Back from #FBC5 with a Greek Yogurt & Chocolate Spread “Cheesecake” in a Glass

Tags

cheesecake, choco bella, chocolate, chocolate spread, dessert, digestive biscuits, Greek yogurt, nuts

Remember last post? No? I’m not surprised. It was ages ago (sorry). I was just about to leave for the #FBC5 conference in London. And what a fab experience that was! I think for a food blogger, the best part of going to a food blogger conference is the fact that you can be your true self when confronted with amazing food in a room full of people. In other words, you can whip your iphone out and instagram every single step of that spoonful of chili honey, on its journey from the jar, to the top of the cheese on the cracker, all the way to your mouth. And no one will bat an eyelid. In fact, you might find a line of people behind you, smartphones at the ready, waiting patiently for you to get out of the way so they can do the same.


And of course there is all the information that you absorb, a whole load of useful tips, nuggets of advice and wisdom, ideas and suggestions. But the main thing I’ve taken home with me after those three days in the London sunshine, is the fact that I have a whole new bunch of likeminded friends. It was especially great to spend more time with my fellow Greek bloggers, who made the journey from Athens like I did. A total of 5 of us attended, which in my opinion is a huge number for such a small country. Most of them I had met before, but this was a brilliant opportunity to have a natter about our local food blogging scene, and throw about some ideas about how we can do stuff here. It was also quite funny to hear them talk about the pork scratchings they mistook for crisps… let’s just say they were not impressed. They don’t know what they’re missing…


The photos here are a collage of my Instagram feed during the #FBC5 weekend. Most are from the actual conference, with a few random London pics in there too. You can also see them on Facebook with a few comments. For a more comprehensive account of #FBC5, the sessions, the food, the sponsors, go over to the website and have a browse through all the related posts. I will just say two things. Chili honey. Maple butter. I dream about them.


I was planning on posting a recipe based on one by my new friend Janie over at The Hedge Combers. She is just the sweetest person and I’m so happy to have met her. A kitchen disaster involving falling baking trays and sticky floors made that impossible. Those amazing flapjacks will have to wait just a little longer. Since today is really hot (the air coming through the window is like a hair dryer blowing in your face) I decided to try out something else, which doesn’t involve the oven, but does use one of the goodies that came in our extremely heavy #FBC5 goodie bags. Choco Bella, a fairtrade organic dark chocolate hazelnut spread made by Italian company Damiano. It’s veeery gooood. This “cheesecake” in a glass is dead easy to make, has few ingredients, and is very light (no cream or cream cheese here – just lovely healthy Greek yogurt). The yogurt gives it a slightly tangy taste which goes nicely with the very chocolatey spread. Here goes.

Greek Yogurt & Chocolate Spread “Cheesecake” in a Glass

Ingredients

140g digestive biscuits (or graham crackers) + 1 extra biscuit for garnishing (optional)
20g hazelnuts, chopped
2 Tbs melted butter or margarine
200g (3/4 c.) Greek yogurt (I used 2%)
150g (about 7 ½ Tbs) Choco Bella chocolate & hazelnut spread
1 Tbs icing (confectioner’s) sugar

Instructions

1. Crush biscuits in a bowl. You can use your fingers as we aren’t bothered about getting the crumbs very fine.
2. Take 4 small pinches of chopped hazelnuts and set aside for garnishing later (if you want). Mix the rest of the chopped hazelnuts into the biscuit crumbs. Add the melted butter or marge and mix with your fingers till the crumbs are coated. The mixture won’t come together as it would for a cheesecake base, we only want loose crumbs for the glass. Spoon 2 tablespoons of crumb mixture into 4 smallish glasses. Set aside.
3. In a medium sized bowl, combine the yogurt, chocolate spread and icing sugar. I used an electric whisk thinking it might make the mixture fluffier. I don’t know if it did. You can also mix with a regular whisk till incorporated.
4. Spoon 2 tablespoons of mixture onto the crumbs in the glasses. Then add another tablespoon of crumbs on top. Finally, add another layer of chocolate mixture. My last layer was just under 1 tablespoon in each glass. Sprinkle the remaining hazelnuts over the top and garnish with one quarter of the biscuit on each “cheesecake” if desired.

Notes:
– The Choco Bella chocolate spread is quite chocolatey, so if you are using any other brand I would suggest starting with less yogurt (maybe the same quantity as the chocolate spread) and tasting it. Adjust according to your taste buds!

Before I go, a special mention and “lovely to meet you” for a few more bloggers from the event.
Louiza from Chez Foti
Vanesther from Bangers & Mash
Bintu from Recipes from a Pantry
Magda from Midnight Spoon
Madeleine from From the Healthy Heart
Manjiri from Slice off me
Snejana from Orange Thyme
Emma Jane from Cakes and Catwalks
Karin from Yum and More
Karen from Lavender and Lovage

And of course my Greek blogger friends
Artemis from Wonderfoodland (bilingual blog)
Athina from Sugar Buzz (Greek blog)
Nicky from Sugar Flowers Creations (Greek blog)
Elena from Elena’s Cooking (bilingual blog)

Hazelnut & Golden Syrup Rice Crispy Treats and Some “Preparing Ahead” Tips

Tags

chocolate, dessert, golden syrup, hazelnut, honey, nut butter, nuts, rice crispies, rice crispy treats, sweet, vegan, vegetarian

Well, this is new to me. Just diving in and writing about a recipe that is barely even ready to eat. In order to do this, I had to rely on Instagram for my photos, as there was really no time to find the right spot/light/props for each photo I was taking. But let me start from the beginning.

