Emma Hawkins | The Mindfulness Kitchen

Chocolate Mint Chequerboard Cake

By Emma Hawkins | October 8, 2017 | Comments 0 Comment

It’s mint, it’s chocolate, it’s massive, and it’s cake! What’s not to like? This one is an impressive center piece and will bring a touch of fun to any occasion. Four layers of chocolate and mint sponge, put together in concentric rings to make the stunning chequerboard effect. Smother it in some green icing, drip some chocolate glaze over the edge, pile high with chocolate mints, and you have yourself a winner. Despite it’s large size, it’s also surprisingly light. The chocolate cake is made using yoghurt, so it’s really moist sticky, and then the mint cake gives a beautiful refreshing flavour to partner the rich chocolate. So all in all you end up with a big slice of choco mint heaven, which slips down very nicely.

The decorating is also really fun as you can top it with pretty much any chocolate you wish. Whenever I’m about to make something like this I have a field day in the supermarket, wandering up and down the isles trying to work out what to pile on top of the cake. Generally speaking it’s a good idea to have a range of textures, tones and sizes in your toppings (my inner art student is coming out!), but apart from that go crazy. This is the kinda cake where you have a full excuse to go OTT, so make the most of it.

Being four layers tall, I can guarantee that this cake is HUGE. Therefore I’d recommend not doing what I did and make it on a casual weekday for household of three. Instead, either scale it down to just two layers (so halve the cake mixtures), or wait until an occasion, party or large gathering of people to show up – otherwise you’ll be shipping it out to anyone and everyone you can before it goes stale (I speak from experience). That said, when the time comes, take it. Go full out and make this extravagant cake, top it with whatever your heart desires and slap it (or probably gently place it, as it’s very heavy) in the middle of the table.

It does take a lot of time to make, so I’d recommend either putting aside a day to pull it all together, or make the cakes the day before you assemble it all, otherwise you’ll have a breakdown and I’ll be named responsible. You also need to know a little of what you’re doing for this one, so if you can’t crack an egg, maybe wait a day or two before attempting this. That said, you don’t have to be an expert. I make a lot of cakes, but I’m more of a cupcake gal, so a four layer monster like this was a little daunting. But follow the steps, use your common sense and you should be absolutely fine. On with the recipe!

Recipe

Serves 12

Time: 5 hours (plus chilling time)

Ingredients

For the Chocolate cake

170g Unsalted butter
100g Dark chocolate
240g Plain flour
280g Caster sugar
3 tbsp Cocoa powder
1 tsp Bicarbonate of soda
2 Large eggs
284ml Greek yoghurt

For the Mint cake

350g Butter
350g Golden caster sugar
350g Self-raising flour
6 Large eggs
1 tsp Peppermint extract
2 Tubes green food colouring

For the Butter Icing

850g Icing sugar
400g Butter (if using dairy-free spread use another 100g of icing sugar as it’ll be less stiff)
1 tsp Green food colouring

For the Chocolate drip icing

150g Good quality dark chocolate, chopped
100g Unsalted butter

To Decorate

Mint chocolate decorations (e.g After Eights, Aero balls, mint sticks, mint leaves, mint Oreos…)

