Spring Double Bill

It's a double-post of baking goodness! I've been setting up for people over later and I love using my friends as guinea pigs for my kitchen/lab experiments.

The two following recipes aren't just my normal alterations of substituting flours or adding nuts. The two below have turned into two different recipes from what inspired me.

The first was a reason to use up a box of chocolates that M's aunt gave us. The chocolates were nice but we just don't eat enough chocolate to keep it around. So I took a whole grain chocolate chip recipe and amended it to fit the Mint Crisps I wanted to use. Turned into lovely after-dinner type cookies. If you wish to use the recipe without mint chocolate, just take out the peppermint extract and use regular chocolate.

With the grated chocolate, try to find something complimentary to the chopped chocolate you're using. If you're using dark, grate some dark. If you're using milk or white, use milk.

One of my work guinea pigs, R, suggested using chocolate orange segments with orange extract or orange zest instead of the peppermint extract. Really want to try those now!

Whole Wheat Mint Chocolate Chip Cookies

115g softened butter

1/2 cup brown sugar

1/2 cup granualted sugar

1 egg

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

1/2 tsp peppermint extract

1 cup whole wheat flour

1/2 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp salt

1/4 tsp baking soda

1 1/4 cup oats

1 cup chopped chocolate (dark, light or flavoured is your fancy)

2oz grated chocolate

Process the oats in a blender or food processor until fine, like oat flour. If you aren't able to do this, substitute 1 cup of oats for any type of flour and use 1/4 cup oats whole.

Whisk flours, baking powder, salt, baking soda, and oats together. Set aside. Cream butter with both sugars for 3 minutes, until fluffy. Beat in egg and extracts. Stir in grated chocolate.

Gradually beat in dry mix to sugar mix. Toward the end, you'll need to switch to a wooden spoon. Fold in chopped chocolate.

Place 2in spoonfulls 2in apart on baking sheet. Bake at 375/gas 5 for 12 minutes or until the bottoms are slightly golden. Let cool 2 minutes on baking sheet. Transfer to wire rack to cool completly.

The second recipe was something I found on the Vegetarian Times website. They often have some interesting recipes using very different ingredients, which always piques my interest (if you can't tell by now!) And who doesn't love cheese? So I turned these into cornbread style scones because I had a craving for cornbread and some cornmeal in the cupboard. I sprinkled tabasco sauce on the tops before putting them in the oven. This is optional (I love spicy) but I couldn't taste it enough to warrent being in the recipe. M says he can so maybe I've just spicy-ed off my tastebuds from years of putting tabasco sauce in my morning eggs.

Cheddar Sweetcorn Scones

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/2 cup plain flour

1 cup cornmeal

1 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

2oz chilled butter

2oz grated mature cheese

1/2 cup corn kernals

1/2 cup buttermilk (see note)

1 egg

Preheat oven to 400F/gas 6

Whisk baking soda, flour, cornmeal, baking powder and salt. Stir in cheese. Transfer to a food processer and blend in butter until the mix looks like breadcrumbs. Alternatively you can rub the butter into flour by hand.

Stir in buttermilk and egg until a dough forms. fold in corn. Pour onto floured surface and pat into rectangle 1/2in thick. Cut out into rounds like scones.

Brush tops with milk or egg wash. Bake 12-15 minutes or until lightly golden.

Add juice of 1/2 lemon to the milk and let sit 5 minutes to get buttermilk. Or you can use plain yogurt.

Peanut Butter Brownies

I've had a craving for chocolate lately. Not like a craving for a Snickers bar or something silly and horribly processed but nice truffles or gooey brownies or something full of chocolate chips. You may be thinking that this isn't worthy of a blog post! Everyone loves chocolate! Not me... I'm not a huge chocolate person. It's just been lately.

And I love peanut butter. I may have an addiction.

So these are perfect. Or at least I thought they would be. I hunted for a recipe in all my books, in all my files and nothing. So I Googled. Lots of recipes. None with chocolate. Isn't the whole point of a brownies supposed to be the chocolate? Why a peanut butter brownie recipe with no chips or no cocoa? Does this make sense to anyone else?

So I added chocolate to the recipe. Simples.

P.S. these are not very healthy. I'd be lying and a complete hypocrite if I tried to say that. But enjoy them anyway.

1/2 cup peanut butter

1/3 cup (75g) softened butter or margarine

2/3 cup white sugar

1/2 cup brown sugar

2 eggs

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

1/4 cup cocoa

1 cup whole wheat flour

1 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

Cream butter and peanut butter. Gradually cream in sugars, eggs and vanilla extract.

Stir together flour, baking powder, cocoa and salt. Slowly stir this into peanut butter mix.

