Rocky Road from BBC Good Food

I know it's been a while - I'm dieting and this blog makes me want to bake! Baked goods in my house don't last for long when I'm around so it's safer if I just don't!

Happily, I had the opportunity to bake for someone else today! Louis finishes nursery tomorrow so we made a couple of things for him to take in for his teachers, the first being this Rocky Road (or Chocolate Crunch Bar as they like to call it) from the BBC Good Food site.

Cuts into 12.
Ingredients

• 100g butter , roughly chopped
• 300g dark chocolate (such as Bournville), broken into squares
• 3 tbsp golden syrup
• 140g rich tea biscuits , roughly crushed
• 12 pink marshmallows , quartered (use scissors)
• 2 x 55g bars Turkish delight , halved and sliced (or use Maltesers, Milky Way or Crunchie bars) [I used Maltesers and Crunchie]

1. Gently melt the butter, chocolate and syrup in a pan over a low heat, stirring frequently until smooth, then cool for about 10 mins. [It's important to let this cool for minimum 10 minutes otherwise the marshmallow will melt, which is not what you want!]
    
2. Stir the biscuits and sweets into the pan until well mixed, then pour into a 17cm square tin lined with foil and spread the mixture to roughly level it. Chill until hard, then cut into fingers. 

It was so easy to do - in fact, the hardest thing I think was chopping up the marshmallow because they were so sticky! Smelt gorgeous too.... not entirely sure how they tasted - I did have a little nibble (shhh!) which was goooooooooood! I put some of them in a jar which I wrapped with ribbon and a parcel tag to take in to school tomorrow. Hopefully they taste as nice as it looked, and I hope the rest of my household eat the remains that we have here - it keeps calling me!

Hummingbird Bakery Chocolate Brownies

I have had the Hummingbird Bakery cookbook for about a month, and today was the first time I've made anything from it. I have often got it out, drooled over the pics, then put it back again, unsure as to what to make first as it all looks so nice.

The brownies looked pretty simple, and 6 days until my due date, simple is what I require!



200g dark chocolate, roughly chopped
175g unsalted butter
325g caster sugar
130g plain flour
3 eggs
icing sugar, to decorate

a 33 x 23 x 5cm baking tray, lined with greaseproof paper

Makes about 12 portions

1. Preheat the oven to 170C / 325F / GM3

2. Put the chocolate an butter in a heatproof bowl over a saucepan of simmering water (do not let the base of the bowl touch the water). Leave until melted and smooth.


3. Remove from the heat. Add the sugar and stir until well incorporated. Add the flour and stir until well incorporated. Finally, stir in the eggs and mix until thick and smooth.




4. Spoon the mixture into the prepared baking tray and bake in the preheated oven for about 30-35 minutes, or until flaky on the top but still soft in the centre. Be careful not to overcook otherwise the edges will become hard and crunchy. Leave to cool completely before dusting with icing sugar, to decorate. [I cooked mine for 30 mins in a fan oven, and I think this was a little too long. Next time I will try 25 minutes, so the middle is a little more gooey, and the edges not so crunchy].


I tried to get a little creative by making a heart shaped stencil to use for the icing sugar stage, but it didn't quite go to plan!

The smell coming from the kitchen while these were cooking was absolutely divine. I had to try one as soon as they were out of the oven and they were indeed, delicious. A couple of weeks ago I discovered a packet mix of Betty Crocker chocolate brownies, for when I was going to make this delicious looking creation, but hadn't got round to - and decided to make them. Betty, yours are not a patch on these!

As I mentioned above, next time I make them, I shall try baking them for less time, to get more goo in the middle of the brownie, which is how I prefer them. And shall also refrain from going mad with icing sugar stencils... a nice delicate dusting would have been preferable!

Slice n Bake Cookies

I know I haven't blogged for a while, I've just been feeling extremely pregnant (read exhausted), and haven't done much in the kitchen worth blogging about!

Today I decided to try the Slice and Bake Cookies as they have been bookmarked since before Christmas to make. There are so many droolsome things on the Smitten Kitchen Blog - if you haven't visited before, it's definitely worth a little stop by.

Slice-and-Bake Cookies
Adapted from Dorie Greenspan

Makes about 50 cookies [I got about 28 - maybe I did something wrong!?]

2 sticks (8 ounces; 230 grams) unsalted butter, at room temperature
2/3 cup confectioners’ sugar, sifted [This is icing sugar]
2 large egg yolks, at room temperature
Pinch of salt
1 teaspoons vanilla or almond extract [I personally think it needed more]
2 cups (280 grams) all-purpose flour

Options:

• Mix in grated zest of 2 oranges and 1/2 cup dried cranberries (I finely chopped them)
• Mix in grated zest of 2 lemons; coat with or mix in 1/4 cup poppy seeds (I mixed the poppy seeds in)
• Mix in grated zest of 2 limes; coat with 1/4 cup cornmeal
• Mix in 1/2 cup chopped dried apricots; coat with or mix in 1/2 cup finely chopped pistachios
• Mix in 1/2 cup mini chocolate or peanut-butter chips
• Mix in 1/4 cup finely chopped candied ginger; coat with or mix in 1/4 cup sesame seeds
• Swap ¼ cup of flour for unsweetened cocoa
• Swap ½ to 1 cup of flour for ground almonds, pecans, hazelnuts or walnuts
• [I used 1/3 cup chocolate chunks & 1/3 cup of chopped fudge]

1. Put the butter in the bowl of a mixer fitted with the paddle attachment and beat at medium speed until it is smooth. Add the sifted confectioners’ sugar and beat again until the mixture is smooth and silky. Beat in the egg yolks, followed by the salt and any dried fruits, zest, nuts or seeds. Reduce the mixer speed to low and add the flour, beating just until it disappears. It is better to underbeat than overbeat at this point; if the flour isn’t fully incorporated, that’s okay just blend in whatever remaining flour needs blending with a rubber spatula. Turn the dough out onto a counter, gather it into a ball, and divide it in half. Wrap each piece of dough in plastic wrap and refrigerate for about 30 minutes.

