Category: chocolate

Categories
cherries chocolate jam

black forest doughnuts

Dark chocolate and cherry might be my favourite combination. That dark bitterness and the punch of sweet-sour cherry is just magic. So why not stick it in a doughnut?!

One of the things that gets overlooked when working with chocolate is the importance of seasoning it. A little salt with chocolate improves it immensely, spiking the flavour and lifting it. Salt cuts the sweetness, providing contrast to the sweetness that’s irresistible.

Maldon Salt sent me some of their new salt mills, and this seemed like the perfect excuse to use them. I use Maldon Salt in everything, it’s always been my favourite salt. I grin when I see it on TV shows from all over the world.

Available from Morrisons stores nationwide as well as Tesco, Ocado and other retailers. RRP from £3.50 / 55g.

But on with the recipe. I used a jam / pastry syringe for this recipe, which is inexpensive but a bit of a single-use gadget, so you can always poke jam in with a spoon though it’s a little tricky.

Here’s my black forest trifle if you fancy something a little quicker.

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black forest doughnuts

Course Dessert
Servings 24 doughnuts
Author Gary @ BigSpud

Ingredients

  • 10 g yeast
  • 300 g strong flour
  • 30 g sugar plus a couple of tablespoons for sprinkling
  • 5 g Maldon sea salt plus more for sprinkling
  • 40 g butter softened
  • 75 g milk at room temperature
  • 2 eggs
  • 200 g black cherry jam
  • 150 g dark chocolate

Instructions

  • For best results use a stand mixer. It's perfectly possible to do by hand but things are easier and fluffier with a machine. Combine the yeast, flour, sugar and salt, then stir in the milk. When combined, work in the butter a chunk at a time. Knead thoroughly or beat for a further 3 - 5 minutes.
  • Leave the dough to rise, covered, for an hour.
  • Get a large baking tray out to hold the dough balls. Dust it with a thin layer of flour. Portion the dough into even golf-ball sized pieces. For best results, use a very sharp, thin knife and weigh the dough balls. It should make around 24. When you have your balls ready cover loosely and leave to prove for a further hour.
  • Heat oil for frying to 175C. When ready, gently lower the dough balls into the hot oil and cook for about 2 minutes on each side, or until golden brown. Only cook about 3-4 at a time to avoid overcrowding the pan. Transfer to kitchen paper to drain while you finish the batch. Roll on a plate of sugar to coat.
  • For the filling, heat the jam gently in a saucepan and add a tablespoon of water to loosen it. Use a jam syringe to inject jam into the centre of the dough balls.
  • Put a pan of water on the hob on a gentle simmer and place a bowl on top. Break the chocolate into it and sprinkle salt into it. When melted, turn off the heat. Dip the doughnuts one by one into the chocolate to give them a little chocolate hat. Best eaten same day.
Categories
chocolate pistachio strawberry

white chocolate mousse, pistachio tuile and raspberry sorbet

Here’s a fancy dessert for a posh occasion. But first, a quick aside as to why I made it.

You’ve heard of writer’s block I guess? Where an author suddenly becomes derelict of ideas, bereft of inspiration. They stare at the page, willing the words to appear.

Well I kind-of had that for cooking, whatever that’s called. (Chopping block?!) Nothing new came out of the kitchen, and I recycled the same recipes over and over again. I just wasn’t being inspired. For a long time.

I fell into a rut. I realised I hadn’t blogged anything creative, or original, for ages. I thought I was done. Why do I bother? I thought. Is this it? Am I done?

I was this close to stopping blogging. Not having a hissy fit and shutting everything down. Just not adding anything new.

I started looking back over old recipes, reading old cookbooks. I went back to my Jamies, my Hestons. I snapped out of it. I realised that to get more out, I had to put more in. So I resolved to at least once a week cook something involved, new and challenging.

Hence this dessert. Three separate things, cooked very differently but hopefully perfectly harmonious. It’s three things I love: strawberries, white chocolate and pistachios. I couldn’t have been happier with it.

So back into the kitchen I go, with renewed passion and focus. You never know, I might do a potato recipe…

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white chocolate mousse, pistachio tuile and raspberry sorbet

Course Dessert
Servings 4 people
Author Gary @ BigSpud

Ingredients

For the raspberry sorbet

  • 190 ml water
  • 80 g sugar
  • 200 g jam
  • 1/2 lemon
  • 1 medium egg white

For the white chocolate mousse

  • 150 g white chocolate
  • 100 ml double cream
  • 3 g gelatine
  • 12 g icing sugar
  • 200 ml double cream whipped

For the pistachio tuile

  • 15 g pistachios
  • 10 g ground almonds
  • 1 medium egg white
  • 40 g caster sugar
  • 5 g plain flour
  • strawberries to serve

Instructions

For the sorbet

  • Simmer the water and sugar together until the sugar has dissolved. Stir in the jam and the zest of the lemon. Add a squeeze of the juice and allow to cool. Stir in the egg white and churn in an ice-cream machine. Freeze until needed.

For the mousse

  • Break the chocolate into a heatproof bowl. Bring the cream to the boil and then pour over the chocolate, stirring to melt and combine. Stir in the gelatine, icing sugar, fold in the whipped cream and then pour into moulds. Chill for at least 2 hours or until set.

