Kwarkbollen - the dutch scones

After sharing a recipe of scones and telling you about a lovely dutch version, I couldn't let you wait on this better version of scones. But first: Let me teach you a lesson in dutch. No, honestly all I really want to do is find a good translation for kwarkbollen, but there doesn't seem to be any. 'Kwark' is spelled Quark in English -appearantly- and is something like cottage cheese. But it's really more like a thick yoghurt. 'Bollen' is just the Dutch word for buns or bread. So the recipe I'm sharing with you is for quark/cottage cheese/thick yogurt buns/bread. You see why I decided to go with the original name?

Having that said, I have to admit we're not making buns. We're making one massive 'bol'. Unless of course, you decide to make buns. The idea of kwarkbollen in a bite-sized version already makes me drool.

Kwarkbollen (Quark buns)
1 'bread' of 28 cm - inspired by Okoko

250 grams flour
3 tablespoons milk powder
3 teaspoons baking powder
250 grams quark or (Greek) yogurt
2 tablespoons oil
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
2-4 tablespoons (vanilla) sugar
150 grams raisins

1. Sift the flour, milk and baking powder together into a large bowl.
2. In a smaller bowl, weigh the wet ingredients and the sugar. Mix them all together until smooth.
3. Make a well in the bowl with the flour and pour in your wet ingredients. Now mix those together - I like to use a fork and 'break down' the walls of flour at the sides as I go.
4. Lastly, add the raisins and roughly mix those in.
5. Line or grease a 28 cm (11 inch) cake tin. Spread the batter out thinly onto the cake tin. Don't worry about the 'bun' being very thin, it will double in size during baking. For small buns, line or grease a baking tray and drop little circles of dough onto it, leaving enough space for them to rise. Better yet, line a cupcake tin with cupcake wrappers and fill those for three quarters tops.
6.  Bake in a preheated oven of 180 degrees Celsius or 350 degrees Fahrenheit for about 20 minutes. Spread milk over the cake-bread in the last 4-5 minutes for a slightly darker and softer crust.

You can see from the recipe how confused I am about what to call my kwarkbollen. It's not a bun, it's definitely not bread, it doesn't really go for cake either. This means it is a dutch version of scones. Scones are also these -admittedly delicious- things that are neither cake nor bread nor buns but everything in between. They both go very nice with jam and cream and they both include raisins. I think the kwarkbollen are slightly sweeter, slightly more moist and have a softer texture, but overall I'd say kwarkbollen are just a dutch version of scones.Try it out and tell me if you disagree!

Also, let's face it: the Dutch do it Better. 

Buttermilk scones

There's nothing better than sitting inside in front of a warm oven baking away on these days when the sun finally decides to pop out and the weather is finally warm enough to go out without a coat. Well, you know what I mean. Outside, no matter how warm it is, is still a whole lot better when you have something deliciously home-made waiting for you to get hungry.

Scones are one of those things that are ALWAYS waiting for you to get even the slightest bit of a craving. They will stare at you until you eat them. Behold: a recipe for evil buttermilk scones!

Buttermilk scones
12 large/24 small scones

280 grams flour (2 1/4 cup)
2 tablespoons sugar
1 tablespoon baking powder
3/4 teaspoon salt
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
125 grams butter, cold
175 ml buttermilk
150 grams raisins (optional)
Jam, cream & tea (optional)

1. Sift all the dry ingredients together.
2. Cube the butter and use a fork to 'press' it into the dry ingredients until you get a thick crumble.
3. Add the buttermilk and mix it in until you have a sticky dough. Stir in the raisins at this point to add a bit of sweetness to the scones.
4. Line an oven tray with a baking sheet and drop the batter into scones of the desired size, making sure to leave enough space for the scones to rise.
5. Bake the scones in a preheated over of 200 degrees Celsius or 390 degrees Fahrenheit for about 12-15 minutes.
6.  Enjoy the scones with jam and cream and a lovely cup of tea!

You know, sometimes I'm surprised by how fast things disappear after I've baked them. There are times when I swear I've made enough to last at least three days and it's all gone the very same day I make it. And then there are times in which I make something and no one actually touches it after the first slice. These scones fell in the first category. I always think of scones as a tad bit dry, but everyone just seemed to dump them in butter and jam and munch them away. Next time I need to make a secret stack for myself.

