Chocolate and Caramel Tart

I have already professed my affection for tarts so when Veronica and Patricia unveiled this month’s Daring Baker challenge featuring the heavenly combination of chocolate and caramel, it was love at first sight. Their luscious selection from Eric Kaysers Sweet and Savory Tarts is made with a chocolate shortbread crust, caramel filling, and a layer of chocolate mousse. Bettina (Steven’s little sis) and I had planned to make it together, but things kept coming up and pretty soon she was getting ready to leave for college again. It was the last week of August and Steven said, “Hey... don’t you have to do your Daring Baker thing soon?” I’ve been feeling a little under the weather lately but managed to set aside some time to make the tart just yesterday. If youve been checking out all the beautiful tarts made by my fellow DBs (you can find them here, you’ll notice that there are a few things wrong with my tart but hopefully I will answer all your questions.

You can find the complete recipe on Veronicas or Patricias blogs.

Part 1: The Crust
The original recipe made enough for three 9 1/2 in square tarts or 10 in round tarts. I decided to make some little tartlets so I made 1/4 of the original recipe (it was easier to scale down by 4 than by 3). One thing that struck me as rather odd was the addition of cinnamon in the crust, and quite a bit of it too. I had never heard of combining cinnamon, chocolate, caramel, and hazelnut. Luckily Veronica said we could omit the cinnamon, which I chose to do because I’m not the biggest fan of it and many DBs felt the flavor was just way too overpowering in this case. Here are the ingredients I used for the crust:

Chocolate Shortbread Pastry
4 Tbsp butter
1/4 C + 1 1/2 tsp powdered sugar
2 Tbsp ground hazelnuts (I toasted some at 350F, rubbed the skins off, and ground them in the food processor)
1/2 beaten egg (I beat an egg and measured out half)
1 C + 2 Tbsp cake flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp cocoa powder
Optional: 1/2 tsp cinnamon (I omitted this)

In a food processor or stand mixer cream the butter.
Add the powdered sugar, ground hazelnuts, and cinnamon if using, and mix.
Beat 1 egg and measure out half of it, add it the food processor or stand mixer and mix it into the butter.
Sift in the flour, baking powder, and cocoa powder, and mix well.
Form the dough into a ball and chill overnight.
Preheat the oven to 325F. Roll out the dough and line the pan. Bake for 15 minutes.

Another thing you’ll notice is that although it’s suppose to be a chocolate shortbread crust, the amount of cocoa powder the recipe calls for is very tiny (original recipe called for 1 1/2 tablespoons and for the proposes of my scaling, I rounded down to 4 teaspoons). I scrounged around the pantry for the cocoa powder I rarely use and it looked absolutely ancient, must have been a few years ago. I didn’t trust the quality of the cocoa powder to use it so as a result, my crust is pale blond and not the pretty shade of chocolatey brown like it should be.

After the chill overnight, I went to roll out my dough. While it was very easy to roll out, when it came time to lift the dough into my tartlet plans, it cracked and broke into pieces. Not pretty. I was able to use a bench scraper to lift the dough into the tartlet pans and push together the pieces of the crust. I can only imagine the nightmare this dough caused when attempting to lift the whole thing into a larger tart pan.

Part 2: The Filling

Caramel Filling
1 C sugar
1 C heavy whipping cream
4 Tbsp butter
2 eggs
1 egg yolk
2 1/2 Tbsp flour

Although I only made a quarter of the dough recipe, since I was going through all the trouble, I made the full caramel filling recipe. Plus, extra caramel is an added bonus. The caramel making was a bit of a fiasco but in the end it turned out okay - it wasnt a complete failure. I started by taking my butter and cream out of the fridge so they could warm up to room temp. I poured the sugar into a saucepan and placed it over medium heat. There are two ways to make caramel, the dry method, which is just sugar in a pan (method called for in the recipe), and the wet method, which is sugar with some water and corn syrup. The dry method is more difficult because the sugar can burn easier, whereas the water and corn syrup in the wet method helps to stabilize the sugar. I didnt have any corn syrup on hand, so I decided to try my luck with the dry method. I really had no idea what I was doing. I started to panic, “Oh no what if the sugar on the bottom is burning, I better stir it!” and as soon as I stirred it, the sugar clumped up and stuck to my spoon, to the sides and bottom of my pot; it was a mess.

