Chocolate Log Blog

Chocolate, Hazelnut & Sherry Cake

2012-02-03T09:14:00.000Z

As part of the review process for Crazy Water Pickled Lemons I felt I needed to make one of the recipes. No surprise that I chose a chocolate cake - a hazelnut and sherry one.

This is how I did it:

Melted 150g dark chocolate (Green & Black's 72% cook's chocolate) in a pan over a very low heat with 75g unsalted butter and 125ml sherry (I used a sweet sherry as that's all I had, but recipe called for dry fino).
Stirred until all incorporated and smooth then left to cool for a bit.
Toasted 100g shelled hazelnuts under the grill for about 5 minutes. Left to cool slightly, then rubbed of their skins with my hands and chopped them roughly.
Weighed out and sifted 2oz plain flour, 2oz cocoa, 1/2 tsp baking powder and a pinch of salt.
Whisked 6 egg whites until stiff - should always be done last, but I hate having to wash up my beaters half way through a process, so I do it first, making sure everything else pretty much ready to go when I've finished.
Beat 6 egg yolks with 160g caster sugar until thick and creamy.
Beat in the chocolate mixture.
Stirred in 75g of the hazelnuts.
Folded in the flour alternately with spoonfuls of the egg white until all just incorporated.
Poured into a 22cm cake mould and baked for 40 minutes at 180C.
Left to cool in the tin for 20 minutes then turned out onto a wire rack to cool completely.

Threw a handful of raisins into a small pan and just covered with sweet sherry.
Brought this to a near simmer, then turned off the heat and left the raisins to soak until cold.
Whipped some double cream until soft peaks formed, then whisked in some quark (low fat curd cheese). The recipe had suggested Greek yogurt or fromage frais, but this was the nearest thing I had in the fridge at the time.
Stirred in the raisins and sherry.
Omitted adding icing sugar as I thought the raisins and sherry would be sweet enough.

Placed the cake onto a serving plate & dusted lightly with icing sugar.
Scattered the remaining hazelnuts over the top, then dusted again with icing sugar.
Served with a large dollop of the sherry raisin cream.

The cake rose beautifully, I was expecting it to sink like a souffle, but luckily, it sank just enough to gave a pleasingly level top. This is one for the adults - rich, dark & slightly bitter it almost borders on the savoury. The crunchy pices of hazelnut provide an interesting contrast to the smooth crumb of the cake. As for the raison cream, it was delicious in its own right and we could have happily eaten a bowlful. It enhanced the flavour of the cake and bought out its fruity notes. This would be good as a dinner party dessert and despite its magnificence, it is very easy to make.

We should Cocoa - the February Challenge

2012-02-01T07:14:00.000Z

Some of those new year's resolutions you made surfaced in the January health conscious round-up. Now it's February, we can forget all about it!

It had to come, the moment you've all been dreading. We've had a nice easy time of it recently and I'm feeling it's time my bad cop persona surfaced again. So, not only am I going for a savoury theme for February, but as I am a vegetarian I'd like all the entries to reflect this too!

Now come on, don't go into a sulk, it's a great chance to get your creative juices flowing. Bakers, don't feel excluded either, think bread, muffins or anything else for that matter. So there you have it, the We Should Cocoa February challenge is for something savoury and vegetarian which includes some form of chocolate.

If anyone has any burning ideas of a "special ingredient" they've been wanting to try, contact us at the usual address if you would like to do a guest challenge this year.

Talking of usual address, please remember to e-mail your entries to weshouldcocoa @ yahoo . co . uk - inclusion in the round-ups can only be ensured if we know about the entries and receive links to those entries. If you need a reminder of the challenge rules you will find them on the We Should Cocoa page.

Crazy Water Pickled Lemons - a review

2012-01-30T18:34:00.000Z

I was absolutely delighted to receive a review copy of Crazy Water Pickled Lemons by Diana Henry from Octopus Publishing. My Levantine genes will out, so it's no surprise that Mediterranean cuisine is a favourite of mine. Much as I love Middle Eastern food, however, this book has a wider reach than a classic Claudia Roden for example. Subtitled enchanting dishes from the Middle East, Mediterranean and North Africa, it is a gentle blend of cuisines, flavours and techniques, adapted by Diana to form her own take on this culinary heartland.

Before receiving this book, I'd never heard of Diana Henry - shame on me! Now an award winning food writer for the Sunday Telegraph, Diana didn't come to food writing until relatively late in life. She has, however, always been an avid cook and food adventurer and her enthusiasm shines through the book and leaps out at surprising moments. First published in 2002, Crazy Water Pickled Lemons was the first of six books that Diana has written (so far). This is a revised edition published this year.

For me this book is evocative of the Arabian Nights, avidly read as a child. Later as a teenager, I was somewhat bemused by the unexpurgated version I'd got hold of. Anyway, the book itself is hypnotic in its sensual, magical, exotic and haunting qualities. The very chapter headings are compelling in their otherworldliness. Take for example, Fruits of Longing highlighting figs, quinces, pomegranates and dates, Plundering the Stores where almonds, hazelnuts, pine nuts and dried fruits come to the fore, The Spice Trail with its mouth watering use of cardamom, chilli, cinnamon, cumin, ginger, coriander, pimenton and saffron and Heaven Scent with recipes using flowers and flower waters. And the drowsy photography fits right along, with half glimpses of foods remembered from some nostalgic dream-time. This is not usually my favourite form of food photography; I like to see the finished article in all its clarity which gives me an idea of what I am aiming for or aspiring to. But here, this form of photography fits well. Yet, despite this whimsy, the content is very much grounded in reality. This is a book of recipes that would be familiar to thousand of home cooks around the Med.

As a vegetarian, I was slightly disappointed to see so many meat and fish dishes, but there are some nuggets to be pulled from the predominantly carnivorous pages. Kushary was one I was particularly excited by. A meal of rice, lentils and macaroni, this is one of Egypt's national dishes and is particularly prevalent in Cairo. Despite having eaten it a number of times whilst living there, I have never yet made it. There are also plenty of ideas for mezze including flat breads and pickles. And of course, with the Med's notoriously sweet tooth, there are a number of treats to keep the sugar lovers amongst us satisfied. Diana's writing more than makes up for any lack of flesh free dishes, indeed this book is a joy to read. Each chapter begins with a three page contextual narrative which tantalises so you can hardly wait to plunge into the recipes that proceed it.

Pickled lemons I'm assuming all are familar with, but what is this crazy water referred to in the title? Fellow vegetarians, read no further, it's all about sea bass. In Diana's own words "Ah, the title dish. And I must say I initially fell in love with it for its name. It's from the Amalfi coast and nobody really knows why the dish is called "Crazy Water". Some have suggested it alluded to the sea-water used by fisherman to cook their catch at sea, others that the "crazy" refers to the heat imparted by the chilli".

No review is complete without at least one recipe being tested. I don't really associate the Med with chocolate, so I was somewhat anxious that I wouldn't have any chocolate recipes to try. But I needn't have worried, there are four to choose from and all of them sound enticing and exotic: chocolate and rosemary sorbet, herb-scented truffles and stuffed figs dipped in chocolate. The one I chose to try first was a chocolate, hazelnut and sherry cake with sherry-raisin cream. This will be featuring on my blog at some future date, but for now I can report that the recipe was surprisingly simple, easy to follow and every bit as good as Diana promised.

Nigella's Chocolate Macaroons - Forever Nigella 11

2012-01-28T08:38:00.000Z

With two left over egg whites from making ice-cream and a Forever Nigella entry to submit over at Maison Cupcake, chocolate macaroons were my indulgence of choice. Sarah of Maison Cupcake has changed the rules, maybe as a new year's treat and we can now make whatever Nigella recipe we like - hooray! After my last attempt at macaroons, which were delicious but exceedingly faffy, I thought I wouldn't bother with the piping fiasco this time and just spoon the mixture straight onto the baking trays. Admittedly my first attempt gave a slightly more uniform result, but the difference was marginal and saved me a whole heap of time and mess. Inspired by the herb flavourings for truffles in my newest book Crazy Water Pickled Lemons, I added a couple of things that were not mentioned in the Nigella recipe, namely star anise and rosemary.

This is how I made them:

Whisked two egg whites until nearly stiff.
Added 12g cardamom sugar (caster) and whisked until completely stiff.
Sifted in 12g cocoa, 65g ground almonds, 125g icing sugar and a pinch of star anise.
Folded the sifted ingredients into the egg whites as gently as I could.
Spooned teaspoonfuls (22) onto a baking tray lined with baking paper.
Left for 20 minutes - to form a skin apparently which presumably is meant to eradicate cracking!
Baked at 180C for 12 minutes.
Removed from the tray with a spatula and as most of them had merged together whilst baking, cut them apart.
Left to cool on a wire rack.

Melted 75g milk chocolate (G&B 37% cook's chocolate) in a pan over hot water with 5 tbsp double cream, 20g unsalted butter and a sprig of rosemary.
Stirred until all was melted and smooth.
Removed from heat and fished out the rosemary.
Beat this with a spoon until it was thick enough to spread. As my kitchen was colder than the fridge, this didn't take very long.
Used generous teaspoonfuls to sandwich the macaroons together ending up with 11 fairly substantial biscuits.

Leaving the macaroons out to form a skin didn't work, just like the last time. My macaroons came out exceedingly cracked. That's OK, I like the cracked homemade look. However, they were just as delicious as I remember them. Crunchy on the outside and chewy in the middle. The presence of the star anise and rosemary were subtle, but noticeable and added a certain hint of sophistication and exoticism to the proceedings.

CT went off on one of his streams of consciousness and identified the taste of China and correctly described the taste as being like China meets the Med. It's a marvel, he said with what you can do with an egg - the perfect food. At least that's what I think he said - his mouth was full at the time.

Next time I make macaroons, I will stick to the spoon method as it is infinitely preferable to messing around with a piping bag and for incompetents like me, there is no discernible difference in result.

Coconut Cream Pie - Random Recipes 12

2012-01-25T07:39:00.000Z

Of all the food blogging challenges out there, Random Recipes from the delightful Dom of Belleau Kitchen is my absolute favourite - excluding We Should Cocoa, of course. I love the way it makes me discover new recipes or cook something I might never normally get around to or even think I want to make. I've been unable to participate in the last two challenges and this has left me feeling somewhat bereft. However, it's a new year and I am determined to apply myself more effectively. This month, it's a new year, a new book, in other words we're to pick a random recipe from our newest book or in my case books.

I had two food books given to me for Christmas this year: Tea with Bea and Cooking with Chocolate. I was very happy to have either of these picked. CT did the honours and it turned out to be Tea with Bea. Page 63, CT announced when I asked him to pick a number. At this point, my heart sank a little, page 63 was the chapter heading for tarts, but pastry really isn't my forte. Well, I mused, I can't very well make a chapter heading, I'll get CT to pick another number. Feeling my resolve weakening, I gave myself a stern talking to and went for the first tart that involved chocolate. This was the ultimate coconut cream pie and not only did it sound superb, but it didn't involve pastry - yeah!

This is how I did it:

Smashed up 400g of digestive biscuits in a large mixing bowl with the end of a rolling pin.
Melted 100g unsalted butter. Bea had stated somewhere between 75g and 100g would be needed, but I was rather dubious how such a little amount would stick the biscuit crumbs together. My normal recipe is for half the butter to biscuit, so in this case would expect 200g butter. But, I thought I'd try it and hoped for the best.
Stirred the butter into the biscuits and divided the mixture into two tart cases (I didn't have the recommended 23cm pie dish).
Pressed the crumbs as best I could into the bottom and sides of the dishes.
Baked for 15 minutes at 150C then left to cool.

The instructions for the coconut pastry cream were overly complicated, so I ignored them and used a standard custard method instead.

Whisked 2 eggs yolks with 3 tbsp vanilla sugar (caster sugar) and 1 heaped tbsp custard powder until well incorporated ( should have added 1 tsp coconut extract, but I didn't have any).
Brought 250ml coconut milk nearly to the boil with 50ml coconut cream.
Poured the hot milk onto the egg mixture and whisked thoroughly.
Poured the whole lot back into the pan and stirred over a low heat until the mixture was thick and just starting to bubble.
Took off the heat and stirred in 50g unsalted butter.
Stirred until all incorporated and the custard was smooth.
Left to cool.

Combined 300ml (was meant to be 500ml, but I had misread recipe and didn't buy enough) with 100ml coconut cream (not in the recipe), 1 tbsp icing sugar (meant to be 50g), 1/2 tsp vanilla extract and 1 tbsp orange rum (meant to be a shot of malibu, but I didn't have any of that either).
Whipped until peak forming stage.
Toasted a handful of coconut flakes in the oven for a few minutes until crisp but not burnt (rather overdid mine, but they were still delicious).
Melted 50g 38% milk chocolate in a bowl over hot water.

Whisked the cold custard then divided between the two tart cases.
Spooned the cream over the top.
Scattered over the coconut flakes.
Tried to drizzle the chocolate over the top, but as it didn't melt properly (I invariable have problems with melting milk chocolate), I soft of dolloped rather than drizzled!

Looking nothing like the elegant creation depicted in the book, this was nonetheless delicious, or as CT said, ambrosial. It was all about the cream and coconut, the sweetest thing being the chocolate. It had a great mix of textures with the chewiness of flaked coconut, the crunchy biscuit base and the smooth cream. The overall effect was of a very light dessert, but very moreish. Even without the coconut extract and malibu, it tasted very coconutty.

Unfortunately, it was as I feared and the base was way too crumbly as it didn't have enough butter to hold the mixture together. This combined with the soft custard & cream meant I had to spoon the mixture into bowls rather than cut a slice and serve on a plate.

All in all, I wasn't very impressed with Bea's recipe writing skills, but I was impressed with her concept and ultimately taste will always win out over presentation with me.

Nice antidote to all that We Should Cocoa healthiness! Thank you Dom.

Chia Seed Muffins - We Should Cocoa 17

2012-01-22T09:14:00.000Z

As some of my regular readers will know, I try to ensure that most of my baked goods contain mostly healthy ingredients. Indeed they are a good vehicle for nuts, fruit, seeds and various super foods. I generally use at least half wholemeal, spelt or other healthy flours in my baking. I use organic eggs where possible and properly free ranging hen and duck eggs when it's not. I believe organic butter where the cows have been grass fed is also nutritious (in moderation). Chocolate, it goes without saying is good for you ;-) My main concern is sugar - I haven't managed to convince myself on this one. I use raw sugars in the main and do use other sweeteners such as Rapadura and agave syrup sometimes. But these substitutes are expensive and I do have rather a sweet tooth. I just hope, the other nutritious ingredients counteract the bad of the sugar. For more information on Rapadura and other ingredients I use see ingredients are the key - ties in very nicely with this month's healthy theme.

But when Chele announced that the theme for this month's We Should Cocoa was healthy eating, I thought I'd go the whole hog and produce something that was properly good for you. One of my Christmas presents from CT was a packet of chia seeds. Chia seeds are said to be super healthy: they contain omega 3, vitamin B, complete protein, anti-oxidants and fibre. It is also claimed they can replace half the conventional fat in any recipe with no discernible effects on taste and texture. The secret is to soak the seeds in water for 15 minutes before using. They form a gel, which is then ready to be used. This seemed to be a good opportunity to put these claims to the test.

So for added nutrition, I rather nervously thought I'd create a muffin recipe using wholemeal spelt and oats, some of the pumpkin butter I made back along, Rapadura rather than sugar and of course, chia seeds. I also had a jar of raw chocolate and almond spread that I hadn't yet used and thought this would be suitable for the chocolate element.

This is what I did:

Spooned 1 level tbsp of chia seeds into a jug.
Topped it up with water to 50ml and left to soak for 15 minutes.
Beat 2 eggs with 120g rapadura and 35ml sunflower oil for a few minutes until well incorporated and bubbly.
Beat in 2 heaped tbsp pumpkin butter.
Stirred in the chia seeds (which had indeed turned to gel)
Sifted in 200g wholemeal spelt, 2 tsp baking powder and 1/2 tsp bicarb of soda.
Folded this into the egg mixture together with 50g rolled oats.
Spooned this into 12 muffin cases.
Placed a small teaspoon of raw almond and chocolate spread on top and scattered over a few oats.
Baked at 180C for 23 minutes.

These had a nice flavour with a rich aroma of molasses, but they weren't overly sweet. They were firm, substantial and chewy and had a crunchy top. CT's comment was "it tastes like it's probably good for you". They'd be ideal as a breakfast muffin, but I think I'd feel a bit short changed if I got these as a tea-time treat. The chocolate spread was really good and I'm not sure why I haven't used it before.

The only thing I wish I'd done differently was to put the chocolate spread in the middle of the muffin rather than on top, where it got burnt. I'd sort of assumed the chocolate spread would sink through the mix, which is why I'd put it on top, but it didn't!

Chocolate Fudge Cake

2012-01-18T07:15:00.000Z

A surprise late Christmas gift arrived in the post the other day. It was actually a prize from Rose of Now & Then Delicious for the mince pies I made from orange pastry and my homemade chocolate mincemeat. I was well chuffed that I'd won and really pleased to have this little copy of baking: 100 everyday recipes published by Parragon Books arrive through the post. It has lots of standard recipes in it, but also quite a few little gems, such as fig and almond muffins, that I'm quite keen to make. As I had a friend's birthday cake to bake, it seemed only polite to try one of the recipes from this book.

Chocolate fudge cake was the chosen one. This was a 20 cm sandwich cake; as I don't have any 20 cm moulds (I really must get some as they would be REALLY useful), I thought smaller would be better than bigger, so went for an 18 cm cake and four cupcakes. I also cut down the quantity of ganache used.

This is what I did:

Creamed 175g unsalted butter with 175g vanilla sugar (caster) until well incorporated and fluffy textured.
Beat in 3 tbsp of syrup and a pinch of salt.
Beat in 3 medium eggs alternating with a spoonful of the flour mixture.
Sieved in 175g flour (half wholemeal, half white), 1/2 tsp baking powder, 1/4 tsp bicarbonate of soda, 40g cocoa and 40g ground almonds.
Stirred this in alternating with about 50 ml of milk (although would have used water as stated in recipe if I didn't have some milk that needed using up).
Spooned into two buttered 18cm tins and 4 cupcake cases.
Baked for 20 minutes at 180C.

Melted 150g dark chocolate (used Green&Blacks 72% cook's chocolate) in a heavy pan over a gentle heat with 1oz dark muscovado sugar and 110g unsalted butter.
Stirred until smooth.
Added 5 tbsp double cream and 1/2 tsp vanilla extract.
Stirred and left in my cold kitchen for about 1/2 an hour to firm up - but not set!
Used some to sandwich the two cakes together, then spread most of the rest over the top and around the sides of the cake, leaving just enough to top the four cupcakes.
Decorated with silver stars on top and alternating pink and white sugar flowers around the edge.

The cake proved to be a great hit at the impromptu birthday party, which followed on after a brisk walk along the river Fowey. It was a nice moist cake with a good slab of ganache in the middle. If that sounds solid, it really wasn't. The ganache had a melt in the mouth texture and was darkly chocolatey. It also tasted slightly fudgey due to the brown sugar, but was not overly sweet.

Top Tea Cakes with Cranberries

2012-01-15T08:28:00.000Z

Sweet pastries and breads is the challenge for Teatime Treats this month set by Karen of Lavender and Lovage. This event is co-hosted by Kate of What Kate Baked. I thought I had a sweet tooth, but you should see what these two get for tea!

I was going to enter the cinnamon and chocolate buns I made for this tea party back in the summer, but still haven't posted. But then I picked up my copy of Short & Sweet and there was no looking back. Dan's top tea cakes were just crying to be made; not only did they use loads of peel (and I had quite a lot of my candied lemon and orange peel to use up), but they also had chocolate in them. Chocolate? Really?

Well, you could of course use beef dripping, but if you're a vegetarian like me, you can, according to Dan, substitute this with a good quality white chocolate as the cocoa butter gives a softer consistency to the crumb than would butter. It all sounded rather intriguing and I was keen to try it out.

I sort of followed Dan's recipe, which you can see here, but I used half bread flour and half wholemeal. I also only used 50g currants and I added 150g fresh cranberries cut in half. I used G&B white chocolate and my own mixed peel - which I cut into pieces with a pair of scissors.

