National Nutella Day

HAPPY NUTELLA DAY!

One of the best things to celebrate and use that as a excuse to eat copious amounts of it. Nutella an amazing chocolate spread that more and more people are creating recipes for. In light of national nutella day on Saturday, it was only right that I baked something using nutella. Nowadays there are loads of simple recipes using this tasty treat, so I'm going to share with you the one I used.

Nutella Cookies. So in the recipe you would usually split the mixture into the cookie sized portions and bake them into multiple cookies. Instead, we decided to make one giant cookie so that there was a gooey-er centre.

Here's what you'll need and the different timings:

1 cup plain flour

1 cup nutella

1 egg

Dash of milk

1. Preheat the oven to 180C. For cookies, line a baking tray with parchment paper, otherwise you'll need a small oven-proof dish.
2. Mix all the ingredients together, adding a dash of milk if needed.
3. Either spoon into the oven proof dish and bake for 20 minutes, or using two teaspoons, portion out cookies onto the baking tray and bake for 6-8 minutes.
4. Serve warm with whipped cream.

These simple cookies require very few ingredients and will take minutes to prepare. What more do you want? Nutella. Cookies. Simple.

Let me know any other recipes, nutella or otherwise, you would like to see.

Enjoy!

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Miles of Meringue

A dessert that is sure to go down a treat at any party is a meringue. They are sweet and tasty and can be tailored to fit with the season or occasion. The fruit you pair with the meringue allows for colour and decoration that'll look spectacular! 

Recently, at a Burn's Night party, a 'mile of meringue' was served. As I was helping with the catering (my friend's parents were the stars of that) I thought I would share what was created for the centre piece.

A meringue is simple to make, but can be hard to master. Here's a recipe for one:

4 egg whites

225g/8oz caster sugar

1. Preheat the oven to 120C. Line a baking tray with non-stick baking parchment.
2. Place the egg whites in a spotlessly clean bowl and whisk with an electric whisk until they form stiff peaks when the whisk is removed from the bowl. 
3. Continue whisking as you add the sugar, one teaspoonful at a time, until all the sugar is incorporated. The meringue will then become shiny and will hold stiff peaks when the whisk is lifted from the bowl.
4. Pipe or spoon onto the baking tray in the desired shape. 
5. Bake for 1½-2 hours, or until the meringue can be lifted easily off the paper without sticking. Turn off the oven, leave the door ajar and leave until the meringues are cold.

Give it a go, it might need a little practice to get it perfect.

For this dessert, the meringues were filled with a cream mixture, of half double cream and half plain greek yoghurt. The addition of the yoghurt gave a lighter and fresher taste. They were then topped off with fresh fruit; we used strawberries, blueberries and grapes, but you could use any fruit that you want to.

Enjoy!

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