Speculoos chocolate brownies

Speculoos (cookie butter) spread is one of my favourite sweet spreads, my obsession started when I first tasted Trader Joe’s Speculoos spread, thankfully Aldi occasionally sells their version of the Speculoos so I can get my fix.   

I needed to bake something for my work colleague’s farewell morning tea and for one of the first times ever I did not feel like baking, I decided to make Speculoos chocolate brownies. 

I really love the chocolate brownies recipe that I found online, it is such a easy recipe and so versatile. To make these brownies, I ended up adding a few teaspoons of slightly melted Speculoos spread and then swirling it into the brownie mixture. The combination looked so sexy.

Twenty minutes later and I was in awe at how delicious the brownies smelt and how great they looked. I impatiently waited for the brownies to cool down and then I cut them, the oozing cookie butter out of the chocolate brownies just looked so drool worthy.

Oozy goodness

The combination of the Speculoos spread and moist chocolate brownies worked really well, they really complimented each other. So damn tasty.

Thankfully my friend loved them too. 

Lucky for me I have three jars of Speculoos to use, I can foresee that a lot more Speculoos chocolate brownies will be made soon.

Links:

Chocolate brownies
I used Speculoos spread from Aldi.

Poetry’s Almond Buttercrunch Toffee

Today I decided to be brave and go to the Aroma Festival, the last time I went it was SO crowded and I swore that I would never go ever again, but today I did and I survived. 

At the Aroma Festival I discovered many new things to get addicted to, one thing that really got my taste buds racing was Poetry’s Almond Buttercrunch Toffee, when I first saw them, I thought “blah blah toffee” , but then I had a taste of the sample available and I was blown away! Poetry’s Almond Buttercrunch Toffee tasted just like Almond Roca, but not as sweet and a whole lot tastier. 

Poetry’s Almond Buttercrunch Toffee comes in two flavours milk chocolate and dark chocolate, the man working at the stall also said the toffee is hand made. I ended up buying 4 boxes because I just had to and I doubt I have time to drive to Collaroy Plateau to visit their shop.

Boxes and boxes of deliciousness

The best thing about Poetry’s Almond Buttercrunch Toffee was that the toffee was more like toffee shards rather than Almond Roca’s which is thicker and hard to bite into or as my mum said “teeth breakers”(Total over reaction haha). But seriously, you can totally taste the difference, the ingredients used to make these beauties are quality ingredients such as Belgian chocolate. 

The Almond Buttercrunch Toffee tastes so buttery, nice and crunchy, not sickly sweet, the slight addition of the chocolate and flaked almonds makes it so delicious and addictive, I had to stop myself from eating the whole packet.

So delicious

I will be quite surprised if my 4 boxes will last that long in my household, the toffee just tastes so good and too good to share! 

For more information regarding Poetry’s Almond Buttercrunch Toffee visit their Facebook page Poetry Fine Foods 

Malteaser Teasers ice cream

Just a quick post to say that I love Malteaser Teasers ice cream, what’s not to love about having crunchy mini malteasers pieces in creamy vanilla ice cream? 

Hello lovelies

I am eating one right now

I first discovered this ice cream at Woolies and since then I’ve become sooooo addicted. Coles now sells this ice cream too. 

What I love the most about the ice cream is the simplicity of it, no fancy flavours or fancy fillings, just simply damn delicious ice cream that isn’t too sweet.

I want to eat the whole box!!!! 

Malteaser Teasers ice cream is available at most major supermarkets. 

Uncle Tetsu’s Cheesecake

Cheesecake is definitely one of my favourite cakes to eat, so when I heard that Uncle Tetsu’s Shop selling their famous Japanese cheesecake was opening up in Sydney CBD, I was so happy.

I will confess that I must have walked past the shop several times waiting for it to open and when it finally opened this week, I was so excited.

I managed to find time to line up for the cheesecake today, I waited 30 minutes in line, which was actually a lot less than I had imagined, considering I have heard that some people have lined up for one hour. Thank goodness I had Pokemon Go! to entertain me lol.

That long queue

Whilst waiting in line I found that it was really fascinating watching the workers work through the windows.

Check out that butter for the Japanese cupcakes!

Making those cupcakes

When I finally made it to the front of line I was so excited, I decided to just buy one cheesecake, despite being tempted by the cupcakes. 

The menu

The bags

The cheesecake production line

The cheesecake took a short time for it to be prepared, in the mean time I was just inhaling the mouthwatering smell of freshly baked cheesecake.

My cheesecake was ready and packed to go! 

All packed.. yay

The cheesecake is still warm

As soon as I got to the office all my work colleagues gathered around to check out what the cheesecake looked like, unfortunately when I opened the cake box, the cheesecake was cracked.

