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Chocolate ‘nest’ dessert recipe for Easter and nominations for awards

April 9, 2014 8 Comments Filed Under: Desserts and sweets, Food, Recipes, Wine

This recipe is very simple, but you do need silicon cupcake cups for it. I talk about what wine goes with chocolate in my April column on Winetrust100.

I’m on book deadline this month, so posts may be shorter than usual. I’ve not yet talked about my trip to Botswana have I?

In other news I’m thrilled to be on the Pink Lady Food Photography ‘Food and its place’ shortlist with one of my entries. I’ll find out next week if I’ve won. And, even more exciting, I’m shortlisted as online food writer of the year at the Fortnum & Mason awards in May. Hmm, what shall I wear?

pic: Kerstin Rodgers/msmarmitelover.com

Print

Easter egg nests

For this you need silicon cup cake holders. This way you can ‘paint’ the chocolate inside then peel the insides off.
Course Afternoon Tea, Easter, Small cakes
Cuisine Baking
Keyword Chocolate, Chocolate cake, Easter recipes, Easter treats, Middle Eastern cuisine, Small cakes
Serves 8

Ingredients

  • 100 g dark chocolate
  • 200 g cream cheese
  • 125 g condensed milk
  • 40 ml of double cream
  • 1 tsp of vanilla paste
  • 4 tbsps of Pedro Ximenez sherry or other dessert wine
  • Mini chocolate eggs
  • Chocolate powder

Instructions

  • Melt the chocolate by putting it in the microwave for 30 seconds, no more. If it needs a little more time then stick it in for another 30 seconds. On no account, think, I’ll save time if I put it in for a minute. Chocolate can seize very quickly.
  • Then with a clean dry pastry brush, paint the insides of the silicon cupcake holder. Paint it quite thickly, maybe leaving it to dry, then painting it again. You want it fairly thick so that you can release it from the silicon without it breaking.
  • Put it in the fridge.
  • Then whip the cream cheese, condensed milk, double cream, vanilla and finally PX together for around five minutes until it thickens. Place it in the fridge to chill.
  • Once the cream mixture is chilled, remove the chocolate silicon holders from the fridge. Using your thumbnail, lift the chocolate on the sides from the silicon, going all away around the holder. Gently pull away the silicon and push up from the bottom to remove the chocolate, which will now be a shell in the shape of the cupcake holder.
  • Place on the plate you are going to serve it on (you don’t want to handle it too much) then scoop the cream mixture inside. Decorate with mini chocolate eggs and some chocolate powder.

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Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Helen

    April 9, 2014 at 1:33 pm

    Congratulations! I think you should wear the aubergine dress x

    Reply
  2. Kerstin Rodgers

    April 9, 2014 at 2:36 pm

    Thank you Helen! Maybe the dress with aubergines on for Pink Lady (I really need an apple dress don't I?) and the tea cup dress for Fortnums?

    Reply
  3. Unknown

    April 9, 2014 at 3:48 pm

    Hi, honey! I can't access the chocolate nest recipe, I get an invalid link comment. Looks delicious!

    Reply
  4. Kerstin Rodgers

    April 9, 2014 at 5:50 pm

    Are you calling me honey because of what I said on my Facebook? Cheeky! Thanks for letting me know, link is fixed now.

    Reply
  5. Chloe

    April 11, 2014 at 10:56 am

    Congratulations! Good to know Fortnum's have taste.

    Reply
    • Kerstin Rodgers

      April 12, 2014 at 5:37 pm

      Thanks chloe x

      Reply
  6. caramelnibbles

    April 12, 2014 at 2:26 pm

    Your photo of the blue cheese frittata on the linked page is gorgeous! Congratulations on the nominations.

    Reply
    • Kerstin Rodgers

      April 12, 2014 at 5:37 pm

      Oh thanks caramel xx

      Reply

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MsMarmiteLover aka Kerstin Rodgers.

Chef, photographer, author, journalist, blogger. Pioneer of the supperclub movement.

This is my food and travel blog, with recipes, reviews and travel stories. I also stray into politics, feminism, gardening.

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msmarmitelover

Kerstin Rodgers/MsMarmiteLover
Apple rose blossom tarts with rose jam. Rose Appl Apple rose blossom tarts with rose jam.  Rose Apple Blossom Tarts

Serves 8

Equipment: 
Microwave
Cupcake or muffin tin

I use a red-skinned apple to make these, to get a hint of blush at the edges of the ‘petals’.

Ingredients:
4 Pink Lady or Royal Gala apples, cored, cut into quarters, sliced thinly into half moons
1 lemon, squeezed
1 pack all butter readymade puff pastry 320g, on a roll, cut into 8 strips about 6 cms long
100g of melted butter
1/2 jar of rose jam
1 or 2 tbsp cinnamon or cardamom, ground 
Pinch maldon salt
2 or 3 tbsp icing sugar

Instructions

Prepare a bowl of acidulated water (cold water with lemon juice) to prevent browning.
Core the apples, and cut them in quarters. Slice thinly into half-moons (a mandolin is useful for this). 
Put them into a large bowl of cold water with the lemon.
Microwave the bowl of sliced apples for 5 minutes until soft enough to bend slightly but not cook them.
Preheat the oven to 180ºC.
Roll out the puff pastry. Divide into 8 sections by cutting the roll into quarters then halving each quarter. You will end up with 8 approximately 6cm strips.
Brush the strip with melted butter then paint with a layer of rose jam. You can then dust with either ground cinnamon or cardamom.
Lay the apple slices along the top of the pastry strip, overlapping them. Fold up the bottom half of the pastry strip to make an pleat with the skin side of the apple half moon poking over the top.
Roll up the folded pastry strips until they look like a rose made of apple at the top
Place ‘rose’ side up, in a buttered cupcake tin
Repeat until all are done and bake for 20 -30 minutes.
Using a tea strainer or small sieve, sprinkle with icing sugar.
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