Chocolate Log Blog

Chocolate at Home by Will Torrent

noreply@blogger.com (Choclette) — Wed, 11 Mar 2015 11:48:00 +0000

Instagram is a wonderful thing. It gives a real insight into what is important in people's lives. It's so visual and so immediate, it has become a firm favourite with me. It was here I first came across the talented pastry chef, Will Torrent. Will may not love chocolate more than I do, but he certainly knows a lot more about it and has the expertise to fashion it into all sorts of wondrous creations.

Will kindly sent me a copy of his recently published, Chocolate at Home: step by step recipes to help you master the art of chocolate to review. As you can probably tell from the book's subtitle, simplicity and clarity are the keynotes of the book. Will tells us that we can all make our own masterpieces at home, with a little help from him. Looking at some of the recipes in the book, I'm rather hoping he's right, they are original and exciting - peanut butter & raspberry jelly truffles anyone?

After a brief introduction, including where chocolate comes from and how it's made, the dark arts of tempering are mentioned. I have struggled with tempering since I first tried it and it's been a rather hit and miss affair. Will makes it sound rather simple and gives illustrated step by step guidance on the different methods of achieving tempered chocolate. He then goes on to cover moulding, dipping and making ganache. It is then the recipes commence - and they sound good.

The chapter on chocolates and truffles starts with a classic truffle, followed by champagne truffles and then goes on to all sorts of more unusual delights. Whiskey and ginger barrels were just what CT and I needed when we were ill for so long over Christmas, I'm sure they would have sorted us out. Amaretto and toasted marzipan truffles sound too good not to try and Earl Grey and orange marmalade truffles would be perfect for my mother.

The next chapter is all about cookies, biscuits and bakes; it includes tried and tested favourites such as chocolate chip cookies, novelties such as roasted cacao nib & lavender tuile shards and twists on some classics. White chocolate & passion fruit 'custard creams' sound quite exotic and on another plain entirely from the rather humdrum custard cream biscuit we all know so well. My eye is very firmly on a recipe for spiced white chocolate & blackcurrant crumble cake which would be a brilliant vehicle for my chilli blackcurrant jam.

Such delights as white chocolate, coconut rice pudding with caramelised mango await in the chapter on desserts and puddings. Sophisticated apricot & rosemary délice resides alongside the more humble steamed chocolate pudding & custard. Comfort food par excellence.

The last chapter is on drinks and ice creams. As soon as I opened it, I wanted to rush down to the kitchen to make gingerbread hot chocolate, what could be more enticing on a cold and grey winter's day? The ice cream, I find less enticing at this time of year, but I'm sure warmer weather will soon come and I'll be keen to try out Will's recipe for white chocolate, orange & cinnamon sorbet.

The photographs from Jonathan Gregson, are the sort that make you want to lick the page - or is that just me? Gorgeously dark, but so inviting, they capture the essence of chocolate compulsion. We're doubly blessed, not only are the pictures art in their own right, but there is, unusually, one for every recipe in the book. Pictures of chocolate in its various forms abound, with molten chocolate flowing in sensuous and copious quantities.

I dived in soon after receiving the book and made a cake; I was very pleased by the results. I will be posting more on this soon. Meanwhile, I'm still trying to decide what to make next. I can't help it, I do like a good cookbook and this is one I'm very pleased to add to my collection.

Thanks to Will Torrent and Ryland Peters for a copy of this book. I was not required to write a positive review and as always, all opinions are my own.

Kefir Raw Cocoa and Goji Berry Smoothie

noreply@blogger.com (Choclette) — Mon, 09 Mar 2015 09:47:00 +0000

As predicted, since acquiring my super speed Optimum 9200 blender a couple of weeks ago, I have fallen in love with it and have used it nearly every day. Read my Froothie review to find out more. Kefir smoothies are one of the things we like to have for breakfast, but we were somewhat limited to the ingredients we could use in our old blender. Now there is no limit to what we can find and grind.

Goji berries are one of the "super foods" I try to eat on a regular basis. However, they really didn't work very well in a smoothie using our old blender which produced a not very appealing reddish sludge at the bottom of the jug. So, the very first ingredient I put to the test in our Froothie blender was goji berries. We tend to add all sorts of things to our smoothies and a banana is not an uncommon ingredient, but I wanted to keep this as simple as possible so that we could taste the goji berries and get a real chocolate hit.

It is perhaps, no surprise to other Froothie Fanatics that this actually worked, but I was thrilled. In a matter of seconds, you could no longer detect any individual part of the goji berries - they blended perfectly. The smoothie was also quite delicious and worked as I'd hoped - raw, healthy and energy boosting. You can find out more about kefir in this spiced kefir pancakes post.

If you fancy buying one of these fabulous beasts, please do so using this link Optimum 9200. As a Froothie Ambassador, I will gain a commission, but it won't cost you any more. In fact it is currently on offer at £329, normal price £429. Any purchase made includes a one month money back guarantee, including postage and a six year warranty.

print recipe

Kefir Raw Cocoa and Goji Berry Smoothie

by Choclette March-09-2015

A raw breakfast smoothie which is not only deliciously creamy and chocolatey, but keeps you going for hours.

Ingredients

750 ml Kefir
1 tbsp goji berries
1 tbsp raw Peruvian cacao powder (mine was from Indigo Herbs)
2 tsp bee pollen
2 tsp (or to taste) raw honey

Instructions

1. Place all the ingredients into a blender (the Optimum 9200 is ideal) and whiz for 20 seconds or until smooth.2. Pour into glasses and enjoy.

Details

Prep time: 5 mins Cook time: Total time: 5 mins Yield: 2 large (500 ml) or 4 small (250ml) glasses

Fairtrade Chocolate - Seed and Bean Giveaway #57

noreply@blogger.com (Choclette) — Fri, 06 Mar 2015 09:59:00 +0000

Fairtrade Fortnight is coming to an end, but you still have a chance to "choose products that save lives". Take a look at last week's post to find out more on why buying fairtrade chocolate helps growers in poorer parts of the world.

To celebrate Fairtrade Fortnight, I have a giveaway for four 85g bars of Seed and Bean chocolate. Seed and Bean is a company founded on ethical principles and all of its products are not only Fairtrade and organic, but taste good too. I'm a fan. The 18 flavours offered are interesting and the packaging is attractive and captures my attention every time. You can see more detail about some of their chocolate bars in previous reviews, the last one of which was a rainbow of delight.

This time I was sent a bar of their award winning Sicilian Hazelnut & Almond (37%) which is pure delight. It's a milky gianduja, which is smooth, creamy and not too sweet. It has an aroma of roasted hazelnuts and a taste of Italian sophistication. I meant to try just a little bit and before I knew it the whole bar had disappeared - how did that happen?

The dark (58%) Lemon and Cardamom was also a new one on me and I'm quite enthralled by it. Like all of the Seed and Bean chocolate I've tried, the flavours are subtle, but they are most definitely present. Lemon and cardamom are closely aligned in flavour, yet complement each other well. I used this chocolate to top my lemon coconut cakes.

I was intrigued to find out what the Tangerine milk chocolate bar (37%) was like as I thought it would be hard to differentiate the flavour from that of orange. The scent of citrus was there and extraordinarly it really did taste of tangerines, not oranges. It is, in fact, quite a delicious bar.

The fourth one in the pack is another milk chocolate one, Cornish Sea Salt & Lime (37%). This is a firm favourite of mine which I have reviewed before. Since writing that review, Seed and Bean have, much to my delight, upped the cocoa content of their chocolate. I'm hoping they will up it again at some point as a higher cocoa content makes for a richer and less sweet chocolate. In my world, all milk chocolate would have a minimum of 40%.

I was also sent an additional bar of dark Espresso (58%), but this is NOT part of the giveaway. I haven't tried it yet, but I'm thinking CT will be much enamoured.

Seed and Bean are offering a 20% discount on all orders during Fairtrade Fortnight, but do hurry as this ends on 8 March.

Giveaway

Seed and Bean has kindly agreed to give one of my readers four bars of their 85g chocolate bars as described above. To be in with a chance of winning, please fill in the Gleam widget below. You will need to leave a comment on this post, answering the question, which then gives you additional chances to enter if you so wish. Gleam will pick a winner at random from the entries received. If you are commenting anonymously, please give me some way of identifying you as I will be verifying the validity of entries. Any automated entries will be disqualified. This giveaway is only open to those with a UK postal address. Winners will need to respond within 7 days of being contacted. Failure to do this may result in another winner being picked.

Prizes are offered and provided by Seed and Bean and Chocolate Log Blog accepts no responsibility for the acts or defaults of said third party.

Closing date is Friday 3 April 2015

Do take a look at my giveaway page to see if there is anything else you would like to enter.

A New Beast in my Kitchen

noreply@blogger.com (Choclette) — Tue, 03 Mar 2015 19:40:00 +0000

Photograph courtesy of Froothie UK

Yes, a new and powerful beast has taken up residence in my kitchen. It has such a commanding presence that I can't help but use it again and again. What, you may well ask, is she wittering on about now? I have a new blender, a Froothie Optimum 9200 to be precise.

Finely grinding many foods, especially fruit, vegetables and nuts enables the body to more easily absorb any available nutrients. Whilst my old blender was useful for making basic smoothies, it wasn't very efficient at grinding up anything course. This meant, when making smoothies with goji berries for instance, I'd end up with a reddish bitty sludge at the bottom of the jug that wasn't desperately appealing. I was also unable to make 'green' smoothies. I tried with some of our home grown kale once and it was just not meant to be - coconut water with large pieces of kale was rather hard to drink.

The Optimum 9200, on the other hand, is a high speed super blender with a 2,611 watts motor and a scary top speed of 44,000 revolutions per minute (RPM). The jug which is made of ultra strong, heat-resistant polycarbonate has a 2 litre capacity and can take both wet and dry ingredients. The blades are stainless steel and very sharp.

It has automatic blending options, which means you don't have to hover over your morning smoothie when there are so many other things to be done. It can be set to low, medium or high speed and includes a pulse function. It can blend pretty much anything and can be used to make smoothies, nut butters, ice-cream and even soup. Handily, the jug has measures, for cups, fluid ounces and litres, so can cope with pretty much any measurement you care to throw into it. I have the rather smart black model as shown above, but white, red and silver models are also available.

