Recent Recipes
Showing posts with label Cooking - Chocolate. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Cooking - Chocolate. Show all posts
Olive Oil Chocolate Mousse
Comments (3) | Thursday, August 26, 2010
Psssst!! Just thought you should all know, Penny from Jeroxie Addictive and Consuming, is giving away 8 bottles of Cobram Estate's new Manzanillo Extra Virgin Olive Oil. You should go over there and enter right away!
I was lucky enough to score a bottle from her shipment and she asked me to try out a recipe with it. I tried George's olive oil chocolate mousse.
Olive Oil Chocolate Mousse
200g Lindt 70% dark chocolate, chopped
200ml pouring cream, whipped
1/2 cup Cobram Estate Manzanillo Extra Virgin Olive Oil
1/2 cup frozen mixed berries, thawed
Melt chocolate in a heatproof bowl over a saucepan of simmering water, making sure the water doesn't touch the bowl). Set aside to cool slightly.
Combine the melted chocolate and cream in a bowl, slowly pour in olive oil, continuing to whisk until thick. Spoon into serving glasses and refrigerate for 10 minutes or until ready to serve.
Serve mousse, topped with berries.
200g Lindt 70% dark chocolate, chopped
200ml pouring cream, whipped
1/2 cup Cobram Estate Manzanillo Extra Virgin Olive Oil
1/2 cup frozen mixed berries, thawed
Melt chocolate in a heatproof bowl over a saucepan of simmering water, making sure the water doesn't touch the bowl). Set aside to cool slightly.
Combine the melted chocolate and cream in a bowl, slowly pour in olive oil, continuing to whisk until thick. Spoon into serving glasses and refrigerate for 10 minutes or until ready to serve.
Serve mousse, topped with berries.
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Lindt & Sprüngli Chocolate Masterclass
Comments (16) | Thursday, July 15, 2010
Thanks to a competition on twitter, I ended up with 2 tickets to the Lindt Chocolate Masterclass at this year's Good Food and Wine Show in Melbourne. Tickets were valued at $50 each and included entry to the show, which was fantastic since I hadn't yet gotten around to buying my tickets.
I had no shortage of volunteers that wanted to come and join me. Hamsley was the lucky one though, as we both needed a day off as the event was on the weekend we moved house.
The class we attended was at 10:30am, and since we were going to a food expo, we didn't have any breakfast. So essentially, it was chocolate for breakfast. Our chocolate guru was Thomas Schnetzler,Master Chocolatier for Australia and a Lindt Ambassador.
Lindt & Sprüngli is the full name of the company, but as not alot of people know how to pronouce Sprüngl, they just shorted it to Lindt.
When you eat chocolate, you need to use your 5 senses:
- Sight: is the chocolate glossy? does it have an even surface?
- Touch: is it silky and smooth? The chocolate should be below body temperature, so when you touch it, it leaves a mark.
- Sound: do you hear a crisp, clean sound when it breaks?
- Smell: can you smell the bittersweet cocoa beans?
- Taste: (the best part): take a small bite, chew a couple of times, then allow it to melt in your mouth. Experience the texture consistency, and subtle flavours undertones.
Some history notes I jotted down in between munching away:
- Chocolate was used as a way to pay taxes, and debts.
- It was the Spanish that introduced sugar to chocolate to make it taste less bitter.
- Chocolate was introduced into Switzerland in 1696.
- The first solid block of chocolate was made in 1828.
- Milk chocolate was invented in Switzerland in 1875.
- Lindt & Sprüngliwas established in 1899.
The ideal temperature to store chocolate is 16°C.
Both were both amazing. Whenever I tell people about the sea salt chocolate I tried, they scrunch up their face and in a high pitched voice ask "SEA SALT?!?"
Lindt uses the finest quality seasalt in the world, Fleur De Sel, and it provides just little bursts of salty flavour which just goes down so smoothly. The same people that shriek at the thought of salty chocolate are pleasanlty surprised, then ask for more.
The blueberry intense is just as amazing as it sounds, and with flaked almonds, it's like a magical explosion to your tastebuds. Don't believe me? TRY IT.
Hamsley ended up winning the door prize; the Lindt chocolate cookbook. I'll be making good use of that, don't you worry!
