Triple Mint Aero Biscuit Rocky Road!

You can never make too much rocky road, it's a fact! and a mantra to live by!

Rocky road will always be one of my fail safe go to recipes - need to whip up something in a jiffy? don't feel like turning on your oven in this amazingly warm weather we're having (jokes!) but if you do live in a warm climate...lucky you! and rocky road will become your new best friend! want to use up random contents of your baking cupboard? want to make something that sends through the post well?

Rocky road fits the bill for all! and one of my very favourite things about making rocky road is how customisable it is! 

There are endless flavour possibilities! Peanut butter lover, then try this.  Crazy for coconut try this, if peppermint is more your thing you'll love this...and I'm always thinking up new possibilities - a nutella & ferrero flavour one is definitely on the cards!! 

So when I was planning to make and post these to cheer up a mint aero loving recipient I decided they had to be mint aero to the max! So not only do they feature chopped up pieces of mint aeros, and mint aero balls, but also chopped up pieces of the little mint aero biscuit bars you get! This was a great addition, because it gives extra crunch alongside the rice krispie pieces! and the oreo pieces were thrown in because we all know oreo makes everything better! 

The one thing I don't like about rocky road is making it when you're on a diet! the little offcuts that come when you are chopping it up into squares are way too tempting! so I ended up trying more of this than I should have! but I'm a sucker for mint chocolate and this was one of my tastiest rocky road creations yet! 

Triple Mint Aero Biscuit Rocky Road:

Makes 16

From Cupcake Crazy Gem

350g milk chocolate 

100g dark chocolate

1 tsp vegetable oil

50g oreo cookies

140g mint aero 

100g mint aero balls

75g mint aero biscuit

130g mini marshmallows

35g cup rice krispies

Line an 8x8" square baking pan with parchment paper.

Break milk and dark chocolate into pieces and put in a large heatproof bowl above a pan of boiling water.  Stir in vegetable oil and mix until melted.

Remove from the heat and let cool for 10 minutes.

Chop the oreos into quarters, the mint aero into chunks and the mint aero biscuit bars into small pieces (Reserve back a few handfuls of the mix ins to use as toppings)

Stir in the rice krispies   Once completely cool, stir in the oreo cookies, mint aero, mint aero balls mint aero biscuit and mini marshmallows.  Mix well.

Spread into the prepared pan, smoothing out on top.  Add the rest of the toppings.  

Refrigerate for an hour, or overnight.

Eat and enjoy!

Coconut Marshmallows from the amazing Butter Baked Goods!!

When we moved to Vancouver I was so excited about all the potential baked goods the city had to offer! I had visions of gorgeous little cupcakeries on every block and gourmet treats around every corner! The reality was not so great.  I tried so many mediocre cupcakes and went to many different establishments that came highly recommended but Vancouver was still lacking in impressing me treat wise! Then a very lovely friend recommended Butter Baked Goods to me and the day I stepped through their beautiful pastel doors I knew I'd found what I was searching for! 

From sky high chocolate peanut butter layer cakes to toasted marshmallow s'mores bars, pineapple coconut scones to bars loaded with chocolate, pecans, coconut and dulce de leche (otherwise known as the Dunbar!) and of course their homemade marshmallows were the icing on the top! I'm not sure I'd ever had a homemade marshmallow before I tried Butter's...and I've tried many since but none have compared! From passionfruit to gingerbread to maple to toasted coconut there were so many flavours to choose from...in fact at the last count they had 18 flavours but I'm sure they've dreamt up many more since! 

Of course we were heartbroken to leave Vancouver, and I was heartbroken to leave Butter behind! So imagine my excitement when on the morning my baby was born my husband presented me with a push present and it just so happened to be Butter Baked Good's recipe book! He is a keeper that's for sure! It is one of the most beautiful recipe books you will ever own, and I have spent months and months staring at those beautiful pages wondering what to make first!

Naturally, it had to be their marshmallows!

So I tentatively whipped up my first batch...waiting for that liquid sugar to magically turn into white fluff and it didn't! I think it was because I used some gelatin leaf so undeterred I tried again with powdered gelatin this time and did a little happy dance as the marshmallow fluffed up!

They are actually so much easier than I ever thought they would be to make! and now I've conquered them once I'm already dreaming up all the flavours I'll be making in the future! and the taste, oh the taste! they are soft and pillowy and creamy and delicious and everything you expect from an amazing marshmallow!

