Ridiculously rich chocolate caramel tarts

Ridiculously rich. Sometimes we need ridiculously rich food. These are richer than all the diamonds in the world. Wow. Seriously.

Not too rich. The buttery crust cuts through the rich.

They are quite fiddly. But not difficult. Just be patient with the steps and they will come together. I made cute little tarts instead of one gigantic one. What I really want is some cute little petit fours pans. These are more than one mouthful. I want pans smaller that are one perfect mouthful, maybe two 3/4 mouthfuls.

Pastry

240g plain flour

60g caster sugar

180g unsalted butter, chilled, coarsely chopped

Caramel

225g white sugar

80mL thickened cream

70g butter, coarsely chopped

Chocolate Mousse

200g dark chocolate (53% choc solids)

4 eggs, separated

185mL thickened cream

2 tbsp caster sugar

Chocolate Ganache

165g dark chocolate (53% choc solids)

60mL cream

40g unsalted butter, softened

For the pastry: process flour and sugar in a food processor to combine. Add the butter and pulse until mixture resembles fine crumbs. Add 2 tbsp chilled water and process until mixture just comes together. Turn onto a lightly floured surface, form into a disc, cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for 1 hour.

Preheat oven to 190C. Roll out pastry to 5mm thick on a lightly floured surface. Line your cute little tart pans with pastry (or use one 26cm pan). Refrigerate for 1 hour. Blind bake for 20 mins or until set, then remove paper and weights and bake until golden (8-10 mins). If using smaller pans keep a good eye on the cases as the cooking time will vary.

For the caramel: combine sugar and 250mL water in a heavy based saucepan and stir over low heat until sugar dissolves. Increase heat to high and cook, brushing down sides with a wet pastry brush until the mixture is deep golden - 10-15mins. Remove from heat, add cream and butter and stir to combine. Be very careful here as the mixture will spit and splutter. Pour into pastry bases and refrigerate until firm - 1-2 hours.

Chocolate mousse: melt chocolate in a bain marie. Remove from heat, cool to room temperature. Add egg yolks, stir to combine and set aside. Whisk egg whites to soft peaks. Gradually add sugar and continue whisking until combined. Fold 1/3 of the eggwhites into the choclate then fold in 1/3 of the cream. Repeat with remaining eggwhite and cream and stir gently until combined. Spoon over cooled caramel. Smooth top and then refrigerate until firm

Chocolate ganache: Combine chocolate and cream in a bain marie. Stir until chocolate melts. Remove from heat, add butter and stir to combine. Cool to room temperature. Spread in an even layer over chocolate mousse. Refrigerate until set.

Serve tart with whipped cream to the side.

make these chocolate chip and pecan biscuits

yes they are delicious

nutty biscuits with dark choc chips

Makes 40

115g butter, softened

120g brown sugar

80g white sugar

1 tsp vanilla essence

1 large egg

140g pecans - toasted and chopped quite finely so some are powder and the rest are small chunks

200g dark chocolate chips

175g plain flour

1/2 tsp baking soda

Preheat the oven to 150C.

Cream the butter sugar and vanilla. Add the egg. Stir in the remaining ingredients.

Drop tablespoons onto lined trays. Bake for 15-18 minutes or until lightly golden on the edges. Cool on trays for 5 mins, then remove onto cooling racks

very rich burnt butter, pear and chocolate cake

Thank you again to Smitten Kitchen for this recipe.

Last day at the psychiatric hospital - I needed to take something with me. I was going to go back to old faithful choco brownies, but felt inspired by the bowl of pears on the kitchen bench.

This did not disappoint.

Almost more dessert than cake.

Would be great with some cream/ice cream as a bit of a foil for the richness.

Let it cool a touch before cutting it so the chocolate can set.

1 cup plain flour

1 tbsp baking powder

pinch salt

3 eggs

115g butter

3/4 cup sugar

4 small pears, peeled and cut into 1cm dice

3/4 cup bittersweet chocolate chips

Preheat the oven to 170C. Grease and line a 9 inch springform tin.

Sift the flour, baking powder and salt together. Set aside.

Put the eggs into a free-standing beater and mix on high speed until very very thick and pale (about 5-10 minutes).

Brown the butter by melting in a medium saucepan until brown bits form on the bottom and it smells nutty (about 6-8 minutes). It will help if you stir the solids off the bottom as it starts to brown. Keep in a warm place.

Add the sugar to the eggs. Beat for a few more minutes.

As the egg-sugar mixture starts to lose volume, turn down to 'fold' and add the flour and brown butter, alternating. Mix very gently for less than one minute or until combined. Do not overmix.

