Dog Cake

I really really REALLY hope this isn't the next Daring Bakers challenge..... or any one after that for that matter!!!



Great video!

Strawberry Banana Bread/Muffins

There was a fab food event last month called the Banana Bread Bakeoff hosted by Not Quite Nigella that I ran out of time to join in with, however Pixie over at You say Tomato, I say Tomato made a beautiful banana bread with strawberries for it. She had explained in the post that she thought it was rather dry and needed some butter spread on a slice for eating, but I was still keen to give this a go. I decided to add an extra banana and a 2 extra strawberries to the mix and left out the walnuts, then using the little scoop I bought for the Daring Baker Cheesecake Pop challenge I placed 2 scoops of the batter into muffin cases and made yummy muffins out of this. They only needed about 35 minutes baking instead of the hour for the loaf and they turned out beautifully full of flavour, and were in no way dry for me!!!!






I've used this as my entry for my Bookmarked Recipes food blog event for this week.








Strawberry & Banana Bread

Ingredients
200g self-raising flour
Pinch of salt
1/4 tbsp bicarbonate of soda
75g unsalted butter
100g light brown sugar
1 beaten egg
75g milk chocolate, finely chopped
6 cut up strawberries
3 ripe bananas, mashed
1 tbsp Golden syrup


Recipe
1. Preheat oven to 180˚C, and separate out muffin cases on a baking tray.
2. Sift the flour, salt and soda together into a bowl.
3. Add all the other ingredients, except the golden syrup, and beat well together. If the mixture is too dry add a couple of Tbsp of milk.
4. Spoon into the muffin cases until about 3/4 filled. Bake in the center of the oven for about 30-35 minutes or until firm in the middle.
5. Brush the top of the loaf with the golden syrup while it's still warm, to give it a lovely glaze.


Thanks for this Pixie!!!!

RFJ 4: Almond coated duck salad with raspberry lime dressing

When the ingredients were announced for the Royal Foodie Joust (picked by the lovely Elle at Elle's New England Kitchen) I decided I wanted to do something savoury - there are lots of sweet things that can be done with raspberries, lime and almond and don't get me wrong I love than in sweet things but I wanted to challenge myself. I thought and thought and finally came up with this dish:



Almond coated duck salad with raspberry lime dressing

Serves 4

Ingredients
12 mini duck breast fillets
200g ground almond
150g frozen raspberries
Juice from half a lime
1/4 cup sugar
pinch of black pepper
1 tbsp balsamic vinegar
handful of salad leaves
zest of half a lime

Recipe
1. Roll the mini duck fillets in the ground almond until well coated.
2. Heat a little oil in a frying pan and fry the duck on each side for 2-3 minutes.
3. Transfer to a baking tray and cook in the oven for 15 minutes at 180˚C
4. Place the raspberries, lime juice, sugar, black pepper and balsamic vinegar in an microwave safe dish and microwave on full power for 5 minutes, stirring half way through.
5. Strain the raspberry dressing through a sieve and discard the seeds and pulp that is left (or in true leftover style save it for another recipe!!!!)
6. Serve the duck fillets on top of the salad leaves. Pour over the dressing and sprinkle the lime zest on top.

Daring Baker 4 - Opera Cake

As soon as I saw the length of this recipe I felt like I could cry - it was no where near as long as the French Bread Recipe but it included a lot of various stages and took a few days to plan, then execute.

The challenge for this month was Opera Cake (would you believe there's no Wikipedia entry for it?) and was picked by Lis, Ivonne, Fran and Shea - great challenge by the way ladies! And it is also dedicated to Barbara from Winos and Foodies who was an active Daring Baker once and is also runs the Live Strong Taste of Yellow food event.

So now to explain a bit about what opera Cake is exactly.... because believe me I needed this myself! So here's some details copied from the Daring Bakers Forum

....it's an extremely elegant and polished French dessert that is believed to have been created around the beginning of the 1900s. Many people credit a gentleman by the name of Louis Clichy with inventing the cake and that's why it's sometimes referred to as Clichy Cake.

So what exactly is an Opéra Cake?

