Chocolate Roulade - a challenge

As promised here is an update on my post about Sponge (Swiss) Rolls. I don't recall ever attempting to make a sponge roll before, so failure last month (at the first attempt) was no real surprise to me.
However, I am extremely keen to master the perfect sponge roll. My goal is to make a Chocolate Roulade just like the one that appears on the front cover of the Cuisine November 2013 edition.  And..... and I want to win a case of Daniel Le Brun bubbles for the best entry in their Christmas recipe competition.
One month on I am still trying to get a Chocolate Roulade to roll without cracking and/or splitting. My husband thinks I am getting a little obsessive about it and he is over testing Chocolate Roulades! I followed the recipe carefully. So why is it so hard and why doesn't it look like the one on Cuisine cover? Hummmphh!
I went to my foodie friends and family bakers asking for their tips on 'how to get a sponge to actually roll' without splitting into three pieces.
This is the advice I garnered
Use a bigger/longer tin
Don't use a fan bake oven
Don't cook any longer than 10 mins at 180 degrees C
It should be cooked when you press your finger in the middle and it 'bounces back'
Let the roll cool slightly (what is slightly?), turn onto a damp tea towel, roll up
Turn it out onto a damp tea towel as soon as it is out of the oven, roll up asap
Cool slightly! Turn out onto a dry tea towel dusted with icing sugar - it will roll perfectly
Hubby's suggestion -Roll it long ways, the other way is across the grain - ummm I don't think it has a grain!
My idea - get a new shiny red Kitchen Aid - that will help - it didn't! But I am loving my new cake mixer just the same.
There is more to the perfect sponge roll than I realised!
I have taken all their expert advice on board - to no avail! My latest roll still cracked/split big time when I tried to roll it up. But I am not giving up! Further research on the web suggests to me I need to buy a different tin ( I was not aware tin size depended on how many eggs you used) and to use cornflour instead of flour (thinking about it, that's what my mother used for her sponges). Both tips are worth pursuing and I am going to have another crack at it (excuse the pun). Chocolate Roulade number four is coming up!
The good news is the end result still looks amazing, tastes wonderful and when the rolls are covered in chocolate you don't really notice the splits or,  that it is layers of slabs wrapped in cream.
I will nail the challenge as I love this recipe for its chocolaty richness and hazelnut flavours.
And it will have pride of place on my Christmas 2013 table.

Chocolate Roulade with Hazelnut Cream and Croquant - attempt # 3

Chocolate Roulade attempt # 2 - more like a slab!

Left over Chocolate Roulade for morning tea!

I love my new cake mixer

The best Chocolate Chip cookies

This month there seems to be a bit of a theme with my blogs - chocolate and cookies.
Chocolate -  since the Chocolate Festival I have slowly worked my way through all the lovely samples (and yes, unfortunately I had to share), i.e. bar one called Christmas, made by Shoc Chocolates. I'm saving that one for Christmas because.... well it is called Christmas. The small sample taste at their stall tasted like Plum pudding and Christmas cake so I'm really looking forward to devouring it at the appropriate time.
Cookies - actually we call them biscuits in New Zealand but in the United States (their) biscuits are more like our scones. Most people I know call a biscuit a biscuit and a scone a scone, but have I noted a cafe trend  of labeling biscuits cookies, perhaps it is for American visitors (so they don't think it is a scone???)
This week I've been having fun baking cookies, ok biscuits. This recipe is by far the best chocolate chip biscuit I have made and it comes from the iconic New Zealand 'Edmonds Cookery Book', the 1999 edition.
In a past blog I posted a Flat Biscuit recipe (which contained chocolate chips) but this recipe is by far superior and does not include eggs, handy if you have no eggs in the fridge at the time of baking or if there is an egg allergy that needs to be taken into consideration.
Yes, it involves creaming the butter, sugar and condensed milk but that's easy done with all the fancy appliances we have in our kitchen now. When I use to help my mother in the kitchen - my job was to use the hand held electric beater and stand while it mixed for about ten minutes! Great for young hands, not so great when you get older. Make sure you grease the tray otherwise you may have to chip them off (excuse the pun!).

