BITE-SIZED CHOCOLATE PLEASURE

Posted in Desserts, Sweets by sallybr

Giada’s show can hit or miss with me, but the moment I saw her making these small chocolate meringue cupcakes I knew that my husband and I, and our entire lab group were going to profit from it in our early morning meeting.

MINI CHOCOLATE-MERINGUE CUPCAKES
(from Giada de Laurentiis)

2 large egg yolks
1/4 cup vegetable oil|
2/3 cup sugar, divided
2 Tbs cocoa powder (I used natural)
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/8 tsp sea salt
1/2 cup semisweet chocolate chips, melted
1/4 cup cake flour
3 egg whites

for the topping:
1/2 cup semisweet chocolate chips, melted
1/2 Tbs vegetable oil

Heat the oven to 350F.
Line a 24-count mini-muffin pan with paper liners (1.25 inch diameter).

Beat the egg yolks, vegetable oil, 1/3 cup of the sugar, cocoa powder, vanilla extract, cinnamon, and salt, at high speed until smooth, about 2 minutes. Mix in the melted chocolate chips and stir until smooth (mixture will be very thick).

In a separate bowl, beat the egg whites at high speed until they hold soft peaks, about 3 minutes. With the machine running, gradually add the remaining 1/3 cup sugar and continue to beat until the mixture holds stiff peaks, about 2 minutes. Stir a small amount of the beaten egg whites into the chocolate, to lighten it up. .Using a spatula, fold the remaining egg white mixture. In batches, sift the flour over the batter and fold it in using a spatula. Fill each paper liner to the top with batter and bake for 12 minutes until puffed. Remove from the oven and let cool for 15 minutes.

For the topping: In a small bowl, combine the melted chocolate chips and oil. Stir until smooth.

Using a fork, drizzle the chocolate mixture over the cupcakes. Allow the topping to harden for at least 1 1/2 hours at room temperature before serving.

ENJOY!

to print the recipe, click here

Comments: This recipe really was a “piece of cake” in two ways: it was simple, and it produced cupcakes that look dense, but were light and moist in your mouth. The chocolate drizzle, which according to Giada should harden in a couple of hours, refused to cooperate. Even the next morning it was still sticky to the touch, making the cupcakes quite messy to eat. A brief stay in the fridge (about 15 minutes or so) helped a little bit, and also made it easier to remove the paper.

I’d make these again at the drop of a hat, but using a different recipe for the drizzle, to achieve the crunchy texture on top. Their size was perfect: people who are not wild about sweets will be happy with one; chocoholics may return for more. And more…. and more… 😉

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13Apr2010

TORTA DI LIMONE E MANDORLE

Posted in Desserts, Sweets, Vegetarian-friendly by sallybr

Italian is such a beautiful language! Most Italian phrases sound poetic, warm, and enticing… For example, this title translates as “lemon and almond cake,” but by sticking with the original Italian, I can pretend that it’s not really a cake, and therefore, it is doable. 😉 This recipe came from Fer’s blog (Chucrute com Salsicha), where I find a lot of inspiration, and she convinced me to ignore my cake-phobia and give it a try.

Done! I can’t say it was painless, but it wasn’t as horrible as some of my past cake experiences.

TORTA DI LIMONE E MANDORLE
(recipe adapted by Fer, original found in Twelve: A Tuscan Cookbook)

125 g softened butter
125 g granulated sugar
3 eggs, separated
125 g almond flour
60 g all purpose flour, sifted
1 tsp baking powder
juice and zest of 2 lemons
powdered sugar (optional)

Heat the oven to 355F / 180 C.
Prepare a springform pan (8 inches diameter) by coating it with butter and dusting with flour. Take a deep breath and beat the butter with the sugar until it forms a cream. Hope that the stars are correctly aligned so that the elusive cream stage appears in recognizable form. Take another deep breath and add the egg yolks, one by one, beating after each addition. Calm yourself, collect yourself, and move away from the Kitchen Aid mixer. In a large bowl, combine the flours with the baking powder, mix them well together, and add the dry ingredients to the egg mixture. Add the lemon juice and zest and mix to incorporate. Stop hyperventilating. Beat the egg whites until soft peaks form, and fold them into the cake batter, trying to avoid deflating the egg whites too much. Cross your fingers for sustained alignment of the stars.

Spoon the batter into the prepared pan, and hope it will be enough to cover its whole surface, as cake batters tend to dissipate into thin air and never ever fill the pan called for in the recipe (which is very annoying!). Bake for 30 to 40 minutes (mine baked for 43 minutes and 19 seconds), until the cake is lightly golden. Allow it to cool before opening the springform pan. If desired, dust with powdered sugar.