And since people would have paid $50 to attend the masterclass, we got showbags on the way out. So between us, we probably came home with about 1kg of Lindt... never a bad thing.
For more information about chocolate or the Lindt range: http://www.lindt.com/au/
Lindt uses the finest quality seasalt in the world, Fleur De Sel, and it provides just little bursts of salty flavour which just goes down so smoothly. The same people that shriek at the thought of salty chocolate are pleasanlty surprised, then ask for more.
The blueberry intense is just as amazing as it sounds, and with flaked almonds, it's like a magical explosion to your tastebuds. Don't believe me? TRY IT.
Hamsley ended up winning the door prize; the Lindt chocolate cookbook. I'll be making good use of that, don't you worry!
And since people would have paid $50 to attend the masterclass, we got showbags on the way out. So between us, we probably came home with about 1kg of Lindt... never a bad thing.
For more information about chocolate or the Lindt range: http://www.lindt.com/au/
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Poh's Orange Chiffon Cake
Comments (15) | Friday, July 9, 2010
If you haven't heard me whinge on twitter about how worried I've been to try my oven, then hear me now! Our place has an oven that is probably older than I am; and older ovens don't have the best reputation of cooking things well. You have to find the hot spots, and get to know it well. To top it all off, the temperate gauge is in Fahrenheit, and the numbers are all faded off! This has caused me to write them on, and use my iPhone for conversions every time I want to bake something.
So I thought, the real test to see how this oven is going is to bake a cake.
I'd been wanting to try Poh's orange chiffon cake she made on her first episode of her show; Poh's Kitchen.
I always begged my mum to buy a sponge cake whenever I went to the Asian grocery shop with her. Weather it be the orange one, or the awesome looking green pandan flavour. They were always so light and fluffy. For YEARS I had not had a sponge from the Asian grocer. I can't even remember the last time we had one.
To see the video of Poh making this cake: www.abc.net.au/tv/pohskitchen/stories/s2768097.htm
The only thing I hate about making cakes is lining the tin. Luckily for me, you don't need to line the cake tin for this one! The combination of coconut milk and vegetable oil doesn't require you to line the tin. The recipe even stresses to not line or grease the tin. Yippee!
I decided to leave out the layers of cream for 2 reasons:
- I couldn't be bothered
- The only cream my waistline needs is a firming and toning cream
I was almost going to leave out the ganache as it smelt so amazing as I unmolded it from the tin. However Hamsley insisted there be ganache as I had already prepared the hazelnuts to go over the ganache.
The end result: just like those cakes mum used to buy me (you know, minus the chocolate ganache and hazelnuts). So light, and incredibly fluffy, maybe not as tall as the ones we used to buy, but the flavours and textures were all spot on.
I made the correct amount of ganache, but if I had made the cream layers, the cake would have been higher, and I wouldn't have had so much excess ganache.
I can't wait to try this recipe again but doing a pandan flavour. If I can only ever make one cake again, I'd be happy if it was this one!
Orange Chiffon Cake
Poh Ling Yeow
5 egg whites (at room temperature is best)
1/2 tsp cream of tartar
75g caster sugar
5 egg yolks
7 tbs coconut milk
5 tbs vegetable oil
75g caster sugar
5 tbs orange juice
1 tbs orange zest
150g self raising flour, sifted
400ml full cream
2 tbs icing sugar
1 tsp vanilla paste or extract
150g hazelnuts
150ml full cream
200g good quality dark chocolate chopped or broken into small pieces
1. Preheat oven at 160°C fan forced/180°C regular.
2. Beat egg whites and cream of tartar with an electric mixer till soft peaks. Add sugar one tablespoon at a time a beat thoroughly after each addition till you achieve stiff peaks. Set aside.
3. In a separate bowl whisk egg yolks with caster sugar till fluffy. Add coconut milk, vegetable oil, orange juice, zest and self raising flour and whisk until combined. Gently fold the egg whites into the yolk mixture 3 batches.
4. Pour into a 22cm baba cake tin (do not use non-stick and do not grease). Bake 25 mins at 160°C fan forced or 30 mins at 180°C, or till skewer comes out clean. Leave oven on to roast hazelnuts.
