How to: Afternoon Tea

I discovered afternoon tea in England. It is very typical british, and I love the way it looks. It's supposed to be taken in the afternoon (around 3 or so? until more or less 6) It makes you feel like having something super shmancy when it's actually pretty simple to make!
I've had quite a few afternoon teas here and there in England and I can tell you the ones in London are just... SO GODDAMN EXPENSIVE! Always more than 15£. When you go outside of London, you can have some for maybe 12. They might not look and be as fancy as but still a nice afternoon snack ^^

Afternoon tea consists of: a couple of finger sandwiches, scones, and some cakes/pastries. And of course, TEA. Sometimes you can also have Champagne afternoon tea which can add another 15£ to it -_-
So the price of afternoon tea can be rather discouraging... why not make it at home? I think it's very nice to do when you have guests (the whole thing usually leaves quite an impression on people? :P). I would really recommend you to try making it yourself, it's fun, easy and it just looks good :D

How to:

• Cutlery: What is essential for the afternoon tea is this little afternoon tea set, where you can place your food. This, really makes it an afternoon tea. To make it more into a british atmosphere, it is important that you have some nice tea cups. If you don't have that double/triple story set (I don't know the correct term sorreeeh) just nice looking plates will also do! :D
• Drinks: tea of course, whatever you like (english breakfast, or just simple early grey?). And if you want to make it fancier, have some champagne or prosecco (it's cheaper too :P)
• Sandwiches: try to buy the bread without the crust or otherwise you can always cut the crust out. Usually, you always have salmon one and an egg one (some places also have a cucumber one). For the salmon one, I put a thin layer of philadelphia cream cheese and salmon. For the cucumber, again a layer of philadelphia and thin slices of cucumber (remember it's supposed to be delicate and fancy so best when it's thin slices :P). And for the egg one, hard boil 2 eggs, add some mayonnaise (personally I use the japanese one) until it becomes quite creamy, pepper and a little bit of parsley. Cut the sandwiches into either triangles or rectangles and it's DONE!
• Scones: if you live in the UK, you can just buy the already made scones in local supermarkets (which is what we do most of the time :P) or make them yourself! :D (recipe coming soon ^^)
• Pastries: here you can basically make any cake you want! Sometimes I made cup cakes, or get French pastries (Eclair au chocolat? hehe). Carrot cake, cheese cake, lemon tart, nutella cake... As long as it's a small portion since you might already be stuffed from sandwiches and scones, everything is good. I've had pretty creamy/heavy cakes which I could really not finish anymore so I think keeping them either light or small portions will be best! :)

So these are pictures I have taken of the most recent afternoon teas at home! We also offered some chocolates (on the picture: Ferrero Rocher, my favorite chocolates of all time and orange-chocolate truffles).

If you want to spoil yourself some more, you can also do Champagne Aternoon Tea. Yes, it makes you feel even more luxurious and fancy. Champagne is a bit too much you say? Cheaper alternatives are prosecco or some other Italian spumante (sparkling wine)!

Prosecco Afternoon Tea I did with some of my girlfriends

With usual finger sandwhiches, steamed cup cakes, raisin scones and short bread ^^

Hope you try this at home! :D

Alfajor -Review-

Alfajor is like THE most devoured snack in Argentina. Recently, when my relatives from France visited and went to Portobello Road in London, they found alfajores, cookies filled with dulce de leche (a form of caramel very very popular in Argentina). There are MANY MANY different types of alfajores in Argentina and they can vary greatly from one to another (I remember having alfajores from Milka as a school snack sometimes). Obviously, in Europe you cannot find them easily. The Havanna brand, is I think the most commonly seen brand outside of Argentina and also the one people bring back the most when they go visit. This brand has other confectionaries than alfajores (like little chocolate drops filled with dulce de leche and white alfajores etc.). I remember people saying that the Havanna brand was considered to be the best kinds of alfajores and these are the ones you find at the airport! The box is pretty easy to spot being all yellow :P

Anyways, it had been a while since I ate these... And to be honest, I didn't even eat that many alfajores when I was in Argentina... I was kind of sick and tired of dulce de leche to begin with because everything had dulce de leche :P (cookies, doughnuts, churros, toast, EVERYTHING). I think the fact that I am not much of a sweet tooth matters (and alfajores and dulce de leche are both pretty sweet products). It was nice to eat one the other day though, reminiscing of the good old days.

