Today is World Nutella Day

You had no idea there was such a thing, did you? 

Really though, if you’re going to celebrate a product, why not Nutella? Nutella is delicious. I’ve never met anyone who doesn’t like Nutella. And if you do indeed not like Nutella, I don’t want to know you. Go away. 

 Happy Nutella Day!

Nutella almost deserves a Day for its international popularity. A staple of breakfasts all over Continental Europe, it is as popular if not as ubiquitous in America and Australia. The product was developed by Italian chocolatier Ferrero in 1944 but released onto the market as ‘Nutella’ in 1963. Not unsurprisingly, it was instantly popular. For me, Nutella is so reminiscent of Europe. Going on family holidays in Europe, I got so excited by the little packet of Nutella sitting by my plate every morning. Who am I kidding, I get pretty excited about that now.

Nutella Marshmallow French Toast. Image courtesy of Go Cook Yourself.

Nutella crepes. Image courtesy of Real Mom Kitchen.

In the 1990s and early 2000s, Nutella pretended to be healthy. The goodness of milk and nuts, the energy-beneficial chocolate, all of that toss. With ads full of happy smiling kids, you had to believe it. Let’s be honest though, it’s not healthy. Not even vaguely. But no one cares. Except for the people who sued Nutella for incorrect advertising. It is delicious, glorious, nutty chocolaty spread goodness and I can’t keep it in the house because I Will Eat It.

Nowadays adverts tap into the morning ritual or Nutella as delicious everyday indulgence. Or this great one from 1996 that is artisan and family and breakfast all rolled into one 

Nutella is delicious in any pastry or sweet like situation. In cakes, on toast, on crepes, in cookies, on ice cream, on bananas, surrounding strawberries, on danishes, in croissants. The way I usually eat it? Out of the jar. Using a tiny, tiny spoon because then I can ‘eat’ more without actually consuming more. Yes, I have a method for eating Nutella out of the jar. So judge me.

Several months ago I made Nutella-stuffed browned butter and sea salt cookies. They were incredible. Here is the recipe. 

Just one of the dozens of Nutella recipes you can find online. So do yourself a favour and look through some of the recipes below and when you're nice and drooling, pop to the shops, buy yourself a jar and celebrate this wonderful breakfast spread.

My favourite food blog, Smitten Kitchen have a list of Nutella-inspired recipes.

Joy the Baker also has a selection of recipes.

The best Nutella crepe recipe (apparently).

Nutella fudge brownies.

2-minute Nutella mug cake.

Mango and Nutella crepes. Image courtesy of Closet Cooking.

A wet and windy day of celebration

In a brilliant flash of fore-thought, some of my friends booked an apartment up in Caloundra for the Australia Day long weekend and invited all comers to drive up and enjoy sun, surf, BBQ and beer. It would be a glorious day that would celebrate what we we love about Australia.
 

However, as we all know, the day was cold, gloomy, rain-lashed and flood-ridden. It was awful. This particularly irritated me as I and my housemate were playing host to British guest who was celebrating his first Australia Day and I wanted it to be glorious and scream AUSTRALIA. Not be borderline Scarborough.

Nevertheless, we headed up the coast in the lashing rain and proceeded to have a pretty classic Australia Day. The only thing that was missing was the sunshine.

My friend Kiki (who just launched a new blog) decorating the Pavlova nice and early, before too much beer was consumed.

Kitsch Australiana: green and gold macarons, enormous glasses and decorative flags.

Applying temporary tattoos. Because on some days, you can leave the class behind.

The Easiest Christmas Ice Cream Dessert Ever

I mean, come on, I make this. It'd have to be easy, or I'd never bother.

Just a little disclaimer, though, I didn't invent this recipe. I think I was told to make it by my mother, and she possibly got from a Gourmet Traveller or some other kind of food magazine. So, if I'm ripping someone off... Thanks for the awesome dessert recipe? It's delicious!

