Homemade Goodies Archives • The Rabbit Hole

Bake, Christmas, Cook, Homemade Goodies, Make, Seasons, Winter

Biscoff Christmas chocolates

December 24, 2022 No Comments

Before Christmas goes, I wanted to share with you a quick recipe for Biscoff chocolates. I made them just yesterday because I needed to wait to make them as fresh as I could before I gifted them. After tasting these Biscoff chocolates I though I couldn’t wait to share it with you. It’s the perfect Christmas card for you right on Christmas Eve!

This year…

This year, my major efforts during Christmas time have been preparing a handmade home for our coming baby. Because of that, I didn’t share many ideas for Christmas gifts. But you can find a lot of Christmas crafts here. Lately I have been making efforts to offer consumable handmade Christmas. A baked good or other type of handmade goodie is the best idea for that!

Biscoff chocolates recipe

I adapted my recipe from the one from Madeleine although I didn’t use vegan chocolate. If you use vegan chocolate, this Biscoff chocolates are 100% vegan since both biscoff biscuits and the spread are vegan.

I followed all her instructions, but just adapted a little bit the ingredients and the quantities. For my recipe I used:

– 250g Biscoff biscuits (it is an easier amount since it corresponds to a whole package of Biscoff biscuits)

– 200g plus 10-50g of Biscoff spread. You can go further and add as much as 250g of spread but I find that the best idea is to add the last 50g carefully to adjust the dough to the right consistency. I find that, here in Portugal, the best result is around 220g of Spread in winter. In the summer I will just add 200-210g. This prevents the chocolates to melt too much after coming out of the fridge. The important thing is that the dough is moldable by hand. That is the sweet spot!

– 200g of good dark chocolate. I used culinary chocolate because we do have one or two good culinary chocolate brands here in Portugal. If I am not able to find one of those, I will opt for a the best dark regular chocolate I can find. If you want to make this Biscoff chocolates vegan just use vegan chocolate.

Then I followed Madeleine’s instructions and voila! The easiest chocolates in the world that are soft and spicy. A very festive recipe to try and to gift.

I hope you have the best Christmas in 2022! Thanks for keep following!

Bake, Christmas, Homemade Goodies, Learning process, Make

Gingerbread house for Christmas

December 23, 2020 1 Comment

This Christmas I decided to try out my first gingerbread house.

I’ve done so many Christmas projects! A pom-pom wreath for the door, the decorations for the Christmas tree, advent calendars, there are a series of handmade Christmas adventures on the blog that you can check out and try. Right now I don’t really need anything else for my home since we spent so much time inside doors this year, I really wanted a handmade adventure to bring me the Christmas spirit that I usually absorb from these projects.So this Christmas I decided to try out my very first gingerbread house.

The myths

My intention was to make a small house. But when I started making it, I realized that this will be a proper sized one!
To tell you the truth, this little experiment has dispelled many myths! The gingerbread house dough is very resistant and the gingerbread house icing, if done properly, is a very strong cement. It also is a decorative forgiving plaster that goes very well into the hands of an humble apprentice. Both make gingerbread houses much more resilient than you think!

Gingerbread house frosting

As I am not a fan of gingerbread houses full of candy and strong colors, I opted for the “basic” gingerbread house decorations. I just used icing that gives it a somewhat minimalist look. At least I did not want to venture into big juggling right on my first try … ah, but the maternal grandfather’s genetics that I preserve inside me (fantasy enthusiast) couldn’t resist adding at least a few windows glass using gelatin sheets… just to keep the cold outside!

Overall I am very proud if it and I assume that I will make more in the following years.

I wish you a different but merry Christmas, with the light that is missing in the streets emanating, this time, from the inside out.

Cook, Homemade Goodies, Learn, Learning process, Tutorials

Low plastic snacks for the everyday

February 15, 2019 No Comments

(scroll for the English version)

A propósito da minha nova aventura de redução do plástico, a MyNinho convidou-me para fazer mais um workshop, e desta vez, sobre Snacks Zero Plástico: snacks para levar para todo o lado, sem embalagem de plástico.

Entre as receitas que vou ensinar estão os segredos das minhas saborosas barritas de cereais e frutos secos! Uma grande vantagem das opções sem plástico é que nos permite controlar melhor as quantidades que ingerimos adaptando-as ao nosso organismo, escolher os ingredientes que queremos usar e ser conscientes sobre a sua embalagem, evitando o plástico e obrigando-nos a ser criativos.

Vem partilhar connosco as receitas, as ideias de embalagem e formas de tornar mais atraentes os snacks saudáveis para nos e para o ambiente.

O workshop será no próximo dia 23 de fevereiro no MyNinho e as inscrições já estão abertas!

With my new adventure of reducing plastic in mind, MyNinho invited me to do another workshop, and this time I will share everything about Zero Plastic Snacks: snacks to take everywhere, without plastic packaging.

