Honey & Co's chocolate and pistachio cookies

I tasted these gorgeously squidgy chocolate cookies last year at the Bath launch of Sarit Packer and Itamar Srulovich’s baking book which is a must-buy for anyone who loves baking. Or frankly, even if you don’t - you will by the time you've read it.

What makes the book so utterly irresistible (apart from the great recipes) is Sarit and Itamar’s chatty writing style, a sample of which you can see (from Sarit) in the introduction to this recipe:

"Itamar discourages me from making cookies for the shop for many reasons. They are very labour-intensive, taking up much of our pastry time; plus the rest of the kitchen, seeing a tray coming out of the oven, will flock round to try to damage the little things so they can have them.

The main point of disagreement, however, is that he doesn’t see them as dessert. I most definitely do. I think there is nothing nicer as a treat and a bowlful of indulgent cookies passed around the table can be the perfect finish to a rich dinner. They contain just the right amount of sweetness and if one isn’t quite enough you can always have another and then just one more … Maybe I can see the problem with them after all."

makes 12 large cookies or 24 bite-sized ones

250g chocolate (I use a 60% cacao dark chocolate)

50g unsalted butter

2 eggs

175g light brown soft sugar

60g strong white bread flour

1/2 tsp baking powder

a pinch of table salt

About 200g pistachios very roughly chopped to coat

You will also need two baking trays lined with baking parchment.

Melt the chocolate and butter together in a bowl in the microwave or over a double steamer. In the meantime whisk the eggs and sugar to a sabayon - that is, until the mixture is very thick and fluffy.

Fold the melted chocolate into the eggs. Add the flour, baking powder and salt then fold together until you have a lovely even mixture. Allow to rest for about 30 minutes in a cool place or pop in the fridge for 10-15 minutes (you want the dough to be manageable but not set). If you forget about it in the fridge and it sets solid you will have to bring it back up to temperature in a warm place so that you can handle it easily.

Divide the dough into 12 and using two spoons or a piping bag shape into balls of about 50g each. I usually use weighing scales but you can be more relaxed if you prefer and just estimate the size.

Spread the chopped pistachios on a flat tray and drop the balls of chocolate goodness onto them. Flip them to coat all over then transfer to the baking trays, allowing about 5cm between them as they will spread in the heat of the oven. You can keep the unbaked cookies in the fridge until you are ready to bake or, alternatively freeze them for up to 2 weeks and simply thaw before baking.

Pre-heat the oven to 200°C/180°C fan/gas mark 6. Place the trays of cookies in the centre of the oven for 8-9 minutes (allow 12 minutes if the cookies have been chilled). Remove and leave to cool on the trays while the chocolate sets fully. Once the cookies are cool you wil be able to pick them up quite easily but the middle will stay nice and soft like a moist chewy brownie so handle with care. These keep well for up to a week in an airtight container or sealed bag.

What to drink: I'm not sure wine is the best accompaniment for these - I'd personally go for an espresso or black Americano coffee but you could try a Greek muscat or a vin santo.

Recipe from Honey & Co. The Baking Book published by Saltyard Books. Photograph © Patricia Niven.

Doughnuts and hot chocolate sauce

If you like churros you're going to LOVE this recipe for doughnuts with chocolate sauce from chef Nieves Barragan's new book Sabor*: Flavours from a Spanish Kitchen.

"If you don’t have a mixer to knead the dough you can knead it by hand" she advises. (Note the dough needs an overnight rise)

Makes 20 doughnuts

rapeseed or sunflower oil, enough to fill your pan to about 3cm

For the doughnuts

60g cold but malleable butter

450g plain flour, plus extra to dust

60g caster sugar

60ml whole milk

12g fresh yeast or 4g quick yeast

4 medium eggs

For the hot chocolate sauce

300ml water

150g caster sugar

160ml single cream

50g cocoa powder

300g dark chocolate (70%)

For the cinnamon sugar

150g caster sugar

5-6g ground cinnamon

Take the butter out of the fridge 15 minutes before starting and chop into small cubes

Put the flour and sugar into a large bowl and mix together with your hands

Heat the milk until almost boiling then remove from the heat and leave to cool slightly. Mix into the yeast stirring with a whisk to dissolve

Put the flour and sugar into the bowl of a stand mixer and slowly add the butter - it will look like crumble. Add the eggs one by one then dribble in the milk/yeast mixture until everything comes together in a sticky dough.

Lightly flour a large container or bowl, turn the dough out into it and lightly flour the top. Cover and leave in the fridge overnight.