Pour into greased or lined pan. Bake at 350F/175C/gas 5 for 30 minutes or until set. If you like your brownies gooey, take them out a little earlier.

I added peanuts to mine as I like them crunchy. If I had chocolate chips on hand, I would have added those to. Experiment! I think the next time I try these, I'll do a brownie base and add a creamy peanut butter top then marble it in. Wish I would have thought of that earlier... :(

Happy Valentine's Day

I'm a little late. Valentine's Day was last Monday, almost a week ago. But I promise these were eaten on Valentine's Day. Along with Jam'N'Oatmeal cookies (next post! I promise!) and my favourite cookies, sugar cookies! I'm not sharing that recipe with you though. That's my little secret. Though it turns out, English people think they are too sweet. Tough! They're called sugar cookies for a reason!

Enough with the exclamation points, on with the recipe.

Heart Chocolate Biscuits

150g soften butter

100g caster sugar

2 eggs

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

200g plain flour

25g cocoa powder

300g icing sugar

milk

food colouring

Preheat 350/180/gas 4.

Beat butter with sugar until fluffy. Seperate eggs. Add the yolks to butter/sugar mixture with the vanilla. (Save the whites for yummy healthy breakfast).

Sift flour and cocoa. Stir into butter mix until a dough. You may need to use your hands to mix at the end. Wrap in cling film and chill in the fridge 30 minutes.

Roll out the dough to a coin thickness. Cut out into heart shapes. Bake 12 minutes. Put on wire rack until cooled.

To make the icing, sift the icing sugar into a bowl. Add food colour first then ONLY enough milk to make a spreadable icing. Frost cookies once cool.

Naughty Mess Cake

Ok. It's not the best or most appealing name for a cake. But it's accurate. It's filthy. It's diabolical for your waistline. It's ooey gooey and gets everywhere. It's, literally, finger-lickin'.

But it's fantastic. I'm not generally boastful when it comes to baking. I like to think I'm pretty honest, actually. Most things taste pretty good; I don't always get an A for presentation, but I know what I'm better at than other things. But this was amazing. I want more.

It's Michelle's birthday this time around. I know she likes chocolate but she was already hinting that she was going to bring in a chocolate cake and because the 2 previous were chocolate I thought I'd keep it to an accent, not a base.

It looks complicated. Don't try to make this unless you're prepared for a really messy kitchen afterward. You will use most of the dishes in your house.

Crust:

230g butter

2 tbsp sugar

2 cup flour

Vanilla Pudding:

3 egg yolks

1/2 cup sugar

1/4 cup flour

2 cup milk

2 tsp vanilla extract

2 tbsp butter

Cream Cheese Layer:

225g cream cheese

1/2 cup sugar

1 tsp vanilla

1 tsp lemon juice

1 cup whipped cream

Glaze:

55g semi-sweet chocolate

2 tbsp butter

1 1/2 tsp vanilla

Additional layers:

1 1/2 cup whipped cream

225g crushed pineapple

toffee sauce

Butter a 9x13 pan. Preheat oven to 350/180/5. Beat butter and sugar until fluffy. Beat in flour until pebbly. Press into bottom of pan. Bake 20 minutes. Let cool completely.

Beat egg yolks for pudding. Set aside. Whisk sugar, flour and milk until free of lumps. Set on medium heat. Cook until just a boil. Remove from heat, stir a little into eggs. Pour egg mix back into pan. Cook 1-2 minutes until thickened, whisking occasionally. Remove from heat, pour into a bowl, add vanilla and butter and mix until melted. Chill with cling film pressed on top of pudding (to prevent skin).

Beat cream cheese, sugar, vanilla and lemon juice. Fold a scoop of whipped cream into mix then fold rest in.

Melt chocolate with butter and vanilla.

To assemble: Spread crust with cream cheese mix, then crushed pineapple, toffee, pudding, and lastly, whipped cream. Drizzle with glaze. It's best if let to chill overnight in the fridge. It helps all the layers to set, mix and soak with each other.

German Chocolate Cake

It's another September birthday cake! This time around it's my mother-in-law, Mary's, birthday. And what kind of cake do you make someone who likes chocolate, coffee and richness? One option is an espresso-style cake with a creamy frosting but I've been so tempted to make this cake. There is a hint of coffee, a really rich and dense cake and loaded with chocolate.

I'm not sure where the name came from though I have my theories. I don't think it came from Germany. I actually think a German-American immigrant created this and just threw a bit of their heritage in it, as happens with a lot of traditional American recipes. Hybrids of recipes brought over with family members, altered and varied to make it more accessible are rich in American culinary history. Or maybe I'm wrong. Whilst I like philosophizing about history of recipes I haven't done any research, perhaps I should pick of a book or two. Speaking of which, dear reader (hi Kerry), it's almost my birthday.

