Posted by jerry on September 13th, 2008 — Posted in Journal, Recipes
Got a chocolate party to go to? This is a quick and easy – and delicious – chocaholic’s delight!
Ingredients:
2 bars of dark cooking chocolate (400g)
2 tablespoons butter or margarine (50g)
1 teaspoon of instant coffee
1 egg (optional)
half a packet of milk arrowroot or other plain biscuits
2 tablespoons mixed peel
Method:
Half fill a large pan with water, bring to boil. In a second (and smaller) pot put in the chocolate and margarine and put that pot in the larger one so it works as a ‘double boiler’. Chop the chocolate into small chunks and place in the smaller saucepan, and add the butter. As it melts, keep stirring gently until smooth and creamy.
Boil a kettle and use just enough hot water to dissolve the instant coffee (about a teaspoon) and pour the coffee into the melted chocolate and stir in well.
Take a bowl and break the biscuits into pea-sized chunks.
Take the chocolate mix off the heat and allow to cool for about ten minutes. Stir in the egg (optional).
Now add the biscuit pieces and the mixed peel and stir until well covered in chocolate.
Pour the mix into a bar-tin lined with baking (greaseproof) paper or aluminium foil
Refrigerate until set – about 2 hours.
Turn out the bar onto a board upside down, making sure the paper is completely removed, dust with icing sugar and slice thinly to serve.
This has been adapted from the recipe of a family friend called Makiko 🙂
Variations can include half a cup of mixed dried fruit, or nuts substituted for an equivalent amount of the biscuits.
Enjoy!
cheers
Jerry
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Posted by jerry on August 11th, 2005 — Posted in Journal, Recipes
In all the jeans controversy, one small comment by Chloe stood out: “any chance of the chocolate muffin recipe?” Well, I’ll let you into a secret – while I DO have a nice quick and easy muffin recipe, I cheated on this occasion and used “White Wings Shaker Muffins: Double Choc” in which you add one and one third cups of milk to the container, tap upside down (with the lid on) shake vigorously for about 30 seconds and squish out the mix into 6 muffin pans and bake in a pre-heated oven at 200C for 20 minutes. And here is the result:
Cheers
Jerry
12 Comments »
Posted by jerry on October 1st, 2004 — Posted in Journal, Music, Recipes
Actually the start of a four day weekend for me wooohooo! Up at the crack of 8.30, leisurely breakfast of cereal and coffee, then a browse through the latest Australian Woodworker magazine – good piece on Egyptian lathes and the questions over evidence they had them, and a good article on Angel Polglaze – a chainsaw sculptor. Also a good readers tip on converting a jig saw to a scroll saw.
While my partner busily packed for the Southern Cross Crazies quilting retreat, I put in a bit of practice on some strathspeys – now have Monymusk down fairly well – though probably still too round and Irish sounding for the discerning Scottish ear.
Second breakfast: Apricot lattice (or Danish as we call them) and coffee
A quick bound out to the shed to cut a length of rod for a quilt, and put a couple of grooves in the ends to stop the hanging string from slipping off, then back for more tunes – damn need more waltzes too…
Lunch – some cheese and honey on crusty bread, and coffee
Then late afternoon expedition to cart stuff to the quilters retreat – held at GreenHills at Birragai on the Cotter Road (a beautiful location, even better on the motorbike). They seemed pretty well set up there for the weekend.
Back home, polished the fiddle (it really needs stripping back and re-varnishing – maybe after the China tour), hammered out some more tunes (repaired my old shoulder rest – now about 28 years old and the rubber feet had perished, so I did a quick repair using old bike inner-tube rubber. It’ll do the trick. I use another one on the hardanger fiddle, but it’s convenient to have one on each fiddle because different tunes sometimes demand different instruments.
