With World Chocolate Day taking place on the 7th July, the Country Range White Chocolate Drops are a fantastic ingredient for the creative chef or baker. Available in a 2.5kg bag, they’re perfect for decorating cakes, enrobing and for use in muffin, cake, biscuit, cookie, tart or pancakes recipes.
Here Darren Creed, Loughborough College Chef Lecturer and his team of student chefs, who reached this year’s Country Range Student Chef Challenge final, share five inventive ideas for cooking with Country Range White Chocolate Drops.
1. Best Par Scone by Riley Monk
A fantastic way of sweetening up your scones is to utilise Country Range White Chocolate drops alongside pistachios and raspberries. The flavours work perfectly to create the ultimate summer scone.
2. Creative Cruffins by Caitlin McGrath
White chocolate drops are fabulous in all your favourite pastries but if you’re looking to create something a little bit different then try using them to make some cruffins – a very on-trend and tasty croissant and muffin hybrid.
3. Monster Cookie by Darren Creed
There is a cookie monster in all of us and these Country Range White Chocolate Drops work well in so many cookie recipes and combinations. I love to use them in some majestically moreish white chocolate chip oatmeal cookies.
4. Tart-tastic by Samantha Watkins
Try caramelising your white chocolate drops to add subtle nutty notes and depth of flavour. I will often use this technique when making a Caramelised White Chocolate Tart, served with some raspberry ripple ice cream on the side.
5. Beautiful Blondies by Darren Creed
White chocolate drops are brilliant for cakes, whether used as an inclusion or for decorating, I will often use them to make beautiful blondies, they make a nice change to the classic brownie and they do say blondes have more fun!
——————————————–
About: Darren Creed and his Loughborough College Student Trio
Regulars on the winning podium in the Student Chef Challenge, under the watchful eye of Course Leader Darren Creed, Loughborough College’s hospitality and catering department continues to punch well above its weight. Earlier this year, it’s latest trio of starlets Riley Monk, Samantha Watkins and Caitlin McGrath took third place in the Student Chef Challenge grand final.
—
Andrew Green Craft Guild of Chefs
It’s great to be in the mist of summer, and for the Craft Guild we have now had the semi finals of the Graduate Awards and just about to announce
the finalists.We celebrated the Craft Guild awards last month and it was so good to be able to have this event after 2 ‘missing’ years, the room was packed with
just under 800 guests, and we presented 18 awards to some of the UK’s best chefs and restaurants.Our National Chef of the Year competition is well underway and again some fantastic chefs entered, these are being whittled down again this month towards the final which will be held in September.
For more on the Craft Guild, visit www.craftguildofchefs.org or follow the Craft Guild of Chefs on Twitter at @Craft_Guild