Tomorrow we are having friends round for a barbeque. The next day, we are going to a (different) friend’s house for another barbeque. I always make stuff to take to her parties, as she likes my food and.. well, any excuse for me to make stuff. This time, she has invited around 50 people (it’s a house warming do) and that’s not counting the 15 or so kids. Yikes. My friend has it covered, she always does, as she has a talent for throwing things together that taste lovely, but I would like to help out and do something special in support! Also, my friend and her partner are fitness freaks, so I’m the one who makes the really fattening sweets that their kids are normally deprived of! (just joking… but they do get an extra hit of sugar when I visit).

So after much thought, I set about planning my 3-day weekend. This is an operation that requires much organisation and fine tuning! Today was Day 1 – Prep Day. I don’t like making things too far in advance, as I get anxious about whether they will be good enough to serve when the time comes. But there are many little things that can be done; things that help enormously when it’s time to actually make the final dishes. Here are some tips.

Plan. Make a note of what you are cooking. If you’re like me, write them down, then cross at least two off the list. Try and include some things that can be made ahead, or at least have some steps that can be completed beforehand. Check you have the recipes, and check what ingredients you have/need. Then, do the shopping list.

Next, make yourself a schedule. I am a fan of schedules, so that’s not too difficult for me. I don’t mean down to the last 5 minutes of your day. But think about all the things you will need to do, like supermarket (allow for botched credit card machines and shops that don’t have rice crispies..), other irrelevant tasks that might take time (catching up on Twitter and Facebook), and a break for lunch.

An important part of the schedule are the “make ahead” steps for each recipe. For example. Salad. You think, I can’t possible make it a day in advance. True, but you can wash the veggies. And mix your dressing and keep it in a jar in the fridge. That has just saved you more than half the prep time on the day. Are you baking? You can probably bake a day in advance, especially brownies! But if you don’t want to do that, go through the recipe and complete any steps you can. For example, measure and mix the dry ingredients and keep them in an airtight container. Measure the butter or oil, chocolate, beetroot (brownies on my mind again) and mix if the recipe tells you to. It might seem that all this is unnecessary, but I find that measuring out ingredients is the most time consuming of all stages in baking. But that’s me! Label your containers so you know what’s what.

One has pieces of Twix in it!

For tomorrow’s BBQ, one of the things I’m making is a pasta salad. Again, I could probably have prepared the whole thing today, they are usually better the next day anyway, but mine will have raw courgettes (zucchini) in, so I don’t want it to get very watery overnight. So, I boiled the pasta, coated it in olive oil and it’s now patiently waiting in the fridge. The only downside to these methods, is the full-to-the-brim fridge, and the washing up of all the containers! But desperate times call for desperate measures! The dishwasher can do most of the work.

If you are wondering what the sponge is doing next to the courgette, read on..

Finally, if you have a lot planned, splurge on something you wouldn’t normally, to save time and energy. For example, I am making a potato salad on Sunday. I like it with new potatoes, the little ones. My supermarket does these packets of pre-washed new potatoes that need 7 minutes in the microwave. Definitely worth the extra money. Pre-cut and washed salads are also life savers, although these can be much more expensive and not cost effective for a large number of guests. Washing lettuce though? One of my pet hates.

At this point I would like to share another couple of tips, which have nothing to do with planning. As mentioned above, lettuce. Love to eat it, hate washing it. I do however have a good method that keeps it fresh for quite a while. If you’re eating it the same day or the next, chop (after getting rid of the outside leaves), put in a colander, wash and leave in the colander to drain, shaking up at regular intervals to get rid of water. If you’re keeping the lettuce for a bit longer, peel off the leaves whole (disgard the outside ones), wash them and spread them out on some kitchen paper to dry. Try to shake as much water off first, but be careful not to bruise the leaves. Do something else for a while. When they are just about dry (don’t leave too long as they will wilt), layer them in an airtight container with kitchen paper between the layers. Yes, I use lots of kitchen paper. If you have chopped the lettuce, pop a sheet of… kitchen paper in a zip lock bag, add the lettuce and seal, trying to push as much air out as possible without crushing the salad. Gosh, how long can one talk about lettuce…?