Look at what I found on my baking sheet! Isn't it lovely?
If you're not a fan of scones or buttermilk, I have an amazing solution for you: the dutch version of scones. They're called 'kwarkbollen' and they are absolutely amazing. If you totally love scones then that's all the more reason to try out this recipe as well. It's like a slightly sweeter and more moist version of scones.

Herb salt

I'll be honest with you: I barely ever cook. I enjoy baking sweet things a lot more. Yet I ALWAYS use salt when I cook. Now I know the importance of salt, I won't stop using it either. Still I can get bored of salt. Whether it's table salt or coarse sea salt: at some point it's all just salt, so I like to add flavored salts to my food occasionally. I bought my mom a big jar of Parmesan Cheese & Basil salt a while ago. I remember we had rosemary salt at some point and salt with peppers along with some other flavored salts I can't remember. In stores I'll get stuck at the shelf with flavored salts and consider buying them all, but doesn't everyone?

There's one thing better than buying all different kinds of flavor salts in cute jars and that is making it yourself! And the one thing that can top that is making your own herb salt, putting it into cute jars and giving it away to friends, so you can show off  be nice!

Herb salt
Makes 1/2 cup - adapted from Allrecipes

1/4 cup coarse salt
handful fresh parsley (10 grams)
1/4 cup fine salt
 
1. Take a food processor (or mini chopper) and dump the parsley with the coarse salt in there. Make sure the parsley is not wet, so if you want to wash the herbs make sure to dab them dry with tissues. Pulse the food processor several times until you have a finer green salt, which looks like the end result but a tiny bit darker.
2. Add the fine salt to the food processor and pulse another time or two until it's mixed with the rest.
3. Leave to dry on a plate for an hour or so. 
4. Put it in a cute small jar and use it over salads, sandwiches, pastas, chicken and anywhere else you'd use salt.

Of course don't forget to try out all the other herbs. Rosemary and salt is a wonderful combination. Basil would be perfect as well. You can add 2-4 spoons of grated Parmesan cheese for the Parmesan Cheese & Basil salt combination. Or add a spoonful of pepper for a bit of extra spice. Really all you have to do once you have the salt is go into a grocery store and let your imagination run wild while you stare at herbs.

 
Another thing I have to add: keep the expiry date in mind. Although salt is a well-known preservative and it will keep your fresh herbs fine for quite a while, you're still working with fresh herbs. My jars of herb salt haven't lived long enough to see their expiry date, but I can confidently tell you you can keep your herb salt for several weeks. Perhaps the herb will dry out in the jar and you'll be able to keep it for a year or more.

Enjoy your new salty addition to the kitchen! In case you're intrigued by the third bowl on the picture: right next to the sea salt and the herb salt there's a delicious spice rub I will be posting soon.

Why do sweets need salt?

'Salt shouldn't be there.' Ever since the first time I started baking I've been convinced salt didn't belong in the ingredient lists of cakes, cupcakes, pies and all the other sweet things. It just sounded so wrong I would omit it altogether. But with that I've committed a crime over and over again. Surely there were times I'd reluctantly throw in the required salt and surely it's never tasted bad. But why on earth do sweets need salt?

To answer that question I searched my cookbooks and the Internet. Although I just can't find the exact how's and why, I've discovered salt enhances the texture and flavor of baked goods.

Salt is texture
Salt is essential in bread making. It controls the rising process in breads by slowing down the yeast's action. This slows down the rising process of the bread so it won't rise too much and collapse again. Instead, the bread will rise in a controlled and even way. Basically, we owe the fluffy feel of breads to salt. Also, by controlling the yeast and interacting with the flour, salt strengthens the gluten. Salt lines up gluten fibers and helps them hold more water so the dough becomes more elastic and the baked bread won't fall apart.
In sweet bakes there is a similar effect: by interacting with the flour and leavening agents, salt controls the rising process of cakes and helps creates a stronger and tighter crumb.

Salt is taste
Salt is essential in baked goods for the effect it has on flavor. Salt accentuates and enhances flavors. In sweet baked goods especially, salt provides balance. It contrasts with the sugar, giving your sweets an edge, which makes them taste so good.
Another reason to use salt in baking is it's absorbing properties. Salt absorbs water, oils and fats. Thus ridding our cakes, breads and other bakes from the oily taste and feel. This absorbent property of salt also enhances the texture of baked goods by binding the ingredients together.

