happy birthday emily

we had a lovely birthday tea with emily, lola and chris - bump just starting to make an appearance!

i remember one birthday of emily's (25th??) when we were both desperately tempering chocolate at limerick food kitchens late into the hot, pre-air conditioned, july night. We were making truffles ready to set off at dawn the next day to a busy farmers market in dingle.

i often forget the sheer exhaustion of those crazy, early days of starting your own business. i have distilled the dingle days into a few perfect moments: racing down to the sea for a bracing swim before setting off home; having hot port with paulina in a cosy bar after enduring hours of rain; chatting as we all set up stalls in the early morning sun; eating smoked fish and still warm bread for breakfast and swapping star anise truffles for local goats cheese. 4am starts? i'm almost tempted...

back to emily's far more relaxed birthday 2009 and the all important cake! i wanted to try the celebrity masterchef penultimate episode chocolate cake: the one wendy made for the french chefs but i failed to find the recipe on the internet. i then realised i had no self raising flour and it was way too late to go out for some (with aidan out, it would mean waking up all three girls and loading them into the car)

thankfully, i remembered a green and black's recipe that uses plain flour and lots of eggs. perfect. i adapted it slightly, replacing double cream with greek yoghurt and fresh raspberries with frozen raspberries - purely through necessity as i was lacking the original ingredients. it worked fine and i managed to get double cream and fresh raspberries in the morning, for the icing and as decoration.

chocolate raspberry torte recipe

25g plain flour

5 teaspoons cocoa powder

75g dark chocolate

25g unsalted butter

5 teaspoons greek yoghurt or double cream

4 egg whites

3 egg yolks

3 tablespoons caster sugar

250g fresh or frozen raspberries

125ml whipping or double cream to serve

icing

100g dark chocolate

50g unsalted butter

3 tablespoons double cream

1 teaspoon icing sugar

method

butter and line with greaseproof an 18-20cm, 6cm deep cake tin. pre-heat oven to 140c/275f/gas mark 1

sift the flour and cocoa. set aside.

melt the chocolate slowly in a bowl above warm water. removefrom heat, add butter and yoghurt/cream and stir well.

whisk egg whites until stiff peaks, add sugar and whisk again until thick and glossy. in another bowl, beat egg yolks and gently fold the cocoa and flour into the yolks. add the melted chocolate and stir well. spon a few dollops of egg white into this mixture and stir. gently fold in the remainder of the egg whites.

pour half the mixture into the cake tin, sprinkle over the raspberries and then cover with other half of mixture.

bake for 35-40 mins until a skewer comes out clean. cool in the tin for 5 minutes and then take out onto a wire rack.

for the icing, melt the chocolate as before. remove from heat and stir in the butter, cream and icing sugar. pour it all over the cake, top with fresh raspberries and leave for an hour to harden. (don't put it in the fridge at this stage or the icing wil lose it's shine!)

serve with whipped cream.

enjoy the rest of your birthday emily!

temper temper

this was the method me and sarah used when we first started making chocolates at limerick market in 2002. a useful method if you are wanting to temper small quantities of chocolate at home. this is the easiest way we have found for tempering chocolate for decorations and chocolate treats at home without using machines or marble slabs.
1. melt the chocolate
very slowly melt the chocolate in a large bowl over a pan of barely simmering water. this is called the bain marie method. make sure the bowl fits tightly to stop any steam from the pan escaping and condensing into the chocolate. it is also important that the bowl doesn’t touch the hot water as this will cause the chocolate to melt to a too higher temperature. it is best to use little chocolate chips as they melt quickly and evenly. stir to ensure the chocolate melts evenly. if you insist on using a thermometer make sure the temperature doesn’t exceed 45˚c.
2. cool the chocolate
as soon as the chocolate is entirely melted remove it from the pan of water and stir well. add in to the chocolate approximately 1/4 of the weight of the original chocolate in fresh unmelted chocolate chips and stir them in. the aim is for all these chocolate chips to melt into the warm melted chocolate. it is very important that these fresh chocolate chips are tempered so make sure they are an even colour and don’t have a grey bloom on them. you want the tempertature to go below 32˚c but cooler than 28˚c and you’ll begin to find it becoming to thick to work with.
3. checking your temper
stir the mixture is tempered by thinly spreading a little of the chocolate on to a sheet of greaseproof paper and popping it into the fridge for a couple of minutes. the chocolate should set to a glossy shine and crack cleanly as you break it. if it doesn’t stir in a few more chocolate chips and test again.
4. keeping your temper
work quickly as the chocolate will set fairly fast once it is tempered. to keep it workable you can dip the bowl briefly into a larger bowl of very hot water and stir well. once again make sure the water doesn’t come into contact with the chocolate. if the chocolate sets entirely you can remelt it and start the process again.

uses

this is a great method for tempering chocolate for dipping homemade truffles or sarah’s fresh market fudge to give them a crisp, brittle chocolate coating to contrast delightfully with the soft and yielding centre.
perfect for decorating cakes and cupcakes
great for making chocolate decorations
ideal for getting tempered chocolate for making homemade chocolate lollipops.

it is great method for small amounts but if you use larger quantities regularly and the method above has you losing your temper it may be worth investing in a small tempering machine. they are fairly pricey, about the same as a good ice cream maker. the small, but perfectly formed little machine from vantage house was a great investment and gave us many years of service.

farmers market favourites

cardamom, orange & ginger biscuit

this is a first in the series of cocoa bean recipes for fresh truffles and our own version of fudge. i will include all the favourites from our market days and the long lost experiments....

i made this on saturday morning and popped it in a kilner jar in the fridge. in the winter it will keep perfectly in a sealed jar on the kichen counter though it may disappear more quickly! if you have chilled it and want to appreciate the full flavour, allow to warm up a bit before eating. an alternative is to freeze it and eat like sophisticated cubes of icecream ( thanks for this suggestion has to go to theresa, the jam and chutney woman at limerick market.)

having fresh chocolates to eat over the weekend makes you very popular with family and friends and it's so easy!

ingredients

275g dark chocolate

100ml single cream or soya cream

orange zest

orange juice or oil of orange

6 cardamoms

5 ginger biscuits (homemade if you are brilliant but shop bought will do fine!)

method

line a small loaf tin with clingfilm

lightly toast the cardamom seeds over a low heat and then crush using mortar and pestle

melt the chocolate in a bowl over a pan/pot of warm water

gently warm the cream and stir into the melted chocolate

add the cardamom, orange zest and a few drops of juice or oil

add the roughly broken ginger biscuits and mix well

pour into the loaf tin

allow to cool and then cover and refrigerate for at least 3 hours

remove, cut into generous chunks and eat!

Once the basics are mastered, feel free to play around with quantities to make a softer or firmer chocolate, depending on the season and your tastes.