Matchmaker cookies with White Chocolate Ganache

Christmas Baking 5

I didn't get time before Christmas to post this biscuit recipe. It's yet another variation on the basic cookie recipe I posted a while ago.
I made up a hamper for my aunt and wanted to make her some special biscuits. There was a box of Matchmaker chocolates and a bar of white chocolate hanging round, good Christmas flavours, so how could I use these? I came up with the idea of a double cookie - 2 cookies with the Matchmakers chopped up in them, sandwiched together with a white chocolate ganache. A real Christmas treat for my aunt.
I thought they'd be fiddly to make, but they weren't.

I made 15 double cookies from this recipe - 30 cookies

Basic recipe:
225g butter [soft]
240g caster sugar
1 egg yolk [beaten]
2 tspn vanilla essence280g plain flour
pinch salt
Extras:
100g Matchmakers [or any mint chocolate sticks] chopped up finely
icing sugar

Filling:
2 tbspn double cream
100g white chocolate, broken up

Preheat oven 190C/gas5
Line baking sheets with parchment paper or silicone sheets

Beat butter and sugar together, then add egg yolk and vanilla extract and beat in. Stir flour and salt together nd add to the mixture. Then add the chopped up Matchmakers and stir thoroughly. Divide the dough in 2 and wrap in clingfilm and put in fridge for an hour.
Take out androll out between 2 sheets of cligfilm or baking paper.
Cur out cookies using a 6cm fluted cutter. Space them out well on the baking sheet and bake for 10-15 mins till golden.
Cool on a wire rack.
Por the cream into a pan, add the chocolate and melt over a low heat, stirring from time to time till smooth.
Take off heat and let ganache cool. Chill in fridge till it has a spreadable consistency.
Spread ganache over half the cookies and top with the rest. Dust with some icing sugar.

My daughter was the tester and loved them. She said what she liked best was the contrast between the crunchie choc mint cookie and the soft white chocolate filling. I had to make a second batch for her to take home and to work, and used some After Eight type mints I'd been given instead of the sticks, and they worked fine.

I also made some Angel Cookies using just the basic recipe and cutting out angel shapes. I iced them with  thick white glace icing and sprinkled the tops of their heads with some edible silver glitter.

Salted caramel chocolate meringue

Christmas Baking 4

What to have as a dessert for Christmas Day is always a problem for me. As I mentioned in another post, I'm the only one who likes Christmas Pudding, so no point in making one. It's sad that the younger generation don't seem to like it.
So, nothing too stodgy after the turkey, or the 3bird roast, which is what we had this year. OH suggested a cheesecake, but this was considered not special enough by the 'children'.
I love salted caramel, so came up with some kind of meringue with this as a filling or topping, and this got the thumbs up.
I found a picture in an old Good Housekeeping magazine which gave me an idea of what to make - a chocolate meringue base with a cream topping and a salted caramel sauce. I love meringues crisp on the outside and chewy in the middle, and this is my favourite recipe given to me by a friend.

chocolate meringue base:

6 medium egg whites
300g caster sugar
3 tbspn cocoa powder (sieved)
1 tspn white wine vinegar
50g dark chocolate (finely chopped)

Preheat oven to 180C/gas 4 and line a baking tray with baking parchment.

Beat egg whites till peaks form, then beat in sugar spoonful at a time till meringue is stiff and shiny.
Sprinkle over the cocoa, vinegar, and chopped chocolate.
Gently fold everything till thoroughly mixed in.
Pile onto the baking sheet in a circle about 23cm in diameter, smoothing the sides and top. Put in the oven, then straight away turn the temperature down to 150C/gas 2 and cook for about 1 to 11/4  hours.
When ready it should look crisp around the edges and on the sides and be dry on top, but when you prod the middle it should feel a little bit squidgy.
Turn off the oven and open the door slightly, and let meringue cool completely.


the caramel sauce:

 65g light soft brown sugar
 65 g caster sugar
 100g unsalted butter
 65 g golden syrup
 170 ml double cream
 1 tspn or so of good quality fine salt, such as fleur de sel

Melt the 2 sugars, butter and golden syrup in a saucepan [a heavy based one]. Simmer for 2-3 mins, stirring occasionally. Then add the cream and 1/2 tspn of the fleur de sel and stir together. You can add a bit more salt if you want. Heat for 2 more mins on medium heat, but be very careful that it doesn't burn.

to finish off the dessert:

400ml double cream
some chocolate curls, either made yourself or bought

Whip the cream to soft peaks then swirl a little of the cooled caramel sauce through it.

to assemble it all together:

Put the meringue base on your serving plate, pile on the whipped cream, sprinkle with the chocolate curls and drizzle over the salted caramel sauce.

I'll certainly make this again. The meringue was gooey but crisp, and the salted caramel sauce gave it a great burst of flavour through the thick cream. Loved the sauce in the cream. Think I'd add a little more salt next time. It wasn't too heavy - a great follow on from the main course.

Merry Christmas

                                   Merry Christmas and a very Happy and Healthy New Year.

