Hazelnut Chocolate Orange Scrolls

Did you know there is a world Nutella day? I’m serious, its day to celebrate Nutella and make things with Nutella

I first made these scrolls to celebrate World Nutella day. They were pretty tasty and I’ve been needing an excuse to make them again. The excuse came in the form of the Sweet Adventure Blog Hop – Nuts about Sweets.

But instead of using Nutella from the jar I wanted to make my own version of Nutella. I look at a variety of recipes for it, became horribly overwhelmed by the sheer number of different recipes, pondered what to do, then came up with the idea of making hazelnut butter then mixing it in some chocolate ganache and for a twist adding orange zest. I was worried it would be a disaster, but that worry was wasted as it was amazing.

chocolate, cream and hazelnuts just waiting to be  mixed together

Hazelnut butter just waiting to be mixed into…

Chocolate Ganache

Hazelnut, Orange Chocolate Ganache

1 cup toasted Hazlenuts, skins removed

125g dark chocolate

125g milk chocolate

1/3 cup cream

1/2 tsp orange zest

Place Hazelnuts in food processor, process until they get the consistency of peanut butter. It will take a few minutes so stick with it but it will happen.

Melt both types of chocolate together with eh cream over a low heat. It will look all shiny and yummy.

Add hazelnut butter and orange zest to chocolate cream mixture. Mix well. It will be a bit grainy on account of the hazelnut butter, but taste delicious.

I used a 1/2 quantity of the dough part of Annabel Langbein’s Sticky Buns. But instead of filling it with butter and cinnamon I used my hazelnut choc orange ganache. Rolled it up and cut inot 4cm sections. let them rise again baked at 220 degress c until lightly browned. So very very good.

Part of the Sweet Adventures Blog Hop, this month hosted by Dining With a Stud

All the other delicious nut creations can be found here

Sundays with Joy – Zucchini and Potato Pancakes

I work 2 1/2 days a week. This leaves me with 2 /12 days a week where I’m not at work and my kids are at school. Now some might think I use this non working kid free time to watch trashy tv and drink cocktails in between napping or lunching with friends. I can only wish. I spend these days doing housework, grocery shopping, running errands, attending any appointments, basically doing mundane everyday stuff.

I never really make and effort with lunch on these days, its usually something quick with what I have on hand and sometimes I skip it as I can’t be bothered making anything.

However lunch on one of these days was different. This week the Sundays with Joy Facebook group made Zucchini and Potato Pancakes.

It was essentially a case of mixing all these ingredients together.

I served them with bacon and sour cream, they were amazing.

The whole thing of taking the time to make something delicious for lunch, sitting down in peace and quiet and taking time to enjoy the meal made a refreshing change to lunch. It reminded me that it nice to make the item to do something nice for myself

I made a couple of small amendments to the recipe and used 1 spring onion instead of the onion and self raising flour instead of the flour & baking powder. I also served it with bacon (high recommended),

For the recipe you’ll need the Joy the Baker cookbook

To see how others tackled the pancakes visit the blog link up hosted by Bakeaholic Mama

Sundays with Joy – Chocolate Raspberry Fudge Pops

This week the Sundays with Joy Facebook group make Chocolate Raspberry pops.

It was a bit traumatic. Not because I have some super phobia of chocolate (god forbid) or raspberries or ice cream, Not even because I made ice cream in the middle of winter. But because I had to find my ice cream moulds.

I’ve had my ice cream moulds for a few years. They were given to me by my mother in law. I’ve used them to make a variety of ice cream/ice blocks but hadn’t used them for 18 months. This meant they had moved to the deep dark corners of the tupperware cupboard. The only things I can ever find in our tupperware cupboard are the most used items because these are the things that fall out of the cupboard when we open the door because they are the things shoved in cupboard while the door is slammed shut.

I methodically took things out of the cupboard whilst hunting for all the bits to the ice cream moulds, oh okay I randomly pulled things out the cupboard whilst possibly swearing and vowing to organise it one day (note that would not be the day that I had most of the contents of the tupperware cupboard on the floor, because that would be too easy and I relish the challenge and trauma of doing it all again).

In the end tupperware was scattered all over the place and I was missing one stick bit, but feeling scarred and emotional and slightly triumphant I was ready to go.

Its essentially a custard cooled with raspberries and chocolate chunks added, then frozen (note I used frozen raspberries because they are out of season but mainly that’s what I had on hand). They were delicious even more so after a couple of days. Totally will make again, but maybe in summer.

mmm sugar cornflour and cocoa powder

plus milk cream vanilla and butter

= chocolate custard

raspberrires & chocolate mixed in lead to Chocolate Raspberry Fudge Pops

I only made a half batch because I could tell by other posts that a full batch would be more than my small ice block moulds could handle. I also only mixed raspberries and chocolate chunks into 3 out of the eventual 5 made and left 2 plain for the kids.

They were absolutely perfect for dealing with the trauma of the tupperware cupboard (although gin/vodka/wine would have helped too).

For the delicious recipe you’ll need the Joy the Baker cookbook

And for more delicious versions of the Chocolate Raspberry Fudge Pops see the delightful blog link up at Bakeaholic Mama