Recipe of the week: Dark chocolate puddings

These chocolate puddings are deliciously decadent, best served with vanilla bean ice cream and without guilt!

The great thing about this recipe is that it can be made in advance and left in the fridge until you are ready to bake off.

Ingredients:
100g butter
155g sugar
100g dark chocolate
55g flour
3 eggs

Method:
Melt together first 3 ingredients in a pan. Leave to cool slightly and add flour and eggs. Pour into small ramekins and bake for approximately 7-10 min in a oven at 200C, until tops start to crack. Serve immediately with dusted icing sugar on top. This recipe will make 4-5 puddings depending how big your ramekins are.

Recipe of the week: Goats cheese souffle

Here is the recipe for our popular and delicious goats cheese souffle. Enjoy!

Ingredients:
40g butter
45g flour
225ml milk – heated
75g goats cheese
20g grated parmesan
3 eggs – separated
1/2 tsp lemon juice

Method:
Melt the butter in a pot, then add flour, cook for 2 minutes. Slowly add heated milk to the cooked flour and whisk quickly to remove any lumps. Add cheeses and continue to whisk. Remove from heat and add beat in egg yolks. In another bowl whisk egg whites and lemon juice until they form soft peaks. Fold egg whites into other mixture but be careful not to over mix. Put souffle mixture into greased moulds and cook in a bain marie tray of water in a 180C oven for 15-20min. Leave to cool completely before removing from moulds. Makes 3-4 souffles.

Recipe of the week: Raspberry Soufflés

Now most of us have tried savoury soufflés before, but has anyone had a dessert soufflé? This recipe is for raspberry soufflés but you can also substitute the raspberries for any other berry that you prefer. These dessert soufflés are best served with a berry compote, selection of fresh berries, or a generous serving of vanilla bean ice cream.

Ingredients:
Softened unsalted butter
Caster sugar
120 ml raspberry pulp (or softened raspberries that have been sieved)
8g corn flour
40g caster sugar
100ml egg whites
Pinch of cream of tartar
35g caster sugar

Method:
1. Grease 3 dry, cold soufflé dishes (about 250ml capacity) with the butter then dust with sugar.

2. Mix a quarter of the raspberry with the corn flour and make a slurry. In a small saucepan combine the remaining pulp with the 40g of sugar and stir over low heat until the sugar is dissolved and the mixture comes to the boil. Remove from the heat and stir through the slurry mix. Cook gently over a low heat for about 10 minutes until it thickens. Pass through a sieve and cool to room temperature.

3. Beat the egg whites until frothy, add the cream of tartar and beat to firm peaks. Scatter the 35g sugar over the whites and beat until stiff peaks form. Beat a quarter of the egg whites through the raspberry mix. Pour the remaining mix over the whites and fold through.

4. Fill the dishes to the top, wipe the edges and refrigerate until needed.You should get 3-4 soufflés from this mix.

5. To cook, preheat oven to 170c and cook soufflés for 14 minutes or until well risen. Serve immediately.

Recipe of the week: Ricotta hotcakes

What better than to start the day with a breakfast of hotcakes! This recipe uses ricotta which makes the hotcakes lighter, creamier and also gives a more balanced flavour to the dish. Let us know how they turn out!

Ingredients:
250g ricotta cheese
125ml milk
2 large eggs (separated)
100g plain flour
1 tsp baking powder
pinch of salt
20g butter
1 tbsp oil

Method:
1. Put the ricotta, milk and egg yolks into a bowl and mix well to combine. Stir in the flour, baking powder and salt and gently whisk to make a smooth batter.
2. Beat the egg whites until they form stiff peaks then fold into the ricotta mixture.
3. Heat the butter and oil in a large frying pan over a medium heat. Place heaped dessertspoons of batter in the pan. Do not overcrowd the pan.
4. Cook the hotcakes until golden (approx. 2 minutes) and then flip them over and cook for another minute. Please note that the cooking time will vary depending on the size of the hotcakes.

Serving suggestion: Serve with mixed berry compote, vanilla mascapone and a generous dusting of icing sugar. As featured in the photo above.

Recipe of the week: Chicken and leek pies

This is a great spring time recipe, best served with a light side salad of wild rocket and lemon vinaigrette. This recipe will make 1 large pie or 4-5 smaller individual pies.

Ingredients:
2 tablespoons butter
2 tablespoons canola oil
4 chicken breasts, cut into 3cm pieces
1 leek, cut into 1cm-thick pieces
2 garlic cloves, crushed
50g (1/3 cup) plain flour
500ml (2 cups) chicken stock
4 tablespoons chopped fresh thyme
2 tablespoons chopped parsley
1 x 375g puff pastry, thawed
1 egg, lightly whisked

Method:
1. Heat the butter and oil in a large frying pan over medium-high heat. Add half the chicken and cook, turning occasionally, for 2-3 minutes or until browned. Transfer to a plate. Repeat with remaining oil and chicken, reheating pan between batches.

2. Add the leek and garlic to the pan and cook, stirring, for 5 minutes or until the leek softens. Add the flour and cook, stirring, for 30 seconds. Remove from heat. Gradually stir in the stock until well combined. Add the chicken and thyme to the pan. Cook over medium heat, stirring occasionally, for 8 minutes or until the mixture thickens and comes to the boil. Season with salt and pepper. Stir in the parsley. Allow to cool slightly before using.

3. Preheat oven to 200°C. Place pastry sheets in one big pie dish or if making individual pies use smaller pie tins and cut both tops and bottoms out of the pastry.