Can you go wrong without salt?
Well, yes. I just explained that salt enhances both the texture and the taste of your baked good. Salt is considered essential to the recipes and chemistry of baking. Yet, still it is possible to make bread without salt altogether. My mom swears she's never used any salt in her breads and there's even a famous Tuscan saltless bread. The same goes for any other baked goods really. You might find a cake that doesn't require salt, or salted butter, and I've tried it enough times to be sure it can work. So if there is any reason you want to omit the salt, for instance for a diet, go right ahead. Just remember the taste and texture will be different from the original recipe. You will also be getting rid of the natural preservative, so your breads or cakes will go stale more quickly.

Can you go wrong with salt?
The same way salt enhances the texture and taste of your cakes it can destroy them completely. Adding too much will result inhibit the rising process and result in a very tough and dry texture. The crust of the bread of cake will harden quickly and become a very dark colour. So yes, at a certain point you can go wrong by adding salt. Just follow the recipe's instructions and you shouldn't have any problems.

Which salt to use?
There are at least as many types of salt as there are oceans. There are table salts, sea salts, salts with additives and all come in various sizes. For baking you want a finer salt. A finer salt can incorporate better into the batter, rather than stick around in big chunks. This way it can do it's chemical effect on taste and texture effectively and will also prevent any 'salty bites'. Only when using salt as a topping a coarse grain will do better. The coarser grains will give a more sophisticated and prettier feeling than a fine salt as a topping. Salt as a topping gives breads a glossy and crunchy top.

My References:
Bread by Christine Ingram and Jennie Shapter
Joy the Baker - What's the best salt for baking?
Culinate - Kitchen Chemistry
Piece of Cake - Why salt is important in baking
Food Reference - Functions of salt in food

Schwarzwälder Kirschtorte

This classic chocolate and cherry cake originates from the Black Forest of Germany (or somewhere in Switzerland). The idea to make it came from my grandma on the other side of The Netherlands. The recipe was composed of bits of America, the Internet and the wide open spaces of my Imagination. Which brings us all the way to my humble kitchen in the middle of Holland, where this cake was made...

... and then back to the internet, all the way to your home and -hopefully- into your kitchen. It's amazing how cool you can make things sound if you play with the words. But maybe it's all in my head.
Now back to the cake: it's chocolate, it's cherries and a whole lot of whipped cream. Also, it should include some alcohol named Kirschwasser, but assuming you don't have this either, we'll skip the essential part.

Chocolate cake
Ingredients:
115 grams butter
115 grams flour
50 grams cacao powder
1 teaspoon baking powder
6 eggs
200 grams sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1. Melt the butter over low heat. You can leave it to melt while you continue the next steps, just remember to turn the heat off as soon as the butter has melted.
2. Sift the flour, cacao and baking powder together three times. Set aside.
3. Whisk the eggs with the sugar until thick. *
4. Add the vanilla and whisk until incorporated.
5. Add the dry ingredients in a few batches and fold carefully into the egg-fluff.
6. Lastly, fold in the butter.
7. Bake for around 25-30 minutes in a preheated oven of 180 degrees Celsius or 350 degrees Fahrenheit.

* I have to add a note on this step. The original recipe specifies the eggs and sugar to be beaten over a pan with hot water. I tried this and my eggs failed to become fluffy even after 10 minutes, so I took them off the hot water, whisked them until thick and put them back on again for a few minutes. If you're unfamiliar with the process of whisking eggs above hot water, I suggest scratching the heat as well. From what I've seen this technique is only used to melt the sugar anyway and doesn't affect the fluffiness or recipe significantly.

 

Whipped cream
Ingredients: 
1 package (7 grams) vanilla sugar
500 ml whipping cream
2-6 spoons sugar
1-2 spoons agar-agar or gelatin powder

1. If you're planning on keeping the cake for at least 2 days and outside the fridge, or outside the fridge on a very hot summer, then use the gelatin or agar-agar. You can skip this step otherwise. Add 1 spoon hot water to the agar-agar or gelatin powder and set aside.
2. Whip the cream with a mixer until almost stiff, preferably on low speed.
3. Add the sugars and agar-agar/gelatin and whip until the cream is just stiff and peaks will stay in place. Don't over-beat or the whipping cream will form lumps! If this does happen, you can add more cream and whisk again.

