This recipe is a chocolate lovers dream, make it today for your friends or just for yourself.

Ingredients

225g/8oz unsalted butter
100g/4oz dairy milk chocolate (any milk chocolate will do) broken into pieces
2 tbsp golden syrup
2 heaped teaspoons cocoa powder
2 tbsp caster sugar
100g/4oz maltesers
100g/4oz mixed milk and plain chocolate chips (can be substituted for chopped nuts, raisins, mixed fruit etc.)
225g/8oz digestive biscuits
100g/40z mini marshmellows

Method

1. Line or grease an 8inch square cake tin.
2. In a pan heat the butter, chocolate, golden syrup, caster sugar and cocoa powder, stirring until melted together. Once melted leave to cool for ten minutes.
3. Break about a quarter of the biscuits into pieces and then crush the rest.
4. In a large bowl, place the maltesers, mixed chocolate chips, mini marshmellows, and biscuits and stir together with the melted chocolate sauce. Pour into the prepared cake tin and leave to set in the fridge for 2 hours minimum.
5. When it’s set, cut into snack sized squares and enjoy!! Will quickly be eaten at a party =]

From Student Recipes

“I have the best blackberry muffin recipe!” my friend Suzanne announced to me a few weeks ago as I was musing out loud that I was looking for a good muffin recipe. Suzanne and I have been friends since we were teenagers, but lost track with each other after college. It was only through the Sacramento Bee article that we found each other again – after 18 years – and discovered we live only 10 minutes apart! Last weekend, Suzanne, her two daughters Clara and Audrey, and I baked up a batch of these delicious muffins, which are rich, moist (of course, with a cup of sour cream and a stick of butter in the ingredients), and not too sweet, just the way I like them. Thank you Suzanne, Audrey, and Clara for a great afternoon and truly the “best blackberry muffins.”

Turn chicken, bacon and mushrooms into this creamy pasta dish. It’s simple to make and the kids will love it too!

• Prep time: 10 mins
• Cooking time: 15 mins(May need an extra 5 mins)
• Serves: 4

Method

1. Heat a large frying pan, or wok, add 1tsp of the oil and the bacon and fry until it starts to brown. Add the chopped mushrooms and cook for about 5 mins until they are browned. Tip these into a bowl and reheat the pan with the rest of the oil. Add the chicken and fry until just coloured.
2. Pour the wine into the pan, let it sizzle for a couple of minutes, and then add the crème fraîche. Bring to a gentle simmer for 8 mins, put the bacon and mushroom mixture back in and reheat for a couple of mins.
3. Meanwhile, cook and drain the pasta according to directions on the pack.
4. Take the bacon and mushroom mixture off the heat, cool for 1 min and then beat the egg yolks, one at a time, into the sauce to thicken it. Season.
5. Add the hot pasta to the pan, or wok, and mix in well with seasoning and chopped parsley. (Not suitable for freezing).

From goodtoknow

Being a quintessential Swiss dish, cheese fondue conjures up images for me of alpine ski huts, deep snow and 20°F weather. Well, we don’t get much snow or cold weather in the California central valley, but that doesn’t mean we can’t enjoy a good fondue party.

The trick to a successful fondue (other than the obvious one of having wonderful people around with whom to share it) is to ensure that the cheese dipping sauce stays smooth. Cheese has a propensity to get stringy or to “seize up” into clumps, the fat separating from the proteins. Food science author Harold McGee suggests several things in his book On Food and Cooking to ensure a perfect fondue.

Well-aged or moist grating cheeses work well in sauces. Don’t heat the cheese beyond its melting point, cheese tends to ball up at higher temps, and don’t let the cheese cool down too much before serving, as it tends to get stringier and tougher as it cools. Don’t over stir the cheese, doing so will encourage stringiness. Coating the grated cheese with a starch such as flour or corn starch will help stabilize the sauce. Also,

The combination of cheese and wine is delicious but also savvy. The wine contributes two essential ingredients for a smooth sauce: water, which keeps the casein proteins most and dilute, and tartaric acid, which pulls the cross-linking calcium off of the casein proteins and binds tightly to it, leaving them glueless and happily separate. (Alcohol has nothing to do with fondue stability.) The citric acid in lemon juice will do the same thing. If it’s not too far gone, you can sometimes rescue a tightening cheese sauce with a squeeze of lemon juice or a splash of white wine.

Cheese Fondue Recipe

Ingredients

• 1/2 pound Swiss-style cheese such as Jarlsberg or Emmenthaler, shredded
• 1/2 pound Gruyere cheese, shredded
• 2 tablespoons cornstarch
• 1 garlic clove, peeled, halved crosswise
• 1 cup dry white wine
• 1 tablespoon lemon juice
• 1 tablespoon kirsch (cherry brandy)
• 1/2 teaspoon dry mustard
• Pinch nutmeg
• Assorted dippers – cubed ham (skip for vegetarian option), blanched broccoli, carrots, or cauliflower, cherry tomatoes, chopped green bell peppers, cubed French bread (skip for wheat-free version), peeled and chopped apples or pears

Method

1 Place the shredded cheese and cornstarch in a plastic freezer bag. Seal, shake to coat the cheese with cornstarch. Set aside.

2 Rub the inside of a 4-quart pot with the garlic, then discard. Over medium heat, add the wine and lemon juice and bring to a gentle simmer. Gradually stir the cheese into the wine. Stir constantly in a zig-zag pattern to prevent the cheese from seizing and balling up. Cook until the cheese is just melted and creamy. Do not let boil. Once smooth, stir in kirsch, mustard and nutmeg.

3 Transfer the cheese to a fondue serving pot, set over a flame to keep warm. If your pot is thin-bottomed, a lit candle will probably do. If thick-bottomed, you can use a small Sterno.

4 Arrange an assortment of bite-sized dipping foods on a lazy Susan around fondue pot.

5 Spear dipping foods with fondue forks or wooden skewers. Dip to coat with the cheese, and eat.

Serves 4.

From Simply Recipes

Today there is no recipe, but check out this super sweet (pun definitely intended!) cake from the master baker Debbie Does Cakes. It’s Star War’s very own Yoda. Very realistic, it doesn’t even look like cake! And yes I think I just called Yoda realistic, whatever. This 16″ tall cake uses a glowstick for the lightsaber which is a pretty simple yet innovative touch. The light from the glowstick is only temporary of course but then again so is the cake especially if it’s anywhere near me. Save me the Yoda ear, I hear that’s the best part.

From Craziest Gadgets