Homemade Walnut Whips - RECIPE (Cheats Method !)

Like Walnut Whips ? You'll love these !

With out simple recipe, they are SO easy to make as well as being cheaper, bigger and tastier than shop bought.....

No cooking and just 3 (or 4) ingredients

INGREDIENTS (makes 8)

8 Walnut halves
400g of your choice of chocolate - I used Belgian milk chocolate

1 jar of marshmallow fluff

3 tablespoons (approx) of nutella - optional

To make these, you will need an 8 cell silicone DARIOLE mould - available from www.siliconemoulds.com in a choice of red or black. The 8 cell silicone dariole mould is a really handy silicone bakeware mould to have in your kitchen. We also used it to make these english madeleines and bicardi jelly shots - both of which are very easy recipes to make

The pretty gift box was made using the Crafters Companion - The Boxer ... which is a scoring board for making gift boxes. I used two sheets of Kanban A4 stock card and scored them at 5cm right round. I cut an aperture window for the box lid and put some acetate behind it. So simple.

First of all, chop up your chocolate and put it into a PLASTIC microwavable bowl. 

I only ever use plastic bowls when working with chocolate, as chocolate is very heat sensitive. Glass retains heat and keeps warming the chocolate long after you want to.

Microwave at 50% power for 30 second bursts, stirring each time and scraping the bowl with a silicone spatula - even if it looks like nothing is happening to start with. When the chocolate is about 50% melted, take out and just keep stirring until all the chocolate melts. If you microwave or over heat chocolate and take it out of temper you will either get fat bloom or sugar bloom.... so don't over-do it.

Using a brush or back of a spoon, coat the inside of all the cells of your dariole mould with chocolate. As it sets, you can add a second layer if required. Remember to keep back some chocolate to cap the walnut whips after adding the filling. 

You will need a plastic sandwich bag or disposable piping bag. I turned mine inside out and rubbed a little oil into the surface. This was to help make it easier to open up and reload with more mashmallow fluff.

Open up the piping bag and place into a glass or mug, folding the top of the bag over the rim. This makes it easy to hold the jar with one hand and spoon in the mallow with the other.

Pipe the mallow in to about 12mm below the rim and then add some nutella on top - leaving about a 6mm gap to cap it with chocolate. I did some with and some without the nutella as you can see below.

Finally, cap the cells with more melted chocolate.

NOTE - the ones with nutella on top of the mallow were much easier to cap. The chocolate happily sat on top of the nutella layer. If using marshmallow fluff , add a very THIN layer of chocolate and when set, cap off with more. If you add more than a smidge of chocolate directly on top of the fluff before hardening, it sinks and the mallow comes up - so it ends up insides on the outsides !

Pop into the fridge for 20 mins to harden before releasing. They pop out so easily.

A little more chocolate on the top and pop on the walnut. Handle these with gloves, or you'll leave fingerprints on the chocolate.

Have fun !

Sarah-Jane, www-siliconemoulds.com - April 2014

Homemade Peanut Butter Cups - and Brownies !

Love peanut butter cups ? Well - you'll ADORE mine !

Not only are these easy to make, but they knock spots off store bought and look fantastic as part of a chocolate box or on top of cupcakes, brownies etc.

To make approx 45 peanut butter cups, you will need :

3 x 15 cell chocolate / caramel cup wheel silicone mould

150g belgian milk chocolate (preferably couverture)
100g crunchy peanut butter

50g salted butter - at room temperature

100 > 125g of icing (powdered) sugar

200g belgian white chocolate

70mls of double cream (scalded)

coloured sprinkes to decorate

First of all, put the milk chocolate in a plastic bowl. Microwave at 50% power for 30 second bursts, stirring each time. When the chocolate is about 3/4 melted, take out and just keep stirring until it is all melted and you cannot feel it if touching a tiny bit to your upper lip.

