Choc-Chip Ice-Cream Sandwich

On these hot summer days, who doesn't like Ice-Cream? Anyone? No-one? Didn't think so.

How about an Ice-Cream sandwich? Maybe not for lunch, but a great afternoon snack to cool off from the scorching summer sun.

Best part about this easy recipe - you can use store-bought Ice-Cream!

I don't have an ice-cream maker and never remember to do the whole 'whisk every hour or so' thing. And I'm a busy Mum of two ratbags, so the easier it is for me, the more I love it.

This recipe does require you to make the biscuits for the sandwich, which was a fun afternoon with Noah as we sprinkled chocolate chips on top of measured and squared out batter. As they were so thin they didn't take long to cook too.

Noah kept asking and asking for the sandwich and I pushed it out till just before bath time as I knew it would be messy! In the end, he wasn't that keen and I'm thinking for dessert tonight I'll crunch up the remaining biscuits and scatter them over a bowl of Ice-Cream instead. Still just as yum!

Mixed Berry Layered Pavlova

I'm part of a photography group for my town and the prompt last week was 'Chocolate' so I had to get two birds with one stone and make something from my Donna Hay book....then cover it with Chocolate.

Which is what I did.

No, there was originally no chocolate in this dish, but there were Raspberries and I couldn't buy fresh ones for less then $9 a punnet so I substituted the berries for chocolate. Good exchange, hey?

Also, I suck at making meringue. Of any kind. It never ever ever ever works for me. Like, ever. So I was already skeptical about making it, but wanted to give it a crack just the same. I figured that if it didn't work, like normal, I'd just crush up whatever did cook and make an Eton Mess out of it instead.

It was just egg whites and icing sugar - where I usually use caster sugar - so it mixed in really well. I used my mixmaster and just turned it on and walked away. I don't think I usually give eggwhites enough time to expand before I bake.

But by some divine intervention (must have been the full moon) my meringue worked!! I don't know how, I didn't do anything different from the other times I made them, but something clicked and they both worked so well, I had a very proud moment. :)

With the warmer weather, I took this to a BBQ for dessert and it was a hit. It was lovely and light and sat just right after a meal of sausages, chicken skewers and salad.

I may have ammended the original recipe a little, but it was so good just the same.

Coffee and Chocolate Self Saucing Pudding

I was so looking forward to this dish and for some reason it didn't work. *Big Frown Face Here*

I think I stuffed up. Where it says 'place all this stuff in a 15cm non-stick ovenproof frying pan ... blah, blah, blah.... Bake in the oven'. You see, I don't have a 15cm non-stick ovenproof frying pan. So I did the stove top stuff then pop'd it into a pie dish and did the rest. Which stuffed it up.

It wasn't a total write-off. The cake part still tasted awesome but the sauce was just so watery. It hadn't thickened at all.

Looked good though. Brownie points for that?

Bitter Chocolate Meringue Tart

Oh. My. Gosh.

So. Much. Chocolate.....

Can you guess I liked this tart?

I made it to take to a friends for a coffee afternoon with girlfriends. In hindsight, I should have made it the night before as it wasn't completely set when I got there and I had to pop it in the fridge for a while, but if I've done that I know it would've gotten there in once piece (Hubby likes chocolate even more than I do). 

It was a simple dish to make and if I made it again I'd use regular milk chocolate instead of dark as the dark chocolate made it intensely rich. I was ecstatic that the meringue top worked!! I'm so good at making meringue flops that when it worked and was all nice and light and fluffy, I thought that was the best part! And it made the dense chocolate tart less full on, adding that little bit of lightness to it.


It was supposed to be made in a round tin, but I don't have one. I didn't have to adjust the measurements for my rectangle tin though.

Decadence....