Category: cranberries

Chestnut, cranberry and white chocolate biscotti

January 2, 2016





I was actually meant to post this before Christmas. I came up with this recipe for my weekly column as a great edible gift for Christmas. However if you are anything like me and enjoy the full 12 days of Christmas, you will still make these anyway. So why don’t you get some Sunday baking done tomorrow and keep it Festive! After all, today is still only the ninth day of Christmas! 




Below is what I wrote for my column:
It’s less than 2 weeks till Christmas now so I thought I’d share with you another  recipe of mine great for those edible gifts, an emergency sweet treat when guests suddenly turn up or even just great to eat at your leisure alone. 
 The great thing about biscotti is how long it lasts for so its perfect to be baking ahead now if you like. You can even freeze them down and cook when needed.
 Biscotti are so easy to make yet they look like you’ve spend hours on them.
 They look so pretty however you present them just Perfect with a mulled wine or Hot chocolate.


Chestnut, cranberry and white chocolate biscotti:






Ingredients:
(Makes 16-18 biscotti)
  • 175g plain flour plus extra for dusting
  • 1 tsp baking powder
  • 125g light muscovado sugar 
  • 1 egg beaten 
  • 50g cranberries
  • 50g chestnuts ( cooked vacuum packed ones ) chopped roughly
  • sprinkle of cinnamon ( I use Spice Kitchen )
  • sprinkle of nutmeg
  • 75g white chocolate melted to drizzle


Method:
  • Heat your oven to 180c
  • Place your greaseproof baking paper onto a baking tray. Put your flour,baking powder, sugar and spice into a bowl and mix well.
  • Stir in your egg, mix well. It will start to the form clumps. Bring the dough together with your hands and knead a couple of times to bring mixture together.
  • Then add your chestnuts and cranberries and knead together.
  • Turn out the dough onto a lightly floured surface and make into a sausage shape. Place onto the baking tray and pop into the oven for 25 minutes.
  • At this stage it still will be slightly pale in colour. Take out of the oven, transfer onto a cooling rack until cool enough to handle. 
  • Using a bread knife cut into slices of about 1cm thick and lay individually back onto the baking tray. ( At this stage they can be cooled and popped into the freezer in bags) 
  • Turn down oven to 140c and then bake for 15 minutes, turn the biscotti and bake for a further 15 minutes until golden and dry.

* Pop onto a wire cooling rack to cool. Then drizzle with melted white chocolate. ( don’t be perfect with it ). Allow the chocolate to cool and then you are ready to eat.








Gooey Chocolate Chilli brownie’s with cranberries

October 12, 2015




  At teatime or in the evening when it begins to get chilly, this is great to have with a cup of Coffee or tea. It gives you a real tingle inside after having one.

  I have been making this Chocolate chilli brownie recipe for years now, sometimes I drizzle white chocolate on top, add pistachios or you can even change the cranberries to dried cherries. However Ive decided to use cranberries as we only seem to see them in December but in actual fact they go perfect along side the chocolate and chilli.
This is such a super, easy, sweet treat to serve whatever the occasion. It will go great after Hot dogs, or an autumnal one pot wonder. They are even fantastic to give as a gift.

  You can serve this with double cream, ice cream or to be even more decadent and naughty, I would add some booze such as Pedro Ximenez sherry.


  I also made these for my regular cooking slot on BBC Radio Leicester a couple of weeks ago so if you click on the clip here, you can hear me making them for Ben Jackson and how much he liked them! 



Gooey Chocolate chilli brownie’s with cranberries:






Ingredients:


(Serves 8 Brownies in a tin roughly as mine was 28cmx18cm )

–  100g Dark Chocolate ( at least 60,70 % cocoa solids ) 
–  88g unsalted butter
–  163g Caster sugar
–  2 eggs
–  65g plain flour
–  50g dried cranberries
–  1/4-1/2 tsp of Ground hot chilli powder (depending how hot you want it! )I use Spice Kitchen spices
–  1/4-1/2 tsp of fresh chopped red chilli ( depending how hot you want it! )




Method:

*  Grease a tin of your choice and line with parchment paper

*  Preheat oven to 160-170c

*  Melt chocolate and butter in a heatproof bowl over a pan of simmering water

*  In a separate bowl whisk eggs and sugar together and then sift in flour and fold in

*  Place that mixture into the melted chocolate and butter and mix with a spatular, add in cranberries

*  place mixture into your baking tray and pop into the oven for about 40 minutes

*  Allow to cool on a tray until you cut into squares

*  Serve with a nice cup of hot drink, double cream or Ice cream. If you want to be even more naughty, pour over some booze such as Pedro Ximenez sherry.