The good thing about melting couverture chocolate this way is that as long as the chocolate does not get too warm, it will stay in temper. Out of temper chocolate goes horrible - either 

Use a small paintbrush with non-shedding bristles (kept for kitchen use only) and coat the sides of each cell in chocolate. Allow to start to harden, then make a second coat. Excuse the rubbish photo from my mobile !

After making a second coat of chocolate, place the mould upside down on a cooling rack. This allows the chocolate to settle nicely on the inside and gives a nice even coating.

Once the chocolate starts to set, pop the moulds in the fridge for about 10 mins or so, so the chocolate gets really hard whilst you make the filling.

Put the peanut butter and butter in a bowl and whip until creamy. Add the icing sugar and beat some more until thick, but fairly smooth. If it's a bit like rubble, add a tiny amount of boiling water (approx 1 tablespoon will do)

Put into a disposable piping bag, and pipe a little of this mixture to a couple of mm below the top of the cell. You can then seal the top of the chocolates with some more melted milk chocolate, or make the whipped white chocolate ganache....

For the white chocolate ganache, scald the cream in a pot on the stove - or in a bowl in the microwave. Pour the hot cream over the chopped white chocolate. If it doesn't totally melt, pop the bowl of chocolate and scalded cream in the microwave and stir every few seconds until melted.

Take out the microwave and allow to cool for a few minutes, then using a hand held electric whisk, beat until the ganache starts to hold in peaks. It can now be piped on top of your chocolates and decorated with a few sprinkles.

Theses are so cute, they're irresistible.....

So - what can be better, but to pair them with some thick fudgey frosting and seriously delicious, decadent peanut butter cup brownies ? I wouldn't waste the homemade peanut butter cups in the batter though - far easier to use Reese's for baking.

RECIPE - makes 9 large brownies

For this, you need an 8" square silicone pan / mould, lightly buttered.

Pre-heat oven to 180deg C

175g of salted butter

175g of dark chocolate

3 large eggs
300g sugar
2 tsp instant coffee granules
60g cocoa powder
75g plain flour
226g pouch of Reeses Mini Peanut Butter cups - or other candy if preferred

Melt the butter and chocolate together with the coffee granules in a large pot.

Combine eggs and sugar together until just combined. Add into pot and whisk with electric whisk. Add dry ingredients and then whisk again for a short time until combined and no lumps can be seen,

Place the 8" square silicone baking pan on to a tray and use a silicone spatula to scrap the mix into the prepared pan. Pop in the peanut butter cups and press into the batter. Keep the candies 1 > 2cm away from the sides of the mould (as this bit will get trimmed off later)

Bake in middle shelf of the oven for approx 35 mins. The outside should all be set, but it will still be a little wet and have a bit of a wobble in the middle.

Remove and leave to cool, then refrigerate over night before cutting.

When chilled and firm, the brownie will release easily from the silicone pan.

Simply bend the sides down and lift out the brownie.

Place on a cutting board, and using a sharp knife, trim the outsides of the brownie off.

Cut remaining brownie into 9 squares.

FROSTING AS SHOWN

100g of Sunpat ChocoNut Spread, 75g of butter, icing sugar (quite a lot) and a little hot water - whipped together until a fudge like consistency achieved.

Pipe a swirl on top of each brownie square and top with a homemade peanut butter cup.

Sarah-Jane Nash - www.siliconemoulds.com

Awesome Honeycomb / Puff Candy Recipe - Fast and Easy !

Ah - so who was it wanted this recipe again ?

Let me see...... I think it was almost all of out on our Facebook Page !

Sorry it's taken me so long. Time to get this little blog back up to date.

In the UK, we call this stuff honeycomb, hokey pokey and even puff candy. You'll know the stuff - it's like the inside of a Crunchie Candy Bar. However, if you have ever made it at home, you'll find it's never quite like the inside of a Crunchie bar.

The biggest differences are that the air bubbles in the home made stuff are normally much bigger.

It really sinks in the middle of the pan.