They are great in hot chocolates, and melt even better than shop bought marshmallows! 

and I also dipped some in chocolate and then in coconut for the dessert table we had for my 1 year old's birthday (which I'll be blogging about soon!) and I threw them in some coconut rocky road which will be appearing on the blog over the next few weeks too!

Butter's Famous Marshmallows - Coconut:

Makes 64 1x1 inch or 32 2x2 inch (which is the size I made in the pictures)

Adapted from Butter Baked Goods

1 cup cold water, divided

3 sachets powdered gelatin (I use Dr Oetker's that are 12g per sachet)

337g caster sugar

350g golden syrup (or corn syrup)

1/4 tsp salt

1 tsp coconut extract

2 cups icing sugar, to coat the marshmallows

Prepare a 30x18cm baking pan with a sheet of clingfilm, greased lightly with butter

In a stand mixer fitted with a whisk attachment pour in 1/2 cup of the water and sprinkle with the gelatin.  Set aside and let the gelatin soak in.

In a medium saucepan, over high heat, add the sugar, syrup, salt and remaining 1/2 cup of water.  Bring to a rolling boil and continue to boil until a sugar thermometer reaches 237 degrees Fahrenheit. Remove from heat.

Turn on your mixer a few times to break your gelatin and water combo up.    Turn your mixer to low, and slowly add the hot sugar mixture to the bowl, and continue to mix on low.  Make sure you pour the hot sugar mixture down the side of the bowl and that it doesn't touch the whisk attachment if possible.

Turn the mixer to high and continue to whip for 8-10 minutes until the marshmallow batter almost triples in size and becomes very thick.   Stop the mixer, add the coconut extract (or just vanilla extract if you are making plain marshmallows), and then whip briefly to combine.  

Transfer the mixture to the prepared baking pan and use a spatula to spread it evenly into the pan.  Work quickly because the marshmallow becomes more difficult to work with as it sets.  

Put a layer of tin foil across the top of your pan loosely, I make mine create an arch shape so that it definitely won't touch and stick to any of the mallow in the pan.  

Leave the marshmallow, at room temperature, to set for at least 4 hours or overnight.  The marshmallow will be too sticky and soft if you cut it too soon.

Sprinkle a work surface or cutting board with the icing sugar.  Run a knife along the top edge of the pan to loosen the marshmallow slab.  Invert the pan and flip the marshmallow out onto the counter or board.  Scoop up handfuls of icing sugar and rub all over the marshmallow slab.

Use a large knife to cut the slab into 1x1 inch squares or 2x2 inch squares if you want larger ones like I did.  Roll each of the freshly cut marshmallow squares in the remaining icing sugar to coat them completely.  

Store in an airtight container.

Eat and enjoy!!

Halloween Peanut Butter Cup Pumpkin Rocky Road!

Rocky Road is one of my favourite things to make! It doesn't require you to turn on your mixer and wake a sleeping baby, or try and track down where the heck your whisk attachment has gone to (seriously whisk...where are you? my guess is lost in the move) and it can certainly be whipped up in one of the baby's shorter naps...and if you're lucky enough to live in a hot country it's good for those days when you can't bear to turn the oven on!  It is also SO versatile! It was one of the very first things I ever baked, using a recipe from one of those little random chocolate recipe books you get as a stocking filler! Go ahead and laugh at my embarrassing blog post back in 2009 where it made its debut. Since then I have jazzed it up using all of my favourite treats - Snickers and Oreo, Reese's peanut butter, crazy amounts of coconut and festive peppermint ones plus seasonal mini egg easter ones too!

So I thought it was about time that my peanut butter rocky road got made over into a Halloween edition! because I found a bag of reese's peanut butter pumpkins in Tesco and I knew I had to use them in my kitchen! Sadly when I opened them up they didn't look like pumpkins at all! just an oval sized peanut butter cup! so I pimped them jack-o-lantern style with a little bit of orange coloured white chocolate, green sanding sugar and chocolate sprinkles and mini chocolate chips!

I'm not exactly an artist, but hopefully there's no denying now that those are pumpkins!

I even added in peanut butter m&m's too to truly amp up the peanut butter goodness involved! and with some chopped peanut butter cups making up the bulk of the add ins you just can't go wrong! Throw some marshmallows, chopped nice and chunky, and rice krispies into the mix and you've got one delicious Halloween treat!

