Brownies for Everyone!

I can't believe I haven't shared a brownie recipe on here yet! Well, you are in for a real treat because this brownie is delicious and it is gluten free! I know the pictures of the brownies don't look amazing, but they are. Trust me on this one! I have made this a handful of times now and it is fudgy, rich, and all of my gluten free friends can enjoy it. The recipe is quite similar to my other favorite brownie recipe except that you use almond flour instead of regular all purpose flour.

I made a batch of these brownies last week for our housewarming and I never took a piece for myself. (I also made these devil's food chocolate cupcakes topped with chocolate cloud frosting and a tray of banana milk chocolate blondies.) Writing this now makes me wish I had! If you're looking for a great brownie recipe or want to try something different than your usual go-to, give this one a try!

Almond Flour Brownies (slightly adapted from Tracey's Culinary Adventures)
Fills 1 8x8 baking pan, 16 pieces when sliced

1/2 cup (113g) unsalted butter
5 oz (140g) bittersweet chocolate, 70% cocoa solids and up
2 tbsp cocoa powder
1 tsp instant coffee
3 large eggs, at room temperature
3/4 cup sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/4 tsp salt
3/4 cup almond flour

Preheat oven to 350F or 170C. Line a 8x8 baking pan with parchment paper or grease it well.

Chop up 5 oz or 140g worth of bittersweet chocolate and place it in a small pot along with the butter. Melt on a low heat and stir to combine the chocolate and butter. When the chocolate and butter has completely melted and the mixture is smooth, take it off the heat and whisk in the cocoa powder and the instant coffee. Set this mixture aside to cool slightly.

In a medium bowl, whisk together the eggs, sugar, vanilla, and salt until combined. Add the slightly cooled chocolate mixture to the whisked eggs and stir until combined. Finally, stir in the almond flour with a rubber spatula until just incorporated.

Pour the brownie batter into the prepared pan and bake for about 25-30 minutes. (I usually take them out at 25.) You can test if the brownies are ready by sticking a toothpick in the center, but unlike baking cakes, you actually want some moist crumbs to stick to the toothpick. Watch the time and don't over bake them! Let the brownies completely cool in the pan before slicing them.

Happy eating!

This Week's Flowers

We had our housewarming on Saturday afternoon and we received a lovely green and white bouquet from my mother-in-law to be and a huge bunch of vibrant lilies from our friend L. There's something about flowers that just brings life into a home. 

How has your week been? I am terribly behind in posting but I will be sharing a recipe for delicious gluten free brownies next and I will write about what and where we ate in Cinque Terre as well!

Hiking through Cinque Terre

When I go on holidays, I don't think of going hiking. I always think of myself as a city person who wants to check out the local shops, visit different cafes, and visit some art museums or watch a play or something. But then we went to Cinque Terre. And we went hiking for two days. And you know what, I really liked it and would love to go on more active holidays!

We arrived in Vernazza on Friday evening and we got up bright and early on Saturday to start our day. Cinque Terre is a national park and there are many different trails and paths that connect the five towns. You can find all the different routes and paths that you can take here and they differentiate the paths based on hiking experience. Some of the main trails in Cinque Terre are closed though because of recent landslides so we did not get to hike between Corniglia and Manarola and between Manarola and Riomaggiore on the famous Via dell Amore. 

On Saturday morning we started on the path from Vernazza to Monterosso. It took the fiance and I almost 2 hours to complete the hike. I am glad we started from the Vernazza side because as we got closer to Monterosso there were hundreds and hundreds of stairs to walk down. If we had started the hike from Monterosso, I might have given up! After having lunch and walking around Monterosso, we took the train back to Vernazza for a little break before tackling our second hike for the day. This time we took the route from Vernazza to Corniglia. The trails are absolutely beautiful. You are constantly surrounded by the amazing landscape of this part of Italy. Olive trees line the trails as well as huge interesting looking cacti. The ocean is a stunning blue. And it is so fun seeing the towns from afar. It blows my mind how people built these villages by the ocean hundreds of years ago and what amazes me even more is that people still live there! 