I found this rather a lengthy and faffy process and I wasn't at all enthused by the stickiness of the dough which I found quite hard to work with. I was also rather upset that the tops got burnt, if making these again, I would not bake them at such a high temperature. But I have to say these were the BEST tea cakes I've ever eaten. They were also huge. I divided the dough into ten pieces rather than the nine that Dan had stated and they were still massive. This of course was by no means a bad thing, but twelve or a baker's dozen would have produced a more reasonable size.

So what made them so good? The combination of tangy citrus peel &amp, the tartness of cranberries and the balancing sweetness of the teacake itself. The crumb was deliciously soft just as Dan had promised. CT hates mixed peel, but he loved these tea cakes slathered in butter stating they were possibly the ultimate comfort food.

This was one of the first #shortandtweet challenges, which I now wish I'd done along with everyone else. I shamelessly called for help when I was having problems folding the very sticky dough. You can see the round-up here and get an idea of what better ones than mine might look like.

I'm also entering this into Ren's commendable Simple and in Season blog event, which is something I thoroughly approve of. Do check out her blog Fabulicious Food, a title which represents her blog's contents very well.

White Chocolate Nonnettes and Orange & Poppy Seed Friands

2012-01-12T10:08:00.000Z

Nonnettes

Having seen Phil's We Should Cocoa entry in the Orange challenge from As Stong As Soup in December, I couldn't resist making these for my mother's birthday. Nonnettes, it seems, are little known outside of France. I searched on google for more information and alternative recipes, but Phil's was the only one I could find in English (I gave up after page 6). The name means "little nuns" and they are a speciality of Dijon in France. They are little spiced honey cakes made with marmalade and rye flour and unusually, no eggs.

To use up the rest of the orange zest (I did have a very large orange) as well as the 4 eggs whites left over from making the trifle, I also decided to make friands as I'd not made those before either. For the friands I used this recipe scaling down the quantities to 4 egg whites and adding the zest of 1/2 an orange and 2 tbsp of poppyseeds. For the nonnettes I mostly followed Phil's recipe, but did make a few changes, such as: substituting some of the honey for agave nectar as I didn't have quite enough honey, using more rye flour and less white chocolate as I was worried about the nonnettes being too sweet.

This is how I made them:

Melted 150g honey (runny prre-biotic NZ...) in a small pan with 50 ml of agave nectar.
Added 80g unsalted butter, 100g light brown sugar, 100 ml milk, 90 ml water and 10 ml orange liqueur (home made).
Stirred until smooth then poured into a large mixing bowl.
Sifted in 200g plain white flour and 100g wholemeal rye flour, 2 tsp baking powder, 1 tsp bicarb of soda and 1/2 tsp ground cardamom seeds.
Folded this into the honey mixture.
Grated in the zest from half a large orange.
Stirred in 50g chopped white chocoalte (G&B)
Left in my cold kitchen for an hour.
Spooned into 12 silicone muffin moulds.
Added a teaspoonful of homemade Seville marmalade on top of each one.
Baked for 20 minutes at 180C.
Left in the until cool

Mixed 2 tbsp of icing sugar with a little orange juice, so it was runny, but not overly so.
Drizzled this over the the warm cakes whilst still in their moulds.

Friands

Both of these were good, the friands were light and slightly crunchy due to the poppy seeds, but the nonnettes were my favourite and were truly delicious. The bitterness of the marmalade contrasted nicely with the sweetness of the cake and the rye gives a satisfying smoothness to the texture. The lumps of white chocolate were an added bonus.

Thank you Phil - I shall ever be grateful to you for these.

I am linking this to Baking Addict's blog for #CitrusLove.

In My Kitchen - January 2012

2012-01-09T07:20:00.000Z

Following Christmas, I have some lovely new things in my Kitchen, so it seems like a good time to join Celia of Fig Jam & Lime Cordial for one of her famous In My Kitchen posts.

In My Kitchen - some cook's chocolate, an early Christmas present from Green & Black's. Some already used in my glitzy mendiants but most waiting patiently for their moment of glory.

In My Kitchen - a red Emile Henry clafoutis dish given to me by my mother for Christmas - as yet unused but hopefully soon to be filled with sumptuous clafoutis.

In My Kitchen - a Japanese ginger / wasabi grater which doubles as a fish sculpture, it's even got scales - a Christmas gift from a friend.

In My Kitchen - four redoubtable rocoto chillies, the fifth recently incorporated into my chocolate ice cream. Harvested long after the main crop (used for our chilli sauce), these are still ripening in a cold greenhouse - in January? Yes, January.

In My Kitchen - Tea with Bea, a thank you gift for baking cakes at a Winter Solstice party. As it happens, I didn't actually bake for it as the party was cancelled due to the excessive rain and mud we experienced just before Christmas.

In My Kitchen - chia seeds, a present from CT. It's a Mexican superfood, although most of it is grown in Australia.

In My Kitchen - maca, another gift from CT. Sometimes known as Puruvian gingseng, this also packs a powerful punch. How I'm going to use it, I have no idea.

In My Kitchen - two pots of gold glitter, a kind gift from Susan of a little bit of heaven on a plate.

In My Kitchen - a win from Angela of This Is Life - Ten Byron Bay Cookies, the ones I like!

In My Kitchen - a weighty tome - Pierre Herme's chocolate book, a Christmas gift from CT

The Alchemist's Chocolate Cake - Short and Tweet

2012-01-07T08:30:00.000Z

Although I'd love to enter the Short and Tweet twitter challenge (#shortandtweet) every week, I know this is not feasible, but I am trying to enter it on a monthly basis. You can see the upcoming schedule of bakes here. This week I am not only still on holiday, but one of the chosen recipes is a chocolate cake - errr - no brainer! This has been chosen because of the January austerity measures imposed on our stomachs - it contains only a small amount of fat and sugar using pears as a partial substitute.

As I only had a small (220g) pack of pears left behind by a Japanese visitor, I made approximately half the quantity. It was a bit difficult to half three eggs, but as they weren't particularly big, I used two and rounded up the other ingredients rather than down to compensate. The only convenient sized mould I had was a loaf tin, so that is what I used. Not having any walnut oil to hand, which I'm sure would have been really good, I used a combination of sunflower and pumpkin seed.

I upped the calories a little, by drizzling on some 37% G&B milk chocolate - or perhaps blobbing is a better description. It's certainly not as pretty as Dan's picture in the book. You can see his recipe, originally published in the Guardian, here.

Without giving any clues as to it's identity, I asked CT what he thought. This was his stream of consciousness whilst tasting "smells of cupcakes from my childhood. Resilient cake, not crumbly but has a springy texture. Not very sweet. Nice, slightly banana flavour, slightly grainy, like oats? Seems like the sort of thing someone from the 1950s, wearing a waistcoat, would be eating with a mug of tea, after a hard days graft in the fields".

When he found out this was made with pears, he cried, "ahh sclereids" - blooming botanists! Sclereids are, apparently, the grainy bits you get in pears, so he wasn't too far off the mark with the grainy and fruity associations

We both really liked this cake, both the flavour and texture and it really didn't need the chocolate on top, although this did make for an, err, interesting look!

Christmas Hampers

2012-01-05T07:55:00.000Z

As usual, my ambitions were way bigger than my abilities, so I didn't manage to do quite as much as I was hoping. I did, however, put a few hampers of varying sizes together to give as gifts for Christmas this year - oops I mean last year! Vanessa Kimbell's wonderful Let's Make Christmas event inspired some of these and do follow the link to find many more ideas for home made foodie gifts. I'd wanted to decorate the boxes to make them look suitably festive, but ran out of time. Luckily, I don't think anyone minded.

This is what I made:

Amaretti - recipe taken from the outright winner of Vanessa Kimbell's Let's Make Christmas event back in November, as judged by Dan Lepard - Claire of Claire's Handmade Cakes.

Butterscotch Banana Cupcakes - another winning Dan Lepard recipe from Short & Sweet. I made these for the tool hire boys next door, who uncomplainingly take in our parcels when we're not at home and let us know when something has been delivered.

Candied Nuts - I was lucky enough to take home a jar of candied pecan nuts from Jaynerly at Let's Make Christmas. I was so taken with how good they were that I had to make some for the hampers, although mine were mixed nuts. Not having any maple syrup to hand, I used date syrup instead. Fortunately, it worked really well.

Candied Orange & Lemon Peel - very nice to snack on and also perfect for cooking as it is infinitely better than the mixed peel you buy in tubs. This time I peeled the fruit first, which made for a tidier result, but left me with a lot of orange and lemon flesh that I didn't really now what to do with. I also used star anise in the syrup and coated the peel slices in caster sugar after I'd drained off the syrup. I've just made another batch for my own consumption.

Chilli Sauce - our chillies ripened much better this year than they did last, which meant we got a good hot chilli sauce with a gorgeous orangey red colour.

Chocolate Almond & Cranberry Bites - were a bit of an afterthought as my review copy of 200 Christmas recipes arrived just a few days before Christmas and I needed something quick to make.

Chocolate Mincemeat - I made some mince pies with this and they were certainly the best I've tasted this year. I'm hoping the recipients think the same.

Glitzy Chocolate Mendiants - were the items I was most pleased with. Despite having a chocolate blog, I'm really nervous about working with chocolate in it's pure form as I have not yet mastered tempering. Thankfully, the chocolate behaved itself this time.

Mixed Spice - I'd never thought to make up my own mixed spice before. I don't know why not as I make up various curry mixes. But I got the idea to do this from Karen's amazing blog, Lavender and Lovage. I used star anise, cardamom, black pepper and coriander as well as the standard cinnamon, allspice, cloves and nutmeg that you would expect.

Orange Liqueur - another recipe taken from the creative Karen of Lavender and Lovage.

Orange Shortbread - I doubled my standard shortbread recipe omitting the cocoa and adding organic orange zest to the mix. I wanted to use my "home made" stamp for something and these seemed the most suitable candidates.

Polish Spice Biscuits - another of the amazing Let's Make Christmas gifts. This time from the fabulous Ren of Fabulicious Foods who iced hers most beautifully.

Pumpkin Biscotti - my Let's Make Christmas contribution.

Pumpkin Spice Syrup - I forgot to take a picture of this one, but it was delicious. We liked it as a drink with hot water, my mother used hers over ice-cream. I have Hannah of Home Baked to thank for this one.

Spiced Apple Chutney - this is Nigella's recipe in How to be a domestic goddess and it's a lovely one which I make every year. This year I made two lots, one for us and one to give away.

Wee Dundee Cakes - I'd been wanting to make some miniature Christmas cakes, but wasn't sure what recipe to use. As soon as I saw these over at Lavender and Lovage, I was hooked.

Cranberry and White Chocolate Trifle

2012-01-02T08:08:00.000Z

It was Christmas Day and this trifle was my addition to the Christmas table. Even though my Mother's Christmas pudding is the best in the world, it's nice to have something else as well. I modelled this on the cherry & chocolate trifle I made earlier this year.

This is what I did:

Beat 3 medium egg yolks with 100g vanilla caster sugar until thick and pale.
Folded in 100g sifted self-raising white flour.
Whisked 3 medium egg whites with 20g vanilla caster sugar and a pinch of cream of tartar until stiff.
Folded a 1/3 into the sponge mixture to loosen the mix, then folded in the remainder.
Spooned into a lined 20 x 30cm Swiss roll tin and baked at 180C for 13 minutes, until lightly browned and springy to the touch.
Turned on to a wire rack to cool.
Cut into 16 fingers.

Whisked together 4 egg yolks and 45g vanilla caster sugar in a bowl until well incorporated.
Whisked in 20g custard powder.
Brought 350ml milk to the boil and whisked into the egg mixture.
Returned the whole lot to the pan and simmered for about 5 minutes whilst whisking from time to time.
Took off the heat and added 70g white chocolate (G&B).
Stirred until melted and smooth.
Left to cool.

Simmered 300g fresh cranberries with the juice of 1 orange for 5 minutes until soft.
Left to cool.
Stirred in 4 tbsp of orange liqueur (homemade).

Mixed 40g slivered almonds in a bowl with 10g icing sugar and 1 dessertspoon of orange liqueur.
Spread out onto a lined baking tray and bake at 180c for about 6 minutes until caramelised but not burnt.
Leave to cool.

Lined my glass dessert bowl with the sponge sandwiches.
Poured in the cranberries.
Whipped 20g icing sugar with 400ml double cream and 1/2 tsp vanilla extract until peaks formed.
Folded a quarter of the cream into the custard.
Spooned the custard over the cranberries.
Spooned the cream over the custard.
Scattered the almonds, some dried cranberries and 30g grated white chocolate over the top.

Despite the delicious Christmas pudding, everyone managed a helping of this trifle too and all I can say is - it was worth the effort! In retrospect, I wish I'd done the trifle in layers to make the most of the red, yellow and white, but I'll know better for next time now.

We Should Cocoa - the Orange round-up

2011-12-31T08:09:00.000Z

Filled with seasonal good will, I tried to be kind for this year's We Should Cocoa Christmas challenge. It seems to have been appreciated as we had 36 participants this month. Chocolate and orange truly struck a chord, but I did have one (who shall remain nameless) raising their hands in horror at this hated combination!

This round-up is a real festive treat, even if the tasting has to be done virtually and I'm very happy to take the blame for encouraging all of these decedent creations.

If anyone is looking for a chocolate orange cake, look no further, cakes were far and away the most popular item this month and we have quite a variety to choose from. Luckily, there were a few other goodies thrown into the mix - just in case you thought you couldn't stand another piece of cake!

At this darkest time of year for us in the northern hemisphere, many struggled with light levels. The photographs may be suffering from SAD, but I'll bet the lucky recipients of this lot were very happy.

Don't forget to find out what Chele has in store for us all tomorrow.

Wishing you all a Very Happy New Year.

So, in the order they came in:

Miss Cake Baker of What I Baked This Weekend got us all off to a fantastic start with this very elegant looking Chocolate Orange Marble Bundt Cake.

Given that Christmas is so hot in Australia, Jaxstar of Where the Wind Blows Me thought mini chocolate orange xmas cake truffles might be more tempting than a great big slice to eat. Knowing how full I was after Christmas dinner I think that would go down very well here in the UK too - even if it isn't very warm.

Our first WSC contribution from Sweden brings us chocolate chip cookies with orange rosemary and hazelnuts. This recipe comes from Rasmus of Vegologi and the site is written in Swedish - the link however is to an English translation. They sound delicious and the lovely photograph comes courtesy of pickipicki.

One of life's certainties is that Nigella will out at Christmas time. Anna of At Anna's Kitchen Table has thankfully not disabused me of this fact. She has baked Nigella's storecupboard chocolate and orange cake. And I know from experience that this is a very good cake indeed.

A healthy and intense orange drinking chocolate comes from first timer Mariam of Gourmet Hot Chocolate using water rather than milk. It looks delicious.

I don't think Kat of Life of a Cupcake Baker needed anything to get her into the festive spirit, but were it necessary, I'm sure these chocolate orange cupcakes made with a Terry's chocolate orange as well as orange zest and juice would have done the trick.

Orange tiramisu most elegantly served came from Manu of Cooking Manu. What I particularly liked about this was that it had orange juice rather than coffee in it.

Another elegant offering - a biscuit this time. Orange Viennese fingers from Snowy of Cookbooks Galore. Filled with chocolate and dipped in chocolate, no wonder they are her daughter's favourite.

Not sure if these were just a good excuse to imbibe some of the hard stuff, but these whisky and orange chocolate sandwich biscuits sound delicious. This was Gary's take on a Dan Lepard recipe for mint chocolate biscuits and an inspired one at that. Exploits of a Food Nut.

Panettone with chocolate, clementine and walnut sounds very festive indeed and I'd very much like to dig into a slice for breakfast or tea any day of the week. It certainly cheered up a wet December day for Working London Mummy.

What could be more tempting than truffles? Karen from Lavender and Lovage offered us these gorgeous chocolate orange cake truffles for day twelve of her advent calendar fest.

Now how about this for a perfect roll? This chocolate and orange cream roulade from Yummy Choo Eats sounds as good as it looks.

And hot on the heals of one roll comes another with this Christmas Chocolate Log from Mari's World - first time with WSC. If you want to see how it's done you'll find a video showing you how.

The love of French baking runs strongly in the veins of Phil from As Strong As Soup and it is France that has inspired these delicious nonnettes with white chocolate chips. I actually know these are delicious because I've just baked them - superb!

Using a bag of Chocolate Spice Puddles as inspiration, Baking Addict of The More Than Occasional Baker came up with these really pretty and enticing chocolate orange and cranberry cookies.

As an added bonus to these delicious looking party stollen from Kate of What Kate Baked, you can also take part in her festive quiz to find out just how much you get into the party spirit.

Both festive and to celebrate her birthday, Jean of Baking in Franglais was organised enough to bake these rich chocolate orange muffins before going to work in the morning - impressive indeed!

Shaheen of Allotment 2 Kitchen has my mouth watering over another "I now must bake" brownie recipe with these juicy orange Jaffa brownies.

Chocolate orange banana bread is the unusual combination brought to us by the Hungry Hinny. The addition of orange curd adds a note of lushness that I find particularly appealing.

Another first timer Fleur of Homemade by Fleur made these scrumptious chocolate covered orange lebkuchen all prettily packaged for her Christmas hampers.

A perfectly rolled and lush looking chocolate orange roulade comes from Dom of Belleau Kitchen who is well on his way to world domination and is now out to impress Eric Lanlard.

Suelle of Mainly Baking was hoping to bake something else for WSC, but I was really taken with these orange cranberry and chocolate muffins with their use of oats and toasty topping.

Jaffa Cake Christmas Trees in true festive style is a WSC first entry from English Mum. With CT a huge Jaffa cake fan, I might have to hide this one or he'll be clamouring for me to make it!

I am truly shocked and horrified to find out that Johanna of Green Gourmet Giraffe is the ONLY one in her family to appreciate chocolate in her Christmas cake. With figs, prunes (orange of course) and lots of chocolate, this is my sort of fruit cake - chocolate and fig fruitcake.

Now how cute are these mini chocolate and orange bundt cakes? Very I'd say. An early Christmas present for Kath of The Ordinary Cook was responsible for these beauties.

Hooray, I was hoping someone would make these chocolate dipped candied oranges and Chele of Chocolate Teapot made them with bells and whistles too, using spices in the mix and keeping some of the flesh on.

Variations on orange and chocolate make up these divine sounding chocolate orange cupcakes from Laura of Laura Loves Cakes.

I've made so many things with chocolate and orange this month, I wasn't sure which one to submit to WSC. In the end it was the shoes that convinced me and I went for this triple orange and chocolate cake.

A twist on a traditional favourite, these melt in the mouth chocolate orange Canada cornstarch shortbread cookies got a raised eyebrow when Michelle of Food, Football and a Baby presented them. Luckily they were enjoyed by all - it's amazing what a bit of crystallised ginger can do!

Ginger must have been in the air because Shu Han (another WSC first timer) of Mummy, I Can Cook came up with the same winning combination. Inspired first by Spain and then Nigella, this flourless chocolate orange and ginger cake was born.

A pruny hazelnutty Nigella inspired chocolate Christmas cake has become a Christmas tradition in the Brownieville Girl household and no wonder I say.

A warming and festive recipe that particularly appealed were these mulled chocolate and orange marshmallows by Matthew from Salty Plums. As if this wasn't enough decadence he accompanied them with chocolate and orange cookies.

First timer, Janine of Cake of the Week came up with these festive looking white chocolate, orange and ginger flapjacks. The photos of them packaged up for gifts look especially good.

Orange fudge topped with chocolate sounds wonderfully decedent. No wonder this chocolate orange fudge disappeared so quickly when Hannah from Corner Cottage Bakery made it just before Christmas.

Now cream cheese in a cake sounds utterly intriguing and I want to go and try it out immediately - pretty much along with all the other entries - oh my! C of Cake, Crumbs and Cooking has adapted a Dan Lepard pound cake to come up with this lush looking cream cheese and chocolate orange cake.

Just right for the lead up to Christmas, or Boxing Day or even New Year's Day, this chocolate and orange wreath brought to us by The KitchenMaid looks highly festive.

Chocolate, Almond & Cranberry Bites - 200 Christmas Recipes Review

2011-12-28T09:02:00.000Z

Unfortunately this little book, 200 Christmas recipes in the Hamlyn All Colour Cookbook series, didn't arrive in time to be really useful for Christmas. There must have been some sort of glitch in the despatch system as I didn't receive the book, sent by Octopus Publishing for review, until a couple of days before Christmas. I did, however, manage to squeeze in one recipe - another one for my second batch of hampers - mulled wine biscuits or as I have named my adapted version, chocolate, almond and cranberry bites.

