Dragon Rambles

I meant to write and schedule this blog post before I started my down time over xmas and new years, but I forgot. So here is the last truffle recipe I wanted to share from this year.

To make these you need:
125mL single/pouring cream
25g butter
400g white chocolate
1 cup (metric, so prob about 1 1/4 cups if you’re in the US) finely chopped dried apricots
125mL brandy

Soak the apricot pieces in the brandy for two hours.

Put cream and butter in a small saucepan and bring to a gentle boil over a low heat.

Mix in white chocolate. You will probably need a few 20s bursts in the microwave to help get the choc to melt, alternatively you can add the choc to the saucepan once you’ve turned off the heat and mix before transferring to the bowl. The heat in the pan will help melt the choc.

Drain apricots on some kitchen towel to get rid of any excess brandy (most will have been absorbed by the apricots though).

Add apricots to the chocolate mixture.

And mix well.

Refrigerate for at least 8 hours, until set. Then roll into balls and refrigerate again to firm the balls. Roll in coconut.

And enjoy.

For these you need:
250ml cream
400g dark choc
25g butter
1 cup raisins
125 ml dark rum (jamaican if you have it)

Finely chop the raisins and soak in the rum for 2-3 hours

(yes, only one bowl is the raisins, bowl two will be discussed in the next truffle recipe)

Put the cream and butter in a small saucepan and bring to the boil.
Mix in with your dark choc (you probably won’t need to zap the mixture to help melt the choc this time, but if you do, remember 20s bursts)

Strain out your raisins with a spoon and add to the chocolate mix

Mix the raisins through then add some of the remaining rum until you have your choc mixture with just the right amount. This is personal preference here

Put into the fridge to set for about 8 hours. Then roll teaspoonfuls into truffles. Put them back into the fridge (or freezer) to harden.

Then coat with dark choc.

And enjoy. Nom nom.

(for more hints visit truffle making 101)

For these you need:
125ml cream
400g milk choc
1 cup pistachios
1/4 cup baileys
25g butter

Finely chop pistachios

Put the cream and butter in a small saucepan and bring to a gentle boil over a low heat.

Remove from heat and mix in chocolate until smooth (may need a couple of 20s zaps in the microwave to help)

Add pistachios and baileys to choc mixture

Mix until well combined

Refrigerate for approx 8 hours until set, then roll teaspoons of mixture into balls. Refrigerate again to harden the truffle balls then coat with milk choc.

To make these you need:
125ml single cream
400g white chocolate (good quality, not eating choc)
a lemon
2 Tbsp limoncello

Grate lemon zest (just remember to pick up a zest grater or you’ll end up using a food processor attachment, which takes a while, and is somewhat painful).

Put cream and zest into a small saucepan and bring to a gentle boil.

Remove from heat and strain into a medium (microwaveable) mixing bowl to remove the zest.

Add white choc and mix well until completely melted and smooth. You will probably need 2 or 3 short bursts (20s) in the microwave to help melt the chocolate.

Once cream and choc mixture is smooth, and limoncello and mix well

Cover and refrigerate for approximately 8 hours until mixture is set. Roll teaspoonfuls of mixture into balls and store in fridge until ready to coat.

Coat with melted white choc and leave to set

As promised, here is the first post in a truffle making series. This first one is just a basic how-to. You’ll see how easy it is, and you still have time to make some yourself if you choose.

The basic recipe for the truffle filling is:
125ml single (pouring) cream
400-500g chocolate

I’ve tried lots of different recipes out there with lots of different choc:cream ratios. This works well. Don’t be tempted to use double cream or thickened (spoonable) cream if that’s all you have available. Yes, that is the voice of experience talking.

If you’re using dark choc you can increase the cream to 250ml. But don’t try it with the white and milk choc or you’ll have trouble getting it to set. The other tip for helping your mixture to set is that if you’re adding alcohol, add 25g butter to 125ml cream.

Ok, so to begin. Put the cream (and butter) in a small saucepan and bring to the boil over a low heat. You don’t want it to look like boiling water here, you want to seeing small rolling bubbles. Oh, and make sure you don’t stop stirring during this phase.

