Recipe: Oreo & coconut mixed chocolate truffles

Truffles are something I've been keen to make for SO long! Super easy to make and really tasty. I'm a huge fan

You'll need:

- 500ml double cream
- Large knob of butter
- 1 bar of high quality (70%) dark chocolate
- 1 bar of high quality white chocolate (as high percentage of choc as pos)
- 1 pack of Oreo's
- 1 bag of dessicated coconut
- A little cocoa powder

Method:

Heat the double cream on a medium heat until hot (not boiling) then whisk in the knob of butter until melted. In the mean time break up your white and dark chocolate in separate bowls. Once the butter is melted whisk about 300ml of the cream mixture into the dark chocolate and stir until all of the chocolate has melted then set aside. I found that the white chocolate needed slightly less of the mixture so the remainder (200ml) should do fine, mix then set aside.

Pop both bowls of melted and mixed chocolate into the fridge to chill. The dark chocolate will only take a couple of hours but try and leave the white chocolate for a couple more hours. Whilst that's setting, blitz a bunch of Oreo's in a blender (or just bash them up if you don't have one) then pop that mixture, the coconut and the cocoa powder into three separate bowls

Once the chocolate mixture is hard to the touch, grab a melon baller or a teaspoon, scoop out a small ball and roll in-between your palms as quickly as possible to create a little ball before it melts in your hand, then drop it into your desired topping and roll it around. The white chocolate won't set quite as hard and was generally a pain in the ass throughout this whole recipe, so be swift when rolling and don't worry too much about making perfectly round balls (they all go down the same hole).

I found that the dark chocolate went nicely with just some cocoa powder on them and the white chocolate suited the coconut and Oreo crumbs better. This is a pretty easy recipe and the end result was honestly lovely. Give it a go and mix up your mixture's and toppings! Really good with a nice coffee or cuppa tea, enjoy!

JIM

Instagram/Twitter: @whatjamesate

Food: Milk

Somewhere I've been meaning to visit for so long now is Milk in Balham! We've driven past this place so many times and even tried to visit once but it was rammo! It was a bit of a spur of the moment thing so I didn't have the camera on me so forgive me for the phone pictures, I'm going to do a full review another time as the decor was amazing and it's hard to appreciate from these photo's.

Inside the place looks amazing, everything looks so clean and rustic. We were offered a choice of where to sit and ended up grabbing a table right by the big glass window that runs adjacent to the street.

Although the menu doesn't actually show any steamed milk coffee's (It just says white/black/expresso) they made us latte's that we really enjoyed, milk was not too hot which is just how I like it. I chose "The Convict" which consisted of pretty much all of my favourite breakfast things; English muffin, streaky bacon, sausage, scrambled egg, hash brown and hangover sauce! The sauce was awesome and resembled a kind of rich barbecue like taste. This was topped with freshly grated parmesan, something I've never considered for breakfast but was god like in taste.

I could go on about how great the food was (I was really taken back by it), however the thing that I really loved was the kitchen. The kitchen is right in the middle of the restaurant and no bigger than your average bathroom, with one chef making the meals. You could just tell that everything was so fresh, and this reflected in the taste of everything. Georgia went for a simple scrambled eggs on toast and the eggs were so creamy and delicious.

So typically I wasn't totally finished there, I went and had a browse at their cake display that we walked past as we came in. The staff seemed super nice and friendly and helped me out with what to chose. They had a really cool range of cakes with very different ingredients. I ended up gong for a hazelnut cake that was so damn good and went down great with another coffee.

This was meant to be a short review because of the pants pictures but I was honestly so impressed by this place I can't wait to go back any day now, I'm literally making excuses for the need of breakfast,

Get down to Milk in Balham, it's really easy to get to if you have a tube station near  and you won't regret it I promise!

JIM

Instagram/Twitter: @whatjamesate

Food: Urban Food Festival

Last night I was out partying for my little sisters 21st Birthday celebrations so today was very tender for me. So as a very hungover couple me and Georgia ventured out to Shoreditch to check out Urban Food Festival, a really funky little food market in set in a car park on Shoreditch high street. I really struggled to enjoy myself being so hungover which is a shame as it had a lovely atmosphere here, with live music and lots of really friendly staff, who gave us some bottle caps that gave us discount at the bar, which for obvious reasons I didn't take advantage of!

I didn't go so crazy this time. We grabbed a classic bruschetta from Bob Bruschetta that was lovely and fresh. Then after much deliberation I grabbed a monster of a burger from the Backstreet Diner that was a had a super fresh patty with pulled pork. Very messy but worth the sticky fingers. We then shared some really tasty jerk chicken from the Caribbean Smokehouse.

Although I struggled through today I would definitely head back there another day as there are so many other stalls I wanted to check out! Get down there

JIM

Instagram/Twitter: @whatjamesate