At only £4.99 I'd say this book is good value for money. It's quite compact, measuring only 16.5 cm by 14 cm but this is quite a nice size to be easily portable and won't take up a lot of room on the bookshelf. As you'd expect from the title, it is stuffed full of Christmas recipes and covers everything you would expect plus quite a bit more. There aren't actually two hundred different recipes but most of the hundred or so recipes there are has a variation which bumps the number up. For example, no self respecting Christmas book would be complete without a recipe for red cabbage and this one does not disappoint: a really interesting recipe for braised red cabbage makes an appearance, using beetroot and red wine amongst other ingredients; the variation printed at the bottom of the page is for crunchy red cabbage.

Each recipe has its own double page spread, the recipe on one side and the much sought after full colour picture on the other, which makes it particularly useful for flicking through when you're in a panic for ideas. The recipes are clear and easy to follow, although perhaps not detailed enough for a complete novice.

The book starts off with an eight page introduction giving tips on such necessities as carving the Christmas bird and making giblet stock for the gravy. As a vegetarian, I didn't really find either of these particularly useful, but the recipe for a Madeira cake to be used as a base for several of the recipes and how to sterilise jars was more my thing. A big chapter on Christmas fare followed this which included various meat dishes but also plenty to keep vegetarians such as myself happy. Lots of ideas for puddings were also in this section with two Christmas pudding recipes, a traditional one and a last minute one to help out the less organised amongst us. Ricotta and candied fruit slice particularly grabbed my attention.

Other chapters covered: centrepiece cakes, small cakes and cookies, edible gifts and leftover turkey ideas. Plenty there to inspire me for next year and plenty to keep the, errr, chocoholics happy. There is even a recipe for fruit & nut discs which is very similar to my glitzy mendiants. A recipe for ginger nightlights particularly caught my eye - a lovely idea using gingerbread with boiled sweet panes for the tea lights to glow through. With lots of choice and not much time, I was torn between panforte de Siena and the mulled wine biscuits which I eventually went for - only I used sherry rather than red wine. Port and cherry cookies were the alternative version offered and if I'd had any dried cherries to hand I might well have used those instead.

This is how I made them:

Warmed 120g raisins and 75g dried cranberries in 50ml orange juice, 50ml sherry and 1 tbsp of apple jelly in a pan to not quite simmering.
Covered and left to soak for an hour.
Melted 50g unsalted butter in a pan and left to cool a little.
Sifted 3oz flour (half wholemeal, half white) into a bowl with 1/2 tsp baking powder, 1/4 tsp cayenne pepper, 1 tsp cinnamon and 1/8 tsp ground cloves.
Mixed in 100g chopped blanched almonds, 100g chopped dark chocolate (G&B Maya gold) and the grated zest of 1 orange.
Made a well in the centre and broke in an egg then added the fruit and butter.
Mixed this all together.
Spooned 28 teaspoonfuls onto a lined baking sheet placing slightly apart.
Baked at 180C for 15 minutes or so.
Transferred to a wire rack to cool.
Dusted with icing sugar.

What I particularly liked about these biscuits was that there was no added sugar to the mix and with all that dried fruit and the apple jelly there was no need; these biscuits were quite sweet enough. They were also very tasty - fruity, spicy, crunchy and festive.

Triple Orange and Chocolate Cake - We Should Cocoa 16

2011-12-23T18:28:00.000Z

All dressed up and nowhere to go!

When I received these glamourous little shoes, I knew immediately they would have to adorn a cake. And adorn the cake that I made for last week's tea party they did. Given the theme of this month's We Should Cocoa, that cake had to be an orange one. But as it was for WSC, it couldn't just be any old orange cake, no, it had to be a bit more than that, so it became a tripe orange cake. I had a jar of bitter orange syrup left over from making candied orange peel, a bar of orange milk chocolate from Divine and some organic oranges, so with those all gathered up, I set to:

Creamed 225g unsalted butter with 125g vanilla sugar (caster) and 100g molasses sugar until pale and fluffy.
Grated in the zest of 1 organic orange and creamed some more.
Beat in 4 medium eggs, alternating with some of the flour.
Sieved in 200g flour (half wholemeal, half white & a tbsp mesquite powder), 25g cocoa, 1 tsp baking powder, 1/4 tsp bicarb of soda and a pinch of salt.
Stirred this in with a large tbsp of Greek yogurt and 1/2 tsp vanilla extract.
Spooned into two 22 cm sandwich moulds and baked at 180C for 23 minutes until risen and firm to the touch.

Or maybe there is

Left in moulds for 10 mins then turned out onto wire racks to cool completely.

Melted 100g orange milk chocolate (Divine) in a bowl over hot water.
Beat this into 200g cream cheese.
Spread over one of the cooled cakes and placed the other on top.

Warmed 50 ml of orange syrup (left over from making candied orange peel) in a small pan.
Added 80g broken dark chocolate (60%) and 10g unsalted butter.
Stirred until smooth.
Allowed to cool a little, then poured over the cake.
Placed a pair of shoes on top!

The party's over

Three types of orange and three types of chocolate had the desired effect and this cake was truly delicious. The photographs are not of the best due to the poor light, but the cake had a real wow factor with those shoes strutting their stuff.

Although this cake was undoubtedly gorgeous and has to be my entry for We Should Cocoa, the orange and chocolate mince pies I made for the same party were absolutely delicious too and would otherwise have been a strong contender.

Orange & Chocolate Mince Pies

2011-12-21T18:05:00.000Z

This could well have been my entry for this month's We Should Cocoa challenge, but delicious as these were, I have something I hope is a bit more exciting for that. Then again, these were possibly the nicest mince pies I've ever eaten. They were the only mince pies CT has eaten and liked! One of our Cornish friends introduced us to this "traditional" way of putting clotted cream inside the pie rather than on top - what a brilliant idea. The photographs are rubbish I'm afraid as I made these and served them up at last week's tea party and after a couple of glasses of mulled wine, taking photographs was not top of my list of priorities. I made pastry using orange juice and zest and filled the pies with the chocolate mincemeat I made last month.

This is how I did it:

Made shortcrust pastry using butter, an egg yolk, orange juice & zest, a little icing sugar and half wholemeal / half white flour (can no longer remember quantities).
Rolled out pastry with extreme difficulty (due to hard butter from very cold kitchen).
Cut into 12 bottoms and 12 tops
Filled with homemade chocolate mincemeat.
Brushed tops with milk then scattered over some flaked almonds.
Baked for 20 minutes at 180C
Ate warm with copious amounts of clotted cream.

These will be my contribution to the fabulous Christmas tea hosted this month by Kate of What Kate Baked. Can't wait for that groaning table of festive goodies! The tea party is one of many hosted by Kate or Karen of Lavander and Lovage for their Tea Time Treats event.

Polish Spice Biscuits and New Zealand Honey

2011-12-20T21:14:00.002Z

For my christmas hampers I was looking to make some sort of spiced biscuits that I could cut into stars and possibly decorate. There were several contenders, but I eventually plumped for Polish Spiced Cookies otherwise known as Pierniczki taken from Ren's aptly named blog Fabulicious Food. These cookies made their way to Vanessa's Lets Make Christmas event at Fortnum and Mason's and were most beautifully decorated. I particularly liked this recipe as it used cocoa powder and lots of honey which sounded just right for ChocLogBlog Christmas biscuits. Ren also suggested using rye flour. Although I'm very familiar with rye flour in sourdough bread, I had never used it in sweet baked goods until I recently made Dan Lepard's rye apple cake (you can find the Short & Tweet round-up here). I was completely won over by the wonderful texture this grain gives and was keen to try it again.

This is what I did:

Melted 110g unsalted butter in a small pan with 110g soft brown sugar and 8 tbsp honey (Beech Forest HoneyDew).
Stirred until combined, then left to cool a little.
Sieved 225g rye flour and 225g white flour into a bowl with 2 tsp baking powder 2 tbsp cocoa, 2 heaped tsp homemade mixed spice, 1 heaped tsp cinnamon, 1 heaped tsp ginger and 1/2 tsp cayenne pepper.
Made a well in the centre and poured in the butter mixture then broke in a large egg.
Stir the mixture together starting from the middle until all is incorporated.
Brought it all together with my hands to form a ball.
Cut this in two then rolled out (one at a time) to the thickness of about 1/4 cm.
Cut out about 80 stars and hearts by re-rolling the leftover bits several times.
Placed them on lined baking trays about a cm apart and baked the first batch for 8 minutes at 200C.
Sadly, these burnt, so I reduced the temperature to 180C and baked the rest for 7 minutes only.

Already feeling cross for having burnt the first 20 biscuits, I was not particularly looking forward to icing the biscuits. I don't have much patience for artistic endeavours and I found cutting stars out of the pastry was fiddly enough. In the end, I ran out of time anyway. Luckily, these looked really good even in their unadorned state. They had a good crunchy biscuity texture and tasted wonderfully warm and spicy with an unmistakable hint of honey. The touch of chilli was good too, giving just the right amount of additional warmth. Ren advises that these keep well for up to two weeks and I would say from the snappiness of them that this is very likely true. They have all left the house in hampers now though, so I am unable to verify this assertion.

A few weeks ago, the New Zealand Honey Co had sent me a 340g bottle of their 10+ pre-biotic Beech Forest Honeydew to try. It's quite a dark honey that is gathered by the bees from honeydew rather than flower nectar. It is claimed to be particularly good for the immune system and digestion. This may or may not be true, but I have to say this was totally delicious. It has a deep rich and not too sweet flavour and has more body than many other honeys I have tried, leaving a nice flowery aftertaste. It warms the back of the throat in a healing sort of way - it feels like it's doing you good. I have used it now in a number of recipes but also on toast for breakfast. It worked particularly well in these biscuits, giving them a special richness. This is also my first experience of honey contained in a squeezy bottle and it certainly helps to deliver it to the right spot without the usual mess and wastage. Not that I object to licking the spoon or my fingers come to that.

Glitzy Chocolate Mendiants

2011-12-18T17:31:00.000Z

Chocolate for Christmas gifts is of course a necessity. Last year I made ginger chocolates and orange sticks, but what to do this year? A while ago, Susan of A little bit of Heaven on a Plate very kindly sent me a couple of pots of edible gold dust / glitter and I was itching to use them. As soon as I saw White Chocolate Mendiants in Eric Lanlard's Cox Cookies & Cake, I knew a variation of these would make their way into this year's hampers. Although I set myself the task to learn chocolate tempering this year, I haven't actually managed it. I thus continue to be hesitant about making chocolates; although bloom doesn't really change the taste of chocolate it most certainly makes it look unappealing. Anyway, this is how I gave it a go.

Drew lots of circles about a couple of centimetres apart on a sheet of greaseproof paper using a pencil and plastic milk bottle top.
Turned this over so I could see the circles but had no worries about pencil poisoning!
Into separate bowls put some shelled unsalted pistachios, dried cranberries, dried mango pieces (cut into small strips), dried physalis, blanched almonds split in half, strips of candied orange and lemon peel.
Melted 150g white cook's chocolate (Chocolate by Trish) slowly in a bowl suspended over a pan of hot but not yet simmering water.
Spooned teaspoonfuls of the chocolate into the circles spreading it out to fill the entire circle (made 30).
Working fast placed a cranberry, pistachio and a piece of mango or phsyalis on each chocolate circle before it set.
Dusted on some Disco Gold using a small paint brush.
As soon as set (didn't take very long in my cold kitchen), peeled the mendiants off with a palette knife.

Melted 150g 38% milk cook's chocolate (Chocolate by Trish) using the same method as above, but reserving about 30g which I added after the chocolate was melted. This was an attempt at the seed method of tempering, but without a thermometer it was a bit hit and miss.
Spooned the melted chocolate into the circles as before (made 30).
Topped these with cranberries, mango pieces and almonds and left to set.
Dusted with Disco Gold.

Melted 150g 72% dark cook's chocolate (Green & Black's) using the same method as the milk chocolate (made 32).
Topped with pieces of candied orange or lemon peel.
Dusted with Antique Gold.

These mendiants were a huge success and although I made them well over a week ago now, they still look good and my worries about the chocolate blooming has not materialised ..... yet!

Four bags of these have already disappeared into hampers and have now long departed this house.

I am submitting this to Bookmarked Recipes run by Jacqueline of Tinned Tomatoes and founded by Ruth of Ruth's Kitchen Experiments.

Miniature Chocolate Dundee Cakes

2011-12-13T07:23:00.000Z

Getting a Christmas hamper of goodies together has been my task this month. Among the components I wanted to include were some miniature Christmas cakes. On browsing the wonderful blog Lavender and Lovage one day, I was inspired by Karen's recipe for Wee Whisky Doused Hogmanay Dundee Cakes. Well mine are even weeer. I used a different method and some different ingredients - like chocolate ;-)

This is what I did:

Placed 300g of mixed fruit into a bowl - mostly vine, but a few chopped dates, pineapple, papaya and cranberries.
Added grated zest and juice of 1 very juicy orange.
Stirred in 50ml of Scotch Whisky and two tsp of orange syrup (left over from making candied peel).
Covered and placed on top of our storage heater for a couple of hours (a low oven would be fine or could just be left somewhere overnight).
Creamed 100g unsalted butter with 100g light brown raw cane sugar.
Beat in 2 small eggs.
Sieved in 150g self-raising flour, 50g wholemeal spelt, 1/4 tsp bicarbonate of soda.
Stirred in 25g ground almonds.
Added 50g chopped 70% G&B dark chocolate and the fruit mixture.
Mixed well and spooned into two 6 hole muffin moulds.
Pressed 6 whole blanched almonds onto each one.
Baked for 35 minutes at 150C.
Left to cool for half an hour then turned out onto a wire rack to cool completely.
Wrapped them in greaseproof paper and packed them away in a tin.

I haven't tried them yet, but am expecting good things of them. I have bought some nice Christmassy ribbon to border the edges when the time comes for presenting them - see if you can guess which one it will be?

I am submitting these to English Mum's Big Christmas Bakeoff.

For more ideas of edible gifts check out Vanessa's Lets Make Christmas.

Find Me A Gift - Martin's Chocolatier

2011-12-11T16:22:00.000Z

As some of you know, I have a particular weakness for milk chocolate, so when find me a gift offered some chocolates from Martin's Chocolatier to review, I chose the Milky Moody Selection. The website looked promising, stating "handcrafted luxury chocolate collections", sourcing "only the finest luxury chocolates from around the world".

There was a bit of a delay in delivery, so to assuage my chocolate deficiency, I was very kindly sent these delightful little shoes. I fell in love with them on the spot and could not bring myself to spoil their perfection by tucking into them. They are currently decorating my sitting room, but I have plans for them to top a forthcoming cake - just perfect for creating a wow factor, or so I'm hoping. They would make a great stocking filler for a sweet toothed shoe lover.

The chocolates eventually arrived. At first glance, they looked to be quite interesting and I was looking forward to trying them - who am I kidding, when do I not look forward to chocolate? There was a good range of flavours and fillings and they weren't all the usual suspects. The names were unusual too: Beethoven, Moulin Rouge & Edwina to name but a few. But there was no explanation as to why they were so called. On the box, these are described as "Finest quality chocolates. Ultimate taste experience". Sadly, I did not find either of these statements to be the case.

I should have been warned by the lack of information provided; in my experience good chocolate comes with a story. Not only was there no explanation of the unusual names the chocolates had, but there was nothing about the producers or where the cocoa had come from - in fact there wasn't much more than a list of ingredients and an address. The milk chocolate (30%) tasted cheap and left a greasy feel in the mouth long after the chocolate was eaten - the result perhaps of the vegetable fats listed in the ingredients. Finest quality chocolate? I don't think so. With a few exceptions, I found the fillings bland and insipid. No, I was not enthused at all and unusually for me, had no problem putting the box aside.

To be fair I have a cold, so my taste buds are not on top form. This being the case, I am willing to be convinced that the fillings are better than I've stated, but the chocolate I can find no excuse for.

On the plus side, these chocolates were not sickly sweet nor were the flavours artificial - in taste and actuality.

Overall though, these are disappointing. I have eaten some good chocolate in my time but these were not of that ilk. At £25 for 30 chocolates (360g), I do not believe these to be good value for money. A better quality milk chocolate is needed and that would go a long way to improve the "luxury" status of these chocolates.

Rhapsody - creamy raspberry flavour with a layer of jam. This was the first one I tried and I was very willing to be rhapsodic, but alas, the jam was the only flavour I detected.

Christina - soft smooth belgian caramel filling. The caramel had a nice flavour and a good consistency, neither too runny nor too firm.

Melissa - smooth orange parfait. This had a good zesty orange flavour to it and the ganache was nicely smooth.

Mary - smooth Irish cream. This was quite enjoyable, but only tasted very faintly of Irish cream and I could detect no presence of alcohol.

Captain Cook - dark rum ganache. Rather cloying and a bit too sweet, this had a hint of rum about it but without the heady notes you'd expect in a proper rum truffle.

Arabica - roasted coffee praline. With CT not around to do the coffee tasting for me, I gamely gave this one a go. Surprisingly, I enjoyed this one more than most and I think it's because I could actually taste something distinctive.

Edwina - almond royal marzipan. I'm not sure I've ever eaten marzipan that I haven't enjoyed and this was no exception. A nice generous chunk of chewy marzipan covered in only a thin layer of the chocolate - which was a good thing in this instance.

Moulin Rouge - white chocolate ganache with forest berries. One of the better flavours where the berry taste came through clearly, but was muddied by the chocolate.

Eve - soft centred cream of green apple. This was the one I was most looking forward to trying, but it turned out to be the most disappointing. The filling had dried out and shrunk and the chocolate beneath it had collapsed. The only flavour I tasted (apart from the not particularly chocolatey chocolate) was from the coconut decorating the top.

Beethoven - soft butter cream with gingerbread. This one sounded so good and warming and just right for Christmas. I liked the texture of this, very smooth, but with tiny bits of gingerbread which made it slightly chewy. This left a nice warming taste in the mouth, though I would have preferred a slightly stronger flavour.

Dan Lepard's Banana Blondies

2011-12-08T06:40:00.000Z

When it comes to bananas, CT and I are not fans. Strange, therefore, that I ended up buying a whole bunch of cheap bananas the other day. My eye for a bargain has let me down on numerous occasions, as a box full of ready made pasta sauces languishing at the back of a cupboard will testify. I worked my way through the apples and then the pumpkins and now it looks as though it's the turn of bananas. This may be the first of many posts on the subject!

If I'm going to eat bananas, baked in cakes is one of the best ways, so I dutifully leafed through my baking books. Being in the mood for something sweet and comforting, Dan's banana blondies taken from Short & Sweet sounded just the ticket - lots of sugar, white chocolate and caramel - you couldn't get much sweeter than that!

This is how I made them:

Placed a large pan on a low heat and poured in 75g vanilla sugar followed by 2 tbsp of water.
Allowed the sugar to dissolve then upped the heat until the sugar was boiling. Let it boil for about 5 minutes when the colour started to darken and a drop plopped into a glass of cold water set hard. Getting this bit right is always tricky as you want a hard caramel but you don;t want a burnt one.
Stirred in 75g chopped Brazil nuts then quickly poured out onto a piece of baking parchment to cool and set.
Broke into pieces.

Melted 100g unsalted butter and 200g vanilla flavoured white chocolate in the same pan (I'm a great believer in saving on washing up).
Removed from heat and stirred in 225g vanilla sugar.
Beat in 1 egg and 2 bananas - peeled and finely chopped.
Sifted in 225g flour (half wholemeal, half white) and 1/2 tsp baking powder.
Added the broken nuts and mixed until just combined.
Spooned into a 9" sq cake mould and baked at 180C for 20 mins.
Left to cool, then cut into little squares.

As I found out when cutting, these weren't really cooked enough; another 3-5 minutes would probably have been a good idea. But as I infinitely prefer under cooked to overcooked brownies, I wasn't going to complain. Oh no, indeed not, these were just the scrumptiously sweet little bites of delight I was hoping for - even with the banana! The crunchy bits of caramelised nuts were excellent for a contrasting texture and flavour and were really delicious.

A Food Blogging Fest

2011-12-05T07:36:00.000Z

I am so behind with my posts at the moment; there are some I've drafted from nearly a year ago which I still haven't published and other things I haven't even started writing. Hey ho, better late than never, I hope. Here's a brief account of my upcountry adventures of over two weeks ago, meeting up with other food bloggers.

