Rocky Road

This is one for the sweet tooths among you ! I first tasted this at my friend Maria's and was instantly addicted.

Here's a great recipe from Nigella Lawson taken from the BBC food website, another fave of mine.

Ingredients

• 125g/4½oz soft unsalted butter
• 300g/10½oz best-quality dark chocolate, broken into pieces
• 3 tbsp golden syrup
• 200g/7¼oz rich tea biscuits
• 100g/3½oz mini marshmallows
• 2 tsp icing sugar, to dust

Method

1. Heat the butter, chocolate and golden syrup in a heavy-based saucepan over a gentle heat. Remove from the heat, scoop out about 125ml/4½fl oz of the melted mixture and set aside in a bowl.
   
2. Place the biscuits into a plastic freezer bag and crush them with a rolling pin until some have turned to crumbs but there are still pieces of biscuit remaining.
   
3. Fold the biscuit pieces and crumbs into the melted chocolate mixture in the saucepan, then add the marshmallows.
   
4. Tip the mixture into a 24cm/9in square baking tin and smooth the top with a wet spatula.
   
5. Pour over the reserved 125ml/4½fl oz of the melted chocolate mixture and smooth the top with a wet spatula.
   
6. Refrigerate for about two hours or overnight.
   
7. To serve, cut into 24 fingers and dust with icing sugar.
   
   I recommend cutting it into smaller pieces as it is super luscious ! Also I melted the chocolate,syrup and butter in a bowl placed in a saucepan half-filled with hot water...It's easier to avoid overheating that way I find.
   

Avoca Brown Bread

Another one from Avoca ! Good ol brown bread...one of those things that's a bit different over here in Germany, so it's great to be able to bake it yourself :D I usually sprinkle some sesame and sunflower seeds on top to give it an extra crunch !


Ingredients:

• 200g white flour
• 300g coarse brown flour
• 3 handfuls bran
• 2 handfuls wheatgerm
• 2 heaped teaspoons baking powder
• 1 level teaspoon salt
• 1 dessertspoon treacle
• 600-900ml milk

Method:

1. Mix all the dry ingredients together in a large bowl.
2. Add the treacle and stir in enough of the milk (usually around 700-750ml is enough) to give a moist, but not sloppy, consistancy.
3. Transfer mixture to a well-oiled 900g loaf tin and bake in an oven preheated to 240 degrees C/ 475 F for 20 minutes until risen.
4. Reduce heat to 150 C/ 300F and bake for a further hour.
5. Run a knife around the tin and ease the bread out. If it sounds hollow when tapped it's cooked, if not return it to the oven for 10-15 minutes.

Avoca Banana Bread

One of my all time favourite recipes from the Avoca Café Cookbook...Banana Bread - perfect comfort food best accompanied by a big mug of coffee :)

Ingredients:
 8oz/225g plain flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 heaped teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
110g/4oz caster sugar
1 egg beaten
75ml/3 fl oz sunflower oil*
a few drops of vanilla extract or essence
65g/2.5 oz pecan nuts copped
4 medium-sized ripe bananas, mashed

Method:
1.Sift the flour, salt, baking powder and cinnamon into a bowl and stir in the sugar.

2 Mix in the egg, sunflower oil* and vanilla but do not beat.

3.Fold in the pecans and mashed bananas, using a fork. Again, do not beat.

4.Spoon into a lined 900g/2lb loaf tin and bake in an oven preheated to 180c/350f/gas mark 4 for 50-60 minutes, until the loaf is golden brown and springs back when prodded gently with your finger.

5. Leave in the tin for 10 mins, then turn onto a wire rack to cool.


*This is the original recipe but I prefer to use 3oz melted butter rather than oil.
If you like you can also sprinkle a few pecans on top and trickle over some maple or butterscotch syrup!
Sometimes it can be hard to find pecans, walnuts are a great substitute just not as sweet.


An amazing collection of alternatives to this banana bread recipe can be found over at Not Quite Nigella's blog....

Oatmeal Raisin Cookies

My favourite site for recipe hunting has to be All Recipes. It has a great feature where you can type in the ingredients you have lying around the house (just click INGREDIENTS at the top of the screen) and also list any ingredients you don't want in your recipe et voila...you are presented with a list of ideas :D I have an account on it so I can save recipes I like and upload my own. So basically you are creating your own personalised virtual cookbook, you can even archive your favourite recipes in folders eg - starters, main courses etc. I know I sound like an ad for the site, but it's great for cookery nerds i swear !

One recipe I found on this site was a simple recipe for Oatmeal Raisin Cookies. A batch of these does not last long around my apartment I tell ya ! You can of course make the basic dough and substitute chocolate chips or nuts or dried fruit instead of the raisins. I also tend to be overly generous with the cinnamon...The real trick with these guys is not leaving them in too long. I bake them at 180 celcius for 4 minutes then turn the tray around and leave them for another 4 minutes.

Here's the recipe from Darlene...

http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Oatmeal-Raisin-Cookies-I/Detail.aspx

Ingredients

• 3/4 cup butter, softened
• 3/4 cup white sugar
• 3/4 cup packed light brown sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 3/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 2 3/4 cups rolled oats
• 1 cup raisins

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C).
2. In large bowl, cream together butter, white sugar, and brown sugar until smooth. Beat in the eggs and vanilla until fluffy. Stir together flour, baking soda, cinnamon, and salt. Gradually beat into butter mixture. Stir in oats and raisins. Drop by teaspoonfuls onto ungreased cookie sheets.
3. Bake 8 to 10 minutes in the preheated oven, or until golden brown. Cool slightly, remove from sheet to wire rack. Cool completely.

Cailín sa chistin...arís !

First post...well...it's been 4 years since I've really blogged. This blog is about my culinary adventures ...Cailín sa chistin is simply the Irish for Girl In The Kitchen. Last year I boarded at the secondary school where I was teaching. We were spoilt rotten and had all our meals made for us...and as delicious as the food was I really missed cooking and baking...So, as soon as I moved into my new aparment here in Leipzig, Germany I set up camp in the kitchen. For the first month or so I wasn't working full time so I baked and cooked for friends and flatmates. Now that I'm teaching full time again it's become more of a weekend thing. Still I thought I'd share my collected recipes with you for the craic :D Some from family,friends,other websites and cookbooks. Bon appetit ! Róisín x