Category: Classic Recipes


Sep
2020

Chocolate Coconut Truffles

categories: Chocolate, Classic Recipes, Sweets

I was in dire need of comfort food this week.  And not just any sort of comfort food – I was after the kind of comfort tthat only chocolate and condensed milk can give! It was definitely time to make Chocolate Coconut Truffles! 


Chocolate Coconut Truffles1

These little babies are a stalwart of the school fete or bake sale because they are not only delicious but have only four ingredients and are incredibly easy to make!  Now that’s a win – win – win!  It really is a marvel how anything with just four very simple ingredients can taste this good!  Mind you, they are a pretty good four ingredients. 

Chcocolate coconut truffles 2

The love of condensed milk runs deep in my family.  I have been known to eat it off a spoon directly out of the tin.  The biggest lover of condensed milk in my family was my grandfather.  When he passed his bar exam, his parents were, of course delighted and said that he could have anything he wanted as a present.  They were thinking trip abroad, motorbike or some other big-ticket item. Papa thought long and hard and then asked if he could have a can condensed milk all to himself. 

 Isn’t that just the sweetest (no pun intended) thing you have ever heard?  All that sugar didn’t hurt him either.  He went on to be a Supreme court Judge in Sri Lanka and in his spare time discovered a species of fish.  

Chocolate Coconut Truffles3

 

Sweet Treats For a Sh*tty Week

Why I was in need of chocolately, coconutty comfort food this week?   At the moment, we are allowed outside of our houses for one hour each day for exercise.  One measly hour.  So, during one of these hours, I was walking through the local park with the fussiest eater in the world and the dogs.  All of a sudden I felt the most terrible pain in my head. I was being attacked by a wasp!!!!  The worst thing, apart from the blinding pain, was that it got all tangled up in my hair so the FEITW couldn’t even get it away from me for AGES during which it just kept stinging me!!!

Then, on top of that I had an episode where I couldn’t breathe – might have been the mask I was wearing, might have been a panic attack, might have been a result of the sting as I have had allergic reactions to bee stings before.

All up, it was an incredibly painful and terrifying experience.  I had to go straight to the doctor and  I am still taking medication to bring the swelling down and have had raging headaches, bouts of sleeplessnes, and dizziness.  

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I told one of my friends this tale and after the requisite sympathy she said “There you are minding your own biz and something comes out of the blue and totally f*cks everything up. If that isn’t a perfect metaphor for this year, I don’t know what is.  It would only be better if it stung you in the arse”  I think she has a point.  

The point of both of these stories is that sometimes, the simple things are all we need to bring us joy. 

And wasps are arseholes.  

 

Here’s the recipe!

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Chocolate Coconut Truffles

Chocolate Coconut Truffles4
Print Recipe

A tasty treat that is simple to make and delicious to eat!  Perfect for a bad day or an emergency bake sale!

 

  • Author: Taryn Nicole
  • Prep Time: 15 min
  • Total Time: 15 minutes
  • Yield: 20 1x

Ingredients

Scale
  • 250g plain biscuits. I used Morning Coffee but any plain biscuit will do.
  • 395g can of condensed milk
  • 1 cup dessicated coconut
  • 2 tbsp cocoa
  • Extra coconut for rolling

Instructions

  • Crush the biscuits into crumbs
  • Combine all ingredients except the additional coconut into a bowl and mix together.  
  • Roll mixture into walnut-sized balls. 
  • Roll balls in extra coconut.  
  • Place in fridge for half an hour to firm. 
  • Enjoy!

Notes

The mixture will not stick to your hands if they are damp when you are rolling the truffles into balls. 

Have a great week friends and bee safe!!!!  

PS.  This probably comes close to what I looked like in the park as I was being stung!

 

via Imgflip

 

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May
2019

Name Plates: Eggs Benedict

categories: Breakfast, Brunch, Classic Recipes, Eggs, Name Plates, United States of America

Hello brunch!  Eggs Benedict is one of my favourite brunch dishes.  Mind you, I would also eat them for breakfast, lunch or dinner.  I’m not that fussy!  But today’s project is to uncover the eponymous Benedict,

Eggs Benedict 1

What Are Eggs Benedict?

Okay, so…given this is such a brunch favourite, I know many of you will already know exactly what Eggs Benedict entails.  And all of you are quite welcome to skip to the next section.

For those who are in the dark, Eggs Benedict is a dish typically served at breakfast or brunch which consists of two halves of a toasted English muffin, topped with bacon or ham, a poached egg and Hollandaise Sauce.

Who Was Benedict?

Larousse names Brennan’s Restaurant in New Orleans as one of the possible birthplaces of Eggs Benedict.  And there is certainly an amazing looking Eggs Benny on their website.😍  However, all the other research I have done points to New York as being the birthplace of Eggs Benedict.

Delmonico’s is a contender.  A regular customer, one of the Le Grand Benedict family, got bored with the regular breakfast and asked for “poached eggs on toasted English muffins with a thin slice of ham, Hollandaise sauce and a truffle on top” as a more exciting alternative.

In 1967, a letter to the New Yorker said that  Commodore E.C.Benedict, a yachtsman and retired banker was the inventor of Eggs Benedict.

Eggs Benedict 2

My favourite story, however, and so the one we are going to go with,  suggests that the recipe was devised by one Lemuel Benedict in 1942 when he strolled into the Waldorf Hotel with a raging hangover and asked for  “buttered toast, poached eggs, crisp bacon, and a hooker of hollandaise”.

Instead of looking askance at him and saying in a very stern manner, “We Sir, are a classy establishment and hence not familiar with the practice of measuring our sauces, Hollandaise or otherwise in units of sex workers”,  the kitchen complied and Eggs Benedict was born!

Can we just take a step out to talk about how delicious Hollandaise Sauce is?

OMG..it’s the best thing in the world.    Sometimes, when I really don’t feel like cooking?  I will buy a jar of Hollandaise sauce, heat it up in the microwave and just dip vegetables…asparagus, broccoli, beans, etc right into the jar for my dinner!

Hollandaise Sauce

And do you also know that it was only very recently that I reaslised Hollandaise is just French for “from Holland”?   I mean, it’s totally damn obvious when you think about it but….at the time?

The Recipe

Given it’s likely New York origins, I used the recipe from the New York Times for my classic version of Eggs Benedict.

Some variations are below.

Variations

The interwebs abound with variations of Eggs Benny.  You can change the meat:

  • This Naughty Benny swaps out the ham for mortadella and adds an onion jam.

You can change the base:

You can combine it with other brunch favorites such as this Benedict BLT.

Or add some Italian Pizzazz with an Eggs Benedict Pizza.

You can also swap out the sauce 

For those who like a bit of booze with their Benny, this one has a beer-based sauce.

I guess the only constant is the eggs…

Oops, scratch that.  Here’s a vegan version.

  • A myriad of other versions can be found here

Modern Day Benedict

In my mind, there can only be one:

What’s your favourite version of Eggs Benedict?

And to whom would you dedicate a modern dish of poached eggs, ham and hollandaise sauce on an English Muffin?

Have a wonderful week!