To say I don't get out of Cornwall much is not quite true, as I cross the border into Devon several days a week to go to work. But I love my home county and find more than enough to do and see here, so I don't feel the need to leave it very often. Sometimes though, an unmissable event drags even a home bird like me out of her nest.

A food blogging conference to be held in Birmingham was the lure - the first in the UK to be held outside of London, Bite n Write organised by Annie Ko. As well as several presentations I hoped I'd find useful, I was also keen to meet up with food blogging friends Kath of The Ordinary Cook and Jac of Tinned Tomatoes. Having finally committed to this, it just so happened that Vanessa Kimbell of Goddess on a Budget invited me to attend her Lets Make Christmas event at Fortnum & Mason in London, the very day before Bite n Write. Well that was just too fortuitous to turn down, so I didn't.

Both events were really well worth attending and I enjoyed them for different reasons. Really annoyingly, I was so taken up by events at both venues that I hardly took any photos. I'm not going to write too much of an account of either, as both have been well documented by other attendees over the blogosphere - and they all seem to have taken photographs too! But here are a few highlights:

Let's Make Christmas
This was a very glamourous affair for a country bumpkin ;-), but it was also very warm and friendly with lots of familiar blogging names to meet and have a chat with. As well as this, the aim was to make a Christmas gift or gifts, blog about it, then bring it along to be judged by Dan Lepard - some fabulous prizes were up for grabs. Ultimately they were swapped for another blogger's gift, so we all ended up being winners in the end. The tables laden with gifts were awe inspiring and many had put huge amounts of effort into their creations. My rather humble offering was some of these Spicy Pumpkin Biscotti. In return, I was thrilled to receive a jar of candied pecans from Jaynerly and most delicious they are too. I will definitely be making some Christmas nuts to this recipe. My biscotti got carried off in the hands of The Botanical Baker. It was fun to meet so many lovely food bloggers and a delight to finally meet Dan and his partner David after the aborted attempt back in October. It was also really good to meet Vanessa who put a lot of effort into organising this event and deserves our thanks. She was just as warm and lovely in person as she comes across on the radio and her blog. You can see her write up of the event including pictures, a list of the winners and links to all of the participants' blogs here. As it was an afternoon event, it was quite appropriate for us to drink tea and eat F&M's delicious mince pies and even more delicious chocolate mousse mini logs, so I knuckled down and did my duty. It was good to meet bloggers I hadn't come across before but I was particularly pleased to put faces to names I knew so well and especially the following - We Should Cocoa (ers) all!

Not having been to Fortnum & Mason for over 20 years (how scary is that?), I took the opportunity to have a bit of a mooch. Gracious, there were some fabulous goodies on offer and it all looked so tempting. It was, of course, rather on the pricey side, so I was very pleased that we were all given a pack of White Chocolate & Cranberry Florentines to take home with us.

Bite n Write
The next day was much more industrious and more concerned with paying attention and writing down tips than it was about chatting, although there was of course some opportunity to network. As well as meeting Kath and Jac, which was a delight, I managed to have a brief catch-up with a number of others including:

Beth of Jam and Clotted Cream - fellow Cornish food blogger
Dormouse and the Teapot
Jules of Butcher, Baker
Charlotte of Go Free Foods - who I hadn't managed to spot at Lets Make Christmas the day before.

The conference was held in the colourful Custard Factory, a suitably named venue for a food bloggers event. A photography workshop by Craig Fraser of FraserShot started the day. This was really interesting, but the tips I'd been hoping for had only just started, when time ran out and it was on to the next topic. I try not to be too envious of Judith Lewis of Mostly About Chocolate, but she does get to try a lot of very nice chocolate for her blog reviews. She is also an expert on SEOs and it was this that was the subject of her talk. I only had a vague awareness of what SEOs were up to this point and Judith imparted some highly useful information - none of which I've yet acted upon!

My chocolate envy was soon assuaged by the workshop I was was most looking forward to. It was not only all about chocolate but more to the point was all about tasting chocolate. Artisan du Chocolat gave us quite a feast of flavours both new and old. Starting with a 100% cocoa bar and working down the spectrum, we sampled one bar after another. Flavoured bars came next with a 40% milk chocolate Masala Chai generally being voted everyone's favourite followed by Chilli Mole. Then it was on to the truffles which included lemon & thyme, tobacco (!) and salted caramel. Some appealed more than others, but there wasn't one I wouldn't have had a second taste of given the opportunity - not even the coffee! This was not the case for everyone as I did see some grimacing going on and even some chocolate being, not so surreptitiously, spat out.

Our enthusiasm for chocolate led to the programme running behind schedule so Jeanne Horak of Cooksister gave a rather rushed but really useful talk about promoting your blog and finding your own writing style. Michelle of Go Free Foods gave an even more rushed presentation about developing recipes, specifically with food allergies in mind. By this point, I had rather lost the plot and when James Bolton from Derezzed Media held a workshop about WordPress, I switched off. I didn't manage to regain my attentiveness even for Ben Frazer of Cupcake Artisan and slipped off to catch my train home during his talk on video blogging.

For further info, Catherine Moran of Word Stew has made some useful notes on her Bite n Write post highlighting the key points made by most of the speakers.

In addition to the chocolate, we had some very tasty and attractive cupcakes during the day, lunch (which very nearly didn't materialise for the vegetarians) and a goody bag to take away with us which included a delicious fresh methi masala curry paste from Bipins and a tin of Steenbergs Christmas Tea.

Turns out this post wasn't quite as brief as I was intending, but there was so much going on at both events and so many bloggers attending, this only scratches the surface.

Dan's Coconut Milk Layer Cake

2011-12-02T13:53:00.000Z

This was one of the cakes that leapt out at me when first perusing Dan Lepard's Short & Sweet and I was keen to make it as soon as possible - which I did back in October and have left it so long that Dom has beaten me to it. AND his looks brilliant!!! I've not come across cakes made with coconut milk very often and found it quite intriguing. I was hoping to include it as one of the Open House cakes, but in the end it just wasn't feasible, either the original or a cupcake version I had been toying with. So, having bought the necessary ingredients, I made a version of it the following weekend for us anyway. It's not strictly a chocolate cake, but I was planning to incorporate chocolate somehow as well as use up some odds and sods left over from the big bake.

This is what I did:

Placed 50g desiccated coconut in a small bowl.
Warmed 160ml coconut milk up in a pan.
Poured this over the coconut.
Added 1 tsp vanilla extract and 50ml white rum, then covered the bowl and left for a couple of hours.

Creamed 250g unsalted butter with 300g cardamom sugar (caster) until light and fluffy.
Beat in 4 smallish hens eggs, alternating with a little of the flour.
Added 275g twice sifted flour (100g wholemeal, 175g white), 2 tsp baking powder and 1/4 tsp bicarb of soda alternately with the coconut mixture.
Divided between two 22 cm round cake moulds and baked for 30 mins at 180C.
Squeezed half an orange over the two cakes whilst hot (it was meant to be lime and rum, but I didn't have any lime and forgot the rum).
Left to cool for 10 minutes then turned out onto racks to cool completely.

Found a small dish of buttercream icing lurking in the fridge.
Beat this up with 150g mascarpone and one of my jars of apple & lemon curd.
I'd also meant to add 100g melted white chocolate, but I forgot!
Sandwiched the cakes together with the apple/lemon mascarpone then spread the rest over the top and around the sides.
Topped with 40g white chocolate shavings.

Despite some of the ingredients I forgot, they couldn't have been essential, because this turned out to be a really lovely cake. When asked his thoughts, CT helpfully stated "it tastes like a homemade cake". What he actually meant by that, was it tasted like a real cake made by a real person and was utterly delicious. It was not overpoweringly coconutty, but the rum came through clearly and pleasantly. It was moist and had a good firm chewy texture. The apple cream, mascarpone filling and icing complemented it well and was delicious in its own right. For some reason, it reminded me of a really good banana cake - but without the banana!

We Should Cocoa - the December Challenge

2011-12-01T08:06:00.000Z

After the mixed response we had to the Apple round-up, many of you asked for something "simple please" for Christmas. So, I've been mulling over the possibilities. What about Avocado? It's seasonal and comes from the same neck of the woods as cocoa. What could be more appropriate? Turkey maybe?

But no, I jest. I decided on my choice for this month's We Should Cocoa sometime ago. Seasonal, festive and if you're very lucky you'll find one in your stocking. It is a well established flavour pairing with chocolate and it's one of my favourite colours. The future's bright, the future's Orange!

We Should Cocoa - The Apple Round-Up

2011-11-29T21:18:00.000Z

I'm very sad to report that Chele is currently coping with the recent death of her mother in law. I am doing the round-up for her this month.

Apples, it seems, are not an obvious choice to go with chocolate, the chosen ingredient for this month's We Should Cocoa. Much scratching of heads has ensued, resulting in some really creative and inspiring cooking. Not all were convinced by this combination, but there have been some converts - I defy anyone not to like Montezuma's apple crumble bar.

Don't forget to look here on 1 December to find out what We Should Cocoa excitement we will be getting up to for the festive month of December.

Just in time to give Guy Fawkes a run for his money, Mel of Sharky Oven Gloves (who wasn't in the least bit sold on this combination), brings us not just any old toffee apples, but Chocolate Toffee Apples.

Another doubter, Suelle of Mainly Baking, was hoping for a "startling revelation". I thought her Date and Apple Squares with Chocolate Crumble sounded delicious, but she was not, sadly, won over.

Not surprisingly with Bonfire night very much to the fore, toffee apples were a popular choice. But these weren't your average toffee apple, oh no, Hannah of Corner Cottage Bakery gives us Toffee Apple Truffles complete with sparklers.

What I Baked This Weekend was one of those not convinced by the combination. Luckily her husband was, so when she baked these Chocolate Chip Apple Cookies, they did not go to waste.

Dark Chocolate and Buttermilk Pancakes with Green Apple and Orange Caramel Sauce was served up en masse for a benefit breakfast by first timer Jacstar84 of Where the Wind Blows. How I wish I'd been there.

Not one to blow his own trumpet, Dom of Belleau Kitchen reckons he has possibly created "the most heavenly dessert ever". Can you guess what it is? I just love the marbling effect on this Chocolate Apple Charlotte.

Lucy The KitchenMaid lay awake worrying about this challenge in the middle of the night. Well, if worrying produces this most delectable of results, I think she should do it more often. Apple Blondies.

Thoroughly fed up with all the apple cakes I'd made with this year's amazing autumnal bounty, I too got creative and came up with these surprise Apple and Almond Chocolate Pastries.

Janice of Farmersgirl Kitchen got inspired by the mincemeat recipe in Dan Lepard's new book Short and Sweet. She added chocolate to make this dark Chocolate Mincemeat even darker.

Having just said I was sick of apple cake, I would love to try a slice of this Apple Chocolate and Nut Bundt Cake. A real stunner that couldn't look more autumnal if it tried, made by The More Than Occasional Baker.

And another pretty bundt apple cake I really would like to get stuck into - or maybe I should just eat my words. With a bumper crop of apples to process, Michelle of Food Football and a Baby made Grandma's Applesauce and Cocoa Cake with Coffee Glaze.

As always from Phil of As Strong As Soup, we have something rather different. Very elegant to look at with an evocative title, I am awestruck by this Millefeuille of Chocolate Tuiles and Apple Snow.

Another one who found this month's theme particularly challenging was Snowy of Cookbooks Galore. She eventually came up with Chocolate and Apple Pancakes, which sound completely delicious to me, but Snowy was not impressed.

Flapjacks or breakfast bars? Shaheen of Allotment 2 Kitchen was unable to decide. Either way these Apple and Chocolate Chip Flapjacks sound like a delicious and healthy snack to be had at any time of the day.

Using milk chocolate to make this Apple Spice and Chocolate TeaLoaf, C of Cake Crumbs and Cooking was not entirely convinced of the chocolate apple combination either, but did admit it made for a very nice, if not outstanding, loaf.

Crumble in a Cup sounds so comforting and is great for eating whilst snuggling up on the sofa as Kate of What Kate Baked tested out for us. Even better she found when smothered in white chocolate custard.

Not happy with her first attempt at apple and white chocolate muffins, Susan of A Little Bit of Heaven on a Plate had a rethink and came up with this glitzy Toffee Apple Topped Chocolate Marble Cake.

White chocolate custard got a second look in, but with brandy this time. It accompanied this scrumptious looking Rustic Apple Tart with a White Chocolate and Brandy Custard, baked by Laura of How to Cook Good Food.

And yet another one who found it hard to be convinced by apple and chocolate. I think I'd be happy to eat Brownieville Girl's Chocolate Chip Bread Pudding with or without the apple.

Johanna of Green Gourmet Giraffe not only included apple and chocolate in her bake but pumpkin made an appearance too. These Choc Apple Pumpkin Oat Biscuits look chewy and delicious.

This very stylish Chocolate and Caramelised Apple Cake successfully assuaged the doubts that Helen of Half a Pot of Cream had about this combination. With this gooey brownie like cake topped with such delectable apples, no wonder!

You might be mistaken for thinking Christmas has come early with this Roast Goose with Apples and Cocoa. But the Cake Fairy was celebrating thanksgiving in a very creative We Should Cocoa way.

Karen of Lavender and Lovage really knows how to push the boat out. Having spent a few weeks dashing around the UK, she still managed to get an entry in this month and what an entry it is. I have a real weakness for tiffin, so these Spiced Apple and Cranberry Crunch Bars accompanied by stunning photographs has made my mouth water non-stop since I first saw them.

Somewhat sneakily, I thought I'd get a 2nd entry in. At more or less the same time Janice was making Chocolate Mincemeat, I had had exactly the same idea. Only I based mine on a different recipe using a different book - great minds eh?

Not happy with his first attempt of apple tempera and chocolate sake dipping sauce, first timer Matthew of Salty Plums had a second go and came up with this splendid Apple Soufflé with White Chocolate Parfait.

Chocolate pastry followed by home-made apple and pecan mincemeat and a crumble topping, Chele of Chocolate Teapot knows how to please a crowd - festive apple pies.

Chocolate Mincemeat

2011-11-26T09:35:00.000Z

Each year I vow to make mincemeat and each year I fail. But this year, I've bucked the trend - hooray. CT is not a fan of mince pies and I can take them or leave them, but home-made mincemeat is a different food game altogether - or at least that's what I'm hoping. I based my mix on the one in British Baking by Peyton and Byrne, but used rum instead of brandy and the home-made mixed spice I concocted after reading Karen's post about it on Lavender and Lovage. I also, added, errrr, chocolate! I made it a couple of weeks ago but am letting it brew for a while. As it has lots of apple in the recipe, I thought I'd sneak it into this month's apple themed We Should Cocoa.

These are the ingredients I mixed together in a large bowl which I covered and left over night before giving a good stir and spooning into sterilised jars:

225g Cornish cooking apples (variety unidentified)
110g vegetarian suet (rather wished I'd used butter in retrospect)
175g raisins
110g sultanas
110g currants
50g mixed peel
100g dark chocolate (70%) - chopped
175g dark brown sugar
grated zest and juice of an organic orange (unwaxed)
grated zest and juice of an organic lemon (unwaxed)
25g flaked almonds
3 tsp mixed spice (home-made)
3 tbsp rum

This should keep for a year in a cool dark place, but I have plans for this mincemeat and I'm really looking forward to trying it. Assuming it makes the grade, a couple of the jars might make it into this year's Christmas hampers.

Pumpkin and Ginger Cupcakes

2011-11-24T00:26:00.000Z

On perusing my favourite new baking book, Dan Lepard's fabulous Short & Sweet, this recipe for pumpkin ginger cupcakes very quickly made its presence felt. We had four massive Boston Marrow squashes (you can see last year's pictures here) from our plot this year. These are big with firm orange flesh and are easier to grow in our climate than most. They are also thin skinned, like a butternut squash, so are easy to prepare. The downside of this is that they don't keep very well. We have, therefore, been supping on squash soups, curries or stews most nights for the last month or so. I've made pumpkin syrup, pumpkin biscotti, pumpkin butter and now these cupcakes. Luckily, I love squash, so I'm sort of pleased and sort of sad that we've only got enough left of this year's crop for another 4 or 5 meals plus maybe some pumpkin scones.

Another reason, if another was needed, for making these particular cakes, was the element of ginger. I wanted to submit something to TeaTimeTreats, a new baking challenge set by Karen of Lavender and Lovage and Kate of What Kate Baked. Ginger and bonfire treats is the chosen theme for November. I did make an apple and ginger oat pudding a few weeks ago, which I was going to enter, but cakes are more of a teatime treat than puddings.

Having made the pumpkin butter, I was keen to use it, so the topping is not the one Dan prescribed but one I made up. I also swapped the nuts for chocolate - how could I not? And made a few other amendments. This is what I did:

Grated 250g squash.
Finely chopped 100g crystallised ginger.
Roughly chopped 50g dark 70% chocolate.
Creamed 175g molasses sugar with 125g unsalted butter.
Beat in 2 large eggs, one by one.
Stirred in the pumpkin and ginger.
Mixed in 200g flour (half spelt, half white), 2 tsp baking powder, 1 tsp ground ginger 1 tsp allspice, a grating or two of nutmeg and 1/8 tsp ground cloves.
Stirred in the chocolate and spooned into twelve muffin cases.
Baked at 180C for 20 minutes, left to cool for 5 minutes then turned out onto a wire rack to cool completely.

Beat 100g icing sugar with 125g mascarpone until smooth.
Stirred in 2 tbsp of pumpkin butter.
Spread onto the cooled cupcakes and decorated with slices of crystallised ginger.

I was so pleased with my pumpkin butter topping, it was delicious; creamy and spicy, with a nice tangerine tint to it. Once again, I had to refrain from eating the lot before it went onto the cakes.

The cakes tasted like a Jamaica ginger cake, according to CT, only not nearly as sweet and considerably more substantial. The lumps of ginger were nice and chewy and the chocolate chunks a welcome addition. Amazingly, with all these strong flavours, the pumpkin was detectable, in both the cake and topping. In fact, CT, in uncharacteristically techie mood, summed it up as being "like the html behind the blog". He also noticed it left a clean and refreshing taste in the mouth.

Pumpkin Butter

2011-11-21T14:00:00.001Z

This is another of my recipes that isn't a chocolate one, but can be justified appearing here because it WILL be used in a chocolate recipe - to be posted shortly! Adapted from the excellent blog One Perfect Bite, where you will find the photograph is so much better than mine, I have reduced the amount of sugar and spices and increased the apple juice content. There is much debate as to whether pumpkin butter can be water processed, thus extending its life to a year or so; as the debate has not proved conclusive either way, I thought I'd go with the safest method - the 'keep it in the fridge and try and use it within a month' one. This is how I did it:

Cut a big chunk out of the last of our Boston Marrow pumpkins.
Peeled and de-seeded it, then cut it into small chunks (about 1" sq) to weigh about 2.5 lb.
Placed in a large pan with 1 cup of very local apple juice, kindly given by a friend.
Brought to the boil, then simmered (with the lid on) until soft - approximately 30 minutes.
Pureed this with a hand blender.
Stirred in 1 cup of granulated sugar and the following spices: 1 rounded tsp ground ginger, 1 rounded tsp ground cinnamon, 1/8 tsp ground cloves and a good grating of nutmeg.
Simmered this gently (with the lid off) for a further hour, stirring occasionally, until the mixture was thick and leaving a well defined trail when a spoon was dragged through it.
Spooned into 6 warm sterilised jars.
Left to cool and placed in the fridge.

Sweet and spicy with a gorgeous warm orange colour, this is my kind of food and was delicious on a slice of toast this morning. I'm now thinking I might have to make some pumpkin scones to go with it.

I'm linking this to Ren's Simple and in Season monthly event which she hosts on her fabulous blog Fabulicious Food - I just so love that name.

Food Bloggers Unplugged

2011-11-17T14:49:00.000Z

Well, as some of my regular readers will know, I feel a bit ambivalent about this tagging lark. Sometimes I've participated and sometimes I've given a heartfelt "thank you" and left it at that. However, Susan of the wonderful A Little Bit of Heaven On A Plate (and if you haven't yet visited her blog, you'll know why this name is so apt when you see her header) has just started Food Bloggers Unplugged - #foodbloggersunplugged - with the aim of getting to know a bit more about fellow food bloggers. She has tagged me as one of the very first five to be chosen - how could I resist that? In fact I'm really touched.

