Pie Day II: My Chocolate Pie-Lettes

One of the fun things about living in this country is all of the made up holidays. Days randomly picked out of the year to make us do silly things (anyone else celebrate backwards day when they were in school?) or on the side of the spectrum, force us to buy yet another gift to prove we love the people in our lives. There are holidays to make us more aware of environmental or health issues and there are holidays to celebrate the joys of things like yo-yos, and bubble wrap!

Last year I celebrated what has quickly become my favorite fake holiday. Pie Day! Not only does it celebrate a delicious dessert, but it makes this day (3.14) so wonderfully punny! It isn’t as funny if I explain too much so I really hope you get it 🙂

Anyways, last year I made a naked chocolate pie, with yummy caramel squished between a chocolate crust and a thick brownie layer. It was delicious and evil and more than a bit naughty.

This year I decided to go with something a lot more simple, but something that has always been my favorite (especially at thanksgiving…pie day for all the non-bloggers). A simple chocolate silk pie…or should I say mini chocolate pie-lettes. 🙂

I tend to prefer a graham cracker crust with my chocolate pie. I don’t know why but it just seems to work better with the chocolate than a crispy, flaky but not as sweet crust. However, this year we decided to go with a shortbread crust and I think I have become a convert. The contrast between the silky chocolate and the delicately sweet, crumbly crust is just amazing, especially considering we decided to make little bite-sized pie-lettes. 🙂

Chocolate Silk Pie-lettes
Source for crust: Joy of Baking

Crust:
1 cup (227 grams) (2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
1/2 cup (72 grams) confectioners (powdered or icing) sugar
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups (210 grams) all purpose flour
2 tablespoons (30 grams) cornstarch or rice flour
1/8 teaspoon salt

Chocolate Filling:
2 tablespoons cornstarch
1/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
pinch of salt
2 cups whole milk
4 oz chocolate, finely chopped
1 tablespoon unsalted butter
generous splash of chocolate liqueur

Whipped Cream:
2 tablespoons sugar
1 cup heavy cream
1 tablespoon chocolate liqueur

Crust:
Lightly butter miniature muffin tins or fill the tins with miniature cupcake wrappers. Set aside. Preheat oven to 325F. 

In a large bowl, cream the butter and sugar together (approximately two minutes). Beat in the vanilla extract.

In a smaller bowl whisk the flour, cornstarch and salt. Gradually add this into the butter mixture and mix just until incorporated. Place the dough in the refrigerator and chill approximately 1 hour.

Divide the dough into even pieces (approximately 1/2 ounces each, 32 balls) and place one ball of dough in the center of each muffin tin. With your fingertips, press the dough up the sides of the individual muffin tin so there is an indentation in the center. Once filled, place the tart pan, with the unbaked shells in the freezer for about 10 minutes so the shortbread can become firm.

Bake for approximately 18 – 20 minutes or until lightly browned. About halfway through the baking time, lightly prick the bottom of each shortbread, with the tines of a fork, if they have puffed up. Check again after another five minutes and prick again if needed. Once they are fully baked, remove from oven and place on a wire rack to cool.

Filling and Topping:
Mix all of the ingredients for the whipped cream in a bowl, but do not whip yet. Put in the fridge with your beaters/whisk to chill.

Whisk cornstarch, sugar, cocoa and salt in a saucepan, then gradually whisk in milk.

Place on the stove and bring to a boil, whisking constantly. Allow to simmer until it’s nice and thick. Do not stop whisking while it’s cooking or you’ll get lumps. Remove from heat and whisk in chopped chocolate and butter until melted.

Transfer filling to a metal bowl and quick-chill by setting in an ice bath, stirring constantly. Allow to sit until completely cool.

Pour filling into a ziplock bag or piping bag and fill the crusts.

Take out the bowl with the whipped cream ingredients and beat until stiff peaks form. Generously top the pie-lettes, then decorate as desired. Enjoy!

