Chocolate biscuit cake

I have made chocolate biscuit cake before, it's a classic. This one is slightly different - not necessarily vegan, and didn't add milk/cream. Approximately followed this recipe.

This turns out to be an excellent use-up recipe - it came to mind because I had a pack of biscuits I knew I wouldn't eat before they got old, and then some chocolate that was either too milky or I wasn't that into for another reason, and then some ends of packets of dried fruit and nuts got in there, the end of a pack of butter and a bit of coconut oil, even a few green tea biscuits (these last not entirely recommended)...

250 g / 8 oz biscuits (used mostly havrekiks = oat biscuits, recommended; and threw in a few green tea biscuits, not so recommended)
300 g / 10 oz chocolate (mix of milk and dark is OK, I favour the dark)
100 g / 3 1/2 oz butter (or margarine, or coconut oil)
150 g / 5 oz golden syrup
175 g / 6 oz dried fruit (used a mix of cranberries, chopped crystallized ginger, chopped apricots and raisins; all recommended)
60 g / 2 oz roughly chopped nuts (used a mix of pecans and hazelnuts; both recommended)

Line a 20 cm / 8 in square tin with cling film, leaving extra hanging over the edges. Put the biscuits in a bag and bash to pieces with a rolling pin.

Melt chocolate, butter and golden syrup together in a medium bowl (large enough for all ingredients) over a pan of hot water. When all is liquid and smooth, take the bowl off the heat and mix in the bashed biscuits, dried fruit and nuts. Spoon into the prepared tin and press down / level off. Let cool to room temperature, then put in the fridge for at least 1-2 hours. Then turn them out, peel off the cling film and cut into squares. Store in the fridge.


It is very rich so small pieces are sufficient. This makes a lot - a half quantity would be a good amount for our household. But I am thinking it should freeze well, so put about half in the freezer - let's see how that goes.

If I make this again, I think I'd try reducing the golden syrup, and using coconut oil instead of butter and less of that too - it is maybe a little too sweet for my taste; and starts to get a wee bit melty quite quickly when it comes to room temp.

Baking with Honey IV: Ginger, honey and chocolate biscuits

A Delia recipe for ginger-chocolate biscuits caught my eye, but I ended up making the first one that came up on Google instead - this. It's quite similar to National Trust biscuits, but why not try something else instead... Since I haven't managed to find golden syrup or treacle here, I subbed honey, and so this ended up being another honey recipe.

225 g / 8 oz butter
100 g / 3½ oz golden syrup (used honey instead)
200g / 7 oz soft brown sugar
150g / 3½ oz flour
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp sea salt flakes
4 tsp ground ginger
2 tsp ground cinnamon
400 g / 14 oz rolled oats
2 eggs, beaten
50 g / 1¾ oz stem ginger, chopped
115 g / 4 oz good quality dark chocolate

Heat the oven to 180C/350F/Gas 4. Line two baking trays with paper. Melt the butter and the golden syrup / honey in a pan over a low heat. Set aside to cool slightly. Combine the sugar, flour, baking powder, salt and spices and mix well to combine. Stir in the rolled oats and mix well. Pour in the melted butter and syrup/honey and stir until well combined. Then stir in the beaten eggs and the stem ginger.

Spoon in even, heaped teaspoons onto the lined baking trays, leaving room for them to spread. Bake in the oven for 8-10 minutes. Remove the biscuits from the oven and set aside to cool completely.

Melt the chocolate in a bowl suspended over a pan of barely simmering water. Dip the biscuits in the melted chocolate (or spread a bit on them with a knife/spoon), and place on a cooling rack until the chocolate has set.


These were nice. Not super special, but nice and gingery - anything with ginger, especially stem ginger, usually works for me... They are a soft, cakey kind of a biscuit - rock bun kind of texture. I did some with chocolate and some without - I thought we liked them both equally but the chocolate ones did disappear first...

Chocolate, ginger and orange biscuits with golden syrup

S discovered a new word while surfing Urban Dictionary the other day: procrasturbaking (meaning, baking as a form of procrastination). Yesterday I was a little short of sleep / hungover after aerial show and subsequent drinks, and just really didn't feel like working (it was Sunday!). So I read some Guardian online instead, and found this biscuit recipe. And then I procrasturbaked.

The recipe was easily veganisable, which tempted me. And I love golden syrup. Also it's another good opportunity to use stuff up - this time weird hot chocolate in the form of dusty chocolate chunks, and homemade crystallised ginger and candied peel.

(makes approx. 20 biscuits)

50 g golden syrup
150 g light brown soft sugar (I used a mixture of this and raw sugar and it was fine)
90 ml sunflower oil
1 tsp vanilla essence
60 ml fake milk
210 g plain flour
¼ tsp bicarbonate of soda
¼ tsp salt
100 g candied ginger (used a mixture of candied ginger and candied peel)
100 g dark chocolate, chopped into small chunks
Zest of 1 orange (added candied peel to the ginger instead)

Heat the oven to 180C / 350F and line two baking trays with baking paper.

