Recipe: Super Easy Chocolate Rum Balls and Mini Breakfast Quiches for Your Next Morning Tea

My office has a tradition where every second Monday morning, we host a ‘Sydney team meeting’ replete with morning tea goodies and we share a highlight of our weekend as well as our work focus for the next two weeks. We’re lucky that we’re still small enough that we can do this with the whole office rather than having to break into smaller teams.

We share the catering responsibility around, and a new person is responsible for the food every time. It’s never anything too fancy – sometimes people bake cakes, but others just buy some shareable fruit (grapes, strawberries, etc) with some store-bought muffins.

When my turn to host the morning tea came around recently, I decided to make both a sweet and savoury option. Being short on time, I needed to make sure that they were quick and easy recipes – and indeed, it took me only an hour and a half to make both these shareable delights.

Super Easy Chocolate Rum Balls

Ingredients: One pack of chocolate biscuits (I used Arnott’s Choc Ripple), desiccated coconut, one tin of condensed milk, rum-flavoured essence, vanilla powder.

Method:

1. Crush the chocolate biscuits to crumbs, using either a food processor or by brute force (I opted for smashing the packet with a can!). Add it to a mixing bowl.
2. Add in a heaped teaspoon of vanilla powder (I used The Essential Ingredient’s Bourbon Vanilla Powder).
3. Add a dash or two of rum-flavoured essence. As these rum balls were going to be eaten on a Monday morning, I used rum essence rather than actual rum, but you could always use a shot of Mount Gay or Bundaberg instead!
4. Pour in a full can of condensed milk
5. Add a cup of desiccated coconut. Mix thoroughly until all the ingredients are completedly incorporated. Keep adding coconut until you get to a sticky, but not wet consistency. Chill the finished mix in the fridge for half an hour.
6. Scatter more desiccated coconut on a plate.
7. Shape the chilled mix into small balls, rolling them in the palms of your hands. Coat them in the loose desiccated coconut.
8. Enjoy!

Mini Breakfast Quiches

Ingredients: Frozen puff pastry, a dozen eggs, milk, a decent amount of ham, parmesan cheese and black pepper for seasoning. (makes approximately 24 pastries)

Method:

1. Pre-heat your oven, then cut and mould the puff pastry into a size that fits your baking tray.
2. Beat a dozen eggs together with a generous splash of milk.
3. Shred ham into your egg mix, and add a half cup of parmesan cheese. Combine well.
4. Spoon your egg, ham and cheese mix into each puff pastry mould, ensuring that it doesn’t overflow.
5. Sprinkle some extra parmesan on top, and crack some black pepper on top.
6. Bake in the oven at approximately 200 degrees Celsius until the tops of your quiches are golden brown.
7. Serve hot and fresh from the oven – it tastes great cold as well!

A sweet and a savoury option, and it’ll only take you ninety minutes to whip it up to impress everyone at your next morning tea!