The idea, of course, is to learn a little more about the folk behind the blogs - hmmm, I think this is what I'm afraid of! Questions to be answered:

1. What, or who inspired you to start a blog?
Amazingly, it was work! In an attempt to make us a little more net savvy, we had to create a blog to record our progress in social media. I knew virtually nothing about blogs at this point, but when I understood a) how easy they were to set up and b) their potential, I rushed home excitedly to get one started for CT. I thought it would be a good platform for his Andean crop research. He'd only been doing it for a month when I began to feel left out.

2. Who is your foodie inspiration?
Now this one is virtually impossible to answer. My inspiration changes like the wind and has come from literally hundreds of sources. There are some big names there, like Andrew Whitley who finally got me baking sourdough bread on a regular basis; Rose Elliot who saw me through my early days of cooking for myself; Sally Fallon rallying us to the call of real food and dismissing the diet dictocrats and the anti-fat police; Dan Lepard with his adventures in all things baked. There is also family and friends. There are restaurants and cafes. There are cookbooks. But these days, I have to say it is other food bloggers who inspire me most with their wonderful writing, ideas and photographs.

3. Your greasiest, batter - splattered food/drink book is?
Once upon a time, it was The Bean Book by Rose Elliot, but the stains are now old and faded. It was superseded long ago by Gaia's Kitchen by Julia Ponsonby - a great book for real everyday home vegetarian cooking.

4. Tell us all about the best thing you have ever eaten in another country, where was it, what was it?
I've travelled a lot and eaten so much amazing food in so many amazing places, but the best thing I remember was sitting down by the side of the road in France, during a long cycle ride and eating a hunk of bread, a lump of cheese and a beautifully ripe pear - those three flavours live on.

5. Another food bloggers table you'd like to eat at is?
Actually, I want to eat at all of them. Couldn't I take it in turns? To choose one, seems mean, so I'm ruling out turning up for tea. That would just be too difficult, so I am plumping for dinner instead. As a vegetarian, it would have to be a toss up between Tinned Tomatoes, Allotment 2 Kitchen and Green Gourmet Giraffe, all of whom cook splendidly delicious and interesting vegetarian food.

6. What is the one kitchen gadget you would ask Santa for this year (money no object of course)?
Does a nice big kitchen with loads of work surfaces, cupboard space and a table count? No? Oh well, a Global knife would be very much appreciated.

7. Who taught you how to cook?
My mother - from as early as I can remember. And this delightful book.

8. I'm coming to you for dinner what's your signature dish?
I do a mean Shakshuka and over the years many have wolfed down my Surprise Cheesecake with delight.

9. What is your guilty food pleasure?
I've just scoffed a box of Maltesers (with only a little help from CT)!

10. Reveal something about yourself that others would be surprised to learn?
I live in Cornwall ;-) Oh, you mean you already know that? OK, my grandparents (who sadly I never met nor inherited any money from!) once owned two department stores, one in Alexandria and one in Cairo.

I am also just about to go on a journey and in fact need to leave now in order to catch my train. I'm off on a massive Food Bloggers weekend, two events, two lots of people - not something I've done before, so I'm feeling excited and a bit trepidacious!

So, to the five blogs I am tagging:

Kath of the Ordinary Cook - far from ordinary and one of my absolute favourite blogs.
CityHippyFarmGirl - highly enjoyable and poetic style (and I wouldn't mind eating her food either).
Chele of Chocolate Teapot - my partner in Cocoa.
Liz of Feasts & Festivals - delicious food in the context of seasonal and traditional celebrations
Laura of How to Cook Good Food - a relative newcomer to the world of blogging with some delicious looking recipes which I'm keen to try.

Update 30 Nov 11 - I have subsequently been tagged by Sneige of Orange Thyme. Strangely, she was at one of the food blogging events I attended a couple of weeks ago and, err, still haven't written up. In fact she played a starring role by winning one the Sweets category in Venessa Kimbell's Let's Make Christmas with her Mincemeat Pops. Sadly, I didn't get to try one or a chance to meet up.

Celebration Chocolate Cake

2011-11-15T07:21:00.000Z

Fitting nicely into this month's We Should Cocoa theme, this cake was actually designed to be the piece de resistance at the cake fest last month and luckily it proved to be so. I wanted something rich and chocolatey yet fudgy with a contrasting flavour. I'd already decided to use my apple and lemon curd to fill the cake and then when I spotted the Treacle chocolate fudge frosting in Short & Sweet, I was away!

Recipe - this is what I did:

Creamed 225g unsalted butter with 125g cardamom sugar (caster) and 100g molasses sugar until pale and fluffy.
Beat in 3 duck eggs, alternating with some of the flour.
Sieved in 200g flour (half wholemeal, half white & a tbsp mesquite powder), 25g cocoa, 1 tsp baking powder, 1/4 tsp bicarb of soda and a pinch of salt.
Stirred this in with 100g fat free Greek yogurt and 1 tsp vanilla extract.
Spooned into two 22 cm sandwich moulds and baked at 180C for 23 minutes until risen and firm to the touch.
Left in moulds for 10 mins then turned out onto wire racks to cool completely.
Wrapped in greaseproof paper and left to finish off the next day.

Heated 50ml milk, 1 tbsp treacle, and 50g light muscovado sugar in a pan.
Whisked I heaped tbsp of custard powder (I didn't have any cornflour) and 1 heaped tbsp cocoa into another 50ml of milk until all combined.
Poured this into the hot milk mixture and whisked until smooth and thick.
Removed from the heat and stirred in 90g of chopped 60% dark chocolate.
Beat in a bare tsp of vanilla extract and a bit more than 15g of unsalted butter.
Carried on beating until smooth and lush - mmmmmm!

Sandwiched the two cakes with a generous layer of apple and lemon curd.
Topped with the treacle icing.
Sprinkled white chocolate stars over the top.
Sat back and felt smug

Smugness, it seems, never pays. On the rather tortuous journey to the cake destination, the top slid off the bottom! Luckily, I managed to rescue it before it fell on the floor and a near disaster was overted, although it didn't ever look quite as good as it had once done. As all I got was oohs and aahs, I don't think anyone noticed!!!

A truly delicious cake, the molasses sugar gave a fudgy consistency, the lemon curd a nice contrast and the treacle frosting finished it all off perfectly. The icing was so good, I could have happily eaten the bowlful all by myself and then probably been sick. Luckily for me, that wasn't an option.

Divine Intervention

2011-11-13T00:13:00.000Z

And my prayers were answered. A box crammed full of Divine chocolate delights, nestling on a bed of colourful recycled packing material, arrived in the post.

Divine is a fairtrade chocolate company set up in 1997 to provide an outlet for the chocolate grown by a Ghanian co-operative of small scale cocoa growers. The company is 45% owned by that co-operative, Kuapa Kokoo, so much of the profits are reinvested back into the local communities as well as the farms. Benefits have included schools, where none existed before, children being able to attend school, better health care and cleaner water.

The packaging is an important part of the aesthetic and luxury experience I expect to get from good quality chocolate. I have an aversion to chocolate wrapped in plastic and am surprised at how many "good quality" bars are wrapped in it. Divine bars, I'm pleased to say, are all contained in an inner casing of gold and silver foil, thus scoring top marks from me. The outer paper wrappings come in a variety of colours matching the ingredients within and are covered in attractive West African symbols called adrinkas. Each one has a specific meaning and if interested some of the meanings can be looked up on the Divine website. In my ~~thrifty~~ eco friendly way, I recycle these chocolate papers as gift wrapping.

The chocolate is not top of the range and at around £2 for a 100g bar, you wouldn't expect it to be. But it is still good chocolate and of a far higher quality than the average chocolate bar you can buy in the UK. It is also widely available. Even in the wilds of our small town on the edge of Bodmin Moor, it is stocked in both our local Co-op and Oxfam shop. I'm familiar with the 70% dark chocolate, which I often use in my baking, such as this Chocolate and Almond Fudge Cake. For a dark chocolate, it has a mild and soothing quality which I find pleasant. But I am less familiar with other Divine bars and had no idea they made fudge at all.

It was the fudge I dived into first, not so much because I'm a fan of fudge; I used to love it, but these days I generally find it too sweet. The description enticed me in though. I have been won over by the salt / sweet combination that's doing the rounds and salted fudge sounded intriguing. I was more than pleasantly surprised. The salty fudge was really quite delicious and because the chunks were quite small and thickly covered in dark chocolate, they were not overly sweet in the least.

Having said, I don't like things too sweet, I am a fan of butterscotch in chocolate, so I was pleased to see a 45g bar had been included in the box. I haven't tried Divine's version before but it didn't take me long to rectify this. Despite the milk chocolate being only 27% cocoa solids and not skimping on the butterscotch, this was not cloyingly sweet, in fact it was more than pleasant.

The next up to try was the 70% dark ginger and orange 100g bar. I had something specific in mind for this and used it to make gingered chocolate mincemeat. I did, however, manage to snaffle a couple of squares - for my usual research purposes! The chocolate had the same mild quality of the 70% bar but had a subtle ginger flavour with tiny pieces of orange dotted about. I could have quite happily eaten the whole bar, but managed to resist.

Three 100g bars remain and I am trying to be very good and not go into a frenzy of flying gold paper fragments and inelegant gulping. No - I have plans for these - baking plans. So what's left: 70% dark chocolate with raspberries, orange milk chocolate and white chocolate with strawberries.

Apple and Chocolate Almond Pastries - We Should Cocoa 15

2011-11-11T07:26:00.000Z

When Chele announced that apples were the special ingredient for this month's We Should Cocoa, my heart sank a little. I have made so many chocolate cakes and puddings with apple this autumn already I was hoping for something a little different. But, hey, this is a challenge, so I had a little think and realised I didn't need to bake another cake or a pudding after all. No indeed, I would make up my very own apple and chocolate Danish pastry. I know I could have made my own pastry and made my own marzipan, but time was short so I cheated a little.

This is what I did:

Poured 100ml water into a small pan and added a couple of inches of cinnamon stick, 1 tbsp of vanilla sugar and a squeeze of lemon juice.
Brought to a simmer.
Peeled, cored and sliced 1 large Cornish cooking apple.
Added apple slices to the pan and simmered for about 2 minutes - trying not to overdo them so they turned to mush.
Removed apple slices with a slotted spoon and left to drain.
Simmered the syrup for a further 3 minutes to thicken it.

Rolled out a pack of 375g all butter puff pastry into a large square.
Cut off the edges to neaten the square, then cut into 8 rectangles.
Squidged the edges into a ball and rolled out into another rectangle, making 9 in total.
Placed a large square (from a 125g bar with 10 squares) of 70% plain Ecuadorian chocolate on each rectangle.
Cut a 200g block of marzipan into 9 pieces and rolled into rectangles slightly smaller than the pastry ones.
Placed these over the chocolate and pressed down into the pastry to seal it so the chocolate wouldn't leak out - or at least that was what I was hoping!
Laid three apple slices across the top of the marzipan.
Scatter some flaked almonds over the top.
Baked at 200C for 15 mins until risen and nicely browned.
Immediately brushed the tops and sides with the syrup.
Transferred to a wire rack to cool.

Chele, I'm sorry for doubting you. I was ecstatically pleased with these pastries. If you really want to wow your guests, for a mid-morning snack, afternoon tea or even as dessert at a dinner party, these are the ones to do it. So simple, but so delicious. Best eaten whilst the chocolate is still melted, a la pain au chocolat, but these are nearly as good when the chocolate has set. The sweetness of the marzipan was offset by the slightly tart apples and the dark chocolate creating a classy treat that wouldn't seem out of place in a Viennese coffee house - who am I kidding ;-)

Spicy Pumpkin Biscotti - Let's Make Christmas

2011-11-08T07:04:00.000Z

Having mentioned the C word in my last post, I am fully committed to it now. In a bid to try and remember what Christmas is all about and to get away from the avid commercialism associated with it, Vanessa Kimbell has created a thought provoking Let's Make Christmas event. The idea is to inspire people to make their own Christmas gifts this year - or at least some of them. As I've always tried to make a few of my own each year, I heartily approved of this sentiment. Then Vanessa came up with a second Let's Make Christmas event which I was also keen to participate in. She is hosting a food blogger gift swap - in Fortnum and Masons no less. I haven't been to this shop in many many a long year, but it still lives on in my memory as a perfect Aladdin's cave of foodie delights. I really didn't want to miss out on this one.

But oh what to make, what to make? It needed to be something light, that would travel well and could be made well in advance. My first thought was biscotti, as the ones I made last year were so good. On reflection though, I thought this wasn't very original so contemplated making these chocolate oranges instead. But, having mulled that over, I rejected it, mostly because the only organic oranges I could find were thin skinned and your really need thick skinned pithy oranges for this. Hmmmmm, various biscuits, brownies, tiffin, truffles all came to mind. Then I was sent a copy of Cox Cookies & Cake to review. The review will follow in a later post, but one of the recipes that leapt straight out of the page was this one - oh well back to the biscotti idea after all. But pumpkin biscotti! Surely not many others will be doing that. And we did manage to grow quite a few large pumpkins this year, which nicely tied into my seasonal theme. Having been inspired by Karen's mixed spice over at Lavender & Lovage, I was keen to make my own for this recipe. The only missing ingredient was chocolate, but chocolate dipped biscotti can only be a good thing, surely?

So here you have my first batch of pumpkin biscotti. I shall make some more for the big do in London nearer the time. I halved the recipe, although the mixture was so wet (probably because I added more pumpkin than I should have) I had to add quite a few spoonfuls of additional flour to the mix, so this is really quite a bit more than half. Here's how I did it:

Ground 2 inches of a cinnamon quill in the coffee grinder with 1/4 tsp of cloves, 2 star anise, 1/2 tsp coriander seeds, 1/4 tsp black pepper corns, the seeds from 5 cardamom pods and 1/4 tsp allspice berries.
Added a good grating of nutmeg then pounded it further in a pestle and mortar to make it as fine as possible.

Steamed 80g of peeled and chopped pumpkin (Boston Marrow) flesh for 15 minutes until tender.
Left to drain for a good half an hour to ensure it wouldn't be too wet.
Mashed with a fork.

Toasted 100g mixed nuts in the oven at 180C for 10 minutes until just starting to brown.
Placed in a pan and fried them in 15g butter for a few minutes.

Sieved 225g flour (100g white, 125g spelt) into a bowl with 1 tsp baking powder and 1 tsp of the mixed spice.
Added 175g dark brown sugar.
Made a well in the centre and added 1 large egg and the mashed pumpkin.
Mixed this in, starting in the middle and working outwards.
Added about 3 tbsp more of spelt as the mixture was very wet.
Spooned onto a baking tray lined with a silicone mat in a rough log shape.
Baked for 25 minutes at 180C.
Left to cool for 20 minutes.

Cut 1 cm slices diagonally across the log with a bread knife (17 long pieces in total).
Placed the slices on two lined trays and baked at 160C for a further 15 minutes.
Left to cool on a wire rack.

Melted 60g 72% dark chocolate in a bowl over hot water.
Coated the ends of 8 of the biscotti in the melted chocolate by means of dipping and pouring it over with a teaspoon.
Left on a wire rack to set.
Placed in a jar and tied a ribbon and tag around it (I use old Chrismas cards as tags).

Nutty, spicy and delicious, I thought these had the necessary star quality to travel with me to London. I was particularly pleased with the spice mix, which was so much more aromatic for being freshly ground. These were not overly sweet as evinced by CT's first comment on biting into a piece, "mmmm, tastes like a sausage" - great! However, once covered in chocolate, no more mention was made of sausages, just pleasant grunts of satisfaction were evinced. The only thing I would do differently is to make much smaller pieces - I had to find a very tall jar for these to fit in.

Hotel Chocolat, The C Word and a Giveaway

2011-11-06T08:04:00.003Z

There is a certain something I generally don't like to hear mentioned before December, but that's about to change - the dreaded C word will shortly be appearing on my blog. Only dreaded in November and especially in October or September, but very much loved in December. This post is all about Christmas, more specifically Christmas Crackers - there I've said it now, so will no longer shy away from it.

To my delight, a box of ten mini crackers from Hotel Chocolat arrived in the post recently. All dolled up in one of my favourite colours, gold, these would certainly grace my Christmas table and indeed, I hope they will. Each cracker contains a filled chocolate covered with the classic Hotel Chocolat 40% milk chocolate and they all sound scrumptious:

Rhubarb Fool - rhubarb and white chocolate mousse
Billionaire Shortbread - caramel, cookies and praline
Berry Mousse - raspberry and strawberry mousse
Cinnamon Praline - hazelnut praline spiced with cinnamon
Milk Truffle - as described by the title, a milk chocolate truffle

As I'd really like to keep these for Christmas, I haven't actually opened any of the crackers to try a chocolate - once started I'd find it too hard to resist eating the lot. But I have been wondering how to use them when the time comes. They would make luxurious place name tags for a festive dinner setting or would even look good decoratively scattered around the Christmas table. Stocking fillers are another thought or perhaps used as a Christmas gift tag. They could even be hung on the Christmas tree - I'm a big fan of edible decorations.

Not wanting to keep these delights entirely to myself, Hotel Chocolat have agreed to offer up an additional box to one lucky person. To enter the giveaway you must leave a comment on this post answering the question below. You have until midnight GMT on Monday 14th November when the giveaway closes. The winners will be randomly selected after this date. Once again, apologies to oversees visitors, but this is only open to those with a UK postal address.

What would you like to give a loved one from the Hotel Chocolat Christmas Selection?

Additional entries can also be made by doing any of the following and leaving me a separate comment to tell me what you've done (but you must answer the question above for these to be eligible):

Following me on Twitter
Following my blog via Networked Blogs (follow button can be found on the sidebar)
Tweeting the following message "win @HotelChocolat mini crackers from Chocolate Log blog @Choclette8 - bit.ly/sTCT5E"

16 November Update. This giveaway is now closed. The winner has been drawn using Random.Org as follows: no. 86 - Bdonna191

Dan Lepard's Orange Cassata Cake

2011-11-03T07:13:00.000Z

Having missed trying a piece of the Orange and Earl Grey Cake, I was keen to make another one as soon as possible. I could have made the exact same one and one day I will, but having spotted a recipe for orange cassata cake in Dan Lepard's Short & Sweet, I thought I'd try that one instead - it did contain chocolate after all!

This is how I did it:

Creamed 125g unsalted butter with 125g cardamom sugar until light and fluffy.
Grated in the zest of 1.5 oranges and creamed a bit more.
Beat in 3 medium eggs (sadly duck eggs are no longer in season), alternating each one with a spoonful of the flour mixture.
Sifted 200g sifted flour (half spelt and half white), 2 tsp baking powder, 1/2 tsp bicarb of soda, 25g custard powder (substituted for the cornflour which I didn't have) and 75g icing sugar.
Stirred this in to the egg mixture alternately with 75g milk.
Divided the mixture between two 22 cm round cake moulds and baked at 180C for 20 minutes.
Left to cool for 10 minutes then turned out onto a wire rack to cool completely.

Beat 250g curd cheese (I used quark). The recipe asked for ricotta which I'd wanted to use, but couldn't get hold of any.
Grated in the zest from the remaining half orange, reserving a few strands for decoration.
Stirred in 40g chopped dark orange chocolate (I used Lindt Orange Intense which also contains pieces of orange and almonds), 1 tsp vanilla extract and 15g very finely chopped mixed peel. CT is not a fan of mixed peel so I didn't use as much as the recipe stated.

Beat 100g icing sugar with 3 tbsp of orange juice until it was soft enough to spread but not so runny it would slide off the cake as the Earl Grey icing had previously done.
Sandwiched the two cakes together with the cheese mixture.
Topped with the icing and scattered the reserved strands of orange zest over the top.

This was a deliciously citrussy cake, but it tasted of real orange, rather than that horrible synthetic taste you so often get with some commercial offerings, which neither CT nor I can abide. It had a good firm, but moist texture and was well risen. With the chocolate in the filling only and all layers containing orange, the orange was allowed to be the star of the show. It's an orange cake with chocolate not a chocolate cake with orange. The icing was just the right amount to give a welcome addition of sweetness, but not so much as to be cloying. The chocolate in the filling provided a nice contrasting crunch to the sponginess of the cake and the cheese was pleasantly tart and creamy. CT, who is not a lover of peel, remained mercifully silent on the subject of its presence - result!

