Version #1: for Meghan and other dark chocolate lovers
Apparently, it’s going to be a week of revelations. I baked my go-to Chocolate and Fruit Oatmeal Cookies yesterday, using cranberries, split the batch, added white chocolate (Zephyr 34% Cacao Barry) to one half for Michael and dark chocolate (Tanzanie 75% Cacao Barry) to the other half for me, then posted a photo on my Instagram. Prepared to be asked for the recipe, I popped over to my blog (i.e. here) for a link only to realize I never posted it. I only sent it out in a newsletter (May 2017!!).
So here it is, if only just so I can link back to it myself.
Michael: *peering into a small pale blue box* “What are these?”
Me: *glancing into the box on my way through the kitchen* “My salted caramels.”
Michael: “Oh.” He glances mournfully at the box he is holding – which used to be full of chocolates he’d selected for himself – then down into a drawer that is *literally* teeming with a crazy amount of chocolate and treats that we’ve just spent two days in Vancouver collecting.
Me: (feeling magnanimous, since there are two of the caramels) “You can have one if you like.”
Michael: “No. That’s all right.” He closes the box, puts it back, and picks up a crumpled plastic bag instead. “I’ll just eat the rest of my sour patch kids.”
Me: ???
Yes. Dozens of amazing treats to choose from and my husband wanders back out to his studio after lunch with his leftover movie night treats in hand.
I ate one of the salted caramels. It was freaking amazing.
Back to writing.
[I’ll run the random number generator(s) for the T-shirt giveaway(s) at the end of the day].
I’ve gotten a few requests for this recipe over the years, but I never take the time to type it up. Well, here it is. Unfortunately, you will have to do the metric conversions yourself (if needed) as I didn’t have the time to test it both ways tonight (Google is helpful, of course, but I never want to convert without testing).
Enjoy!
First in pictures:
Improvised double boiler for the butter, cocoa powder, sugar, and vanilla.
Graham wafer crumbs and finely flaked coconut.
Add the egg to the warm chocolate/butter mixture. Stir quickly so the whites don’t start cooking (as they did when I paused to take this picture).
My base turned out rather buttery, so I might have measured slightly wrong (or not stirred it enough?) Either way, it will still be tasty (and hidden from view).
Custard powder and milk.
Fluffy custard flavoured butter icing.
Spreading the butter icing over the chilled base.
Try to make it somewhat smoother than I managed. I suck at working with icing.
Melt butter with chocolate. I always want to up the amount to 4 ounces of chocolate, but then it cracks when I cut it into squares. So this seems thin, but it works.
Top with slightly cooled chocolate, but work quickly. Mine started thickening on me (again pausing to take the picture might have been the issue).
Chill until the top is solid.
For a party, or a gift, I would tidy the edges. But for me these look perfect!
ETA: based on your comments/concerns since I posted this last night, please let me add a plea here to NOT substitute ingredients if you don’t really, really need to. There are A LOT of bad Nanaimo Bars in the world. A LOT. In fact, I rarely like any. Most are sickly sweet or too mushy or the chocolate is inferior. And yes, I understand I’m difficult to please but we should all be that difficult! LOL
So here is my addendum (with links, please let me know if the links have gone stale).
Graham Wafer Crumbs = Graham Cracker Crumbs. I use Honey Maid (Amazon.ca link) (Amazon.com link) (Amazon.co.uk link) but I don’t think the brand is important. They are simply called wafers in Canada.
Custard Powder. I use Bird’s Custard Powder (Amazon.ca link) (Amazon.com link) (Amazon.co.uk link) but again I don’t think brand is important. But please, please don’t sub instant pudding. Or if you do, know that the consistency and taste will be completely different.
When I have extra chocolate in the house, or perhaps odds and ends of chocolate leftover, I occasionally make these Chocolate Palettes. I’m not a chocolatier – just an exceedingly enthusiastic amateur – and no matter how many times I try, or whose directions I follow, I can’t seem to properly temper chocolate. But since these tasty bits usually get eaten straight out of the fridge, I don’t worry about the grey streaks that can appear when you don’t temper chocolate properly. If you want them to continue looking pretty for guests, pull them out of the fridge about 30 minutes before serving.
Chocolate Palettes
200 grams (0.44 pounds/approx. 7 ounces) dark chocolate, chopped*
various nuts, roasted**
various dried fruit, cut into small pieces***
Fleur du sel (optional)
Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Add the chocolate to a large heat proof bowl. Set the bowl over a small pot of simmering water. Stir frequently until the chocolate is almost melted. Remove bowl from the heat, wiping the bottom (if you get any water in your chocolate it will seize). Stir the chocolate until it is completely melted. Cool, occasionally stirring, until slightly thick.
Spoon chocolate onto prepared baking sheet by the teaspoon. Allow to cool more.
Dot rounds with nuts and fruit. Sprinkling with Fleur de sel, if desired.
Refrigerate the baking sheet until the chocolate sets. Makes approx. 26 palettes.
Store in the refrigerator.
As you can see by the pictures I’m fairly random with my various toppings. One nut with two pieces of fruit. Two nuts with two pieces of fruit. Sometimes I add sunflower or pumpkin seeds. Remember that nuts and seeds do go bad so please use the freshest you can find.
*I used a 85% cocoa and a 73% cocoa chocolate bar, plus Fleur de Cao from Cacao Barry (a 70% cocoa – strong cocoa flavour with subtle floral and fruity notes).
** I used pistachios and almonds
*** I used organic dried cranberries, dried pear, and dried plum. I soak the pear in pineapple juice for approx. 15 minutes before dehydrating it. So it’s pretty much candy. The plums are Early Italian, which I eat/dry about 40 pounds of each year. No, I’m not exaggerating.
