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by ninatimm

Easter would not be the same without chocolate right?

March 22, 2013 in baked goods, desserts

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To be quite honest with you, I’m not a big Easter egg fan, I love the little  marshmallow eggs and have been guilty of eating far too many of those, but the hollow eggs are not doing it for me. Don’t get me wrong, I love chocolate, the darker the better and I have loads of recipes here to prove my affection for it! This chocolate pudding in a mug is so easy, so cheap and yet, it can stop the toughest chocolate craving in its tracks. Tell me, who can resist a chocolate eclair, certainly not me! For a midnight craving, I suggest you make loads of these Chocolate samoosas and keep them in the freezer. When the cravings  hit you, just pop a few in the fryer and voila, all sorted!

This chocolate tart however is a whole different story….. it is a total chocolate indulgence, dark chocolate, hints of ginger and then to top it all, fresh figs…… come to think of it, a swirls of cream will make these tarts even better! The trick is not over bake this tart, the filling must still have a little wobble in the middle when you stop baking it. It will set, promise!!

Chocolate Tarts with Fresh Figs

 

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by ninatimm

Chocolate Comfort in a mug!

July 15, 2012 in Uncategorized

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Comfort in a mug

My children love hot chocolate. If I’ll allow it, they would start every day with a mug full, but I somehow think all that sugar is not a good way to start a day, but with this extreme cold weather we are experiencing, I find it more and more difficult to say “No!”. This week while the rest of Cape Town spend their days under  blankets or in front of a fireplace, my son played water polo and he needed some sweet comfort chocolate  pudding in a mug……
I have made a self-saucing chocolate pudding before, but this time, I needed more warmth and more comfort in that pud. If I think of winter spices and flavors, the first that comes to mind are ginger, cinnamon, cloves and allspice and nutmeg. I could not possibly put all those spices in one pudding, but it was darn difficult to choose so I chose my favorite ones, which were clove, cinnamon and ginger. All you need is a little of each spice and your chocolate pudding will be different and oh so comforting!

Chocolate Pudding

Warm and spicy!

 

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by ninatimm

Scrumptious Rum and Raisin truffles on RSG

April 19, 2012 in Uncategorized

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These Rum and raisin truffles had to be locked away in my cupboard for two reasons, The one being that hubby wanted to eat them all, the other was that these truffles are definitely not child-friendly, Wow, they are delicious, but be warned, they come with an age-restricting and after too many, you might even feel a bit wobbly at the knees.
The culprit behind these delicious morsels are none other than our own Jane-Anne from Scrumptious South Africa. I was privileged to have her cook in my kitchen with Ilse van der Merwe and Ishay Govender a while ago when we worked with dried fruits and nuts. Jane-Anne is such an inspiration to me and at the moment she not only blogs for herself on Scrumptious South Africa, but she also blogs for Woolworths as one of their Master Chef bloggers. She is also busy with her first Cookbook, that will be  launched early July 2012. Knowing Jane and her work, this will be a success, no doubt about that…Jane-Anne also made a delicious Moroccan Chicken Pie that I will feature in the next few days, but today we will tuck into these Rum and Raisin Chocolate Truffles.

So let’s make truffles..

Tune into RSG this morning to hear us make these truffles. 100-104FM or listen online.

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by ninatimm

My Easy Chocolate Eclairs

March 18, 2012 in Uncategorized

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My Easy Chocolate Eclairs

My easy Chocolate eclairs? What makes this recipes so special that I can claim it for myself? Trial and error and 2 batches of  flop eclairs. In my family if you have learned something the hard way, we call it “paying school fees”, because after all lessons are learned in school and in my case the school of life…. Now, what does life lessons and chocolate eclairs have in common……
well, I have learned that not all recipes on Google are flop proof and for me as a recipe developer and a recipe writer, I’ve yet again realized how crucial it is to test…and test…and test recipes before you publish them.Such an enormous responsibility!

There are so many so-called foodies out there and with food bloggers posting recipes almost everyday, the Internet is updated and loaded with new recipes on a daily basis. Sadly not all of those recipes work. Heck, I have been told one of my recipes does not work and only after much drama and testing did I see when posting the image, it cut off the 1 from 150gr of sugar, thus changing it to 50gr of sugar. These things happen, but  not often, because everything that you see on my blog, I have cooked and my family has eaten, so I know the recipe works.

Which brings me back the chocolate eclairs. The first recipe I  printed off the Internet, had a pretty photograph with it and based on the image, I thought the recipe had to work….WRONG! The result was flat, crumpet-like biscuits which the children would not even eat as it was not sweet enough. The second recipe left me with soft, soggy eclairs and I never even bothered to fill them with cream.

I wanted hollow choux buns, hard on the outside and golden brown in color. Then, I remembered that just like a good old Victoria sponge cake and just like my easy homemade puff pastry, there are certain formulas in baking that never change. If you know them, you are destined for success in the kitchen. I had the knowledge already, all I had to do, was to put it to the test. So next time you want a recipe, search within yourself first, try and remember what your mom or gran told you, then you can, like me also talk about

“My Easy Chocolate Eclairs!”

just click on link to take you to the recipe

Chocolate Eclairs

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by ninatimm

Chocolate Samosas – hardly a recipe!!

March 5, 2012 in Uncategorized

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Chocolate Samosas

You don’t need a recipe to make these Chocolate Samosas! I know that by saying this, I am shooting myself in the foot, because this is after all a recipe blog and why would you be here if it was not for my easy do-able recipes. Good news, this IS an easy do-able recipe and you will be ever so popular at your next dinner party!
When I said at the beginning of this week that I will, on recommendation of a very dear friend and mentor, do a lot less blogging and a lot less socializing (Facebook and Twitter) I had no idea how addicted I have become and how much I will miss you lot, but I have a load of work and writing that require my attention, so I have to abstain for while at least. With all the writing and planning, time for cooking and making my children’s favorite sweet treats is also limited and this recipe was born out of sheer necessity to make a quick and easy dessert snack for my darling sweet tooth son!
As I have said, there is no need for a recipe, simply an idea that works. If you master the art of making chocolate samosas, you can try different sweet fillings, such as apple, custard, caramel or even combine two ingredients such as banana and caramel. Come to think of it….. that makes it a Banofee Samosa! Brilliant idea, I think I will try it myself!

Dust with sugar

Chocolate Samosas

makes 10 samosas

1 x 100gr Lindt Chocolate – the orange flavor makes a perfect after dinner samosa
10 samosa wrappers
1 egg
vegetable oil for frying

Break the chocolate in its 10 blocks. Place 1 block at the one end of the samosa wrapper and start folding it. Break the egg in a cup and with a pastry brush, brush the samosa with some egg white and make sure there are no gaps where the melted chocolate can run out. Heat enough oil in a pan to deep fry and when the oil is hot, but not smoking, add the samosas and  fry very quickly on both sides until they are a light golden brown in color. Remove from the oil with a slotted spoon and place on kitchen toweling to get rid of excess oiliness. Serve immediately with a dusting of icing sugar and a smooth espresso!

If you want to learn how to fold a samosa, click here!

More Chocolate Recipes

Chocolate Truffles

 

Chocolate Brownies

 

Chocolate Ice Cream

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