Madhouse recipe : Chocolate Mendiants aka Reindeer Poo !

On the final day of school before the Christmas holidays, Pierre came home proudly clutching a bag of chocolate mendiants that he had made in class, along with the recipe. He wanted to make more and was in fits of giggles when I said they looked like reindeer poo. Unsurprisingly, that is what they have now been rebaptised here at The Madhouse ! They are ultra quick and simple to make and are perfect for keeping the kids busy as they wait for Santa to arrive - I'm sure he'd love it if you left one or two out for him to nibble, and I think he'd appreciate the reindeer poo joke too !

Chocolate Mendiants

ingredients :

1 bar dark chocolate

1 bar white chocolate (I'm sure you could just use 2 bars milk chocolate though)

whatever's in your baking cupboard : nuts, dried fruit, mini Smarties, ...

Break the chocolate into a bowl and melt it in the microwave. Go for repeated 10 second blasts rather than one long one, to prevent it burning. Give it all a good stir so it is nice and smooth.

If following the proper recipe, you should use a spoon to place dollops of chocolate on a baking tray lined with baking parchment, then flatten it into a smooth disc, before carefully laying out your toppings on the chocolate before it sets. When I said this to Pierre he said "that's not right, you have to mix it all in the chocolate first". I agree that this is much quicker and easier for the kids but it won't look as pretty as the original version, so it's up to you.

 Stir in your chosen ingredients - I had a rummage through the cupboard and found the end of a bag of raisins and half a pack of chocolate covered blueberries. Stir them in the chocolate and prevent your offspring from eating half of it !

Dollop spoonfuls of the mixture on to the baking sheet. 

Place in the fridge to set and there you have it. I still think they look just like reindeer poo but they did taste very nice and were gobbled up in record time !

As well as keeping the kids entertained, this is a great recipe for using up the odds and ends from the baking cupboard, so I'm adding it to this month's #KitchenClearout linky.