Not a trick in sight!

Peanut Butter Cup Pumpkin Rocky Road:

Serves 9

Adapted from Cupcake Crazy Gem

400g milk chocolate

100g dark chocolate

2 tsp vegetable oil

35g rice krispies

150g marshmallows

75g peanut butter m&m's

240g peanut butter cups (approx. 16)

9 peanut butter pumpkins

60g white chocolate, I used milky bar

1/2 tsp orange food colouring

green sanding sugar

18 chocolate sprinkles

9 mini chocolate chips

Line an 8x8 dish with parchment paper.
Melt your milk and dark chocolate in a large bowl together over a pan of boiling water.  Once melted, remove from the heat and stir in the vegetable oil.  Leave to cool.

Chop your marshmallows in half, and your peanut butter cups into quarters.  Measure out your rice krispies and peanut butter m&m's.  Check that your chocolate is completely cool - you should leave it for at least 10 minutes (if it's still warm, when you add in your chocolates they will melt so the cooling process is important!)  Once it's cool, stir in all the mix ins.  Spread evenly into your baking pan.  I like to reserve back a bit of the chocolate in the bottom of the mixing bowl to use right at the end to smooth out the surface of the rocky road.

Melt your white chocolate in a small bowl in the microwave in 20 second bursts - watch it because white chocolate burns easily.  I used milky bar because the lower quality white chocolate melts far easier - don't go buying any fancy stuff for this.  Once melted stir in the orange food colouring.  Put into a piping bag and snip a tiny tip off the end.

Take 9 pumpkins, and pipe a thin edge all the way round with the orange chocolate.  Do zig zag lines in the middle of each pumpkin and at the end go back with your piping bag tip to help smooth out the chocolate until the pumpkin surface is completely covered.  Sprinkle green sanding sugar on the stem, and use 2 chocolate sprinkles for the eyes.  Place a mini chocolate chip for the nose.

Once all your pumpkins are complete, place them on top of the rocky road, pushing down slightly so they set into the chocolate.

Refrigerate for 2 hours until set, or overnight.

Eat and enjoy!

Nutella S'mores Fudge Pie

Sometimes I feel like I have a disorder...that is going to prevent me from ever baking anything without nutella again!! Like my hand literally has to reach for the jar of Nutella anytime I whip something up! I'm sorry to some degree, variety is the spice of life and all that, but in my opinion Nutella adds a new dimension of tastiness to every bake so for that I'm not sorry! 

To be fair, I also had one of those monster size bigger than your head jars of Nutella from Costco that I needed to use up before we moved...so now we have, and the jar is empty, and so with the exception of my next blog post there will be a Nutella lull for a while and regular varied blogging will resume :)

 

Have I told you before there are 27,345 reasons why I need to move to North America? Well...there are! and S'MORES are definitely in the top 10 of all the reasons!  So when our good friends invited us over for a farewell meal I knew I wanted to bake something s'more-licious, since they are marshmallow lovers, and I came across this pie! and as I was whipping it up I thought 'hey I know I'll sub out half the chocolate and add in Nutella instead'...

so the Nutella S'mores Fudge Pie was born!

and after toasting up the marshmallows under the grill, of course there was really only one thing to finish it off with - and that was more Nutella! because nothing makes my heart happy like drizzled Nutella...and sitting around a fire making s'mores - so I felt like this sort of combined the two!

Bake this up today...it will cure your North American blues for about a day until you wake up and realise you need to live somewhere where root beer, graham crackers, and marshmallows as big as your fist are freely available at your local supermarket!!

 Nutella S'mores Fudge Pie:

Serves 12

Adapted from Pixelated Crumb

22 graham cracker squares (digestives/hobnobs can be subbed if you are in the UK)

165g unsalted butter, melted

3/4 cup semi-skimmed milk

3/4 cup double cream

100g milk chocolate

40g dark chocolate

140g Nutella

2 eggs

pinch of salt

15 marshmallows - cut in half
3 tbsp Nutella (for drizzling)

Preheat oven to 160 degrees C.

 In a medium mixing bowl, mix together the graham cracker crumbs and melted butter until evenly coated.  Press mixture into a 10" tart dish (you may have some crumb mixture left over).  Bake for 8-10 minutes or until just starting to brown.

In a medium saucepan, whisk together the cream and milk.  Warm over medium-low heat.  Add in both chocolates and Nutella and stir until mixture has melted and is smooth.  Slowly add the whisked eggs and mix until smooth.

