kwokj, posts by tag: chocolate - LiveJournal

Another cake I got excited about and made repeatedly in the last few months was a rosemary olive oil cake with chocolate chips, based on a recipe from Good to the Grain by Kim Boyce. The recipe was shared in a blog post by her editor, and presented with weights by Heidi Swanson at 101cookbooks.com where I first saw it.

I've tried a few olive oil cakes and muffins, and this one's definitely the winner. The the olive oil is a major component of the flavour profile, more so that other recipes I've tried, and is used to great effect with the rosemary and dark chocolate. It's also very easily mixed by hand, if that's a draw for you.

This recipe is meant to be made with a combination of spelt and all-purpose flour. If you want to try that, refer to the links in the first paragraph, but I'm going to present below what I use, for a cake using only all-purpose flour.

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Heidi also really likes the effect of the different sized shards and chunks you get from chopping chocolate, but I don't like the mess of chopping chocolate, so I use chips. I've added a volume for chocolate chips as well.

I also increased the quantity of rosemary.

Rosemary Olive Oil Chocolate Cake

3 eggs
3/4 cup whole or 2% milk
1 cup olive oil (go for one with a stronger flavour)
2 tbsp finely chopped fresh rosemary

290 g / 2 1/3 cups all-purpose flour
115 g / 1/4 + 1/3 cup sugar
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
3/4 tsp salt

140 g / 5 oz. dark or bittersweet chocolate chopped into 1/2" pieces (3/4 cup chocolate chips)
up to 2 tbsp sugar for top crunch, optional

Preheat the oven to 350F. Oil and line the bottom of a 9" cake pan* with parchement paper.

In a medium-large bowl, beat 3 eggs with a fork. Beat in milk. Add oil. Chop the rosemary as finely as possible and add to egg/milk/oil.

In a second larger bowl, measure the dry ingredients (flour, sugar, baking powder, salt.) Combine well by alternating whisking and stirring with a spoon a couple of times, making sure to spoon up the contents at the bottom of the the bowl. Beat egg-milk-oil mixture until well combined, and pour over flour mixture. Fold in roughly with a spatula until almost all the flour is wet, add the chocolate and continue folding until all the flour is wet and the chocolate is well distributed.

Pour into prepared pan and sprinkle the second sugar over the top if using. Bake in preheated oven for 40 minutes or until a toothpick poked in the centre comes out clean.

Allow to cool, run a knife around the edges, and demold. Or serve warm in the pan, as you like.

This is really really delicious and different! With restraint, I made it last five days stored in the pan with a plate on top.

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*You can obviously use other pans, possibly with slightly different baking times. Test for doneness ahead of time, particularly for smaller cakes. Kim originally wrote the recipe for a 9.5" fluted tart pan, which may lend itself better to serving warm out of the pan. Heidi used a long, odd-sized loaf pan. For Christmas, I made several batches using either two 6" cake pans, or the set of four mini 5" loaf pans (which needed only 35 min baking time) my mom found me at a garage sale. Wrapped in plastic cling wrap with a branch of rosemary on top (or twisted in a wreath) they made very pretty Christmas gifts.

I love Smitten Kitchen and I've been making a lot of her recipes lately. First up:

melt in your mouth flourless chocolate cake
http://smittenkitchen.com/2011/04/…
http://smittenkitchen.com/2007/03/…

This is not like other flourless chocolate cakes. There is no pretense of flour by using ground nuts, or any other flour substitutes. In fact, it is little more than melted chocolate suspended in egg foam (in a similar process to making chiffons, if you're familiar.) I first made this for my friend who was diagnosed with Celiac disease. It is fantastic. It's light and tasting deeply of chocolate, and the whipped cream makes it seem even lighter.

(Aside: why do so many recipes for whipped cream ask for powdered sugar? I always use regular sugar. It dissolves fine, and then whips up no problem, even when I've resorted to doing it by hand. Not exactly no problem by hand, but it does work.)

Her family clipped it from the New York Times back in 1975 and has been making it ever since. It was presented then as a roll cake (and she has incorporated reader tips on how to best avoid cake cracking,) but you can also make it as a layer cake. However, I don't see the need for a 9" four layer double recipe version which requires a dozen eggs like in her second link. I've so far served it as single 9" layers which is perfectly elegant, especially with fresh strawberries on the side, and as a cute little double layer 6" cake. The recipe below is for a double layer 9" cake, which I think easily serves 10. You could halve it or just save leftover layers for later snacking if you're serving fewer, which is what I do.

For two 9" layers (see first link for roll cake instructions)
6 oz. / 170 g dark chocolate chopped or 1 cup semi- or bittersweet chocolate chips
3 tablespoons water or strong coffee
6 large eggs, at room temperature, separated
2/3 cup sugar
1/4 teaspoon table salt

1 cup whipping cream
1 tbsp sugar, or to taste
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract or 1 to 2 tablespoons liqueur of your choice, such as Grand Marnier

Preheat the oven to 350 F. Oil and line a pair of 9" cake pans with parchement paper (or four 6" pans.)

