All posts tagged chocolate

Five fings Friday

So, after yesterday’s post turned into a bit of a wallow on my part, I thought I would pick myself up and list  not three, but five fings things that are making me smile today (or made me smile yesterday).

First,  you lot. Your kind messages and comments yesterday went a long way to cheering me up. Although I’m still smarting from the rejection, it was lovely to be showered with so many positive messages. I’ve picked myself up and I’m moving on.

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it’s years since I’ve had Christmas presents!

Second,  secret Santa. Under normal circumstances I don’t do Christmas gifts, but I did decide to join in with Sewchet’s Stitching Santa this year. And yesterday I was very excited when my present arrived. It’s secret so I don’t know who it’s from until I open it, but it’s a lovely box filled with things yarn-related, so it’s bound to be a joy to open. I still haven’t decided whether to keep it an extra week until my birthday, but I may not be able to resist it for that long.

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chocolatey

Third, chocolate. Yesterday afternoon I cheered myself up with some cooking. In the absence of the beef, we decided to have fish pie (made using sustainably caught fish from Cornwall), followed by dark chocolate tart with a white chocolate sauce and raspberries (grown by me). The tart had chocolate pastry and a baked mousse-like filling. The sauce was simply a small amount of white chocolate melted in hot cream and then a teaspoon of liqueur added – it worked very well to contrast with the dark chocolate and the raspberries, although it would have been very sickly on its own.

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just the thing to make Sophie look extra-beautiful

Fourth, the end is in sight. I now only have two rows of Sophie remaining, so she will be finished tonight. I was delighted, therefore, that my new blocking mats arrived yesterday. Sophie is too big to block on my usual cork board, so I have bought some interlocking children’s play mats for the purpose. Each one measures 30cm × 30cm, so it’s possible to construct the size and shape of mat I need very easily. I did try to find some secondhand mats, but in the end I had to buy new; however, I think they are going to get lots of use in the future.

Fifth, a lot of swimming. Today is the final day in 2017 that our local swimming pool is open. I won’t be able to go and swim there again until 8 January 2018. So I’ve totted up my tally for this year and I discover that I have been swimming 112 times. I’m very proud of myself… especially considering that most of those swims have been at 7am.

So there we are, lots to make me smile today. How about you? I really hope good things are happening in your life and, for those of you who find this time of year difficult, I send a big hug and remind you that the media’s representation of Christmas is nonsense and that there are lots of lovely people out there who want to support you and make you happy, like the café owner in this story from our local newspaper.

Thanks once again for the lovely comments on yesterdays post – you are all amazing.

26 Comments
by The Snail of Happiness on December 22, 2017  •  Permalink
Posted in Three Things Thursday
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Posted by The Snail of Happiness on December 22, 2017

https://thesnailofhappiness.com/2017/12/22/five-fings-friday/

Taking the biscuit

As you may know, I have been trying to cut palm oil out of my life. Palm oil has certain properties that make it a great ingredient for manufacturers and it can be tricky to avoid unless you cook everything from scratch, particularly since it isn’t always listed as ‘palm oil’ in ingredients lists. Anyway, I discovered a few months ago that it’s in most commercially-produced biscuits (including my beloved digestives). The answer, however, was provided by two friends: Sue sent me three recipes and Kate sent me one. Since January, therefore, I have not bought any biscuits and I have made all the ones we have eaten at home. This not only avoids palm oil, but also greatly reduces plastic packaging since most of the ingredients (including the butter) come in paper or glass.

The key to a good biscuit (rather than a cookie), according to Sue, is to use a hard fat. The choice comes down to butter or hard white vegetable fat. However, it turns out that the latter (e.g. Trex) is made from palm oil. So, I’m sorry vegans, but all the successful biscuits I have made have contained butter.

I’m going to share the four recipes here, for those of you who also want to make your own. The measures are in the original units in which each recipe was written, so there is a mix of ounces and grams.

Ginger nuts

16 Biscuits 15

ginger nuts

 

8oz SR flour
2 heaped teaspoons ground ginger
4oz sugar (white or golden granulated)
3oz butter
4oz golden syrup
1 egg

Mix the dry ingredients, melt the butter and syrup, mix everything together. Shape teaspoonfuls into rough balls and press down a little, then arrange on greased baking trays with plenty of room to spread. Bake at 150C for 15 mins or until golden and becoming crisp. Cool on a rack and put in tin as soon as cold.

Shortbread Biscuits (Mr Snail’s favourite, especially dipped in chocolate)

16 Biscuits 3

We love shortbread biscuits

200g butter (soft)
100g caster sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
250g plain flour
50g ground rice

Cream together butter, sugar and vanilla, work in the flour and rice. Roll out to 1/4 inch thick, cut into rounds (or hearts) and bake at 160C for 15-20 mins.

