Choc Peppermint Cupcakes

 
I love peppermint, it reminds me of my Gran, so when I saw this recipe in a NZ Woman’s Day magazine I had to try it!

To give it a go yourself you will need:
125g butter
⅔ cup caster sugar
½ teaspoon peppermint essence
2 eggs
1 ¼ cups self raising flour
½ cup milk
1 tablespoon cocoa
½ cup grated dark chocolate

1. Preheat your oven to 180˚C and line a 12 hole muffin tin with patty cases.
2. In a large bowl mix butter and sugar with an electric mixer until light and fluffy, the beat in essence.
3. Add eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition.
4. Sift flour and cocoa together and lightly fold into the creamed mixture, alternating with the milk, beginning and ending with the flour mixture.
5. Fold in chocolate.
6. Fill patty cases evenly about ⅔ of the way up.
7. Place tray in the oven and bake for 15-20 minutes. Once cooked remove from oven and allow to cool in the pan for 5 minutes before placing on a wire rack.
8. To ice the original recipe suggests that you place a white fondant disk on top of the cupcake with half a chocolate mint to decorate but I have made a simple butter cream icing and coloured it green as well as adding a couple of drops of peppermint essence to compliment the cupcake and piped it.

They were the perfect treat to enjoy while watching the royal wedding!

Dirk’s Lemon Meringue Pie

Simon’s work mate Dirk reckons he can make a pretty good Lemon Meringue Pie.  Since I love lemony deserts I kept this little factoid in my memory, reminded Simon numerous times, and what do ya know?…  during the weekend we went and hung out with Dirk while he made us a Lemon Meringue Pie.  The pie was awesomely good and I got the recipe :) 

  Dirk and Dayle in action! 

You will need:

250g packet plain biscuits, crushed
3 tablespoons sugar
3 eggs
395g can sweetened condensed milk
½ cup lemon juice (approx. 3 lemons)
3 tablespoons caster sugar
170g margarine, melted

Grease a 17.5cm x 28cm baking dish.  Mix the biscuits, sugar and the melted butter together.  Press the biscuit mixture into the prepared dish.

Separate the eggs.  Add the yolks to the condensed milk and mix until combined.  Add the lemon juice and mix again.  Pour over the biscuit base and bake in a 180˚C oven for 10 minutes, until brown.

Beat the egg whites until stiff.  Add the caster sugar and beat again until stiff. 

 
Spoon the meringue mixture over the lemon filling.  Bake in a 170˚C oven for approximately 20 minutes, until golden brown.

Above is a piece of Dirk’s pie, which we ate warm because Simon and I were impatient.  So good.  Although, cold is just as yum too :)

Thanks Dirk!

Home made Gnocchi with Pesto Sauce

 
Simon and I love gnocchi - we think these little balls of pasta have a texture that would be similar to heavenly clouds.  Especially when they are home made.  Simon gave this recipe (found on the ‘Video Cookbook’ app for the iPad – it’s pretty cool) a go the other night and I was amazed by the results :)

Serves 4. 
You will need:

Gnocchi:
300g Kipfler potatoes
80g plain flour
1 tablespoon butter
1 egg
1 egg yolk
¼ teaspoon nutmeg
Salt
Pepper

Pesto sauce and topping:
4 tablespoons olive oil
4 tablespoons pesto
80g streaky bacon or prosciutto (chopped into small strips)
160ml cream
160ml sour cream
4 tablespoons grated parmesan

Wrap the potatoes in foil and bake in the oven, or steam them until they are soft.  Peel and mash the potatoes while hot.  For an even finer result, push the potato through a sieve.

 
Add the butter, nutmeg and season and combine slightly.  Add the egg and mix to combine.  Add the yolk and mix until combined.  Lastly, add the flour and mix through.

Cut or roll the mixture into a sausage shape.  Cut into 2-3 cm long pieces and roll down a gnocchi board (a big thanks goes to Simon’s brother, for making us one!) or over a fork.

 
Poach gently in boiling water for 3 –5 minutes, then drain thoroughly (you could at this stage toss the gnocchi through your fave pasta sauce and serve).  Heat a small amount of oil in a frying pan and fry the gnocchi until lightly golden.

For the pesto sauce, heat the oil in a and fry the bacon until crisp.  In a separate pan, bring the cream to the boil.  Add the sour cream and seasoning and reduce by a third.  Add the pesto and bring to the boil.

Pour the pesto sauce into bowls, arranging the gnocchi on top.  Sprinkle the gnocchi with the bacon and parmesan.  

Pretty damn good for a first attempt huh?!

Easter Egg Cupcakes

Today I made cupcakes for Easter.

I made them using the recipe Courtenay posted about for her Mars Bar cupcakes, except I put little Caramello eggs inside them, and some praline ones on top.

I also dusted the eggs placed on top with a shimmer powder to make them a little extra special :)

I tried making cookies too – they taste alright but look like a pre-school kid decorated them, so you aren’t going to see ‘em.

Happy Easter Everyone!

Chocolate Hazelnut Slice

This slice is mega rich – it’s almost too much for me.  Simon took some to work and he was asked where he brought it from.  My brother around and told me my parents wondered the same thing (I gave him some yesterday).  I think that is a bit funny because I thought it didn’t look the best – I used Cadbury Energy chocolate for my dark chocolate layer and it melted strangely.  It went like a paste rather than a lovely liquid, so I had to press it over the milk chocolate nut layer.  Then, that meant I wanted this unsightly layer covered so I spread the milk and white chocolate over the top to try hide it, rather than doing decorative drizzles. 

Update 4/12/11:
I’ve just made this slice again to take to a baby shower and decorated the top differently.  I’ve take a few new pictures and added them to this post - they are the ones where the slice is sitting on a green and white plate.

