Rocky Road Easter Eggs

These were fun (and easy) to make, and didn't turn out too badly.

Ingredients

Good quality chocolate (I ended up using about 500g in total to make 8 half eggs)
Egg-shaped moulds
Slivered almonds, toasted
Fry's Turkish Delight, chopped into small pieces (thanks, Deb, for suggesting this!)
Mini marshmallows (from the baking aisle)




Basic Steps

Make eggs first.  Spray each egg mould with Spray 'N' Cook.  Using the back of a spoon, coat the inside of each mould with a thin layer of melted chocolate.  Refrigerate for 5 minutes or so until set.  Coat with another layer, refrigerate again.  To make sure your eggs are fairly sturdy, I'd do at least three layers.

Refrigerate eggs in moulds for at least 30 minutes or until well and truly set.

Make rocky road - mix almonds, Turkish Delight and marshmallows through melted chocolate (make sure the chocolate isn't still too warm when you mix in the marshmallows, as they will melt).

Bend egg moulds slightly to loosen eggs, turn upside down and gently tap egg out.

Fill each egg with a good spoon of rocky road; press mix gently into all the gaps using a spoon.  Try not to handle eggs as you do this, as they melt very easily.  Refrigerate until set.

***
I'm not sure that there's any sort of cost saving through making these yourself, but I enjoyed the experience, and they taste good.  Variations: you could use white chocolate instead (in that case, use plain not chocolate coated Turkish Delight).  You could use dried cranberries or chopped dried apricots instead of Turkish Delight, or even chopped raspberry liquorice, peanuts or macadamias instead of almonds...!

Morning Tea t Work

Any excuse to try baking something new!

Chocolate Hazelnut Cookies

These are good. The small amount of hazelnut meal added to the cookie dough makes a real difference to the flavour. Use the best quality cocoa powder and chocolate you can. You will probably need to add more plain flour - I found I needed to add in at least 1/4 cup more to get the consistency right, otherwise it's just too buttery. The recipe suggests dusting with cocoa powder to finish, but I did tiger stripes with melted chocolate instead, just for something different.

Ingredients
80g soft butter, chopped
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/4 cup (55g) caster sugar
1 egg
1/2 cup (50g) hazelnut meal
3/4 cup (110g) plain flour
1/4 cupt (25g) cocoa powder

100g dark chocolate, melted
50g butter, softened
1/3 cup (110g) Nutella or hazelnut spread

Pre-heat oven to 180 degrees C (160 for fan-forced). Grease two baking sheets (or line with non-stick baking paper).

Beat butter, sugar and egg in a small bowl with mixer until light and fluffy, stir in hazelnut meal, flour and cocoa. You may well need to add additional flour - the cookie dough shouldn't be too buttery. Form into a ball, wrap in cling wrap and refrigerate for at least an hour.

Roll dough out until approx 3mm thick (best done between two sheets of non-stick baking paper). Cut rounds from dough using a 4cm fluted cookie cutter. Place on prepared trays, bake for about 8 minutes, leave to cool on trays for 5 minutes then transfer to wire rack.

Beat cooled chocolate, butter and Nutella in a small bowl until thick and glossy.  Using a piping bag (or a spoon!) to sandwich cookies together with the chocolate and Nutella mix.

Vanilla Cupcakes

 
 
 
 
 
 
 


Chocolate Fudge
 
This is very good, very rich, and very simple to make. As always with chocolate, don’t scrimp on the quality. I used Cadbury's Old Gold, which worked well. In my usual shambolic style, I got part way through and realised that I didn’t have quite enough chocolate. So I added in a bit of Nutella instead. It still tasted lovely, but didn’t set quite as well as it might have done. In hindsight, I probably should have adjusted the amount of condensed milk to compensate.

The Cointreau adds depth to the flavour, and counters the sweetness a bit. It’s not particularly orange-y with the 1 ½ tablespoons they specify – I’d be tempted to put in  a bit more next time I make it. Perhaps also some very finely grated orange zest. I also wonder whether the Cointreau and vanilla extract should actually be beaten in at the end, after the cooking.

But all in all, delicious, for very little effort.


Ingredients
400g chocolate, chopped
395g can of sweetened condensed milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
150g unsalted butter, chopped
1 ½ tablespoons Cointreau

Lightly grease a 16cm square tin and line with non-stick baking paper.

Put chocolate, condensed milk, vanilla, butter and Cointreau into a medium, heavy-based saucepan over a low heat and stir until all the chocolate and butter has melted. Increase the heat to medium and simmer for 3-4 minutes until smooth and slightly thickened. Pour into prepared tin, leave to cool then refrigerate until set. Using a sharp knife, cut into squares. Store in the fridge.

(If you wanted to make white chocolate fudge, you could easily do so by just substituting white chocolate for the dark chocolate. I'd also up the amount of vanilla a bit. And change (or leave out) the liquer - maybe Bailey's instead?)