Measure the golden syrup, sugar, oil, vanilla essence and fake milk into a large bowl and mix. In a separate bowl mix the flour with the bicarb and salt, then add this to the wet ingredients. Stir until the just combined, then add the candied ginger, chocolate and orange zest (or candied peel).

Put teaspoons of the batter on the prepared baking trays, leaving space for spreading. Bake for 15-17 min, until the cookies’ edges are golden brown and the centres are puffy. Leave to cool for ~10 min then transfer to a wire rack to finish cooling.


I had to put one tray in the bottom of the oven, which it turns out is really hot. So those ones were a little burned. The rest were excellent though - nice texture, and the ginger / orange / chocolate combination is definitely a good one. Clever idea to use syrup to make a chewy texture. I think these would be easily made gluten-free as well (I'd sub plain flour with an almond-rice-cornflour mix similar to this) - the golden syrup may help with binding.

Kong ja ban

 I bought soybeans for miso making, this recipe was on the back of the packet. It is Korean, I liked the sound of it, so why not give it a try - I have lots of soybeans. That's all I know.

1 cup dried soybeans
1/4 cup soy sauce
1 cup water
1/6 cup sugar
1/2 tbsp sesame oil
1 1/2 tbsp golden syrup (corn syrup in original recipe)
1/2 tbsp toasted sesame seeds

Soak soybeans in water for four hours. Drain and transfer to a pan. Add water, soy sauce and sugar and simmer for ~45 min, until the liquid is much reduced. The soybeans should retain a bit of bite. Finally, add the sesame oil, golden syrup and sesame seeds. Let cool before eating.


Hmm, wasn't sure about this at first - thought perhaps the instructions had lost something in translation: wondered if the beans were undercooked, and it was rather salty. But eating cold, with plenty of rice, the saltiness is mediated, the bite in the beans becomes nuttiness, and it ends up as a superior kind of baked beans.

Pancake Day Pudding: 'Nutella' pancakes

I consider it necessary, every Pancake Day, to eat an entire pancake-based meal: both savoury and sweet. This year I hit upon scallion pancakes for the savoury round, but still felt the need for a traditional / pudding pancake. I was considering Nutella, when it occurred to me that perhaps an even more delicious option would be to break Nutella apart and have pancakes with hazelnuts and chocolate sauce. So that's what we did.

Weirdly, I'd never really made chocolate sauce before. My initial thought was just to melt some chocolate mixed with a little almond milk and maybe a little sugar, but I found this recipe and was convinced enough by the description to give it a try.

For the pancakes:
-use this basic recipe - you will never miss the eggs and milk

For the chocolate sauce:
1/2 cup water
80g / 1/4 cup light corn syrup, agave or liquid glucose (used golden syrup)
50g / 1/4 cup sugar
38g / 3/8 cup cocoa powder (ideally Dutch Process)
1 oz / 30g dark (~60%) chocolate, chopped*

Additional:
~20 toasted hazelnuts, chopped
1/2 a banana, sliced (optional)

Make the chocolate sauce a little in advance as it will need time (1-2 hours at least) to cool. Mix the water, syrup, sugar and cocoa in a small pan and bring to the boil, whisking steadily. Once just boiling, remove from the heat and mix in the chopped chocolate. When the chocolate is melted, set the pan aside at room temperature and allow to cool and thicken.

While the sauce cools, you can make the pancake batter and cook up the pancakes (keep them warm on a plate covered with a folded teatowel, or in the oven on a covered plate if you need to wait longer), and chop the hazelnuts.

When you're ready to eat them, drizzle a pancake with chocolate sauce, sprinkle with hazelnuts (and chopped banana if you fancy that), roll up and eat as delicately or as uncouthly as you wish.


This combination was great, and worked really well with banana too. The sauce kind of separated as it cooled - tasted great but the texture wasn't right. Perhaps I cooled it too quickly (I put it next to an open window)? Or perhaps the golden syrup was not an appropriate substitution? It is worth another attempt! As well as these I of course had to have a classic one with lemon and sugar.

*I made this recipe again, being very careful to stick to the recipe, not cool the sauce too fast etc, and still found that it separated. A review of the comments on the original site indicated that the chocolate may be the issue - although 70% is nowhere near 100%, perhaps it is still too intense and acidic and caused the separation. I rarely have anything less than 70% in the house, so to continue with this recipe may need to work out a way of neutralising it?

