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Bites from othe Blogs

  • Vanilla slices are a great dessert for custard fans. The typical slice has a thick layer of vanilla custard sandwiched between two layers of crisp, flaky puff pastry. It’s also a great base for other flavors, and the Passion Fruit Slice that Hotly Spiced recently made is a great example. These bars have a plain vanilla base and are topped with a tangy and floral passion fruit icing that transforms them from something plain to something a little more exotic.
  • Blood oranges are in season right now and there are many desserts that will showcase their unique color and flavor. Tish Boyle‘s Blood Orange Mousse with Ginger Orange Shortbread is an easy to make dessert that is a good place to start. This mousse starts out with homemade blood orange curd, which is not only a fantastic way to use blood orange juice, but lends an attractive orange-pink color to the mousse. You don’t get quite the vibrant color of the pure juice, though garnishing the mousse with a small wedge of orange will solve that problem and showcase the deep color of the blood oranges when you go to serve your dessert.
  • If you’re a fan of malt and chocolate, then Not Quite Nigella‘s 10 Minute Malteser Slices o’Crack will live up to their name. It’s a very simple treat made with chocolate, malted milk powder and regular milk powder, along with a generous number of malted milk chocolate candies. It packs a lot of chocolate and a great malty flavor. You can tell that these will be addictive. US bakers will be able to find Whoppers more easily than Maltesers, but the flavor of a Malteser is slightly maltier (one of my favorite candies, actually) , so you might want to pick some up at a specialty/import store to make these.
  • The Chocolate Speculoos Tart from Lemonpi is a treat the combines the spicy-sweet brown sugar flavor of speculoos cookies with chocolate. The cookies – which are the same type used to make Biscoff Spread – are crushed finely and incorporated into the chocolate filling of the tart. This adds those characteristic brown sugar notes to the filling, and a generous number of chocolate chips that are also folded in ensure that you won’t forget that this is a chocolate tart, at heart. This tart is made with a shortcrust pastry, but the filling would work well with a crumb crust, too – especially if there are some speculoos crumbs in that crust!
  • Flapjacks are a type of cookie popular in the UK that are made with oats and golden syrup. I’ve had both crisp and chewy variations on these treats and enjoyed them both, but there is something about a Chewy Flapjacks, like these made by Like a Strawberry Milk, that is very addictive. These are bar cookies made with golden syrup, sweetened condensed milk, brown sugar, butter, salt and oats. They bake up to have a slightly crisp crust and a chewy, tender center.

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3 Comments
  • Hotly Spiced
    February 22, 2012

    Thanks Nicole for mentioning Hotly Spiced. Yes, vanilla slice! It does take me back to my childhood where I’d ride my bike to the local bakery and pick up one of these for a great snack and treat. I would always but the one with the passionfruit icing. It gives the custard a great tang.

  • Lorraine @ Not Quite Nigella
    February 22, 2012

    Thank you so much for the shout out Nicole 🙂 I had to call it the slice o’ crack because after I finished one piece I had to have another straight away! 😛

  • Jenna Z
    February 23, 2012

    I don’t comment on this blog much but I wanted to let you know I really appreciate the Bites from other Blogs posts. I love that you collect interesting recipes from all around and I really enjoy reading your comments on the recipes! You always add really pertinent and interesting commentary.

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