Tea shortbread covered in blueberry chocolate

I remember the taste of my step-mother's shortbread covered in Easter egg dark chocolate (that year we won a huge Easter egg, that huge that we made chocolate covered cookies for a very long period - not complaining, really) like it was yesterday, though I was probably not older than 13!

When a parcel filled with various flavours of Lindt Excellence Chocolate Bars (I bet you all have already spotted their extremely delicious dark chocolate line, right?!) knocked at my door last week, all I could think of were those shortbread cookies I used to eat from Easter to summertime when I was younger. I couldn't resist and made a slightly more creative version, and quite a summer-y one too, inspired by the blueberry chocolate that was loudly calling my name ever since.

These cookies went down a treat and in less than 24h they were all gone. That's how good they were! I've used the classical english breakfast tea that I love if paired with lemon, which is such a good fresh fit for the blueberry flavour of the chocolate - but you can really experiment with different flavours of chocolate and tea with these!

Ingredients for 12 cookies
150g white flour ; 80g white sugar ; 2 egg yolks ; juice of 1 lemon ; 90ml seed oil ; 1 English Breakfast tea bag ; 100g Lindt Excellence Dark Blueberry Intense ; 3 tsp butter.

1 :: Preheat the oven to 170°C. In a food processor blend together flour, sugar, egg yolks and seed oil until nicely combined.

2 :: Squeeze one big lemon (taking care of eliminate the seeds if necessary) and add the juice to the other ingredients while still blending. Cut open the tea bag and add the content to the other ingredients too. Blend well.

3 :: The ingredients should start to come together into a nice dough by this time. If yours is too dry, add a tiny bit of seed oil and blend well. Use your hands to shape a ball of dough and leave it rest of a couple of minutes.

4 :: Place the dough between two foils of parchment paper, then roll it out with a rolling pin until 1cm thick. Avoid to make it too thin or your cookies will be too dry when baked, also try to make them all the same thickness or some will cook more than others.

5 :: Remove the top foil of parchment paper and use a cookie cutter to cut your cookies out of your dough. Place the cookies onto a baking tin lined with parchment paper (it's not important to place them far apart from the other, as they won't spread out). You'll might need to roll the dough out a few times to cut more cookies out of it!

6 :: Bake the cookies for 15 minutes - do not overcook. They must be crunchy but also almost buttery soft, so you don't want to go for more than 15 minutes for them.

7 :: It's important at this stage that you remove your cookies from the oven and let them chill for 30/40 minutes until they've completely cooled down. Then you can go on and melt the chocolate in the microwaves together with 3 tbsp of butter. Make sure you don't burn it and give it a stir or two in the middle of the process until you are left with a very liquid mixture.

8 :: Dip the cookies into the melted chocolate to cover half of them with it. Use a spoon to help you add sprinkles of almond and blueberry from the chocolate mixture. Place the cookies onto parchment paper and let them cool down for a couple of minutes before putting the tin in the fridge for an hour or two.

9 :: Store the cookies in the fridge (especially now that it's starting to be warmer, they will melt if not in the fridge) and enjoy the fresh and fruity combination of flavours with your afternoon tea or just by themselves!

{ Enjoy! }

This is quite of a different recipe, but I love it and hope you'll like it as well! Let me know if you give it a try! x

Two ways to use up your Easter chocolate

Best thing about Easter? All the chocolate you're left with the days (and sometimes even months) after. Between chocolate eggs and the huge amount of chocolate bunnies Lindt spoilt me with this year I have a feeling that, for the first time in my entire life, finishing up my chocolate will be quite a hard work. Not sure anyone else is in my same position (as I've never thought using up my chocolate to be the problem) but when chocolate is around, I have two go-to recipes to finish it up, both very chocolate-y and indulgent and which are perfect ways to make use of your Easter eggs in a little different way than snacking on them when you're hungry or craving sweetness (which is an incredibly decent way of making use of them btw).

On a different note, does using healthy-ish ingredients make a cookie full of chocolate-y gooeyness healthy? Surely it does, right?

Double Chocolate Gooey Cookies.

Makes 6 | Ingredients:
100ml seed oil
1 egg
90g coconut sugar
25g cocoa powder
100g white flour
40g whole wheat flour
1 tsp baking powder
A lot of Easter chocolate (I used one of my Lindt Dark Gold Bunnies and some milk chocolate eggs)

1 :: Preheat the oven to 200°C.

2 :: In a stand mixer, blend the seed oil with the coconut sugar until well incorporated. Then add the egg and whisk well again.

3 :: Stir together all the dry ingredients in a large bowl, then start to gradually add them to the wet ingredients while the stand mixer is slowly whisking and blending them together. At the end you'll be left with a very thick cookie dough (if it's not thick enough to form a solid ball, then add some flour).