Choccy Munchy Seeds - A Review

2011-11-02T06:48:00.000Z

Now here is an intriguing idea - chocolate covered seeds. If you need an excuse to eat chocolate, this might just be it. Pumpkin and sunflower seeds all enrobed with our favourite ingredient. I was sent the new chilli and ginger Munchy Seeds to try as well as a packet of an apricot mix. Well, chilli and ginger combined with chocolate was not something I was going to say no to.

Belgian Dark Chocolate with Chilli & Ginger - unlike my chocotos, these are not going to cause a major melt down in your mouth, but they do leave a pleasant, if subtle warmth behind. Covered in Belgian Plain Chocolate (65%), the seeds were more palatable than they might otherwise have been. Although I enjoy raw pumpkin seeds, I'm not so keen on sunflowers in their raw state. The best bits were the ginger chunks, the chilli contributing to their overall heat and deliciousness - shame there were so few of them.

Belgian Chocolate Mix with Apricots - the pumpkin seeds and apricot pieces were covered in the same 65% dark chocolate whereas the sunflower seeds were covered in 30% milk. This made for an interesting combination. Again the sunflowers benefited from their chocolate covering and the dark chocolate offset the sweetness of the apricots.

These Choccy Munchy Seeds come in packets of 50g so are just about right for a moorland walk. They cost between £1.50 and £2.00 and are available at Harvey Nichols or directly from Munchy Seeds online. The seeds have a decent amount of chew to them and this slows down consumption and increases the enjoyment.

Tasty treats these are indeed, but I'm not sure they are quite as healthy for you as the manufacturer would have you believe - sugar is, after all, quite high up in the list of ingredients and these did taste rather sweet. That said, if you're looking for a chocolate snack, these are likely to be better for you than a standard confectionary bar.

All in all, these were a fun and interesting way to increase our intake of some useful vitamins and minerals. They were, actually, good enough to inspire me to have a go at making my own. I'll let you know how I get on.

Chocolate & Almond Fudge Cake - Short & Tweet

2011-10-30T17:13:00.000Z

After missing out on tasting the Orange and Earl Grey Cake, I desperately wanted to bake an orange cake this weekend. Then I found out that the deadline for the inaugural bake for #shortandtweet had been extended until today and I was able to participate after all. Not only that, but the bake was to be a chocolate one - how could I resist? So very naughtily, I baked an orange cake on Friday, which I will post at some later date and Dan Lepard's Chocolate and Almond Fudge Cake today.

I don't feel quite as guilty about this as I should, as I managed to share some of the orange cake with a friend as well as CT and there is still a substantial quantity left. The chocolate cake looks as though it will be a keeper, so we won't need to eat it straight away - apart from trying a small piece, for the purposes of this post you understand.

Short and Tweet is a new event set up by Evidence Matters. EM responded to a burst of enthusiasm by some of us on Twitter wanting to share our experiences of Dan Lepard's bakes, following the long awaited publication of Short and Sweet. As this is a weekly challenge, I won't be able to participate all of the time, but I'm hoping to join in as often as I can.

The guardian recipe is slightly different to the one in the book. The book states 3 medium eggs rather than 4 large ones. Amazingly for me, I pretty much followed the recipe (from the book) as written, with the following exceptions:

I didn't have any oatmeal so ground up porridge oats instead
I used a hand whisk to beat the egg whites as it really doesn't take long and saved the faff of getting out the electric beaters.
I don't have a 20 cm round mould so used my 22 cm one, but cooked for the required 40 mins.
I decided not to top the cake with double cream as I wanted it to keep for as long as possible, so just scattered grated chocolate over the top.
I used 70% dark chocolate from Divine to make the cake and grated some of this first for scattering purposes further down the line, before melting it into the cake mixture.
I didn't put the cake into the fridge - I never have any room in there!

When I have a real need for something warm, comforting, chocolatey and quick, I sometimes make chocolate porridge. Well, the raw mixture of this cake tasted like an enriched and sweeter version of my porridge - I could have happily eaten it just as it was.

However, I managed to hang on until the cake was baked. It could be that I didn't cook it for long enough as it sank rather dramatically. The top, however came out quite cracked and was well done. It is dense, rich and delicious, but a bit hard to describe. The consistency is sort of somewhere between porridge, mousse and soufflé - firm around the edges but squidgy in the middle, chewy but also soft and melts in the mouth. It's also very chocolatey, but with all that chocolate and cocoa in it, I guess that is no surprise. I would suggest it's more of a dinner party cake than a tea time treat. CT could taste the almonds and commented on how the robust chocolate flavour lingers on the palate. He described it as a cake for all seasons, as it does many things at the same time. With due consideration, he said "this is the thinking man's chocolate torte".

We Should Cocoa - The Chilli Round-up

2011-10-29T10:17:00.000+01:00

As you know, I was a little nervous about putting forward chilli as this month's ingredient, but I needn't have been. Everyone was very enthusiastic and we had thirty hot hot entries. I particularly loved the vibrant colours associated with chillies that have been showcased here. Once again, we have a great range of dishes on offer, from cakes and puddings to bread and some savoury dishes too - a testament to the creative flair of the participants. Brownies and some sort of variation on chocolate pots proved to be particularly popular, but quite frankly I want to try every single entry, with the possible exception of my own ;-)

Don't forget to check out the Chocolate Teapot on the 1st November to find out what Chele has up her sleeve for next month's challenge.

Dom of Belleau Kitchen got all scientific on us this month but nevertheless the capsaicin kicked in early and got him moving with this darkly lush Chilli Chocolate Orange Cake, a real feast for the senses.

These Chilli Choc Cupcakes from first timer Kat of Life of a Cupcake Baker served several purposes: to lose weight, to induce labour and to calm her son - chilli is truly the panacea for all ills!

Chilli loving Baking Addict of The More Than Occasional Baker was rather nervous about trying this month's challenge out on her work colleagues, but was delighted to find that white chocolate and chilli was a winning combination after all and everyone loved these White Chocolate Chilli Brownies.

Chocolate Chili Souffle just sounds as though it's going to be fabulous and this one made by newcomer Gary of Exploits of a Food Nut certainly look the business.

Hannah of Corner Cottage Bakery has got her Christmas hat on and come up with these festive and perky little Apricot Chilli Florentines.

First timer Cake Fairy has wowed me, not only by the flavours of this magnificent Chilli Chocolate Swiss Roll with Cream and Blackberry Jam, but also by her expert rolling - and it was her first attempt too.

With many ideas spinning around her head, Alex of Dear Love Blog eventually settled on Chipotle Brownies - on my continual quest for the ultimate brownie, I'm wondering if this might just be it.

What else is needed other than some lush and decedent Chocolate Chilli Sauce to power The Kitchenmaid up those steep Wellington goat tracks - nothing apparently.

Look at What Kate Baked. Her Chilli Chocolate Cupcakes Bites sound delicious but I was seriously impressed with her chilli impersonations.

Michele of Food, Football and a Baby took the chilli theme most literally and made this beautifully rich coloured Mexican chunky vegetable chili with dark chocolate

Suelle of Mainly Baking is well seasoned in cooking with chilli and chocolate. Unhappy with the cookies she made as her first attempt, however, she put her thinking cap on and came up with this ingenious Chocolate, Cherry and Chilli Tart.

C of Cake Crumbs and Cooking did a marathon daily chocolate bake throughout Chocolate Week. She just happened to knock up this Chilli Chocolate Fudge Cake one night after work. It includes peanut butter and lime as well as chilli and sounds divine.

Carina of Cooking with Carina shocked her work colleagues (well one of them anyway) with her deliciously fudgy looking Chilli Chocolate Brownies.

When plans for chilli chocolate ice-cream didn't come to fruition, Janice of Farmersgirl Kitchen came up with a warm version instead. Her Baked Chilli Chocolate Custards sound very much like something I'd like to eat - what a fab idea.

Fast running out of time, Karen of Lavender and Lovage whipped up an extravaganza of chocolate, chilli and milk in this Mexican Hot Chocolate featuring three types of chocolate no less and all served in a chocolate mug.

I was all set for Shaheen of Allotment 2 Kitchen to give us a savoury treat, but at the last minute she changed her mind and surprised me with these cute Chilli Chocolate Apricot Flapjacks.

Working London Mummy really went to town and it was the posh part of town too. She made these fabulously elegant Pink Macarons with Chilli Chocolate Ganache. And she got such perfect looking results on only her third try!

Spontaneous Euphoria must have known about Janet's non ice-cream as she has come in magnificently to fill that gap in this month's chilli repertoire. Chocolate Chilli Ice-Cream.

I had a feeling that Phil from As Strong As Soup might grace us with a savoury recipe for this challenge and he didn't disappoint. I really like the combination of spices, nuts and tomatoes in this Turkey in a Chilli Nut and Chocolate Sauce.

In experimental mode, The Hungry Hinny combined orange, chocolate and chilli (she must have caught the vibe from Dom) and made this truffley Chilli Chocolate Orange Torte.

Moving to a new job, a new home and a new town, Carly of Tart to Heart still found time to make these Chili Pots de Creme and show them off in style.

Snowy of Cookbooks Galore got a bit more than she bargained for with her Chocolate and Chilli Madeira Cake. The chilli chocolate topping might not have been quite what was wanted, but I thought the layering on this cake was stunning.

Looking for something sort of healthy, but also warming and satisfying on these chilly autumnal days and nights, Selina of Yummy Choo Eats came up with these Chipolte Chilli Chocolate Flapjacks.

Fellow partner in We Should Cocoa crime, Chele of Chocolate Teapot fancied playing Russian Roulette this month. You get to choose one of her splendid Trick or Treat Cupcakes but don't know which it will be until biting into it. Guess which one she got ;-)

Co-incidentally, there are two chilli challenges this month. Lyndsey of Vanilla Clouds and Lemon Drops has launched a Sweet Heat Challenge, so couldn't resist participating in this one too. She's rather mildly called these Chocolate Chilli Pots but garnishing them with white chocolate covered chillies, these are anything but mild.

First timer Laura of How to Cook Good Food leapt at the chance of making Chilli Chocolate Bread Rolls - how cool is that? Well possibly not that cool! Stuffed with cream cheese, these sound like a must try.

Another fan of the chilli and chocolate combination, Mel of Sharky Oven Gloves was buzzing with ideas, but in the end made these delightfully fudgy triple chilli Aztec Brownies.

My own rather late entry was, err, perhaps a little excessive and won't be repeated in a hurry. But sometimes it's good to push out the boundaries - just so you know! Chocotos - Chocolate Stuffed Chillies.

Coming in right at the, err, last minute are these fabulous Chilli Chocolate Truffles from Kath of the Ordinary Cook. Beware, they have an additional kick besides the chilli.

Just when I thought there couldn't possibly be any more, BVG aka Brownieville Girl got in with these supposedly wussy, but I read delicious, Mini Chocolate Pots.

A Bonanza of Bakes

2011-10-27T08:38:00.002+01:00

Well, I don't think I'd ever baked quite so many cakes for one event - I was almost, but not quite, caked out! Friends were hosting an Open Weekend to celebrate 30 years of living in their beautiful moorland house and had asked me if I would bake cakes for the event.

With a small kitchen and not that much equipment, little storage and no room in the freezer, planning eight bakes was quite a feat. What would keep the longest, where could I store the finished bakes, what selection should I make and how many eggs and bags of flour did I need were some of the things that went into the equation. I did it over two and a half days so I could enjoy the experience, rather than being in a total stress and vowing never to do it again. And, although the process was not without its drama, I really did enjoy it. It was fun to make a load of cakes that didn't have chocolate in them for a start - although I couldn't resist entirely and it managed to creep into three of them. Transporting them to the venue also proved to be a bit of a challenge, but they arrived in more or less one piece, despite the hilly and winding nature of the roads.

The response was positively effusive and I came away glowing from all of the compliments I received. This together with all the other good food and excellent company, a good time was had by all.

Here are the finished bakes. The labels came courtesy of CT. Which one would you want to try?

Pam Corbin's Orange & Earl Grey Cake from her excellent book Cakes. The orange cream cheese filling that I made with mascarpone was to die for. As you can see, I didn't make the icing quite thick enough, so most of it dripped off and pooled around the bottom! I was particularly intrigued by this one, but as I didn't get to try it, I might just have to make it again.

Sour Cherry Brownies adapted from Green & Black's Unwrapped. These turned out amazingly well considering the poor start I gave them. More on this in a subsequent post.

I made the apple and thyme cake I made last month, only this time I whizzed up the thyme with the caster sugar before creaming to make the taste more pronounced and left out the chocolate.

Dan Lepard's Lemon and Poppy Seed Cake from Short & Sweet - I managed to try a bit of this one and it was totally delicious light and lemony but with a bit of texture.

Lemon & Cardamom Shortbread Biscuits - the "home made" stamp worked a bit better this time, but I still have a way to go to perfect my technique!

The Apple & Choc Chip Rock Cakes that I'd made to such acclaim a few weeks back were specifically requested.

Nigella's sticky ginger cake with lemon icing from How to be a domestic goddess.

The star of the show was the Chocolate Cake with apple lemon curd filling and treacle fudge icing. This was one of the best chocolate cakes I've yet made - recipe to follow.

PS - Our friends have tried several times to comment on this post, but blogger has been playing up and they have been unable to do so. I'm therefore posting their message here as they wanted it to appear somewhere.

"Well, we were the very lucky friends to be recipient of thisamazing ‘bonanza of cakes’.

I wish I had at the time taken a photo of the master cookand her partner as they walked up our front steps, just like the magi carryinggifts. They were both beaming with pleasure and delight, very pleased, andquite rightly too. Our open house was spread over two days. We displayed twocakes on the table straight away and the rest were hidden under it, brought outat various times to meet the ever increasing demand. But they had to last for two days to ensure thatthe last visitor, who came on Sunday night at 9.30 p.m. could enjoy thisdelight too.

We have tasted good cakes in the past. But this was something else. Thesurprising ingredients – poppy seeds, earl grey, cardamom, thyme – alongsidedelicious lemon curd, chocolate, cherry, ginger and the wonderful presentationmade these cakes exceptional. They were in a totally different league and our guests were bowled over by them."

Chocotos - Chocolate Stuffed Chillies - We Should Cocoa 14

2011-10-25T07:16:00.002+01:00

Having decided on chilli as this month's ingredient for We Should Cocoa, I rather lost the plot and ran out of inspiration. I'd just made a chilli chocolate cake so wanted to do something a bit different. I eventually plumped on chocolate chilli truffles which I was quite excited about, but in the end I ran out of time. I also had the first ripened chillies from our plot and they needed using.

CT is trying to breed a species of chilli called rocoto (Capsicum pubescens), so it can not only grow outdoors in the UK but will also ripen reliably. This means, all being well, we end up with a mountain of chillies to process each year. Luckily, we're both fond of chillies and I make this chilli sauce every season, which doubles nicely as a Christmas present for chilli lovers.

So stuffed chillies it was going to be. My first thought was to stuff them with a mixture of chocolate and ricotta as I liked the idea of chocolate ricotta rocotos; thinking it through, I decided cream cheese would be a better option. These chillies are hot and having eaten them stuffed before, I was concerned they might just blow our heads right off. Fat is one of the best methods of cooling down the capsaisin, the compound responsible for their heat; either that or sugar. Ahhh, sugar. I had been going to use a dark 85% chocolate to mix with the cheese, but finding out about the sugar, I went for a sweeter chocolate instead. Orange chocolate was the one I chose as I thought the zingy flavour would bring out the citrus notes in the chillies. So this is what I did:

Asked CT to do the difficult bit decapitating and deseeding 8 rocoto chillies without breaking them - no mean feat.
Melted 30g of 47% dark orange chocolate (Lindt Orange Intense)
Mixed this into 100g cream cheese.
Using the handle end of a teaspoon, pushed this mixture into the chillies. Placed the tops back on the chillies and placed into a greased baking dish.
Baked on the bottom shelf of the oven whilst the bread was baking at 200C and left them there for 20 minutes.
Drizzled some more of the melted chocolate over the top.

Hope springs eternal but so does the heat of a rocoto. We had one each, eaten with a cooling chillie free cauliflower curry and rice AND they still nearly blew our heads off. Luckily a fire extinguisher was at hand in the form of the leftover filling which we spooned into our mouths in desperation. This was only marginally cooling, but it was delicious and I think will be featuring in some future cheesecake recipe. CT said, when he recovered his voice, that it felt like someone had poured molten wax down his Eustachian tubes. I would not recommend this method of eating chillies unless you are of a particularly strong constitution.

PS the next evening CT blitzed the remaining curry for soup and included 1 chilli. If you like your food spicy hot, this was just about right - delicious.

Chocolate Brazil Cookies Revisited - Random Recipes 9

2011-10-23T17:17:00.002+01:00

We are well and truly being kept on our toes with this challenge. For some reason Dom doesn't think we are being as random as we should be in his Random Recipes challenge. To get around this, he has teamed us up with another blogger this month, who is responsible for selecting the book and page number for us. This reduces the chance to cheat somewhat. NOT, I hasten to add, that I have ever done such a thing. I was teamed up with Miss Cake Baker of What I Baked This Weekend and in a series of exchanges via Twitter she selected Chocolate Brazil soft-baked biscuits from Green & Black's Unwrapped. I am always terrified I'm going to get something really difficult, but once again, I was lucky.

I had already made these, way back in the early days of my blog but they hadn't turned out quite as I'd imagined. So rather than asking MCB to choose again, I thought it would be good to give them another go, use a less dark chocolate and add a bit more milk.

This is what I did:

Roughly chopped 50g Brazil nuts and 125g milk chocolate (46%).
Creamed 75g unsalted butter with 60g vanilla sugar (granulated) until soft and fluffy.
Beat in 1 duck egg and 1/4 tsp vanilla extract.
Sifted in 175g wholemeal flour, 1 tsp baking powder and a pinch of salt.
Stirred in 2 tbsp milk.
Folded in the nuts and chocolate.
Placed 20 teaspoonfuls on lined baking trays then flattened them with a fork dipped in water. The recipe stated the dough should be rolled out, but I couldn't see how that would be possible with all those chocolate lumps and bumps and the mixture was a little too moist anyway.
Baked at 180C for 12 minutes.

The biscuits didn't spread this time either, but I managed to flatten them more than I did in my first attempt and they thus had a better texture. They weren't too sweet and were delicious warm whilst the chocolate was still melted. A definite improvement on the first time. CT got his cold, but he also thought they were delicious.

Cornwall Food and Drink Festival - Guest Post

2011-10-21T08:00:00.000+01:00

I'm very pleased to welcome CT (aka Rhizowen) of Radix to my blog for a one off chance to get his take on the Cornish foodie scene.

When Choclette suggested that I accompany her on a trip to Truro for the Cornwall Food and Drink Festival, I jumped at the opportunity. I knew from past experience that all the free samples in themselves probably constituted a meal. Could it be that Mrs Thatcher was wrong and that, in Cornwall at least, there is such a thing as a free lunch?

Walking down to Lemon Quay (how appropriate is that?) I could detect the first hints of Cornish mist descending. No matter, the event was located in a marquee so the weather could do its worst and we'd still remain dry. As we approached, we were greeted by this statue. The old song The Little Drummer Boy immediately came to mind; on closer inspection "little" was perhaps a misnomer for this - how shall I put it - larger than life character. As an old-timer passing by said to Choclette: "don't look at 'e, t'is likely your eyes'll drop out".

The marquee was bustling and it was a case of going with the flow as best one could and then exiting for a few moments to talk to the exhibitors. That and get stuck into the free samples.

Artisan breads were represented by Baker Tom and Vicky's Bread, both well known locally for the quality of their baked goods.

Here's the world's best cheese - apparently. At least it was in 2010 and I can attest to the fact Cornish Blue still tastes pretty fine.

And this is a local speciality - Yarg, a cheese wrapped in nettles. It's a fun idea and tastes delicious. The fun doesn't extend quite so far if you're the one picking the nettles though. Like the Cornish Blue, it was originally developed on the edge of Bodmin Moor, close to where Choclette grew up. I'm not, by the way, suggesting that she grew up in a cowshed. Come to think of it though, she did!

All that bread and cheese naturally requires chutney. The ones from Crellow really hit the spot - they were excellent. I was particularly taken by the tomato jam and the fig and lemon versions; I spooned out perhaps a little more than I deserved onto the accompanying crackers.