Courgettes/zucchini. Have you ever started to wash them only to find tiny prickly invisible hairs on them? Keep a clean dish sponge (the one with the rough green side used for pots) in your draw. Use it to lightly scrub the zucchini skin. You can also use it to scrub potatoes, if you want to cook them in their skins. You probably already knew that…

And now, a recipe. A recipe I never imagined would be this good. This is my own version of Chocolate Covered Katies’s 5 Ingredient Rice Crispy Treats. They can be stored in the freezer, so I decided to make them today. They’re for the kids on Sunday. Well, they were until I tasted them. Now I think the kids can have the beetroot brownies and the grown-ups will have the Rice Crispy Treats. The Hazelnut & Golden Syrup Rice Crispy Treats. Or maybe I won’t take them with me at all…

Hazelnut & Golden Syrup Rice Crispy Treats

Ingredients

1/2 cup (8 Tbs) hazelnut butter (in the UK this is available at Holland & Barrett)
1/2 cup (8 Tbs) golden syrup (you could use honey, unless vegan)
1 tsp sea salt
2 tsp vanilla extract
3 1/2 cups rice crispies or similar puffed rice cereal (mine was the Lidl brand – use an appropriate version if you are vegan)
160g dark chocolate, cut into pieces
1 Tbs golden syrup
Optional: 1 Twix Xlarge bar (42.5g), cut into small pieces (I had one left over, it was either that or eat it..)

Instructions

1. Place the hazelnut butter, syrup, salt and vanilla in a small saucepan and warm over low heat till melted and combined.
2. In a large bowl, combine rice crispies and hazelnut butter mixture. Stir gently and patiently with a spatula till all the rice crispies are coated.
3. Transfer mixture to a baking tin lined with grease-proof paper. Put another piece of paper over it and press down on it with your hands or the bottom of a glass. Press down well making sure you get into the corners. Put the tin in the freezer for about 20 to 30 minutes.
4. In the meantime, melt the chocolate and 1 Tbs of syrup in the same saucepan you used earlier, over low heat, stirring constantly. When it’s melted, add the Twix pieces and stir until these too have melted. You will have some lumps from the biscuity part of the Twix.
5. Spread evenly over the rice crisy base and return to the freezer till the chocolate topping sets. Use the parchment paper to lift out the set mixture, carefully cut it into pieces (won’t be very easy!) and store in the fridge (or return to freezer). They would also be fine at room temperature (unless you are here in Greece) for a few days.

A sliver, just to taste test!

Other Rice Crispy Treats from around the blogosphere
50+ Rice Krispie Treat Recipes from Something Swanky (need I continue?!)
Rocky Road Rice Krispies Treats from Brown Eyed Baker
Homemade Coconut Luna Bars from V. K. Rees Photography

Beetroot Brownies for Jamie’s Food Revolution Day Picnic

Tags

baking, beetroot, brownies, cake, chocolate, dessert, picnic

Hello there! It’s been a while… again. But I have a good excuse! We’ve moved house. Yup, we now live in an area outside the city on the coast – a 5 minute walk from the beach to be exact. For Athenians this is considered “a village”! Oh but it’s so lovely. See? The move was an experience. I’ve moved house several times in my life, 9 to be exact – not counting my years at University in England and not counting the time when I was little and we started moving to a flat up the street only to find the fridge didn’t fit through the kitchen doorway. My mum just took everything back to the old flat that same day! I must say, this time was very easy. We hired professionals to do all the work; packing, dismantling, transporting, the works. The hardest part for us was trying to stay out of their way. Check out their fantastically clever wardrobe box! After all 9,000 boxes were brought to the new house however, that’s when the tricky part for us started. Two weeks later and I’ve managed to get rid of all but four of them. Unfortunately, one of these contains my tupperware; it doesn’t fit in the kitchen, and I can’t live without it. So I have several trips to IKEA planned in a quest to find the right storage contraption. Any excuse to go get a hotdog!

A few days after the move, I got a message from a Greek food blogger friend (Wonderfoodland) inviting me to a picnic she and two other bloggers (Funky Cook and Sabor by Conna) were organizing for Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution Day. FRD is an initiative to help raise awareness about eating healthy meals made from scratch. I had to choose from a list of fresh ingredients and make something to take with me. Luckily beetroot was on the list, so I got to try something I’ve been meaning to for a while now. Beetroot brownies! I used a recipe I found on Milk & Honey, which is very easy and requires a minimum of cooking utensils (crucial for me at the time). The only thing I did differently to the original recipe was leave it to bake for longer, as I wanted a more “cakey” brownie rather than a very fudgy one (easier to eat while sitting on a blanket in a park!). What a great day it was! It was so cool to meet fellow bloggers who are based here in Greece, I really hope to see more of them in the future. As with all foodies, they are a supportive and welcoming bunch, always ready with a good word!

