White chocolate fudge with red berries - *my own* oh-so-easy recipe

Two years ago, I'd never have had the courage to freestyle in the kitchen. Not even a little bit. I followed every recipe absolutely to the letter in an almost OCD-like fashion. So imagine my pride in devising and creating something all of my own in the kitchen this Easter (albeit only modestly adventurous in its scope... and... alright, quite similar Nigella's rich, dark chocolate recipe for "Chocolate Pistachio Fudge").

White chocolate and red berry fudge

Nevertheless, having made some substitutions and altered quantities to make these fruity beauties, I can happily share the ingredients and method with you knowing that I cannot be accused of plagiarism...

Ingredients:
400g of white chocolate (I used milkybars)
1 x 387g can of condensed milk
30g butter
60g* freeze dried berries - I used strawberries and raspberries that were left over from my white choc Valentine's day heart.

* Ideally, increase the volume for berries. I reckon you could take it up to 120g to get the optimum sweet, white choc:tart berry ratio. I only used this small quantity of fruit as that's all I had left over.

Method:
1) break the chocolate into squares and put it in a heavy-based saucepan with the condensed milk and butter over a low heat, stirring constantly (white chocolate has a lower boiling point than milk/dark chocolate so it burns easily).

2) Remove from the heat and stir in the berries, mixing well.

3) Pour the mixture into a small foil tray and smooth over the top so that it looks level.

4) Let the fudge cool, then refrigerate it until it's set.

5) Once it's set, cut it into large cubes.

6) Give it to someone you love (could be yourself), and they'll love you right back provided they have a very sweet tooth...

This is a very "full-on", sweet fudge, and not for the faint-hearted! One cube is usually sufficient to take the edge off any sugary craving, I find. Whilst I'm pleased with the outcome, especially given the moderate free-styling, I'll certainly look to increase the amount of fruit in any future batches in order to balance the flavours more effectively.

Bakin' with Berries - just call me Mary (geddit?)

Hi y'all!

Long time, no blog. I have been doing the occasional bit of baking since I last wrote, in October, but I've neglected to upload the results. Sorry about that!

So, recently, I've been baking with berries - cranberries to be specific. After all, "'tis the season", and all that. As well as the two baking projects below, I made some white chocolate Rocky Road, re-branded it as Rudolph's Rocky Runway, and gifted it to loved ones. If you want to find out more about this easy-to-make but delicious confection, see my February 2013 blog entry.

Cranberry biscuits:
Baking-wise, I have been trying a few different things recently, all of which have been a bit of a departure from the "fairy cakes" with which I first began this blog. The results have been mixed, but I'm learning lots from my experiments in the kitchen. Yesterday, I attempted to make some cranberry biscuits following a Good Housekeeping Baking Book recipe which calls for "ground rice" (an ingredient that I have never used before) along with butter, sugar, flour and cranberries. Now, biscuits are seldom as pretty as cupcakes, but mine were particularly mis-shapen! This was, in part, because I positioned some of them too close together on the baking sheet, so they spread, then merged in the oven, and had to be broken to separate. I had also been inconsistent with the width, length and height of each one so some were rather more well done than others. They taste good though, and fortunately none were actually burnt(!)

These fragile little biscuits taste nice and are especially good with a cuppa. They're quite buttery, and they melt in the mouth. The ground rice gives them quite a grainy texture, which is interesting.

I wanted to send some of these to a friend in the post, so I packaged them up in one of the snowflake cellophane bags that I've been using to present to baked goods in this season. I tried to choose biscuits that were fairly uniform in shape and size to send. Fingers cross they get there in one piece!

I'm keeping the remaining "misfits" to be shared over the new year.



Nigella's breakfast bars:
Of these breakfast bars, Nigella writes "I'm addicted to these, and so is everyone I give them to", and it's true - they are addictive. I make them quite regularly now as they are super-easy to throw together, they keep really well, and people go nuts for them (sorry, I can never resist a pun). I made them for my Year 11 class who, with the exception of the girl with a sesame seed allergy(!), loved them. Indeed one of the students requested the recipe and made a batch to take on her D of E expedition. A colleague of mine also requested the recipe. I referred both individuals to the following web-page: http://www.nigella.com/recipes/view/breakfast-bars-55

If I'm totally honest, when I initially tasted my first ever batch of these, I was momentarily disappointed. I think I was expecting them to taste like flapjacks, but, whilst they contain rolled oats, they don't contain any honey or syrup so they're quite a different outcome. My dad and I always joke that the legendary milk chocolate Rocky Road that I make (see my February 2013 blog entry) is, in fact, a fruit bar (as it contains a small amount of dried fruit), but these breakfast bars really are, I think, more akin to those "health bars" that you can buy than (though much nicer) than a really naughty indulgence (which is how I justify having one, sometimes two in a day). As well as porridge oats, these bars contain cranberries, mixed seeds, shredded coconut, and peanuts. Condensed milk (a favourite of Nigella's and a complete revelation to me) is used as the sweetening and binding agent. Now that I've made these half a dozen times, I'm thinking that, in future, I might experiment with creating some variations on the original recipe. I like the idea of using dried cherries and maybe some different varieties of nuts in there. These bars are a great breakfast-on-the-go and they really do keep hunger at bay until lunchtime.