It's Beginning To Look A Lot Like Christmas and Truffes 'Nutella

I so wish I had my camera with my for Chrissy lunch with the girls! Not just so I could have taken photo's of the food to show you (we went to Loch Fyne at Newhaven Harbour, I had mussels to start, followed by Roast Duck Breast and then an Apple Tart Tatine (have I spelt that right?) for dessert, all was lovely ... but if I was to be ultra picky then I would say that the cinnamon had been added with a heavy hand to the dessert!) But while we were munching our way through the meal it started to snow like I have never seen it snow before, I wish I had gotten a photo of it to show you ... its finally beginning to feel like Christmas!

... Still not organised myself enough to figure out what we'll be eating for Christmas Lunch though but that is another story!

The girl's presents were finished off this morning and this is what they ended up looking like.

If yesterday's post for truffles wasn't your thing then it may be an idea to look away over the next couple of posts as they will all be truffle related I'm afraid!

Truffes 'Nutella'

120ml double cream

2 tbsp unsalted butter

1 tsp golden syrup

250g chopped dark or milk chocolate

2 tbsp nutella (I used about half a jar though - we really like the stuff!)

Cocoa powder, for dusting

Chop the chocolate and set aside in a heatproof bowl. Mix the cream, butter and golden syrup together in a saucepan. Place over a medium heat and bring to a full boil. Turn off the heat and leave for approx 1 min before adding to the chopped chocolate. Do not stir. Allow tor est for 5 mins.

After 5 mins, add the nutella and whisk slowly to combine. Transfer the mixture to a bowl and refrigerate for 45 mins, stirring every 15 mins (I ended up leaving it in the fridge overnight at this stage and there were no adverse effects). In the meantime, line baking sheets with parchment paper.

Using a mini ice cream scoop or two spoons, form the mixture into balls and place on the prepared sheets. Chill until firm, about 10-15 mins. While the balls are chilling, sprinkle cocoa powder into the base of a shallow dish.

Remove the balls from the fridge and roll in the cocoa powder to cover. Place in paper cases to present.

May be stored up to one week in an airtight container.

Makes about 24 truffles

Not sure where I stumbled across this recipe, but its been staring at me for many a Christmas now just begging to be made. This recipe produces a very firm truffle and even with the excess nutella I added, the flavour is very subtle so I may need to add even more to it next time round. Don't panic if the mixture looks like it is going to split at first, repeated stirring and cooling seems to do the trick with it ... wish I hadn't thrown the first batch out though as I thought I had split the chocolate, just think of all those extra truffles we could have had!

Fresh From The Oven - Kiflice

This months bread bake for Fresh From The Oven was picked by Maja from Cooks and Bakes.  Maja lives in Serbia and asked us to join with her in baking a Serbian treat called Kiflice, traditionally filled with cheese.  Now this is the part where I hang my head in shame ... I ended up having to divert from the original recipe due to some poor planning on my part!  You see our fridge is generally stocked full with goat's cheese (one of the cheeses that can be used to fill these little guys) but when it came time to make the filling I realised to my horror, that they were all out of date.  Oh the shame!  It seems it had been a while since we had last indulged our goat cheese fetish. 

So with the dough made I wasn't quite sure what do to.  A quick flick through the cheese container only turned up plastic cheese slices (I really am hanging my head in shame now!) and I decided that they just wouldn't do the recipe any justice.  Panic set in ... until I saw the jar of Nutella.  Now I realise that Nutella generally isn't a suitable replacement for cheese but I figured I'd be able to turn a savory treat into a sweet one and not waste the already prepared dough.  Apologies to Maja and the other Fresh From The Oven bakers for this cheat ... but I can honestly say that they were pretty delicious!  Below is the recipe as supplied by Maja, I've updated with my changes below.

Nutella Kiflice
Dough
500 g all purpose flour
1 tsp salt
20 g fresh yeast (2 tsp instant yeast or 2.5 tsp active dry yeast)
1 tsp sugar
250 ml milk
75 ml sunflower oil
1 egg
Filling
200-250 g cottage cheese (you may use feta or other fresh cheese)
1 egg white (optional)
To Finish
1 egg yolk
1 tbsp milk
100 g margarine

Crush the cheese using a fork. Add some salt if it tastes neutral. Stir the egg white in, if the cheese is too crumbly. Filling shouldn't be runny, but thick and compact, thicker than the cream cheese, and pretty salty.

For the starter - dissolve yeast with some lukewarm milk in a cup, add a teaspoon of sugar and a tablespoon of flour, stir to get smooth batter. Set aside at room temperature, or near the stove top, to let the yeast activate and fill the cup.

Sift the flour, add salt. Add activated yeast, egg, oil and milk, then combine using a wooden spoon to get smooth dough. The dough seems like too soft and too sticky at the beginning, but don't worry, continue with kneading, and soon your dough should start to separate from the bowl, and thicken. It is not necessary to knead the dough by hands, the wooden spoon works just fine. Grease the cling film with oil, cover the bowl, and set aside for at least an hour, at lukewarm place, to let the dough doubles in size.