Well it's a cake that is made up (usually) of five components: a joconde (a cake layer), a syrup (to wet the joconde), a buttercream (to fill some of the layers), a ganache or mousse (to top the final cake layer) and a glaze (to cover the final layer of cake or of ganache/mousse).



Any clearer? It took me a few reads of the recipe to get all the information into my head. Then I worked out what order I was going to do things in, also to work out how I was going to make it with the equipment I had to hand and what flavourings I was going to use.

So here is the recipe including my edits in red italics.

Daring Baker 4 - Opera Cake

Recipe

DAY 1
SYRUP
(Note: The syrup can be made up to 1 week in advance and kept covered in the refrigerator.)

What you’ll need:
•a small saucepan

Ingredients:
½ cup (125 grams) water
⅓ cup (65 grams) granulated sugar
1 to 2 tbsp. of the flavouring of your choice (i.e., vanilla extract, almond extract, cognac, limoncello, coconut cream, honey etc.)I used orange essence

1.Stir all the syrup ingredients together in the saucepan and bring to a boil.
2.Remove from the heat and let cool to room temperature.


Even little Stewie was curious to see this cake... look at that face!!!!!

BUTTERCREAM
(Note: The buttercream can be made up to 1 month in advance and packed in an airtight container. If made way in advance, you can freeze the buttercream. Alternatively you can refrigerate it for up to 4 days after making it. To use the buttercream simply bring it to room temperature and then beat it briefly to restore its consistency.)

There were 2 buttercream recipes available, I opted for the original recipe instead of the edited version which turned out fine for me after adding a little extra butter

What you’ll need:

•a small saucepan
•a candy or instant-read thermometer
•a stand mixer or handheld mixer
•a bowl and a whisk attachment
•rubber spatula

Ingredients:

2 cup (200 grams) granulated sugar
1/2 cup (120 grams) water
seeds of one vanilla pod (split a vanilla pod down the middle and scrape out the seeds) or 1 tbsp. pure vanilla extract I used one of my recently purchased Vanilla Pods
1 large egg
1 large egg yolk
1¾ cups unsalted butter, at room temperature Plus about another quarter cup to make it thicken up
flavouring of your choice (a tablespoon of an extract, a few tablespoons of melted white chocolate, citrus zest, etc.) I added some lemon zest - had hoped to add some lime zest too but didn't have a lime to hand

1.Combine the sugar, water and vanilla pod seeds or extract in a small saucepan and warm over medium heat just until the sugar dissolves.
2.Continue to cook, without stirring, until the syrup reaches 225˚F (107˚C)
3.While the syrup is heating, begin whisking the egg and egg yolk at high speed in the bowl of your mixer using the whisk attachment. Whisk them until they are pale and foamy.
4.When the sugar syrup reaches the correct temperature and you remove it from the heat, reduce the mixer speed to low speed and begin slowly (very slowly) pouring the syrup down the side of the bowl being very careful not to splatter the syrup into the path of the whisk attachment. Some of the syrup will spin onto the sides of the bowl but don’t worry about this and don’t try to stir it into the mixture as it will harden!
5.Raise the speed to medium-high and continue beating until the eggs are thick and satiny and the mixture is cool to the touch (about 5 minutes or so).
6.While the egg mixture is beating, place the softened butter in a bowl and mash it with a spatula until you have a soft creamy mass.
7.With the mixer on medium speed, begin adding in two-tablespoon chunks. When all the butter has been incorporated, raise the mixer speed to high and beat until the buttercream is thick and shiny.
8.At this point add in your flavouring and beat for an additional minute or so.
9.Refrigerate the buttercream, stirring it often, until it’s set enough (firm enough) to spread when topped with a layer of cake (about 20 minutes).

DAY 2
WHITE CHOCOLATE GANACHE/MOUSSE
(Note: The mousse can be made ahead and refrigerated until you’re ready to use it.)

What you’ll need:

•a small saucepan
•a mixer or handheld mixer

Ingredients:
7 ounces (200g) white chocolate
1 cup plus 3 tbsp. double cream (35% cream)
1 tbsp. liquer of your choice (Bailey’s, Amaretto, etc.) I left this out because I didn't want to spend money on a bottle of liquer only to use 1 tbsp of it!

