Bonkers for conkers!

Sunday, 12 October 2014

Did you know that it’s national conker day today?  It’s also the day of the World Conker Championship. What better excuse to go out conker hunting as well as making a lovely choccy version of the conker…

Cool conker facts:

• The conker is the seed of the horse chestnut tree.
• To play with conkers there are various tips to prepare them including putting them in the oven or soaking them in vinegar.
• Before horse chestnuts were used to play conkers, snail shells were used!

As well as playing with the conkers, you can also make chocolate conkers to share with your friends.

Chocolate Conkers

You will need:

• 450g Oreo cookies or chocolate bourbon biscuits (1)
• 225g full fat cream cheese
• 450g chocolate (milk or dark chocolate, or both)

To make:

1. Put the biscuits in a plastic food bag and smash with a rolling pin until they are crumbs (if you have a food processor use it instead as it will be a lot faster.)

2. Put the cream cheese in a bowl and gradually mix in the biscuit crumbs, stirring it really well until everything has combined.

3. Shape the mixture into small conker.

4. Put the ‘conkers’ on a tray lined with greaseproof paper and put them in the fridge for
least two hours to chill.

5. Melt the chocolate in a bowl and dip the chilled ‘conkers’ into it making sure they’re fully coated (for different shades of brown, dip some in milk chocolate and some in dark.)

6. Set them out on a tray lined with greaseproof paper and put them back in the fridge for the chocolate to set.

7. You can leave your chocolate conkers as they are, or make a spiky green outer shell out of marzipan (dyed with food colouring).

There you have it, yummy conkers. Just don’t mix them up with your real conkers as they won’t last long on a bit of string! And the real ones won’t taste nice, even covered in chocolate.

Hugs & kisses,

Lulu xx

1. You can also use ginger nuts, they are yummy in this recipe.

2. A big thank you to Nature Detectives for the chocolate conker idea.