Pour the chocolate filling into the baked pie crust.  Bake for 18-25 minutes, or until chocolate filling is set and does not move when pie is lightly shaken (if there is slight wobble still this is okay because the Nutella prevents it from setting up as much as if you only used the chocolate).  Remove from oven. 

Using kitchen scissors or a sharp knife cut the marshmallows in half.  Place halves in concentric circles until you completely cover the top of the pie.  (I left gaps in mine because I remembered how when you bake marshmallows they spread alot...however because you are only grilling them they don't expand at all so I had to go back and add in more marshmallows! so make sure the whole thing is covered first time around!)  Place the pie under the grill, watch it closely because the marshmallows toast quickly between 1-4 minutes, and they will turn to charcoal in about 2 seconds if you aren't watching them like a hawk!

Melt 3 tbsp Nutella in a bowl in the microwave for approximately 45 seconds.  Fill a piping bag, and drizzle across the top of the pie first in one direction and then in the opposite direction.

Chill the pie in the fridge to set for at least 2-3 hours. 

Whilst the pie can be eaten cold, it's best and at it's most s'more like when slightly warmed.  Heat the slices in the microwave, one at a time, for 20-40 seconds until the marshmallow is a warm gooey mess and the Nutella has melted into it.

Eat and enjoy!

Peanut Butter & Chocolate Chip Overload Ganache Cookie Cake

 You know how sometimes you take really bad pictures that you don't ever think should see the light of day! Well, that's what happened with this bake! I made this for Byron's birthday last April whilst we were still living in Vancouver...he had been away for a week on a forestry trip in the middle of nowhere up North and my sister and mom had arrived from England 3 days before he got back.  We had been busy touring Seattle and Vancouver Island and had been surviving on very little sleep, it was a hectic time but I knew no birthday could pass without sufficient delicious celebrations! hence this cake! but also hence why the pictures were a bit of an afterthought, it was super dark once I finished making it and we were all just too desperate to eat it for me to faff around!

 

 So I wasn't intending to blog it, but I came across these pictures today and remembered how decadently delicious it was, and how many peanut butter lovers I know there are out there who need to know about this cake!

So please forgive the pictures...and let's talk about the cake!

 

 It is essentially a giant cookie, baked in a cake pan...but not just any cookie, a cookie filled to the brim with not only chocolate chips but also peanut butter chips!

Once the cookie has baked, you cover it in some deliciously creamy marshmallow fluff, which has been heated slightly so it's easier to spread out.  You then throw mini marshmallows, micro chocolate chips and mini peanut butter cups on top (I may or may not have waited for the fluff to cool so my toppings all melted into the fluff which doesn't make for the prettiest pictures but it was rather delicious still!) 

At this point, in the original recipe you would whip up a batch of peanut butter frosting and cover the sides and top of the cake...only I had run out of icing sugar - I know, what kind of baker runs out of icing sugar! 

So since I was still in my ganache cures everything phase...I whipped up a batch of peanut butter chocolate ganache and just piped around the top of the cake with that, adorning each little swirl of ganache with either a peanut butter cup or a micro marshmallow.  

Every ounce of this cake is decadent, and not for the faint hearted! but if you like a lot of sugar, and a lot of peanut butter, and chocolate then this cake is surely for you! My husband LOVED it!

and I fell in love with peanut butter chocolate ganache - who knew it would be so tasty!

Peanut Butter & Chocolate Chip Overload Ganache Cookie Cake:

Serves 12-14

Adapted from Sprinkle Bakes

Peanut Butter and Chocolate Chip Cookie:

1 cup unsalted butter, softened

1/2 cup caster sugar

2/3 cup soft light brown sugar, packed

2 eggs

1 tsp vanilla extract

2 cups plain flour

1 tsp salt

1 tsp cream of tartar

1 tsp bicarbonate of soda

1 cup milk chocolate chips

1 cup peanut butter chips

Preheat oven to 180 degrees C.

Grease a 10 inch cake pan with butter and line the bottom with a circle of parchment paper.  Set aside.

In a large bowl, beat together the butter and sugars until well combined.  Add in the eggs and vanilla extract.  Beat again until well mixed.

In a separate medium bowl, whisk together the flour, salt, cream of tartar and bicarbonate of soda.  Pour flour mixture into the butter and mixture and mix until a thick batter forms and the flour is just incorporated.  Add both types of chips and mix on the lowest speed until combined.  