What distinguishes this recipe is actually the frosting. The cake itself is just a richer chocolate cake, with a bit of coffee. But the frosting is incredibly different than what you'd think to put on top a cake. Coconut and chocolate? With a caramel style base?

One downside to this cake-experience, the sandwich tins I have are incredibly shallow so the cake layers are quite thin compared to other cakes. One upside is that meant I had a lot of extra batter so I got a chance to make German Chocolate Cupcakes as well, with a dollop of pecan-coconut frosting on each.

120g semi-sweet chocolate

2 1/4 cup flour

3/4 cup cocoa powder

1 1/2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

1 cup hot coffee

1 cup buttermilk (or soured milk)

280g softened butter

2 1/4 cup sugar

5 eggs

1 1/2 tsp vanilla

Preheat 350/170/4. Line 3 round sandwich tins and dust with flour.

Melt chocolate in a double boiler or a bowl set over simmering water. Let cool to room temperature.

Sift flour, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Combine coffee and buttermilk. Beat butter until smooth and creamy. Add sugar. Beat 3-5 minutes. Beat in eggs, one at a time. Beat in vanilla.

Add coffee mix and flour mix to sugar and butter in alternate batches, starting and ending with flour. Mix until just combined. Fold in chocolate. Divide evenly between tins. Bake 30-35 minutes. Let cool in pans 20 minutes then invert to racks and let cool completely. Frost when cooled.

Coconut Pecan Frosting

125g pecans

1 cup granulated sugar

240ml single or double cream, your choice

3 egg yolks

113g butter, cut into cubes

1/8 tsp salt

1 1/2 cup coconut flakes (desiccated coconut)

1/2 tsp vanilla

Roast pecans 8-10 minutes. This can be done whilst the cake is also in the oven.

In a saucepan, combine sugar, cream, eggs, butter and salt. Cook over medium heat until boils and thickens.

Remove from heat, stir in coconut, pecans and vanilla. Let cool until spreadable. Can be chilled until ready. If it's too hard after coming out of the fridge, microwave a little until better.

Assemble cake layers with a layer of frosting in between each.

Chocolate Toffee Cake

Let's start with the first of September's run of birthday cakes: Dave's.

The original name of this cake is a little ambitious. The recipe I based this cake off of is actually called better-than-sex cake. I'm not sure how the two are comparable? I guess both are physical and you can eat cake with another person.

It's too early in the morning to get philisophical about cake names.

For this, use any chocolate cake recipe you prefer. It can be made with cocoa powder, melted chocolate or both. You could even throw in chocolate chips if you wish. The actual base nature of the cake doesn't matter, just that it's chocolate and any additions don't clash with toffee.

1 chocolate cake

1 can sweetened condensed milk

toffee fudge (either homemade or the premade ice cream topping)

Whipping cream

2 tbsp icing sugar

crushed chocolate toffee bars

Bake your cake according to your recipe instructions.

As soon as you pull the cake out of the oven, poke holes or cut slits into the top. Pour sweetened condensed milk over, letting little bits soak in before pouring on more. You can use the whole can or just a bit, it's up to you (I only used about half).

Once soaked in, pour over toffee and let soak into cake.

Let cake cool entirely. Whip cream and sugar together until stiff and spreadable. Spread over cake. You can spread the sides of the cake as well or you can leave them bear. Pile crushed chocolate toffee bars on top. And your done!

As you can see from mine, I baked two cake round, soaked milk and toffee on top of both cakes and put the whipped cream in the middle (and yes, mine did come out a little wonky. boo).

Chocolate Zucchini Muffins

As strange as it is, one of my favourite vegetables to grow on my allotment is courgette. No one else really likes it, mainly because generally we end up with more marrow then zucchini, but I love how much you get from one plant and actually how much you can do with one courgette.

I probably also like it because you can bake cakes from it!

I didn't get a chance to try this recipe with last year's crop. As soon as I pulled the first courgette of the summer, I couldn't wait to give it a go.

Zucchini and chocolate seems weird but actually the zucchini makes the muffin moist and helps bulk it out. You don't actually taste zucchini.

I actually got this recipe from a collection of Weight Watcher recipes. The zucchinis take the place of some of the fat and milk. It's a good low-fat and low-calorie tea-time treat and can be baked as either a loaf or muffins.

1 cup flour

1 cup whole wheat flour

1/4 cup cocoa powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

1 egg

2 egg whites

1 cup sugar

3/4 cup applesauce

1/4 cup vegetable or sunflower oil

1 tsp vanilla

1 oz chocolate pieces

2 cups shredded zucchini/courgette

325/gas 4

Combine flours, baking powder, baking soda, salt and sugar.

