Chocolate crinkle cookies

I recently made these chocolate crinkle cookies, I'd made them in the past and remembered how delicious they were so I wanted to try them again to give to people at Christmas. The thing I like about these is that the taste and consistency is very similar to a brownie, but they look so much better! So if you want to impress these are perfect, they look and taste amazing and are really easy to make.

Here's the recipe I used:

175 gr dark chocolate

140 gr butter

10 gr baking powder

200 gr plain flour

2 eggs

150 gr sugar

1 tsp vanilla extract

3 tbs icing sugar 

Melt the butter and chocolate in a bowl over simmering water. In a separate bowl whisk the eggs and sugar until pale. Add the chocolate and vanilla and combine. Then sift the flour and baking powder and mix in. Refrigerate for at least two hours, I left it overnight and cooked them in the morning.

When the mixture has cooled make walnut sized balls and roll in the icing sugar, put on a lined baking tray and flatten slightly with your fingers.

Cook at 170°C for about 10 minutes.

Ricetta:

175 gr cioccolato fondente

140 gr burro

10 gr lievito per dolci

200 gr farina 00

2 uova

150 gr zucchero

1 cucchiaino estratto di vaniglia

3 cucchiai di zucchero a velo

Far sciogliere a bagno maria la cioccolata e il burro. Nel frattempo in un'altra ciotola sbattere uova e zucchero fino ad ottenere un composto pallido. Aggiungere il cioccolato e poi la farina e il lievito setacciati. Mettere in frigo per almeno due ore. Io l'ho lasciato tutta la notte e li ho infornati la mattina. Quando il composto è raffreddato fare delle palline della dimensione di una noce e passarle nello zucchero a velo. Mettere le palline su una teglia rivestita di carta forno e schiacciarle leggermente con le dita. Infornare a 170°C per circa 10 minuti.

Homemade Cookie Jars

For Christmas this year we decided to give everyone a jar of homemade biscuits. I looked for some cute labels to print out and I found these from a website called studiosjoesjoe.com which I really like because they're festive but not in the obvious way. Then I just covered the jars with some brown paper to keep it simple. I did look for some nice fabric to use but I couldn't find any I liked and decided to stick to the paper but I'm actually really happy with the result.

 

These are the recipes I used:

600 gr plain flour

15 gr baking powder

250 gr soft butter

2 eggs

150 gr icing sugar

I sifted the flour, baking powder and icing sugar and added it to the butter and eggs and used my hands to mix it. When everything was mixed, I divided the dough into three parts. I left one plain and added some cinnamon to one and some orange zest to the other.

For the chocolate biscuits:

250 gr plain flour

75 gr cocoa powder

7 gr baking powder

120 gr soft butter

1 egg

75 gr icing sugar

I rolled out the dough out and used various cutters, kept them all very small so they would fit in the jar well. When cold I melted some dark chocolate and used it to decorate some of the biscuits by just making horizontal stripes with a piping bag and a small round tip, it's really simple but gives a really nice effect. 

DIY cake stands

In the quest to find the perfect cake stand, and one that wasn't the same as all the others in the shops, I decided to make my own! 

It's really quick and easy (and cheap!) and the results are pretty decent in my opinion.

So I bought some candle holders, glasses and plates from IKEA and a melamine cup and plate from the kid's section in Zara Home.

I got some glue from a DIY store, just make sure it works with ceramic and glass, and glued everything in place. I left them to stand for 24 hours before using them, just in case.

Nella ricerca dell'alzata per torta perfetta, ho deciso di farla da sola! Ho comprato piatti, bicchieri e porta candela da IKEA e della colla adatta all'uso con ceramica e vetro. Ho incollato tutto e aspettato 24 ore prima di usarle.

Overall I'm pretty happy with the result, the only downside is that it's difficult to find some really flat plates like the one on real cake stands but I still think it's a pretty good way to have something different. I have to say this black and white one is my favourite because the two colours work really well together and the white spot on the plate ties everything together perfectly in my opinion. I will definitely be trying this again in the future!

Il risultato mi piace. Questa in bianco e nero è decisamente la mia preferita perché i colori sono perfetti insieme. Ci proverò sicuramente di nuovo in futuro!