(This post comes with a warning of a possible Irish influence - Irish Cream, to be sure... but that is March for you. Not always exactly what you expect, and possibly not all of what you may need - but its what you get.)
Tonight I am attempting to concertina a little time...
You see, when Baka taught me this recipe, the most important ingredient always stressed was TIME.
And time I do not have - due to time on the weekend expanding and overflowing its bounds.
(The weekend was a glamorous, glittery destination filled with of fine cuisine,
fine-tuned teenagers, fabulous feasting with fantastic people (frantic,
fairy fiersome foes and friends navigation for the 7 year old), and a festival for (technically) my longest-serving friend (True, there
were also incidents with hammers, horses, heroics, histronics and hugs
in the intervening years))
Ooh boy, was Paris weekended out! (The one window I had to get ingredients for a luncheon tomorrow slammed shut by a sleep-deprived, over-stimulated, post-afternoon-napped doppelganger of Paris).
(* this post was not sponsored by Arnotts - unfortunately - however a special at the supermarket this afternoon meant the absolute need for such a sponsorship was negated somewhat. Note to the US especially - you can't get these over there, and your Kolaca is resultantly very expensive - finding plain sweet biscuits in a rectagular shape was a mission over there that I am still recovering from!!)
Which toppled the dominos well and truly. In my mind, I had this orderly progression of the steps to create the perfect imitation of Baka's Kolaca.
Just by being me, my bar is already far lower than the standards maintained by Baka in the creation of the cake. When she first met me, she advised her son that he was to treat me like a snowflake. However, once she learned of my rather slap-dash approach to perfection there were words exchanged in Hrvatski that may not have been always referring to my qualities.
So tonight, all I had to do (after getting Ms Paris to get past that whole "I'm not tired" song and dance routine and settled into the ten-foot-under slumber that is the first half of her night) was make the chocolate cream (cool it for several hours) layer up the (cooled) coffee-dunked biscuits and the (cooled) cream, melt the icing and spread and refrigerate overnight.
When you start time is after 9 and you expected finish is WELL after your bedtime, might I suggest that investigating your newly acquired liquor over ice is a most excellent way to assist in the cooking process?
It helps when you realise that you didn't apply enough vigour to the early stirring of the cream mixutre to avoid the requirement to delump for the whole million years it takes to get the right consistency and add the chocolate et al.
It helps when you realise that the last of the fantastic (cool) coffee has been demolished and you need to speedily cool a fresh instant for the layering.
It makes snapping the biscuits to fit the layers less perfect - but, ah well. Baka won't be having any of this.
It makes spreading the melted chocolate layer smoothly that much less important when they will set before they spread if you take "action" shots.
Mmm - now, who can I get to lick the bowl...
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