Chocolate and pecan blondies

Not that you need telling, but the recipes on the Smitten Kitchen blog are really rather good. Luckily a lot of other people realised this a while ago as blogger Deb Perlman now has a best selling cookbook.

Anyway, I made these blondies from a basic recipe on her blog the other week, and added around 75g of chopped up dark chocolate (85% cocoa) and about the same weight of lightly toasted pecan nuts. These were the first blondies I've made, and possibly tasted too. They were quite sweet, but were perfect in small squares and had a great fudge-y texture. They are the sort of thing that would be ideal for picnics or travelling with, as they don't have the logistical issues of transporting a large Victoria sponge (but are equally as delicious). Definitely one to make again once summer re-appears.

A fantastic chocolate and prune cake

I really like prunes. For some reason, people often find this funny and start sniggering. I'm not sure why, as for me (really nice) prunes are super-juicy, succulent, and full of sweetness. They are also fab paired with chocolate in puddings and cakes. So when I had a bag of prunes that had been hanging around in my cupboard for a while, and some friends coming over for lunch, I sought out a chocolate and prune cake recipe.

Luckily one of the first I found was this one by cook and food writer David Lebovitz, which was fantastic. It produced an ultra-moist but mega-rich chocolate cake, which had a dense, almost mousse-y texture. The recipe also contained the great idea of soaking the prunes in black tea rather than booze for non-alcohol drinkers. I served the cake with a scoop of creme fraiche, and it disappeared quite rapidly (thus my lone slice picture above). I would make this cake again at the drop of a hat, but probably won't for a while due to the risk of me eating it all myself.

Nigella Lawson's nutella cheesecake

So what can I say about this cheesecake- it took minutes to put together, didn't require cooking, was rich without being sickly, and was generally rather fab. Props to Nigella Lawson for the recipe, which I pretty much followed without any changes. The only thing I slightly adjusted when combining the cream cheese with nutella, was only adding the icing sugar a tablespoon at a time, and stopping when it tasted sweet enough (I think I used less than 60g).

As there's no cooking involved, this was an ideal dessert for making during the week for post-work, (Christmas) social stuff. This is exactly what I did, and I have to say it met with universal approval. 

Elizabeth Shaw chocolate

I have always found it hard to say no to chocolate in any form, so when a nice person from Elizabeth Shaw asked if I'd like to try some of their chocolate I responded in the affirmative. I also thought it would be a good chance to try out something completely new to me. In fact, it turned out that I had eaten some Elizabeth Shaw chocolate previously as they make some very acceptable amaretto flavour chocolate straws (or flutes as they seem to call them) that I enjoyed (a.k.a. scoffed a lot of) last year.

The company have now expanded their established range of mint chocolate crisps and added some new flavours which include caramel, honeycomb, butterscotch and a darker chocolate with cocoa nibs. These come in a number of selection boxes and also in bar form. I have to say that I couldn't tell much difference between the butterscotch, honeycomb, and caramel flavours as they all contained bits of honeycomb in them. But they were also very nice, and as the 'crisps' were actually bite-sized discs they did a good job of filling the need for a hit of sweetness after dinner. The cocoa nibs were not embedded in the darkest of chocolate, but it was still pretty decent. And I'm all in favour of not limiting mint chocolate to the Christmas holidays, so enjoyed those too.

So overall, I quite liked these chocolates. They haven't got the funkiest of brand names, but the actual product is pretty good with a few novel twists.

Elizabeth Shaw Chocolates
I rate them: 7.5/10
Cost: From around £2.00 for a bar.


Thanks to Elizabeth Shaw who sent me my chocolate for free and gratis.

Simple mint chocolate chip ice cream from Kavey Eats

I spotted this recipe for a quick and easy triple mint choc chip ice cream over on Kavey's ace blog a few weeks ago. I think I was still wearing my big coat, gloves, and boots into work then, so filed it away for when the sun eventually emerged. Which thankfully it has now done- huzzah- ice cream time!

Anyway, I don't think I've ever made a custard from scratch, and though I can't imagine it would be that difficult, what immediately appealed about Kavey's recipe is that it uses a ready-made custard for the ice cream base. I thought this was a great idea, so there was no faffing around with double boilers and spare egg whites for me! Apart from the custard, there are only three other ingredients in this ice cream- mint leaves, mint chocolate and mint liqueur (or peppermint extract). I made some minor changes to Kavey's original recipe, so here's my version.

