Belgian Chocolate Slice - A Christmas Tradition

Every Christmas I make Belgian Chocolate Slice which believe it or not the recipe was was a tear out page from a 1992 magazine which was a promotion for Glad Bake [parchment paper].

When I first started making this slice I didn't even own a mix master and would put the biscuits in a brown paper bag and try and roll a bottle over the top to crush them.  Fast forward to 2024 and the Thermomix takes about 2 seconds to crush the packet of chocolate biscuits.  It's a family tradition that I make this every year and all of my family look forward to eating it too.

It should have a place on the blog so here is the recipe.

BELGIAN CHOCOLATE SLICE

INGREDIENTS

50gms Unsalted Butter

100gms Dark Cooking Chocolate

1 Egg beaten

250gms Arnott's Choc Ripple Biscuits

75gms Mixed Dried Fruit [or you can just use sultanas]

75gms Glace Cherries

75gms Chopped Nuts

150gms Dark Cooking Chocolate Melted [for the top]

METHOD

Line a Slice tray with glad bake [parchment paper].

In a bowl put the biscuit crumbs, dried fruit, cherries and nuts and give it a stir.

Melt butter and 100gms dark chocolate in a saucepan. [I melt it in the microwave about 45 seconds and then see how you go in 15 second spurts.

Once the butter & chocolate are melted stir in beaten egg and pour into the bowl that has the biscuit crumbs, dried fruit, cherries and nuts.

Spoon mixture into tin and press down firmly, smoothing over the surface.

Refrigerate until chilled.

Melt 150gms dark cooking chocolate and pour over slice.

Refrigerate to set.

Cut into small squares and serve.

Around here - Christmas Season

It has been raining in Brisbane the last few days and would you believe it Term 4 of Tennis was 11 weeks on a Tuesday night and 5 Tuesdays of the 11 it rained.  Term 3 was 10 weeks however I only enrolled on the second week and it only rained on the last night.  The grass is growing so fast due to summer heat and the rain a couple days after it's done it looks like it hasn't even been mowed.

Last week I went to QBE and bought a beautiful cookbook of a person who I follow on IG.  She is Turkish and lives in the USA and started a IG account and posted her cooking videos and has grown a huge following to over 10 Million people which has lead to her first cookbook.  I can say the quality, style, photography, textured linen feel cover is absolutely beautiful. She also has a Youtube Channel.

The tips, the layout and instructions and all the recipes are beautiful.  I love hearing about her story and how she got here.  The first thing I'm making is a long fermented pizza dough.  Mix together on a Tuesday night pop it in the fridge until Friday night.  It's called Schiacciata which is a bread/pizza dough recipe and I'm looking forward to cooking this in my pizza oven.  The photo above and below are from the book, not my photos or cooking yet.

For our Christmas table this year I'm going to turn our napkins into little Christmas Trees so I've ordered a click and collect from Kmart for the Napkins.  See Beth from Baby Mac Blog's post from last year where I got the idea from.  I wanted to do this last year however the napkins all sold out and I'm still waiting on my order to be fulfilled at the moment so hopefully they are in stock.

Here's a few Christmas photos from the archives.

Around here - Christmas Season

Here we are just a few weeks away from another Christmas.  This year is the first year in 16 years I didn't have the end of year mad rush with school events and concerts.  So far I've got all the Christmas presents for one kid for Christmas and nothing yet for the other.  I want to give presents that they actually want so it's a little hard when one of them doesn't know what that is.  There's still time to work this out and I'm sure it will get sorted in time.

My son turned 21 last week, how does that happen, wasn't it only yesterday I gave birth to him.  Time moves so quickly the older you get.  I'm so proud of both of my kids out in the world doing their thing, saving up, travelling, they are both amazing cooks and meal prepping their lunches for work.  I'm very proud of them and also the values I've instilled in them is shining through.  I'm also so proud of myself as a single Mum and raising them on the smell of an oily rag and how they have grown into such confident young adults.

