As those of you who’ve been following our blog will know, we have a lot of eggs these days. Five of our ISA brown hens are now laying daily, and little Maggie looks set to start any day now.
This joyous abundance has led to quite a lot of baking – most recently another batch of chocolate meringues, shortbread cookies (for Father’s Day) and lots of fudge brownies. As the meringues take up quite a lot of room, the four leftover chocolate chip cookies in the cookie jar were evicted, and rather than throw them away, I decided to try using them in this lovely cake from the Green & Black’s Cookbook.
The original recipe is attributed to Konditor & Cook, a well known London bakery. I’ve adapted it to use date molasses rather than golden syrup, leftover homemade cookies instead of packaged ones, and added the fruit and nuts I had in the pantry. The end result is delicious and very rich, so best served in thin slices. This is a great recipe to play with – take the basic idea and then do whatever you like with it!
- 125g (½ cup) unsalted butter
- 75g (¼ cup) date molasses or golden syrup
- 200g (7oz) dark chocolate (I used 70% Callebaut)
- 1 large (59g) free range egg (as fresh as possible)
- 4 large leftover cookies (original recipe specified 4 digestive biscuits or 8 graham crackers)
- 1½ cups mixed fruit and nuts – I used ½ cup almond slivers and I cup combined of dried cranberry, crystallised ginger and glace figs
1. Line a loaf tin with parchment paper. The size isn’t really important – I used this one because it’s what I had on hand. In a large mixing bowl, break the cookies into large chunks (not too fine, or they’ll disappear in the finished slab). Chop the dried fruit into smaller pieces, then add them and the nuts to the broken cookies.
2. In a small saucepan, melt the butter and date molasses together over a low heat until the mixture begins to boil.
3. In a double boiler, melt the chocolate over simmering water, then add the butter and molasses and mix well to combine.
4. In a small bowl, beat the egg with a fork, then add it in a slow stream to the hot chocolate mixture, stirring constantly to ensure it doesn’t curdle. The original recipe refers to this as “pasteurizing” the egg. Do make sure you use the freshest egg you can find, as it won’t be cooked any further after this.
5. Pour the chocolate mixture into the cookie mix and stir together gently to combine. Scrape the finished mixture into the parchment lined loaf tin, working it well into the corners of the pan and smoothing the top with a spatula. Allow it to set in the fridge for several hours until hard, then cut into slices with a sharp knife.
This recipe is best stored in the fridge and served cold.
Click here for a printable version of this recipe
Fig Jam and Lime Cordial 
This looks very good, Celia.
I think this type of cake can be elevated from something quite ordinary into something really delicious by a well thought out choice of which fruit and nuts to put into it.
I’ve never used a recipe with egg in it – didn’t realise until now that the hot chocolate would cook it enough.
Suelle, I’m a bit antsy about raw egg at the best of times, but far less so now that we have our own, and I can use an egg that was laid that morning. I think the egg stops the cake from setting too hard, but I would only make this with a very fresh egg – not really sure how well cooked it ends up…
Oh Celia, I like it. When have you not done a lot of baking? Glad your girls are keeping you well fed. Looking at your picture of this refrigerator cake yesterday made me so hungry I had to go and make a batch of brownies. I wanted to make this as it looked so good, but didn’t have any hens eggs and wasn’t sure about using duck’s for some reason.
Choc, that IS true, I’ve always done a lot of baking – thankfully there are so many friends and neighbours willing to help us with the eating! The girls are indeed keeping us well-fed, and we’re going to make big batches of egg pasta this weekend and freeze them.
Ah yes Unwrapped is full of treasure isn’t it. This is a decent biscuit cake … and you have made it even more so by using your own cookes :-)
Gill, it was nice not to have to waste the last four cookies – the boys had already moved on to meringues! :)
I don’t understand. What’s a ‘leftover cookie’?
Hehe…yes, it’s a strange concept, isn’t it? :)
Your recipe looks great! Chocolate and biscuits go real fine together…I make a similar thing in a log roll…it’s called chocolate salami….Italian style…x
Oh, that sounds great, Yvette, and it must look wonderful!
What’s that? A knock at the door? Hello? Oh….you’re an inspector from the National Heart Foundation…?
Ha! Eggs and dark chocolate are good for you, Lee. :)
Mind you, my fam didn’t eat this (they were too busy scoffing chocolate meringues) – it was shared around the neighbourhood in leetle thin slices. :)
Celia your neighbourhood must adore you! You are the kind of neighbour that everyone dreams of :-)
This looks really good. Mr Chocolate would be all over it, especially at the moment as it’s a household without chocolate for consecutive days running- he’s beside himself…
This would be great after dinner. You can always fit in a little sliver….. and dark chocolate is good for you!
Phwaorrr!
Thanks Ladybird! I read a lovely piece of trivia this morning:
Ladybugs are named after the Virgin Mary; they used to be called “beetles of Our Lady.”
Looks great- I agree with Brydie- your neighbours must never want to move away!
Brydie, Heidi, it would be lovely if you both lived closer – I’d walk wee slices of chocolate cake over to you straight away! :)
Chef R, I was thinking that it would be quite easy to make this cake lactose and gluten-free, if you just chose the right sort of cookies to include, or even left them out altogether! I’ve found most really good dark chocolate is lactose-free, although I have been caught out with some high end brands that for some reason find it necessary to add milk solids to their 70%!!
I’m in love with your ‘Girls’ & think they’re feeding us all (through you) with recipes like this one. I think this would go down a treat almost anytime, but with a little port or rich muscat after dinner for the grownups! Yesss :)
Aah, you’re lovely, Anna! Thank you for sharing in our excitement over our girls – I wish I really could feed all of you in person! :)
And oooh, a little vintage Oporto would hit the spot perfectly with this recipe.. :)
That’s the fanciest looking recycled cake I’ve ever seen Celia! I love the stained glass effect from the ginger and cranberry-very festive and Christmassy!
I love recipes like this where you can replace and mix up the ingredients! Always makes for a bit of a surprise. Great combination that you used!
:-) Mandy
Lorraine, I think it would make a nice Christmas treat, although it needs to be kept chilled, so not so easy to give as gifts. Great for a festive season party though! :)
Mandy, thank you! That’s what I love about this recipe too – you could almost thrown anything at all into it…
Woah – you’ve taken the humble cookies to a whole new level. Hehe, if it was me, I don’t think mixture 1 would have lasted until step 5 :D
Whoa! That looks like one big slab of rich chocolatey goodness! And I love the idea of a cake made with a cookie ;)
Oh wow, I just put leftover chocolate, fruit & nuts into a cookie, you just put leftover cookie, fruit & nuts into chocolate! I love these kinds of recipes. Great way to minimise waste.
What a lovely neighbour you are!! I wish you lived in my court!!
Great recipes, though I don’t know that we ever have ‘left-over’ cookies….
Thank you all!
Wink, I guess you could just get to step 5 and eat it with a spoon… :)
Honey, I made it again tonight – friends over for dinner – this time using leftover shortbread cookies. Very different, equally as appealing!
Emma, that’s too funny, and you’re right, we often put leftover chocolate etc. into cookies. I guess I have to stop here, or we’ll keep recycling the food round and round..haha..
LJ, hope it’s all going well! I must admit, we don’t often have leftover cookies here either, but in the last couple of weeks there have been bits and bobs…