Degustabox review and Molten Nut Butter and Chocolate Fondant Cake

It's time for another What's in my Degustabox? and a very exciting recipe. I've been receiving a Degustabox on a monthly basis for a few months now. It's like having a surprise delivery of goodies every month. Degustabox is a no obligation monthly subscription which costs £12.99 including delivery. You get 9 to 14 surprise products and it's usually a good mixed selection of goodies. I have a special discount code for all my readers if you are interested in signing up a box for yourself or for a family memeber/friend. You get a £3.00 discount when registering by using this code F3TJ1 which makes it just under a tenner for a goodie box including delivery.

This is my favourite box so far as I loved pretty much everything in it. There's quite a lot of sweet stuff and 2 items with peanut butter! I decided to create a recipe using the Whole Earth Three Nut Butter which I have tried previously. I love Whole Earth nut butters as they are very tasty and not overly sweet. I made a Molten Nut Butter and Chocolate Fondant Cake which sinfully delicious. It took a bit of trial and error and I think I ended up making these about 6 times before I finally got the timings right. The cake is cooked on the outside but has a gooey melting centre of chocolate and three nut butter. It was best served warm with a scoop of vanilla ice cream. It would be a very impressive dessert at dinner parties but nerve wrecking as you may not get it perfect.

 February Degustabox 

 American Muffin Company Chocolate Brownie Bites. These are gluten free and wheat free and tasted more like cake than a brownie. 

 Beet it Sport bars which contain 400mg of dietary nitrate and is used by over 150 universities world wide for research into the benefits of lowering blood pressure and improving sports performance. 

 Jack Link's Beef Snack which is great for a protein snack on the go. 

 Whole Earth Three Nut Butter contains cashews, hazelnuts and peanuts. It's made with fresh ingredients with no added sugar and you can really taste the different nuts in them. 

 Peanut Hottie which is a peanut butter flavoured hot drink.I've already tried this as I received it as a gift from a friend and makes a good peanut butter hot chocolate! Perfect for a quick peanut butter fix.

Laimon Fresh - a refreshing, sparkling, lime,lemon and mint drink. If you like citrus then you will definitely like this drink. The mint adds another layer of freshness 

 Melba thins which are one of my faouvrites. The crisp toasts are individually packed in packs of 5 which makes it handy for lunch boxes. 

 Schwartz Flavour Shots - Spanish Paella and Indian Mild Masala Curry. These flavour shots contain a unique blend of herbs, spices and seasoning which you can use to create really tasty meals. There are also recipes available on their website www.schwartz.co.uk

 Lily O'Brien's Cocoa Cookie Crunch - delicious little bites of chocolate biscuit biscuits covered in chocolate. They were really tasty and I could have easily eaten the whole pack myself! 

 

  whisk the sugar, egg and egg yolk 

 add in the melted chocolate and flour 

 chocolate mixture 

 half fill the ramekin and add a generous teaspoonful of three nut butter in the middle

 cover with the remaining chocolate mixture 

 fresh from the oven 

 The cake is cooked and set on the outside

 soft, gooey, melting centre 

 I love the melting centre!

Recipe adapted from this recipe online which in turn is based on Donna Hay's recipe

Makes 3 ramekins

100g dark chocolate
50g butter + extra for greasing
1 egg
1 egg yolk
55g caster sugar
18g plain flour
3 heaped teaspoons three nut butter

• Preheat the oven to 200C. 
• Place the chocolate and butter in a heat proof bowl and place over a pan of simmering water. 
• In a separate bowl, whisk the sugar, egg and egg yolk. 
• Add in the cooled, melted chocolate mixture and flour and whisk again. 
• Butter your ramekins generously - this is really important as you don't want the cake to stick. I tried using the non stick spray but it turned out better with a generous rub of butter.
• Spoon the mixture into the ramekins until about half full.
• Place a generous teaspoonful or 2 teaspoons of the three nut butter in the middle of the batter. 
• Cover with the remaining chocolate mixture. 
• Bake in the preheated oven for 8-9 minutes. The timing will vary with your oven - 8.5 minutes was the perfect time for my oven. If it's undercooked then you get a very messy plate. If it's overcooked you don't get the molten centre. 
• Run a hot knife around the edge of the ramekin and turn the cake out onto a plate. It should come out easily if you've properly buttered the ramekin dish before baking.
• Serve warm with cream or ice cream.

Disclaimer: I was sent a Degustabox for review purposes. I was not required to write a positive review or to create a recipe. All opinions expressed are my own. This is not a sponsored post.

Mini Fruit Tarts

This is my second pastry offering at my afternoon tea. They were a bit of a rush job and I didn't get as many photos as I wanted. I also ran out of time and only managed to glaze the strawberry tarts. I used Eric Lanlard's recipe for a sweet shortcrust pastry and also used the same creme patissiere as for the mini eclairs. The tarts were blind baked then filled with creme patissiere and topped with fresh fruit. They were really tasty little bites and my guests were impressed that I made my own pastry. 

As before, I'm sending this to the Pastry Challenge hosted by Jen from Jen's Food and Lisa from United Cakedom.

 rub flour and butter together then add in the sugar. Make a well in the centre..