Kale Smoothie

I've put it through its paces a few times and conducted a number of tests, all of which it passed with flying colours. When I made a raw chocolate and goji berry smoothie, it was impossible to detect even a tiny bit of goji berry. Our kale blended to a fine green juice and a couple of other ingredients I wasn't sure about had similarly successful results. I will be posting some of the things I've made in due course. I do have a couple of quibbles, but all in all, I am delighted with my new resident beast.

The quibbles are on the cleaning front. I'd heard that it was a synch to clean and all that you needed to do was put some water in the jug with a dash of washing up liquid and blend. This works to a point, but of course doesn't clean the top or lip of the jug. Whereas I used to just dunk my old blender in the washing up bowl along with everything else, it is best not to get the bottom of this jug wet. So cleaning the jug overall is a little awkward. I must stress, this hasn't put me off using it. I am super excited about its capabilities and will continue to use it on a regular basis.

In fact I am a Froothie Ambassador. This means Chocolate Log Blog will get plenty of posts showing some of the things I make in The Beast. It also means that if you buy an Optimum 9200 using this link, I will gain a commission. Any purchase made includes a one month money back guarantee, including postage and a six year warranty. It is currently on offer at £329, normal price £429.

I was sent a Froothie Optimum 9200 Blender to try out in my kitchen. I was not required to write a positive review and as always, all opinions are my own.

Lemon Coconut Cakes with Freekah Flour

noreply@blogger.com (Choclette) — Sat, 28 Feb 2015 10:34:00 +0000

With a bounty of lemons from 3pFruits and some coconut oil and a big bag of Freekah flour from MyProtein, it wasn't long before I thought some kind of coconutty lemon freekah cakes were in order. Here are a couple of recipes I've already posted using my citrus and protein stash - Healthier Brownies with Cashew Nut Butter and Grapefruit and Honey Almond Cake.

I was really excited by the freekah flour, which I'd heard a lot about, but had never used. It smelt fragrant and nutty and had a lovely golden hue to it. I couldn't wait to try it. I happened to have a Waitrose recipe card lying about for coconut lemon cupcakes which I was keen to adapt. This had caught my attention because it used coconut cream in the mix, something which appealed to me. Sadly, I didn't have any coconut cream, but I did have a block of creamed coconut, so I thought I'd give that a try instead. I also decided to use coconut oil rather than margarine, which would make these cakes dairy free. Then I went and spoilt it with a creamy lemon curd topping ;-) If you want dairy free, use coconut cream instead.

I also added a little cardamom into the equation by using cardamom sugar and topping the cakes with Seed and Bean's lemon and cardamom dark chocolate. To be honest it was a bit of an odd recipe and I adapted it so completely in terms of both quantities and ingredients, it bares little resemblance to the original.

This is how I made:

Lemon Coconut Cakes with Freekah Flour

Placed a 125g of creamed coconut and 100g of coconut oil in a bowl on top of the heater to soften.
Creamed the coconut with 200g cardamom sugar (golden caster sugar) and the grated zest from 1 lemon.
Beat in 3 duck eggs, one at a time.
Sifted in 200g of freekah flour, 1 tsp baking powder and 1/4 tsp bicarbonate of soda.
Folded this in together with 25g of desiccated coconut and the juice from two lemons.
Spooned into 12 muffin cases and baked at 180℃ for 17 minutes.
Turned out onto a wire rack to cool.
Whipped 100 ml double cream to soft peaks, then folded in 2 tbsp of homemade lemon curd.
When the cakes were cool, made a slash down the centre and spooned in some of the lemon cream. Topped with a sprinkling of flaked lemon and cardamom chocolate (Seed and Bean) and a little desiccated coconut.

The cakes were amongst some of the best I've made, they were oh so flavoursome, with zesty citrus notes and a background hit of coconut. They also had a great texture, being both light and moist. The zingy lemon curd cream was delicious in itself and the lemon cardamom chocolate enhanced everything - literally the icing on the cake.

I am sending this off to Janice at Farmersgirl Kitchen for her new challenge #RecipeClippings.

This also goes to Jac over at Tinned Tomatoes for Bookmarked Recipes.

Côte d'Azur Éclair

noreply@blogger.com (Choclette) — Thu, 26 Feb 2015 13:05:00 +0000

Photograph courtesy of Le Méridion Hotels

I have travelled over much of France, but I have never been to the Côte d'Azur. I have a friend who grew up there and now lives just across the border in Italy. He has waxed lyrical about the region ever since I first knew him as a teenager. As well as the azure seas and beautiful scenery, it's meant to be a foodie paradise with olives and lemons being very much to the fore.

Photograph courtesy of Le Méridion Hotels

Chef Johnny Iusinni, award winning pastry chef, author, motorcyclist and world traveller is one very lucky man. In collaboration with the Le Meridian Hotels, he is travelling to eight Le Meridian destinations and creating a unique and exquisite éclair inspired from the food, tastes and ambiance of the region. Here, in the second film of the series, The Éclair Diaries, Chef Johnny travels to the Côte d'Azur and gets to see some great scenery as well as citrus orchards, patisseries and markets as he searches out the ingredients he is going to use to create his éclair. If you'd like to find out more and download some of the éclair recipes, head over to Le Meridian Éclair.

Photograph courtesy of Le Méridion Hotels

I'd highly recommend sitting back for a few minutes and allowing yourself to revel in the sights and sounds of this short video and perhaps, like me, dream of actually going there and making that long overdue visit.

Now who can resist a luscious chocolate éclair? I know I can't. What sort of éclair would you most like to eat and in what part of the world?

This is a sponsored post. I was not asked to write a positive review and as always any opinions expressed are my own.

Chocolate Cashew Pie for Fairtrade Fortnight

noreply@blogger.com (Choclette) — Wed, 25 Feb 2015 09:25:00 +0000

Growing and harvesting cocoa beans to provide the chocolate we all love so much can be a very hard life and is often very badly paid to boot. For this reason I do my best to buy fairly traded chocolate whenever I can. Fairly traded chocolate gives a fair price for the cocoa bean to help farmers pull themselves out of poverty and live a decent life. One of the main proponents of this is the Fairtrade Foundation who have been actively campaigning to improve peoples lives in the developing world for twenty years now.

Cocoa is, of course, not the only product that is open to abuse: thankfully Fairtrade wine, cotton, coffee, bananas, flowers and gold are now available, with additional products coming on to the market each year. This week marked the beginning of Fairtrade Fortnight and the focus this year is on tea, cocoa and sugar. Do have a look at the site where you can watch a short film, Fairtrade Matters, showing how Fairtrade has changed two lives in particular. There are also a number of offers and prizes available.

Choose products that save lives.

I was sent a bundle of Fairtrade chocolate goodies to use in a recipe. Milk chocolate hearts and white chocolate and strawberry hearts from Divine were a welcome novelty. I have written many times about this company which is part owned by the growers themselves. Head to my post Divine intervention for more details. I go through a lot of Green and Black's cocoa, which is not only Fairtrade and has been for many years, but is also organic, so I was pleased to see a tub of it in the parcel. A tub of cadbury's drinking chocolate reminded me of school. This too became Fairtrade in 2009 and tripled the sales of Fairtrade cocoa overnight. Lastly, there was a bar of Seriously, a new Fairtrade range from Waitrose. The cocoa for these bars comes from co-operative farmer groups in the Dominican Republic.

So, what to make? Well a chocolate pie of course. Following hot on the heels of my cashew brownies, I couldn't resist reaching for the cashew nut butter again. I managed to use all of the products sent, other than the white chocolate strawberry hearts and gave myself a congratulatory pat on the back as I savoured a slice of what is, a most divine pie.

I'm sending this delicious Fairtrade Pie off to Emily at A Mummy Too for #RecipeOfTheWeek

I'm also sending it to Lucy at SuperGolden Bakes for #CookBlogShare.

print recipe

Chocolate Cashew Pie

by Choclette February-25-2015

A rich decadent three layered chocolate pie for a special occasion. A biscuit crust, filled with dark chocolate ganache and topped off with a creamy confection of cashew nut butter, cream cheese and whipped cream.

Ingredients

200g digestive biscuits
80g unsalted butter
6 heaped teaspoons drinking chocolate powder
300ml double cream)
60g dark chocolate - chopped (I used Waitrose's Fairtrade Seriously Rich 65%)
90g cream cheese
60g icing sugar
2 rounded tbsp cashew nut butter
a little cocoa powder (or drinking chocolate powder) for dusting

Instructions

1. Crush the biscuits to a fine crumb (I did this with the end of a rolling pin in the bowl) and stir in the drinking chocolate powder.2. Melt the butter and mix into the biscuits.3. Press the mixture into the base and sides of a 20cm flan or pie dish with the back of a spoon, then leave to set in the fridge for half an hour or so.4. Bring 120ml of cream up to a near boil in a pan. Add the chocolate and leave to melt for a couple of minutes.5. Stir until just combined, then pour onto the biscuit base. Level and leave to set in the fridge for an hour or so, or until the ganache has set.6. Whip the cream to soft peak stage.7. Beat the cream cheese, icing sugar and nut butter together until just combined, then fold in the cream a third at a time until just combined.8. Spoon onto the chocolate ganache and level. Dust with a little cocoa powder and serve.

Details

Prep time: 40 mins Setting time: 2 hours Total time: 2 hrs 40 mins Yield: 8 slices

Nutella French Toast

noreply@blogger.com (Choclette) — Fri, 20 Feb 2015 17:54:00 +0000

Whilst we were away in the New Forest last month, I was given the remainder of a bag of wholemeal sliced bread to take home. This is not something I would normally buy as I make my own bread, so I was keen to use it up quickly. I also had some ancient Nutella that has been sitting in a jar since I don't know when and I thought it was time to remove it and make a bit more room in my overcrowded cupboard.

Why not kill two birds with one stone? The solution: an indulgent breakfast of French toast.

Jolly delicious it was too with the eggy bread and melting chocolate. I don't know why I haven't thought of this before. I can only imagine how much better it would be with good bread and my homemade chocolate cashew nut spread.

Tea Time Treats, hosted by Karen of Lavender and Lovage and Janie over at The Hedge Combers, is all about toast this month, so my very moreish Nutella French Toast is winging its way in that direction.

As both the bread and Nutella needed using up and I can never bear to throw anything away unless it crawls out of the door of its own accord, I am also sending this off to the No Waste Food Challenge hosted over at Elizabeth's Kitchen Diary.

print recipe

Nutella French Toast

by Choclette February-22-2015

An indulgent breakfast or brunch treat for two.

