Sunday afternoon delight

You know those times when you're feeling a little sorry for yourself and all you want is a little sweet treat, but you don't want something processed or fake or too big or too sweet? That was me yesterday afternoon.

I was laying on the couch and just felt like nothing in my cupboard would compare to having a cup of tea and a homemade biccie. So I donned my apron and got in to the kitchen. I do love a good Sunday afternoon random baking sesh!

I have made these biccies before but with dates and pecans and they were the easiest, most care free biccies I've ever made! I didn't have pecans or dates this time around, but I did have a banana and some left over chocolate melts from last weeks brownie mix. What better flavour combination could there be?!

Laura's Choc-Dipped Banana Biccies (makes about 40 little biccies)
1 large banana
1 cup brown sugar, firmly packed
1/2 cup olive oil
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla extract
3/4 cup SR flour
1 1/4 cup plain flour (for the date/pecan recipe I only used 3/4 cup, but the banana means it needs more flour)
1 tsp cinnamon
150 g melting chocolate

1. Mash the banana to a smooth consistency. Preheat oven to 180C and line 2-4 baking sheets with paper.
2. Place sugar, oil, egg and vanilla in a bowl and mix to combine. Add banana and stir.
3. Add flours and cinnamon and stir to combine.
4. With damp hands, roll teaspoons of dough into balls and place on the baking paper. Flatten slightly with your fingers and bake for 12 minutes or until golden. Cool on a wire rack.
5. Heat chocolate in the microwave in 30 second intervals until all melted. Once your biccies are cool, invert and dip into the chocolate and leave to harden.

The finished product!

I love that I can say there are NO pressure points in this recipe - it is so easy!

Take on this recipe when you:
a) Want to have a little sweet treat on a Sunday arvo to go with your cuppa
b) Have unexpected guests arrive on your doorstep and have nothing in the cupboard (they're super quick!)
c) Are looking for brownie (or rather, biccie) points from work colleagues, family, boyfriend etc.

Enjoy!

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A foolproof end to your next dinner party.

This blog post has been a long time coming. I do have a multitude of excuses for why I have been M.I.A. in the past 3-plus months - I was busy with Christmas, New Years, and starting back at work; and I've been totally loved up and planning the wedding of the century with my significant other. But the best excuse of all of them is my foodie one... I started a business!! I'm working market stalls on a regular basis selling my sweet baked treats and doing quite well, if I do say so myself! So I hope that gets me off the hook with being blogless for such a long time.

So, what could be worthy of getting away from my super busy schedule to blog? Choc-mint fondant, of course!

Before Christmas, my awesome friend K took me to a cooking class at Sydney Cooking School (Note: best birthday present ever!!). We chose 'Delicious Desserts' to learn how to make 5 new desserts neither of us had attempted before and first up was chocolate fondant. This was introduced to us as the "fool proof" dessert and that couldn't be more true. There are a few pressure points I will explain at the end but here it is:

Chocolate Fondant (Serves 4)
120g good quality dark chocolate (I use Nestle plaistowe)
120g unsalted butter
2 eggs
2 yolks
60g sugar
10g plain flour

1. Grease and lightly flour 4 metal dariole moulds.

2. Place chocolate and butter in a bowl over a pot of simmering water to melt. Whisk to combine.

3. In another bowl, add egg, yolk and sugar and whisk until foamy.

4. Remove chocolate from heat once melted, stir, then add to egg mixture and stir.
5. Add flour, stir to combine, then pour into moulds.
6. Refrigerate for 1 hour. Preheat oven to 220C before the end of the hour.

7. Bake in oven for 8 minutes. Remove from oven and rest for 5 minutes. Serve warm with cream or ice cream.

The perfect turn out.

The final gooey goodness.

Now, I LOVE mint chocolate. It is definitely one of my favs. So when I had to make this for a dinner party, I figured I'd add a little peppermint essence (1 tbsp for a 4 serve) to the mix... and it worked! So some other suggestions I have for you - Jaffa  (add up to 1 tsbp orange essence), Choc-coco (add 1 tsbp coconut essence) and one that I think I'll try next time is a Choc-berry where I think I'll just add some blended, sieved frozen raspberries to the mix!

So, for your pressure points and tips on this no tricks dessert:
- You can't over whisk the eggs and sugar in step two - just keep whisking until your chocolate is melted.
- You MUST refrigerate this dish for at least an hour, longer if possible, but not more than 7 hours (it will set too hard).
- You MUST grease and dust your dariole moulds, I like to do mine with cocoa powder so I don't get the white powder on the outside of my chocolate baked goods.
- You unfortunately need to eat these when they've just been cooked... I saved one for my flat mate who ate hers half an hour later and it had set in the centre (She deducted me 4 whole points from a perfect 10 because it wasn't gooey!!)
- The recipe I was given said to bake for 8 minutes, but it really does depend on your oven as mine ended up being in there for about 12 minutes. If they're still gooey at the top after 8 minutes, keep a close eye on them because there is a fine line between just set on the outside, and set the whole way through!

Good luck fondanting! Let me know your favourite fondant combinations.

Enjoy!

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