For the tuile

  • Preheat the oven to 150°C, gas mark 2. Blitz the pistachios in a food processor until fine. Place in a bowl with all the other ingredients and mix thoroughly.
  • Lay non-stick baking paper on a baking sheet and pour the mixture on to it, spreading it as thinly as you can. - it should be about 2mm thick. Bake for 10-15 minutes until golden (you don't want it to darken too much or it will lose the pale-green pistachio colour). Leave to set before serving.
  • To assemble, turn the mousse out from the mould. Lay a tuile on top and serve a quenelle of sorbet. Garnish with strawberries.
Categories
chocolate

terry’s chocolate orange millionaires shortbread

It’s Father’s Day soon. And like other Dads I’m happy to get t-shirts, mugs, home-made cards and so on. But I’m also very happy when people make me edible gifts. Like this Terry’s chocolate orange millionaire’s shortbread!

As if crumbly, biscuity, chewy, caramelly, chocolate Millionaire’s shortbread wasn’t moreish enough, adding orange flavour takes it to another dimension. Perennial stocking-filler Terry’s chocolate orange gives this another level. A great touch is to leave some segments whole on top for a really attractive effect.

Make this for your Dad on Father’s Day. He’ll be chuffed!

Thanks to Golin for the recipe.

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terry’s chocolate orange millionaires shortbread

Course Dessert
Prep Time 45 minutes
Cook Time 50 minutes
Total Time 1 hour 35 minutes
Servings 25 squares
Author Gary @ BigSpud

Ingredients

For the shortbread

  • 135 g butter
  • 175 g plain flour
  • 55 g sugar
  • 1 orange zested

For the topping:

  • 379 g can condensed milk
  • 75 ml golden syrup
  • 150 g butter
  • 100 g sugar
  • 3 Terry's chocolate oranges

Instructions

  • Preheat the oven to 180c/160fan and line a 20x20 brownie tin. In the bowl of a food processor, add the butter and plain flour. Blitz until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs and then add in the sugar and orange zest and blitz again to combine. Take the mixture out and work with your hands to form a ball of dough. Push the dough into the base of the lined tin until it is flat and even and bake for 25-30 minutes or until golden brown.
  • Meanwhile, prepare the caramel. In a large non-stick frying pan, heat the condensed milk, golden syrup, butter and sugar until the butter has melted and the mixture begins to boil. Stir constantly to keep it from burning. Turn the mixture down to a simmer and cook for 5-10 minutes or until the colour starts to become golden brown. Remove from the heat and transfer to a heatproof bowl to cool and thicken slightly.
  • Once the shortbread is cooked, allow to cool for 10 minutes and then pour the cooled caramel over the top. Allow to cool and then chill for 10 minutes while you melt the chocolate. Bring a small pan of water to the boil and place a heatproof bowl over the top making sure that the water does not touch the bowl directly. Break up the chocolate oranges into segments, reserving half of one for decoration and tip the rest into the bowl. Turn the heat down immediately to a gentle simmer and allow the chocolate to gradually melt, stirring occasionally.
  • Once the chocolate has melted, remove the shortbread from the fridge and pour over the chocolate, making sure to spread it into the corners. Use the remaining chocolate segments to decorate the top and then chill until firm. Cut into squares once set.
Categories
batter chocolate coffee food

eggless pancakes with coffee syrup

I’m a big fan of coffee. I’m pretty sure I was drinking coffee from when I was about 5 years old, which I’m not sure is particularly appropriate but has led to a lifelong love affair. Sunday mornings meant a pot of filter on, and everywhere I worked I’ve kickstarted a coffee club. When Puro Fairtrade sent me some samples of their Fairtrade coffee brands, I wasted no time in trying it out.

Puro are a brand that believe passionately in ethically produced coffee. There’s an absolute wealth of material on their site, including videos of the farmers, working with South African farmers, schools and forestry. You can’t deny the moral background to their operation. Go check out the videos.

The coffees themselves? The Noble was rich and dark, with a satisfying sweetness. I found the Fuerte a little bland, while it had a kick it was difficult to distinguish any real subtelty from it. For this recipe I’ve used the much more satisfying, chocolatey Organic for this syrup, and paired it with an chocolate chip pancake.

I had no eggs in the house for this American-style pancake recipe. Oddly, the texture was no different from when I’d used eggs, so I probably won’t bother in future. The dark and sweet coffee syrup slathers nicely over the dense, fluffy pancakes. A perfect springtime treat, especially with some blueberries in there too for a little sharpness.

Want more pancake inspiration? Try this one from Voucherbox

Eggless pancakes with coffee syrup (makes about 6 – 10):

For the pancakes:

150g flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

10g sugar

Pinch salt

20g dark chocolate, chopped

1 teaspoon vanilla paste

1 tablespoon water

Whole milk

Large knob of butter

For the syrup:

300ml coffee

150g caster sugar

  1. First make the syrup. Heat the coffee and sugar together in a saucepan. Boil fast until it has reduced by half. I pour mine into a cafetiere to cool and I think it’s kinda cute to serve it from there too.
  2. Get a frying pan over a medium heat. For the pancake batter, mix all the dry ingredients, then add the vanilla, water and enough milk to make a thick, gloopy batter. Melt the butter in your frying pan and pour this back into the mix (the remaining grease in the pan will be just enough to cook your pancakes). Ladle in the batter and cook until bubbling on the raw side. Flip and cook until browned on the other side. Keep warm on a hot plate until the rest are cooked.
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