Granny Boyd’s biscuits

16 Biscuits 11

lovely and chocolatey

 

250g butter
125g caster sugar
300g SR flour
30 g cocoa powder

Cream together butter and sugar. Sift cocoa and flour together and work into mixture. Form into walnut sized balls and arrange on trays. Flatten slightly with the back of a fork. Bake at 170C for 5 mins then turn the oven down to 150C for another 10-15 mins. The top should be firm and the inside slightly squidgy – they firm as they cool.

Digestive biscuits from a Victorian recipe

16 Biscuits 2

digestives

 

4oz fine oatmeal
2oz wholemeal flour
2oz white plain flour
2oz soft brown sugar
Quarter of a teaspoon of salt
Half a teaspoon of bicarbonate of soda
3oz butter
1 egg

Rub the butter into the dry ingredients and then add the egg. Mix well. Roll out to about 0.25-0.5 cm, cut into rounds and place on a baking tray. Bake at 190C for 10-15 minutes. Allow them to cool and if they aren’t crispy enough I put them back in the oven for another 5 minutes.

I would add another recipe to my collection of favourite biscuits and that’s Delia Smith’s chocolate chip ginger nuts, the recipe for which is here. These are very rich and very delicious:

16 Biscuits 13

chocolate ginger nuts with chocolate chips

So, do you have a favourite biscuit recipe to share?

 

 

22 Comments
by The Snail of Happiness on June 3, 2017  •  Permalink
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Posted by The Snail of Happiness on June 3, 2017

https://thesnailofhappiness.com/2017/06/03/taking-the-biscuit/

Cake

Raspberry and Chocolate – that’s all I have to say today.

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18 Comments
by The Snail of Happiness on July 1, 2016  •  Permalink
Posted in food and cooking
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Posted by The Snail of Happiness on July 1, 2016

https://thesnailofhappiness.com/2016/07/01/cake/

Let us eat cake

Sometimes, when the weather is getting you down, the only answer is to make a cake…

Make a cake

Make a cake

Especially when your hens think that it’s spring and so you have an abundance of eggs…

Lots of eggs

Lots of eggs

Today’s cake is chocolate…

Freshly baked

Freshly baked

With a chocolate butter cream filling and a chocolate ganache topping…

Yum!

Yum!

I’ve posted the recipe for the cake before… it’s very simple. That’s all I have to say on the matter, except that if this weather continues much longer, I will be the size of an elephant!

17 Comments
by The Snail of Happiness on February 17, 2014  •  Permalink
Posted in food and cooking
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Posted by The Snail of Happiness on February 17, 2014

https://thesnailofhappiness.com/2014/02/17/let-us-eat-cake/

1-2-3-4 Cake

Last August I wrote a post entitled Cakes and cup cakes, in which I gave my ‘standard’ cake recipe, using equal weights of butter, sugar, eggs and flour. Recently. Pamela commented on the post to suggest an equally easy recipe for what she calls 1-2-3-4 cake. She wrote:

Preheat oven to 350F, butter and flour round cake pans. 1c. butter, 1c.milk, 1tsp vanilla, 2c. sugar, 3c. sifted all purpose flour, 3tsp. baking soda, and 4 eggs. Cream butter, sugar & vanilla together, adding eggs one at a time, add baking soda & flour & bake for an hour (or until the toothpick comes out clean). The icing was confectioners sugar, butter & milk (proportions to be determined by it looking & tasting right) whipped to a frenzy and placed between the layers & around the whole cake, with middle filling (or not) and flavouring/colouring in the icing to the honouree’s preference. If you like heavier cake leave out the baking soda.

Us Brits tend to use weight measures rather than volumes, but I like the idea of using ‘cups’ and have a set of them for when I want to use a North American recipe. I understand that they became widely used in the US because they are so much easier to use when travelling  – relative volumes can be measured out much more simply than weights, and it’s easier to carry a cup than a set of scales and standard weights. However, I digress…

Chocolate orange 1-2-3-4 cake

Chocolate orange 1-2-3-4 cake

I did tweak the recipe a little, using 2 tsps baking powder and 1 tsp bicarbonate of soda in place of the 3 tsps of baking soda (which I translated as bicarbonate of soda). In addition, I added orange essence to the cake mix. There was no mention of when to add the milk, so I mixed it in gently at the end. At the time, I wanted a couple of cakes, so I split the mixture between a loaf tin and two 7-inch round cake tins, which worked well.

