Showing posts with label chocolate. Show all posts
Showing posts with label chocolate. Show all posts
Tuesday, 29 January 2013
chocolate truffle swirl cookies
Been feeling rather uninspired and lacklustre of late, which unfortunately has translated into increasingly poor photography. Hopefully I'll snap out of it soon.
In other news, I have been wanting to try out this chocolate chip cookie recipe since I first chanced upon Kathryn's blog. I've been in awe of Heston Blumenthal since watching the first episode of Heston's Feasts. And having been fortunate enough to snag a table at The Fat Duck last June, I'm thoroughly convinced the man is a genius. While I'll definitely never be able to recreate his amazing dishes, this chocolate chip cookie recipe seemed manageable enough. (Though I'm sure his end-result looked and tasted a million times better.)
Technically it's a chocolate chip cookie made with bits of chocolate truffle. Unfortunately, mine turned out to be chocolate swirls rather than chips, hence the re-christening. I guess I should have anticipated the weather might be an issue and chilled the ganache for longer.
The last time I baked cookies was about 2 years(?!) ago so I had some difficulty gauging the doneness. Baked these in 3 batches and every batch turned out different. While you can't possibly use the skewer method like for cupcakes, I've learnt that, like cupcakes, you can tell they are done by the sudden burst of aroma issuing forth from the oven. Pretty intriguing stuff.
When baked evenly through (i.e. golden brown), these cookies are nice and crisp. Kind of like the Famous Amos sort. I preferred my cookie to be slightly undercooked (i.e. a little pale in the middle), such that it's crisp around the edges but soft and chewy in the middle. I liked that the little swirls of truffle gave the cookies a pleasant hint of bitterness (I used 70% dark chocolate).
Chocolate Truffle Swirl Cookies -- makes ~35 (6cm-diameter) cookies
(adapted from Kathryn's Heston's Chocolate Chip Cookies)
Chocolate Truffles:
Ingredients
10g light corn syrup
70g whipping cream
65g dark chocolate (I used 70% cocoa)
pinch of salt
Directions
- Place chocolate in a heatproof bowl and melt over a saucepan of simmering water. Set aside.
- In a separate saucepan, pour in whipping cream and corn syrup and bring to a boil.
- Take off the heat, add salt, and pour cream mixture into the melted chocolate, 1/3 at a time, stirring well.
- Leave to cool to room temperature then pour onto a tray/baking sheet lined with baking paper
- Freeze for 4h (or overnight if you're from my sunny island).
- Remove from freezer and and cut into small pieces. Put back into the freezer until required.
Cookies:
Ingredients
220g plain flour, sifted
¼ tsp baking soda
½ tsp baking powder
5g salt
¼ tsp instant coffee
115g unsalted butter, cubed and kept cold
250g caster sugar
1 egg
1 vanilla pod (scrape out the seeds and discard the pod)
Directions
- Preheat oven to 190˚C.
- Using a whisk attachment, cream together butter and sugar until pale and fluffy.
- Add in the egg and vanilla seeds and continue whisking
- Change to paddle attachment, add in the flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt and coffee and mix well.
- Gently stir in the frozen chocolate chips with a spatula/wooden spoon until well distributed.
- Using a melon ball scoop, place small balls of dough onto a baking tray lined with baking paper. The balls of dough should be spaced well apart (leave a radius of at least twice the diameter of the dough).
- Bake for about 15min until edges are golden brown (or until all the pale cookie bits turn golden brown, if you like them more cooked)
- Leave to cool on the baking tray. The cookies should start to harden as they cool.
Sunday, 26 August 2012
rum & raisin snickers cake
Ever wondered how the idea of a birthday cake came to be? I've celebrated countless birthdays (mine and others) but have never given it much thought until today while writing this post. According to wiki, the idea was conceived by German bakeries all the way back in the 15th century. And what about those candles, huh? Apparently the number of candles decorating these cakes used to be more than the number of years of the individual's life, to indicate 'upcoming years'. Seems like a bad move there. How many extra candles is enough to prevent the individual from thinking you're wishing him/her a short life?
Well, we stuck with 1 candle for my dad's birthday this year. After a certain age, people tend to prefer that their birthday cakes not look like something the fire department wouldn't approve of. Plus the cake I made was a 7" one, way too small to accommodate that many candles anyway. Hehehe.
After much deliberation, I decided on a 3-layered chocolate cake with rum and raisin buttercream. This was only my 2nd layered cake and I had yet to master the art of cake decoration so I kept it simple, using only ganache and chopped peanuts. I know, chopped peanuts doesn't seem to go with rum&raisin but my dad loves nuts so I had to incorporate some kinda nut into the cake.