Impossible to score into chunks and shatters into crumbs or millions of pieces.

Sticks to your teeth and your jaws lock together.

Well - this recipe sorts out almost all of the problems. I say ALMOST as it's still a devil to cut.... but as long as you score and then snap, it's an awful lot better than the way most people make it.

I made the pretty Bird house gift box using the Crafters Companion Sweet Treats boards  - which lets you make loads of cute gift boxes in various shapes such as milk cartons and takeout boxes very simply with A4 card stock. Even better - currently comes as a bundle with a DVD.

You should be able to see from the photos that the air bubbles are tight and close together than when golden syrup is used. For this recipe, you DO need corn syrup - otherwise the texture and bite is very different. Most larger Tesco's now stock it in the American section - or you can buy it on Amazon.co.uk

This honeycomb candy will store for a few days only in an airtight jar - but if you dip (totally) in tempered chocolate, it stores well for a couple of months... if you can resist it that long.

1/2 tsp gelatin granules 

1 tsp of water

1.1/2 cups (375mls total measure in a jug) of white, granulated sugar

1/2 cup / 125mls corn syrup

1 tablespoon of honey

1/2 cup / 125mls water

1.1/2 tablespoons of bicarbonate of soda (sifted)

Preparation is key here. Get everything ready before you start and have it all to hand.

You will need an 8" square silicone bakeware pan / mould.

Mix the gelatine granules and 1 tsp of water together and set aside.

Sift the bicarbonate of soda and set aside.

Keep both of these very close by you - along with a whisk !

Put the corn syrup, honey, sugar and water in a large heavy based pan. Give a little stir to combine and then put on heat and bring to the boil. DON'T STIR !

Brush the sides of the pan down on the inside with a wet pastry brush to make sure no sugar is crystallizing in the pan.

Using a candy thermometer, take the temperature up to around 146 > 148deg C. The syrup should be a mid honey colour.

Remove from the heat and let it sit until it stops bubbling. Whisk in the soaked gelatine granules until they melt - it's going to bubble up..... and put back on a medium heat.

The mix will start to loosen up again very quickly. Dump in the bicarbonate of soda and give it a good whisk. It will foam like a volcano. You need to mix in all the white powder - but it's critical to only just mix it in and no more. Whisk too much and the whole lot will go flat ! It only takes about 20 seconds.

Tip the whole lot out in one swift move into the 8" pan. It will rise a bit - probably above the pan - then fall back some.

Set aside (don't move it) for 3 or 4 hours to cool and harden.

Score with a serrated knife and snap into strips. You can then score again and snap into chunks.

Any left over rubble like chunks are awesome sprinkled over ice cream.

Sarah-Jane Nash - www.siliconemoulds.com - February 2014

Chocolate Baileys Salt Water Taffy Candies / Chewy Sweets

My poor blog is feeling somewhat ignored these days. I'm really sorry - but sometimes life takes over and other things get in the way ! Time to show you a few things I've been up to and share some recipes.

I created this Chocolate Baileys sweets just before Christmas. They've kept amazingly well and are still fresh as a daisy. These are verging on hard candies. They're not chewable - more like boiled sweets and last ages and ages in the mouth. If you want chewy, drop the temperature a few degrees.

2 cups granulated sugar

1 cup of corn syrup

2 tablespoons of butter

1 tsp salt

2 tablespoons of corn flour

1/2 cup of good cocoa powder

1/3 cup water

1/2 a cup of Baileys Irish Cream Liquer

Combine all the ingredients in a large, non stick pan and stir to make sure there are no lumps.

Put on the heat and boil until temperature reaches 260deg F / 126 deg C

Pour out on to a well buttered / greased pan or on to a massive silicone work mat. Leave it for 5 mins to cool a little.

Put on two lots of vinyl gloves and grease your hands well with favourless oil or butter.

Pull and twist, pull and twist into ropes for about 15 minutes - until you can pull no more.

