Ingredients

400g dark chocolate, broken into chunks

25g cocoa powder

250g golden caster sugar

250g butter, plus extra for greasing the tin

1 tbsp ground ginger

140g ground almonds

6 large eggs, separated

For the icing

100g butter, chopped

50g dark chocolate, broken into chunks

200g icing sugar, sifted

2 tbsp ground ginger

A few chunks of crystallised ginger, cut into small chunks

Method

1. Heat oven to 180C/160C fan/gas 4. Grease a 20 x 30cm cake tin, and line the base and sides with baking parchment. Melt the chocolate, cocoa, sugar and butter together in a saucepan over a very low heat. Once the chocolate and butter have melted and sugar dissolved, remove from the heat and stir in the ginger and almonds, followed by the egg yolks, one at a time

2. Beat the egg whites to stiff peaks. Using a metal spoon, stir a couple of spoonfuls of the egg whites into the chocolate mixture to loosen before very gently folding in the rest.

3. Gently scrape into the tin. Bake for 30-35 mins until the top looks set and the centre doesn’t wobble too much. Sit the cake tin on a wire rack and leave to cool completely.

4. Once cool, make the icing. Put the butter, chocolate, cocoa, icing sugar, ground ginger and 4 tbsp water in a pan. Gently heat, stirring, until you have a smooth icing. Pour over the cake (still in its tin), leave for 1-2 mins to cool slightly, then scatter over the ginger. Cool completely (you can also store in the fridge if you bring out to room temperature about 20 mins before serving) before cutting into bars.

The photos don’t do these chocolate gingerbread brownies with fudgy icing much justice! Needless to say, they weren’t around for long.

This post is part of my photos for #ColourMyEveryDay – an Instagram photo challenge with @adventuresandteaparties. Find out more about it in my previous post, where I also shared some lovely autumnal recipes. What new recipes have you been making recently?

Post updated 12th February 2020.

The post Chocolate gingerbread brownies with fudgy icing appeared first on Hello! Hooray!.

Ingredients

300g butter (you could use margarine if you prefer)
200g soft brown sugar
4 tbsp golden syrup
700g oats
2 pinches salt
100g crystallised ginger, chopped into fairly small pieces
75g dark chocolate, roughly chopped (I used 70% cocoa solids)

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 180C/Gas mark 4. Grease and line a 10 x 15 inch baking tray. Melt the butter (or margarine), sugar and syrup in a pan over a low heat until melted and combined.

2. Mix in the oats, salt, ginger and chocolate and then press into the tray. It’s worth spending a few minutes pressing the mixture in with the back of a spoon, just to make sure that the mixture sticks really well.

3. Bake for 15-20 minutes and then leave to cool in the tray on a wire cooling rack. I usually let it cool for a little while and then cut it into pieces before it has completely cooled.

Enjoy!

Post updated 14th August 2016.

The post Ginger and dark chocolate flapjack appeared first on Hello! Hooray!.

This recipe is taken from this month’s birthday edition of BBC Good Food magazine.

Ingredients

250g/9oz chunk of pumpkin or squash flesh

50g/2oz black treacle

140g/5oz golden syrup

140g/5oz light soft brown sugar

100ml/3 ½ fl oz semi-skimmed milk

100g/4oz cold butter, diced (plus extra for greasing)

225g/8oz self-raising flour

1 tsp bicarbonate of soda

1 tbsp ground ginger

2 tsp mixed spice

2 medium eggs, beaten

8-10 chunks crystallised ginger, thinly sliced

Method

1. Put the pumpkin or squash in a microwave-proof bowl with a dribble of water. Cover with cling film, pierce with a couple of holes and cook in a microwave on High for 5-10 mins (alternatively, chop into chunks and boil in a pan of water for 10-15 mins), and leave to cool. Mash or blitz in a food processor until smooth.

2. Put the treacle, syrup, sugar and milk in a pan and heat gently until the sugar has dissolved. Set aside to cool a little.

3. Heat the oven to 180C/160C fan/gas mark 4, and line a 900g loaf tin with greaseproof paper. Sift the flour, bicarb, spices and a pinch of salt into a bowl together. Tip in the diced butter and rub it in with your fingertips until no big lumps remain.

4. Whisk the mash and the egg into the lukewarm syrupy mixture, and then stir everything into the dry ingredients. Pour the batter into the prepared tin and then scatter most of the crystallised ginger on top.

5. Bake in the oven for around 45 mins or until a skewer poked in the centre comes out with just moist crumbs attached. Scatter over the remaining sliced ginger to stick and then cool in the tin.

Enjoy with a cuppa – a few days later, if you can wait!

Post updated 7th November 2016.

The post Squidgy pumpkin and ginger loaf appeared first on Hello! Hooray!.

If you follow me on Instagram (or you’ve seen the photos in my feed on my blog) then you may already know that yesterday our new Kitchen Aid mixer was delivered! I can’t believe we actually got one, after so long saying ‘I’d LOVE one of those!’. We chose the pistachio colour in the end, as it will look so lovely with our new kitchen when we get it done in a couple of months. That’s another exciting project to tell you about, but that’s for another time!

We wanted to try out our new gadget today, so chose this chocolate mousse recipe because it meant that we could make the mousse and the shortbread in it! If you want to make it for a special occasion, you could easily make this a day ahead. I love the combination of flavours – the coffee and chocolate, the orange and ginger. Yum!

