Ingredient Chocolate

Florentines

I have read conflicting stories which suggest that Florentines were, as the name suggests, first made in Florence, and others which recount a tale whereby their invention took place in the kitchen of King Louis XIV’s to present to a party of Italian guests to his palace at Versailles.

Peanut Butter Cup Tart

Late one night, I found myself craving a certain American sweet treat. Salty but smooth peanut filling encased in deliciously creamy chocolate. 

Chocolate bark

For a sweet treat with a twist, you can’t go past this simple recipe for chocolate bark. It is sure to wow, but is also incredibly easy to make – especially if you’re lucky enough to be using an induction…

Peanut butter brownie

One of the side effects of being both a scientist and foodie is that ideas and inspiration sometimes come about in the most unexpected of ways.  This peanut butter brownie recipe (loosely based on one from BBC Good Food) is…

Dark Chocolate Torte

Happy New Year everyone! After a holiday season filled with delicious food, some of you might not want to look at another slice of cake or bite of chocolate again for some time. I, however, have not been deterred and…

Chocolate Cherry Rum Cake

If you want to drop a bomb on your dinner party.  This cake it totally nuclear.  The Engineers (our poor friends who we inflict our culinary experiments on) didn’t stop their thumbs up mutterings for days after this went out…

Easy Ice Cream

One of my favourite food books is Americas Test Kitchen’s The Science of Good Cooking. The section on freezing shares many phrases with the steel manufacture section of my materials science books from engineering school. “Nucleation”, “crystal growth”, “supercooling”; steel…

Chai & coconut milk ice cream

I’ve recently returned from a 3 week holiday in the mighty USA; during our jaunt I became obsessed with the ‘all American diners’ – those institutions that have been running forever, open all day and all night, serving bottomless cups of filter coffee

Avocado ice creams

I spent Saturday with three friends and we talked food. One had purchased a juicer and was giving us a run-down on her latest concoction – pineapple, lime and watermelon.  One had cut out dairy and eggs and was talking…

Cookie ice-cream sandwiches

Those of us who were lucky enough to grow up in little old New Zealand will no doubt have fond memories of the Mr. Whippy truck winding its way through our suburban streets on a summery afternoon, playing its happy…

venison with red wine chocolate sauce

This is a really simple recipe that doesn’t take a lot of time but you can plate it up and impress your guests with the intriguing combination of sweet and savoury. You are essentially deglazing the pan with red wine…