the Speculoos stars - Post aus meiner Küche

Good morning dear readers, This week I took part for the third time in the German food swapping project, Post aus meiner Küche (mail from my kitchen) initiated by my fellow bloggers Clara, Jeanny and Rike. The theme this time was Christmas, and I must say it was a bit tricky for me. The concept of Post aus meiner Küche is that you cook or bake something in your kitchen, and send it by mail to your randomly picked swapping-partner.

In France, we don't have this tradition of baking small biscuits (Plätzchen) before Christmas, so I hope my wonderful partner in crime, the lovely Sabine from the blog azurweiss will forgive me for having only sent some simple home-made speculoos. I received on Wednesday an incredible delivery from the south of Germany: what was in the box can be seen here. I hope the star-shaped biscuits tasted good. I had the idea of making them after our trip to Belgium in October. They don't really look the same as the ones you find in France and Belgium because you have to use "Vergeoise" which is a very dark brown sugar that you find in the north of France and in Belgium, and it gives the biscuits a very dark golden colour.

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Receipe for the Speculoos dough:

for 40 to 50 pieces - preparation : 10 minutes

500g flour 180 g salted butter 300 g brown sugar (Vergoise) 1 egg 1 teaspoon yeast 2 g of salt 8 cl milk 2 soup spoons of speculoos spices

Preparation:

Mix the flour, brown sugar, spices, yeast and salt in a bowl. Add the egg and the (not cold) butter cut into small pieces. Mix the ingredients together gently. Start to add, bit by bit, the milk and continue mixing until a consistent dough is formed. Wrap in cling film and place in the fridge for at least two hours.

Remove the dough from the fridge and leave for one hour. Pre-heat the oven to 170 degrees Celsius. Flour the work surface. Use a rolling pin to achieve flat dough around 3-4 mm in height. Cut into shapes using your form of choice. Place on baking paper on a baking tray and place in the preheated oven for around 15 minutes. Ensure that the speculoos are golden before taking out of the oven.

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I wish you a nice Sunday afternoon.

xxx

Elodie

cone pine candle-light holder from the shop Nordlys in Hamburg (I don't remember the brand) wooden candle-light holder - Frau Sieben (soon available in the online shop), black plate - Habitat, little vase from Miss étoile, from the shop Rubios in Hamburg

Let's picnic

This week, I took part in the third round of "Post aus meiner Küche": The food swap project organised by Clara, Jeanny and Rike.The motto of the last edition was Very Berry, and you can read my post here. This time the motto was "Let's picnic". I find it pretty inspiring: the last picnic of the season on the biggest virtual blanket. I decided to go French and do some madeleines (sweet and savory) & meringues (for the first time in my life! - usually my mum is the meringue queen.).So here are a couple of pictures of the little picnic basket, I put together for Sophia from Munich. I am looking forward to receiving post from Munich!

THE SAVORY MADELEINES IN THE BENTO BAG: 

I thought that the madeleines wouldn't look nice in a simple tupperware, so I decided to sew them a little Japanese bento bag - a bento is a Japanese lunch box. As I used some Swedish fabric from Lotta Jansdotter and some british fabric from Liberty of London, I call it my Scandinavian - British - Japanese creation.

THE SWEET BLUEBERRY MADELEINES:

THE MERINGUES:

THE PACKAGING:

very berry - part 3

Hello, it's me again. So after a very nice afternoon spent on the Hamburg lake, here is my third post - as promised, with some pictures of the lovely present I got from Lübeck as part of the "Post aus meiner Küche" exchange. I was very lucky to have such a great partner - she did an excellent job - a cookie trilogy, and I had some raspberry cakes on the boat this afternoon! I can't wait for the strawberry and cranberry cookies. I also got a very pretty handmade bracelet. Thank you so much Sandra! ★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★

Bonjour, c'est encore moi. Après une excellente après-midi passé en bateau sur le lac, voici mon troisième post - comme promis, avec quelques photos du ravissant paquet que j'ai reçu de ma partenaire de Lübeck dans le cadre de "Post aus meiner Küche". J'ai eu beaucoup de chance d'avoir une aussi bonne partenaire - elle a fait un super boulot, une trilogie de cookies, et j'ai même mangé des biscuits à la framboise sur le bateau cet après-midi! Je suis très impatiente d'essayer les cookies à la fraise et aux cranberries. Sandra m'a aussi envoyé une super joli bracelet fait main. Merci Sandra

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very berry - part 2

So there you go: here comes part 2 of my "very berry" adventure. Here are some more photos of the lollipops as well as the recipe. I've always loved sweets, so this was the occasion for me to try making my own - and it was very much fun. The day my package arrived in Lübeck, I received mine from Sandra - and it was really really cool! Unfortunately I had to go to work, before I could try everything. I just had time to open the box, inspect it together with my little assistant Cheddar and see the beautiful hand-written recipe booklet. I will post some pictures of Sandra's present in my next post. ★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★

Alors voilà: mon deuxième post de mon aventure "very berry". voici quelques photos de mes sucettes à la fraise ainsi que la recette. J'ai toujours adoré les bonbons, alors c'était l'occasion d'essayer de les faire moi-même. Le jour où mon paquet est arrivé à Lübeck, j'ai reçu celui de Sandra - et c´était une super surprise! Malheureusement, j'ai du partir au boulot, avant d'avoir le temps de tout essayer. J'ai juste eu le temps d'ouvrir la boite, que nous avons inspecté avec mon petit assistant, Cheddar et de découvrir le jolie petit livre de recettes écrites à la main. Je vais poster des photos du paquet de Sandra dans mon prochain post. 

 

very berry - part 1

I alrealdy talked in my previous post, about "Post aus meiner Küche" (mail from my kitchen), this brilliant initiative from three German bloggers to bring a bit of reality in this wonderful digital word, make new friends and exchange delicious treats.Those lollipops were my presents for my sweet pen friend from Lübeck. I will post the recipe and some more info this week end. So please stay tuned...

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J'ai déjà parlé dans mon précédent post de l'initiative "Post aus meiner Küche" (du courrier de ma cuisine), cette super idée de trois blogueuses allemandes qui permet d'amener un peu de réalité dans notre merveilleux monde digital, de faire de nouveaux amis and d'échanger des bonnes choses et des bonnes recettes. Ces sucettes étaient mon cadeau pour ma correspondante de Lübeck. Je vais poster la recette ainsi que quelques autre photos un peu plus tard ce week-end.