 ... add in the egg and knead until you form a soft dough. Place in the fridge for about 30 mins 

 I couldn't find my other pastry cutters and only had 1 size with a straight edge! 

 ready to blind bake the pastry 

 mini fruit tarts 

Mini Chocolate Eclairs

Morning everyone. How was your weekend? I had a busy one with friends visiting both days. On Saturday, I hosted an afternoon tea party for some friends. Unfortunately, I didn't have time to bake anything during the week and was out late on Friday. So in Great British Bake Off style, I had 3 and a bit hours to bake a Victoria sponge, earl grey tea biscuits, mini eclairs, mini fruit tarts and plain scones. I was a little worried about the time management but also about the pastry bakes as frankly I'm scared of pastry! Somehow I managed to pull it off and we had a lovely afternoon tea. 

I've made choux pastry once a few years ago and not tried it again since so I was a little apprehensive. I followed a recipe by Eric Lanlard and it worked beautifully. The choux pastry was light and crispy and the creme patissiere was divine. As I was in a hurry, I didn't have time to set the chocolate which is why it looks so shiny and messy in the photos. I just poured some melted chocolate on top of each eclair and served it. My guests said they've never had eclairs with a warm chocolate topping before and it made for quite messy eating but it was absolutely delicious. 

I'm sending this to the Pastry Challenge hosted by Jen from Jen's Food and Lisa from United Cakedom. 

I'm also sending these to Treat Petite hosted by Stuart from Cakeyboi and Kat from the Baking Explorer. The theme this month is Mum. My mum lives abroad so I'm not able to send these to her but she loves eclairs so I know how much she will love these. I'm definitely baking these for her when she next visits and I'm sure she will be impressed! 

 

 melt butter and water then add in the flour all at once and stir 

 The dough should come together and look like this. Allow to cool for a few minutes. 

 beat in the eggs one at a time. Drizzle in the second egg as you may not need all of it. 

 choux pastry! 

I didn't have time to draw lines so I just piped these free hand 

 fresh from the oven

 making the creme patissiere

 

I used the recipe from Eric Lanlard's book Home Bake page 214. You can find similar recipes online such as this one which also has a very helpful video. He tells you the ingredients at the beginning of the video which is different to what is typed underneath! 

No Bake Nutella Cheesecake

This is a really quick and easy no bake recipe. It has a creamy Nutella cream cheese filling and an oreo cookie base. I served it with grated chocolate and fresh strawberries. It is absolutely delicious and I'd eat this everyday if I could! It's full of stuff that's bad for you which is probably why it tastes so good!

I used up lots of leftovers for this recipe which is sort of how it came about. I had an open packet of oreo biscuits from making my Valentine Penguin Oreos. I also had an opened jar of Nutella from recent bakes and a tub of cream cheese that was near expiry. Therefore I am sending this to the No Waste Food Challenge hosted by Elizabeth from Elizabeth's Kitchen Diary.

 

 I love my new set of glass dishes which I saw on Kate's blog and she told me she got them from Ikea. Thanks Kate! 

The recipe is slightly made up and I can't remember the exact amounts!

Roughly 8 or 10 oreo cookies, crushed
approximately 30g butter, melted (might need more)
200g cream cheese
50g icing sugar
200mls double cream (could add a little more if you prefer)
approximately 150g - 200g Nutella (or add as much as you like!)

• Place the oreo cookies in a ziplock bag and bash with a rolling pin. Alternatively you can blitz it in a food processor. 
• Place the butter in a small bowl and melt in the microwave. 
• Stir the butter into the crushed cookies.You may need a little more butter if the mixture is too dry.
• Press the oreo butter mixture into the bottom of your serving dish and level with a spoon. 
• Place in the fridge to set for at least 30 minutes.
• Meanwhile beat the cream until stiff peaks form. Scoop into a large bowl and set aside. 
• Next beat the cream cheese and icing sugar.
• Add in the nutella and continue beating. 
• Now spoon the mixture out into your bowl of whipped cream and mix with a spoon until smooth (don't use the mixer at this stage or the cream might split)
• Spoon the Nutella/cream cheese mixture on top of the cookie base and leave to chill in the fridge.
• Decorate with grated chocolate and fresh strawberries. 

Snickerdoodles

I've been waiting for the letter 'S' in our second round of AlphaBakes as I've been wanting to make Snickerdoodles. I've never tried them or baked them before but I like the sound of it. It's basically a sugar cookie rolled in cinnamon sugar. It's supposed to be cracked and crispy which mine turned out to be so that's a relief! They really taste of cinnamon and are perfect with a cup of tea. 

I used a recipe from a book that my dear friend JL sent all the way from Australia! Thank you :) It's a lovely little book of cookies and I can't wait to try more recipes from it. I won't publish the recipe as I don't have permission but there are lots of recipes you can find online. I followed the recipe exactly and it worked beautifully. The main thing to remember is that these cookies really do spread a lot so make sure you leave plenty of room in between! 

I'm sending this to AlphaBakes which I am hosting this month. Caroline from Caroline Makes hosts on alternate months. The letter is S for Snickerdoodle.

I'm also sending it to Tea Time Treats hosted by Janie from the Hedgecombers and Karen from Lavender and Lovage as the theme this month is Biscuits and Cookies!

 cookie dough 

 you have to refrigerate the dough until firm. I used a small ice cream scoop to make a small ball of dough which is then rolled in cinnamon sugar 

 Place them spaced well apart and press down gently with a fork