Welcome to my blog. Lately I've been lazy to say the least and my blog has clearly suffered for it.
Its not to say i havent been cooking of course! Since getting my new job, all i have done is cook, but unfortunetly not at home.  Everyday at work is different, so here are some recipes that have caught my eye, when planning for the days ahead. Pop on your favourite apron, brew a pot of tea and grab out the butter.

Now Im not a religious person, anyone who knows me, would probably say im something of the complete opposite. But when easter comes around, I've got to ask myself, can I resist soft warm fruity hot cross buns, rich chocolate eggs and of course most of all, the perfect excuse to cook?? I mean can you? I think not, so this easter, over the long weekend, (I feel for everyone who has to work :-( ), I will be cooking from the heart. These recipes are adapted for the modern cook, old classics with a bit of a shake up! Cause Im over just going out and buying chocolate eggs, I mean dont get me wrong, I LOVE chocolate but variation keeps everything interesting and keeps the passion of cooking alive. Any excuse people, any excuse!

Ill start with biscuits. Bunny biscuits that is. Keeping with the spices of easter, cinnamon, cloves etc, I've done a simple gingerbread recipe with the edition of some beautiful dutch cocoa. You can buy this at any specialist cookery store, deli or even some supermarkets. It is a little more expensive but believe me, you'll be able to taste the different within that first delicious bite!

I feel I should mention that this recipe is not mine, I found it somewhere amongst my scattered collection of folders and notes. Unfortunetly it was copied down with no reference so Im at a loss. Never the less here it is.

Chocolate gingerbread

Preheat the oven to 180˚C

2 1/4 cups self raising flour
1 1/2 tsp ginger
3/4 tsp cloves
1/2 tsp nutmeg
90g butter
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup treacle
1-2 eggs, lightly beaten

Combine flour and ground spices together. Cut the butter into small cubes and rub into the flour mixture.
Add in the brown sugar, treacle and eggs and form into a soft dough. Refriderate dough for 20 minutes.

Roll out dough between two sheets of baking paper. If you find that the dough is sticking to the baking paper, sprinkle over some flour and form into a soft dough again. Roll out again.

Bake for 5-7 minutes a tray. Leave approx 3cm space between each biscuit.

























 I used a bunny cutter and also a small round cutter. I wanted to do easter egg shapes too but i dont have an egg shaped cutter, so i just used a round one and strength the ends slightly. If you're looking to give these little biscuits as gifts, cut out a small hole in the middle of each biscuit before putting them in the oven. I used just a simple icing nozzle for this. That way you can tie the biscuit to your gift as shown above.

Yes they are easter egg meringue nests. I fear that these may be a little cras, but I think they are beautiful all the same in their simplicity. For this recipe you will need some egg chocolate moulds. I know that usually im against buying extra specialty baking tins and all but you can buy these from just $2 each from cake decorating stores. All they are are thin plastic trays and for that price it really is worth the extra effort.

The other advantage with these trays is that there is no greasing involved and because they are flexible, the chocolate shells will pop out  without much trouble at all.

The first thing to start with, with this recipe is to melt some chocolate. You can use a microwave to do this or place a small saucepan, 1/4 full of water on the stove. Place a bowl on top, making sure that the bottom of the bowl doesnt touch the water, stir til smooth. I used lindt dark chocolate. Because lindt has such a high cocoa and cocoa butter content it melts very easily when touched, so if your doing this for the first time I suggest using a cheaper chocolate such as cadbury as it will be easier to handle when filling the shells afterwards.

When your chocolate is sufficiently melted to a silky consistency, take it off the heat. Lay out your plastic trays and using a brush and a teaspoon, spoon the chocolate into the cavities, using the brush to coat the sides. Dont worry too much about how neat they are. You can wipe over the tray before setting them or break off any unwanted bits when they set, so dont stress!

Refriderate for 2 hours or overnight if more convenient. The reason they need to be in the fridge so long is because they come away from the trays more easily when super cold. If you have limited time I suggest putting them in the freezer. The only thing is, is that the shine from the bottom of the shells will disappear. Of course they'll still be yum, so really if you are presenting them much like my picture above, it makes no difference!

While the egg shells are setting start on the fillings.

In the picture above I've done a caramel filling and a chocolate mousse icing filling.

Caramel filling

1 can condensed milk 395g

1/4 cup golden syrup

2 tbsp light brown sugar (sifted)

50g butter

Place a small heavy based saucepan on your stove. Heat on a low-medium temperature.

Firstly melt the butter, stirring in the golden syrup and brown sugar til combined.

Add in the condensed milk and start to stir. Stir the mixture constantly til it thickens and tiny bubbles come up to the surface. When the mixture has browned lightly in colour, it will start to stick to the pan so remember to stir CONSTANTLY all the time to avoid burning your lovely yummy caramel. Remember to taste the caramel before taking it off the heat. Sometimes you may need to add a little more butter or golden syrup if the mixture needs a bit more of a kick. This is entirely a personal choice, so dont be scared to alter the recipe. Just a little at a time though.

When you are happy with your luscious caramel, pour it into a large bowl to cool, and to stop the cooking process. You can put it in the fridge if you are in a hurry but it does sit quite happily out of the fridge to cool. The advantage of not putting it in the fridge is that it will be a nice consistency for piping when ready, rather than too hard.

