Recipe: Creme Egg Scotch Eggs

I've always loved cake.  Well, I say always, there was a month or so around December when I totally went off chocolate and sweet things... but generally, if I end up at a restaurant my eyes will immediately skitter off the starters and mains and straight on to perusing the 'Sweet' menu.

And March in our house is a month of cake.  Both Hubby and I have birthdays that fall in March - actually just six days apart, so we take that as the perfect excuse to stock up on our cake stores!

Normally we buy cake, or make and shake one... this year however we decided to push the boat out.  We had our kitchen totally redone in January, complete with new worktops, cupboards and appliances - so what better way than birthday cake to totally break in the new oven.  So we went all out: a birthday cake each.

Hubby went for a 6 layer rainbow cake for me (excellent work my man!), where as I went for a more seasonal offering for his birthday pudding: Creme Egg Scotch Eggs.

Sorry, shall I say that again?  Creme. Egg.  Scotch. Eggs.

I can not take any credit for these little beauties - I found the recipe posted on OmmNomm's site although I did doctor them a little bit.  What I would say, is that these bad boys should come with a health warning.  

Some tips for consumption:

1. Eat with a partner - each one of these Scotch Eggs is the equivelent of a sixth of a chocolate cake, fondant, more chocolate, a creme egg and more chocolate (or if you follow my varient Oreo cookies).  Halving one with a loved one is definitely the way to go.
2. Keep in the fridge - it's odd to me the idea of keeping cake in the fridge, but these go all 'fudgy' if they're kept refrigerated.  So clear enough space!
3. Don't think about the calories - there will be a lot.  But hey, it's nearly Easter, so if it's just an occasional treat, I'd say settle down and enjoy. 

Here's the recipe I followed (as mentioned, a bit of a tweaked version of the OmmNomm's version - I think it really works!)

Ingredients

• 6 Creme Eggs
• 100gm dark chcoloate
• 100gm milk chocolate
• 1 packet of oreo cookies - crushed

Cake mix:

• 175gm unsalted softened butter
• 175gm caster sugar
• 4 medium eggs
• 120g self-raising flour
• 1tsp baking powder
• 60g cocoa powder

Fondant

• 120g softened unsalted butter
• 120gm icing sugar
• 20gm cocoa powder

Method

1. Firstly make the cake - simply cream together the butter and sugar, and then add all of the other ingredients together.  As simple as it comes.  Once the mix is ready pop the cake into a lined tin (doesn't really matter what shape you use as you're going to destroy the cake you make any way!) and bake for 20-30minutes at 160 degrees
2. Once the cake is firm and a cocktail stick comes out clean, remove from oven and leave to cool.  Whilst the cake is cooling cream together the fondant ingredients.  If you find that these do not come together very well you can use a few drops of water to help this combine (literally a few drops is all you need.
3. When the cake is completely cool break apart into breadcrumbs.  Yes. Totally.  The whole cake.  Break it into little bits. 
4. Add the fondant mixture into the cake-breadcrumbs and knead together.  I found it easiest to use my hands for this (and meant that I got to enjoy licking my chocolately fingers clean once I was done - bonus!), until you have a shortcrust pastry-like "dough".  Separate the dough into 6 equal sized balls.
5. Unwrap the creme eggs and carefully wrap your dough around each of the creme eggs.  I found the best method was to flatten the dough in your hand over your palm, then place a creme egg on your palm and then carefully lift the mixture around the egg.  Once your egg is well wrapped, put the chocolate balls in the fridge to chill and firm up.  This is really important.  Make sure you leave enough time for this step.
6. Whilst the balls are chilling, melt your chocolate (I cheated and did it in the microwave, but you can do it properly over boiling water if you like) - feel free to put both chocolate types together.  I liked the combination, the bitterness of the dark chocolate prevented oversweetness.
7. Take your firm balls (oi! mind out of the gutter please!), out of the fridge and carefully dunk each into the melted chocolate mixture so that it is totally coated.  Immediately then transfer the balls to a  bowl of crushed Oreos (the Oreo addition adds a cheesecakeyness to the Scotch Eggs, which I really loved) and coat in the crushed biscuits.  Pop back in the fridge to set.

Once they are cold and the chocolate has set enjoy - but recommend you remember the health warnings listed above.

Recipe: Slimming World Scotch Eggs

I'll be honest - the title of this blog says it all really.  Scotch Eggs.  That you can eat whilst dieting.  It's like heaven.

My absolute Achilles heel in the whole dieting shenanigans is a buffet.  Sit me in front of some mini sausages, a quiche and a pile of salted peanuts and the idea of counting syns/points/calories just flies out of the window.

Just last week I attended a baby shower, and came face-to-face with temptation, with all these golden treats calling to me.  Being really early in my return to Slimming World, I exercised all the self control I could muster and physically sat as far away from the bite-sized savory snacks and firmly kept tucking into carrot sticks.

Now I'm sure you'll agree that I deserved a treat for all that abstanence, so this weekend I decided to roll-up my sleeves and cook up something Slimming World friendly, that wouldn't look out of place on a buffet table - the result: Slimming World Scotch Eggs.

Ingredients
8 x eggs
8 Sainsburys Be Good To Yourself (Less the 3% fat) Cumberland Sausages - I spent a long time researching this.  These are currently (please check if you read this is a few months as syn-values change all the time) the lowest-syn sausages around  (1 syn per sausage).
2 pieces of wholemeal Nimble torn into crumbs

1. Hard boil the eggs, plunge into cold water and once cold, peel away the shell.
2. Take a sausage and squeeze the sausage meat out of the sausage 'skin' - it's a bit like squeezing out meaty toothpaste.
3. Carefully flatten the sausage meat in the palm of your hand, and wrap around you de-shelled boiled sausage.  This can be tricky.  I found it easiest to wrap the sausage meat around the middle of the egg, and then massage the meat up and down so it covers the whole egg.  Another tip is to make sure your hands are cool and slightly wet, as it stops the sausage from sticking to your fingers.
4. Carefully roll your sausage-encased egg in the breadcrumbs - be gentle, otherwise the sausage meat could slip off
5. Place on a baking tray sprayed with FryLight (or similar) and cook in a 200 degree C oven for 10 - 20 minutes, or until the sausage meat has cooked, and the breadcrumbs are golden.

These sausage rolls will be the star of any picnic, or in my case the envy of colleagues when you unearth your packed lunch.  They really won't believe you're on a diet!

Each scotch egg is 2 syns (1 for the sausage, and 1 for the breadcrumbs) - and I don't think you'll find a tastier two syns!