Now, here are the things you need to make this excellent dessert:

2 loaf pans or bread tins (although I guess you could make a round one if you wanted...)

Baking paper

1 large mixing bowl

A couple of sharp knives and a mixing spoon

A cutting board

A freezer

Now, I've just realised that I never measure any of the ingredients, so here's a vaguely-guessed-at list:

• 2 x 1L Sara Lee French Vanilla Ice Cream
• About 300grams Morello Cherries (buy a jar and use as many as you want) (oh my god, do yourself a favour and get the pitted ones, seriously, pitting is a nightmare) 
• About 200grams of fruit mince (I usually get Robertson's, and you need about half a jar)
• A handful or two of dry roasted almonds (sorry, it's useless of me, but I can't remember how big the bag is that I usually buy) (maaaaaybe 200grams? Ish?)

First, line your tins with the baking paper - you'll thank me later when you're not trying to excise your dessert from a frozen metal tin.

Assemble your ingredients! Keep one of the tubs of Sara Lee ice cream and stick the other one in the freezer. (If you're in Australia, chances are the tub will be appropriately melty by the time you have to use it, but if not, there's always the microwave.)

Chop up your cherries into small-ish chunks, but not too fine. Put them into the mixing bowl with the whole tub of slightly-melted ice cream, and mix together (just with a spoon, not a mixmaster or anything). 

Pour the ice cream and cherries mixture into the tins, filling only to half-way. (You end up with a lot of ice cream, and I suppose you could halve this whole recipe to make one tin, but I'm usually making it for the whole extended family, so.)

Put the tins into the freezer and get out your second tub of Sara Lee. Wash out your mixing bowl - take as long as you want, to give your second lot of ice cream a bit of time to melt, and the ice cream in the tins more time to set in the freezer.

Chop up the dry roasted almonds - again, not too fine, you want them big enough to crunch. You need enough to distribute nicely through your second lot of ice cream. Mix the nuts and ice cream in the mixing bowl, and add some of the fruit mince. (Essentially, you're adding all of this stuff to taste, so put in as much or as little as you like.)

Get the tins out of the freezer, and pour the nuts-fruit-mince-ice-cream mixture in on top of the cherry mixture, to make a second layer.

Put everything back in the freezer, and tidy up!

You'll probably be making this well before your meal, but just so you know, you need to give the ice cream at least an hour to set properly. If you're leaving it in the freezer over night, make sure to cover it or seal off the tins somehow.

When you're ready for dessert, up-end the tins onto a serving dish and pull off the baking paper. Don't scoop - serve in slices, to make sure everyone gets both flavours. Enjoy!

Happy Saturday

Happy Saturday

Nutella-stuffed brown butter and sea salt cookies. Or 'what I did on Sunday'.

I had a very quiet weekend. I'm moving week after next so most of my time was taken up with collecting boxes, packing, wondering how I got so much clutter in my life.

However, on Sunday morning I use the excuse of 'emptying the fridge' to do some baking I'd been meaning to do for a long time. I made Ambitious Kitchen's Nutella-stuffed browned butter and sea salt chocolate chip cookies. Just the name of it makes your blood sugar level rise.

I didn't even use as many chips as the recipe asked for...

They were a little fidley to make. You had to let the dough mixture rest in the fridge for two hours, then make a dough pancake to wrap around the chiled nutella. As soon as the nutella started to warm up, it was almost impossible to work with.

Flattened cookies with dollops of nutella, ready to be wrapped up.

The finished cookies when they came out of the oven looked a lot better than these photos suggest. And they were delicious! Worth the time and effort. The sea salt was very necessary to cut through the sweet chocolatey goodness.  I had one and felt like I'd had my sugar-alowance for the day

Made just a little better, they would easily be the best choc chip cookies I have ever had.

Happy Saturday!

Happy Saturday!

Happy Saturday!

Happy Saturday!

Happy Saturday!

Happy Saturday!

Happy Saturday!

Happy Saturday!