Cherry slice

Hello everyone, being such a warm day today I decided to pop over to Glace, an icecream shop in Leichhardt. I can buy their products locally, but thought it would be good to go to the actual shop and view all the possibilities. It certainly is an icecream lover's delight - you can buy single or double scoops to eat on the spot (yes, I indulged, a scoop of Belgian chocolate), tubs in all sorts of luscious flavours and a range of other interesting icecream treats, like the snowball, which is a ball of coconut flavoured icecream enrobed in a coat of chocolate and sprinkled with coconut!

This week's recipe is a sweet treat which caught my eye every time I saw it in my scrapbook of cut out recipes. It's exactly like cherry ripe and so easy to make - a nice treat. Do be very careful with the food colouring - I was a little careless and my cherry slice was very brightly coloured!

Have a happy week. Love from Jane xx

Cherry slice

What you need:

• 600g dark cooking chocolate, chopped
• 500g desiccated coconut (buy a good quality one, not the no name version, as you want a nice, moist coconut)
• 100g copha, melted
• 395g can condensed milk
• 150g glace cherries, very finely chopped
• A few drops of pink food colouring

What you do:

1. Prepare a 30cm x 20cm cake tin by lining with foil.
2. Melt half the chocolate and spread evenly over the foil lined tin.
3. Rest, covered, in the fridge, until set.
4. Place coconut, melted copha, condensed milk and cherries in a large bowl and stir together to mix. There will be a moment when you think there is far too much coconut and it will never combine, but it does.
5. Very carefully add a few drops of food colouring and stir through (do it drop by drop).
6. Spoon the coconut mixture over the chocolate base and use the back of a spoon to press evenly.
7. Refrigerate until set.
8. Melt the remaining chocolate and spread evenly over the coconut mix.
9. Return to the fridge until set.
10. Cut into bars with a warm knife. Store in an airtight container in the fridge.

Chocolate peanut butter fudge sundae

Hello everyone, this week's recipe is something I have wanted to try out for ages. It's a Nigella recipe from the November 2007 copy of delicious, and I marked it at the time and have just taken this long to actually make it. I did plan to serve it when I had friends over for dinner in January, but they thwarted my plans by bringing a cake with them. So in the end I gave my workmates a surprise last week by serving up some ice cream with this sauce one afternoon. Safe to say it was a hit.

One word of warning - Nigella says that this quantity makes enough for four. All I can say is that her guests must be able to pack away an ENORMOUS quantity of sauce. I think it easily makes enough for twice that many.

Have a fabulous week, love from Jane xx

Chocolate peanut butter fudge sundae

What you need:

• 175ml thin cream
• 100g very good quality milk chocolate, chopped
• 100g smooth peanut butter (buy it freshly made from a health food store)
• 3 tablespoons golden syrup
• Ice cream to serve
• 4 tablespoons roughly chopped salted peanuts

What you do:

1. Place the cream, chocolate, peanut butter and golden syrup into a saucepan and place on a medium heat to melt, stirring occasionally.
2. In about two minutes your sauce should be ready.
3. Pour the warm sauce over the ice cream and sprinkle with the chopped peanuts.

Really fabulous pesto

Hello everyone, I am very excited to reveal that I have been published twice this month! One contribution appears in a book called "One Thing In Common" which is published by Cansupport, a support service for cancer patients and their carers at Royal North Shore. Until earlier this year I volunteered with Cansupport, and as part of that wrote a piece about my experience of both my darling Dad's cancer and that of my youngest sister. The book was a VERY long time in production so they are quite old stories now and certainly experiences I am glad to have behind me.

My second contribution (funny how both have been published at the same time) is in a book by the ABC called "Homecooked Feasts". It is a recipe for my Nana's afghan biscuits, which most of you who know me have sampled. I have to say that I feel quite disappointed with the book - there clearly wasn't much of a budget for production and it's very ordinary looking. They have also cleverly but annoyingly packaged it up with a similar book and you have to buy both, which put me off buying multiple copies for everyone for Christmas! I decided to just buy a copy for Mum instead. If you see the book and just want my recipe, let me know and I'll email it to you.

This week's recipe is inspired by the life saving pesto I found in my freezer on Friday night when I arrived home late and wanted something soothing for an easy supper. I had forgotten that I had this pesto made by my middle sister using her own home grown basil! I am convinced that you can't buy a decent commercial pesto and have to make your own, so this is the recipe I use which is from Matthew Evan's book "Kitchen Basics" - it's easily the most delicious pesto I have ever made.