Photos by Wonderfoodland

Ingredients

250g unsalted butter
250g dark chocolate
250g cooked beetroot (I use the vacuum packed type – make sure it’s not preserved in vinegar!)
3 eggs
250g white sugar
1/8 tsp salt
150g self-raising flour

Instructions

1. Preheat the oven to 180C (or 160C on fan mode). Grease a baking tin and line it with grease proof paper, making sure the paper overlaps the long sides (creating a handle to pull out the brownies when cooked). My tin is 18×24.5cm (7×9.5”).
2. Place the butter and chocolate in a bowl and melt in the microwave (in 30 second blasts, mixing after each blast). Alternatively, melt in a small saucepan over low heat, keeping a constant eye on it so it doesn’t burn. Let cool slightly.
3. Cut the beetroot into pieces and whiz in a food processor until smooth. Set aside.
4. In a large bowl beat the eggs and sugar till well combined and lighter in colour.
5. Add the chocolate mixture to the eggs slowly, while mixing constantly. Be careful if your chocolate is still very hot, you don’t want to cook the eggs!
6. Sift the flour and salt over the bowl and fold it in carefully.
7. When almost no flour is visible, fold in the beetroot until just incorporated. Don’t overmix. The batter will be quite runny.
8. Pour the batter into the tin and bake for 35-40 minutes if you want fudgy brownies, or about 50 minutes for cakey brownies. After 50 minutes my toothpick came out dry from some spots, slightly moist from others.
9. Let the brownies cool in the tin for 10 minutes or so, then lift out using the paper “handles” and place on a wire rack. Mine were gorgeously moist (not gooey), even with the extra baking time.

Instead of other beetroot recipes, I am listing a few of the blogs that participated in the picnic. There were several more but I didn’t get a chance to chat with them. Take a moment to visit these guys; they are doing a fantastic job!
Wonderfoodland (picnic organiser) – posts in both English and Greek (her savoury tart with feta, tomatoes, onion and olives is pictured above – recipe not online yet)
Sabor by Conna (picnic organiser) – posts in both English and Greek
Funky Cook (picnic organiser) – posts in Greek
Elena’s Cooking (picnic attendee) – posts in English (Pasta Salad with Zucchini pictured above)
Donkey & The Carrot (picnic attendee) – posts in both English and Greek (Cherry Pie pictured above)
Food Daily (picnic attendee) – posts in Greek

For more photos of yummy picnic food, or in case you really want to “Like” it, head over to the Food Revolution Day Athens page!

A Glass of Dessert Part 3 – Lenten (and Vegan) Chocolate Mousse

Tags

chocolate, coconut milk, honey, Lent, mousse, tahini, vegan

Antique English spoon dating from the late 1800s, on kind loan by The Collector

It’s Good Friday today, a day of strict fasting in Greece. It is really hard to believe this chocolate mousse is actually allowed. But it is. I, however, would make this any day of the year. Out of all the chocolate mousses I’ve tried, this might just be the best. And not a raw egg in sight!

I give you two versions and two methods of preparation. The original version, adapted from an insert in Ta Nea newspaper (Feb 2012), uses honey and a food processor. Honey is allowed during Lent even though it comes from bees; this is not the case with veganism. So, I thought I would make it again replacing the honey with golden syrup, making it suitable for vegans. This time I also ditched the processor, purely because I couldn’t be bothered to wash it. Surprisingly, this actually made a big difference in the texture of the mousse, and produced a much softer, lighter and well, mousse-ier result. The original is very smooth and dense, and might be better described as a chocolate pot de crème. Taste-wise they are very similar and I can’t choose which one I like more. But texture-wise, my own version wins hands down. You’ll just have to make a double batch, one of each, and decide for yourself!

Lenten Chocolate Mousse – The Original (with Honey)

Adapted from Ta Nea insert Feb 2012
Makes 4

Ingredients

1 c. coconut milk (not cream, not water)
100g dark chocolate, chopped
3-4 Tbs honey
2 Tbs tahini
1/8 tsp cinnamon
sesame seeds and slivered almonds to garnish

Instructions

1. Heat the coconut milk in a small pan till just below boiling point.
2. In a food processor, whiz the chocolate pieces with the cinnamon.
3. Add the warm coconut milk to the processor, along with the honey and tahini, and whiz till it froths up. Be careful, the warm milk might make it froth up too much, or even overflow and make a mess everywhere. That might put you in a bad mood.
4. Empty the mixture into 4 glasses or small bowls, let cool and refrigerate till set (at least 3 hours).
5. Garnish with the sesame seeds and serve. To get the margarita effect in the photo, I put some golden syrup on a plate, twirled the rims of the glasses through it, and then twirled the rims round a plate sprinkled with sesame seeds.

Note: The recipe in the newspaper used almond milk instead of coconut. I haven’t tried this; if you try it please come back and let me know what it’s like!

Lenten and Vegan Chocolate Mousse – My Version

Adapted from the same recipe
Makes 2

Ingredients

1/2 c. coconut milk
40g dark chocolate, chopped
2 Tbs golden syrup
1 Tbs tahini
a pinch of cinnamon
sesame seeds to garnish

Instructions

1. Heat the coconut milk in a heat-resistant measuring jug in the microwave (in 15 second bursts, checking after each burst).
2. When hot, add the chopped chocolate and stir till melted.
3. Add the tahini and golden syrup and whisk till incorporated.
4. Add the cinnamon and continue to whisk till smooth.
5. Poor into glasses, let cool and refrigerate till set.
6. Garnish and serve.