It’s been a tough week. I always have issues when writing first drafts – it often feels as if I’m forcing every word onto the page – but Reconstructionist 2 is heavily influenced by my personal history (though, obviously, a completely fictional, fantastical accounting) and I’m ending most of my writing stints in tears. So it’s been a slog. The second draft will be much smoother.
Yesterday, I took an hour off before dinner and made banana bread before the bananas were only good for compost, and I spotted an unopened bag of marshmallows in my baking drawer. We’d bought them to use for candied yams, then didn’t end up making any yams for Christmas dinner.
I immediately decided I desperately needed to make some marshmallow bar with this unexpected but welcomed bounty. And that, besides being tasty, the bars (and making of) would mollify my bruised soul, as chocolate always does.
According to my notes, I’d been working on this recipe in the Spring of 2015 but had yet to perfect it. I’m pleased to say my slight tweak last night made it perfectly sharable.
Chocolate Peanut Butter Marshmallow Bar
1/8 cup/28 grams of butter
1/2 cup/120 ml peanut butter*
1 – 250 gram/8 ounce (?) bag of mini marshmallows
170 grams/6 oz of dark chocolate**
Melt butter in a large saucepan over medium heat. Add chocolate and peanut butter, stirring until smooth. Remove from heat. Fold in marshmallows. Spread in a parchment paper lined 8- or 9-inch square pan. Chill until firm (at least 2 hours). Cut into squares, or rectangles, as preferred. Store in refrigerator.
The key with this simple recipe is to use the highest quality ingredients you can get your hands on. Butter, not margarine. Old-fashioned peanut butter (the type with no added ingredients that you need to stir the oil into), and, of course, quality dark chocolate.
I’m currently writing the first draft of I See You (Oracle 2). Life has been crazy – we are moving. Yes, again – but I’m still managing to eke out about 2000 words every day.
Writing – as opposed to brainstorming, which I live and breath – needs fuel and focus. Not enough fuel, and I lose focus quickly. So I try to enforce mini breaks when I feel weary or distracted. I could push through, and I do so when time is crunchy. But it’s better if I don’t. An unfueled MCD is not a pretty sight. Such days usually devolve into ranting, then weeping. Generally over things that do not require yelling or tears.
This is my break today. Only two chocolates remain from my second to last forage at Chocolate Arts. They look at little worn – perhaps they’ve been bashed about in the stash drawer – and I can’t remember what kind they are, but I know I’m going to love every nibble.
ETA: The Chocolate Arts website has helpfully reminded me that I indulged in a Framboise (rectangle) – single origin, intense dark chocolate with fruit and acidic overtones – while writing this blog post. And will luxuriate in a Cleopatra – caramel ganache, surrounding a caramel cream with a roasted organic hazelnut in a dark chocolate shell – right after I hit publish.
I was just sucking away on some deliciously smooth Boa Sentenca (Cacao Barry) while I cleared out my inbox when it occured to me that it might be a little early in the morning for chocolate, no matter how tasty. And yep, turns out it’s 8:56am as I type this blog post.
Chocolate before 9am is early even for me.
But I figure, since the fire alarm went off to tell us the power was BACK on at 4:40am, and I – ignorant of the time – remained awake and rewrote the entire ending of Dowser 6 while lying in bed, that it’s actually way passed regular chocolate-imbibing time. You know, technically.
Seriously though, why can’t I just plug a computer into my brain? I’ve known how Dowser 6 was going to end for a year now. And, though I’ve tweaked and fleshed out the idea over the last 12 months, the core ending remains the same. The frustration is that it’s still in my head, still haunting my early morning hours … along with my late evenings. To compound that frustration, I have a novel to finish (Dowser 5) and a novel to write (Oracle 2) before I can even crack the spine on a new notebook for Dowser 6 (beyond the pages and pages of notes and scenes I already have jotted down).
All I can hope is that the end result is worth the sleepless nights. For me and Dowser Series readers.
Of course, by then I imagine something new will be haunting me … from inside my own brain.
I guess that’s just normal around here.
Okay, well then. Back to work.
4-week and two-day old Swedish Flower Hen cockerel. For you. Just because.
I have been exceedingly blessed in the last few years by lovely readers who have become supportive friends, some of whom I haven’t even met in person yet. I’ve talked about Gertie and her cupcake support committee here, here, and here (one for each Dowser book). I also still have Karen’s trinket hanging on my monitor where I get to see it every morning.
And then there is lovely Kelly. She sent this:
<3 I’ve made a screensaver out of the above image <3
I knew a treat was coming, because Kelly and I had been trying to meet for a hot chocolate last month – yes, we know each other in real life, however our paths do not naturally cross 🙁 But life was insanely busy with moving and family. Kelly finally convinced me that she should just mail the package to me as a house warming gift.
This is what was so brilliantly packaged inside – yes, brand new chocolate!!!
Five freaking kilograms of Ocoa by Cacao Barry to be exact!! That’s 11.02 pounds for my American friends. I, of course, immediately opened, poured, and tasted 🙂
This huge box of “support” will get me through writing a couple of more Dowser books, at the very least. I’m thinking of making brownies, cupcakes, and perhaps some Chewy Gooey Chocolate Cookies with it.
In fact, I’m designing up some new cupcakes for Dowser 4 and I’m seriously thinking of using this chocolate to make them, then sending tasters to Kelly for her approval. That won’t even dent this box of goodness – yes, I’m greedy and selfishly-bent when it comes to good chocolate.
Thank you Kelly, for all your support and the chocolate. It is – you are – very appreciated and cherished!