I bought myself a new Breville Coffee Machine during the Black Friday sales and it's a bit of a learning curve from my Nespresso Pod machine.  Getting the right grind and timing of the pour but it's been a fun thing to learn.  My son got a fancy coffee grinder for his 21st and little coffee scales from a local coffee place that I took him too a couple of weeks ago so he's right into the perfect expresso as well.

I also bought myself two new bedside table lamps from Freedom as the ones I bought over 13 years ago were old and I had snapped one of them at the top of the lamp.  I love my new lamps and the textured base and it really makes the bedroom.  The picture below is from the Freedom website, not my room but this is my beautiful lamp.

My veggie gardens are full of weeds at the moment so I need to get stuck into that on the weekend.  I mowed the lawn last night after all the rain we had so it was quite long.  It always looks great but I don't enjoy mowing the lawn anymore.  Ten years ago it was no problem but I'm not that cardio fit so it's an effort.  I've been doing weights at the gym for the past 4 months and I'm loving getting stronger but my cardio fitness needs a lot of work so I find mowing an effort.

Teddy is loving going to the dog park every morning and is besties with another dog called Teddy and they run and chase each other all over the dog park which is great because he comes home he's tired and ready for a big nap so I can get on with things for the day.

I have so many lovely Christmas photos over the years as every December I participated in Ali Edward's Photo project called "December Daily".  Thought I would share a few of my favourites below.

Hope you are having a relaxing lead up to Christmas and it's not so crazy.

Easy Ciabatta Bread

I've made this recipe before and thought I has posted about it however it's not on the blog so I'm typing it now so I have the recipe.  I always include links as well the the original recipe however over time with blogs disappearing so does the recipe so I like to write it out here so I have it forever and also have the link for as long as it's working.

This is the Easy Ciabatta Bread Thermomix Recipe which I'm making using my TM31 Thermomix which I've had for 13 years - still going strong.

If you don't own a Thermomix you can make a similar recipe that you can make without a Thermomix.

EASY CIABATTA BREAD [THERMOMIX]

INGREDIENTS

• 500gms Bakers Flour
• 470gms Warm Water
• 2 Teaspoons Dried Yeast
• 2 Teaspoons Salt

METHOD

1. Add all ingredients to the bowl, mix on Speed 6 / for 8 seconds.
2. Let the mixture rest in the bowl for 10 minutes.
3. Turn up to Speed 9 / for 3 minutes on REVERSE.  [yes, 3 minutes] 
4. Dough will be very sticky - pour into a large well oiled bowl and let it sit for 2.5 hours until it has tripled in size.
5. Empty and scrape out the dough onto a well floured bench top.
6. Divide into 3 pieces, dust with a good amount of flour, then using a spatula shape roughly into flat balls and put on a tray with baking paper.
7. Leave to prove on the trays for 45 minutes.
8. While waiting, turn the oven to 250 degrees to heat up while proving.
9. Now, with well floured hands, pick up each dough gently and quickly flip it, stretching into a Ciabatta loaf shape [oblong].  The flipping helps spread the air bubbles - even it it looks a bit untidy, it will rise beautifully in the oven.
10. Bake at 250 degrees for 10 minutes, then turn the oven down to 200 degrees for another 15-20 minutes until the bread is starting to brown and sounds hollow when tapped.

NOTES:-

Preparation time - 3.5 hours

Total time start to finish - 4.0 hours

Makes 3 loaves [2 large and 1 small]

Level - EASY

Around here

Well it's Spring time in Queensland however last week we had days over 30 degrees and Saturday was 35 degrees [95F] so looks like Summer is going to be be a hot one.

It's my Birthday month and in fact Teddy is one year old on the 11th September also so two Birthdays in this household.

I have found an exercise class that suits me which is about 10 minutes drive away and have been going 3 mornings a week with yoga/Pilates on a Saturday.  I don't love exercise but I know as we age we need to make it a priority to keep our bones strong and healthy.  I also took up a tennis/fitness class this term and we have 2 nights left then it's school holidays and I've enrolled in Term 4 which runs 11 weeks one night a week.

