Sunday Sweets: Chocolate Mint Cremes

Hmmm... I appear to have mislaid the photos for this one. (which is an excuse for it being a day late... It's not the reason, but it's an excuse)

Anyhoo - mint cremes!

You need:

Fondant Icing (the ready made roll out stuff for ease)
Peppermint Essence
Dark Chocolate

Knead the icing until soft and pliable.
Add several drops of mint essence and continue to knead
Roll the icing into a cylinder, about 1 inch in diameter
Taking a very sharp knife, slice circles about 1/3 inch thick
Leave the icing circles to dry out for an hour or so.
Melt the chocolate over a bowl of hot water.
Dip the icing into the chocolate and coat completely (don't leave it in too long. You don't want to melt the fondant!)
Let the mint cremes set completely on a non stick sheet. 

You could add colouring and other flavours to the icing.

I made some purple strawberry cremes as well, but they were, quite frankly, disgusting.

But in other news, the strawberry jam was absolutely delicious!!

We're Jammin'

 I have made JAM!!

What else can you do with almost on the turn strawberries?

I used:

200g chopped up strawberries
200g granulated sugar
4 tbsp lemon juice
and just for fun-
1 tbsp apple wheat grain liqueur (I put this in pretty much everything at the moment... mmm. apple and bacon risotto!!)

I made this up, and wasn't paying much attention to the timings. Again. But at least nothing burnt this time!

Place strawbs and sugar into a non stick pan - mush them together a bit.
Heat on a low hob for a couple of minutes, then add the liquid.
Stir together (mushing again)
Continue to heat on low until the sugar melts, stirring regularly.
Increase the heat to boil the mix, boil for 10 minutes, or until it thickens. (keep an eye out for it boiling over the pan!)
Leave to cool before transferring to a sterilised jar.

why are you on a squiff...?

I gave up on photos... blogger wasn't behaving!

Sunday Sweets - Adventures in Icing

The delightful Ina Garten has inspired me to decorate cookies...
Beautiful cookies...

I used the following recipe for the cookies:

4oz very soft butter
6oz caster sugar
1 egg
1/3 tbsp vanilla extract
8oz plain flour
2/3 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt

Beat the sugar and butter together until well combined, and light and fluffy. Then beat it a bit longer. Just for fun.
Mix in the egg, then the vanilla.
Sift the dry ingredients together over the bowl. Mix to form a loose dough.
Form into a ball, wrap in cling film and chill for a couple of hours.

When firm, roll out on to a VERY WELL floured surface. If you think there's just enough flour on there, sprinkle a bit more on... this is a soft dough and will stick like billy-o.
Dip the cookie cutters into flour before pressing out the shapes.
Line baking trays with a non-stick sheet, and lay out the cookies.
(You can refrigerate again at this point. This stops the cookies from spreading in the oven, and it also means you can get some of the prep done the day before if you need to)
Place into a pre-heated oven (temp 180oC) until lightly golden brown.
When cooked lay them onto a rack to cool completely before icing.

 

 

Making the icing - use Royal Icing for this, it contains egg whites so sets beautifully hard and shiny. You could make it from scratch using icing sugar and raw egg whites, or you can cheat and use the boxed Royal Icing, which is so much easier!

Mix the icing with enough water to make a very thick, but still runny paste. This is about 125g icing sugar to 35ml water and a splash of lemon juice. The consistency you need here is runny enough to drip off the spoon in ribbons, but firm enough that the ribbons remain on the surface of the icing (you can just see that in the photo below, these were still here after about a minute)

 

To colour the mix I've used either colouring gel (this is newish to supermarkets - I used this one.) or regular food colouring (though I don't like these nasty natural food colourings. They all seem quite brown. I miss the vivid and the E-numbers!)

I divided the icing into two bowls, and added 3 drops of red to one to create a pale pink, and three drops of red and 3 of blue to make purple. (My supermarket doesn't stock lovely violet...)

It is purple, honest!

This here's my first ever attempt at icing a border on a cookie. 