Cut into 1" long pieces with oiled scissors and allow to fully cool and harden before wrapping in silicone baking paper.

Sarah-Jane Nash, www.siliconemoulds.com - February 2014

Peanut Nougatine Chocolate Truffle Slicing / Sharing Log - A Real Treat !

Often, my creations don't come out as I originally intended. Like this one... 

In the beginning, I intended to make a peanut nougat - but on tasting the mixture, decided it was a bit too sickly sweet on it's own and then transformed it into these slicing bars.

Thankfully, I made a note of exactly what I did / used along the way ! If you have made marshmallows before, you'll find this a breeze.

Actually, I think it would be mind blowing done with pistachio nuts and dipped in white or dark chocolate.... 

This recipe creates quite a large batch. Either 6 large slicing bars, or 4 large / 4 medium or 8 medium. Ideal for Christmas hampers !

Recipe

 Ingredients .... For the Nougatine : 

2 egg whites

1.1/2 cups / 320g granulated sugar 

150ml corn syrup (or glucose)

150ml golden syrup

2tsp of Frangelico (hazelnut liquer) - if you have any
2tsp vanilla extract

60ml water

150g of crunchy peanut butter - eg Sunpat / JIF
sea salt

125g of white chocolate

200g salted peanuts

Ingredients ...... for the ganache

500g of milk (or dark) chocolate
1 tsp glucose / corn syrup
275g double cream

Belgian couverture chocolate for coating (sorry - I did not weigh how much I used)

You will need liquid glucose. Liquid glucose is very very thick and sticky - not unlike golden syrup I suppose - but totally clear and even stickier still. Most supermarkets stock it in 140g tubes, or you can buy it from Boots The Chemist. Do ask for it at Boots though as it is generally not on display. Alternatively, corn syrup is what is used in most American recipes for nougat. I've just found it on Ebay and Amazon in the UK, so if you are struggling for liquid glucose then you will need some corn syrup.

You CAN use all corn syrup / glucose in this recipe if you prefer. I wanted a golden tint from the golden syrup for this nougat, but all golden syrup would have made it far too sickly sweet. It's seriously sweet as it is ! I'd suggest you invest in some corn syrup...

You WILL need a sugar thermometer. Don't even think of trying this without one - temperature is absolutely critical. Too high and you'll burn the caramel part and too low it'll just never set....

For those in the UK, corn syrup can be bought from Amazon.co.uk. Works out considerably cheaper than buying liquid glucose. Golden syrup can be used as a substitute, but it's a lot sweeter in taste. Worth investing in corn syrup for candy making - the difference (ease) is incredible. Some larger branches of TESCO now also have a small American isle and now stock corn syrup.

METHOD

Scrape the seeds out the vanilla pod and put aside (if using instead of extract). Put the pod itself and the sugar, corn syrup, golden syrup and water into a large, heavy based saucepan (preferably non stick - you'll appreciate that later !)

Bring these slowly to a rolling boil and keep on the heat until temperature reaches 248  to 250deg F. This will take about 15 to 20 mins.

Melt the chocolate, peanut butter and vanilla / frangelico together.

Whip the egg whites to firm peak. With the mixer on full, pour in the hot syrup on to the egg whites. Now mix in the melted chocolate / peanut butter / vanilla / frangelico. Only mix for about 1 > 2 minutes after adding the peanut butter mix. 

Scrape into a well oiled 8" square silicone mould / pan and sprinkle with Maldon sea salt. Leave to cool and then refrigerate until set.

Remove from the mould and place between two sheets of greaseproof paper. Roll out to approx 14" square. You can now cut this into two pieces, or leave whole and cut later....  I put my nougatine (bottom paper still in place) on top of my tray. The tray I used is a vegetable roasting tray that came from Lakeland. It's very handy and big - also fits perfectly over my sink !

Pulse the salted peanuts a couple of times in a food processor to break up a little, then spread all over the nougatine and press into the surface.

