Triple Chocolate Truffle Pie

Hello everyone,
Today I am here with a new recipe. Those of you that follow me on Instagram (@curlsncakes) might know that I recently came back from a (more than) week-long holiday in London. It was fantastic and I managed to see plenty of shows, ballets and musicals, one of which were the Broadway hit: Waitress. The musical is based on a movie from 2007 with Keri Russell and Nathan Fillion, with music written by Sara Bareilles. I saw the movie some time ago and loved it, because it was tragic and beautiful, and had so many pies in it.

Waitress is about an unhappy woman, Jenna. She's in a messed up relationship, but works as a waitress in a diner. Jenna's only happy when baking her pies. All along watching the movie and then the musical (which is beautiful with lovely music, by the way) I kept wishing there would be a recipe book for all these incredible pies that Jenna bakes.

Coming out of the play I noticed a book in the little shop stand in the theatre. And lo and behold, it was what I had wished for: Sugar, Butter, Flour - The Waitress Pie Book.
I was so excited and instantly bought it (and some other things).

This first pie that I baked from the book is called the In the Dark Dark pie, and it makes 24 cm pie. I made some modifications to the recipe to suit me and my ingredients more, and I will present that modified recipe. For the original recipe, see the book. Without further ado...

Triple Chocolate Truffle Pie

INGREDIENTS

For the pie shell:

• 1 packet of Oreos (original)
• 75 grams melted butter

For the pie filling:

• 230 grams dark chocolate, chopped
• 2 dl skimmed milk (1.5% fat)
• 2 dl heavy cream (35% fat)
• 2 eggs

For the pie topping:

• 2 dl heavy cream, chilled
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 1/2 dl powdered sugar
• 3 tablespoons cocoa powder
• Decorations in the form of chocolate curls

DIRECTIONS

Preheat your oven to 175°C.
Crush the oreos in a blender and add the butter to it. Press the moistened oreo crumbs into your pie tin. Refrigerate for at least 15 minutes and then bake in the middle rack of your oven for 10 minutes.

Bring the milk and heavy cream to just before a boil in a saucepan and pour it over the copped chocolate. Mix until smooth. In another bowl, whisk the eggs and then pour the chocolate mix into the eggs. Pour the egg mixture into the cooled pie crust. Bake for about 45 minutes. The centre of the pie should still be rather loose and wobbly when given a shake.

For the topping mix vanilla, sugar and cocoa together in a bowl. In another bowl whip the heavy cream until slightly thickened, then add the dry ingredients and whip until stiff peaks form. Pipe the topping using a piping bag and a tip unto the cooled (to room temperature) pie. Add the chocolate curls on top, and voilà!

I personally preferred this pie chilled, rather than cooled to just room temperature. So if you're anything like me, bake this pie the day before serving and refrigerate until you are going to eat it.

Until next time!

Much love,
Mona

Etsy Love: Summer Linen

 Hello all,
Some weeks ago, at the first sign of some warmer weather my sister and I went out to photograph this wonderful dress that I purchased from the Little Women Atelier shop on Etsy. This dress is so wonderful and breezy. It's made of 100% linen and it helps me keep cool in the summer.

Little Women Atelier is a shop inspired by the book Little Women by Louisa May Alcott from 1868, and something about this dress, the Meg dress has the elegance of the 19th century. Whether it's the puffy sleeves or the full skirt, I'll leave to you to decide. Little Women Atelier is a family business, and together the incredible women of their family create magnificent dresses, fit for any lady.

When I saw the Meg dress, I knew I had to save up to get one. It is one of the prettiest and most feminine dresses I own, without it being too girly. I purchased it in pale pink, which is a wonderfully serene and delicate colour, but they have this dress in many other colours too. The dress is well-made and the wonderful linen fabric feels so soft. It's a dress that inspires slow-living, sitting in your armchair with a good, classic book, having long walks in the warm summer breeze, or baking your favourite cake or biscuits to enjoy with family and friends. Simply said, it's a dress to live in and enjoy life in.

