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
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