In These Stilettos

I spent an evening a little while back with the Cadburys’ Team at The Cookery, on a cooking class to highlight the #CashInYourCravings campaign that was running. Like we need an excuse to indulge?

“The Cookery”, is an interactive cooking studio run by The Secret Jozi Chef, and one I have been absolutely dying to visit. It hosts fun social classes for students during the week as well as interactive chef’s table events. Perfect for girls night out or a date night with your beau. I was surrounded by luxury with state of the art Whirlpool and KitchenAid appliances and the attention to detail with the décor is absolutely on point. Keep scrolling because I’m sharing two of my favourite recipes.

We each draw a “chocolate” to select our team, I drew a PS I love you bar, which happens to be one of my favourites. There were 4 teams, each cooking three dishes that made up the menu for the night, under the supervision of Chef Emilio. The focus of the evening was of course, was cashing in on our cravings with some indulgent food such as butter sage gnocchi (yes I made Gnocchi), mushroom risotto as well as delectable desserts all made with Cadburys favourite chocolate bars, in this case, PS Chocolate Ice Cream and 5-star brownies; perfect for a Christmas day dessert.

I’m going to share the dessert recipes from the evening with you, because they really are too good not to try and so darn easy to do at home. Who on earth would have thought that I would ever attempt my own home made ice cream? This PS Ice cream is the best thing I have ever tasted and is definitely on the menu for a family feast in December. So here they are my top two recipes from the night (everything I tasted that night was on point but I have to leave you with some incentive to book a class).

CHOCOLATE BOX BROWNIES

Ingredients

240g butter, melted and cooled

2 tablespoon vegetable oil

150g brown sugar

200g white sugar

4 large eggs, room temperature

4 teaspoons vanilla extract

150g all purpose flour

120g good quality, unsweetened cocoa powder

1 teaspoon salt

270g roughly chopped chocolate or large chocolate chips  (We used chopped up Cadbury 5-Star and Crunchies for this)

Directions

Preheat the oven to 175°C then line a 7×11 inch baking tray with parchment paper and set aside.

In a large bowl combine melted butter, oil and both sugars.

Add the eggs, vanilla and salt then whisk for about one minute until evenly combined and light in color.

Over the same bowl sift in the flour and cocoa powder.

Gently fold the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients until JUST combined (do NOT over mix).

Pour the batter into the prepared pan, then smooth the top.

Generously top with the chocolate chunks, gently pressing them into the batter.

Bake for 35-40 minutes, or until the centre of the brownies no longer jiggles and is JUST set to the touch.

Remove from the oven and allow to cool to room temperature before removing from the baking tray and slicing into 16 brownies.

Enjoy

PS I Love you Chocolate Ice Cream

Ingredients

300g PS Chocolate

1 1/2 cups whole milk

1 cups heavy cream

6 large egg yolks

5 tablespoons granulated sugar (add an extra tablespoon if using bitter chocolate)

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 tsp vanilla powder (fresh vanilla pods)

1 cup cream

Directions

Place the chocolate in a blender.

Whisk the milk, 1 cup cream, egg yolks, granulated sugar and salt in a heavy-bottomed medium saucepan over medium heat. Cook, stirring constantly until the mixture is thick enough to coat the spatula and almost boiling, 5 to 6 minutes. Basically making a custard, and it’s absolutely OK if it splits bit, it’s all going in the blender!

Immediately pour the milk mixture over the chocolate in the blender.

Cover and hold the lid with a thick kitchen towel; blend until combined and smooth, stopping to scrape down the sides of the blender as needed.

Transfer to a bowl cover and set aside to cool completely in the fridge. (We placed a bowl in an ice tray)

Once the mixture is cold, whip the remaining cup of cream and fold it through the chocolate mixture.

IF YOU HAVE AN ICE CREAM MIXER – Add the mixture to your ice cream maker and churn according to manufacturer’s instructions

IF YOU DON’T HAVE AN ICE CREAM MIXER – Pop it in a container in the freezer to set. You can go in and mix it every 30 minutes but according to Chef Emilio for this recipe you don’t have too.

There you have it. Two simple recipes to add to your Christmas table this festive season. You will be blown away by the Ice-cream, I promise, Its sweet, rich but not too rich, creamy with a little crunch of wafer. The best thing I’ve tasted this year! Thank you Cadbury South Africa for this awesome treat night.

Let me know if you try these recipes 🙂