It's Mousse day!

  Welcome to Mousse Day!

Where all of your chocolate fan-tasties come true, well...most of them. Ok, only a couple...

Mint and Dark Chocolate, a party in the mouth!

Might I add...this is the first time I have ever made mousse successfully by myself...and at home. I'm so happy I may just cry...tears of chocolate joy. oh glob...why must you tempt me so!

It's supposed to be dark choc mint mousse, but it sort of looks like milk chocolate, sneaky bugger...he will taste good, I just know it! My cooking isn't that terrible... :D

And you can never go wrong with crushed mint slice. That's the crunchy base to mix into the mousse with a spoon, like muesli and yoghurt!
Grab your best tumbler glasses, in this case...my alcohol glasses, and cover that base with so much biscuit, that you drool a little...then scoop the mousse on top to your desired height and set in the fridge.
I love the word mousse, its so abrupt on the tongue...yet it feels like your barely even speaking the word. MOUSSE

To make this mousse, it requires a mixing of egg yolk, sugar, hot milk and gelatine dissolved in some water, over medium heat, I like high heat though...makes the 'custard' come together much quicker...you need to whisk until your sweating, whisk until your arm falls off, and if you can still hold the saucepan afterwards...it's not ready! Or if it coats the back of the spoon is always another way to tell ( thickens, so that when you tip it to one side of the saucepan it wobbles to a halt)...just don't stop whisking and you will be fine :)

Its such a pretty marble colour when you fold the whipped cream into the chocolate mixture. Make sure to always use a wooden spoon or plastic spatula when folding! SO IMPORTANT, heavy metal spoons and whisks will just knock all of the air out your cream, and nobody likes a flat mousse!
Go from the sides of the mixture and scoop over into the centre of the mixture. keep going until all of the mixture has been incorporated. 

Et Voila! I bring to you...a choc mint mousse, covered in crushed mint slice biscuit and set to perfection. Beautiful

I made three, just so you know...I don't plan on eating them all by myself...haha

 There's the bastard, on the left, silly me...never a label reader! Next time you buy one of these cream containers, check out all of their styles of cream. Why is it so hard to just have one thickened cream, for all purposes of cooking! So frustrating

Dark Choc Mint Mousse Recipe

2 Tsp Powdered Gelatine
3 Tbsp cold water

In a medium size saucepan, add the gelatine to the cold water, and stir to help it dissolve. I just let it sit there for a bit while I got the next bits and bobs ready. You may need to add just a little more water when it starts thickening, just to be on the safe side. It feels better mixing it with the egg when its 'liquidy'.

3 egg yolks

1/2 cup sugar

1/2 cup milk 

235 grams of your favourite Dark Chocolate (melted)

1-2  tsp peppermint essence/extract- make sure to taste it before putting too much in. I used about 1 and a half, because the dark chocolate was very overpowering.

In the same saucepan, add the egg yolks and sugar, whisk them up a little bit to blend. warm up the hot milk, about...45 seconds in a microwave (just to be quick) and pour into the egg mixture. Not too hot...because it may just cook the eggs, that would suck..alot. Then put the saucepan on the medium heat and start whisking, don't lose concentration and whisk just like I told you! trust me, you will need to. No lumps mousse! Whisk whisk whisk till it thickens to that coating consistency. Then off the heat the custard goes. and melt your chocolate in the microwave again, if you have one. otherwise..double boiler it is! Then pour the melted chocolate into the mixture. and whisk quickly. 

My chocolate decided to stick to the bottom of the hot pan. so I got vigorously into it again, and it straightened itself out. Add ALL OF YOUR FLAVOURINGS and leave to cool in a bowl.

375 mls of very good whipping cream- don't make the same mistake as I did and buy cream that won't whip because it is cheap *slaps forehead* WASTE OF 20 MINUTES

WHIP yo cream to perfection baby. Then fold into the cooled mixture. Make sure it's cool too...wouldn't want your cream to melt over the chocolate :O 

Fold gently, smoothly and till combined. 

It will take about half an hour to set I reckon, I checked it at an hour and they were sooo good.

Scoop into cups, decorate...