Ready for the oven

Watch your oven temperature, I needed to turn my fan oven down a bit and the cooking time was more like 15 minutes. After all your hard work you don't want them to burn.
They keep nice and crisp in an airtight tin, great for school lunches and supper with a cup of tea!
They also freeze well. I doubled the recipe (made two full trays) and they were still perfect.

Cooling before moving to a rack

Chocolate Chip Biscuits (from Edmonds Cookery Book, 1999 Edition)

125 grams butter

¼ cup sugar

3 tbsp sweetened condensed milk

Few drops of vanilla essence

1 ½ cups standard plain flour

1 tsp baking powder

½ cup chocolate chips

Cream butter, sugar, condensed milk and vanilla until light and fluffy.

Sift flour and baking powder together.

Mix sifted dry ingredients and chocolate chips into creamed mixture.

Roll teaspoons of mixture into balls.

Place on a greased oven tray and flatten with a floured fork.

Bake at 180°C for 20 minutes.

Makes about 25

Oops! couldn't resist a taste!

 

The NZ Chocolate Festival

As a chocolate lover I prepared myself well ahead of time. Light meals and no chocolate for three days beforehand, check. On the day - a brisk, early morning walk with our dog, check, no morning tea or lunch, check. Camera and invite in bag, check. A big deep breath, brace yourself, check.
I was met at the entrance of the Intercontinental Hotel by three friendly staff and with a happy contented smile my name was ticked off their list. The nice usher at the bottom of the stairs was greeted by my big grin and then I was there. I was in the The NZ Chocolate Festival. chocolatefestival.co.nz/2013
Was it me or did I imagine that everyone around me appeared really, really happy that morning! Following the opening speeches and a 'cheers'! with little complimentary chocolate cups filled with ganache, I had a couple of hours of sheer delight visiting the various stalls, tasting (lots and lots), smelling and watching chocolate played with, drizzled, dipped and licked. One favourite was the Christmas chocolate by Schoc, think Christmas cake and pudding in a chocolate. It was a winner for me!
And this year I had a couple of surprising firsts - I dipped a marshmallow into a fountain of glistening chocolate and stuffed it into my mouth, it always seemed a messy thing to do but the verdict was yum! I tasted a fresh cacao bean and discovered pure chocolate can vary in taste depending on the region they came from. Interesting, I did not know that! I was also amazed how many people were making chocolate in the Wellington area, what a relief - we don't need to worry about a shortage of great chocolate anytime soon. And I must check out The Press Chocolate Makers - a chocolate factory that is opening early October, here in Wellington. I think it will be a definite highlight for any future southern visitors.
Here are some pics of my time at the festival. A bit of a disclaimer, while I gratefully accepted a goodie bag from the festival, I have only talked about and taken photos of items that personally appealed to my eye and taste. Suffice to say there are some extremely talented, hardworking, clever people out there who make great chocolate!

My grandies would love this

Clever and a bit different

Something else a bit different

By this time I had devoured three. Number four coming up!