I decorated both cakes with chocolate-orange butter cream in the centre (butter/icing sugar/cocoa/orange essence) and a chocolate topping (melted dark chocolate/double cream/orange essence). What a lovely cake it turned out to be and one I will certainly make again.

Cake-making is a great joy to me – partly because eating cake brings a smile to most faces but also because bought cakes (other than those from the people like the Women’s Institute) seem to be stuffed full of things that I don’t really want to eat. For example, Cadbury’s Cake Bars contain:

Milk chocolate (33%) [Sugar, Cocoa mass, Cocoa butter, Dried skimmed milk, Vegetable fat, Milk fat, Dried whey, Emulsifier (Soya lecithin)], Chocolate flavoured filling (17%) [Sugar, Glucose syrup, Vegetable oil, Vegetable margarine (Vegetable oil, Salt, Emulsifier (E471)), Fat reduced cocoa, Maize starch, Dried egg white, Flavouring, Emulsifiers (E471, E475)], Wheat flour, Pasteurised whole egg, Sugar, Glucose syrup, Humectant (Glycerol), Vegetable oil, Fat reduced cocoa, Soya flour, Dried whey, Raising agents (E450, Sodium bicarbonate), Salt, Emulsifiers (E475, E471), Milk protein, Preservative (Potassium sorbate).

I don’t know about you, but I’m much happier with the seven relatively simple ingredients (or 11 if you include my filling and topping) in Pamela’s cake! And if you make my original recipe, there are only four basic ingredients!

3 Comments
by The Snail of Happiness on May 10, 2013  •  Permalink
Posted in food and cooking
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Posted by The Snail of Happiness on May 10, 2013

https://thesnailofhappiness.com/2013/05/10/1-2-3-4-cake/

Cakes and cup cakes

Unsurprisingly, the arrival of the hens more than two years ago resulted in a significant increase in egg availability. Having convinced myself that it is in fact ok to eat eggs every day (not that we actually do), I was faced with deciding how best to use them. Clearly they can be scrambled, fried, poached and boiled and we do have them for lunch in one of these forms on many days, but they are also a brilliant ingredient and good source of protein in a meal… as omelette or Spanish tortilla and occasionally quiche. But one of the things that I do more now than ever before in my life is baking.

Brooklyn Blackout Cake – too fiddly to make every day!

Mr Snail-of-happiness has a very sweet tooth and is delighted to have cakes and cookies available most days. In a fit of exuberance ( and bibliophily) I bought several new books on baking, including two of the Hummingbird Bakery books, and set about testing out a variety of recipes. Somehow I got caught up in the moment and for several months made lots of cup cakes* and other fancy creations. Whilst these are enjoyable to make, they don’t necessarily deliver in terms of using up eggs – just one egg for ten cup cakes. So, recently I have returned to the cake recipe I learned as a small child and which never lets me down. It’s easy to remember because you use equal weights of margarine, sugar, egg and self-raising flour (approximately 50g of each ingredient per egg). You don’t even need scales to measure the ingredients – just a crude balance, with the eggs on one side and the flour, margarine and sugar in turn on the other. I once made such a cake with a whole load of students on a botany field trip to the Burren in Ireland… they were fascinated by the simplicity of the recipe and by the fact that we were able to build our own balance with two bowls, a plank and a log. On reflection, I think I taught them more about cooking on that field trip than about botany, although we did combine the two by learning the names of the various plant families in relation to each of the vegetables and fruits we were cooking!

Anyway, I digress… the cake is very versatile – add some cocoa powder and it’s a chocolate cake, or make it more interesting with lemon zest, orange, caramel flavour… whatever you fancy. You can fill it with whipped cream and jam for a decadent Victoria sponge, lemon curd or butter cream to recreate childhood teatimes! Mr S-o-h’s favourites are chocolate peppermint sponge or chocolate orange sponge (in both cases chocolate cake, a chocolate topping and chocolate-butter cream with either peppermint oil or orange essence added).I, on the other hand, am particularly fond of the lemon option… with lemon curd and lemon butter cream and topped off with a sprinkling of icing sugar!

So, whilst I will continue to try out occasional recipes from my fancy books… the old standard will still be wheeled out and enjoyed on a regular basis.

-oOOo-

* My sister provided me with a good explanation of the difference between a cup cake and a fairy cake: a fairy cake has lots of cake and a little butter cream, whilst a cup cake has lots of butter cream with just a little cake.

16 Comments
by The Snail of Happiness on August 22, 2012  •  Permalink
Posted in food and cooking
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Posted by The Snail of Happiness on August 22, 2012

https://thesnailofhappiness.com/2012/08/22/cakes-and-cupcakes/

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