5. When cake is out of the oven, immediately invert the cake still in the tin, and place on a cooling rack and leave to cool completely (about 1 1/2 hours).
6. Meanwhile, place hazelnuts on a shallow baking tray and roast until the skins are easily flaking off when rubbed, about 7 mins. Remove from the oven and pour onto the middle of a clean tea towel. Fold sides over the nuts and rub till all the skins have flaked off. Transfer the nuts onto a chopping board and chop to desired texture.
7. To make filling, whip the cream, sugar and vanilla till stiff but do not overbeat as cream will split. Cover with cling film and refrigerate until required.
8. When cake is cooled and ready to be assembled, run a knife around the edges of the tin and invert. Slice cake with a serrated knife into 3 equal layers. Spread a layer of the chantilly cream on each layer and sprinkle with chopped hazelnuts.
9. To make ganache, bring cream to the boil in a small saucepan. Remove from heat, add chocolate pieces and whisk till chocolate has melted and emulsified with cream. Using a spatula spread evenly over cake and sprinkle with additional chopped hazelnuts. For a tidier outcome, it’s best to ice the cake over a cooling rack so the extra ganache drips away.
Serves 8-10
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Week 25 - The Cookbook Challenge: Blender Chocolate Mousse
Comments (15) | Saturday, May 8, 2010
Theme: Silky
Cookbook Used: Faking It
Author: Valli Little
Right folks, the move out of home is getting closer, cookbooks are being packed and I'm only doing simple recipes for a while until I'm settled. I even got my KitchenAid this week and it's still snug in the box. I did crack open the lid to make sure it was in there and the correct colour! Can't wait to start using it.
I was going to do a different chocolate mousse recipe from another of Valli Little's books, but that involved an oven and a lot more steps. That will be done another day, when I have time to faff around in the kitchen.
Thursday turned out to be a day when the universe was against me, and to top it all off; I came home to find that my chocolate mousse had split. And to confirm my fears of the mousse not going to set, due to the lack of setting agent or whipping the eggwhites and cream; it was in fact runny when you put your spoon into it. It wasn't a complete disaster though, we all mixed through the whipped cream on top and I then renamed it 'chocolate soup'. It had a lovely flavour to it, and it was like eating melted ice-cream.
If you are going to do this recipe, I suggest whipping the cream, and beating your eggwhites until stiff peaks form, instead of following step 4 of the recipe.
Blender Chocolate Mousse
Valli Little
Get your hands on:
1 cup (100g) finely chopped dark chocolate
1/4 cup (55g) caster sugar
1 teaspoon instant coffee granules
2 tablespoons brandy
3 eggwhites
3/4 cup (185ml) thickened cream
Serve it with:
Whipped cream
Dark chocolate shavings
1.Place the finely chopped chocolate in a blender.
2. Place the sugar, coffee, brandy and 3/4 cup (180ml) water in a saucepan over medium-low heat and bring to the boil, stirring to dissolve the sugar and coffee.
3. With the blender motor running, carefully pour in the hot liquid through the feed tube, blending until the chocolate has melted.
4. Add the eggwhites and cream and pulse the blender several times to just combine.
5. Pour the mousse into 4 serving glasses and chill for 4 hours or overnight. Sever topped with whipped cream and chocolate shavings.
Serves 4.
If you are going to do this recipe, I suggest whipping the cream, and beating your eggwhites until stiff peaks form, instead of following step 4 of the recipe.
Blender Chocolate Mousse
Valli Little
Get your hands on:
1 cup (100g) finely chopped dark chocolate
1/4 cup (55g) caster sugar
1 teaspoon instant coffee granules
2 tablespoons brandy
3 eggwhites
3/4 cup (185ml) thickened cream
Serve it with:
Whipped cream
Dark chocolate shavings
1.Place the finely chopped chocolate in a blender.
2. Place the sugar, coffee, brandy and 3/4 cup (180ml) water in a saucepan over medium-low heat and bring to the boil, stirring to dissolve the sugar and coffee.
3. With the blender motor running, carefully pour in the hot liquid through the feed tube, blending until the chocolate has melted.
4. Add the eggwhites and cream and pulse the blender several times to just combine.
5. Pour the mousse into 4 serving glasses and chill for 4 hours or overnight. Sever topped with whipped cream and chocolate shavings.
