Rocky Road for July's No Waste Food Challenge

This was a proper clear out the cupboards recipe, and I am using it to open up July’s No Waste Food challenge which I am hosting this month, with thanks to Elizabeth’s Kitchen Diary who is allowing me to take hold of the reins for July! I have been a bit sparse what with life getting in the way so its a good way to dive back in to blogging!

Normally biscuits are like gold dust here, I fill the tin... a few days later...its empty.. however for some reason un-be known to the laws of biscuit munching, a box of shortbread fingers was sadly gathering dust at the back of the cupboard. In fact the box informed me it was best before November last year. Oops. It was sealed however and for this recipe it worked perfectly! 

Next came the white chocolate – chocolate in this household is like those fast car movies – gone in 60 seconds but it turns out my boyfriend doesn’t like white chocolate and I’d had a few bars hanging around from about Christmas time that Sainsbury's had very kindly sent my way, that were simply begging to be used up, along with a bar of milk hazelnut chocolate that I had hidden from the other resident chocoholic… 

Last but not least was a bag of some fancy dried fruit and nut mix, that we just didn't seem to be getting through despite it being here since Christmas! Since a career change recently, I now have weekends to myself and find myself making things most weekends, and this Rocky Road was no exception! Born out of using up these odds and sods to create something a bit more special. Turns out neglected ingredients can work a treat!

Now prior to decorating with lots of sugar confetti and magic sparkle it er, looked like baby sick and I have decided to not share that picture with you to save putting you off! Now don’t leave me – it is salvageable trust me! Like most things in life a little sparkle saves the day!  

Ingredients:

200g white chocolate

100g milk hazelnut chocolate

100g shortbread

50g dried fruit and nut mix
40g mini marshmallows

Sugar confetti/ sprinkles of choice

Start by crumbling up the shortbread into small pieces, stir in the fruit and nuts. Melt all the white chocolate with half the milk chocolate either slowly on the hob in a heavy pan/ bain marie or gently zap in bursts in the microwave and stir through the biscuit fruit mix, spoon into a 8” square silicon cake pan or line a tin with baking paper and chill until set.

Melt the remaining chocolate and spoon over the rocky road in drizzles, sprinkle over your desired confetti or cake sprinkles/ fairy dust and chill for a couple of hours.

When its fully set, turn out onto a chopping board and with a sharp knife cut into squares:

My Rocky Road was shockingly good, it lasted less than a day in the tub! I took some over on Father's Day to my brothers house and it seemed to vanish into thin air! I think we fought over the scraps...Considering it was my first attempt at Rocky Road we were all very happy to eat it! Even the white chocolate haters wolfed it down! And I have to thank one of my eagle eyed commenters - I had indeed forgotten to write that I also added the last of a bag of mini marshmallows - not a leftover at all as they vanish fast here!

So now the challenge is out there bloggers - send me your best recipes for what would have otherwise gone to waste! I am looking forward to seeing what you all come up with! This is my first time using a linky software so apologies if it doesn't quite work!

Challenge Conditions:

1. Please link up your url using the linky at the bottom of this challenge post.

2. Feel free to republish old posts just make sure you add a link to the current challenge and add the challenge badge (the blue badge at the top of this post).

3. Make sure you link up before the end of July!

4. Posts will be added to the No Waste Food Challenge Pinterest Board to help spread the food waste prevention love!

5. Please make sure your post includes a link back to this blog post and the relevant month’s host.

6. Tweet @TangoRaindrop and me @anneskitchen with the tag #NoWasteFoodChallenge and we will re-tweet all that we see.

Pecan and Ginger Fudge

This hideously nice but naughty recipe finally gave me a chance to use my long forgotten sugar thermometer. I bought it on the internet, some 5 years or so ago after deciding on a whim to make coconut ice however I just never got around to making said coconut ice.. it just goes to show those simplifying perfectionist websites who say clear stuff out after a year were lying, hoarding is just fine by me. This recipe is also a prime example of if you fail, you just dust yourself off and try again. A good life lesson too...

I do now have yet another 'tester' in the form of my brothers flatmate who has willingly pledged to try any more fudge varieties I might care to make...as you can see from this plate there was not much left after I had taken a batch of this Pecan and Ginger Fudge to his house, still warm in the baking tray in order to give my dad a bagful for Fathers Day! One happy dad too!

Recently I've switched to working a regular hour job and now have weekends.. at least for now anyway... Something strange and a novelty after 5 years of shift work and find myself now alone most weekends in the kitchen.. its proving dangerous for my waistline! Anyway for some reason I was sitting around googling random stuff on Saturday afternoon and remembered I had bought some crystalised ginger a few weeks to make a cake recipe I have culled from a magazine, and dug it out... however it was from our upstairs larder/ hall cupboard/ storage room and right next to it by chance was a tin of condensed milk I had bought on a whim, and at that moment it screamed fudge to me.... Though after checking online it turns out I was thinking of Nigella’s chocolate fudge but I had just used nearly all my chocolate supplies in making Rocky Road (to follow!) and needed another option and stumbled across Carnations website, admittedly my tin was not Carnation branded but they did have a promising sounding fudge recipe on their site, and I had nothing better to do and decided to make my first batch!

Oh my, arm strength is good here. Not something I have or will ever achieve. My first batch without the thermometer was not quite thick enough and I had to reboil it later for which I made my boyfriend do! He was quite fascinated how the texture changed during cooking and I think it made him appreciate the workings of the kitchen a little bit more! The optimum temperature was above 118o Celsius for the record however on the successful batch I waited till 120o to be certain!

The flavour combination of Pecan and Ginger came about as whilst I didn’t end up using the crystalised ginger, I opted for stem ginger instead to make a bit more punchy! And as regulars know by now I love pecans soo much!! For my first ever batch I am super chuffed with the final result! Crunchy sweet pecans, fragrant ginger to just hum and not overwhelm the fudge flavour -  it was a real winner! Though just next time I might not just reboil it and have to make brownies with it instead, which was suggested for fudge that doesn't set! Yum!

Now it depends what size bits of fudge you want but I used a traybake tin and the fudge was just under a centimetre in height. Prepare your tin by dotting a little oil or butter and lining fully with baking paper. It will cut maybe about 60 little pieces. Which vanish very fast. Sad times is the empty tupperware last night. I think we are both fridge pickers (and as the saying goes fridge pickers wear bigger knickers!!)

Ingredients:

1 tin sweetened condensed milk (397g)

150ml milk

400g Demerara sugar

115g unsalted butter

16 pecan nuts

2 balls stem ginger

1 tbsp stem ginger syrup

Method:

In a heavy based saucepan heat the butter, sugar, milks and gently bring to the boil, keep stirring (a silicon spoon is fab here!) and on a gentle boil keep on stirring until *very* thick, about 15 minutes, then remove from the heat onto a cool surface and carry on beating until its quite actually hard to beat any further and its kinda solid but just about pourable – my temperature was at 120o Celsius. 

Transfer into the baking tin quickly and smooth over. Allow to cool fully in the tin before slicing into desired shapes. Then tie hands behind back to prevent further testing.

Notes: If like mine first time it  was still to soft, re-boil with 2 tbsp of evaporated milk and use a thermometer. My ‘soft ball’ stage was a complete fail! I ended up with lots of glasses filled with sweet water.

Warning: hot sugar fudge mix is very, very hot! Do not attempt any licking of fingers here!

And oh how we loved this fudge! Crumbly a little, sweet enough to be magical and the little pecan bursts with sweet ginger pockets was quite, well er heavenly!