These things really are amazing, and the few leftovers we had were even better after sitting in the fridge! (Don’t you love that?) If you try them yourself, keep in mind that the crust really does rise quite a bit if you aren’t careful so make sure you keep it nice and cold before popping it in the oven, or you won’t be able to put enough chocolate…and the more chocolate you can fit, the better. You can even use pie weights or rice (on top of foil, of course) if you decide to make a full sized pie.

Also, anything will work well for decorating: shaved chocolate, chocolate chips, berries, brownie crumbs… just be creative! You can also add 1 tablespoon of cocoa powder to the whipped cream for chocolate whipped cream.

Whatever you decide, it really is an incredible pie, and well worth any holiday…even the fake ones. 🙂

A Great Way to Die

What is it about the phrase “death by chocolate” that fascinates us so? If you do a google search on the phrase, among the many different recipes you can find all sorts of strange and fun things. Like a site handing out shirts and chocolate syrup for you to fake your death, a murder mystery party for pampering yourself and your girlfriends, a death by chocolate bake-off (looks like we just missed it!). There is even a music video!

If you think about it literally, the idea isn’t actually all that great. You could choke on an m&m – painful. You could eat nothing but chocolate for years – not … enough .. variety. You could fall in a river of chocolate…okay, maybe that one is not so bad. Sure you would drown, but you would be wrapped in warm, silky goodness. By time it happened you might not care!

But in all seriousness, my man and I decided to make a Death By Chocolate Cake earlier this year.

When you make something like the flourless chocolate cake we made, it’s hard to top. This one doesn’t do that, but it’s just as good, it’s easier to make as you don’t have to set it in a pan of water to bake it. But more than that, what could be more appealing than the image of the chocolate cake itself drowning. 🙂

Death by Chocolate Cake
Source: The Great Book of Chocolate

Cake:
8 oz dark chocolate, coarsely chopped
2/3 cup all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup butter
3/4 cup granulated sugar
3 large eggs, separated
3 tbl chocolate liqueur

Ganache:
8 oz dark chocolate, coarsely chopped
3/4 cup heavy cream
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
1 tbl chocolate liqueur

Cake:
Preheat the oven to 350. Butter and flour (or sugar) a 9-inch springform pan.

Melt the chocolate in a double boiler over barely simmering water. Let cool.

Mix the flour, baking powder, and salt in a medium bowl. Beat the butter and sugar in a large bowl with an electric mixer until creamy.

Add the egg yolks, one at a time, beating until just blended after each addition. With mixer at low speed, gradually beat in the cooled chocolate, dry ingredients, and liqueur.

With mixer at high speed, beat the egg whites in a bowl until stiff peaks form. Use a large rubber spatula to fold the egg whites into the batter.

Spoon the batter into the prepared pan and bake until springy and a tester comes out clean – 40-50 minutes.

Cool the cake in the pan for 5 minutes. Turn out onto a wire rack and let cool completely.

To prepared the ganache, heat the cream and butter in a pan over medium heat and bring just to a boil. Pour the cream over the chocolate and stir until smooth. Add the chocolate liqueur and mix well.

Spread a very thin layer of the ganache on the cake and refrigerate for five minutes. Pour the rest of the ganache over the cake (being careful to pay attention to what you’re doing, and not the camera so you don’t drown your kitchen). Spread with a butter knife as needed, add whatever decorations you desire and refrigerate until the ganache is set or you’re ready to serve. Enjoy. 

We did the cake-drowned-in-ganache instead of the frosting recipe originally given but if you’re curious just let me know and I can send you the frosting recipe. However, we are obsessed with ganache and this recipe, leaves for a very simple but … to die for chocolate cake. (Sorry, I had to say it)  🙂

Some of the Best Things in Life are Easy!

I think I have run into a slight problem. You see, I love homemade bread, as I have mentioned here many times (maybe too many), and whenever I have some in the house I tend to eat more than I should.

The good thing is that it tends to take so much time out of the day that I can only make it once or twice a month, so those extra calories don’t make it into my system that often.

The problem, is that I have run into a solution to that. That sentence just sounds wrong, but anyways, I managed to get my hands on a copy of Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day by Jeff Hertzberg and Zoe Francois.

