Chocolate Pie

Chocolate pie

This is one I tried for the first time recently, It really is easy, and makes a spectacular dessert.

Ingredients:

85g Plain Chocolate
55g Butter or Margarine
3 Tbsp Golden Syrup
3 Eggs, Beaten
140g Caster Sugar.
1 Tsp Vanilla Essence
115g Milk Chocolate
500ml Whipping Cream

For The Pastry:

165g Plain Flour
½ Tsp Salt
115g Lard or Baking Margarine
2-3 Tbsp Iced Water.

1: Preheat the oven to 220 C/ Gas 7

2: Make the pastry, Sieve the flour and salt into a mixing bowl, cut in the fat until it resembles coarse breadcrumbs. Slowly sprinkle in the water and gently mix with a fork until it forms a ball.

3: Roll out the pastry on a floured surface, then place it in an 8 or 9 inch (about 20cm) pie tin.

4: Prick the pastry gently with a fork, all over the base and sides; this will help stop it from puffing up. Bake for about 10-15 minutes or until lightly browned.
Remove from the oven and place on a wire rack to cool, in its tin.
Note: I trimmed the edges of the pastry in the above picture, and it shrank, trim once its cooked..

5: Put the plain chocolate in a Pyrex bowl with the margarine and golden syrup. Put the bowl over a pan of lightly simmering water so the contents melt together. Don’t heat it too hard, or the chocolate will solidify.

6: remove the bowl from the heat and stir in the eggs, vanilla and sugar.

7: Reduce the oven temp to 180 C/ Gas 4. Pour the chocolate mixture into the pie case and bake for about 35 – 40 minutes, or until the filling is set. It will rise quite a bit and may look a bit like a soufflé. Remove it from the oven and let it cool.

8: Whip the cream until soft peaks form, and spread it over the pie with a spatula.

9: With a potato peeler, shave curls off the bar of milk chocolate. Use these to decorate the pie.

Great Isn't it.

Mexican Tortillas

Start off simple they say, and this is about as simple as it gets.
Great for a snack, or a meal, they are healthy, tasty and so quick and easy to make, I have no idea why anyone buys them instead of making their own.

Ingredients: Makes 6 Tortillas
200g Plain Flour
2tbsp Water
1 tsp Olive Oil
Pinch of Salt.

1: Sieve the flour into a bowl and add the salt.
2: Make a well in the center, and add the oil and about half of the water.
3: I use a spoon to mix it at this stage, because the resultant mix is sticky as hell, and a sod to get off your fingers.
4: It goes kinda stringy and sticky, thats when you add the rest of the water.
5: The first time I made them, I thought it was too wet, but after you have kneaded the dough for a couple of minutes on a floured surface it goes soft, silky and a bit like Pizza dough. And should look like this...

6: Divide your Doughball into 6, on a floured surface, roll out your little ball with a floured rolling pin.
7: Roll out until your tortilla is about 7-8 inches across, and really thin, about as thick as a credit card. The shape doesn't really matter, but bear in mind round ones are easier to wrap up.
Now it should look like this.

8: Get a frying pan good and hot, a nice high heat, with no oil in the pan. Dry fry the tortilla for about a minute either side, or until it looks like this..

9: Take it out of the pan, fillings are up to you, Bacon, Chicken, Tuna, Sausages, Salad, almost anything works. Best Served Hot!