Saturday 22 February 2014

Chocolate Marshmallow Teacakes

Tunnocks Teacakes are, to me, the ultimate food. I have to resist buying them, because I'll happily sit down and work my way through a box of 10 with no qualms whatsoever.  I never even thought that it was possible to make them yourself until they were featured on The Great British Bake Off, and, to be honest, it looked a bit of a faff.

But then I sampled (several) homemade ones made by my boyfriend's mum, and was completely bowled over. They were yummy, light and definitely tasted less artificial than the bought version.

So I bit the bullet, and bought silicone moulds.  Hopefully they'll come in useful of other things, otherwise they will be the most ridiculously recipe-specific bit of kit to own.

As per my Bake Off inspiration, I used a Paul Hollywood recipe. I found that the biscuit needed quite a bit more milk than specified, but otherwise it was relatively easy, just time consuming!  




The biscuits for the bottom have to be baked, cooled and then covered in chocolate, which did get a tad messy.  They were actually really tasty on their own (I devoured the left over ones), they're not very sweet so taste a bit like scones.


After lining the moulds with melted chocolate and leaving to cool, I piped in the marshmallow filling.  The filling was really easy to make, and there's now a jar of left overs in the fridge that I full intend to eat with a spoon at every opportunity.


The final, very tense, part was popping them out of the moulds. They turned out really glossy, which, given I didn't temper the chocolate, I was pleasantly surprised by.



Now the only problem is, they're really tasty and addictive to eat.  After a good few hours, including waiting for chocolate to set, they take only a  few minutes to hoover up.

Next time I make them I want to add a bit more salt to the biscuit to balance the super sweet marshmallow. I'm also having grandiose ideas about swirling salted caramel through the mallow....






Friday 7 February 2014

Apple Fritters

These tasty apple fritters were inspired by this recipe from A Cozy Kitchen.
They helped to use up a big bag of apples kindly given to me by my Granny and Grandad, but also were bloomin' delicious!

If you fancy a fruity, pancakey start to your day you could do a whole lot worse.




Thursday 6 February 2014

Hello there

Hi there, 

This is Ruth. I wanted to find a way to document my love of cooking and share it with others.

I'll be sharing things I've baked, stewed, roasted and generally concocted.  

But first, I'm lay down a 11 Month Challenge to myself. These are the 11 recipes I want to tackle this year. (Macarons have already been tackled - but more of that later).

In no particular order...

Crème Brûlée 

Malt Loaf
     
Crumpets

Naan bread

Donuts

Baba Ganoush

Pretzels

Custard Tarts

Chelsea Buns

Spatchcocking a chicken

Perfecting shortcrust pastry


We'll see how they go, and I'll try and keep you updated!