Craft, Cheese, Cookies and Chocolate

This post is a varied one as the title suggests. It has been a very busy couple of weeks! The weather has been very mixed in Wellington, so it has been the perfect time to get some crafty tasks done. I've almost finished my third (for this year) peggy square crochet rug and a cardigan for my newest grandchild. I have also managed to get through a 'brick of a book' for my book group, 'The Luminaries' by Eleanor Catton -  hours of reading by the fire doesn't hurt anyone me thinks!
The weather wasn't great on our little holiday in Hawkes Bay either. But we had a fine time catching up with our dear friends in Taradale - having lots of fun with the usual relaxing, drinking and eating. One of the highlights over the weekend was the Royal NZ Ballet, Swan Lake (having missed out on decent seats in Welly we decided to travel to Napier to see it). It was absolutely wonderful - magic - loved it!
Speaking of magic. The lady of the Taradale house is extremely talented - a wonderful 'stitcher' and general all round clever 'crafter'- another great reason to stay with them. I watched in amazement with how she transformed a plain cake into a work of art (for the Young Friends of the Ballet event), using what she had (stored) around the house - a piece of mirror (skillfully cut from her hubby's horde in the garage), a crystal swan (from her dressing table), a few cake decorating tubes and a lovely silk green ribbon,and viola, a masterpiece! Unfortunately I didn't get a photo of the final result (said lady went rushing out of the house running late) but it was a huge hit.
On our last day I accompanied her to a stitching group, which involved a lot of chatting about current affairs and other important things while stitching. The session also included a fabulous morning tea of delicious (hot, straight out of the oven) southern inspired Cheese Rolls - simple, but a big favourite of mine. Definitely my kind of fun - so much so I am thinking of starting a monthly stitching group myself, any takers??
On Sunday we went to the Hastings Market, it is a great market. I loved wandering around talking to the locals about their work and sampling offerings. One stall that caught my eye was a group of young women from Havelock North High School. They are participating in a Young Enterprise project and have created a business called 'Cookie in a Jar'. All the dry ingredients are in the jar that you place into a bowl and add the wet ingredients as per instructions on the label. They have created five flavours. I loved the concept and brought the Anzac flavour to try. It always makes me smile to see young people so excited about creating a business. I wish them well in their new enterprise. They sell for $12 each and can be contacted at cookieinajar7@gmail.com

Ok, now the chocolate part. Today I am off to the New Zealand Chocolate Festival 
http://chocolatefestival.co.nz/2013/
 As a venerable food blogger I have been invited to the opening and will take the opportunity to spend hour or so wandering around the exhibits - sampling, tasting...... and watching the talented demonstrations. A tough job but as a chocolate lover I am definitely up to it. I went last year and loved it!
I will be posting photos and my feedback in due course.....Give me a few days to get over any chocolate overdose!!

Drunken Chocolate Torte

Yip, I have a wonderful family and a fabulous bunch of friends - they know how much I love cooking and eating, so no surprises I scored a couple of recipe books for Christmas - 'Everyday Day' by Peter Gordon and 'Riverstone Kitchen - Simple' by Bevan Smith -   lucky, lucky me!! I also gave myself two books for Christmas, 'Real Food' by Nigel Slater and 'Jerusalem' by Yotam Ottolenghi and Sami Tamimi - it has been so much fun over the holidays, just having the time to pour over my books choosing recipes to try at a later date. I started out putting markers in the pages I loved the most but gave up in the  end - there was far too many.
Last week, we were off to a Saturday family lunch - a good opportunity to try something new - also a chance for a bit of a try out for a dessert to serve at my pending birthday party .
This recipe came Bevan Smith's book. Having never made a Chocolate Torte before - it looked easy and it included a large amount of rum (which reminded me a little of my twenties - it was a drink I enjoyed at that time - with a lemonade mixer of all things, yikes!) The outcome of my labours turned out quite well and as stated in the recipe I served it with the rum syrup and  rum and raisin icecream.
Just a few things I learned - it was quite a challenge to transfer the torte from the tin base to a cooling rack and then to a serving plate large enough. The recipe says to wait until the torte is totally cooled before attempting to move it - next time I will be just a little more patient.... and I was also disappointed when the top of my torte cracked a bit, after a discussion with another foodie, I decided it would be best to cook the next one in my fan oven at 160 (as stated in the recipe, not at 150), lesson learned... Plus, I wondered if you could just use ground almonds rather than blitzing whole ones, might try that one as I had to hold onto the food processor to stop it bouncing off the bench!
Being a bit of a greedy for chocolate I served myself a large piece. Boy! it was a bit of a challenge to finish - this dessert is quite rich, might be best to start with a small portion.....
The feedback from the table was very complimentary and it has now been added to the birthday party menu.

