Spelt puff chocolates - Spelttisuklaat

The 80s were modest times in Finland and treats were always something special. We didn't always have chocolate, sweets or crisps around, so we had to get creative when the snacking hunger got ahold of us. Of course then homemade sweets had to be made and one of the absolute classics are these rice crispie chocolate cups. My grandmother made them quite often and they were so tasty. I think that most of the time just cocoa powder was used and not chocolate. The classic way is to make them in muffin cups, as it's so easy, but I'm considering making them as a bar as well.

I had a look for old rice crispie chocolate recipes online, but Fazer's one got my attention taking this treat straight to the 21st century. They didn't use spelt puffs, which were my own addition. I have made these with both dark and milk chocolate and both were very good, possibly the milk chocolate ones were slightly tastier. These had a hint of coconut flavour due to the oil and weren't too sweet, so they were just perfect for me. Here however are the dark chocolate ones with a hint of coconut depicted.

This recipe makes about 10-12 small spelt puff chocolate cups

Ingredients

150 g dark baking chocolate

2 tbsp coconut oil

1 tsp icing sugar

8 dl spelt puffs

Method

Melt the chocolate and coconut oil in a water bath.

Then mix the sugar in followed by the spelt puffs. Mix thoroughly so that the chocolate covers the puffs.

Put the mixture into muffin cases and let rest in the fridge for at least an hour.

Enjoy as small snacks in between or as a dessert.

Your VegHog

Coffee and chocolate cake

This sort of chocolate and coffee cake (mokkapalat) was often served in Finland in my youth. I'm fearing that it's less popular these days, as I haven't seen it around for a long time. This is a very easy cake to make, as you may know how bad I am at baking, so this is a perfect one that even I can manage. I really love coffee, so its flavour on a chocolate cake is a really nice combination. For this one I followed a recipe by Valio, but have translated it to you below. You can find the original recipe here. Most ingredient amounts are in desilitres, which makes the baking even easier, if you happen to own a desilitre measuring cup as is usual in Finnish households.

Ingredients

Cake dough

4 eggs

2 ½ dl sugar

200 g butter

2 dl milk

5 dl wheat flour

½ dl cocoa powder

1 tbsp baking powder

1 tbsp vanilla sugar

Topping

75 g butter

¾ dl strong coffee

4 dl icing sugar

½ dl cocoa powder

2 tsp vanilla sugar

Decoration

Fruity confetti

Method

Make the cake dough first. Whisk the eggs and sugar into foamy texture. Melt the butter and add the cold milk to it. Combine the dry ingredients. Add the butter and milk mix into the egg and sugar mix and also add the dry ingredients through a sieve. Mix carefully. Pour the dough onto baking paper on a baking sheet and bake at 200 C for about 15 minutes.

Make the topping by melting the butter and adding the coffee to it. Add the other ingredients through a sieve and mix on the hot hob. Pour the topping onto the cake while it's still hot (the cake can be either cooled down or also hot). Put some confetti on the top as decoration and let cool.

Enjoy!

Your VegHog

Gingerbread and orange chocolate

This homemade chocolate is full of flavours of Christmas: chocolate, gingerbread and orange. I baked too many gingerbread cookies that I don't have time to eat, so I wanted to use part of them elsewhere, and this was just the perfect way.

These chunky chocolate pieces could make a nice homemade present. Here are the simple instructions how to make them.

You'll need these:

300 g dark baking chocolate

Zest of 1 orange

4-5 gingerbread cookies

This is what you do:

Gently melt the chocolate in a pot in a water bath until it has fully melted.

Grate the zest of the orange.

Crush the gingerbread cookies into various sized chunks.

Mix some of the orange zest and gingerbread cookie chunks into the melted chocolate.

Spread the chocolate on baking paper and sprinkle the rest of the gingerbread cookie pieces and orange zest on the top.

Let rest in the fridge for a few hours.

Then break it into smaller pieces and enjoy!

Your VegHog

Flourless chocolate cake

Here's something for true chocolate fans and also for those, who need or want to make a gluten free cake.

I haven't quite decided yet what kind of cake to make for the Christmas coffee table, but I wanted to test this flourless version in advance, as I was curious what it would be like. I followed Felicity Cloake's recipe, which once again had very good detailed instructions. So, have a look in the Guardian, if you would want to bake this cake.

The cake turned out to be extremely tasty, but it also was very rich of course (look at the butter amount alone!). Well, I guess every now and again one can allow to indulge themselves with such a cake. It sank a bit in the middle, but that was hard to prevent and didn't disturb the presentation too much. However, I have decided against this one as a Christmas cake, as it could be too rich after a Christmas dinner, but I will certainly make it again for other occasions.

How do you like Spike posing on the cake?

Chocolate orange cupcakes – Da Capo cupcakes

It was a really hot day yesterday, yet in the afternoon I started baking and heating the small flat even more. I can't complain though, as the end result was really nice. I tried my own experimental recipe for chocolate orange cupcakes, and it worked!

The combination of chocolate and orange is just heavenly, don't you think! I've been planning this kind of cupcakes for a long time and now I got my Finnish Da Capo chocolates that are perfect for these cupcakes, so I finally decided to make them (Da capo is a musical term in Italian, meaning from the beginning, literally from the head, which makes me think that I could make these cupcakes again...). Da Capos are iconic Finnish sweets manufactured by Fazer since 1916, and already as a child I adored them. They contain a tiny amount of rum, so I decided to add an additional kick through the Sailor Jerry rum. If you can't get Da Capo chocolates, don't worry, you can replace them with any dark chocolate or orange flavoured chocolate. 

This recipe shall give you about 15 cupcakes.

