All That I'm Eating

Recipe ideas for budget meals, everyday cooking and a little indulgence. Travel inspiration and restaurant reviews too.

Malted Chocolate Biscuits

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Malted Chocolate Biscuits - All That I'm Eating (2)
This recipe comes from a book which is very special to me; it is called Chocolate and was written by Jacqueline Bellefontaine. In case you didn’t know I never really used to like food. I loved cooking and seeing other people enjoy my efforts (whether out of politeness or genuinely) but I would never try anything different. When it came to baking that was a different matter and I would eat and bake anything. One birthday, I guess I was maybe 12 or 13, my Granny gave me this book and I just didn’t know what to make first. I’ve never had a bad recipe from it, the brownies are to die for and it’s my go to book when I need to bake. These malted chocolate biscuits are just brilliant and so simple to make.

ingredients

This recipe is on page 122 of the book.
You will need (I made 8 slices):

  • 100g butter
  • 2 tbsp golden syrup
  • 2 tbsp malted chocolate drink (I used just malted i.e. Horlicks)
  • 225g malted milk biscuits
  • 75g milk chocolate (you can also use dark)
  • 25g icing sugar
  • 2 tbsp milk

Method

Grease and line a cake tin; mine was an 18cm loose bottomed one.

Put the butter, golden syrup and malted drink into a saucepan and heat gently until the mixture is well combined. I find when the butter melts at first it looks a bit separated but keep stirring and it will come together and be thick and glossy.

Bash up the malted milk biscuits until you have crumbs then mix these into the butter mixture.

Press the mixture down well in the cake tin. read more

Millionaire’s Tart

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Millionaire's Tart with Salted Chocolate - All That I'm Eating
Baking is something I save for one of two occasions; a rainy day (classic excuse) or a day where my eyebrows have been almost continuously furrowed. With the return of the Great British Bake Off on our screens I felt it was high time I got out my scales and greaseproof paper to make something truly indulgent. Well if you’re only going to bake occasionally then why make something healthy? Millionaire’s Tart is possibly my favourite tart of all time. Also, I wanted to make sure that I could retain my pastry skills to ensure I avoided the dreaded soggy bottom.

Ingredients

You will need (for a 20cm tart):

For the pastry –

  • 220g plain flour
  • 120g butter (I used salted)
  • Cold water
  • 1 can dulce de leche

For the chocolate topping –

  • 200g high cocoa chocolate
  • 150ml double cream
  • 25g salted butter
  • Sea salt, I really like Cornish Sea Salt for this as I think it has a lovely clean flavour

I was so impressed with how my pastry case turned out I felt I needed to provide evidence that I had made it myself!

Method

Make the pastry by rubbing the butter into the flour until you have a breadcrumb texture then bring the mixture together into a dough using a little cold water.

Knead the dough lightly on a floured surface then roll out and line a 20cm tart tin.

Cut or roll off the excess and prick the base with a fork. read more

A Trip to Bruges

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Bruges Skyline
We sat at my laptop around two weeks ago trawling the internet for some holiday inspiration. None came and so we adopted the ‘let’s just book whatever leaves next week’ attitude; a method I will most certainly be using again. We booked a three day trip to Bruges, getting there by Eurostar with a small a bag as possible (well, I still needed everything ever) and it was fantastic. There was plenty of chocolate, beer, waffles and sightseeing.

We had a great little guide book to the city and based our trip around that. Our hotel was a five minute walk from the station and about ten minutes from the city centre; to get to the centre was either through a park or cobbled back streets, each equally as picturesque.

One of the places I really wanted to visit was Cambrinus; a wooden and stained glass window bar which serves 400 different beers. I didn’t think I liked beer, after my trip to Bruges it turns out I do. We managed to sample 20 different beers between us in three days; good for the taste buds, bad for the belly.
The picture above shows the massive beer menu (left), the Delerium tasting beer selection (middle) and a passion fruit beer (right) with cheese and meat that you can order to nibble on. read more

Coffee and Chocolate Shortbread

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chocolate and coffee shortbread
I have been meaning to make some shortbread for a while but things just seem to get in the way and before I know it I’m tucked up in bed thinking, “Tomorrow. Tomorrow will be shortbread day”, it seemed to be a never ending cycle. However many things happen I always try to make time to bake a biscuit; there’s nothing else that can fill the void like making a homemade treat. To bring about my biscuit making I set about creating a coffee chocolate shortbread.