Cinnamon, coffee and chocolate muffins

Christmas Baking 3 and December We Should Cocoa challenge
I'm sure that everyone has their own tried and tested muffin recipe. I like recipes which use oil instead of butter. I found this one in a French food magazine and it looked interesting, having yoghurt, chocolate and coffee as two of the ingredients, plus one of my favourite spices- cinnamon. It's a lovely Christmassy spice. Cinnamon is the added ingredient in December's We Should Cocoa challenge, so am going to use this post as my offering.
Muffins are quick and easy to make, and these are no exception.

For 12 muffins:

250g plain flour
2 tspns cinnamon
21/2 tspns baking powder
1/2 tspn bicarbonate of soda
130g caster sugar
1 egg
80ml oil - I used rapeseed
250g yoghurt
75ml cold strong coffee
12 squares of dark chocolate
Chocolate coated coffee beans to decorate

Preheat oven 180C/gas 4


Grease a 12 hole muffin tin, or use muffin cases.
In a bowl, mix together the flour, cinnamon, baking powder, bicarb.and sugar.
In another bowl beat the egg and add the oil, yoghurt and coffee. Mix these together.
Fold in the flour mixture carefully - don't overmix, a few lumps are fine.
Put the muffin cases, if using, into the muffin tin.
Fill the cases half full with batter, then put a square of chocolate on the batter and fill the cases up with the remainder.
Bake in the middle of the oven for about 25 mins.
Cool on a wire rack.
Decorate the muffins with a chocolate bean before serving.

I love the melted chocolate in the centre of these muffins. The texture is quite different from my usual recipe - coarser but still soft. The cinnamon and coffee add another layer to the flavour. I'll certainly make these again.

We Should Cocoa is a monthly challenge hosted by Choclette of Chocolate Log blog and Chele of Chocolate teapot blog, and sometimes by guest hosts. Choclette is December's host and she has chosen cinnamon as the added ingredient. You can find more information on the challenge here .

Stollen ring

Christmas Baking 2 and AlphaBakes December challenge

We love Stollen so I buy one every year, but this year I thought I'd have a go at making one. I asked our lovely German dil if she had a family recipe she used, but she said that hers isn't a traditional shape, it's a ring - easy to break pieces off, so a stollen with a difference.
I've been doing a bit of research about Christmas baking in Germany, and found out that the first Stollen was mentioned in 1474, but back then it was made with just flour, bread and yeast. If you wanted to add butter or 'richer ingredients', you had to have papal permission! It's said to be made in the shape of the Christchild wrapped in his swaddling clothes. Our modern Stollens have been developed over the last 100 years in Dresden, and there's even a Stollen festival.

Stollen fits perfectly into AlphaBakes December challenge as it's the letter S.

Here's a recipe if you want to try one.

450g strong white bread flour, plus extra for dusting
1tbsp caster sugar
½ x 7g sachet fast-action dried yeast
¼tsp freshly grated nutmeg
2 large pinches ground cloves
1tsp mixed spice
225ml  milk
40g  butter, melted, plus a little extra to grease
2 medium eggs
 50g sultanas
100-150g  marzipan
Icing sugar for dusting

 In a large bowl, mix together the flour, sugar, yeast, ¼tsp salt and the three spices. Make a well in the middle. In a pan, heat the milk till lukewarm, then stir in the melted butter. Crack one egg into the middle of dry ingredients and pour in half of the milk mixture. Working quickly with your hands, mix thoroughly to form a soft but not sticky dough, adding extra milk as necessary.
Tip out dough on to a floured work surface, then knead for 5min until soft and elastic. Transfer to a lightly greased bowl, cover with a clean tea towel and leave to rise somewhere warm but not hot for 45min.
Knead in the sultanas. Weigh the dough and divide into 10 equal pieces. Line a large baking sheet with baking parchment and preheat oven to 200°C (180°C fan) mark 6.
 Knead marzipan until soft, then cut into 10 pieces. Using your fingers, flatten out one of the pieces of dough slightly, then put a marzipan chunk in the middle. Fold the dough around it, then squeeze together to make a neat ball. Repeat with remaining pieces of doughMake the balls into a circle, just touching, on the baking sheet. Use the remaining egg to glaze the ring, then bake for 20-25min until golden. Leave to cool on the baking tray as the stollen ring is quite fragile at this stage.
 Carefully transfer to a serving plate. Dust with icing sugar and serve with butter - fantastic for breakfast or as a festive tea-time treat.

On behalf of the people who read my blog I had to test it, hence the missing piece!  It's delicious, a lovely almond flavour from the marzipan and a great hit from the spices.Good texture- not doughy but soft. A lovely Christmas treat, and I love the idea of this ring, as one piece is just enough for a treat.  I didn't need butter on mine - it was great just as it was. You can, of course, make it in the traditional Stollen shape like this one I found on the net.

AlphaBakes is a monthly baking challenge hosted alternately by Ros of The More than Occasional Baker blog and Caroline  of Caroline Makes blog. December's host is Ros and the randomly chosen letter is S. Have a look here for more information.