This bread is amazing. Not only is it just as easy as it sounds, but the depth of flavor is incredible. This means that I can have fresh bread any day I want. Isn’t that horrible? 😉

This also means that all of you out there who have been hesitant to try making bread can take that leap and be assured you’ll have great bread without even trying! Don’t be afraid of the length of the recipe. Even though I edited it down a lot it’s still a bit wordy, but the actual process isn’t any more difficult than making cookies 🙂

Boule (Artisan Free-Form Loaf)
Source: Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day

3 cups lukewarm water
1 1/2 tablespoons instant yeast
1 1/2 tablespoons salt
6  1/2 cups unsifted, unbleached, all-purpose flour

Mixing and Storing the Dough:

Warm the water slightly: It should feel just a little warmer than body temperature, about 100 F. Warm water will rise the dough to the right point for storage in about 2 hours.  Add yeast and salt to the water in a 5-quart bowl or, preferably, in a resealable, lidded (not airtight) plastic food container. Don’t worry about getting it all to dissolve.

Mix in the flour but do not knead. Add all of the flour at once by gently scooping up flour, then sweeping the top level with a knife or spatula; don’t press down into the flour as you scoop or you’ll throw off the measurement by compressing. Mix with a wooden spoon until the mixture is uniform. If you’re hand-mixing and it becomes too difficult to incorporate all the flour with the spoon, you can reach in with very wet hands and press the mixture together. Don’t knead! It isn’t necessary. You’re finished when everything is uniformly moist, without dry patches. This step is done in a matter of minutes, and will yield a dough that is wet and loose enough to conform to the shape of its container.

Cover with a lid (not airtight). Do not use screw-topped bottles or Mason jars, which could explode from the trapped gases. Allow the mixture to rise at room temperature until it begins to collapse (or at least flattens on the top), approximately 2 hours, depending on the room’s temperature and the initial water temperature. Longer rising times, up to about 5 hours, will not harm the result. You can use a portion of the dough any time after this period. Fully refrigerated wet dough is less sticky and is easier to work with than dough at room temperature. So, the first time you try our method, it’s best to refrigerate the dough overnight (or at least 3 hours) before shaping a loaf.

On Baking Day:

Sprinkle the surface of your refrigerated dough with flour. Pull up and cut off a 1-pound (grapefruit-size) piece of dough*, using a serrated knife.

Hold the mass of dough in your hands and add a little more flour as needed so it won’t stick to your hands. Gently stretch the surface of the dough around to the bottom on all four sides, rotating the ball a quarter-turn as you go. Most of the dusting flour will fall off; it’s not intended to be incorporated into the dough. The bottom of the loaf may appear to be a collection of bunched ends, but it will flatten out and adhere during resting and baking. The correctly shaped final product will be smooth and cohesive. The entire process should take no longer than 30 to 60 seconds.

Place the shaped ball on a piece of parchment paper on a cookie sheet. Allow the loaf to rest on the peel for about 40 minutes (it doesn’t need to be covered during the rest period). Depending on the age of the dough, you may not see much rise during this period; more rising will occur during baking.

Twenty minutes before baking, preheat the oven to 450F.

Dust the top of the loaf liberally with flour. Slash the top as desired, about 1/4-inch-deep.

After a 20-minute preheat, you’re ready to bake, even though your oven thermometer won’t yet be up to full temperature. Place the loaf on the sheet in the oven. Quickly but carefully through ice cubes in the oven and close the oven door to trap the steam. Bake for about 30 minutes, or until the crust is nicely browned and a thermometer inserted inside reads 200F.

Allow to cool completely, preferably on a wire rack, for best flavor, texture, and slicing. The perfect crust may initially soften, but will firm up again when cooled. Enjoy!

You can store the remaining dough in your refrigerator in your lidded (not airtight) container and use it over the next 14 days. You’ll find that even one day’s storage improves the flavor and texture of your bread. Cut off and shape more loaves as you need them. The dough can also be frozen in 1-pound portions in an airtight container and defrosted overnight in the refrigerator prior to baking day.