------------------------

To make the ganache : scald the cream - ie put in a pan and bring just to the boil. Make sure to stir constantly so it does not catch on the base of the pan.

 Put the chocolate in the microwave for about 1 minute to start it softening. Take cream off the heat, and then pour over the chocolate. Add the glucose / corn syrup. Mix with a spatula until all the chocolate has melted and emulsified with the cream. Set aside to cool and thicken. It's ideal if you shove it in the fridge for an hour or two.

When spreadable (a bit like nutella out of a jar - actually - that would be a damn good cheat !), use all of it to spread over the nougatine.

Put in the fridge to harden up a bit for another hour or so.

I then trimmed up the end with a knife and cut it into two pieces.

Dust your hands and work surface liberally with icing sugar. Use the paper to help roll each piece up from the long end, much like a swiss roll. You'll end up with what looks like those marrowbone things for the dog !

Roll out each large sausage and then divide as required. I made 4 great big fat pieces about 8" long and 2" dia, plus 4 smaller ones - approx 6" long and 1" dia.

Wrap each piece individually in cling film / saran wrap and pop in the freezer for an hour or two to harden. They need to be quite firm and stay rigid when you handle them for dipping in chocolate.

When hardened (but NOT frozen solid !) remove from the freezer. Temper some Belgian couverture chocolate - either milk or dark - white will be much too sweet. I have no idea how much chocolate I used - but I'd guess around 500g.

Put on a pair of disposable vinyl gloves and dunk the whole bar in the chocolate, allowing excess to run off. Don't try dipping these with forks etc - at this size, you've no chance ! The gloves may stick to the chocolate a little, so take fingers straight back off and immediately re dunk.

Place on a silicone baking sheet and allow to harden. The chocolate will harden quickly as the bars are quite cold.

Store and serve the bars at room temperature. Slice with a warm, sharp knife into 1cm / 3/8" thick slices.

Enjoy !

Mum - one is on it's way to you. Oliver and I thoroughly enjoyed our visit from Nanny and Pappy last weekend. x

Sarah-Jane Nash - www.siliconemoulds.com - November 2013

Scary Edible Eyeballs - Marshmallows To Trick or Treat ! HALLOWEEN

Anyone fancy an eyeball ? 

I had a blast making these up this afternoon. From the moment I thought of the idea, I just knew that my little boy (Oliver) would adore them. 

Oliver has his 5th birthday coming up, and his party will be on 27th October - which is rather close to Halloween. I rather like the idea of potting up these edible eyeballs with some green gummy jelly in pots for his party bags and perhaps filling a chocolate skull with them too.

"Oh WOW - you're the coolest Mummy I know !", Oliver declared on the way home tonight. I'm guessing that means that he likes this idea..... Certainly made me giggle !

Might be even better with red goo in the middle. Deeeelicious !

Want to know how to make them ?

You will need : 

gel paste food colouring (I used black, blue and green). I prefer Wilton gel pastes as they dissolve easily in water, whereas some of the others don't. 

cocktail sticks

piping bag - I use these disposable 18" ones for this (you can wash out and re-use...)

4 x 15 cell bonbon (semi sphere) silicone bakeware moulds (or do a smaller batch and use two)

sugar thermometer

cake release spray - or sunflower / vegetable oil

2 or 3 plastic 3ml pipettes (or small, empty syringe - available from chemist shops)

INGREDIENTS - makes 30 eyeballs ( and a little spare mallow)

FOR A SMALLER BATCH, MAKE HALF THE RECIPE VOLUME

pack of Gelatine granules. I used Dr Oeteker.

300g sugar

2 egg whites

water

some flavouring (vanilla extract, essences or Lor-Ann candy oils)

Make sure your flavourings are CLEAR.

