Food For Thought | Easter Chocolate Recipes

Okay all you Chocolate lovers, this is one for you! I was thinking up ideas for Easter and what better way than chocolate treats. These don't necessarily have to be for Easter - they can be eaten at anytime of the year! Trust me.

Chocolate Brownie Cookies - Level: Medium

So these are rather indulgent and not for the fainthearted. If you are a dark chocolate lover or know someone who is, then this is the recipe for you! One thing you have to remember is that these are not cookies, they are brownie cookies so they are going to be thick, gooey and ever so rich.
I got this recipe from the Waitrose Magazine from March which features these on the front cover, and to be honest I don't think I'm far off. Except I did forget to save a bar of chocolate to make chocolate chips and the drizzle...Oh well, they still tasted immense. If you don't want to take my word for it, Sophia - Tattooed Tealady (check out her amazing blog here) was my guinea pig when it came to these and I got her approval.

Ingredients 

Method

Start off by melting your chocolate 3 bars NOT 4. 

Cream together your butter and sugars for a good 2 minutes until smooth.

Mix together all your dry ingredients.

Combine the two mixtures and add your treacle, egg & vanilla extract.

Once you've got a nice thick mixture add in your melted chocolate.

Once everything has been mixed, roughly chop your remaining bar of chocolate and fold into your mixture. 

Roll the mixture into a sausage shape (which does look rather odd I agree)

Leave to chill for 4 hours or overnight. 

Once ready, slice into 1cm thick 'patties'

Place on a baking sheet and cook for about 7 minutes. Fan 195° Gas Mark 5.

Leave to cool. Then Enjoy.

  

As much as a love and adore chocolate, dark chocolate is my least favourite. I stuck to the recipe (or so I thought, until I got carried away with melting all 4 bars of chocolate instead of 3!) as I wanted to give a good honest review of how easy it was to achieve something out of a magazine and all in all I found it quite simple. Obviously we aren't all the same, and everyone's cooking techniques and skills are different but I honestly think even if you just melted the chocolate then just shoved all the ingredients into a food processor - you wouldn't be far off. Don't let Mary Berry catch me saying that for god sake! 

I will make these again as they've had such a good reception, however next time I will use milk chocolate and perhaps white chocolate and see what I end up with. I have a terrible sweet tooth so no doubt I'll end up with sodding toothache! Also if someone could remind me not to melt all the chocolate that would be great.

Note: A cup of tea or glass of milk is definitely required to accompany these!

This is what they are supposed to look like, and I don't think I'm too far off?!

What do you think?

No Chocolate - Chocolate Rice Krispie Nests - Level : Easy

Okay, if ever you're in the mindset that you want something sweet, but don't know what to have...then realise you have nothing sweet to eat in your kitchen. Look no further!!! This is something I 'knock up' on a regular basis for the boyfriend and when ever we forget dessert or have friends randomly pop over or just generally in the mood for chocolate.

This takes about 5 minutes to cook and 5-10 minutes in the FREEZER. Got your attention yet? Good.

You'll need 50g butter, 2 tbsps cocoa powder and 1 tbsp Golden Syrup and of course 100g Rice Krispies.

Melt the butter in a pan and mix with the cocoa powder. 

Take off the heat and mix in the golden syrup.

Stir in the rice krispies - you may want to add more until you've got a thick mixture.

Spoon into the cases and add mini eggs to to top to decorate.

Place in fridge or freezer for 5-10 minutes.

Enjoy.

I hope you've enjoyed this new series and let me know down in the comments your thoughts! If you create any of these yourselves, tweet me a picture!

As always lovelies, It's been an absolute pleasure.

HAPPY EASTER!

Char

xXx

My First Review 2014 |FOOD| Banana & Oat Healthy Cookies

At the beginning of the week I realised that I seriously had to start organising myself better, and allocate time to write my blog. I looked into what other bloggers do, and their best advise is to write ideas down in a notebook as and when they come to you.

So. This was the perfect opportunity to use my Christmas present from my Aunt. My first thought when I saw this was 'what the hell..?' as, lets face it, it's not the prettiest of notebooks, but it has grown on me so much. It's got that 'Harry Potter' look to it, its made of 100% leather and has my initial embossed onto it (clearly my Aunt went to a lot of trouble). Next thing on the agenda was organising my time, and what better way to do this, than with my new Filofax that I got from my best friend Claire (take note of Claire as she will no doubt be mentioned a billion times in my blogs!)

Please ignore the cats...I'm not a crazy cat lady!  x

I was thinking long and hard about what I was going to do my first review on and in all honesty I couldn't really make up my mind. I have a tonne of products, places & food that I think would be worth reviewing, so to come up with just one for now is a nightmare! I've decided on the ever so popular Banana & Oat cookies, which a lot of YouTubers rave about.

Banana & Oat Healthy, Quick and Easy Cookies

What you will need:

200g Oats

3 Ripe Bananas

Large mixing bowl

Your hands :)

Baking Tray

Grease proof paper

Method:

It really is so simple, you just pour your oats into the bowl and add your bananas. You then just use your fingers to mush the banana into the oats until it forms a thick doughy mixture. It is quite crucial that you use ripe bananas, as they are not only sweeter but will bind the mixture together with ease. The reason why they get sweeter is down to the starch in them, which breaks down into sugar. Hence why you get that caramelised taste whilst it's being cooked.

Stage 1 - Preparation & Method

Stage 2 - Baking & Tasting

First Thoughts!

Smell:

The first sensation will almost always be smell. You can really smell the Banana (Duhh!) However it's a caramelised scent, so very sweet, delicious and ever so tempting. Which is exactly what you want with a 'cookie', especially one that is actually good for you for a change.

Texture:

Well the texture is quite 'flapjack' like. I would go as far as to say that these should be called Banana Flapjacks; they are soft, moist and oaty. Not crunchy and chewy as you would find with most cookies. However I ate these straight out of the oven, and didn't really give them much time to cool. Perhaps if I had made them thinner and let them cool, they would have been a much crunchier texture? I'll try that next time. 

You may also find that sometimes you come across a dry section where the banana hasn't quite spread evenly amongst the mix and other times you come across a bit of gooey banana. Some of you might relate to 'Millies Cookie-Pops' where you got really excited when you came across a smartie?.. Or perhaps that was that just me.

I swear these have gotten smaller....

Taste:

This is where your senses suddenly come running back and realise they've been fooled into thinking this is an actual cookie. Yes - the obvious flavour that comes through is banana, and unfortunately that is the only thing you can taste. So, if you hate the taste of bananas, you're screwed! 

Serving Suggestion: Add some natural yoghurt and fresh fruit e.g. blueberries/ strawberries / mango (whatever you want) I just had a glass of milk as they were a little too dry on their own. 

So...LOVE or LOATHE?

It's got to be love, I would 100% do these again. They are so versatile, you can have them for breakfast, as a snack or a dessert. You can add ingredients to them like chocolate chips, nuts or some type of dried fruit? The fact that they are so easy to make is another bonus - including preparation time and cooking you're looking at 15 minutes tops. 

If you found my review useful in any way, let me know! It would be great to know that there are people out there that actually ready this. Any criticism you give will be taken onboard so i can hopefully mould myself into a proper blogger! 

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