Other Chocolate Pot or Mousse Recipes
Instant Chocolate Mousse by Nigella Lawson (tried, tested and loved!)
Chestnut Chocolate Pots by Nigella Lawson
Chocolate Mousse with Olive Oil and Sea Salt by The Kitchn (also tried and tested; gorgeously interesting and different)

Chocolate Tahini Bites – Lenten Sweet Treats

Tags

almonds, chocolate, healthy, honey, Lent, nuts, tahini

Today is Palm Sunday, the Sunday before Holy Week. Holy Week is one of the most beautiful times of the year in Greece, not just because the weather is usually gorgeous, but because Easter is the most important religious holiday. It’s actually bigger than Christmas, which has sort of caught up in recent generations but is heavily commercial with many “foreign” traditions having infiltrated its celebration. Did you know that traditionally people in Greece used to decorate miniature wooden sail boats and not trees? Hang on, why am I talking about Christmas? Easily distracted? Me?

Back to Easter and Lent. As I mentioned a few weeks back, there are many recipes flying around, in magazines, on tv shows, on blogs, all with great ideas on how to enjoy good food even if you’re fasting (meaning no meat, dairy, eggs etc.).  One such recipe is this little gem. It’s amazingly easy, lusciously chocolatey, and actually quite healthy! The taste leaves behind a hint of halva (the type we call Macedonian, referring to Northern Greece) which is made of tahini and sugar or honey. Now I’m no expert, but dark chocolate, honey, tahini, almonds and even cinnamon, are all said to offer great nutritional benefits. These Chocolate Tahini Bites contain exactly these ingredients and nothing else. Also, they are very rich, so you only need a bite or two!

The recipe is from Sweet Stories, a magazine by Greek pastry chef Stelios Parliaros.

Chocolate Tahini Bites

Ingredients

125g dark chocolate, chopped
125g tahini
50g honey
1/4 tsp cinnamon
50g almonds without skin (I used slivered because it was all I had, use chopped if you want more crunch)
Icing sugar or cocoa powder for dusting (optional)

Instructions

1. Toast the almonds. Put a non-stick frying pan on high heat, wait till the pan is very hot, then add the almonds. Shake them around or stir with a wooden spoon or spatula. As soon as you start to smell the almonds and you see a few starting to brown, take them off the heat and continue to stir. They will finish toasting on the hot pan. Set aside.
2. Melt the chocolate in a heat proof bowl in the microwave (or over a pan of boiling water). I always do this in 15 second bursts on high, taking the bowl out and mixing after each burst. It should be ok after 3 goes. Stir well to smooth out any last lumps.
3. Add the tahini, honey and cinnamon and stir well or whisk to combine. Add the almonds and stir again till they are all coated.
4. Pour mixture into a lightly greased, shallow baking tray or pyrex dish. Mine was 16x25cm. Leave it to set at room temperature for at least 2 hours, or, when cooled, pop it in the fridge for about one hour. Cut into squares or bars, and dust with icing sugar so they look pretty! The original recipe uses cocoa powder for dusting, but that would be too bitter for me, so I went with the white stuff.

Other Chocolate and Tahini Combos
Molten chocolate cake with tahini and millet by La Tartine Gourmande
Chocolate Tahini Cookies by Pixels + Crumbs
Chocolate Tahini Dressing by Where’s the Beef?

Salted Caramel Brownies and a Forgotten Birthday!

Tags

baking, brownies, chocolate, salted caramel

I feel terrible. I actually forgot my blog’s first birthday. That’s almost as bad as forgetting my child’s birthday! Ok, maybe not that bad, but still… Other bloggers do giveaways, others bake themselves cake… I not only forgot the day (which was the 5th), I also haven’t even blogged for a whole month. Inexcusable! As a belated Happy Birthday (at least it’s still February) I baked myself some brownies. Not just any old brownies mind you. No, these are extra decadent, extra sweet, extra fattening and extra delicious. They have a layer of melty, sticky, gooey caramel oozing out of the middle. Uh huh. Yup. Caramel. To be precise, salted caramel. Even better. Check out the golden stuff trying to escape from within the chocolate sandwich of fudgy-in-some-spots, crunchy-in-other-spots, brownie layers.

And how about those shapes? Clever or what? Another idea I wish I could call my own. In fact it’s Smitten Kitchen’s, the blog that made me want to try making these. Cut the brownies with biscuit (cookie) cutters! Not only do you get great shaped brownies, you also get a whole load of bits left around the edges that need cleaning up. Unfortunately/fortunately you just can’t serve these bits to anyone. I’m sure you know where I’m going with this… (yes, I ate ALL the straggly bits myself).

After getting the initial inspiration from that blog post, I thought I would skip making caramel from scratch and try using up a bag of caramel sweets I’d had stashed away for ages. I bought the sweets after seeing a recipe somewhere for something, then promptly forgot what and where that recipe was. So the sweets have been patiently waiting their turn to be transformed into a gorgeous dessert. I did some more research and found this recipe on She Makes and Bakes. Perfect. The only change I made was to use 3 tablespoons of evaporated milk in the caramel mixture, instead of cream. I couldn’t bring myself to open a carton of cream just for a couple of spoonfuls. For some reason I don’t have the same sensitivities about plain old evaporated milk. My next mission is to research whether I can freeze it – I’ll let you know!

