Summer Drinks

Hello lovelies! With summer finally arriving and the heat actually rising above 12°C you need to stay hydrated. Sometimes plain water can get a bit boring so I made three drinks I want to share with you. All my recipes so I hope you like them.
All three of these need a bit of preparation but making one drink took about a half hour. For the rhubarb and ginger ones you will need to make a syrup as a base and then add water.

Virgin Strawberry Mojito  Serves 2

You will need:
5 strawberries
1/2 lime, 5 wedges
10 mint leaves
2 tbsp sugar
sparkling water
ice (optional)

Start by crushing the mint and 1 lime wedge with a muddler. Later add 2 more wedges, the sugar and 2 strawberries and crush (I use frozen berries but you can use fresh ones). Spoon the mixture into two glasses, put the last wedges and remaining strawberries in the glasses. Finally, add ice and then fill with sparkling water.

Lemon-Ginger RefreshersServes 4

Syrup:
Small ginger root
300 ml water
2 tbsp sugar
2 tbsp lemon juice

Drink:
Juice of one lemon
1/2 l water
Syrup
Lemon wedges for decoration (optional)

Cut the ginger into pieces and put into a saucepan. Then add about 300 ml of water. Boil for about 40 minutes with the lid on, stirring once in a while. In 40 minutes remove from heat and sieve the water from the ginger bits. Add the sugar and the lemon juice and boil again until the sugar has dissolved. Let cool for half an hour. Pour the mixture into a jug and then add the rest of the lemon juice and 1/2 l of water. Serve!

Rhubarb and Raspberry Fizzer  Serves 2

Syrup:
Two rhubarb stalks
10 raspberries
300 ml water
2 mint leaves, cut up (optional)
2 tbsp sugar

Drink:
Sparkling water
Syrup
Raspberries (optional)

Cut rhubarb and mint into pieces. In a saucepan add together rhubarb, raspberries, mint and water. Simmer until the rhubarb has gone soft. (If you feel like the water disappears quickly you can add some.) Sieve the mixture so the mixture is clear. You can save the compote and use it for baking, on yoghurt or in smoothies. Pour the liquid into the saucepan and add sugar. Simmer until the syrup is a bit thicker and/or sugar has dissolved. Let cool for a bit. Pour into two glasses and then add sparkling water and raspberries. You can also add more water if you want it less strong.

Thanks so much for reading. I hope you like these drinks and they can hydrate you during hot days this summer.

Stella xx

Christmas Baking

One of my favourite things about Christmas is all the baking. There are so many cookie recipes out there to try and for this post I wanted to share with you three of the treats I made this year. All these recipes are very quick and easy so everyone should be able to do these.

The first batch I made this year were small meringues, these are actually very easy and you only need 3 ingredients!

Recipe:

• 3 egg whites 
• 200 g brown sugar
• Your choice of chocolate or any other sweets (I use chocolate chips and here in Iceland it's popular to put liquorice pieces in as well)

Whisk the egg whites 'til stiff peaks form. Gradually add in the brown sugar and then stir in the sweets.

Bake in the middle of an oven on 150°C for 20 minutes.

Secondly I made gingerbread cookies. This recipe is just something my mum found online and then changed it a bit. Also very easy and such a good recipe for the family to bake together.

Recipe:

• 500 g flour
• 250 g sugar
• 250 g butter or margarine
• 375 g syrup
• 4 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 1 tsp cocoa
• 1 tsp ground ginger
• 1 tsp ground cloves
• 1 tsp white pepper
• 1 tsp cardamom
• 1 tsp nutmeg
• 1 egg

Blend together all dry ingredients and then using your hands break the butter into the mixture. Add in syrup and egg and knead together. Flatten the dough and cut out cakes. Bake at 175°C for 10 minutes.

This last recipe is from a school book I had in my 5th grade cooking class. It's very easy and also very good.

Recipe:

• 2 dl flour
• 1 dl sugar
• 1 dl corn flakes (crushed)
• 1 tbsp grounded coconut flakes
• ¼ tsp salt
• ¼ tsp baking soda
• 50 g butter or margarine
• 50 g semi-sweet chocolate
• 1 egg 

Mix together all dry ingredients exept for the chocolate. Grind the butter into the dough with your hands. Next, add in the chocolate and lastly the egg. Roll up into small balls, you should get around 50 cakes. Bake for 10-12 minutes in an 200°C oven.

That's all for this blogpost I hope you liked it and it will come in handy to you for some Christmas baking.

Stella xx

Cinnamon Buns

For this blogpost I wanted to share with you a very simple and delicious recipe. 

