Chocolate and Custard Torte

Good morning dear readers. Today I have a question: How do you measure the success of your recipes? Does it need to be cheap and easy? Better than the mother-in-law's? Contain chocolate? I'm really strict when it comes to my own, and have a long list of boxes to tick before considering a recipe worthy of being remembered and remade.

First of all I have to like the sound of it. Either it has to have a great name, like Chocolate Insanity, or Hot Cross Bunnies, or Puddle cookies, or the name must tell me that this sounds interesting, like Salmon with Strawberry and Feta crust. Then the dish has to look good. By this I don't mean styled and dressed to death. I'm always slightly suspicious of dishes that has a hundred and one different garnishes, with a serviette folded into a swan on the side. Then again, plenty of dishes don't score high in the looks area, but taste divine, like stew, or chocolate tart, for that matter. Looks can bring you far, but is nothing without substance. A little bit like in real life.

It helps if a dish is made of fairly cheap and readily available ingredients, preferably already in the pantry, and doesn't take all day, but again this isn't essential. I'm very happy to spend time and money on something if I know it will be worth the effort.

And of course, it goes without saying, it has to taste fabulous. I'm happy to settle for delicious if it's dead easy and cheap and to be served on a Tuesday, but really, I prefer my dishes to be swoon worthy. Life's too short, as they say, to eat mediocre food. And both I and my guests must rate it this highly. I remember a fig ice cream I made for a dinner one night (I'll post the recipe one day): Everybody started off with their two scoops, but soon I had to bring out the leftovers, and at the end of the evening one of my guests was licking the bowl! Now that's what I call a success.

Which brings me to this post's recipe. I searched for a dish to use up stale hot cross buns, and found this chocolate and custard tart on taste.com.au. It was a bit different than your usual bread and butter puddings (which is delicious, don't get me wrong): you make a base of thinly sliced hot cross buns and melted chocolate (also a good way to use up easter eggs), cover it with a creamy custard and set it in the fridge. Sounds great, doesn't it? The reviews were mostly raving about it, so I decided to make it for a family gathering last night.

Everybody said it was delicious, and liked the idea of the hot cross bun crust, but I couldn't shake the feeling that they were just being nice. How do I know? Nobody, not a single one, had seconds, and there were plenty left. Now in my book, that's a failure. Admittedly, there are a few things I'd do differently next time, like sprinkling some liqueur over the buns, and have more of a custard filling that's not quite so creamy, maybe baked. Maybe chocolate. But will there be a next time? Do I really want to spend time on a recipe that's already let me down once?  I'm not sure. What do you think, dear readers?

Chocolate and Custard Torte
Serves 8


70g (1/3 cup) caster sugar
1 teaspoon (5ml) vanilla extract
600ml thickened cream
4 egg yolks
200g good-quality dark chocolate (or leftover Easter eggs), coarsely chopped
100ml thin cream
4 bought hot cross buns, thinly sliced vertically
2 tablespoons warm water
2 1/2 teaspoons gelatine powder
2 teaspoons cocoa powder

Place the sugar, vanilla extract and half the thickened cream in a small saucepan over low heat. Cook, stirring, for 2-3 minutes or until the sugar dissolves. Bring to a gentle boil. Pour into a heatproof jug.
Place the egg yolks in a medium bowl. Gradually whisk in the cream mixture. Return to the saucepan over low heat and cook, stirring, for 4 minutes or until the custard coats the back of a spoon. Transfer to a heatproof bowl. Place in the fridge for 1 hour to chill.

Meanwhile, combine the chocolate and thin cream in a heatproof bowl over a saucepan half-filled with simmering water (make sure the bowl doesn't touch the water). Use a metal spoon to stir until the chocolate melts and the mixture is smooth.

Line the base and sides of a round 24cm (base measurement) springform pan with non-stick baking paper. Arrange half the hot cross bun slices, in a single layer, over the base of the pan. Spread half the chocolate mixture evenly over the base to cover completely. Repeat with the remaining hot cross bun and chocolate mixture. Cover with plastic wrap and place in the fridge for 1 hour or until set.

Whisk the remaining thickened cream in a bowl until soft peaks form. Use a large metal spoon to gently fold the cream into the custard mixture.

Place the warm water in a small heatproof jug. Sprinkle with gelatine and whisk with a fork until the gelatine dissolves. Gently fold the gelatine mixture into the custard mixture. Pour over the chocolate base. Cover and place in fridge for 3 hours or overnight to set. Dust with the cocoa powder to serve.

