Valentine's Day

Name: Baked Camembert with Smoked Chilli Honey & Walnuts
Prep time: 5 min
Cook time: 15 min
Total time: 20 min
Yield: 2
Cuisine: French
Ingredients: 150g Pasturised Camembert or Brie (in its box); 2 teaspoons Gran Luchito Mexican Smoked Chilli Honey; 2 tablespoons walnuts, chopped; 1 small ciabatta roll

January 21, 2014

Baked Camembert with Smoked Chilli Honey

As we inch closer to February, we’re nearing St Valentine’s Day and if you’re staying home this year, you might have started to think about planning your menu. You really want a menu that’s simple and not too stressful, tasty and a little bit creative. Sharing food is always nice, I think, or something that you wouldn’t eat everyday and hopefully, a dish or a meal that’s memorable.

This year I’ve been tasked by British brand Gran Luchito, to create a recipe to the theme of #SpicyValentines based upon their smoked chilli paste – available online at Amazon, or on the Ottolenghi food website, no less. Three products were sent to me as inspiration- Gran Luchito’s original smoked chilli paste, some smoked chilli mayo and some smoked chilli honey. All three products are made with rare smoked Mexican chillies, providing a spicy, sweet, smokey hit to your food. I decided to use their smoked chilli honey, as a drizzle for some baked Camembert. Brie would work nicely, too, or even a British alternative, such as this heart-shaped Daylesford Organic Baywell Cheese, spotted on Ocado.

A baked cheese is such an easy starter to make, there’s really no preparation at all, other than removing any wrapping that your cheese is in and placing it back into its little wooden container. You can also wrap it in tin foil if you prefer. I usually score a cross into the top of the cheese, just to make it easier to see the bubbles when they start oozing from the inside. After twenty minutes, carefully take your cheese out of the oven, scatter over some chopped walnuts for added crunch and drizzle over some slightly warm Gran Luchito Smoked Chilli Honey. Serve with chunks of crusty bread and be careful you don’t burn your fingers when dipping in!

Have I encouraged you to try a #SpicyValentines by adding a touch of rare Mexican smoked chilies?!

If so, here are a few more recipes to explore –

Laura’s Spiced, Honey Roast Squash, Chorizo, Prawn and Feta Salad

Katie’s Crispy Spiced Chicken

Jacqueline’s Smoked Chilli Bean Burgers

Michelle’s Salmon with Gran Luchito Honey Glaze or Trout with Gran Luchito Mayo

Nazima’s Braised Poussin with Chilli, Lime and Herb Broth

Helen’s Chilli Honey Marshmallows

Sarah’s Hot Stuff Bitesize Brownies with Oaxacan Smoked Chilli Honey (GF)

Urvashi’s Chilli Honey Baklava

1 vote

Baked Camembert with Smoked Chilli Honey & Walnuts

Prep 5 mins

Cook 15 mins

Total 20 mins

Author Ren Behan

Yield 2

A baked Camembert, drizzled with some Gran Luchito smoked chilli honey and scattered with walnuts - perfect for sharing

Ingredients

150g Pasturised Camembert or Brie (in its box)
2 teaspoons Gran Luchito Mexican Smoked Chilli Honey
2 tablespoons walnuts, chopped
1 small ciabatta roll

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 200C/400F/Gas 6.
Remove any plastic wrapping or packaging from the cheese and place it back into its box. Score a cross into the top of the cheese, just piercing the rind. Place the lid back on. Bake the cheese for fifteen to twenty minutes, or until the cheese had melted in the middle.
Carefully take the cheese out of the oven and place on a serving plate. In a small pan, gently warm the smoked chilli honey. Drizzle the warm honey over the cheese and sprinkle over the chopped walnuts.Serve with small chunks of crusty bread.

Courses Starter

Cuisine French

With thanks to Gran Luchito for this paid recipe commission; in addition to products sent, my time and additional ingredients were covered.

What are you thinking of eating or serving for Valentine’s Day?

