EAT DRINK LIVE

I SCREAM FOR ICE CREAM!

I just ordered my copy and if you are not in the neighborhood of Dingle for the launch this evening ( much as I would love to be there I can't go as I have a date with Mr. Cave on Saturday thanks to my good friend John) I suggest you do the same. What better way to celebrate the damp arrival of summer.

NIGHT AND DAY.

I'm feeling the need to apologise for the lack of posts around here lately. Us laydees are supposed to be good at multi-tasking but I seem to be temporarily missing that notch on my X-chromosome. A new baby niece has arrived who needs much admiring and gushing from all quarters. Seven year olds have very demanding schedules and it seems that those who live in my corner of Limerick are addicted to muffins at the moment so free time is dedicated to napping rather than blogging. Not that I'm complaining! Spring is springing, the birds are swaying, the trees are singing and I have an unapologetically large slab of chocolate cake in my greedy hands.

It was my turn to give a home to our tentatively named Limerick Foodie Society last week and though this cake was not present on the night it is very much in keeping with the chocolate theme chosen. And we were not limited to desserts no sir/ma'am; there was chicken mole, mushroom ragout (with chocolate), fresh tomato salsa (with chocolate), Montezuma ice-box cookies, raspberry and white chocolate tart, chocolate biscuit cake and tiramisiu. Yes there were zippers groaning and I'm still finding buttons under the rug, but the evening was a success and I have some new recipes I can share (hopefully sooner rather than later).

This is night to the previous cake's day and helped subdue a chocolate craving that was not going to be satisfied with a square of 70%. The dark and fudgy cake works so well with a sweet butter icing that I confess I ate more than my fair share so there is none left for you. For that I humbly apologise.

The cake recipe comes from Avoca Tea Time and the icing from Nigella Bites.

CHOCOLATE CAKE

• 275g unsalted butter
• 125ml strong coffee
• 275g dark chocolate, 70% cocoa
• 110g self-raising flour
• 110g plain flour
• 1/4 tsp bicarb of soda
• 225g dark muscavado sugar
• 225g light muscavado sugar
• 30g cocoa powder
• 100ml buttermilk
• 4 medium eggs, beaten

Fudge Icing:

• 175g dark chocolate, 70% cocoa
• 250g unsalted butter, softened
• 275g icing sugar, sifted
• 1 tbls vanilla extract.

1. Preheat the oven to 150 C and butter and line a deep 8 inch/20cm cake tin. Melt the butter, coffee and chocolate together in a bowl over barely simmering water or in the microwave. Set aside to cool slightly.
2. Put all the dry ingredients in a large bowl, then add the chocolate mixture and finally the buttermilk and eggs.
3. Pour into the lined tin and bake for 1 3/4 - 2 hours. Or until cake tester comes out clean. Remove from the oven and leave to cool completely on a wire rack.
4. To make the icing: beat the butter with an electric whisk until soft and creamy then add the sieved sugar and beat again until everything's light and fluffy. Gently add in the vanilla and melted chocolate and mix until everything is glossy and smooth.
5. Split the cake in half and spread one layer with loads of icing then put on the top layer and plaster with the rest of the icing.

Serves 8-10.

WHITER SHADE OF PALE.

I'm a day late and €0.632711 short but here is my sweet Daring Bakers challenge for this month. Morven @ Food and Random Thoughts was in the mood for a party when she chose Dorie Greenspan's Perfect Party Cake and left it up to ourselves to choose the flavour. The sponge and buttercream are made with egg whites only and are supposed to be pristine white in colour but Irish butter made mine a little less white and a little more ivory.  I stuck with the lemon flavour from the original recipe only adding a thin layer of lemon curd (there were a whole lot of leftover egg yolks) between the cake layers and a few crystallised rose petals because I need the practise for a wedding in June.

The sponge didn't turn out as fluffy as I would have liked but some guy in Greenwich stole an hour of sleep from me yesterday and I was a little on the cranky side all day. But the buttercream was beautifully silky and the curd just the right side of suck-in-your cheeks so as a whole the elements worked well together and all guinea pigs went home happy.

Morven has the recipe in full at her site and all the other Daring Bakers have their own versions just waiting for you.

THE SUM OF ITS PARTS.

1 bar of dark, dark chocolate. Check

1/2 full jar of peanut butter (I'm ever the optimist). Check

Flour. Butter. Eggs. Check. Check. Check.

Brown sugar. Check (but minus the Rolling Stone).

Handful of peanuts. Check.

Handful of leftover chocolate and peanut butter swirls. Check.

