Aunty Clare's Chocolate Frog Grog

                                     aunty clare's chocolate frog grog

Join me on facebook

A tiny town is Mangalore; so tiny in fact the entire town is comprised of "the pub". My Aunty Clare owned the Mangalore Hotel, where I spent many a school holiday in the hotel kitchen or waitressing in the lounge, occasionally a sheep would wander through the bar... but those stories are for another day. 

mangalore hotel situated two hours north of Melbourne 

When my Aunt and Uncle eventually retired to another nearby town they took with them more scotch whisky than you can imagine. Scotch whisky that turned up in all sorts of desserts, cakes and preserves. You will have to combine the thought of that whisky with Aunty Clare's that day find of "bulk bags of slighty deformed Cadbury's Freddo Frogs" to explain how I found myself in a country kitchen unwrapping chocolate frogs for Aunty Clare who was about to whip up a batch of frog grog.

Frog grog is really just another version of homemade Baileys Irish Cream and you can replace the chocolate frogs with the same weight milk chocolate of choice, but I do love all the shot glasses lined up with their accompanying chocolate frog "chaser". 

I started with the labels... Eat Drink Chic has vintage apothecary labels you can download here. Once downloaded pop the labels into photoshop or art software of choice to customise. 

customise the labels

Cadbury Freddo chocolate frogs 

Aunty Clare's Chocolate Frog Grog

makes just over 2 litres, store in the refrigerator for up to 2 months.

Ingredients

2 x cans of sweetened condensed milk

1 x can of evaporated milk

1 and 1/2 cups thickened cream (thickened cream in Australia contains a little gelatine, you could use fresh bottled liquid whipping cream instead)

200 grams (7oz) Cadbury Freddo Frogs 

3 cups of Scotch Whisky

1 tsp pure vanilla extract/essence

1 tbl instant expresso coffee dissolved in 1 tbl of boiling water

extra chocolate frogs for serving

Method

Place all your unwrapped frogs in a large heatproof bowl and melt gently over a pot of barely simmering water. 

*tip... avoid overheating by removing frogs from heat when they are two thirds melted and stir to melt remainder. 

Place your bowl of melted frogs on your bench and slowly whisk in the two cans of sweentened condensed milk. Then whisk in the evaporated milk, cream, dissolved coffee and vanilla extract. Once that's all combined finish by whisking in the whisky.

Pour the mixture through a mesh strainer into a large jug and decant into sterilised bottles. Glue on your labels and you are all finished. Best left for at least 24 hours, before enjoying chilled over ice... don't forget the extra frogs! 

You may have seen on facebook that our puppy has been renamed "Gallifrey" and I'm nursing broken ribs at the moment.

I'll be back baking and blogging in May, hope to see you then :)

More of Aunty Clare? Try your hand at making a batch of scotch whisky marmalade for your puddle cupcakes.

Or more Grog? Try Bundy Banana Cupcakes or make yourself a toffee topper... here

Donna Hay Magazine ipad App

donna hay 10th anniversary edition for ipad

Join me on Facebook

Extra! Extra! Out now the Donna Hay ipad app!

Last week saw the launch of the Donna Hay magazine App and it is absolutely fabulous!!

Not only it is the 10th Anniversary edition with it's 100+ sweet and savoury recipes, there is also "how to" videos, animations, cook mode (oh, I love the giant print) but wait, I'll show you... 

Lets say you want to make the 'Little Black Forest Cakes', on the bottom left of the page just touch "recipe" with your finger.

Ready to bake? Then touch cook mode, this gives you giant easy to read print.

 Need extra help with those chocolate shards? Watch the Donna Hay video demonstration.

Or get a few extra tips-tricks.

Use the easy and intuitive navigation system to get around the magazine.

Use the table of contents or page viewer to find your recipes. Touch the bookmark icon to bookmark your page.

There is a table of contents too, so you'll never be flicking, and flicking and flicking through pages trying to find "that recipe" again.

Oh, there is a handy measurement conversion chart too.

The first edition is free! Go on, what are you waiting for? Download the Donna Hay app from Donna Hay or search Donna Hay in the iTunes store. 

Happy Baking :)

You might also be interested in the  Super Food Ideas ipad app

Marks BBQ Beer Butt Chook

                                     beer can bbq chicken

Back to cupcakes tomorrow, but my husband Mark is so proud of his barbequed beer butt *chook I thought I should share it with you.

I must admit I was dubious the first time Mark wanted to barbeque a beer can chicken, I thought it was just a "gimmick". I was wrong and it actually makes perfect sense; the chicken is being steamed from the inside resulting in moist chicken meat and the exterior heat gives you a crisp skin finish. With the combined heat cutting down the cooking time, bbq beer butt chicken becomes week night doable... plus no kitchen clean up!

It doesn't have to be beer... though Mark would disagree. It could be coca cola, rum & coke, lemonade etc... it just has to be a half full can.

Or you can skip the can altogether and buy a non-stick beer can chicken roaster like this one from Hark.

Hark non-stick beer can chicken roaster

Lets cook a chook...

Pour out half the contents of your can, you can use the beer to soak wood chips (chips need to be soaked overnight), save it to make sauce or just drink it. Now you're going to add flavour by adding straight to the can, it can be any combo you like; lemon or orange zest, squashed garlic cloves, fresh ginger, lemon grass, fresh or dried herbs, chilli and don't forget to add a bit of your chicken rub mix too. Punch a few extra holes in the top of your can using an old fashioned triangle bottle opener... or Marks method of stabbing a screwdriver or nail to form the holes.

If you are using a beer can roaster, add the flavouring combinations to water, wine or juice. 

Rub the skin of your room temperature raw chicken (Mark used a free range 1.8 kilo/4 pound chicken) with your favourite BBQ rub. This chicken used a basic mix of equal parts smoked paprika, brown sugar and coarse sea salt... rubbed into the cavity of the chicken first then rubbed into the skin of a lightly oiled chicken. Sprinkle with freshly ground black pepper. 

Other flavour profiles include, Chinese five spice, cumin, italian seasoning mix, coriander powder, chilli, mustard powder, pre mix rubs, garlic salt, onion powder, etc.

add flavour to your can

The half full can is inserted into the chicken creating a tripod, resulting in this rather undignified position!  

The chicken is cooked by the indirect heat method so in our case we have a hooded 4 burner gas BBQ (sorry BBQ purists); add wood chips to your smoking box or use foil sachets then the BBQ is preheated on high with all burners turned on. Once preheated turn 2 of the burners off, lets say the right hand side. Turn the other two burners on the left hand side down to medium. You should have a temperature of 180 cel or 360 F. 

Position your chicken (drip tray in place) on the right hand side where the burners are turned off. Close the hood. For this sized chicken it took one hour and 20 minutes, this is included turning the chicken once as our heat is a little uneven. Use a meat thermometer if you are unsure about doneness. 

That's it all done. You can go with the drama of serving it on the can, I prefer to remove the can (be careful it's hot, use tongs or heat proof gloves) then rest the chicken before carving. 

Resulting chicken is super succulent

It's summer here at the moment so we served the chicken with simple salads. 

* 'Chook' colloquial term used in Australia and New Zealand for chickens. 

Happy BBQing :) 

You might also be interested in Bacon & Egg, Prawn Noodle Omelette