Gold wrapping :P

If you ever go to Argentina, you will most definitely have many choices for alfajores and I would definitely recommend you trying some (any brand really... Maybe try to try other ones than the Havanna ones, those you can't find in Europe or other places)! The Havanna one I had is pretty good, though for me, half of it is enough. But if you are a big sweet tooth Nomster, this should be on your must try list! :)

Dulce de Leche in the middle! :)

Chives dip

Dip, cheese and champagne for NYE!

As I am more of a savory nomster than sweet, I LOVE chips. And what do I love with chips? DIP. OOH YES. I made this dip many times and its super fresh and goes perfectly with lightly salted chips! When you see the ingredients you will understand that it is a pretty fatty preparation so it is important to consume with moderation! :P

Super easy and fast to make, you should definitely have this for a nice chill movie night at home or when you have guests over for a little nibble before dinner!

Ingredients:

• 200g Philadelphia cream cheese (normal or light)
• 200g of creme fraiche
• 25g Chives 
• Tabasco
• lime juice
• Salt and pepper
• Garlic (optional)

Preparation:

1. In a bowl, mix the philadelphia and cream fraiche. 
2. Cut the chives into small bits and add it to the mix. 
3. Add salt, pepper, lime juice and a little bit of tabasco to taste.
4. Sometimes I like to add a little bit of mashed garlic for a stronger taste, but this is optional. 
5. When everything is mixed leave it in the fridge for half a day so the chives and garlic scents the dip. Serve with some salted chips (best not to have flavored chips so you can really feel the dip).

The photo does not reflect the yumminess of this dip T.T 

Enjoy! :) 

Xmas chocolate chip cookies!

Fresh out of the oven :3

Ok so this recipe is not reaaally a christmas recipe but more that christmas is a perfect reason to make some nice chocolate chip cookies :D
I found it on a french cooking site and it was super easy (although as a huge baking noob I did make a mistake the first time I baked them -____-) and fast to make... And it was delicious! What I liked about this recipe is that it was not too sweet or too greasy. I will definitely make them again!

So here is the translated recipe and the original one in French at the end :)

Ingredients:

• a bag of chocolate chips (I used dark chocolate ones)
• 100g of melted butter
• 1 bag of vanilla sugar
• 1/2 bag of baking soda
• 2 eggs
• 100g of brown sugar
• a pinch of salt
• 250g of flour

Preparation:

1. Pre-heat the oven at 200 C. Prepare a tray with some baking paper on it.
2. In a large bowl, mix the flour, baking soda, brown sugar, vanilla sugar and a pinch of salt. 
3. In another bowl, mix the eggs and the butter. In the original recipe it said softened butter but I completely melted it in the microwave and it was totally fine (it didn't make the cookies greasier as I had read on other sites). When I mixed the room temperature butter and egg, my butter was actually not soft enough and it made nasty clumps and had to throw it away... Anyways, best to use completely melted butter to be safe and lightly mix with a electric mixer! 
4. When it's mixed, add the egg-butter mixture and the chocolate chips (I put an entire bag of them :P) to the flour one. Mix well. You will obtain a pretty thick dough.
5. Use 2 spoons to make little balls of more or less 5 cm of diameter and place them on the tray with baking paper. Once you place it, I would recommend flattening the dough a bit (the first time I made them, they were very yummy but maybe a little too thick. As you can see on the pictures they were FAT cookies. Not for amateur cookie nomsters). Make sure there's enough space between each cookie! 
6. Place them in the oven for 9 min (I actually left them in a little longer, around 12 min but it depends on your oven). When they are done, they will be super soft inside :3 Make sure to keep them in a Tupperware if you like soft spongy cookies (like me) or leave them in open air for drier ones! 