4. Oil pie dish and place pastry on the bottom. Spoon the chicken mixture into the pie dish and place the other pastry disc on top of the dish. Press the edges to seal. Use a knife to create ridges around the edge of the pastry at 1cm intervals. Brush the top of the pastry with remaining egg. Bake for 25-30 minutes or until puffed and golden.

Recipe of the week: Date and Walnut loaf

You may have tried our date and walnut loaf in the cabinet? Well here is the recipe! It is best served warm with a generous serving of butter!

Ingredients:
1 cup chopped dates
1 cup boiling water
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 tablespoon butter
1 cup brown sugar
1 egg, beaten
1 cup chopped walnuts
1 teaspoon vanilla essence
2 cups plain flour
1 teaspoon baking powder

Method:
1. Put dates, water, soda and butter into a bowl and stir until butter has melted. Set aside for 15 min so that the dates soak up the majority of the water.

2. Beat sugar, egg, walnuts and vanilla into date mixture.

3. Sift flour and baking powder into date mixture, and stir to combine.

4. Pour mixture into a greased loaf tin (it is also a good idea to line tin with baking paper).

5. Bake at 180°C for 45 minutes or until loaf springs back when touched. Leave in tin for 10 minutes before turning out onto a cooling rack.

Recipe of the week: Mulled Wine

The weather has increasingly become colder over the last few weeks and what better than a nice glass of mulled wine after work to warm you up. Some countries associate mulled wine with Christmas, however, being the lucky country that we are, at Christmas time we are at the beach or in our backyards drinking a nice cold beer or wine instead!

Mulled wine is full of different flavours and is a great way to use up opened wine. This recipe involves making a syrup first before adding the wine and the great thing about that is you can store this syrup in your fridge and have it ready for a cold winters day when it arises.

Ingredients:
2 oranges
1 lemon
200g sugar
5 cloves
2 cinnamon quills
1 bay leaf
1 vanilla pod (halved)
2 star anise
1 bottle of red wine

Method:
Cut the peel off the oranges and lemon. Put the sugar in a large saucepan over a medium heat, add the pieces of peel and the juice from the oranges and lemon. Add the cloves, cinnamon quills, bay leaf, star anise and vanilla pod. Pour in enough red wine to just cover the sugar, stir briefly.

Simmer until the sugar has completely dissolved into the red wine and bring to the boil for about 5 minutes, or until it has reduced into a thick syrup.

When the syrup is made, turn the heat down to low and add the rest of the wine. Gently heat the wine for about 5 minutes. Once heated, strain and then pour into glasses and serve.

Note: If you are making the syrup to use later, make sure it is heated before adding the wine. The syrup will keep for a month if refrigerated. This recipe can also be doubled.

Recipe of the week: White chocolate and honey mousse

Most of us have made a chocolate mousse before but it creates a point of difference when using white chocolate. Also, the honey in the mousse is a natural sweetener meaning no extra sugar is added. This mousse can be served in individual glasses or in a large bowl. To create colour and texture in this dish, you can add simple ingredients such as fresh berries or crushed chocolate biscuits on top or between layers. This recipe serves 6.

 

 

Ingredients:

170g White chocolate (milky bars are good)

60g butter

2 eggs

30ml honey

220ml whipped cream

Method:

Melt butter and chocolate together over a water bath, once melted remove from heat and mix. Beat eggs and honey together in a separate bowl until light and fluffy. Fold chocolate into eggs, then fold in whipped cream. Pour into containers you would like to use and leave to set in fridge for at least 2 hours.

Recipe of the week: Chocolate dipped almond biscotti

Biscotti is a handy recipe to have up your sleeve and a perfect accompaniment to have with your tea or coffee. Biscotti can also be a great homemade gift and it keeps a long time. The recipe below will make roughly 16 individual biscotti. This recipe is for almond biscotti but you can use any kind of nuts you like.

 

Ingredients:

100g almonds (can be substituted for other nuts)

200g flour

180g sugar

¼ teaspoon baking soda

2 eggs

1tsp vanilla

250g melted dark chocolate

 

Method: 

Chop almonds into smaller pieces. Place all dry ingredients in a bowl. Lightly beat eggs and vanilla and combine with dry. Shape onto a tray. Cook at 160 for 40 minutes. Cool for 20 minutes then cut into slices and place back in 140 oven for a further 15 minutes. Allow to biscotti to cool then half dip  in melted chocolate. Dry on a clean piece of baking paper. Store in an airtight container.

Recipe of the week: Lemon curd

Need a recipe for something to make with those left over egg yolks? Try our lemon curd! This recipe will make enough curd for a large tart tin. There are heaps of things to do with lemon curd, the most obvious being lemon meringue pie. However, lemon curd can be put on your toast (or crumpets), used as a trifle filling or put between the layers of a cake! The great thing about lemon curd is it also has a long shelf life.

Ingredients:
270 ml lemon juice (about 9 lemons)
240g sugar
250g butter chopped into cubes
5 whole eggs
6 egg yolks

Method:
Combine all the ingredients except the butter and whisk until combined. Place in a pot over a low heat and once the sugar has dissolved add half the butter (cube by cube) while continuing to whisk. When the mixture starts to thicken, add the remaining butter. The curd is ready when it coats the back of a spoon without being too runny. If your curd has lumps in it, pass it through a sieve. Store in a airtight container in the fridge up for up to 2 weeks.