I wanted an epic name for this Easter egg review, I think this fits. I debated about Game of Eggs - Easter is Coming and Lord of the Eggs - The Fellowship of the Egg, and Dan suggested Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Eggskaban, but in truth I'm so excited for Star Wars to come to DVD in May (SO EXCITED) there was only one real option. Why was an epic title needed? Because this is the battle of the Easter chocolate, an egg to egg if you will. I'd very generously been sent an Easter Egg from the chocolate Gods, Lindt,who I've collaborated with before to bring recipes like Blueberry Cheesecake Brownies and Dark Chocolate and Malbec No-churn Ice Cream into existence. And the lovely Bettys had also sent me a couple of Easter goodies to try.

When I found out Bettys was sending me some treats I was so excited, just to put that excitement in perspective it wasn't that dissimilar to my feelings about Star Wars: The Force Awakens coming out. This might sound a bit over the top, but let's take trip down memory lane to when I was 17 (yesterday...) and got my first actual paycheck working for a butchers as opposed to, you know, the dreaded cash in hand £3 an hour wage. What did I do with said first paycheck? I took my mum out for afternoon tea at Bettys Tea Room in York. It was perfect. Apart from you know my Swiss and Falkland Island roots, the dark side of my family is from Yorkshire. Last weekend my mum and her boyfriend came up to visit us and she bought up our trip to Bettys, it's nice that some days (ok several years) on we can still talk about how good their cornflower tea is. Having sampled some of Bettya chocolate they sent me, plans are definitely in the works for making a return visit!

So as the most spoilt girl this South side of London, let's crack on with this Egg comparison shall we (the puns run all the way through this post, I can only apologise for any emotional damage caused)?

It's Christmaaaaaaassssssssssss!

Merry Christmas Everybody, Slade

I don't want to alarm anyone but there are only 10 sleeps till Christmas. Everyone to your Christmas panic stations! Speaking of panic, I need some help. Particularly from anyone that has also had to buy presents for one of my brothers, I'd really appreciate that because when I ask my brothers what they want for Christmas the answer is always a pony (cute if you're 10 but they're fully grown men). 

Aside from buying my bros' presents, I've got it all sorted. Seriously I'm never normally this organised, I'm a leave it till the last possible second, then do it slightly late kind of lady. But I've had so much going on this December, I've had to plan ahead (who knew doing things early meant less stress?). Last Saturday my plans fell through which in a way was a bit of a blessing because it meant I actually got to sit down watch lots of Christmas movies (why is Love Actually and the Holiday not on Netflix/Amazon Prime/Sky Movies?!), make some mince pies and do some much needed Christmas wrapping. 

To make my day in extra Christmassy, the lovely Mai at Lindt sent me a big box full of the best chocolatey goodies we're talking bears, santas, bears, some cheeky elves, bears, reindeer and did I mention a heck load of bears. Honestly when I got the box I was like what am I going to do with all these bears, after eating half of them, I had an epiphany. Use the bears (and a couple of cheeky santas) as my present accessories, because it's all well and good giving a normal wrapped present, but at Christmas you kinda need to push the boat out and put an accessory on it. That means bows, candy canes, poster paint, glitter (my all important Christmas accessory, look at my new boots!!!) and chocolate bears (who doesn't love chocolate? In fact don't tell me, I don't want to know). Don't hold back, free flow your accessorising, hell put some prajazzles on there (aka present vajazzles).

Is there any baked good better than a brownie? I spent the whole weekend baking (watching films/gossiping/playing card games with my friend Alex) and I'd say a good 50% of the time I was thinking about brownies, the other 50% of me was thinking about Christmas and pine spiced candles (because I want the smell of pine but don't want to wait till we get a Christmas tree), and the rest of me was running on autopilot. Running on autopilot is scary, one moment you're commuting home on the train and the next second you're opening your front door, I mean how did I get there?! This happens to me a lot, especially when I switch it on when I'm walking to the shops and then the next thing you know I've got several bags of ice cream and tortilla chips. That's the more positive side of autopilot.