Melt the chocolate and water over very low heat or using bursts in the microwave until nearly melted, then remove from heat and stir to melt completely. Set aside to cool slightly.

Meanwhile, beat yolks and sugar at high speed until pale and ribbony (this means that when you lift the beaters, what drips back in is so thick it it doesn't disappear immediately. It will be paler than pale butter.) Genltly stir in the melted chocolate/water mixture.

With a clean bowl and beaters, sprinkle the salt over the egg whites and beat until stiff peaks form. Transfer about 1/4 of it to the chocolate/yolk mix and gently stir it in. Gently fold in the remaining whites in 3 additions until more or less no white poufs remain. (If you're scared of over handling, it's okay. The white poufs will show, but it will bake fine. If you're not scared of raw eggs, and no sueing me if you get sick! taste the batter. The taste and texture are heavenly.)

Divide the batter evenly in the two pans and smooth the top as evenly as possible, because it will bake to pretty much exactly that shape, but with a rise around the edges after it sinks on cooling. I use a small offset spatula. Bake for 15 minutes, or until a toothpick poked in the centre comes out clean and the top feels velvetty and dry. (It'll seem a little underdone if you also use the finger poke test, like me.)

Remove from the oven and cool on racks. Run a knife around the edges at some point. You can leave it in the pans until you're ready to frost, in the fridge overnight if necessary. Freeze for an hour before frosting to make the delicate thin cake layer easier to handle if you're stacking. (Not really necessary for the little 6" cake.)

For frosting, add sugar and optional flavourings to the cream, give it a stir to help the sugar dissolve, and whip to the desired consistency. I like stiff peaks. (If you're stacking, I think you definitely need stiff, but if not just whip it as much as you like.) Spread slightly less than half the whipped cream on the top of one layer, top with the second, and spread the remaining cream on top. Give it an artful swirly fluffy appearance if you can, and leave the sides naked. Refridgerate until ready to serve. It could probably use an hour or two to make sure the cake layers are no longer frozen if you did that.

Just made these and they're quite nice. They aren't strongly chocolatey, but if they were, it would probably cover the orange. (Still looking for recipes that are both strongly chocolately and strongly orangey.) really good. Flavours are stronger fully cooled, so have some patience before you eat them. Very moist and fluffy.

Adapted fromt the kitchn.

1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1/3 cup cocoa powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup sugar
1/2 + 1/3 cups orange juice
1 cup oil
1 tsp vanilla extract
zested orange peel from about 3 medium oranges
2 tbsp cider vinegar

Preheat oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit.
Line 12 standard cupcake cups with papers (I use "jumbo" paper liners that are taller, so if you bake directly in an oiled pan, you'll need more than 12.)
Combine all dry ingredients and stir to combine well.
Add oil, vanilla, orange juice, orange peel. Whisk to combine.
Add vinegar and whisk to combine.
Spoon into prepared pan, filling cups about halfway, and bake for 15 minutes or more.
Test for doneness by lightly pressing tops. They should spring back when done. (I had a cake tester come out clean before these were done.) These are pretty moist, so I wouldn't be afraid of overbaking. Better than underdone.

I made black forest cake yesterday and it was really awesome :D

One of my friends really likes black forest and tried to improvise it a couple of times with box cake mix, cherry pie filling and whipped cream but couldn't figure out how make a stable cake where the layers didn't slide off each other. I decided to do a little research to make her one, and I concluded that having each layer of filling be mostly whole cherries was the way to go.

I used Sandy's Chocolate Cake which I found at Whisk Kid, though I multiplied the recipe by 1.25 and divided between a pair of 9" pans. Having weight equivalents makes this easy to measure out even when the volumes don't make nice fractions. The only inconvenient quantity was the extra 1/8 tsp salt which I eyeballed. I did this because whenever I divide batter between pans, I invariably end up with one cake thinner than the other and then I don't have nice layers when I split them, especially if I also have to cut some off to level. I actually got them pretty even this time, but since I ended up with a bit of a dip in the middle that I needed to slice off, I was glad for the extra thickness.

To fill I used lightly sweetened and stiffly whipped cream and, shocker, the cherries strained out of 2 cans of cherry pie filling. I know: sounds like total sacrilege but I couldn't find anything else and it actually tasted great! I added water to dilute the goop until it was thin enough to strain out the cherries. One 500 mL carton of whipping cream wasn't really enough, so next time I'll buy an extra 250 mL carton. Each can of cherry was barely enough for a layer, so I ended up freezing the fourth layer of cake.

So I made 2 pans of chocolate cake, leveled and split each one. To fill, for each layer I spread out the strained out cherries from one can, and then I pressed in/spread on the whipped cream level with the tops of the cherries and then added the next layer of cake.