Recipe (enough for about 6 portions depending on greed):

500ml ready-made 'premium' custard
1-2 tblsp chocolate mint leaves, chopped
100g bar Green and Black's dark mint chocolate, chopped into small chunks
0.5 tsp peppermint extract

Simply combine all of the above ingredients, and either put into an ice cream maker or (as I don't have one) put into a container, put in the freezer, and mix thoroughly every 45 minutes or so for 5-6 hours to minimise ice crystals forming.

This was the perfect ice cream for a hot sunny day- not too sweet, fresh from the mint, and with big chunks of dark chocolate. And it was so genuinely simple to assemble, I will definitely be making this again.

 And in a rather meta development, I'm also submitting this post as an entry into Kavey's Bloggers Scream for Ice Cream May challenge, which has chocolate as its theme.

Chocolate and cardamom truffles

I always thought that making chocolate was quite a tricky affair. In fact it's incredibly simple- you basically buy some chocolate, melt it, and make chocolate with it!
So I thought I'd make some truffles for Easter, as I've never made them before and they looked quite straight forward. I used this recipe from BBC Good Food magazine, and followed it exactly apart from halving the amounts, using 85% cocoa solids chocolate, and adding cardamom. I crushed the seeds from five small cardamom pods as finely as possible, and added them to the cream and butter as they warmed through. I then followed the instructions for chilling the chocolate mix, before shaping them into little balls and rolling in either cocoa powder or bits of lightly toasted flaked almond.
These truffles were really rich but not sickly, and I loved the flavour of cardamom with chocolate. And I still can't believe how incredibly simple they were to make. It's such a great feeling when you read about something in food world, and it turns out be just as easy and delicious as described.
I will definitely be making these truffles again, and have already started shortlisting different flavours that I can incorporate.

Nigel Slater's chocolate snaps

Am I too influenced by what I see on the telly? Perhaps. These chocolate snaps appear to be the second chocolate recipe that I've cooked in the past few months after seeing them made on TV. Oh well, could be worse.

Anyway, this is another super-simple recipe from Nigel Slater. It basically involves making chocolate by buying some chocolate and melting it. Here's Nigel's recipe, which I followed with a few minor amendments. I left out the pistachios as my confidence that there was a small bag in the cupboard turned out to misplaced. I also used some vanilla flavoured salt from Waitrose rather than regular sea salt- which I have to say turned out to be a bit of a genius move. The combination of salt and chocolate seems quite popular these days, and having started off as something of a sceptic I am now a big fan. The addition of a touch of vanilla adds another flavour but without extra sweetness, and of course it's hard to go wrong with any chocolate/nut combo.

My only advice would be to watch the almonds like a hawk while they're toasting, as some of mine were a bit over-done despite my hovering around them. I also had a few issues with a few of the melted chocolate snaps running into each other to create an uber-snap. But once they they had set in the fridge it was easy to peel them from the baking parchment and snap them into individual pieces.

I will definitely be making these again, and probably extending the range of flavours that I add to the chocolate- I'm thinking stem ginger, chopped hazelnuts or honeycomb. It just remains for me to say, thank you Nigel and feel free to invite me round for tea anytime.

Chocolate and ginger pots

I'd only vaguely heard of the chef turned food writer, Simon Hopkinson, prior to his recent BBC television show. I now think I might add him to my list of people it would be fun to be friends with, along with Nigel Slater.
His recipe for chocolate pots with ginger appeared on his show, and immediately looked appealing. I followed the recipe from the BBC website almost exactly, apart from using 85% cocoa solids chocolate and a couple of teaspoons of vanilla extra (rather than infusing the cream).
The resulting puddings were fantastic; super-dense but with the ginger providing a nice contrast which stopped them becoming cloying. The only thing I'd change when making them again, would be to mix the chopped stem ginger throughout the pots rather than have a layer at the bottom as Mr Hopkinson recommends.

This is such simple recipe, with a classic flavour combination, but I'm really glad Simon Hopkinson popped up on my telly to inform me about it.