Ingredients

4 large slices wholemeal bread
2 eggs
2 tbsp crème fraîche (I used homemade)
1 drop cardamom extract (or spice of choice)
1 heaped tsp sesame seeds
2 tbsp Nutella
knob of butter
splash of rapeseed oil

Instructions

1. Spread the Nutella over two of the bread slices, then press the other slices on top to create a sandwich.2. Beat the eggs, crème fraîche, cardamom and sesame seeds together and pour into a flattish container.3. Dip the sandwiches into the mixture, one side then the other.4. Add the butter and oil to a frying pan over a low to medium heat.5. Place one sandwich into the pan and fry for 3 minutes or so until golden, then turn over and fry the other side. Repeat with the other sandwich and eat whilst hot.

Details

Prep time: 10 mins Cook time: 6 mins Total time: 16 mins Yield: 2 large slices

Healthier Brownies with Cashew Nut Butter - We Should Cocoa #54

noreply@blogger.com (Choclette) — Fri, 20 Feb 2015 09:48:00 +0000

Well I know it's very hard to make brownies healthy, but I have done my best to make these ones as healthy as possible whilst still retaining their essential sweet fudgy brownieness. I used coconut oil and cashew nut butter instead of butter and rapadura instead of sugar. And to top it off, my flour of choice was freekah. Freekah, Rapadura? Read on.

Excuse me while I indulge in a trip down memory lane. Rapadura is dried cane juice and is meant to be the least harmful form of sugar, retaining all the vitamins and minerals removed by the refining process. It always reminds me of cycling through the sugar cane fields in Egypt, gnawing on a piece of cane as we pedalled. Talking of Egypt, freekah is a commonly eaten form of wheat there. It is made by harvesting the grains when young and green. roasting then drying them in the sun. It is said to be particularly nutritious with a low glycemic index. It has a pleasant nutty scent and flavour and I am quite taken by it.

When I was asked to choose some products from leading purveyor of sports nutrition, My Protein, I was excited to see organic freekah in stock. I've never actually used it before and was keen to do so. I also chose some coconut oil and a kilo tub of cashew nut butter - yes, a whole kilo. Of all the nut butters cashew nut butter is my favourite, but I'd never used it for cooking. Coconut oil seems to have come into its own recently, providing a healthy alternative to dairy fat and its benefits are well known.

Seeing as brownies feature in this month's We Should Cocoa, why not, I thought, use these three ingredients for a healthier take on an old classic. I debated whether to mix in the nut butter thoroughly or ripple it through the mixture. The latter won out.

Well you wouldn't know these were a healthier version, they were lush, fudgy with a true brownie taste and texture. The nut butter interspersed like cookie dough through ice cream gave additional variation in flavour, texture and appearance. If you like cashews, these are the brownies for you.

As stated, this month's We Should Cocoa is all about brownies and is being hosted by Katie over at Recipe for Perfection. You still have five days left to join in the fun.

print recipe

Cashew Nut Butter Brownies

by Choclette February-20-2015

A healthier version of a sweet fudgy chocolate brownie. Not quite good for you, but not bad for you either.

Ingredients

150ml dark chocolate
80g coconut oil
200g rapadura - dried cane juice
3 large eggs (I used duck eggs)
60g freekah flour
1 heaped tsp cocoa powder
¼ heaped tsp bicarbonate of soda
½ tsp cream of tarter
2 heaped tbsp cashew nut butter

Instructions

1. Melt the chocolate and coconut oil together in a large pan over a low heat.2. Turn of the heat and stir in the rapadura.3. Beat in the eggs one by one.4. Sift in the dry ingredients and stir until just combined.5. Scrape into a 20cm sq. silicone mould or lined tin.6. Spoon in the cashew nut butter and swirl amongst the batter to distribute.7. Bake at 180℃ for 25 minutes or until almost firm, but with a slight wobble. Allow to cool, then cut into 12 pieces.

Details

Prep time: 15 mins Cook time: 25 mins Total time: 40 mins Yield: 12 pieces

Eat Your Heart Out Nutella - Chocolate Cashew Nut Spread and a Giveaway #56

noreply@blogger.com (Choclette) — Tue, 17 Feb 2015 16:37:00 +0000

I've noted many recipes on the web in the last year or two for homemade chocolate hazelnut spread. I've really wanted to have a go, but neither my blender nor my food processor are up to the job. However, I was recently sent a VonShef 3-in-1 hand blender from Domu to try out and I thought I'd put it through its paces and see if it was up to making a nut spread. I happened to have a bag of cashews to hand, so thought I'd try making a chocolate cashew nut spread rather than a hazelnut one.

As you can see from the picture near the bottom of the post, the 3-in-1 is comprised of a hand held stick blender, a mini food processor and a whisk. The blender has a heavy duty motor and comes with two speed settings, 7,000 and 13,500 rpm. The attachments are simple to change and the washing up is so much easier than my stand food processor. For blending small quantities of ingredients to make sauces, pesto and chocolate spread, the mini food processor is ideal. It's also meant to be good for chopping onions, but I haven't tried that yet. The stick blender is fantastic for soups and purées and it comes with a sturdy beaker. We used our old one all the time, but it was difficult to wash as it didn't detach from the motor. This one does. The whisk I have yet to try.

The mini food processor was my tool of choice for the task I had in mind. To begin with the nuts ground to a powder and I thought it wasn't going to work. I persevered on a higher setting and suddenly it turned into a paste. When I added the other ingredients, it went very oily and didn't look at all appetising, so I added a little water. Miraculously this sorted the problem out and I ended up with a rich and smooth (ish) paste.

Never mind on toast, I couldn't stop eating it this chocolate cashew nut spread straight out of the jar; not something I generally want to do with Nutella as I find it too sweet and a bit cloying. Containing no refined sugars, unhealthy fats nor other unwanted additives, this is a super healthy alternative to your average chocolate spread and it's very tasty too. Although there were a few grains of nuts left in the paste, it had a very pleasant silky mouthfeel. This success left me elated for the rest of the day and I can't wait to make some again.

I am sending these off to AlphaBakes with Caroline Makes and The More Than Occasional Baker as V for Vegan Chocolate Spread.

print recipe

Chocolate Cashew Nut Spread

by Choclette February-17-2015

A healthy and delicious take on a much loved chocolate nut spread. Using only six ingredients, this is both quick and easy to make.

Ingredients

100ml raw cashew nuts
1 tbsp coconut oil - melted
2 tbsp raw cocoa powder
2 tbsp coconut nectar
a pinch pink Himalyan rock salt
1 tbsp water

Instructions

1. Dry roast the cashews at 180℃ for about ten minutes or until golden.2. Blend in a mini food processor along with the cocoa powder and salt until finely ground.3. Add the coconut oil and nectar and continue to blend on a high speed for about 2-5 minutes until the mixture has turned into a paste.4. Add the water and blend for another minute until all is smooth. You may want to add more water depending on how thick or thin you like your spread.5. Spoon into a jar and spread some immediately on toast. It should keep for a week or so in the fridge.

Details

Prep time: 15 mins Cook time: 0 mins Total time: 15 mins Yield: 1 small jar

Giveaway

Domu UK has kindly agreed to give one of my readers a VonShef 3-in-1 hand blender as described above. To be in with a chance of winning, please fill in the Gleam widget below. You will need to leave a comment on this post, answering the question, which then gives you additional chances to enter if you so wish. Gleam will pick a winner at random from the entries received. If you are commenting anonymously, please give me some way of identifying you as I will be verifying the validity of entries. Any automated entries will be disqualified. This giveaway is only open to those with a UK postal address. Winners will need to respond within 7 days of being contacted. Failure to do this may result in another winner being picked.

Prizes are offered and provided by Domu UK and Chocolate Log Blog accepts no responsibility for the acts or defaults of said third party.

Closing date is Tuesday 17 March 2015

Do take a look at my giveaway page to see if there is anything else you would like to enter.

Grapefruit and Honey Almond Cake and Chocolate Log Blog is Six

noreply@blogger.com (Choclette) — Sat, 14 Feb 2015 08:49:00 +0000

Yes, another year goes by and I find I have been blogging about chocolate for six whole years now. It is no secret that I'm rather fond of the dark stuff and as chocolate and Valentine's Day go hand in hand, 14th February is a fitting date to have started this blog. To celebrate the occasion, I have a rather splendid grapefruit and honey almond cake with a chocolate glaze to entice you.

If you saw my Bosworth jumbles post, you will know I had the pleasure of a very large box of fresh juicy organic citrus delivered to me recently, courtesy of 3p Fruits. 3p Fruits is a Spanish company who grow fruit, nuts and olives on their farm in the Noguera Region and then ship their produce lovingly to our very doors. They grow what we cannot. I'd envisaged a citrus cake of some kind using almonds and honey, so requested these to items as well. But quite what sort of cake it would be, I wasn't sure until the box arrived. The fragrant pink grapefruit decided me and baking with them was a totally new experience for me.

There is nothing quite like freshly ground almonds for baking. They have flavour and texture that I've never found in a pre-pack. These Spanish Marcona almonds were not only fresh, but were full flavoured. I was sorely tempted to chomp my way through the lot, before ever they got to the mixing bowl. The honey had a full aromatic flavour which had that unmistakable sun-drenched quality. For a really grapefruity cake, I thought I'd use both the zest and juice; I also added some grapefruit syrup to the chocolate topping and decorated it with candied grapefruit. Scroll down to the bottom of the post for the cake recipe.

This is how I made:

Candied Grapefruit

Quarter 2 ruby grapefruits and peel them, trying to keep the skin and pith as intact as possible.
Place into a pan of cold water and bring to the boil. Simmer, then drain. Cover with cold water and repeat the process.
Repeat 4-6 times depending on how bitter the grapefruit is and how you like it.
Drain for a final time and turn out onto a rack to dry for a few minutes.
Reserve any grapefruit juice for the cake.
Dissolve 100g golden sugar (caster or granulated) in 200ml water over a low heat.
Slice the grapefruit peel into thin strips.
Place into the sugar water and simmer for 75-90 minutes until the strips have turned translucent.
Drain and either spread out on a tray to dry for 24 hours or place in a jar and cover with the syrup.

CT reckoned this had the texture of a good Madeira cake and he could smell the grapefruit wafting up immediately. The bitter grapefruit was distinctive and counteracted the sweetness of the cake. It tasted like freshly squeezed grapefruit and had a bracing citrus zing. The freshly ground almonds gave a good flavour and a bit of a nutty crunch. The chocolate glaze was rather powerful, but complemented the cake beneath nicely. It got a big thumbs up from CT and my mother and I was rather partial too.

