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    Entries in "milk chocolate" (3)

    Thursday
    Jan112018

    Golden Gaytime "The Crumbs"

                                        golden gaytime "the crumbs'

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    'It's hard to have a Gaytime on your own' 

    Streets ice-cream advertising slogan

    First released in 1959 a Golden Gaytime is an ice-cream centre, choc dipped and biscuit crumbed on a stick.

    The flavour most identifiable with a Golden Gaytime is toffee and vanilla, although it was originally Strawberry Shortcake, Cassata Roma (I would have like to try that one!), Raspberry Rough and Turkish Delight before the 1970's saw the Golden Gaytime actually become a bit more golden with it's now iconic toffee/vanilla combo. 

    Now days it's available in what most of think as original toffee/vanilla, on sticks, in tubs and as an ice-cream sandwich. Plus new flavours like Pina Colada, Choc Mint, Cappucino and Unicorn. 

    And now for the "crumbs" the smart marketing department at Streets released limited edition tins of the crumbs that coat the ice-cream. Yep, a tin of crumbs. 

    Open the tin and as expected "crumbs". Guess what I put in the Christmas stocking this year along with the *limited release vegemite! 

    For Aussies this is the taste of Golden Gaytime, especially when you pair it with vanilla, toffee and a bit of milk chocolate. 

    Think choc dipping cubes of toffee swirled vanilla cheesecake and topping with the crumbs, invent a cocktail and toffee dip the rim of a cocktail glass and dip into the crumbs, swirl toffee into vanilla yogurt and sprinkle on the crumbs... few choc flakes too if you are starting the New Year living dangerously. 

    Any patisserie application where you would use Paillete Feuilletine flakes for crunch. 

    My first try using them was coating the inside of a choux buns with milk chocolate, a scoop of store bought vanilla ice-cream and a good drizzle of toffee with the crumbs on top. 

    I scrapped my usual toffee sauce, I love it but it belongs in a sticky date pud not summery ice-cream. Ended up going with a butterscotch sauce from Taste where I used golden syrup replace some of the sugar. It's a quickie to avoid hot days in kitchen over summer.

    Butterscotch... moving towards toffee sauce. 

    Ingredients

    2/3 cups of pouring cream

    1/2 cup of packed brown sugar

    1/4 cup of golden syrup (it can be maple or honey... each adds a hint of that flavour)

    2 1/2 tablespoons of cubed butter

    2 teaspoons of vanilla 

    Method

    Place all the ingredients in a saucepan. Stir over medium heat for 3 - 5 minutes until well combined.

    Watch for toffee rising up in pot, don't be tempted to multi task you don't want the toffee covered stove. Keep stirring to prevent catching. 

    Increase heat and bring to boil, once boiling reduce heat to low and cook uncovered, stirring often until sauce thickens slightly. Takes about 5 minutes. 

    Once cooked the bubbles subside and you have your sauce.

    Set aside to cool for a couple of hours. Serve at room temperature... swirling it over your creation... top with crumbs. 

     

    This sauce keeps in an airtight jar in the fridge for a week or so. It does set firmer in fridge so bring to room temperature before serving.

    *the tins of crumbs were a limited Christmas release... if you missed out try the end of this year or give Streets a call and see if a bakery near you can supply you with any from a bulk lot. 

    Happy Baking :) 

    Friday
    May282010

    Dan's "just hell" Cookies

    Dan's "just hell" mudslide cookies

    I had to laugh when I overheard Daniel talking to his Mum on the phone giving her suggestions about what would be a good recipe to try out in her brand new mixer. It went like this "NO! not the mudslide cookies Mum, they taste amazing but it's like hell making them, just hell!!"

    I don't know about the "hell" part, but Daniel sure makes a decadent cookie with his adaptation of Martha Stewart's Mudslide cookies ;) They're not inexpensive to make due to all the chocolate, but they do make fabulous gifts packaged in cello bags, boxes or tins, also ideal for church/bake sales/fetes.. large enough to sell singularly too.

