The best books to bake with ….

Roald Dahl’s Completely Revolting Recipes and other tasty treats

Nish Nobblers

Beau is a HUGE Roald Dahl fan. We have read his books at bedtime countless times, so when she was given this fantastic cook book for Christmas by Nanny Ali she was absolutely thrilled. She took it to bed with her, copied the drawings in her home made books and literally drove me mad to make something from it from Boxing day onwards!  We made the Nishnobblers which are from the book ‘The Giraffe the Pelly and me’, just before New Years Eve. They didn’t last a day!

The book

When a book is called ‘Roald Dahl’s Completely revolting recipes and other tasty treats you know to expect some quite spectacular recipes. Each one is inspired by one of his books and has some fab illustrations by Quentin Blake (I love his quirky drawings) along side.

Some of our favourite recipes include…

• Crispy wasp stings on a piece of buttered toast – from James and the giant peach- They’re Coconutty cinnamon bites to you and me.

• Bruce Bogtrotter’s cake – from Matilda – remember that bit in the book where Bruce has to eat the whole chocolate cake infront of The Trunchbull? Well I think I could eat this one. It looks amazing.

• Georges Marvelous medicine chicken soup – from Georges marvelous medicine (of course) Thick and filling soup. (sounds like Jewish Penicillin to me)

• Hornets stewed in tar– from James and the giant peach. Coloured caramel with bits in. Should be horrible but actually sounds quite appealing!

• Hot ice cream for cold days – Charlie and the Chocolate factory. Yes this is ice cream that is hot. Brilliant!

• Grobswichy cake – from The BFG which is a pecan, cinnamon type cake

• It’s also worth mentioning ‘A plate of soil with engine oil -from James and the giant peach.  I can’t tell you how gross the photo of this looks. It really does  look like a plate of engine oil dribbling into the mouth of the little boy- Yuck! But on closer inspection you see it’s actually a chocolate cake and sounds delicious- if you close your eyes and ignore the detailed  illustration first!

The book contains 50 original recipes and is packed with snippets from the story books as well as a photo glossary and useful measuring information at the front. Each recipe has a chefs hat scale to let you know how much adult input is needed. One hat = ‘easy peasy’ , three hats ‘tricky but tasty’.

One of my favourite parts of the Roald Dahl reading books is the bit at the end where you get to find out loads of interesting facts about the man himself. I love it when we get to that bit. It’s like you know a little bit of him that no one else knows. Like he’s your friend. This book is no different with Roald Dahl’s fab foodie facts. I’m not going to spoil it for you, you have to get the book yourself!
In all this is a great book for kids of all ages. It’s fun to look at and read as much as it is to bake with it.

So on to the recipe. The lovely people at The Road Dahl Foundation (www.roalddahlfoundation.org) have given me permission to share one of the recipes from the book with you and as we have already made the Nishnobblers – which were a huge success judging by the chocolate chops my girls had after eating them, here’s the recipe below.

Nishnobbler recipe

You will need

Pyrex bowl
saucepan
sheets of bubblewrap
7cm pastry cutter
pastry brush

100g good quality dark chocolate
100g good quality white chocolate

Makes around 6

What you need to do

Nishnobblers are made from tempered chocolate. Tempering is when you mix melted and solid chocolate together to make it shinier and more manageable. It is an indispensable skill to have in life and you learn how to do it right here! Once you’ve got the hang of it you’ll be able to create masterful chocolate constructions to rival Willy Wonka’s.

Melt 70g of the dark chocolate in a pyrex bowl on a defrost setting in the microwave or over a saucepan of simmering water. When it is melted stir the unmelted 30g into it until the whole lot is smooth.

Paint over the bubble wrap with the melted chocolate.

Place it in the fridge for 15 minutes.

Temper the white chocolate in the same way (N.B white chocolate melts faster than dark chocolate, so you may want to let it cool a little before you start painting.)

Spread it over the dark chocolate. Chill for 15 minutes.

Carefully peel the bubble wrap away from the chocolate.

Cut it in to rounds with the pastry cutter.

At this point I would suggest that mums and dad’s eat the left over chocolate that didn’t make it into a round. They’re delicious!

enjoy!