Olive oil chocolate cake from Meemalee's Kitchen

I spotted this recipe for a chocolate cake made with olive oil on one of my favourite blogs Meemalee's Kitchen a few weeks ago. It appealed to me, as with its lack of flour and relatively small amount of sugar, it looked like quite a healthy cake option. And it also seemed to be quite a simple recipe. In fact it is a very simple recipe, but I turned making this cake into a very stressful experience by firstly not being able to locate the motor for my hand-held electric mixer; and then resorting to using the mixer attachment for the food processor but with only the single beater that I could find in the drawer. I do not recommend this methodology. It leads to mid-recipe washing up, swearing, and going red in the face a lot.

However, this cake was totally worth the (self-inflicted) stress. It was densely chocolate-y, but also mousse-like so still very light. Basically it was bloody delicious, and I was very tempted to make it again the next day. I used vanilla as an extra flavouring, rather than the original orange, but I suspect it would work well with a range of others such as cardamon, pistachio or cinnamon.

Recipe (adapted from Meemalee's Kitchen from an original recipe by Jose Pizarro)
Enough for around 6 decent slices, depending on greed

125g very dark chocolate (I used 100g of 90% and 25g of 85% cocoa solids chocolate)
125ml standard olive oil (not extra virgin)
4 large eggs (yolks and whites separated)
50g caster sugar
2 tsp good quality vanilla extract

Firstly put the oven on to pre-heat at gas mark 4. Break the chocolate into pieces and melt it along with the olive oil in a bowl set over a pan of simmering water. When fully liquid and melted, set aside to cool. In the meantime cream together the egg yolks and sugar, until they look pale and light. An electric whisk is ideal for this. Once the chocolate mixture has cooled, slowly add it into the eggs and sugar together with the vanilla extract. In a separate clean bowl, whisk up the egg whites until they form stiff peaks and you can do that classic trick of holding the bowl upside down without the contents falling out. An electric whisk is also ideal for this. Gently mix the egg white into the rest of the cake mix, and pour into a 28cm cake tin that has been lined with greaseproof paper. Bake in the middle of the oven for at least 15minutes. Mine was still quite liquid in the centre after this time though, so I gave it an extra 10minutes. Wait until the cake has cooled before taking it out of the tin.
Serve with a splodge of clotted cream, fresh strawberries, or both.

NB The above is how it's supposed to work. In my stressed state I managed to balls things up by adding all the chocolate to the eggs and sugar in one go. Or maybe it hadn't cooled enough. But basically I ended up with one giant lump of sticky chocolate sitting in a pool of pale brown 'water'. I managed to 'rescue' this by slowing adding the egg white to the mix and doing a lot of stirring. It did eventually come back together, but I suspect I knocked most of the air out of the cake mix, so it didn't rise much. But the texture and taste remained fab.

Intense chocolate and cardamom pots

I do like a nice bit of cake, chocolate, biscuit or indeed a combo of all three. But having embarked down the path towards acquiring the dimensions of a Christmas pudding on legs, I thought I should probably reign in my sugar consumption.
However I wasn't keen on completely abandoning all puddings, and thought a good quality, high-cocoa content chocolate might well lend itself to a dessert which didn't need any sugar adding to it. These chocolate pots are adapted from a Nigella Express recipe for an instant chocolate mousse that doesn't use any raw eggs either. This is my version, which makes enough for four decent sized servings.

Recipe:
100g good quality dark chocolate with 85% cocoa solids (I used Green & Blacks), broken into chunks
2 tsp soft butter
2 tblsp hot water
130 ml double cream
2 tsp good quality vanilla extract
8 green cardamom pods

Split the cardamom pods and take out the black seeds. Grind these as finely as possible, and add to around 30 ml of the double cream. Put the cream in a small pan over a very low heat and let the cardamom infuse into it for about 15 minutes. The cream will reduce, but make sure it doesn't catch on the pan or burn. In the meantime melt the chocolate and butter together by placing them in a bowl over a saucepan of simmering water. Once melted add in the hot water and the cardamom cream (this will have reduced to around two or three tablespoons). I should probably have strained my cream to get rid of the bits of seed, but if your grinding skills are better than mine you should be fine leaving them in. Leave the chocolate mix to cool down, and while you're waiting whip up the rest of the double cream with the vanilla extract. You want the cream to form light peaks and not be too thick. Once the chocolate has cooled to room temperature, mix in the whipped cream, put the mousse into individual pots and chill in the fridge for around 30 minutes.