Recipe Books

I guess the books you like will be influenced by the type of food you like to cook and eat. Me, I like simple food with strong flavours, and I love to bake. I also like reading recipe books for pleasure, so I love books where there is a short background blurb about each recipe. Here are some authors I’ve used a bit:

Nigella Lawson: I love her interest in food, her emphasis on flavours. But I have to admit, I’ve had some real problems with some of her recipes – incorrect measurements, lack of detail in instructions, and underwhelming results. There have been a few real gems – her recipe for spaghetti alla carbonara is one of my all-time favourites – but overall, her books are a bit hit-and-miss. I think she’s better watched than read.

Donna Hay: these recipes are always clear and easy to follow and very reliable, and often have a nice twist. The results are usually delicious and good to look at.

Jamie Oliver: another cook who I think is better watched than read. I’ve been really uninspired by most of the recipes in the books of his that I have read.

Delia Smith: usually pretty reliable, I like the way she explains why you do things; results can be a bit on the boring side.

Women’s Weekly: these recipes are easy to follow and very reliable. The results are usually good, if a bit boring and plain.

Elizabeth David: I have only actually ever cooked one or two things from her books, but I love to read them for fun.

Other favourites…?

Bailey's Cheesecake - oh yeah!

I tweaked a basic baked cheesecake recipe to make this one.  It was made as a birthday cake, so it's enormous. I baked it in a large oblong roasting tin with high sides.  Forgot to take a photo - sorry about that.

Ingredients (serves approx. 25)
500g sweet biscuits (Granita/digestive are best), crushed
250g butter, melted
1tsp mixed spice

1kg cream cheese
1 1/2 cups (330g) caster sugar
9 eggs
2 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup (250mL) Bailey's Irish Cream

50g dark chocolate, melted

Grease baking tray and line with baking paper.

Mix together crushed biscuits and melted butter.  Press into prepared tin.  Chill for 30 minutes.

Pre-heat oven to 160 degrees C (140 for fan-forced).

Beat eggs and sugar until thick and creamy.  Beat cream cheese in a separate, large bowl until smooth.  Add egg mixture, Bailey's and vanilla extract to cream cheese, beat until combined.  Pour mixture over prepared base.  Drizzle top with melted chocolate to give marble effect.

Bake for approximately 50 minutes or until firm in the middle.  Leave to cool in oven with door ajar.  Cover, refrigerate.

White Chocolate, Cranberry and Almond Torte

(Gluten-free, reasonably low in fat)


This torte was unlike any cake I’ve ever baked before. I suppose it was closest in composition to a pavlova, but the small amount of flour in it completely changed the texture. I wasn’t displeased with the result, but not really that impressed either.


It was easy enough to make. Eight egg whites beaten with caster sugar to make a typical meringue mix. Gently folded through a small amount (40g) of self-raising flour (I wanted the cake to be gluten-free, so I used g/f SR flour), sweetened dried cranberries, chopped white chocolate, and chopped roasted blanched almonds. Then gently poured the mix into a springform tin lined with baking paper and baked for 50 minutes or so.

The result certainly looked quite good. The main shortcoming I think was the dry texture. If I had left out the flour, it would have been a pavlova, and would have been quite soft and marshmallow-y in the middle. But the addition of that small amount of flour seemed to make the texture very dry. Maybe that was partly due to using g/f flour instead.

If I were to make this torte again, I think I would make a raspberry puree or syrup to pour over the top when serving, just to moisten it up a bit, or spread some sort of cream on top (perhaps melted white chocolate and cream whipped together and chilled).

Pumpkin and Sweetcorn Soup

I was experimenting with pumpkin soup last weekend, and stumbled across a really nice combination - pumpkin and sweetcorn.  I can't remember the exact quantities, but I'd say there was probably close to two parts pumpkin to one part sweetcorn.

Ingredients (measurements approximate)
1kg ripe pumpkin (Kent or butternut are both good), chopped into chunks
500g frozen sweetcorn kernels, left out for a few hours to defrost, then drained
3 spring onions (or 1 brown onion), chopped
1-2 cloves garlic, minced
Stock (powdered is fine - I used Vegeta)
Chilli powder (optional)

Saute spring onions and garlic in a small amount of oil in a large pan.  Add pumpkin and stock (just enough to cover the pumpkin - probably about 3 cups or so).  Cover and simmer for 10 minutes or so or until pumpkin begins to soften.  Add drained sweetcorn, simmer for 10 minutes or so more until all ingredients are tender.  Blitz with a hand blender.  Season to taste.

As long as you haven't added too much stock, the soup should be thick and rich when you've blitzed it.  If too thick, just add more water.  A small amount of chilli adds a nice kick, just don't overdo it.  The great thing about soup is that it's always a work in progress; it's easy to just add more of something else if the flavour's not quite right.