1.Melt the white chocolate and the 3 tbsp. of heavy cream in a small saucepan.
2.Stir to ensure that it’s smooth and that the chocolate is melted. Add the tablespoon of liqueur to the chocolate and stir. Set aside to cool.
3.In the bowl of a stand mixer, whip the remaining 1 cup of heavy cream until soft peaks form.
4.Gently fold the whipped cream into the cooled chocolate to form a mousse.
5.If it’s too thin, refrigerate it for a bit until it’s spreadable.
6.If you’re not going to use it right away, refrigerate until you’re ready to use.



JOCONDE
(Note: The joconde can be made up to 1 day in advance and kept wrapped at room temperate)

What you’ll need:

•2 12½ x 15½-inch (31 x 39-cm) jelly-roll pans (Note: If you do not have jelly-roll pans this size, do not fear! You can use different-sized jelly-roll pans like 10 x 15-inches.) I only had one 12" x 8.5" swiss roll pan, so I divided the mixture into 4 and baked each layer one at a time
•a few tablespoons of melted butter (in addition to what’s called for in the ingredients’ list) and a brush (to grease the pans)
•parchment paper
•a whisk and a paddle attachment for a stand mixer or for a handheld mixer
•two mixing bowls (you can make do with one but it’s preferable to have two)

Ingredients:

6 large egg whites, at room temperature
2 tbsp. (30 grams) granulated sugar
2 cups (225 grams) ground blanched almonds
2 cups icing sugar, sifted
6 large eggs
½ cup (70 grams) all-purpose flour
3 tbsp. (1½ ounces; 45 grams) unsalted butter, melted and cooled

1.Divide the oven into thirds by positioning a rack in the upper third of the oven and the lower third of the oven.
2.Preheat the oven to 425˚F. (220˚C).
3.Line two 12½ x 15½- inch (31 x 39-cm) one 12" x 8.5" jelly-roll pans with parchment paper and brush with melted butter.
4.In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment (or using a handheld mixer), beat the egg whites until they form soft peaks. Add the granulated sugar and beat until the peaks are stiff and glossy. If you do not have another mixer bowl, gently scrape the meringue into another bowl and set aside.
5.If you only have one bowl, wash it after removing the egg whites or if you have a second bowl, use that one. Attach the paddle attachment to the stand mixer (or using a handheld mixer again) and beat the almonds, icing sugar and eggs on medium speed until light and voluminous, about 3 minutes.
6.Add the flour and beat on low speed until the flour is just combined (be very careful not to overmix here!!!).
7.Using a rubber spatula, gently fold the meringue into the almond mixture and then fold in the melted butter.
8.Divide the batter between the pans and spread it evenly to cover the entire surface of each pan.
9.Bake the cake layers until they are lightly browned and just springy to the touch. This could take anywhere from 5 to 9 minutes depending on your oven. Place one jelly-roll pan in the middle of the oven and the second jelly-roll pan in the bottom third of the oven.
10.Put the pans on a heatproof counter and run a sharp knife along the edges of the cake to loosen it from the pan. Cover each with a sheet of parchment or wax paper, turn the pans over, and unmold.
11.Carefully peel away the parchment, then turn the parchment over and use it to cover the cakes. Let the cakes cool to room temperature. Repeat steps 3, 8, 9, 10 and 11 until all the mixture has been used up

START OF ASSEMBLY
1. Place one layer of joconde on a lined baking sheet and moisten it gently with the flavoured syrup.
2. Spread about three-quarters one third of the buttercream over this layer.
3. Top with another layer of joconde. Moisten with the flavoured syrup.
4. Spread the remaining buttercream half of what is left of the butter cream on the cake
5. Top with the third layer of joconde. Moisten with the syrup, then spread the rest of the buttercream on top.
6. Top with the final layer of joconde and then refrigerate until very firm (at least half an hour or overnight like I did).



DAY 3
ASSEMBLY CONTINUED
7. Spread the ganache/mousse on the top of the last layer of the joconde. Refrigerate for at least two to three hours to give the ganache/mousse the opportunity to firm up.


GLAZE
(Note: It’s best to make the glaze right when you’re ready to finish the cake.)

