bounty chocolate: Donna Hay

Showing posts with label Donna Hay. Show all posts

Showing posts with label Donna Hay. Show all posts

Red velvet cookies and another German movie

I’ve been really into Europeans movies lately and, so far, I have seen really good films: after the Danish directors I went a little South and watched the excellent The Edukators (with the now Golden Globe nominee Daniel Brühl).

Since I’d already loved Soul Kitchen and The Wave I got into a German state of mind and decided to watch another movie from my grandmother’s home country, one that

Christmas rocky road + two out-of-this-world performances

Days ago, thanks to wonderful people who post movies on the Internet (thank you so much!), I could finally watch Behind the Candelabra and what an excellent movie it is: I expected something good because, well, it is a movie directed by Steven Soderbergh, but it turned out to be so much more than what I’d expected because of Michael Douglas and Matt Damon. I could never have thought Douglas

Cookies and cream blondies and a TV show to eat them with

A couple of days ago I finished watching Hannibal and found it pretty even: it was a very good show from start to finish and I hope the second season stays that way; Cynthia Nixon will be joining the cast and there are rumors of David Bowie playing Hannibal's uncle – I mean, how cool is that? :)

No spoilers here, everyone knows that Hannibal Lecter is a killer and eats his victims, and the

Blackberry and almond upside down cake + a memory from long ago

The first upside down cake I ever saw was a pineapple one made by Ofelia on TV – I believe it’s fair to say that she was be the Brazilian equivalent to Julia Child and I loved her cooking show when I was younger (11-12 years old, to be more precise). Back then, her show was aired weekday mornings, while I was at school, but my brother would tape it every day for me – you might think he did that

Raspberry jam rolls and "Hannibal"

After some thought, I decided to put Game of Thrones aside and go for something more interesting: between Bates Motel and Hannibal I ended up choosing the latter, Mads Mikkelsen and the comments left on my blog in Portuguese being the reasons. I’m halfway through the show and loving each and every minute of it: the dark atmosphere, the music, the writing and the great acting are amazingly

Double chocolate peanut butter cookies and being short

Back in my school days, I hated being short – I had all sorts of nicknames, and not many were cute as Smurfette (I believe that was the only one I liked). At 34 I no longer care and funnily enough I have developed a taste for mini food – humans are strange beings, I know. :D

A jar of peanut butter in the cupboard and a Donna Hay magazine with several pb recipes (which had already produced

Dark chocolate and raspberry brownie tarts

I love brownies and make them quite often, so when I saw these little beauties on one of my Donna Hay magazines I had to make them: raspberries are naturally tart and taste wonderful with chocolate, not to mention that the brownies looked adorable shaped as tartlets. The recipe is really easy to prepare and if you're having people over I am sure these tartlets would impress your guests; I also

Lamington bars - lamingtons for the lazy

People often tell me that they admire me for cooking and baking so frequently, and I reply that preparing food really makes me happy. However, I do have some lazy moments, too, of course, and these bars are proof: I’ve always wanted to make lamingtons but kept postponing it because the thought of baking the cake, cutting it into squares, dipping them in chocolate and rolling in coconut made me

Chocolate whisky cupcakes with peanut butter icing

Every time a new DH magazine issue arrives I go crazy with so many delicious recipes and it’s a tough task to choose which one to make first. This time, however, it was a bit easier: I decided I would only make something if I had all the ingredients home. Since I was out of cream cheese all the gorgeous cheesecakes would have to wait, that way I settled for these cupcakes: tender and deeply

Chicken, chorizo and lemon bake

When I was little, roast chicken was the Sunday lunch staple: the side dishes would change sometimes - potatoes, pasta, rice, salad - but the chicken was the king of the most important Sunday meal. My mom loved it, my granny loved and I did, too - still do. After my mom got sick my father would bring a rotisserie chicken for lunch, but it was good anyway. Those days were happy days - I miss

Cinnamon and cherry biscotti

The Christmas biscotti I made last year were so delicious I decided that this year I needed Christmas biscotti again, but to change things up a bit I used one of Donna Hay's wonderful recipes, mixing cinnamon and dried cherries. You might think that when it comes to biscotti I'm biased (and you're right), so I'll let two very talented ladies convince you that biscotti is a delicious treat - and

Gingerbread marshmallows

I’ve been baking lots of cookies lately – these books have been at my kitchen counter all the time – but I wanted something else for the people at work, something that to them would sound unusual. Marshmallows were the perfect choice: upon delivering some of the small plastic bags filled with the candy some of my coworkers were really intrigued by the idea of homemade marshmallows, and “did you

Mulled wine jelly and a giveaway

Christmas is coming and I have a gift for you, my dear readers: Zinio has given me 5 free magazine subscriptions to share with you! If you’re not familiar with Zinio, take a look at their website and you’ll see that there are hundreds of wonderful digital magazines for you to choose, including my favorites Donna Hay and Delicious Australia.

To enter the giveaway, just leave a comment on this

Snowy trees

I find decorated cookies very beautiful, but I confess I don’t have the skills or the patience to make them: I can’t pipe to save my own life and because of that I believe that it would take me hours to finish making one single cookie. :S That is why I loved this recipe found in one of my old issues of DH magazine: the cookies look adorable, taste great and one doesn’t have to be very dexterous

White chocolate cake with passion fruit icing

I know, I know, white chocolate and passion fruit combined again – since I had passion fruits galore in my fridge and the flavor combo had worked so beautifully in cheesecake form, I thought that using it again as a cake would be a great idea – and indeed it was; but don’t worry: if you’re not into sour flavors as I am, just glaze the cake with a simple dark chocolate ganache – that is what

Lemon cake with passion fruit syrup

I've admitted that this blog has had its share of lemon tarts and bars, so I won't even mention the massive amount of lemon cakes, right? :D
Lemon cakes are my favorite cakes, and I pretty much always have lemons around, therefore it's an easy choice for me. This time, however, I've more than satisfied my constant cravings for sour flavors by topping a lemon cake with a passion fruit syrup:

Lemon & honey Anzac tart

Lemon tarts – or lemon bars, for that matter – are not something exactly new on this blog, but since they’re among the most delicious desserts out there I never tire of baking them. When I saw the Australian Delicious lemon tart version with a crust made of Anzac cookies I had to bake it and I’m glad I did: the tart is wonderful and not difficult to make. I believe that store-bought ANZAC

Chocolate stout cake with peanut butter frosting

I've been trying to keep up with the inventory idea for the last year and it's worked out fine so far: the ingredients no longer end up in the garbage and that is great. From time to time I check the contents of my pantry/freezer/fridge to make sure nothing goes to waste and a couple of days ago I found a can of Guinness beer in the cupboard; while searching for something delicious to make with

Toffee-glazed white chocolate mud cakes

My vacation is over and tomorrow morning I'm back at work; I still have things to organize at home, therefore a quick post with an equally quick recipe (despite the steps), so delicious that will certainly put a smile on my face, even now that I no longer remember what it feels like waking up early. :D

Toffee-glazed white chocolate mud cakes
from the always delicious and oh, so beautiful Donna

Gingerbread, pear and almond tart

I got hypnotized by this tart when I first saw it on the DH mag – it looked so beautiful and delicious! My first thought was to make it at the end of the year and post the recipe as part of my Christmas series, but then I remembered that pears are at their peak now, and I had a small amount of marmalade in the fridge (left from a cake I’d made a couple of weeks before) that ended up being the