For a hot minute last month, we enjoyed some
lovely sunny weather here in Vienna and this in combination with the
strawberries on the market (and the fact I had to clear out my fridge before a
trip home) made me crave a fresh spring-summery drink. To be honest this recipe
was a complete experiment and I just threw some stuff together and blitzed them
up in the blender, but the result was incredibly satisfying! This is just a
glass of heaven when it gets sweaty outside, it’s quite healthy and let’s not
even mention how quick it is to prepare, takes seconds!
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| Healthy Strawberry-Coconut Milkshake |
Strawberry-coconut milkshake recipe:
250 ml/8.5
oz light coconut milk
150 ml/5 oz
yoghurt
500 g/1 lb
strawberries (washed and without stems)
Honey to
taste (I put 1 tbsp. per glass)
Preparation:
Blend all the ingredients together with a stick
or a regular blender. To make it a truly summer shake either add some ice cubes
to the drink or if you have a regular blender add the ice cubes while blitzing
all the ingredients together and you’ll be left with something similar to
strawberry margarita in texture. Cheers!
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| Healthy Strawberry-Coconut Milkshake |
PS Taking those pictures laying in the grass in front of my place made my neighbours a little judgmental to say the least :)
17:29
Posted by
IScreamKitchen
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| Pumpkin Spice Latte |
Every fall a certain coffee shop chain comes up
with the awesome pumpkin spice latte and I marvel at how expensive it is! I
absolutely love it and I want to have it all the time, so I decided to make my
own, which is loads cheaper, I know exactly what goes into it and is quite easy
to make. I like making a big batch of the pumpkin spice milk enough for around
5 servings and I keep it in the fridge, so I can just warm it up and add it to
my coffee when needed. It keeps for quite long, almost for a week, depending on
what type of milk you use. If you don’t like coffee, you could turn it into a
pumpkin spice hot chocolate by adding Nutella, or some ground chocolate (white,
milk and dark work great) instead of the coffee. Just don’t forget to adjust
the amount of sugar you put as chocolate already has quite some sugar in it.
If you want to go in for the kill, you can make
it into a mocha if you have both chocolate and coffee. Conversely, if you can’t
find pumpkin/ pumpkin puree, skip it and you have yourself gingerbread latte.
Anyway, enjoy it with some home-made cookies! J
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| Pumpkin Spice Latte |
Home-made pumpkin
spice latte/ hot chocolate recipe
(makes 5)
4 cups milk +
some for frothing (optional) – I used 3.5% but you could use any kind,
including soy, rice, etc.
1 tsp.
cinnamon
1 tsp.
dried ginger
¼ tsp.
nutmeg
¼ tsp. powdered
cloves
1 tsp.
vanilla extract/ a couple of drops vanilla flavouring
8 tbsp.
pumpkin puree (or butternut squash) - check out how to make it here.
5 shots of
coffee or 5 tbsp. Nutella (if you are an instant coffee fan, you can use that
instead)
Sugar to
taste
Whipped
cream (optional)
Preparation:
1. Pour the milk, spices, sugar, pumpkin puree
and nutella (if you’re going for a hot chocolate version) in a pot and bring almost
to a boil over medium high heat, while stirring constantly.
2. Sieve if you want the latte to be super
smooth.
3. Pour a shot of hot coffee (if gone for the
actual latte version) and then pour some of the pumpkin spice milk, leaving a
little space for the topping, if you’d like some.
4. Make the topping of your choice. I have 3
offers. Either froth some of the pumpkin spice milk, normal milk, or top with
some whipped cream. If you decide for the pumpkin spice milk, it will be
orange-brown. If you have a milk frother, you can froth your drink up straight
in the cup you are serving it. If you are going for the milk version, froth it
up in a separate cup and spoon the froth on top. If you don’t have a frother,
you can use a stick blender; just have the liquid that’s being frothed up be
the same temperature as the other parts of the drink (almost boiling). Also,
you could top your pumpkin spice drink with some marshmallows, smarties or
powdered cinnamon.
5. Serve with some cookies!
Would you make these lovely cookies at home?
15:53
Posted by
IScreamKitchen
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| Mulled Wine |
The first thing I get excited about, once it
hits December, is definitely the Christmas markets. Here in Austria, they are
quite the deal and are surely worth seeing with their majestic decorations,
purely oozing Christmas spirit. But… let’s face it! The best thing about them
is grabbing a cup of mulled wine (Glühwein) to keep you warm (and boozy) while
chatting to your buds in the festive atmosphere. Every mulled wine stand has
its own recipe and so do I. I love making it at home as I usually find the ready-made mixes tasteless and most of the stands’ either too sugary or too low
quality.
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| Mulled Wine |
As I love Christmas and everything around it,
and I was particularly lacking festive spirit due to the lack of snow a year or
two ago, I spent a couple of cold December evenings trying to develop the best
(in my humble opinion) mulled wine out there. Let me just say that after the 3rd
batch it gets more and more difficult to restrain yourself from singing
Christmas songs out loud through your window. However, it was totally
worth it! If you want to give it a whirl yourself, read on for the recipe:
Mulled wine/ Glühwein recipe
1 bottle (750 ml) of dry red wine (I
quite like Syrah/Shiraz)
¼ cup sugar
1 ½ cup water
½ lemon – sliced (or other citrus
fruit)
2 cinnamon sticks (or 1 tsp. of
powdered cinnamon)
3 cloves
½ l orange juice
1 bag of fruit tea (berries or
apples work best)
1 shot rum
per cup (optional, I personally don’t put it in)
Preparation:
Mix all the ingredients but the rum and the
lemon in a pot and put over medium high heat and stir well, so all the sugar dissolves
perfectly. Bring almost to the boil; if it starts actually boiling, the alcohol
evaporates. Sieve the liquid if you used powdered cinnamon; otherwise, fish out
the cinnamon sticks, cloves and tea bag. (You can, also, put all the dry
ingredients in a muslin cloth before you put them in the liquid, so it’s easy to
remove them afterwards.) Pour in cups, put some lemon slices in and add the
shot of rum. I find it tastier without rum, but, I believe, the classic recipes
always feature it.
So, there you go, if that doesn’t cheer you up,
I don’t know what will! ;)
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| Rathaus Christmas Market, Vienna, Austria |
Would you make this at home?
12:49
Posted by
IScreamKitchen
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