The finished product

One of my favourite recipes as a kid was chocolate Hedgehog slice. Made with crushed biscuits, it is one of those quick and easy ‘melt and mix’ slices that doesn’t need to be cooked – just assembled and chilled to allow it to set.

I’ve been making this a lot lately, and we’ve been really enjoying it, so I thought I’d share the recipe (with a very simple photo tutorial) so that others can make it too.

Most of the ingredients for Hedgehog.

Ingredients: 

125g (4 1/4 oz) butter
140g (5 oz) caster (superfine) sugar
2 tbsp cocoa
1 large egg, beaten
1 packet plain sweet biscuits, crushed.

Method:

The biscuits form the base of this slice, in the same way they do for a cheesecake base.

Crush the biscuits and add 2 tbsp of cocoa; mix to combine. (Don’t make the pieces too small or too uniform. Variety in the size of the crumbs makes for a much better texture in the finished slice.) I crush them by putting them in a couple of freezer bags and then hitting them with my rolling pin.

Mix cocoa and biscuit crumbs together before adding wet ingredients.

Melt the butter and sugar together; add the beaten egg and mix well.

Melting the butter and sugar together in the microwave is quick and easy.

Add the wet ingredients to the biscuit and cocoa mixture.
Mix until all ingredients are well combined. Press into a plastic container, cover and refrigerate until it is cool.

Ready to be covered and refrigerated.

 Prepare the icing; remove container from fridge (remove cover) and …

The icing ingredients ready to be mixed

…spread icing over slice.
I make a butter icing, with around 2 cups of icing sugar, 1 1/2 tbsp of butter and a couple of tbsp of cocoa; creaming the butter and sugar/cocoa together, and adding a tiny amount of water if the mixture is too dry, until I get a thick, creamy consistency.

Make the icing as fancy or plain as you like.

Return the container to the fridge to allow the icing to set, then cut the slice into 2.5cm (1in) squares and it is ready to be eaten.

If you can wait that long, you should be ready to sit down with a cup of tea or coffee and a piece (or two) of hedgehog slice in about an hour.

Enjoy!

Here is this morning’s project – a pencil case for one of Meg’s friends at school.

I love sewing in the morning – don’t know why I don’t do more of it…

The basic pattern for this little bag came from a tutorial I found through Craftster. It originated on a site called Drago[knit]fly and can be found here. It is really well written, with clear and succinct instructions.

I have added a clear vinyl outer layer to protect the fabric and make the whole thing more sturdy, but for the ‘pencil case’ version have omitted the fabric handle and instead inserted a small loop of webbing at the open end of the zip (so that you still have something to hang onto when you open or close it).

I must warn you, these are really addictive. I’ve made eight in this style already, and three more traditional-looking makeup bags. My next job is to make a larger one (longer and deeper) to store my crocheting in…