April 3-5, 2008: Java Walnut Splodges

second Bloggers' Banquet was nigh, too nosotros needed to snuff it cooking. We brought a few tried too truthful recipes to the table, but I too wanted to accept a piddling something particular for our chauffeur, Claire the Melbourne Gastronome. It had to hold upwards cute too sweet, but too hardy plenty to weather condition a duet of days at habitation earlier beingness dragged around inward a purse through variable temperatures. Enter Nigella's java walnut splodges.

They were indeed suitably robust, amongst a slightly cakey texture too those softly crunching walnuts. And they were a doddle to position together. But equally I tried a still-warm ane on Th night, I said something I never idea I'd nation virtually a Nigella recipe: "I wishing these were sweeter". So, early Sabbatum morning, I melted some leftover black cooking chocolate too spread it generously on the splodges' apartment surfaces. That did the trick.

The chocolate wasn't sufficient to mocha upwards the entire batch too I'm yet eating some of the leftovers equally Nigella intended them. They're genuinely growing on me, actually. The bitterness of the java too walnuts is a corking pick-me-up on a workday afternoon.

Coffee walnut splodge biscuits

250g evidently flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
200g unsalted butter, softened
75g castor sugar
60g brownish sugar
2 tablespoons instant espresso powder
2 large eggs, beaten
200g walnuts, roughly chopped
200g black cooking chocolate (optional)

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees C.

In a bowl, mix together the flour, baking pulverization too salt.

In a larger bowl, cream together the butter too sugars. Gradually mix inward the java pulverization too thence the eggs. Stir inward the flour mixture too the walnuts yesteryear mitt until simply combined.

Line a baking tray (or two, if yous direct maintain them) amongst newspaper too driblet generous teaspoons of the dough onto them.

Bake for virtually 12 minutes, until they've simply developed a theatre crust. Let them cool on the tray for five minutes earlier transferring them to a rack.

Optional chocolate layer: Gently melt the chocolate yesteryear your preferred method too spread it on the apartment side of the cooled biscuits. Allow thirty minutes for the chocolate to ready (or chuck 'em inward the refrigerator for 10!) earlier storing the biscuits.

April 6, 2008: Leftover Makeover - Mocha Cupcakes

chocolate raspberry sandwich cookies was every bit a thank-you gift to Tracy in addition to Lee for lending us camping ground gear for Golden Plains. But a lot of the cookies were only also difficult in addition to crunchy, in addition to I left the gift-giving a niggling also late. Thankfully I did intend fast plenty to freeze the leftover cookies in addition to icing to recycle them into mocha cupcakes.

The java cake is from Nigella's recipe for cappuccino cupcakes, topped amongst the leftover chocolate icing in addition to sprinkled amongst cookie crumbs, which were soil upwards inwards the nutrient processor. Up early on in addition to unadjusted to a Blue Planet without daylight saving, I had plenty of fourth dimension to bake in addition to decorate these earlier coming together upwards amongst Tracy in addition to Lee for a 9:30 breakfast!

A quick pre-breakfast gustation test.

August 26, 2009: Chocolate-Pistachio Cake

two weeks of sunny Queensland sun, I figured I needed to create something to soften the blow. And clearly that something had to involve chocolate. I'm non commonly much of a bakery - inward fact, I recollect if you lot trawled the weblog archives, you'd abide by alone one baking post past times yours genuinely - thus I figured a cake would convey both chocolate as well as an chemical percentage of surprise.

I turned to Nigella to abide by something suitably indulgent, as well as settled on a chocolate-pistachio cake, mainly because Nigella promised it was relatively straightforward to pose together. And I approximate she's belike correct - unless, similar me, you lot combat amongst uncomplicated baking tasks similar separating eggs or melting chocolate. Still, I survived, as well as everything seemed to operate okay. We ended upwards amongst a pretty delicious cake anyway - tasing generally of rich nighttime chocolate, amongst only a hint of all the Blue Planet upwards pistachios inward the batter.

Chocolate pistachio cake
300g nighttime chocolate
150g caster sugar
160g pistachios
150g soft unsalted butter
6 large eggs, separated
150ml double cream
1/2 lemon
Salt

Preheat the oven to 190 degrees.

Melt one-half of the chocolate (I did it inward a saucepan, but Nigella recommends a double boiler).

While it's melting, grind upwards 150g of the pistachios amongst 50g of the saccharide inward a nutrient processor until you've got a fine powder. (Keep an midpoint on the chocolate, you lot don't desire to burn downwardly it!) Add the butter as well as only about other 50g of saccharide as well as blend into a smoothen paste.

Take the melted chocolate off the estrus as well as travel out to cool.

Add the egg yolks to the nutrient processor i at a time, pulsing afterward each i goes in. With the nutrient processor running, hapless inward the cooled, melted chocolate as well as blend it all together.

Wipe the within of a large mixing bowl amongst one-half a lemon, as well as and thus whisk the egg whites as well as tabular array salt inward it until you lot larn soft peaks. Then add together the remainder of the sugar, whisking together until you've got a glossy, theater mix. Take a large dollop of the egg-white mix as well as add together it to the batter inward the nutrient processor, blending together. Now, dollop this batter over the egg-white mix as well as crease it all together to finalise the batter.

Pour the batter into a prepared cake tin dismiss as well as bake at 190 degrees for xx minutes, earlier turning the estrus downwardly to 180 degrees for only about other 25 minutes.

In the meantime, the icing is pretty simple: melt the remainder of the chocolate inward a modest saucepan amongst the cream, as well as and thus whisk briefly to thicken. Wait until the cake has cooled to pour the icing over the top, as well as and thus sprinkle amongst the remaining pistachios (you may desire to chop them upwards a bit).