Serves 4.
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Week 24 - The Cookbook Challenge - Chicken with Chilli Chocolate
Comments (16) | Sunday, May 2, 2010
Theme: Chocolate
Cookbook Used: Faking It
Author: Valli Little
I could smell the chocolate as it cooked on the stove. I could also taste the chocolate in the first few bites. It was a delicious dish that I would definitely make again. The corn chips add a different texture to the dish, and also add a nice saltiness that is required. Although, I would definitely serve it with more avocado next time, and maybe a margarita.
Chicken with Chilli Chocolate
Valli Little
Valli Little
Get your hands on:
1 tablespoon olive oil
20g unsalted butter
4 chicken breast fillets
100g pancetta, cut into strips
2 celery stalks, chopped
1 onion, sliced
2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
150ml dry red wine
400ml chicken stock
400g can chopped tomatoes
50g chilli chocolate, borken into small pieces
300g can red kidney beans, rinsed, drained
Serve it with:
Steamed rice
Sliced red chilli
Coriander leaves (optional)
Corn chips
Avocado wedges
1. Preheat the oven to 180°C.
2. Heat the oil and butter in a casserole pan over medium heat. Add the chicken and cook for 2-3 minutes each side until golden, then remove and set aside. Add the pancetta, celery and onion and cook, stirring, for 5 minutes until vegetables soften. Add the garlic and win and simmer for 2-3 minutes. Stir in the stock, tomato and chocolate, then return chicken to the pan. Cover and transfer to the oven for 25 minutes or until the chicken is cooked through.
3. Remove chicken from the pan, cover loosely with foil and set aside in a warm place. Return the pan to the stove over medium-high heat, add the beans and simmer for 4-5 minutes until thickened. Slice the chicken and serve on steamed rice, with the sauce, chilli, and coriander if desired. Serve with corn chips and avocado.
Serves 4.
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Week 20 - The Cookbook Challenge: Chocolate Mayonnaise Cake
Comments (24) | Friday, April 2, 2010
Theme: Tangy
Cookbook Used: Faking It
Author: Valli Little
So for tangy week, I thought I'd try something that I thought sounded gross the first time I read it; chocolate mayonnaise cake. The picture in the cookbook is a chocolate cake with white icing and decorated with nuts. My first thoughts were, "Oh my gawd, this is a chocolate cake with mayonnaise icing!!".... but this was not the case. The mayonnaise is used inside the cake instead of using eggs.
My mother, aunty and I sat down to have a taste test. Because we all knew there was mayonnaise inside the cake, we could taste it. I fed a slice to my dad without telling him anything. After he finished it I asked him how the cake was. He said it was alright, and seemed pleased with what he had just eaten. I then followed up with the question: "Could you taste the mayonnaise?"..... surprised he said "MAYONNAISE?!?!.....*pause*.... nup..."
I don't think I'd make this one again unless I REALLY wanted chocolate cake and didn't have any eggs. Once you get over the mayonnaise taste within the first bite, it's really just like a chocolate cake. But let me tell you, the only substitute for eggs.... is eggs.
*NB. I did use whole egg mayonnaise, not cheap or tangy mayo you'd put in your salad roll.
*NB. I did use whole egg mayonnaise, not cheap or tangy mayo you'd put in your salad roll.
Chocolate Mayonnaise Cake
Valli Little
Get your hands on:
1 2/3 cups (250g) self-raising flour
60g cocoa powder
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
200g caster sugar
3/4 cup (225g) whole-egg mayonnaise
3 teaspoons vanilla extract
100g unsalted butter, softened
100g cream cheese
1 2/3 cups (250g) pure icing sugar, sifted
1 shot (30ml) Kahlua (or other coffee liqueur)
Hazelnuts half-dipped in melted chocolate, to decorate
1. Preheat the oven to 180°C. Grease and line the base of a 23cm springform cake pan.
2. Place the flour, cocoa, baking powder, caster sugar, mayonnaise and 2 teaspoon of the vanilla in the bowl of an electric mixer with 200ml warm water and beat for 2-3 minutes until smooth. Spread into the prepared pan and bake for40 minutes or until a skewer inserted in the centre comes out clean. Cool completely.