I've used a sandwich bag, and filled one corner with icing. Twist the top of the bag to secure, and squeeze the icing to the bottom of the bag. Trim a TINY (and I mean tiny) point off the bag and start to outline the cookie. The first corner I trimmed was small. But as you can see, not small enough! I got better at it!

Squeeze the bag with a constant pressure, don't drag the icing, but allow it to drop onto the surface.

This isn't quick, and it's not all that fun. Especially when your hands are shaking.

Leave the outline to set for about 5 minutes - when it's dry to the touch you can flood the centre. The icing used to flood is much runnier than the outline icing. This can be spooned in - but don't make it too runny or you can control it. You can use a paintbrush (preferably a clean one!) to manipulate the icing into all the edges. I used an icing stick.

Leave this to set completely if you plan to decorate on the top. This takes hours to go really hard.

 

These were decorated with the outline consistency icing. 

 

As you can see, I had a great time!

 I also made the lines thinner.

They're not knickers!

Really.  Not knickers.

Honestly. Not knickers.

Can you tell what it is yet?

I may have got a little carried away.

 

Tee hee! It's Cookie-Man!

See? Not knickers!

 These were made by adding drops of icing to the flooded parts before it had set. This gives a smooth finish with no bumpy outlines. You can drag a cocktail stick through it for a feathering effect.

  

Macaroon Trials...

I am not getting on with macaroon making!

Mary Berry's recipe tasted quite good, but didn't look like the photos.
Lorraine Pascal's recipe has the little "foot" but they've kind of spread across the baking sheet... and they've gone a funny colour! Sort of brown-ish.

Hmm. Whose recipe shall I attempt next?!

Stalk-Eye for a Saturday!

I can't quite bring myself to post a photo...


It's quite clearly a wig!!!


I hope.

Sunday Sweets: Chocolate Delights!

 

Another variation on a theme? From me...? Surely not!
This one is made using the truffle mix.
And it gives me an opportunity to use my chocolate moulds again!

Chocolate delights!

Makes lots!! (40 ish)

You will need...

• 200g White Chocolate
• 200g Dark Chocolate
• 100g Truffle mix (roughly!)

 -scoop tiny portions of truffle mix (~1/4 tsp sized scoops), roll them into balls and set to one side
 -melt the chocolates separately in bowls over a pan of freshly boiled water

Hmmm... I must've cleaned the oven especially ;-)

 -half fill each of the moulds with melted chocolate; manipulate the bottoms of the moulds with your fingers to ensure there are no gaps. Bang the mould on the counter to remove any bubbles.
 -drop a ball of truffle mix into each mould, and top up with more melted chocolate.
 

-bang the tray on the counter again
 -refrigerate until set and turn out

ooooh, a pretty stripey one!

Stalk-Eye for a Saturday

 

Oh Jeremy... How I love you...

(Also, I would highly recommend watching the Unusuals. But I may be biased.)

Flour-free Chocolate Chip Cookies

In other news: My cookie scoops have arrived!!

(Alright... Ice cream scoops. But I'll be using them pretty much exclusively for cookies and cakes.)

 Now I need a reason to use them...

These flour-free cookies were made using an American recipe (hence all the cup measurements).
If you're interested in following the authentic American version, here are the original quantities:

3 cups powdered sugar
2/3 cup unsweetened Dutch-process cocoa powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 to 4 large egg whites, at room temperature
1 Tablespoon pure vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups bittersweet chocolate chips


But... I didn't have that much chocolate in the cupboard, so I've halved the recipe (roughly) in cups and measured it in ounces.

See... I could use cups!

Annnd here's what I used

8oz Icing Sugar
1.5oz cocoa powder
1/8 teaspoon salt
2 large egg whites, at room temperature
1/2 Tablespoon pure vanilla extract
4oz chocolate chips

Makes 12 HUGE cookies.
Stores in an airtight container for 3 days.

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 180oC. Line two baking trays with non-stick sheets. (The recipe advises that if you use grease proof paper, you should "give it a light swoosh of nonstick spray.")

2. Sift together the icing sugar and cocoa into a large bowl, and mix thoroughly (again, the recipe says whisk... but for the love of all things sacred... don't use electric beaters!! You'll suffocate on sugar powder!)