Pour batter into the prepared pan and spread evenly with a spatula so the cookie is flat on top.  Bake for 20-25 minutes or until a knife inserted in the middle comes out clean.  Remove from oven and let cool in the pan for 10 minutes.  Turn cake out onto a wire rack to cool completely.

Marshmallow Topping:

1 cup marshmallow fluff

3 tbsp micro mini chocolate chips

1/2 cup mini marshmallows

15 mini peanut butter cups, halved

Spray a small bowl with cooking spray and place the 1 cup marshmallow fluff in the bowl.  Heat gently in the microwave for 20-30 seconds, or until just loosened and pour into the centre of the cookie.  Spread evenly over the top.

Wait for it to cool, or if you're impatient like me throw all the toppings on top.

Peanut Butter Chocolate Ganache:

5 oz. dark chocolate

1/4 cup peanut butter

1/2 cup double cream, heated

Chop up the dark chocolate into small pieces and put into a bowl.  Add the peanut butter to the bowl.

Heat up the cream gently in a saucepan and once hot, pour into the bowl of chocolate and peanut butter.  Leave it for 2 minutes to melt the chocolate, and then stir like crazy with a spoon until all the chocolate has melted and the peanut butter has been incorporated into the ganache.

Put it into a piping bag, and pipe swirls of ganache around the outside of the cake.

Top each alternate swirl with a chopped mini peanut butter cup, or a micro mini marshmallow.

Eat and enjoy!

Triple Toasted Coconut Rocky Road

Do you ever get baking epiphanies? I do...and they occur at the most random times in the most random places.  Five weeks ago, I was in the queue at Tesco waiting to pay for my groceries when an epiphany struck...a coconut rocky road epiphany! I turned to Byron and exclaimed excitedly 'I'm thinking up the most amazing baked treat' to which he replied 'just don't', and then the conversation halted! In the car on the way home I asked him if he wanted to hear what the amazing baked treat was, to which he replied no! He told me I need to calm down with all the baking due to our waistlines and our Vancouver fund...

Fast forward five weeks and Byron is declaring this the best rocky road I've ever made! and my snickers one takes some beating...so I'm feeling triumphant on this one!

but when you're making something consisting of purely the ingredients above how can it not be?! I started with Lindt Coconut Intense chocolate - it's a dark chocolate with toasted caramelised coconut inside.  I'm happy to use dark chocolate in baked goods but I'm not a fan of the taste of it by itself so I paired it with some Milka so it wasn't too dark and it worked beautifully.  A thick rich chocolate with strands of coconut throughout.  Throw in some toasted coconut marshmallows which my sister kindly gifted to me, and some coconut M&M's which my other sister gifted to me! and some crushed Nice biscuits (because they're coconut flavoured don't you know!) and then finish off with a sprinkled of toasted shredded coconut. 

If you think there it too much coconut going on, think again! 

You need to make this for all your coconut loving friends, you even need to make it for your coconut hating friends because I guarantee no one could turn down this level of deliciousness!

Usually I try to space out my coconut desserts on here because I know some followers aren't fans of it, but I moved this post straight to the front of the blogging queue because it's too amazing not to share!

Triple Toasted Coconut Rocky Road:

Makes 12

From Cupcake Crazy Gem

400g Milka chocolate

100g Lindt Coconut Intense chocolate

2 tsp vegetable oil

130g toasted coconut marshmallows (I used Plush gourmet ones)

75g Nice biscuits

70g coconut M&M's

10g desiccated coconut

For decoration:

15g toasted shredded coconut

20g toasted coconut marshmallows

15g coconut M&M's

Line a baking pan with parchment paper.

Melt both chocolates together in a glass bowl set above a pan of boiling water, and add vegetable oil.

Once it is completely melted, take off heat and set aside to cool for 10 minutes.

Chop marshmallows in half, and break the biscuits into 6 small pieces.  Stir the marshmallows, biscuits, M&M's and desiccated coconut into the bowl of chocolate and mix together.

Transfer into the pre prepared baking pan.

 Put shredded coconut on a baking tray and place under the grill for 2-3 minutes until lightly toasted. 

Press the marshmallows and M&M's into the surface of the rocky road and sprinkle the toasted shredded coconut liberally.

Refrigerate for at least 1 hour.

