Chocolate Biscuit Cake

Posted in Sweet Treats by Niav Halpin

It’s Easter so it just has to be chocolate for this week’s post! This simple ‘no bake’ biscuit cake recipe is one I have adapted from a Darina Allen’s cookbook ‘Easy Entertaining’ – the cake can be made in a loaf tin or in a circular loose-bottomed cake tin like my one in the picture. The ‘cake’ is quite rich and a small slice of it is delicious with a cup of tea or coffee. I had great fun as decorating it, the only problem now is having to wait until tomorrow to eat it!

Serves 8-10

Ingredients

2 tablespoons raisins, soaked in boiling water
225g (8 ozs) dark chocolate (60/70% cocoa solids)
225g (8 ozs) butter preferably unsalted
225g (8 ozs) plain biscuits, broken into pieces
1 dessertspoon castor sugar
2 eggs, preferably free range
½ teaspoon vanilla extract

Decoration

50g dark chocolate

8 inch / 20cm loose-bottomed cake tin, lined with cling film

Melt the chocolate in a bowl over hot water.
Whisk the eggs and sugar together until light and fluffy,
Melt the butter and whisk into the egg and sugar mixture while it is still hot – the mixture should thicken slightly.
Add in the melted chocolate, drained raisins and vanilla essence and finally the broken biscuits and mix well.
Press the mixture into the lined tin.
Allow to set in a cold place until firm enough to cut.

To decorate

Melt the chocolate over a bowl of hot water and spread lightly over the cake
Decorate as you wish – chopped nuts, smarties, jellies …… have fun!
Serve in (small!) slices.

Note: You can also make this in a loaf tin 5 x 8 inch (12.5 x 20.5cm) – top the mixture with chopped nuts before you leave it to cool.

21Feb2016

10 minute Energy Balls

Posted in Fit Food, Lunch, Sweet Treats by Niav Halpin

It is no coincidence that this week’s recipe is quick, easy, with ingredients to give you an energy boost! My weekly post is later than usual this week due to work pressures however worth the wait I hope! These energy balls are delicious, made in minutes and quite addictive. They are full of good things and contain only natural sugars. I have been trying to cut down on sugar over the past year and I get my ‘sweet fix’ now from dark chocolate (74% cocoa solids), these energy balls and these sugar-free chocolate chip cookies from a previous post. (I am sure any goodness is negated however once you eat more than 4 of them in one go!).

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12Feb2016

Divine chocolate mousse cake

Posted in Sweet Treats by Niav Halpin

A slightly later than usual blog post this week which almost didn’t happen as I have just gone back to work after a wonderful year off. This has upset my routine (just a little!) and trying to get this dish made and photographed after a day’s work has given me a few headaches. (Think it’s a bit too soon to ask for time off during the day to take my food pics!) However, I just had to share this absolutely divine chocolate recipe with you – just the delicious chocolatey smells coming out of your oven when it is cooking will have you and anyone else in your house drooling and waiting impatiently to dig in when it comes out. Dark, moist, delicate, pure chocolate heaven. It is unbelievably light as there is no flour in it so gluten-free as well. I normally wouldn’t recommend sharing this under any circumstances but given the weekend that is in it share it with someone very special if you must but only if you absolutely have to! So go on and indulge yourself – a glass of something bubbly with it and life won’t get much better.

The recipe is really really simple – equal quantities i.e. 150g of dark chocolate, butter and sugar and 3 eggs. That’s it!

Serves 6 (or one big serving!)

Ingredients

150g dark chocolate (60/70% cocoa solids)
150g softened unsalted butter (plus extra for greasing)
150g caster sugar
3 eggs separated
Icing sugar for dusting

Pre-heat the oven to 160° C / 325°F or Gas 3.

Grease a 20cm / 8in springform cake tin (an ordinary cake tin will work as well once it is well greased) and line the base with greaseproof paper.
Melt the chocolate in a bowl set over a pan of barely simmering water, making sure the bowl isn’t touching the water. Leave to cool.
Beat the butter and sugar together until pale and fluffy. Beat in the egg yolks, one at a time, then fold in the melted chocolate.
In another bowl whisk the egg whites until they stand in soft peaks.
Stir 2 large spoonfuls into the chocolate mixture to loosen it slightly and then gently fold in the remainder.
Put the mixture into the tin and bake for 1 hour or until a crust has formed on top and there is no ‘wobble’ in the middle.
The cake will rise up dramatically during the cooking but will sink once you take it out of the oven. It will also crack and this is perfectly normal.
Leave to cool on a wife rack, and remove from the tin.
Serve the cake dusted lightly with icing sugar and cream, ice-cream, raspberries and / or chocolate sauce.

