No-Bake Key Lime Pie Parfait

When I first came across the concept of key lime pie fudge I scanned and scanned pages of recipes trying to find out what made it different from regular old key lime pie.

Turns out it’s not much! The fudge omits the eggs and includes white chocolate – that’s it. Now to me, that’s not key lime pie fudge, all you’ve got there are teeny tiny pieces of key lime pie. They still have the crust on, for crusts sake! That's so my new favorite saying.

So I took it upon myself to make proper key lime pie fudge that wasn’t just a key lime pie divided into bite-size pieces. I added a few ingredients and got rid of the crust. I also learned something. Turns out that people include the crust in key lime pie fudge because without it, it's just a green gloopy mess. Who knew?

So I decided to turn my green gloopy mess into pretty no-bake parfaits – it was either that or eat the 'fudge' straight from the tin, which I must admit was my favourite option. 

No-Bake Key Lime Pie Parfait
Makes 4 servings

Ingredients

14oz condensed milk

1 cup chopped white chocolate

1 tablespoon lime zest

1/4 cup lime juice

1 cup cookie crumbs
whipped cream for topping
white chocolate for topping

Recipe

1. Melt together the condensed milk and white chocolate in a saucepan. Stir in the lime zest and juice. Leave to one side to cool

2. Sprinkle 2 tablespoons of cookie crumbs in the bottom of each serving glass. Top with some of the lime filling. Sprinkle on another 2 tablespoons on cookie crumbs and top with the remaining lime filling.

3. Decorate with whipped cream and white chocolate. Leave to chill in the fridge before serving. 

Does anyone else have an inexplicable urge to dress in green and drink Guinness after reading this post?

Here are the link parties I take part in.

Come and join the fun! 

Double Chocolate Gooey Raspberry Truffles

Welcome to Paris Week! Calm down, it’s not nearly as exciting as it sounds. There is no fancy Chanel perfume, no glamorous Louis-Vuitton handbags and no other posh designer labels – just a handful of French recipes in celebration of my vacation!

I’m spending the week in Paris and I’m more excited than you can even imagine. A few days at Disney Land mixed up with a few days of exploring Paris. Top that with butter-laden flaky golden croissants everywhere I turn and I’ve got my perfect fall break. (I live on a small island right next to a beach, so a relaxing sunshine vacation really doesn’t do it for me – I do that sort of thing every day.)

Let’s get back to business! What is the definition of a truffle? I’m not talking about the pompous mushrooms – they grow deep in the forest in dark places almost underground for a reason – we’re not meant to eat them! I’m talking about the candy.

According to Dictionary.com, a truffle is a candy made of soft chocolate, shaped into a ball and dusted with cocoa, or sometimes a three-layered cube of light and dark chocolate. These delicious bites of loveliness are made of soft chocolate – well it was soft when I melted it – but they aren’t shaped into a ball or dusted with cocoa. They’re kind of three-layered – a dark or milk chocolate layer, a raspberry centre and a white chocolate base.

I’ll get to the point. They’re not really truffles, they’re more like chocolates, but Double Chocolate Raspberry Chocolates sounds like the title a three-year-old came up with and I’m excited to get outside and drown myself in café au lait avec pain au chocolat, so give me a break. Plus, truffles are French.

Double Chocolate Raspberry Truffles

Yields: 20

Ingredients

1/4 cup melted milk or dark chocolate 

1/8 cup of melted white chocolate

2 cups frozen raspberries

¼ cup white sugar

2 tablespoons condensed milk

Recipe

1. With a small brush, line the chocolate moulds with the melted chocolate. The chocolate layer needs to be thin enough to allow enough space for the filling, but thick enough so that it won’t crack when you pop them out. Place in the freezer for 30 minutes to set.

2. Mix together the raspberries and white sugar in a saucepan over a medium heat for about 10 minutes. Mash the raspberries with the back of a fork until you have a thick paste and leave to cool to room temperature. When cooled, rub the paste through a sieve to remove the seeds.

3. Stir the condensed milk into the raspberry mix and use it to evenly fill the chocolate molds. Don’t fill them right to the top – you’ll need a little bit of space for a white chocolate layer. Place in the freezer for 30 minutes to set.

After the centre is solid, remove the chocolates in the mold from the freezer and fill the remaining space with white chocolate. Return to the freezer for another 30 minutes to set.

Pop the chocolates out of the mold and store in the fridge.

Get ready for loads of foodie Paris pics next week!

Here are the link parties I take part in.