What you’ll need:

•a small saucepan or double boiler

Ingredients:

14 ounces (400g) white chocolate, coarsely chopped
½ cup heavy cream (35% cream)

1.Melt the white chocolate with the heavy cream. Whisk the mixture gently until smooth.
2.Let cool for 10 minutes and then pour over the chilled cake.

ASSEMBLY FINAL STEPS
8. Using a long metal cake spatula, smooth out into an even layer. Place the cake into the refrigerator for 30 minutes to set.
9. Add optional decorations For mine I spread some Italian mixed peel over the top

Serve the cake slightly chilled. This recipe will yield approximately 20 servings.



Check out some of the other Daring Bakers Opera cakes via the Daring Bakers Blogroll

Our first anniversary celebrations

I've been really bad and not blogged this sooner, but I hope you'll forgive me for the tardiness of this!

It all kind of started on the 19th April (day before our anniversary) when we took a bit of a road trip with Stewie and his belongings up to Conlig because he was going to stay with friends for the weekend.

We traveled home via Belfast and decided to stop into the Odyssey to get some food from the Indian Ocean. It was delicious (as usual) but the dish I ordered reminded me more of Chinese than Indian food, besides the point though, because we had a lovely meal then headed home to get tucked up in bed to watch a movie and eventually fell asleep.

We got up the next morning after a long lie in, which is very strange for me seeing as it was a Sunday and that's usually the busiest day in my week. We got up and packed our overnight bag and headed down to Newcastle for our overnight stay in the Slieve Donard Hotel. Neither of us had been before (at least as far as we can remember) and as we drove towards the building I think both our jaws dropped. It's a stunning hotel built right beside the sea with a beautiful view of the Slieve Donard, so it was a great place to go away to and relax.

The Slieve Donard Hotel


We walked up to the door and were greeted by a doorman holding open the door for us... I felt all posh already! We walked in and I was breathless at the beautiful reception hall. We got all checked in and headed to our room - we dumped our bags and headed straight for the spa to enjoy the swimming pool with an incredible view and the heat experiences. This was sooooo relaxing! We hadn't booked any treatments but this seemed to be enough on its own.

When you visit Newcastle, it seems like a law that you have to get some ice cream - after all you are beside the sea! So we headed into Newcastle to get some Maud's and couldn't help but get their top selling flavour known as "poor bear" but used to be (and still is in my eyes) "Pooh Bear" because it's ice cream with honeycomb through it. It's such a delicious treat and something we try to make ourselves at home but it's never as good as Maud's version.

We walked back to the hotel and up to our room, then watched a little tv while we waited for the time to head downstairs for our evening meal. A very posh affair indeed!!! As soon as we were seated the wine waiter introduced himself and took our order, as soon as he left a waitress offered us some bread rolls, then shortly after that we were asked for our order from the menu. And what a menu it was!



I ordered the barberry duck with rhubarb chutney and potato gratin and Rob ordered the fillet of beef. Both very delicious dishes! And came to the table looking rather classy too....



Then for dessert I went for the hot dessert of the day - sponge pudding with custard.



We had brought our top tier of wedding cake with us so Rob skipped dessert and had some of the cake where as I was a pie and had both!



I can't believe it has been a year where we've gone from this:



to this:


And it's a shame we didn't get to have any of the cake a year ago at the wedding because I would imagine (well I hope so anyway) that it was tastier than the top tier was after being frozen for a year and defrosted. The marzipan kind of "sweated" through the cake making it all taste of marzipan and it was also quite a hard cake (and yes it was defrosted fully!) so we didn't eat very much of it at all. Still we had a beautiful meal and were well looked after.

After what I thought was a great night's sleep on a really comfy bed (Rob wasn't fond of it and thought he was getting a sore back) we woke up and headed for breakfast with almost everything you could want for breakfast, the option of a cooked one, cereals, fruit, cheeses, hams, toast, bagels, croissants... and much more. It was a lovely relaxing breakfast in a dining room while some guests read the morning paper and sipped their tea.

I was sad to be going home so soon after this but we had an incredible time there and I'm pretty sure we'll be back, if not for the night at least for the spa!!!! We had a fantastic time celebrating our first full year of marriage and we had a fantastic first year together. I'm excited to see what the future will bring for us and what other things we will be celebrating together.

