We Should Cocoa Round Up - Eggs !

Wow, 27 enteries for this month's We Should Cocoa, thanks to everyone who took the time to link up to this month challenge. Our theme was EGGS, in all there forms, including chocolate eggs, which alot of our participants used in creating their delicious entries.

                                   

Hopefully the theme I chose worked well for you all, eggs are such a versatile ingredient in all there forms, I am always amazed at the level of creativity from my fellow food bloggers and once again they didn't disappoint, I want to eat them all......

                                                           

Next months linky is being hosted by none other than Helen at Casa Costello, so go join in the fun and find out what theme she has in store for you all.

So onto our round up, just be prepared for the sugar rush !

                                                         

       

                                                                 

First up we have a Creme Egg loaf cake from Kerry Cooks a delicious decadent bake featuring the seasonal creme egg.

Next, non other than yours truly - Lancashire Food with a Marbled banana and chocolate hazelnut loaf cake decorated with crispy chocolate eggs, it has the added bonus of being gluten free.

                                                      

                                                       

Another creme egg recipe - Easy Peasy 5 ingredient creme egg chocolate tart from Easy Peasy Foodie

A very moreish Mini Chocolate  and orange marble bundt cakes from Dom over at Belleau Kitchen.

                                                

                                                               

Next up we pop across to The Gluten Free Alchemist for some scrummy Gluten Free Choc Cross Buns

A fun cute Banana Choc chip cake hiding as a Minion Cake from Green Gourmet Giraffe was our next link up.

                                                                

                                               

An amazing Illusion Cake was linked up by Only Crumbs Remain, so clever. Hiding underneath is a Raspberry and white chocolate cake.

This cute no bake Creme Egg and Malteser Chocolate Tiffin Bundt cake is from Karen over at Lavender and Lovage.

                                                        

                                                     

Creme Eggs also feature in our next two recipes , Gluten Free Alchemist is back with a decadent Easter Creme Egg Mousse Cake. We also have Creme Egg Double Chocolate Muffins from Plate to Pen.

                              

Next up is We Should Cocoa co founder - Choclette with some very tasty treats of Spiced Rum Easter Chocolate Cakes 

                                                              

                                                

Clever Janice at Farmers Girl Kitchen has managed to create a Hot Cross Bun Mug Cake which can be whipped up in a flash. I am a great fan of mug cakes.

Over at Jo's Kitchen we have a Easter Galaxy Golden Egg Pinata cake, a perfect easter treat if I ever saw one.

                                                                     

                                           

Baking Queen - Lucy got creative and created with Cadbury Creme Egg Chocolate Cookie Bars

Mainly Baking - came up with the inspired idea of marrying hot coss buns and chocolate custard to make the ultimate bread and butter pudding dish - Chocolate Hot Cross Bun and Butter Pudding

                                                                 

                                                

Kat at the Baking Explorer linked up with these cute Chocolate Meringue Easter Nests, which I am sure would be popular at any Easter get together.

A Chocolate Easter Cake hopped up next from The More Than The Occasional Baker, so cute. Love the Chocolate Ducky on top.

                                        

I loved Frys Chocolate Creme's as a child and Cakeyboi has stuffed his brownies full of them, for this decadent treat of Frys Chocolate Creme stuffed  Fudgy Brownies. Save me a piece please !

Mummy Mishaps created this delightful cake - Malteser Malteaster Bunny and mini egg cake for a friend (I want to be your friend), I just love the combination of the dinky bunnies and eggs used to decorate the cake. 

                                                 

                                                         

Some very Spring celebrating cupcakes were linked up by Charlotte's Lively Kitchen - Easter Nest Cupcakes , perfect for parties.

Another cupcake up next, but probably are healthiest bake of this round up from Elizabeth's Kitchen Diary in Shetland, her Slightly More Healthy Easter Cupcakes use raw cacao.

                                                                

                                              

Bake n Quilt, cooked up some lovely looking Chocolate Orange Curd.

Caroline's Makes made some cute seasonal Chocolate Easter Cupcakes

                                                                   

                                                

Easter chicks, everywhere ! How to Cook Good Food presented us with some Easter Caramel Meringues, here chocolate being the mini eggs and eggs being the star ingredient.

More chicks, this time as actual cakes clever Caroline at Caroline Makes used a special cupcake kit from Lakeland to create these Easter chick Cupcakes.