My cheesecake is cracked

I gently cut slices of cheesecake for everyone to try.

Uncle Tetsu’s cheesecake is unlike your usual dense cheesecake, the cheesecake is really light and fluffy, it almost has the same texture as a soufflé. The cheesecake was so soft and not too cheesy. The cheesecake had quite a prominent eggy taste. I have to say that I am unfortunately not in love with this cheesecake, it is some what tasty but I prefer cheesecakes that are more dense. I guess everyone has different preferences for what sort of cheesecake texture that they prefer. My work colleagues felt the same way.

Light and fluffy

I cannot say that I would like to eat this cheesecake again, but I would like to try their other baked goods soon.

FYI..  Uncle Tetsu’s Shop only accepts cash, you can only purchase one cheesecake per a person and expect to queue up for 30 minutes or more.

Uncle Tetsu’s Shop is located at: 

501 George Street. 

Website:

Uncle Tetsu’s Shop

The easiest cupcake recipe EVER!!!

Lazy me was searching for the easiest cupcake recipe so I could use up my soon to expire sour cream, I stumbled upon a recipe that was called “the world’s fastest chocolate cake..” and without reading any further, I was sold.

When I read the recipe, I was quite sceptical because the recipe just seemed too easy and I was suspicious because it didn’t require any butter, but alas I gave it a go.

The cake batter was made so easily and fast, it was simply put all the measured ingredients into a bowl and then mix, way too easy! I ended up using the batter to make cupcakes, this meant baking the cupcakes at around 162 degrees celsius for around 20 minutes in my fan forced oven. 

When the cupcakes cooled down, I tasted one and I was super impressed! The cupcakes were so chocolately and so moist, I honestly cannot remember eating a chocolate cupcake this moist in a long time. I couldn’t believe how such an easy recipe could turn out so well.

I ended up making some chocolate buttercream icing to pipe on the cupcakes.

So delicious and chocolately

I have been telling all my beginner baking friends about this recipe, because it is just SO easy! 

This easy recipe can be found on this website:

Easy chocolate sour cream cupcakes

Super crispy potato scallops

I thought that I’d take a break from the usual sweets post by writing about one of my favourite things to eat and probably one of the very few savoury things I can cook.. Potato scallops!

Gosh I love potato scallops, I could eat them all day and everyday. I used to always get them from a local take away shop, until one day I had a huge craving for some, so I decided to look up a recipe. 

Making potato scallops was the easiest thing to do, it was in fact so easy that I wondered why I never tried to make them before. For the recipe that I found, I made a few tweaks, for example I only used flour, water and pepper and I didn’t add the salt. I also used my deep fryer filled with rice bran oil, I thought this was the safest option for me.

The potato scallops took only a few minutes to cook and when they were ready I placed them on a paper towel to drain, I then sprinkled them with chicken salt. 

Check out the crispy golden brown batter!!! 

The potato scallops tasted amazing, I actually thought that they tasted better than the ones at the take away shop. The golden brown batter was just so crunchy and divine and the potato was cooked just right. Sooo dangerously tasty! 

The worst thing about knowing how to make these is the fact that I’d be so tempted to make them all the time. 

Gosh, someone stop me! 

The potato scallop recipe can be found on this website: 

Stay at home mum’s potato scallops recipe

The Tea Cosy

I have finally found the best scones in Sydney.. Yes you read this right! 

For quite a while now I have been trying to find the perfect scones and every time I tried one, they were either dry or bland. My friend suggested I make a visit to The Tea Cosy to try their awesome scones.

I ended up going to The Tea Cosy on one of the coldest days in Sydney, which probably wasn’t the brightest idea, but it did mean that they were not crazy busy. I took my American friends with me because they wanted to see what a scone tastes like.

From the outside, The Tea Cosy looked really small but when you enter the premises, you can actually see the lovely courtyard and indoor areas. The atmosphere was so lovely and sweet that felt like I was at my grandmother’s house.

So lovely

The huge selection of jams

The teapots are beautiful.

The knitting yarn

The baking schedule

As soon as we sat down we were given the menu and of course we decided to order the scones, I ordered all plain scones except for one cheese scone for my son. I also ordered a variety of jams including strawberry and vanilla and fig and ginger.

We also ordered English breakfast and other varieties of tea as well.

The menu

choose your flavour of scone

When the scones and tea arrived on our table, we were just so excited. 

Our order of scones and tea

Yummy scone

We all agreed that the scones tasted really amazing, the scones were still warm and so fluffy and you could really taste that they were recently freshly baked. These scones were definitely the best that I have ever eaten. Yay!

The tea that we drunk was really nice too, good to see them using tea leaves.

