Home-made chocolates

I bought silicone moulds for chocolates in the French bookshop in Lafayette Berlin. I tried them out today, and they are great!

I made up these 4 fillings, it's pretty difficult to find decent recipes on the internet


For the "body" of the chocolates, I melted 70% chocolate from Lidl over boiling water. Then I covered the moulds with chocolate and put them in the fridge

From left to right: nut liqueur lovelies, vanilla ducats, cherry hearts, nougat-brittle bites

1) Nougat-brittle bites

Melt nougat over boiling water. Add single cream to soften it a bit. Add hazelnut brittle (I don't know the proper English term, it's caramelized hazelnut bits).

2) Cherry hearts

Basic chocolate ganache: Use equal amounts of single cream and milk chocolate. Bring the cream to boil and pour it over the chocolate (broken into bits) in several loads. Stir everything together. Add cherry liqueur to taste.

3) Vanilla ducats

I improvised, mixing single cream, a bit of butter, white chocolate and vanilla essence.

4) Nut liqueur lovelies

Add nut liqueur to the basic ganache above.

I filled the moulds, put them in the fridge to set, and then poured more dark chocolates over them as the bases.

I also made some "Rohkostpralinen", which we used to buy from Confiserie Rottenhöfer in Munich.

I dipped dried figs into chocolate and placed a walnut half on each.

I filled the dried plums with nougat (actually the leftover filling from the chocolates above), placed a hazelnut on the opening and dipped them into chocolates.

I will give them out as presents!

Estelle's wonderful apple cake

I made this for my friend Anna's birthday and we had it served at Jamie's Italien.
A super easy but super yummy cake. The recipe is courtesy of my dear Estelle.

You need (for a 20m cake):

8 tbsp. flour
8 tbsp. sugar
8 tbsp. milk
pinch of salt
3 eggs
5 tbsp. vegetable oil
3-4 apples

for the icing:
1 egg
100 g sugar
80 g butter
a bit of vanilla essence

Mix all ingredients and pour the batter in the tin. Cut the apples into relatively thin slices and place them on the batter (they will sink).

Bake for 20 minutes at 180 degrees (preheated).

Mix the icing and pour it over the cake. Bake for another 15-20 minutes until it looks golden and caramelized.

Lemon Drizzle Cupcakes

This is another variation of the trusted recipe off the Sainsbury's self-raising flour.

You need (makes about 18):
275 g self-raising flour
3 eggs
175 g sugar
200 g butter
2 lemons
icing sugar

Take the butter and the eggs out of the fridge well in advance. When they are room temperature mix the butter and the sugar. Then add one egg at a time plus the zest of the lemons and the juice of one.

Fold in the flour with a wooden spoon (it stops Gluten from developing, I heard on breakfast the other day).

Use a tablespoon and a knife to fill the cupcake bases.

Bake for 15-20 minutes at 175 degrees.

Mix lemon juice and icing sugar. I like the icing to be quite runny.
Ice the cakes.

Chocolate Swirls

These are lovely yeast-doughy buns. They are adapted from a recipe of the great Sarah Wiener (if you speak German, I highly recommend her book La Dolce Wiener)

You need (for 10-12):

150 ml

half a sachet of dried yeast

325g plain flour

75g Butter

1 smallish egg

half a tsp. salt

75g sugar

Some spreading butter

Sweet cocoa powder

1 egg, beaten

Heat the milk in the microwave for a minute. Stir in the yeast. 

Melt the butter and mix it with the flour, sugar, salt, and the egg. 

Make a well in the flour and add the milk. Mix it together. Knead the dough with your hand for 5 to 10 minutes, adding flour if it's too sticky. 

Put the covered dough in a warm place for at least 30 minutes. Spread soft butter on it and sprinkle a good layer of cocoa powder on top.

Roll out the dough in a rectangular shape, 5mm thick. 

Roll it up and cut it in 3cm thick slices. Put the swirls on a tray and glaze them with beaten egg.

Bake at 250 degrees for about 8 minutes.

Focaccia

This is rosemary garlic bread made with pizza dough. Simple but yummy, your guests will love it alongside any dinner.

You need (for 2 rectangles)

500 g of flour

1 sachet of dried yeast

325 ml lukewarm water

half a tablespoon of sugar

1 teaspoon salt

rock salt

fresh rosemary

olive oil

garlic

Mix a couple of tablespoons of olive oil with chopped garlic and leave at the side.

Dissolve the yeast in the water. Mix the flour, sugar and salt. Stir in the water with a fork. Knead the dough for 5 to 10 minutes. Don't worry if it keeps sticking to your hands, just get it off with the fork when you've finished kneading. 

Put the dough in a bowl and cover it with a kitchen towel. Put it in a warm place for at least half an hour (or in the oven at 60 degrees). 

Put half the dough on a tray lined with greaseproof paper. Flatten it with your fingers. 

Brush on the garlic oil. Sprinkle rosemary and rock salt on top. 

Bake at 250 degrees for roughly 10 minutes or until golden brown.

Ghanaian Greek Yoghurt

This is a bit of a random invention. My Ghanaian hostmum first introduced me to plantain. It's eaten as a vegetable in Ghana. Anyway, I bought some at the local market and fried them. Since I had not cooked anything else, I decided to improvise. I love banana and greek yoghurt, so why not try plantain!

You simply fry slices of ripe plantain in butter.

Keep stiring as they burn rather quickly. Fry until they are golden brown.

Place on natural greek yoghurt. You can add a bit of honey, but really the plantain is sweet enough.

Meet me for Afternoon Tea

... at the Grand Café in Oxford

Model: Anna Shelton           Dress: Coast