                                        

                                        

And lastly two brownies receipes both featuring chocolate eggs, we have Broken Easter Egg Brownies from Dom at Belleau Kitchen and Food Feasting and Fun with their Chocolate Mini Egg Brownies.

Phew, think I need something savoury now....

Thanks to everyone who linked up and with such fabulous recipes, remember next month is over at Casa Costello.

Also why not check back to Tin and Thyme for loads more "We Should Cocoa" inspiration.

Easter Treat - Marbled banana and chocolate hazelnut loaf, gluten free too !

We are hosting We should cocoa this month, so we just had to join in the fun. This month's theme is eggs and this recipe using eggs in two formats, the traditional hens type and liberal quantities of Crispy chocolate eggs. I am really happy as well as this post gave me the opportunity to utilise this beautiful Emma Bridgewater plate in the photography, which appropriately enough features both feathers and eggs in its design, I just love it....

The bake is a perfect Mothers Day or Easter treat and is a lovely easy recipe even though its gluten free, better the day after baking so the banana flavour is more prominent. Loosely based on a Good Housekeeping recipe but made gluten free.

Eggs are a celebration of Spring and new life so have a go and bake yourself a celebration of the new season.

You will need

• 50ml Sunflower oil
• 3 medium eggs - free range - beaten
• 200g caster sugar
• 3 ripe bananas -mashed
• 225g plain Greek yogurt
• 300g plain flour - gluten free
• 1tsp bicarb
• 1 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp xanthum gum *
• 150g chocolate hazelnut spread (check gluten free, most are)

To make topping

• 2tbsp chocolate hazelnut spread
• 1tbsp milk - skimmed
• 1 - 2  bags of chocolate crispy eggs - smashed (check gluten free)

2 * 2lb loaf tins - lined

What you do

• Pre heat oven to 160c
• Line your loaf tins - I use the prepared liners from the £ shop, but greaseproof paper will work fine too.
• Whisk the oil, eggs and sugar in a stand mixer bowl until pale, light and fluffy
• Add the banana, yogurt and flour, bicarb and baking powder and quickly mix, until you have an incorporated batter.
• Divide the mixture into two, into one half mix in the chocolate hazelnut spread
• Dollop (great word) blobs of each mixture into the prepared tins and then swirl with a knife to create the marbling.
• Place in the oven and bake for approximately 1 hour and 10 - 20 minutes, until you cakes are well risen and test cooked with a skewer.
• Cool in the tins on a wire rack
• To decorate when cool, mix the chocolate hazelnut spread with the milk and drizzle on to the top of your loaves, sprinkle with the smashed crispy chocolate eggs.
• Serve in decadent slices, store in the fridge covered with foil for a couple of days if it lasts that long.

We are also linking up to Dom over at Belleau Kitchen for Simply Eggcellent

                                                         
To Caroles Chatter - Food on Friday - Easter Foods

                                                           


Bake of the Week - Over at Casa Costello and new co host Maison Cupcake


                                                           

We should Cocoa - March 2016 - Eggs ! all types

Eggs that most versatile of Ingredients are this months theme for We Should Cocoa, it doesn't matter whether its hens eggs, duck eggs, goose eggs or even chocolate eggs (well its nearly easter and Ostara after all !).

I am  so excited to be hosting my favourite blogging challenge this month, its status in food blogging circles is legendary, created by Choclette of Tin and Thyme fame and Chele of Chocolate Teapot, We Should Cocoa has been running for over 5 years, You can use any sort of chocolate or cocoa substance and use any ingredient that you like. But you must include the special ingredient or theme selected by the host, so in this month's case EGGS. It can be sweet or savoury, simple or complicated and you can be as creative as you like. You can use anyone’s recipe (acknowledging the source of course) or make up your own.

                                                            


Last months theme was BUTTER hosted by Choclette herself and the round up can be found here

To join in the fun

• Post your recipe on your blog – accompanying photographs would be nice. Do please make sure you have permission to use any photos that are not your own.
• Mention “We Should Cocoa” in your post and link back to Tin and Thyme and the host blog, so for this month thats me - Lancashire Food.
• Only one entry per challenge please and it must be posted in the relevant month.
• Entry is usually via linky.Please find below
• Entries should be submitted no later than midnight of the 25th March 2016 for this month.
• The round up of entries will be posted on the relevant host’s blog on or before the last day of the month.
• The new challenge will be posted on the 1st of the month on Tin and Thyme.
• Please use the #weshouldcocoa hashtag on Twitter and Choclette and myself will endeavour to retweet.
• Feel free to add your entry to the We Should Cocoa group board on Pinterest. If you are not already a member and would like to join, please ask Choclette for access.
• By linking up you are giving consent for your image to be included in the monthly round up as well as possibly being shared on social media channels such as Twitter and Pinterest.

