Hazelnut praline muffins

Page 136 - Hazelnut praline muffins

These were tasty although I'm not sure if I expected more... The sugar and nuts on top gave them a nice crunchy texture, and the bit of Nutella in the middle is a nice surprise. However I think they might have been nicer with perhaps a chocolate sponge as opposed to a plain sponge with a swirl of Nutella.

Still, they were tasty!










Peanut butter and chocolate pie

Page 135 - Peanut butter and chocolate pie

This recipe was certainly one that I wouldn't have tried if I wasn't doing this blog project - I'm not a massive fan of recipes where you have to do a process, and then wait for 40 mins, and then carry on etc...
Despite the "faffiing" it tasted lovely I think, and the crunchy peanut butter gave it a good bit of texture. However I havent' quite mastered the art of making these desserts look great, and it kind of fell apart once I took it from the tin. I think I needed to pull the biscuit base up the sides more but it wouldn't stay when I tried!

I'd give it 7/10 for taste but 3/10 for presentation - it looked good when it came out of the fridge :-)

Chewy monkey bars

Page 143 - Chewy monkey bars

I love baking, but it was refreshing to read this recipe and realise it didn't actually require any cooking :-)

Lots of ingredients but pretty much just chuck them all together - what's not to like! I used Coco Pops rather than "puffed rice cereal" as per the recipe, and also substituted the honey for golden syrup as that's what I had in the cupboardh. But they worked really well and Leigh's even asked me to make more for him :-)

I liked the simplicity of this recipe, yum!!!!

Sweet and salty chocolate cake



Page 133 - Sweet and salty chocolate cake

I really should learn - I so need to half the recipes for the layer cakes in this recipe book... it was huge!

To be honest it pretty much tasted like a mighty chocolate cake, although there was a hint of caramel in there. The caramel came out quite runny and I couldn't get all of the topping / frosting on to the cake!! But it was tasty nevertheless...

However - for the amount of effort it took to make this I think I might stick to the usual chocolate cake recipe!

Coconut jam sandwich bars



Page 130 - Coconut jam sandwich bars

Yum yum YUM! I knew I'd love these and I wasn't disappointed.

The pastry (I think that's what you'd call it although it's not made like normal pastry) worked so well with the jam and sweet coconut, and the texture is nice and soft. They're very sickly though so you don't need a big chunk - I'm full from just picking at the edges :-)

Would definitely make these again!

Pea, ham and feta cheese muffins

Page 122 - Pea, ham and feta cheese muffins

You win some, you lose some... and I most definitely lost this one! Whilst they aren't as disasterous as the Angel Cake was, when I took them out of the oven they looked ok but they're stodgy inside so I probably won't eat them or pass them on.

I wasn't excited about this recipe - I think if it had proper cheese I would have expected them to be a little like cheese scones but the peas and feta cheese just weren't floating my boat. Perhaps I didn't put enough love in to this one. If I was dedicated I'd perhaps try again to conquer the recipe, but think I'll just move on!