4 :: Chop the dark chocolate in little cubes and add them to the cookie dough and stir it with a wooden spoon to help the dark chocolate go everywhere in the dough.

5 :: Line a baking tin with parchment paper, then start shaping medium balls out of your cookie dough. You should get 6 cookies out of these doses. Place the cookies on the baking tin far apart from each others and flat the balls out a bit with the palm of your hand.

6 :: Chop the milk chocolate (I cutted my chocolate eggs in halves) and place some cubes in the middle of each cookie, pushing them down a bit to create a melted heart.

7 :: Bake in the oven for no longer than 10/12 minutes. Then remove from the oven and let them cool down almost completely (10/15 minutes) so that they can set but still be deliciously gooey. Serve warm-ish for a mealted heart!

White chocolate morning pancakes.
Original recipe from Minimalist Baker - adapted and edited by me.

Serves 2 | Ingredients:
1/4 cup whole wheat flour
1/4 cup white flour
2 tbsp coconut sugar
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 cup almond or soy milk
1 tsp coconut oil
100g white chocolate (I used my Lindt white chocolate bunny!)

Coconut oil to pan-fry
Strawberries to serve

1 :: In a medium bowl stir together the flours, coconut sugar and baking powder, then add the milk and stir well.

2 :: Chop 50g of white chocolate in a little microwave-safe bowl, add a teaspoon of coconut oil and melt them into the microwave for a couple of minutes until creamy.

3 :: Add the melted white chocolate to the pancake mixture and stir well, then chop the rest of the chocolate into tiny cubes and add them to the mixture.

4 :: Melt 1/2 tsp of coconut oil in a small pan onto a low heat. Place two tablespoons of pancake mixture in the middle of the pan and pan-fry your pancake on both sides.

5 :: Serve with your favourite syrup on top or some chopped fresh strawberries to taste!

{ Enjoy! }

***

Both of these recipes are super indulgent and delicious, but to balance out the fact I did put way too much chocolate in them, I tried to use as many healthy ingredients as possible for the rest of them, so hopefully they won't hurt too much on your diets!

Did you spend a lovely Easter weekend? Any chocolate-y recipes I should totally try? As usual let me know if you give this recipe a try! x

Easter Postcards

Happy Easter!

A little postcards post from our little family to all yours - we really need to start a family tradition and do these for every festivity! We hope you all can have a joyful Easter jam-packed of chocolate eggs, fluffy bunnies, walks and smiles.

* Gold Bunnies ℅ Lindt (check out their limited edition Fashion Bunny!) - real bunny not included! ;) 

Easter Pastels

Springtime is by far my favourite time of the year (did you guess it already?!) and Easter is my favourite holiday second only to Christmas and no doubts a huge part of the deal is due to the amount of beautiful flowers you can spot everywhere while walking along a street, the amazing view of trees covered in pink blossoms, the huge amount of bunny and Easter themed cards and objects you can spot in stores around this time of the year, all of which makes for the perfect excuse to wear, buy and cover myself in pastel coloured things, clothes, foods and nail varnishes! No real need to wonder if pastels really do bring you in a happy, relaxed, inspired, calm, content and joyful mood!

I've been buying a few too many pastel objects recently, but some are actually been dusted off from the previous years, and there hasn't been a thing that made me in a happier mood than finding and falling back in love with pink hair bows, lipsticks and measuring cups and blue washi tape, paper straws and tea scented erasers! I couldn't help but display them all in a cute flat lay and snapping away with the help of some Lindt Gold Bunnies (old Easter favourites of all time indeed - I can remember being a child and getting overly excited about my milk chocolate Gold Bunny at this time of the year every years!). Hope these shots can bring a bit of colour and happiness to your mornings (or evenings!) too!

{ Links }

Gold Bunnies & all the chocolate ℅ Lindt

Paper Straws - Similar

Washi Tape - Tiger

Tea Scented Erasers - Kikkerland

Spot Triangle Bra - ASOS (Similar)

Pink Hair Bow - Similar

Lipstick - Pret-A-Porter by Paul and Joe

Measuring Cups - Tiger

Shampoo Bar - Lush
Ceramic Bowl - Similar

Lip Balm ℅ Sweet Cecily's

3 Different Valentine's Day Date Ideas.

For years I haven't been a fan of Valentine's Day and thought it was such an overrated and commercial date, not to mention how sad it is to spend it alone if you don't have an actual partner! This until a pair of years ago, when I realized Valentine's Day might be superficial and a huge part of consumerism nowadays, but it has quite a lovely concept at its roots, love, that is something really worth to be celebrated. Forget V-Day gifts, cards and all the commerce behind it, you don't really need anything to celebrate love on its day (even though I've loudly requested tulips this year), and yes, true, everyday is the day to be enthusiastic about love in its every shape, but it's just nice to have a specific date when to stop and think about who you care and what caring means to you!

