Farmersgirl Kitchen

Thursday, 12 March 2015

Marbled Chocolate Cheesecake Muffins

When I was asked by Dr. Oetker to bake one of their Chocolate Indulgence recipes. I chose these Marbled Chocolate Cheesecake Muffins. I love to bake muffins, they are easy to make and just the right size for a sweet treat with a cup of tea or coffee, I also often serve muffins instead of dessert and they are always welcomed.

Dr. Oetker has a great range of products and tools to help you make a great chocolatey bake. They have several varieties of cooking chocolate, chocolate decorations and powders that make it so simple to make a tasty chocolatey bake. There are also lots of great recipes on the website to help inspire you.

This March, Dr. Oetker want to celebrate all that is great and good about chocolate so are encouraging you to have some fun with chocolate and get experimental by trying new chocolatey bakes you’ve never attempted before. That way, you’ll get a handy practice run in March so you’re proud to share these new bakes at Easter with loved ones and friends.

The muffins were very easy to make, you do need to make two different mixtures, one with the cream cheese the other with melted chocolate, then you swirl the two together to get the marbled effect. I liked that they are not too sweet and there is a definite cheesecake flavour. There are many more delicious recipes on the Dr. Oetker website for you to try.

I couldn't resist using up the remaining cream cheese to make some Cream Cheese Frosting and decorating the muffins with Dr. Oetker Chocolate Hearts and Dr. Oetker Chocolate and Silver Pearls I took them into work to share them with my colleagues who were duly grateful!

*Dr. Oetker Twitter Competition*

Dr. Oetker is encouraging bakers to celebrate chocolate by making a yummy chocolate bake and believes that chocolate tastes even better when you share it, so they want to know who you’ll be sharing your chocolate bake with.

To enter: just tweet a photo of a chocolate bake you've made to @DrOetkerbakes and tell them who you'll be sharing it with, for the chance to win a deluxe hamper of chocolate products from Dr. Oetker using the hashtag #evenbetterbaking

Labels: baking, Cheesecake, chocolate, Dr. Oetker, Easter, Muffins

Thursday, 17 April 2014

Cheesy Treats for Easter Weekend

It's not been possible for me to make any Easter treats to share with you, so instead I'm going to share some quirky recipes created by gastronaut Stefan Gates for Castello cheese which you can make to impress your guests this Easter.

Chocolate eggs are so last Easter!! This year, speciality cheese brand Castello has paired up with gastronaut and foodie adventurer Stefan Gates to creatively craft innovative Easter egg recipes with a cheese twist. Stefan has turned tradition on its head with a cheeky take on the classic egg and soldiers, and a chocolate cream egg that is bound to make your guests do a double take.

Proving the versatility of cheese, Stefan has used the Castello range to devise playful recipes that are sure to inject some fun into your Easter weekend. And to ensure the holiday wows, top wine expert Matt Day has co-ordinated delicious and surprising drinks pairings to get the best flavours from your meal.

Stefan Gates said, “Castello cheeses are so versatile, from the tangy taste of Tickler extra mature cheddar to the lusciously soft Pineapple Halo - you can really have fun with them even turning some into a sweet treat. If you’re not constricted by cheese convention, you will be surprised by the flavour combinations out there. I wanted to rethink the Easter cream egg and traditional egg and soldiers turning them into crowd pleasers yet still easy to make at home.”

Ticker and Cider Fondue
Truffled Tickler and cider fondue served in an egg shell with Tickler soldiers fried in beurre noisette.

