Hotel chocolat extra thick Easter egg review

With Easter just around the corner, you can’t help but have noticed the shops are full of Easter eggs. Hotel Chocolat kindly sent me one of their extra thick Easter eggs to review. I chose the rocky road to caramel as I love caramel and the rocky road half sounded good too.

As you can see it arrived beautifully packaged. Inside there are two Easter eggs halves each with a handful of chocolates nestled inside.

The eggs were indeed extra thick. The picture above is a bit deceptive as the eggs are not that thick all the way through. But I would say they are at least twice as thick as standard eggs and the extra thickness at the edges is an added bonus.

You can see the caramel egg above which consists of two layers of chocolate. The outer layer is caramel chocolate and the inner is 40% milk chocolate.Below you can see the rock road egg which is again 40% milk chocolate stuffed with puffer rice, chocolate chunks and biscuit pieces. I enjoyed both halves but my favorite was the caramel side. However for my husband it was the oposite way round. The chocolates inside were pralines and caramel based. They were all absolutly delicious as I have come to expect from Hotel Chocolat.

Overall we both loved this Easter egg and if money were no object (it retails at £26 which to me is definately the luxury end of the Easter egg market) this would without a doubt the Easter egg I would be giving this Easter. You can see Hotel Chocolat’s full range of Easter eggs here. There is something for every budget, from the much more affordable £5 right up to £70.

Thank you again to Hotel chocolat for sending me this egg to review.

Hotel chocolat valentines day chocolates review

Can you believe it’s nearly february already? and with February almost here it means valentines day is not too far behind. Hotel chocolat have yet again got a fantastic looking selection of valentines day gifts with something for every budget. From the signature cabinet at £160 down to the valentines choco-o-gram at £4.50.

I was sent one of their mid price options to review. The sleekster love selection retails at £22 and contains 26 chocolates. There are 13 different chocolates in the box (2 of each flavour so perfect for sharing). As ever not only do the chocolates taste divine they look stunning too.

We really enjoyed there christmas sleekster collection so had high hopes for their valentines box. However when I read the description on the website which talks about fruity little numbers with blackcurrent and strawberry I was a little disappointed as I am not usually a fan of fruity chocolates.  I should have trusted Hotel chocolat more though as apart from the strawberry and black pepper one, I did enjoy the fruit flavours. In fact buck’s fizz (with a hint of orange flavour), raspberry rapture and blackcurrant truffles were some of my favorites in the box. Other flavours that stood out were the soft chilli carmel (with a serious chilli kick) and the vanilla truffle. My husband loved the Bison grass vodka chocolate and also the cherry bombe (he also enjoyed the strawberry and black pepper the only one I didn’t particularly enjoy). All in all a delicious box of chocolates.Thank you to Hotel chocolat for sending me The sleekster love selection for this review.

Chocolate and almond biscotti

It’s been a bit quiet round here this month hasn’t it? During November and early December I seemed to pick up every cough and cold going round and started to feel a bit run down. Just working and keeping up with the basics at home was enough so as a result I didn’t have much to blog about. I’m pleased to say I’ve been feeling a lot better these last couple of weeks but have been busy getting ready for Christmas.

The tree is now up and decorated, the cards written and sent and the presents are wrapped and sat under the tree ready for Christmas day. We’ve even had a bit of snow.

Last weekend I made the most of a snowy day and baked some biscotti (recipe at the end of the post) for gifts. This is a recipe adapted from a Bill Granger recipe for pistachio and chocolate biscotti (also delicious). I’ve baked biscotti a few times with this recipe, the only thing I would change next time would be to add more almonds.

I also decorate the chutney I made back in October for gifts, using this recipe I shared with you last year.

So all that’s left for me to do is wish you all a merry christmas.

Makes 20-30 biscuits

160g caster sugar
2 medium eggs
150g plain flour
60g good quality cocoa powder
80g almonds (next time I will increase this though as biscotti should be packed with nuts)

• Preheat the oven to 180C/gas 4. Line a large baking tray with baking paper.
• Using electric beaters, beat the eggs and sugar together until thick, pale and the mixture has increased in volume.
• Sift in the flour and cocoa. Stir with a wood spoon to combine.
• Add the almonds and mix until well combined.
• Divide the mixture in half and shape in to 2 logs, about 15cm long on the baking tray. Flatten them slightly so they are approximately 2cm thick.
• Bake for 20 minutes or until firm. Remove from the oven and allow to cool.
• Turn the oven down to 120C/gas 1/2.
• Cut the cool logs into slices approximately 1cm thick (I like to cut my logs on the diagonal). Spread the slices out in a single layer on baking trays and bake for 10 minutes. Turn the biscuits over and cook for a further 10 minutes.
• Allow to cool completely. Store in an airtight container for up to a month (I doubt they’ll last that long though).

Hotel chocolat Christmas gifts review and a giveaway

This giveaway is now closed, thank you to everyone who took part.

When I was asked to take part in Hotel chocolat’s christmas blogger campaign I was thrilled. They very kindly sent me their Christmas collection gift bag to review which is part of their fabulous selection of christmas gifts. Not only that but they are giving me the opportunity to give one lucky reader the same gift bag too.

The Christmas collection gift bag includes the Classic Christmas Sleekster Selection, Christmas Gift Slab with milk chocolate and dark cookie pieces, Gingerbread Truffles and Orange Nice Spice Puddles. Over the last couple of weeks myself and my husband have tested these chocolates and here’s what we thought of them.

Chocolate brownie recipe

I love chocolate brownies and as a bonus they are so simple to bake. This recipe is even simpler. It’s from Donna Hay’s Fast, fresh, simple which was showing  in the UK a few weeks back. The recipe is for standby brownies and is perfect when you need to make brownies quickly and you have no chocolate in the house. The resulting brownies are moist and delicious. Perhaps not quite as good as with the delicious pockets of melting chocolate you get in most recipes but delicious none the less.

White chocolate cake

As promised here is the recipe for the best cake I baked over the bank holiday weekend. I was a bit worried this cake would be too rich/sickly but I couldn’t have been more wrong. The cake was absolutely delicious, had a really nice moist texture and you could really taste the white chocolate. The frosting really worked well with the cake too. Not a recipe for those on a diet though.

I’m submitting this cake to we should cocoa, this month hosted by Chocolate teapot, as I think this would make a fantastic birthday party cake. Happy first birthday we should cocoa.