If this cake isn't for you, head over to Foodies 100, where I have picked ten of the best chocolate recipes I could find this week.

With love very much in the air, I am sending this off to JibberJabberUK for Love Cake where the theme this month is For the Love of Cake.

I'm also sending this off to Helen at CasaCostello for Bake of the Week.

And likewise, this goes to Emily at A Mummy Too for #RecipeoftheWeek.

print recipe

Grapefruit and Honey Almond Cake

by Choclette January-27-2015

A beautifully textured and delicious bundt cake flavoured with grapefruit and honey and covered in a honeyed grapefruit chocolate glaze. It has a slight crunch from the freshly ground almonds for additional flavour and interest. The cake can also be made as a tray bake or in a 23cm round cake tin.

Ingredients

240g unsalted butter
260g golden caster sugar (I used cardamom flavoured sugar)
1½ ruby grapefruit zest and juice
4 large eggs (I used duck eggs)
100g freshly ground almonds
230g flour - half wholemeal spelt, half white
2 tsp baking powder
¼ tsp bicarbonate of soda
100ml grapefruit syrup (from making candied grapefruit). Or use sugar syrup made from 50g sugar and 50ml water
3 tbsp well flavoured honey
70g dark chocolate (85%)
15g unsalted butter
strips of candied grapefruit

Instructions

1. Cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Grate in the zest from one of the grapefruits and cream some more. 2. Beat in the eggs, one by one, adding a little of the flour if necessary to prevent curdling.3. Stir in the ground almonds, then sieve in the flour, baking powder and bicarb and stir until just combined.4. Gently stir in the grapefruit juice.5. Spoon the batter into an oiled bundt mould and smooth out the top.6. Bake at 180℃ for about 45 minutes or until the cake is well risen and an inserted skewer comes out clean.7. Warm 2 tbsp honey with 100ml grapefruit juice in a pan until melted. Pour slowly over the hot cake, allowing it to soak up the juice rather than run off the edges.8. Allow to cool for 20 minutes, then turn out onto a wire rack to cool completely.9. Bring 100 ml grapefruit syrup to the boil with 1 tbsp honey and allow to simmer for a couple of minutes. Alternatively, put the 50 ml of water and 50g of sugar in a pan and place on a low heat stirring until the sugar has dissolved.10. Take off the heat and add the chopped chocolate. Leave the chocolate to melt for a few minutes then stir in the butter until melted and smooth. Leave to cool until thick enough to pour without too much run off.11. Place the cooled cake onto a serving plate. Slowly pour the chocolate sauce over the top and decorate with the candied grapefruit.

Details

Prep time: 45 mins Cook time: 45 mins Total time: 1 hour 30 mins Yield: 16 modest slices

Many thanks to 3p Fruits for the citrus, honey and almonds. I was not required to write a positive review and as always, all opinions are my own.

Jumbles with a White Chocolate Lemony Drizzle

noreply@blogger.com (Choclette) — Thu, 12 Feb 2015 14:49:00 +0000

Borrowing cookbooks from my local library is a great way to properly peruse new (or old) titles without having to buy them. I have limited space in the house and really need to justify buying new books. Sometimes, of course, I just can't help myself. Paul Hollywood's British Baking was a recent book that made its way onto my bedside table, courtesy of the library.

To my great joy, one of the recipes in the book was for jumbles, a biscuit which according to Paul was a great favourite of Richard III; they are sometimes called Bosworth jumbles. I'd always wondered about these biscuits that I'd read about in What Katy Did at School, oh so many years ago. I don't know if New England jumbles are the same as our Bosworth ones, but I was willing to give them the benefit of the doubt.

It just so happened that I'd recently been sent a large box of Spanish citrus from 3p Fruits. What a joy to have such a fragrant bundle in the house: nine kilos of pink grapefruit, large juicy oranges and bright yellow zesty lemons - all of them are organic. If I'm using the zest or peel in any way, I like my citrus to be organic. That way, you can guarantee that the skins are unwaxed and contain no nasty chemicals. The box arrived with the fruit in perfect condition and also included a jar of honey and some blanched almonds which I'd requested. More of these in my next post. The grapefruit were really juicy with a mix of sweet aromatic citrus and bitter undertones. The oranges were sweet, both in taste and scent, but had enough sharpness to give a good flavour. The lemons were also particularly juicy. I passed a few on to friends and family who were delighted with them. You can buy fruit, vegetables, olive oil, almonds and a number of other products from 3pFruits and they will be delivered from their farm in Spain in just a few days.

Paul suggests drizzling lemon icing over the jumbles. I decided to make a lemony white chocolate to drizzle over mine instead. I also upped the quantities a little as I thought ten, just weren't quite enough; they were destined for CTs mother after all.

This is how I made:

Jumbles with White Chocolate Lemony Drizzle

Place 120g of flour (half wholemeal spelt, half white) into a bowl together with ½ tsp baking powder, 70g cardamom sugar (golden caster) and 30g freshly ground almonds.
Grated in the zest of an organic lemon.
Cut 30g of unsalted butter into pieces and rubbed it into the flour mixture until it resembled breadcrumbs.
Added enough milk to form into a soft dough (about 40ml).
Covered the dough and left in my cold kitchen to firm up for an hour.
Divided the dough into 12 pieces and rolled each one into a stick shape just under a cm thick.
Formed into figures of eight and placed on a baking tray.
Baked for 12 minutes at 180℃ until lightly golden, then placed on wire rack to cool.

Melted 25g white chocolate (G&B) in a bowl over hot water with 1 tbsp lemon juice.
Removed from the heat and stirred until smooth.
Drizzled over the jumbles.

The biscuits were deliciously zesty and combined well with the sharp but creamy icing. The lemon and white chocolate combination was a revelation and I shall be using this again and again. The freshly ground almonds make such a difference; they give flavour as well as texture with a slight crunch from the bits that didn't quite get ground up. I'm very happy with my jumbles and they sort of tasted like I imagined they might. Perhaps if Richard had been fortified with jumbles that morning, the Battle of Bosworth might have turned out differently.

Do look out for the rather special citrus recipe I shall be posting on Valentine's Day.

The theme of this month's Biscuit Barrel is loved ones. Well I made these for CT's mother for a recent visit. As it happened most of them were polished off by a dear friend and CT. Either way, they were made with love for loved ones. This challenge is hosted by Alexandra of The Lass in the Apron on behalf of Laura of I'd Much Rather Bake Than ....

In a similar vein of making something for loved ones, I am entering these into Treat Petite with The Baking Explorer and CakeyBoi where Love is in the Air.

Being as jumbles was the first recipe I bookmarked from Paul's book British Baking and the only one I got around to making, I am sending this off to Jac over at Tinned Tomatoes for Bookmarked Recipes.

Many thanks to 3p Fruits for the citrus and almonds. I was not required to write a positive review and as always, all opinions are my own.

Spiced Kefir Pancakes with Manuka Honey and Crème Fraîche Chocolate Sauce

noreply@blogger.com (Choclette) — Mon, 09 Feb 2015 13:09:00 +0000

Despite my love of chocolate, cakes, biscuits, puddings and most things sweet, I do not, as it may seem, indulge all day long or even every day. Most of the time, I try to eat healthily. One of our regular breakfast ingredients is kefir, which CT has been making for many years now. We drink it as it is, use it in smoothies, on muesli and add it to porridge. I woke up one Sunday morning thinking, why don't I try making pancakes out of it - not a revolutionary idea I'm sure, but I'd not thought of it before.

For those not yet in the know, kefir is a fermented milk beverage, similar to yogurt but easier to make and with its own distinctive taste. The culture comes in the form of strange cauliflower like pieces and it grows. It comes from the Caucasus region and is highly regarded as a probiotic.

These pancakes are a healthy take on our much loved drop scones or American style pancakes, rather than traditional English flat pancakes. They contain no sugar of any kind and the chocolate sauce is sweetened with Manuka honey, although there is a little refined sugar in the dark chocolate. Manuka honey is famed for it's therapeutic properties and maca powder is a Peruvian super food. I used a mix of wholemeal spelt and buckwheat for easier digestion. I don't know if I was on a microbiological crusade, but I used my homemade crème fraîche instead of cream in the chocolate sauce. Finally, whilst I'd normally fry my pancakes in butter, I used a little rapeseed oil instead.

With Pancake Day fast approaching, these kefir pancakes join many others in a pancake party for Family Foodies over at Bangers & Mash. This monthly blog event is co-hosted by Eat Your Veg.

I'm also sending this off to Lucy at Supergolden Bakes for #CookBlogShare.

print recipe

Spiced Kefir Pancakes with Manuka Honey and Crème Fraîche Chocolate Sauce

by Choclette February-09-2015

A healthy and delicious take on a much loved pancake.

Ingredients

250ml kefir (can use buttermilk or watered down yoghurt)
1 large egg (I used a duck egg)
230g flour - half wholemeal spelt, half buckwheat (but most flours would do)
1 tsp baking powder
¼ tsp bicarbonate of soda
1 heaped tsp maca powder (optional)
1 tsp cinnamon
2 drops cardamom extract (I used Holy Lama Spice Drops)
1 tbsp rapeseed oil
2 heaped tbsp crème fraîche
1 scant tbsp Manuka honey
40g 70% dark chocolate - chopped (I used Willies's Cacao 72% Venezuelan Gold)
1 banana - sliced

Instructions

1. Beat the egg and cardamom extract into the kefir until well combined.2. Sieve the dry ingredients into a bowl, make a well in the centre then pour in the kefir and stir from the inside out until all is well combined.3. Place the crème fraîche and honey into a pan and heat to just below boiling point.4. Remove from the heat and add the chocolate. Leave to melt, then stir until smooth. Keep warm on a very low heat.5. Add a tsp of oil to a ceramic frying pan or other non-stick pan and place on a medium heat. Spoon the pancake batter into heaped rounds in the pan and cook for 2-3 minutes or until bubbles start to rise to the top. Flip the pancakes over and repeat.6. Stack on a plate and put in a warm oven until all of the pancakes are cooked.7.Stack 3-5 of the warm pancakes onto a plate, top with banana slices and drizzle over as much of the chocolate sauce as you like.

