Coconut Shy Truffles

A recipe inspired by the funfair in Bree McCready and the Realm of the Lost

My big sister is feeling a bit under the weather. Booo! So I have an excuse to make her favourite goodies. Yeah!

In the third Bree McCready book - Bree McCready and the Realm of the Lost - the funfair at Ramthorpe Junior School is where all the strange things start to happen. But before they do there are some fun things too, including scary rides, fireworks and yummy treats. I have a few ideas for recipes to tie in with the funfair theme so watch this space! In the meantime here is what you'll need to make my scrummy Coconut Shy Truffles:

Ingredients

125g of butter

200g  of condensed milk

2 tablespoons of hot chocolate powder

125g of dessicated coconut (and some more for decoration)

20 Digestive biscuits (I used 10 plain and 10 chocolate)

Chocolate sprinkles (decoration)

White chocolate (decoration)

Method 

Weigh out 125g of butter and add this to a saucepan.

Add 200g of Condensed Milk. I used the kind that comes in a squeezy bottle to reduce waste...and to stop me from licking the tin!

Place the pan on a very low heat and melt these two ingredients together, stirring occasionally.

Meanwhile, weigh out 125g of coconut. Then...

 ...put the biscuits in a sturdy food bag, making sure all the air is out of the bag before you seal it. 

Then... 

THWACK! with a rolling pin...

 

 

Take the melted butter and milk off the heat...

..and 2 tablespoons of chocolate powder.

Stir this in well. You will notice the mixture thicken a little.

Now add the coconut.

 

 

Stir the coconut in until every shred is covered. Then add the smashed up biscuits. I like to do this a bit at a time as adding too much can make the mixture thick and impossible for the truffles to hold their shape. If the mixture is too mushy you can always add more biscuits but it's difficult to take the biscuits out!

Once the mixture is very well stirred and every crumb is covered it's time to roll the truffles!

I always do my best to make the truffles roughly the same size. I squeeze them gently and roll them then toss them in a food bag which has been filled with coconut or sprinkles. This time, as a special treat, I also melted some white chocolate and drizzled it over plain truffles.

A stack of truffles

 

Judging by the smile I got when I presented the bag of finished truffles I think these were just what the doctor ordered. Get well soon, sis!

Coconut Shy Truffles - Enjoy!

Mrs Oxter's Oaty Crumbles

A recipe inspired by Betty Oxter, Ramthorpe Junior School Librarian. Click here for a Flipagram.

A hastily scribbled recipe which I'll tweak along the way :)

Excerpt from chapter 2 of Bree McCready and the Half Heart Locket:

"The sign on the door made Bree stiffen:

Mrs Oxter was a tyrant with unwashed hair. She was so tall and wide she had to duck when going through doorways. Her pigeon chest was always littered with biscuit crumbs, and the giant hairy wart on her top lip seemed to have a life of its own. Anyone unfortunate enough to get close to her would discover that her breath smelled of wet dog. As if her appearance wasn't frightening enough, Mrs Oxter had a horrible temper. She never smiled and would not tolerate anyone else smiling in her library either. Bree wondered why someone who hated children would choose to work somewhere full of them."

So, a very unpleasant woman indeed! Mrs Oxter may be the nastiest librarian in town but her Oaty Crumbles are to die for! She's always hiding away in her tiny office, stuffing her face with them. It's why her chest is always covered in crumbs...and it's probably why she's so wide!

Here's what you'll need to make them:

For the crumble:

250g of rolled oats (Porridge Oats)

250g of plain flour

200g of brown sugar

300g of butter

2 teaspoons of baking powder 

For the fudge filling:

Calorie free, of course.

175g of chocolate chips

150ml of whipping cream

280g of Nutella chocolate spread

120g of icing sugar 

Preheat your oven to 170C

 

Method:

Toss the porridge oats...

Make it 250g though...

 Flour...

Brown sugar...

and baking powder...

into a large mixing bowl and stir them together.

Weigh out the butter...

and chop it into cubes. Mix the butter into the dry ingredients...

Photo credit to my son, Junior.

Rub the butter through the dry mixture using your thumb and fingers.

You should end up with a mixture that looks a bit like this...

Buttery and sticky. Yum.

Grease a 9x13" baking tin and line with parchment paper.

Add half the crumble mixture to the tin and press down with a fork or the back of a spoon. Try to make it as level as possible.

Set this aside and make the Fudge Filling:

Add the chocolate chips and cream to a large bowl...

Chocolate Chunks - One or two may have accidentally fallen into my mouth.

Place the bowl with the chocolate and cream over a pan of simmering water. It is important not to let this get too hot and to make sure none of the water touches the contents of the bowl.

When the two ingredients have melted together add the Nutella.

I did this slowly, in three batches, stirring each time to make a smooth mixture. Remove the bowl from the heat and add the icing sugar, blending until smooth and silky in appearance.

Pour the fudge filling over the crumble base and spread evenly.

Top with the remaining crumble mixture, pressing down gently with a fork.

Now it's ready to pop into the hot oven.

Bake on the middle shelf for 30 minutes, turning halfway through to get an even colour. Keep an eye on things after about 25 minutes as the oats can easily 'catch' and burn.

After this first half an hour of baking remove from the oven and let the tray sit for five minutes. Then carefully lift the cake out of the tin using the edges of the parchment. Set the tray over the top then flip everything over so the bottom of the cake becomes the top. Pop back into the oven and bake for a further 25 minutes, turning halfway through again. I found this cooked everything through properly and gave a lovely golden brown colour to the finished article.