*The recipe states that you can have four loaves with this bread, but with two of us 1/4 of that dough really wasn’t enough. I think 1/2 is really more appropriate. And the longer you leave the dough, the more the flavor will develop, just make sure you don’t leave it past 10-14 days or it just won’t be as good.

Fun with More Amano

One of the fun things about being a food blogger is the occasional giveaways. Some people out there are very generous.

Blake, of BlakeMakes happens to be one of the people, and earlier this year he had a giveaway of one of my favorite things. Chocolate! It’s hard enough to resist chocolate on it’s own, and even harder to resist it when it’s free!

And this wasn’t just any chocolate, it was Amano chocolate! The same thing I got from the last Blake Make’s giveaway that I participated in, but different. I have now tried four different types of chocolate from these people, and each and every one was unique, and incredible. I really can’t describe how great this chocolate is, but it’s obvious they take a lot of care to make it right.

For example, Jambra, the chocolate I received in this giveaway … well, I don’t want to sound like one of their spokes people, but they work hard to pick the best ingredients so their chocolate is unique and well worth every penny.

It took a while to pick the right recipe for this chocolate and decided to go with the chocolate chip brioche recipe in new cookbook I got for christmas. I have never made brioche before, and while this had a touch too much butter, and not nearly enough chocolate it was really great.

Chocolate Chip Brioche
Source: The Great Book of Chocolate

1/2 oz instant yeast
1/3 cup warm milk
2 tablespoons superfine sugar
1 teaspoon salt
3 1/3 cups all-purpose flour
4 large eggs
1 1/3 cups butter, softened
2 oz chocolate
1 egg yolk, lightly beaten with 1 teaspoon of milk, to glaze

Place the yeast, milk, sugar and salt in a small bowl and stir gently. Set aside 10 minutes.

Place the flour in a large bowl and pour in the yeast mixture. Beating slowly, gradually add the eggs to form a soft dough.

Turn out onto your work surface and knead until soft and smooth, about 5 minutes. Add the butter a little at a time. Continue until all the butter has been added, then knead for 5 more minutes.

Add the chocolate and knead until well combined with the dough.

Cover the bowl with a clean cloth and leave in a warm place until it has doubled in volume, about 90 minutes. Gently remove the risen dough from the bowl and on a floured work surface, flipping the dough over with your fingers.

Place on a tray and refrigerate for up to 2 hours. Grease 16 small brioche molds with melted butter.

Preheat the oven to 400.

Weigh off sixteen 1-ounce pieces of dough for the base of the brioches and sixteen 1/3 ounce pieces for the tops.

Shape the larger pieces of dough into tight balls and place in the bottoms of the molds. Shape the smaller pieces of dough into tear-drop shapes. Using your finger, make a hole in the larger balls and poke the teardrop into the holes.

Using a pastry brush, lightly glaze with the egg mixture. Cover with a cloth and set aside in a warm place to double in volume, about 30 minutes. Brush with the glaze again.

Bake until golden brown, about 10 minutes.

I’ve posted the recipe as written, however we ran into a few issues, so these are my notes:

It was a little too buttery, so you might want to use a little less, however, lots of butter makes it flaky, so don’t take out too much if you do adjust it.

I also don’t believe the recipe was nearly chocolaty enough, nor were they sweet enough. I would suggest adding more chocolate (I think we added twice as much as was called for and it still wasn’t enough) adding some cocoa powder, and maybe adjusting the sugar level.

We also had a problem with the time. 10 minutes wasn’t nearly enough, and more time made them too dark. The second batch we baked covered with foil for about 20 minutes, then uncovered for 10, and we tested the inside temperature to make sure that it was 200F, to assure that they were completely baked.

Don’t let any of this prevent you from trying them, though. They were really fun to make and well worth the time. I really wish we had used a tried and true recipe, to do this incredible chocolate some justice, but it was a fun challenge and awesome chocolate.

Christmas Cookie Edition – Volume 3: Cookie Bling

 
I don’t know what it is about cookies, but they always seem to make people so happy, especially around the holidays, and they are so easy to make! You can use any recipe at all, no matter how many times you’ve made them during the year and just let your imagination wander.