I kept the pot over low heat and slowly it began to change colors. However, I thought the sugar was getting too dark, and I panicked again. “Oh no, I think the sugar is getting too brown, should I add the cream? But not all of the crystals have melted yet.” So to prevent the sugar from get any darker, I added the cream and the whole thing immediately seized. At this point what I had was very light brown colored cream with crystallized sugar stuck to the sides of the pot and caramelized sugar stuck on my spoon and floating in the cream soup like pieces of amber glass.

Again I kept the mixture over low heat and the sugar was slowly starting to melt into the cream. Maybe the light was playing tricks on me but I thought now the cream was getting too brown. Cue panic attack 3. “Oh no maybe I should add the butter, maybe I should just strain what I have into the flour and egg mixture.” So I added the butter, turned the heat up to medium low so the caramel was barely bubbling. At this point, it had already been 45 minutes into the caramel making process and my patience was wearing thin but now things started to take a turn for the better! The caramel started to thicken up really nicely, the sugars on the bottom and sides of the pot started melting, and after what seemed like an eternity, I had relatively chunk-free, thick, gooey caramel. The strange thing is, it didn’t look very dark anymore, rather, it looked a bit too light. As I let it cool, I slowly sifted and whisked the flour into the eggs. When the caramel was cool enough, I tasted a spoonful and my god this stuff was delicious (well with a whole cup of sugar and cream and half a stick of butter what wouldn’t taste good?). I whisked the egg mix into the caramel and then poured the mix into the baked tart crusts half full (ended up using only half the caramel mixture) and baked them at 325F. The filling firmed up quite nicely in the oven after about 10 minutes.

Part 3: The Mousse

Chocolate Mousse
1/2 C heavy cream
3 1/2 oz. milk chocolate

Uh oh... I don’t have milk chocolate! Because I wasn’t feeling well that day, I didn’t want to go down to the store just for some chocolate. I know we weren’t suppose to use dark chocolate (I’m sorry Veronica) but I used the bittersweet chocolate in my pantry and that explains why my mousse is such a dark brown. I melted the chocolate and while it was melting I whipped the cream to stiff peaks. I was afraid my chocolate was too hot and would deflate the cream so I waited for it to cool. I waited... and waited... and waited... and by the time I finally added the chocolate to the cream, I had waited too long. As I began to fold it into the cream, the chocolate solidified into chunks and streaks in the cream and the mousse became very grainy and weird. I spread it on top of the caramel filled tarts and after an hour or so in the fridge, the mousse solidified into a thick, grainy, chunky mess. It definitely didnt look like the light brown, airy mousse in the picture from the cookbook. I had originally planned to pipe some decorative stars on the tart, but the mousse was so stiff and gross, it wasn’t pipeable at all; luckily it still tasted good. Ironically, I completely screwed up the easiest part of the tart.

As for the sugar decorations on top, I melted some more sugar and this time I resisted the urge to stir it (just the occasional gentle swirl) and it melted into an even amber color without any crystallizations.

The Verdict:
In the end, I don’t think I did proper justice to the tart because I totally failed at making the mousse. The crust was a little difficult to work with but it was tasty and I liked the subtle hazelnut flavors. I should have bought some new cocoa powder for it. I panicked multiple times about burning the sugar, but I don’t think I caramelized my sugar enough because the filling didn’t have enough caramel flavor. When I sliced into the tart, it looked a little light compared to the darker, richer hues of other DB’s caramels. Lastly, I really shouldn’t have used dark chocolate for the mousse because the intense chocolate flavor completely overpowered the very light caramel flavor of my filling. Perhaps if my caramel had a stronger and more developed flavor then it could properly stand up to a dark chocolate mousse. In the end the tart was still really delicious. I was able to make 4 6 in tartlets and we gobbled them up so quickly there’s only 1 left! I will most definitely make the caramel filling again and try my hand at the mousse again too.

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Green Tea Cheesecake White Chocolate Brownie

Green tea is one of my favorite flavors for sweets, from cakes, cheesecakes, puddings, ice cream (I cant tell you how much I adore green tea mochi ice cream), to drinks like milkshakes and frappucinos (I would be drinking this stuff 24/7 if only it wasnt so expensive and not to mention fattening). Up until a few years ago, its use as a dessert flavor was fairly localized to Asia but now its growing in popularity around the world, working its way into very French desserts like macarons and madeleines. I received my bag of green tea (matcha) powder a long time ago from Stevens parents who brought it back from Taiwan. It is absolutely precious to me so rather than using it, the bag of matcha sat untouched safely in the pantry. A few days ago I looked at the bag again, and although it was entirely in Japanese, from what I could understand it expired last month. Ack! Now I need to use up the powder and theres no excuse for letting it sit around, so stay tuned for a flurry of green tea sweets.