On our way back to Vernazza from Corniglia we saw a poster advertising some free guided walks through different parts of Cinque Terre. So the fiance and I got up on Sunday morning and took the train to Manarola where the guided walk would begin. The hike was led by a friendly Italian woman who works at the national park and has lived her whole life there. Along with 15 other people, mostly Italians, we started this three hour hike. We walked through olive groves and vineyards through the hills of Cinque Terre between Manarola and Corniglia. All of the land there is still owned by local families and they harvest their own olives to produce olive oil. Because they do not have huge olive groves, they mainly produce oil for their own families and friends. It was a really lovely hike and we got to see some of the back trails which the fiance and I might not have taken if we weren't with the group. We did see some hikers along the way, but only a handful compared to the line ups we encountered on the main paths between the towns. 

Honestly, the towns are really charming in Cinque Terre but there is really not much to do in them. Part of experiencing Cinque Terre is going on some of the hikes and soaking in its landscape and scenery through walking the trails. Plus hiking helped us burn off the two gelatos we ate on Saturday! 

This Week's Flowers + Our Weekend

The fiance came home with some flowers after meeting a friend for coffee yesterday morning. Now we have some pretty purple lilies hanging out in our living room!

It has been a fun and busy weekend spending time with family and friends. We had dinner at my future-in-law's on Friday night and ended with my first ride sitting inside of a cargo bike. On Saturday I walked around the city with some friends who I met on exchange from Germany, we had them over for a very Danish dinner, and then we went to Kødbyen for some drinks and stayed until very early Sunday morning. And yesterday we went to a birthday lunch for the fiance's aunt and uncle and we had a great time there eating wonderful food and hanging out with his cousins.

It's been a full week and things go back to normal this week with Danish classes and whatnot! We are having our housewarming this weekend though so it's still a little bit crazy over here!

How was your weekend?

Staying in Picturesque Vernazza

The fiance and I stayed in Vernazza during our time in Cinque Terre. I may be biased because that was our base last weekend, but it is the coziest, charming and the most picturesque town in Cinque Terre. Vernazza may be the smallest town in Cinque Terre and although there were still many tourists walking around during the day, it felt less touristy than the other villages. Vernazza is located right on the water and like all of the other towns, the apartments and buildings are built on the incline of the hills and cliffs in that part of the Italian riviera.

I was so happy to find out that the fiance had booked a place for us to stay in Vernazza after reading that it was the prettiest town in Cinque Terre. The fiance told me he had booked a place on Airbnb so I thought we would be staying in someone's apartment. We have used Airbnb several times so I was expecting to stay in someone's apartment or a place people rented out to tourists. But then we got to Vernazza and we found out that our Airbnb was actually a hotel room (they advertise/list their rooms on Airbnb)! We stayed in a room at Hotel Gianni Franzi and it was wonderful for the price that we paid. Hotel Gianni Franzi is located just off the main square in the village and we stayed on the top floor of one of their three buildings. From our window we had a great view of the other side of Vernazza (see the first photo in this post). 

Hotel Gianna Franzi had some perks. There was free wifi in one of the lounge areas so it was nice to be able to plug in for a few minutes a day. It was actually really nice not having constant access to the internet plus we didn't really have much time to use the web in between our hiking and gelato eating! Best of all was that the hotel offers a breakfast buffet on their rooftop terrace overlooking the riviera. The view from this terrace was so beautiful. I loved listening to the sound of the waves crashing below us while we enjoyed mini croissants, yogurt, and cappuccinos. I wish I could have breakfast there every day! 

Next up, the hikes that we went on in Cinque Terre! 

Dreams Do Come True

Sorry for the lack of posts this last week. But I do have some exciting things to share with you! The boyfriend planned a trip to Cinque Terre, Italy for us this past weekend. I had been wanting to go there after hearing about it a few years ago from a friend and the boyfriend made it happen! He gave me little hints for two weeks and towards the end I just knew we were going to Cinque Terre. Oh and the boyfriend is no longer. He's the fiance now! Not only did I get to go visit the most beautiful place in the world, I'm also engaged to the most wonderful guy I've ever met. It has been the most amazing weekend ever.