Prepared some satay and rice for dinner – I love the Pataks simmer sauces – they make life so easy: just chop up an onion, some capsicum, a potato or two into cubes, add some Chinese stir-fry vegies throw the lot into a pan with the sauce and a half-sauce-jar of water and simmer for about 20 minutes (meanwhile dump a couple of cups of rice, dash of salt and a couple of cups of water into the rice cooker and set and forget). The smoke alarm tells you when it’s ready 😉 …er actually no, you remember to stir the satay occasionally and cook until the spuds are no longer crunchy, and serve when the rice is cooked – easy!
Then off to the bus depot to collect my daughter from her trip to Sydney where she is appearing (briefly) in a movie being filmed there – the “Mary Briant”. Eve was most appreciative of a hot dinner after a week of 4.00AM starts and a long cold and wet ride home on the bus. We shared a cup of tea and a exchanged news – her costumes look fabulous… but what have they done to her hair!! I guess the 1780s were a time for big hair and bustles…
Otherwise just a normal day really
cheers
Jerry
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Posted by jerry on July 2nd, 2004 — Posted in Journal, Recipes
Has someone thrown you a challenge by saying they love scones, but are gluten intolerant? This recipe will be no good if you are sensitive to eggs and milk, but will produce lovely gluten free scones. And here’s how to make them:
Gluten Free Scones
Ingredients
1 x cup rice flour
1 x cup cornflour (ensure it is 100 percent maize and certified gluten free)
1 x teaspoon gluten free baking soda
1/2 x teaspoon guar gum
2 x generous table spoons margarine
4 x tablespoons castor sugar (or three of castor sugar and one of brown sugar)
2 x eggs
1 x tablespoons milk
tools
1 x oven
1 x baking tray
1 x bowl with electric mixer (with beaters and dough hooks)
1 x sheet baking paper
1 x flour sifter
1 x round pastry cutter
Method
Prepare a baking tray with baking paper, and pre heat the oven to 180 degrees Centigrade
Sift the flours, baking soda, and guar gum into a bowl using a sifter that is scrupulously clean or that has not seen wheat flour.
Add the margarine and beat with the beaters until the mix resembles bread crumbs
Add the sugar and mix well. Remove the beaters and insert dough hooks into the mixer.
Add the two eggs and the milk and mix with the dough hooks until the mix has a satin sheen and is elastic. Add more cornflour if the mix is too sticky, or more milk if the mix is too dry.
Turn the mix out onto a bench top or clean board floured with cornflour. Knead lightly and pat down to a about one and a half inches and cut rounds with a pastry cutter dipped in cornflour and place onto the baking sheet.
Lightly brush a little milk on the tops of each of the scones, then place the tray in the top shelf of the oven and bake for about 15 minutes.
By the time I took this photo there were only two left!
Fresh Scones
Cheers
Jerry
7 Comments »
Posted by jerry on May 8th, 2004 — Posted in Journal, Recipes
Got a chocolate party to go to? This is a quick and easy – and delicious – chocaholic’s delight!
Ingredients:
2 bars of dark cooking chocolate
2 tablespoons butter or margarine
1 teaspoon of instant coffee
1 egg (optional)
half a packet of milk arrowroot or other plain biscuits
Method:
Half fill a large pan with water, bring to boil. In a second (and smaller) pot put in the chocolate and margarine and put that pot in the larger one so it works as a ‘double boiler’ – the contents of the smaller pot should be melted slowly and stirred in together.
Boil a kettle and use just enough hot water to dissolve the instant coffee (about a teaspoon) and pour the coffee into the chocolate and stir in well.
Take a bowl and break the biscuits into pea-sized chunks.
Take the chocolate mix off the heat and allow to cool. Stir in the egg (optional).
Now add the biscuit pieces and stir until well covered in chocolate.
Pour the mix into a bar-tin lined with baking (greaseproof) paper
Refrigerate until set – about 2 hours.
Turn out the bar onto a board upside down, making sure the paper is completely removed, dust with icing sugar and slice thinly to serve.
This has been adapted from the recipe of a family friend called Makiko 🙂
Variations can include half a cup of mixed dried fruit, or nuts substituted for an equivalent amount of the biscuits.
Enjoy!
cheers
Jerry
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