Come and join the fun! 

Homemade Marshmallows

Today’s post is going to be short and sweet – just like the recipe! You won’t have to stumble through paragraphs about my current inability to bake bread or have to look at my Official Treat Taster’s pizza face because I’m trying to get this written and published as fast as I can.

That doesn’t mean I don’t care about you – because I do. Just not as much as this letter I’m writing at the minute. I can’t tell you too much but if I work on this letter enough and get it juuust right, then I’ll love you guys even more and be able to bombard you with even more yummy recipes and irrelevant, trivial stories.

We had a BBQ last week and I was eager to make s’mores, only to discover that we didn’t have any marshmallows. I toyed with the idea of running to the shop but then images of chemicals personified by evil, icky looking monsters stomping all over my fluffy marshmallows popped into my head so I decided to make my own.

These are fantastic! Fluffy, chewy and insanely sweet, eating one of these is as close as you’ll get to eating a cloud. I’ve got no time for unusual similes or thought-provoking metaphors – just get in the kitchen, make these babies and be prepared for the best s’mores of your life!

Homemade Marshmallows

Recipe from Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall

Makes 32 large marshmallows

Ingredients

Icing sugar

Cornflour

Vegetable oil

25g gelatin granules

1 + ½ cup water

2 egg whites

500g sugar

Recipe

1.       Mix together 1 teaspoon each of icing sugar and cornflour. Lightly oil an 8”x8” square cake tin and dust with the icing sugar-cornflour mixture.

2.       Dissolve the gelatin in ½ cup water in a bowl over a pan of simmering water. Remove from the heat when fully dissolved.

3.       Beat the egg whites in a stand mixer until they hold stiff peaks.

4.       Add the sugar to a separate sauce pan with 1 cup of water and stir over a low heat until fully dissolved. Raise the heat so the syrup boils fiercely and continue to stir constantly for about 5 minutes then remove from the heat.

5.       Pour the dissolved gelatin mixture into the syrup and stir well.

6.       Switch the mixer on low and slowly pour the gelatin syrup into the egg whites. Carry on mixing for about 10 minutes or until the mixture is thick and creamy but still pourable.

7.       Pour the mixture into the prepared tin and leave at room temperature for a few hours to cool.

8.       Dust a chopping board with icing sugar and ease the marshmallow out of the tin onto the board. Using a greased knife, divide the huge marshmallow into 32 chunks and dust each one with icing sugar.

Store in an air-tight container until you’re ready to s’moreodose.  

Here are the link parties I take part in.

Come and join the fun!

Lemon Poppyseed Truffles

Am I the only one still on the lemon bandwagon? A couple of weeks ago Pinterest was packed with lemon-based recipes. Now my feed seems to have been taken over by salad and camping recipes. Not that I’m complaining! My Official Treat Taster and I go camping a lot so I love trying out new recipes. The food is the only reason I go camping, really. If I was stuck on a desert island (although a dessert island would be much more fun) and had to BBQ all my food, I would be one happy stranded person who would probably feel a pang of sadness when the rescue boat appears over the horizon.

I always seem to have a problem getting round things – such as these truffles – looking the way they should be. Pizza dough, bagels, scones… You name it, if it’s meant to be round, mine will be all over the place rustic. Hopefully you’ll have more luck shaping your truffles than I did.

The weather is terrible here today – I had to stand outside surrounded by low, gray clouds in the drizzle this morning waiting for someone to let me into the office whilst wearing a short denim skirt, a bright, flowery, summery top and flip flops. (I really should have looked out of the window before I got dressed.) This never happens in Tenerife in June. If someone asks me what the weather will be like tomorrow at any point during the year, I can usually say “warm and sunny” and 98% of the time, I’ll be right.

Do you know what makes the weather suddenly change from dark and rainy to bright and sunny? Lemon Poppyseed Truffles. The smooth and creamy citrus flavor should bring a smile to your face and if nothing else, your kitchen will smell lemony fresh!

Lemon Poppyseed Truffles

Recipe inspired by Food + Words

Makes 12 large truffles

Ingredients

¼ cup heavy cream

2 tablespoons butter

zest of 1 lemon

juice of 1 lemon

200g white chocolate

2 tablespoons poppy seeds

powdered sugar

Recipe

1.       Chop the white chocolate into small chunks and place in a bowl. Leave to one side.

2.       Mix together the cream, butter, lemon zest and juice in a saucepan over a medium heat until it begins to bubble. Remove immediately from the heat and pour over the white chocolate.