If Pi equals 3.14 and x = 5, carry the 2 and divide by 7 and you should end up with...

CHOCOLATE AND PEANUT BUTTER SWIRL BROWNIES.

Adapted from Brownies by Linda Collister.

• 100g 70% chocolate, chopped
• 175g unsalted butter, cubed
• 3 large eggs
• 200g light muscovado sugar
• 120g plain flour
• 2 tbls cocoa powder
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• pinch of salt

Peanut Swirl:

• 180g smooth peanut butter
• 50g caster sugar
• 1 tbls plain flour
• 5 tbls milk
• Handful of roasted peanuts
• Handful chocolate peanut butter swirls (optional)

1. Preheat the oven to 180 C. Line a 20 X 25 cm (or similar size) tin with tinfoil. Melt the chocolate and butter together gently in a bowl over a pot of simmering water or in the microwave. Set aside to cool slightly.
2. Beat the eggs in a large mixing bowl until blended. Add the sugar and vanilla and beat with an electric whisk until thick and moussey.
3. Stir the chocolate into the egg mixture then sift over the flour, cocoa powder and pinch of salt. Fold in until completely combined and pour into the prepared tin.
4. Meanwhile mix all the ingredients for the peanut butter swirl in a bowl adding the milk gradually to make it easier to combine. Drop teaspoonfuls of this mixture over the brownie batter and use a skewer or the end of the teaspoon to swirl the two mixtures. Scatter the peanuts over the top and the chocolate peanut butter chips if using.
5. Bake for 30 minutes or until there is only a slight wobble in the middle. Start checking at 25 minutes. Leave to cool before cutting. Will keep for about 5 days.

Makes a maximum of 16 brownies. Or maybe 9.

NEXT STOP MOUNT EVEREST.

I come to you cap in hand and pleading sweetly for a favour of a non-food related nature. Nick Cave (who as some of you may know I am quite partial to) is playing Dublin Castle in May with his band the Bad Seeds and I am ticketless. It would seem that getting a ticket at this late stage is on a par with climbing Mount Everest (unless you are prepared to pay four times the face value which is not an option I'm afraid), so I was hoping that if I brought you Mont Blanc on a plate you could help me conquer Everest. If anyone hears of a spare ticket for sale please e-mail me at the link above and I promise there will be a chocolate bonus in it for you.

If bribery is your thing please dive into this variation on the classic French dessert Mont Blanc. Typically a meringue base topped with sweetened chestnut puree and perhaps a layer of cream, it may not appeal to those with a less than sweet tooth but should give a good energy burst while doing a spot of mountain climbing. I have been to Angelina's in Paris but I didn't make it past the spoonable hot chocolate to the desserts, of which the Mont Blanc is one of their most famous. I had never got around to making it at home until this month's Olive Magazine threw up a recipe that only needed a meringue base to make a mountain out of a chocolate-chestnut mousse. If you buy in your meringue nests then this becomes an assembly job at most.

If the meringue is a step too far for you just pile everything else into a glass and serve in it's original incarnation as a decadent mousse.

This recipe is adapted from the chocolate supplement in this months Olive Magazine.

CHOCOLATE CHESTNUT MONT BLANC

• 200g 60-70% cocoa chocolate, melted and left to cool slightly
• 250g sweetened chestnut puree
• 2 tbsp dark rum
• 285ml double cream, very softly whipped plus an extra 150 ml for serving
• chocolate curls or shavings, just use a vegetable peeler to pare strips off a chunk of dark chocolate
• 8 meringue nests, shop bought or find a recipe here just leave out the elderflowers.

1. Fold the chocolate into the chestnut puree, then fold in the rum and the 285ml of whipped cream.
2. Put the mousse into a piping bag with a plain or star-shaped nozzle and pipe a mound of chestnut mousse on top of a meringue nest. Whip the remaining cream and dollop on a creamy snow-capped peak and shave over some dark chocolate curls.
3. Alternatively you can omit the meringue and just pipe the mousse into six wine glasses topping with the cream and chocolate curls as before and refrigerating until ready to serve.

Makes 8 Mont Blancs or 6 chestnut mooses.

WHO'S THE MOMMY?!

Lorraine is the mommy! Yesterday was Mothers Day here in Ireland (and the UK) but completely overshadowed in the blog world by the Irish Blog Awards. Italian Foodies won Best Food and Drink blog and as Lorraine was home nursing sick baby Val, Maz and I had no problem basking in her glory! Val and Maz collected the award in her honour, though to everyones bitter disappointment they did not give a speech. Squid @ Limerick Blogger brought another award home to Limerick in the shape of a tie for Best Current Affairs Blog and Val and Maz like the troopers they are collected that award too. A bottle of champagne accompanied both awards but I know nothing about what happened to those.

