March Favourites 2015

I thought i would switch up the content on my blog a bit. Starting with endless posts starting with" where has that month gone"; Except maybe not this one, it went pretty fast i suppose; but i was doing work experience this month, which meant waking up at 4:10, (that's no typo unfortunately) so the days did tend to drag a bit.

1. Clinique moisturiser : An oldie, but a goodie. The original was my first ever moisturiser, and i loved it, but i thought it was a bit expensive, as i was so young. I then tried the new formula when it came out, and loved it even more, but put off buying another bottle for quite a while, but I'm so glad i bought it again, as it makes a visible difference to my skin.

2. Spring Flowers: Don't look so pretty. I love spending time in the garden admiring them, just because they are so pretty. Spring is definitely my favourite season because of the flowers, not mentioning the sun these past few days.

3. E45 hand cream: My life saver. Without this, I'm pretty sure my hands would have bled. The detergent for cleaning at work experience, ruined my hands. This eased my pain, and repaired my hands each night, before they started stinging again.

4: Chocolate Easter eggs: I just to add these in; One, Lindt is my favourite chocolate, and two, i love how pretty they are with metallic foil, and Easter is all about chocolate. Right?

5. Pretty honest, Sali Hughes:My favourite thing. I finally caved and bought it, I'm so glad i did. Its a bible for beauty, anything i don't know about i look it up in here, and will most definitely find what I'm looking for. Even if your obsessed with makeup, and think you know most things about makeup, don't say you do until you've read this book. Plus, its a great coffee table book.

 What things have you been loving this month? Let me know.

Dark Chocolate Chip Brownie Cookies

If your looking for a seriously dark chocolate cookie, then this is definitely it. There so rich you wouldn't want them any bigger than this, or eat more than just one. These are also easy to make, so it's a great choice to make with the kids over Easter. Easter means one thing to me since I'm not religious, and that's a chocolate overload. Duh!

These the best/worst kind of biscuits to give to kids; as these are the kind of biscuits that end up all over their faces, because there just so good; but there the kind that keeps them quiet for awhile, whilst they chomp through chocolaty goodness. Whilst recently going through my recipe cut outs, i found a very similar recipe in an old magazine, so obviously, the crunchy exterior and soft interior, appeals so much that its in a food magazine.

Dark chocolate is my favourite, but feel free to use milk or white chocolate chips if you have kids.If you wanted you could also add nuts, e.g macadamia, hazelnuts or almonds, for extra crunch and another flavour. These would be great served with coffee, but, if you like coffee allot then you could swap the vanilla extract with coffee extract; Et volia you have chocolate, and coffee cookies. As with most chocolate recipes, the best chocolate and cocoa powder you can afford, use, it makes a massive difference in this recipe.

Ingredients 

400g dark chocolate chips

225g butter

200g caster sugar

200g dark brown sugar

1 egg

1 tbsp treacle 

2 tbsp vanilla extract 

450g plain flour

125g Cocoa powder

2 tsp baking powder

1 tsp salt

1. Preheat oven to 170

2. Beat the butter and both sugars together until light and fluffy

3. Beat in the treacle, vanilla and eggs( be careful not to over beat)

4. Mix in the sifted cocoa powder, baking powder, salt and flour

5. Stir in the chocolate chips

6. Gently knead the mixture and shape into thick "sausages", chill for around 1 hr

7. Cut the dough with even sized thickness( the mixture can be frozen at this point and cooked from frozen)

8. Place on baking tray and bake for 10 mins or until starting to firm up ( it's the kind of biscuit that firms up more out of the oven)

9. Drizzle with white or dark chocolate if wished

10. Enjoy

Salted Caramel, Almond, and Chocolate Fudge Tart

One week until the Easter holidays! yay! Oh, wait, that's just for my sisters. Great... That means, i still have an extra week, of getting up at ridiculously early o'clock, for work experience. I just want to go to bed, and cry. To get me through the tough weeks; i thought that chocolate, was really, the only answer. Since my sisters will have a head start in holidays , i thought i deserved a head start, in the chocolate eating department. So i made this gorgeous tart(man.... i love salted caramel and chocolate).

The best part is obviously the salted caramel, but if you've read my blog before, you'll know that I can eat it by the spoonful, so that shouldn't be too much of a surprise. The tart keeps well, as the layers don't have that much moisture, which cause a soggy bottom. The chocolate filling has a soft texture, somewhere between a brownie, and a mousse; which goes nicely with the crunch of the nuts and crisp pastry.

Like with all chocolate recipes, use the best chocolate you can afford, it really makes a difference. I used left over plain sweet pastry, but feel free to buy, or make a sweet chocolate pastry, if you feel like going on a chocolate blowout. I used almonds as they are probably my favourite nut, and what i had to hand, but feel free to use whatever nuts you like e.g. Hazelnut for that Nutella vibe, or pecans would work well too.

Ingredients

x1 quantity of sweet pastry


caramel:
75g sugar
25g butter
100ml double cream
1 large pinch sea salt
50g almonds

chocolate filling:
100g dark chocolate
75g butter
2 large eggs 
1 egg yolk
1 tbsp cocoa powder

1. preheat the oven to 180°c/ gas 4.

2. roll out the pastry, line with grease-proof paper, and fill with baking beans, bake for 20 mins. remove the baking beans and cook for a further 5-10 mins until golden.cool

3. While the tart is cooking, make the salted caramel. Dissolve the sugar with 2 tbsp water, cook until the sugar turns golden.

4. Reduce the heat, add butter, cream and golden syrup.stir until smooth and thickened. 

5. remove from the heat, add the sea salt.

6. leave to cool for a few minutes

7. pour onto the tart case, scatter with chopped almonds.set aside

8. for the chocolate filling. melt the chocolate and butter together, in the microwave or over a bowl of simmering water, until smooth. set aside and leave to cool.

9. In a separate bowl, whisk the eggs, egg yolk and sugar for about 6 mins until thick and pale, and doubled in size.

10. carefully fold in the chocolate and cocoa powder.

11. pour into the tart case. bake for 20-25 mins or until its set and formed a crust.

12. leave to cool before cutting. Dust with cocoa powder before serving. enjoy.