Saturday, December 10, 2011

Festive Star Bar

I have some friends who are bake-phobic but want to join in with the festive food fun.  This recipe is perfect - all you need is a pot, a hob and a big deep tin.  It's also very flexible once you stick to the basic proportions of chocolate base and extra ingredients.  I know for a fact that one of my more dipsomaniac friends plans to soak her dried cranberries in Cointreau for a more grown-up result (she'll do anything to justify necking liqueurs during the day...).  My one piece of advice if you're going to use flaked almonds is to toast them yourself and not buy them ready toasted - the difference in flavour is unbelievable as they're aromatic and completely delicious.

I know this recipe is good because I brought it into work and it quite literally vanished.  Polite people who thought they would wait before having some were bitterly disappointed.  Luckily I had a spare piece at home so I was able to make somebody tremendously happy...




Festive Star Bar


125g Butter
2 Heaped tablespoons Golden Syrup
150g Milk Chocolate
150g Plain Chocolate (or 300g of just one if that’s all you have)
200g Digestive Biscuits (roughly broken)
50g Flaked Almonds – toasted in a warm pan by you & left to cool for 10 mins 
50g Salted Pistachios, skinned & roughly chopped
70g Mini Marshmallows
50g dried Cranberries
1tsp edible stars




Line a 19cms/7” square tin with baking paper or cling film.



 Melt the butter, syrup and chocolate over a low heat. Stir occasionally to make sure all ingredients are well combined.



Add everything else to the chocolate and mix well


Transfer the mixture to your prepared tin. Level it out on top and press down well to avoid any air gaps then sprinkle with the stars before the chocolate dries


Allow to get hard before cutting into bars and store in a fridge.


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Posted by Aoife - Babaduck

6 comments:

  1. KarinaDecember 10, 2011 at 10:50 AM

    Cointreau soaked cranberries are genius! Who is this genius dipso??? *hic*

    ReplyDelete
  2. AnonymousDecember 12, 2011 at 2:55 PM

    Where did you get your stars???

    ReplyDelete
  3. Aoife - BabaduckDecember 12, 2011 at 2:57 PM

    I bought them from Lakeland last year but they're not shipping edibles to Ireland this year (boo hiss). Avoca may have them or try Kitchen Complements in Chatham St, Dublin 2

    ReplyDelete
  4. Makeup hair and glitzDecember 13, 2011 at 8:27 PM

    Tesco have those stars now in dif colours :) just wondering if the fruit and nuts can be substituted with malteasers or something else ? X

    ReplyDelete
  5. Aoife - BabaduckDecember 13, 2011 at 10:00 PM

    I think they have the Dr. Oetker sugar stars but not the metallic ones I used. You can always use whatever you like in the recipe but keep the proportions the same so it doesn't end up too stodgy - you need to use products that give it texture and flavour rather than just a giant chocolate biscuit bar. Keep me posted on what you use!

    ReplyDelete
  6. AoifeDecember 13, 2011 at 10:03 PM

    Makeup hair & glitz - I was thinking the *very* same thing. I'm not a fruit or nut fan so I was going to put in Malteasers for crunch. Let's see what Babaduck thinks! ;-)

    ReplyDelete

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