Given that the theme links eggcellently (sorry !) with Simply Eggcellent over with Dom at Belleau Kitchen you might want to pop over and join his linky too. 

                                                            

Please find the linky below

   

    An InLinkz Link-up
   

Smoked ham, leek and goats cheese impossible pie

Impossible pie, what a fascinating title.....

Impossible pies come in two forms, sweet and savoury. The former is essentially a baked custard style dish, the latter a form of a crust less quiche. The impossible bit being (I think) the fact that other than whisking the milk and eggs together you basically throw everything in to the dish and bake and it does look rather impossible at first.

The resultant pie was very tasty and great for a light meal when served with a green salad, its also a useful recipe for using up a few eggs when you have a glut from your hens like we have currently. The additions are infinitely variable I used leeks as we had some in the garden and the ham as it was in the fridge, but I am thinking of making a fully vegetarian version probably using pre cooked broccoli or asparagus and adding a little seasonal wild garlic or sorrel next time.

Serve warm or cold, its also the ideal pack up and go snack for a picnic or lunch box, a definite keeper in my opinion. I now need to try the sweet version.

I recently received a lovely hamper of goats milk goodies from St Helen's Farm so took the opportunity to use both goats milk and goats cheese in this recipe.

What you need

• Extra virgin rapeseed oil (1 tbsp or so)
• Couple of leeks - cleaned and sliced thinly
• Garlic - crushed or wild garlic if in season
• Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
• 3 eggs
• 70g Self raising flour (it works fine with gluten free)
• 300 ml semi skimmed milk (I used Goats as that what I had to hand)
• 1 pack of smoked ham - chopped into small pieces
• Approx 80g mature goats cheese -grated

I used a lightly oiled Pyrex flan dish to bake the "pie" in.

What you do

• Pre heat your oven to 200c 
• In a frying pan cook the leeks and garlic until softened and just every so slightly colouring
• Remove from heat and place in baking dish along with ham and the grated cheese, season with a little sea salt and pepper
• Whisk the eggs, flour and milk to make a thin batter
• Pour this over the leeks, cheese and ham
• Loosely cover with foil and bake for 30 minutes
• After 30 minutes, remove the foil and bake for a further 30 minutes until the pie is firm and golden.
• Remove from oven and allow to cool for 10 minutes or so, before serving in slices 
• Refrigerate if you wish to serve cold.

Quick hollandaise sauce

Hollandaise sauce is a great recipe to have in your arsenal, this versatile sauce is often thought to be difficult to make but if you have a food processor to whisk it up in you shouldn't have any issues with your sauce splitting or your sauce failing to thicken.

The origins of Hollandaise is a debated hotly and is claimed by both Holland and France, well whatever I say. All I know that this is a great accompaniment to fish (particularly salmon and as pictured), asparagus (as pictured), eggs benedict and the basis of other great sauces such as bearnasie.

The sauce in the photograph is a foaming hollandaise, where the whisked egg whites are folded back into the sauce, this is a surefire way of ensuring you sauce doesn't split, especially if you need to re heat it.

Oh and just in case you were wondering that lovely local asparagus too and some garlic and rosemary potatoes.

What you need

• 2 eggs - seperated
• 1 tsp lemon juice
• 1 dessert spoon of white wine vinegar
• Rough 3 oz of butter
• Salt and pepper

What you do

• Place the egg yolks in the bowl of your food processor (my magimix has a dinky little bowl which fits inside the large bowl, that is the perfect size)
• In a small bowl, I microwave the lemon juice and vinegar for 30 seconds, until warm. Add this to the egg, whizz in for a few seconds
• In the same bowl melt the butter, and slowly with the processor whizzing drizzle in the butter, until you have a thicken emulsion. Don't hurry this step take your time, all of a sudden you will have a lovely glossy sauce.
• Add salt and pepper to taste.
• If you want to make foaming hollandiase, whisk up in a bowl the egg white until at the soft peak stage and fold into your golden sauce.
• Serve warm or cold with fish, asparagus or over egg benedict.