This is the chocolate lady, Nicky Grant, or rather one of her classically inspired creations. But who, when all is said and done, wants to feast their eyes on a marble torso when they can devour a chocolate counterpart? That could explain the missing bits: maybe some lucky soul had already bitten off her head and limbs.

Nicky, who does actually feature in the background, similarly cropped, works with her husband and is a pukka chocolatier, producing some very fine chocolates.

I can attest to this fact, as we got to try some of her award winning fennel and ginger truffles. As I drooled, Choclette discussed the arcane world of dry caramel preparation, tempering and other such niceties. Each to their own.

For some strange reason, nettles featured at the festival more than once: here's Cornish Stingers Nettle Beer. This caused quite a furore when the dead hand of EU bureaucracy threatened the producers with closure. Put it this way: when is a beer not a beer? Answer: when it's made with nettles. And no malt. That makes it a wine. And here's your £10,000 tax bill. I'm not entirely sure how this stand off was resolved, but they're still brewing this, er, alcoholic beverage.

I was also interested to see the display of sea vegetables, one of the mainstays of the oh-so-trendy forager's diet. The sea purslane and sea spinach are quite tasty; the rock samphire is more of a flavouring or condiment than a salad.

If all that greenery seems a little worthy, biscuits too were available - Cornish fairings, clotted cream shortbreads and also saffron cake - all from Simply Cornish. I'll resist cliches about hot cakes and let this picture speak for itself.

Outside the marquee, the street market was in full swing. I couldn't resist buying another local speciality - some daffodil bulbs. The fields of West Cornwall are quite a sight when they are in bloom.

I'm about as annoying and persistent as a wasp when the opportunity to sample some honey is available. In this case it was worth it: Gwenen Apiaries heather honey was truly exquisite. I also had an interesting chat with Carole Dewhurst, who with her husband Rodger, run Gwenen. Not only do they produce honey - Rodger is also a bee breeder, who is developing strains of bee adapted to the Cornish climate. Talking of the climate, it was now raining hard, so I decided to keep the camera under wraps, hence the lack of pictures. Apparently some of Rodger's bees show signs of resistance to varroa infestations. They have developed the habit of biting off the mites rather than allowing them to cling on. This behaviour coincidentally makes them keener to nip the beekeeper rather than sting. Fascinating - now if only he can get the money to carry out further research. Listen up potential benefactors!

After our second go round the marquee, we opted to escape the crowds and headed off with a considerable weight of purchased produce, to Chantek for lunch, where you can get some tasty oriental food at a very reasonable price.

Following lunch we toured the town before dropping into the award winning Charlotte's Tea House. We had passed many times before, but never ventured in. As the Cornish mist had by now transformed in to proper rain, we thought it an opportune moment to try it out. The tea house is located upstairs and entering it is like passing through a portal in the space-time continuum as you climb the stairs past books and household items from times gone by. At the top of the stairs you are greeted by waitresses in Nippy style uniforms who invite you to be seated - all very retro and enjoyable. The tea was very good too. And this meringue, with a generous dollop of appellation controlee clotted cream went down very nicely. From our window seat we could see the umbrella wielding shoppers bustling across Boscawen Street - a scene not unlike Renoir's painting Les Parapluies.

Suitably replete, we descended the stairs and headed home, after a thoroughly enjoyable visit. So although Lincolnshire won in the British Favourite Food Spot 2011 competition and I'm too polite to say "fix", I think Cornwall can give a fairly good account of itself in the foodie stakes.

Welsh Cakes and Macmillan Cancer Support

2011-10-19T07:45:00.001+01:00

With October this year designated as Breast Cancer Awareness month, it seems fitting to review The Little Book of Treats sold in aid of Macmillan Cancer Support. The book was produced specifically for the World's Biggest Coffee Morning which was held back in September, but on-going support for this vital cause is always welcome - see the website for details. It's on sale in M&S Cafes for £3.

The booklet I was sent to review consists of 31 baking recipes which would work well for coffee mornings, school fetes and other fund raisers. There are recipes to suit the novice baker as well as some more challenging ones. Recipes have been chosen by keen home bakers as well as a number of celebrities and include: Sophie Dahl's lemon capri torte, rhubarb crumble muffins, beetroot and chocolate brownies and pancakes from Gwyneth Paltrow. There are several I have my eye on.

I've been wanting to make Welsh Cakes for an age now, so looking through the book, I was delighted to come across a recipe from Sue Topley of Gillingham, Dorset. You'd think Welsh Cakes would be really simple, I certainly thought they would be, but I managed to mess them up good and proper - sigh!

This is what I did:

Rubbed 125g unsalted butter into 250g flour (1/2 spelt, 1/2 white), 1/2 tsp bicarb of soda, 1 tsp cream of tarter and 1/4 tsp salt until the butter had all but disappeared.
Stirred in 80g cardamom sugar, 75g currants and 50g of chopped dark chocolate (81%).
Made a well in the centre, dripped in 1 medium egg and stirred.
Bought the mixture together with my hands into a ball and rolled out on a floured surface to 1.5 cm deep.
Used one of my new cutters to make 16 rounds.
All had gone completely fine up to this point, but I hadn't bargained on the chocolate factor - d'oh!
Heated a heavy bottomed frying pan on medium heat and added a small splash of sunflower oil to avoid sticking.
Placed 7 rounds in the pan (whilst I carried on cutting out the others).
In no time at all, they had burned black - why??? I'm still not entirely sure, because although some of the chocolate melted and burned, the pan wasn't super hot and there wasn't that much chocolate oozing out.
Hey ho, I put the oven on to warm at 200C and baked the remainder for 10 minutes. Placed on a wire rack to cool and sprinkled some caster sugar over the tops.

Welsh Cakes, but not as any self respecting Welsh person would know them! The ultimate insult following the defeat in the Rugby World Cup. Although the insides of the first batch were fine, the burnt outsides ruined them somewhat and I was so looking forward to scoffing hot Welsh Cakes straight from the pan. Those in the oven were fine, but didn't look like or have the right texture to be anything like authentic. The overall effect of adding the chocolate was really good though and it offset the sweetness nicely. Just as many Welsh households underwent a period of heart searching following the defeat, I've been wondering why I failed so spectacularly. Could it be the pan or was it the chocolate?

Chocolate Week and Cornish Goings On

2011-10-16T09:02:00.000+01:00

Just in case you hadn't noticed, it's National Chocolate Week this week and I wanted to pay homage to this wonderful food of the gods. This is a chocolate blog after all and it would be a pretty poor show not to take part in this celebratory week. Last year, I attended an excellent tea and chocolate tasting event on the Tregothnan Estate. The previous year I created my own chocolate event. However, what with one thing and another, I really didn't have time to organise much this year - I had loads of cakes to plan for and bake for a start! Looking at the events calendar, there wasn't a lot going on in Cornwall. But there were a couple of tea shops taking part and both sounded tempting.

Chocolate Week, now in it's eighth year is sponsored mainly by Divine, a Fairtrade chocolate company which is 45% owned by it's farmers. Launched in 1998, this was the UK's first fair trade chocolate company and it has been going from strength to strength ever since. This week is all about indulgence, but indulgence in good quality and ethical chocolate cannot be a bad thing.

So to yesterday. I had a really busy but really enjoyable day and packed loads in, including a couple of chocolate week celebrations and far too much food. The morning was spent finishing off and decorating the cakes which had to be delivered by 12:00 - more on those in another post. Suffice it to say, I managed to get them completed and delivered in more or less good condition by 12:15.

We were now free to head off to our first chocolate destination, the Cowslip Cafe, a tearoom I was very pleased to discover. Set on a working farm together with a needlecraft workshop and shop selling all things material and quilted, it was a quiet location with lovely views across the valley to Launceston. The menu was interesting and the food good. Many of the vegetables used in the dishes were grown in an adjacent garden. We sat outside in the sunshine sheltered beneath a turf roof. The chocolate offerings of the day were A white chocolate cheesecake and a chocolate roulade. We had one of each to share - well what else could we do to support Chocolate Week? The white chocolate cheesecake was particularly good.

Feeling full, we headed off to our next chocolate destination which entailed a long drive through Cornwall's picturesque (read tortuous) lane network to the wind blasted and furthest flung part of North Cornwall - Morwenstow. This hamlet is renowned as the home of the Reverend Hawker (1803-1875), an opium smoking eccentric whose activities included dressing up as a mermaid to encourage tourists to the area. He was by all accounts a bit of a case. He is, however, well known in church circles for introducing the Harvest Festival to Churches in 1843. We checked out the gothic rectory he had built, complete with church spire chimneys. He must have had some cash, because it was enormous. You can find out a bit more about his eccentric behavour over at Feast & Festivals.

We sat out in the autumnal sunshine again, this time at the Rectory Tearooms, an award winning establishment recognised by the Tea Guild. We could see why. The tea menu was not only present but was quite extensive - heavens to Hawker, it was even in the cake we ate. Yes, we managed to force down a piece of Divine Chocolate and Earl Grey Torte (we did share this one) and Divine it really was. CT partook of Orange Oolong and I supped White Monkey. This wonderful establishment is also set on a working farm, an organic one this time, so I was doubly pleased.

Our rapidly expanding girths were in need of trimming, so we set off in the late afternoon sunshine to walk the cliffs. The views were stunning, the North Coast is particularly dramatic in this area, although rather hard on the knees. We paid a brief visit to Hawker's Hut, a small bothy set into the cliffs - perhaps this is where he smoked his opium, wrote poetry and watched the smuggling activities of his parishioners.

With the sun sinking fairly rapidly, we set off back to our first stop - the party was now in full swing involving plentiful supplies of food of all sorts (including chocolate cake), drink and Breton dancing.

The Rectory Tearooms, we were already aware of, but it's thanks to Chocolate Week we've now found a new cafe well worth revisiting. And because of the special occasion we both mini 70% Divine dark chocolates to take home with us from both establishments. Today is the last day of Chocolate Week, so you still have a chance to take part. You can find out what's going on around the country here. If you are in London you have Chocolate Unwrapped. I'm trying very hard not to feel too deprived down in this remote part of the country, although there are of course certain compensations!

Dan Lepard's Short & Sweet Giveaway

2011-10-14T06:56:00.000+01:00

Following on from the whoopie pie experience in my last post, I'm delighted to announce that I have three copies of Short & Sweet to give away to my readers. Yes, that's right, the publishers, Fourth Estate, have been very generous and are offering not one but three copies.

As already stated in my previous post, I'm very excited about this book. Dan Lepard's renowned book The Handmade Loaf, together with his excellent baking forum and weekly baking column in the Guardian have established him as one of the best bakers in the UK. I ordered the book back in April and had to wait six long months before it finally arrived through my letterbox.

First off, this is a nice hefty book with over 550 pages and a distinctive tricolour cover. It's bound in such a way that the page stays open at pretty much any point, most unusual and very welcome.

In true Dan Lepard style, the recipes are inspirational. I leapt straight to the chapter on cakes of course, but the book starts with the real staff of life - bread. Other sections include biscuits, desserts, savoury pies, yeasted sweet bakes and even a chapter on making your own sweets. Each chapter starts with a few pages of techniques; tips are scattered throughout the book. On reading the tips and techniques section of the cake chapter, I noted several things I was unaware of. I'm an inveterate forgetter of remembering to turn the oven on in time. I was particularly pleased therefore to discover that it doesn't matter too much if you don't place the finished cake mixture immediately in the oven. If you transfer it very gently, the "rise" should not be affected.

Dan uses some unusual ingredients in his cake recipes including rye and hemp flours, ground porridge oats and condensed milk. That and some unusual techniques make for an intriguing baking experience. Apart from the chocolate ones (of course), some of the cakes I'm looking forward to making include: cherry beet cake, sticky lemon & poppy seed cake, coconut milk layer cake and saffron peach cake.

Although I like to think of myself as a serious cook, I do find I like to have photographs in my cookbooks. It's always nice to have an idea of what your aiming for and sometimes it's the picture alone that seals the deal on whether you bake a particular recipe. This was my one disappointment with Short & Sweet, there are photographs and very enticing ones too, but they don't cover every bake. A book mark ribbon would also be a welcome addition, but I guess I can live without that.

You can watch a 50 second video of Dan talking about his book here.

As regular readers will know I always give my own views on any items I review. In this case I bought the book for myself so you can be doubly sure that I do indeed think it's a classic and will make an excellent addition to any baking library.

So, to the giveaway and your chance to win one of the three copies. You must leave a comment on this post answering the question below. You have until midnight on Friday 21st October when the giveaway closes. The winners will be randomly selected after this date. Apologies to oversees visitors, but this is only open to those with a UK or Ireland postal address.

What cake recipe do you consider to be indispensable in a cookbook?

Additional entries can also be made by (but you must answer the question above for these to be eligible):

Following my blog via Google Friend Connect - leave a separate comment here telling me you have done so.
Following me on Twitter - leave a separate comment here telling me you have done so with your Twitter id.
Tweeting this message "win a copy of @dan_lepard Short & Sweet from Chocolate Log Blog @Choclette8 - bit.ly/pE6ARV" - leave a separate comment here telling me you have done so
Liking this post on Facebook - leave a separate comment here telling me you have done so.

22 October Update. This giveaway is now closed. The three winners have been drawn using Random.Org as follows:

78 - Nursey
53 - Janice
37 - Dom

Chocolate Whoopie Pies - the agony and the ecstasy

2011-10-12T07:16:00.000+01:00

A date, a date, I had a date with Dan Lepard. Well to be strictly fair, Dan Lepard had a date with the Eden Project. Not wanting to miss this opportunity to get my recent purchase of Dan's new baking book signed by the man himself, I booked a day off work. Dan was to be a guest at the Eden Project's Harvest Food Festival where he was to open their new bakery and give a demo.

The book in question is the much heralded Short & Sweet: the best of home baking. I was rather on tenterhooks as to whether the book would arrive before the big day; it was due to be published on Super Thursday and I needed it for the following Monday 3rd October. But arrive it did and not only in time to get it signed, but also time to have a go at baking something from it. What a delight to read, so many inspiring recipes and lots of really good tips and techniques: it's a proper cook's book. There were so many intriguing ideas to explore, I wanted to get stuck in straight away. But, when I saw the entry for Chocolate Whoopie Pies, I knew my moment of destiny had arrived. I'd been feeling I ought to have a go at them ever since they came onto the scene a couple of years ago, but for some reason I hadn't yet got around to making any, so I .......

Melted 75g unsalted butter in a pan over low heat with 75g dark chocolate (81%) and left to cool slightly.
Using a hand held whisk, beat 1 duck egg with 175g dark brown sugar until thick, pale and doubled in volume.
Beat in the butter mixture together with 50ml milk and 75g creme fraiche. Original recipe stated 25ml milk and 125g sour cream, but my creme fraiche is home made and very thick.
On re-reading the recipe I realised I should have added a tsp of vanilla extract at this point - oops!
Sifted in 250g flour (half wholemeal, half white), 25g cocoa and 3/4 tsp bicarb of soda.
Stirred until just combined, then spooned walnut sized blobs onto a large lined (with my silicone mat) baking tray, spacing them well apart.
Flattened them down a little with wet fingers (Dan's tip).
Baked at 180C for 13 mins.
Removed (successfully - think I've got the hang of this silicone mat business now) onto a wire rack to cool.
Repeated the process - making 40 half pies in total.

Melted 100g marshmallows in a pan over a gentle heat with 25 ml milk.
Removed from heat and whisked until smooth. Left to cool slightly (but not so long that it would set).
Creamed 125g unsalted butter until fluffy then beat in the marshmallows.

Sifted 100g icing sugar with 25g cocoa powder and added about 2 tbsp water until I had a spreadable consistency (Dan's recipe used twice the amount of icing sugar and cocoa, but I thought this would be enough).
Sandwiched the half pies together with the marshmallow butter to make 20 pies and spread some chocolate icing on top - luckily, I had just the right amount.

Never having had a whoopie pie before, I wasn't too sure what to expect. Mine may or may not, therefore, be typical, but they certainly ended up looking absolutely nothing like the ones in the book. I didn't use a piping bag for a start. My attempts may look rather rough and ready, but I thought they still looked appealing in a home spun sort of way. They were deeply chocolatey and the lack of vanilla didn't really impact on their tastiness and they weren't too sweet either. The marshmallow cream was delicious but it had a rather gloopy consistency until it set properly. It did make a good contrast to the rich chocolate pies and the chocolate icing gave an additional chocolate hit, as well as adding a note of sweetness to proceedings. These were indeed a cross between a biscuit and a cake, crisp on the outside and cakey soft on the inside. CT thought these were drier than a cupcake but moister than a biscuit. He got all nostaligic when it came to the icing, which reminded him of the bought cupcakes he had as a kid. Amazingly these lasted a full week and got better as they aged. They also got a big thumbs up from both my mother and a friend, so although these were rather a faff to make, they were worth the effort and made for a fun bake.

As for my date, he stood me up! My carefully wrapped whoopie pie withstood the journey and arrived at Eden in one piece in full anticipation of being tried by the great man himself. Events took another turn, however; Dan's plane was cancelled and he was unable to get to Cornwall. The pie had to make do with being eaten by CT and myself.

Can you wait to get your hands on a copy of this book? All I can say is be patient. Watch this space and in the next couple of days or so all will be revealed.

Apple and Lemon Curd

2011-10-09T08:16:00.001+01:00

I have a commission to make the cakes for a friend's Open House weekend. This feels quite a responsibility and is taking some planning, but it's also fun as I've been given free rein to bake what I like. The only specific request I've had are for some of the apple rock cakes I made back in August. I haven't fully decided what I'm going to do yet, but with an ongoing apple glut, it seemed timely to prepare some apple and lemon curd to be used as filling or topping or both. The idea for this came when browsing through the excellent Preserves: River Cottage Handbook No 2 by Pam Corbin. I followed the spirit of Pam's recipe but not its exact method or quantities.

This is what I did:

Peeled, cored and roughly chopped 5 windfall Cornish apples (variety unknown) to give just over 350g flesh.
Simmered this in a pan with a splash of water until soft then blitzed to a smooth puree with an electric hand blender.
Put this into a Pyrex bowl and placed over a pan of simmering water. Added 200g cardamom sugar and stirred until the sugar had dissolved.
Grated in the zest from one organic lemon (reasons for using unwaxed lemons can be found here), then squeezed in the juice.
Stirred in 80g unsalted butter until it had melted and all was smooth.
Beat in 2 duck eggs (large hens eggs would have been fine) and whisked until all smooth.
Gave an occasional whisk over the next 15 minutes until the mixture had thickened.
Pressed through a sieve. This probably wasn't necessary as the mixture was perfectly smooth and creamy looking at this point, but I'm a bit particular when it comes to eggs and can't stand any "bits".
Poured into 3 sterilised jars, covered with waxed discs then screwed on the lids.
Left to cool and stored in the fridge.

This set really well and was buttery, smooth and soft. It was lemony for sure, but with noticeable fruity overtones - delicious. This was sweeter than either the lime & ginger curd or apricot curd I made earlier in the year even though I used less than half the amount of sugar stated in the recipe with 2/3 of the apple. It was also creamier and less sharp so will hopefully make a good stand alone filling for a cake.

Susan, whose blog title splendidly encapsulates the essence of her blog, A little bit of heaven on a plate, is running a home made and well preserved challenge. This is my entry.

Ruth from the The Pink Whisk has just started a monthly challenge and this one fits nicely into her October theme - Apples.

Double Chocolate Buns

2011-10-06T09:11:00.000+01:00

When is a bun not a bun? Who knows, it all gets rather confusing. Some might call these American muffins, some cupcakes or maybe even fairy cakes. For me a bun is generally something sweet and yeasty, a cupcake is a sweet cake with some sort of icing, a muffin is a less sweet cake without the icing (unless it's an English muffin and then it's a type of yeasted bread roll) and a fairy cake is a more refined and probably smaller version of a cupcake; it seems these are often used interchangeably. Going by my definition, these buns are somewhere between a muffin and a cupcake: they have no icing, but are sweeter and smoother in texture than a muffin.

