christmas

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Spiced Chocolate Crackle Biscuits

These ‘brownie-like’ biscuits make such a pretty Christmas gift.

With their snowy appearance and hint of orange and spice, your family and friends will love these chocolate treats. 

There are only 2 simple steps involved, melting the chocolate and flavourings and creaming the eggs and sugar. For the creaming part, you will need electric beaters to get the mixture as pale and thick as possible. Using a hand held whisk will simply not cut it. 

Be patient with this step, you want a thick and pale mixture.
This is how they start out. Make sure you leave space for them to spread.
And just like magic, they spread and crack as they cook.

These biscuits really do require a good quality dark chocolate such as 70% cocoa, as their base. But if you must, you could substitute it with milk chocolate. They will be lighter in colour and not quite as rich. 

A batch of these have said thank you to my son’s teachers, who have patiently encouraged, inspired and believed in my boys this year. 

I think another batch is in order soon, as my husband is complaining he didn’t get any and they just really do make the cutest gifts. Placed in a beautiful bowl or wrapped in cello bags, they will be a hit I promise. 

Thanks to the Australian Women’s Weekly for another great recipe. 

Happy Baking friends x

Spiced Chocolate Crackle Biscuits
Yields 25
A brownie-like chocolate biscuit with a hint of orange and spice.
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Prep Time
30 min
Cook Time
12 min
Total Time
42 min
Prep Time
30 min
Cook Time
12 min
Total Time
42 min
Ingredients
  1. 200 grams dark chocolate (70% cocoa) chopped
  2. 40 grams unsalted butter, chopped
  3. 1/4 cup chocolate hazelnut spread
  4. finely grated rind of 1 orange
  5. 1 teaspoon mixed spice
  6. 2 eggs
  7. 1 egg white
  8. 1/2 cup castor sugar
  9. 1/3 cup plain flour
  10. 2 tablespoons cocoa powder
  11. 3/4 cup icing sugar for rolling
Instructions
  1. Place the chocolate, butter, spread, rind and spice in a small saucepan and stir over low heat until melted and combined. Set aside.
  2. Beat eggs, egg white and sugar in a small bowl with electric beaters for at least 5 minutes, or until very pale and thick. When you lift the beaters, the mixture should fall in ribbons.
  3. Gently fold the chocolate mixture into the egg mixture until well combined.
  4. Gently fold in the sifted flour and cocoa powder.
  5. Refrigerate for 1-2 hours or until firm.
  6. Preheat oven to 180 degrees celsius, 160 degrees for a fan-forced oven.
  7. Sift icing sugar into a large bowl.
  8. Using a dessert spoon of mixture, carefully form a ball with your hands and drop the ball into the icing sugar, tossing it around the icing sugar so it's coated thickly.
  9. Place on baking trays lined with baking paper, leaving room for them to spread.
  10. Bake for 12-14 minutes or until firm.
  11. Stand on trays for a couple of minutes, then cool on wire racks.
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/ emma@cookfasteatslow.com 2 Comments

Rocky Road (and what Celebration means to me)

I am a celebrations person. 

There is no denying it and the older I get, the more I want to embrace celebrating everything. 

Birthdays, anniversaries, milestones, Friday night, Hump Day, going on holidays, coming home from holidays, the start of a new season, the end of a season, new friends, old friends, a new season of my favourite TV show, public holidays, a new house, the end of a job, graduations….I could go on. Do you get the picture? 

A few months back, I decided to light a candelabra and put it in the middle of the dinner table, that had been set with my favourite grey and white striped place mats. 

“What are we celebrating?” my middle son said as he came to sit down. 

“The fact that it’s Thursday and we are all home for dinner at the same time.” I said.

This past year we have celebrated many special birthdays of family and friends. 40, 50 and 70th’s and some milestone anniversaries. They have all looked different, but one constant has been the presence of champagne and tears at them all.

Champagne and Tears.

The good and the bad, the bitter and the sweet. 

When I talk about celebrating, I am not Pollyanna, declaring everything is happy, perfect and sparkly, clinking glasses with a big fake smile. 

Celebrating to me, is often the defiant stance of remembering, pausing and giving thanks for something or someone inspite of our circumstances, the difficulty or cost. 

This brings me to December and I am declaring this the month of Celebration. 

I am challenging myself to keep my celebrating spirit alive, despite my weariness and a to-do-list that feels unattainable and sends me into a mild panic from time to time. 

As surely as the sun rises each morning, Christmas comes to us in December each year. Not to overwhelm us and send us into a state of chaos and exhaustion, but indeed to remind us to pause and remember and give thanks. 

For every event and get together that keeps the calendar full, I celebrate the gift of relationships and the family and friends who do life with us. 

For every gift purchased, wrapped and given, we get to say thank you to a teacher, coach, neighbour, minister or friend who has enriched our lives this year. 

