Revised Recipe: Christmas Logs

This revised recipe has been long overdue, and to be honest it’s been sitting on my desk ready to post for a few weeks now. Instead of three logs, you get four here, but the basic method is still the same. I’m sure many of you have already made them, as have I but some readers are still asking me for it and although I do have a recipe posted a few years ago, I think this updated one is slightly better.

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Mini Macarons

When we travel I tend to stay away from shopping in general; one exception though is food of course. (Another exception is tea towels, but that’s not a given either, and yes, it’s kitsch.) We have not travelled much lately but J has been to Zurich for a couple of days. I knew he would get some kind of liqueur with him but I never expected him to return with these little dainty babies. It’s true to say that the best gifts are the unexpected ones and this box of goodies was a nice surprise from Sprüngli.

I never had macarons before, let alone teeny tiny ones like these. Delicious. They came in a pink box, with one little note of instruction, something along the lines of: to be eaten as soon as you see them, my interpretation of course, or best when fresh. And as I *almost always* do as I am told, we devoured them, in a matter of days…*a few days* but  we certainly didn’t want the box to finish. Next time I’m in Zurich, I now know what to get. And, like a dog with treats, I salivate when I think about them.

As I haven’t yet attempted to make them myself (I have to someday) I am happy just to eat them, for now.

Enjoy the pics.

Rob x

 

Triple Chocolate Cookies

I should have included these babies right before Valentine’s Day, but believe me when I say that these cookies will taste great any time during the year. I have been wanting to try them for ages, as with all of the recipes in this blog, but this is totally special. It is adapted from Nigella’s Totally Chocolate Chocolate Chip Cookies (click here for the Nigella’s recipe and here to watch her make them).

Now you really don’t need an electric mixer. They turn out great even if you mix everything by hand. I totally omitted the salt and in truth you can even leave out the bicarbonate of soda and use baking powder instead but I included it anyway. Also my adaptation calls for only (ehem..cough) 200g of chocolate, which is approximately 2 bars of chocolate broken up into chunks. (Do this by placing the chocolate into a sealed plastic bag and bashing them with a rolling pin.) That is more than you really need, so if you want to put in less you can. But hey a chocoholic like me won’t settle for less!

Makes around 12. For the cookies you need:

• 125g dark chocolate, melted and slightly cooled
• 150g plain flour
• 30g cocoa, sieved
• 1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
• 125g butter, softened
• 75g light brown sugar
• 50g caster sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 egg
• Two 100g bars of milk chocolate broken into chunks

1. Preheat the oven to 170°C. Put the flour, cocoa and bicarbonate of soda in a large bowl.
2. In a separate container cream the butter with the brown and caster sugars. Add the melted chocolate and mix. In this same bowl add the vanilla extract and beat in the egg.
3. Take the dry ingredients and tip them in with the wet ingredients. Stir the chocolate chunks in with the final mixture.
4. Using an ice-cream scoop (I find this easier) and a knife to level the mixture, spoon it onto a lined baking sheet. Make sure to leave a good gap in between scoops because they will grow (in fact, they will be huge).  You can also freeze half the cookies for later if you want to. Cook for 18 minutes. Leave to cool for a while and then move them onto a cooling rack.

   My favourite so far! Enjoy!

   Rob x