Easter Flashback

Easter to me has always been full of chocolate and hot cross buns. Chocolate that I'd nibble at every so often and that would suddenly disappear one day (into the depths of my Dad's stomach I'm sure!) and hot cross buns full of juicy sultanas, toasted and topped with melted butter. Hmm....I'm just drooling thinking about it! (Ahem, too much information?) Two of my favourite recipes that I've posted about just happen to cover both of these things, so that's why I thought I'd do a sort of flashback post!

I posted about these delicious Cinnamon Choc Chip Hot Cross buns just last year and I'm really tempted to make them again this year. They're not your regular hot cross buns but are a combination of chocolate and cinnamon and taste amazingly similar to a cinnamon scroll. They're so easy to make, which really surprised me and go great with a cup of coffee!

And then there's the Lindt Chocolate Easter Cheesecake which was absolutely divine! This cheesecake is chocolate overload - the actual cheesecake has 70% dark lindt chocolate in it and then in the middle of all that rich chocolatey goodness are some Lindt balls and eggs in the middle - need I say more!

Cinnamon Choc Chip Hot Cross Buns

One of my favourite things about Easter is the hot cross buns, especially toasted with melted butter on top. I don't mind the traditional ones with sultanas but my favourite would have to be choc chip ones. When I found this recipe for Cinnamon Choc Chip ones, while I was searching for something to cook for Easter, on Not Quite Nigella's website I knew I had to try making them myself. And I'm so glad that I did! There were a few comments that I read on NQN's site, that said that these buns were like a combination of cinnamon scrolls and hot cross buns, and I have to agree with them. I also really liked the fact that the cross was made out of white chocolate - so much better than the usual tasteless crosses on hot cross buns.

Hot Cross Buns, just made

The buns tasted just as good the day after. I went with my sister, Bern, my brother in law, Tom, my nephews, Archie and Lenny and a couple of my sister's friends, Chek and her son Buster and Emma, to the dawn service for ANZAC day. ANZAC day is a day of remembrance in Australia and New Zealand to honour the ANZACs (Australian and New Zealand Army Corps) who fought in Gallipoli in World War 1. Since World War II, though, ANZAC day became a day to commemorate all Australians and New Zealanders who fought and died in war, from the World Wars, to Vietnam, to the current wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. We decided to go to the dawn service at the memorial cross at the top of Mt Macedon, and I'm so glad I decided to go and brave the 4.15am wake up. I've never been to a dawn service before and it was very moving and thought provoking. 

Memorial Cross, Mt Macedon

Since ANZAC day is a public holiday, we headed back to my sisters afterwards for breakfast, which included my hot cross buns, or Claire buns as my sister's friend nicknamed them. They went down perfectly with the coffee my brother in law, Tom, made and got many compliments! 

Hot Cross Buns & Coffee

Recipe Source:
Not Quite Nigella website

Lindt Chocolate Easter Cheesecake

Easter for me, growing up, has always meant camping and lots and lots of chocolate. Year after year my parents would pack myself and my three sisters into the car and we'd drive up to the Murray River to camp amongst all the other tents lining the banks of the river. We always had so much fun, there were countless other kids to play with and I loved riding my bike around the dirt tracks and playing in the sand. The weather was always beautiful there with warm sunny days, and cold nights spent next to a huge warm fire. On Easter morning we'd always wake up to find piles of Easter eggs and bunnies at the end of our beds. While, after a while, our camping trips slowly died off - mainly due to the river becoming too crowded over the Easter period - the tradition of waking up on Easter morning to find the 'Easter Bunny' had visited never died off. In fact, just this Sunday I woke up to find a box of my favourite Lindt Stracciatella balls and a white chocolate Cadbury bunny sitting on my bedside table. Which was why, when my sister decided to have a family lunch at her house on Easter Sunday and asked me to make something for dessert, I immediately knew that I had to try to make something chocolatey and extremely decadent! And this recipe that I found, for a Lindt chocolate Cheesecake fit both of those categories. 

Ingredients:

1 pack chocolate biscuits

575g cream cheese

1 tsp vanilla

100ml cream

4 eggs

80g unsalted butter, melted

50g sour cream

200g Lindt 70% Cocoa

140g Caster Sugar

pinch sea salt

6 Lindt Gourmet Eggs

6 Lindt Lindor Balls

To make:

1. Preheat the oven to 120ºC
2. For the base, place biscuits in a food processor and blend until ground reasonably fine. Mix in enough melted butter for mixture to just bind together, press evenly over base of lightly greased tin and smooth it with the back of a spoon. Set aside.

3. For the cheesecake mixture, place cream cheese into an electric mixer and mix until softened. Once the cheese is softened, mix in the sour cream and sugar, continue mixing until smooth.

4. Place cream into a saucepan and gently bring to the boil, remove from heat once boiling. Break up the chocolate and mix into cream, stir until melted and set aside to cool slightly.

5. Mix chocolate into the cheese mixture and once again scrape down sides.

6. Add eggs one at a time, mixing well after each addition.

7. Pour enough cheesecake mixture into the springform to cover the base.

8. Unwrap the gourmet eggs and the Lindor balls and arrange Lindor in a circle in the centre with a circle of gourmet eggs surrounding the Lindor.

9. Gently cover Lindor and eggs with a little cheese cake mixture and lightly tap springform to avoid air pockets.
10. Pour in remaining cheesecake and once again lightly tap

11. Place springform into a deep baking tray and pour about 2 cm deep hot water into the base of the tray. This will aid the cooking process and prevent the cake from becoming dry and crumbly.
12. Bake cheesecake for approximately 60 minutes. The cake is ready when it is set on the sides but remains slightly soft in the centre.
13. Completely cool cake in the springform tin.

And here's the finished product. Let me just say....this cheesecake was delicious! I've never actually tasted a chocolate cheesecake before this one, but it was so smooth and rich and the Lindt balls just added that little bit more decadence! I went to the Lindt store in Melbourne the day before Easter Sunday to buy the Lindt balls and eggs but they didn't have any eggs left so I just used all Lindor balls. I got a couple of different flavours though - some milk chocolate, some milk/white ones and some cookies and cream. Delish!

Recipe Source:
Yahoo Food
Lindt Easter Cheesecake