The main difference between my mousse and Nigella's is that she uses marshmallows which provide a source of sugar, whereas I don't (actually I wouldn't use them anyway as they usually have gelatine in them). Instead the high-cocoa content chocolate provides a really intense pure chocolate flavour and the cardamom somehow softens the bitterness. This is still very much an adult dessert though, which is best in small-ish quantities. I liked it served on its own, or with a few strawberries or raspberries. As a side note- I left some of the mixture overnight in the fridge and it firmed up a lot, to the point where it could be cut with a knife. It softened up again after about 30 minutes at room temperature but was still quite dense. So I think these chocolate pots are best served after a brief bit of chilling rather than being prepared way in advance. Also, if you don't have concerns about being rotund, do feel free to chuck a bit of icing sugar into this dessert to sweeten it up.

Chewy chocolate chip cookies

So nothing says Christmas like a chocolate chip cookie. Well perhaps not, but the holidays do mean that I have bit more time on my hands for things like baking. Unfortunately though I am generally fine baking cakes, something always seems to go a bit wrong with preparing other baked goods. In the process of making these American-style chewy cookies I somehow managed to set fire to the greaseproof paper covering my baking tray.
Anyway, this is a very simple recipe courtesy of Smitten Kitchen, and as these are soft cookies the dough doesn't require rolling and cutting out but merely melding into small lumps. This is the recipe in grams rather than American cups.

Recipe (enough for around twenty decent sized cookies):
250g plain flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt (I omitted this but used salter butter)
170g unsalted butter, melted
220g demerara sugar
100g caster sugar
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
1 egg
1 egg yolk
170g plain chocolate chips

Mix together the melted butter and sugar, then beat in the eggs and vanilla, and make sure they are all well combined. Pour this into the sifted flour and baking powder and gently mix. Put in the chocolate and continue mixing for a bit. I didn't use chocolate chips but instead chopped up the same weight of chocolate. I should probably have cut things smaller though as I had some issues with bigger chunks of chocolate melting and sticking, which made moving them off the baking sheet a bit of a pain.
But anyway you should end up with a buttery dough that you can squish together either with a tablespoon or your hands into golf ball-sized rounds. Place these on a lined baking sheet about 10cm apart, and bake for around 30min at gas mark 4. I was guilty of cookie over-crowding and ended up with some merging into each other. But as the finished product is quite soft they were easy enough to cut up again, though this did result in some odd shapes.
You may also need to adjust the cooking time depending on the size of your cookies, as some of my batches took longer than others.
What you should end up with is a cookie that slightly crisp at the edges, chewy in the middle and with chunks of oozing chocolate. Ideal scoffed with a hot chocolate in the winter months.

Sweet treats- Chocolate refridgerator cake and mini carrot cake

I've always thought that tiffin was something very occasionally mentioned by older relatives when they meant a packed lunch, or alternatively a term to elicit sniggers in a Carry On film. It was only quite recently that I've learnt it's also used as a synonym for refridgerator cake. And it was as I gazed on a box of Gu tiffin in the supermarket that I thought I could actually make this myself.
I used this recipe from the BBC Food site, with a couple of minor variations. I swapped the dried apricots for glace cherries (as I prefer them) and used 100g of plain and 200g of milk chocolate (as there was an offer on in Tesco). I don't know anyone who weighs golden syrup so I put in around 4 generous tablespoons and tasted. This was sweet enough for me but you may want to add more if you are using dark chocolate. Once everything was pressed into my tin I left it in the fridge to set for a couple of hours. The recipe states this makes 12 squares, but once turned out I obviously cut mine much smaller as I had around 20 little squares. I think these were the perfect size though as anything bigger would probably have resulted in an immediate sugar coma.

So to balance out all the chocolate in the above I thought I'd better eat some vegetables, ideally in cake form too. A quick bit of searching threw up this excellent recipe on Jules' Butcher, Baker blog. My only variations were omitting the mixed spice (as I didn't have any) and using my own version of the cream cheese icing. This simply combines half a pack of cream cheese (around 125g) with a teaspoon of vanilla extract and enough icing sugar to sweeten (around 3 tablespoons).

The little carrot cupcakes were incredibly moist and fruity but not too sweet. And the topping added just a little bit of richness. I was very taken by how something that was chocolate-free could be so moreish.
Either of these cakes are ideal with a cup of tea while enjoying some spring sunshine.