Baking Post; Rocky Road

21st April 2010

Ok despite the title, this isn’t technically a baking post as no oven is involved. I spent some of yesterday afternoon in the kitchen making Rocky Road as a treat for my parents and their colleagues…
totally going to put them in a sugar coma today!

This would be it before chilling for at least two hours.

Want the recipe?
Of course you do! The one I used comes from the Good to Know website, one of my favourites for quick and easy recipes.

Ingredients:

100g/4oz unsalted butter
225g/8oz plain chocolate, broken into pieces
2tbsp golden syrup
2tbsp cocoa powder
2tbsp caster sugar
100g/4oz Maltesers®
100g/4oz mixed milk and white chocolate chips
100g/4oz mini marshmallows
225g/8oz ginger biscuits, broken into pieces
Icing sugar to dust

Method:

1.Line a 20 cm/8in square cake tin with baking parchment.
2.In a small pan heat the butter, plain chocolate, golden syrup, caster sugar, cocoa powder and stir together with a wooden spoon. Once melted together leave to cool for 10 minutes.
3.In a large bowl place the Maltesers®, milk and white chocolate chip, mini marshmallows, ginger biscuits and bind together with the melted chocolate sauce.
4.Pour into the lined tin and leave to set in the fridge for a minimum of 2 hours.
5.Remove from cake tin and slice into 16 snack-sized rocky road bars.
6.Dust with icing sugar to serve.

Direct link to the recipe here

And how did it look once set?

Well, judge for yourself!

This was seriously simple to make, I highly recommend you give it a go!

I’m going to play around with the ingredients a bit next time and try making substitions,
some ideas:

Vary the type of chocolate used to milk, or white.

You can pretty much use any type of biscuit; rich teas, oreos, cookies, shortbread…

Same for the add ins, use dried fruit, nuts, any kind of sweet/chocolate

I think you can just about let your imagination go wild and get amazing results regardless!

And, as a bonus, here is my Anna Sui dress that I got from the outnet

I just adore it,
not so much this photo though! Mum snapped it on my phone and I wasn’t quite ready!

Hope your having a lovely week so far…half way to the weekend!

xxx

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31.03 outfits, easter biscuits and life

31st March 2010

Hello, I hope everyone is having a good week so far? This might turn in to a bit of an epic post, so apologies in advance!

Yesterday saw me gravitating towards a lot of blue for my outfit, I’m not sure why, it isn’t a colour I am instantly drawn to, but it also gave me a chance to re-experiment with the double denim approach.

I guess it’s a semi nautical look as well? I’m not sure, I did remember part way through the day why I don’t wear these shorts often; they button up both sides at the front and are a nightmare for toilet breaks!

Today I reverted back to my more typical style, not at all weather appropriate as it is still bitterly cold and miserable outside, but it’s almost April, I’m dressing for spring regardless…

As you’ve probably noticed by now, Wednesday is my typical baking day…with Easter on Sunday I went seasonal and made traditional Easter biscuits, which are a real family favourite. These smell incredible when baking with the spices and dried fruits!

You can find the recipe I used here
when it came to adding the spice, I was very liberal…so I hope they are still edible! I used approx a tsp of mixed spice, and a further tsp of cinnamon.

I couldn’t resist breaking away from the traditional round shape of the biscuit when I re-discovered some bunny shaped cookie cutters at the back of my baking supply drawer!

And finally, on a serious note,
my appointments Monday led to me having to make a difficult commitment in terms of treatment for my eating disorder,
I won’t say more than that for now as I’m unsure as to when things will happen etc,
but mentally my head is all over the place at the moment, and so, please forgive me if I don’t get around to commenting on your blogs as much as I usually do…it’s hard to focus and find the words.
Silly to apologise? Perhaps, but I have always prided myself on keeping up to date with everyone who takes the time to visit my little blog and leaves such wonderful words for me, so I do have a sense of guilt going on
*hides away embarrased*

Much love all
xoxox

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Recipe: cheese scones

24th March 2010

So, as mentioned yesterday I made Cheese Scones today. I used my good old faithful Be-Ro cook book which is yet to fail me. With Dad home I had an eager taste tester and he’s put in a request for these for his lunchbox when he is back at work, after declaring them delicious. Hopefully he will save at least one for my Mum when she comes home for her lunch break!

