little caffeine boosting treat to get you [and your friends!] through the day)

zwervenculinary:

If there’s any string of words that can get my attention, the most effective one would include coffee, chocolate, nuts, and whipped cream.

So this is a mille-feuille (also known as a napoleon). They’re normally made of three components: puff pastry, pastry cream, and glaze or whipped cream to top it all off with. They commonly include fruit and chocolate. This is a mille-feuille with chocolate-cinnamon pastry cream and coffee-hazelnut whipped cream.

coffee cinnamon chocolate hazelnut mille-feuille

1 package frozen puff pastry, thawed

pastry cream:
1 ¼ cup / 300ml milk
1 tsp / 5 ml vanilla extract
3 large egg yolks
¼ cup / 50g granulated white sugar
2 tablespoons / 20g all purpose flour
2 tablespoons / 20g cornstarch/cornflour
2 ounces / 60g grated or chopped semi-sweet chocolate
1 tablespoon / 10g cinnamon powder
pinch of grated nutmeg

(I actually used a Christmas blend drinking chocolate, which had the cinnamon and all already added in to it.)

whipped cream:
1 cup heavy cream
½ tablespoon / 5g instant coffee crystals
1 tablespoon / 15ml flavored hazelnut syrup (usually used as additives for coffee to substitute sugar and add flavor)
or you could use plain sugar in the whipped cream (to taste), and almond or other extracts.  You could then sprinke the mille-feuille with crushed toasted hazelnut or  something.


> Preheat an oven to 350°F or whatever your puff pastry package recommends it be baked on. Place some flour down on a board and roll the puff pastry out until you can no longer see any lines from the pastry having been folded (only applicable when using premade puff pastry, really). 

Place parchment paper on a baking pan.  Cut the puff pastry in to an even amount of strips, of about 2-3 inches/3-7cm long. It’s harder to cut the pastry after it’s been baked, so cutting it lengthwise first at least takes some of the stress from cutting it later.

Place the puff pastry ontop of the parchment paper, and lay another sheet of parchment paper on top. Place a pan of the exact same size on top to weigh it down so the puff pastry doesn’t puff up too much.

Bake for about 7-15 minutes, until the puff pastry is cooked through and lightly golden.  Remove from the pan and allow it to cool down.


> To prepare the pastry cream, in a medium sized bowl, mix the sugar, vanilla, and egg yolks together. Mix in the flour and cornstarch/cornflour together and add to the egg mixture, mixing until you have a smooth paste.

Place the milk in a saucepan and allow it to come to just a boil (when the milk starts to foam). Remove from the heat, and slowly add to the egg mixture, whisking constantly. 

After incorporating all of the milk, add this mixture to a medium sauce pan and cook on medium heat until boiling, whisking constantly. When it comes to a boil, whisk constantly for another 30 to 60 seconds until it becomes thick. 

Remove from the heat, and add in the grated/chopped chocolate and cinnamon.

Stir in thoroughly until the chocolate has melted. 

> To make the whipped cream, heat up a small amount of the cream (around 2 tablespoons) for around 20 seconds in the microwave. Dissolve the coffee crystals in it.

Place the rest of the cream, the coffee-cream, and the hazelnut syrup (or whatever you choose) in a bowl and whip until it’s nearly stiff peaks.

To assemble the pastry, cut the puff pastry in to around 4 inch/10cm segments.

Place one on a plate, and place a spoonful of the chocolate pastry cream in the middle. Top with another puff pastry segment, repeat, and top with a final segment and top with whipped cream.

Sprinkle a little more cinnamon and some nutmeg ontop!

Caramel Macarons with butterscotch cream-

• 200g almond meal (preferably dried, either by leaving out on a tray for 2 days, or in the oven at a low temperature for an hour, you’re drying it not cooking it)
• 200g pure icing sugar
• 150g egg whites (that’s 3-4 largish eggs), left at room temperature overnight (yes this is compulsory)
• ¼ tsp cream of tartar
• 200g caster sugar
• 50g water
• Brown food colouring (I didn’t use this, the macarons turn a golden colour anyway)

Preheat oven to 150°.

Pulse almond meal and icing sugar in a food processor to get a finer consistency, then sieve them into a large bowl.

Divide egg whites into two batches of 75g, mix one batch with the almond mixture to make a thick paste. Put the other batch in an electric mixer and add the cream of tartar.

Place the caster sugar and water in a saucepan and stir until the sugar is dissolved. When  the sugar syrup reaches 110° (using a candy thermometer), start beating the egg whites. Continue whipping until the egg whites are thick.

When the temperature reaches 118°, slowly pour the sugar syrup down the side of the mixer while mixing the egg whites on medium speed. Continue mixing for 10 minutes, until the meringue cools. Add food colouring.

Mix the almond paste into the meringue mixture with a wooden spoon or scraper, until the mixture is thick and gooey and fully combined.

Place mixture in piping bag with a one centimetre nozzle (or spoon onto tray if you don’t have a piping bag, they just won’t be perfect circles) and pipe onto a tray lined with baking paper (or a silicone baking mat if you have one, but I have never used one and mine turn out fine).

Rap the tray on the bench a few times to get rid on any air bubbles (this is important) and leave the macarons for about 30 minutes, or until they form a skin (they will no longer feel gooey to the touch) this is important for forming the all-important “pied” (french for foot, it’s the textured part of the macaron as shown in the picture above).

Bake for 15-18 minutes, or until the top is hard but the pied has formed and is still soft.

Remove from oven and leave to cool

Butterscotch Cream

• 300g caster sugar
• 150g thickened cream
• 200g softened unsalted butter

Melt sugar in a heavy-based saucepan, making sure you don’t heat it too fast or it will burn and be gross.

Remove from heat and stir in cream (if it looks weird, don’t worry, just keep stirring)

Set aside and leave to cool, but make sure it doesn’t solidify.

Place butter in an electric mixer and beat until light and fluffy.

Add cooled caramel to butter and whisk until combined.

Place in piping bag and pipe small amount on one macaron and place another macaron on top, twisting to ensure even coverage.

 

Macarons may be hard to master at first, but they are definitely worth the trouble, and once you have the technique down, they’re really not that hard to make, promise. :D

-Isabella