Bookmarked Recipes 6

Here's this week's round up of of Bookmarked Recipes and this week we have some more great recipes from some more great bloggers:



Becke from Columbus, Ohio, on Columbus Foodie made some Mini Greek Meatballs with Tzatziki sauce based on a recipe she found on Kalyn's Kitchen. I love meatballs and these ones sounds delicious!



Michelle in Colorado Springs, Colorado joins us with a fantastic Strawberry Rhubarb Pie using a recipe from A year from Oak Cottage. I love the combination of strawberries and rhubarb.... heck I love them on their own too!!! I'm sure I would love a slice of this pie fresh from the oven.



Dell from Cooking and the City in Australia joins in again this week (and I'm glad that you do!!!!) with Beef Stroganoff bookmarked in an Australian Good Taste magazine. Dell has a regular recipe for this dish but decided to try a new one for a change. It looks fab - I might bookmark it myself.



This week I made Bruce Bogtrotter's Chocolate Cake for a pretend wedding with my youth group. I had bookmarked the recipe when I was little, maybe when I was about 8 or 9 so it seemed time to make it. My youth group loved this moist rich chocolatey cake.




EDIT: I accidentally forgot this entry from Psychgrad (Sorry Psychgrad!!!!) from Equal Opportunity Kitchen who made some really tasty looking Raspberry Oatmeal Squares from a recipe on Elly says opa! These look like fab treats good for breakfast, snacks, dessert.





Thanks everyone for your submissions!!! It's always exciting to see what people have been making and recreating!

That's it for this week. Remember if you want to take part here's all you have to do....
1. Pick a recipe from a book/magazine/blog/website/tv show and make it. (Note you can only submit 1 recipe per week)
2. Blog about it
- include where you got the recipe in your blog post (including a link to their website if possible)
- include a link to this post or this blog in your blog post
- include the logo (see above) for Bookmarked Recipes in your blog post
- include a photo of your recreation on your blog post
3. Email bookmarkedrecipes[AT]gmail[DOT]com with the following information:
- Your name and where you're from
- The name of your blog
- The permalink for your entry
- A photo of your entry
- A note of where you got your recipe from

Every Monday I will post a round up of all the entries here on my blog for everyone to see, share and maybe even try for themselves!

Bruce Bogtrotter's Chocolate Cake

This week my bookmarked recipe was somewhat decided for me, because this week I had to make a "wedding" cake. I say "wedding" because it's not a real wedding - my photographer friend Mark Goody needed a group to pretend to be at a wedding to try out some wedding photography and my young people got really excited about the idea, so it's part of our end of year bash for the group. They're all getting dressed up, our "bride" and "groom" are writing funny "vows" and I got to make a cake!!!!! Last week I took a vote amongst them to see what kind of cake they wanted, some wanted Victoria sponge and some wanted chocolate cake, so I'm making both!

For the Victoria sponge I added some extra vanilla and instead of using jam as a filling I mashed up a dozen raspberries and mixed them with 5 tablespoons of Dorie Greenspan's buttercream recipe from the Perfect Party Cake recipe and a tablespoon of caster sugar.

I know I've made a basic chocolate cake before but I wanted to try a different recipe. I have about 4 different chocolate cake recipes bookmarked in various places, but as soon as it was decided to make a chocolate cake I kept seeing other recipes that were quite tempting! Then I came across a book that was given to me when I was little - Roald Dahl's Revolting Recipes with recipes by Roald's wife, Felicity and based on food that features in Roald's novels, stories and poems . I remember looking through this book a lot over the years and saying I'll make that one day.... well today was the day for Bruce Bogtrotter's Chocolate Cake. It only seemed right that I make this chocolate cake seeing as I've had it bookmarked for so long!!! I remember the image I had in my head when I was reading about Bruce eating the chocolate cake in Matilda so I was very excited to be making this. However I didn't complete the whole recipe and left out making the coating for the cake so I could coat and decorate both cake with icing, but I'm sure I'll be making it again sometime because it looks delicious with the coating.

The photo from the book


And my cake.... excuse the mess around it please!!!