Anyway while I was running on autopilot baking something else Christmassy related, my mind kept jumping back to brownies. Fast forward two days later and I am still thinking about brownies, and seeing how I can't get them off my mind there's only one thing to do: embrace the brownies, and share my recipe for my PBJ (peanut butter jelly to those in the know) version with you. Lord knows I have enough Lindt chocolate to make a truckload of brownies (thanks Lindt!).

These brownies are super good. Picture a fudgy brownie, covered in sweet and creamy vanilla cheesecake, with some tangy fruity blueberries swirls and chunks of blueberry intense chocolate. Since creating these brownies, I've made a couple of other variations mostly focusing on triple chocolate (I'm a fiend!) but none have been as good as my original frankenbrownie, you need the tart sharp blueberries I tell you!

Luckily my sad Monday is about to get a lot better. We're talking Harry Potter 4 and a slice or two of these brownies. It's an instant mood lifter, unless you don't like Harry Potter and/or brownies, which is impossible. I can't admit someone doesn't like HP or brownies exists, I can only say if you don't think you like either of these things you haven't persevered enough. You need to really commit to both brownies and HP, to the point where you'd happily eat brownies all day and your wedding/birthday/funeral/general life is going to be Harry Potter themed. I've started asking Dan if we can have a HP wedding when we get married. It's a long way off (we're NOT engaged!) but you know I thought I'd start wearing down his defences now (currently it's a firm no).

Anyway let's move away from my ambitious and crazy wedding plans and move back to brownies. You've got to try them. Adding blueberries to your cheesecake brownies takes them from the passé to the so now. You're not sure what I'm talking about? Neither am I, I'm 3 brownies into a sugar coma. You can't trust anything I'm saying right now. I'm delirious, who talks about Harry Potter in a recipe for brownies. Naboo that's who (this is a terrible Mighty Boosh joke). I think I'm just going to make a quiet exit now. Saved by the recipe!   



I love ice cream. This could be a post about my favourite ice creams in London, I have a long list of them (my favourite being malbec and berries from Freggo, but it's a close call between that and the entire menu at Gelupo). However, it's not. This post is about the Ultimate Dark Chocolate and Malbec Ice Cream which I made with the Lindt super dark chocolate (not it's real name it's Lindt Excellence 90% dark chocolate) which I was sent by the lovely Sally. Sally is my new favourite person (sorry everyone) and it's not only because she works for Lindt (and I'm not so secretly holding out that she'll get me a job as a chocolate taster there), but her blog is full of sweet recipes and reviews, and she knows just what to say. Evident from when I was pondering on what to make with the enormous box of Lindt chocolate bars she sent me she said those precious three little words to me.
Chocolate Ice Cream.

As I said ice cream is my jam, my cake, my macaron. But sadly although I can make all the other things at home I've never been able to recreate ice cream. I've tried, I've made sorbets and granitas but everytime I've tried to make an ice cream it has never worked due to one crucial missing element. I don't have an ice cream maker. I feel like everyone under the sun has one bar me. To be fair there's not a lot of space in our flat's little kitchen to put one (or anything!) in there. But alas this year, 2015, is the year of the no churn ice cream. I saw Nigella Lawson make her coffee one and my first thoughts were that's so cool but I don't really like coffee (sorry folks it's true) and I was a bit unsure about condensed milk.

Condensed milk is an ingredient I'd never used before, that is before I made these pretty pink Raspberry Caramel Millionaires Shortbread. The shortbread were a triumph and I was converted to appreciating the powers of condensed milk but still in an ice cream? Ok I'm sure it's great in caramel ice cream or coffee but for other flavours I wasn't so sure. Queue an explosion of different condensed milk ice creams on the internet which showed me the light. With Lindt chocolate in hand, I had to make a chocolate ice cream, and inspired by the malbec and berries ice cream at Freggo I decided to do a twist on the old chocolate staple by adding in my favourite red wine. As we all know chocolate and red wine go together really well, whether you're drinking and eating them straight up on the sofa while watching Suits (my Friday night in a nutshell), or you know you're cooking them together in your beef bourginion, spaghetti bolognaise or chilli, it gives an added depth that speaks to your soul or at least mine.

It may look like I have arrogantly named this The 'Ultimate' Dark Chocolate and Malbec No Churn Ice Cream, and I have. But this title wasn't given by me but by my dinner party friends, particularly my foodie friend and brother to my lover (him and Dan are creepily close) Louie (talked about here, here and everywhere). Louie proclaimed this is the best chocolate ice cream he'd had and he would happily pay £5 for a scoop. He's certainly my rudest critic so I take this as high praise.