Cupcake dough:

50 g Da Capo chocolates

1 large orange (zest + 75 ml orange juice)

2 eggs

100 g margarine

85 g sugar

150 ml milk

25 ml Sailor Jerry rum

300 g wheat flour

2 tbsp cocoa powder

3 tsp baking powder

Icing:

50 g Da Capo chocolates

10 g dark baking chocolate

1 tbsp orange zest

2 tbsp bronze crunch (optional, also other sugary decorations can be used)

Preparation:

Pre-heat the oven to 180-200C. Place muffin cases into a muffin tin or use silicone muffin cases.

Start preparing the cupcake dough. Coarsely chop the Da Capo chocolates into chips, grate the orange zest and squeeze the orange juice. One large orange should give enough juice for the dough.

First whisk the eggs, soft margarine, sugar, milk, orange juice and rum into a smooth mixture. Then add the flour, baking powder, cocoa powder and orange zest to the mix, and whisk these until you have an even dough. Finally fold in the chocolate chips with a spatula.

Pour the dough into muffin cases, fill them up halfway. Bake them for about 25-30 minutes until the cakes are baked throughout. Let them cool down after the baking.

Then prepare the icing by melting 2/3 of the remaining Da Capo chocolates in a water bath with an addition of a little baking chocolate as that should make the whole thing a bit smoother. You can also add a dash of milk or rum, if the chocolate needs smoothening. Either save little orange zest from the dough making or grate some more and mix it to the chocolate. Then coarsely chop the rest of the chocolates into chips.

Spread the melted chocolate on top of the cupcakes while it's still warm. Let it cool down for a couple of minutes and then sprinkle the chocolate chips and possibly some bronze crunch on.

Enjoy with friends and coffee!

Your VegHog

Liquorice and lemon chocolate

I found this idea for white chocolate with salty liquorice and lemon on Fazer's recipe pages, and wanted to try it as a quick remedy for chocolate cravings. Please note that the original recipe is in Finnish. They used white lemon chocolate, but I decided to season regular white chocolate with lemon zest.

300g white chocolate (for baking)

½ lemon's zest

2tbsp Tyrkisk Peber crush (substitute with another liquorice crush)

Heat the chocolate in a water bath until liquid.

Grate the lemon zest and add it to the chocolate and whisk.

Pour the chocolate on a baking parchment and sprinkle the Tyrkisk Peber crush on the top.

Let it set in the fridge for a few hours.

Break off pieces and enjoy.

Your VegHog

Chocolate and peppermint balls

I found this sweet recipe by Fazer when I was researching and getting inspiration for the Marianne crush I purchased in Finland. Marianne are traditional Finnish chocolate filled mint sweets made by Fazer, who launched the crush range a few years back. Now after having made these chocolate balls, I can't wait to get to Finland soon to buy more of these crush products.

Ingredients for about 25 balls:
 

Please note that the original recipe is only available in Finnish through the link, but I have followed it pretty closely.

100 g butter

1 dl sugar

2 tsp vanilla sugar

4 tbsp cocoa powder

3 dl oat and barley flake mix (original recipe is only with oat flakes)

2 tbsp strong cold coffee

For decorating:

Marianne crush (or any mint sweets and milk chocolate crushed)

Instructions:

Make some strong coffee. Enjoy the most yourself while making these balls and set two tablespoons of the coffee to side to be chilled.

Mix the butter, sugar and vanilla sugar in a bowl.

Add the cocoa powder, coffee and oat flakes.

Mix until you have a smooth and firm paste.

Shape small balls of the mixture and finally roll them in the crush, so that it sticks all around them.

Let the balls rest for couple of hours in the fridge before serving.

Then just enjoy!

Your VegHog

Chocolate hoglet

Christmas is the time to eat as many chocolates as you can. Sometimes I feel like no desserts are needed as you can eat chocolates and sweets instead. I have my firm favourites among the Finnish Christmas chocolates that I simply have to eat every year, but I have also found some favourites among this year's British novelty Christmas chocolates. Those would mainly be the Woodland Friends range and the Snowman and the Snowdog series. I especially love the art work and the whimsical figures on these chocolates – smiling faces everywhere!

Obviously I'm a big fan of Spike the Hedgehog (who wouldn't love a giant chocolate hoglet?), but the other Woodland Friends are also very cute and tasty.

A Spike cake!

I remember for having watched The Snowman animation film on every Christmas Eve as a child in Finland, and I still try to watch it every year if possible. It has a wonderful Christmas atmosphere.

Enjoy your Christmas sweets!

Your VegHog

Chocolate chip and pecan muffins

I baked chocolate chip and pecan nut muffins and I want to share the recipe with you.

As decoration for these muffins I used those cute Dalecarlian chocolate horses Dalahästar that I purchased in Sweden this summer. They gave the muffins quite a cute look. Otherwise I decided against an extra chocolate icing not to make the muffins too sweet.

This recipe makes about 12 muffins that are very easy to bake.

Ingredients

300g flour

50g butter

80g sugar

1tsp baking powder

2 eggs

225ml milk

100g milk chocolate chips

50g pecan nuts chopped

1tsp vanilla extract

Dalecarlian chocolate horses or chocolate icing (optional)

Method

Stir the flour and baking powder together. Add the soft butter and pinch it until the dough has reached a similar texture to bread crumbs. Then add the sugar.

Mix the milk, eggs and vanilla extract in a separate bowl and then add these to the flour mixture. Add the chocolate chips and chopped pecan nuts. Mix the dough and pour it into muffin cases.

Bake them at 200C for about 15-20 minutes until the dough is fully baked.

Let the muffins cool and decorate them either with some chocolate icing or chocolates in horse shape or any other shapes. These muffins are best to be enjoyed with some coffee.

Your VegHog