Remove from heat and pour into a bowl with the chocolate. Stir until choc melted into cream mixture, and it’s nice and smooth. You may need some quick bursts in the microwave (high for 20s) to help get all the choc melted (especially the white choc). If so just zap, then mix. You want to use the microwave as little as possible as you don’t want to risk burning the choc. Also, mix with a metal spoon. Wooden spoons retain moisture and will transfer it to your choc. Choc and moisture don’t mix, not when making chocs.

Once the choc is fully melted and mixed in with the cream, you can add your extras.

This is where you really get to have fun. The sky is the limit where flavours are concerned. If you’re adding chopped fruit or nuts, a cup is about right (metric cup that is). Maybe you want to chop up turkish delight to add. Or jelly beans. If you’re in Australia/NZ, how about chopping up two cherry ripes or two peppermint crisps and adding them to the mixture. How about some chopped vanilla fudge. Or a handful or two of popping candy. Anyway, you get the idea.

Once everything is mixed together, cover and put in the fridge for about 8 hours. The dark choc might only need 5 hours. Depends what you’ve added. And sometimes you might need to pop them in the freezer to help them set.

Then it’s time to roll. Get a teaspoon and dig out spoonfuls then roll between your hands. This will get messy. There isn’t really anyway to avoid it. When they are all rolled, pop them back in the fridge to harden again.

Now it’s time to coat them. Make a double boiler by putting a glass or metal bowl on a small saucepan. You want to put some water in the saucepan but not high enough that it touches the bottom of the bowl. And you want the sides of the bowl to come up a good distance from the top of the pan.

Turn on the stove, once your water come close to the boil, turn the heat down very low. Remember, moisture is not your friend. You want to try and avoid letting any of the steam from the pan get into your bowl of choc. Use a metal spoon to mix your chocolate – it’ll take a while to melt. Don’t put large amounts of choc on at a time as the moisture will come out of your rolled truffles and into your chic coating, so after a time it’ll get thick and gloopy, and you’ll want to change it out for fresh choc.

Chuck your truffles in the choc one at a time, coat, fish out, knock/shake off the excess choc and sit aside on some baking paper to set.

I use a bifty little choc coating tool for this. I highly recommend you track one down. Most choc making supply shops should have them.

There you have it. I have just one piece of advice left: use good quality choc. Now go forth and spread the truffle love

I haven’t forgotten I was going to share my xmas feast and recipes with you all, but I’ve been out all day and just come home. I’ll share the cupcakes with you today and come back tomorrow for the rest.

I’ve made these cupcakes twice: once with blueberries and once with boysenberries and strawberries. You can use whatever you want. The first time I made a cream cheese frosting, but the second time I had no cream cheese in the house so made a buttercream one instead. I’ll give you info to make both so you can choose which you want to prepare. If you use metric cup measurements, this’ll make about 18 cupcakes, otherwise (if you’re using american cups) it’ll make 12. Either way, the quantities as read, but if you’re using the metric cups, make the teaspoon of baking powder a rounded one instead of a flat one.

Berry puree

First step is to make a berry puree. For the blueberry cupcakes I used two punnets (400g in total), for the boysenberry-strawberry cupcakes I used one cup of boysenberries and three of strawberries.

Put your berries (fresh or frozen) into a pot and cook over a low heat (stirring occasionally) until berries have become mush and then reduced down so that most of the liquid has been removed. This should end up a nice thick consistency, but still easily pourable. Cool slightly then put through a blender. You’ll still end up with berry bits, go with it, these are nice to have in your cupcake. You will want to have 1.25 – 1.5 cups of puree for each batch of cupcakes.

Oh and if you’re using blueberries, your wooden spoon will be stained purple, the other mix I made turned it wine red. I’m thinking I should dye all my wooden spoons this way

Cupcakes

2 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup of baking margerine (or butter, but the veg fat makes for lighter cupcakes, use the sort from a tub rather than from a brick)
1 1/2 cups sugar
2 large eggs
1/4 cup milk
1/2 cup berry puree
1/2 teaspoon vanilla

In a large bowl, cream together the butter and sugar until pale and fluffy. Add one egg at a time, beating just until incorporated.