We take V-Day quite easy and casual, don't ever do anything too fancy - because where's it written that you need to do so?! We like to celebrate the fact of being a couple and loving each other in the simplest ways - in fact we actually never really plan anything at all besides from being together! And since you don't really need to have a partner to love someone, just think about spending your V-Day with your friends and/or family and do something nice with/for them instead! We thought to list down a few ideas to spend a different, simple, casual Valentine's Day date, whether it's romantic or not!

Bake together.
If there's a thing I adore is baking treats for ones I love, even better if I can bake together with my better half! I'm such a perfectionist at baking and get stressed out quite often if things don't turn out as they are supposed to, so I can be a bit of a pain to bake with, but sometimes it's nice to relax and bake comfy and trusted recipes just for the sake of being together and do something fun together! But yes, I usually supervise the work. We're quite the fans of cozy dates (the most adventurous are ones at the cinema; wild!) so you can say staying at home, enjoying the sofa and maybe baking something together or preparing dinner side by side and then devour it all is definitely our date of choice.

{ Click here to check out the recipe of the chocolate + strawberry cupcakes in the pictures! }

* He's wearing :: top ; jeans ; shoes *

* I'm wearing :: dress ; shoes *

Din din! Go for a bike ride!
Feeling adventurous?! Dust off your pretty bicycles and go for a healthy ride in the green! Where I live there's a nice road next to the river and the fields where to go for a good old bike ride. It was something I did pretty often years ago and that I'd love to do in a pair! I can't really wait for the days to be a little bit warmer and dust off the bicycles for real - but at this very moment it's freezing here in Italy and we can't really be bothered to go outside in pretty dresses and thin layers to face the wind. But if you live in warmer conditions, you might want to consider a bike-ride-date on V-Day; maybe fill those bicycles baskets with picnic friendly food and stop by a pretty park where to lay down and have a romantic lunch outside!

Stay cozy + share the chocolate!
Valentine's Day might be the most commercial date of the whole year, but if that means plenty of chocolate everywhere, I won't really complain! As I said we love cozy nights in dates and this is most probably what we're actually going to do this year on February 14th. We have gathered up a little too much chocolate and we really need to set a date for finishing it all up (nope, we don't...). If you don't want to surrender in front of consumerism, at least do yourself and your partner (or family/friends) a favour and indulge in this Lindt Master Chocolatier Collection Love Box* while you're enjoying the coziness of your sofa on V-Day - because everyone deserves chocolate, right?!

*

How are you planning to spend your Valentine's Day this year? Are you one for fancy dates or just simple, casual, cozy nights in with your loved one(s)? x

* A huge thank you to Lindt for spoiling us this year and for helping me rediscover the true essence of love - a crunchy toffee and hazelnut praline heart! ;)

Chocolate + Strawberry Valentine Cupcakes { with Lindt }

- 10 days to the big day! Have you got something exciting planned?! Either if you don't want to plan anything, you don't have someone to spend your Valentine's Day with, you have planned to organize a nice dinner for two or something special like a romantic picnic lunch, I've got something for you!

A pair of years ago I discovered this cupcake base recipe and decided this was *the one*. These chocolate cupcakes always have the best, thick, nice texture that pairs amazingly with any fluffy frosting or creamy heart you might want to experiment with. I developed the idea of using a truffle to obtain a creamy center a few years ago and since then I use and play with this recipe every year around Valentine's Day, and every year I try it with different truffles and flavours. I've tried almost every Ferrero offering, but I'd say Mon Cheri and Ferrero Rocher were the most appropriate and my favourites so far, until a box full of Lindt Valentine treats was left on my doorstep...

Lindt's romantic Valentine's Day inspired offering are revisited Lindor truffles made out of white chocolate and a cream + strawberry smooth melting filling. Can anything else be more appropriate for this time of the year? I admit I had a few difficulties to avoid that all the Strawberries & Cream Lindor Truffles were gone before I had the time to properly shoot this recipe, and that I had to hide them away from myself too, but in the end the result was amazing, the creamy strawberry heart paired deliciously with the chocolate cupcakes I love, and the strawberry flavoured frosting on top was the perfect addition to the couple... I might need to buy a decent pastry bag and maybe obtain actual aesthetically pleasing cupcakes next time, but they were good, let me tell you this!