ENJOY!

to print the recipe, click here

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Comments: This was a lovely cake, I’m so glad that I made it! If you have Meyer lemons, use them, as Fer recommended. The almond flour brings an interesting texture: a little more dense, but it quickly melts in your mouth, with a bright lemony finish. It sure brightened up our lab meeting last Friday… 😉

6Apr2010

BANANA BREAD

Posted in Desserts, Sweets, Vegetarian-friendly by sallybr

I realize the world has no shortage of banana bread recipes, as a quick google produces 5,580,000 hits! You’ll find all shapes and styles: moist, classic, healthy, vegan, gluten-free, low-calorie (!?!?), with nuts, chocolate chips, blueberries, cinnamon, with sour cream or pumpkin…. if you dream it, chances are someone already made it and spread the word about it. Once I hit “publish”, you’ll have at least 5,580,001 options! I am sure you will sleep better tonigt… 😉

This recipe comes from cookbook author extraordinaire (and very dear net-friend), Glenys Morgan, and makes a moist, very pure, dense but not heavy, banana bread. She doesn’t recommend using this recipe to bake muffins, so stick to a regular loaf pan.

GLENY’S BEST BANANA BREAD
(from Glenys Morgan)

1 cup mashed bananas (2 large or 3 medium, very ripe bananas)
1/3 cup buttermilk
1 teaspoon baking soda
3/4 cup dark brown sugar
1/2 cup unsalted butter
1 egg
1 + 1/3 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon vanilla or dark rum (optional)

Heat the oven to 375F.

Mash or purée the bananas and buttermilk until smooth. Add the baking soda and mix.
Cream the brown sugar and butter together until smooth. Beat in the egg. Add the banana purée and combine. The mixture will seem curdle.

Add the baking powder to the flour, mix well. Gradually add it to the banana mixture. Stir just enough to combine evenly. Add the vanilla or rum.

Pour into sprayed or greased 8 1/2 x 4 1/2-inch pan, filling the pan to 2/3 full of its capacity. Bake for 45-50 minutes until a wooden skewer inserted in the center of the cake comes out clean. Leave in the pan for 10-15 minutes before turning out. Do not leave in the pan as the loaves sweat and become soggy.

ENJOY!

to print the recipe, click here

Comments: The most important thing in this recipe is to use very ripe bananas, those that are black, soft, begging to be put out of their misery. Usually I peel them, mash lightly and stick in a zip-lock bag (writing on the bag how many bananas are inside). You can also freeze the bananas whole, but sometimes they can be tricky to peel. Some people like nuts and other bells and whistles in their banana bread, I am more of a purist, and find this recipe absolutely perfect. Our graduate students seemed to agree, as the loaf was gone in minutes! 😉

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3Mar2010

SWEETENING A RAW DEAL

Posted in Desserts, Sweets by sallybr

We have weekly lab meetings, in which one member presents his or her work to the group. This year, to accommodate everyone’s busy schedule, we set the meetings for (ready for this?) 7:45 am on Fridays.

Talk about a tough pill to swallow! 😉

To soften the blow I often bake something for the event, but as a result of my cake-phobia, I usually resort to cookies or breads. However, last week I baked a recipe from (gasp) The Cake Bible. Before anyone who knows me goes into shock, let me clarify that this is NOT a real cake. It’s a much safer chocolate bread. The loaf ended on a happy note, but when I was finished baking my poor kitchen looked as if a herd of elephants had blasted through. I’m not sure why I can make bread, pasta or savory pies from scratch, and my kitchen remains neat and tidy. Bake a cake, on the other hand, and it’s indoor tornado season (sigh).

CHOCOLATE BREAD
(from Rose Levy Beranbaum‘s The Cake Bible)

0.75 ounce unsweetened cocoa powder (Dutch-processed)
1.5 ounces boiling water
1 + 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
3 large eggs
5.25 ounces sifted cake flour
6 ounces sugar
1/4 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
13 tablespoons (6.5 ounces) unsalted butter, softened

Heat the oven to 350F. Prepare a loaf pan (8 x 4x 2.5 inch) by greasing it with butter, covering the bottom with parchment paper, greasing it with butter, and covering the pan with a dusting of flour.

Whisk together the cocoa powder and the boiling water until smooth, then let it cool to room temperature. Mix in the eggs and vanilla extract.