Re-knead the dough, divide into 5 equal parts, shape them into balls. Each part should make 8 rolls, so you'll end up with 40 rolls, which should perfectly fit the regular oven pan, if lined in 5x8 order. Flatten each ball by hands over the floury working surface, then use a rolling pin to roll the dough out in a circle, a few millimeters thick. Use a sharp knife to cut the circle into 8 triangles. Take one triangle, stretch it in the air with your hands, to get it extended as much as you can, gently. Put some filling at the triangle base, then fold the edges of the base, to avoid the filling leak out during baking. Roll. Arrange the rolls at the pan (5x8).

Lightly beat the egg yolk with a tablespoon of milk, then brush the top of each roll with the mixture. This is used to prevent forming thick crust, and to improve the color of baked rolls. Sprinkle with some sesame seeds, if you like.

Arrange the small peaces of margarine between the rolls, then bake in the oven preheated to 180°C for about 20 minutes. Be careful not to over bake them. Let them cool to room temp before eating.

Makes 40 rolls

So, in my usual style I started the dough the night before and popped it in the fridge overnight to rise.  The next day I pretty much followed the recipe above, except I subbed the Nutella in for the cheese.  I then sprinkled the rolls with some demerara sugar and some chopped hazelnuts.  Delicious!

Nutella Ice Cream

Yep you read right. Nutella Ice Cream .... I'll give you a second to savour that thought. Good, huh? It gets better. Nutella Ice Cream only has two ingredients, Nutella and Condensed Milk ~ those would be two of my preferred food groups, Nutella should be a food group of its own and Condensed Milk surely belongs in the diary category? Both of these ingredients have reserved their place in my history book. I used to eat Nutella from the jar with a spoon when I used to have a really bad day at work and condensed milk I ate from the tin. Healthy! I only ate the left over condensed milk from the tin when Mum was cooking at Christmas time though, honest.

Now that I have confessed to my Nigella style eating habits, its time for me to continue coming clean. The original recipe doesn't use condensed milk, it uses evaporated milk. But I didn't have any of that to hand and I wasn't walking the 10 minutes up the road to the supermarket in filthy weather to get it. My craving was intense after spotting it on Sticky, Gooey, Creamy, Chewy so I made do with what the cupboard held and opted to use the condensed milk instead. My attempt is also made without an ice cream maker which, when combined with using condensed milk instead of evaporated, seems to have resulted in a much fudgier consistency. [Sigh!] A little bit went a very long way ... and if I can say that then it really must be true!

Nutella Ice Cream

350g Nutella

380ml evaporated milk

Combine the Nutella and the Condensed Milk in a medium heatproof bowl and set it over a pan of gently simmering water. Warm them up enough to make the mixture easier to blend. With an electric mixer or hand blender, blend until the mixture is completely smooth.

Place in the freezer for an hour. Take out and blend again until the mixture is completely smooth again. Continue doing this until the ice cream is smooth, blending breaks down the ice crystals that build up during the freezing. It doesn't take long due to the condensed milk, I only blended mine twice.

Adapted from Sticky, Gooey, Creamy, Chewy

Nutella and Roasted Hazelnut Challah

This is what you do with the monster in your fridge :0)

Nutella and Roasted Hazelnut Challah
450g of Master Dough
4 1/2 tbsp Nutella
Small handful of hazelnuts
1 egg whisked with 1 tbsp water, to make egg wash

Weigh out the correct amount of dough and return the rest to the fridge.  Generously flour your hands and the dough. This is a no-knead dough but there is still some light muscle power needed to shape the dough into a ball, do this by stretching the surface of the dough and tucking it to the bottom all around, rotating the ball a quarter-turn as you go. This creates a taut, smooth surface. Cover witha  tea towel and leave it to come up to room temp while prepping the hazelnuts.

Heat a small fry pan over a med-low heat then add a handful of hazelnuts and roast, continually moving the nuts so that they don’t burn.  Roast until nuts are golden brown and fragrant. Roughly chop the nuts with a sharp chef’s knife and cutting board.  (I cheated and used ready chopped and roasted hazelnuts!)

Cut the dough into 3 equal pieces. (Steamy Kitchen suggests shaping the ball of dough into a log for this step to make it easier to get even sized pieces). Roll each piece with your hands to stretch into a long 3-4cm thick rope. Try not to just stretch it out by pulling, the dough will break, just roll the pieces backwards and forwards, its important that each piece is roughly the same length and thickness.

Take one piece of dough. I used the side of my little finger to create an indent in the middle of the strand. Spoon about a third of the Nutella in this indent.  Strictly speaking I can't say that I stuck to this measurement all that well ;0)

Bring up the sides of the dough, encasing the Nutella and pinch dough closed. Repeat with other strands. 

To braid the bread Steamy Kitchen offers another very good tip ~ start in the middle and braid to the ends!  This means that the dough is (somewhat!) neat at both ends.
 

 
Cover with towel and let rest for 1-1/2 hours. 20 minutes prior to baking, preheat your oven to 180C.
 

When dough is ready, brush top with egg wash and sprinkle with chopped hazelnuts. Bake for 25 minutes.