I know what you're thinking, why did I stupidly share the ice cream with my friends. Sometimes I have charitable moments, this was one of them (it won't happen again). I have since put the world to rights by eating this ice cream solo on the couch while watching Bake Off instead of going for a run. I personally think Mary Berry would encourage my actions as she's known to love a good bit of chocolate and a tipple, perhaps this should be renamed as The Mary Berry Approved Ultimate Dark Chocolate & Malbec No Churn Ice Cream but maybe I'm getting ideas above my station/Mary will sue me (she wouldn't, she wouldn't hurt a fly, she's an angel in icing). I'd also like to point out I don't sit on the sofa and eat food all the time; sometimes I lie down on it.

This ice cream is delicious. The wine really brings out the flavour of the dark chocolate and the texture which is quite similar to Gelato is almost moussey (new adjective alert). If you don't like red wine feel free to leave it out and just go for the dark chocolate alone. If you don't like dark chocolate you could take it out but that would be sacrilege and we don't condone that sort of behaviour here. It's a judgement free zone but don't take the mick.

The Ultimate Dark Chocolate & Malbec No Churn Ice Cream

(makes 750ml)

160g Dark Chocolate 90% cocoa solids (I used Lindt Excellence 90%)

300ml Double Cream

1/2 can Condensed Milk (~198ml) 

400ml of Malbec

Step 1. In a saucepan reduce the 400ml of Malbec on a medium heat until there's approximately 6-8 tbsps left, then set it aside to cool down.

Step 2. Break the dark chocolate up and melt it till it's runny and smooth. You can do this however you want, in a glass bowl over a saucepan of boiling water, in the microwave or do as I did and melt it on a low heat in a saucepan. Bear in mind if you choose to follow me in my chocolate melting activities you have to keep stirring it and watch it doesn't get too hot and start to burn. 

Step 3. In a large bowl, whisk together the double cream and condensed milk until you reach stiff peaks. Then fold in the chocolate and the reduced malbec until it's all mixed in. 

Step 4. Pour the mixture into a 500ml freezable container, you can buy disposable pots online, use a tupperware box or just pour it into a cake tin a la moi. Make sure you cover the ice cream with a lid or tightly wrap it in clingfilm, then put it in the freezer for 6 hours. 

Step 5. Before you serve the ice cream take it out of the freezer for about 15 minutes to loosen up. I served this to my friends as the dessert in fancy wine glasses, but then I also ate it on my own straight out of the tin after they left. The choice is yours there's no judgement in this post (unless you don't eat the ice cream, then there is judgement). 

God looking at this ice cream has got my mouth watering for more! I've made a couple new no churn flavours which I'll share shortly but if anyone has any of their own recipes for non churn ice cream please drop me a link to them below. Personally I'm all up for a peanut butter chocolate chip version which is probably going to be my next attempt. Or a pistachio one. Or strawberry. Too many flavours! If you live in London make sure to check out my fave ice cream places, I'd also love to hear your recommendations, so what's your favourite ice cream?

Thanks to Sally from The Cat Café who works for Lindt and the chocolate gurus themselves (Lindt, that's you!) for sending me a box of the finest dark chocolate around. All opinions are from yours truly!

Me and chocolate are a funny old pair. Most of the time, I go for the line I'm not 'really' a chocolate fan. What that really means is I normally don't eat chocolate. But then occasionally I go a bit mad on it, and eat a whole bar, plus a tub of chocolate ice cream, fancy box chocolates, a stream of hot chocolate, and then for good measure I'll chuck it in my mole sauce or Bolognese.

It also doesn't help that when I cook with chocolate one of two things will happen. Either it'll be the-best-thing-I've-ever-made like the time I made these chocolate leaves or it'll be like when I made chocolate fudge and told no-one, not even my live in man friend, Dan, it was that horrific. The shocking confessions of a food blogger, I make bad things sometimes. This super rich and majorly extravagant Dark Chocolate and Raspberry Caramel Millionaires Shortbread fell into the former category despite this being my first time making millionaires shortbread.