Schwarzwälder Kirschtorte (Black Forest cake)
Ingredients: 
1 chocolate cake
Whipping cream
2 cans Cherry pie filling (430 grams each)
Chocolate shavings (think 1 chocolate bar)
Additional cherries for decoration

1. Cut the cake in 3 layers. If you choose more or less layers, you will have to adjust the other ingredients accordingly!
Optional: sprinkle the layers with Kirschwasser or cherryjuice for the original Schwarzwalder Kirsch feel!
2. Place the bottom cake layer on a cake board or plate. Fill a pastry bag with the whipped cream and create a circle of whipped cream around the edge of the cake. This will form a barrier to prevent the cherry filling from spilling out.
3. Now add the cherry filling!
4. Put the second layer of chocolate cake on top and repeat steps 2 and 3.
5. Place the last layer of chocolate cake on top and cover the whole cake in whipped cream.
6. Pipe whipped cream roses onto the cake, before you start adding the chocolate savings to the middle and the sides of the cake. (I went wrong here and my cream roses actually fell off the cake when I tilted the slices.)

And there you have it! So much post for just one recipe. Do keep it mind that this is my version of a Schwarzwälder Kirschtorte. Considering I didn't use Kirschwasser, used an American (non-sponge) version of a chocolate cake and filled and decorated in a way I thought looked like a Black Forest cake, yes, it might not be anything like the original. But it's like the German classic is a bit closer to home now.
A lot of thanks to my grandma who gave me the opportunity to make this cake for her birthday! I would never have thought of it otherwise.

Mocha Cupcakes - the deadly way

I haven't had any schoolwork for almost two months now and life has turned into a drag. I can't figure out what to do on a daily basis and most of the time I don't even have a clue of what day it is. So I started painting the house. I've been painting the fireplace, chairs, doors and even a radiator. Apart from that, I've been cooking for the family and baking some as well whenever I felt like it. These horribly delicious cupcakes were something I conjured up last week to kill the diets of everyone in the house.

Ingredients:
225 grams flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
25 grams cocoa
150 grams butter
300 grams caster sugar
3 eggs
1 teaspoon mocha essence or paste
250 ml milk

1. Sift the flour together with the baking soda and cocoa.
2. Cream the butter with the sugar until light and fluffy.
3. Beat the eggs through the butter one at a time and mix until smooth in between.
4. Add the mocha paste and mix again.
5. Beat the milk and flour through the batter alternately, in about 3 additions each.
6. Bake in a preheated oven of 180 degrees Celsius or 350 degrees Fahrenheit for about 12-15 minutes.
7. To decorate, use frosting in an icing bag to make a big swirl and top it with caramel sauce and chocolate shavings. For my cupcakes I used a store-bought vanilla cream frosting.

I apologize to everyone who lives in my house and is on a diet (which is basically everyone). Please look forward to even more sweet treats in the future, while I continue to fail at finding a job. Look on the bright side: I've been looking up how to make us more healthy treats! I'm sure I'll get to making those soon after I make some fruitcakes, Schwarzwalder Kirschtorte and something that involves the jar of caramel sauce I have left.

Thank you for having me and my deadly cupcakes!

Imitating the Japanese

After my rant about chinese and indian dishes, without posting recipes, I want to share two Japanese recipes. Both of them are inspired by the all-you-can-eat sushi restaurants my family keeps visiting. Also, they're both very easy to make, so we should totally make these every day!

Best things first: Edamame! After the first time we tried them, me and both my sisters have become obsessed with them. They're very salty and you have to 'suck' the beans out of the pod. We actually fight over them.

Ingredients: 
Frozen edamame (soy beans)
Few tablespoons salt 

1. Take the edamame out of the freezer. In the meanwhile, start cooking water with salt. (I add about 1 tablespoon.)
2. When the water is boiling, add the edamame and cook them for no longer than 5 minutes.
3. Drain the water and serve the edamame with some extra salt, or loads of salt depending on your taste.

This recipe I made up myself. I really liked the sauce I made for dango, so I used it again to make Sweet baby corn. I really liked how it turned out, so I'm sharing the idea!

Ingredients: 
Baby corn (1 can)
Sesame seeds (1-2 tablespoons)
5 tablespoons sugar
1 tablesoon soy sauce
1 tablespoon mirin
5 tablespoons water

1. Start making the sauce: put the sugar, soy sauce, mirin and water in a pan and heat until the sugar is dissolved.
2. Add the baby corn and cook until ready, which should take about 10 minutes. Add the sesame seeds last moment and keep cooking on a low heat for another minute, then serve.