Kopi sent me some coffee and instead of making a mug of coffee and telling you about it I wanted to mix it up in something tasty! I like the idea of Kopi coffee; you sign up and get a different coffee sent to you each month. I was sent Sumatra Aceh Organic and it was deep and smooth with a little hint of bitterness but not too much. It formed a distinct crema layer on top with no effort on my part; I’ve been told a good crema is the sign of a good coffee. 

Ingredients

You will need (for 12 fingers):
  • 180g plain flour
  • 1 tbsp cocoa powder
  • 50g caster sugar
  • 150g softened butter
  • 40g dark chocolate, finely chopped
  • 10g ground coffee

Method

Preheat your oven to 160C and grease a baking dish; I’ve used round, square and rectangular for this mixture before and all work well. read more

Spelt and Dark Chocolate Pancakes with Yoghurt and Honey

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spelt chocolate pancakes
When the weather gets like this there is only one way to improve the situation; to fill your belly with buttery things. More specifically spelt and chocolate pancakes. It seems to have been raining forever recently! Each time I glance out of the window there is never even a peep of blue sky and hardly any bright daffodils to remind me it is in fact Spring. But no matter, I have honey at the ready.  Perhaps not the healthiest advice to give, a more svelte person might suggest a nice jog in the park but it wouldn’t quite cut the mustard for me. No, when my fingers are still blue in March I need chocolate and sticky sweet things. That’s where these Spelt and Dark Chocolate Pancakes fit in nicely. Rachel’s Organic sent me some Greek Yoghurt with Honey to try and I thought it would work nicely with these pancakes.

Ingredients

You will need (for around 16 pancakes):

  • 200g spelt flour
  • 2 tsp baking powder
  • 40g caster sugar
  • 20g melted butter, plus extra for cooking
  • 1 egg
  • 275ml milk
  • 40g dark chocolate chips
  • Yoghurt with honey to serve

Method

Start by sieving the flour, baking powder and sugar into a large bowl.

In a separate bowl mix together the melted butter, egg and milk until well combined. Stir the egg mixture into the flour mixture and add the chocolate chips. Give everything a good stir to make sure it is well incorporated.

Heat a little knob of butter in a frying pan until it just starts to foam and then drop the pancake mixture in using around 2 tbsp of the batter for each pancake.

Fry the pancakes until they are golden brown before flipping them over and cooking the other side. Don’t be tempted to flip too early as you could end up with miserable looking pancake. read more

Banoffee and Chocolate Chelsea Buns

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Banoffee and chocolate Chelsea buns
Have you ever had one of those days where a banana keeps looking at you? You keep seeing it out of the corner of your eye knowing it’s getting riper by the second but you just don’t feel like eating it. Everyone likes their bananas differently; some like them green and leaving that funny feeling in your mouth and others like them bruised and brown. I am on the green team; as soon as there’s a speck of brown on the banana skin I can’t stand it. But what do you do with that slightly brown banana that keeps winking at you? I hate to waste food and so I devised these Banoffee and Chocolate Chelsea buns, or as I like to call them: Chanoffee Buns. You will need: 500g strong white bread flour 50g caster sugar 1 x 7g sachet fast action yeast 200ml milk, warmed 50g unsalted butter, very soft and in cubes 1 egg 1 can dulce de leche (you won’t need the whole can) 1 ripe banana 50g dark chocolate chips

I have wanted to try making an enriched dough for a while so this was a perfect excuse. Mix together the flour, caster sugar and yeast in a bowl or mixer. Make a well in the centre and add the warm milk, egg and butter. Turn the mixer on or start to mix with your hands. Once mixed, knead the dough until it is nice and stretchy. Cover and leave in a warm place for 45-60 minutes or until doubled in size.