PUPILS AND IRISES

Prepare your 4 x 15 cell semi sphere silicone bakeware molds by spraying with cake release spray, or oil using a vegetable oil on some kitchen roll. Marshmallow is the stickiest stuff you can imagine. If any of the mould is not properly prepared, the marshmallow WILL stick to it !

Put 50g of sugar and 100g or mls of boiling water into a jug. Stir to dissolve.

Set aside until luke warm, then sprinkle over a sachet of gelatine granules and stir well.

Pop this in the microwave, and cook in short bursts. Once the gelatine is all dissolved into the sugar solution, it is ready to use.

Pour about 1/3 of this into a separate bowl. Use a cocktail stick to add some black food colouring gel paste and mix well. The colour needs to be strong - not wishy washy - for the desired effect.

Using a pipette or syringe, put 3 drops of the black gelatine solution in 30 of the cells.

Take the remaining solution and colour it as desired for the iris. You may want to split into two or three batches for multiple colours.

Do not worry if it is setting hard too fast. You can zap it again in the microwave.

The gelatine mixure needs to be warm and very fluid. If you start getting lots of bubbles on top of the solution after piping, it may be getting too cool. 

Do make sure it's also not too hot - as we don't want the colours to bleed into each other.

By the time you have put black solution in for all the pupils, the first ones will have set. Go ahead and put approx 2mls of your coloured solution over the top of the set black gel.

It will now look like this....

The next stage is to make the marshmallow. This is a stronger / little more dense marshmallow than my normal recipe, as I want the eyeballs to stay intact even if subject to quite a lot of handling. As a result, it WILL start to set up on you quickly once mixed - so you need to work fast.

MARSHMALLOW

Put 500g of sugar and 250g of water in a large, heavy based pan

Put the sugar thermometer in, and turn on the heat. DO NOT STIR.

The sugar needs to stay on the heat and boil until it gets to 120deg C

Put 125ml of cold  water in a cup or bowl and add 3 sachets of gelatine granules. You can add flavouring to this as desired. I used 5 drops of Blackcurrant Lorann Candy Oil (use a pipette - it's strong stuff... Stir well and set aside....

When the sugar syrup gets to about 110deg C, whip the egg whites to firm peak.

Remove sugar syrup from heat at 120deg C. Allow  a few seconds for the bubbles / boiling to subside, then stir in the gelatine granules mix and dissolve.

Using a hand mixer on highest speed, whip the egg whites whilst pouring in the hot sugar syrup mix. It will be really soupy to start with. Whip hard and fast until thickening and increasing in volume. It needs to remain pourable.

Transfer into an 18" disposable piping bag. Snip a tiny bit off the end, and then pipe the mallow into all 60 cells, until level with the top of each cavity.

That's it !

Leave alone for a couple of hours, undisturbed.

Carefully, place one mould with the pupils and irises on top of a mould with just plain mallow cells - carefully making sure they line up.

Press down gently on the top of each cavity, to make sure the bases of each mallow stick together.

When the top mould is removed, you'll have eyeballs just like these !

Lightly oil your hands with vegetable or sunflower oil (or cake release spray).

Remove eyeballs from mould. The small amount of oil on your hands will stop the mallows sticking to you or anything else. These can now be potted up with some jelly in little pots as I did, put onto lolly sticks (dip stick in chocolate first), eaten as is, or frozen for future use.

I so want to make a specimen jar full of eyeballs and jelly worms !

Emma and Oliver loved them !

Happy Halloween when it comes .....

Sarah-Jane Nash, www.siliconemoulds.com - 10/10/13

Easy Chocolate Medallions - Gifts To Make At Home

Chocolate medallions are so simple and easy to make, yet make a stunning and delicious gift or nibbles to go with coffee after a dinner party. 

Using our silicone macaron mat (now available in black, red, lilac and brown colours), you can pipe a small amount of  tempered chocolate in to each cell and then pop a few pieces of dried fruit and nuts on top. The beauty of this is that every medallion will end up IDENTICAL in size.