Drunken chocolate torte with vanilla rum syrup

330g whole almonds, blanched

330g dark chocolate(I used Whittaker's Ghana Dark)

330g castor sugar

1 ½ cups of dark rum

330g unsalted butter

9 free-range eggs, separated

Vanilla rum syrup, to serve

Rum and raisin ice-cream

Preheat oven to 160°C. Grease and line a round 28cm cake tin with a removable base with baking paper. Place almonds and chocolate in a food processor and blend until completely ground.

Add sugar and continue to process for a further minute before adding the rum while the machine is still running. Continue to process until mixture forms a smooth paste. Leaving the machine on, add butter processing to combine, before adding egg yolks one at a time. Remove chocolate mixture from the food processor and place in a large mixing bowl. Whisk egg whites to a firm peak and fold into chocolate mixture. Pour into prepared tin and bake for 1 ¼ hours until just set. Remove from oven and allow to cool completely before serving with a drizzle of vanilla rum syrup and some rum and raisin ice-cream.

Vanilla and rum syrup

1 cup of castor sugar

¾ cup water

½ tsp vanilla bean paste

1 tbsp dark rum

 Place sugar and vanilla paste in a small saucepan and bring to boil over a medium to high heat. Remove from heat and allow to cool completely. Stir in rum and store in an airtight container fro up to one month. 

It serves about 12 people.

Whittakers White Raspberry Chocolate

When asked by the NZ Food Bloggers Association if I would 'trial taste' the new Whittakers White Raspberry Chocolate, I said ahhh yes.... I think so.
The said sample duly arrived in the post a few days later (thank you Tom), not a small block but one of those big blocks, yay!! I knew I was onto a winner.

Lovely pink and gold packaging

I could see this tasting job would need some assistance and my M was more than happy to oblige. We have a strange relationship with Chocolate in our house. He luuuuuuvvvvvssss chocolate, but thinks too much is bad for him so goes about saying 'we shouldn't have it in the house, don't buy any, I don't know when to stop', etc, etc, etc.
However..... I often find little empty chocolate wrappers in the car and in the garden, mmmmm...... and when we are given chocolate as a gift  - he hides it from me - in high places where I need a step stool to search for it, and sometimes when I do find it, it has often been seriously tampered with - not fair is it?! It causes a lot of hilarity in our house forcing a grown man to 'fess up' to his serious Chocolate crimes.
As I have mentioned on my blog before, I was never a great fan of Chocolate but when I turned a magic number in age, I suddenly started showing some serious interest in eating it - I now luuuuuvvvv Chocolate!
Back to the trial tasting....

Samuel Marsden Girls College entreprenuers

First of all I think it is a wonderful product these young women from Samuel Marsden Girls College have created. Whittakers took up their idea and cause by making and marketing White Raspberry Chocolate with a portion of the sales going to the Breast Cancer Appeal.
I love the packaging and I love the chocolate. The raspberry flavour is subtle and yummy. I would have preferred it to be a little stronger - but that's maybe because I can eat a whole punnet of raspberries on my own.
Whittakers make great Chocolate and they deserve to do well with White Raspberry.
So go forth people - try it out for yourself, it's great and while you are enjoying your treat you are supporting a very important cause.

Project completed

Hail to chocolate - hail!

When I was younger I really did not get that excited about chocolate but something shifted in my brain when I hit a certain significant birthday! So now I share the love chocolate with my lovely daughter and consider being in her company, with a cake of our favourite chocolate between us (children in bed - us watching rubbish television) - maybe with a glass of wine as well - as something pretty darn special! 

Chocolate Cacao shell made by a craftsman

I emailed to say I was attending the opening of the NZ Chocolate Festival 2012 in the Capital, she was jealous. 
I really wish she was able to come with me now as I know she would have been in heaven and we would have really enjoyed it together! I honestly would not have believed it - here was I eating copious samples of chocolate at nine o'clock in the morning. Promise to self - I am booking her with me next year.