In a medium bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder and salt. In a small bowl, mix the milk, berry puree and vanilla.

Add half the dry ingredients, then all the wet, then the other half of the dry to the butter mixture. Mix just until incorporated after each addition. Do not overbeat!

Spoon into lined muffin trays. Put a dollop of puree on the top of each cupcake and swirl. Bake at 175C (350F) for 20-25min, until cooked through. Cool for 10min in tin before moving to wire racks. Cool completely before icing.

Cream cheese frosting

225g cream cheese, room temperature
90g butter, room temperature
1/2 cup berry puree
3 cups icing sugar, sifted

Beat the cream cheese and butter until light and fluffy. Mix in the berry puree until just combined. Add the icing sugar gradually and beat until smooth and spreadable.

Buttercrean frosting

140g butter
300g icing sugar, sifted
1/2 cup berry puree

Beat the butter until light and fluffy. Add the icing sugar gradually and beat until smooth. Add puree and beat until smooth and spreadable, but don’t overbeat.

And voila, enjoy! These can be refridgerated or frozen, just serve them at room temp.

But a word of warning. Be prepared to serve them in pairs like shown above, because you’re going to want more than one.

Around this time last year, one of my office mates left for greener pastures. Well…. maybe not greener, but hopefully less frustrating than his job in Cardiff had been. Since he’d been sround for a while and was well liked by all, I thought this parting deserved a good cake. And since I love to bake and had several ideas of what to make, I actually made several . Since he is german, I felt that one of my offerings should definitely be an authentic black forest cake. Little did I know how much I’d have to hunt around Cariff one Sunday to find the all important bottle of kirsch. Luckily, he chose to leave in summer, so finding cherries was no problem.

Now making a black forest cake is serious business and if you decide to make one, you have to allow several days. The first step is to pit the cherries and soak them in kirsch. Well, I’m no expert at pitting cherries whole, so I decided to halve them instead. I figured this would save me having to halve them later and had the added bonus of allowing them to soak up more alcohol. This could also be why I used twice as much kirsch as the original recipe suggested for this step. So, cherries halved, pitted and getting drunk? Ok, leave that soaking overnight.

Next morning, bake the cake. There are two ways you can do this: make one big cake and slice into three portions or make three smaller cakes. I know my limitations and that includes knowing there was no way I was going to be able to slice three layers from a cake, so I went and bought three shallow cake tins so I could take the sane approach.

When these have completely cooled it’s time to start building the cake. First take a toothpick (cocktail stick to some of you) and poke holes through the cakes. Then give each layer a liberal sprinkling of the kirsch that your cherries have been pickling in. I think my addition was midway between a sprinkle and a douse. Leave the layers while you are making the icing so they can start to soak up the alcohol. Hint: you may want to have put each layer onto a sheet of baking paper before you added the alcohol so they are easier to pick up and layer.

To build the cake, take the first layer and place on a cake board. Spread half of your icing over the base and cover with the pickled cherries.

Top with second cake layer and repeat.

Top with third cake layer and then cover the whole cake in cling film. The cake now goes in the fridge for 1 to 2 days to allow allow all that lovely kirsch to soak through the cake and make it nice and moist.

The morning that you are going to serve the cake, make the cream topping. Cover the cake with the cream, put grated chocolate around the sides, pipe some cream edging around the top of the cake and finish up with decorating the cake with some whole, fresh cherries.