February 14, 2013

Recipe: Caramel and Cocoa Cupcakes

This is a recipe adapted from a lovely new baking book in my collection, Peggy Porschen’s Boutique Baking. Her cupcake boutique is always filled to the brim with pretty and intricately decorated cakes. It is definitely on my list of places to visit when London-bound. Since receiving the book for Christmas, I’ve had my eye on Peggy’s triple layer Creamy Caramel Cake, but in the end, I wondered if I’d be the only one left eating it. So, I decided to halve the cake mix to make 12 individual cupcakes instead. I added some My Secret Kitchen Vanilla Pudding Spices (cinnamon would work well, too) and used a toffee sauce, since that’s what I had, in place of dulce de leche. Peggy suggests making a sugar syrup to soak into the cakes once baked, but as these were small cupcakes with plenty of sweet frosting on top I didn’t think it was necessary.

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February 9, 2013

Giveaway & Review Hotel Chocolat Love Notes

It’s that time of year again when the shops go into overdrive selling Valentine’s Day merchandise. Expectation levels are high; will we receive flowers, chocolates, a card from the petrol station, an invitation to dinner?! Or none of the above, with the reasoning that true love should be expressed throughout the year and not just on one day…My little boy is making a Valentine’s day card this year. He’s six and there is one particular young lady who has captured his attention. I’ve already received my ‘love note’ from him and a cut out heart, saying “I Love You Mummy.” I’ve also had an early taste of some Hotel Chocolat ‘Love Notes’ – so I’m a happy girl even if that’s my lot. I also have a box to share with one of my readers, too.

This year, the Hotel Chocolat Love Notes Menu reveals – Amaretto Marzipan, Caramel Praline, Champagne Bellini, Dark Mousse, Lemon Berry Tart and Salted Praline. In this box, you get 12 chocolates, two of each flavour. The box is small but sturdy, you could keep it for your real love notes. Underneath the chocolates, there are twelve love quotes, so as you pick each chocolate out of the box, you reveal a little message. Since I’ve just been to see Les Misérables, I’ll share a Victor Hugo quote from the box – “Love is a portion of the soul itself.”

There’s a clear winner in this box for me – the Caramel Praline. If you’ve ever tasted Hotel Chocolate’s Caramel Button’s you’ll know what I mean when I say it’s almost impossible not to eat the whole packet in one sitting. So, the combination of milk chocolate, praline and caramel in a heart-shaped chocolate was definitely the highlight of the box for me. My husband immediately picked out the two Amaretto Marzipan chocolates, since those are his two very favourite flavours. I’m not usually a fan of fruity chocolates, but the Lemon Berry Tart (white chocolate) offered a taste of rich lemon curd with a spike of berries followed by sweet and mellow white chocolate. The Champagne Bellini has a really good hit of alcohol and a dash of peach, but I didn’t really get any peach flavour. The Dark Mousse was probably my least favourite, but then again, I’ve always favoured Hotel Chocolat’s milk chocolate range, but that’s just me. There’s a Salted Praline, too, and though I’m a little over salted chocolate this one has a good pinch of Fleur de Sel.

Hotel Chocolat’s Love Notes are priced at £14.00. Last year, I believe that the box contained a little card that you could write a personal love note on, this year, you don’t get a card, only the insert with love quotations.

I also noticed their Lovebirds chocolate (priced at £10.00), which I thought were sweet.

If you are hoping to impress someone this Valentine’s Day, I’d say go for The Affection Collection along with a Revive Treatmeant Candle.

Here’s how to enter the Hotel Chocolat Giveaway – the prize will be sent out by Hotel Chocolat directly.

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Note – This is a sponsored review, all views and opinion expressed are my own. Many thanks to Hotel Chocolat.

February 10, 2012

Raspberry Ripple and Basil Cupcakes

This week I’ve been in my kitchen celebrating the arrival of my shiny new K-Mix – the very generous first prize from Kenwood for my Polish Spiced Christmas Cookies for Let’s Make Christmas hosted by Vanessa Kimbell. I am a very lucky girl indeed and I was super-shocked to hear that I had won out of one hundred and ten entries! Gifts were exchanged and prizes had been won at the Fortnum & Mason Gift Swap, but Vanessa had also opened the competition up to all by hosting an on-line event to run along side. You can see all the entries in Vanessa’s Ultimate Guide to making your own gifts here. Seriously, you would actually have to start making your Christmas gifts now if you even wanted to scratch the surface of all the edible treats that were on offer, including Jams, Pickles and Preserves, Drinkable Gifts, Sweet Gifts and Baked Goods. I was half hoping for a Let’s Make Valentine’s Day…but I think we might have to wait until Easter for another gift-themed blog event.