Our macaroon / macaron mats are double sided. These medallions are 50mm / 2" diameter and made on the large side. However, if you flip the mat over, you can make smaller ones by using the other side.

Simply package up in a pretty little box, cello bag, or even a little wire frame basket like this. Chocolate medallions really have a wow factor despite being the easiest chocolate gift you will ever make !

Pass the plate please !

Sarah-Jane Nash - January 2013 - www.siliconemoulds.com

Bailey's Irish Cream Marshmallows - Luxurious Hot Chocolate Topping

This is a delightfully indulgent and sinfully good ADULT treat. These Irish Cream Liqueur marshmallows are pillowy soft and would make a lovely inclusion to any Christmas gift hamper. Serve on top of hot chocolate with whipped cream and relax in front of a roaring log fire.

Alternatively, pop three or four on a stick, coat in chocolate and roll in chopped nuts.

These are truly delicious. However due to the alcohol and fat content in the cream liqueur, these marshmallows get a slightly gritty texture after a couple of days so are best eaten fresh. However, they'll keep a good couple of weeks in an air tight container for putting on top of hot chocolate and the texture isn't an issue when they're melted !

This recipe is adapted from River Cottage

500g sugar

250mls water

2 sachets (about 24g) of gelatine granules - I used Dr Oeteker
125ml Bailey's Irish Cream Liqueur

2 egg whites - room temperature

Put the sugar and water in a large heavy based pan.

Put the Bailey's in a small bowl, sprinkle on the gelatine granules (you may want to stir) and leave to bloom for about 10 minutes.

Bring the sugar and water to the boil. Do NOT stir. Boil for about 5 mins until the sugar temperature reaches 122 deg C. You will need a little digital probe thermometer and these can be purchased for under £5.00 including postage on Ebay.

When the temperature of the sugar syrup reaches 110deg C, whip the egg whites to stiff peak.

When the sugar syrup gets to 122deg C , remove from the heat. Allow to sit for a minute or so and then stir in the Baileys / gelatine mix.

Whilst beating the egg whites, slowly pour in the sugar syrup mix - avoiding it directly touching the beaters. You can use a hand held mixer for this.

When thickened (but pourable) - pour into a lightly oiled Swiss Tray Bake silicone bakeware mould. Allow to set for at least 3 hours until firm.

Cut into squares and then roll in a 50 : 50 mix of powdered sugar and cornflour - or into cocoa powder.

Sarah-Jane Nash - September 2012

Maple and Walnut Fudge - It's Quick and Easy !

I've blogged my fudge recipe a few times before - it's quick, easy and very versatile. Just change a few small things and you can create any flavour you wish. I promise - this is far nicer than shop bought fudge.

It keeps a fair amount of time too - 2 > 3 weeks in a tupperware box in the fridge. I've never tried not refrigerating it - so no idea if it will survive non refrigerated for more than a few days.

The main thing is : DON'T FORGET TO STIR ! You do need to stir this stuff constantly or it will burn on the bottom of the pan in the blink of an eye.... 

INGREDIENTS

2 cups (250ml liquid volume) of sugar

1/2 cup of evaporated milk

125g salted butter (or unsalted plus a pinch of salt)

1/4 cup of maple syrup 

100g of marshmallows

125g white chocolate (chopped)

1/2 cup of chopped "add-ins" (in this case walnuts) - plus extra for the top

Put the sugar, evaporated milk, maple syrup, butter and marshmallows in a large heavy based pan. Do make sure it is a large pan - and preferably non stick - as this stuff can and will bubble volcanically ! There is nothing worse than getting hot sugar on your skin - it can inflict some rather serious burns.

Bring slowly to a rolling boil. As soon as a gentle rolling boil is achieved, time for 5 minutes.

Stir constantly - there will be some carmelized brown bits come to the surface. This will not appear in the finished product. If you stop stirring, it will catch and burn however.

As soon as the 5 minutes of boiling is up, stir in the chocolate and add ins until the chocolate is melted.