Chop into bars and serve.

I have submitted these for the Alphabakes challenge, hosted by The More Than Occasional Baker (who is hosting this month) and Caroline Makes because the theme this month is T.

I'm also linking them up to the zero baking required challenge by Maison Cupcake, if you're not feeling like turning your oven on in this mini heatwave either then no bake desserts are the way forward! 

Giant S'mores Stuffed Choc Chip Cookies for National S'mores Day!

Happy National S'mores Day!

We couldn't have asked for better timing here in the UK because after a few weeks of washout weather the sun has FINALLY remembered it's late to the party and has put in an appearance which means everyone should be BBQing it up tonight and in our house BBQ's = S'mores! So for all you first timers out there who have yet to enjoy the s'moreish goodness I'm urging you all to go out buy some marshmallows, buy a pack of biscuits, buy some super delish choc (Milka was my choc of choice this time) and join in the s'mores party, seen as how it's National S'mores Day it would be rude not to!!

My search continues to incorporate s'mores into every baked good possible! so when I stumbled upon Tara's amazing s'mores stuffed chocolate chip cookies I knew I had to bake some up!

Tara made her own graham crackers from scratch but after trying my hand at these a few months back I don't think they compare to regular graham crackers - there's not enough crunch to them! so I stuck with Nabisco's boxed ones to keep the cookies as authentic as possible!

I decided to incorporate both milk and white chocolate chunks into my cookies just to add to the fun! and yes that's about a fistful size of cookie dough you have to put either side of the ready made s'more! 

So I ended up baking my cookies on one baking tray at the time because by the time they spread out in the oven they were the size of small pizzas! 

Yes, they're over the top! but who could deny a giant warm and melted chocolate studded cookie complete with a gooey marshmallow s'more baked into the middle! Not me, that's for sure!

Go get some s'mores love, you won't be disappointed!

Giant S'mores Stuffed Chocolate Chip Cookies:

Makes 4

From Smells Like Home

For the cookie dough:

2 cups plus 2 tbsp plain flour

1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda

1/2 tsp salt

12 tbsp unsalted butter, melted and cooled until warm

1 cup soft brown sugar, packed

1/2 cup caster sugar

1 large egg plus 1 egg yolk

2 tsp vanilla extract

3/4 cup milk chocolate chunks

3/4 cup white chocolate chunks

For assembly:

1 cookie dough recipe, at room temperature

8 graham cracker squares, broken into halves

4 marshmallows, chopped in half lengthwise

2 rows of milk chocolate from an 100g bar of Milka (or your chocolate of choice)

Prepare 4 s'mores: Break each graham cracker square in half.  Place 2-3 squares of milk chocolate (depending on which size/brand you have used) on top of the graham cracker.  Cut marshmallows lengthwise, place one half on top of the chocolate.  Finish with the graham cracker half.  Set those 4 s'mores aside for later.

For the cookie dough: Whisk the flour, bicarbonate of soda and salt together in a medium bowl; set aside.  In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, or by hand, mix butter and sugars until thoroughly combined.  Beat in the egg, yolk and vanilla until combined.  Add dry ingredients and beat at low speed just until combined - the batter should look a little lumpy.  Stir in chocolate chips.  

Preheat oven to 160 degrees C.  Line two baking trays with parchment paper.  

Get two large spoonfuls of cookie dough and shape them into a flat circle.  Put the cookie dough round onto the baking tray and place a pre prepared s'more on top.  Take two more spoonfuls of cookie dough and shape them into a round and place them on top of the graham cracker and then shape the dough around the s'more until it is completely covered - at this stage it will resemble a cookie dough mound!

Mine were so big that I had to use one tray per cookie, so I baked in two sessions.  Bake for 20-24 minutes or until the tops and edges are slightly browned and the edges just lift off the tray with a spatula.  The s'mores will most likely peek out of the cookies but it just adds to the charm so go with it! 

Leave them to cool on the trays for 5 minutes and then transfer to a wire rack to cool for a further 10 minutes.

If you have made something s'moreishly delicious then hop on over to Mandy's blog where you can add your blog post to her link party - go on...then we can have a giant collection of s'more related baked goods - it will be amazing! It doesn't just have to be something you've made today either!

