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!

Girly Birthday Cookies

I have been a busy baking bee this week! I made these cookies to take to a family birthday celebration. I painted them with edible lustre dust to give a shimmery effect. It worked well on the white and lilac rolled fondant but not so well on the hot pink. Back to the drawing board on that one!

Happy Birthday Raj!

We went to London this weekend for my cousin's 30th birthday party! I decided to make a variety of treats to take including these "30 cookies". I decided on red and white as I hadn't really baked anything World Cup related. I decorated them with fondant and then decided to add some stars to make them look a little bit prettier. I think I've got my recipe perfected now as the cookies hold their shape perfectly after cooking.

Geometric Cookies

I had invited some friends over for lunch and thought I would make some shortbread cookies to serve after lunch. Mr G had ordered me some small cookie cutters in a variety of geometric designs. I thought it would be good to experiment using some fondant icing which I had tinted.

My first mistake was not chilling the shortbread before cooking. I ended up with air pockets in the biscuits which meant that I had to put the fondant on the bottom of the cookie. My second mistake was trying to decorate them in warm weather. The fondant was not as easy to handle and the shapes were not as clean cut as I had envisaged. My first two attempts were pretty disastrous but I eventually got the knack of it. I liked the combination of colours, but it took a bit of time cutting out the different sized shapes.

Double Choc Cookies

These cookies are a favourite of mine! They are the perfect double chocolate cookies. Moist and chewy and packed with chocolatey flavour. I add chopped hazelnuts in for another bit of crunch but they are perfect just with chocolate chips added in. I plan to make some mint choc chip versions using some peppermint essence and mint choc chips that I purchased whilst in the states. I use a spring form ice cream scoop to make sure the cookies are a uniform size.

Birthday Cupcake Cookies

I wanted to make my cousin's son some birthday cupcakes, but was worried about transporting them. I therefore decided to make some cupcake shaped cookies instead. After the success of my afternoon tea biscuits, I decided to stick with shortbread cookies which I then decorated with fondant icing as before. I had bought a birthday cupcake shaped cookie cutter on a recent visit to New York. I then decorated them with little fondant stars, as I didn't want them to look too girly!

Anyone for tea?

I was invited to attend this month's Teawitter Tea Party in the Northern Quarter. It is an event for people who are passionate about baking. I decided to make some decorative biscuits as inspired by the book 'Bake me I'm yours....cookie' by Lindy Smith. She is one amazing lady. Her bsicuits (cookies) are so pretty to look at. I decided on using my Mother in law's shortbread recipe which we all adore. I then tinted some ready to roll fondant using gel colourings to cover the biscuits and to decorate them. I stuck the fondant and decorations on using some boiled jam as I did not have any sugarpaste to hand. My first batch of biscuits spread a lot whilst baking in the oven, so for the next batch, I put the biscuits to chill in the fridge for a couple of moments as I had read that this ensured the biscuits would keep their shape whilst cooking. That tip was spot on. The next batch held their shape perfectly.