Bruce Bogtrotter's Chocolate Cake

Serves 10-12

Ingredients
For the cake
8oz/225g plain chocolate
6oz/175g unsalted butter, softened
8oz/225g caster sugar
4tbsp/60ml/quarter cup plain flour
6 eggs, separated
For the coating
8oz/225g plain chocolate
8oz/225g double cream

Recipe
1. Preheat oven to 180˚C. Grease and line an 8" cake tin (I used a 9.5" cake tin which worked great) with greaseproof paper.
2. Melt the chocolate in a double boiler or on low heat in a microwave. Once melted mix in the butter and stir until melted. Remove from the double boiler.
3. Mix in the sugar, flour and lightly beaten egg yolks.
4. In a separate bowl whisk the egg whites until white and stiff.
5. Gently fold half of the egg whites into the chocolate mixture. Then fold in the rest.
6. Pour the mixture into the cake tin and bake for 35 minutes. There will be a thin crust on the outside and when tested using a skewer, it most likely won't come out clean as the inside will still seem uncooked, however the cake gets more firm when it has cooled.
7. Allow to cool for a while until the tin can be handled and the cake removed safely. Remove the greaseproof paper. The cake will most likely sink slightly, mine deflated from a large dome to a level top.
8. Set up a new double boiler and melt the chocolate and cream together until well blended. Leave to cool for a little while then spread smoothly over the top and sides of the cake.

The finished "wedding" cake topped with the mini Ruth and Rob bride and groom from our wedding - I decided to make this cake more fun looking than 'weddingy'

Baked Apples for Tastes to Remember

I'm getting this entry in by the skin of my teeth, because today is the cut off for entry's to Sarah from Homemade's food blog event - Tastes to Remember. I've been craving these recently and especially after seeing the fun Dharm has been having with his kids I decided that this really was what I wanted to share with you all. I am a very lucky girl because not only is my Mum an awesome cook, so is my Dad, he would have cooked a lot of our weeknight meals during my teenage years. He loved to experiment and throw in a little of this and a little of that which made it fun to watch but what made it funner was that he'd sometimes do some crazy dancing and singing while he was at it. Aaaanyways I digress, occasionally Dad would ask us if we wanted some dessert and very often he had these in mind - Baked Apples. I love these bad boys! Everytime I have one I picture myself sitting at the dinner table with Mum, Dad and my sister again.

I like doing these with a little cinnamon sometimes, or with dried apricots or fresh strawberries but this one recipe is true to the original.



Baked Apples

Serves 1

Ingredients
1 Apple i used Golden Delicious
Handful of Raisins
Scoop of ice cream for serving.

Recipe
1. Preheat oven to 160˚C
2. Core apple, place on baking tray and fill the inside with raisins.
3. Bake in the oven for 20 minutes

Delish!

Taste and Create: Orange Chocolate Meringues

I enjoyed taking part in Taste and Create so much last month that I just had to sign up again. This month I got partnered with Erin from The Skinny Gourmet which was really exciting because this girl has some fabulous recipes!!! However with a husband like mine I become somewhat limited in what I can make. I did find a great recipe that I knew that both of us would love - orange chocolate meringues.

I picked this recipe for several reasons -
1. Like I said I knew both of us would love this - especially Rob seeing as he likes to eat meringues like apples.
2. I needed some practice making meringues, seeing as it's something I've not been very good at in the past.
3. I was very fortunate to receive some Amano Chocolate from a Blakemakes.com giveaway and needed a fab recipe to use some of it in.


4. I remember talking to a meringue producer at Enjoy the Taste of Scotland who said they had tried to make meringue with chocolate through it but couldn't figure it out, which really surprised me because I've seen all sorts of meringue recipes with chocolate in it.

So with so many reasons and motives to make this what was I waiting for!?!?!?! Well some spare time to make them I suppose, which happened to be today!

I made a mistake on my first go at this recipe and only added half the sugar so the meringues ended up being quite soft - but still really yummy. I ended up baking it for much longer than the second batch hoping that they may have crisped up which is part of why they're a bit darker looking than the second batch.



I got it right the second time round and was even more impressed. The meringue came out perfectly - beautifully crispy inside and out and filled with fabulous orange and chocolate flavour that makes them so yummy on their own that you wouldn't want to eat them with anything else, but I'm sure they would still be delicious with other things like a little cream and mandarin segments... oh and now that I'm daydreaming throw on some chocolate sauce too!!!!



