The Susanne

These deli­cious little snacks can be the per­fect way of sat­is­fy­ing that intense chocol­ate crav­ing without the intense guilt which usu­ally fol­lows. Made from ‘puffed rice’ as we call it in Norway (I have not been able to come up with a suit­able word for it in Eng­lish, although I believe you’d be able to make it your­self by put­ting rice in an air popper for pop­corn) and melted chocol­ate, mixed together and cooled in little tops on a cookie sheet or in cup­cake tins, it is a staple of children’s parties and a loved snack by kids coun­try wide. My mum never used to make them so I only had the luxury of tast­ing them when vis­it­ing friends’ houses on spe­cial occa­sions such as birthdays.

I’ve put together an adult ver­sion with dark instead of milk chocol­ate, mixed with a little vanilla sugar to sweeten it a bit.

Yields 15-20:

• 1,5 L puffed rice
• 250 g dark cook­ing chocol­ate, in small pieces
• 1 tbsp vanilla sugar
• 1 tbsp margarine
• 0,5 dl water

In a small sauce­pan, melt the mar­gar­ine and add the cook­ing chocol­ate. While the chocol­ate is melt­ing, add the water a little at a time to get a smooth, not too thick yet not too runny con­sist­ence. Add the vanilla sugar.

In a bowl, mix the rice with the melted chocol­ate until well covered. Place in cup­cake tins or spoon onto a lined baking sheet. Leave to cool com­pletely before serving.

Or should I say that time of the semester: it’s essay time! Four essays to be writ­ten and handed in within the next couple of weeks, the first one due tomor­row. And let me just say, that as fas­cin­at­ing and fun I find the play I’m sup­posed to write my essay on, Ben Johnson’s Vol­pone, the ques­tion is pro­por­tion­ally boring and unin­spir­ing:

“The major­ity of the char­ac­ters of Ben Jonson’s Vol­pone are devotedly self-​seeking, and vary only in their meth­ods and their degree of ruth­less­ness.” Dis­cuss this statement.

Ser­i­ously, what’s there to dis­cuss? Yes, they’re devotedly self-​seeking! That’s one of the major themes of the d*** play!  And yes, they are all dif­fer­ent and so they must inev­it­ably vary in their meth­ods, as well as their degree of ruth­less­ness! Ahh…I’m frustrated.

There is no rel­ev­ant cri­ti­cism to be found on the sub­ject either, I’m guess­ing because it’s such an obvi­ous theme that no one has bothered to write about it. Feel my frus­tra­tion! Does anyone know this play? Anyone will­ing to rescue me from my cur­rent state of hope­less­ness by assist­ing me to another view on this sub­ject and/or giving me some point­ers on how to write this essay, will earn my eternal grat­it­ude and pos­sibly dinner if they live near enough.

Of course, all work and no play (well, one play, but you get my drift I’m sure) makes Susanne a very dull girl.. and hungry too! Luck­ily deli­cious, light meals can be put together in a jiffy if you’ve only got a few staples at hand: a little rocket, some cherry toma­toes and a few wafer thin slices of parmeg­giano reg­giano and you’re good to go! Well I am, anyway. Sadly, snack time and rant­ing time over, it’s now time to get back to work. Yey.

These brownies will put a smile on your face any day! (they cer­tainly made the thun­der­storm that set in an hour after I fin­ished work for the summer, much more bearable…)

I found the recipe that inspired these at A Matter of Taste.

You’ll need:

• 200 g milk cook­ing chocolate
• 200 g dark cook­ing chocolate
• 1 dl margarine
• 4 eggs
• 2 dl sugar
• 2,5 dl flour
• 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1 dl chopped almonds
• 2 dl shred­ded coconut

Set your oven to 175 degrees C.

In a sauce­pan, melt 100 g of each chocol­ate on a low heat with the mar­gar­ine. Chop the rest of the chocol­ate into big, chunky chips and put them aside for later.

When the chocol­ate and mar­gar­ine is melted, stir them together and add the sugar. Stir until it’s well combined.

Remove from the heat and whisk in the eggs. Pour into a bowl.

Add the flour and baking powder and com­bine well.

Stir in the chocol­ate chips, almonds and coconut. Pour into a greased baking pan, and pop in the oven.

Let the brownies bake for about 20 minutes. I recom­mend check­ing them after 17 just in case. They’re done when whatever you stick into them comes out sticky but not covered in runny batter.

Enjoy! And may your rainy days be lovely :)

Here’s the recipe for the cook­ies I wrote about, the ones inspired by the art­icle from Cook & Eat on leftover-​cookies. They’re non-​dairy and incred­ibly sweet!

Makes about 24

• 100g margarine
• 2 1/2 dl sugar
• 1 egg
• 1 tbsp lemon juice
• 1/2 tsp vanilla
• 2 1/2 dl flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• pinch of salt
• 1 1/2 dl shred­ded coconut
• 1 dl hun­dreds and thousands
• 1/2 dl dark chocol­ate (chopped)

Pre­heat the oven to 180 C.

Mix the egg, lemon juice and vanilla in a bowl.

Use your mixer to cream the mar­gar­ine and the sugar until it is really fluffy. Pour the egg mix over and beat until it’s all mixed and creamy.

Mix together the flour, baking powder, chocol­ate and the hun­dreds and thou­sands, and add to the egg/sugar/margarine mix whilst mixing, until it’s all combined.

Scoop spoon­fuls of cookie dough onto parch­ment lined baking sheets, and place in the oven, one sheet at a time.

Bake for about 10 minutes, but my advice is to keep a close eye on them from about 7 or 8 minutes as they turn brown really sud­denly. You want them just golden!

If I were a coun­try, Pop­corn would be my national dish. I LOVE pop­corn! LOVE LOVE LOVE IT! I eat pop­corn almost every day. It’s just so amaz­ingly yummy! And it’s much health­ier than let’s say crisps or chocolate.

As if every­one doesn’t already know how to make pop­corn, here’s my way:

You’ll need

• 1 tbsp canola oil
• 1 tbsp margarine
• 2 dl pop­corn kernels
• a large cast-​iron pot

Place the pot on a high heat and pour in the oil. When it’s hot, add the mar­gar­ine and let it melt. Then add the pop­corn ker­nels. They should cover the bottom of the pot. Shake it around a little to make sure the ker­nels are all coated in the oil/margarine. Remem­ber to put the lid on or you’ll have a pop­corn covered kit­chen. Then just stand next to it and listen to the won­der­ful pop­ping sounds. When the ‘pops’ become less fre­quent, take the pot off the heat and quickly take the lid off and dump the pop­corn into a large bowl. Sprinkle lib­er­ally with salt and EAT!