Dress: Little Women Atelier (here)
Flats: Asos (old)

I hope you all have a terrific start to your summer. I will be enjoying it in my breezy dress.
Much love,
Mona

Chocolate Macarons

Hello all,
Some weeks ago I made chocolate macarons, after not having baked macarons for over two years. I was worried that I had lost my touch, but alas it was fine!

That proves that this recipe is an easy one, and that really, you have to be really unlucky to fail with it. The macarons may not have been perfect (I think I would've needed another minute of beating the batter), but they were very tasty. That's really all anyone can ask for!

Chocolate macarons

INGREDIENTS

• 100 g almond powder
• 3 egg whites (about 100-110 g)
• 4 tablespoons sugar
• 185 g powdered sugar
• 15 g cocoa powder
  

DIRECTIONS

I like to prepare my egg whites by leaving them in room temperature for a day before I start baking. It yields better macarons in my opinion.
 
Preheat the oven to 150°C.
Sift the almond powder and throw away the large pieces.
Mix the almond powder with the powdered sugar and the cocoa and sift again.

In another bowl whisk the room tempered egg whites until it starts to foam. Then gradually add the tablespoons of sugar. Whisk the egg whites until thick and shiny. You should be able to hold the bowl upside down without anything pouring out.

Add the almond-powdered sugar-cocoa mix to the eggs and mix. This is where it can get a bit tricky. Obviously the almond-mix should get completely incorporated within the egg whites, however you usually need to mix it a bit more. I usually pick up a bit of the batter with a spatula and if it falls down in a ribbon like shape it is ready and should not be mixed anymore. Mix it too much and you get flat macarons.

Pour the batter into a piping bag with a round tip and pipe the batter onto baking trays prepared with baking sheets. Now it is important to let the piped to-be macarons rest on the baking trays in room temperature for about an hour. I know you're eager to see how they turn out, but the resting of the macarons is super important, because the surface dries a bit and that makes them not loose their shape when they are baked, and it enables the feet to come out when baked (if the anatomy of a macaron is a mystery to you, I highly recommend googling it, but below a photo follows to explain some things).

After the macarons have rested for about an hour in room temperature, bake them at 150°C for about 14 minutes.

Let the macaron shells cool completely before you fill them with ganache. For my ganache recipe click here.

I also painted my macaron shells with a bit of edible gold, just so that they would look a wee bit more luxurious.

And that, my friends, is really all there is to it!
I hope you enjoy this recipe.

Much love,
Mona

Woodland elf

Hello lovely people,
Hope you are all well. I am doing so well lately *knock on wood*. My medicines have stabilised my mood, and my depression has kept away. At the same time I've been in 12 weeks of cognitive behavioural therapy for my OCD, so I'm doing quite well.

As I've been doing well, I've had the time and interest in doing things, and I've been dabbling in creating larp characters. This character that I'm introducing today is a woodland elf. I imagine her name is Belilmadia and she enjoys walking in woods and singing with the birds.

It was fun to create this character and all her little details. The dress is the Acacia maxi petite dress from Holy Clothing, which I fell in love with from the moment I saw it. I decided on accessories around the dress.

The most enjoyable part of becoming this elf was adding the elf ears. I have dreamed of being an elf since I read The Hobbit when I was 8 years old. Finally I looked like one, and I feel like the ears were the most essential part. The ears are from the Etsy shop Mad House FX studio.

 

Dress: Acacia dress by Holy Clothing

Wig: LF667R by Wig is Fashion

Elf Tiara: This from Ayalga

Ear Cuff: This from Ayalga
Boots: Bought in London

I hope you liked this character, and these photos. The photos are taken in the woods about 5 minutes from where I live. I realise I'm very lucky having woods so close to where I live. The photos are by my incredible sister.

Much love,
Belilmadia