Greek Yogurt Blueberry Cookies with a Zzzzing!

1 cup of granulated sugar
1 and 1/2 cup of Greek yogurt
1 egg beaten
2 cups of all-purpose flour
1 cup of fresh or frozen blueberries
1 tsp of vanilla essence
1 lemon, zested
1 tsp of fresh squeezed lemon juice
2 tsp of baking powder
1/2 tsp of salt

Have all your utensils and ingredients ready before your start.

Pre-heat your oven at 375 degrees Farenheit for at least 10 minutes.

In a large mixing bowl, combine the flour, the baking powder and the salt.

In another mixing bowl, combine the sugar, the yogurt, the egg, the lemon juice and the lemon zest, and the vanilla.

Blend the dry mixture (flour, baking powder and salt mix) into the wet mixture. Stir until all the lumps are gone.  Once you've reached a smooth mixture, gently fold in the blueberries.

Grease two baking sheets or line them with parchment paper or silicon mats and drop two table spoonfuls of mixture.  Make sure you leave enough space between them so they don't "join" during baking.

Bake for approximately 10 minutes.  Once the cookies get slightly brown around the edges, you can take them out of the oven and let them cool down on a cooling rack.

Enjoy!  You will be amazed at how soft and delicious these cookies are...  And did I mention they were healthy and nutritious?  My girls love them and take them to school for their afternoon snacks.  

If you don't like the zing of the lemon, you can totally remove the lemon zest and the lemon juice from the list and end up with blueberry cookies, just as soft and delicious.

Today is Crepe Day in France!

I totally forgot about this until my Mom sent me an email reminding me, that today is La Chandeleur (Candlemas) or Crêpe Day.  

The Catholic holiday of Candlemas, on 2 February, is a feast to commemorate the purification of the Virgin Mary and the presentation of baby Jesus. In France, this holiday is called la Chandeleur, Fête de la Lumière, or "jour des crêpes." 

Not only do the French eat a lot of crêpes on Chandeleur, but they also do a bit of fortune telling while making them. It is traditional to hold a coin in your writing hand and a crêpe pan in the other, and flip the crêpe into the air. If you manage to catch the crêpe in the pan, your family will be prosperous for the rest of the year. So what is your favorite crêpe? 

There are all kinds of French proverbs and sayings for Chandeleur; here are just a few. 

Note the similarities to the Groundhog Day predictions made in the US:

À la Chandeleur, l'hiver cesse ou reprend vigueur
On Candlemas, winter ends or strengthens

À la Chandeleur, le jour croît de deux heures
On Candlemas, the day grows by two hours

Chandeleur couverte, quarante jours de perte
Candlemas covered (in snow), forty days lost

Rosée à la Chandeleur, hiver à sa dernière heure
Dew on Candlemas, winter at its final hour

For the occasion, I would like to share one of my family's "crêpe" recipes that kids and big kids alike are sure to enjoy! (includes a French secret...  shhh...)

Ingredients:

2 eggs

2 cups of milk

1/2 cup of light beer (yep!)

1 cup of flour

3 Tbsp of melted butter

1 Tbsp of sugar

Coconut oil or butter for coating the pan

How to make the crêpes:

In a mixing bowl, place the flour and make a little dome.  Push your finger through the top to make a "hole" (we call it the well).  Place the eggs, the sugar and the melted butter in the "well" and mix with a whisk.  Add the milk little by little while whisking making sure you eliminate all the lumps (this could also be done in a blender by pulsing 10 seconds).  Finally, add the beer.  The beer will make your crêpes lighter...  The batter shouldn't look too thick, nor too liquid.  A good way to know if the consistency is the right one, is to take a ladle and spoon a little bit of the batter, then, slowly pour the batter back into the bowl.  It should look like a ribbon when being poured.

The ribbon

Place the batter in the fridge for about an hour (to eliminate all the bubbles formed during mixing). 