I never understood blondies. It seems only natural that if brownies are made with chocolate, then blondies should be made with white chocolate. Instead, blondies are more like bar cookies made with brown sugar and chocolate chips rather than melted white chocolate. So this leaves the poor white chocolate brownie without a proper name. Its a tragedy. :( As a result, this dessert has an abnormally long name, but I cant think of anything better. This will be my entry for Myriams 2nd Browniebabe of the Month. Helen and Meeta also made white chocolate brownies, we must all be on the same Daring Baker vibe.

Notes:
- Matcha powder can be quite expensive especially the high quality stuff used for tea ceremonies, baking quality matcha is often more affordable.
- The green tea cheesecake swirls can be omitted for a regular white chocolate brownie/blondie
- The amount of matcha you need will depend on its strength. Since mine is really weak (perhaps due to the expiration date), I had to use almost 2 tablespoons in the cheesecake filling, but this is highly unusual. Usually 1 to 2 teaspoons of matcha is enough so start out with a little bit and taste it.
- The brownies were almost a tad too dense (I usually really love fudgy brownies) but next time I will add 1/4 tsp of baking powder to the batter.
- When I made these I was expecting something identical to a regular brownie but with white chocolate flavor. However, the texture of these brownies was very different from what I was expecting, I cant put my finger on it exactly. I think it might have to do with the different proportions of cocoa butter and other stuff in white chocolate vs. semi/bittersweet. They also didnt have a crust on top.

Green Tea Cream Cheese Swirl White Chocolate Brownie

Brownie base
8 Tbsp butter (1 stick), cut into 1-in pieces
5 oz. white chocolate, chopped
2 eggs
5 Tbsp sugar
1 tsp vanilla
3/4 C flour

Cheesecake swirl
8 oz bar of cream cheese, room temp
1 egg
3 Tbsp sugar
2 tsp green tea/matcha powder
About 2 tsp of water, hot but not boiling

Preheat the oven to 325ºF.

Mix the green tea powder with a bit of hot water to form a paste. Mix the cream cheese, egg, and green tea paste until smooth. Taste a bit and see if its strong enough.

Melt the butter with the white chocolate. Mix in the sugar, eggs, vanilla, and flour (and baking powder if you want to experiment with it). Whisk until smooth but do not over mix.

Line a 8 x 8 square baking dish with a sheet of foil (with overhang for easy lifting) or grease and flour it. Pour in half of the white chocolate batter. Then drop half of the cream cheese mixture on top in spoonfuls. Top the batter with the rest of the white chocolate brownie batter, then finally add the remaining half of the cream cheese mixture on top. Use a knife and swirl the brownie and cream cheese together to create a marbled pattern.

Bake the brownies at 325ºF for 40 - 45 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out with moist crumbs. The center should be almost set. You dont want the toothpick to come out clean because that would mean the brownies have overbaked. Cool in the pan for 5 then lift the brownies out and cool to room temperature. Theyre best served cold so chill them in the fridge for about 3 hours.

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Chocolate Pumpkin Butter Cake

All along I prefer butter cake compared to those frosted cream cake, chiffon, fresh fruits or etc that is available in the bakery. And personally I crave for those traditional rich and moist butter cakes that served together with a cup of freshly brewed English tea that will refresh your soul for a great afternoon tea session.

After trying the 1st batch of Pumpkin Butter Cake that I made into small muffin cups, we love the soft texture, buttery taste as well as the natural flavour from the mashed pumpkin. And since I have another ½ portion of leftover pumpkin in the fridge, I decided to combine this recipe with the recent Marble Cake (HERE) that I have made and come out with the "Chocolate Pumpkin Butter Cake".

For these two recipes here, I used Lurpak Unsalted Butter which I prefer its smooth and creamy taste that is does not make you feel queasy even after having a slices of two of the cake. As for the pumpkin I used the Butternut because I love its sweet and nutty taste that is great for soups, casseroles, breads, and even cakes.