Kieran won Best Business Blog for the second year in a row, and thanks for the chocolate! I was the sober person who had to leave early to get back to my oven so I hope the mums of Limerick appreciated their buns yesterday morning. Thanks to Damien for the superhuman effort I can't even imagine went into putting on such a great night. Roll on next year!

THE RISE AND RISE OF THE DARING BAKERS.

After missing the last two Daring Bakers challenges I completed this one with two whole days to spare (a first for me I think) and once more all eleventy squillion of us are rising to the challenge with bread. Mary and Sara chose Julia Childs French bread to be a little more precise. Julia Child has not had such a deep impact on this side of the Atlantic, as we have Darina  and the UK has Delia, but in the States she introduced a whole generation to the art of French Cookery. I only seem to bake bread when being bossed around by my fellow DBers but I confess I really enjoyed this challenge.

Bread is one of the great levellers. Since the most ancient times humans have broken bread together and almost all cultures have there own signature loaf (any number of flat breads, ciabattas, pumpernickels, soda breads, baguettes...). I say fie to dietician type people who think that bread has no nutritional value, I'll happily eat it with nothing but several inches of butter but some mature cheddar, crisp little gems and home-made Bramley apple and sage chutney might make it a little more well rounded. There are the Ladas of bread vehicles and then there are the classic Jaguars. I know which one sends shivers up and down my spine.

There's no getting around the fact that this recipe takes all day. Most of this time is spent thinking of jobs not to do while waiting for the dough to rise. The secret of this recipe is patience as those bubbles need to take their sweet time forming. It's worth every yeasty minute though when you end up with a chewy-crusted, soft doughed loaf with that slightly sour note that will see you turning up your nose at supermarket bread forevermore. It's an addictive thing working with yeast, when it works you're ecstatic, when it doesn't, heartbroken but hopefully willing to try again.

You'll have to go to Mary to get the recipe but be careful not to let the bread bugs bite.

MUCH ADO ABOUT MUFFINS X: NUTCRACKER SWEET.

Can't talk. Eating.

Adapted from How to be a Domestic Goddess.

SNICKERS AND PEANUT-BUTTER MUFFINS

• 250g plain flour
• 85g caster sugar
• 1 1/2 tbls baking powder
• pinch of salt
• few drops of vanilla extract
• 160g crunchy peanut butter
• 60g unsalted butter, melted
• 1 large egg, beaten
• 175ml milk
• 5 x 65g Snickers (4 for the recipe, 1 for you)
• handful of honey roasted peanuts, optional

1. Preheat the oven to 200 C. Line a 12 hole muffin tin with paper cases or with squares of parchment paper.
2. Sift together the flour, sugar, baking powder and salt. Add the peanut butter and mix until you have a bowl of coarse crumbs. Add the melted butter, vanilla extract and egg to the milk and beat lightly to combine. Stir the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients with a fork adding 3 of the chopped Snickers bars with the last few strokes. Divide between the muffin cases and sprinkle the remaining Snickers bar over the tops of the batter with the honey roasted peanuts if using.
3. Bake for 20-25 minutes until risen and golden. Sit in the tin on a wire rack for 5-10 minutes the transfer to the wire rack to cool(ish).

Makes 12 muffins but if you think I'm sharing you are sadly mistaken.

Something good can always be made a little better.

From Nigella Express.

CHOCOLATE AND PEANUT-BUTTER SAUCE

• 175ml cream
• 100g milk chocolate
• 100g smooth peanut butter
• 3 tbls golden syrup

1. Put everything in a microwaveable bowl and zap for 20 seconds at a time until everything is almost melted then stir until you have a smooth sauce.

WHEN ONLY CHOCOLATE CAKE WILL DO.

Those of you of a chocolate persuasion may have noticed that there is a new "When Only Chocolate Cake Will Do" category over on the right somewhere. In my world there are very few situations that can't be conquered with a slice of chocolate cake (unholy stomach bugs excepted) and now that I've brushed away the last of those cobwebs and flung back the curtains I can see quite a few things that have been neglected and left to get rather dusty. So lets see how far this cake can go.

It's original incarnation was as Val's birthday cake, chocolate and orange as requested, and it performed it's duty with the utmost chocolatey professionalism. Adult rich, studded with toasted almonds and candied orange zest, even I would preach self-restraint when it comes to serving this one. Over a pound of chocolate in an 8 inch cake is not to be taken lightly so use the very best you can find even if it means beans on toast for the rest of the week. It happens to be gluten free but that just means there will be even more people who can share the chocolate love.