Caribbean cake

This is a cake I was asked to make by a friend . I'm not a coconut lover, nor do I like pineapple, so not really my kind of cake. Anyway, I learned something by making it - how not to burn deccicated coconut when toasting it! Pineapple jam was new to me, but my OH loved it. This is the recipe I was given, tweaked a little bit, as I didn't add any coconut flavouring as suggested. Enough is enough!

225g butter, softened
225g vanilla/caster sugar
4 medium eggs
225g self raising flour
splash of milk
50g desiccated coconut, toasted *
5 tbsp pineapple jam - or more if you're feeling generous
*Sprinkle the coconut on a baking tray, pop in the preheated oven for 4-6 mins until toasted to a nice brown colour, and the smell is wonderful [of coconut!]. Keep and eye on it as it burns easily - as I found out!


Malibu Buttercream
400g icing sugar
250g unsalted butter
4 tbsp Malibu, simmered in a small pan until reduced to 2 tbsp

Preheat the oven to 180C/gas4. Grease and line 3 x18cm sandwich tins with baking parchment.

Cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each one, then fold in the flour, milk, and 20g of the toasted desiccated coconut. Mix until light and fluffy, then divide equally among the tins.
Bake for 20-25 minutes until light golden and springs back when the surface is lightly pressed with your finger. Turn out on to a wire rack to cool.

For the buttercream, beat the icing sugar and butter with a stand mixer or electric beater till light and fluffy. While the beaters are still mixing, add the hot simmered down Malibu. Mix well again.
Put a cooled sponge on a plate. Spoon some of the jam over the sponge. Use as little or as much as you like. Sprinkle over some of your remaining toasted coconut. Gently spread some of the buttercream over the jam. I made a mess doing this! Put another sponge on top, and repeat. Top with the final sponge, then spread the rest of the buttercream over the top and finish with a sprinkling of toasted coconut.

I asked my friend to tell me what she thought of it. She said the texture was lovely and soft, and she especially liked the filling and topping with the added Malibu. I was pleased with the end result as I've not made many three tiered cakes. So if you're a coconut fan, this is the cake for you!

White chocolate torte

Christmas cooking 1  and December's Tea Time Treat challenge

I'm trying to get ahead for Christmas this year and make cakes and puddings that can be frozen in advance.
So far, the only Christmassy thing I've made was mincemeat on Stir up Sunday, so decided I wanted to start on some desserts.

Some of the family are coming for Christmas, and none of them like Christmas pudding [I'm the only one who does, so I cheat and treat myself to an M and S mini pudd!].
They all love chocolate, so found this recipe for a very indulgent torte, which uses white chocolate instead of the usual dark, and which can be frozen. It doesn't need any cooking either.Great! It's a  recipe from a book I bought in the supermarket, called simply 'Desserts'. Happily it's in grams, so no translation from cups [which I hate doing!].

My daughter has been staying for the weekend and she decorated it for me. We have a very good chocolate shop in a nearby town, so went there on Saturday to buy some white chocolate and white chocolate balls for decoration. I know this is a lot of chocolate and cream, but it IS for Christmas!


125g unsalted butter
225g ginger snaps or digestive biscuits
750g white chocolate
600ml double cream
white chocolate balls to decorate

Line the base and sides of a 20cm springform tin with baking parchment.

Melt the butter and whizz the biscuits finely in a processor or crush finely with a rolling pin.
Tip the crumbs into a bowl and add the melted butter. Stir together and spread evenly over the base of the tin and press down with the back of a spoon. Chill for 15 mins to set.
Chop 700g of the white chocolate and add to half of the cream - 300ml - in a bowl and set over a saucepan of simmering water. Let the chocolate melt, but don't stir it. Takes up to half an hour.
When it's melted, take the bowl off the heat and stir till smooth. Leave it to cool for about 15mins till it's beginning to thicken, stirring from time to time. Don't let it cool completely or the rest of the cream won't fold in properly.
In another bowl, whip the other 300ml of cream till soft peaks and fold into the chocolate mixture.
Pour over the biscuit base and chill for 3 hours.
Use a vegetable peeler to make curls across the rest of the chocolate and scatter them over the torte, and arrange the white balls on top.
Freeze for 15mins then take out of tin and serve.

To freeze
You can make the torte up to a month ahead of when you want to use it, then freeze it in the tin. When it's frozen, take it out of the tin and wrap it up generously in clingfilm and put back in the freezer.
When you want to use it, take it out and thaw overnight in the fridge, then put back in freezer for 15mins before you serve it to make sure it's chilled.

I can't tell you yet what it tastes like, but will let you know later!

I'm going to use this as my December offering to Tea Time Treats , a monthly challenge hosted alternately by Kate of What Kate Baked blog and Karen of Lavender and Lovage blog; the December challenge is to bake something with chocolate and  Kate's the hostess.

Have a look here for the rules and more information http://whatkatebaked.blogspot.co.uk/2012/12/tea-time-treats-december.html