Chocolate & Caramel Muffins

I made these chocolate caramel muffins when I had some carnation caramel to use up, and they were amazing. Really soft and the taste of caramel combined with the chocolate was amazing!

Recipe

250 g self raising flour
100 g Fairtrade light brown soft sugar
40 g cocoa
1 tbsp baking powder
1 medium free-range egg, plus 1 extra yolk
150 ml British semi-skimmed milk
5 tbsp vegetable oil
1 tsp Madagascan vanilla extract
100g chocolate chips
1 x 397g tin Carnation caramel

Method

Preheat the oven to 190°C, fan 170°C, gas 5. Line a 12-hole muffin tin with paper cases.

Put the flour, sugar, cocoa and baking powder into a large mixing bowl and stir to combine.

In a separate bowl, mix together the egg, egg yolk, milk, oil and vanilla extract. Add the wet mixture to the dry ingredients and stir until just combined, without beating. Add the chocolate chips. 

Drop spoonfuls of the caramel into the mixture and gently swirl through, but don’t mix it in completely – you want to still see dollops of caramel in the finished batter.

Spoon the mixture into the paper cases, making sure each case is quite full. Drizzle the last of the caramel on the top of the muffins. Bake in the oven for 20 minutes until springy to the touch.

Enjoy!!

Liddie xxx

Caramel and White Chocolate Blondies

I bought a can of carnation caramel and so was searching the internet desperately trying to find some different caramel baking recipes. I then came across this by Jane's Patisserie, who has some absolutely amazing looking recipes. I had to try them, and they did not disappoint! The caramel and white chocolate together were amazing. I had never tried blondies before last year, but I think I like them better than proper brownies now!

Recipe

 125g butter, melted
230g light brown sugar
1 large egg
1 tsp vanilla bean extract
140g plain flour, sifted
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/8 tsp bicarbonate of soda
1/4 tsp salt
100g white chocolate chips
50g caramel (I use Carnation Caramel)

Method

1) Preheat the oven to 170C/350F and line a 8×8 square tin

2) Mix together the melted butter with the sugar and then add the egg and vanilla extract.

3) Mix in the flour, baking powder, bicarbonate of soda, and salt until fully combined.

4) Fold in the white chocolate chips, then pour into the baking tin. Drizzle the caramel on top of the Blondies and bake in the oven for 20-22 minutes.

5) Leave to cool fully in the tin then cut into squares.

Liddie xxx

Chocolate Éclairs

Sorry for the lack of posts recently, I am now a postgraduate student at university and so I currently don't have a lot of spare time! But I have still been baking whenever I get a chance and need to start adding the recipes to my blog so I don't forget them! A couple of months ago I made some chocolate eclairs that turned out really well. I used a recipe by Mary Berry. Not the best end result pictures due to my camera running out of batteries, but I can promise they were amazing!

Recipe

49g (1¾ oz) butter, cut into cubes, plus extra for greasing

75g (2½ oz) plain flour

2 large eggs, beaten

300ml (10fl oz) double or whipping cream

For the icing

100g (3½ oz) plain dark chocolate, broken/chopped

100ml (3½ fl oz) double cream

Method

Preheat the oven to 220C (fan 200C/425F/Gas 7). Grease a large baking tray. Put the butter in a  pan with 150ml water and heat until the butter melts. 

Bring to the boil, tip in the flour, then remove from the heat. Stir vigorously.

When a smooth paste develops, return the pan to the heat, stirring. The mixture will dry out a little and form a soft ball that comes away from the sides of the pan.

Remove the pan from the heat again, leave the mixture to cool slightly, then gradually add the eggs, beating really well between each addition until the mixture is smooth and glossy.

Spoon the mixture into a large piping bag fitted with a 1cm plain nozzle. Pipe the mixture onto the baking sheet into 7.5cm (3in) lengths, leaving room between each éclair for them to spread a bit.

Bake for 10 minutes, then reduce the heat to 190C (fan 170C/375F/Gas 5) and bake for a further 20 minutes. Split each éclair in half lengthways and transfer to a wire rack to cook completely.

Make the icing: Heat the cream in a pan until it just starts to boil. Pour this over the chocolate and let it sit without stirring for 5 minutes (to melt chocolate). Then stir and wait for it to combine with the cream. Let it sit until it is cool and thick enough to coat the éclairs without dripping off them.

Once the éclairs have cooled, whip the cream and spoon or pipe it into the bottom half of the éclairs. Dip the top half of each éclair in the icing, then place on top of the whipped cream.

Enjoy!

Liddie xxx