Next up was my first blog birthday but that ship sailed about two weeks ago, I marked the occasion myself by finishing off the slice immortalised above.

A virtual slice is offered to all of you who succumbed to lemon flavoured bribery and kindly nominated Eat Drink Live in the Irish Blog Awards, being held on March 1st in Dublin's Alexander Hotel. The short lists are out and I made it onto the Best Food and Drink Blog and Best Blog, so thank you muchly for my night out, though I will be playing Cinderella on the night and hauling my pumpkin rear back to Limerick at midnight. March 2nd is Mothers Day and the mums of Limerick must not be denied their well earned buns.

Lastly but not leastly, I suppose I should acknowledge the day that's in it. I've made my anti-Cupid stance known before but seeing as I gave in to the dollar signs flashing before my eyes and went out the door with 5 dozen love-heart topped cupcakes this morning, it would be mercenary of me not to wish you all a happy chocolate-coated Valentines Day.

Adapted from an old issue of Vogue Entertaining and Travel.

CHOCOLATE AND ORANGE CAKE

• 3 oranges, rind thinly peeled into wide strips (a vegetable peeler works well)
• 260g caster sugar, plus a few tablespoons extra to coat
• 300g dark chocolate (70% cocoa solids), chopped
• 50g flaked almonds, toasted and roughly chopped
• 190g unsalted butter, softened
• 4 eggs
• 225g ground almonds
• 2 tsps baking powder
• 1/2 tsp salt

For Ganache:

• 200g dark chocolate (70% cocoa solids)
• 60ml double cream

1. Place the orange rind in a small saucepan, cover with water and bring to the boil. Drain then repeat the process twice. Return rind to the pan, add 110g of the caster sugar (leaving 150g for later) and 125ml of water. Bring to the boil over a medium heat, then simmer for 15 minutes or until syrup is thick and rind translucent. Drain and reserve syrup. Cool rind. Toss in extra few tablespoons of sugar and chop coarsely.
2. Preheat the oven to 180 C and grease and line the base of an 8 inch/20cm cake deep cake tin with greaseproof paper. Place the dark chocolate in a bowl and pour over 150ml boiling water. Whisk until combined and set aside to cool slightly.
3. Beat the remaining 150g of the unsalted butter (the extra 40g is for the ganache), the 1/2 tsp salt and the remaining 150g caster sugar together with an electric mixer until light and fluffy. Add the eggs one at a time beating well after each one. The mixture will look quite curded but don't worry it all comes together when you add the remaining ingredients. Next beat in the chocolate mixture. Sift over the ground almonds and baking powder, add flaked almonds and orange rind and stir in with a spatula to combine. Spoon into the prepared tin and bake on the bottom shelf of the oven for 50-55 minutes or until a cake tester comes out almost clean. If the cake is colouring too much cover it with tin foil halfway through the cooking time. Stand the cake in it's tin for 10 minutes, then turn out onto a wire rack to cool completely.
4. To make the ganache: Stir the chocolate, cream and remaining 40g of butter ina bowl set over a pan of simmering water until melted. Leave to cool for a while until it thickens slightly the spread over the cooled cake swirling with a flat-blade spatula as you go. Add some of the reserved syrup to some whipping cream and beat until soft peaks form. Serve with the cake.

Serves 6-8.

GRANNIES 'R' US.

 

I'm popping in to brush away the cobwebs and plead the unholiest of stomach bugs as one of many reasons why I have been neglecting things around here. Seeing as even chocolate cannot tempt me today I'm going to point you in the far more delectable direction of the launch of a new site Our Grannies Recipes, which you won't need a Hazmet suit to enter.

The brainchild of Mercier Press (who are bringing The Ice Cream Ireland Book to a store near you in April), they came up with the idea for this site as a means of gathering together favourite Irish recipes that have been handed down through generations. The recipes contributed will be compiled into a book (to be published in October this year) with the royalties going to the more than worthy Age Action Ireland.

The beauty of this idea is that we can all get involved by submitting recipes, voting for the final cover and discussing the whole process, hopefully bringing forgotten memories flooding back. Eoin has gotten the ball rolling with an appropriate pancake recipe so head over and take a look round and see if you would like to make your own mark on this collection of recipes.

I'm lucky enough to still have my paternal granny, who I'm sure will be willing to part with her potato cake recipe, but I'll have to go visit and watch because I don't think there has ever been a weighing scales in her house!