Below are four ideas that I used this year to make my cookies special, but you can do anything you want. Just have fun with it.

1. Oreo Snowflakes

Just roll out the dough for Oreo cookies, use a Snowflake shaped cookie cutter and bake them as usual then carefully spread the filling on the cookies. Then you can either leave them as is, dust the top with powdered sugar like snow, or colored sprinkles to make them pretty.

2. Starry Cookies

Take a simple sugar cookie recipe, use a star shaped cookie cutter and before baking, sprinkle sparkling sugar, or regular red and green sprinkles then bake as usual.

The colors add a little character to the cookies, but sparkling sugar in particular adds to it, giving your stars a little shine. And this kind of thins is always more fun with extra hands  🙂

3. Chocolate Covered…

Chop the chocolate then melt in the microwave or in a double boiler then dip whatever you wish in the chocolate. Besides your fingers, of course. Brownies, pretzels, any type of cookie, anything you can think of 🙂

We did oreos this year. Just set the chocolate covered tid-bit on a sheet of aluminum foil, add a tiny bit of colored sprinkles on top or whatever you want to make them pretty and resist the urge to eat them until the chocolate has become firm.

You can use chocolate that’s particularly made for candies and dipping or regular chocolate. Just make sure to leave it be until it gets nice and hard.

If your place is too warm you can even set them in the fridge, then the freezer, but they always look prettier if you let them set on their own.

4. Peppermint Shortbread

Prepare the shortbread cookies as usual using a candy cane cookie cutter to shape the cookies. Bake and allow to cool completely.

Melt some white chocolate in a double boiler, mix in red food coloring until you reach the color you desire, then add peppermint extract to taste. It shouldn’t take much, approximately 1/4 teaspoon per cup of chocolate but just add a little bit at a time until you’re happy with it.

Scoop into a bag and carefully pipe the chocolate as stripes onto the cookies. Allow the chocolate to set then enjoy.

Don’t forget to place the cookies in a pretty tin or plate. Add a bow if needed and they will be beautiful for the people you love.

Whatever you do with your Christmas cookies, have fun with it.  🙂

Giving Thanks With Bread

Sometimes it’s really hard to remember what this life actually offers that you can be thankful for. There are so many bad things in this world these days that it’s getting harder and harder to listen to the news without getting depressed. Hell, it’s getting harder to simply look at the grocery receipt without getting depressed but there are still good things out there. I personally have been lucky this year and have a few new things in my life to really be happy about but if there is nothing else, (ignoring the receipt of course) food is definitely something we can all celebrate this Thanksgiving. That is what this holiday revolves around, isn’t it?

As bread in particular has always managed to make me happy I thought this would be the perfect thing to share with everyone this Thanksgiving. It is definitely my favorite of all of the three recipes and was a hit for our big dinner.

Now, I know that I have already done not just one, but two different recipes for potato bread this year, but not only is potato bread my favorite, it also happens to be the type bread my family tends to crave for this holiday. I haven’t tried this particular recipe myself before now but I have heard many good things about it, and just couldn’t wait any longer to share.

Tender Potato Bread
Slightly adapted from: Culinary Concoctions by Peabody
A Daring Bakers Recipe

8-16 ounces of potatoes, peeled and cut into chunks.
4 cups water, reserve cooking water
1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons active dry yeast
6 ½ cups to 8 ½ cups bread flour
1 tablespoon unsalted butter, softened
1 cup all-purpose flour

Put the potatoes and 4 cups water in a sauce pan and bring to boil. Add 1 teaspoon salt and cook until the potatoes are very tender.

Drain the potatoes, SAVE THE POTATO WATER, and mash the potatoes well. We used a potato ricer but if you don’t have something like that it works best to mash the potatoes in the water, just make sure you measure out the water as directed below first!

Measure out 3 cups of the reserved potato water. Add extra water if needed. Place the water and mashed potatoes in the bowl you plan to mix the bread dough in. Let cool to lukewarm (70-80F) – stir well before testing the temperature – it should feel barely warm to your hand. You should be able to submerge you hand in the mix and not be uncomfortable.