Salted Caramel Brownies

Ingredients

1/2 cup (115g) butter
180g dark chocolate, chopped (or chocolate chips)
3/4 cup sugar
2 eggs
1/2 Tbs vanilla essence
1/2 cup + 2 Tbs plain flour
1/4 tsp salt
200g milk caramel sweets (the square, quite hard ones)
3 Tbs evaporated milk (not sweetened condensed milk)
1/4 tsp + a pinch of sea salt

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 180C. Line a baking tin with foil, leaving some foil overlapping two sides (you’ll use this to lift the brownies when cooled). My tin is 18×24.5cm (about 7×9.5″), you don’t want anything much bigger than that. Spray lightly with cooking spray.
2. Melt butter and chocolate in a bowl in the microwave, at 30 second intervals. Bring the bowl out and mix after each blast, otherwise you might end up with a huge mess in there. Have you ever seen butter explode in the microwave? Scary.
3. In a large bowl stir the sugar, eggs and vanilla with a wooden spoon. Be enthusiastic about it, until well incorporated. No, you don’t need the electric mixer for this.
4. After the chocolate mixture has cooled slightly add it to the other ingredients in the bowl, by pouring in a steady stream while stirring continuously.
5. When that is fully incorporated and the mixture looks glossy, stir in the flour and salt. Mix until you can’t see any flour.
6. Pour half the batter into the tin and bake for about 15-20 minutes, or until it starts pulling away from the sides and firms up on top. It will become a little lighter in colour as well.
7. Bring the tin out of the oven and cool for another 15 minutes or so.
8. While that is cooling, melt the caramel sweets, milk and 1/4 tsp salt in a microwave proof bowl. Again, do it in 30 second intervals because you’re always better safe than sorry. I think caramel might also have explosive properties. Mix well between blasts and keep going till it’s nice and smooth.
9. Pour the caramel over the cooled brownie layer, trying not to get right to the sides so it doesn’t run down the sides. However, it’s not the end of the world if it does.
10. Stick the remaining brownie batter in the microwave and blast for about 10 seconds, or enough so that the mixture becomes more spreadable again (it will have firmed up while waiting). Blob it around over the caramel layer in the tin, and try as best you can to spread it evenly. Get to the edges so you sort of seal the caramel in.
11. Sprinkle a pinch of sea salt on top of the batter and bake for about 30 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out fairly clean. With brownies you never get completely clean toothpicks, but they shouldn’t be very gooey and chocolatey either.
12. Let brownies cool in the pan. I tried to remove them after 10 minutes and the top got all cracked. When completely cool, cut with cookie cutters and clean up the remaining bits by eating them quickly before anyone sees you.

Sharing the brownie love…
Twix Caramel Brownies by Two Peas and Their Pod (these are gooooood)
Bacon Brownies by Nigella Lawson (tried and tested – you don’t even know the bacon is there)
Salted Caramel Frosted Kahlua Brownies by Tracey’s Culinary Adventures
Roasted Cherry Brownies by Tracey’s Culinary Adventures
I could go on and on…
Oh, and guess what… looking through my bookmarked recipes to create this list, I found the recipe for which I bought the caramels!
Chocolate Chip Salted Caramel Cookie Bars by Two Peas and Their Pod

Choco Porridge with Honey and Banana – Is it Breakfast? Or is it Dessert?

Tags

breakfast, chocolate, oatmeal, oats, porridge

This is a mini post. The reason is that I had a last minute work thing which ruined my plans for a nice quiet blogging evening. I got home just before 10pm, cold and starving hungry. I then spent half an hour picking meat off the chicken legs I’d made in the slow cooker, and prepping the bones for overnight stock. Dinner was a boring plate of plain chicken and curried yogurt sauce, which sounds exotic but is basically yogurt with curry powder and dried coriander leaves! As you by now know, Mondays are protein only days (Dukan Diet rules) so today has left a lot to be desired in the culinary department. You should have seen me dodging the canape trays swirling round earlier!

Right now all I want to do is curl up on the sofa with my fleece blanket, watch Modern Family, and dream about the yummy breakfast I’m going to make myself tomorrow morning. If this was a normal night I’d be having it for dessert. It’s that good. Creamy, chocolaty gooeyness that is actually good for you! Unbelievable. I got the idea from a fellow foodie over at Licking The Plate Again, who commented on my Applesauce with Pears post that her mum used to put cocoa in her porridge when she was little as a treat. Genius, is all I can say…

Choco Porridge with Honey and Banana

Serves 1 (if I’m the one eating it)

Ingredients

1/2 cup rolled oats
2/3 cup milk
2 squares (20g) dark chocolate
1/8 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp honey
1/2 banana, sliced
extra splash of milk, optional

Instructions

1. In a small saucepan mix the milk and oats. Warm mixture over medium heat and when it starts heating up add the chocolate.
2. When the chocolate is nearly all melted, add the cinammon and continue cooking over low heat, stirring continuously.
3. When the porridge has absorbed the milk and thickened to your liking, and the oats are soft, transfer to a bowl.
4. Top with the sliced banana and honey, and add another splash of milk if the porridge has thickened a lot.