United Bakes of America Round Three...and a Mississippi Mud Cake for the state of Mississippi

So you're probably thinking that looks like a funny apple butter cake! but I was planning to bake that since it came from West Virginia for Alphabakes' W challenge but I realised the submission date was going to be before I blogged so I had a change of plan...and Byron (my husband) actually picked out the choice for this month!

He told me I'd been spending too much time with Warren recently, as I walked into the lounge with United Bakes of America tucked under my arm! Warren is the author of the book! I guess my husband is either one fantastic listener or I bend his ear too much about blogging considering he knows the authors names of my recipe books! hehe

So I agreed that he could pick the recipe for me to bake this month, no surprises that the chocolate lover in him went for this Mississippi Mud Cake.  It is an extremely rich dense cake that actually calls for unsweetened chocolate which is100% cocoa solids, and then of course there's that chocolate-y muddy icing too! with a layer of toasted marshmallows in between.

No prizes for where this cake originates from! It gets the mud cake part of it's name from the Mississippi river itself which carries more than 400,000 tons of silt, mud and sand every day.  The mud's rich darkness makes bakers think of chocolate,and so it has inspired all sorts of Mississippi mud concoctions like the infamous Mississippi Mud Pie.  This is a tribute to the river in cake form, it doesn't contain any baking soda or baking powder because it's supposed to be flat, dense and intense - just like the river!

You may be interested to discover that the Mississippi river directly touched 10 different states, and in America where states are so enormous that is no mean feat, we're talking about a huuuge river! 

I'm beginning to doubt whether Warren has actually baked any of the recipes in the book himself! After having problems with the last two recipes I've tried...this time the muddy icing didn't work out either.  I added the liquids to the icing sugar and instead of it whipping up into a nice glossy pourable icing, it turned into a big dough like blob!! I had followed the recipe exactly so I wasn't too impressed! Luckily with a lot of cream and some hot milk I managed to save it and turn it into more of a ganache...but Warren needs to pull his socks up, because if I don't have more success with his book in the coming months I'm thinking of ditching it and switching it out for my new Martha book.

Mississippi Mud Cake:

Serves 12

From United Bakes of America

1 1/2 cups plain flour

3/4 cup cocoa powder

1/2 tsp salt

2 tbsp double cream

9 ozs unsweetened chocolate (100%), melted

8 ozs unsalted butter, softened

2 cups caster sugar

2 whole eggs

2 egg yolks

3 cups mini marshmallows

Preheat the oven to 165 degrees C.  Grease a 7 x 11 inch brownie pan.

In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, cocoa powder and salt.  Set aside.

Mix the chocolate and the double cream together in a separate bowl.

In the bowl of a free standing electric mixer, cream the butter and the sugar and mix on low speed for 3 mins.

Add the eggs and yolks all at once before the mixture creams.

Add the dry ingredients and mix briefly, do not fully combine.

Stop the mixer, scrape down the sides and scrape the batter off the beater, and gently fold in the chocolate mixture with a metal spoon.

Pour the batter into the prepared pan and bake for 25-30mins, crumbs should stick to a knife inserted in the middle - you do not want it to come out clean.

Top the cake with a generous layer of marshmallows.  Return it to the oven and bake for approx. 5 minutes longer but watch it carefully as the marshmallows can burn easily.

Set the cake aside to cool.

For the muddy icing:

4 ozs unsalted butter, melted

1/4 cup cocoa powder

2 tsp vanilla extract

4 cups icing sugar

5 ozs dark chocolate (I used half milk/half white because I didn't want the whole thing to be super rich)

Combine all the ingredients in a bowl and whisk slowly to blend.  Avoid incorporating air so that the "mud" won't crack after it sets.

If your icing has worked I congratulate you! If you had rather not risk it then use 3 cups of icing sugar instead of 4, and add 150 ml double cream and 50ml heated milk to make the icing into a pourable consistency!

and now let's check out what you've all been baking this month!

Ros from The More Than Occasional Baker was first off the mark with these whoopie pies.  Not only did she use the very American ingredient of marshmallow fluff (which can we all celebrate for a moment that you can get it in supermarkets now - hooray!) but whoopies pies themselves are as American as they come.  They are actually the official bake of Maine, Amish wives used to use the leftover batter to make these and stash them in their farmer husbands lunchboxes.  The history books say that as the farmers would open up their lunchboxes to discover those tasty treats they would exlclaim 'whoopie'! and so the whoopie pie was born and Americans have been whipping them up ever since! I love Ros's filling to cake ratio, the more fluff the better in my opinion! and covering the filling in sprinkles adds a fun touch too!

and Caroline from Caroline Makes made this Walnut Espresso Layer Cake from the recipe book of one of my very favourite London bakeries - Outsider Tart.  It was baked for a coffee lovers birthday so I'm sure it went down a treat especially with those exploding maltesers coming from the cake which Caroline attached with florists wire for a fancy finish! 

