Cookie of the Week

Cookies are always a great standby for dark evenings to have with your cup of tea. Every tea (and coffee) tastes so much better with a cookie or 2.

I love eating them warm, fresh from the oven - but cookies keep very well in an airtight tin (this is where the selection boxes come in handy). This cookie is soft in the middle and the chocolate chips give a nice bite.

Chocolate Chip Cookies

• 125g softened unsalted butter
• 90g caster sugar
• 1 egg
• 1 egg yolk
• few drops of vanilla essence
• 175g selfraising flour
• 100ml milk
• 100g chocolate chips

Preheat the oven to 160C. 

Cream together the butter and sugar. Make sure that the mixture is fluffy and pale in colour. 

Add the egg, yolk, vanilla, flour, milk and half amount of chocolate chips. Mix it all very well together. Using a spoon place drops of the dough on a baking sheet, divide the remaining chips between the cookies and bake until lightly golden and baked. 

Enjoy

Chocolate & Coffee - The End

This is the last part of our cookery class and the end of our dinner party together.

The hard work is done – you can relax now. Your guests are fed and it is time to wind down. I personally love it when people keep sitting at the table and talk about all and nothing. Just clear the plates from the table and bring out the goodies you prepared in advance. There is always room for a chocolate truffle or a light biscuit.

You can of course just serve tea made from a teabag or instant coffee but imagine how impressed your guest are when you serve them a proper cup of tea or a lovely steaming cup of freshly brewed coffee. Coffee with Advoccat is just a special coffee flavoured with Advocaat and topped with cream but which is just delicious. Coffee can be flavoured with any liquor you like – Amaretto (almond), Kahlua (coffee) or even a banana liquor. Your imagination is the limit. 

We have lost the art of tea making since teabags are so convenient. But why not step out of the 'norm' and treat yourself with a lovely cup of tea that actually taste of tea. We have 2 wonderful shops in Cork that specialise in loose tea and can recommend the right tea for you. They not only stock tea but also coffee beans, in case you like to get into 'proper' coffee drinking. Gurmans in 4, Fenns Quay and Little Buddha in McCurtain Street have everything you need to get you started. 

Chocolate is always a treat – especially when they are handmade. Don’t worry if you think they don’t look perfect – it shows that you made them yourself. It is quite easy to make wonderful delicious chocolates if you stick to a few rules. I will be showing you how to make free-formed chocolates as well as moulded ones. Chocolate needs to be tempered if using it for moulds as this will guarantee a glossy finish. With our free-formed chocolates, it’s not necessary as we will dipping them in shredded coconut. These chocolates also make a nice gift for your guests to take home – just put them into a nice box, a little ribbon around and you got a stylish gift for next to nothing.

When choosing chocolate, make sure to check the cocoa content. Never use chocolate flavoured bars – they are made of vegetable fat and some flavouring. It has never been near chocolate. The best chocolate of course is from your local chocolate shop where you can choose between different strengths of chocolate (there is a list of suppliers at the end of the leaflet). But here, I will be using white chocolate – which is basically cocoa butter – that I bought in Aldi. I am working with that chocolate for years, and can’t fault it. I am using mainly the milk and white chocolate.

Advocaat Coffee

1 cup strong coffee     

Sugar to taste

6-8 tsp Advocaat

2 tbsp whipped cream

Chocolate powder

Warm the cup, add the Advocaat. Sweeten the coffee to taste and pour over the Advocaat. Spoon whipped cream on top and dust with chocolate powder.

Indian Spiced Tea (Mix)

Chai can be bought in Gurmans in Fenn's Quay.

Add tea to milk in saucepan over low heat. Use 4 teaspoons loose leaf/4 tea bags for every three cups. Once added, stir the tea constantly. Use low heat to brew slowly and to prevent dangerous overflow. The milk will eventually boil into foamy bubbles. You will notice that the colour has changed from white to a caramel cream colour. At this point, reduce heat or remove it from heat.  It will still continue to infuse. The stronger you want it, the more you should heat it.

Strain it through a tea sieve into cups.

Coconut-Marzipan-Chocolates

20 glace cherries

250g Marzipan

100g icing sugar

250g shredded coconut

Egg Nogg or Advocaat

White chocolate for dipping

Delicious Easy-Peasy Chocolates

Mix the marzipan, icing sugar and egg nogg (add bit by bit until you have the right consistency) until it is well combined. Form little rounds (as bit or small as you like them – just keep in mind that we need room for the filling).  Fill each round with a glace cherry and mould into a closed ball. Set aside and continue until all of the mixture has been used up.

Place the coconut in a bowl.

Melt the chocolate over a bain marie and dip the balls in the chocolate.  Drop the balls into the bowl with the coconut, making sure they are completely covered. Place in little paper cases and serve.