Note: After trying a chocolate and cinammon ice cream this summer, I have decided these two ingredients were meant for each other. Give them a go!

Other porridge or oatmeal breakfast ideas from around the blogosphere:
A Hot Breakfast: 10 Nourishing Oatmeal & Porridge Recipes to Warm Winter Mornings from The Kitchn
Quinoa Coma by With a Side of Sneakers (this I like to combine with regular porridge. It’s really good!)

Picnic On The Beach, Part 3 – Triple Chocolate Chip Cookies

Tags

biscuits, chocolate, cookies

For my last installment of recipes from my name-day picnic, I will share with you these amazingly good chocolate biscuits (cookies). They are absolutely divinely chocolaty, and just one can really hit the spot. Two will put you in a chocolate nirvana!

These keep really well in an airtight container, and apparently you can freeze them for up to a month. Talking of freezers, mine is playing up a bit. Yesterday evening while I was watching The Good Wife (important details for a blog post these) I heard the alarm going, which means the temperature had risen to -11 (from -18 where it should have been). This has happened once before but then I thought the door had been left open by accident. This time I checked and the door was safely shut tight. I wonder what’s going on. A while back it was also making some strange whirling noises and the service people told me I should defrost it (so much for no-frost technology!). After a couple of days, which I spent thinking about the logistics of this (namely, where do I put all the stuff from inside it while it defrosts) it stopped rattling. So I just forgot about it. As you do. To be honest I’m afraid this is all due to the huge amounts of food stocked in there. Yes, I love my freezer. Do you know the Tetris puzzle on computers? Well, you have to be good at that to get things in there at the moment, it’s so full. I just know that’s what they’re going to tell me is wrong with it. So I’ve come to a decision. I’m buying a deep freeze. I’ve been wanting one for ages but I’m worried about where to put it. I’ve no room in the flat, our storage room in the basement doesn’t have a plug, so the only other option is the balcony/veranda. There is a good corner it could go in, but I have some concerns about the temperatures out there in the summer. It can easily reach 38 in the shade, if not more in a heat-wave. I think I might be asking too much of an electric appliance that needs to maintain a temperature of -18!!

Oh dear, I’ve just read this back to myself and can safely say it’s the most boring post I’ve ever written. I’ll stop right away and get back to the main issue. Chocolate. Lots of it. In cookies. My version is slightly adapted from a recipe in the British Good To Know Recipes magazine.

Triple Chocolate Chip Cookies
Makes quite a few (um, 24? Forgot to count before devouring – about two baking trays full of big biccies – sorry, cookies)

What you’ll need
150g dark chocolate, chopped into chunks
150g milk chocolate, chopped into chunks
190g butter, softened
100g white granulated sugar
100g light brown sugar
100g dark brown sugar
1 extra large egg
330g all purpose flour
4 ½ Tbs cocoa powder
¾ tsp baking powder
¾ baking soda

What you do

1. Line two baking trays with grease-proof paper. Preheat oven to 180C.
2. Mix the chocolate chunks and set aside without pinching too many.
3. Using an electric mixer, beat the sugars with the butter in a large bowl until light and fluffy.
4. Beat in the egg.
5. Sift in the flour, cocoa, baking powder and baking soda.
6. Mix well.
7. Stir in the chocolate pieces.
8. Take a tablespoon full of mixture and form a small ball in the palms of your hands (like a meatball). Place it on the baking tray.
9. Continue with the rest of the mixture arranging all the chocoballs on the trays, leaving space between them. (Try and get at least one chunk of each chocolate type in the ball!)
10. Flatten the chocoballs a little with your fingers (they’ll flatten a bit more while baking).
11. Bake for about 10-12 minutes or until just firm. Don’t over bake!

Enjoy with a glass of milk, or as I like them, dunked in hot milky tea.

A Glass of Dessert

Tags

banoffee, chocolate, dessert, pots, salted caramel

Two important things happened the day before yesterday. Number one, we had two friends over for dinner, number two, I reached the end of the third week of a “healthy eating” regime (more commonly known as a diet – an unsuccessful one). I was soo ready to enjoy a yummy dinner finished off with a much missed plate/bowl/anything full of sugary sweetness. People sometimes ask what I enjoy more, cooking or baking, sweet or savoury, main course or dessert. I wish I could say “oh I love ..[enter appropriate option].. but I can live without ..[enter other one]… Nope. For me it’s both. I love both, what can I say? I’ve heard it’s characteristic of Taurians to appreciate food. So there’s just nothing I can do really, is there?

I especially like having dinner parties; don’t get me wrong, I’ll still make an effort even if it’s for one (me!), but having people round gets me in a frizz of excitement and menu planning days before the event. This usually results in a pretty large variety of dishes, quantities to feed a small army, and at least one period of blind panic when I just know it will all be a catastrophe. I call it perfectionism; the Mister and my mum call it being psycho and promptly remove themselves from the near vicinity for fear of flying pans and a lot of bad language.

