Chocolate Hazelnut Shortbread Ice-cream Sandwich Recipe

Today's featured recipe is something that you'll die for - Chocolate Hazelnut Shortbread Ice cream Sandwich! It looks tempting and the picture isn't lying. Happy Sunday everyone!   

• 1 cup All-purpose Flour
• ¾ cups Ground Hazelnut
• ¼ cups Cocoa Powder
• 1 teaspoon Baking Soda
• ½ teaspoons Salt
• ¼ cups Granulated Sugar
• ½ cups Brown Sugar
• 2 sticks Unsalted Butter, Room Temperature
• 2 Tablespoons Unsalted Butter, Room Temperature
• 2 teaspoons Espresso Powder
• ½ quarts Ice Cream Of Your Choice
• ½ cups Sprinkles Of Your Choice

1. Pre-heat oven to 300 F. Line two baking trays with parchment paper. Set aside. 
2. In a large bowl, sift the flour, ground hazelnuts, cocoa powder, baking soda and salt.
3. In another bowl, cream the sugars, butter and espresso powder with a hand mixer until light and fluffy.Gradually add the flour mixture into the creamed mixture and beat until just incorporated. Scrape down the sides of the bowl as needed. Cover and refrigerate the dough for an hour.
4. On a lightly floured surface using a rolling pin, roll out the dough to 1/4 inch thickness. Cut the dough with floured 3-inch round cookie cutters. Put the cookies onto the prepared pans leaving an inch or so between each.
5. Bake the cookies for 20 minutes, rotating the baking sheets halfway through the baking time. Remove pans from oven, set them on a rack and let the cookies cool a few minutes on the baking sheets before transferring them to a wire rack to cool completely.
6. To assemble the sandwiches, let the ice cream sit at room temperature for 10 minutes to soften. Place 2 scoops of ice cream into the centre of the bottom of one cookie. Place another cookie on top of the ice cream. Lightly press to evenly push the ice cream to the outside of the cookie. Use a small spatula to smear the side of the cookie to avoid ice cream to overflow. Set the sandwich aside while you finish assembling the rest. Put the sprinkles on a plate and roll the sides of the sandwiches in sprinkles.
7. Note: If you want a smooth ice cream disc between the cookies, you need to plan ahead and prepare the ice cream the day before. Let the ice cream soften at room temperature for 10 minutes. Line a large shallow pan with plastic wrap leaving a large amount hanging over each side. Scoop and level the softened ice cream into the pan. Fold excess plastic wrap over the ice cream to cover it. Place the pan in the freezer overnight.
8. Take the pan out of the freezer, uncover the ice cream, use the same cookie cutter as you used for the cookies to cut out rounds of ice cream and sandwich the ice cream between two cookies. Continue until all the cookies are sandwiched. Put the sprinkles on a plate and roll the sides of the sandwiches in sprinkles.
9. Serve immediately. Or wrap each sandwich with plastic wrap and place them in the freezer.

P.S - Thank you Oh Sweet Day for this recipe!

Your Foodista

Rejoice! It's Cupcake Day

It seems almost strange that every day of the year, is a day to celebrate food. Today is National Chocolate Cupcake Day. Not any regular cupcake, but only the chocolate types. However strange the tradition may be, it is fun one and here at The Foodista we give you the origin of the delightful treat along with a super easy recipe! 

Sadly, no food historian has been able to tell us the story of the cupcake. Two main theories float, the first, a cake measured in cups. This means that, similar to the pound cake, to make memorization of the recipe easy, measurements were taken in cups. It went something like, one cup flour, three cups sugars, 1/2 cup baking soda and so on. The second theory is that miniature cakes were baked in cups to save time and fuel. Either way, the earliest documented recipe was from the 1800s. Regardless, cupcakes a burst of heaven in your mouth and are enjoyed by all.

So, what's the difference between a cupcake and a muffin? 

Typically, a cupcake is sweeter and comes with frosting while a muffin is more like a savory with no frosting. The lines distinguishing the two are blurred. 

Here's a super easy chocolate cupcake recipe that won't take you more than 15 minutes to make!

Serves 12, or really, just as much as you can eat!

3/4 cup plain flour
1/4 cup cocoa
1/2 cup caster sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon vanilla essence
80 grams butter
2 eggs
1/2 cup milk

1. Preheat the oven to 160 degree Centigrade. Meanwhile, prepare your 12 hole cupcake tray or a 24 mini hole cupcake tray
2. Sift all dry ingredients into a stirring bowl
3. Add the remaining ingredients to a bowl and mix well slowing stirring the ingredients together. If you're using an electric mixture, mix of low
4. Start mixing on medium speed for two minutes
5. Scoop out the mixture and place in the tray
6. Place tray in oven for 15-18 minutes
7. Let it cool and put your frosting it all over it!

Enjoy your cupcakes!

Your Foodista