For the recipe you'll need:

2.5 dl. warm water

4.5 tsp. dry yeast

1/2 dl. sugar

75 g. margarine (butter will work fine as well)

450-500 g. plain four

Cinnamon sugar (just mix some cinnamon and sugar)

Icing:

2.5 dl icing sugar

1 tbsp cocoa powder

2 tbsp hot water

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

1. Put the warm water in a bowl and put the dry yeast into the water and let it dissolve.
2. Put the dry ingredients and the butter into the liquid (leave some flour to knead on the table).
3. Mix with a spatula so all the butter mixes into the dough.
4. Let the dough rise for 30 minutes in a warm place, you can wet a tea towel with warm water and cover the bowl with it.
5. Heat the oven to a 180°C
6. Knead the batter and flat it out into a rectangle shape, quite thick.
7. Brush the dough with a little water and put the cinnamon sugar on top.
8. Roll up the dough and cut into quite big rolls.
9. Bake in the middle of the oven until light brown on top.

For the icing, mix everything together in a bowl and put on top of the rolls when they have cooled down.

Hope you liked this post and be sure to share and comment below <3

Stella xx

Best Chocolate Cookies Ever!

For this blogpost I wanted to share with you my favourite cookies. They have dark chocolate, pecans and are gooey in the middle. Yum!

Makes 12 | 180°C

200 g dark chocolate (or 100 g semi sweet, 100 g dark)

100 g butter, cut down

50 g muscovado sugar

85 g white sugar

1 tsp vanilla extract 

1 egg

100 g whole pecans 

100 g plain flour

1 tsp baking soda

Heat oven to 180°C/350°F and melt the chocolate. Mix together the butter, sugar, vanilla extract and the egg. Pour the chocolate into the mixture and mix until the mixture looks smooth. Add in the pecans and finally the flour and the baking soda. Put mixture onto baking sheet and bake for 12 minutes. Enjoy!

Hope you liked this blogpost and be sure to leave a comment if you try these out!

Stella xx

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Vanilla and Raspberry Muffins

Hello everyone,
for this blogpost I wanted to share with you one of my favourite recipes. It's quick and easy but so good! I love the mix between the sourness of the raspberries and the sweetness of the vanilla.

For the recipe you will need...                                

150 g (5 oz) butter, softened

150 g (5 oz) caster sugar

175 g (6 oz) self raising flour

3 eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

100 g (3.5 oz) raspberries, frozen (or fresh) 

Makes 12

1. Preheat oven to 175°C / 350°F / Gas Mark 4 and put 12 cupcake cases in a cupcake tin. If using frozen raspberries, which I recommend because they give more flavour and they're cheaper, put them in a bowl so they can defrost a little before they go in.
2. Put all ingredients except the raspberries in a bowl and beat with a mixer or a wooden spoon until light and fluffy. Add in the raspberries and carefully stir them in with a spatula. Divide the mixture evenly between the cases.
3. Bake in preheated oven for 20 minutes or until golden and firm to the touch. Transfer to a wire rack to cool.
4. Enjoy!

Hope you liked this blogpost and be sure to leave a comment if you did.


Love, Stella xx


Social links:

Instagram - onegirlblogger
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Ps: If you try these at home be sure to tag me on instagram.

Chocolate Chip Cookies

These chocolate chip cookies are soooo good, my grandma always makes them around Christmas but you can just as well bake them on everyday basis. I finally got the recipe from her and I decided to share it with you. They aren't those typical chewy chocolate chip cookies, they're quite crispy. But when you've had one you'll want another one. I made two batches and I thought the second one tasted a little better because I baked them slightly longer. I'll put pictures below of both batches and the size of the cookies.
I hope you'll enjoy them as much as I do!

(I know many people don't use cup measurements and I don't either, so if you are one of those people then just use a regular mug, that's what I always do anyways and they taste just as good!)

For the cookies you will need:

1 cup butter

1 cup white sugar                      

1 cup brown sugar                           

2 eggs

3 cups flour

1 tsp. baking soda
Pinch of salt 

1 cup shredded coconut

1 1/2 cup chocolate chips 

1. Preheat oven to 180°C (350°F) 
2. Cream together the butter, white sugar and brown sugar. Beat in the eggs one at a time. Stir in flour, baking soda, salt and coconut. And lastly, stir in the chocolate chips.
3. Form 2-3 cm (depends on how big you want the cookies to be, you could do really few huge ones it's totally up to you) wide balls and put on to a baking sheet.
4. Bake until edges are nicely golden/browned. 
5. Enjoy!

             What they should look like before baking...          

What they should look like after baking...