Add yeast to 2 cups bread flour and whisk. Add to the cooled mashed potatoes and water and mix well. Allow to rest/sit 5 minutes.

Sprinkle in the remaining salt and the softened butter; mix well. Add the 1 cup all-purpose flour, stir briefly.

Add 2 cups of the bread flour and mix until all the flour has been incorporated. Continue adding more of the remaining flour as needed until you can handle it.

Turn the dough out onto a generously floured surface and knead for about 10 minutes, incorporating flour as needed to prevent sticking. The dough will be very sticky to begin with, but as it takes up more flour from the kneading surface, it will become easier to handle. The kneaded dough will still be very soft. Place the dough in a large clean bowl or your rising container of choice, cover with plastic wrap or lid, and let rise about 2 hours or until doubled in volume.

Turn the dough out onto a well-floured surface and knead gently several minutes. It will be moist and a little sticky.

Preheat the oven to 450F.

Divide the dough into 2 equal portions, then divide each of those into thirds. Roll each segment into a rope, about 1/2 thick. Place three of the ropes on a sheet of parchment paper and braid lightly, being careful not to stretch. Pinch and tuck each end under, then repeat with the other loaf. Cover and let rise another 35-45 minutes or so, until doubled.

Lightly dust the top of each braid with a little flour and immediately transfer the loaves to a baking sheet and carefully place in the oven. Bake the loaves for 10 minutes, turn the oven down to 375F and bake for approximately 40 more minutes or until golden brown and a thermometer inserted inside reads 200F.

Transfer to a rack and let cool at least 10 minutes before serving.

As this was Thanksgiving, I thought a easily rip-able braid would be more appropriate than a slice-able loaf, but you can serve this anyway you want. As always, just have fun with it!

The Devil is in the Details

I hate to admit it, but I have always been disappointed with so-called Devil’s Food Cake. When you hear that name, you (or at least I) think of something thick and evil, rich and seductive; and more often than not, Devil’s Food Cake is just plain ol’ chocolate cake. Nothing really special.

This cake, however, though it goes by another name, is exactly what a devil’s food cake should be. It’s just so incredibly evil. The kind of thing you just can’t stop eating even though you know you really should. It calls your name in the middle of the night and smugly tempts you to forget any diet you might have been considering. And with a thick layer of ganache on top, it’s well worth every pound you might gain.

I have wanted to make this flourless cake for a while now and I gotta say, it’s well worth the wait. It came out even better than I dared hope, and considering just how beautiful this thing is, it’s perfect for any and every occasion.

Flourless Chocolate Cake
a.k.a.: The Devil Made Me Do It Cake
Source: The Boston Globe

12 ounces bittersweet chocolate, coarsely chopped
11 tablespoons (1 stick plus 3 tablespoons) unsalted butter
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
4 eggs, at room temperature
1/2 cup granulated sugar

Ganache:
Source: Joy of Baking

8 ounces chocolate, finely chopped
3/4 cup heavy whipping cream
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
1 tablespoon chocolate liqueur

Preheat oven to 350F

Butter a 9-inch springform pan with removable sides. Line the bottom with a round of parchment paper cut to fit it exactly. Butter the parchment. Line the outside of the pan with a double-thickness of foil, pressing the foil onto the sides.

In a heatproof bowl set over a saucepan of hot, but not boiling, water, combine the chocolate and butter. Heat, stirring constantly, just until the chocolate melts. Remove the bowl from the pan and wipe the bottom with a clean cloth. Stir in the vanilla and set it aside to cool slightly.

With an electric mixer, beat the eggs and sugar at high speed for 8 minutes or until thick and pale yellow.

Fold one-third of the egg mixture into the melted chocolate to lighten it. Then fold the remaining egg mixture into the chocolate as lightly as possible until no yellow patches show.