Whisk eggs, applesauce, oil and vanilla. Add dry mix gradually. Fold in zucchini and chocolate pieces.

Pour into prepared load tin or muffin tins. If muffins, bake 20-25 minutes, or until tops of muffins spring back. If a tea loaf, baking 55-60 minutes or until skewer inserted comes out clean.

Let cool entirely.

You can also add 1/2 cup walnuts in with the zucchini if you wish. I omitted them in mine to keep it lower in fat and calories.

Double Chocolate Brownies

Another picnic. Another chance to try out a healthier version of a recipe. And it almost went well. Brownies came out a little gooey, which is great for standing at the kitchen counter, picking at the goo and licking the chocolate off my fingers. In the future, I'll try a bigger pan to spread out the batter. That will give me a lot more nice crispy edges that I love.

Either way, it's only 111 calories and 4 grams of fat per bar. So even if you have to lick the goo off your fingers, go for it.

4 tbsp butter
2/3 cup sugar
1/2 cup cold water
1 tsp vanilla
1 cup flour
1/4 cup cocoa powder
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 cup milk or semi sweet chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350/gas 4

Melt butter. Remove from heat and stir in sugar, water and vanilla. Mix in flour, cocoa and baking powder. Add chocolate chips pieces. Baking times will vary depending on your pan; I kept mine in the over for about 45 minutes. You want to be able to stick a skewer into the middle and it comes out clean and the edges crispy.

Sorry no pictures, my actual camera is in a friend's car and my iPhone died this weekend. Hopefully I'll have pictures for the rest of the recipes this week. But you all know what a brownie is supposed to look like.

Chocolate Chip Peanut Butter Reese's Cookies

The biggest thing I love about Aldi, whether in the UK or the US, is the middle section. The random assortment of one-time-only goods that make you wonder if they fell off the back of a truck. Sometimes the merchandise is relevant, sometimes not.

In yesterday's case, I believe the management team were attempting an American promotional sale, loosely linked to 4th of July, which no one celebrates here anyway. 

The amount of pure cheap American tack wafting off the products was enough to make me feel a little ill. Maple syrup, hot dogs in a jar, marshmallows, fried onions and toffee popcorn. Oh, and strawberry creme toffee popcorn. That's not even a thing! Let alone something to epitomize what Americans eat. 

And all decorated in blue with red and white strips, emphasized with white stars. No brand names. I wouldn't even want to know where they were manufactured. 

In spite of my, what I'm sure seems like a pompous and snobby anti-American rant, they were selling Hershey's. Cookies and Creme bars, milk chocolate bars....and....Reese's! Both the peanut-butter cups and the pieces. 

I snagged a few bags of the Reese's Pieces when inspiration struck. Cookies! What better way to a

ttempt a show of appreciation for selling my 'favourite' American foods then by making the cookie, something distinctly not British, but I'm unsure of it's exact origin. Possibly America?

Anyway...

Straight forward recipe. Add nuts if you want. Add peanut-butter or chocolate chips if you want. 

115g butter room temperature.

50g caster sugar

110g dark brown sugar

1 egg

1/2 tsp vanilla essence

170g plain flour

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/8 tsp salt

170g Reese's Pieces

350F/180C/gas 4

Cream butter and both sugars together until light and fluffy. Beat in egg, then vanilla. 

Sift in flour, baking soda, and salt. Add Reese's Pieces and mix well. 

Bake by teaspoonfuls on baking sheets 10-15 minutes. Cool on wire rack. 

Chocolate Chunk Cookies

Today involved a failed trip to Hitchin. There's a cute little kitchen shop I love and I wanted to get a nice oven thermometer for better bread baking but, and please allow me this little rant, nothing was open! Listen England, it's not the 1600's and Sunday Trading Laws are a little behind the times. But even Sunday Trading Laws I can get behind, for the sake of the shop staff, but towns placing higher restrictions then what's required by law is a little ridiculous. Like Hitchin. So no oven thermometer which means I have to postpone trying a loaf of honey wheat bread.

The one thing that was open was Waitrose, which we don't get a chance to go to often. So I bought a nice (read: expensive) bar of chocolate to make Chocolate Chunk Cookies.

You can use any standard chocolate chip cookie recipe for these, just replace the chips with chunks of chocolate of varying sizes from the bar. These are great for chocolate lovers; when the cookies cool, the melted chunks will solidify. Husband was very happy with them, they're almost gone now!

And I get to indulge in a little nostalgic milk and cookies right before bedtime. Lovely sunday.