Ingredients (makes 6)

For the chocolate mousse

30g/1¼oz unsalted butter, chopped

100g/3½oz dark chocolate, broken into pieces

3 free-range eggs, separated

25g/1oz caster sugar

1 shot espresso

For the fiery ginger shortbread

100g/3½oz unsalted butter, softened until very soft, plus extra for greasing

80g/2¾oz plain flour

30g/1¼oz icing sugar

30g/1¼oz cornflour

drop of vanilla essence

50g/1¾oz fresh root ginger, washed, unpeeled, finely grated

2-3 pieces crystallised ginger, sliced

For the candied orange peel

1 large orange, peel only, white pith removed, sliced into 0.5cm/¼in strips

80g/2¾oz caster sugar

150g/5oz demerara sugar

Method

1. Preheat oven to 180C/350F/Gas 4.

2. For the chocolate mousse, bring a little water to the boil in a pan, then reduce the heat until the water is simmering. Suspend a heatproof bowl over the water (do not allow the base of the bowl to touch the water). Add the butter and dark chocolate and stir until melted, smooth and well combined. Remove from the heat and set aside to cool slightly.

3. Whisk the egg yolks and sugar in a bowl until nearly white and thick in consistency.

4. Gently stir the whisked yolks into the butter and chocolate, then add the coffee.

5. Whisk the egg whites until stiff peaks form when the whisk is removed, then gently fold them into the chocolate mixture, until just combined.

6. Transfer the mousse to small cups or ramekins and chill in the fridge for 1-2 hours, or overnight.

7. For the ginger shortbread, cream the butter until pale and fluffy in a bowl. Sift in the flour, icing sugar and cornflour and beat again until fully incorporated. Stir in the vanilla essence and grated root ginger.

8. Place walnut-sized balls of the mixture onto a greased baking tray, about 2cm/¾in apart (you should get about 18 from this mixture). Spread each ball of the biscuit mixture out slightly using the back of a spoon, until flattened into biscuit shapes. Top each ball with a slice of crystallised ginger, then transfer to the oven and bake for 12-15 minutes, or until the shortbread biscuits are pale golden-brown. Remove from the oven and set aside to cool for a few minutes, then carefully lift them off the tray and onto a wire rack, using a palette knife, and set aside to cool completely.

9. For the candied orange peel, fill a small saucepan with water and bring to the boil. Add the orange peel and bring to the boil again, then drain well.

10. Re-fill the pan with water, bring to the boil, return the orange peel to the pan, return the water to the boil, then drain again.

11. Re-fill the pan with 150ml/5fl oz of water, add the caster sugar and bring to the boil, stirring well. Add the orange peel, reduce the heat until the mixture is simmering and simmer for 15-20 minutes, or until the liquid resembles syrup, stirring occasionally.

12. Tip the demerara sugar into a shallow bowl. Once the syrup mixture has thickened, remove the orange peel and coat each piece in the demerara sugar. Shake the peel in the sugar until it is completely covered. (NB: Once cool, keep the candied orange peel uncovered until needed.)

13. To serve, place the ramekins of chocolate mousse onto serving plates. Place one or two shortbreads alongside each. Sprinkle the mousse with the candied orange peel.

Enjoy!

This recipe was taken from the BBC website.

The post Chocolate mousse with fiery ginger shortbread and candied orange peel appeared first on Hello! Hooray!.

This recipe appeared in the June 2014 issue of BBC Good Food magazine, but is originally taken from ‘Three Sisters Bake‘ by Gillian, Nichola and Linsey Reith.

Ingredients

For the shortbread base
280g plain flour
125g caster sugar (I used golden, but any is fine)
1 tsp baking powder
2 tsp ground ginger
180g cold unsalted butter, cubed (plus extra for greasing)

For the fudgy ginger topping
180g unsalted butter
100g golden syrup
375g icing sugar
2 tsp ground ginger

Method

1. Heat the oven to 180C/160C fan/gas mark 4. Line the base of your tin with baking parchment and butter the sides.

2. To make the shortbread base, place the flour, sugar, baking powder and ginger in a food processor and pulse briefly to mix the ingredients. Add the butter and pulse until the mixture resembles course breadcrumbs. Alternatively, you could mix the dry ingredients in a large bowl and rub in the butter by hand.

3. Press the mixture firmly into the prepared tin, levelling it out using a spatula. Bake for 18-20 minutes, until the shortbread is golden brown. Allow to cool in the tin for 10 minutes, then remove from the tin and cool completely on a wire rack. (Although the original recipe says to take it out of the tin, I let it cool completely in it because it needs to be in the tin when you make the topping.)

4. When completely cool, make the topping. Place the butter and syrup in a pan and melt on a very low heat. Sift the icing sugar and ground ginger into the melted mixture and beat well (the original recipe says to beat with an electric hand mixer for 2-3 minutes, but I just did it by hand for about a minute).

5. Pour the topping over the shortbread and spread it out evenly with a spatula. Allow to set at room temperature before cutting into bars. Store in an air-tight tin. Enjoy!

Post updated 18th July 2016.

The post Ginger crunch appeared first on Hello! Hooray!.

Ingredients

180g salted butter, at room temperature (I actually used unsalted)
200g light brown muscovado sugar
100g stem ginger balls in syrup, drained and finely chopped (I used 4 balls)
1 egg, beaten
250g plain flour
1 tsp baking powder
150g dark chocolate chips

Method

1. Preheat oven to 160/Gas mark 3.

2. Place the butter and sugar in a mixing bowl and beat until well mixed, pale and fluffy.

3. Add the stem ginger and egg and beat until well incorporated. Finally, add the flour, baking powder and chocolate chips, and mix together to form a firm cookie dough. Chill the dough in the fridge for at least 30 minutes (this makes it easier to work with).

4. Carve out heaped teaspoonfuls of the dough and roll them in your palms into little balls. Place space well apart on baking sheets lined with greaseproof paper. Put 8 balls on each sheet and cook in batches. Bake for 15-20 minutes until lightly golden in colour and a little darker around the edges. Allow to cool before enjoying with a cuppa

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