Chunky Chocolate Eclairs

If you haven't made choux pastry before, this recipe is a great one to get you started, or if you are a confident choux pastry baker, this is also for you, these éclairs are fancy free and super easy.

What I like about éclairs is that the are very visually pleasing, or even profiteroles can be presented to be very beautiful, but it takes a great deal of time to create identical éclairs or profiteroles. So if you don't have much time this recipe is great!

Chunky Chocolate Éclairs

Ingredient's

110g Unsalted Butter

1 cup of Plain Flour

1/4 teaspoon salt

4 eggs

1 cup water

500ml double cream

300g dark chocolate

Method

Begin by prepping a couple of baking trays with parchment paper.

Place the butter and the water in a medium saucepan on a medium heat, stir occasionally until the butter has melted.

Take the saucepan off the heat and gradually stir in the flour and the salt, once combined, this will create a sticky dough, turn out into a mixing bowl and allow cooling time of 5-10 minutes.

Whilst the dough is cooling, pour 200ml of the double cream into a saucepan and heat on a medium heat until it starts to boil.

Break up the dark chocolate into chunks and place in a bowl, once the cream starts to boil, pour over the chocolate and stir until the chocolate has melted and both ingredients have combined.

Once you've finished this, place the mixture to one side and go back to your dough.

Gradually add the eggs one by one to the dough, ensuring you are constantly mixing.

Preheat the oven to 200oc.

You can use a piping bag for the next part or a couple of teaspoons. Each éclair will need about a teaspoon worth of mixture, remember these éclairs are, in terms of size, between a profiterole and an éclair, make sure you give a 2 inch gap between each éclair.

Place the trays in the oven to bake for 25 minutes, prepare a cake tin with a couple of centimetres of water to place at the bottom of the oven, this will create a steamed environment in the oven ensuring a good rise on your éclairs.

Try and avoid opening the oven, until they have been in the oven for about 20 minutes.

Creme Egg Brownies

Crème Egg Brownies

Ingredients

400g Nutella

1/2 Self Raising Flour

2 Eggs

3 Crème Eggs

Method

1. Start by preheating the oven to 180oc. Prepare your hand mixer or stand mixer.
2. Place the eggs and the flour in a mixing bowl and whisk until smooth, add the Nutella and whisk again until smooth.
3. Pour into a square tin and bake for 20 minutes.
4. Whist the brownies are baking, slice the crème eggs in half and then half again.
5. After 20 minutes, remove the brownie tin and place the crème egg on top, spacing nicely, then bake for another 10 minutes.
6. Drizzle with white chocolate as an added extra.
7. Serve on there own or with ice cream.

Oreo Brownies

Oreo Brownies

Ingredients

400g Nutella

1/2 Self Raising Flour

2 Eggs

200g Crushed Oreos

Method

1. Start by preheating the oven to 180oc. Prepare your hand mixer or stand mixer.
2. Place the Oreos in a food bag, and bash into crumbs.
3. Place the eggs and the flour in a mixing bowl and whisk until smooth, add the Nutella and whisk again until smooth.
4. Add the Oreos and whisk again.
5. Pour into a square tin and bake for 30 minutes.
6. Whist the brownies are baking, slice the crème eggs in half and then half again.
7. Drizzle with white chocolate as an added extra.
8. Serve on there own or with ice cream.

Creme Egg and Oreo Brownies

I have got such Brownie fever at the moment, I have been experimenting like mad, I love them. These ones are my boyfriends favourite, which is good for me because they are easy to make and they taste so good, better than any I swear. Easter is right around the corner so it is imperative you get on the crème egg baking now! One thing I do love about this recipe, is that it is very simple but also there are limited ingredients involved, so the process instantly becomes a lot easier. I served this brownie up with ice-cream as a valentines day dinner dessert for my boyfriend, the proof was in the pudding, he was a gentleman all evening!!

Crème Egg & Oreo Brownies

Ingredients

400g Nutella

1/2 Self Raising Flour

2 Eggs

3 Crème Eggs

200g Crushed Oreos

Method

1. Start by preheating the oven to 180oc. Prepare your hand mixer or stand mixer.
2. Place the Oreos in a food bag, and bash into crumbs.
3. Place the eggs and the flour in a mixing bowl and whisk until smooth, add the Nutella and whisk again until smooth.
4. Add the Oreos and whisk again.
5. Pour into a square tin and bake for 20 minutes.
6. Whist the brownies are baking, slice the crème eggs in half and then half again.
7. After 20 minutes, remove the brownie tin and place the crème egg on top, spacing nicely, then bake for another 10 minutes.
8. Serve on there own or with ice cream.

Vinesse Whirls

Tea Party Treats, the only way for me to describe how dainty, beautiful and melt in the mouth these treats really are. I am a massive fan of Vinesse whirls, great respect to Mr Rudyard Kipling, as his are gorgeous, however I thought I would give homemade Vinesse Whirls a go, and I am so glad that I did. There are two very important aspects to this recipe: the shortbread biscuit, which needs to be sort but firm and completely melt-in-your-mouth. Then there is the double filling, soft, sweet vanilla buttercream and a sweeping of jam.

