100% Chocolate

Oh but to visit this shop in Tokyo. I somehow stumbled across The 100% Chocolate Cafe whilst trawling the net yesterday. I love the packaging and pretty much everything about them, especially the slightly pharmaceutical look. I can't decide if i'd want to eat, collect or apply all of these squares topically. I can imagine spending hours choosing which of the 56 flavours to go for.

Oh so nice!

The Edible Hug

I would be willing to bet you large amounts of money i don't have, that these brownies will be the best, (or at least will be level pegging with the best) that you have ever tasted. The recipe has become a bit of a staple in our household, and i'm fairly sure that they are the only sure fire way of instantly making you feel better. They are an edible hug. They are perfect served slightly warm, when they've just come out of the oven, or with a coffee at 11am at the weekend. The recipe started off as a Jamie Oliver one, but over the years it has become more and more our own, with additions and alterations after years of testing. Here's the recipe...

Ingredients
60g Dark Chocolate
3 tbsp Golden Syrup
75g Lard
2 Large Eggs
200g Caster Sugar
125g Pecans or Walnuts, broken into pieces
95g Plain Flour (we use wheat free, so that the difficult half of the family can enjoy them too)
1tsp Baking Powder
A Pinch of Salt

Method
1. Preheat the oven to 190 degrees C
2. Grease a 20x20cm baking tin using lard, then cut a square of greaseproof paper to fit in the bottom.
3. Melt the chocolate, syrup and lard in a bowl over a pan of simmering water.
4. In a separate bowl, whisk the eggs and sugar together until light in colour and texture.
5. Add in the melted chocolate mixture, and sieve in the flour, baking powder and salt. Stir in the walnuts or pecans, being careful not to over-mix.
6. Spread evenly into the prepared tin, and bake in the middle shelf of the oven for 25 minutes. Allow to cool slightly before cutting into squares and eating.

Enjoy! Let me know what you think.

Chilli Hot Chocolate

My oldest and bestest friend Rachel brought me back some very dark chocolate from her holidays this summer. It's flavoured with chilli, and good grief if has a kick to it. You don't feel it at first but it catches you right at the back of the throat, it's fantastic. I was thinking of possible recipe ideas and i tried melting a few squares in a saucepan very gently, adding some cinnamon and soya milk and creating a chilli hot chocolate (i enjoy the play on words far more than i should...chilly/chilli...yeah). It was really lovely and i can imagine it being perfect on a cold wintery evening, maybe with a cheeky dollop of thick cream on top, just to take the edge off the chilli.

i added a few extra squares of 85% dark chocolate as i was running v low on the chilli chocolate.

Easter Weekend

Happy Easter Weekend! In the spirit of things i made a batch of wheat-free cupcakes with chocolate eggs on top. I wasn't up to the challenge of 'designer buttercream' but i think they do the job quite nicely. I went to a fairly major famers' market this morning and took full advantage of the samples they were handing out. The photos will appear some time on Monday once i get back to the flat and have time to sort through them.

Enjoy the nice (ish) weather and don't eat too much chocolate.

Saturday Treats

I came home for the weekend to find these lovely little chocolate discs. A friend had given them to my Mum, who let me try one. I love interesting chocolate recipes, especially if they contrain something you wouldn't have thought would go with chocolate, in this case lemongrass.