Let the cake cool for about 10 minutes then, while it's still warm and pliable, mark out where you are going to cut with a sharp knife. A bit like this...

Can you smell the buttery yumminess?

Allow to cool thoroughly. Take it from me (I almost messed up this entire bake with my lack of patience!) let it cool for at least two hours, preferably in the fridge for a while to let the molten fudge middle cool entirely. This will make getting the slices from the tray a whole lot easier!!

So, here are some pictures of my finished bake. Enjoy!

 

Perfect with my favourite beverage.

Having tested some I decided to cut these in half. Delicious but very sweet!

Standing on a rickety chair to get an aerial view!

A small piece is more than adequate!

Help yourself, Mrs Oxter!

A gooey fudge layer. Gorgeous.

Friendship Fudge

A recipe inspired by International Day of Friendship

Today is International Day of Friendship so what better recipe could I offer you than my Friendship Fudge? 

The Bree McCready novels are essentially adventure stories with a 'good versus evil' theme but there is also is a tender undercurrent that runs throughout the books about friendship, love and never giving up on the people you care about. Bree and Sandy have a solid friendship...and every girl needs a boy best friend, right? Theirs is a beautiful connection - they are 'kindred spirits, two leaves caught up in the same breeze'. 

The pair have known one another all their lives and share a bond strengthened by grief and not fitting in. When they meet Honey Pizazz outside the school library it's like destiny has worked its magic. The trio are inseparable from this moment on, totally made for one another. Yes, they argue, and yes, there are tensions between them but isn't this true for any solid friendship? What matters is that they are there for one another every step of the way. The secret they share keeps them close. Their lives quite literally depend on them sticking together.

My Friendship Fudge is a very simple recipe - basically two ingredients - and it's almost illegal in its content so you only need the tiniest piece to satisfy your sweet craving. Dentists and dietitians across the world will hate me for this one!

I've made this fudge before but this time I wanted to make it more specific to Bree, Sandy and Honey - after all, this blog was inspired by the Bree McCready books! 

So I thought there could be a deep, dark layer to symbolise Sandy Greenfield with his messy mop of "the blackest hair imaginable"...

 ...a lighter brown layer to symbolise Bree's eyes - "like polished mahogany"...

... and sandwiched between the two would be a lighter, sweet layer of white chocolate, tinted a pale pink, an ode to Honey Pizazz's pastel pink beret and strawberry bubblegum that we can see on the cover of Bree McCready and the Half Heart Locket.

 

In order to achieve the three layered effect I needed three different types of chocolate - plain for Sandy, milk for Bree and white for Honey (with a few drops of pink food colouring added). Other than the different chocolate flavours the three batches of fudge are made in exactly the same way. 

I noticed that the plain, dark chocolate sets slightly differently to the other two. Why this is I'm not sure, perhaps it has something to do with the high percentage of cocoa solids? So it might be a good idea to add a couple of tablespoons of milk to this batch to allow it to run freely from the pan. I'm not too fazed about how it turned out as it gave my fudge an extra something, a firmer foundation to compliment the two squidgier layers. A bit like Sandy - solid and  dependable with a slightly hard exterior and softer centre!

So, here's what you'll need:

Ingredients

500g each of milk, plain and white chocolate.

This is rather a lot of chocolate which can add up in price but I used Tesco Everyday Value bars which cost about 30p each and I was more than happy with the end result.

3 x 400g of Condensed milk

A few drops of vanilla essence

Pink food colouring

For the dark chocolate 'Sandy' layer -

Measure out 400g of condensed milk. 

Break up 500g of plain chocolate.

Add the condensed milk, chocolate pieces and 5 drops of vanilla essence to a large saucepan. If you would like a softer consistency to the finished fudge this is where you add 2 tablespoons of milk.

Melt everything on a low heat, stirring often, until it's smooth.

Transfer to a square tin, lined with parchment. This makes it easier to remove the fudge when it's set.

Put this in the fridge to set while you prepare the white chocolate layer.

For the white chocolate 'Honey' layer -

This time add a teaspoon of pink food colouring to the  400g of condensed milk before you put it on the heat (see illustration above).

Break up 500g of white chocolate and add this and the pink condensed milk to a saucepan. Follow the same steps as before, melting everything and then pouring it over the bottom, dark chocolate layer.

Allow this to set for about half an hour in the fridge.

For the milk chocolate 'Bree' layer -

Follow exactly the same steps, this time using 400g of condensed milk and 500g of milk chocolate.

Pour the  melted milk chocolate mixture over the white layer of fudge and place back in the fridge for a good couple of hours. The firmer the fudge, the easier it will be to handle.

When the fudge has set well pull it from the tin using the edges of the parchment paper.

With a sharp knife mark where you would like to cut. Top tip - this is super rich and very sickly so small squares are adequate!

Cut the fudge into pieces.

The Bree, Sandy and Honey layers can be seen nicely here

I made enough to feed a small army. Luckily I have plenty of willing taste testers on hand to help me.

A fudge heart

Half Heart Locket fudge

So, I offered a piece of Friendship Fudge to my Chief Taste Tester and here is what he said...

Happy International Day of Friendship. 

May you be as blessed as I am with the people who love you.