Method

Preheat oven to 180˚C. Grease and line four 6 inch cake tins (or two if you only have two, but you’ll need to wash them out half way through to re-use them).
First make the chocolate cake. Melt the butter and chocolate together in a heat-proof bowl over a pan of simmering water.
In a bowl mix the flour, sugar, bicarb and cocoa together.
In another bowl whisk together the egg and yoghurt. Add this mixture, the chocolate mixture and 100ml boiling water to the flour mixture. Whisk quickly until combine and then pour into two of the lined tins.
Bake in the oven for 25-30 minutes, or until a skewer comes out clean once inserted. Leave the cakes to cool for 15 minutes before turning them out onto wire racks and leaving to cool.
Now make the mint cake. Put the butter, sugar, flour, eggs and peppermint into a bowl. Beat with a wooden spoon or whisk until smooth and fully combined. Add the green food colouring and mix again until it’s all the same colour.
Spoon the mixture into the other two lined tins. The exact weight will vary depending on the size of your eggs, but you want about 700g in each tin. Bake in the oven for 20-25 minutes. Check if it’s cooked through by inserting a skewer. If it comes out clean it’s ready. Leave to cool for 15 minutes before turning out onto a wire rack.
Whilst the cakes are cooling, make the buttercream icing. Beat the butter and sugar until smooth. Then slowly add the green food colouring, mixing between each addition, until you have your desired colour. I like quite a soft green, but you can make it any shade you like.
Once the sponges are completely cooled you can begin to assemble the cake. Take a 4-inch and a 2-inch smooth, round cookie cutter. In all four cakes, cut a circle with the 4-inch cutter in the centre of the sponge. Then take the 2-inch cutter and cut another circle out of the middle of the 4-inch circle. Take the rings out of each other, so you end up with 4 sets of 3 consecutive rings.
Now is the fun bit. Take the medium size ring of the mint cakes and put them into the now empty large rings of the chocolate cakes. Then take the small chocolate rings and put them in the centre, so you have a cake which looks chocolate-mint-chocolate.
Then take the leftover medium chocolate rings and put them into the empty rings of the large mint cakes. Take the small mint rings and put them into the centre of the medium chocolate rings, so you have two cakes which look mint-chocolate-mint.
Now it’s time to make the chequerboard. Take one of the cakes which goes chocolate-mint-chocolate, and put into onto the board you’ll display the cake on. Spread some of the butter cream over the cake with a palette knife. Then take one of the mint-chocolate-mint cakes and place it on top. Spread this layer with buttercream as well. Repeat this again so the next layer is chocolate-mint-chocolate, and then the final layer is mint-chocolate-mint, with buttercream sandwiching each layer. From the side the cake should have layers of chocolate, mint, chocolate, mint.
Take a palette knife and blob half the butter icing onto the top of the cake. Smooth the icing out and push it round the sides. Use the palette knife to smooth out the icing in a not-too-thick, smooth layer. Leave the icing to set in the fridge for 15-20 minutes.
Take the cake out of the fridge and do another layer of butter icing over the first, making sure it’s really smooth, as at the end as this layer will be on show. Dipping the palette knife in warm water before smoothing can be a good way to get really smooth icing. Leave in the fridge to set until needed.
Now make the chocolate ‘drip’ icing. Put the chocolate into a heat-proof bowl (glass or metal) and put over a pan of gently simmering water. Once the chocolate is melted, take off the heat and throw in chunks of the butter, a little at a time – stirring to melt and mix.
Using a thermometer, record the temperature whilst adding the butter chunks. Once the butter is melted and the mixture reaches 30˚C you can use the glaze.
To prevent the glaze from melting the icing put it into a jug and then into the fridge for 3 minutes. Any more than this and the glaze will set so be careful. If this does happen, put it into the microwave for 10 seconds to loosen it up.
When ready, spoon the glaze into the centre of the cake. Using the back of a large spoon, spread out the glaze so that it just drips over the edge. You want the drips to be slightly uneven and not to drip all down the cake, so carefully push the drips over in different amounts.
Leave the glaze to set for 5-10 minutes. Then take the mint chocolates and decorate the top of the cake. I went for KitKats, Malteasers, Mint Aero balls, Mint Aeros, chocolate buttons, mint matchsticks, Mint Oreos, and mint leaves. Now you can serve!

Alternative:

Not a big fan of mint? Not a big fan of chocolate? Apart from needing a sanity check, this isn’t a problem. Why not try making a coffee and walnut chequerboard? Or cherry and almond? Simply make both cakes using the mint cake recipe, but instead of adding the green food colouring and mint extract, add chopped nuts, coffee, glace cherries or ground almonds and almond extract.

To get the defined chequerboard it’s a good idea to go for two contrasting colours in your sponges. So in the coffee and walnut one, for example, make sure that the coffee sponge is dark brown from rich coffee, and then leave the walnut sponge pale, by folding chopped walnuts into the cake batter. Then cover in plain or coffee buttercream and decorate however you want (e.g nuts and Fereero Rocher?).