 I am really so happy that I’ve finally found the perfect scones, I will definitely come back to try the other flavours of scones soon. 

The Tea Cosy is located at:

33 George Street, The Rocks.

Website:

The Tea Cosy

36 hour chocolate chip cookies from Made by MakMak

After seeing these amazing looking cookies on the Internet, I decided to head down to Made by MakMak to try the 36-hour chocolate chip cookies. 

Made by MakMak’s 36-hour chocolate chip cookies are made with such love, the dough’s dry ingredients are aged for 36 hours so that the ingredients maintain lots flavour and chewy texture when baked. (Read more about it on their website)

When I arrived at Made by MakMak I was so excited that they had some cookies in stock, because when I went the day before they had just sold out. 

The sign

Urgh excuse the dodgy photo, I had my hands full

Those chocolate chip cookies ..

I ended up buying 6 cookies because I wanted to share them with my friends. I also had my eye on the macarons but I decided to just stick to buying the cookies.

My friend and I decided to eat one of the cookies as soon as we left the building. From first bite we were overwhelmed at how much delicious good quality chocolate was in the cookie, the addition of the flaky sea salt on top of the cookie gave the cookie a delicious sweet and salty sensation that worked really well and the cookie itself had a lovely chewy texture. The cookies were so delicious that I found it really hard to share them with my friends. 

All that chocolate

I have to say that my friends and I were so impressed with these 36 hour chocolate chip cookies and we have declared it as one of the best chocolate chip cookies that we have ever eaten. 

My friends have already ordered that I make another visit to buy more of these delicious cookies. I personally want to try their macarons and other cookies.

Dessert addicts anonymous cookies rating: 9.5/10

Made by MakMak is located at: 

Shop 1/281 Clarence Street Sydney.

MakMak website: 

MakMak

Whisk and Pin

Today to start my journey to find the perfect cookie/biscuit, I took a drive up to Katoomba to visit Whisk and Pin. Whisk and Pin makes cookies, muesli, chocolate such as rocky road and dried fruit. 

Going to Katoomba today probably wasn’t the brightest idea because it is was 9 degrees celsius when we were there and I was only wearing a dress and a light cardigan. Brrrr..

The entrance to Whisk and Pin is technically located on Kanimbla Street (West) and not quite on Wilson Street (as per their address online), I initially thought I was lost when Google Maps said I had arrived at my destination and all I saw was grass and Anytime Fitness.

The entrance

When I walked inside their showroom I was in awe at the stuff that they sold, there was a lot of temptation. I naturally walked straight over to the cookies.

Look at all of those cookies!

There were a large range of cookies available for purchase, there were smaller bite size cookies or bigger cafe individual sized cookies, these flavours included Chocolate Chip, Honey, Banana and Macadamia and there were so many more.

I ended up purchasing a bulk box of 12 of the bigger sized cookies for $35 which worked out cheaper than buying them individually at $4 each. I was so tempted to buy more, but I decided to behave myself. 

My delicious purchase

The guy working at the showroom told me that Whisk and Pin only use the finest quality ingredients and the cookies are also hand made, this is really a good thing to know considering so much cost cutting goes into making food these days.

When I got home I made a cup of tea and opened up a packet of one of the cookies, my first reaction was wow, I was very surprised by the large chunk of Belgian chocolate in the cookie. The cookie tasted very nice, the cookie was crunchy on the outside but chewy on the inside. The Belgian chocolate was deliciously indulgent and just melted in my mouth. I also didn’t find the biscuit to taste too sweet which was a huge plus. 

Look at those huge chocolate chunks!!!

I decided to read the ingredients on the back of the cookie and all the ingredients that were listed consisted of no artificial ingredients. The ingredients that caught my eye were the use of free range eggs, Belgian dark chocolate and there was even rolled oats in my cookie (I didn’t even taste oats in my cookie). 

I am so impressed that I’ll be definitely revisiting one day soon to try more from their cookie range. 

I definitely think that my journey to find the best cookie/biscuit has started off really well, Whisk and Pin’s cookies have set a really high standard.

Dessert addicts anonymous cookie rating: 9/10

Whisk and Pin is located at:

Unit 2, 44 Wilson Street Katoomba 

Website:

Whisk and Pin
Note:

Whisk and Pin cookies can be purchased from selected supermarkets and grocers, but I wanted to visit the showroom.

Dessert addict seeks cookie perfection

One of my favourite things to do on a daily basis is to have a cup of strong tea and a biscuit or cookie, lately I have found that finding one that tastes amazing is really hard, I really do not think supermarket biscuits or cookies taste as good anymore. So because of this, I am on a mission to find the perfect cookie/biscuit. 

I shall be reviewing the great cookies/biscuits that I have found very soon, watch this space!