To make this slice you will need:

250g plain chocolate biscuits
¾ cup roasted hazelnuts, coarsely chopped
155g unsalted butter, melted
395g can sweetened condensed milk
375g milk eating chocolate, chopped coarsely
315g dark eating chocolate, chopped coarsely
15g unsalted butter, extra
30g white eating chocolate, melted

Grease a 20cm x 30cm rectangular tin.  Line the base and long sides with baking paper. 
Process biscuits and ¼ cup of the nuts until fine.  Add butter, process until combined.  Press mixture over the base of the pan.  Refrigerate about 20 minutes or until firm.
Combine condensed milk and 345g of the milk chocolate in a small saucepan and stir over a low heat until smooth.  Stir in the remaining nuts.  Quickly spread the the chocolate mixture over the biscuit base.
Combine the dark chocolate and the extra butter in a small saucepan; stir over a low heat until smooth.  Spread over the milk chocolate layer.
Melt the remaining milk chocolate.  Drizzle the milk and white chocolate over the slice.  Refrigerate for 20 minutes or until firm.

*Slice will keep in an airtight container in the fridge for up to a week.

One Dough – Hundreds of Biscuits

In the Easter 2011 ‘Indulge’ magazine put out by Countdown there is a fantastic biscuit recipe that I have had heaps of fun playing around with.  It is easy peasy and makes a good 50+ biscuits each batch.


All you need is:
250g butter, room temperature
¾ cup caster sugar
⅔ cup condensed milk
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla essence
4 cups self raising flour

Use an electric beater to combine butter, sugar, condensed milk, egg and vanilla until light and creamy.  Add flour and stir with a wooden spoon until combined.

At this point you can divide your mixture (the magazine recommends in 3) and start adding different ingredients to make your different biscuits.  My favourite is a raspberry (I use a natural soft raspberry liquorice log, chopped up), pistachio nut and white chocolate combo.  I’ve also tried, triple choc – add cocoa powder, white chocolate, milk chocolate and dark chocolate drops, and chocolate chip biscuits – just add chocolate chips.  You could add dried fruit, smarties or m&m’s would be great for kids lunch boxes or birthday parties.  Give them a go and experiment, be sure to let us know how they turn out!

To bake roll two teaspoons of mixture into a ball and flatten with a fork.  You can also make mixture into a log, chill and cut into biscuits if you prefer a more perfect look.  Bake time and number of biscuits will vary depending on your fillings but a guide to bake time is about 12mins in a 180˚C oven, just keep an eye on them.  You should get at least 40 biscuits out of the mixture (the first time I used it and made three different types of biscuits I got 60).

*Tip – Due to the popular demand of the raspberry, white chocolate and pistachio biscuits in our house I divide the mixture in half and make into x2 logs which I place in the freezer, one just until it is hardening then I cut it into 24 pieces and lay them on a biscuit tray to bake.  The other, I leave until we are out or our supply is low and thaw until it is able to be cut, but is still semi frozen, and bake.

Update on the blogger thief

The blogger who stole our title graphic has removed it and that particular blog has been shut down (for now, at least). Thank you to all of you who supported us by leaving her a comment, we appreciate it!  New recipes will be posted this week, but for now you guys have to try out this fudge recipe that Melissa posted the other day, it is delicious – I used Hazelnut chocolate when I tried it and I think there is a new favorite treat in our household.

GRRRR! We’ve been robbed.

I was checking through our followers and having a look at the blogs that they have created, when I found that someone has stolen half our blog heading.  I’m grouchy.  Simon and I took the time to make that and now someone has straight up pinched it.  You can check out what I am on about here.  I’ve left a comment on their first and only post informing them that I am not happy.  If you could do the same and help me out, that would be awesome.  Go to the offending blog and leave a comment!

Cupcake Biology 101

Found here.

Potato Ice cream?

I just saw this on one of the tumblr. blogs I follow.  Looks like yummy ice cream right?  Well, here’s what the caption read:

These are mashed potatoes. Anytime you see an ice cream ad on TV (scooped or being scooped all slow and creamy style) it is 90% of the time coloured mashed potatoes because they look like ice cream but won’t melt like it under the camera lighting.

This kinda grosses me out, but it is very clever if it is true :)

5 Minute Fudge!

 
The oven / stove in my new place is useless – the old tenants didn’t tell the landlord that the door didn’t shut properly, the plug on the side doesn’t go AND two of the elements don’t work.  Idiots!  If they had, the landlord would have got them a new one.  I told ‘em and a brand new stove is being delivered this weekend.  However, until then I can’t do any baking as I don’t trust the one we have.
So, I have been looking for a no bake slice recipe.  Something chocoaltey as I have been having mean chocolate cravings lately.  Naughty.  However, I couldn’t find one that appealed or wasn’t time consuming, but it got me thinking, what about fudge?  That doesn’t require baking.  I still didn’t want to spend as much time in the kitchen as my previous fudge recipes required, so I tried this recipe and it is super, super, SUPER easy. 


To make it, you will need:
395g can sweetened condensed milk
50g butter
400g chocolate (totally up to you what type you use.  I used 200g milk chocolate and 200g macadamia chocolate as I wanted nuts in my fudge)

Stir the sweetened condensed milk and the butter over a medium heat until the butter is melted.  During this, stir the mixture constantly so that it doesn’t burn – if it looks like there are little brown crystal particles forming remove from the heat immediately and stir very rapidly to beat the heat out of the mixture.
Add the chocolate, stir until melted.  Pour in to a 18cm square tin and pop in the fridge for 2-4 hours to set (or, put it in the freezer and it is pretty edible after 30mins – I am eating some now!).  DONE AND YUM!