September 28th 2015
Morning Rituals and banana bread
Isn’t it great when morning just lasts? In our studio we’ve developed a few morning rituals which we practice on a daily basis. For us, in addition to breakfast, coffee is an absolute must-have. And when we get up very early, we tend to mix up a few ingredients and throw them in the oven. This is one of our favourite “goes great with coffee” recipes which we looked up on Scrummy Lane blog.
Heat up the oven to 180 degrees Celsius and encase a baking dish (the size of approximately 23 x 17 x 7 cm) with baking paper. Mix 110 g of butter (room temperature) with 150 g of brown sugar. The key to success is mixing a lot of air into the butter and once you do this, mix in 2 eggs (one by one). Add 3 ripe bananas, mashed with a fork, and 4 table spoons of greek yoghurt to the mixture.
In a separate dish pass 140 g of flour through a sieve, 50 g of almond meal, a pinch of salt (don’t be too modest) and a tablespoon of baking powder. We also added 1/2 teaspoon of cinnamon. Now add dry ingredients and slightly mix them to unite the mixture. To get some crunchiness, add 50 g of unsalted pistachios. Pour the mixture into the baking dish and straight into the oven! The loaf takes about 55 - 65 minutes to bake. If it gets a darker tone quickly, you can cover it with aluminium foil after about half hour into baking. To test if it’s ready use a classic method of inserting a toothpick in the middle. Have it slowly cool down in the baking dish.
Once cool you can spread it with a mix of white chocolate and cream cheese. Slowly melt 100 g of quality white chocolate above a water bath or melt it in the microwave oven on an interval of 20 seconds (20 seconds of heating, than mix it with a spoon…). When it’s completely smooth, mix in a tablespoon of butter. Add 100 g of cream cheese (Philadelphia) to the chocolate but first make sure the chocolate isn’t too hot. We didn’t add extra sugar to the spread, as in the original recipe, but you could add powder sugar.
To immediately suggest which ingredients the bread keeps inside, sprinkle pistachios over the chocolaty-cheese spread. You can keep it in the fridge about 5 days. Bon appétit!
September 22nd 2015
amsterdam pears
We are most pleased when we have the opportunity to visit different places and discover all those hidden spots which cannot be found in tourist guides. What makes us happy is sharing them with you. First on the list is a small shop/coffee place Vinnies in Amsterdam. It is located on the diverse Haarlemmerstraat street, close to the main railway station, which could be explored for days. It’s full of shops with designer goods, bookstores, cafés and restaurants. Often a merge of all, as is customary in Amsterdam. Vinnies is equipped with magnificent pieces of retro furniture. If you like the chair which you’re sitting on or a lamp on the piano, you can buy it and take it home. Therefore the place is constantly changing. We ate a delicious sandwich there (among other things;) ), recreated the recipe and it became a must-have at all our parties.
Spread a thin slice of whole wheat bread with soft goat cheese and place almost translucent segments of pears on top (it’s truly better if the pear is cut to thin slices). Sprinkle it with chopped and roasted hazelnuts. You can roast them at home in the oven at 150 degrees Celsius until you smell the pleasant aroma, they get a hint of colour and the peel begins to fall off. When cool, peel the rest by softly crushing them in your hands. Place some greenery on top of your sandwiches (lettuce, arugula or mixed salad). Season with freshly ground black pepper and drizzle with quality olive oil.
It’s not only the furniture that changes at Vinnies but also their menu. It has already changed since our last visit and now we cannot wait to visit it again. Yum!
September 14th 2015
sultan & pistachios
Now that turning on the oven doesn’t oppose to the weather outside anymore, we are ready to make chocolate charged brownies. The preparation of these cakes is extremely easy and quick, all simply mixed in one bowl. You probably already have all the ingredients in your kitchen and we all know that chocolate is an indispensable part of it.
Start by heating the oven to 180 degrees Celsius. Meanwhile, in a small bowl on a moderate heat, melt 70 g of butter, then add 230 g of cracked pieces of quality dark chocolate and stir until the mixture is completely smooth. Remove from heat and stir in 150 g of natural cane sugar (or a bit less, otherwise they are quite sweet) and a teaspoon of vanilla extract or scrape in a vanilla pod. Now stir in 2 eggs, at first stir in one, and when the mixture is unite stir in the other one. Add 40 g of flour (oat flour is ok as well), a pinch of salt and at the end stir the mixture for 1 minute with all your strength. They say that the secret lies in the stirring.
The base is now ready, just spice it up as you wish. To the first half of the mixture we added a handful of coarsely chopped roasted hazelnuts and a tablespoon of almond flour, while we baked the other half as prepared originally. You can add various nuts, dried cherries (or cranberries nomnom!), a teaspoon of coffee or extra pieces of chocolate to the mixture.
There is just enough mass to cover a square baking pan (with the side measuring about 20 cm) with baking paper or in our case, two smaller baking pans. Bake for approximately 25 - 30 minutes, just enough for the middle to solidify but not to be overdone. If you manage to resist the smell and not eat the brownies while they are still warm, directly from the pan with a spoon of ice-cream, let them cool down completely inside the pan. We sliced and served the brownies on a rectangle and square chopping board. We seeded the first half with cocoa powder and vivid green sultan powder, which we got from Turkey and it adds a slightly sour but fresh taste. We decorated them with mint leaves. We seeded the other half with cocoa powder and chopped pistachios.
September 6th 2015
goat on a fig
On this late summer evening with a hint of nostalgia for the sea and the Mediterranean, we served fresh figs on our platters. Cut them in halves, put them on a platter and place a spoon of soft goat cheese on top of each half. Sprinkle chopped pistachios over them to get some crunchiness. Drizzle them with a mixture of honey and balsamic vinegar in a ratio of 1: 2 and season with pepper. They run out pretty fast, so we recommend that you fill all three platters from from the set.
We’re not giving up summer just yet.
September 1st 2015
refreshing pink massacre
On this blog we will be preparing short and sweet recipes by using Ribrand products in our design studio Mashoni. Being hungry all the time always keeps us interested in trying out new recipes which we might find in a new (impulsively bought but gorgeous) book. We are beginning our series with a quick refreshing summer juice which we found on Sprouted kitchen.
Grab a juicer and squeeze out one glass of watermelon and one glass of grapefruit juice. Adding lime juice is optional - we added the juice of one lime. The rest of the watermelon will surely disappear by itself. Also add ice and mineral water if you like. If you don’t have a juicer, you can easily mix watermelon in a blender and strain it into a serving mug. You can also spice up your juice with tequila or triple sec but then your afternoon might not end until the next day.
We look forward to spending our afternoons and evenings with you.