Now we've got that one cleared up, I want to say a big thank you to C of Cake, Crumbs and Cooking - do check out her baking blog if you haven't already done so. Quite some time ago she had a giveaway for the Great British Bake Off: how to bake the perfect Victoria sponge. I was the lucky recipient of the book and it was waiting for me when I got back from holiday - nearly a month ago now. Along with many of you, I've been following the Great British Bake Off (via iPlayer) with great interest and enjoyment, so I was doubly pleased to get this book. As it happens the book only features one recipe from each of the contestants, but it does contain the technical challenges as well as a handful of really good step by step "how to make" items such as the perfect Victoria Sandwich. Most of the recipes come from Linda Collister, who wrote one of my favourite chocolate books Divine, but as far as I can see, have nothing to do with the programme. This book formed my bedtime reading in September and there are lots of recipes I want to try. However, with time being at a bit of a premium but wanting to make a start, I plumped for these quick and easy double chocolate buns.

This is how I made them:

Creamed 125g unsalted butter with 125g of molasses sugar until pale and fluffy.
Beat in 2 duck eggs, one by one.
Added 1/2 tsp vanilla extract.
Sifted in 250g flour (half wholemeal, half white), 50g cocoa powder, 1 tsp baking powder and 1 tsp bicarb of soda.
Mixed this alternately with 250ml mixture of creme fraiche and low fat Greek yogurt.
Stirred in 100g chopped white chocolate.
Spooned into muffin cases - it was meant to be 12, but I had some left over which I used up in a mini loaf tin. This mixture would easily have done 15.
Baked at 180C for 20 minutes.
Placed onto a rack to cool, then dusted with icing sugar.

These "buns" were smooth, not too sweet and all together quite delicious. They were moist, light and had a nice crunch of white chocolate. CT managed to sample a few (he always does) and thought they had a melt in the mouth texture and a treacley flavour but without the cloying quality that those sorts of cakes sometimes have. The book stated these were best eaten the same day, but they were just as good three days later.

How do you define buns, muffins etc?

Black Pepper and Chocolate Biscuits

2011-10-03T07:21:00.002+01:00

The Fairy Hobmother from Appliances Online is back on the scene, distributing gifts as she flitts by. This time I was granted a £25 Amazon voucher. There were so many things I could have used the voucher for, but in the end I decided I needed to up my biscuit making skills and so I splashed out on cookie cutters and a stamp. I fell in love with the "home made" stamp when I first saw the result over at Extra Relish.

Now I've got the stamp, but what to make with it? Never having used one before, I wasn't really sure how to use it or what sort of biscuits it would be suitable for. I've already made plenty of shortbread and wanted to try something different. Having heard so much about using black pepper with chocolate, which helps to bring out the flavour apparently, that's where I wanted to start. I found this recipe from Martha Stewart which not only sounded good but used US cup measures - deep breath, time to finally try out the lovely cup measures very kindly gifted to me by Jac of Tinned Tomatoes.

This is what I did:

Creamed 3/4 stick (3oz) unsalted butter with 1/2 cup vanilla sugar (granulated) until fluffy.
Beat in 1 small egg.
Sifted in 1/2 cup wholemeal flour, 1/4 cup white flour, 1/2 cup cocoa, 1/8 tsp Cornish sea salt, 1/8 tsp ground black pepper and 1/4 tsp cinnamon.
Mixed together to form a rather sticky ball.
Put in a covered bowl in the fridge for an hour or so.
Rolled ping pong size balls between my hands and spaced them well apart on a baking tray - lined with a silicone mat! Yes that's right, a silicone mat. Following on from my first and last use of a said item, I was advised that a thinner one was better for biscuits; when I saw a thin one in Truro last week, I rather foolhardily went ahead and bought it. Lots of crossed fingers!
Dipped the stamp in flour and pushed the ball down until it filled the stamp area, repeated this process with all 10 balls.
Ground some black pepper over the tops.
Baked at 190C for 10 mins.
Amazingly, removed from the mat onto a wire rack with NO TROUBLE at all!

Trouble came, when as I'd feared, the mixture was too soft and the biscuits spread. This meant these weren't at all what I'd hoped for and it was hard to make out the "home made" letters. But this was my first attempt and I have a much better idea of what to do next time. There will be a next time as I'd very much like to get this perfected before Christmas. The biscuits held together well, had a good snap and were lovely and crunchy. They tasted good too, with a satisfying depth of flavour, quite rich, but with only a hint of spice and only very faintly peppery.

Thank you Fairy Hobmother; I'm now looking forward to trying out the cookie cutters.

If you leave a comment here and make a wish, who knows, it might just be granted!

We Should Cocoa - the October Challenge

2011-10-01T18:20:00.000+01:00

What a fantastic party we had to celebrate We Should Cocoa's first anniversary - I'm still staggering from the cake overload! Thanks to all who brought along such delicious and decedent offerings, they were all fabulous. And thank you to Chele for doing a great round-up.

Now the nights are drawing in and the chilly season will soon be upon us. What better way to fire up our sluggish post party metabolisms than with chilli. It is, after all, the chilli season. I know some of you love chocolate and chilli and I know some of you have never tried the combination, so now is the time to really let your imaginations run wild. Something savoury, something sweet? You decide.

Both the Mayans and Aztecs of central America added chilli to their chocolate drink and a sort of porridge they made from cocoa and ground maize. For them, chocolate was a food of the gods - at least we all agree on that.

Just a quick reminder that you need to e-mail us with a picture and a link to your post by the 25th of the month - a few have forgotten this. Unless we happen to remember seeing your post, it won't get included in the round-up, which would be rather sad. You may want to have a look here for a reminder of the rules.

White Chocolate Crunch Biscuits - RBOK 2

2011-09-29T18:29:00.001+01:00

When I first saw the Caked Crusaders post for Syrup Crunch Biscuits, I was keen to make these most tempting sounding treats. I was planning on baking some to take away with us on holiday, but I stupidly didn't bookmark the post and then couldn't remember where I'd seen it. I'd even bought cornflakes specially, not something we normally have in the house; I had to fend off CT, who is rather partial to a bowl of them. As it happened the apple cake we took with us was plenty, so it's just as well I didn't find the recipe. Thankfully Baking Addict had also decided she liked the look of these biscuits and thus reminded me where I'd first seen them.

Vanessa Kimball got such an overwhelming response to her call for Random Bakes of Kindness last month that she's decided to continue with it as a regular event. Waking up early one stormy and rain drenched morning whilst still on leave from work, I thought of those poor staff down at the railway station. Having messed up my first attempt, this seemed like the perfect time to get a second chance at cheering them up. I needed to be quick so that CT could take them a batch on his way to work. Now, how to get the chocolate in? My first thought was to add chocolate chips, but remembering how well white chocolate had worked with the halva flapjacks which contained condensed milk, I thought I'd try that.

This is what I did:

Melted 250g unsalted butter in a large pan.
Added 200g condensed milk, 175g golden syrup and 100g white chocolate.
Placed 175g cornflakes in a bowl and scrunched roughly with my hands to make slightly smaller flakes, but not dust.
Added these to the pan together with 175g rolled oats.
Sifted in 100g custard powder, 250g flour (half white, half wholemeal) and 2 tsp bicarb of soda.
Mixed well then rolled tablespoonfuls into a ball with my hands and placed on lined baking trays - I put 8 on each 23 x 30 cm tray and had 36 balls all together. With only 2 baking trays, this took me quite a while.
Flattened each ball slightly and pressed in a few crushed cornflakes into the tops.
Baked at 180C for 10 minutes.
Slid onto a rack to cool.

Delicate biscuits these are not - they are more of a cross between a biscuit and a cake and are quite substantial in size. But tasty they most definitely are - crisp on the outside and soft in the middle but with a cornflake crunch throughout. Surprisingly, they were not too sweet, perhaps because I was rather cautious with the syrup. CT informed me that the staff were delighted. I shall be very disappointed if my spies report back that he was spotted red handed scoffing the lot.

Baking Mad Chocolate Honeycomb Squares

2011-09-27T07:25:00.000+01:00

Well I'm sure most of you will have heard of the French TV pastry chef Eric Lanlard and Baking Mad. Even I have heard of both him and the programme and I don't have a television. The Baking Mad website is full of recipe ideas as well as tips, tricks and competitions. I was asked to choose a recipe from this site and make it. Well, goodness me, there were so many recipes to choose from I was a little overwhelmed. First off, I typed in the keyword chocolate - dozens of recipes issued forth. With a little thought I narrowed my chocolate search down to Eric's recipes - if I was going to make something from the site, it may as well be one of his. This gave me a more reduced choice. I had no problems selecting which one to make because chocolate honeycomb squares leapt out and grabbed my attention! I've sort of had honeycomb on the brain recently. I've just reviewed some delicious hokey pokey. Then Chele over at the Chocolate Teapot made some followed by Kath over at the Ordinary Cook. I was just looking for the excuse to make some of my own and now I'd found it.

Actually, when looking at the recipe, I realised it used maltesers rather than honeycomb. What the heck, much as I love maltesers, honeycomb it was going to be - or was it? I followed Chele's recipe and it looked fine when I poured it out - bubbly and the right colour, but when I went to bash it into bits I found it was sticky and chewy and not in the least bit crunchy. Easily defeated I trudged off to buy some maltesers!

Making half the quantity and adjusting the topping decoration somewhat, this is what I did:

Melted 100g milk chocolate (35%) in a pan over gentle heat with 50g unsalted butter and 1.5 tbsp golden syrup.
Meanwhile bashed 115g of digestive biscuits in a bowl with the end of a rolling pin.
Added the biscuit pieces and 115g maltesers to the chocolate and stirred.
Poured into a buttered xxx dish, then levelled with a spoon.
Placed in the fridge for an hour to set.

Melted 25g milk chocolate in a bowl over hot water.
Spread this over the set tiffin.
Immediately covered with halved maltesers and bits of my failed honeycomb.
Melted 20g dark orange chocolate in a bowl over hot water.
Attempted to drizzle this over the top of the maltesers using a teaspoon, but I couldn't get the chocolate runny enough.
Made a cone out of greaseproof paper, snipped the end of and used this to force some drizzle out - hmmmm!
When set, cut into 24 squares and indulged!

And indulgent is the best word for these - sweet, crunchy, sticky, coma inducing, but so very moreish. They reminded CT of Middle Eastern sweets, not so much in flavour but as sticky flavoursome bites. I was very surprised at how much the orange flavour stood out, given that so little of the dark chocolate actually made it onto the top.

This is a sponsored link.

Apple & Thyme Cake - Random Recipe 8

2011-09-25T10:32:00.000+01:00

Dom's random recipe challenge this month is to randomly pick something from our stashes of magazines, cuttings and pull-outs. He knows us so well; don't we all have a pile of those lurking around somewhere, trying to attract our attention and making us feel guilty? In my more organised moments, I gather clippings and old envelope jottings and put them in folders - three in fact, one for sweet stuff, one for savoury and one for Christmas. Annoyingly, I haven't got organised enough to have one for chocolate. However, I'm not as efficient as I'd like to be, so most of them are still lying about the house in various places or used as bookmarks. I was NOT going to embark on a mega house-clearance and recipe sort out week, so I put my hand into the file for sweet recipes, hoped for the best and pulled out ....... another apple cake recipe!!!!!

I'd pretty much thought I'd done my bit for apples this month, but it was not to be. This recipe for Lord Lambourne Apple & Thyme Cake, came from an RHS Grow Your Own card that I think I picked up about four years ago when visiting RHS Rosemoor in North Devon. Anyway, I have plenty of apples from my mother's tree, the use of thyme seemed interesting and I could easily add chocolate chips into the mix so I started peeling apples.

Cored, peeled and roughly chopped 3 apples (Cornish cooker / eater variety).
Placed apple in a pan together with 25g cardamom sugar, 25g unsalted butter and 1/2 tsp cinnamon and simmered for a few minutes until soft, but not broken.
Creamed 125g unsalted butter with 125g cardamom sugar, 100g light muscovado sugar and the leaves from 3 sprigs of thyme.
Beat in 3 eggs - one by one.
Sifted in 190g flour (1/2 wholemeal, half white and including 1 heaped tbsp Mesquite powder), 1 heaped tsp baking powder and 1 tsp cinnamon, then mixed.
Stirred in the cooked apples followed by 50g milk chocolate chips (40%).
Spooned into a 23cm cake mould and baked for 50 minutes at 150C.
Allowed to cool for a while, then turned out onto a wire rack to cool completely.
Mixed 1/4 tsp cinnamon with 1 tbsp icing sugar and dusted this over the top.

It's very hard to tell as I have only memory for comparison purposes, but I think this might be the best apple cake I've made so far. It was totally delicious. Very smooth in the mouth, cinnaomony and toffee appley too. My only complaint was that the thyme was only just detectable.

Oh well, six apple cakes down - at least as many to go!

Chocolate Brown Betty

2011-09-23T20:12:00.001+01:00

With a friend due for supper last week, loads of spare apples and some bread in need of using up, I knew immediately what I wanted to make for pudding. I grew up calling a stewed apple base with a bread crumb top Apple Charlotte, but apparently that is not correct. Apple Charlotte seems to be more like a summer pudding but using apples rather than summer berries. According to the great god Google, a Brown Betty is what I've been referring to all these years. Anyway, this is what I did, making it up as I went along:

Blitzed 3oz of my rye sourdough into bread crumbs.
Stirred in 1 tbsp demerara sugar, 1 tsp cinnamon and a grating of nutmeg.
Melted 1oz butter with 1 heaped tbsp golden syrup and stirred into the bread.
Peeled, cored and sliced 2 large Cornish cooking apples and 4 small red fleshed ones we found on a wayside tree.
Buttered a small pie dish and piled in the apple slices.
Sprinkled 2 tbsp demerara sugar over the apples.
Scattered 50g chopped dark orange flavoured chocolate over this.
Spooned the bread crumb mixture over the top of the chocolate.
Baked for 25 minutes at 180C.

The picture may be rubbish - it was dark, but this was so good, I wonder why I've never made it before. The bread crumb top was deliciously spicy and nicely crunchy. The chocolate had melted comfortingly into the apples which were soft and juicy and the dollop of creme fraiche over the top was the perfect finishing tough. The three of us polished it off quick time as the conversation drifted from marine biology to tango dancing via druidic studies.

To celebrate her new blog home, Kate of What Kate Baked (formerly Kates Cakes & Bakes) has issued an Autumnal Challenge to bake something homely, comforting, warming and autumnal. She even has a prize up for grabs. This pud fits the bill nicely - in my humble opinion!

A tad cheekily, but I'm fast running out of time and have a long queue of posts waiting patiently to be published, I am also submitting this to Fabulicious Food's Simple and in Season.

Chocolate Chilli Cake - We Should Cocoa 13

2011-09-22T07:41:00.002+01:00

When Chele announced that this month we were to make something suitable for the We Should Cocoa first birthday party, I knew exactly what I wanted to do. I'd been eyeing up Pam Corbin's Chocolate Cake recipe since I first acquired her excellent book Cakes (no 8 in the River Cottage Handbook series). I was intrigued by her use of drinking chocolate powder in the recipe. It seemed like a perfect opportunity to use the Steenbergs chilli drinking chocolate that I've been trying not to drink too greedily. I was hoping this would give a very mild chilli effect with just a trace of warmth. So, all that was needed was the excuse of a friend coming to tea and I set to with a will. Apart from using the chilli drinking chocolate, I followed the recipe pretty much as written for the actual cake. But the filling and topping I changed. Amazingly, I still had some apricot curd in the fridge, but it really did need using up and I thought this would provide a nice contrast to the chocolate. For the top, I was inspired by a Hugh Fernely Whitingstall recipe from the Guardian that our friend had given me. It was for a wicked looking chocolate hazelnut cake that I will have to make one day. The Ganache was a little different and was meant to give a glossy top, so I thought I'd do something similar. This is what I did:

Stirred 50 hot water into 25g chilli drinking chocolate and 25g cocoa until smooth.
Creamed 175g unsalted butter with 100g cardamom sugar and 100g light brown muscavado sugar until light and fluffy.
Beat the cocoa mixture and a pinch of Himalayan pink rock salt into the butter mixture.
Sieved 200g flour (half spelt, half white), 1 tsp baking powder and 1 tsp bicarb of soda.
Beat in 4 large eggs one at a time, mixing in a tbsp of flour after each one to prevent curdling.
Stirred in the remaining flour.
Added 75g fat free Greek yogurt and 75ml milk and mixed gently.
Folded in 100g ground almonds.
Spooned into two 22 cm cake moulds and baked at 180C for 35 mins.
Removed and left to cool.

Sandwiched together with apricot curd buttercream made with 50g unsalted butter, 100g icing sugar and 3 heaped tbsp apricot curd.

Dissolved 50g vanilla sugar in 50ml water and boiled for 3 mins.
Allowed to cool to warm rather than hot.
Added 80g broken dark chocolate (85%) and 10g unsalted butter.
Stirred until smooth.
Allowed to cool a little, then poured over the cake.
Grated 20g dark chocolate (85%) and scattered over the top.

This was a wonderfully moist cake, perfectly cooked and risen. It was also surprisingly fragrant courtesy of the cardamom sugar. I'm guessing that as I'd been away for a while the cardamom pods in the sugar had time to do their work without being interrupted by me. The apricot filling provided a nice contrast to the chocolate. I was really pleased with the glossy chocolate top which set firmly and dribbled elegantly down the sides without gushing all over the plate. It tasted good too, a nice chocolate hit to a cake which wasn't particularly chocolatey. The chilli worked just as I hoped it would and was a hint rather than an assault. It added a depth to the flavour and left a very faint tingle in the mouth and throat. All in all a worthy offering for our first birthday party.

Steenbergs Chilli Drinking Chocolate

2011-09-19T21:14:00.001+01:00

A few weeks ago, an unexpected parcel arrived in the post. Childlike I know, but I still get very excited by parcels, especially unexpected ones. Having reviewed these drinking chocolates back in June, Steenbergs thought I might like to try a tin of their chilli version. And a tin with a label on it too. Last time, they were still waiting for the labels to be printed, so I received two unlabelled tins - which was fine by me as I can now use them for other purposes.

Of the three drinking chocolate varieties, this was my favourite. It has a real kick to it and I love the warmth it leaves behind in mouth, throat and stomach. It's not quite as sweet as the others either, which gave it the thumbs up from me. I'd happily sip on this all winter long. But a word of warning, this one is not for the faint hearted; CT thought it was like a hot iron fist concealed within an unctuous velvet glove.

I had a thought that this would be rather good used in a cake. I duly made one and it worked just as I'd hoped; more on that later.

Ginger and Chocolate Cupcakes

2011-09-17T07:28:00.000+01:00

I don't know why, but I really fancied baking something with my marrow and ginger jam yesterday - well jam is probably pushing it as it's more like sauce! It was a friend's birthday and as it is National Cupcake Week, I thought I'd better bake some for her. I adapted a primrose bakery recipe for ginger cupcakes, altering the quantities, using ginger and marrow jam instead of stem ginger and adding bits of chocolate. I also thought this would be a good opportunity to, err, have another go at piping - deep breath, gritted teeth ......

This is how I did it:

Melted 125g unsalted butter in a large pan together with 125g molasses sugar and 1 tbsp treacle.
Allowed to cool a little whilst I got on with weighing the flour and chopping the chocolate.
Mixed in 75ml sour milk and stirred until smooth.
Beat in 1 large egg.
Stirred in 2 tablespoon of marrow and ginger jam.
Sifted in 180g flour (half wholemeal, half white), 1 tsp baking powder, 1/4 tsp bicarb of soda, 1 tsp ground ginger and a pinch of salt and stirred to combine.
Stirred in 50g chopped dark spiced orange chocolate (51%), reserving 24 pieces to place on top.
Spooned mixture into 12 cupcake cases, dropped in 2 pieces of chocolate and baked at 180C for 20 minutes.
Turned out onto a rack and left to cool.

Creamed 125g unsalted butter with 250g sieved icing sugar until almost white.
Beat in 2 tsp lemon juice and 3 tbsp of the syrup from the marrow and ginger jam.
Spooned into a piping bag and using a star nozzle succeeded in getting the buttercream onto the cupcakes - hoorah!

Well, my piping skills obviously need some improvement, but I was reasonably pleased with these. I didn't break the bag or shoot the nozzle out of the end for a start, that's got to be progress. I tried total coverage as well as just a whirl in the middle to see which I liked best. Both CT and I felt that full coverage gave the best effect.

They had a delicious gingerbread taste, but had a lighter texture and the ginger was not as strong. Combined with the lemony tang from the ginger and marrow jam, the fragrant aroma and chocolate nuggets, these were real winners; I shall be making them again for sure. Just as well I was giving these away or I might have polished off quite a few of them. That was my friend's avowed intention anyway.