Traybake Treats: Peppermint Crunch Slices

Peppermint Crunch is one of the things I remember from school. A couple of times a month the dinner ladies would make trays of peppermint crunch for pudding, it was a highlight. Last year we visited Keswick Market and a local bakery had a stall selling cakes and tray bakes, lo and behold there was the Peppermint Crunch I used to love as a child. I bought some, shared it with the boys and I’ve been wanting to make my own ever since.

Easter Treats: Peppermint Crunch Slices

Last week Beech’s Fine Chocolates sent me some mini chocolate Easter eggs to try out. When I got them and I saw there was a mint crisp flavour, I knew exactly what I was going to do with them. This is how this Easter version of the Peppermint Crunch Slice was born.

If you love mint, you will love Peppermint Crunch slices. They are easy to make, but there are a few steps and you need to factor in chilling time. It’s a nice thing to make with kids too. Top with some Dark Chocolate Mint Crisp Mini Eggs and you’ve got yourself a minty treat and a half!

Peppermint Crunch Slices

Ingredients:

For the base:
130g plain flour
80g desiccated coconut
25g cornflakes, crushed
90g golden caster sugar
30g cocoa powder, sifted
1 tsp baking powder
200g unsalted butter or baking margarine
1 tsp vanilla extract

Peppermint Layer:
200g icing sugar, sifted
35ml milk
8 – 10 drops of Peppermint Extract Spice Drops (I use Holy Lama)

Chocolate Layer:
200g milk chocolate (or dark if you prefer)
70ml milk
80g icing sugar, sifted

Easter Treats: Peppermint Crunch Slices

How to make Peppermint Crunch Slices:

Pre-heat your oven to 180° and grease and line a high sided baking tray.

In a large bowl, mix all the dry ingredients together, remember to sift the cocoa powder and the flour. Melt the butter or margarine (this took about 45 seconds in my microwave, but keep an eye on it) and pour it into the dry mix, add the vanilla and mix everything together. Tip it into your lined baking tin (if you put baking paper on the bottom it will come out easier) and press down with the back of a metal spoon. Make sure it’s all well compacted. Bake in the oven for 25 minutes.

Remove from the oven and leave to cool completely in the baking tin. Once it’s cool you can make the peppermint layer. Mix the sifted icing sugar, milk and peppermint drops in a bowl until smooth. It wants to be a fairly firm mix, because you don’t want it oozing out of the sides when you take it out of the tin. Taste the mix and add more peppermint if you think it needs it. Pour the peppermint mixture over the top of your base and smooth out as best you can. I did my best then shook the pan to help it level out. Put this in the fridge for at least half an hour to firm up.

Once the peppermint layer has chilled, you can turn your attention to the chocolate layer. This is pretty easy, you can either melt your chocolate in a bain marie, or very carefully in the microwave. If you’re doing it in the microwave, tread carefully as it’s very easy to over do it and the chocolate could go grainy.

Melt the chocolate, stir in the sifted icing sugar and add the milk and mix well. Pour over the top of the peppermint layer and smooth over. I used a knife to mark lines where I would cut it into slices once it was set. Using these lines as a guide, I placed a mint egg half on the top of each of these slices. Put the peppermint crunch in the fridge for at least an hour to set.

Easter Treats: Peppermint Crunch Slices

When you’re ready to eat it, carefully remove the peppermint crunch from the tin and with a sharp knife, cut it into slices. Serve with a big mug of coffee and enjoy this school dinner classic!

If you enjoyed this, you might also like to try this Cornflake Tart recipe.

Easter Treats: Peppermint Crunch Slices

Review: Beech’s Fine Chocolates Mini Eggs

AD/GIFTED The new range of Mini Eggs from Beech’s Fine Chocolates aren’t mini eggs as we know them, but small chocolate eggs which are excellent to scoff, or to decorate cakes with. With Easter rapidly approaching, I was sent some of their Mini Eggs to put to the test.