Pour the batter into the pan. Sprinkle with the chocolate and hte pear.

Cook for 40-50 minutes or until golden brown and springs back when touched. Test with a skewer.

Leave to cool for at least 10 minutes in the pan, before releasing. It is easiest to cut this cake when cool, but delicious when warm. Dust with icing sugar.

Choc Chip Biscuits

According to Smitten Kitchen's Deb - these are her favourite choc chip cookies. Although I must admit, as usual my complete lack of ability to follow a recipe has made these a bit different to the original. Despite these changes they are lovely! I had no vanilla essence so put in cinnamon instead - a very nice change. I also had only 1/2 cup worth of a mixture of roasted hazelnuts, and pepitas, pine nuts and pumpkin seeds. I made this mixture up to a cup with rolled oats. The result was delicious. The hazelnut flavour was fantastic with the chocolate.

1/2 cup white sugar

1/2 cup brown sugar

115g butter

1 tsp vanilla

1 egg

1/2 tsp baking soda

1 1/4 cups plain flour

1/4 tsp salt

230g pack of dark choc chips

1 cup nuts, roasted and then finely chopped

Preheat the oven to 150C. Cream the butter and sugar then beat in the vanilla, egg and baking soda. Gradually mix in the remaining ingredients.

Place large teaspoonfuls of mixture onto a baking sheet lined with baking paper. Put in the oven and bake for 15-18 mins or until very lightly golden.

I made about 50 small biscuits.

Chocolate Self-Saucing Pudding on a whim

I felt like chocolate pudding. I found a recipe - it took 45 minutes to cook. No go. How about microwave chocolate pudding in 5 minutes! It was really great. I had it with natural yoghurt - that's all I had. Would be great with ice cream.

This is the photo of it after Eliza and I attacked it.

Ingredients

2 tsp butter

1 cup self raising flour

3/4 cup sugar

1/2 tsp salt

1 tsp vanilla essence

1/2 cup milk

Sauce

1/2 cup brown sugar

1 tbsp cocoa

2 tbsp coconut

1 1/2 cups boiling water

Find a microwave dish at least 1.5L in volume. Put the butter in the bottom then buzz in the microwave for 10-20 seconds or until melted. Add the remaining batter ingredients then mix well.

Sprinkle over the dry sauce ingredients. Gently pour over the boiling water.

Cover with a sheet of wax paper and cook in the microwave on high for 5-7 minutes. Check frequently and adjust the time to suit your microwave.

Enjoy!

Afghan Cookies!

Cupboard biscuits - you shouldn't need to go to the shops to make these delicious biscuits. Super easy and extra delicious!

200g butter, softened

1/2 cup firmly packed brown sugar

1 tsp vanilla essence

1 egg

1 3/4 cups plain flour

2 tsp baking powder

pinch salt

1/2 cup coconut

2 cups corn flakes

Chocolate icing

Walnuts

Preheat the oven to 180C. Line two baking sheets with baking paper.

Beat the butter, sugar and vanilla essence until light and creamy. Beat in the egg.

Mix together the flour, cocoa, baking powder and salt. Stir into the creamed mixture using a metal spoon. If the mixture seems a bit dry, add some warm water.

Form small balls of the mixture, then press down on the baking tray.

Bake for 15 minutes. Cool on the tray for 2 mins, then put onto a cooling rack so the bottom of the biscuits don't go soggy.

Store in an airtight container.

Ice when ready to eat, and top each one with a walnut.

Chocolate Icing

1 1/2 cups icing sugar

2 tbsp cocoa

2 tsp melted butter

2-3 tbsp warm milk

Mix all ingredients until you have a thick icing of spreadable consistency.

Really Easy Chocolate Brownies

115 g butter

200 g white sugar

2 eggs

5 ml vanilla extract

30 g unsweetened cocoa powder

60 g all-purpose flour

2 g salt

1 g baking powder

Icing and Maltesers to decorate

Preheat the oven to 175C. Grease and line with baking paper a 20x20cm square tin.

Melt the butter in a saucepan on the stove.

Add all other ingredients and mix well.

Pour into prepared pan.

Bake for 25-30 mins or until still slightly gooey in the centre.

Cool in the pan then ice with malteser icing and decorate with maltesers.

Icing:

125g icing sugar

2 tsp cocoa

1 tbsp horlicks or malted milk powder

60g softened butter

1 tbsp boiling water

Mix together all ingredients except the water in a bowl. Gradually add the boiling water until desired consistency is reached.