Pour the batter into the prepared pan and set the pan in the center of a large roasting pan. Pour enough hot tap water into the roasting pan to come about one-third of the way up the side of the cake pan. Carefully place the roasting pan in the middle of the oven. Bake 43 to 45 minutes or until the top of the cake is set with a firm crust, but the inside is still moist.

Carefully remove the roasting pan from the oven. Lift the pan out of the water carefully, run a thin knife around the edge of the cake, remove the foil from the pan then set the cake in the pan on a rack to cool completely. Don’t release the sides.

Cover the pan with a clean piece of foil and chill for at least 4 hours or overnight.

Remove the cake from the refrigerator. Release the spring on the pan and remove the ring. Invert the cake onto a flat plate or cookie sheet. Insert a narrow metal spatula knife between the bottom of the pan and the parchment paper, moving it just enough to release the bottom of the pan. Peel off the parchment. Invert the cake back onto the bottom of the pan.

Brush any loose crumbs from the cake and place cake on a wire rack again.  Put the wire rack on a baking sheet to catch any of the ganache that will drip off. 

Place the chopped chocolate for the ganache in a medium sized stainless steel bowl. Set aside. Heat the cream and butter in a medium sized saucepan over medium heat. Bring just to a boil. Immediately pour the cream over the chocolate and allow to stand for 5 minutes. Stir with a whisk until smooth. If desired, add the liqueur.

Using a cake spatula, cover the sides and top of the cake with about 2 tablespoons of the ganache. Refrigerate cake for 5 minutes to set the crumb coat. 

Pour the remaining ganache into the center of the cake. Working quickly, spread with a spatula, using big strokes to push the ganache over the sides of the cake, to create an even coating. If there are any bare spots on sides of cake, cover with leftover ganache.

Decorate as desired. Refrigerate until ready to serve. Enjoy.

Let’s Do the Twist

There are certain snacks that always seem to make people happy. Most of them are as happy-inducing because they have much sugar on top (hey, if a spoonful of sugar can make medicine better, why shouldn’t a cupful make everything else better? *g*)

This, however, is actually one of those snacks that is actually reasonably healthy…assuming you don’t over-do the salt and you’re not one of those weird anti-carb people…..but if you were anti carb you probably wouldn’t be reading this 🙂

These pretzles are not even remotely as good as those you can get in the city. But I don’t think it’s possible to make anything that good at home. But as soothing as it is to make any type of bread, and as fun as snacks like this tend to be, it’s another one of those I just couldn’t resist.

Soft Pretzels
Source: The Fresh Loaf

1 teaspoon instant yeast
1 tablespoon malt powder or brown sugar
2-3 cups bread flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup warm milk

Combine all of the ingredients in a bowl and mix together until it forms a ball. Start with 2 cups of the flour and mix it together until it forms something like a thick batter, then add more flour a handful at a time until it’ll form a nice ball that you can knead by hand.

Knead the dough for 5 to 10 minutes until it begins to get smooth and satiny. Return the ball of dough to a clean, greased bowl, cover with plastic wrap, and set it aside to rise until it has doubled in size, approximately an hour.

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees. Degas the dough gently then cut into 6 pieces. Roll each one into a short log, cover with a towel, and let the dough relax for 5 to 10 minutes. After it has relaxed you should be able to roll it out and stretch again fairly easily.

Let them relax again and then roll and stretch a third time until they are long and thin (about 15 inches long and about as big around as your index finger). They’ll nearly double in width while baking, so you should roll them out very thin.

To shape the pretzels, place a rope of dough on the work surface in front of you. Take each end in a hand, loop the dough away from you, and bring the ends back toward you, crossing them about an inch above the rope. Apply a little bit of pressure to make the loops stick together, but not too much because you don’t want then to flatten out.

Bring a pot of water to a boil. Dunk each of the pretzels into the boiling water for 5 seconds, then place them onto a baking sheet and sprinkle with salt or other toppings.

Place the baking sheet into the oven and bake about 15 minutes or until golden brown.

Remove from the oven and eat immediately. Enjoy.