Review: Beech's Fine Chocolates Mini Eggs

The Beech’s Fine Chocolates Mini Eggs are available in three different flavours; dark chocolate fondant mini eggs; dark chocolate mint crisp mini eggs and milk chocolate caramel crunch mini eggs. Each pack contains six egg halves and costs £2.99 each.

Regular readers will know that I’m a keen baker, and these Beech’s Fine Chocolates Mini Eggs absolutely cry out to be used to decorate cakes and sweet treats with at Easter. They are a half egg, so have a flat side which makes them ideal for topping cakes and bakes with. I made a chocolate peppermint crunch and used the dark chocolate mint crisp mini eggs as decorations and my finished bake looked great. Plus the mint flavour really worked with my bake.

I tasted them all (for the sake of thoroughness) and my absolute favourite were the milk chocolate caramel crunch mini eggs. I’m not sure if it was the milk chocolate or the crunchy caramel pieces inside which did it for me. Either way the combination really hits the spot. My husband is a massive mint chocolate fan, so he liked the mint crisp eggs the best.

Review: Beech's Fine Chocolates Mini Eggs

Beech’s Fine Chocolates are made near Preston and many of their chocolates are vegan, vegetarian, gluten free and are palm oil free too. The fondant and mint crisp eggs are vegan, and the caramel crunch are vegetarian.

They’re a lovely grown up alternative to the traditional chocolate Easter eggs; they would make a nice treat to have after dinner with coffee. They’re not sickly sweet like some Easter eggs can be and they’re nicely priced; so would make a nice gift for a discerning chocolate lover this Easter.

For more information about Beech’s Fine Chocolates Mini Eggs, or to buy online, visit their website.

Disclosure: We were sent a selection of Beech’s Fine Chocolates for review purposes. All images and opinions are our own.

Review: Beech’s Fine Chocolates Gourmet Packs

Beech’s Fine Chocolates have recently launched a new range of chocolates. These new Beech’s Fine Chocolates Gourmet Packs are little sharing bags of really good quality gourmet chocolates. I tried the Cocoa Nib Cacao Truffle, Roasted Coffee Cacao Truffles and the Milk Chocolate Honeycomb chocolates.

Beech’s Fine Chocolates have been making quality traditional British chocolates in Preston, Lancashire since 1920. They use 100% natural ingredients, and all of their products are gluten-free and many are suitable for Vegans. I have a lot of love for Beech’s Fine Chocolates, they make great gifts and they are really good quality. These Beech’s Fine Chocolates Gourmet Packs are among the best chocolate I’ve tasted (and I’ve tried quite a lot of chocolate in my life).

Win a selection of Beech's Fine Chocolates Gourmet Packs

The Milk Chocolate Honeycomb is handmade honeycomb chunks coated in milk chocolate. It’s what I remember as cinder toffee but covered in really silky chocolate. They’re more than a bite size and a couple is just enough of a sweet treat for elevenses. They’re really, really good, like a grown up crunchie but better.

The Cocoa Nib Cacao Truffles are really rich, smooth dark chocolate with crunchy cacao nibs speckled through and dusted in cocoa powder. They’re delicious and they taste so grown up. They’re so smooth and creamy – a real treat. Out of the three different Beech’s Fine Chocolates Gourmet Packs I tried, these cacao truffles were my favourites.

Win a selection of Beech's Fine Chocolates Gourmet Packs

Lastly the Roasted Coffee Cacao Truffles, they look very similar to the cacao truffles, but they’re slightly darker and have a subtle coffee aroma. They’re made with real coffee and have little crunchy pieces of coffee beans throughout. They’re as smooth as anything and would be brilliant with a good cup of coffee, a real after dinner treat.

