Easter Treats

I've had a series of unfortunate incidents in the kitchen of late (very Lemony Snickett of me with a weirdly bad curry last night, horrid pasta the night before...it's all putting me off even being in the kitchen, frankly!) but I did do some successful baking over Easter which was rather yummy.

I made the traditional hot cross buns, of course (always do at Easter) and they were yummy. I don't like mixed peel, so I put dried blueberries in instead of currants - they added a slight fruitiness that was missing without the peel and turned out really well actually (although they did lend a slightly purplish tone to the buns!). I cooked them in a friend's oven and unfortunately they got a wee bit browner on top than I would have liked, but when they're hot and fresh out of the oven and served with lashings of butter, it really doesn't matter.

My piece de resistance, though, was the chocolate tart. Very rich, very chocolatey and rather Easter-ish with the addition of sugar coated chocolate eggs on top. It was a Rachel Allen recipe and for once (I have little success with her recipes on the whole) it worked really well. Basically you make a sweet short crust pastry and bake it blind, then heat cream and milk, add both milk and dark chocolate and then beat in some eggs. Pour into the pastry shell and bake for about 20 mins. Ta-dahhh!



Best served with softly whipped cream and fresh fruit like strawberries. Perfect for Easter, although I certainly wouldn't limit myself to making it then...it actually would be a great, very easy dessert to make ahead when you had people coming over too.

Hope your Easter was sweet, chocolatey and spent with the people you love!