I'll be writing a few more posts on where we stayed, where we ate, and what we did while we were in Cinque Terre over the next few days. If you ever get the opportunity, you have to go there! That part of the Italian riviera is absolutely stunning.

Tea at Tante T

On Friday I met up with my lovely friend S at Tante T in Vesterbro. I have bought tea from Tante T's shop at Torvehallerne but had never been to their tea salon before. It is a lovely little cafe. It is very quaint and a great place to chat and catch up with friends and not so serious or fancy as other places I've been to for high tea. It's more low key and I really liked that.

At the Tante T tea salon you can choose from over 150 varieties of tea, as well as coffee and tea lattes. They serve brunch, cakes, and offer a variety of baked goods as well. Take a look at their menu here. I chose to have a sweet matcha tea latte and a delicious piece of chocolate cake while S chose to have a white hot chocolate.

I had a great time at the Tante T tea salon with S that afternoon and I am definitely planning on visiting them again soon!

Tante T Thesalon
Viktoriagade 6
1655 Copenhagen V

They are open from:
10am to 10pm Monday to Friday
10am to 7pm on Saturdays
10am to 6pm on Sundays

Whole Wheat Apple Muffins

I am not sure why I haven't shared this recipe yet. When I make muffins, I really only make these whole wheat apple muffins and berry muffins, oh and sometimes carrot muffins.

I really like these muffins. Mostly because I feel that it is a tiny bit "healthier" than other muffins with the whole wheat flour in it and a whole cup of skyr/yogurt. These muffins are also incredibly moist thanks to the cup of skyr and because they are jam packed with apple chunks. I used a locally grown apple this time and it was quite sour but I enjoyed the contrast of the apple with the sweetness in the muffin. So here's another recipe to add to your fall baking!

Whole Wheat Apple Muffins (slightly adapted from Smitten Kitchen)
Makes 18 muffins

1 cup whole wheat flour
1 cup all purpose flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1 tbsp cinnamon
a pinch of nutmeg
1/2 cup (120g) unsalted butter, at room temperature
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup packed dark brown sugar, divided
1 large egg
1 cup yogurt (I used skyr with a splash of milk)
2 large apples, peeled, cored, and coarsely chopped

Preheat the oven to 450F or 230C and line a baking tray with cupcake liners or grease and flour the muffin pan well.

Mix together the flours, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, and nutmeg in a large bowl and set aside. In another bowl, cream the butter and add the sugar and 1/4 cup brown sugar. Beat until light and fluffy. Add the egg and mix well. Stop once to scrape the sides and bottom of the bowl. Mix in the yogurt gently. Stir in the dry ingredients until there are no traces of flour left and fold in the apple chunks.

Divid the batter evenly among the muffin cups, sprinkling the remaining 1/4 cup of brown sugar on top. Bake for 10 minutes, turn the heat down to 400F or 200C and bake for another 5 to 10 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the muffin comes out clean. Cool the muffins for a few minutes inside the tray, then take them out and place them on a wire rack to cool completely.

The Last of September

Last week was a lot of fun.

I did an exchange semester in Hong Kong five years ago now and one of the friends I made there was in town for two days. M is a flight attendant and she flew into Copenhagen for the first time ever last week so we spent a day and a half wandering around the city, I took her to my favorite cafes, and we had the most wonderful time catching up on life. You can read more about her time here in Copie on her blog, she wrote the most beautiful post about her two days here.

I also tried dip dying for the first time last week! I would like to have ombre looking pillows for our couch in our living room so I tested it out on some old pillow cases first. I love them. We are currently using the dip dyed pillows in our bedroom even though they don't match our duvet covers. I bought some olive green and amethyst dye so I'll be dipping some more pillow cases soon! First, I have to find some good white cotton pillow cases...

On the weekend, the boyfriend was like "I want some gammeldags æblekage" which translates to old-fashion apple cake. The word kage/cake throws me off though because there is no actual cake in this dessert! It is so simple to make. All you need is some applesauce, whipped cream, and some crumble topping. Layer them in that order and there you go! It is a tasty little treat. I just wish there was some actual cake in there!

What were the highlights of your week?