Makes 1 loaf which is very quickly hoovered up!
Taken from Steamy Kitchen Blog

World Nutella Day - Earthquake Cookies

Did you know that today is World Nutella Day?  To be honest, neither did I, until I logged onto my laptop and saw my reader fill with blog posts for said day.  What is a nutella loving girl to do?  I quickly scanned through my book marked recipes saved under 'Nutella' (I'm inventive with my file names!) and found a quick and easy recipe that didn't require a trip to the supermarket. 

At first I wondered why these were called Earthquake Cookies, and decided that it must be something to do with the crackled appearance once they cookies are baked.  Now I believe they are called Earthquake Cookies because they rock your world!!!!  Try them, seriously, they have to be one of the best cookies I have ever baked .... or tasted for that matter!

Earthquake Cookies
115g cup chocolate hazelnut spread (that would be known as Nutella to you and me!)
100g butter, chopped
165g cup caster sugar
1 egg, lightly beaten
235g cups plain flour, sifted
2 tablespoons cocoa powder, sifted
1/4 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
1/4 cup pure icing sugar (I didn't measure this out, hence how it is still in a cup measurement, I just sprinkled some over a plate and added more as required)

Place spread and butter in a saucepan over low heat. Cook, stirring, for 2 to 3 minutes or until smooth. Transfer to a bowl.
 
Stir caster sugar, egg, flour, cocoa powder and bicarbonate of soda into chocolate mixture. Refrigerate for 20 minutes.

Preheat oven to 180°C/160°C fan-forced. Grease 2 baking trays. Line with baking paper.

Roll level tablespoons of mixture into 24 balls. Sift icing sugar onto a plate. Roll each ball in icing sugar. Place balls, 6cm apart, on prepared trays. Bake for 12 to 15 minutes, swapping trays halfway. Cool on trays. Serve.

Makes 24 cookies
Taste Website

Happy World Nutella Day ;0)

Chocolate Buns - Fresh From The Oven

This month's Fresh From The Oven Challenge fell to me. I just couldn't decide what recipe to make, do I go for tried and trusted or something new? Simple and tasty or a little more challenging and extravagant? Oh the delima! I ended up picking something I had never made before and that was a bit more 'technical' than I would normally opt for. The Chocolate Buns from Richard Bertinet's 'Dough' had been staring out from the page at me for so long that I ended up picking that. I confess to my utter disappointment ;0(

The dough was dry and pretty much tasteless - except for that hop like taste that yeast can sometimes have. I'm not sure if it was me and the fact that the recipe was a bit more challenging or if it was just the recipe. Richard makes a Creme Patissiere to go in the centre of his version, I used Nutella for no other reason that I needed to use it up and I thought it would be roughly the same kind of thing. I had slightly less than I thought I did though so the layer was a bit on the thin side, I'm wondering if using the Creme Patissiere would have helped the dough stay moist? That will teach me to take a shortcut!

All up though, fresh from the oven (ahem!) they had the potential to be very yummy. When I have a spare afternoon one weekend I'm going to give this recipe another go and see how it goes.

Chocolate Buns

250g full fat milk (250ml - weighing is more accurate)

15g yeast (fresh if possible)

500g strong bread flour

60g unsalted butter at room temp

40g caster sugar

10g salt

2 large eggs

25g good quality cocoa powder

200g chocolate chips, milk, plain, white or a mixture

2 eggs, beaten with a pinch of salt for an egg wash

Nutella or Creme Patissiere to fill

Pour the milk into a pan and warm gently until it is about body temp - it should feel neither warm nor cold when you dip your finger into it.

Put the flour into your mixer bowl and rub in the yeast. Rub the butter into the flour using your fingertips. Switch the mixer onto the slowest speed, add the sugar, cocoa and salt, then the eggs and milk and mix for 2 mins, then turn up to the next slowest speed and mix for a further 6-7 mins until the dough becomes smooth and elastic. Remove the dough from the bowl, transfer to a lightly floured surface to mould into a ball before placing in a tea towel to prove for 45 mins.

Use the round end of a scraper to transfer the dough to a lightly floured work surface and, with a rolling pin, gently flatten it into a rough rectangle. Spread the chocolate creme patissiere (nutella!!) evenly over the dough and sprinkle on the chocolate chips. Starting with one of the longer edges, roll the dough up until it resembles a Swiss roll. Using a sharp knife, cut the roll into 2cm slices and place them on their sides on a baking tray. Glaze with a little egg wash and leave to prove for 1 1/4 - 1 3/4 hours until the buns have roughly doubled in size.

Preheat the oven to 250C.

Glaze again and put into the preheated oven, turning the heat down to 180C. bake for 10-15 mins. As the chocolate dough is quite dark it can be difficult to tell when the buns are properly baked, and you need to take care not to under bake them- the best way to tell when they are ready is to lift one gently with a spatula and check that it is firm underneath.

If you don't want to bake the buns all in one go, you can freeze some. When they are cut, just before proving, put them on a small tray in the freezer and when they are hard put them into a freezer bag. To use, take them out, leave to prove overnight and bake in the same way.

Makes 24 buns

'Dough' Richard Bertinet