Thanks so much for reading! Any comments, questions or requests don’t hesitate to ask. Next post coming soon…

Emma x

Sweet and Savoury Bagels

By Emma Hawkins | October 4, 2017 | Comments 0 Comment

It may be surprising, but the first time I had a bagel was just this summer when I was travelling around Canada. Since then I’ve been wanting to try different as many flavours as possible and, most of all, to make my own. When I got back I started experimenting, and these are the results. I’ve come up with two bagel recipes, one savoury (cheese and red onion) and one sweet (cherry, pistachio and chocolate). Whilst they may not be the prettiest things to look at, they taste really good and are perfect for packed lunches. They’re also a really nice bread to make as you can get really hands on and they’re not too tricky.

When I was in Canmore, Alberta I went to a shop called the Rocky Mountain Bagel Co (I’d highly recommend going there if you ever end up near Canmore). There they sold a whole variety of flavoured bagels, with toppings and fillings to go with them. Whilst the following recipes produce bagels which taste great on their own, and don’t really need fillings, if you do want a bagel sandwich you can use these, or you can easily make plain bagels. To make these plain, simply leave out the extra ingredients (such as the cheese and onions) and then fill them with whatever you want once they’re baked (smoked salmon, cream cheese and watercress is really good).

Red Onion and Cheddar Bagels

Recipe

Ingredients

½ tbsp Sunflower oil
½ Red onion, finely chopped
300g Strong white flour, plus extra for dusting
250g Wholemeal flour
1 ½ tsp Salt
1 tbsp Runny honey
1 tbsp Olive oil
7g Instant yeast
240ml Warm water
2 Medium eggs
50g Strong cheddar cheese, grated

Method

Put the oil into a small pan and add the chopped onion. Heat gently until the onion begins to caramelise. Set to one side.
To make the bagel dough put the flours, salt, honey, olive oil, yeast, water, cooled red onion and one of the eggs into a large bowl. Mix the ingredients together to make a dough (using your hand works well) and then tip the mixture onto a worktop.
Knead the dough for 10 minutes until the dough is smooth and stretchy.
Oil a chopping board with olive oil. Divide and roll the dough into 12 equally sized tight balls and arrange on the board. Cover the balls with oiled cling film and set aside to prove for around 40 minutes, or until doubled in size.
Make a hole in the centre of each ball by punching a finger into the middle. Widen the hole with your finger so that it doesn’t close during cooking.
Cover the bagels with oiled cling film again and prove for 45 minutes.
Preheat the oven to 200˚C. Take a large saucepan and fill with water. Bring the pan to the boil and add the bagels in batches of two. Boil the bagels for 75 seconds on each side and then scoop them out with a slotted spoon and place on a wire rack to dry.
Once all the bagels have been poached arrange them on two lined baking trays, making sure they’re well spread out. Take the second egg and beat in a bowl with a fork. Brush the bagels with the egg and top with the grated cheese.
Bake in the oven for 15 minutes, or until golden brown and with a skin-like crust. Take the bagels out of the oven, leave to cool on a wire rack and then serve!

Now, the sweet ones…

Cherry, Pistachio and Dark Chocolate Bagels

Recipe

Ingredients

500g Strong white flour, plus extra for dusting
1 ½ tsp Salt
1 tbsp Runny honey
1 tbsp Olive oil
7g Instant yeast
240ml Warm water
75g Dried cherries
50g Morello cherries
60g Pistachios, chopped
2 Medium eggs
100g Dark chocolate