Chocolate mousse icing filling

125g butter- room temperature

125g cream cheese- room temperature

1 tsp vanilla essence

60g melted chocolate

icing sugar

Beat together butter, creamcheese and vanilla til smooth. Pour in melted chocolate and enough icing sugar to

form a smooth thick piping consistecy. I used a star nozzel, but if you just want to pour it into the shells them add less icing sugar.

Meringue shells

This recipe comes from one of my favourite cooks, nigella lawson. You can find this recipe in her 'Kitchen' cookbook. (Author: Nigella Lawson, Published: Great Britain, Chatto and Windus, 2010)

To date i would have to say this is the best meringue recipe I've come across. And its so easy!

Preheat your oven to 140˚C

200g castor sugar

50g brown sugar

2 tsp good quality cocoa powder

pinch of cream of tartar

4 egg whites

Combine all dry ingredients into a bowl and crush together with the back of a spoon to form a smooth consistency without any lumps!

In a separate bowl, place your eggs whites. If you are clumsy like me i suggest separating the eggs individually into a separate smaller bowl beforehand.

Beat the egg whites to stiff peaks, almost until the eggs look curdled. Start adding the sugar mixture, one tablespoon at a time, adding more when each edition is absorbed.

Line 2 baking trays with baking paper. (If you have a fan forced oven only, dab a little of the mixture onto the back of the sheets of baking paper, in the corners, to avoid the paper crushing the meringues).

Using tablespoons or bigger spoons, take as much mixture as you wish and form mounds on the trays, leaving about 4cm in between each meringue. You can make them as large or as small as you want. I usually fit four per tray.

Put both trays into the oven at the same time! If you open the oven during the first half of the cooking process, it can cause the meringues to crack so dont open the oven til 30 minutes is up!

I usually cook the mernigues for about 45 minutes. You want the centre to still be soft, but the ouside should be quite a hard shell. Turn the oven off and leave the meringues inside til the oven has cooled. (otherwise they can drop in the middle and loose their beautiful peak.) If you are filling the meringues with the easter eggs, it makes no difference as you will need to crush the middles anyhow to make room for your chocolate shells.

Cool the meringues to room temperature before starting your easter sweet decorating.

Remove the chocolate shells from their plastic cases. Fit two piping bags with star nozzels, about a 2cm thickness. Fill one piping bag with chocolate mousse mixture and one piping bag with caramel. Fill your shells and place them in the freezer in batches to set completely for about 15 minutes.

Once the meringues have cooled completely to room temperature, arrange the filled chocolate eggs into the cavities in the meringues. Dust with icing sugar, as always.

There are lots of easy fillings for these eggs. In the picture above I've made a chocolate hazelnut praline filling.

90g roasted hazelnuts

90g castor sugar

40ml water

Grease a baking tray with butter.

Combine sugar and water in a small saucepan. Level out the sugar in the pan into the water. Heat til golden in colour, brushing the sides of the pan down with a pastry brush to avoid the sugar crystalizing. You dont need to stir the mixture. Keep an eye on the syrup as it will brown up very quickly! Pour syrup onto the baking tray and pour over the hazelnuts, coating them well.

When cooled, process in a food processor til fine.

Melt 80g dark or milk chocolate over a saucepan of water til smooth. Stir in 70ml pouring cream and stir til thickened slightly and completely combined. Set aside to cool. When the bowl is cool enough to handle, stir in hazelnut praline. Spoon into chocolate shells when the mixture is completely cooled.

Mini Simnel cakes

Every prepared cook has to have a basic vanilla cake or cupcake recipe. I find that this always comes in handy when you want to whip up something special, but you want a really basic reliable base to work with, so grab out your recipe.

This recipe makes 12 cupcakes.

Soak the following ingredients in 1/4 cup or less of brandy:

1 cup mixed dried fruit, ( i used currants, mixed peel, sultanas and raisins)

1/4 cup flaked almonds, (or you can use chopped blanched or you can just chuck in some almond meal, to be honest i usually just use whatever i have hanging around the kitchen, glace cherries would also be a beautifully colourful edition).

Combine the aobve mixture with your favourite vanilla cake recipe and divide between 12 paper cases in a muffin pan.

Cook for 15-20 minutes or til lightly brown on the top. They should spring back, just like a normal cupcake mixture.

Marzipan topping

Grab a packet of premade marzipan from your local supermarket. You can make it yourself by combining ground almonds, glucose and sugar together but this is a quick recipe, so storebought is perfectly good enough. Roll out marzipan in between two sheets of baking paper as you would do with pastry. If you find it is too sticky, sprinkle over a VERY light dusting of icing sugar til the consistency is rollable. Roll out to a 4mm thickness. Using a cutter suitable to the size of your cupcakes, cut out a circle of marzipan. Place the marizpan onto the cooled cupcake one at a time. You ccan decorate the cakes further by adding the traditional balls of marzipan, as shown in the picture, or blanched almonds. To stick these on, you will need a sugar syrup. Traditionally simnel cakes are grilled after the marzipan decoration is placed on, giving a slightly golden browned look, but i liked the soft creamy look it gives without the further cooking.

Sugar syrup

4 tbsp castor sugar

1/2 cup water

Combine these two ingredients in a saucepan on low heat til the sugar has dissolved. Cool, til ready to use.

 

I hope you've enjoyed my easter cooking tips and recipes.

Support common cookery by following my blog. Lots of handy hints and tips to come.