Blow that for a game of soldiers. Just use a wooden spoon... it's so much easier...

3.  Mix in the egg whites and vanilla and beat together (the recipe author has given a range of ingredients as eggs may vary in size, if you're using her quantities, she says start with "two and beat just until the batter is moistened. You're looking for a brownie-like, thick and fudgy batter consistency. If it seems too thick, add another egg white-- then a 4th one if it still seems too thick." So, I started with one, which wasn't enough, and added another, which was too much, so added more icing sugar and cocoa - and adjusted the measurements accordingly.)

4. Gently stir in chocolate chips.

5. Using the shiny new ice-cream/cookie scoop (the small one, 3cm diameter) evenly space 6 cookie dollops onto each tray. (these bad boys spread like you wouldn't believe)

Just remember these came out of a 3cm scoop...

6. Bake for 15 minutes until the tops are shiny and lightly cracked.

These are now about 10cm in diameter!!

mmm shiny and crackley!

7. When cooked slide the cookies (still on the non stick sheets) onto wire racks to cool completely. Or eat them warm. You know. Whatever...

I didn't know what to expect really, but they do look just like the ones in the original recipe, so that's a good start! They're crunchy on the top, and the edges, but really gooey and chewy in the middle.
Quite an unusual cookie! (But really quite tasty!)

Easter Biscuits

 

Easter Biscuits for Eileen!

Ingredients:

• 4oz caster sugar, plus extra for dusting
• 4oz butter, softened
• 1 egg yolk
• 8oz plain flour, sieved
• 1tsp mixed spice
• 3oz currants
• 2 tbsp milk

-Preheat the oven 160oC. Line two baking tray with greaseproof paper.

-Cream the butter and sugar together in a bowl until light and fluffy. 

-Beat in the egg yolk until combined.

-Sift the flour and mixed spice into the mixture, and mix together

 

 

 

-Stir in the currants

-Stir in milk to form a stiff dough.

 

 

-Refrigerate mix for at least half an hour

-Roll the dough out onto a very well floured surface (this is a soft dough, and will stick if you let it!)

 

 

-Cut out the biscuits with a fluted cutter. 

-Place onto the baking sheet and bake for 15 minutes.

 

 

 

-Remove from oven, and rest on their trays for 10 minutes before placing on a wire cooling rack, and sprinkling in sugar.

 

CAKE POPS!!!

Pretty shiny cakes...

I have succumbed.
I am a cake pop convert! (but not the American cake pop which is crumbled cake mixed with icing. Just the thought of that makes my teeth hurt!)

I bought a cake pop maker from Home Bargains. It is indeed a bargain for my home. (you can get one here...)

There it is. Magnificent, no?

So here's what you do -

Cake mix (makes 12 cake pops)

2oz marg
2oz caster sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1 egg
2oz SR flour

• Make up a traditional cake batter by creaming the marg and sugar together, adding the vanilla, beating in the egg, and mixing in the flour.

• Heat the cooker until the green light comes on

• Spoon dollops of mix into each hole - working quickly as they start cooking immediately! (I've found that the best amount of mix for the make is one heaped measuring tablespoon.)

• Close the lid and leave to cook for 4 minutes

• Remove each ball when cooked, and allow to cool.

To decorate -

100g chocolate (melted over simmering water)
sprinkles!!!
Lolly sticks

• Poke a hole about half way through the cake ball with the lolly stick - remove the stick, and dip the stick in the melted chocolate - replace the stick in to the cake

• Refrigerate until set.

You could skip that step, but the cake is more likely to spin while being decorated, or just fall of the stick... which is most inconvenient!

• When set, twirl each cake pop in the melted chocolate until completely coated.

• Set up in the handy dandy cake pop rack, and allow to cool slightly. (not allowing them to cool will result in all the sprinkles just sliding off the cake. And nobody wants droopy cake pops)

• When the chocolate is no longer drippy, you can dip the pops in bowls of sprinkles, and return to the fridge to completely set.

Well... you get the idea

Quite.