5Feb2016

Pancakes

Posted in Sweet Treats by Niav Halpin

I absolutely love pancakes and this recipe is one that I have been using for many years now and produces lovely thin pancakes more like crêpes. (See previous post on mini pancakes for smaller thicker ones). There is no sugar added to this batter so they can be used for sweet or savoury fillings. If there is anything ever to ‘dislike’ about Pancake Tuesday it is having to stand over the hob making a load of them! This can be a bit of an endurance test (even more so after a day’s work!) as in my house this means making at least 20 pancakes, allowing 5 for each person. Having learnt the hard way I now make the batter the night before and if I have time I make some of the pancakes then as well to prevent things getting ugly because pancakes are being eaten quicker than I can make them! It also means that I can get to enjoy some myself (not totally unreasonable I don’t think!). Serve them with the traditional sugar/honey or golden syrup with lemon wedges, chocolate spread, jam, strawberries and chocolate sauce. The possibilities are endless. Yum! Continue reading →

15Jan2016

Avocado Chocolate Mousse

Posted in Fit Food, Sweet Treats by Niav Halpin

Avocado and chocolate in the same sentence??? Kind of hard to get your head around isn’t it? Can you think of any nicer way to eat something healthy and good for you than in a chocolate mousse??? Bring it on, I hear you say! Any time I mention the words avocado and chocolate in the same sentence, people turn their noses up BUT they are people who have never tried it. It is also possibly the quickest, simplest and healthiest chocolate mousse there is. Continue reading →

18Dec2015

Mini Chocolate Christmas Pudding

Posted in Sweet Treats by Niav Halpin

This is a recipe from Darina Allen’s Easy Entertaining cookbook, a cook I admire and trust and whose books will always be in my cookbook library. They are a cinch to make and a delicious, easy alternative to Christmas pudding for dessert as they are light, perfectly sized, take just 6 minutes in the oven and can be prepared in advance. What’s not to love about that! Continue reading →

11Dec2015

Gingerbread Men

Posted in Sweet Treats by Niav Halpin

These cookies are worth baking for the smell alone that will fill your house while they are in the oven. There is nothing like the scent of cinnamon and ginger to put you right in the Christmas mood. They are easy and fun to make and have a lovely crisp texture and gingery taste. I tested these out successfully on my Spanish classmates, on some of my swimming friends (yes they ate them at breakfast!) and also at a Book Club gathering and I promised everyone I would share the recipe. Everyone adores Gingerbread Men so they would make a great homemade Christmas gift. The mixture is made in a food processor so the only real work is in the rolling and cutting out and of course the decoration (which is the real fun bit!). They are great for children to make too as very little can go wrong with them. You can have lots of fun decorating them with icing sugar, silver or gold balls, raisins or edible gold or silver dust.

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27Nov2015

The Perfect Lemon Drizzle Cake

Posted in Sweet Treats by Niav Halpin

I don’t know anyone who doesn’t like this cake, it is universally popular more so I think than chocolate cake, and that is saying something. I gave some friends of mine a sample of this cake recently by way of a kind of ‘roadtest’ and the feedback was great. What I like most about the recipe is that it is so reliable – the cake comes out perfect every time. There is a nice short list of ingredients and equal quantities of butter, flour and sugar which make it really, really simple to make. Continue reading →

22Oct2015

Chocolate Oreo Brownies

Posted in Sweet Treats by Niav Halpin

These are simply the best brownies EVER. They are so good that I had to check with certain people in my family before publishing the recipe as I wasn’t sure if they would object to me sharing it! They are pretty irresistible, so much so that when I made them last week I barely managed to grab a few photos before they nearly all disappeared! When they are in the oven the house is filled with the wonderful, mouth-watering smell of chocolate. They have a wonderful soft, gooey texture and a delicious, rich chocolatey taste, and as if that wasn’t enough there are chunks of oreo biscuits in there as well. Is there anything better? Continue reading →

8Oct2015

Strawberry Meringue Ice Cream Cake

Posted in Sweet Treats by Niav Halpin

Think strawberries & cream, strawberry ice cream and pavlova all combined into a delicious, beautiful ice cream cake. This is a recipe of Rachel Allen’s and is an absolutely “wow” dessert, easy to make and would not be out of place on the menu for any dinner party, special occasion or as a dessert for Christmas dinner. The fact that it can be prepared ahead and kept in the freezer makes it a great choice for entertaining. All you have to do when you want to serve it, is take it out of the freezer, leave it for about 5 minutes, then decorate it with some fresh strawberries. Don’t be put off by the length of the instructions as each step is really easy. I do this in two stages – I make the meringues in the evening (after dinner) and then leave them to dry out in the oven overnight (with the oven door ajar). Then the next day whip the cream, whizz the strawberries and mix everything together . Continue reading →