Left Over Easter Egg Chocolate Sorbet

After making multiple batches of creme egg brownies as Easter gifts I’m feeling well and truly chocolated out (too many incidents of spoon licking are to blame). So on returning home after visiting the family last weekend I brought back a few sweet treats and couldn’t face eating them all straight away. And so I thought I would use up some of my excess choccies in a batch of chocolate sorbet. The original recipe found over at Food 52 is a great vegan alternative to ice cream if you just use dark chocolate but I stuck in some milk chocolate too, the results were still delicious, and possibly a little too addictive…I think I am going to end up eating this sorbet quicker than I would have the original Easter Eggs!!!

INGREDIENTS

550ml water

200g golden caster sugar

75g cocoa

100g dark chocolate

100g milk chocolate

50ml golden rum

Place 375ml of the water in a saucepan along with the cocoa and sugar. Place over a medium heat and bring to the boil, then continue to simmer for another minute before removing from the heat.

Break the chocolate into chunks and add to the hot cocoa mixture, stirring until all of the chocolate is melted. Finally add the remaining water and the rum.

Transfer the mixture to an airtight container and stick it in the freezer. Remove every two hours and blitz with a stick blender  before returning to the freezer, continue this process until fully frozen (alternatively just stick the mixture in an ice cream machine).

Then tuck in and enjoy, just try not to eat it all at once!!!

Gluten free creme egg brownies

Spring is in the air and the Easter Bunny shall soon be leaving little egg shaped treats amongst the daffodils for us to stumble upon. My family Easter celebrations are stuffed full of slightly crazy traditions and on Good Friday I shall be eating a massive quantity of homemade hot cross buns in the idyllic surroundings of a Kentish trout farm!!! (for more details on that one check out my hot cross bun recipe from last year!) Then once the hot cross bun fest is finished and we feel like we can’t eat any more Easter treats we all get busy in the kitchen and serve up homemade chocolaty goodies on Easter Sunday. So here is a little sneak peak of what my family will be set to receive at the weekend…thanks to some wonderful inspiration from a recipe over at scarletscorchdroppers I shall be producing the ultimate concoction of all things Easter…..chocolate and creme eggs and some more chocolate and a little more creme egg, and all of this is gluten free!!

Ingredients

180g milk chocolate

120g butter

140g golden caster sugar

2 eggs

80g gluten free flour

20g corn flour

½ teaspoon bicarbonate of soda

½ teaspoon xanthum gum

2 tablespoons cocoa powder

12 mini crème eggs (frozen)

100g golden syrup

175g icing sugar

50g butter

2 tablespoons milk

150g milk chocolate

Makes 12 brownies

Grease and line a 25cm x 20cm tin and pre-heat the oven to 180°C.

Melt together the butter, chocolate and sugar in a large saucepan over a medium heat until well combined. Remove from the heat and allow to cool slightly before stirring in the eggs and beating all of the ingredients together.

Sift in the flour, cocoa, baking powder and xanthum gum into the chocolate mix and fold together until fully combined.

Pour the mixture into the prepared tin and smooth out. Take the mini eggs out of the freezer and push into the brownie mixture (by being frozen for a bit first it prevents the eggs from melting into the mixture and they hold their shape better). Then place the tin in the centre of the oven and bake for 25 minutes, at this point the brownie should be set but still a little gooey in the middle.

Leave the mixture to cool in the tin.

Whilst the brownie mixture is cooling mix the golden syrup and butter together and then stir in the icing sugar adding the milk a little at a time to loosen the mixture if needed.

Spread 2/3 of the icing over the mixture so that it is completely covered. Add a few drops of yellow food colouring to the remaining icing and blob small teaspoons of the mixture across the brownie to resemble the yolks normally found in a crème egg.

Finally break the remaining chocolate into a heat proof bowl and place over a bowl of lightly simmering water (ensuring the bottom of the bowl doesn’t touch the water in the pan). Once melted pour the chocolate over the brownie so that it is fully covered.

Allow to set before carefully lifting out of the tin and slicing into bite sized portions….then share with friends and family for Easter.