(adapted from 茄子, 袅袅烘焙香 HERE)
Ingredients For Pumpkin Butter Cake: (makes 6 muffins)
100g Pumpkin(without skin), steamed and mashed
150g Cake Flour/Top Flour
1/2 Teaspoon Baking Powder
1/2 Teaspoon Vanilla Extract
100g Caster Sugar
100g Unsalted Butter, cubes and soften
3 Large Eggs

Toppings:
Some Pumpkin Seeds
Some Shredded/Sliced Pumpkin

Methods:-

1. Cream butter and sugar till light and fluffy, add in eggs one at a time and beat till well combined.

2. Stir-in vanilla extract then fold in the sifted flours (cake flour + baking powder) in two round till there is no trace of flour in the batter.

3. Add in mashed pumpkin (refer to the preparation method below) and preferably using a balloon whisk to give the mixture some quick stir to combine the pumpkin with the flour batter.

4. Spoon the pumpkin batter into prepared muffin case, top with shredded pumpkin or pumpkin seeds.

5. Bake in pre-heated 170 degree oven for about 15 - 18 minutes until a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean.


To Prepare The Mashed Pumpkin:

1. Place pumpkin cubes(without skin) into a microwave heatproof bowl together with 1 tablespoon of water.

2. Cook in high heat for 3 - 4 minutes with an interval stirring between each minute.

3. Mash the cooked and soft pumpkin with a fork and set aside to cool while preparing the batter. OR

4. You can steam the pumpkin cubes in a pot of boiling water using steaming rack for about 10 minutes or till pumpkin is soften.

As you can see from the photo despite of the beautiful swirl colours from the pumpkin and chocolate batter there are some setback of air holes which appears due to my oversight of mixing the two batters. But thanks God these flaws did not affect the texture and taste of this moist and buttery cake.

Ingredients For Chocolate Pumpkin Butter Cake: (makes 17cm cake )
120g Pumpkin(without skin), steamed and mashed
150g Cake Flour/Top Flour
1/2 Teaspoon Baking Powder
1/2 Teaspoon Vanilla Extract
100g Castor Sugar
100g Unsalted Butter
3 Large Eggs
1 Tablespoon Dutch Cocoa Powder, sieved

Toppings:
Some Pumpkin Seeds, optional

Methods:-

1. To prepare the chocolate pumpkin butter cake, follow step 1 and 2 shown above for preparing the flour batter.

2. Scoop about 3 - 4 Tablespoons of flour batter into a small bowl together with 1 tablespoon of cocoa powder, whisk till well combined. Set aside.

3. Whisk in mashed pumpkin into the remanding flour batter.

4. Drop 1 - 2 spoons of the pumpkin and chocolate batter alternately into the prepared tin.

5. When all the mixture has been used up, tap the bottom on the tin on your work surface to ensure that there arent any air bubbles.

6. Take a skewer and swirl it around the mixture in the tin a few times to create a marbled effect.

7. Bake the cake for 25 - 30 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean.

8. Cool the cake completely before removing it from the baking tin/case, cut into slices and serve with coffee/tea.




Chocolate Pumpkin Butter Cake

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Chocolate Soufflés with Nougat Whip Warning Intended for Mature Audiences

Chocolate Soufflés with Nougat Whip Photo (c) SmithBites.com

My friend, Linda from Salty Seattle, called this Chocolate Soufflés with Nougat Whip video, “porn without people,” and I couldn’t agree more. The term “food porn” gets thrown around way too easily these days. Sorry, that picture of your red velvet cupcakes was nice, but it wasn’t really pornographic. This, however, could make you blush. By the way, the surface temperature of a blushing face is the exact temperature at which chocolate melts. Coincidence?

This semi-sweet tour-de-force is from Debra and Rod “The Professor” Smith, from SmithBites.com. I’m relatively new to their work, but quite impressed to say the least. I’m very proud Food Wishes helped pioneer the chef-less recipe video, but this is taking that idea to a whole other place – surreal and viscerally sensual, yet still comforting and familiar. Please follow this link to check out the original post, and see more of their fine work. Enjoy!