With Valentine’s Day just around the corner, I decided to make my inagural ‘K-Mix’ a batch of cupcakes. A little pot of basil sat staring at me on my kitchen windowsill and although I know it’s not a logical combination, I really wanted to use some of it to flavour my cupcakes. My thinking (hear me out) was that during the summer, basil and strawberries work really well together, so perhaps raspberries and basil would do too. I then started thinking of ice-cream and of how we love a drizzle of raspberry sauce and that led me to think that raspberry ripple cupcakes would be a lovely way of cheering us all up. Can anyone follow my thinking?!

So, although British raspberries are not in season, I usually have some homemade raspberry coulis stored in the freezer, from the lazy, hazy summer or even late autumnal days gone by, but really, any good quality shop-bought raspberry coulis will work here.

As for the basil, just use a tiny amount, chop a few leaves and add them to the buttercream, or if you are not feeling brave enough, just add a spring for decoration along with your raspberry drizzle.

K-Mix v Kitchenaid

The K-Mix is a dream to use and it is a very welcome addition to my kitchen. Having used a Kitchenaid Artisan stand mixer before, I was able to compare the two. I noticed that the K-Mix is a lot smoother when you first switch it on to mix, no sudden burst, no clouds of flour or icing sugar in your face. You get a K-Beater, dough hook and a whisk and a splash-guard that seems to fit onto the actual machine a lot better than the splash-guard on the Kitchenaid. There is a little lid you can lift on the K-Mix splash-guard so that you can add icing sugar in spoon by spoon and when making buttercream, the whole process seemed a lot cleaner and smoother. There is also a fold function, which is very handy as it means that the K-Mix will very gently fold your flour in, rather than mixing it in and causing the gluten to over-work. All in all,the K-Mix also seems to be a lot more streamlined, meaning that there are less nooks and crannies to clean. I am seriously impressed and were I to be in the position of looking to buy a stand mixer, I would have to think very carefully about my choice. The K-Mix is also British made…you can see how the ticks are stacking up in all the boxes.

Thank you to Penny at Kenwood UK for arranging delivery of my prize and to Vanessa Kimbell.

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I’m also sending these pretty cupcakes over to Kate at What Kate Baked who is hosting the February Tea Time Treats Challenge (alternating with Karen from Lavender and Lovage) – with the appropriate theme of Romance!

The cupcake recipe I used is adapted from a BBC Good Food recipe for Rose Cupcakes (which would also be romantic) – regularly cited as being one of the best cupcake recipes around, made with yoghurt to keep the crumb lovely and soft.

Cupcakes are a perfect rainy (or in our case, snowy) day activity. As usual, I was battling with the stealing little hands who were as ever, eager to pinch these lovely little morsels as soon I had taken a few snaps…

Happy Valentine’s Day! Are you a die-hard romantic or a Valentine’s Day sceptic?!

Where do you ‘stand’ on the K-Mix versus Kitchenaid debate?!

February 3, 2012

Review and Giveaway: Hotel Chocolat ‘Open Your Heart To Me’ Selection

As you may have already realised by now, I am a little bit partial to a nice bit of chocolate. It is the one thing I couldn’t live without and it would certainly be something I’d request if I was stranded on a desert island. Although if I was really lucky, I’d get stranded on the island of St Lucia and would go and seek out Hotel Chocolat’s Cocoa Plantation on The Rabot Estate. I’m dreaming again…

Anyway, as you might have also noticed, it’s that time of year again when we get to think about Valentine’s Day gifts and so I’ve been busy sampling some of Hotel Chocolat’s collection, in particular the Open Your Heart To Me dreamy chocolate heart filled with a selection of milk, dark and white chocolate mini hearts. It’s priced at £25.00 RRP, which for Valentine’s Day, I think is reasonable.

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