Details

Prep time: 15 mins Cook time: 15 mins Total time: 30 mins Yield: 10-12 pancakes

Miss Witt Will Woo and other Valentine Treats

noreply@blogger.com (Choclette) — Fri, 06 Feb 2015 11:19:00 +0000

I first came across Chocolate by Miss Witt when visiting CT's mother in Lymington on the edge of the New Forest. You can read all about it on my Unexpected Find in the Forest post. Suffice it to say, that I'm not likely to miss an opportunity to pay a visit to her pop-up-shop at Lymington's weekly market if the occasion arises. And arise it did last Saturday.

Miss Witt is a true artisan chocolateier and makes an intriguing range of handmade chocolates. Unusually, she eschews cream and butter for the virtues of spring water, yes, her chocolates are all made with water ganache.

It was a bitterly cold day and Miss Witt was well wrapped. CT managed to polish of a fair few of the tasters as we chatted. My attention, however, was focused on hearing of the latest developments in the world of New Forest chocolates. A number of stores in Lymington are now stocking her products. I came away clutching a collection of chocolate goodies to try in the warmth of my own home.

Earl Grey

A valentine's special consisting of six elegant chocolates in grey and white. The centres are a dark or white chocolate ganache made with spring water and Earl Grey tea which are enrobed in dark or white chocolate accordingly. The dark chocolate is dusted with silver flecks and the white is topped by a cornflower. Containing no cream or butter, the silver chocolates are completely dairy free, much to the delight of the local vegans. The ganache is soft and smooth in texture and has a distinctive but not overpowering floral / citrus bouquet. CT and his fertile imagination thought this very refined - equivalent to drinking Earl Grey in a bone china cup. He is not one to lavish praise unnecessarily, but he really liked these. I don't need fifty shades of Earl Grey, a single one from Miss Witt will do. The white chocolates are much sweeter and the subtle notes of bergamot struggle to be heard above the white noise of vanilla.

White Hot Chocolate Sticks (33%)

After hanging out the washing on a very cold winter's day here, my hands were so cold I almost couldn't feel them any more. It was time to try one of Miss Witt's hot chocolate sticks. It was a case of just following the instructions: place in a mug, heat 200 ml of milk, pour over and stir. It worked a treat and melted quite beautifully. I topped it with a little bee pollen for effect, but when I tasted the chocolate I realised I must have tuned into the flavour of the white chocolate even before I'd tried it; it not only had a creamy texture but it tasted of honey too. Being white chocolate, I thought this might have been too sweet for me, but it was totally delicious and I downed my mug rather too quickly. It did the trick too; by the time I finished it, my hands were back to normal.

Limited Edition
Miss Witt is always coming up with new flavour combinations, so you never quite know what you might find when you visit her pop-up-shop on Saturdays. I found it hard to make a decision on what to try as everything looked good and sounded interesting, but the Cinnamon Brulée just had to go into my box.

Cinnamon Brulée - white chocolate ganache flavoured with cinnamon and horlicks and enrobed in rich dark chocolate. Can you see why I couldn't miss it?

Rosemary & Sea Salt - I've made rosemary truffles before, but never thought to add sea salt to the mix - I missed a trick. This was a fantastic combination, made even better by an almost liquid centre; it tasted more like caramel than milk chocolate ganache. Wrapped in 70% Saint Domingue dark chocolate, this was one of the best chocolates I've tried in a while. I hope it becomes a more permanent member of the collection.

Lavender & Sea Salt - there is always a bit of a worry that lavender might be overdone in food and end up tasting like soap. The lavender used here was a little overplayed, but it was tempered by the sea salt and made for quite a delicious mouthful. The salt also helped reduce the sweetness of the white chocolate.

Berries & Tea - a rich and robust winter chocolate, flavoured not with soft fruit, but with juniper berries and Earl Grey tea. Now where did I put that G&T?

A Shooting Star - a winner of the Great Taste Awards, this is a permanent weapon in Miss Witt's armoury. It deserves to be. A dark chocolate ganache containing blackcurrent purée and flavoured with tarragon and star anise, it is enrobed with 70% Saint Domingue chcocoate. The flavours are subtle and are not vying for individual attention, but marry well together to create a true taste of summer - very welcome on a cold winter's day. A hint of blackcurrent lingered long on the palate leaving me feeling rather wistful and wishing I had another one or two.

Sea Salt Caramel - I do love a good sea salt caramel and although I found this one a little on the salty side, the patriot in me was proud to note the presence of Cornish Sea Salt. The salty sweet caramel milk chocolate was tempered by the 70% Saint Domingue dark chocolate in which it was encased. Very similar in appearance to the rosemary & sea salt, this geodesic dome was flecked with white rather than blue.

Madécasse

I've heard a lot about Madécasse in recent months and all of it has been good. It's a company that ticks all but one of my chocolate boxes. As the name suggests the chocolate comes from Madagascar, a country rich in habitat, but poor in economic terms. Unusually it is not just the beans that are grown there, the chocolate is made there too. 70% of the world's cocoa beans are grown in Africa, but less than 1% of chocolate is actually made on the continent. This is a shocking state of affairs as the real money to be made from chocolate is manufacturing it, not growing it. Madécasse are certified Fair for Life. This means that fairtrade principles are adopted through the whole chocolate making chain, from cocoa farming right through to packaging - bean to bar at its best. The missing box, in case you were wondering, is that the chocolate is not organic. However, the cocoa trees grown in the shade of taller hardwood specimens does help to protect the precious habitat, home to 15% of the world's plant and animal species.

But ethics alone are not enough to sell chocolate, it needs to be tasty and good value for money too. These 75g bars, currently available in Waitrose, Booths, Selfridges and Whole Foods, hit both of these targets. The cocoa content is high for milk chocolate and at 44% you can really taste it. The cocoa beans used are a rare heirloom variety that are particularly flavoursome - I thought so anyway. Suffice it to say, I am now hooked. At £2.99 they're not cheap, but they are both affordable and very good value for delicious ethical bean to bar chocolate. They are also, in a small way, helping the people that really need it, the people of Madagascar.

Milk Chocolate 44%
Buttery is a key characteristic of this delicious chocolate. It smells of butterscotch, but it was the tang of buttermilk that first hit my tastebuds. Both seem to be present. There are fruity notes too that could be sour cherry. It's creamy but also quite rich with a very slight granular texture. It has a real wow factor for me and CT was rather keen too. This is chocolate to savour.

Espresso Bean 44%
CT, who is a coffee chocolate aficionado got rather excited as the strong aroma of coffee assailed his nostrils. I'm not really a fan of coffee flavoured chocolate, but I could quite happily have eaten this bar all by myself. There's an awful lot of coffee in Brazil and there's also plenty of coffee in this chocolate or do I mean on? The mocha topping, made of crushed cocoa beans and cocoa nibs, makes for a distinctive feature which gives added interest to the smooth textured chocolate. As he munched, CT could see himself in a late night cafe, peering through the thick blue smoke and sipping on a strong black coffee.

Godiva

Established in 1926, Godiva is now well known for its luxurious Belgium chocolates and has shops in the most fashionable parts of Europe's capitals. For those in the UK unable to get to London, they do, of course, have an online shop. I have used Godiva white and dark chocolate pearls to create these Amaretto Pots au Chocolat, but I'd never tried their chocolates until this most gorgeous heart shaped box arrived at my door.

You Have My Heart

A pretty heart shaped box containing eleven chocolates with nine different flavours. The box is one of those sturdy ones that you want to hang on to; it can be kept for storing nicknacks or reused as a gift box. Rather annoyingly, there was no menu card included, so it wasn't always easy to tell what the chocolate fillings were. However, I can say they were all delicious and the fillings were interesting and by no means run of the mill. Pralines featured of course as did rich dark truffles, but there were also fruity fillings and buttery ones too. There was a good mixture of dark and milk chocolates, some sweeter than others. Many of the chocolates had layers with different textures and flavours which made for a diverting experience. The shapes were fun and one chocolate featured Lady Godiva, whose good deeds inspired the company's name, riding on her horse. If this box doesn't grab your fancy there are plenty of other Valentine delights on offer - just hop over to the Godiva site and have a browse. Order by 12th February for delivery for the big day.

I'm not going to describe all of the chocolates in the box, but here are my three favourites.

A hazelnut praline which had three distinct layers as well as a whole roasted and salted hazelnut - all covered in thick milk chocolate. I would have been happy with a whole box of these alone.
A fruity raspberry caramel confection enrobed in dark chocolate which was possibly my favourite. It was both chewy and zingy and not too sweet.
Then again a milk chocolate filled with a sandy textured almond mousse was very moreish indeed - sadly, or perhaps luckily, there was only one.

With thanks to Miss Witt, Madécasse and Godiva for the chocolates. I was not required to write positive reviews and as always, all opinions are my own.

Caramalised Chocolota and a Blow Torch

noreply@blogger.com (Choclette) — Tue, 03 Feb 2015 16:40:00 +0000

Crème Brûlée is one of my many weaknesses and if ever I'm lucky enough to go out for a meal and find it on the menu, that is what I will order. However, I've never made one myself as I'm always afraid of placing ramekins, or any other dish for that matter, under a hot grill; call me timid, but cracked pots and napalm style explosions are not high on my list of kitchen events. So I was absolutely delighted when Buy Catering recently sent me a chef's blow torch to try out.

Almost as soon as the GenWare Microtorch arrived, I put it to good use, not to make a crème brûlée, but a concoction I made up myself. The torch is light in weight and quite small. It fits easily and comfortably in the hand. Never having used a chef's torch before, I was a little apprehensive. I needn't have been. Once the gas had been inserted, it was a cinch to use and I had no problems at all. The butane gas cartridge needs to be bought separately from the torch, but is big enough to give several refills. The flame was easily controlled and a perfect size to cope with little ramekin dishes as well as much larger ones. Comfortingly, a safety catch is part of the deal and this must be realeased before the flame ignites. It comes with its own neat stand, so can easily be stored in some little corner. In addition to caramelising sugar, it will be so useful for browning the tops of gratins and other cheese dishes. It's also meant to be good for blistering the skins off peppers, which is something I always find tricky with the grill. I'm really quite excited by it.

These chocolotas, so named by CT in deference to their high cocoa content, came about as a result of the mixture left over from making chocolate ice pops. I don't have a recipe as such, because I foolishly failed to write it down at the time and can no longer remember quantities. However, this is more or less how I made them:

Caramalised & Frozen Chocolotas

Warmed the leftover ice-pop mixture with some more dark chocolate until it had melted.
Gave a good stir and left to cool.
Added some chilli vodka.
Whipped up some double cream and stirred in a little yoghurt.
Folded this into the cold chocolate mixture.
Divided into three ramekins.
Placed two in the freezer to be eaten later.
Sprinkled a good spoonful of caster sugar over the remaining ramekin and caramelised with the chef's blow torch.

