Hazelnut Spread

I love chocolate. And by saying so, I don’t mean “yeah, I like a small amount of 33% cocoa chocolate once in a while..” No no. I love dark chocolate, 70% or even more. It can be filled with the most amazing flavours like orange, mint, pecan nut, sea salt, ginger, lemon, rasberries, licorice or marzipan. The way it compliments coffee is just…incredible (I am also a huge coffee lover by the way).

Anyway, since I’m such a big chocolate lover I wanted to make my own hazelnut spread (aka nutella). Sure, it’s easier to just by it, but I looooove to do it myself! It’s something special by doing it yourself, you know what I mean? So, I decided to make hazelnut spread and I must say that it turned out delicious. This recipe made quite a lot though, so if you’re not planning to give away some you might want to halve the recipe.

I used the recipe from David Lebovitz
– 1/3 cup (40g) whole almonds
– 1 1/3 cup (160g) hazelnuts
– 1 3/4 cup (400g) whole milk (see Notes)
– 7/8 cup (60g) powdered whole milk
– 3 tablespoons (40g) mild-flavored honey
– Pinch of salt
– 6 ounces (170g) bittersweet or semisweet chocolate, chopped
– 5 ounces (140g) milk chocolate, chopped (use one that’s at least 30% cacao solids)

1. Spread the nuts on a baking sheet, keeping the almond separate, and toast the nuts in a 350ºF (180ºC) oven, stirring a few times, for 10 to 15 minutes, until the hazelnuts are browned.

2. While they are roasting, warm the whole milk and powdered milk in a small saucepan with the honey and salt just until it starts to boil. Remove from heat.

3. In a clean, dry bowl set over a pan of barely simmering water, or in a microwave oven, melt the chocolates together until smooth.

4. Once the nuts are well-toasted, remove them from oven and use a spatula to place the warm hazelnuts in a clean tea towel, then fold them inside the towel and rub them vigorously to remove any loose skins. They don’t need to be pristine; just try to get as much off as possible.

5. In a food processor, grind the warm hazelnuts and almonds until they’re as fine as possible. You may not be able to get them completely smooth, depending on your food processor.

6. Add the melted chocolate and continue to process the mixture.

7. Once the mixture is smooth, add the warm milk mixture and process until everything is well-combined.

(You can strain the mixture if you want it all smooth)

9. Transfer the mixture into two jars and refrigerate until ready to use.

Storage: The Chocolate-Hazelnut Paste will keep in the refrigerator for up to one week.

Salmon wrap

The benefit of making dinner at home is that I can decide what to eat. If we’re having something, well, lets say; not my favourite dish, I can easily say: Hey mom, I can make dinner today! Of course she won’t say no thanks to that. I really wanted to eat fish today, so I took a quick look in our fridge and the choice was simple: Salmon wrap. Though tortilla isn’t really something you “have on hand” and it is Sunday (the grocery stores in Norway are closed on Sundays), so I decided to make my own. It’s not really that difficult, the only tricky part is to roll the dough thin enough.

This healthy and delicious wrap contains grilled salmon bites, sour cream, homemade guacamole, cucumber, lettuce, sweet chilli sauce and toasted almonds. How is it possible to resist this….?

This recipe is enough for 4 people, two wraps for each.

Tortilla:

– Almost 2 cups flour (I used 50/50 wheat flour and whole wheat flour, but decide yourself how much you want of each. However, I would not recommend to only use the whole wheat flour, since you need the gluten to develope.)

– 1 1/2 teaspoon baking powder

– 1 teaspoon salt

– 2 teaspoons extra virgin olive oil

– 3/4 cup of hot water

Mix all ingrediens together and work the dough for a couple of minutes, developing the gluten. Let it rest for 20 minutes so the gluten can relax. Divide the dough into 8 pieces and roll them as thin as possible. Fry them in a dry frying pan at medium heat for approximately 2 minutes on each side.

Guacamole:

– 2 avocados

– 2 cloves of garlic

– 1 tomato

– Lime juice from 1/2 lime

– Tabasco

– Salt and pepper

Chop up the tomato into small pieces. Mix the rest together and have a taste. Does it need more lime juice? Is it spicy enough?

Salmon:

– 650 grams of salmon

– Spices of your taste (I used a mix of sesame seeds and chilli)

– Cut the salmon into small pices and fry them. I grilled mine, but it will taste amazing in a pan as well!

Other:

– Sour cream

– Sweet Chilli sauce

– Cucumber, chopped

– Toasted almonds

– Fresh lettuce

– Salt and pepper

ENJOY!

Rhubarb Pie

It’s something special about using vegetables and fruit you have grown yourself. The feeling when you walk outside with a knife and a basket, ready to harvest your homegrown rhubarb, in this case. I mean, it’s only May and the rhubarb is ready to be eaten, the chives are growing at full speed and our cherry tree has developed beautiful little flowers. In other words: I am enjoying this spring a lot.

I will post the recipe for this amazing pie very soon, so stay tuned!

Welcome!

Hello everyone out there! My name is Thea and have a big passion for baking. Therefore, I decided to create a blog where I share my favourite recipes, tempting pictures and once in a while I also create short films with food. I’m not really new to this blog thing. Actually, I’ve had over ten other blogs in the past! But I get bored and delete them. Anyways, I hope this blog will go on for ever and ever and ever. I also have a tumblr (food-plus-plus.tumblr.com), where I share pictures of the food I make. But now I want to write as well, not just share the pictures!

Okay, this intro was longer than I expected it to be. I hope this blog will give me great fun and I hope I can inspire whoever is out there!