Vinesse Whirls

250g/9oz very soft butter

50g/2oz icing sugar, plus extra to decorate

250g/9oz plain flour

50g/2oz cornflour

½ tsp pure vanilla extract

Filling

100g/3½oz soft butter

200g/7oz icing sugar, plus ½ tsp for dusting

½ tsp pure vanilla extract

75g/3oz seedless raspberry jam



1.      Preheat the oven to 190C/170C (fan)/Gas 5. Line a baking sheet with greaseproof paper.

2.      Put the butter, icing sugar, plain flour, cornflour and vanilla extract in a food processor and blend until smooth. You may need to scrape the mixture down a couple of times with a rubber spatula.

3.      Spoon the dough into a piping bag fitted with a large star nozzle. Pipe 16-18 x 6cm/2½in rosettes of the dough, spacing well apart.

4.      Bake in the centre of the oven for 13-15 minutes or until pale golden-brown and firm. Cool on the baking tray for five minutes then transfer to a cooling rack. Repeat with the remaining dough to make 32-36 biscuits.

5.      For the filling, put the butter in a bowl and sift the icing sugar on top. Add the vanilla extract and beat with a wooden spoon or an electric whisk until very light and smooth. Spoon into a clean piping bag fitted with a large star nozzle. Put the jam in a bowl and stir until smooth.

6.      Spoon a little jam onto the flat side of 16 of the biscuits and place jam-side up on the cooling rack. Pipe the buttercream icing onto the remaining biscuits and sandwich with the jam. Put on a serving plate and dust with sifted icing sugar. Serve.

 

Enjoy!

Snickers Chocolate Salami

Every Friday, I like to make something sweet, chocolately and delicious to get us through the last teaching day of the week. I love that baking puts such a smile on my colleagues faces! It make its so much more worth it.

This week I made Chocolate Salami, I did some research and my name for it is less than original, however I can assure you there is no meat in this sweet treat whatsoever, it is purely a named based on it s appearance when you slice into it. It looks like a the centre of a traditional salami: busy!

This is a very rich recipe, but the biscuit and snickers elements give it another dimension.

Chocolate Salami

Ingredients

4 bars of snickers

200g of biscuits

200g dark chocolate

5 tbsp. cocoa powder

1/2 cup of milk

2 yolks

100g butter

Method

Prepare a loaf tin by buttering the sides and coating with coco powder. Alternatively you could butter the sides, then use cling film to layer on the sides, ensuring easy removal from the tin.

Plan a pan of water on to boil and in a glass bowl place the butter with the dark chocolate and put on to melt in the pan of hot water.

once the butter and chocolate have melted, take off the heat and mix well, then add the yolks one at a time and mix again until well combined. Once you've down this put back on the heat for 5 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Place the biscuits in a food bag and crush with a rolling pin. Then cut the snickers bars into small chunks. Place both ingredients in a mixing bowl, then pour the melted mixture into the mixing bowl and stir until the biscuit crumbs and snickers chunks are covered.

In a small saucepan, place the 1/2 cup of milk on a medium heat, and once it starts to boil, add the cocoa powder and bring down to a simmer. Once the milk and cocoa powder are combined, pour into the mixing bowl and stir until well combined.

Pour the mixture into the pre-prepared loaf tin and ensure a flat finish on top.

Place in the fridge for 3-4 hours.

Once the salami has set, turn out onto a serving place, remove the cling film and dust with cocoa powder and then slice.

Enjoy!

Carrot Cake

My all time favourite cake is a carrot cake. Every year for my birthday I bake one. I mean I could have my boyfriend buy me one or even make me one but nothing comes close to this cup cake recipe, it is simply divine and with further fear of blowing my own trumpet, it looks spectacular also. this cake is a total showstopper and if you are as much of a fan as carrot cake as I am this is one for you.

Ingredients
Cake

1 1/2 cups vegetable oil

1 cup granulated sugar

1 cup brown sugar

6 eggs

1 Tbsp. vanilla extract

3 1/4 cups flour

1 Tbsp. ground cinnamon

2 tsp. baking soda

2 tsp. salt

1 tsp. baking powder

2 large finely-grated fresh carrots

1/2 cup raisons
1/2 cup walnuts
Topping

250g cream cheese

1 cup unsalted butter

1 Tbsp. vanilla extract

1/2 tsp. salt

7 cups powdered sugar

 

 

Method


Preheat the oven to 190 oc. Lightly grease and flour 2 fairly deep 8" cake tins.
In a large mixing bowl, combine the granulated and brown sugar, flour, cinnamon, baking soda and salt.
In a small bowl beat the eggs, then gradually add to the dry ingredients. It will be very thick!
Add the vegetable oil to bring the mix together.
Add the carrot, by handfuls, ensuring you are mixing well, once the carrot is incorporate you can add the dried fruits and nuts.
Divide the mixture between the 2 tins and bake for 25-30 minutes until lightly browned.
Ensure the cakes are completely cool before you ice them.
To make the icing, place the butter and the cream cheese in a mixing bowl and using an electric whisk combine on a high speed.
Add the vanilla, salt and powdered sugar, adding gradually and whisking on a slow speed. If you want to thicken up your icing then add more powered sugar.
Construct the cake by smoothing icing directly on top of the bottom sponge, then placing the second sponge on top.
I tend to ice the sides, fairly thickly, then sprinkle the sides with mixed nuts.
I then smooth icing on top of the cake to ensure a even finishing. Then using a large, rose piping nozzle, I pipe roses on top of the icing.
It gives a simple yet beautiful finish.