Back of the fridge frittata

This recipe came about by combination of wanting to use a few bits and bats that were hanging around in the fridge and the ongoing battle of egg mountain (i.e a recipe that uses plenty of eggs), so using a Spanish omelette as the basis the back of the fridge frittata was born.

Its a versatile forgiving recipe that can use a variety of ingredients and is frugal and filling, its also great to serve cold with salad in a lunchbox (As I have done on several occasions) or as tapas cut into bite size squares with olives with a glass of wine or beer.

What You need

• Onion - large finely chopped
• 1 tin of potatoes - drained (or quantity of cold leftover cooked potatoes) - sliced about the thickness of a £1 coin
• Salami or chorizo (if using)
• Red pepper / green peppers (could be out of a jar)
• Mushrooms (optional)
• Salt and pepper
• 6 eggs - whisked
• Olive oil

Large frying pan and pre heated grill (broiler for our US friends)

What you do

• Heat some olive oil in the frying pan over a medium heat
• Add the onions and cook gently until softened and add the chorizo
• Cook the peppers and mushrooms (if uncooked) in the same pan
• Now add the sliced potatoes, move around in the pan ensuring nothing is sticking
• Season with salt and pepper
• Pour over the eggs and cook until set around the sides
• Place under the pre heated grill until golden and bubbling
• Serve in generous wedges
• Or allow to cool and pack in the fridge for a quick snack or easy lunch dish.

Here it is served with a freshly picked salad from the garden, the salad contains rocket, spinach and mizuna. If you wanted to make this vegetarian just omit the chorizo and of course this is naturally gluten free. Courgette, aubergine or artichoke would also make tasty additions to the dish.

Amaretto chocolate torte - Gluten Free

Chocolate cakes are always popular regardless of the time of year and this is a recipe I have been using for quite a while even before I went gluten free, the resultant cake or should I say torte is not a natural beauty but it is light, moist and very chocolately. The addition of amaretto and almond essence make this an adult treat and a cake that can both happily be served with a cup of tea or cream for a dinner party.

Whipped up in a flash this is an easy reliable recipe, which despite having a fragile top (as you can see from the photographs) is happy to sit in a cake for a few days whilst its devoured. Its also currently a favourite as it uses a good quantity of eggs and the battle of the egg mountain continues, 3 hens equals 3 eggs a day most days and as we are a 2 person household that's a lot of eggs. We do give to friends but most of our neighbours keep hens too so the market is limited locally.

What you need

• 200g salted butter - chopped into chunks
• 200g dark chocolate - broken into pieces
• 4 eggs - large and free range
• 200g caster sugar
• 50g plain flour (Gluten free)
• 50g ground almonds
• 1 tbsp amaretto
• 1 tsp almond extract

Greased and base lined round cake tin, loose bottomed or springform is best about 22cm diameter

What you do 

• Melt the butter and chocolate in a pan over a very low heat, keep stirring so it melts and is smooth. Allow to cool slightly.
• Whisk the eggs and sugar in a mixer until light frothy and the consistency of custard. This will take about 5 minutes.
• Add the chocolate and butter mix to the egg and sugar mixture and also the flour and almonds, fold in with a large metal spoon retaining as much air as possible.
• Once full mixed pour into your prepared cake tin and bake for 35 minutes until risen slightly and set in the middle. This is more of a torte than a cake.
• Remove from oven and allow to cool in the tin

This recipe is being linked to We should Cocoa created by Choclette and hosted this month over on Utterly Scrummy food, the theme this month is Gluten Free, so this cake qualifies.

                                                      

And I am also linking up to  Baking with Spirit , created by Cake of the Week and hosted this month over at The usual saucepans , the theme being a re-invented classic. This chocolate torte is a recipe I have had for a while but I have added the twist of amaretto and almond extract to give it an adult twist, its also gluten free too which is always a bonus.

                                                                 

And my final linky is to Alphabakes, with the letter D this month, so I am using Dark Chocolate as my entry into this challenge hosted by Caroline Bakes and More than the occasional baker.

                                                       

I am also linking up to Bake of the Week over at my fellow cakeclubbing WI member blogging chum Casa Costello