The Beech’s Fine Chocolates Gourmet range includes –

Chocolate Cacao Truffles
Belgian Chocolate Fudge
Canadian Maple Fudge
Chocolate Cacao Truffles
Cocoa Dusted Almonds
Cocoa Nib Cacao Truffle
Crystallised Ginger Slivers
Dark Chocolate Brazils
Dark Chocolate Ginger
Hazelnut Cacao Truffles
Milk Chocolate Brazils
Milk Chocolate Honeycomb
Roasted Coffee Cacao Truffles

The Beech’s Fine Chocolates Gourmet Packs cost £3.99 each and they’re just the right size to share with a couple of friends over coffee. For more information about Beech’s Fine Chocolates or to place an order, visit their website.

Disclosure: We were sent a selection of Beech’s Fine Chocolates Gourmet Packs for review purposes. All images and opinions are our own.

Beech’s Fine Chocolates Luxury Handmade Truffles

I’m a fan of Beech’s Fine Chocolates who are based just up the road from me in Lancashire. Beech’s Fine Chocolates have been making quality, traditional British Chocolates since 1920, including novelties for children, right up to their latest range of luxury handmade truffles.

Their new collection of luxury handmade truffles includes Champagne, Pink Champagne, Prosecco and Sea Salted Caramel flavours. Each box contains 9 truffles and costs £6.99 per beautiful box.

Beech’s Fine Chocolates Luxury Handmade Truffles

The silver embossing on the boxes is especially lovely. Each pastel box is emblazoned with the phrase “All you need is Love & Chocolate”. It’s an eye-catching and appealing box of chocolates which would make a lovely gift for someone special.

I’m someone who gets given a box of Champagne truffles for my birthday and Christmas, so I’ve tried quite a lot of Champagne truffles over the years and these were excellent. Packed full of Champagne flavour, but not so much that it overwhelms the thick chocolate shell.

I had never until now tried a Pink Champagne truffle. These lightly dusted truffles burst with Pink Champagne flavour. They are made with white chocolate and they’re so delicate in every way. They might be my new favourite Champagne truffle.

Beech’s Fine Chocolates Luxury Handmade Truffles

I am pleased to see that Prosecco truffles are part of the new range. I’ve never tried a Prosecco truffle before but I’ve got a feeling these will be popular. The milk chocolate truffles are delicious; slightly more delicate that the Champagne truffles but just as smooth and creamy inside.

Last but my no means least are the Anglesey Sea Salted Caramel truffles. These have been dusted with cocoa and filled with salted caramel. They’re so good. Really luxurious, not too salty and with a nice balance between the chocolate and the caramel. I loved them.

These luxury handmade truffles from Beech’s Fine Chocolates are a real treat. They’re as pretty as a picture, they’re utterly delicious and they’d make really lovely little gifts this Christmas.

Find out more about Beech’s Fine Chocolates Luxury Handmade Truffles on their website.

Note: We were sent these truffles for review purposes. All images and opinions are our own.

Review: Beech’s Fine Chocolates

Last year I reviewed some Beech’s Fine Chocolates Easter chocolate treats and developed a very soft spot for this local company producing excellent chocolates. Beech’s Fine Chocolates have been making traditional British chocolates in Preston, Lancashire since 1920. They were kind enough to send me some of their new range of chocolates to try out.

First of all I loved the colourful statement packaging. I really like how colourful and fun they are, each box has a bold pattern which really makes them stand out from the crowd and all the packaging is recyclable. Beech’s Fine Chocolates are made using 100% natural ingredients and all products are gluten free and many are suitable for Vegans.

After dinner we opened the Original Dark Chocolate Fruit Creams which are made to a traditional recipe using natural fruit oils. This 150g box contains a selection of orange, lime, raspberry & lemon cream centres which are covered in dark chocolate. They boys liked these best, I’m not usually a fan of fruit creams, I often find them a bit sickly, but I liked these, they weren’t too sweet and I very much liked the lime flavour. There were 14 chocolates in this attractive box which retails for £4.75, they are also suitable for vegetarians and vegans.