Surprisingly, the combination wasn't too disastrous and the Rum & Raisin Snickers Cake (as my bro-in-law calls it) was well-received by the birthday
Note: The entire process took me about 1.5 days because I had to soak the raisins overnight so prepare that in advance
Rum & Raisin Buttercream
(adapted from Bobby Flay's recipe on Food Network)
Ingredients
1 ½ cups
dark rum
1 tbsp
sugar
1 cup
golden raisins
113g
unsalted butter, softened
56g
cream cheese, softened
1 cup
confectioner’s sugar
Directions
- Bring the rum and sugar to a boil in a medium saucepan
- Add the raisins, remove from heat and let macerate overnight
- Strain the raisins and set aside
- Bring the strained rum to a boil and reduce to ¼ cup
- Remove from heat and allow to cool
- Beat butter and cream cheese together until light and fluffy
- Add sugar and whip until well incorporated
- Add in cooled reduced rum
- Add in more sugar if desired
Chocolate Cake
(referred to here)
3/4 cup plain flour
1 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup caster sugar
3/4 cup cocoa powder
1 1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
2 eggs
1 cup buttermilk
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1 cup strong black coffee (steaming hot)
1 tsp vanilla extract
Directions
- Preheat oven to 175 deg Celsius
- In a mixing bowl (pre-weighed), combine flour, sugar, cocoa powder, baking soda, baking powder and salt
- Add in the eggs, buttermilk, oil, vanilla extract and coffee and beat at medium speed for ~ 2 min
- Divide batter into 3 equal portions (Use a weighing scale for this. Subtract the weight of the mixing bowl from the total weight and divide it by 3)
- Line three 7-inch round cake tins with baking paper (I use this method. Alternatively you can use non-stick springform pans. If you don't have enough pans, you can choose to bake the layers one at a time)
- Pour the divided batter into the lined cake tins and bake for ~20min or until toothpick inserted in centre comes out clean
- Remove from oven and leave to cool on wire rack. It should be easy to remove the cake from the tins. Remove the circumference paper first and then invert the cake onto the rack
Chocolate Ganache recipe here
*Assembling the cake
- Place first cake layer on a cardboard cake base
- Slather buttercream on top and cover with rum-soaked raisins, pressing the raisins into the buttercream
- Place 2nd cake layer over buttercream-coated bottom layer
- Repeat step 2
- Place 3rd cake layer on top
- Using a spatula, coat top and sides with a thin layer of buttercream (this is the crumb coat) and leave aside for 1-2h
- Cover the cake with more buttercream, smoothening the top with an angled spatula, and the sides with a bench scraper.
- Refrigerate for 1h
- You can decorate cake as desired from here on. If you opt to use my amateur method then...
- Place cake on wire rack (with a tray below the rack) and pour cooled ganache over cake, letting it flow down over the sides
- Sprinkle chopped peanuts over the top
- Grab a handful of chopped peanuts and, holding the cake with your other hand, stick them onto the sides of the cake.
- Refrigerate for ~1h or until ready to serve
Saturday, 11 August 2012
s'mores cupcakes
S'mores are campfire treats consisting of toasted marshmallow and chocolate sandwiched between 2 graham crackers. I've never actually tried an actual s'more before. The closest I've come to a s'more was probably a tub of Ben&Jerry's Marsha Marsha Marshmallow, which has now been rechristened S'mores. It is one my of favourite B&J flavours. B&J ice cream has a tendency to be overly sweet for me but the slightly salty graham cookie swirl in MMM nicely balances out the sweetness.
I had the privilege of trying a really good S'mores cupcake made by a friend several years back and have been inspired to recreate it ever since.
The components: a digestive biscuit crumb base, chocolate cake, and a marshmallow frosting. I used digestive biscuits as a substitute because where I live, it's almost impossible to get graham crackers.
Digestive Biscuit Crumb Base
Ingredients
15 digestive biscuits
2 tbsps salted butter, melted
Directions
- Crush digestive biscuits until a fine crumb is produced. You can use a food processor if you have one
- Pour melted butter over crumbs and mix well
- Line base of cupcake liners with crumb mixture (about 1.5 tbsps each) and press firmly until tightly packed
Chocolate Cake
(This recipe is widely used and I'm not too sure where it originated. Most have credited it to Hershey's, though, and if you check out the recipe section on their website, you can find the recipe under Black Magic Cake. The one below is my adaptation.)
Ingredients
1 3/4 cup plain flour
1 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup caster sugar
3/4 cup cocoa powder
1 1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
2 eggs
1 cup buttermilk
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1 cup strong black coffee (steaming hot)
1 tsp vanilla extract
Directions
- Preheat oven to 175 deg Celsius
- In a mixing bowl, combine flour, sugar, cocoa powder, baking soda, baking powder and salt
- Add in the eggs, buttermilk, oil, vanilla extract and coffee and beat at medium speed for ~ 2 min
- Pour batter into cupcake liners with biscuit base
- Bake for ~20min or until toothpick inserted in centre comes out clean
- Leave to cool
Marshmallow Buttercream Frosting
Ingredients
227g unsalted butter, softened
1/4 cup confectioner's sugar
7oz Kraft Jet-Puffed Marshmallow Creme
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
pinch of salt
Directions
- Cream butter and sugar together until pale and creamy
- Add in vanilla and salt
- Gently mix in marshmallow creme until well combined
- Frost cupcakes
- Sprinkle remaining biscuit crumb and top off with Maltesers
Friday, 3 August 2012
chocolate ganache
Well, technically the term chocolate ganache is redundant since you can't have ganache without chocolate, can you?
This is my go-to recipe when anything needs chocolatising--cookies, cakes, pies...it's easy to make and tastes so good.
Chocolate Ganache
Ingredients
100g dark chocolate
50g milk chocolate
1 cup heavy cream (aka whipping cream)
1.5 tbsp rum
Directions
- Break up chocolate into small chunks and place in heatproof bowl
- Heat cream in a saucepan until simmering or just boiling
- Pour heated cream over chocolate and whisk until well-combined and smooth
- Stir in the rum
Note: You could use 150g of dark chocolate instead of dark and milk chocolate if you prefer. I generally use the Lindt Excellence range for my ganache
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