I'm sure I'll be using this recipe again even just the basic meringue part of it, because it worked so well.

Orange Chocolate Meringues

Erin was able to make 10 servings but I made 6 bigger portions.

Ingredients
2 large egg whites @ room temperature
1/8 tsp cream of tartar
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 tsp pure orange extract
1/2 tsp pure almond extract
1/2 cup Ghirardelli 60% cocoa chips, finely chopped. I used 70% Amano Chocolate

Recipe
1. Preheat oven to 350˚F (170˚C)
2. Beat egg whites with cream of tartar until stiff white peaks form.
3. Beat in the sugar adding it very gradually. Midway through adding sugar add the extracts (DON'T add more that 1 tsp worth of extract).
4. Fold the chopped chocolate into the meringue.
5. Drop required portion size onto a baking sheet lined with baking paper.
6. Bake at 350˚F (170˚C) until crisp (mine took about 30-40 minutes). Cool on a wire rack and store in an air tight container.

See Erin's post for more details and edits that can be made.



As for the Amano Chocolate, I had to taste a piece of each before doing anything else with it. This was some really tasty chocolate, really smooth, with great flavours that wasn't as bitter as other dark chocolates (of 70%) I've had before. I could have easily ate my way through these bars of chocolate as they were. Thanks Amano Chocolate and thanks Blakemakes.com for the free chocolate! I loved it!

Pasta - Breakfast Fry Up Style

Yesterday I got a call from my hubby saying he was heading out for dinner with some guys at work so I had to plan a meal for myself - usually when I'm eating alone I take the opportunity to make something that I know hubby wouldn't eat in a million years. I decided to use up some leftovers with a few fresh ingredients and make a pasta dish. While cooking I realised I had included quite a few components for a fried breakfast, plus a couple of non fried breakfast ingredients. Is it cheating to count the egg as included in the pasta?

I added a finely chopped clove of smoked garlic that that I'd received at Enjoy the Taste of Scotland from The Really Garlicky Company. It was a huge clove! But I'm not sure it really made any difference to the flavour of the recipe, I didn't think it tasted of anything on it's own, not even of garlic! So next time I make this I think I'll just use fresh garlic instead. But check out the size of that!!! (It's beside a cherry tomato in case you're thinking it was a bigger variety of tomato lol)



I'm sending this over to Ruth at Once Upon a Feast for Presto Pasta Night



Pasta - Breakfast Fry Up Style

Serves 1

Ingredients
Spaghetti (enough for 1 serving)
2 pork sausages, cut into small chunks
1/4 red pepper cut into chunks
3 medium closed cup mushrooms, sliced
2 rashers of back bacon, chopped into small pieces
2 scallion/spring onions
6-8 cherry tomatoes, halved.
1 clove of smoked garlic (but an ordinary garlic clove would be fine too)
150ml tomato sauce (1 400g tin of peeled plum tomatoes, 1 tbsp dried basil, 1tsp dried oregano, 1 tsp garlic puree. Blend everything together until smooth - this is also my new pizza sauce recipe)

Recipe
1. Place spaghetti in salted boiling water and leave to cook.
2. Heat a little oil in a frying pan and start to cook sausages.
3. 3 minutes later add the red pepper chunks.
4. 2 minutes later, add the mushrooms and bacon to the pan.
5. 3 minutes later thrown in the tomatoes and scallions.
6. 2 minutes later stir in the garlic and tomato sauce.
7. Drain the pasta, and add to the sauce stirring through.



Serve with fresh bread (or if you want to continue the breakfast theme serve with some soda bread)

Bookmarked Recipes 5

Here's this week's round up of of Bookmarked Recipes and this week we have some more great recipes from some more great bloggers:



Alison in Arkansas from Someone's in the Kitchen kicks off this week's roundup with Rosemary Caramel Sandwich cookies from a Bon Appetit magazine advertisement. These really do look and sound incredible. I love the idea of the rosemary in the caramel too... sounds yummy!



Jennifer, from Austin Texas, is a newbie to the food blogging world over at Jennifer's Haus. Welcome Jennifer!!!!! Great to have you joining in on Bookmarked Recipes! Jennifer has made some great looking Strawberry Yoghurt Loaf that she'd based on a recipe for Lemon blueberry loaf from Deb's blog - Smitten Kitchen.