3. Meanwhile, make the icing. Process the butter, cream cheese, icing sugar, remaining 1 teaspoon of vanilla and Kahlua in a food processor until smooth. Spread over the cooled cake and decorate with nuts.
Serves 6-8.
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Product Review: Green & Blacks Chocolate
Comments (8) | Wednesday, March 31, 2010
Now that life has calmed down a little, I have made trying this chocolate a priority. Which seems a bit ridiculous because chocolate is always a priority in my life!
Most of you would already know that Green & Black's is already an organically certified chocolate. The good news is, they have announced that the entire range is also going Fairtrade.
Fairtrade is a unique independent system providing farmers with the security of fair prices for their produce and additional investment for social, environmental and economic development in their communities. The commitment by Green & Black's to Fairtrade will result in an investment of approximately AUD$540k a year through additional Fairtrade Premiums paid to Dominican Republic cocoa farmers and their communities. These farmers are now the main source of cocoa for Green & Black's and the move towards complete Fairtrade Certification is part of their ongoing commitment to ethical trading.
With a nice selection of chocolate on offer here’s my verdict on how they taste on their own.
With a nice selection of chocolate on offer here’s my verdict on how they taste on their own.
Left to right: Dark 70%, Maya Gold, Milk
The dark 70% is a chocolate I'd much rather use in cooking as with such a high percentage it can be quite bitter for some people.The first thing I noticed about this chocolate was that it wasn't as creamy as say Cadbury or Lindt. My favorite would have to be the Maya Gold as it was a dark chocolate with hints of orange and other spices. Perfect with a cuppa or just a nibble to settle chocolate cravings.
With so much chocolate, I thought I'd better get cooking with it!
Recipes I made with Green & Black's Chocolate:
- Green & Black's Chocolate Brazil Soft-Baked Cookies
- Chocolate Beer Cake
For more information about Green & Black's chocolate, recipe ideas or more information about organic and Fairtrade, check out their website: http://www.greenandblacks.com/anz/
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Green and Blacks Chocolate Brazil Soft-Baked Cookies
Comments (3) |
I thought I’d better try one of the recipes Emma sent to me with the Green & Black's chocolate. It was either this recipe of the white and dark chocolate mousse; but considering I didn’t have any white chocolate, cookies it was.
I didn’t have any wholemeal self raising flour, so I just used the standard self-raising stuff and it worked out fine. The bran apparently gives a distinctive flavour and texture to the cookies, so maybe I’ll have to try again when I get my hands on some.
I’m not usually crazy about Brazil nuts. When I have a bag of mixed nuts, these are the nuts I generally avoid. But teamed with Green & Black's chocolate, I rather fancied them. It’s great to have these cookies after they have cooled slightly, as the chocolate is still soft and gooey.
Turns out I actually used the Maya Gold chocolate with the orange and spices instead of the dark 70%. It turned out great, giving the cookies a nice extra depth of flavour. I'd definitely say that Green & Black's is a great chocolate for cooking with. I'll be trying it more for recipes where I like to use quality chocolate instead of Lindt.
Chocolate Brazil Soft-Baked Cookies
Get your hands on:
Get your hands on:
75g unsalted butter, softened
60g caster sugar
1 large egg, beaten
175g wholemeal self-raising flour
½ teaspoon vanilla extract
½ tablespoon milk
75g dark chocolate, minimum 60% cocoa solids, roughly chopped
75g milk chocolate, preferably 34% cocoa solids, roughly chopped
50g Brazil nuts, chopped
Pinch of salt
Serve it with:
Hot cuppa tea or coffee
1. Preheat the oven to 180°C. Line a tray with non-stick baking paper.
2. Cream together the butter and sugar in a bowl until light and fluffy. Beat in the egg. Sift the flour once, returning the bran to the sifted flour, then fold into the mixture.. Beat well, adding the vanilla extra and sufficient milk to make a pliable dough. Mix it with your hands, adding the milk in stages until the dough is fairly soft, but not sticky. Add the chopped chocolate, nuts and salt and distribute evenly through the dough. Roll out onto a lightly floured board to a thickness of about 5mm. Stamp into rounds and place the cookies, spaced well apart, on the lined baking tray.