Method

To make the bagel dough put the flours, salt, honey, olive oil, yeast, water, cherries, pistachios and one of the eggs into a large bowl. Mix the ingredients together to make a dough (using your hand works well) and then tip the mixture onto a worktop.
Knead the dough for 10 minutes until the dough is smooth and stretchy.
Oil a chopping board with olive oil. Divide and roll the dough into 12 equally sized tight balls and arrange on the board. Cover the balls with oiled cling film and set aside to prove for around 40 minutes, or until doubled in size.
Make a hole in the centre of each ball by punching a finger into the middle. Widen the hole with your finger so that it doesn’t close during cooking.
Cover the bagels with oiled cling film again and prove for 45 minutes.
Preheat the oven to 200˚C. Take a large saucepan and fill with water. Bring the pan to the boil and add the bagels in batches of two. Boil the bagels for 75 seconds on each side and then scoop them out with a slotted spoon and place on a wire rack to dry.
Once all the bagels have been poached arrange them on two lined baking trays, making sure they’re well spread out. Take the second egg and beat in a bowl with a fork. Brush the bagels with the egg.
Bake in the oven for 15 minutes, or until golden brown and with a skin-like crust. Take the bagels out of the oven, leave to cool on a wire rack.
Meanwhile put the dark chocolate into a heatproof bowl and melt over a pan of simmering water. Drizzle the chocolate over the bagels, leave to set and then serve!

Thanks so much for reading! The next post is coming out on Sunday and it’s a good’n, so keep a look out for it!

Emma x

Ham-N-Pea Mac-N-Cheese

By Emma Hawkins | October 1, 2017 | Comments 0 Comment

This is one of those rare occasions where I make something savoury. After all the puddings I’ve been making recently I decided to turn my hand to something different. This summer I became obsessed with mac n cheese, probably because pretty much every restaurant I went into had a variation of this dish. From the classic pasta and cheese combo to an… interesting version containing maple syrup and bacon, I can proudly say that I’ve tried lots of these.

When it came down to making my own I improvised a bit. Ham and peas are a beloved couple who work well together in most dishes, and are not strangers to a big bowl of pasta, so there’s no surprise that they also work really well in this. The first time I made this I was surprised that it actually worked – most dishes need a few nips and tucks. But this one was a first-time wonder, and was so easy to make that I’m sure even the most novice of chefs can make themselves a delicious meal with this.

Now many people are going off/ have gone off to uni now, and this is a great cheap one to make once you get there. It’s a classic taste of home, and so if you’re feeling homesick this one is a great comfort. It also freezes really well so if you make too much you can put the rest away for a rainy day, rather than having to throw it away. This also teaches you to make a white sauce, one of the most useful sauces to master as a home cook, and once you can make a white sauce you can make a cheese sauce by simply adding cheese, as in this recipe.

Recipe

Serves 4

Time: 1 hour 15 mins

Ingredients

300g Macaroni
100g Frozen peas
50g Unsalted butter
50g Plain flour
500ml Milk
1 tsp English mustard
100g Strong cheddar cheese, grated
Pepper to season
4 Thick slices of ham, cut into small pieces
80g Bread crumbs (or bread crusts dried in the oven and then blitzed to crumbs)
50g Parmesan, grated

Method

Pre-heat the oven to 180˚C.
Bring a large pan of water to the boil. Add the macaroni and cook it to the packets instructions. Leave the pasta in the pan with the water and then add the peas. Cover and leave until needed.
Now make the cheese sauce. Firstly melt the butter in a pan. Then add the flour and mix until a paste forms – this is called a roux. Cook the paste out gently over a medium heat to cook out the flour. Slowly add some of the milk, whisking as you do so that the flour is fully incorporated. Slowly add the rest of the milk, whisking as you do so to make a lump-free sauce. If you feel as though it’s going lumpy and horrible, don’t worry, just persevere and beat the hell out of it with the whisk and everything should be fine.
Whisk the sauce over a medium-high heat until it has thickened. Add the mustard and cheddar to the sauce and then season with pepper to taste. (You can also season the sauce with salt, but the cheese and ham are already quite salty, so you don’t really need to).
Drain the pasta and peas and then add them to the sauce. Add the ham and mix to fully combine.
Pour the pasta mix into an oven-proof container. Top with the breadcrumbs and then with the parmesan. Bake in the oven for 15-20 minutes, until golden brown and crisp.
Serve warm with a leafy side salad.

Thanks for reading! Any questions or comments don’t hesitate to ask. Next post coming out on Wednesday as always, keep a look out!

