Posts tagged as:

chocolate

The Breakfast Challenge – Chocolate Custard Cups

by Linda on August 26, 2011

This recipe is very similar to the 5 Minute Pressure Cooker Baked Custard featured in the Breakfast Cereal Challenge series back at the beginning of winter.  So it’s kinda nice to have the last of the winter recipes in the same vein.  A warm bowl of custard is the ultimate in comfort food, and with eggs, low fat milk, a small amount of sugar and anti-oxidant dark chocolate, it’s a healthy high protein low GI breakfast.

The recipe is super easy once you have sorted the right utensils to fit.  Besides a pressure cooker (which is one of my treasured kitchen tools) you need a ceramic bowl or cup per person, with a lid to fit.  I can fit 4 tea cups in my pressure cooker, with saucers from expresso coffee cups as lids  (The tea cup saucers won’t fit).

Ordinary tea cups are fine in my pressure cooker. If you are worried, you may need to do a test run with some cups or bowls that you won’t be upset to break.

The Recipe:

For a single serve.  Multiply by the number of cups you can fit in your pressure cooker.

Put the pressure cooker on with a cupful of water in it.

In a small saucepan, heat  2/3 cup milk (full cream or semi skim).

Break in one square of 70% dark chocolate and stir until it melts.

Meanwhile, blend together 1 egg and half to one teaspoon of treacle. It doesn’t need much sweetening – I like a scant half teaspoon, but if you are a sweet tooth you may like a little more.

With the blender going, add the chocolate milk.

There are two tricks to this.

  1. You need to blend before the egg starts to cook, so it needs to be quick.  I get the egg and treacle ready in the blending bowl while the milk is heating, pour in the milk, and blend.
  2. Ideally you want to create the least possible amount of froth so you have that silky texture right to the top.  I find with my stick blender, if I submerge the blender before I hit the trigger it does this nicely.

Pour the mix into your cups or bowls.  Cover with lids, and sit them in the little tray on top of the trivet in your pressure cooker.

Put the lid on, bring to pressure, turn down the heat so it is just burbling and cook for 5 minutes.  Then turn the heat off and let off the pressure slowly, ie, by releasing the pressure valve, not by running under cold water.

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Nina’s Classic Chocolate Slice

by Linda on November 1, 2010

Number 30 in the Muesli Bar Challenge series.  The rules:  fast and easy, healthy enough for school lunch boxes, robust enough to survive the trip, and approved by my school age reviewers.

This one is invented by my sister and first tested by my sweet toothed niece  and nephew,  Rosie and Oliver.

The Recipe:

For this recipe you need a shallow slice pan about 18 cm square, or 14cm by 25 cm rectangle. Grease it with butter and line with greaseproof paper.
Makes about 16 bars

Mix together

  • 1 cup of wholemeal self-raising flour
  • 2 dessertspoons of cornflour (corn starch to US readers)
  • 1 cup of sultanas

Add another cup of mixed bran, rolled oats, dessicated coconut, and/or crushed weetbix.  You can use any combination.

In a small saucepan, melt together:

  • 1/4 cup macadamia, rice bran, or other mild flavoured oil
  • 2 good dessertspoons (60 grams) of butter
  • 2 good dessertspoons of treacle
  • 2 good dessertspoons of raw sugar
  • 2 good dessertspoons of cocoa

As soon as the sugar is dissolved, take it off the heat and stir into the dry mix.
Press the mix into your slice pan, pressing down hard.  Bake for 20 minutes in a medium oven.
Cool, and then refridgerate.  They will become less crumbly when cold so wait till quite cold to slice up and remove from the pan.

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Mulberry Black Forest Cupcakes

by Linda on October 18, 2010

This is  number 28 in my Muesli Bar Challenge series. For those of you who are new to the site,  the Challenge is a school year’s worth of lunch box treats that fit the Witches Kitchen definition of healthy and ethical,  that are easy enough to be a real option, and that my school age reviewers prefer to the overpackaged junk food marketed as suitable for kids’ lunch boxes.

Mulberries are right in season up here, and like most foods with that deep colour, they’re full of antioxidants and phyto-nutrients.  They’re also rich in iron and a good range of vitamins and minerals.  Chocolate is also a good source of anti-oxidants and when it isn’t combined with fake fats and too much sugar, it’sactually good for you!

The Recipe:

Makes 12 cupcakes.

Put a good cup of fresh mulberries in a small pot with 4 dessertspoons of raw sugar.  Bring to the boil and simmer gently for about 10 minutes. You don’t want jam – you want slightly broken up mulberries in a small amount of syrupy juice.

Meanwhile, beat together:

  • 1½ cups of wholemeal self-raising flour
  • 3 dessertspoons of brown sugar
  • 4 dessertspoons of grape seed, macadamia or other mild flavoured oil
  • 4 dessertspoons of cocoa powder
  • 2 eggs
  • ½ teaspoon vanilla essence
  • pinch salt
  • ¼ cup plain low fat yoghurt

Gently fold the mulberries into the cake batter, mixing just enough to spread them through it with swirls of the juice. Spoon the mix into cupcake papers.  Bake in a moderate oven for around 25 minutes until they bounce back when pressed.  (The usual straw test is a bit unreliable with these because of the pockets of mulberry.)

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Chocolate Beetroot Birthday Cake with Boysenberry Cream

May 9, 2010

This isn’t really a “Witches Kitchen version of healthy” recipe.  But birthdays are exceptions.  I made a double mix for Johanna’s birthday and the extra cake went on to Odin’s birthday – Johanna’s 53rd and Odin’s 2nd – and both sets of party-goers wanted the recipe.  Proves kids do have taste!  This is the kind [...]

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Chocolate Beetroot Brownies

April 27, 2010

The kids are back at school after the holidays, so it is time to get back into lunch box baking. This is the ninth in my Muesli Bar Challenge series. For those of you who are new to the site, the Challenge is about my bet that it is possible to make lunch box treats [...]

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Banana and Tahini Biscuits

March 8, 2010

Bananas are in season, and although the turkeys are getting most of mine, I thought I would feature a banana based lunch box baking recipe. These are called “Long Live Elvis Biscuits”. They’re based on the Elvis-inspired taste sensation combination of bananas and peanut butter. But I’m going for a much longer-lived Elvis! Bananas are [...]

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