3. Bake in the centre of the oven for about 20 minutes. Watch them carefully so they don’t overcook. Remove from the oven and leave to cool on the baking tray for a few minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.
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Chocolate Beer Cake
Comments (9) |
Excuse the fuzzy photos. The end of daylight savings is killing me, thus meaning I can't use natural light if I'm cooking too late. Will be trying to invent a light box for winter!
Iron Chef Shellie: “Hamsley…. I need you to come over when I bake this cake and finish off Guinness I don’t use. Is that okay?”
Hamsley: “ummm…. Yeah I think I can do that”
Whilst catching up on my reading of other blogs, I came across this recipe for chocolate and beer on Pikelet and Pie’s blog. As soon as I read the title, I knew I was going to make it.
I wondered what the flavour combination would taste like, and I knew Hamsley wouldn’t have a problem with chocolate and beer being united in cake form.
Hamsley and Mum commented that they couldn't really taste the beer, but I was sure that I could. It was a nice light cupcake, mostly likely caused by the bubbles in the beer. I would make this again, I'm sure it would be a hit with men if you dragged them along to an afternoon tea!
Hamsley and Mum commented that they couldn't really taste the beer, but I was sure that I could. It was a nice light cupcake, mostly likely caused by the bubbles in the beer. I would make this again, I'm sure it would be a hit with men if you dragged them along to an afternoon tea!
Chocolate Beer Cake
Piklet & Pie
Get your hands on:
1 cup stout (Guinness)
225g unsalted butter
3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
2 cups plain flour
2 cups sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
3/4 teaspoon salt
2 large eggs
2/3 cup sour cream
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
1 teaspoon cinnamon
Ganache:100g dark chocolate
3 tablespoons heavy cream
3/4 teaspoon instant coffee
3 tablespoons heavy cream
3/4 teaspoon instant coffee
1. Preheat oven to 180°C. Grease 2 1/2 cup muffin trays really well. Heat beer and butter in a medium sized pan over medium heat. When it starts to simmer, remove from heat and whisk cocoa powder through, taking care to stir out any mischievous lumps.
2. Sift flour, sugar, baking soda, spices and salt together to mix. Beat eggs and sour cream together until thoroughly combined. Pour chocolate/beer mix into the eggs and beat to combine. Fold dry ingredients in until just combined. Ladle batter into prepared pan and bake for about 10 – 15 mins, or until a skewer comes out clean. If you don’t have two muffin pans, or have only one shelf in the oven.
3. For Ganache: Heat cream and coffee in a small pan. When bubbling remove from heat and stir through chopped chocolate. Continue stirring until chocolate has melted and is glossy and thick. Cool until it is the correct consistency for icing. Ice cakes when they are completely cool.
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Week 15 - The Cookbook Challenge: Dark Chocolate and Raspberry Muffins
Comments (24) | Saturday, February 27, 2010
Week 15
Theme: Muffins
Cookbook Used: Bourke Street Bakery
Author: Paul Allam and David McGuinness
I thought the Bourke Street Bakery cookbook was a bakery in Melbourne, as we also have a Bourke Street. But low and behold I was wrong, and it was actually in Sydney. When I have a trip up to Sydney, this place will be on the list of places to try.
After much debating if I actually wanted this cookbook, I put it on my Christmas list and mum popped it under the tree for me.
This is the first recipe I've made using this book. I found it a bit annoying that some ingredients were listed with cup measurements, then others in grams. I would have liked some consistency!
I'm looking forward to another one for breakfast tomorrow!
Dark Chocolate and Raspberry Muffins
Paul Allam and David McGuinness
Get your hands on:
400g (2 2/3 cups) plain flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
300g caster sugar
310g unsalted butter
480ml buttermilk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3 eggs
225g dark chocolate, roughly chopped
225g raspberries, fresh or frozen
55g raw (dermerara) sugar
Icing sugar, for dusting
1. Preheat the oven to 190°C (375°F). Lightly grease a 12-hole muffin tin and line with paper cases.
2. Sift the flour and baking paper into a bowl and add the sugar, mixing well to combine.
3. Melt the butter in a saucepan over low heat, then remove from the heat and stir in the buttermilk. Using a whisk stir in the eggs to combine. Pour over the dry ingredients and whisk to combine. Use a large spoon to gently fold through the chocolate and raspberries.