Emma x

Bakewell Roly-Poly Pudding

By Emma Hawkins | September 27, 2017 | Comments 0 Comment

I think this might just be the most British pudding that has ever existed. Not only is it a roly-poly pudding – the Lord of quintessentially British desserts – but it’s a bakewell roly-poly pudding. For years this steamed suet roll has been gracing our tables in the UK, whether it be in the school canteen or at a humble family meal, and so it’s naturally become synonymous with warmth and comfort. Thus, if you need a little comfort food, all you need to do is rustle up one of these – it’s bound to bring back memories of cosy autumn evenings and home baking, even if you never had this as a kid.

The flavours of a bakewell pudding can be summarised as almonds + raspberry. In this case I’m going to use plums instead as they’re in season and also work really well with the almonds. I’m also not going to use traditional animal suet as it isn’t vegetarian and vegetable suet is just as readily accessible. You could use it if you want the true ‘authentic’ version, but it’s completely your choice. I must warn you that suet is weird. If you’ve never worked with it before, imagine those pellets that you feed rabbits, then imagine them made out of wax. That’s the kind of stuff we’re dealing with here. But, that said, it does make really good puddings, so we’re going to use it.

I should probably write more for this post, but a simple pudding only needs a simple write-up. So, in summary, this tastes good and it’s comforting, perfect for now!

Recipe

Serves 8

Time: 1 hour plus extra time for cooking

Ingredients

50g Slightly salted butter
200g Self raising flour
50g Ground almonds
½ tsp Almond essence
½ tbsp Vanilla bean paste
50g Vegetable suet, shredded
150ml Milk
150g Plum jam

For the custard

250ml Whole milk
1 tbsp Vanilla bean paste
50g Caster sugar
3 Egg yolks
10g Plain flour
10g Cornflour

To serve

2 Plums
75g Plum jam
25g Flaked almonds

Method

Preheat the oven to 180˚C. Take a deep roasting tin and fill it with water about 2/3 full. Put this onto the bottom shelf, or base of the oven and leave in the oven.
Take a sheet of foil and another of greaseproof paper and lay the paper on top of the foil. Grease the paper lightly with butter, and set aside for later.
Now it’s time make the roly-poly. Put the butter, flour, ground almonds, almond essence and vanilla into a bowl. Cut into the butter with a round bladed knife to chop it into small lumps. Once you can’t chop the butter any further, go in with your fingers and rub the butter into the flour until you have a bread-crumb texture. Shake the bowl from side to side every now and then to get the lumps to the top so you can rub them in.
Stir the suet into the mixture. Then pour in the milk and bring together with a round-bladed knife until a dough forms. If the dough is dry add some more milk, you want the dough to be a little sticky.
Flour a surface (a lot) and tip out the dough. Shape into a rough square and then roll out to around 25x25cm. Don’t roll it as thin as you would pastry, and this dough is very soft and will tear easily.
Spread the jam over the sheet of dough, leaving a 1cm strip at one end. Roll the dough up from the other end into a tight spiral. Pinch the non-jammy dough into the roll to seal it.
Lift the roll onto the greased baking paper, making sure that the join is on the paper and not facing up. I know this part is much harder than you would expect, I found that it’s true to it’s name, and so literally rolling it onto the greaseproof was the best way to get the roll off the work surface.
Bring the foil and paper up around the roly-poly and fold over the top and scrunch the ends to seal the parcel. Don’t wrap the dough too tightly as it’ll need to stretch when cooking.
Make sure a rack is above the tin of water in the oven and place the parcel onto the rack. Steam in the oven for at least 1 hour.
Meanwhile make the custard. Put the milk and vanilla into a saucepan and bring to the boil.
Mix the sugar, egg yolks and two flours until fully combined. Once the milk is heated, remove the pan from the heat and mix 1/3 of the milk into the egg mixture.
Whisk the mixture quickly and then pour the egg mixture into the milk. Put the pan back over a heat and whisk on a medium heat until the mixture boils and thickens. Pour into a jug and cover with cling-film to prevent a skin from forming. Set aside for later.
Once the pudding is ready take it out of the oven and let it sit for a few minutes before unwrapping. When this is going on you can prep the decorations.
Put the almonds into a small roasting tin and roast in the oven for 3-5 minutes, or until starting to brown. Set aside for now. Then halve, stone and thinly slice the plums. Take the extra plum jam and put into a pan. Heat gently for around 2 minutes, until it’s thinned out slightly. Put into a pipping bag with a small round nozzle.
Unwrap the roly-poly and put it onto a serving plate. Arrange the plum slices on top of the pudding. Pipe the thinned jam on top of the plum slices in a zig-zag and top with the flaked almonds. Serve with the custard and enjoy!