Ingredients (serves 4)
350g Castello Tickler Extra-Mature Cheddar (grated)
200ml fine strong cider
1 tablespoon of cornflour, mixed to a paste with 2tbsp cold water
½ tsp Worcester sauce
1tbsp truffle oil

Soldiers
8 slices sourdough
200g Castello Tickler Extra-Mature Cheddar thinly sliced
100g butter for frying
Juice of 1 lemon

Method
1. Put a thick-bottomed saucepan on a medium heat, add the cider and bring to a simmer. Reduce the heat, mix in the grated cheese, cornflour paste and Worcester sauce. Stir gently until all the cheese has melted. It should be as thick as Greek yoghurt, so if you need to thicken or loosen it add more cheese or cider. Keep it warm until you’re ready to serve
2. Lightly toast the sourdough slices, then make four unbuttered sandwiches with cheddar slices inside
3. Heat a large knob of butter in a frying pan until sizzling, then just as the butter turns brown, add 1 tbsp of lemon juice and turn one of the sandwiches in it to coat and continue frying until slightly crispy. Repeat with the rest of the sandwiches, then slice them into soldiers and put them on plates
4. Stir ½ tbsp. truffle oil into the fondue, taste and add another ½ tbsp. if you need to (truffle oils can vary in strength). Put each egg-shell in an egg cup and fill with the fondue (there’ll be more leftover for seconds!) and serve

Drinks
Why not complement the savoury eggs with a chilled glass of champagne or an icy beer. Choose one of Matt Day’s suggestions to bring out the tangy taste of the Tickler:
Leffe Blonde Beer (£2.99 widely available)
Tesco finest* 1531 Blanquette de Limoux (£8.49)
Le Mesnil Blac de Blancs Champagne 2004 (Waitrose £33.99)

Who would have thought cheese tastes great with chocolate? True to form, Stefan surprises with a delectable dessert that is both quick and fun to conjure up. This recipe is the perfect way to enhance both the pineapple, papaya and almond aromas found in the soft cheese, Pineapple Halo.

Creamy Pineapple and Chocolate Eggs
Pineapple Halo mixed with crème fraiche in a chocolate egg with orange zest

Ingredients (for 2 eggs)

2 hollow chocolate eggs
½ wheel of Castello Pineapple Halo
4tbsp crème fraiche
Zest of one orange

Method
1. Carefully slice the top off the chocolate eggs using a hot knife dipped in water from a boiled kettle. Put them into egg cups
2. Put the cheese, crème fraiche and ¾ of the orange zest into a bowl and mix it together with the back of a fork. Fill each eggshell with the mixture, and then put the remaining orange zest on top to look like the yolk
Drinks
This naughty but nice chocolate treat works perfectly with one of the following:
Mimosa (Champagne, Grand Marnier, Fresh Orange Juice)
Brown Brothers Orange Muscat & Flora (Ocado £7.49)
Fontana fredda Moscato D'Asti Moncucco (Asda £12.47)

Pineapple Halo - Indulge in alluring chunks of pineapple, chopped papaya and almonds with this lusciously soft cheese.

Creamy Blue - A unique cheese that was created to give the softness of a Brie with the sharper flavour of a blue cheese; a beautiful combination resulting in a smooth yet flavoursome cheese.

Creamy White - With a wonderfully creamy texture and rich buttery taste, this cheese is ripened in a way so, unlike a traditional Brie, it has a consistently soft centre.

Tickler Cheddar – This extra mature Cheddar, made in the heart of Devon, has a crumbly texture and delicious, tangy taste.

Traditional Danish Blue – The most powerful of our cheeses, it’s a full-flavoured, salty blue cheese. It was developed to get the taste of Roquefort using cow’s milk instead of sheep’s milk.

Extra Creamy Danish Blue – This bold, creamy cheese is rich with veins of salty flavour. Less feisty than our Traditional Danish Blue, it still has a kick.

For more information about the Castello range visit: www.castellocheese.co.uk

I was not paid for this post, but received some packs of Castello Cheeses to try.

Labels: Castello, cheese, chocolate, cider, Easter, Fondue, Mature Cheddar, pineapple

Wednesday, 26 March 2014

Hotel Chocolat Easter Egg Giveaway

Do you remember that gorgeous creamy brown chocolate called Caramac? It was one of my favourites, I've tried it again recently but didn't enjoy it, whether my tastes have changed or the recipe of the bar has changed, I don't know. What I do know is that I've never found any of the Hotel Chocolat chocolates disappointing. Always high quality chocolate and some real fun items.

