Cafédirect Machu Picchu Coffee Recipe Review

This week we were sent some lovely Fairtrade coffee from the guys and gals at Cafédirect.  Now, I love coffee but as part of my blogging life, I also love to use everyday items in great recipes.  Cafédirect have a cool coffee matching guide with innovative reipes using the coffees they produce. All of their products are Fairtrade certified so you know that the growers are all getting a fair deal out of the growing and production of the coffe, tea and chocolate products.... so you can enjoy them even more!

I decided to make the Cardamom chocolate mousse on an Amaretti biscuit base with hazelnuts.  This is a recipe by Saskia Rogerson, winner of the Cafédirect coffee matching challenge.  I chose this recipe specifically for it's ingredients.  Coffee is quite widely used in desserts but here we have the addition of cardamom pods and chilli - combined with chocolate and carrot, I'm hoping the results will be quite spectacular!

So here we go.... recipe coming up!

Cardamom chocolate mousse
Ingredients
Biscuit Base
250g Amaretti biscuits, crushed
120g unsalted butter
2 tbsp chopped hazlenuts
3 cardamon pods, grated

Caramelised carrot and chilli layer
2 tbsp shredded carrot
2 tbsp shredded chilli
25g unsalted butter
4 tbsp Fairtrade muscavado sugar

Cardamom, Hazelnut & Chocolate mousse
300g Fairtrade bittersweet
chocolate, broken into pieces
2 tbsp hazelnuts
4 cardamom pods, grated
45g unsalted butter
5 free range separated eggs
4 tbsp Fairtrade caster sugar
230ml double cream
1 tsp vanilla extract
Shot of espresso made with Cafédirect Machu Picchu coffee

Method

1. Biscuit Base... Melt the butter in a pan, add the Amaretti biscuits, hazelnuts and grated cardamom. Transfer to a 28cm springform cake tin (or 6 individual ramekins) and leave to cool.
2. Caramelised carrot and chilli layer... Bring the carrot and chilli mixture ingredients slowly to simmer until it caramelises, then pour onto the biscuit so it forms an even layer.
3. Cardamom, hazlenut and chocolate mousse...  Melt the chocolate and butter in a bowl heated over pan of simmering water, add espresso, cardamom, hazelnuts and vanilla extract.
4. Leave to cool. Heat the egg yolks and two tbsp sugar over the simmering pan of water. Whisk until warm then transfer to an electric mixer and mix until the yolk is pale and fluffy.
5. Fold into chocolate mixture. Whisk the egg whites in a clean bowl until stiff, and fold into the chocolate mixture.
6. In a bowl set over ice, whip the cream until stiff and fold into chocolate mixture. Spoon onto the biscuit and carrot/chilli caramel layer, and spread.  Refrigerate until set.
7. Eat!

The recipe is a bit technical at points with the separating of eggs, whisking yolks over heat and whisking egg whites to peak!  But I can say that it is definitely worth the effort!  The flavours are absolutely fantastic - you can taste each flavour with the chocolate complimenting the chilli, hazlenut and cardamom perfectly.

It was quite rich and so would recommend this dessert as a spectacular finish to a dinner party, but a small slice would be fine with an afternoon cup of coffee... Cafédirect of course!

We shared this dessert with my neighbour and over a cup of Machu Picchu coffee we decided that it would be making an appearance over the Christmas festivities with both familes!

Cafédirect products - tea, coffe and hot chocolate - can all be purchased at all major supermarkets and selected independant stores.  There's a great range of teas, coffees and hot chocolate available... it would certainly take a good while to work your way through them!  I can certainly try though!

The Big Fair Bake 2012 - Fairtrade Awareness

Baking tastes better when you share, so the Big Fair Bake is the perfect excuse to get inspired put on your pinny and bake up a treat for others; not just the friends and family we share it with, but also the farming communities who grew the ingredients.

Fairtrade tea, coffee, bananas, sugar, chocolate, cotton.... to name a few products that we all use daily and by switching to Fairtrade we can all make a difference, one step at a time.

I have chosen a recipe (Chocolate Orange Muffins) from the Fairtrade website here, but also added my own twist... to devise and bake a recipe using only Fairtrade ingredients... sort of like a "Ready, Steady, Cook" for the Fairtrade industry.... the last part of the challenge is to share my culinary creations and delights and share the message of Fairtrade.

Even though I live in a small town with little choice for supermarkets, I'm lucky that the main supermarket is the Co-Operative... in 2000 they developed and launched their own label range of Fairtrade products.  The ethics behind their products is great and they stock over 250 Fairtrade products, each displaying the Fairtrade badge to make them easily recognisable.

So, the ingredients that I can choose from are.... tea, coffee, chocolate, bananas, honey, sugar, beansprouts(!), wine, blueberries, pineapple, mangoes, oranges, grapefruits and lemons..... I'm not sure where the beansprouts will come in however my son loves them in a quick stir-fry...not with fruit salad though!  But, the wine will definitely be for drinking, no questions there!!

I'm thinking along the lines of "Banana tea bread muffins", "Chocolate blueberry muffins" and "Tropical fruit salad".  These delights will be created over the next couple of days and shared with family and friends... I'll publish the recipes to share with you all too...no secrets here!

Why don't you have a go... a simple fruit salad can provide your 5 a day and help the farmers at the source of the industry.... and everyone loves cake - Fairtrade just makes it better!

School Sport's Day Take 3 and 8th Birthday Fun!

Well, after a very wet "Summer" term at school, we finally admitted defeat and held the event yesterday in a local sport's hall!  The morning was still a great success and all of the children thoroughly enjoyed themselves.  The obstacle race is always a hit along with the nursery class' pram race!  The older children really enjoy the competitiveness but sometimes, I'm sure the little ones are confused as to why everyone has come to watch them do PE!

The cake and coffee stall went down a treat, as always raising much needed funds for the school events throughout the year.  After all, who can resist a lovely coffee and cake with the added bonus of helping the children in the process!

Then today, we have the excitement of my daughter's 8th birthday!  An early morning wake-up call of an excited newly-8 years old sister was too much for my son... "leave me alone, I'm tired!" were his first words to her this morning... but was equally excited when he realised it was the last day of school and it's time for the "big" holidays!

As a treat for my daughter's class we've done a little tea party for the class to celebrate her birthday and the last day of term... not just cake this time - we do encourage a balanced diet, not just cake!

 We're off to the Legoland Discovery Centre tomorrow so watch this space for the photo's of a Lego tour of Great Britain!  But first, birthday meal out for Charlotte tonight... her choice, Chinese mmmmm :)