Kerry from Kerry Cooks baked up these Peanut Butter Choc Fudge Brownies with Pretzels.  We clearly think alike since I baked up brownies with those exact same flavours earlier in the month! I love how each of Kerry's brownies has a whole devoted pretzel on the top of each portion! and that still warm and melty drizzle of chocolate is certainly very inviting! She had a whole month of American bakes this past month so go check out what else she made! 

Finally, my sister, Tamara, baked up these Rocky Road Brownies.  It's a dense fudgy brownie with chocolate fudge frosting, and then the fun part begins as it is piled high with marshmallows, shortbread, maltesers and honeycomb and of course that all important drizzle of white chocolate to finish it off!

So that's it for another month! Thanks to all who joined in, I just love seeing your U.S bakes! I haven't quite decided what I'm going to bake this month but it will be something delicious and decadent that's for sure - come back at the end of the month to check it out or join in with us and submit your American themed bakes - whether it's the ingredient, the recipe used, or the style of cake e.g bundt cake/pound cake.

Summer S'mores...Chocolate, Coconut & Eton Mess Varieties!

I have been more than vocal about my love of all things S'mores! and whilst I've featured S'mores brownies, S'mores cookie bars, S'mores milkshakes, S'mores pie, S'mores cupcakes, S'mores cheesecake and S'mores bars I've never showcased just plain old regular S'mores! 

So when the sun came out for long enough one evening this week we stoked up the BBQ and got toasting some marshmallows for some S'mores fun.

I had, I'm ashamed to admit, popped to the shop earlier in the day to pick up some Hobnobs because my supply of graham crackers had run dry.  So imagine my delight when I arrived home to find a lovely gift of some American goodies from American Soda...which included a box of Honey Graham Crackers...it was perfect timing! So the Hobnobs were shelved and the fun began...

It's been a while since I've had to make S'mores with UK marshmallows and I forgot how small they are!! so we decided two at a time was how we needed to do it.

So for all those Brits who may be coming across S'mores for the first time - let me break it down for you...

You take two Graham Crackers (if you want to make it authentic and if you want them to taste amazing!) and lay them out, with two squares of chocolate of your choice on top - I was using Dairy Milk.

Then once your marshmallows are sufficiently toasted, lay them over your squares of chocolate and use the other Graham Cracker to scrape them into place inside your little S'mores sandwich...

and there you have it, the hot marshmallow melts the chocolate inside and so you have a melted warm gooey chocolate-y filling sandwiched between two crisp crackers! 

Delish!!!

A few nights later, S'mores were still on my mind and after I received these birthday presents I knew what had to be done...

because you knew it was only a matter of time before I worked out how to get some coconut goodness involved! Yes, my in laws gifted me my fave Lindt Coconut chocolate and this bar of Eton Mess chocolate! 

I even decided to go all out and fancy up my Graham Crackers too, so the night before I dipped the ends in melted chocolate and sprinkled shredded coconut on the ones that would pair with the coconut chocolate, and pink sprinkles on the ones that would pair with the Eton Mess chocolate.

It also helped that my awesome husband bought me these FireForks as a birthday present, specifically to aid me in my S'mores making! They are super clever because they enable you to toast two marshmallows evenly at the same time!

Oh man, these coconut S'mores were amazing! 

I took a bite and you can see the coconut cream filling was still intact in the middle of the piece of chocolate but the chocolate had already started melting into that gooey marshmallow! 

and the Eton Mess S'more turned out pretty spectacular too - the chocolate even had freeze dried strawberries and meringue pieces in as well! 

So if you've never had a S'more before then what are you waiting for! One of my favourite things to do when people came to visit us in Turks and Caicos was to introduce them to S'mores for the first time! and if you have then why not try some variations on the regular ones and jazz yours up a little! You'll thank me for it.  

Happy S'mores making! Let's just hope the weather co operates for us so we can be making them all summer long! 

Disclosure: American Soda provided me with these complimentary products.  However my participation was voluntary, and all opinions and views expressed are my own.