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Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Cookies with Dried Cranberries and Pecans

I have a bad habit not being able to follow a recipe word for word, not even my own! I always have to adjust, substitute, omit, or change something. It’s pretty ironic I keep a recipe journal (I hope I didn’t lose too much credibility there). Oatmeal craisin chocolate chip pecan cookies are my default cookie of choice. I love how there’s so much good stuff in these, there’s barely enough dough to bind everything together. It’s like trail mix in cookie form. And I have yet to meet someone who doesnt like these. The name is a mouthful but I cant come up with anything better. OCCCPC? POCCC? POC^3? Eh, med school is full of enough acronyms and mnemonic as it is. I’ve been making these cookies for years now, but the urge to change a perfectly good recipe struck again. Combined with post finals laziness, I couldn’t be bothered to measure out the 1 1/4 cup here and there so I changed everything to one cup. I was going to delete the original recipe but I’m guessing people who use the original version wouldn’t be too happy if I just overwrote it. So now there are two versions, the original and the shamelessly lazy one. Hm I’ll need to do something about that 2 tsp of vanilla, since it requires measuring twice. Next time...

Okay in all seriousness, don’t let my silly laziness deter you, these are as good as the original. It involves just a tiny bit less work and there’s a higher chocolate to everything else ratio in these but I don’t think anyone would mind that.

Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Cookies with Dried Cranberries and Pecans

1 C all purpose flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 C old fashioned rolled oats
1 C toasted pecans, chopped
1 C dried cranberries
1 C semi sweet chocolate chips or 4 oz. bar of semisweet or dark chocolate, chopped
4 oz./ 1 stick butter, at room temperature
1 C packed brown sugar, preferably dark
1 large egg
2 tsp vanilla extract

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

In a heatproof bowl, pour about one cup of hot water on the dried cranberries and let them soak for 5 minutes. The cranberries will absorb some of the moisture and retain their chew after baking and won’t dry out. While the cranberries are soaking, chop the toasted pecans. After the cranberries have soaked, drain in a sieve, rinse them off under cold running water, and set aside.

In a large bowl, whisk the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt until evenly combined. In another bowl, toss the chopped pecans, chocolate chips, and oats together.

Using a stand mixer with the paddle attachment or with a hand mixer, beat the butter until fluffy, add the brown sugar and beat again. Scrape down the sides of the bowl, add the egg and vanilla and continue to beat until the mixture is light and fluffy, like frosting. Add the flour mixture and mix the dough is beginning to come together. Then add the oats, nuts, and chocolate mixture and cranberries and continue to beat until the dough is evenly mixed

I like to line my cookie sheets with parchment instead of a silicone baking mat, I find that cookies dont spread and brown as nicely on a baking mat. Scoop 1/4 C of the dough and space the dough 3 inches apart. Its easiest to use a trigger release cookie/ice cream scoop. Use your hands and flatten them slightly until they are about 3/4 inch thick and look like a hockey puck. My cookie sheet can hold 8 or 9 cookies and I like to bake only one sheet at a time.

Bake for 10 minutes then rotate the sheet, and continue to bake for another 5 to 8 minutes. The cookie edges should golden brown but the center will look a little underdone and still gooey and doughy in the middle. Remove the tray and let the cookies set for 1 minute on the sheet tray then using a spatula, slide them onto a cooling rack.

Makes 16 cookies.

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Chocolate Crinkle Cookies

 

   First and foremost, Id like to say that Im still praying and thinking about everyone who was affected by the Newtown, CT school tragedy. Its been weighing on my mind all weekend, as I know millions others. I wish I could turn back time for all those parents that lost a child that day. I cant even begin to imagine what kind of pain theyre going through. I will continue to pray that they are somehow able to heal from their loss. ♥

   Yesterday, I baked a bazillion cookies. At 9 a.m. I turned on Christmas movies for my kiddos, and started baking away! After I finished, 4 hours later, I sent my Elves to pass out the goods while I cleaned up the mess.

   I received lots of text messages thanking me for the cookies, so Im guessing they were a hit :) Ill be sharing all the recipes this week! First up are the Chocolate Crinkle Cookies. As they bake, they puff up and crack. The flavor reminds me of a brownie. Very delish!


Chocolate Crinkle Cookies

1/2 cup powdered sugar
1 2/3 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
8 Tablespoons (1 stick) unsalted butter, softened
1 1/4 cups sugar
2 eggs
1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Directions: Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease 2 baking sheets with butter.

Place the powdered sugar in a small bowl. Set aside.

In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, cocoa powder, baking powder and salt. Set aside.

In a large bowl, using an electric mixer, beat the butter and sugar together, on medium speed for 2-3 minutes until creamy. Turn off mixer and scrape down sides of bowl with a rubber spatula. Add 1 egg and beat on medium speed until blended. Add the other egg and vanilla and beat until blended.

Turn off mixer and add the flour mixture. Beat on low speed just until combined.