The result was delicious and very satisfying. The top set hard and cracked most sonorously when tapped with a spoon. The contrast in textures between the smooth mousse and brittle caramel was delightful. The flavour was both rich and creamy and the hint of chilli just caught the back of the throat in a gentle warming way.

Have blow torch, can crème brûlée be far away?

With Valentine's Day not so far away, these chocolotas are just the thing to wow your loved one. I am thus sending these off to Nayna over at Simply Food for Let's Cook Valentine Special Dishes.

We Should BSFIC - The Frozen Chocolate Round-up

noreply@blogger.com (Choclette) — Sat, 31 Jan 2015 08:33:00 +0000

This month We Should Cocoa teamed up with Bloggers Scream for Ice Cream (BSFIC) for an icy chocolate extravaganza which is #WeShouldBSFIC. January may not be your favourite time for eating ice cream or other frozen treats, but some of you hardy souls rose to the challenge with enthusiasm. Hop over to Kavey Eats to see her round-up.

Look out for next month's #WeShouldCocoa with Katie, over at Recipe for Perfection.

Apparently we told Elizabeth, over at The Law Student's Cookbook, that she had to make ice-cream, so she did. I didn't know we had that much power. Being a fan of all things Nutella, she decided NOT to use it and go for chocolate hazelnut ice cream using roasted hazelnuts instead.

Over at Honey and Dough, Hannah has a little doughnut sitting on her shoulder, apparently! Well actually I think I have a little brownie sitting on mine. I suspect it's not the same brownie Hannah used to make her frozen crème fraîche and brownie custard. I am very excited about the use of crème fraîche not to mention the brownies of course.

Janice from Farmersgirl Kitchen has presented her white chocolate Eton mess ice cream in a very stylish cup and saucer, which I am now coveting. I'm rather wishing I could dig into the ice-cream too - made with strawberry purée found in the freezer, it's a real taste of summer.

I had a go at making mini chocolate ice pops. Well the chocolate may not have looked quite as slick as I'd have liked, but my goodness they were good. Chocolate milk ice covered in thick dark chocolate - I think I'll have another one.

I've not tried ice-cream sandwiches before, but having seen these mini triple chocolate ice cream sandwiches over at Jo's Kitchen, I am seriously tempted. Jo's home-made chocolate ice cream contains chocolate chips and is then sandwiched between chocolate biscuits - wow!

In case you missed it, it was Australia Day last Monday and Johanna over at Green Gourmet Giraffe marked it by making Violet Crumble ice-cream. I'd not heard of Violet Crumble until I read the post. It is not, as I first thought, a crumble pudding flavoured with violet, but an iconic Australian chocolate honeycomb bar.

Julia, over at Something Missing, also made a no churn ice-cream, but a rather different one to the condensed milk one we all know and love. Her birthday cake ice cream is made using a base of Italian meringue - most intriguing. Even more intriguing is the cake batter used to flavour the ice-cream. I'm a big fan of cookie dough ice-cream, but I hadn't heard of cake batter ice-cream.

The Big Spud describes his chocolate and passion fruit baked Alaska as a showstopper and he isn't wrong. The flavours and colour contrasts are just too tempting.

And finally we have Kavey's very own rich, dense & dark chocolate ice cream over at Kavey Eats. Wow, all I need is the title of this to make me go week at the knees. The ice cream is another no-churn version which I've not come across before - it's all very exciting.

Valentine's Chocolates from Charbonnel et Walker

noreply@blogger.com (Choclette) — Wed, 28 Jan 2015 21:18:00 +0000

A scarlet Valentine's heart, edged with gold and tied with a navy satin ribbon, recently arrived at my door. I am by no means immune to the romance of heart shaped packages, so it was with a tremble of anticipation that I picked up the Charbonnel et Walker box. At first I wondered, but no, CT had nothing to do with it. It was a good sized sturdy box containing thirty two chocolates weighing a whopping 400g. The chocolates were a mix of 33.5% milk and 60% dark chocolates containing traditional fillings of fondant, marzipan, ganache, caramel and praline. Rather less traditionally, the chocolates were of good quality if a little on the sweet side. These are not fresh artisan chocolates after all and shouldn't be judged as such.

I always get a little paranoid when there is no chocolate in the house, so I was delighted to receive such a large box of chocolates. I've not had the pleasure of trying Charbonnel et Walker before, although the name is a familiar one. I have long wanted to try their famous rose and violet creams - I do have rather a soft spot for these very old fashioned, but nonetheless iconic flavours. Sadly, neither of these were to be found in this particular box. Another time perhaps.

Founded in 1875, Charbonnel et Walker is one of Britain's oldest chocolatiers. Unusually for the time, the business was founded as a partnership between two women, the English Mrs Walker and the Parisian Mme Charbonnel - a specific request from the Prince of Wales, later to become Edward VII, it would seem. A number of aristocratic and fashionable clientele have given C et W their patronage, including Princess Diana, Sir John Gielgud, Wallis Simpson and Noel Coward; the latter was so enamoured he had a box delivered to his home fortnightly. Today, the royal seal of approval comes from the Queen herself and they are one of only a handful of chocolatiers to hold a Royal Warrant.

This box can be bought for £38 either online or at the Bond Street shop, the very same one that opened all those years ago in 1875. Other heart shaped boxes to tempt your Valentine this year include pink champagne truffles and sea salted caramels.

Hunting around in a large box of chocolates for the one you want is not an easy task and after trying a few that sounded particularly good, it was lucky dip. The menu card was rather charming in design, but not the most helpful in identifying the specific chocolates. Many were on the card, but were not present in the box and I spent some considerable time trying to find them. Always one to avoid a strawberry fondant, I found the one in this box to be surprisingly good. The dark chocolate ameliorated any sweetness and the flavour was good. Not surprisingly with such a large box of chocolates, they have lasted for quite some time and are not finished yet.

Being a bit of a marzipan addict, I was pleased to find there were quite a variety including a rather nice one flavoured with Orange Cointreau. CT liked the coffee chocolates, but here are a few of my favourites.

Ginger Marzipan - was my first choice and I wasn't disappointed. A dark chocolate containing marzipan flavoured with ginger and a good dose of rum. There was no mistaking the flavours here and the warmth of the ginger lingered long on the palate - just what is needed in the depths of winter.

Blend Crown - a delightful mix of hazelnut praline, marzipan and whisky all wrapped up in dark chocolate.

Pomponette - a blend of marzipan and pistachios enrobed in dark chocolate - did I mention I'm a bit of a marzipan fan?

Cecily - with its caramel flavoured truffle centre and enrobed in dark chocolate was elegantly simple to look at, but with a hidden decadence.

Barrel - this rum and raisin chocolate was a real nostalgic one for me. When I was a nipper, I would sometimes spend the whole of my 6d pocket money on a bar of Old Jamaica and this bought back all the joy of those occasions - À la recherche du temps perdu.

Rum Fourré - I think I must have a thing about rum too, because I really liked this one as well. A buttery ganache flavoured with rum which warmed my mouth and throat quite delightfully.

With thanks to Charbonnel et Walker for the box of chocolates. I was not required to write a positive review and as always, all opinions are my own.

Spiced Lentil, Carrot and Roasted Tomato Soup

noreply@blogger.com (Choclette) — Sun, 25 Jan 2015 10:42:00 +0000

The other day, I had the pleasure of sharing a bowl of soup with The Hedge Comber. As it was rather cold outside I fancied making something both warming and colourful. I always have split red lentils in the house, but I also happened to have carrots and tomatoes too. All were of a suitable hue I reckoned. As for flavourings I decided ginger and home-grown chilli for warmth and rosemary and thyme for aroma would hit the spot.

I also decided to roast the tomatoes for additional flavour and to give a slight smoky edge to the soup. To go with this, I made a loaf of bread using oak smoked flour, which complemented the soup well, we thought. A small grating of chocolate went into and onto the soup, but to be honest it was rather lost in the general melange and Janie was, shall we say, underwhelmed by its inclusion.

I am entering this into Vanesther's The Spice Trail over at Bangers & Mash. The chilli was quite pronounced and the ginger combined with it very nicely to give a truly warming soup. The theme is Temple Food and not only is this soup good and healthy it's the sort of thing that might be eaten in all sorts of Eastern temples - minus the roasted tomatoes perhaps!

I am also sending this off to Cooking with Herbs over at Lavender and Lovage. I used rosemary and thyme from the garden to flavour the roasting tomatoes and bay leaves in the lentils. This month's theme is The Great British Store Cupboard and as already stated, my store cupboard is permanently stocked with lentils.

Possibly for the first time ever, I find I am able to enter No Croutons Required, the longstanding salad and soup event hosted alternately by Lisa's Kitchen and Tinned Tomatoes.

Lentil and tomato soup is a bit of a classic, but with the edition of carrots, I reckon it becomes suitable for Extra Veg over at Utterly Scrummy Food for Families and alternately hosted by Fuss Free Flavours.

print recipe

Spiced Lentil Carrot and Roasted Tomato Soup

by Choclette January-25-2015

A warming and colourful soup flavoured with herbs, spices and roasted tomatoes.

Ingredients

250g split red lentils
1 large carrot - scrubbed
1 thumb sized chunk root ginger - peeled
1 red chilli (I used half a rocoto)
2 bay leaves - half wholemeal spelt, half white
1 Litre water
2 large tomatoes
1 onion - peeled
4 cloves garlic - peeled
2 thyme sprigs
2 rosemary sprigs
4 tbsp olive oil
a dash tamari (or other soy sauce)
½ tsp sea salt (or to taste
a pinch freshly ground black pepper
½ lemon lemon juice
a tiny amount dark chocolate (100%)

Instructions

1. Soak the lentils in either cold water overnight or in hot water for an hour (this greatly reduces cooking time). Rinse well.2. Dice the carrot, ginger and chilli and add to the lentils together with the water and bay leaves. Bring to the boil and then simmer for 15 to 20 minutes or until the carrots and lentils are tender.3. Meanwhile, roughly chop the onion and quarter the tomatoes. Place in a roasting dish with the garlic, olive oil, rosemary and thyme and roast at 200C for about 30 minutes - the onions should be showing a little charring around the edges.4. Rub the contents through a sieve to remove the skins and any twiggy bits, then add to the cooked lentils.5. Add the tamari, salt and pepper to taste, then blitz with a hand held blender until smooth.6. Stir in the lemon juice and add a grating of chocolate, then pour into bowls topping off with another light grating of chocolate.

