Gingerbread truffles

Every Christmas I make grand plans to try out a few new recipes. . . And every year I pretty much fail. At least I'm consistent!

I managed one new recipe last year, linzer cookies, but I had also planned to make these gingerbread truffles which I found at Baking with Granny, a lovely baking blog if you're not already familiar with it. Also see her post for nicer photography and less lumpy melted chocolate.

After weeks of no baking I felt inspired to make something two weekends ago and remembered these truffles. I reasoned that  gingerbread truffles could be a treat for any time of year, not just for Christmas.

The recipe is nice and simple, no baking required, with only a handful of ingredients: gingernut biscuits, ground almonds, ground ginger, condensed milk and melted chocolate.

I had to re roll the balls a couple of times until they looked suitably dainty as I naturally seem to make hulk sized portions. Eventually I ended up with 56 bite-sized truffles.

The only change I made was adding about 30-40g extra ground almonds as I found the mixture was too soft and sticky to hold the ball shape. The extra ground almonds helped to firm them up.

I also decided to cover some of the truffles in 70% cocoa dark chocolate. Normally I am the biggest white chocolate fan, however in the last year my taste buds have expanded to appreciate a good, dark chocolate. I guess this means I'm a grown up now?

As a result, I possibly prefer the dark chocolate covered truffles to the white chocolate ones as I like the contrast of the rich chocolate with the sweet, ginger, cookie dough textured filling. Both are incredibly tasty though. I'll definitely make these again. I kept a few truffles for myself then packaged up the rest to drop off at friends' and family's doorsteps as a winter treat. 

The only thing I felt on the fence about was the crystallised ginger topping. They're fine as tiny chunks and the truffles benefit from a decoration but I don't think it's something I'd want to eat as a big chunk. In other words, I have no idea what I'm going to do with the rest of this stuff! Suggestions welcome.

nutella chocolate chip cookie dough no churn ice-cream!

Well if I thought my last post had a long winded title this one is even more ridiculous. But yaaaay, ice-cream!

After seeing Kate's no churn ice-cream a couple of weeks ago I knew I had to make some too. The recipe suited me perfectly: satisfyingly simple and plain enough to pimp up with extra flavours.

Naturally Nutella had to be added to the ice-cream party. Nutella *and* chocolate chip cookie dough? Take that, Ben 'n' Jerry's!

Unlike Kate I used an eggless cookie dough recipe as I tend to feel wary about eating or serving a sizeable amount of raw egg mixture. Folk are probably going, "woah woah woah, don't you always scrape the baking bowl like every greedy baker?" Yup, I do. I'm aware I contradict myself as I could still get salmonella from a small amount of raw egg mixture, but in my head it seems more acceptable and less risky.

The cookie dough chunks actually taste similar to those found in Ben 'n' Jerry's ice-cream which is great and the ice-cream itself is super chocolatey, rich and almost mousse-like when it softens. My only complaint is that it tastes a little bit powdery so the amount of cocoa powder in the recipe could be reduced. Perhaps I would add more Nutella too. After all, when is adding more Nutella ever a bad thing? 

I don't think this beats proper ice-cream, but for something quick, chocolatey and cheat-y this is very satisfying. It doesn't crystalise either which is great, although it is a beast to get out of the freezer tub!

(Note to self: invest in a proper ice-cream scoop.)

Nutella chocolate chip cookie dough no churn ice-cream

Recipe is a combination of BBC Good Food (via What Kate Baked) and The Noshing Bride

cookie dough:

1/2 cup packed brown sugar (I used light muscovado)

2 tbsp softened (slightly salted) butter

few drops of vanilla extract

1 1/2tbsp milk

1/3 cup plain flour

1/4 cup milk chocolate chips

Combine the butter and sugar and mix for about a minute. Stir in the vanilla, milk and flour before adding the chocolate chips. (I actually wanted a slightly stiffer mixture so I added more flour.) Clingfilm and set in the fridge for half an hour to firm up.

ice-cream:

1/2 a 397g can of sweetened condensed milk

600ml double cream

1 tsp vanilla extract

3 tbsp cocoa powder

1/4 cup nutella spread

(any remaining chocolate chips!)

Whisk the cream until a thick consistency similar to clotted cream. In a separate bowl combine all the other ingredients (except the chocolate chips) before mixing into the cream. Stir in the chocolate chips and scrape the mixture into a freezer container/loaf tin and cover with a lid or clingfilm. Freeze until solid. I left mine in overnight.

mini fudge cheesecakes

Last week I had a craving for cheesecake. It somehow felt too indulgent to make a big cheesecake so I made mini ones instead. I'm fully aware that I probably ate so many that I might as well have made a whole cheesecake, but please humour me.

There's absolutely nothing healthy about this recipe. Nothing. But sometimes you need to make something as unashamedly fattening and sweet as this because nothing else will hit the spot.

Creamy and fudgey with a buttery biscuit base (you know I had to go there!) What more could you want? I loved how cute and dainty these looked too.

I also used a fudge which was almost more like a tablet/candy, so it had that extra sugary, melt in the mouth quality. Perfect for an indulgent cheesecake.

Mini fudge cheesecakes

This is what I did:

150g crushed Hobnob biscuits

40-50g butter, melted

100g cream cheese

300ml double cream, lightly whipped

125g fudge, plus extra for grating on top. You can never have too much fudge!

First, cut thin strips of greaseproof paper/baking parchment and lay in the base of 9 muffin tin cups. This will help you to remove the cheesecakes from the tin later. To make the cheesecake bases, mix together the crushed biscuits and melted butter and press into the bottom of the cups. Put the tray in the fridge to chill while you make the filling.

Beat the cream cheese until soft. Grate the fudge and add roughly 100g of fudge to the cream cheese and scatter the rest over the bases. In a separate bowl, lightly whip the cream and carefully fold this into the cream cheese/fudge mixture. Once combined, spoon this mixture on top of all the cheesecake bases and grate a little more fudge on top if you're feeling decadent. Leave to chill in the fridge overnight, or at least 6 hours, before serving.

No bake mini strawberry cheesecakes

After the disappointment of the strawberry cheesecake cupcakes, I thought why don't I just make a damn cheesecake?

I initially intended to make a baked cheesecake, but it seemed a bit faffy last night, so I went for a naughty no bake. Determined not to be beaten by the cupcake either I decided to make them as mini cheesecakes using my muffin tin. Take that failed strawberry cheesecake cupcakes!

They're so much cuter as individual little cheesecakes and really tasty. I was a bit worried how they would taste as I wasn't following a recipe but I think the level of sweetness is just right. The flavour reminds me of petit filou :)

No bake mini strawberry cheesecakes

150g crushed digestive biscuits

40-50g melted butter

400g (two packs) philadelphia cheese

100g icing sugar

150g strawberries

300ml tub of double cream, lightly whipped

Makes roughly 10 mini cheesecakes using a muffin tin

Combine the biscuits and butter and press into the base of the tin. Beat the cream cheese and icing sugar until soft and chop the strawberries into it. Gradually fold in the cream. Taste and add extra strawberries/cream cheese/icing if you fancy it as my measurements are fairly rough. Spoon the mixture over the top of the biscuit bases. Leave to chill in the fridge for 6 hours (or overnight in my case.)