Using a Tablespoon, scoop up a rounded spoonful of dough. Form dough into a ball using the palm of your hand. Roll ball into the powdered sugar until covered. Place balls on the prepared baking sheet. Repeat, spacing the balls 2 inches apart.

When 1 baking sheet is full, place in the oven and bake until cookies are crackled and puffed, about 10-12 minutes. Using oven mitts, remove from oven and let cool on baking sheet for 15 minutes. Using a metal spatula transfer cookies to a wire rack to completely cool. Repeat with all cookies. Makes about 24 cookies.


Recipe by: Williams-Sonoma

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Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies

   I cant even tell you all how EXCITED I am for the Fall season! I just love everything about it. The weather is perfect. Not too cold and definitely not hot. I love all the different colors of leaves on the trees. The smell of the outside air. You know, that crisp, cold autumn air. Ohhh, I love it! But one of my most favorite things I love about Fall, are the pumpkin treats! These cookies are one of them. They are absolutely scrumptious and you will be so surprised how easy they are to make.

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies

1 box (18 oz) Spice Cake mix

15 oz can of Pumpkin

1 1/2 cups Chocolate Chips (semi-sweet or milk chocolate)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Empty the cake mix into a large bowl. If it looks lumpy then sift. (If its lumpy it will leave big chunks of mix in your cookies, and you definitely dont want that!)  Once sifted, mix in the can of pumpkin. Once well mixed, stir in the chocolate chips.

Spray a cookie sheet with cooking spray. Drop batter by tablespoonfuls onto the cookie sheet. (This can be tricky, because the dough is sticky, and also remember the way they look on the sheet is how they will bake. They dont change shape because there is no egg in the batter) 

Bake for 17-19 minutes. Remove from oven and let cool on the cookie sheet. No need to transfer to a cooling rack because their so soft they may fall through.

Linked up at Mandys Recipe Box

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Chocolate Fudge Brownies

  Im tellin ya...  sometimes you just need a fudgey.. gooey.. chocolatey brownie to make everything okay. You really do.

  This past week has been crazy with work being so busy, all the house buying hoopla, and just knowing that I have to pack up my house and move in less than 2 weeks....  makes me crave chocolate.

Big time.

  I knew these brownies would make me feel better. They were so very delicious. I think I had more fun making them than eating them, but Im weird like that.

   I found the recipe from Joy the Bakers cookbook. She is so genius, and makes the yummiest food, evah! If you havent read her blog, I am suggesting you do. Shes the type of blogger I aspire to be. Shes simply amazing.


Chocolate Fudge Brownies

3/4 cup all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup butter
3 ounces semi-sweet chocolate
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 cup granulated sugar
2 large eggs
1 large egg yolk
1 teaspoon vanilla

Chocolate Glaze

2/3 cup powdered sugar
2 Tablespoons cocoa powder
1/4 teaspoon vanilla
5 teaspoons hot water


Directions: Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease an 8x8 inch square baking pan with cooking spray. Set aside.

In a medium bowl, mix together flour, baking powder and salt. Set aside.

In a medium microwave-safe bowl, heat the butter and chocolate at 30 second intervals, until melted. Stir together well.

Using a whisk, stir in brown and granulated sugars into the melted chocolate. Add in eggs and vanilla and continue to whisk until combined. Pour chocolate mixture into the bowl of dry ingredients.

Using a spatula, fold the chocolate mixture into the flour mixture, just until combined. Pour batter into the prepared baking dish. Bake for 25-30 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean. Let brownies cool completely before topping with glaze.

For Chocolate glaze: In a small bowl, stir together powdered sugar, cocoa powder, vanilla and water. Stir until it is smooth and pourable. Pour glaze over the cooled brownies. Use the back of a spoon to spread evenly. Let stand (or place in fridge) until glaze is set. (About 30 minutes)
Cut into 9 squares and serve. Enjoy!

Recipe adapted from: Joy the Baker

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Chocolate date cake with strawberries and cream

Frú Hnallþóra: So delicious!
Originally uploaded by Netla.

A friend of mine made this cake for her sons birthday party in August.

Heres the recipe:

Chocolate-date cake with strawberries

The most common way of serving this kind of cake is with bananas, but since the photo is of one with strawberries, I am putting strawberries into the recipe instead.