Black Forest Cake

1 2/3 cups flour
2/3 cup cocoa
1 1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
1/2 cup butter or baking margerine
1 1/2 cups sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
1 1/2 cups milk

Filling
1 cup kirsch
1/2 cup butter
3 cups icing sugar
1 pinch salt
1.25kg cherries

Cream topping
2 cups thickened cream
1/2 tsp vanilla
1/8 cup kirsch
2 Tbsp milk powder
2 Tbsp icing sugar

Put aside approx 10 cherries for decorating top of cake. Halve the rest, remove the pits and soak in a cup of kirsch overnight.
Preheat oven to 175 deg C. Line bottom of three 20cm round cake pans.
Sift dry cake ingredients together. Cream the butter and sugar. Add the eggs and vanilla and mix well. Pour evenly into the cake pans and bake for 20min or until toothpick inserted in middle comes out clean. Cool cakes and remove from pans.
Prick tops of cakes with a toothpick and pour 1/2 cup kirsch (from the cherries) over the cakes.
To make the icing, beat butter until light and creamy. Add the icing sugar, salt and mix well. If icing is too thick, add some of the kirsch from the cherries (think I added about 1/4 cup, but can’t quite remember).
place base layer on top of cake board or tray, spread half of the icing over the top and cover with the halved cherries. Cover with another layer and repeat. Top with third cake layer then cover and sit in fridge for 1 to 2 days to allow kirsch to soak through cake and become moist.
The day the cake will be served, prepare the cream topping. Whip the cream until it forms stiff peaks. Gently fold in milk powder and icing sugar. Add vanilla and pour in kirsch until it becomes a good conistency (note: don’t use the kirsch from the cherries or your cream topping won’t be white). Spread cream over the cake and down the sides. Cover sides with grated chocolate and decorate the top with extra cream topping and fresh cherries.

A couple of weeks ago I made some gorgeous cupcakes. I’m not the only one who thought they were great either. I took them into work and they were gobbled up in no time. I tried one of Martha Stewart’s recipes for chocolate cupcakes, then added a teaspoon of peppermint or orange extract. They’re low fat too, but of course what I put on the top of them wasn’t I used a choc fudge frosting and used a jaffa (the kiwi ones of course) or half a mint stick to decorate the top.

For those who want to give them a go, they are incredibly easy to make. here’s the recipe. I used plain milk instead of buttermilk as I didn’t have any on hand. I got about 18 cupcakes from one batch.

Choc cupcakes

1 1/2 cups flour
3/4 cup cocoa
1 1/2 cups sugar
1 1/2 tsp baking soda
3/4 tsp baking powder
3/4 tsp salt
2 eggs
3/4 cup buttermilk
3 Tbsp vegetable oil
3/4 cup warm water
1 tsp peppermint or orange extract

1. Preheat oven to 175ºC. Line standard muffin tins.
2. Mix together all dry ingredients.
3. Add all the liquid ingredients and beat with a mixer on low speed until smooth.
4. Divide batter among muffin cups .
5. Bake, rotating tins 1/2 way through, until skewer in centre comes out clean (about 20 min).
6. Cool in tins on wire racks for 10 min. Transfer cupcakes to racks and cool.

I set a resolution this week to not work 10+ hr each day, and so far that’s going quite well. So after starting work at 6am this morning I packed up and headed out at 3pm. It’s a lovely wet day, and that always gives me the urge to bake, so since I was home so early I finally baked something that has been on my list for a few months…. peanut brownies!

When I was in NZ in Oct I picked up an Edmonds cookbook. I’ve been wanting one for ages as it’s essential for every kitchen. Well, every kiwi kitchen, and I’m still enough of a kiwi that I agree. They were really easy to make and while I haven’t eaten them in years, that first bite was so very familiar.

If you too want to make these yummy treats, here’s the recipe.

Peanut Brownies

125g butter
1 cup sugar
1 egg
1 1/2 cups plain flour
1 tsp baking powder
pinch of salt
2 Tbsp cocoa
1 cup peanuts (redskin or roasted and husked – just not salted)

Cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add egg and beat well. Sift flour, baking powder, salt and cocoa together. Mix into creamed mixture. Add cold peanuts and mix well. Roll tablespoonsful of mixture into balls. Place on greased (preferably, lined as that’s the easiest way to get them off) cookie trays. Flatten with a floured fork. Bake at 180ºC for 15min or until cooked.