Beech's Fine Chocolates

In another beautiful box were the Milk Chocolate Covered Dairy Fudge. I’m a bit of a lover of dairy fudge, it’s sweet but not as sweet as the crumbly bags of fudge you get at the seaside. This 100g box does not disappoint and I was a bit reluctant to share. Each box of the Milk Chocolate Covered Dairy Fudge contains 9 chocolates and retails as £2.99. This product is also gluten free.

Beech's Fine Chocolates

Hubs loves mint chocolates, so he opened the Original Dark Chocolate Mint Creams and gave his approval. He liked the smooth dark chocolate and the mint cream which he thought wasn’t too sweet. The 150g box contained 14 of these lovely minty chocolates which are made using English Mitcham Mint oil, which is grown in Hampshire. The mint creams are suitable for vegans and vegetarians and are gluten free.

Beech's Fine Chocolates

I have to confess that I wasn’t really looking forward to the last box of chocolates we tried. Milk Chocolate Coconut Macaroons, I’m not usually a fan of coconut and wouldn’t pick a Bounty out of the selection box, but these were hands down my favourite chocolate of the selection. Lovely milk chocolate and hand-shredded coconut all mixed up together and made into a lovely bite-size macaroon (not a trendy macaron). Apparently these were very popular in the 80s and 90s and they’ve brought them back and I hope they stay!

They cost £2.99 for 9 chocolates and I adored these, perhaps a bit too much. Even if you’re a bit uncertain about coconut I’d say give these a try, I don’t think you’ll regret it.

Beech's Fine Chocolates

It’s nice to see Beech’s Fine Chocolates bringing out a new range and reinventing some of their old favourites. They’re a lovely, good quality chocolate and they are good value without looking or tasting cheap. They always have offers on their website, so it’s worth checking out especially if you’re buying a few boxes. I’m very happy to buy Beech’s because they’re fairly local to me and delicious too.

Recipe: Chocolate and Ginger Sponge Cake

On Friday afternoons the small boy and I like to bake something, usually a cake to offer any visitors over the weekend. We decided to make a chocolate sponge cake and as an experiment we added some Beech’s Chocolates Ginger Thins to the cake. It was delicious, so I’ve decided to share the recipe.

Recipe: Chocolate and Ginger Sponge Cake

A simple sponge cake is often our bake of choice. It’s easy to throw together, with minimal mess and ticks all the right “cooking with mummy” boxes for my son.

Chocolate & Ginger Sponge Cake

Ingredients:

4oz sugar
4oz butter or margarine (I used stork)
2 eggs
4oz self raising flour
2 dessert spoons of cocoa powder
2 teaspoons of ground ginger
3 Beech’s Chocolate Ginger Thins
splash of milk if needed

Recipe: Chocolate and Ginger Sponge Cake

Method:

1. Cream the butter and sugar together until fluffy. Stir in the eggs.
2. Add the cocoa powder and the ground ginger and combine. Then sift in the flour and stir through. If the cake batter is too thick (which it might be a little) add a drop of milk until it is the right consistency.
3. Put mixture into a lined loaf tin and put the thins half way into the cake at regular intervals (see picture).
4. Bake in pre-heated oven at 190 degrees for 30 minutes.
5. Leave to cool and then try not to eat it all in one go.

It’s utterly delicious on its own, but would be lovely slightly warm with a scoop of ice cream. The chocolate thins impart a deliciously subtle flavour of ginger into the cake. Definitely something we’ll be baking again.

Beech’s Fine Chocolates get the thumbs up from us, I’ll be looking out for them in the future. They’re seriously delicious British made chocolates, perfect for after dinner and equally great to bake with, and what’s more, my hard to please husband loves them.

If you enjoyed this recipe, you might also like to try my award winning Victoria Sponge recipe.

Recipe: Chocolate and Ginger Sponge Cake