3.       Leave for 5 minutes before whisking until the mixture is smooth. Stir in the poppy seeds. Scoop the mixture into a bowl and place in the fridge for at least two hours.

4.       When ready to shape your truffles, remove the mixture from the fridge and scoop out small measures (somewhere around 1 tablespoon is good) and roll into balls.

5.       Place the balls into a large bowl and sprinkle with powdered sugar. Shake the bowl until the truffles are fully coated.

Transfer to an air-tight container and store in the fridge. 



Here are the link parties I take part in.
Come and join the fun!

Easter Eggstravaganza Popcorn

I’ve seen quite a few popcorn recipes popping up recently and thought I’d try and create my own recipe for Easter. The contrast between the crunchy corn, the soft marshmallows – or bunny tails, if you will – and chocolate eggs in this Easter Eggstravaganza Popcorn is fantastic and the colours really brighten up an otherwise dull snack.

I’ve never popped my own kernels before and I was so surprised at how easy and mess-free it is when using a microwave! This recipe is a great chance to be creative – you can use any Easter-themed candy you like as long as it’s small enough. I didn’t have mini-marshmallows, so I cut up regular marshmallows and they worked fine – possibly even better and the sticky sides helped hold the popcorn together.

Easter Eggstravaganza Popcorn

Ingredients

¼ cup popcorn kernels

100g white chocolate

Mini-marshmallows

Selection of mini eggs (I used Smarties Eggs, Mini Eggs, and Milky Bar Eggs)

Sprinkles

Recipe

1. Pop your popcorn kernels using your usual method. I used this easy method for popping them in the microwave.

2. Melt the white chocolate in the microwave. Remove the chocolate every 20 seconds and stir well – white chocolate burns really easily!

3. Combine the white chocolate and popcorn in a bowl. Mix really well so the popcorn is completely coated.

4. Pour in as many mini-marshmallows, mini eggs, and sprinkles as you like – you can never have too many!

5. Spread the popcorn onto a sheet of grease-proof or parchment paper and leave for about 20 minutes in the fridge to set.



Here are the link parties I take part in.
Come and join the fun!

  

   

Lucky Four Leaf Clover Jello

When I saw this recipe for St Patrick’s Day Ice Cream Jello I knew I had to give it a try. I didn’t have any ice cream on hand so I decided to whip up a basic vanilla gelato and use that instead. Because gelato is thinner than ice cream – it uses milk instead of double cream – my jello didn’t have the wonderful layers that the Food Librarian’s did.

Jello is so versatile and easy to play around with - I can't believe I never tried incorporating it in any recipes before.

I didn’t have any St Patrick’s Day moulds, so I improvised  –  I used my heart ice cube/chocolate mould to make shamrock shapes! This is my final St Patrick’s Day recipe for this year – sniff sniff – but I hope you all have a great time this Saturday, I know I will!

Lucky Four-Leaf Clover Jello inspired by Food Librarian 

Ingredients

1 pack green jello

1tbsp gelatine

250ml vanilla ice cream or gelato

Recipe

1. Follow the recipe on the back of the packet to make your jello, but make sure you only add half of the water recommended.

2. Pour in the gelatine into the jello mix and heat in a saucepan over a medium heat until dissolved.

3. Add the vanilla ice cream or gelato to the saucepan and stir until melted.

4. Pour into moulds and refrigerate for at least 24 hours to allow it to set



Here are the link parties I take part in.
Come and join the fun!

St Patrick's Day Cake Truffles

These St Patrick's Day Cake Truffles are the perfect way to add a bit of extra colour to any Paddy's Day celebrations. Super-easy to make with just a few ingredients, these cake truffles offer maximum visual appeal with only the minimum effort!

The sponge for the St Patrick's Day Cake Truffles is actually steamed in the microwave and takes only 3.5 minutes to cook! I've never successfully made a microwave mug cake - mine always turn out really tough and chewy - but I've never had a problem with this microwave steamed sponge recipe. It's from a really old falling-to-pieces Be-Ro Flour recipe book!

This recipe makes around 20 St Patrick's Day Cake Truffles.

Ingredients

Sponge

50g butter

50g sugar

1 egg

125g self-raising flour

1tbsp milk

Cream cheese mix

30g butter

55g cream cheese

1/2tsp vanilla extract

1 cup icing sugar

Green food colouring

Coating

100g white chocolate

Green food colouring

Recipe

1. To make the sponge, beat the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy. Mix in the egg and a little flour.

