The Dormouse Team all love chocolate. Chocolate cake, hot chocolate, chocolate biscuits.Mmm! We are all in agreement however, thate there is nothing like homemade cookies straight from the oven dripping with melted chocolate. Here's our tried and tasted favourite recipe when we are in a hurry and desperate for that chocolaty hit.
You will need
- 50g Milk chocolate
- 50g Dark chocolate
- 100g Granulated sugar
- 75g Sugar brown sugar
- 1 Egg
- 2tsp Vanilla extract
- 150g Plain Flour
- 1/2tsp Baking powder
- Pinch salt
How to make them
- Heat your oven to 190c / Gas Mark 5. Line two baking sheets with baking parchement. Break the chocolate into little chunks and set to one side.
- Heat the butter in a saucepan until just melted. Pour into a mixing bowl and ad the sugars. Beat well with a wooden spoon.
- Add an egg and the vanilla. Beat again until the mixture is blended.
- Sift the flour, baking powder and salt into the bowl and stir in. Add the chocolate. Mixture should be slightly sloppy.
- Dot spoonfuls of the mixture over the lined baking sheets. Be sure to leave space and they really spread out!
- Cook in the oven for 8 - 10 minutes until they are just turning golden brown.
- Remove from oven leave to cool for a few inutes then carefully transfer to a wire cooling rack.
Happy Easter everyone! The Dormouse team are celebrating by having a special Easter lunch, inbetween the chocolate eggs of course.
It's a day for families, so here's a lovely traditional recipe you can make with kids of all ages to use up those leftover Easter eggs...
Cornflake Cakes
You will need
50 g butter
100 g dark chocolate, broken into small pieces
2.5 tbsp golden syrup
80 g cornflakes
Small packet of mini chocolate eggs
How to make them
Place the butter and the chocolate in a saucepan with the golden syrup. Slowly melt over a low heat, stirring. When the mixture is well blended, stir in the cornflakes.
Place some small paper cake cases on a tray. Fill each one with a heaped tablespoon of the mixture. Top with a mini chocolate egg. Put in the fridge to set.
In
bread and butter pudding,
Hot cross buns
Try It Out Tuesday: Chocolatey hot cross bun and butter pudding
Photo by PSD
There's nothing like a hot cross bun at Easter time, fresh and toasted and smeared with unsalted butter. Yum, yum, yum!
Here's a recipe to use up any leftovers:
Dormouse's Chocolatey Easter Pudding
What you will need
- 6 hot cross buns
- Butter to spread
- Small chunks of chocolate or easter egg (we like dark chocolate)
- 2 eggs
- 1/2 pink milk
- 1tsp sugar
How to make it
- Slice the hot cross buns in half and lightly butter and sandwich.
- Put the hot cross buns in a baking dish (large enough to hold all six).
- Sprinkle over half the broken up chocolate / Easter egg.
- Beat the eggs milk and sugar together, pour over.
- Sprinkle over the other half of the chocolate / Easter egg.
- Bake at gas mark 3 / 170c for 20 -35 mins until just set.
- Serve with custard or cream.
(Photographs by Oimon)
If you have never tried Simnel cake, you are in for a real treat. It is much easier to make than it looks in fact it is simply delicious. Simnel Cake is a light fruit cake covered in marzipan eaten during Easter. There is a layer of marzipan baked into the middle of the cake as well as on the top of the cake, and around the edge, are eleven marzipan balls to represent the true disciples of Jesus; Judas is omitted. Lovely as the centrepiece of a special Easter tea.
Traditional Simnel Cake
You will need
If you have never tried Simnel cake, you are in for a real treat. It is much easier to make than it looks in fact it is simply delicious. Simnel Cake is a light fruit cake covered in marzipan eaten during Easter. There is a layer of marzipan baked into the middle of the cake as well as on the top of the cake, and around the edge, are eleven marzipan balls to represent the true disciples of Jesus; Judas is omitted. Lovely as the centrepiece of a special Easter tea.
Traditional Simnel Cake
You will need
For the cake
- 175g/6oz light muscavado sugar
- 175g/6oz butter, softened
- 175g/6oz self raising flour
- 3 large eggs
- 25g/1oz ground almonds
- 2 tbsp milk
- 100g/4oz sultanas
- 100g/4oz cherries, quartered, washed, and dried
- 100g/4oz dried apricots, snipped into small pieces
- 100g/4oz stem ginger, finely chopped
- 1 tsp mixed spice
- 2 tsp ground ginger
For the topping
- 450g/1lb golden marzipan
- 3 tbsp apricot jam
- 1 egg, beaten
How to make it
- Preheat your oven to 160C/Gas Mark 3.
- Grease and line the base and sides of an 20cm/8in deep, round cake tin with baking paper.
- Measure all the cake ingredients into a large mixing bowl. Beat them together well until thoroughly blended. Place half of this mixture into the prepared tin and level..
- Take a third of the marzipan and roll into a circle the same size as the cake tin, place the circle on top of the cake mixture. Spoon the remaining mixture on top of the marzipan and level..
- Bake for about 1hr 45 min to 2 hours or until golden brown and firm in the middle. If the cake is getting too brown towards the end of the cooking time, loosely cover with a piece of foil. Allow the cake to cool in the tin before turning onto a cooling rack.