Makes 6 cupcakes | Ingredients:
For the cupcakes:
85g white flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 tbsp cocoa powder
55g soften unsalted butter
55g white sugar
1 large egg
3 Strawberry & Cream Lindor Truffles

For the frosting:
125g unsalted butter
50g strawberries
70g white sugar

1 :: Preheat the oven to 190°C. Place six baking cups into a muffin tin.

2 :: Cut the cupcake butter into cubes and add it into a big mixing bowl together with the white sugar and beat with a spoon until soft and creamy.

3 :: Sift in the white flour and give it a nice stir, then add the cocoa powder, the baking powder and the egg and stir with a spoon until all the ingredients look nicely incorporated. You should get a thick and quite solid mixture. If it's too solid and you can't mix it with a spoon, add a splash of milk.

4 :: Place a tablespoon of cupcake mixture into every baking cup to create a base, then cut the Lindor truffles in half and place one half in every baking cup. Place another teaspoon (or a bit more) of cupcake mixture on top of the truffles to cover them up completely.

5 :: Place the tin in the oven for 20 minutes. The cupcakes will rise but still be quite thick and solid, and the truffle in the middle will melt to create a creamy heart. Once done, remove from the oven and set aside to cool completely or serve warm if you don't want to make the topping!

6 :: Meanwhile make the frosting: wash the strawberries and mince them in an electric mincer with a pair of teaspoons of water to create a liquid strawberry syrup. It will give the colour and the flavour to the frosting.

7 :: In a very large and deep bowl, cream the butter, sugar and strawberry syrup together using an electric beater until pale and fluffy.

8 :: Use a pastry bag to apply the buttercream on top of the cooled cupcakes.

{ Enjoy with your loved one(s)! }

... whether it's your family, your friends or your lover!

Don't forget to let me know if you try this recipe in the comments and tweet me a picture if you do! Also share your favourite Valentine's Day recipes! I'd love to know! x

In January I've Loved...

Whoa, wait, is it the last day of January already? It feels like 2015 has only started yesterday! January wasn't my favourite month, however I'm pleased to say I was able to try a lot of new things that obviously could make to my monthly favourites, and yes, this includes a lot of chocolate but also a few healthy choices that was an anchor to me for my January detox! If you'd like to read about what I was up to in January, simply check my January Highlights, otherwise let's just jump right into my most favourite things from the last 30 days...

LINDORS ℅ LINDT

FOOD

The most exciting highlight of the month was that day when the postman came and brought a huge box full of Lindt treats! Isn't it everyone's dream?! I've always been a fan of classic Lindor Milk Truffles* but I was so pleased to finally try the delicious and indulgent Lindor Strawberry & Cream Truffles*, that are just perfect for anything Valentine's Day related, including recipes, cozy nights in and moments of sweetness!

As for the healthier food choices, I'm quite enjoying the Clipper Green tea with Echinacea which is just my new favourite afternoon treat! Green tea is so good for our bodies but not the best flavour to me, but echinacea makes the whole thing a lot more interesting: it quite completely covers the flavour of green tea and make it tastes more citrusy and good! If you'd like to introduce green tea in your lifestyle but don't quite enjoy the original flavour, I can't suggest this Clipper offering enough..!

Lastly but not least on the food front is my new IKEA Produkt Milk-Frother: as you might remember I haven't had a milk frother anymore for a long time, then I spotted this so inexpensive IKEA utensil and I just thought to give it a try. It is so good and easy to obtain a perfect foam - yes, it's not velvety enough to experiment with latte art, but it's just good enough to get a very nice basic latte in no time at all!

MEMORIES

It's been a very long time since the last time we printed our pictures but it's always my favourite parcel to unwrap, so I ordered a few other prints from the last 6 months! I love going back to those memories once again just by browsing through a few pages of our photo album - it's just so nice to have your pictures printed instead of only digital files, you get the occasion of seeing and reliving those memories surely more often than you would if you don't ever print them!

STYLE

On the fashion front, I can't *not* mention my new Sugarhill Boutique Starstruck Glitter Skirt - it's just the cutest and most flattering skirt I own at the moment, needless to say I'm wearing it a lot. It's thick enough to wear it during this season, and obviously pairs amazingly with anything really. Something that has just joined my wardrobe recently is my new Sheinside Wine Red Sweater (similar) - I'm totally a fan of 2015 Pantone color of the year: marsala is definitely a colour I could wear all year around, but I realized I didn't own a lot of wine red clothes in my wardrobe, so this Sheinside sweater was the perfect addition!

BEAUTY

As I've already told you in one of my recent posts I'm trying to stick to only coconut oil to cleanse/moisturize my skin. I had very bad skin, so it's nice to go back to something organic and natural, and I'm quite surprised about how nicely my skin is reacting to it. It has only been a week or more, but so far I'm not going back to anything I was using before!

What's on your January favourites list? x