Cupcakes Outside the Comfort Zone

I have mentioned that I am a picky eater. I know that I can be a little ridiculous with it sometimes, but it isn’t really something I can control either. It’s just who I am. However, with the experimentation I am doing with this blog, I want to step outside of that comfort zone and get a little daring. (Keep in mind something daring for me will probably be normal for most bakers).

It’s probably a little ironic to use something as comforting as cupcakes (which bring up happy icing-covered memories) for something like this but the end result sounded great so I thought it would be a good idea to just dive in.

At this point you’re probably asking yourself what it is about this recipe that is so daring. It’s actually not one, but two things: mayonnaise and sour cream. The mayonnaise because of an incident when I was a kid making sandwiches with mom and tasted from the wrong knife….and the sour cream because of my great aversion to anything with the word “sour” (it took much googling to convince myself that the tart I made a couple months ago wouldn’t actually be “tart.”) I am sure there is a deeper meaning to that one too but I really don’t need to know all the varying depths of my insanity. 😉

Anyways, this recipe marries the wonderful goodness that is chocolate with two things I have taken great pains to avoid in the past, and thank god it turned out well. I also had a new and very enthusiastic helper, who ended up wearing almost as much chocolate as we put in this, so I was too busy enjoying the company, the chocolate, and the scent of these to-die-for cupcakes to really worry about the end result. Which, by the way, really did turn out incredible. 🙂

Mint Cupcakes
Slightly adapted from: The Reckless Chef

2 cups sugar
1 3/4 cups flour
3/4 cup cocoa powder
3 oz chocolate, finely chopped
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
3 eggs
3/4 cup milk
1/3 cup vegetable oil
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 teaspoons mint extract
2/3 cup water
2 tablespoons mayonnaise
1 tablespoon sour cream

Preheat oven to 350.

Mix your dry ingredients in a large mixing bowl. Add the eggs, oil, milk, and water and fold them into the mix with a fork. Add mayonnaise, sour cream, and vanilla, and beat the mixture on low-speed. Add in the mint extract, and if the batter smells like plain chocolate instead of mint chocolate, add a bit more. Blend until the dry ingredients are no longer dry, and you have a consistent texture throughout.

Melt the 3 oz of chocolate in a double boiler then mix well into the batter.

Put cupcake papers into your cupcake pan. Pour batter into each cupcake paper, being as generous as you want. These raise decently but it’s always more fun if they come out as monster cupcakes.

Bake the cupcakes for 17 minutes, and test for doneness at any point after that. When a toothpick stuck in the middle of the biggest cupcake in the batch comes out clean, take them out of the oven and let them cool for a few minutes before removing from the cupcake pan.

Decorate as desired and enjoy 🙂

These are really amazing cupcakes. Perfectly moist and the mint chocolate is just irresistable. The kind of thing you can impress everyone with…if you can bear to part with any of them. 🙂

Taste & Create XII: Birthday Madelines

This month is very special for Taste & Create. Though it has only been a few months for me, this monthly event has been bringing food bloggers together for a year. Yes it is Taste & Create’s first birthday!

I was hoping to special birthday cupcakes or something like that to help celebrate, and instead my partner, the talanted woman behind Fuss Free Flavorsoffered something I had been considering making for a while. Instead I made chocolate drizzled birthday Madelines 🙂

Madelines
Source: Fuss Free Flavors

75g Unsalted butter – melted and cool
100g Plain Flour
1/2 tsp Baking Powder
2 Large Eggs
90g Granulated Sugar
1 tsp Vanilla Essence
Pinch of salt

Whisk the eggs and sugar together until they have doubled in size and are light and fluffy. Slowly fold in the flour, baking powder and salt. Add the vanilla. Slowly add in the melted butter, gently folding all the time.

When mixed cover the bowl and put in the fridge for at least 30 minutes, the batter should be foamy and full of air. Put a dollop of the mixture into a well buttered Madeleine tray, each mold should be about 2/3 full.

Place in an oven at 375F for around 7 minutes until risen, golden and shrinking away from the edges of the mold.

Leave for a few minutes and then turn out. Add a drizzle of melted chocolate and enjoy.

Happy Birthday Taste & Create 🙂