Ingredients:

175 g (6 oz) Be-Ro Self Raising Flour (any brand self raising is fine!)
pinch salt and pepper (I added 1/2 tsp of each as the recipe in my book stated)
1 x 2.5 ml spoon (½ tsp) mustard powder (I didn’t have mustard powder so added an equal amount of mustard from a jar)
25 g (1 oz) margarine
75 g (3 oz) cheese, grated
1 medium egg
2 x 15 ml spoon (2 tbsp) milk

With the cheese, I added all the cheese to the recipe and then grated some extra for the top of the scones.

Method:

1 Heat oven to 220ºC, 425ºF, Gas Mark 7. Grease a baking tray.
2 Mix flour and seasonings, rub in margarine. Stir in cheese, reserving a little for the top.
3 Mix to a soft dough with the egg and milk, reserving a little for glazing.
4 Roll out to a round 1.5 cm (½ inch) in thickness and cut into 8 triangles.
5 Place on the baking tray and brush with egg and milk and sprinkle with cheese. Bake for about 10-15 minutes until golden brown.

[recipe from the Be-Ro website]

And of course, I can’t post a recipe and not share photos.
As you can see, I opted for rounds rather than triangles as I think they look neater. The recipe still made 8 scones.

Pre-Baking shot

These really are simple to do, they took me just over half an hour from start to finish.
Make sure to report back if you make them!

xxx

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26.02 friday feeling

26th February 2010

Hello! Welcome to the end of another week, and, eek, almost the end of another month! I hope it’s been a good one and you have a fun filled weekend ahead.

The weather here can’t make up its mind and we seem to have a rainy, cold day followed by a super sunny one (like today). That means yesterday was foul and cold and dark, and so my outfit was purely comfortable; all style went out of the window, I’m only blogging to shame myself!

Today I feel much brighter and couldn’t resist wearing my second pair of £1 tights, I’m so bad, I went and picked up duplicates in each colour yesterday as I love them so much, as well as the ring pictured below; also £1!

By popular (seemingly really popular!) demand, here is the recipe I used for my muffins…
Lemon Poppyseed Muffins
I had intended to use a recipe shared by a friend but realised it required oil, which I didn’t have!

I’m not sure how much I’ll be posting outfits next week, if at all, as my Dad has the week off work and it is far more awkward to get photos, but I’ll still be blogging and might find a way to get some pics in my room…it’s been moved around so my old photo taking spot is gone!

xxx

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22.12 Special

22nd December 2009

Happy Birthday Mum!
Have a truly special day. With lots of love
xxx

Three days to go! As promised, here is the recipe for shortbread, found on www.allrecipes.co.uk

Ingredients:

250g (9 oz) plain flour

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon baking powder

225g (8 oz) butter

100g (4 oz) caster sugar

Preparation:
1. Preheat oven to 170 C / Gas mark 3.
2. Sift together the flour, salt and baking powder. In a large bowl, beat the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy. Add the sifted dry ingredients and mix to combine. Chill until dough is easy to handle, about 10 minutes.
3. On a lightly floured surface roll dough out to 5cm (1/4 in) thick. Cut into desired shapes and place on ungreased baking trays.
4. Bake in preheated oven for 10 to 15 minutes.

Have fun making it! I did.

And finally (I have no outfit to show from the past couple of days due to dressing to beat the cold and snow)
Check out my latest addition to my collection of muchlove jewellery

I can’t get enough of Anna’s gorgeous pieces.

xxx

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A Daisy Chain Dream

Category Archives: recipes

Baking Post; Rocky Road

31.03 outfits, easter biscuits and life

Recipe: cheese scones

26.02 friday feeling

22.12 Special