The Splat Egg - Caramel is 150g of caramel milk chocolate egg with a colourful white chocolate splat. I have one Hotel Chocolat, The Splat Egg - Caramel worth £12.50 to GIVEAWAY to one lucky reader (UK only).

Just complete the answers on the Rafflecopter Widget below to enter

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Labels: caramel, Easter, Easter Egg, giveaway, Hotel Chocolat, The Splat

Sunday, 31 March 2013

Easter Nest Cupcakes

Happy Easter to you. I know it is nearly all over, but we still have Easter Monday Bank Holiday ahead of us and, I'm certainly glad of that additional day to get over the clock change and recover from the over-eating.

It wouldn't be Easter without some Easter baking. I've been away on holiday in the run up to Easter so there has been nothing to show. But as I had family coming round today, I whipped up some basic cupcakes/fairy cakes/ buns using Jo Wheatley's recipe in 'A Passion for Baking'. It's a rich cake mixture with 200g of butter, flour and sugar and three eggs. The bigger cakes turned out well, but some of the mini cakes went a bit oily which was a shame. I would probably go back to my Mary Berry - Fast Cakes recipe in future when doing the little buns.

I used Mary's recipe for chocolate buttercream, a simple one of butter, icing sugar and cocoa powder whipped up together in my Kenwood Chef. A bit of swirly piping with a Wilton 1M nozzle and some mini eggs for decoration.

I'm entering this for Calendar Cakes the baking challenge run by Dolly Bakes and Laura Loves Cakes
the theme for March is Easter Bakes.

Labels: A Passion for Baking, baking, cakes, Calendar Cakes, cupcakes, Dolly Bakes, Easter, Jo Wheatley, Kenwood Chef, Laura Loves Cakes, Wilton 1M

Friday, 6 April 2012

Sticky Easter Buns

I've never been very satisfied with the Hot Cross Buns I've made at home, so this year I decided to try something a bit different. I like the idea of a rolled bun, like cinnamon buns, but with the flavours and filling that is reminiscent of a Hot Cross Bun. I made my dough in the bread maker, but if you don't have one you could follow any sweet dough recipe directions.

Sticky Easter Buns

450g strong white flour

1 pkt fast action yeast

2 tsp ground cinnamon

50g soft brown sugar

125g butter, melted

150ml warm milk (not too warm or it will kill the yeast)

100g yogurt

1 egg

1 jar of mincemeat

1 large cooking apple peeled and chopped

For the glaze

25g soft brown sugar

10g butter

6 tbsp water

Put the flour, yeast, cinnamon and brown sugar in the bread maker bowl. Add the melted butter, milk, yogurt and beaten egg. Set to 'dough' and go away and do something else. My bread machine takes 45 minutes to make a dough.

Now you have an option, you can either watch the video below to see what to do or follow the instructions that come after the video. This is my first video clip, so please forgive the length and the fact that I do seem to pick things up with my hands - they are clean, honest!

Flatten out the dough on an oiled surface (or it will stick) and then spread the mincemeat over the dough and distribute the apple pieces evenly across the mincemeat. Roll up the dough from the long side, tucking the join underneath. The slice across and put the the slices into a baking tin lined with baking parchment, cut side up.

Put to one side in a warm place, to let the buns rise for about an hour and a half until they have doubled in size.

Then bake at 200C/180C (fan) for about 30 minutes. To make the glaze, put the sugar, water and butter into a pan and heat slowly to melt the sugar, then bring to the boil and boil for about 3 minutes. Glaze the buns as soon as they come out of the oven. Leave them in the tin until just warm then remove and split.

They are very, very sticky and absolutely delicious.

I'm entering this for Alphabakes challenge, the letter is 'B' this month. This challenge is run by Ros at The more than occasional baker and Caroline at Caroline Makes

Labels: baking, breadmaker, buns, Easter, Hot Cross Buns, mincemeat

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