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    Thursday, September 15, 2011

    Faggots or Cheats Version...Rissoles – Chocolate Surprise Cup Cakes for Dessert

    Its Thursday and The Kids are coming for Dinner.
    Mia (9 year old) requested Chocolate Muffins, with a chocolate centre.
    I think she meant Fondant puddings, or as the US people call them Lava Cakes.
    There is a problem. Joseph who is 10, has not long come out of an egg allergy.
    When I made Fondant puddings, they were a huge success but he felt funny afterwards and I think maybe that middle gooey bit, is maybe just a bit too much uncooked egg-wise.
    So I put on my Thinking Cap and Google Finger and finally decided I would make Cup cakes and somehow get Ganache in the middle. No egg problem then.
    After quite a bit of research, this is the recipe I came up with.
    Rachel Allen’s Chocolate Cake.
    I used Orange Infused Chocolate, which really enhanced the flavour.
    It made 10 good size not oversized Cup Cakes

    I started with a melon baller, removing some of the bottom and stuffing in Ganache.
    The replacing the lid. But you had to remove the paper casing

    The lovely Nadia who ’does’ for me, thought I should cut off the top and stuff from there.
    Good idea.
    Dust with icing sugar.

     Voila Chocolate Cup Surprise

    Here is Rachel Allen’s Recipe from her “Bake” TV series currently screening on Food TV.
    Ingredients
    For the cake

    125 g dark chocolate
    3 tbsp milk
    150 g butter, at room temperature
    150 g caster sugar
    3 eggs
    200 g plain flour
    1 tbsp good quality cocoa powder
    1 tsp baking powder
    1/4 tsp bicarbonate of soda
    Pinch salt
    Icing sugar, for dusting (optional)

    For the Ganache
    300 mls cream
    300 mls chocolate
    Method
    Preheat the oven to 180C.
    Prepare muffin tins
    I used bigger than normal paper linings which gave a nice size cake.
    So I got 10 out of the mixture

    For the cake:
    Place the chocolate and the milk in a bowl sitting over a saucepan of gently simmering water and heat until the chocolate has melted.
    (Make sure the bottom of the bowl doesn’t touch the surface of the water.)
    Set aside to cool slightly.

    Beat the butter until very soft then
    Add the caster sugar and continue to beat until the mixture is pale and fluffy.
    Beat in the eggs, one at a time, then
    Fold in the melted chocolate.

    Sift in the flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, pinch salt and the bicarbonate of soda,
    and fold in gently to mix.
    Divide the mixture between muffin tins and bake in the oven for 17-20 minutes,
    or until a skewer inserted into the middle of each cake comes out clean.

    Remove the cakes from the oven and allow to sit for five minutes
    before placing them on a wire rack to cool.

    For the Chocolate Ganache
    Heat the cream till it comes to the boil
    Add chocolate, broken into small pieces
    Let sit for about 30 seconds
    Stir till dissolved and set aside

    Once the cakes are cool
    Cut a hole in the top
    Fill with Ganache and push top back in

    Dust with Icing Sugar
    Very popular served with just a bit of whipped cream to cut down the richness

    Now onto the Faggots or Actually Rissoles
    500 gms beef mince
    1 small red onion chopped finely
    1 tablespoon dried oregano
    1 tablespoon rosemary leaves chopped
    50 gms breadcrumbs
    1 egg
    Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
    2 tablespoons tomato ketchup

    Mix all ingredients well shape into oval shapes and roll in Panko breadcrumbs
    Set aside in the fridge till you are ready
    Then just fry in vegetable oil over med heat
    I used Olivado’s Rosemary Infused Avocado Oil
    for some extra flavour
    When brown all over, let sit for about 5 minutes to rest
    Serve with Crispy Roast potatoes, Gravy if you can be bothered
    And of course Ketchup

    For the healthy part of the deal
    Beautiful Salad

    1/4 cabbage finely sliced
    1 yellow pepper finely sliced
    1/2 head Broccoli very finely sliced
    10 cherry tomatoes. Seeds and juice squeezed out and sliced
    1 stalk celery finely sliced

    Dressing
    I squeezed the tomatoes into a bowl and strained the juice as a base for the dressing
    Just for a little extra tomato flavour.
    Also let the dressing sit for a couple of hours, just to soften the flavour of the onion

    So the strained juice of the tomatoes
    1/2 teaspoon sugar
    Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
    1 teaspoon Dijon Mustard
    2 tablespoons white balsamic vinegar
    1 shallot or small red onion finely chopped

    6 tablespoon good olive oil
    I used Diana and Dave's home grown beautiful Olive Oil
    Lucky me.

    Mix the 1st group of ingredients with a fork till emulsified
    Slowly drip in the olive oil
    Taste and adjust the seasoning if you need to.

    Pour as much dressing as you would like over the vege.
    The kids just loved the dinner
    For example. How about that for an empty plate?

    And to wash it down
    Homemade Lemonade Cordial


    The lemons have been great this year
    So simple, courtesy of my friend Mary
    1 cup fresh lemon juice
    4 cups sugar
    6 cups water
    30 g citric acid

    Bring lemon juice, sugar and water to the boil.
    Stir to dissolve sugar.
    Boil one minute.
    Off heat add citric acid.
    Cool and store in sterilized bottles in fridge.
    She also put strips of rind in or even lemon grass.
    But I didn't do that for the kids

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