sweets: cherries and star anise lemonade

A while ago I had some lovely homemade lemonade at a restaurant in our neighbourhood. The combination of cherries and star anise was suprising and delicious, and I thought to myself: I can make this! So this week, I did :) I made a syrup, so you mix a bit of syrup with water to get a glass of lemonade. Here is the recipe.

Ingredients

a kilo cherries
500 grams of sugar
water
star anise

- put the cherries in a pan and add a little water, so that the cherries are not quite covered, and bring to a boil.
- after 5 minutes, remove the pan from heat and blend the cherries so you get as much juice as possible from them. Then pour the juice through a strainer and back into the pan.
- add the sugar and star anise (I used about 8 pieces of star anise, but you can use more or less, depending on what flavour you like) and bring to a boil
- let it simmer until the liquid is becoming thicker. This takes around 20 minutes. Then pour the syrup in sterilized bottles and let it cool. It will become even thicker when it is cooled down.
- and that's it!

Enjoy your homemade lemonade! Although I think it will be an awesome flavour for your cocktails as well :)

january on instagram

 

• I've been knitting a lot this winter. Love the yellow knitting, my blue skirt and red of my mothers couch
• the mild winter suprised me with these flowers
• found this teapot while thrift shopping, it reminds me of Aladdins lamp
• the birds in the tree are canaries (who would have guessed that they would like it here in the Netherlands?)
• I'm working on a new project, painting stools and small side tables

You can follow me at @instafay :)

forest magic

 

Last weekend we spend with family in a cabin in the woods. On saturday we made a walk and saw the most beautiful forest treasures. When you take a closer look you can see all the tiny details, what makes it even more special, almost magic. I always loved fairy tales and fantasy, but lately I'm even more drawn to everything magic (maybe it's because of the tv series that I'm watching at the moment, Once upon a time, do you know it? are you also a fan?)

Fairy tales and the forest, they got me under a spell.

sweets: chocolate and caramel spreads

Last week I found these wonderful recipes of sweet spreads by Rachel Khoo. Because it is way too dangerous to make these for just the two of us (too delicious to not eat everything by myself ourselves), I made them this week as we are spending the weekend with family. It's a win win win situation: I get to make and eat it, we can share it with others, and have a lovely breakfast and lunch on our weekend away.
I made three different spreads: salted caramel, white chocolate with lavender and dark chocolate with earl grey. Just found out that this cookbook is only available in Dutch and French (sorry English guys!), you can find the Dutch version here and the French version here.

Salted caramel is our favourite, it's so delicious! I used it as a spread for my sandwiches at lunch, but you could also use it for your pancakes or as a dip for biscuits or apple slices for a lovely afternoon treat. I'm sharing the recipe with you, so you can make some at home, yum!

ingredients
225 grams of suger
120 ml water
125 ml whipping cream
100 grams of butter
1 teaspoon seasalt

- heat the sugar and water in a pan. Stir occasionally, so that the sugar dissolves, but leave it alone as soon as the sugar is dissolved, otherwise it will crystallize (difficult, I know)
- when the caramel starts to turn a golden brown, add the whipping cream and salt (they say that it takes 5 to 10 minutes, but it feels like ages, at least, for me it does). Let it boil for 5 minutes while you constantly stir. Pay attention when it starts to brown, because at that point it tends to burn quickly.
- when the caramel has a nice brown colour and thickness, remove from heat and let it cool for 10 to 15 minutes in the fridge.
- beat the butter until creamy and stir into the cooled caramel
- pour the caramel in sterilized glass jars. The caramel can be kept up to two weeks, when you keep them in the frigde.