Among the recipes I am going to teach are all the secrets of my tasty cereal and nut bars! A great advantage of the options without plastic is that it allows us to better control the quantities that we ingest by adapting them to our organism, to choose the ingredients that we want to use and to be conscious about its packaging, avoiding the plastic and forcing us to be creative.

Come share with us the recipes, packaging ideas and ways to make healthy snacks more appealing to us and the environment.

The workshop will be on February 23 at MyNinho and the registrations are now open!

Bake, Christmas, Cook, Favourite, Homemade Goodies, Make, Seasons

Christmas Granola Recipe

December 11, 2017 No Comments

(scroll for the English version)

Lembram-se da receita de Granola que costumo fazer regularmente? Acho-a tão deliciosa que resolvi criar uma versão de Natal e atribuir-lhe o honroso título de “Presente feito-à-mão oficial de Natal” do ano passado e que distribuí pela família e amigos.

A versão não é muito diferente da versão original sendo que apenas acrescentei uma pitada de canela, outra de açúcar baunilhado feito em casa, algumas avelãs, uma boa quantidade de pepitas de chocolate e substituí o óleo de girassol por óleo de coco. Uma desgraça, eu sei!

Aqui vai a minha receita:

400g flocos de aveia inteiros
100g de nozes picadas
50g de amêndoas picadas (com casca)
50g de avelã picada (com casca)
100g de sementes de abóbora
100g de sementes de girassol
50g de sementes de sésamo
1 pitada de canela
1 pitada de gengibre em pó
1 colher de acúcar baunilhado ou algumas gotas de essência de baunilha
1 colher de sopa de óleo de coco (ou 2 de óleo de girassol)
300g de mel
150g de pepitas de chocolate

A uma boa porção de flocos de aveia juntam-se nozes, amêndoas e avelãs (eu usei com pele) picadas em pedaços pequenos e juntar-lhes sementes de girassol, abóbora e sésamo. Salpicar a mistura com especiarias como a canela ou o gengibre. À parte, aquece-se o mel com um ou duas colheres de óleo sem sabor (óleo de girassol ou de coco) e o açúcar baunilhado (ou essência de baunilha) apenas até que se misturem, e depois envolver bem com na mistura de sementes.

Depois é só deixá-la no forno pré-aquecido aos 180ºC uns 20 minutos ou até que comece a ficar dourada. Infelizmente vão ter de se manter na cozinha porque a Granola tem que ser revirada de cinco em cinco minutos para não queimar! Por isso fiquem de olho. É mesmo fácil deixar queimar a Granola e terem de comer cereais de pacote outra vez…

Nesta versão de Natal, depois de arrefecer, ainda acrescentei 150g de pepitas de chocolate antes de distribuir a Granola por uns frascos bonitos. No verso da etiqueta acrescentei conselhos de utilização: “Acrescentar umas colheres de Granola a uma boa porção de iogurte natural e fruta da época”. Acho que ficou um belo presente!

Do you remember the Granola recipe that I usually do? I think that is my favorite! Is so delicious that I decided to create a Christmas version of it and give it the honorable title of “Christmas handmade gift of the year” last Christmas.

This version is not very different from the original version. I just added a pinch of cinnamon, another of homemade vanilla sugar, some hazelnuts, a good amount of chocolate chips and replaced the sunflower oil by coconut oil. What a move, I know!

Here’s my recipe:

400g whole oat flakes
100g chopped walnuts
50g chopped almonds
50g chopped hazelnuts
100g pumpkin seeds
100g of sunflower seeds
50g of sesame seeds
1 pinch of cinnamon
1 pinch of ginger powder
1 spoon of homemade vanilla sugar or a few drops of vanilla essence
1 tablespoon coconut oil (or 2 of sunflower oil)
300g of honey
150g of chocolate chips

In a big bowl join together the oat flakes, the walnuts, almonds and hazelnuts (I used the skin) chopped into small pieces and add the sunflower, pumpkin and sesame seeds. Sprinkle the mixture with spices such as cinnamon or ginger. Apart, heat the honey with one or two tablespoons of unflavored oil (sunflower or coconut oil) and the homemade vanilla sugar (or vanilla essence) only until they are mixed. Then add it to the seed mixture and mix well.

Then just leave it in the oven at 180 ° C for about 20 minutes or until it starts to golden. Unfortunately you will have to stay in the kitchen because the Granola has to be mixed every five minutes so it does not burn! So keep an eye on that because It’s really easy to let Granola burn and have to eat pack cereals again…!

In this Christmas version, after cooling down, I added 150g of chocolate chips to the Granola and distributed it by some beautiful jars. On the back of the label I added some advices: “Add a few tablespoons of Granola to a good portion of natural yoghurt and season fruit.” I think it turned out a beautiful gift!