- When the cake is cool. Brush the top with warmed apricot jam. Roll out half the remaining marzipan to the size of the cake and sit it on the top. Crimp the edges of the marzipan make 11 even sized balls from the remaining marzipan and arrange around the edge.
- Brush beaten egg and glaze under a hot grill for 5 minutes, turning the cake round so it browns evenly, and is tinged brown all over.
The the first cakes I ever baked were rock buns, they were my first introduction to cooking and taught to me my grandmother. They were also my grandfathers favorite treat. I always think of both of them as I make them.
If you have twenty minutes and a few store-cupboard ingredients to hand you can whip up a batch of these delicious buns in a flash. Teach this recipe to your children or your grandchildren.
Grandma's Rock Buns
If you have twenty minutes and a few store-cupboard ingredients to hand you can whip up a batch of these delicious buns in a flash. Teach this recipe to your children or your grandchildren.
Grandma's Rock Buns
You will need
- 225 g (8 oz) self raising flour
- A pinch of salt
- 100 g (4 oz) butter
- 75 g (3 oz) mixed dried fruit
- 25 g (1 oz) mixed peel
- 1 tbsp mixed spice
- 50 g (2 oz) caster sugar
- 1 medium egg
- Milk to mix
How to make them
- Heat your oven to 200ºC or Gas Mark 6. Grease two baking trays.
- Mix the flour, salt and mixed spice, rub in the butter.
- Stir in the dried fruit, mixed peel and sugar.
- Mix to a stiff dough with egg and milk.
- Place in rough heaps on the baking tray and bake for 10-15 minutes.
Enjoy with a nice cup of tea
If you are off to spend Mothers Day with your mum, why not cook her some of these deliciously easy raspberry muffins and show your appreciation. They are special enough to say a big thank you and lovely served with a nice cup of tea (and a sit down).
We used Loseley Summer Meadow Butter and enjoyed it's gorgeous taste and that it was soft enough to cook with straight from the fridge.
You will need
Self raising flour 200g (7oz)
Baking powder 1 tsp
Caster sugar 75g (3oz)
Egg 1, beaten
Milk 175ml (6fl oz)
Loseley Summer Meadow Butter 125g (4 1/2oz, melted and cooled)
Fresh raspberries 175g (6oz)
How to make the muffins
- Preheat the oven to 190°C/375°F/Gas 5. Line a muffins tin with 9 muffin cases. Sift the self-raising flour, baking powder and caster sugar into a mixing bowl.
- Whisk the beaten egg with the milk and cooled Loseley Summer Meadow Butter and stir into the dry ingredients, until just mixed (don’t overmix). Then add the raspberries.
- Divide the mixture between the muffin cases and bake in the oven for 20-25 minutes until risen and lightly golden. Enjoy one while still warm! Then leave the rest to cool on a wire rack.
Loseley Summer Meadow Butter is packed in a 250grm tub and costs £1.29.
Loseley Chilled Foods are available from the chilled cabinet of local independent grocers, Morrisons, Waitrose and now Iceland. Visit www.loseley.com for more information.
We were given Loseley Butter free of charge to make the recipe for this article
Last weekend was Wakefield Rhubarb Festival, an annual celebration when the town toasts it's traditional links with the unusual sculptural vegetable. If you missed out (as we sadly did - always next year!) you can still visit Oldroyds growing sheds until the end of the month for a guided tour where it is said you can actually hear the plants growing.
Perhaps this was in the back of our minds when we visited our local supermarket during the week to pick up some yogurt for a review, courtesy of the lovely people at Onken. We searched high and low but their Creamy Vanilla with Chocolate Flakes yogurt had sold out everywhere (obviously completely delicious) so we picked up a tub or two of their Rhubarb and Custard flavour instead.
Hunting for something nice for breakfast the next morning we spied the yogurt in the fridge and some beautiful pink rhubarb we had bought at the same time (in lieu of missing the said festival), it was no good this couldn't wait, we had to try it immediately. And so we made this:
Dormouse's rhubarb and custard breakfast parfait
You will need:
For the rhubarb compote
- 1 lb rhubarb, sliced lengthwise and then crosswise into 1inch chunks
- 2 oz granulated sugar
- The zest and juice of ½ orange
- 8 oz strawberries, quartered (optional)
- Seeds from one vanilla pod
- A box of granola or crunch cereal or if you want to make your own there are some fantastic recipes here
- A tub of Onken Rhubarb and Custard yogurt
How to make it:
First make the rhubarb compote
Preheat the oven to 180 C or gas mark 4. Mix the the rhubarb, sugar, zest, juice and vanilla together in a glass or ceramic baking dish (about 9×13-inch). Cover with tinfoil and bake for about 15 - 20 minutes adding the strawberries 5 minutes before the end (if including). Take out of the oven stir to combine. Leave to cool.
Then assemble the parfait
Spoon the compote into each serving glass comes to a 1/3rd of the way up the glass. Then add the Onken Rhubarb and Custard yogurt until the glass is 2/3rd full. Top with the granola. There should be roughly equal amounts of each layer. Enjoy!
It was quite the most delicious thing we had eaten in quite some time and the Onken Rhubarb and Custard yogurt is so creamy and flavoursome it really makes the parfait a special treat.
It is the first time we have tried Onken and we were really impressed, we will definitely be going back for more.
We were sent this yoghurt free of charge to review.