    Ingredients
    Makes about 4 dozen cookies.
    2/3 cup plain flour  (all-purpose flour)
    2 teaspoons baking powder
    1 teaspoon salt
    170g (6 ounces) 70% or bitter chocolate, coarsely chopped
    450g (1 pound) dark eating chocolate, coarsely chopped
    6 tablespoons unsalted butter
    5 large eggs
    1 3/4 cups sugar
    1 1/2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract/essence
    450g (1 pound) cadbury dairy milk chocolate, coarsely chopped
    *extra chocolate (optional) Daniel adds any extra chocolate he finds in the house... up to another 450g (1 pound)... makes an extra 1/2 dozen to a dozen cookies all up.
    Method
    Preheat the oven to 200C (400 degrees F). Line baking sheets with non stick mats or silicone baking paper; set aside. In a small bowl, sift together flour, baking powder, and salt; set aside.
    In a heatproof bowl, or in the top of a double boiler, set over a pot of simmering water, melt together unsweetened and semisweet chocolates and butter; set aside to cool.
    In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, beat eggs, sugar, and vanilla on medium speed until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Add cooled, melted chocolate mixture, and combine on low speed.
    Add flour mixture, and continue to beat on low speed until almost combined, about 1 minute. Remove bowl from mixer; stir in milk chocolate & extra chocolate if using by hand.
    Using a standard sized ice-cream scoop, drop dough onto prepared baking sheets about 3 inches apart. Bake until set, 12 to 15 minutes. Let cookies cool completely on baking sheets.
    Alternatives; replace some of the chopped chocolate that is added to the dough with nuts. Or do what Dan does and look around for what you can add... maybe crushed peppermint candy, maybe raisins.... probably not a good idea to add the different things in one batch of cookies ;)
    recipe adaptation, baking and photography; Daniel Paxton-Zahra
    Thursday
    May132010

    Ode to Bounty Bars Cupcakes

                                      ode to bounty bars cupcakes

    Baking questions?? Pop over and see me on facebook.

    Reading MasterChef magazine I saw a recipe for chocolate coconut lemon bars, made as a tribute to 'Bounty Bars' the popular chocolate bar produced by Mars. 

    Hmmm, I can see why the food editor chose to use the lemon (using the left over egg yolks from the recipe to make lemon curd) & I do love the combination of lemon & coconut, but I felt that's "not really like a Bounty bar".

    bounty bars, thickly coated in milk chocolate

    The most popular Bounty bars are thickly coated in milk chocolate with a moist coconut filling, the appeal is in the simplicity of umptious milk chocolate combined with soft coconut. Besides that you get two mini bars in each bar & you always feel like you are getting an extra treat!

    Today's recipe loses the "lemon", bumps up the vanilla, swaps the melted dark chocolate for milk chocolate ganache and changes from 'bars' to 'cupcakes'. With small amount of flour in the recipe it's ideal to convert to gluten free too. I've included tips on storing & using leftover egg yolks. 

    Bounty Bar trivia;

    Nigella Lawson has a recipe for deep fried Bounty Bars in her cookbook Nigella Bites. 

    2009 saw a trade mark application from Mars to protect the Bounty Bar shape thrown out of court when the judge ruled the rounded end shape is "devoid of any distinctive character" 

    On to the recipe... it's any easy one, the cake batter is similar to financiers and friands there is no mixers involved and it results in beautifully moist cakes. 

    Ode to Bounty Bars Cupcakes 

    Ingredients

    150g unsalted butter, melted (5.29 oz) 

    120g (1 2/3 cups) shredded unsweetened coconut 

    200g (1 1/4 cups) icing sugar (confectioners sugar) 

    50g (1/3 cup) self-raising flour

    1 tsp pure vanilla extract or essence

    1/4 tsp salt

    6 egg whites 

    Method 

    Pre heat oven to 180C. Line a 12 cup cupcake pan with paper liners. 

    Place the coconut in a large bowl, sift over flour, icing sugar, and salt. Stir your egg whites with a fork just to break up the whites a bit. Add the cooled melted butter, egg white and vanilla to the coconut and stir until just combined. 

    Divide between the paper liners in your prepared tray and bake for 18 to 22 minutes until the edges are golden brown and the centres are "just set"... you want these little cakes to be moist.

    Remove from oven & transfer to a cooking rack. Once cool spread with milk chocolate ganache.

    Ganache 

    makes one cup

    1/2 cup cream (125ml)

    200g milk chocolate (chopped)

    2 tsp corn syrup (optional)

    In a small saucepan bring cream to the boil. Remove from heat, wait for the bubbles to subside and chopped chocolate and stir until smooth. If you want the ganache to keep a "high gloss", stir in the corn syrup now.

    Leave the ganache to cool until it reaches spreadable consistency, it will look like this...

    ganache ready to spread

    Alternatives; Make it even simpler by omitting the ganache altogether, adding a cup of milk chocolate chips to the cake batter, dust cooled cakes with icing sugar.

    Gluten Free; Swap the flour for the same amount of gluten free self-raising flour. If you are baking for someone with celiac disease, check that your chocolate and other ingredients haven't been processed on machinery that processes wheat products. 

    Using your leftover egg yolks;

    Store the egg yolks for up to five days by putting them in a small container, cover with cold water and seal the container and refrigerate. The yolks will take on a slightly white appearance, this is normal, drain off water when ready to use.

    Leftover egg yolks can be used to; glaze pies/pastries, make fruit curds & butters, use to make mayonnaise/hollandaise/bernaise, moussaka, add extra yolks to quiches, scrambled eggs & omelettes, custard or pastry cream, enrich cake batters, pasta dough, whip up a bowl of carbonara or even a make a face mask!

    You might also be interested in;

       fruit curds and butters