4. Spoon the mixture into the prepared muffin tins. Sprinkle the tops with raw sugar. Reduce the oven temperature to 180°C (350°F) and bake for 20-25 minutes. It may be necessary to drop the temperature about 10 minutes before the end of baking time if the muffins are starting to brown on top.
5. To test if the muffins are done, push the top gently to feel that it is firm. Remove from the oven and allow to cool in the tins for 10 minutes before eating. Dust with icing sugar to serve.
Makes 12.
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Week 11: The Cookbook Challenge - Cherry Ripe Mud Cake
Comments (13) | Friday, January 29, 2010
Week 11
Theme: Mixed
Cookbook Used: Food We Love
Author: The Australian Women's Weekly
I have a confession to make. I'm cheating this week (and my photos aren't that great). I was going to make rib-eye with espresso and mushroom for the 'mixed' theme... but I ran out of time, and I could have cooked something else, but I really don't have time or the energy to. So this is the cake I made for Hamsley's birthday this week. It was 'mixed' with love and brut force, using my arms.
I chose to make this cake as he said he liked Cherry Ripes when I was flicking through this cookbook, yelling out things that sounded delicious, he exclaimed; 'I like Cherry Ripes!'
Let's start with the first step: 250g butter, 2 cups of sugar, 200g dark chocolate, coffee and coconut milk..... last time I checked, no one lost weight living on foods like that.
However, I've never made a cake with coconut milk in it, so I knew it was going to be something special.
There was meant to be chocolate panels around the outside of the cake, but due to lack of time, and making this cake less fattening that it already was; I left them out. It would have looked rather spectacular though I think.
I'm so glad I didn't add the panels. I couldn't even finish my slice of cake, it was that rich. Anymore more chocolate, and I would have entered a food coma.
Delicious moist, dense and chocolately.... This one should be made once every 5 years or so, unless you want to enter a chocolate coma or become a contestant on The Biggest Loser in a hurry.
Cherry Ripe Mud Cake
Australian Women's Weekly
Get your hands on:
250g butter, chopped1 tablespoon instant coffee granules
1 2/3 cups (400ml) coconut milk
200g dark eating chocolate, chopped coarsley
2 cups (440g) caster sugar
3/4 cup (110g) self-raising flour
1 cup (150g) plain flour
1/4 cup (25g) cocoa powder
2 eggs, beaten lightly
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 x 85g Cherry Ripe bars, chopped coarsley
200g dark eating chocolate, chopped coarsely, extra
125g butter, chopped, extra
Chocolate Panels:
300g dark chocolate melts1 teaspoon vegetable oil
1. Preheat oven to slow (150°C / 130°C fan-forced). Grease deep 22cm-round cake pan; line base and side with baking paper.
2. Melt butter in large saucepan; add coffee, coconut milk, chocolate and sugar. Stir over heat until chocolate melts and sugar dissolves; cool to room temperature.
3. Whisk in sifted dry ingredients, then egg and extract; stir in half of the Cherry Ripe. Pour mixture into pan, top with remaining Cherry Ripe; bake about 1 3/4 hours. Stand cake 10 minutes; turn, top-side up, onto wire rack to cool.
4. Combine extra chocolate and extra butter in small saucepan; stir over low heat until smooth. Refrigerate until mixture is spreadable.
5. Meanwhile, make chocolate panels.
Chocolate Panels: combine chocolate and oil in medium heatproof bowl; stir over medium saucepan of simmering water until smooth. Cut two 6cm x 50cm strips of baking paper. Spread chocolate evenly over strips; lift strips to allow chocolate to drip off paper. Allow chocolate to set, then, using a ruler as a guide, cut chocolate into 4cm panels with a sharp knife. Carefully peel away baking paper.
Tip: You can also melt the chocolate for the chocolate panels in a microwave oven; melt on medium (55%) about 1 minute, stirring twice during cooking. Stir in the oil once the chocolate has melted.
6. Spread the chocolate mixture all over cake; place chocolate panels around side of cake. Serve with whipped cream, if desired.
Serves 12.
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