Val (aka Bellini Valli) of More than burnt toast from British Columbia in Canada made one of Peter's dishes (from Kalofagas) - Keftedes stuffed with cheese. I'd love to make these, only I'd have to leave out the cheese for my hubby so it kind of defeats the purpose. I'll bet they tasted real good!



Dell from Cooking and the city joins us again all the way from Oz with some cookies based on a recipe found on Taste.com.au. I really need to work on my cookie recipes.... I've tried several all of which have been nice but nothing to shout about. Great cookies Dell! You've inspired me to try a new recipe now.



Joanna, a Polish blogger living in Belgium from Lost in the Kitchen, is another new food blogger joining the round up. She's made some fabulous Rhubarb, cinnamon and brown sugar muffins based on a recipe from Olive Magazine. I love the sound of these because I love rhubarb and am always on the look out for a new recipe to use it in!



My entry for this week is Crispy sticky chicken with squashed potatoes and tomatoes from Jamie Oliver's book - Jamie at Home. Delicious!!!!



Thanks everyone for your submissions!!! It's always exciting to see what people have been making and recreating!

That's it for this week. Remember if you want to take part here's all you have to do....
1. Pick a recipe from a book/magazine/blog/website/tv show and make it. (Note you can only submit 1 recipe per week)
2. Blog about it
- include where you got the recipe in your blog post (including a link to their website if possible)
- include a link to this post or this blog in your blog post
- include the logo (see above) for Bookmarked Recipes in your blog post
- include a photo of your recreation on your blog post
3. Email bookmarkedrecipes[AT]gmail[DOT]com with the following information:
- Your name and where you're from
- The name of your blog
- The permalink for your entry
- A photo of your entry
- A note of where you got your recipe from

Every Monday I will post a round up of all the entries here on my blog for everyone to see, share and maybe even try for themselves!

Crispy sticky chicken with squashed potatoes and tomatoes

I've had this recipe bookmarked for a while now - we were given the Jamie Olivers - Jamie at Home for Christmas and I immediately fell in love with this dish, even more so after seeing it being made on Jamie's show. Then seeing Peter from Kalofagas make this dish back in March made me want to try it even more!!!!! So this is my entry to my Bookmarked Recipes event for this Monday.

This is a wonderful dish, it takes a little longer than most weeknight meals to prepare but it is totally worth it. I halved the recipe that Jamie gives but it was a really tasty dish that I should have made more of because we had no leftovers and wanted more when we were done.



Here's Jamie's recipe, but with some of the steps reordered to help save a little time in the preparation of this meal:

Crispy sticky chicken with squashed potatoes and tomatoes

Serves 4

Ingredients
800g new potatoes, scrubbed
See salt
Freshly ground black pepper
12 boned chicken thighs
Olive oil (I used my new bottle of Oleifera)
600g cherry tomatoes (I halved the number of tomatoes because I knew Rob wouldn't be having any)
Fresh oregano (I couldn't find any in the several supermarkets and green grocers I checked out so ended up using dried oregano)
Extra virgin olive oil (Again I used the Oleifera)
Red wine vinegar

Recipe
1. Cut each chicken thigh into strips and place in a bowl. Add a little olive oil and sprinkle with the salt and pepper. Toss the chicken to coat.
2. Put the potatoes into a large saucepan of salted boiling water, and leave to boil until cooked.
3. Prick the skins if the tomatoes with a sharp knife and place then into a bowl. Cover with boiling water and leave for a couple of minutes. Drain and leave to cool slightly, then peel off the skins and place them into an oven proof dish.
4. In a large frying pan/skillet, cook the chicken for about 10 minutes then remove to the oven proof dish.
5. Preheat oven to 200˚C.
6. By now the potatoes should be boiled. Drain off the water. Crush each potato slightly with a spoon and mix in gently with the potatoes and tomatoes.
7. Bash up a bunch of oregano with some salt, 4 tbsp EVOO, a good splash of red wine and a little pepper. Pour over everything in the oven dish.
8. Cook in the oven for 40 minutes until golden.