We should eat Japanese more often. I really like how they tend to have a lot of small side dishes. This would normally mean too much cooking for me, but sometimes I can't help but get excited by the idea and spend a lot of time in the kitchen. I hope you like the recipes as much as I do!

Conquering India and Asia

If you've followed Moonpies4U for a while, you'll notice I'm a big fan of baking up cakes and cupcakes. More than anything I love to bake sweets. So I'm surprised, perhaps most of all, to find myself totally enthusiastic about cooking dinners. I want to conquer the Indian and Asian dishes. I've been obsessed with red bean paste (anko) and japanese/chinese dishes, while at the same time I'm dying to try a curry.

I've never made a curry before. Can you believe that? Well, until yesterday. I made a special curry à la me. Which actually means there is no way anyone in the world could ever replicate what I did, but it roughly involved chicken, a can of coconut milk, carrots, beans and a whole lot of spices. A Whole Lot of Spices. There are so many recipes out there for a curry that all use different spices, so I just used I had in my cupboard (think garlic, ginger, black pepper, kurkuma, coriander, cinnamon, lemongrass and way more).

Okay, so it sounds a bit random. But I did do a lot of research to find a perfect curry recipe. And very soon I'll come up with an actual recipe to share. Also, despite the randomness of it, the curry was delicious. Even better: the whole room smelled of spices. I was so proud!

On the same day I conquered curry, I made Tang Yuan. These glutinous rice dumplings are very popular in China. I had a lot of fun making the different colours, but adding the filling was horrible. I think the dumplings look horrible as well. And they tasted a bit floury. So there's no way I'm going to share the recipe. Not until I find the perfect way to make these.

Next I'm going to have to conquer mooncakes and red bean soup and even more curry's and and and I'm so excited! Why do we have only one dinner per day? And why are there so many Asian and Indian recipes that I've never tried before or even heard of? We need to get cooking!

Baking up some acorns

Winter should finally be ending some time soon and I’m sure spring can’t wait to happen, yet here I am posting something that looks more like autumn. But don’t worry, you can make this the whole year round! In fact, I made this cake just yesterday. It’s the Banana gingerbread cake I posted a while back. To be fair, I was hoping to give you a new recipe. Not of the cake itself, but how to use a banana cake to create a little banana split to serve. The idea I had in mind was really cute, but when I saw the little cakes turned out to look like acorns, I scratched the whole idea. These acorns are so cute too!

I could have added a small piece of pretzel stick to the end and a bit of milk chocolate to decorate the top. Or dip the top in all the way to make the difference between the nut and the shell more appearant, but there was really no time for that. How long are YOU able to stare at these cakes and put in the extra effort to make them acorn look-a-likes when really you could be eating them. All of them.

It's quite a short post, but all I really wanted to do was share these pictures. Now, the last picture! It's a special one: while I was taking pictures, my sister knew she could do it a whole lot better. So, thanks to the special talent of my sister, I'm sharing her picture:

Improved heart-warmer in the winter cold

Last week I posted a lovely recipe for an Apple/Pear Punch. However, I realised it took quite a lot of work and a lot of ingredients. So I came up with a new version, like promised. It should be a lot easier for everyone to make!

I bought two massive bottles of (natural & fresh) juice and combined them like the previous recipe. I kept making a little at a time, but my sisters kept asking for it and I ended up using everything.

Ingredients:

1 cup applejuice (clouded)
1 cup pear juice
1-2 spoons vanilla essence
2 star anise
1 cinnamon stick

1. Put everything in a pan together and heat it up. Leave to simmer for 5-10 minutes and serve! The longer you leave the juice to simmer, the ‘spicier’ it will become.
These 2 cups of juice are good for serving about 3-4 people. (Or 12 if you use tiny glasses)

I realise that even though I have a lot of free time now, starting my blog again is going very slow. For some reason I have been slacking like hell. Someone hit me! 

Anyway, enjoy! I promise to really try and be faster with my next post!

Warm your heart in the winter cold

Note: I've made a much easier version now you can find here. It's still just as healthy!

The weather outside is so gloomy here, I can feel my mood plummeting with it. But that won’t stop me from spending time in the kitchen. To cheer myself up I made a heartwarming drink I’ve had too much last Christmas vacation (although admittedly still not enough). My boyfriend would treat me over and over again to an alcohol-free alternative to Glühwein in the bitter cold of Vienna: Apfel/Birne Punsch.