My sister is coming over from Perth for a week's visit so will be spending lots of family time together which will be great.

Here's some recent photos and photos of the Pink Cockatoo [Major Mitchell] bird that is in my suburb.

Home grown lettuce

I have two of these birds in my backyard which started out as babies.

Teddy

This is a pink cockatoo [formerly known as Major Mitchell] and he runs with the white cockatoo's in our area and this day I was lucky enough that he was sitting on a fence post behind my house.

Here he is again as it was overcast and starting to rain.  They have the same colour on his crest underneath his wings when he flies....so amazing.  See these images.

My neighbour goes fishing on his boat and brought me back this snapper which I cooked up with a butter garlic sauce and OMG it was to die for.....yummmmm

Some B&W film Scans I took on my Canon AE-1 Film Camera

Around here

Both kids are still overseas having a great time.  I'm so happy they are experiencing different cultures and learning about history.  I still find it hard to believe they are out in the world travelling at 20 and 18.

Winter in Queensland has been very mild with days around 21-23 degrees and lows of 11.  This week we will have a low of 7 and 8 degrees and highs of 16-19 degrees so 16 is cold for us Queenslanders.

I have been taking Teddy to the dog park for half an hour in the morning and in the afternoon which he is loving.  He needs to run around and wear out some of that energy.  This morning there were 3 Teddy's at the dog park all slightly different breeds but all looking like Teddy's.

I do have a lovely backyard for him but he can't be trusted as he's into the pop plants eating dirt and last week he reached over into the newly planted veggie patch and took a plastic tag which he proceeded to run away with it in his mouth.  My sister and I chased him for over 5 minutes until we could catch him and get it out of his mouth.  He can run at lightening speed and even with two of us and a lead on him we were exhausted from trying to get him.  Billy who I used to mind was very trustworthy by himself in the backyard as he is much older but Teddy gets into everything which is a shame because we would spend more time out there.  When I was weeding the garden and planting he had to be inside in his playpen so he is safe and the rest of my house and belongings are safe too.

Here's some old pics from the archives.  Have a good week.

Autumn leaves

  Rainbow Bay, Queensland

Playing the Flute

Me at Lone Pine in my School Sports Uniform would be either Grade 8, 9 or 10.

Tweed Heads

Camping at Thunderbird Park, Mt Tamborine.

Our beautiful bird Bluey who used to say "I LOVE YOU" no longer with us.

One of Sienna's shop set up and she made the pig money box out of a tissue box & toilet rolls

Playing Dora the Explorer Memory Game.

Around here - July 2024

Around here I've been thinking a lot about simple living and I've mentioned before how my Mothering days are very different now with the kids leading their own lives. They are both overseas at the moment in different countries one in Japan for 2 weeks and the other one in Europe for 3 weeks holiday.  I honestly am so proud of them for being confident to explore different countries and saving for their holidays.

I've been looking through old blog posts and I know that everything I did teaching them to save money, op shopping [they buy new things to but love an op shop bargain] cooking, budgeting, growing veggies etc. this is what shapes young adults.  I've mentioned that my son has been making his own Turkish Bread to have with dips and drinks for a cheap date night.  My daughter is a great cook also, great at sewing, crochet, knitting and they both have a great work ethic.

Here's some old blog posts with cute photos:-

Home made dumplings.

Home Made Vanilla

Planting veggies - 8 years old

Veggie Garden in 2017

Enjoy these old photos below.

Fresh picked sugar snap peas.

Home Grown Sugar Snap Peas.

  Country Fair.

School holiday camping in the family room.

A photo my daughter took for me which we both loved.

We used to walk up to the main road to the one tree that dropped leaves each year to take photos.

She was always busy with her hands.

He was amazing at the Rubik cube even doing it blindfolded by learning algorithms.

Family pic while bush walking.

We loved this Farm Stay at Blackwattle Farm back in 2017.

Hope you all have a great week.