A sweet interlude
…
Some
things are meant to be! By chance when browsing my bookshelves I
came across one of my favourites - The Little Book
of Chocolat” by Joanne Harris and Fran Warde. I
reviewed this book and road tested many of it's recipes in July 2017
– yikes, how time flies! I can never resist looking at the tabs I
made at the time and came across the following which I thought would
be the perfect hit for the chocoholics out there – it slipped
through the net in 2017 – how could I let that happen!
Chocolate
Fudge Squares
Takes 1½ hours/ make 50 pieces
400g dark or milk chocolate, broken into small
even sized pieces
25g butter
397 can condensed milk
100g icing sugar
30g cocoa powder, sifted
Line a 20cm square shallow tin with baking parchment.
Melt the chocolate in a bain-marie. In a non-stick saucepan
melt the butter and gently warm the condensed milk, then add the
melted chocolate and mix until smooth. Beat in the icing sugar until
blended and smooth.
Put the mixture into the prepared tin, spread evenly into the
corners, smooth over the top and place in the fridge to set for at
least 1 hour. Remove and cut into small squares and dust with cocoa.
Coming next - a photo or two and a few hints and tips …
A sweet interlude – photos and hints and tips
Here's
the first photo :
You'll
see that the fudge has a marbled top, not spread evenly as the recipe
states – it's personal choice, I prefer irregular shapes!
Here's
my tip – the recipe says “line a 20cm square
shallow tin ...”. dip
a teaspoon into the melted chocolate and place a tiny blob in each
corner of the tin and then glue the parchment so that it stays put.
Here's
another … make sure you sift the icing sugar otherwise you'll
finish up with tiny white spots in the fudge.
Here's
another – I turned the fudge into a chocolate orange version by
adding 2 tsps of Valencian Orange Extract
to the condensed milk and melted chocolate.
Here's
the second photo :
Here's
another … to remove the slab of fudge use an ordinary fish slice.
Gently ease the slice along each edge of the tin and then tip it
upside down. If the slab of fudge won't comply do not lose your
temper just repeat with the slice and it will surrender!
Here's
the third photo :
Cut
your fudge into squares – the size of the square is up to you. The
recipe states you'll get 50. They'll be large. I cut the slab in
half and then each half gave me 36 pieces approximately 2x2cms – a
total of 74 pieces. My tin has curved corners so I straighten each
edge so that all the squares are exactly that, no “curved squares”
if you get my drift!
Place
the squares of fudge onto kitchen roll to dust with cocoa and leave
space between each square for even coverage. Use a tea strainer or a
small sieve, tapping the edge gently to dust.
Here's
the final photo :
Boxed
up, ready to hand round to the
members
of your bubble or you can box in small
amounts
and freeze
Enjoy on its own or with vanilla ice cream and crushed Amaretti
biscuits!
Now for another “sweet” idea, really useful – it's delicious
on its own or as an addition to a sundae!
Hokey-Pokey
– aka honeycomb and chocolate
You
have to be a certain age to remember cinder toffee – it's downside
was that it almost always stuck to your teeth – not a good look!
The recipe that follows gives you a honeycomb hit but because it's
with toasted salted pecans, chocolate and bashed crunchie
bars it's dangerously
moorish!
Hokey-Pokey
75g
unsalted butter
100g
pecan halves, roughly chopped
sea
salt flakes
300g
dark chocolate
2
tbsp golden syrup
3 x
40g Crunchie bars
Heat a
small knob of butter in a pan and when foaming, tip in the pecans
with a pinch of sea salt flakes. Stir over a medium heat for 3-4
minutes or until toasted – you will smell them when they are ready.
Tip the nuts into a bowl and leave to cool.
Break
the chocolate into small pieces and melt, in a medium pan, with the
rest of the butter and the syrup, stirring. Once the chocolate
mixture is smooth, take the pan off the heat. Bash the Crunchie bars
(in the wrappers – less messy!). Add the Crunchie pieces, along
with the toasted pecans, to the chocolate mixture. Gently mix
together before transferring to an 18cm round or square foil tray
23x23cms/9x9” (or cake tin if you prefer to wash-up!)
Leave
to set in the fridge.
Remove
the slab from the foil tray and cut in half – have the long side in
front of you. Cut into similar size strips – cut those strips in
half and keep going until you have small squares measuring 1.5cms/½”.
As a guide if you follow the above you'll get 84 pieces per half, so
168 in total. If you want larger squares you'll obviously get less.
I find a Chef's knife is the best kit to cut the squares.
Without doubt what lifts this treat to another level is the salted
toasted pecans – make ahead and box when cooled until you're ready.
If you haven't made this before then be prepared … to get repeat
orders, you'll be a very popular person!
Then there's the chocolate cake … but without flour.
I
was on a mission – here's a flourless chocolate cake recipe I found
– you want easy – this is it – it does exactly what it says –
in the tin!
Here
it is :
Flourless
Chocolate Cake
Serves
8
120g dark chocolate – choose a cocoa solid
of 50%
120g unsalted butter
150g caster sugar
50g cocoa
3 eggs
½ tsp vanilla bean paste or 1 tsp vanilla essence
You will need a small sandwich tin -
measuring 20cms/8” x 3cms/1¼”
a butter wrapper for greasing
an extra heaped teaspoon of cocoa
for dusting
a sheet of foil big enough to wrap the cake
Grease the tin with the butter wrapper and then sprinkle cocoa
into the tin and carefully tilt the tin until the bottom and the
sides of the tin are covered. A small tip – unless you are
practised at this art you might want to tilt the tin over the sink!
Pre-heat the oven 130fan/150c/Gas 2.
Set a glass bowl over simmering water and melt the chocolate
and butter – when melted, wearing oven gloves and with care, set
aside on a heatproof mat or board. Stir in the sugar, cocoa, eggs
and vanilla, mix well. Tip into your prepared sandwich tin and bake
for 30 minutes.
Let the cake cool, in the tin for 15 minutes.
Take
a look at the fotos :
Here's
the tin, greased and dusted
The
filling in the tin, ready for the oven
Out
of the oven, leave to cool
A
slice of cake, with raspberries
Here are the bits, pieces, hints and tips!
Once the cake has cooled use a round bladed knife and ease around
the edge to loosen – take your time – if you don't you'll tear
the edges of the cake – that would be a shame since you've achieved
a brownie type crusty edge. If the cake won't budge then repeat the
edging with the knife. Have a large sheet of foil ready to receive
your cake, turn it - with care, then wrap and fridge.
The cake serves 8 – you may think the portion size isn't very
generous – take my word for it – it's a rich cake.
Now for the choices – this cake is dense and intense. You can
serve the cake cold with ice cream and/or cream or even clotted
cream.
If you prefer soft, warm and squidgy then microwave for 20 seconds
– take it from one who isn't bothered about chocolate, this is very
good indeed.
It freezes well … don't forget to portion and wrap in cling
film, then bag together.
You won't be sorry.
I hope you find something you like!
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