There are no words that could explain the sweetness of it: the memory of a busy city in the cold and my boyfriend constantly looking after me. I had to try and replicate at least the drink. So after hours of searching the internet and not finding anything suitable, I took some hints of the recipe and created one of my own. Here’s what I came up with for the Apple/Pear Punch:

Ingredients:

5 apples

5 pears

200 ml water

2 star anise

1 cinnamon stick

2 teaspoons vanilla essence

1. Start with peeling and chopping the apples and pears. Put them into a pan with 100 ml water and 1 teaspoon vanilla.

2. Bring the water to boil and then leave the apples and pears to simmer until they are soft. I used very ripe fruits and this only took me 20 minutes. 

3. Mash the fruits until you have a thick juice. Sieve the drink through a mesh or jam strainer to get the biggest bits out. (I left it to cool half an hour first)

4. Add the rest of the ingredients (water, anise, cinnamon and vanilla). Bring to boil for another 5-10 minutes and remove the spices. 

5. It's ready to drink now! In case you think it's still too thick: just keep adding water. 

At first I thought of adding some sugar as well. The drinks I had, although all of them slightly different, were very sweet. However I found the drink more than sweet enough without any sugar! The only thing that bothered me while testing this recipe is that it takes so many fruits to make just 3-5 glasses of punsch. Next time I'm buying biological apple and pear juice and maybe I'll add some of real pears and apples too.

While you're making this drink, let the sweet smell of fruit and spice take you away to whatever memories you have of winter days or nights. Let the drink warm you up inside while you huddle close to your family while it snows. Or, in case you never had spiced warm drinks for Christmas, create new memories! Are there any drinks you typically have during cold winter days that we can replicate?

Working in the snow!

The first recipe of the year! And for that I choose my number one muffin recipe. A few weeks ago I made it again and took the muffins out into the snow to make some pictures (how often do you get the chance to do that?!). The muffins themselves aren’t anything new. They’re just a twist on muffins I’ve made so many times I know the recipe by heart. Since the very beginning , the recipe has never failed me and every time again I end up with delicious muffins in a very short time. I keep opening the little muffin-cookbook I have on the same page to make the doughnut muffins again and again and again. And every time I bake them, I instantly abandon any diet plans I had in mind. Lastly, like with most of my recipes, it’s so easy to make variations to the recipe. I’ve used about every dried and fresh fruit in these lovely bakes already.

Ingredients:
275 grams self-raising flour
1/2 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
100 grams caster sugar
75 ml sunflower oil
150 grams (Greek) yogurt
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 large eggs

200-300 grams dried fruits of your preference

1. Sift the flour, the bicarbonate of soda and sugar together.
2. In a separate bowl add the oil, yogurt, vanilla extract and eggs together and whisk.

3. Add the dried fruits of your preference.
3. Add the flour/sugar-mixture and mix until everything is thoroughly mixed. Try not to beat the batter any more than necessary as the muffins might be dry.
4. Line a cupcake tin with cupcake cups and drop a spoon or two in each case until the cupcake wrappers are filled for about 3/4.
5. Preheat the oven to 190 degrees Celsius or 375 degrees Fahrenheit and leave the muffins in for about 16-20 minutes.
6. When the muffins are done, leave them to cool and dip them in some extra sugar if you like.

I have to say, the measurement for the dried fruits is really just an estimate. I normally use half a package of raisins (500 grams), but I always use a bit more dried fruits in any recipe as I totally love them. Especially raisins and dried plums, I could eat them all day long! So if you’re not that fond of dried fruits, or you’re unsure, keep adding the fruits little by little until you think it’s enough. When you’re using fresh fruits, or when you’re very extremely unsure on how much dried fruit to add, try step 5 from the original recipe: Doughnut muffins with blackberries.

Then, sit back and relax, and enjoy. There’s nothing more satisfying that a good cup of tea, a book and a couple of muffins to enjoy. Although, for this winter, I’d include some blankets. Perhaps a fireplace as well, with wood that softly crackles as the fire licks it. Oh, and those lights for in front of the window that twinkle like snow is falling. Or the company of some friends or family to make it even more cosy? What about some hot chocolate? Some sweet Christmas melody in the background? Fresh holly on the tables and on the walls that give the room the fresh smell of forest?

... in the end, just the muffin is enough for me.