Mango Lassi

Following our recent post on Alphonso Mangos, we have discovered a substitute for the 9 months of the year when they are out of season - Alphonso Mango Pulp! It has all the flavour of a fresh mango, however it is tinned and can be bought all year round. It is easily available at your nearest Indian supermarket, and even in some conventional supermarkets (we found some in Waitrose). 

Our favorite way to eat the pulp is in a Lassi, an Indian yoghurt-y drink (almost like a healthy milkshake!). The recipe only requires three ingredients; mango pulp, yoghurt and milk.

To serve two, pour about 200 ml of mango pulp into a blender.

Add four tablespoons of yoghurt...

...And a big glug of milk.

Then blitz for a few seconds until it's smooth...

...Pour into two glasses and enjoy!

In this heatwave we have also been freezing the Lassi to make ice lollies- a perfect way to cool down! 

To get the two-tone effect, pour a little of the Lassi mixture into a lolly-mould, allow to freeze (around 30 mins), and then top up with mango pulp and freeze for about an hour.

Lots of love,

Fiona, Samara and Anna 
xxx

Chocolate Tiffin

This recipe is a personal favourite of ours and it is over-the-top chocolate-y and super easy to make. We call it 'chocolate tiffin' to make it sound somewhat fancy but really it's just 4 ingredients squished together to form one big delicious mess. 

It involves barely any cooking which is a huge plus for certain family members - Samara (last time I tried to use the oven I set fire to the oven gloves). 

Most people would probably want to add in some extra flavours such as raisins, marshmallows or something of the nut variety- but we like to keep it sweet, simple and chocolate-y to the extreme! (Also, we call raisins, 'satan berries' in our household so they are not welcome in the chocolate tiffin) 

Begin by breaking up 300g or so of dark chocolate and putting it in a heat proof bowl. We've tried this recipe with all sorts of chocolate varieties but we think dark chocolate gives it a much richer taste than milk chocolate- any brand will do.

Add in 100g of butter and 3tbsp of golden syrup into the bowl.

Golden syrup and chocolate- winning combo.

Melt this mixture over a pot of boiling water and stir it until it becomes liquid and looks like this...

In a colander placed over a plate, smoosh up 230g of digestive biscuits into little pieces. The colander is super useful as it gets rid of all the annoying little dust-like crumbs. We found using the end of a rolling pin is a very effective method to break up the pieces. 

Combine the smooshed digestives with the melted chocolate and mix it all up. Feel free to do a few taste tests- just to check it's all okay!

Pour the mixture into some kind of shallow tin lined with greaseproof paper, in order to avoid the gruelling clean up!

Pop it in the fridge for about 2 hours (or as long as you can bear to wait), until it's solid. Then take it out and cut it into reasonable (ish) sized portions. This time we made ours smaller in an attempt to make it last past today- so far half of it is gone so it's not going too well..

Finished! We promise you, any chocolate fan out there will love it- it is unbelievably good. Let us know if you experiment with any successful added flavours! We love the original so much we're yet to stray from it.. 

We're off to go eat a few more pieces before dinner now. 

Love, 

Samara and Anna xx

Chocolate and Caramel Sandwich Shortbread

If you hadn't guessed already, we are a family of chocoholics. Give it to us in any form - baked goods, drinks, or just plain chocolate, we'll take it. When I found a recipe for these little wonders in the book 'Bake' by Tina Bester, I straight away had a utter yearning for them. My friend was celebrating her birthday that evening so I decided to whip up a batch for everybody.

275g butter, softened
160g caster sugar
300g flour
150g cornflower
275g dark chocolate, melted

For the caramel:
1 x 385g tin condensed milk
3 tablespoons golden syrup
60g butter

Before you start,  preheat your oven to 160°C. 

To make the shortbread; cream the butter and sugar together until pale and fluffy. Then, fold in the flour and cornflour and roll into a sausage. 

The recipe calls for a 6cm- diameter sausage, and being a rule follower, I stuck to the recipe. However, next time I  make them I think I would make them slightly smaller- maybe 4 cm in diameter, so that they were more bite-size.

Pop your shortbread sausage in the fridge for about an hour, wrapped in clingfilm, to firm up before slicing. If you can't wait, then pop it in the freezer for 15 mins- should do the trick!

Next, slice the sausage into 4 mm-thick slices and place the slices on a lined baking sheet. 

Bake for  10-15 minutes.

While your shortbread is baking, melt the chocolate.

Then, once your biscuits are baked and cooled, dip each biscuit into the chocolate (covering half the biscuit). Let the chocolate harden - I put the biscuits in the fridge to speed up the time.

While the chocolate is hardening make the caramel by place the condensed milk, syrup and butter in a pot. Simmer gently for about 5 mins, stirring it all the time until the caramel thickens and darkens slightly.

Spread the caramel on the biscuits, and sandwich them together. Voila!

I would seriously recommend you make these biscuits - they are super super tasty. I took them to my friend's birthday dinner, and they were gone in seconds, so I can safely say that everyone enjoyed them!

A nice tea and biscuit break in between masses of dull revision.

Lots of love, 
Anna xxx