Madrid: A Quickie Food Tour

Mr G and I have just come back from a week in Madrid!
What a foodie heaven!

Gravity - defying fruit!

The paella was so yummy!

And the "Tortilla" (a Spanish omelette made with sliced potatoes)

And the "croquetas", the cod ones were my favourites.

They had macarons, which were very disappointing. They were far too crunchy. No chewiness at all.

The coconut macaroons though - delish.

We visited the Mercado de San Miguel - a food hall which had stalls and stalls of yummy treats.

These cakes were amazing.

This stall had the tiniest ice cream cones I had ever seen!

Hot chocolate and churros.
Mmmmm

No trip to Spain would be complete without indulging in this Spanish tradition. We tried a couple of places but by far the best was Cafe Valor!

Words cannot describe how good the chocolate and the churros here were.

Yes, it really was as good as it looks in this picture.

Mr G opted for an orange flavoured chocolate.

It was so good, we went back for another on our last day in Madrid!

Buenos Noche Amigos!

Nx

Rocky Road Bites

These are without a doubt my go to recipe when the occasion calls for some "Petit Fours".

All you need is 75g of marshmallows....

...and 75g of chopped brazil nuts.

Melt 100g of milk chocolate and 100g of dark chocolate and mix together!

Then leave spoonfuls of the mixture onto sheets of greaseproof paper to set.

Yum Yum.

Nxx

(Apologies for the poor quality photography folks- it was really dark when I took these and the flash was playing up!)

Chocolate - covered Toffee Pretzels

I recently saw a post on the Made with Pink blog for homemade Turtles.

http://www.madewithpink.com/

They reminded me of the Take 5 candy bars that you get in America. They are basically a pretzel base with a layer of caramel, peanut butter and peanuts covered in milk chocolate.

Yum Yum.

They inspired me to have a go at making a home made version.

I melted the Werther's original toffees with 1 tablespoon of whipping cream and then sandwiched the toffee between two pretzels.

Yes, it was a messy job. Prepare to have sticky toffee go EVERYWHERE!

At this point, I wanted to add a dollop of peanut butter but I was covered in toffee by this point so decided to give the peanut butter a miss on this occasion.

Then I melted some milk chocolate and covered the pretzels.


Oh. My. Gosh.
A-mazing. With a capital A.

The pretzel shapes make them look like little hearts which is ideal for Valentines' Day!

Warning: they are totally addictive.
I've made them to take to London this weekend for relatives but I am not sure that they will last the week...

Churros & Chocolate

A few years ago Mr G and I visted Barcelona and had the most amazing hot chocolate. It was so rich and thick. We would sit at a cafe bar on the Ramblas and people watch all day.

Ever since then I have been meaning to have a go at re-creating that hot chocolate. I was flicking through one of my cookie books and I came across a recipe for Churros. These are the small doughnut- type Spanish treats that are traditionally dunked in the hot chocolate. The following recipe has been adapted.

Churros

Ingredients:-
1 cup plain flour
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1 cup water
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
1 tablespoon granulated sugar
1/8 teaspoon salt
1 egg
Juice of half lime or lemon
Vegetable oil for frying
Granulated sugar for coating Churros

Method:-
1. Place water, sugar, salt and tablespoon of oil into pan and bring to the boil. Add the flour and baking powder and beat until smooth.
2. When mixture is smooth add the egg and beat until fully combined.
3. Place mixture into a piping bag and using a star shaped nozzle, pipe mixture out onto a baking sheet in 3 - inch pieces.
4. Heat oil (you need oil to be about 2 inches in depth) and add the juice of half a lemon or lime.
5. When oil is hot enough to brown a small piece of day old bread in 30 - 50 seconds add the churros and cook until golden brown (about 3 - 4 minutes).
6. Leave to cool for a minute and then roll in the granulated sugar. Serve warm with Hot Chocolate.

Spanish style Hot Chocolate

Ingredients:-
5 tablespoons dutch processed cocoa powder
2 tablespoons granulated sugar
6 oz dark best quality dark chocolate coarsely chopped (I used Green & Back's 75% cocoa solids)
2 cups milk

Method:-
1. Place the cocoa, sugar and 2 tablespoons of milk into a pan and bring to the boil. When the mixture starts to boil, whisk quickly to bring to a smooth paste.
2. Add the rest of the milk and whisk until well combined.
3. Add the chocolate and mix until incorporated. Serve immediately.

As a flavour alternative, add one teaspoon of ground cinnamon or try ground chilli powder for a Mexican twist.

It was yummy. My churros were a bit fat as I had used one of my frosting nozzles but they were so yummy with the hot chocolate. Mr G agreed. It brought memories of Barcelona flooding back.

Hasta Luego mi amigos!

Birthday Treats!

It was my cousin's wife's birthday recently so I decided to make her some homemade chocolates. I made oreo truffles which I then coated in chocolate. I also had some peanut butter oreos which I covered with peanut butter candy melts. For those of you who have never heard of candy melts, they are ideal to use to cover home made chocolates and for using on cake pops. They come in a wide variety of colours and can be used in the same way as chocolate. You can easily get them online. The peanut butter oreo mixture remained soft even after leaving overnight in the fridge, but they tasted good. I also covered some salted pretzels with chocolate and sprinkled chopped nuts over them. Well who wants low fat goodies on their birthday? I them packaged the goodies in small cellophane bags and sent them in a basket. Very domestic goddess.....