Details

Prep time: 25 mins Cook time: 45 mins Total time: 1 hour 30 mins Yield: 4 large bowls

Mini Chocolate Ice Pops - We Should Cocoa #53

noreply@blogger.com (Choclette) — Thu, 22 Jan 2015 17:03:00 +0000

When Kavey suggested teaming up this month with her Bloggers Scream for Ice Cream challenge, I knew immediately what I wanted to make. For my birthday last year, CT gave me the most luscious chocolate book by Rick and Michael Mast. I spend a considerable amount of time salivating over the pictures in Mast Brothers chocolate: a family cookbook and planning what I'm going to make from it; strangely not very much so far. One of the pictures I found particularly striking was the Frozen Chocolate Pops and now I had no more excuses not to make them.

Of course, I ended up adapting the recipe. Not only did I convert the recipe from cups, but as it is the middle of winter and our appetite for iced treats is limited, I scaled the recipe down considerably too and decided to make mini pops. This way you get far more chocolate too. I used cardamom sugar to give a hint of spice and a pack of Willie's 72% Venezuelan Gold for added flavour and luxury.

This is how I made:

Mini Chocolate Ice Pops

Heated 125ml milk in a pan with 30g cardamom sugar (golden caster sugar) and a rounded tsp of cocoa powder.
Stirred until the sugar had dissolved and the milk was hot.
Removed from the heat and added 25g of chopped dark chocolate - (G&B 70%). Left for a couple of minutes to melt, then stirred until smooth.
Poured into 6 mini chocolate pop moulds - there was actually enough to make about 20, but I used the remainder for another iced treat I shall blog about soon.
Popped into the freezer for a couple of hours or so.
Melted 40g of dark chocolate (Willie's Cacao Venezuelan Gold 72%) in a small pan over hot water.
As soon as it had melted, removed from the heat and aded a further 15g of chocolate. Left for a couple of minutes, then stirred until smooth.
Removed the cake pops from their moulds and spooned the melted chocolate over them to cover. This ended up being rather messy. I was unable to get a smooth finish as the chocolate froze on impact and I managed to get chocolate over pretty much everything.
Put them back in the freezer until ready to eat.

What can I say? They may have looked a little strange, not to say messy and a couple of them fell off because I was too impatient to wait for them to freeze properly, but they were delicious. When it came down to it, we would both have been happy to have a freezer full of them. The ice lolly part itself was better than anything I've ever bought and the iced chocolate enrobing it was wonderful. The combination of rich and slightly bitter chocolate contrasted well with the sweet icy but velvety contents.

You still have three more days to enter We Should BSFIC with your icy chocolate treats. Just link your post to this month's We Should Cocoa and Kavey's BSFIC post - you'll find full instructions on both.

Malted Chocolate Bundt Cake

noreply@blogger.com (Choclette) — Mon, 19 Jan 2015 15:20:00 +0000

I am so enamoured of both the look, texture and taste of my bundt cakes, that I reckon the recipe used must have become my signature bake. It always looks stunning, it can be marbled for extra effect or left plain and the flavourings are endless. When I was recently asked to make a birthday cake, a bundt immediately sprang to mind; I'm just surprised I haven't used it for one before. Perhaps because it's winter, Horlicks was also on my mind, or perhaps it's just that I'm very keen on malty flavours.

Scroll down to the bottom to get the recipe.

A little of the batter made its way into a mini version. It is important, I feel, for a cook to try their wares. As always with this cake, the texture was good. It was moist but firm and sliced well. It's the kind of cake you want to eat too much of and have to restrain yourself. Luckily for us we didn't have much to restrain ourselves from. Alternating bursts of malty and chocolate flavours assailed our tastebuds in the nicest way - try one get one free.

I am sending this off to a number of weekly events:

Bake of the Week over at Casa Costello

Cook Blog Share over at SuperGolden Bakes

Recipe of the Week over at A Mummy Too

print recipe

Malted Chocolate Bundt Cake

by Choclette January-19-2015

A beautifully textured and delicious bundt cake flavoured with chocolate and Horlicks. The cake is swirled with two differently flavoured and coloured batters giving additional interest when the cake is cut.

Ingredients

240g unsalted butter
260g golden caster sugar (I used vanilla flavoured sugar)
4 large eggs (I used duck eggs)
100g ground almonds
230g flour - half wholemeal spelt, half white
2 tsp baking powder
¼ tsp bicarbonate of soda
2 heaped tbsp yogurt
2 tbsp water
1 rounded tbsp cocoa powder
1 rounded tsp mesquite powder
2 rounded tbsp Horlicks
½ tsp vanilla extract
50g caster sugar ( I used vanilla flavoured sugar)
50ml water
70g dark chocolate (70%)
10g unsalted butter
16 Maltesers

Instructions

1. Cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Then beat in the eggs, one by one, adding a little of the flour if necessary to prevent curdling.2. Sieve in the ground almonds, flour, baking powder and bicarb and stir until just combined.3. Gently stir in the yogurt and water.4. Spoon half the mixture into a separate bowl. Add the Horlicks and vanilla extract to one bowl and the cocoa powder and mesquite to the other. Stir until just combined.5. Spoon heaps of alternating batter into a greased bundt mould or tin. Bake at 180℃ for about 45 minutes or until the cake is well risen and an inserted skewer comes out clean. Allow to cool for 10 minutes, then turn out onto a wire rack to cool completely.6. Put the 50 ml of water and 50g of sugar in a pan and place on a low heat stirring until the sugar has dissolved.7.Take off the heat and add the chopped chocolate. Leave the chocolate to melt for a few minutes then stir. Add the butter and stir until smooth.8. Place the cooled cake onto a serving plate. Drizzle the chocolate sauce over the top and decorate with the Maltesers and edible gold dust.

Details

Prep time: 45 mins Cook time: 45 mins Total time: 1 hour 30 mins Yield: 16 modest slices

Figgy Jam Almond Cake

noreply@blogger.com (Choclette) — Fri, 16 Jan 2015 16:15:00 +0000

Another book that passed briefly through my hands recently was Miranda Gore Browne's Bake Me a
Cake as Fast as You Can. It has lots of easy to bake cakes which all sound quite delicious, but the one that caught my eye was Brighton Cake. It's a very old fashioned and simple cake where you rub the butter into the flour rather than creaming it. A bit of nostalgia crept in when I saw it and a burning need to use up some very old jars of jam.

For Christmas I was given this beautiful cake cutting set by a friend - a knife and slice. It's fair-trade and the handles are made out of recycled bone. A friend was coming around for tea and the occasion was going to be their debut.

I did my usual tweaking and adapting - I had to get chocolate in there somehow. I upped the quantities to try and make an 8" (20 cm) cake and added white chocolate to the mix.

This is how I made:

Figgy Jam Almond Cake

Weighed out 200g flour (half wholemeal, half white) and placed into a large bowl with 1 tsp baking powder, 85g caster sugar and ½ tsp maca powder (just so I feel I'm getting something healthy from the cake).
Rubbed in 85g cold unsalted butter with my fingers until the mixture resembled breadcrumbs.
Stirred in 30g white chocolate powder (I used Mortimer's, but grated white chocolate would be fine).
Used a fork to mix in two small eggs and a scant tsp of almond extract. Stirred until the mixture formed a rough ball of very sticky dough.
Using the fork, pressed half of the mixture into an 8" round cake mould.
Spread the contents of a small jar of fig and pomegranate jam over the batter.
Placed small blogs of the remaining dough over the jam and evened out as best I could with the aforementioned fork.
Placed 16 blanched almonds around the edge of the cake, pressing down slightly.
Baked at 180℃ for 30 mins when the cake was well risen and firm.
Sprinkled with a scant teaspoon of caster sugar and allowed to cool for ten minutes. Turned out onto a wire rack to cool completely.

I've fallen in love with this simple, but really quite delicious cake. It's rather like a Bakewell tart with its almond bottom and crust and jam filling. I'm glad I was cautious with the almond extract though; the recipe stated two teaspoons for a smaller quantity of mix than I used. I expect the white chocolate helped to give a slightly richer feel. The texture was just how I like it, a little crunchy on the outside and soft and melting on the inside. As the mix was quite stiff, more like dough than batter, I was pleased to see the jam stayed nicely in the middle and didn't sink. I am going to make another one this weekend for my mother - I'm thinking lemons.

Lemon Cake with Chocolate Icing

noreply@blogger.com (Choclette) — Tue, 13 Jan 2015 20:38:00 +0000

Never let it be said that I fail to keep my powder dry. Here's a post I've just found from August 2012 that has yet to see the light of day on my blog - until now.

August 2012

Not a grand cake for CTs birthday, but a nice simple one that would travel well and his mother would enjoy. The day after his birthday CT was leaving to visit her for a few days and given that we were going to spend his actual birthday out and about I didn't think there would be much room left for cake anyway. With an organic lemon in need of using up and some home made lemon curd, it had to be some sort of lemon cake. When I did a search on Eat Your Books for lemon and chocolate, a recipe for lemon drizzle with chocolate chunks came up from G&Bs Unwrapped. Brilliant, I would make the lemon cake, swirl through some lemon curd rather than adding chocolate and make a chocolate topping instead.

This is how I made:

Lemon Cake with Chocolate Icing

Creamed 125g unsalted butter and 125g cardamom sugar (caster) until light and fluffy.
Grated in the zest of one large organic lemon and creamed some more.
Beat in 2 large eggs, one by one.
Sifted in 150g flour (half wholemeal, half white) and 1 heaped tsp of baking powder.
Added 1 tbsp of milk and 1 tbsp lemon juice and stirred gently until just incorporated.
Spooned into a 2lb loaf mould and baked at 180C for 40 minutes until well risen and a toothpick inserted into the middle came out more or less clean.
Turned out onto a rack to cool.

Simmered 25g caster sugar with 25ml water for a couple of minutes.
Allowed to cool a little, then stirred in 40g of chopped milk chocolate (G&B 35%).
Stirred until smooth, then added 5g unsalted butter.
When cool but still just about runny, poured this over the cake.
Decorated with yellow sugar strands.

I was right, we were so full from lunch, we only managed a small slice each when we got home. The cake was delicious though and my concern that lemon wouldn't go desperately well with chocolate was unfounded. It tasted just like Madeira cake and because I'd forgotten to add the lemon curd, it wasn't too lemony.