Overall, this recipe was super easy and the outcome was amazing! It's perfect for a little snack with your family during this time of the year or to leave them next to the xmas tree with a glass of milk for Santa! :D I also gave some to my dad as an afternoon snack at work as it can be easily be put into a box or even wrap it with aluminium foil. 

Recette en Francais ici! http://gateau.com/cookies-facile-et-rapide.htm

Madeleines

They reminded me of a submarine when I was small :P

Madeleines, are small vanilla flavored French cakes. They are very easy to make and very tasty. The shape of these small cakes are very crucial to their identification. They look a little bit like sea shells. The mold you should use for this recipe resemble like this:

One important thing for this recipe is to have the appropriate mould. I’m sure you could make them in a non madeleine shaped one but I feel like it would lose something and they wouldn't be madeleines anymore :P Up to you to try though! 

My mum used to make them for me as an afternoon snack for when I came back from school. I remember drowning them into my chocolate milk until no more bubbles would appear on the surface (yes I was an evil child). 
They are simple to make (20min preparation and cooking time) and delicious to eat so I decided I would try making them myself with my mama’s recipe.

Here is my mum's recipe! :)

Ingredients for 8 madeleines:

•          1 egg
•          40 g sugar
•          60 g flour
•          30 g of butter
•          1 pinch of salt
•          1 pinch of baking powder
•           Few drops of vanilla extract

 Preparation:

1. Preheat the over at 200-210 degrees
2. Beat the egg with the sugar
3. Add a pinch of salt and a few drops of vanilla extract
4. Add flour and mix
5. Add the melted butter and mix until you get a homogenous paste
6. Fill the moulds and immediately bake it in the oven for 10 min!

What my mum told me to do is use the back the spoon to make sure that the mixture is filling the molds so you get a nice madeleine shape J  

Make sure your little madeleines tan a lot and become golden brown! The first time I made them I didn't bake them enough and they looked rather pale and unhealthy :( 

Personally, I think the madeleines are best when they are fresh out of the oven. The smell of warm madeleines is just amazing and they feel extra soft! *drool*

フワフワ！so sooooft!

I used salted butter when I made them the first time and you could feel bits of salt in them. In case you don't like the savory-sweet mix, you can use regular unsalted butter as well :)

The preparation time is so short that it is also perfect to make them when you have unexpected guests and no snacks to offer!

This is how they look like underneath! 

Recipe also available in french and spanish! :)

Recette pour environ 8 Madeleines

Ingrédients:

• 1 oeuf
• 40 gr de sucre
• 60gr de farine
• 30gr de beurre
• 1 pincée de sel
• 1 pincée de levure
• quelques gouttes de vanille

Préparation:

1. Préchauffer le four a 200-210C.
2. Battre l’oeuf avec le sucre
3. Ajouter le sel et les goutes de vanille
4. Verser la farine et mélanger
5. Ajouter le beurre ramolli
6. Remplir les moules et faire cuire immédiatement pendant 10 min

A déguster tiède ;)

Receta para 8 madeleines:

Ingredientes:

• 1 huevo
• 40 g de azúcar
• 60g de harina
• 30g de manteca
• sal
• algunas gotas de vainilla

Preparación:

1. Calentar el horno a 200-210 grados
2. Mezclar el huevo con el azúcar
3. Agregar la sal y la vainilla
4. Agregar la harina y mezclar bien hasta obtener una mezcla homogénea
5. Agregar la manteca ablandada
6. Llenar los moldes y meterlos en el horno inmediatamente durante 10 minutos.

Para que tengan una linda forma de madeleines, se puede usar una cuchara para llenar el molde.

A disfrutar cuando todavía están calentitos y/o con un vaso de leche!