Raspberry Hedgehog Slice

I'm not normally a huge fan of no bake slices, but this one is a winner. We often crave some chocolate after eating tea. It's not something that I regularly buy, so the craving goes unanswered. a rich chocolatey slice appeared to be a solution.

I found some great ideas at playbakesmile.com and decided on her Hedgehog slice. My tweak was to add some Your Inspiration At Home Raspberry Chocolate Truffle powder as well as some raspberry powder. I found the powder at The Melbourne Food Depot online store. They have an amazing array of ingredients to choose from. If you happen to have freeze dried raspberries, they could also be added to the base.

Raspberry Hedgehog Slice
The Bush Gourmand

BASE
250g Granita biscuits
1/2 cup pecans, walnuts or roasted almonds (optional)
130g butter
130g best quality dark chocolate (I use Lindt 70%)
1 cup sultanas (or goji berries)
150g condensed milk
1 Tbsp YIAH Raspberry Chocolate Truffle powder
2 tsp Raspberry Powder

TOPPING
200g best quality milk chocolate (I use Lindt)
1 Tbsp coconut oil

SWIRL
50g best quality white chocolate (Lindt again!)
1 tsp coconut oil
1 tsp raspberry powder
1 tsp beetroot powder (or red food colouring suitable for chocolate)

Grease and line a 20cm square cake tin. Make sure the paper is higher than the sides of the tin for ease of removal.

Chop biscuits in Thermomix bowl by pulsing on speed 4 to 5. You want the biscuit to be still chunky. I break up larger pieces with my fingers. Place into a bowl. if using nuts place them into the Thermomix bowl and chop again by pulsing on speed 4 to 5. Add to bowl with biscuits.

Don't wash bowl. Add dark chocolate, broken into pieces and butter. Melt at 50/speed 1 - 2/5 minutes. Add in milk, powders and sultanas and stir on reverse/speed 2/20 seconds or so. Use spatula to add biscuits or biscuit and nut mix.

Spoon into prepared tin and smooth the top with spatula or wet hands. Refrigerate for an hour or so.

Melt milk chocolate and coconut oil in Thermomix at 50/speed 1 - 2/5 minutes. Meanwhile, melt white chocolate and coconut oil on 50% power in a pyrex bowl until liquid. Remove a tiny bit and mix with powders. Stir back into remaining melted white chocolate.

Pour milk chocolate over slice and smooth out to cover evenly. Place coloured and flavoured white chocolate into a small ziplock bag. Seal, then cut a small hole in one corner. Pipe lines or swirls on milk chocolate topping. Swirl with a skewer if desired. Refrigerate for two hours.

Remove completely from tin and place on a board to cut into small squares.

Enjoy in moderation!

Megan

Sausage Rolls and Tomato Sauce

What to do with a kilo of minced beef that you forgot you defrosted? Make sausage rolls!
First, make the sausage mince.

SAUSAGE MINCE
Use 500g mince and add a handful of fresh herbs or a good sprinkling of dried. For the first batch I used sage, parsley and thyme. The second batch I made with dried Italian herbs.

Tear up around 4 slices stale bread or use about 1/2 cup dried breadcrumbs and add to the bowl. To season, use a generous amount of salt and pepper or try my All Purpose Seasoning. Add one egg and 1/2 MC of water. Add garlic and onion if desired. Mix together on speed 3 - 4 until it looks like sausage mince. I actually taste it at this stage. Just touch it to my tongue to check the seasoning.

When putting together sausage rolls, take a wad of the sausage mince and roll out on the bench like a sausage to the length of the puff pastry sheets. I find this makes the sausage rolls more even in size.
Score the rolls of filled puff pastry with a knife. I generally make four from one roll. These can be frozen at this stage.

Place on an oven tray and brush with egg. Bake in a pre heated (220C) oven for about 10 minutes. Reduce to 200 and continue cooking for a further 10 minutes or until golden brown and puffed. Cool on a rack. Once cooled, these can be frozen.
To make these gluten free, use rice crumbs or rice flakes instead of bread.

This is such an easy recipe there's no excuse not to make your own tomato sauce. So much nicer than the bought stuff!
I found this recipe at Mumdeep. She calls it Aussie Style Thermomix Tomato Sauce. I had more than 500g of tomatoes, so I doubled the recipe. When doubling recipes in the Thermomix, I find it's best to add half the time again, rather than doubling the cooking time.

Here's the recipe with my tweaks

TOMATO SAUCE
1kg very ripe tomatoes
2 large cooking apples
180g Apple Cider Vinegar
180g rapadura sugar (or brown sugar)
2 - 4 Tbsp tomato paste
4 tsp salt (can use less)
2 tsp pepper
1 tsp allspice
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp ground cloves

Cut tomatoes and apples (don't peel) into quarters and place into Thermomix bowl. Add vinegar. Cook for 45 minutes/100/speed 2. This helps keep the colour of the sauce lovely and red.
Let cool for 1/2 an hour or so and then blend on speed 8 to 9 until smooth.
Add sugar, tomato paste and spices and cook a further 45 minutes/100/speed 2. Place basket on top to prevent it spitting out all over your bench and walls!
Adjust seasoning to your liking.
Place into warmed bottles and cap. Tip upside down for ten minutes. Turn up the right way and you'll find the bottles will seal.
If I have any left over bought tomato sauce, I add that to the bowl rather than waste it. In fact, if you're introducing a fussy family member to home made tomato sauce, this is a good way to do it. Just reduce the amount of bought sauce you use each time you make it.

Enjoy!

Megan