Despite a really busy week at work I managed to take the day off. In true botanist style, CT chose to spend the day visiting gardens and nurseries in and around the English Riveria - in other words, across the border and into Devon. Amazingly it didn't rain and we had a lovely day. We had lunch at The Combe Sellers, a pub restaurant right on the banks of the River Teign. The food was really good and the setting was lovely. As well as a celebratory glass of Pimms, we finished up with a sharing dessert platter which was responsible for us only managing a sliver of cake when we got home!

It just so happens that this month's Love Cake theme over at JibberJabberUK is Feeling Fruity. So this lemon cake is winging its way in that direction.

I'm also sending this off to AlphaBakes as the letter is L for Lemon this month. This monthly challenge is hosted over at The More Than Occasional Baker and Caroline Makes.

Matcha Spelt Chocolate Chip Cookies

noreply@blogger.com (Choclette) — Sat, 10 Jan 2015 19:42:00 +0000

As some of you may know, I've been drinking matcha for the last few days. I'm taking part in the teapigs #MatchaChallenge which involves consuming half a teaspoon of this amazing green tea every day for two weeks. High time to have a change from just drinking matcha and get baking with it too, I reckoned. I wanted to make something that was portable, would fit in a lunch box and was not too unhealthy. Matcha biscuits with spelt flour and dark chocolate chips were my solution to this conundrum. Rather than incorporate chocolate throughout, I chose the chips so the beautiful green colour could shine through.

As soon as I started creaming the butter and sugar, I realised I should have used coconut oil and rapadura instead. This would have given an even healthier and no less delicious new year matcha cookie. Oh well, next time.

The biscuits turned out just as I'd hoped, crunchy on the outside and soft in the middle with a lovely green hue to them. Annoyingly, I couldn't get this to show in the photographs. There was no mistaking the matcha flavour which went well with the dark chocolate. The spelt gave a slight nuttiness and bizarrely the biscuits almost tasted of peanut butter. Manageing to eat two and half large cookies to get my required half teaspoon, was a little much, even for me; a hot cup of matcha tea remedied the situation.

Tea Time Treats has gone off piste this month and is actually all about lunch boxes rather than a groaning tea table. These biscuits (or cookies if you prefer) work well, both in a lunch box and for tea. CT can attest to both. Hosted this month by Janie over at The Hedge Combers, Karen of Lavender and Lovage will be taking a keen interest too.

With matcha to the fore, I reckon these qualify for this month's Treat Petite, which is all about Healthy Treats. This is hosted by Cakeyboi alternating with The Baking Explorer.

Innovation and Discoveries is the theme for The Biscuit Barrel this month. Having felt rather forlorn last month when I baked something for this challenge, only to find it wasn't there, I am now super excited to find that Alexandra over at The Lass in the Apron is holding the fort whilst Laura from I'd Much Rather Bake Than ... finishes off her degree. Very sensible.

print recipe

Matcha Spelt Chocolate Chip Cookies

by Choclette December-24-2014

A deliciously moist light fruit cake buzzing with flavour that can be made a few days in advance or right at the last minute.

Ingredients

100g unsalted butter
100g golden caster sugar (I used cardamom sugar)
1 large egg (I used a duck egg)
100g light muscovado sugar
150g flour (I used half wholemeal spelt, half white)
1/2 tsp baking powder
pinch of Himalayan pink rock salt
3 tsp matcha
75g 70% dark chocolate buttons (or chopped)

Instructions

1. Cream butter and sugars together until light and fluffy.2. Beat in the egg.3. Sift in the flour, baking powder, salt and matcha. Stir until just combined.4. Stir in the chocolate.5. Leave in a cool place to firm up a little.6. Place tablespoons of batter onto a lined baking tray (I made 15) and form into a rough circle. Bake at 180°C for about 12 minutes or until the cookies are firm. Allow to cool for a few minutes, then move to a wire rack to cool completely.

Details

Prep time: 15 mins Cook time: 12 mins Total time: 1/2 hour Yield: 15 large cookies

Rye Bread and Blackcurrant Cake

noreply@blogger.com (Choclette) — Wed, 07 Jan 2015 14:43:00 +0000

I must be better. My baking mojo has returned and I almost leapt out of bed this morning thinking I'm going to bake that rye bread cake that's been on my mind. I know January isn't traditionally the time for indulgence, but because we were both ill, CT and I had quite an abstemious Christmas, so I feel justified in making and eating a few 'naughty' things.

Trine Hahnemann's book, Scandinavian Baking, passed briefly through my hands a while back. There were many gorgeous recipes which all seemed to contain some of my favourite indulgences including marzipan, cream and chocolate. Needless to say, I'm very tempted to buy the book. However, I did take note of one recipe that caught my eye as it uses rye bread instead of flour. As some of you may know, I make rye sourdough bread on a regular basis, so this cake seemed particularly apt. It also included blackcurrant jam and as I still have a few jars of the chilli blackcurrant jam I made last summer, this seemed like a good opportunity to use some. Other than scaling down the quantities to make a smaller cake, using my chilli blackcurrant jam and swapping the hazelnuts for Brazil nuts, I pretty much stuck to the recipe - haha!

This is how I made:

Rye Bread and Blackcurrant Cake

Crumbed 100g of rye sourdough bread (containing various seeds) in a coffee grinder.
Ground 100g of Brazil nuts.
Mixed these together with 2 tbsp cocoa powder and ¾ tsp baking powder.
Separated 4 duck eggs (large hens eggs will be fine) into two bowls.
Added 130g of dark brown sugar to the yolks and beat with an electric whisk for a few minutes until the mixture was thick and pale.
Folded in the bread crumb mixture until just combined.
Whisked the egg whites with clean beaters until stiff, then folded into the cake mixture as gently as possible.
Spooned into two 8" cake moulds and baked for 7 minutes at 200℃, then turned the oven down to 180℃ and baked for a further 7 minutes. Inserted a skewer to see if they were done and they were. Removed from the oven, left in the moulds for ten minutes, then turned out onto a wire rack to cool completely.

Chopped 30g G&B milk chocolate into small pieces.
Whipped 150ml double cream until it held its shape, but wasn't too stiff.
Covered one cake with half the cream then blobbed a small jar of blackcurrant chilli jam over the top with a teaspoon.
Placed the second cake on top and spread this with the remaining cream.
Scattered the chocolate over the top.

The cake was surprisingly light given the ingredients used. It was also nicely chewy. All by itself it would be a good cake, but the added jam, cream and chocolate changed it into a bit of a marvel. The slight heat coming from the chillies in the jam was cooled by the cream and the chocolate added a little sophistication. Rich, indulgent but also quite simple, this was even better than I was hoping. Now I know I can use rye bread to make cakes, I'll no longer have those annoying bits of stale bread left at the end of the loaf.

This cake, otherwise known as Brødtort, comes from a region in Denmark where the tradition of cake tables almost puts our Clandestine Cake Club to shame. Invitees are expected to try a bit of every cake at a buffet consisting of at least twenty cakes. I think my record is about nine at one of our CCC gatherings and that was quite tough going.

I am sending this off to a brand new challenge created by Janice over at Farmersgirl Kitchen. #RecipeClippings gives us the incentive to trawl through our piles of magazine clippings, torn out recipes and hand written notes and then actually use them - a grand idea I reckon.

In the same vein, I am sending this off to Bookmarked Recipes with Jac of Tinned Tomatoes.

The recipe called for hazelnuts, but when I went to find them in my cupboard I came across a packet of Brazil nuts which were past their sell by date, so I thought I'd better use those instead. This makes it eligible for the No Waste Food Challenge over at Elizabeth's Kitchen Diary.

Matcha Hot Chocolate and a Matcha Challenge

noreply@blogger.com (Choclette) — Sun, 04 Jan 2015 17:22:00 +0000

January is the traditional time to follow through with good intentions and try for a healthier lifestyle. I am always full of New Year's resolutions and sometimes I actually manage to pull them off. This year I have set myself a tough one, but as it doesn't involve food or drink, I was happy to take on the teapigs #matchachallenge as well.

I've had a love affair with matcha ever since CT brought some back from his Japan trip in 2007. I'd never heard of it before then, so it was a real novelty. Green tea was my tea of choice, so once I got used to the idea, it wasn't such a big step to drinking matcha: it's a very finely ground Japanese green tea with a distinctive flavour. Because you are ingesting the whole leaf this way, it provides a concentration of all those healthy nutrients that green tea is renowned for. It's very high in antioxidants, has plenty of betacarotene and contains vitamins A, B and C. It's said to boost energy levels for four to six hours after drinking it as well as raising metabolism and relieving stress. Teapigs matcha is organic and comes in 30g packs, normally costing £25. There is currently a 20% discount.

As well as a great drink, matcha lends itself very nicely to baking, not only giving a distinctive flavour, but also an interesting green colour. I have made a number of cakes and biscuits using matcha, but was particularly pleased with matcha shortbread, matcha and white chocolate cupcakes and chocolate matcha battenberg.

Much as I like matcha, it's not something I've had every day, so I was interested to see if drinking it regularly made any difference to my flagging post flu energy levels. The teapigs #matchachallenge is to drink ½ tsp of matcha a day for a fortnight. It's early days yet as I'm only on Day 5, but I have been enjoying finding different ways to drink it. I have so far made two different kefir matcha smoothies, drunk it as normal in a mug of hot water and tried it as a matcha shot in a glass provided by teapigs. Today I made a frothy matcha white hot chocolate. I used white chocolate so I could retain the beautiful green colour.

This is how I made:

Matcha Hot Chocolate

Warmed 150ml of milk to just below boiling.
Poured it into a mug containing 2 heaped tsps of white chocolate powder (I used Mortimer's) and ¼ tsp matcha powder.
Used an electric milk frother (kindly provided by teapigs) to mix and froth the drink.
Sprinkled a little matcha powder over the top.

It was delicious. The frothing gave it a really light texture and the white chocolate was creamy, but the matcha cut through the sweetness with strong refreshing notes.

If you fancy entering the Matcha Challenge there is a chance to win a year's supply of matcha from teapigs and a pack of matcha is being given away daily via instagram. The challenge runs throughout January and it's a nice easy way to get your New Year off to a healthy start.

Thanks to teapigs for providing a pack of matcha green tea, a shot glass and aerolatte frother in exchange for blogging about the challenge.

I am sending the matcha hot chocolate off to Nayna for her event, Let's Cook/Create Hot Drinks over at Simply Food.