In the morning turn out the dough onto a floured surface - it will have almost doubled. Take a piece (approximately 30g) and roll it in your hands then squeeze down until it’s about 2 1/2 cm thick.

Use the top of a miniature bottle to press out the dough in the middle, leaving a hole. The doughnuts should be around 25g each. Repeat until you’ve used all the dough.

Stick two fingers through the middle of each doughnut and move them around to push out the dough a bit more and double the size of the hole otherwise it will close up when the doughnut is fried and expands.

To make the hot chocolate sauce put the water, sugar and cream into a pan on a low heat and dissolve the sugar. Put the cocoa powder and chocolate into a bowl and place over a pan of simmering water to melt the chocolate (this keeps it smooth). When the chocolate has melted add it to the cream with a spatula. Continue mixing until it becomes dense and thick and perfect for dipping. Keep warm.

Mix together the sugar and cinnamon.

Pour the oil into a shallow pan on a medium heat. When it’s hot (about 180°C) fry the doughnuts until golden brown then remove and drain on kitchen paper. Dust with the cinnamon sugar while still warm and serve with the chocolate sauce for dipping.

What to drink: I'd honestly rather have coffee than wine with these delicious doughnuts (because you're going to have them for breakfast, right?) but a glass of sweet sherry would be pretty tasty too.

*Nieves is opening a new restaurant of the same name in London this autumn (2017)

Extracted from Sabor by Nieves Barragan Monacho which is published by Penguin Fig Tree at £25. Photo © Chris Terry.

Chocolate and cherry roulade

To celebrate Chocolate Week here's one of my favourite recipes for a chocolate and cherry roulade which comes from my book An Appetite for Ale. Unusually it contains two different types of beer! You can obviously leave one of them out though a cherry beer is the perfect pairing with it.

Making a roulade might sound daunting but is actually no more difficult than making a chocolate mousse providing you have the right kit (see below)

For the roulade

175g Belgian dark luxury chocolate*

2 tbsp stout, porter or black coffee

5 large eggs, separated

125g caster sugar

For the filling

350g pitted morello cherries or stoned fresh, black cherries

2 tbsp Kriek or other cherry beer or cherry juice

1 tbsp kirsch (optional)

284ml carton double cream

1-2 tbsp caster sugar

To assemble

Icing sugar

You will need a 33cm x 23cm shallow rectangular ‘swiss roll’ tin, some non-stick baking parchment, several large bowls and an electric hand whisk

Preheat the oven to 190°C/375°F/Gas 5. Lightly grease the baking tin and line with a piece of non-stick baking parchment.

Break up the chocolate and put it in a bowl with the stout, porter or coffee. Set the bowl over a pan of simmering water, making sure the base of the pan doesn’t touch the water. Leave to melt, stir once to amalgamate and take off the heat.

Put the eggs and sugar in another bowl and whisk together for a couple of minutes until light and moussey. Fold in the chocolate mixture with a large spoon.

In another bowl - and a clean whisk - whisk the egg whites until they just hold their shape. Add a couple of tablespoons of the egg whites to the chocolate mixture to lighten it then fold in the rest of the egg whites lightly without overmixing.

Tip the chocolate mixture gently into the baking tin and lightly and evenly spread it over the base of the tin. Bake in the preheated oven for 15-20 minutes until the top is risen and firm to the touch.

Leave the roulade in the tin, cover with another sheet of baking parchment and lay a damp teatowel over the top. Leave for at least 3 hours. Meanwhile drain the cherries, if bottled or stone them if fresh, halving or quartering them if they’re particularly large. Put them in a bowl, with the kriek and a few drops of kirsch and refrigerate.

To assemble the roulade lay a large piece of baking parchment on your work surface and dust it with sifted icing sugar. Carefully tip the roulade onto the paper. Peel away the baking parchment off the base of the roulade and trim the edges.

Strain the cherries, reserving the juice. Lightly whip the cream until just holding its shape, fold in the kriek or cherry juice and sweeten to taste. Spread the cream over the roulade leaving a space round the edges and scatter the cherries on top. Using the paper roll the roulade up like a Swiss roll (don’t worry if it cracks), carefully transfer to a serving plate and sift over a little extra icing sugar.

* you don’t want chocolate that is too high in cocoa solids for this recipe. Choose one of about 55-60% cocoa solids (available in the baking section of supermarkets)

What to drink: As I said this was originally intended to go with cherry beer but a chocolate stout or a sweet red wine like a Recioto della Valpolicella would work well too. Serve the cherry beer in a champagne flute - it looks amazing!

Photos © Vanessa Courtier