This recipe came from one of my ladies in my Old Girls group. I recently made them for a Bellyful fundraising event and they went down a treat. The man and I are still eating the left-overs....YUM! 
RUM AND RAISIN TRUFFLES

¼ cup raisins, finely chopped                   2 tablespoons rum

250g dark chocolate chopped                   ¼ cup icing sugar, sifted

2 tablespoons butter, softened                  chocolate sprinkles/hail

1 small egg white, lightly beaten

Place raisins in a bowl with the rum and allow to stand for 10 minutes (I left it overnight to really soften).  Melt chocolate in basin over hot water and add butter, icing sugar, egg white, raisins and rum mixture.  Mix to combine and chill mixture until firm.  Shape into small balls the size of a walnut and roll in chocolate sprinkles.  Place on a tray and chill until firm.If preferred place in small paper cases.

Ready to be eaten

Pretty as a picture

Chocolate Bubble Cakes

This is from my daughter's Milk and Honey inspiring blog, http://beckypiesky.blogspot.co.nz/ she makes these a lot because....

1. they are quick and easy to make

2. they are great to take to a children's party - they LOVE them!

3. they are very sweet and chocolately and who doesn't like that!

It has been about 30 years since I made them and I had forgotten how nice they were - and how easy they were to make! I took a plate along to treat my Old Girls - it was so nice to see their faces and hear them say "oh I haven't had one of these for years, they are lovely - I must make them again - can I have the recipe?"

I think that is one of the reasons why I love to bake and cook - sharing - it is such a lovely thing to bring a bit of cheer through sharing food and recipes. 

My mother was a great 'bring a plate' person, between my daughter and I we are carrying on the tradition big time!

It is best to place the cupcake papers in the patty tin, then add the mixture, my photo shows the ones that were not 'moulded' properly - they don't look as 'pretty' as they should. I forgot to photograph the nice ones!

It's funny - I can't recall using Kremelta for any other recipe than this one and I really didn't think it was easy to buy, but I need not have have worried - it was there on the shelf at my local supermarket. The recipe can be found in the Edmond's Cookery Book Pub 1998.

Prep time:   10 minutes
Servings:   2 – 3  dozen
Ingredients:
250g Kremelta
4 cups rice bubbles
1 ½ cups sifted icing sugar
1 cup dessicated coconut
4 tbsp cocoa
24 - 36 mini paper cupcake liners
Directions:
Melt the Kremelta over a low heat.
Mix the rice bubbles, coconut, cocoa and icing sugar in a bowl and pour in the Kremelta. Mix well and scoop into the cupcake liners. Refrigerate until set about 20 minutes.

Chocolate Bubble Cakes

This is from my daughter's Milk and Honey inspiring blog, http://beckypiesky.blogspot.co.nz/ she makes these a lot because....

1. they are quick and easy to make

2. they are great to take to a children's party - they LOVE them!

3. they are very sweet and chocolately and who doesn't like that!

It has been about 30 years since I made them and I had forgotten how nice they were - and how easy they were to make! I took a plate along to treat my Old Girls - it was so nice to see their faces and hear them say "oh I haven't had one of these for years, they are lovely - I must make them again - can I have the recipe?"

I think that is one of the reasons why I love to bake and cook - sharing - it is such a lovely thing to bring a bit of cheer through sharing food and recipes. 

My mother was a great 'bring a plate' person, between my daughter and I we are carrying on the tradition big time!

It is best to place the cupcake papers in the patty tin, then add the mixture, my photo shows the ones that were not 'moulded' properly - they don't look as 'pretty' as they should. I forgot to photograph the nice ones!

It's funny - I can't recall using Kremelta for any other recipe than this one and I really didn't think it was easy to buy, but I need not have have worried - it was there on the shelf at my local supermarket. The recipe can be found in the Edmond's Cookery Book Pub 1998.

Prep time:   10 minutes
Servings:   2 – 3  dozen
Ingredients:
250g Kremelta
4 cups rice bubbles
1 ½ cups sifted icing sugar
1 cup dessicated coconut
4 tbsp cocoa
24 - 36 mini paper cupcake liners
Directions:
Melt the Kremelta over a low heat.
Mix the rice bubbles, coconut, cocoa and icing sugar in a bowl and pour in the Kremelta. Mix well and scoop into the cupcake liners. Refrigerate until set about 20 minutes.