And you know the rest...:) 

Ok I'm done for the evening, all this writing is making my stomach hurt. 

Enjoy your mousses lovely people! 

xx

                                    

This recipe was adapted from Sprinkle Bakes White choc mint mousse cake recipe. Her mousse recipe worked fantastically! :) 

Yeast

Well...after much debate with myself over how I was going to set this little blog up and what colours I wanted, what design and the layout, I have finally come to the conclusion that I will never be fully satisfied with what I decide on. Being picky never helped a soul! 

So today on this lovely Sunday afternoon, being super hungry but just not ready for dinner, I thought I would hop onto the intranet and get started on some yeast. That's Sour dough yeast!

Here's a picture :)

Everybody loves pictures...and I've got billions!

This is my baby, a lovely lady passed it on to me after it had been handed down to her by another lovely lady. This yeast has most certainly been around!

I keep them in the fridge and rotate them each week. Bring them out to room temperature before feeding them, because that's when they are active. 

And I feed them bread flour and water, I like to use Laucke Bread Flour...they have THE best bread flour around....and it comes in all flavours! :D
The special thing about sour dough yeast is that it is grown naturally over a long period of time. it develops this pungent sour smell, which gives the bread product at the end a sour taste. but it is just so tasty. You can't beat a freshly cooked sour dough loaf from the oven. 

It just wafts like you could never imagine.

This is the first rise of my sour dough loaf. It doubles in size at this point, I always have a moist tea towel to cover it, as it keeps the yeast warm and stops the top from drying out if it's been left too long. It will deflate if you leave it for longer than it needs to rise, and develop a 'crust' on top that you can just knead back into the dough for the second rise. 

The second rise is where you should start putting seeds into your mix, or dried fruits...or nuts or whatever the hell you want! :) 

Just to show you what it looks like in stages...

This is cold yeast, straight out of the fridge this morning. Im currently warming it up so I can make some bread tonight. It has already tripled in size, which is quite surprising, hot weather is so good for making bread!

I put this tea towel on the glass jar as well to help it grow, keeping the warmth in.

This is the second rise, I put it in a tea towel dusted with flour. Really brings out the crunch!

This is the first ever loaf I made from the sourdough yeast. It wasn't fantastic...first time of anything never is, it was nice and crunchy on the outside and soft and dense on the inside.
That loaf was half crusty white, half Barossa Sourdough Rye flour.

This was one of my second I think...it was so long ago! I used about 100 grams crusty white, and 400 grams Barossa sourdough rye flour.

This beauty from a beast...is free form sourdough. After the second rise, I don't put the bread in a tin like I do now...I just cook as it is.
Omg...Pumkpin and sunflower seeds taste so good roasted!
Also in the bread when you toast it, and lather it with your spread of choice...yumyumyumyum

Another delicious looking loaf, much more crusty white flour this time :)

The start of a sweet beginning

Hello!

Just a little bit about myself before I start throwing things into this 'blog' willy nilly..

My name is Samantha ( or just Sam), and I love loVE LOVE food*, I love making it, baking it, creating it, designing it, and most importantly...eating it

Generally I like to grab a base recipe from wherever I can and alter it to my own liking, change it around to suit the tastes of the food, or the tastes of the person...

But if the recipe itself is just damn perfect, then I give sooooo much credit to the inventor! I tip my hat to those who can build a recipe from scratch like it's everything.

Do you enjoy hand making food? 

There are some foods we take for granted...like bread, cheese and even pastry. The things that most of us...just don't have the time to make. It would have to be one of my weekly regular habits, making bread and cheese instead of buying it whole. 

It's crazy how much time is spent to make these things and yet we don't appreciate it...we just pay the cash and be on our way. 

That's why I find it so enjoyable...and I think everybody should give it a shot, at least once in their lifetime!

Apart from making food, I keep up a regular hobby of making jewellery when I can aswell...so I will put some pictures up here for you to look at. 

Putting everything in the one place just feels so good! :)

Finally I can breathe....phew!

Till the next time we meet, I wish you a fun time in the kitchen! 

Much love!

                       Sami