I am getting better at all this, I must say, and each time I feel more in control. I’m also becoming more realistic in terms of what I can achieve in the 3 hours between getting home from work and the estimated time of arrival of our guests. A good example of this is Friday’s meal. I decided on lasagna, since I could prepare the bolognaise and béchamel beforehand, leaving only the assembling and baking for that 3 hour interval. This would give me enough time to make side dishes and dessert! There was still, however, no way I was going to fit in making say a cheesecake. So the night before, after the bolognaise was in the slow cooker and the béchamel was ready in a tupper on the balcony (which I have been using as a huge fridge lately!), I went to bed with my iphone and looked up some recipes.

The first one I chose was for these yummy and easy looking Salted Caramel Chocolate Pots from the BBC Good Food website. They seemed ideal (minus the faffy grissini) especially since I had a can of dulce de leche waiting to be opened. “Ah, but will these be enough?” the obsessive side of my brain chirped, “surely you should provide a second option! And what will you do with the leftover caramel?” (“eat it all with a spoon while watching Law & Order” was the answer from the other side of my brain, but I ignored it). Then inspiration hit! What do I normally use caramel for? Banoffee Pie. What would be easier than that, and wouldn’t leave too many tempting leftovers? Mini Banoffee Pies. Ooh, in a martini glass! Definitely a hostess-with-the-mostess presentation, but with a minimum effort dessert.

The verdict? Top marks all round. The choc pots were great, although very rich. A layer of biscuit (cookie for my US friends) in between might have helped “break” the richness for those whose tooth is a little less sweet, but for me it was fine as is. The banoffees… well they were sublime. So much so that today I dove into my extra one completely forgetting I had put it aside to photograph it for this post. Oops.

Salted Caramel Chocolate Pots from BBC Good Food
Note: the original recipe is for 2 portions, but I doubt anyone could take so much richness in one go. I used the same quantities for 4 smaller servings, having in mind that we would also be eating the banoffees.
What you’ll need:
4 heaped Tbs dulce de leche or canned caramel (*see note at end)
½ tsp salt plus extra to sprinkle on top of the chocolate
85g dark chocolate
85g milk chocolate
100ml heavy cream
50ml milk

What you do:

• Mix caramel with the ½ tsp salt, divide between 4 small glasses and put into the fridge (or on the balcony if it’s cold enough!).
• Break the chocolate into pieces and put into a microwave safe jug. Melt it in the microwave 20 seconds at a time, on high. After each 20 second interval mix it with a spoon and make sure it’s not burning. Try not to lick the spoon. When there are only a few lumps left stop microwaving and just stir it till it’s all smooth. Leave it for a few minutes to cool slightly.
• Mix the cream and milk together, and stir it into the chocolate until incorporated. Pour mixture into the glasses over the caramel (try to get it around the edges first, then the centre). Return to the fridge. Before serving sprinkle some coarse salt on top.

Salted Caramel Chocolate Pot

Mini Banoffee Pies
What you’ll need:
6 digestive biscuits (or graham crackers if you’re in the US)
1 Tbs butter
1 large banana
Squeeze of lemon juice
150ml dulce de leche or canned caramel*
150ml heavy cream (cold)
1 tsp powdered drinking chocolate or cocoa OR some grated dark chocolate, to decorate

What you do:

• Crumble your biscuits. You can do that using the zip-lock bag and rolling pin method (I’ve never found this practical), the food processor method (shame to dirty the FP for 6 biccies) or the manual method (break into small pieces and crumble by rubbing together with your fingers). They don’t have to be completed crushed, as we aren’t making a pie base here (if the biscuit sets into a crust it might be hard to break with a spoon in a delicate glass).
• Melt the butter in the microwave and mix into the crumbs, using your hands. Spoon the crumbs into the glasses and gently press into the bottom. Chill (the glasses, not you). Do something else for a few minutes.
• Chop the banana into round pieces and squeeze some lemon juice over them. Mix the banana pieces with the caramel and spoon over the biscuit. Chill.
• Pour the cream into a bowl and whisk until it forms stiff peaks. Spoon cream over the banana/caramel mixture, or use a piping bag if you want to really show off (my need to show off ends when it means washing up fiddly kitchen gadgets or wasting a perfectly good zip-lock bag).
• Sprinkle drinking chocolate (such as Cadbury’s) or cocoa over the top. To make it even prettier grate some dark chocolate and sprinkle that instead. Chill until it’s time to serve.

*Dulce de Leche Note:
You can make your own very easily. Take a can or two of sweetened condensed milk (do NOT open), put them in a deep saucepan, fill with water making sure the cans are covered by an inch or two (depending on how deep your pan is) and bring the water to the boil. When it’s boiling turn the heat down and simmer for 2 hours. Keep checking because the water will evaporate. Top up every so often with boiling water, so the cans are submerged at all times. This is important – honestly – I’ve heard stories of the cans exploding! Turn the heat off and leave the cans to cool in the water for a while. Remove the cans from the pan and let them cool completely. Use up one can by making banoffee pie or mini pies. Leave the other in the fridge for emergencies (or for the next episode of Law & Order!).

Oops