Hazelnut and Cinnamon Chocolate Coulant with a Caramel Heart

Only a few hours separate us from the new year, and if you are celebrating at home with family and friends, I suggest an easy dessert that is guaranteed to satisfy everyone, especially chocolate lovers. 

As you probably have little time on your hands and would rather spend it with your loved ones instead of in the kitchen, any dessert you prepare should be quick, easy and of course tasty! This is exactly what this coulant recipe delivers as you'll need few ingredients, a couple of bowls and a whisk. If you want to save more time on new year's eve, you can prepare everything the night before and bake when you're ready to serve.  

For 4 servings you need:

• 3 eggs at room temperature
• 150 g dark chocolate
• 30 g toasted and chopped hazelnut
• 15 g hazelnut paste (optional but preferable if you can find it)
• 50 g sugar
• 30 g flour
• 50 g butter 
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1/2 to 1 tsp of cinnamon
• dash of salt
• 60 g caramel, you can use store bought or make your own.

First start by melting your chocolate in a bain-marie or microwave. Once melted add the butter and the hazelnut paste and let them melt with the heat of chocolate. 
Whisk the eggs, vanilla, salt  and cinnamon then add the sugar and beat well until is combined.

Slowly add the chocolate to the egg mixture and mix well, then add the flour and the chopped hazelnuts and mix again until all is well combined.

Grease your ramequins and cover them with cocoa powder, pour some of the batter then put about a tablespoon of caramel then cover it with more batter. Fill only two thirds of the ramequin.

Heat your oven to 240 C, and place the ramequins in the fridge for at least 15 min. Bake the coulant for 10 min, take out and leave it to cool for 5 min then serve it with a sprinkle of sea salt. 

You can make the batter days ahead and freeze it. The day before serving, remove from the freezer and put in the fridge. On the day of serving, all you need to do is bake as instructed previously. 

I wish you a wonderful and sweet end of the year and a bright and delicious start of 2018! Happy New Year!

For caramel sauce recipes click: here, here, here and here

Easy Vegan Homemade Granola!

I have said it before in several of my posts: breakfast was, is and will always be my favorite meal of the day. I have to admit that sometimes it becomes an obsession as I start thinking of tomorrow´s breakfast while preparing today's!

From heavy, calorie-loaded and greasy breakfasts to really light and healthy options. Healthy does not mean stale and boring in my book. Healthy meals can and should be utterly delicious, I mean think about it, how can a meal be delicious if you need to force yourself to eat it.

Speaking of healthy food, homemade granola is not only tasty but also full of essential nutrients, fiber and iron from oats  and essential fats thanks to all the nuts it has. When you make it at home you can control the amount of sugar to cut down the calories.

Oats are always present in my pantry along with nuts and many vegan butters, so when I´m craving for a good snack I make me some granola. As a bonus, the house smells wonderful whenever I bake granola.

Here´s my easy and vegan granola recipe:
         Dry ingredients:

• 150 g whole grain flat oats
• 115 g raw mixed nuts (I used 40 g almonds and the rest was a mix of walnuts, pecans, hazelnuts and cashews)
• 15 g brown sugar
• 30 g grated coconuts
• 20 g dried cranberries
• pinch of salt
• 1 tsp cinnamon

       Wet ingredients

• 30 g apple butter (preferably homemade)
• 30 maple syrup (or honey)
• 15 g melted coconut oil (or an other vegetable oil)
• 15 g of tahini (sesame paste)
• 15 g of peanut butter (you can substitute the tahini for an additional 15 of peanut butter)
• 1 to 2 tsp vanilla paste or extract

First start by preheating your oven to 150 C.

In a big bowl combine all the dry ingredients and mix well. In another bowl, combine all the wet ingredients (you may need to start with the peanut butter and heat it a bit in the microwave) and now all you need is to coat the dry ingredients with the wet ones.

On a tray covered with parchment paper, spread the granola into a thin layer and bake for about 40 min, making sure to mix every 10 to 15 min as the edges tend to dry before the center. 

Once they are all golden brown, take them out of the oven and let them cool. Fill the granola in a glass jar and enjoy. It keeps well for about a week or so!

I usually have granola with some yogurt and fruits, but I've had them with coffee, mixed with unsweetened cream, as a crunchy topping to vanilla ice cream scoops...The options are endless, so be creative and enjoy delicious and nutritious homemade vegan granola. 

Hazelnut Sugar Cookies with a Touch of Chocolate

I have this thing for cookies, any kind of them!. As you may have noticed I already posted many cookie recipes and will continue to do so as they are easy to make and can be adapted to suit just about any taste. 
I am also a huge fan of nuts and at any given time, there's bound to be at least 4 or 5 types of them in my kitchen. I consume them as snacks or put their wonderful taste and texture to use in sweet or even savory recipes.

A year ago, I made a hazelnut and coffee cake and it was an amazing combination. Since then I wanted to incorporate hazelnuts into another recipe and that's how this recipe came about.

These cookies have a very deep and rich nuts flavor which goes along so well with the little amount of chocolate that the recipe contains.Any serious fan of the buttery and complex flavors of nuts, especially hazelnuts, should try this recipe.

And here's how you make it.
For the cookie dough:

• 160 g soft butter
• 40 g hazelnut paste
• 40 g lightly toasted ground hazelnut
• 1 tsp vanilla paste or extract
• 1 small egg at room temperature
• 390 g all purpose white flour
• 10 g cocoa powder
• 120 g brown sugar
• dash of salt

First, combine flour, cocoa powder, hazelnut and salt and set aside.

In a bowl and on a low speed, mix the butter, sugar and the hazelnut paste until combined. Add the egg and vanilla and mix for a couple of minutes.
Start adding the flour mixture and mix. When all the ingredients almost come together, flip the mixture over your working surface and gently mix until the dough comes together.

Wrap the dough in plastic film, flatten into  a 1 cm disk and refrigerate for at least 4 hours or overnight.

On a lightly floured surface, roll the dough to about 3 to 5 mm in thickness. Cut the shapes you want using a cutter or a sharp knife, just pay attention that if the dough becomes soft put it back in the fridge for about half an hour. The number of cookies you might get from this batch of dough depends on the size of  the cutter you use or the size of the shape you desire , but in any case you will get lots of cookies!

Place your cookies an a baking sheet covered with parchment paper, and put them it in the fridge for at least half an hour. Meanwhile, heat your oven to 180C. Put the cookies in the oven for about 10 min, till they are just cooked through but not over-cooked.

It might seem tedious to move the dough in and out of the fridge many times, but doing so is needed to ensure the cookies are flat with no bubbles and will keep their shape once baked.

This recipe works really well if you love decorating cookies and you want to try a new flavor. I decorated few of these cookies and I added hazelnut aroma to the royal icing to compliment the flavor of the cookies. You can see the result below.

I also dipped some of the cookies in melted chocolate (any kind you want) and sprinkled some chopped hazelnuts on top. Finally, I sandwiched some with my favorite chocolate spread and that is Nutella, of course!