Heat a small non-stick pan (not too shallow), add a bit of butter or coconut oil (I put it on a folded paper towel and wipe the pan evenly), pour some batter in the pan but not too much so your crêpes aren't too thick and quickly move your pan around so the batter covers the whole surface with a thin layer.  

Cook about 1 minute or until the edges of the crêpe start peeling off from the pan and some air bubbles appear at the surface (the entire crêpe is slowly peeling off).

Flip the crêpe and cook the other side for about 30 seconds.

Repeat these steps until you are out of the batter, stack the cooked crêpes on a plate and enjoy!

Serving ideas:

Top with granulated sugar, or powdered sugar, or your favorite jam, or your favorite chocolate paste, or honey, or anything you like!

You can then fold it in half and then fold in half again.

You can also roll it up like a tortilla (kids like that version a lot...)

Happy Chandeleur!  Happy Crêpe Day!

The Chocolatine Sunny Veggie Soup

Today was a pretty cold day here in Brussels.  I am not complaining though as  winter has been pretty mild in Europe compare to last winter, and compare to the nasty frigid temperatures that have been hitting most of the US lately.  So soup was on the menu tonight (like pretty much any winter dinner meal in our household).  I have to admit that I absolutely LOVE soup.  Any soup, cold or hot, chunky or mixed, mild or spicy, you name it.  Both my girls love it too and as a matter of fact, my four-year-old daughter gets soup every day at her school.   Little ones in all  Belgian public schools enjoy a bowl of hot soup every morning.  I find it very good, especially for the little ones who don't eat breakfast.  Hot and nutritious, a good way to last until lunch time.

So tonight I decided to enhance one of my staple soup recipes (the healthy veggie soup recipe my Mom taught me to make and that my Grandmother passed onto her) to give it a little zing!  The result turned out to be great as both my daughters loved it and "ze man" was ecstatic! (he always found the base recipe to be a little blah).  I named it the Chocolatine Sunny Veggie Soup because of the nice and warm color of the soup. 

So here we go, here is the recipe!  

This recipe serves 6 people and is suitable for vegetarians.

Ingredients:

- 2 leeks

- 4 carrots

- 4 celeri branches (you can keep the leaves if you'd like)

- 2 tomatoes

- 2 garlic cloves

- 1-inch of ginger root

- 1 tsp of curry powder 

- 1 Tbsp of coconut oil

- water (approximately 4 cups) + 1/2 Tbsp of Kosher salt

- salt and pepper to taste

How to:

Chop the leeks and the celeri and put aside.  Peel the garlic and the ginger and crush.  

In a large pot, warm up the coconut oil on medium heat and throw the crushed garlic and ginger.  Stir with a wooden as the garlic cooks really fast and you don't want it to get brown or burn.  

Toss the leek and the celeri and cook until translucend.  Don't forget to stir so they don't attach to the bottom of the pot.

Meanwhile, chop the rest of the veggies and toss in the pot with the garlic and ginger mix.  Add the 4 cups of water and bring to a boil.  Once it starts boiling, turn the heat down and simmer until the veggies are cooked through.  As my Mom says when I ask her for a recipe: "when the carrots are cooked, your dish is cooked!"

Add the curry and cook for 5 more minutes.

Add salt and pepper to taste.

Put everything in a blender or use an immersion hand mixer (be careful not to burn yourself!) and blend until all the "chunks" are gone and you obtain a smooth soup.

This very healthy soup will give you tons of nutrients and vitamins and keep your bodies warm on cold winter evenings.

Sun and Raspberries

Today, the sun was back in beautiful Brussels.  Even though it is very pleasant, we are not getting too excited as the rain and cold are coming back tonight.  Sigh...  

Went raspberry picking with the girls and some friends, just 15 minutes away from our house/studio.  

Probably ate 1/2 lb while picking them and came home with 3 pounds!  

Time to make jam, smoothies, mix them with yogurt or make one of my favorite cakes: "The Cake aux Framboises" (Rasberry Cake).  But shhh...  It is a family secret... 

Cake aux Framboises by Chocolatine Studio