 

Little Treats - 'Cause you are worth it

Because you are worth it

Everyone deserves a little treat now and then - after a long day at work, on a rainy day, after your favourite football team lost or simply because you are worth it. I started making chocolates years ago when I was really frustrated by the prices charged by chocolate shops and the quality of the manufactured ones. It happened that a friend who I was helping planning her wedding came to me and asked my opinion of chocolates she just purchased as samples for her wedding favours. We tasted them and they were all very good (after all, it was Belgian Chocolate and came from a 'proper' chocolate shop) but she would have been charged €0.50 each (she needed 600 chocolates and no discount was offered). I was furious that she wasn't even given a discount by the amount of chocolates she was going to order. So I put my thinking cap on and came up with my own recipes (a bit of online research on tempering chocolates etc was needed) and 2 days later I had a few samples ready for her. We decided on 2 flavours and I was able to make the chocolates for €80 - a big difference to the €300 she was going to be charged.

My own selection box

I have to thank this chocolate shop owner actually that he refused a discount - as I wouldn't have started otherwise to make my own chocolates and found that I absolute love making them. I have tried several mixtures and funny enough, the most liked ones are the very simple flavours. Hazelnut and Coconut with rum.

The other day, I was making chocolates as a gift for someone when I had hazelnut mixture left. As I also made mandarin tarts I decided to make little mini hazelnut tarts. What started as an idea for leftovers became a new item on my dessert treat menu. And it is almost embarrassing how easy it is. The recipe below is without measurements as I don't measure my chocolate ingredients. I do them by 'feel' - just as a guideline, half-half chocolate & hazelnut spread.

You will meed:

• Sweet shortcrust pastry
• Plain chocolate
• Hazelnut spread (Nutella - told you it is easy)
• Amaretto (optional)

Mini Hazelnut Tarts

Line a mini muffin tin with the pastry, prick with a fork and blind bake until golden brown (be careful, you don't want them to be too crispy). Set aside to cool.

In the meantime, melt chocolate over a bain marie (make sure that the water doesn't touch the bowl with the chocolate). Add the hazelnut spread and mix until nicely combined. Remove the bowl with the chocolate and keep stirring until the mixture starts to set again. Pour into the prepared pastry cases and leave to set.

Arrange the mini tarts on a plate and serve

Bon Appetit

Happy Valentine's Day

Right from the Heart

So much has been written about Valentine's Day and so much money has been spent over the years. Wedding proposals, expensive dinners, overpriced flowers - it could put you off the day for good. But no - not me. I love Valentine's Day - it's the same as Mother's Day & Father's Day - a celebration. And I always want to make the day special for the special person in my life. No no, I am not taking him out (and don't expect him to take me out - see above for reasons) but I spend a lot of time making gifts. 

A box of delights

Since Mr T loves chocolates (he still blames me that he always finds my stash of chocolate - apparently I am not hiding it well enough) so I decided to make him a whole box of special chocolates. Just in time, I received a parcel from my very good friend Susanne from Germany with some new chocolate moulds - and since she is a romantic, she sent heart shaped moulds. 

Rambling through my store cupboard I found peanut butter, hazelnut spread and orange liquor. So, the decision was easy, he got 3 different flavours. So I was mixing and stirring and melting and pouring - trying to get the consistency right and hide it all from Mr T. The finished chocolates looked the part (apart from the triangles, they looked even professional).

My Italian friend (yes, I could open the United Nations in Grenagh) brought me a box of Italian sweets from a trip to Italy (yes, I shared them with Mr T) and I thought back then that the box would come in handy and was I right. I snuggly place the chocolates into the box and the only thing missing is the perfect card - that is private now...... but it was a perfect card...

Happy Valentine's Day

By the way, I will be giving a chocolate workshop before Easter. Email me on biasasta@hotmail.com if you are interested. Details to follow soon

Sweet Week - The Healthy Way

Ok, 2 people at home can only eat so many desserts. So, I thought it was time to bring a bit of health back - almost. Something small that can be snacked throughout the day and doesn't fill you up too much. I made these little clusters a few months back for a charity event for Marymount Hospice and received positive feedback. The clusters don't look indulgent although they are held together with white chocolate. A hint of cinnamon adds an interesting note to the clusters and you keep eating them just to make sure you got all flavours. Even kids like them (I always add a bit more of the white chocolate for kids) and they get s good portion of healthy nuts and seeds (just don't tell them that it is a healthy option to crisps or they'll never eat them). They are dead easy to do - the most difficult task is to melt the chocolate and then to drop them into the paper cases (you can drop dollops of the mixture onto parchment paper and when hardened put them into an airtight tin).

Little Gems

You will need:

• 225g white chocolate
• 50g sunflower seeds
• 50g flaked almonds
• 50g sesame seeds
• 50g raisins
• 1 tsp cinnamon

Melt the chocolate in a bain marie until smooth. Mix all other ingredients into a bowl and stir in the melted chocolate. Working quite quickly, drop dollops into little paper cases on on a sheet of non-stick parchment paper. When dried - store in an airtight container.

Told you it was easy - happy snacking