Have a lovely week, Jane xx

Really fabulous pesto

Makes three mustard jars

What you need:

• 80g pinenuts (even better if you toast first in a 180 oven for about 8-10 minutes)
• 2-3 cloves garlic
• 70g (about 1 1/2 cups gently pressed) basil leaves
• 1 cup extra virgin olive oil (use your judgement, I never use this much)
• 80g really good Parmigiano-Reggiano parmesan, finely grated (Matthew uses 40g plus 40g mature pecorino - if you don't mind having that much cheese hanging around in the fridge you can do so too)
• Salt and pepper

What you do:

1. In a sharp bladed food processor, blend the nuts and garlic until paste like.
2. Add the washed and carefully dried basil leaves, then pulse, scraping down the sides regularly to make a paste.
3. Add half the oil, then continue pulsing.
4. Add the cheese and as much more of the oil as you please to just combine. You want the pesto to remain bright green.
5. Season with salt and pepper.
6. Scrape into sterilised jars and store in the fridge. You should make sure that the surface of the pesto is always covered with oil. Best eaten within a few days.

Chocolate mousse + chocolate crisps

Hello everyone, I had a funny experience last night. I thought I was running late for a party that started at 5.00 when I arrived at the front door of my host's place at 5.45. Turned out that she had changed the start time of the party to 7.00, and had told everyone else but me! So I was put to work immediately and to my great delight I got to help the caterer when she arrived. I also spotted some beautiful home grown cherry tomatoes in the kitchen, sitting by a lovely looking jar of home made pesto, so I made myself useful by cutting off the tops of the tomatoes, scooping out the flesh and turning them upside down to drain before delicately filling them with the pesto. That's a really easy and effective plate to take next time you are wondering what food to contribute to a party!

To thank my host I made a batch of these chocolate crisps. Again, this is a really quick and easy thing you can whip up to take to a dinner party to go with coffee, or as a gift for someone wrapped in clear cellophane. The recipe comes from the September 2007 edition of delicious magazine, in which they are paired with chocolate mousse. Chocolate mousse you ask? I'll also give you my favourite chocolate mousse recipe this week. It has been around for years so I don't know its provenance. It's the kind of recipe that people pass around to each other as it's so delicious and always a hit whenever I make it.

Have a lovely week, love from Jane xx

Chocolate crisps

What you need:

• 3 tablespoons Nutella
• 100g white chocolate, chopped
• 1 1/2 cups cornflakes, crumbled into rough crumbs

What you do:

1. Carefully melt together the Nutella and white chocolate in the microwave (do it on medium heat in one minute bursts, so you don't burn the chocolate)
2. Stir in the cornflake crumbs.
3. Pour the mixture onto a 30cm sheet of baking paper, top with another sheet of baking paper and use a rolling pin to gently roll out the mixture until it's quite thin (about 2-3mm thick).
4. Place on a tray in the fridge to harden for two hours and then break into shards.
5. If you like, you can carefully warm up some more white chocolate and some cream in a saucepan on top of the stove, and when it's runny, drizzle over the crisp to decorate. Return to the fridge so it can harden before breaking into shards.

Chocolate mousse
Serves four (and can easily be doubled or tripled)

What you need:

· 2 eggs (separated)
· 200 ml/1 cup whipping cream
· ½ teaspoon vanilla essence
· 1 x 100g Toblerone

What you do:

1. Melt Toblerone in the microwave – be careful not to burn it.
2. Mix in the egg yolks and the vanilla. Let it cool slightly.
3. Whip cream until stiff. Fold into chocolate mixture.
4. Whip egg whites until soft peaks form. Fold into mixture.
5. Set in the fridge – overnight if possible.

Hot fudge sauce

Hello everyone, I hope you have had a good week. I was excused from jury duty (“for now” were the ominous words) so that was a big plus in my week. But I fear that they will not let me go until I have done my civic duty, so I guess this will hang over me for a while!

Anyway, this week’s recipe is a fantastic and super easy chocolate fudge sauce that is really yummy over icecream. It’s sensational if you use it straight away or warm it in the microwave just before serving.

I also thought that I would include my list of top 10 hot chocolate providers for you this week. I am happy to say that after extensive research I have expanded the list to 15! After number 6 they are in no particular order, they all meet my standards, but the top 6 are in order and are outstanding!

Have a lovely week.

Love from Jane xx

Top 10 hot chocolate providers

1. Koko Black, Melbourne CBD
2. Bathers Pavilion, Balmoral
3. Jellyfish, Manly
4. Bourke Street Bakery, Surry Hills/Broadway/Chippendale
5. Bill’s, Woollahra/Darlinghurst/Surry Hills
6. Salon, Sydney CBD
7. Max Brenner (many places)
8. Young Alfred, Sydney CBD
9. Bellefleur at Flower Power, Warriewood/Terrey Hills
10. Gelato Messina, Darlinghurst
11. Danks Street Depot, Woollahra
12. The Source, Mosman
13. Jones The Grocer, Woollahra

Hot fudge sauce

Serves 8 over icecream

What you need:
· 2 tablespoons butter
· 2 tablespoons golden syrup
· ¾ cup sweetened condensed milk
· 150g good chocolate, chopped

What you do:
1. Combine butter, golden syrup and condensed milk in a saucepan and stir over a low heat for 2-3 minutes, until the mixture thickens and is light golden.
2. Remove from the heat and stir in the chocolate until smooth.

That’s it!

To reheat the sauce, put it in the microwave on medium for 1-2 minutes, until warm and melted.