This year's parkin (+Bonfire Night)

Shane's photo

It's nearly Bonfire Night, and I suddenly realised what that meant as I walked home from work in the wild winds on Monday...  Time to make parkin! I made one last year which was quite successful, this time I decided to go with an old recipe I cut out of the newspaper years ago, and which dates from even longer ago: October 1907, apparently. Interestingly, it is eggless. Other differences include addition of nutmeg, lemon zest and mixed peel. Parkin is generally recommended to be aged - up to a month is good I think - to allow the oats to soak up the treacle and syrup and so forth. I was not that organised, but this one got 5 days.

225g plain flour
3½ tsp ground ginger
¾ tsp ground nutmeg
½ tsp bicarbonate of soda
a pinch of salt
125g medium oatmeal (used steel cut oats)
100g unsalted butter, softened (used fake butter)
125g light soft brown sugar
zest of ½ lemon
100g treacle (used a mixture of blackstrap molasses and carob molasses)
75g golden syrup
50ml milk (used fake milk)
50g mixed peel, finely chopped

Grease a deep, 20cm square cake tin and line the base with baking paper. Heat the oven to 180C (160C fan-assisted)/350F/gas mark 4. Sift the flour, spices, soda and salt into a bowl, then stir in the oatmeal. In another bowl beat the butter, sugar and zest until light and fluffy. Add the treacle and syrup, beat again until creamy and smooth, then add the milk and the dry ingredients, and beat quickly until smooth once more. Fold in the mixed peel, then spoon the mixture into the tin. Cover the top with foil, bake for 40 minutes, then remove the foil and bake for a further 20 minutes, until a skewer comes out clean.


It came out well enough: the citrus was interesting and good. But a little dry: perhaps I left it in the oven a little too long? It was very brick-like, as ever with my parkins. We celebrated last night, with a bonfire and lots of sparklers at Andrea's, and people seemed to like it.

Bonfire Night = parkin

It's nearly Bonfire Night.  Growing up in little villages it was always one of the big community events of the year - farmers stacking unwanted burnables in the field next to the primary school; the pile growing and growing as Nov 5th approached; learning firework safety and to check bonfires for hedgehogs; the local firemen setting off the firework display...  Excitement was probably heightened by the occasional near-bad-accidents - the burning tyre that rolled out of the bonfire once, the time Dad's leg took a mis-aimed firework so our faces didn't have to...

In my memories, food is tangled up with the sparklers and the hats+gloves and the cold feet and the thrilling fire - bonfire toffee, toffee apples, baked potatoes, parkin - all warm / gingery / treacly...

My Mum's family come from Yorkshire.  So parkin (a dense, treacly gingerbread made with oatmeal, originating from Yorkshire, and traditionally eaten on Bonfire Night) is something I feel pretty close to (once a year).  I made it once as a teenager, it came out a lot like a brick.  But still tasted decent.  Last year I went to a Boston Brits bonfire night party, this year I think it's time to introduce Americans to the good stuff (no fireworks though, they're illegal in MA - lame).

Key features of parkin, I decided, are inclusion of oatmeal (meaning the rounded, lumpy type of oatmeal, not just rolled oats), golden syrup and treacle, and ginger as the sole spice.  I went with Delia as a basic recipe, adapted to what I had available / my taste.  Then realised it needed time to mature, so I made it last night before heading out to SBTRKT - it has a couple of days to get ready (not 2 weeks, but better than nothing).


Parkin

8 oz (225 g) medium oatmeal (used a fine-ground bulghur wheat I bought by accident a while ago - figured it should be equivalent in texture)
4 oz (110 g) self-raising flour (only had plain, added 1 1/2 tsp baking powder)
a pinch of salt
5 oz (150 g) dark syrup or golden syrup (hard to find golden syrup here outside of the 'British and Irish' section of Shaws, so used a mixture of maple syrup and honey instead)
3 oz (75 g) black treacle (used molasses)
4 oz (110 g) margarine
4 oz (110 g) soft brown sugar
2 level teaspoons ground ginger
1 tbsp ground linseed, mixed with 3 tbsp boiling water
1 tablespoon fake milk

Pre-heat the oven to gas mark 1, 275°F (140°C).

Weigh a saucepan on the scales, and weigh the syrup and treacle into it.

Then add the margarine and the sugar to the saucepan and place it over a gentle heat until the margarine has melted down – don't go away and leave it unattended, because for this you don't want it to boil.

Meanwhile, measure the oatmeal, flour and ginger into a mixing bowl, add a pinch of salt, then gradually stir in the warmed syrup mixture till the mixture is all thoroughly blended.

Next add the linseed mixture, and lastly the fake milk. Now pour the mixture into the prepared tin and bake on the centre shelf of the oven for 1¾-2 hours.

Then cool the parkin in the tin for 30 minutes before turning out.  The parkin may sink slightly in the middle (mine did).


It's wrapped in clingfilm now, but the bits I scraped off the lining papers were pretty darn wonderful - sticky, gingery, treacly loveliness.  May have overegged the treacle a bit - but I like it!  And yes, once again it looks just like a brick.