Ok, so I was supposed to post these recipes before xmas, what can I say.. I was slack.  Here they are now, so you can use them any time through the year or save them for next xmas. Just bear in mind that the pictures aren’t the best as I had to take them in the evening under artificial light

Dark choc orange truffles

300g Dark orange choc (the good quality sort that has the orange pieces in, like lindt or the newish bournville)
125ml thickened (or single) cream
cocoa for rolling

Put cream into small saucepan and heat over low heat until volume just beginning to increase (not until it boils).  Turn off heat and add choc (chopped), stir with metal spoon (you don’t want any moisture) until well combined.  Pour into a bowl and leave to set in fridge.  Roll into small balls and coat in cocoa.

Milk choc marshmellow truffles

300g Milk choc (the better the quality, the better the taste; pref not eating choc)
125ml thickened (or single) cream
1 cup chopped marshmellows (if you start with the mini ones, there’s less chopping involved)
milk choc for coating

Put cream into small saucepan and heat over low heat until volume just beginning to increase (not until it boils). Turn off heat and add choc (chopped), stir with metal spoon (you don’t want any moisture) until well combined. Mix in the marshmellow pieces. Pour into a bowl and leave to set in fridge. Roll into small balls and coat in milk choc.

Apricot balls

500g dried apricots, chopped
1 tin of condensed milk
2 1/2 cups coconut
extra coconut for rolling

Combine all ingredients well. Wet hands (VERY important hands are wet, and you’ll need to keep rewetting them, wet hands helps to stop the mixture sticking to you rather than rolling) and roll mixture into small balls. Roll balls in extra coconut.

White christmas (variation)

300g white choc (using this instead of kopha and milk powder, close enough and tastier – especially using a belgian white choc)
1/4 cup chopped macadamia nuts
1/4 cup coconut flakes
1/4 cup each of chopped red and green jelly lollies (I was looking for some snakes or such to chop up but settled on wine gums as that’s all I found – you’ll need 3 rolls of wine gums to get enough green and red, and you get to eat the rest of the colours too)
1 cup of rice bubbles

NB: try and chop up the nuts and lollies to about twice the size of a rice bubble

Melt the chocolate (microwave for about 1 – 1.5 mins then stirring works quite well). Mix in all the other ingredients. Pour and pat out into a lined square baking tin (about 20cm), leave to set then cut into squares. You can also put these into muffin cases, but as it can be quite sickly you might want to go for the mini muffin size

Fudge

NB: the two recipes below use a nice cheats way for making fudge, without having to worry about sugar thermometers and sugar ball stages. If you don’t have the liquid glucose that’s ok, you can leave it out – you’ll still get tasty fudge it just won’t be as smooth as the glucose controls the formation of sugar crystals.

White choc, pistachio fudge

1 tin of condensed milk
1 cup light brown sugar
2 Tbsp liquid glucose
125g butter
100g white choc, chopped
1 cup shelled pistachio nuts, chopped
1 1/2 Tbsp Bailey’s liqueur

Combine condensed milk, sugar, glucose and butter in large glass mixing bowl (if you choose a ceramic one you’ll have to extend your cooking time as too much energy goes into heating up the ceramic and not enough into the mixture). Microwave for 8 min on medium-high (70%), stirring every 2 min. Microwave for another 4 min on medium-high, stirring every 1 min (mixture should now be think and bubbly by the end of the time, before the stirring). After final stir add (gets all bubbles down), add white choc and stir until melted and smooth. Stir in nuts and liqueur. Spoon into a greased and lined square cake pan (18-20cm) and leave to cool. Cut into desired sized pieces.

Dark choc, walnut fudge

1 tin of condensed milk
1 cup light brown sugar
2 Tbsp liquid glucose
100g butter
200g dark choc, chopped
1 cup chopped walnuts

Combine condensed milk, sugar, glucose and butter in large glass mixing bowl (if you choose a ceramic one you’ll have to extend your cooking time as too much energy goes into heating up the ceramic and not enough into the mixture). Microwave for 8 min on medium-high (70%), stirring every 2 min. Microwave for another 4 min on medium-high, stirring every 1 min (mixture should now be think and bubbly by the end of the time, before the stirring). After final stir add (gets all bubbles down), add white choc and stir until melted and smooth. Stir in nuts. Spoon into a greased and lined square cake pan (18-20cm) and leave to cool. Cut into desired sized pieces.