Add the remaining dry ingredients to a large bowl, and mix on low speed for 30 seconds to blend them together. Add half of the chocolate mixture and all the butter. Beat for 1 minute on medium speed to aerate it. Scrape down the sides of the bowl with a spatula, and beat the other ingredients in two additions, beating for 20 seconds each time. Spoon the batter in the prepared loaf pan, smooth the surface with a spoon or spatula.

Bake for 50 to 60 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in the center of the cake comes out clean. (Mine took 60 minutes). If the cake is browns too much, then protect it by covering it loosely with aluminum foil. If you want to have a nice slashed look on the loaf, make a cut with a serrated knife 20-25 minutes into baking time, when the loaf will be starting to form a central split. Make the shallow cut quickly, around 6 inches long.

Once the cake is baked, allow it to cool for 10 minutes in the pan, then remove it to a cooling rack. Dust with powdered sugar.

ENJOY!

to print the recipe, click here

Comments: If you are cake-challenged, this recipe is for you. It’s simple to prepare, and even if it doesn’t look stunning like Johnny Depp, it’s still mighty tasty. The first bite may seem bland, but the cake slowly dissolves in your mouth – it’s the butter doing the talking – and a very pleasant chocolate flavor warms you up. The kind of cake that makes you go back for “just another little slice”. Surely enough, by 10am on Friday, only crumbs were left over the conference room table. 😉

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28Jan2010

FLOURLESS CHOCOLATE CAKE

Posted in Desserts, Sweets by sallybr

For someone who doesn’t much care for desserts, I’ve posted quite a few lately. Probably part of it was the holidays that just kept on coming: Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year’s Eve, with Valentine’s Day around the corner. All of these special occasions call for a sweet closure, often with chocolate written all over it. 😉

To get in this proper dessert spirit, I’ll share my favorite recipe for flourless chocolate cake. Even someone as cake-challenged as myself can make this scrumptious dessert, as I have since I saw it on “Taste”, with David Rosengarten (back when the FoodTV Network was worth watching). I didn’t miss many of David’s shows, that I taped on my old VCR, and still have the box of those tapes. VCRs are a thing of the past, but one day I’ll digitize those shows on DVDs (…one happy day… right after I organize my recipes in beautiful, indexed folders).

David Rosengarten’s flourless chocolate cake is special. I mean, who doesn’t like a pony? Even if you’re not a chocoholic, this dessert might be for you, but if you love chocolate, then don’t let this recipe pass you by. It’s dreamy with a little whipped cream on the side, that slightly mellows its potent chocolate kick. Please, use the best chocolate that you can find, because here quality makes a difference: the chocolate is all that you will taste.

FLOURLESS CHOCOLATE CAKE
(from David Rosengarten show Taste)

7 oz extra bittersweet chocolate
14 Tbs unsalted butter (1 + 3/4 sticks)
5 large eggs, separated
1 Tbs vanilla extract
3/4 cup granulated sugar
pinch of salt
2 Tbs unsweetened cocoa powder

Heat the oven to 350F. Grease a 10-inch springform pan.

Combine the chocolate and butter in a double boiler over simmering water, heating until fully melted and smooth. Transfer to a bowl, let it cool slightly for a few minutes, and whisk in the egg yolks and vanilla. Sift in the sugar, salt, and cocoa powder, while constantly stirring.

Whip the egg whites to soft peaks. Gently mix about one third of them into the chocolate mixture, fold the remaining whites trying to deflate them as little as possible. Pour the mixture into the prepared springform pan. Place in the lower rack of the oven and bake for 25-28 minutes.

Remove the cake to a rack and immediately loosen the sides of the pan. Allow the cake to cool before serving.

ENJOY!

to print the recipe, click here

Comments: Some people, including my husband, can’t conceive of a cake without icing (irony of all ironies, he married the “Anti-Cake”). Yet, this cake won his heart (though he insists it will still improve with a thin chocolate glaze). Years ago I baked it in a heart-shaped pan for our Valentine’s dinner. OK, it was a little cheesy, but it doesn’t hurt to travel that route every once in a while… 😉

David’s original recipe instructed to press the cake down with a plate or other appropriate flat object right after removing the ring, to compress it and release a bit of the air produced by the whipped egg whites. In his opinion, the cake is all about a fudgy, dense, chocolaty texture. I’ve tried it both ways, and prefer to skip the compression, allowing it to naturally cool and deflate.

For the fans of his show, those who certainly still remember his closing line….

” Life is a matter of taste.” (David Rosengarten)

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