Homemade Thin Mints

Reblogged from the moveable feasts:

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I am writing to you from the sluggish, self-wallowing position of a lowly college student that must go back to school. I realize that almost all other students have been back in classes for a good week or two by now and that I am very fortunate to have had a little more than a full month for Christmas break, but still, it doesn't ease that looming weight of what will soon be my bag filled with textbooks and essays.

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These look so yummy I'm going to have to try them!

I’m getting Older or My Gooey Banana Nutella Brownies packed with Toasted Hazelnuts and topped with Luscious Mascarpone Nutella Frosting/ J’ai encore vieilli ou Mes Brownies Nutella Banane aux noisettes torréfiées et glaçage Nutella Mascarpone.

Reblogged from Buttercream & Chantilly Factory:

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Descendez pour la version française.

I spent two days in Paris this week. The weather was awful. So me and my Bff had only one thing left to do : Starbucks two afternoons in a row. Sometimes I think that the fact that there is no Starbucks where I live is a good and bad thing …

I went to Paris for a Major Event : The 3 Doors Down Concert.

Read more… 2,149 more words

These look delicious! Click the link for the recipe :)

Please excuse my absence… and try this recipe

Agh! Time has flown by and I haven’t posted anything on here for over a month, for which I am very sorry.

I have a new job – a second job, actually – and it is taking up a lot of my time at the moment. I hope I can catch up on here really soon.

In the meantime, I saw this great recipe today that I will definitely be trying out:

Nutella Cheesecake Layer Bars

Oh, yes! These look yummy!

Ah, Nutella...

Yummy Winter Dessert: Chocolate Self-saucing Pudding

 

Not mine, but it looks a bit like this Photo courtesy Healthy Food Guide/Melanie Jenkins.

 

I’ve neglected the recipes for a while – sorry! – but now that it’s autumn I thought it was time for a nice warm pudding. This recipe was given to me years ago by my sister-in-law, and it never fails. It’s very quick and easy to whip up. I usually make it while the dinner’s cooking and pop it in the hot oven so it cooks while we eat our main course. Then it’s just a matter of whipping some cream and voila!

Sue’s Chocolate Saucy Pud

Ingredients

1 cup plain flour

1/4 cup white sugar

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 tablespoon melted butter

2 teaspoons vanilla essence

1/2 cup milk

1 tablespoon cocoa powder

1 egg

For sauce:

1/2 cup brown sugar

3/4 cup boiling water

1 tablespoon cocoa powder

 

Sift the flour, baking powder and cocoa powder together in a bowl, then add milk, sugar and melted butter. Mix, then add vanilla and egg. Pour into a greased pie dish.

Make a sauce by mixing the brown sugar, boiling water and additional cocoa powder together in a separate jug. Pour gently over pudding mixture in pie dish.

Bake at 180 degrees Celcius for 30-40 minutes. Serve warm, with whipped (chantilly) cream.

Serves 4.

Easy Homemade Icecream

A bowl of our easy homemade vanilla chocolate chip icecream. Photo taken quickly before it disappeared!

Trying to find things to do in the summer school holidays is often a challenge, but baking is one thing my kids are keen to help me with.

Yesterday we decided to make homemade icecream, and I have to say it was a total triumph. I had made a different recipe once before which was similar to this but went all icy when frozen. Yesterday’s effort, though, turned out lovely and creamy after a night in the freezer.

We made a simple vanilla chocolate chip version, but almost anything goes as far as flavours are concerned. My friend Diana, whose receipe this is, said the only variation she has not had success with is kiwifruit.

Easy homemade icecream

300ml cream

3/4 of a 395g tin of sweetened condensed milk

Flavour options:

4 tsps instant coffee or coffee essence

125g melted chocolate

2 or 3 scraped out vanilla pods or 1-2 tsps vanilla essence

crushed berries or other pureed fruit

(We used 1 tsp vanilla essence and 1/2 cup dark chocolate chips.)

Beat cream until thick but not buttery, adding condensed milk toward the end.

Mix in your choice of flavour. Freeze until set, preferably overnight but four hours or so can sometimes be enough.

My family all agrees this tastes better than bought icecream (and might even be cheaper)!

Nigella’s Sweet and Salty Crunch Nut Bars

I love Nigella, and was lucky enough to get her latest book, Kitchen, for Christmas. DH was really taken with this recipe and encouraged me to make it… Oh, it was rich! But, not surprisingly, it disappeared pretty quickly! Next time (she says, feeling the kilos pile on her hips just thinking about it!) I might try it with all milk chocolate, as Nigella herself says she prefers.

Ingredients:

200g milk chocolate

100g dark chocolate

125g unsalted butter

1 x 15ml tbsp golden syrup

250g salted peanuts

2 x 80g Crunchie bars

Line a spongeroll tin with cooking paper. Nigella suggests disposable foil tins as an option too.

Melt the butter and golden syrup on a low heat in a heavy based pan. Break up the chocolate and add to the golden sludge.

Put the peanuts into a mixing bowl and crumble in the Crunchie bars.

When the chocolate mixture has just melted, pour it over the nuts and honeycomb and stir together.

Pour into prepared tin, and spread out and flatten as much as you can using a silicon spatula.

Cover and refrigerate for a few hours before cutting into chunks or wedges – depending on your tin of choice.

Makes about 20 pieces.

Mrs Cake’s Tim Tam Truffles

 

Mmmm Tim Tams...

With so many bring-a-plate functions to go to at this time of year, it was a Godsend when I discovered the website of lovely foodie and fellow Wellingtonian Mrs Cake. In particular, she seems to share my sweet tooth, so when she posted her super-easy recipe for Tim Tam Truffles I knew I had to give them a try. Now I can’t stop making them!

Tim Tam Truffles (makes about 15 decent-sized ones)

Ingredients
1 packet plain Tim Tams
100g cream cheese
300g compound chocolate, for dipping
(optional) Additional chocolate for decorating

Pulse the Tim Tams in a food processor (or put in a bag and hit with a rolling pin) until reduced to crumbs. Use your fingers to combine with the cream cheese – the mixture should stick together. Roll into balls and chill for several hours (or freeze for 30 minutes-1 hour).

Melt the chocolate – put in the microwave for 30 seconds, stir, then put it back in for 10-20 second bursts until mostly melted. Stir until smooth. Dip the truffles one by one, using a fork to gently turn them in the chocolate then lift them onto baking paper. If desired spatter with different chocolate to decorate.

 

The yummy inside (Photo by Mrs Cake)

Note: White Tim Tams could also be used to make white truffles, and you could dip them in melted milk or dark chocolate. I may try them next time!

In these shoes…?

I love pretty shoes. My bank account does not. This is often a problem, but right now I am making a concerted effort to save up for a pair of these babies.

$NZ220 from Mi Piaci

I fear they will be gone from the shop before I can afford them, so maybe I should settle for these. Chocolate always makes me feel better

Chocolate shoes = WIN!

Now for a little music to go with this post. RIP Kirsty.

In These Shoes by Kirsty MacColl