A brief look at food, by MARIE-CLAIRE DIGBY

Eggstraordinary

Never mind how Jacobs get the figs into fig rolls – how does Limerick confectionery company Pandora Bell get smooth, nutty praline into these real eggshells?

“I outsource the production of them to a German chocolatier who specialises in this work,” says Nicole Dunphy, who set up Pandora Bell last year. The eggs are a real winner – witty, indulgent, and, at €2.50 each, not too expensive. For a list of nationwide stockists see pandorabell.ie or telephone 061-339300.

Chocolate inspiration from Down Under

Paul Allam and David McGuinness of Sydney’s Bourke Street Bakery recommend using milk chocolate for these ganache tarts (right), saying it makes them less rich than dark chocolate. They’re correct, and the results are quite delicious.

I’ll admit I didn’t follow the two-and-a-half- page recipe for shortcrust pastry in their new book, Bourke Street Bakery The Ultimate Baking Companion (Murdoch Books, £25), but readymade individual tart cases (from MS) were a fine substitute. The ganache is totally simple – 500ml of whipping cream brought rapidly to a boil then poured over 850g of finely chopped milk chocolate and stirred with a spatula until the chocolate has melted. The mixture is then poured into the cases and allowed to set at room temperature. For even more indulgence, you could make the ganache with dark chocolate, smear a dollop of dulche de leche or toffee sauce on the base of the tarts, and top with the dark ganache. And if you want to make something a bit more ambitious, this detailed and meticulous baking book includes an interesting recipe for chocolate mousse tarts with a hidden raspberry filling.

Kooky time

Slice and bake cookies, using dough that can go straight from the freezer to the oven, are big in the US, but they never really caught on here. That may be about to change with the launch of Kooky Dough, an all-natural product made by Sophie Morris and Graham Clarke. Kooky Dough comes in four varieties, all fairly choc-heavy, and is available from chilled food cabinets in Superquinn branches in Blackrock, Knocklyon, Lucan and Swords (€3.99). The pack, which cleverly doubles up as your baking paper, suggests you can get up to 15 cookies from each roll of dough, and they are better cut thinner than you might think. Mine filled the kitchen with a delicious home-baked aroma.