Hot Cross Bunny (with chocolate in her tummy)

Dear readers. This was going to be my most beautiful post ever. I've been thinking about it for ages. The idea was to make hot cross buns, but in bunny shapes. I thought I'll make them look like the Lindt easter bunnies, complete with ribbon and bell. And to reproduce the photo, the one with the one bunny in front in focus, and all the others faded in the background (except I don't know how to do that with my camera).

Anyway, let's just say I had problems. I never got round to making them in South Africa, and back home we're in full recovering from jet-lag/getting ready for camping-mode. And working with yeast in between all this didn't work out at all. I can't blaim the recipe. It's Australian Women's Weekly's, and we all know they never make mistakes. It must have something to do with leaving the dough for several hours before getting round to it again. The buns tasted very yeasty and not sweet enough without the added chocolate.

I also had trouble with the different shapes. They had flat sides where they touched each other while baking. In the end I only had one body shape that was actually round, except the chocolate I hid inside beforehand had leaked out during baking. The glaze turned out one big mess, so I'll defenitely use another recipe next time.

I really want to have another go at this, as I think they can be ultra cute. Unfortunately I won't have time before leaving for the weekend tomorrow, so I'll give you the recipe and ideas of how I will do it next time, based on what I learned making this batch. This post is for Bread Baking day #28, this month hosted by Tangerine's Kitchen. The theme is Buns, and I don't think anything says Easter like hot cross buns. I hope you have some nice ones.

Hot Cross Bunnies
Should make about 8, depending on the size

4 teaspoons (14g) dry yeast
1/3 cup (75g) caster sugar
1 cup (250ml) warm milk
4 cups (600g) plain flour
1 teaspoon mixed spice
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon salt
80g butter, chopped
1 egg, beaten lightly
1/3 cup warm water
100g milk chocolate

Combine the yeast with one tablespoon of the sugar and all of the milk in a small bowl, whisk until the yeast is dissolved. Cover the bowl and stand in a warm place for about 10 minutes or until the mixture is frothy.

Sift the flour, spices and salt into a large bowl. Rub in the butter, and stir in the remaining sugar, yeast mixture, egg and enough water to make a soft dough. Cover the bowl and stand in a warm place for about one hour, or until the mixture has doubled in size.

Turn the dough onto a lightly floured surface, and knead for about 10 minutes or until the dough is smooth and elastic.

To form the bunnies:
Make 6 rounds of about golf ball size, wrapped around a couple of blocks of chocolate. (start with 6 to make sure you have enough dough, you can always make some more later). Make 6 more rounds of about big marble size for the heads, 6 balls slightly larger than peas for the tails, and about 2cm long log shapes with tapered ends for the ears. Keep in mind that the dough will still rise, so make it smaller than your desired outcome. Keep all shapes on oiled baking trays, but don't let them touch each other, as you will lose the nice round shape. Keep in a warm place for 20 minutes or until the dough has almost doubled in size.

Preheat the oven to 220C.  Bake the buns until they sound hollow when tapped. Keep in mind that the smaller shapes will bake quicker. For the bodies, check between 10 and 15 minutes, and for the tails and ears just over 5 minutes. The heads should be done somewhere in between. Brush with glaze (I didn't like the AWW one, and can't really comment on any others), and cool on wire racks.

To assemble:
Melt the rest of the chocolate and spoon it into a sandwich bag with a small corner snipped off (or whatever you use). Stick the head and tail to the body, and the ears to the head, with the chocolate. I had a tough time getting the ears to stick, and ended up using toothhpicks to anchor them. Maybe it will help to cut off the bottoms of the ears to make a flat surface. Pipe on little faces on the heads, and crosses on the body (otherwise it will only be hot bunny, and is it just me, or does that sound more like a Valentine's day treat?).

Some extra tips:

• If you want fruity bunnies, add 1 cup sultanas and 2 tablespoons chpped mixed peel to the mixture.
• Make sure the dough is comnpletely wrapped around the chocolate, so that it doesn't leak out.
• Leave plenty of space around each shape on the baking sheet, otherwise the end result is out of shape.
• I love cardamom, and added some to the mixture. Of course you can use whatever spice you want.

I'll try this again next year, and will do another post then on the outcome. Hope everybody has a lovely Easter!