2. Fold in the remaining flour and mix in the milk. Pour the mixture into a greased microwavable dish and cook on full for 3.5 minutes.

3. After cooking, remove the dish from the microwave and leave to cool for about 10 minutes. Meanwhile, make the cream cheese frosting. Using an electric mixer, beat the butter, cream cheese and vanilla until smooth - for about 1 minute on medium. Add the powdered sugar and mix for another minute. Scrape down the sides and beat for a final minute on high. Adding a few drops at a time and mixing in between, add enough green food colouring to give you the shade of green you're looking for

4. After the sponge has cooled, crumble it with your fingers until it resembles breadcrumbs. 

5. A spoonful at a time, add all the cream cheese frosting to the crumbed sponge and mix together well. Form the mixture into about 20 small balls, place them on a baking tray and put them in the fridge for at least a few hours until hardened.

6. When hardened, separate the chocolate into two small bowls and melt in the microwave or over a pan of simmering water. Into one bowl, add a couple of drops of green food colouring until you have the desired shape of green. Dip half the cake balls into the white chocolate and half the cake balls into the green chocolate - hopefully you'll have a little of both chocolates left over. 

7. Put the cake balls back on the baking tray and leave to set again in the fridge for at least an hour. When set, remove from the fridge and drizzle with the other colour chocolate.

Link Parties: Something Swanky, Somewhat Simple, House of Hepworths, A Little Nosh, Blue Cricket Design, One Art Mamma, Kitchen Fun with My 3 Sons, This Week's Cravings.

Double-Dipped Oreo Cheesecake Truffles

Creamy, chocolaty and dense – I didn’t realise that people could fall in love with sweets or candy until I tried Oreo Cheesecake Truffles. One layer of chocolate didn’t seem enough to hold in the immense melt-in-your-mouth goodness that these truffles had to offer, so I turned it up a notch and added another layer of chocolate.

These Double-Dipped Oreo Cheesecake Truffles are so easy and require minimal effort to make, yet still look amazing and taste fantastic! You could easily decrease the amount of cream cheese used here, but you probably won't get the thick, fudge-like texture that I was going for.

Double-Dipped Oreo Cheesecake Truffles

Makes around 10 truffles

Ingredients

8 Oreos

5tbsp cream cheese

100g milk chocolate

100g white chocolate

Chocolate sprinkles or Oreo crumbs to decorate

Recipe

1. First you need to crush the Oreos. You can do this easily with a food processor or the fun way by placing the Oreos inside a sealed plastic bag and bashing them with a rolling pin.

2. To the crushed Oreos, add cream cheese and mix well. Separate about 1tbsp of the mixture at a time and roll into balls and place on a plate.

3. Melt the milk chocolate in the microwave. Make sure you remove and stir every 20 sections to avoid the chocolate burning and becoming unusable.

4. Dip every Oreo cheesecake ball into the chocolate and make sure it’s fully-coated. Place them all on a plate and leave in the fridge for an hour to set.

5. When the chocolate has fully hardened, melt the white chocolate and coat the Oreo truffles again. Before placing them in the fridge, sprinkle crushed Oreo or chocolate sprinkles on top for decoration. 


Link parties: Sugar and Spice
Come and join the fun!

Strawberry Cheesecake Bites

I love cheesecake – who doesn’t? The crumbly, buttery digestive base and thick, creamy topping is enough to make anyone’s knees go weak. But even though this dessert is so divine, it’s a bit too rich and calorie-packed to eat every day.

These strawberry cheesecake bites are a great alternative to a slice of cheesecake and taste just as good – without the guilt. In some aspects, they're even better than a cheesecake - there is no baking or refrigeration needed, so you can fulfil that cheesecake craving in only a couple of minutes.

This is a really versatile recipe and can easily be doubled or even tripled for parties. You can experiment with different cheesecake fillings – try a decadent chocolate filling or wrap the whole thing up with a strawberry filling!

Strawberry Cheesecake Bites

Ingredients

10 strawberries

3tbsp cream cheese

6tbsp icing sugar

2tsp vanilla essence

Digestives

Recipe

1. Chop the top off each strawberry and scoop the centre out so you’re left with a bowl shape.

2. Beat the cream cheese until smooth then mix in the icing sugar and vanilla essence. Divide this mixture evenly between the strawberry bowls.

3. Take around 2 digestives and crush them using a food processor or by placing them inside a plastic bag and bashing them with a rolling pin.

4. Dip the open top of the filled strawberries into the crushed digestives.