As I said, I only had enough cherry for 3 cake layers, and the whipped cream was only enough to finish the crumb layer. Even so, this cake was stable enough that I could tilt it while I covered the sides with chocolate shavings!

Structural and gastronomic success!

Well, that was not the most successful recipe following... I totally spilled the vinegar while pouring it, so I hope I got a quantity close enough to accurate.

Anyway, cribbed from December 2007 Martha Stewart Living:
*edited to include lining cake pan!*

Ingredients:
cooking spray or equiv. for greasing pan
1 cup warm water
1/2 cup cocoa powder
1.5 cups all purpose flour
1 cup sugar
3/4 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1 tbsp vanilla extract
2 tsp white vinegar

Method:
1. Preheat oven to 375 F. Coat an 8 inch round cake pan in cooking spray (or grease lightly with butter if you're me.) *Line the bottom with a circle of parchment paper. The butter will hold it in place. I butter the paper on top, too.
2. Whisk half cup of cocoa into warm water.
3. In a separate bowl, whisk together flour, sugar, baking soda, salt (all the dry ingredients) and make a well in the centre.
4. Add in cocoa mixture, oil and vanilla and whisk until smooth.
5. Whisk in vinegar.
6. Pour into cake pan and bake 30-35 min or until toothpick inserted into centre of cake comes out clean.
7. Cool on wire rack for 20 min before running a knife around the edge and turning out. Turn cake back right side up and allow to cool completely before frosting if desired.

Anywhoo, the batter tasted good, and I didn't have to think twice about licking it for lack of eggs. If this turns out well, I'll have a recipe for when I would really rather a regular cake over a bundt cake. Heck, it's easier with fewer ingredients and vegan friendly, so it might become a mainstay.

ETA: it was a hit, but most people hadn't ever had my signature chocolate bundt cake. The flavour was good, but it really lacked richness for being so low in fat.

I just frosted four of my chocolate bundt cakes, one for crazykittylady's birthday and 3 for a wedding tommorrow.

I was sort of hoping for a pourable chocolate glaze, and alas it was not, so I spread it, but the ganache tastes fantastic. Velvetty and light in texture, but intensely chocolatey. I am not ashamed to say I ate what fell on the floor.

To frost the outside of four bundts:

-break 3 100g fine dark chocolate Lindt bars into pieces in a bowl
-add a couple of pats of butter and 1/8 cup of sugar

-heat 1.5 cups of whipping cream until just starting to boil
-immediately pour over chocolate
-allow to melt a bit and then whisk until smooth

spread.

I know this is an odd time to be baking, but I've been a night owl lately, so it's either bake it now, or try to make myself get up on a Saturday morning to do it. I promised to make Steph a cake.

This cake recipe ran in the Toronto Star under the billing "Mike Harris' One Bowl Chocolate Cake" during one of said politician's terms as Premier of Ontario. It was described as extremely chocolaty, but the first time I tried it, it sure didn't seem that chocolaty to me, so I increased the cocoa (and sugar to balance,) restoring cutbacks, so to speak. I never remember exactly how I've adjusted the recipe, but this is what's in the oven right now. The cocoa is more than doubled. I also ran out of oil, so I've substituted butter, which I've never done before. I wonder if solid fat vs. liquid fat will make any difference. I imagine the cocoa will be too strong a taste to notice the butter flavour.

217 g / 1.75 cups all-purpose flour
2 tsp baking soda
2 tsp baking powder
0.5 tsp salt
70 g / two heaped quarter cups Fry's cocoa*
1.75 2 cups brown sugar
0.75 cup vegetable oil melted butter
0.5 cup milk
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
0.75 cup boiling water

Preheat oven to 350°F. Grease and flour a bundt or tube pan. Blend all dry ingredients. Blend in brown sugar. Whisk in remaining ingredients, except water. Add boiling water and whisk until smooth. Bake for 30 to 40 minutes (turning about halfway through,) until cake tester comes out clean. Cool ten minutes in pan. Turn out of pan and finish cooling on rack.

I like to eat it with jam and sometimes icecream. I don't care all that much for frosting.

The nice thing about the boiling water at the end is even if you didn't mix things all that thoroughly up until that point, it will easily go smooth then if it wasn't already. I do anyway at each step just because I'm compulsive that way.

I'll let you know if the sugar and cocoa quantity works out tomorrow. (it did.)

*I use Fry's cocoa. In Canada, undutched/natural cocoa isn't easily availble so this recipe has both baking soda and baking powder. You should be able to use either natural or dutched cocoa just fine. Flavour and density vary from brand to brand, dutched or not, so the volume and gram quantities I've listed is specific to Fry's. I'm sure it will be just fine whatever you use, whether you weigh or use cup-measures. Use more or less next time according to your taste.