Remove the dough from the bowl and knock some of the air out. Divide the dough into two pieces and roll each piece out into a long rectangle. As you can see from the above picture an actual rectangle was hard for me to achieve but a bit of a jaunty angle here and there never harmed anyone. Spread a few spoons of the dulche de leche along the bottom two thirds of the long edge of the dough. Take half the banana and squeeze this onto the caramel towards the bottom edge of the dough. Top with half the chocolate chips.  read more

Chocolate Shortbread with Rosemary and Hazelnuts

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chocolate rosemary and hazlenut shortbread
A while ago I was having some lunch in a restaurant. For pudding I had some soft, sugar covered dough sticks which were to be dipped in a well known hazelnut chocolate spread. At some point in the kitchen a rogue bit of rosemary had ended up on my dough stick. I imagine there must have been some sort of herb-off going on in the kitchen between the chefs and the remnants of the duel had not been cleared up. Unbeknown to me I submerged it in hazelnutty chocolate and ate it. One of the best accidental mastications I’ve ever made and a combination I have recreated in this shortbread. You will need (for 12 pieces): 170g plain flour 1 tbsp cocoa powder 50g caster sugar 150g butter, softened 35g dark chocolate, chopped 15g hazelnuts 1/2 tsp dried rosemary

Start by chopping the hazelnuts and frying them in a dry pan until lightly toasted. Lightly grease a baking sheet. Chop the chocolate and hazelnuts finely to ensure even distribution in the finished biscuit. Put all the remaining ingredients in a bowl and beat together until they start to form a ball. It will look like a bowl of hopeless crumbs but keep going; it will make a lump eventually. Get your hands in the mix to bring all the mix into one ball. Lightly knead the dough.

Place the dough in the middle of the prepared baking sheet and then roll it out until it is about 20cm in diameter  Pinch, crimp or fork the edges of the dough to give it a nice edge. Prick the top with a fork and bake in a preheated oven at 160C for 40-45 minutes or until firm. Mark into wedges while still hot. read more

White Chocolate and Rose Truffles (with a surprise inside)

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White Chocolate and Rose Truffles
Last year for Valentine’s Day I posted a three course meal; Beetroot and Goat’s Cheese Risotto, Boeuf Bourguignon and Dark Chocolate Tart. They were great together for a lovely meal in but this year I wanted to make something a little romantic and very indulgent. I know Valentine’s recipes will be two a penny at the moment but my truffles are a bit different. Not least because they’re not heart shaped and look rather plain and innocent. Until you bite into one that is.  What is that in the middle of the truffle I hear you ask? Well, as love is in the air, it’s a small pink nod to St. Valentine in the form of a pomegranate seed. A nice bit of fresh texture in an otherwise melty, mellow mouthful. It takes barely any effort to put the pomegranate seed inside each one and makes such a difference to the end flavour and texture it is definitely worth it.

You will need (for around 25 truffles):
300g white chocolate
150ml double cream
25g butter
Splash rose extract (preferably not rose water)
1 pomegranate
100g white chocolate – for dipping

Start by chopping the 300g of chocolate into small chunks. Heat the double cream and butter together until hot but not boiling. Pour this over the chocolate and mix well until the chocolate has melted and it’s all nicely combined. Add a drop of rose extract, mix well and then try it to see how floral it tastes. If you’re a bit overenthusiastic with your dripping technique the end result might taste reminiscent of soap. Not really what you’re going for. read more

Zillionaire’s Shortbread

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The New Year is always full of optimism, resolutions and excitement. What is your resolution this year? Some people choose dieting/getting healthy/losing weight as their resolution and to those of you reading this who may have just started their path to a healthier lifestyle, I apologise. This recipe is not for those who strive for a smaller waist. This is pure, unashamed indulgence; layers of buttery shortbread sandwiched with dulce de leche, topped with salted caramel and dark chocolate. Not millionaire’s shortbread, but Zillionaire’s Shortbread. read more

Chocolate Covered Salted and Sweet Popcorn Bars

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Chocolate Covered Salted and Sweet Popcorn Bars - All That I'm Eating
I love popcorn. I don’t know what it is that makes it so addictive that you carry on eating it even though you know it’ll be stuck in your teeth for hours afterwards. I think popcorn is responsible for starting a lot of arguments; queuing at the cinema inevitably results in the question, “Salted or sweet popcorn”? and the ensuing debate afterwards discussing the merits of both flavours. 

If I had to choose it would be sweet. Fortunately I no longer have to make this decision as the ingenious people from Toasted have made the ultimate popcorn; sweet and salt. If ever there was a day to rival the invention of sliced bread it has to be this. Never again do we need to decide and end up wishing we’d had the other. This popcorn deserved to be treated to something a little special.

You will need:
300g milk chocolate (I used Milka with Daim)
A few large handfuls of popcorn (salted and sweet ideally)
100g white chocolate read more

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