4 eggs
150 g sugar
50 g flour
1 tsp baking powder
100 g dark (semi-sweet is best) chocolate
100 g dates

Whip together eggs and sugar until light and fluffy. Add sifted flour and baking powder by the spoonful until fully mixed. Chop chocolate and dated (raisin-sized pieces are good) and fold into batter.

Line two round baking tins (approx. 22 cm in diameter) with baking paper and put in the dough. Level dough with a spatula. Bake at 180°C on the middle rack of the oven for 15-20 minutes, or until firm when poked gently with a finger.

Filling and decoration:
1 small or medium box fresh strawberries (depending on how much decorating you plan to do) OR 1 small can strawberries in syrup OR 2 bananas
250 ml cream

Whip the cream stiff. Mash a handful of strawberries or one banana and fold into the whipped cream. Put between the layers of the cake. Decorate the cake with the remaining strawberries or banana (sliced). Its good to dip banana slices into lemon juice to prevent them from going brown.

Some prefer to smother the cake in frosting:
3 egg yolks
4 tbs icing sugar
100 g dark chocolate

Whip together the egg yolks and icing sugar. Melt the chocolate over a water bath and mix well into egg/sugar mixture. Fold in 2-3 tbs of whipped cream.
Frost one half of the cake with about 1/3 of this icing before adding the cream. Then cover the cake with it and decorate with strawberries or banana slices.
My friend adds a bit of melted chocolate as well.

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David Leites Chocolate Chip Cookies slightly modified

Heres what I had for breakfast today - a large cup of coffee, and two gigantic chocolate chip cookies. Following the famous recipe David Leites Chocolate Chip Cookies pretty closely, I made up a batch of cookie dough on Monday night, and baked 6 large cookies this morning. They werent bad - I especially liked the slightly chewy inside and crispy edges, and the sprinkling of Maldon sea salt flakes on top of a chocolate cookie is genious. But if I ever make these again, I drastically reduce the amount of sugar in the recipe. I made the mistake of having two of these with my coffee this morning, and that is not something I recommend. I was very close to opening a can of tinned sprats to reduce the effects of all that sugar.

Other than that, I was pretty pleased with the way these spread out and baked. Some foodbloggers mentioned that the cookies were flat - not in my kitchen - they were about 1 cm /just under half an inch/ in the center. I baked large cookies, ca 75 grams each (thats just under 3 oz), which is way larger than whats considered a socially acceptable cookie size outside the US, Im afraid. Ill share the metric recipe here - if youre cooking and baking in cups and ounces, then please refer to any of the good foodbloggers below.

Chocolate Chip Cookies
(Ameerika šokolaadiküpsised)
Makes a lot, recipe can be halved and the formed unbaked cookies can be frozen



480 g all-purpose flour
1.25 tsp baking soda/bicarbonate of soda
1.5 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
275 g unsalted butter, at room temperature
200 g soft brown sugar (I used fariinsuhkur)
300 g caster sugar
2 large eggs
2 tsp vanilla extract
500 g dark chocolate, coarsely chopped (at least 60% cacao content)
Maldon sea salt flakes for sprinkling

Mix flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt in a measuring jug. Put aside.
Using the paddle attachment of a food processor, cream the butter and sugar together for 5 minutes, until its creamy and fluffy. Add the eggs, one at a time, and vanilla extract, and beat until well combined.
Add the flour mixture, and stir just to combine. Fold in the chopped chocolate.
Using your hands, press the dough into a large ball and place in a bowl. Cover with a clingfilm and refridgerate for 36 hours (or up to 72 hours).
Line a baking sheet with a Silpat mat or parchment paper. Using a large ice cream scoop or a similar utensil, scoop out balls of cookie dough, each weighing about 75 grams. Place the cookie dough balls on the baking sheet, leaving plenty of space for spreading (I placed 6 cookie dough balls on my large baking sheet). (Return the remaining dough into the fridge!)
Sprinkle lightly with Maldon sea salt flakes.
Bake in the middle of a pre-heated 175°C oven for 16-18 minutes, until the cookie looks golden on the edges, but is still just pale tanned in the middle.
Remove from the oven, gently transfer onto a metal rack to cool slightly and firm up.
Repeat with the remaining dough.

Some other foodbloggers have tried and tested the recipe:
Molly @ Orangette
Deb @ SmittenKitchen
Stephanie @ Bay Area Bites
Clotilde @ Chocolate & Zucchini (who was smart enough to halve the recipe)
Kristin @ Kitchen Sink Recipes
Pim @ Chez Pim

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