Immediately pour into a 9" square silicone bakeware pan or alternatively a 12 sponge finger mould as I used in the video and put some extra walnuts on top.

Leave to cool before slicing.

For other variations, try milk or dark chocolate, 3/4 cup of evaporated milk plus some vanilla, rosewater or other flavour extract. For alcoholic versions - use 1/2 cup of evaporated milk and 1/4 cup of alcohol (ie Bailey's, Malibu, Whisky, Cointreau, etc). For add-ins..... pretty much any dried fruit and nuts work, broken cookies, candy / sweets such as maltesers, m&m's etc.

Have fun creating and let me know what combinations you make !

Sarah-Jane Nash, www.siliconemoulds.com - September 2012

Scottish Macaroon Bars - These Might Surprise You....

If you have never eaten Scottish Macaroon bars before, these could surprise you. It's not a cookie or patisserie type thing unlike macaroons or macarons. It's a confectionery item / candy you'll find in sweet counters and something I grew up with as a kid.

I think it's quite unique to Scotland. The Scottish have a bit of a reputation for on one hand for having a sweet tooth and on the other, deep frying everything from pizza (no joke - dipped in batter and deep fried !) to mars bars.

This is a very traditional recipe and so easy to make. It's tasty, will send your blood sugar stupidly high and rot your teeth. It will also make you want more. Don't say I didn't warn you !!!

It's a very easy recipe. I managed to keep some on my desk in a tupperware box as I hadn't got round to photographing it. Three weeks later (non refrigerated) it tasted as good as it was fresh and colleagues were more than happy to scoff it.

I seem to have had a chocolate / coconut thing going on this last month. If coconut is not your thing, I promise that this is the last coconut one for a little while.

Note that ingredient's list is VERY loose as to quantities. It's not something you can strictly follow

You'll need  :

A 1kg box of powdered sugar / icing sugar. - expect to use around 600g at least

200g milk chocolate ( I actually used about 125g milk, 75g dark to make it a little less sweet if that's even possible !)

some dessicated coconut, toasted until golden

approx 150g of smooth, mashed potato. Yup - you DID read right ! 

Please note - you want to mash the potato until smooth but DO NOT add milk or butter to it. You want just one medium sized, floury potato which has been mashed.

Add sieved powdered sugar and knead together until you obtain a stiff dough - not dissimilar to making peppermint creams I suppose. Pinch off a little piece and taste it. You shouldn't "taste" potato. If you do, add a tiny amount of water and more icing sugar, then taste again. This can be repeated as requried.

Roll it out and cut into bars. This is VERY sweet. I cut it into 2" / 5cm square pieces and about 1cm thick, which is plenty big enough This now has to sit to dry out. I had to leave mine overnight, turn it and then leave another day.

As soon as it is set and fairly firm / dry to touch, dip in melted chocolate and then roll in toasted dessicated coconut. Place on a silicone baking sheet until set.

That's all there is to it !

I've been so behind in Blogging that I'd better do a quite update on April.

Oliver got a new training / balance bike. These have no pedals so promote balance. He can zip about on that thing SO quickly and his feet were off the ground going down slopes within about 15 mins of first getting on it.   The idea is that kids never have the need for stabilisers, but move right on to a pedal bike.

We also decided he was big enough to move out the cotbed. We've been decorating his room and Oliver now has a big boy cabin bed. There was a lot of excitement building it with Daddy !

Desperate to go to bed even before we get covers on it !

Didn't take long at all for the toys to move in underneath. I THOUGHT it would tidy up my living room, but they are constantly carted downstairs.... Room isn't quite finished yet. Steve is painting space ships / aliens / planets on the walls.

 

Oliver scoffing one of Tim Kinnaird's macarons at Wymondham Farmer's Market. 

I was told immediately after that we had to bake more macarons. They're requested on a regular basis.

Sarah-Jane Nash, May 2012