Thanks so much for reading. I hope this one brings you a little warmth and comfort for the cold days ahead. Next post coming out on Sunday!

Emma x

Raspberry and Hazelnut S’more Dessert

By Emma Hawkins | September 24, 2017 | Comments 0 Comment

A s’more is one of the best campfire snacks there is. Two graham crackers sandwiching a thick marshmallow and a block of chocolate, all put over an open flame to melt it into a messy squidgy tasty thing. However, the main problem with s’mores is that they rarely make an appearance outside the mid-summer eve campfire.

On my travels this summer, as you’ll probably all know by now, I spent some time in North America. This is the hometown of the s’more, and pretty much every supermarket I went into had giant marshmallows and graham crackers everywhere, just asking to be made into these treats. This sparked my imagination to try to transform this snack into a fully-fledged dessert.

So that’s what I’ve done. I’ve taken the main components of biscuit, marshmallow and chocolate and have played around with them to make this. I’ve added in the two new flavours of raspberry and hazelnut as I think they bring something new that works with this. They also helpfully cut through the pure sweetness which you inevitably get once you’ve up-sized this snack. So in the end we have a nutty biscuit base – a bit like a cheese cake, a chocolate and brown butter ganache, and a raspberry marshmallow to top it all off.

Whilst I usually write my own recipes I should point out that the chocolate and brown butter ganache I haven’t changed at all from the original source. I found this recipe on the Great British Chefs website, and after I’d made it I found that it tasted so good I didn’t want to mess around with it. Originally the ganache was part of a much larger recipe (the link to which is at the bottom of this post), but I’ve taken it out of that recipe and have slotted it into this one, where I think it fits really well. The ganache also tastes really good on it’s own, so if you have any mixture left over after making this, put it into small pots and you can have it as an after-dinner snack!

This does take a long time to make, and it is fairly complicated, but the finished result is well worth the effort. Just make sure you have a crazy amount of time to carry it out so you don’t get stressed, and be patient.

It’s also worth mentioning before you start that you’ll also need some specialist equipment to make and present this. You’ll need 4 metal food presentation rings, a blowtorch, an electric or stand-alone whisk, and an electric food thermometer. You could probably work around this if you don’t have any of the above (the rings and blow torch in particular), but unless you have a really strong arm and an intuitive sense of what temperature sugar is boiling at, you’re going to need a thermometer and electric whisk. Anyway, aside from that there’s no reason why you can’t make this, so on to the recipe…

Recipe

Serves 4

Time: 2 1/2 hours, plus lots of time to set the layers

Ingredients

For the hazelnut biscuit base

50g Chopped hazelnuts
150g Biscuits
70g Butter

For the chocolate and brown butter ganache

200g Salted butter
200g Dark chocolate, melted
200g Milk chocolate, melted
375g Double cream
50g Glucose
3 Egg yolks
4g Cocoa powder

To decorate

100g Dark chocolate
50g White chocolate

For the raspberry marshmallow

225g Granulated sugar
½ tbsp Liquid glucose
2 Gelatine sheets
1 Egg white
½ tsp Vanilla bean paste
63g Raspberries, crushed

For the raspberry coulis

125g Raspberries
20g caster sugar
1 tbsp lemon juice

Method:

Begin by making the biscuit base. Pre-heat the oven to 180˚C. Put the hazelnuts into a tin and roast in the oven for 5 minutes, until starting to brown. Crush the biscuits in a large bowl with the back of a rolling pin until they become crumbs. Melt the butter in a pan and then add to the biscuits. Add the nuts and then mix until fully combined.
Take 4, 6x7cm presentation rings and place on a lined baking tray. Spoon the biscuit mixture into the bottom of the rings and smooth out with the back of a spoon so it’s an even thickness. Leave in the fridge for half an hour to set.
Next make the chocolate and brown butter ganache. Melt the butter in a pan for around 8 minutes. You want it to turn a rich nutty brown but not to burn. Allow to cool slightly then pass through a sieve. Don’t use a plastic sieve as it’ll melt (I’ve found this out from past experience). Leave to cool completely.
Put 125g of the cream into a saucepan and bring to the boil. Add the glucose and allow to dissolve before removing from the heat.
Melt the chocolates in a heatproof bowl. Then pour the cream onto them and mix until smooth. Set aside for later.
In another bowl whisk the egg yolks until pale and creamy. Add the cocoa powder and whisk again until combined. Slowly drizzle the brown butter into the egg yolks, whisking continuously as you do so, as though you were making a mayonnaise.
Fold the nutty egg mixture into the chocolate mix. Whip the remaining double cream until soft peaks start to form. Fold this into the main chocolate mix.
Take the biscuit bases out of the fridge and pour the brown butter ganache on top. Leave enough space in the top of the moulds to top with marshmallow (so only fill around 2/3 full).
Chill the cylinders in the fridge for at least two hours to set.
Meanwhile make the chocolate decorations. Gently melt the white and dark chocolates in separate heatproof bowls over pans of simmering water. Line two baking trays with acetate. Drizzle the white chocolate over the acetate to create a scribble pattern. Leave to set at room temperature, meanwhile keep the dark chocolate melted but not hot.
Once the white chocolate has set pour the dark chocolate over the top and smooth out with a palette knife. Leave to cool for 5 minutes. Then take a large cookie cutter and cut out rounds out of the chocolate sheet. Take a smaller cutter and cut out smaller circles within the larger ones to create discs. Leave to cool completely until set and then use the cutters again to fully cut out the shapes. Leave somewhere cool until plating.
Once the ganache is completely set you can start to make the marshmallow. Begin by soaking the gelatine sheets in a bowl of water.
Put the sugar, glucose and 100ml water into a saucepan and boil. Heat the sugar until it reaches 127˚C. Remove the gelatine from the water and squeeze to remove excess water. Add to the sugar syrup to dissolve the sheets. Pour the mixture into a jug and set aside for later.
Put the egg white into a very clean bowl and whisk with an electric whisk until firm peaks form (if you have a mixer this is a good time to use it as the next step can take a while). Continue to whisk the egg whites and pour the sugar syrup onto them to make an Italian meringue. Add the vanilla and whisk until the mixture is thick, shiny and has cooled down, this should take around 10 minutes.
Take the raspberries and crush them slightly. Fold them into the marshmallow mixture and then spoon the mixture on top of the ganache in the moulds. Chill in the fridge for at least 1 hour, or until completely set.
To make the raspberry coulis mix the sugar and lemon juice with the raspberries in a pan. Heat gently until the raspberries are mushy and the sugar is dissolved. Press the mixture through a sieve and discard the seeds. Put the coulis into a small jug to serve.
Now it’s time to plate! Use a palette knife to loosen the s’mores from the baking tray. Lift the moulds onto the plate using the palette knife. Use a blowtorch to lightly heat the sides of the moulds to loosen them from the mixtures inside. Remove the moulds to reveal the stacks of s’mores. Blowtorch the top of the marshmallow to lightly caramelise it. Carefully remove a chocolate disc from the acetate with a palette knife and lean against the side of the s’more stack. Serve with fresh raspberries and the raspberry coulis.

Thanks so much for reading, I hope you enjoyed this one! Lot’s more coming very soon…

Emma x

(Here’s the link to the original recipe for the brown butter ganache

http://www.greatbritishchefs.com/recipes/chocolate-brown-butter-ganache-recipe )