And for me, surpassing all of those wonderful things, I get to crank the music loud and with arms raised high sing 

JOY TO THE WORLD, The Lord Has Come!

There is no greater reason to celebrate in all the world, than the fact that Jesus came. For me. And for you.

So to kick off a month of Celebrating, today I share with you a very simple recipe that says ‘Christmas’ in our house. 

On a night close to Christmas Day, we bundle the boys in the car in their PJ’s after dinner. With a tin of rocky road on my lap, Christmas carols playing and my husband at the wheel, we drive our surrounding suburbs with the windows down in search of the best Christmas lights. The boys look forward to this night so much, I am not sure if it’s the thrill of being out in their PJ’s at night or the rocky road that they love the most. 

Each week till Christmas I will share my favourite celebrating recipes. Simple ideas perfect for giving away as gifts or sharing with family and friends at this time of year. Most of them will be yummy, fun and not overly healthy. But then that’s what celebrations are for right? 

Rocky Road
Yields 40
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Prep Time
15 min
Prep Time
15 min
Ingredients
  1. 200 grams dark eating chocolate, chopped
  2. 200 grams milk eating chocolate, chopped
  3. 2 x 180 gram packets pink and white marshmellows, chopped in half
  4. 2 x 180 gram packets red raspberry lollies
  5. 1/2 cup desiccated coconut
  6. 150 grams real turkish delight, chopped
  7. 90 grams pistachio nuts, shelled
Instructions
  1. Mix all ingredients except chocolate, in a large bowl.
  2. Place both chocolates in a heat proof bowl and melt for 1 minute on HIGH in the microwave.
  3. Remove, stir and keep heating in 30 second increments on HALF power, stirring in between, until melted.
  4. Pour melted chocolate over ingredients and mix thoroughly.
  5. Press into a lined square or rectangular tin.
  6. Refrigerate until set.
  7. Cut into small pieces and store in the fridge in an airtight container.
Notes
  1. Use your favourite eating chocolate to make a yummy Rocky Road, this is no place for 'cooking chocolate'.
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/ emma@cookfasteatslow.com 2 Comments

Beetroot and Pomegranate Salad

As I am chatting with friends and family about food, I am hearing loud and clear that people are really wanting ideas for Christmas and entertaining that require minimal effort.

‘Recipes’ that read more like a list of nice ingredients that when put together with minimal process, taste great.

This Christmas themed salad is just so pretty with it’s red, green and white colours, but more importantly, when you take a mouthful of the fresh greens, soft beetroot and cheese, crunchy pomegranate seeds and then get a burst of fresh mint, you will be reminded again that sometimes cooking is indeed pairing the right ingredients together, with minimal fuss. The ingredients themselves are the hero, and not the process.

For those who haven’t seen or eaten Labneh before, it’s a cheese made from strained yoghurt and is often used in Middle Eastern cooking. You can easily make your own, but for ease this time of year, you can buy it in the supermarket. It makes a beautiful dip with raw veggies and crackers too.

If you prefer, you can use a creamy goats cheese or Persian feta instead. I do think a creamy cheese and not hard one, is best in this recipe.

And lastly, one of the ways you can be kind to yourself in the kitchen this time of year is to stock up on some different and beautiful store-bought dressings. At the drop of a hat you can make any salad at the last minute and take it to ‘a whole other level’ when you dress it with something gorgeous.

IMG_7567

This Pomegranate Balsamic Vinegar has been a favourite in our house for a few years now. I have to hide it at the back of the cupboard otherwise one of my sons, who has a sweet tooth, will drink it straight from the bottle! It’s generally found in Deli’s and Gourmet Food stores and can be pricey. For Christmas time, I think it’s worth spending a little extra for something special though.

Be warned – it’s quite sweet so you don’t need a lot, but it is the finishing touch a salad like this needs.

IMG_7553

 

 

 

 

 

Beetroot and Pomegranate Salad

Created by on November 30, 2015

  • Prep Time: 10m
  • Total Time: 10m

Ingredients

  • 450 grams tinned beetroot wedges, drained
  • 150 grams rocket and baby spinach salad mix
  • seeds of 1/2 a pomegranate
  • 1/2 bunch of fresh mint leaves
  • 125 grams Labneh, marinted in herbs and oil (or another soft creamy cheese)
  • Pomegranate Balsamic Vinegar to dress

Method

  1. Wash and dry the salad leaves and lay in a shallow bowl or on a platter.
  2. Top with all the other ingredients. Use a teaspoon to dollop the labneh all over the salad.
  3. Drizzle with the Pomegranate Balsamic vinegar to serve.
  4. NOTE - do not toss this salad. As people take spoonfuls the ingredients and flavours will come together on their own.
Source: cook fast eat slow