Instead of fresh chilli you could always use chilli chocolate. It’s also quite nice if you replace the nuts with coffee beans.

Ingredients

• 200g digestive biscuits
• 110g whole pecans, roughly chopped
• 110g pistachio nuts, peeled
• 12 glace cherries
• 2 fresh red chillis, de seeded and sliced
• Big handful of chopped marshmallows (jamie uses 2 ready-made meringue nests, smashed up but i prefer marshmallows)
• 150g unsalted butter
• 1 tablespoon golden syrup or honey
• 200g dark chocolate

Method

1. Break the biscuits into small pieces directly into a large bowl. Add the pecans, pistachio nuts, marshmallows and cherries and mix together. Put the rest of the ingredients into a separate, heatproof bowl and put on a low heat over a pan of simmering water until the butter and chocolate have melted.
2. Combine the biscuit mix with the chocolate mixture. Line a 30 x 20 cm plastic container with clingfilm, leaving plenty of extra film at the edges to help turn the cake out later. Whack everything into the container, place in the fridge to firm up then turn out and cut into chunky slices.
3. This cake can be kept in an airtight container for a few days, and it actually improves in flavour.

The chocolate comes in 100g bars and contains 70% cocoa solids, which means it’s has a really lovely dark brown, almost black colour with rather sumptuous sheen to it, the high cocoa content also gives it a lovely smell, with no hint of what is about to hit you.

The first thing you notice is the lovely velvety texture that is then broken up by the crunch of the coffee beans which give it a bitter sweet flavour, next the chilli finds it’s way to your senses, just a slight tingle and a little bit of chilli flavour as the coffee disappears from your mouth. It’s another one of those slow burners, the heat builds up the more you eat, and as it happens I had to go and hide the bar in the car so that I didn’t scoff as it’s the most more-ish chocolate I’ve ever had.

If you would like to try some for your self you can buy it from here.

Chilli Up North Verdict: Absolutely gorgeous chocolate, not to sweet, not too spicy, lovely texture, buy some now 9/10 (heat 5/10)

I decided to start with what I thought would be the least firey of the bunch and so opened the Chilli Chocolate Drops, they come in a lovely black plastic pot with a red lid and luminous yellow label, the packaging certainly gave the impression that the contents was going to be rather spicy.

The tub contained a mix of white chocolate and dark chocolate drops that have been infused with chilli, the smelled and looked wonderful, sweet with pungent chilli notes, some of the white chocolate drops were tinged read with chilli too.

Flavour wise they were fab, not too sweet and not too spicy they had a lovely dry chilli flavour and a little bit of burn which built up the more you ate.

I passed them round some of my friends and family and the general consensus were that they loved the head and flavour although it was a little bit too much for some.

The Chilli Choc drops cost £3 per jar which is pretty good value for money as you get plenty of lovely little button sized drops, although they are so moreish they don’t last long so you should probably buy a couple of jars (you can buy them here)

Chilli Up North Verdict:  Great chocolatey treat with a nice level of heat, would be great for using on cakes as well as with a cuppa -  without it 8/10  (heat 6/10)

The packaging is pretty simple but a bit different, the square 80g bar comes wrapped in a little bag, this is then encased in a bright red box with a little bit of text and a pic of a chilli.

The chocolate is a bit chunkier than your average premium chocolate bar so its quite hard to snap into small chunks.

The first thing you notice is the smell, the chocolate smells very rich, the taste matches it, its quite rich and sweet so not something you could eat loads of, other than that there is just the faintest taste of chilli at the end.

Overall as a chocolate bar it was pretty tasty but as far as the chilli goes it’s not as punchy as some of the other chilli chocolate out there (like lindt chilli or lindt chilli and cherry)

Chilli Up North Verdict:  Very rich and chocolatey with a very faint chilli flavour – 6.5/10 (Heat 1/10)

the time it takes to cook depends on your microwave so its worth experimenting, ours is 800W and it took 3 mins 10 seconds to cook.

Ingredients

• 4 tbs / 45 g self raising flour
• 4 tbs / 55g caster sugar
• 2 tbs / 17g cocoa powder
• 1 egg
• 3 tbs / 43 ml milk
• 3 tbs / 25 ml sunflower oil
• 3 tablespoons chocolate chips
• A small dash of vanilla extract
• big pinch of dried chilli – you could use chilli powder or replace the choc chips with chilli chocolate, you could also use more or less chilli depending on your tastebuds.

Method

• Add dry ingredients (including chilli) to a large coffee mug, and mix well.
• Add the egg and mix thoroughly
• Add the milk and oil – mix well (don’t forget the corners / edges of the mug).
• Add the chocolate chips (if using) and vanilla extract, and mix again
• Put your mug in the microwave and cook for 3 minutes (in a 800 watt microwave).
• The cake will rise above the top of the mug, but don’t worry it’s supposed to!
• Allow to cool a little, tip out onto a plate.

EAT and enjoy – this can serve two – it’s a huge portion for one!

ngredients
200g/7¼oz unsalted butter
200g/7¼oz demerara sugar
200g/7¼oz honey
400g/14¼oz porridge oats
100g chocolate broken into pieces.
combination of chillis…..use what you are comfortable with but i like…1 fresh chilli finely sliced, 1 teaspoon of dried chilli and 1 teaspoon of chilli powder. (you can also add coconut, ginger, cherries and any other bits of fruit/nut you like )

You will also need a 20cm x 30cm (8in x 12in) cake tin, greased

Method

1. Put the butter, sugar and honey in a saucepan and heat, stirring occasionally, until the butter has melted and the sugar has dissolved. Add the chilli,chocolate and oats  and mix well.

2. Transfer the oat mixture to the prepared cake tin and spread to about 2cm (¾in) thick. Smooth the surface withthe back of a spoon. Bake in a preheated oven at 180C/350F/Gas 4 for 15-20 minutes, until lightly golden around the edges, but still slightly soft in the middle.

3.Let cool in the tin, then turn out and cut into squares.

Please browse the pics below.

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