Junior Masterchef Cook-a-long

My girls have enjoyed watching Junior Masterchef this year and decided they would like to join in the "cook-a-long" on Friday night.

We downloaded the instructions, equipment list and cooking method prior to the show and spent most of Friday afternoon preparing. Basically everything had to be chopped and/or weighed before the show started - even down to the butter being melted.

So with everything organised (and I even learnt how to roast and deskin hazelnuts) we waited for the show to start. In the introduction of the show we learnt that it was a 90min show (as opposed to the normal 60min), they were cooking three dishes and the last one was the cook-a-long one. Which means that we had an hour to wait until we needed that melted butter - needless to say the butter was no longer melted by that stage.

Girls waiting for the cook-a-long to start


All the pre-prepared ingredients



Anyway, eventually the show got to the cook-a-long part and the girls joined in making Individual Hazelnut and Chocolate Self-Saucing Puddings with Candied
Orange Zest and Creme Chantilly. It was fun but challenging - timewise (especially as our oven & stove top weren't in the same room); and being so late.

However, with a little bit of help (nice to have a tame chef) the girls plated up some lovely dishes.

Girls making quinellas of Creme Chantilly



This is the picture from the Junior Masterchef site as I didn't manage to get one of the completed plates from the girls:



[Update] Found a picture of the girls' plates:

[/update]

Recipe:

Individual Hazelnut and Chocolate Self-Saucing Puddings with Candied Orange Zest and Creme Chantilly

Ingredients

Hazelnut Chocolate Pudding
Melted butter, for greasing
1 cup self-raising flour
1/3 cup oven roasted hazelnuts, peeled and roughly chopped
1.5 tablespoons cocoa powder
.25 cup firmly packed brown sugar
60g dark chocolate 70%, roughly chopped
140ml full cream milk
1 egg, lightly beaten
50g unsalted butter, melted, cooled
Icing sugar, to serve

Chocolate Sauce
.5 cup firmly packed brown sugar
.25 cup cocoa powder, sifted
200ml warm water

Candied Orange Zest
Zest of 1 large orange, long thin strips
.25 cup caster sugar
50ml orange juice, strained

Cream Chantilly
400ml thickened cream
1 tablespoon icing sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla essence

Method

1. Preheat oven to 190degC. Brush six 200ml cup-capacity round ramekins with melted butter and place onto an oven tray.

2. Combine flour, hazelnuts, cocoa powder, brown sugar and chocolate in a large bowl and whisk to combine. Make a well in the centre and slowly pour the milk and egg in, whisking until combined. Divide batter evenly between prepared ramekins.

3. For the sauce, combine brown sugar, cocoa and warm water in a jug and stir to
dissolve. Carefully pour chocolate sauce over prepared puddings to just under full.

4. Bake for 13-14 minutes. Remove from oven and stand for 2 minutes. Dust with
icing sugar.

5. For the orange syrup, combine orange zest, sugar and juice in a small saucepan. Bring to a simmer and cook for 3-4 minutes to a syrup consistency.

6. For the cream Cantilly, place all ingredients in a jug with a whisk attachment
of a stick blender and whip until soft peaks form.

7. Serve puddings with a drizzle of orange sauce and a dollop of Chantilly cream.

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We had 250ml sized ramakins and found that the mixture only did 4 of those. I also halved the amount of cream used, as 400ml is a LOT.