[I would really recommend dusting your surface with flour before putting your dough onto it, as it's quite sticky. I'd also recommend getting your 2 pieces of cling film ready as your fingers will be pretty doughy]

2. Working on a smooth surface, form each piece of dough into a log that is about 1 to 1 1/4 inches (2.5 to 3.2 cm) thick. (Get the thickness right, and the length you end up with will be fine.) Wrap the logs in plastic and chill for 2 hours. (The dough can be wrapped airtight and kept refrigerated for up to 3 days or stored in the freezer for up to 1 month.)

[I read the recipe wrong - the next step says you call roll the log in a coating of your choice before baking it... I did it before chilling it. I put some cocoa on the surface, rolled the log, but the log broke up and I ended up having to re-roll it. I know this would have ruined the pretty effect I was going for, but hey, I got a marbelley kinda thang instead and that's fine! I ended up leaving my log in the fridge for about 5 hours, and I put the other straight in the freezer to pull out when a Smug Mummy moment is needed. I used a kitchen roll tube which I cut a slit into to help it retain its shape in the freezer].

Louis recommends the uncooked dough ;)

3. Position the racks to divide the oven into thirds and preheat the oven to 350°F (180°C). Line two baking sheets with parchment paper. [I only needed one]

4. While the oven is preheating, roll cookie logs in any coatings of your choice. Then, using a sharp slender knife, slice each log into cookies about 1/3 inch (10 mm) thick. (You can make the cookies thicker if you’d like; just bake them longer.) Place the cookies on the lined baking sheets, leaving about 1/2 inch (1.5 cm) space between them. [Well my knife was sharp but Im not sure if it was slender. Either way, they didn't come out like the perfect cute circles on the Smitten Kitchen site - they were kinda squished (see below) I hear a wire is good for cutting it, or popping the log in the freezer for a very little while before cutting.]

[I just worked with what I was getting and reshaped them a bit with my hands, and patted them down slightly as where I'd cut them into squishy shapes, they had fattened up a bit. The recipe says one log should get about 25 cookies, but I got 13 or 14]

5. Bake the cookies for 12 to 14 minutes, or until they are set but not browned. Transfer the cookies to cooling racks to cool to room temperature.

Keeping: Packed airtight, the cookies will keep for about 5 days at room temperature, or in the freezer for a month. Unbaked logs can be frozen for longer.

The cookies really haven't lasted long - they were delicious, and because they are quite small, very easy to eat (not sure if this is a good or bad thing!?) I really enjoyed the flavours when I got to a bit of filling, or the cocoa - but the plain biscuit didn't taste of much. I would definitely add more vanilla if I made them again, and maybe try a different filling, or more than 1/3 cup of the fillings I did choose. The texture was very crumbly, they reminded me of biscuits we used to get given with school dinners, with a bit of sugar on the top and some strawberry milkshake I could have been back in the school canteen! I gather this is the icing sugar that does that - its nice for a change. I have had reports from others that have made these that they have been 'tooth achingly sweet'. I didn't find that at all, but I do have an incredibly sweet tooth!

Chocolate Croissants from Nigella Express

I saw Nigella Lawson making her Chocolate Croissants on her Nigella Express programme a while ago and thought they looked really easy, really yummy, and like a really lazy kind of recipe (my kind of recipe!) I don't have the Nigella Express book, but managed to find the recipe by the power of Google.

(Makes 12)

Ingredients

• 1 (13-ounce) packet ready rolled butter puff pastry
• 1 (100-gram) chocolate bar (milk or dark depending on taste)
• 1 egg beaten

Directions

Preheat the oven to 425F/220C. Unfurl the sheet of pastry and then cut it into 6 squares.

Cut each square diagonally to give 2 triangles (they will appear quite small). Put the triangle with the wider part facing you and the point away from you.

Break off small pieces of chocolate (approx.1cm/half inch) to place about 2cm/3/4-inch up from the wide end nearest you.

Then carefully roll from that chocolate loaded end towards the point of the triangle.

You should now have something resembling a straight croissant, seal it slightly with your fingertips and curl it around into a crescent.

Place the chocolate croissants on a lined baking tray and paint with the beaten egg. Bake for 15 minutes until golden and puffy and exuberantly, if miniaturely, croissant-like.

I used (Green & Blacks) dark chocolate, which was a little bitter for the less developed taste-buds in my house. Yes they were very very easy - but not very very yummy. There seemed to be a lot of spare pastry at the ends where the chocolate hadn't got that far. I much prefer shop-bought chocolate croissants, and they're far cheaper too. I won't bother making these again. This is one instance where home baked is not best. 1/5.


****EDIT****

Ok, it's 2 days later - the croissants have all gone. I might have lied when I said Louis didn't like them - he polished them off sharpish! For me they don't compare to shop-bought croissants. For Louis they were fine, he loved them, and they are probably better for him. Still not sure if that would sway me into making them again though!