Tag Archives: chocolate

camping classic, without having to sleep in a tent

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Confession: I’ve never been a big fan of camping.  As a child I was a Campfire Girl and often had to go on camping trips with my troop where we made friendship bracelets, went on nature hikes, and had to sing songs, yes, around a campfire.  All I really remember is always feeling cold and damp and once burning my hand on the wrong end of a metal fire-poking stick.  Not fun.

I like nature and everything, I’m just not sure I like sleeping out in it in a tent on the cold ground, feeling every root and rock beneath me as I toss and turn all night.  No thanks.

However, there is one thing camping really does have going for it: s’mores.  There’s nothing quite like a marshmallow toasted on a stick over some hot coals and then packed between chocolate and graham crackers.  It’s one of life’s simple pleasures that you enjoy no matter how far from Campfire Girl days you are.

These bars recreate that feeling.  And you don’t have to sleep in a tent to enjoy them.  Score!

S’more Bars (from Taste of Home: Simple and Delicious magazine)

  • ½ cup butter, softened
  • ¾ cup sugar
  • 1 egg
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla
  • 1 1/3 cups all-purpose flour
  • ¾ cup graham cracker crumbs
  • 1 teaspoon baking powder
  • 1/8 teaspoon salt
  • 6 oz. of milk chocolate bars
  • 1 cup marshmallow cream

In a large bowl, cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy.  Add egg and vanilla and beat well.  Combine the flour, graham cracker crumbs, baking powder, and salt.  Beat into creamed mixture, and set aside ½ cup of this mixture for the topping.

Press remaining mixture into an 8-inch baking pan.  Place candy bars over the crust in one single layer.  Spread marshmallow cream on top of candy bar layer.  Crumble remaining graham cracker/flour/butter mixture over top.

Bake at 350 degrees F for 25 minutes, or until golden brown on top.  Cool on a wire rack and cut into bars.

gluten free brownies

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Well, I made it through Lent gluten-free as planned.  At least I’m pretty sure I managed to avoid it almost entirely.  It sneaks up in places you don’t expect, like as a thickener in soups and is apparently sometimes used to keep pre-shredded cheese from sticking together in packages in the supermarket.  Hmm.  At any rate, I am back on the stuff but am trying to keep it in moderation and as previously mentioned will still be baking gluten-free items on occasion, since I have oodles and oodles of gluten-free flours in my pantry.  Fortunately I found a gluten-free cookbook that I really like: Blackbird Bakery Gluten Free.

The recipes in this book taste like the traditional baked goods I was used to and these brownies were no exception.  They were rich, dense, and sweet.  Totally brownie-like in every way possible.  They were even better heated up and served with a little Salted Caramel Ice Cream which I will share with you later in the week.  Until then, happy Monday!

Gluten Free Brownies (from “Blackbird Bakery Gluten-Free” by Karen Morgan)

  • 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter
  • 4 ounces high-quality chocolate, such as Scharffen Berger, chopped
  • 2 ounces high-quality bittersweet chocolate, such as Scharffen Berger, chopped
  • 2 cups sugar
  • ¼ cup almond meal
  • ½ cup cornstarch
  • ¼ cup tapioca flour
  • ¼ cup glutinous rice flour (Bob’s Red Mill Sweet White Rice Flour will work)
  • 1 ¾ teaspoons guar gum
  • 1 teaspoon kosher salt
  • 5 large eggs
  • 2 ½ teaspoons pure vanilla extract

Position an oven rack in the center of the oven.  Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.  Take a piece of parchment paper and using a pair of kitchen scissors, cut 2 inches into each corner (right where the two edges of the paper meet) at a 45 degree angle.  Press the parchment into the greased 9-by-13-inch pan.  The slits you cut into the corners will allow you to fit the paper into the pan with perfectly smooth edges.

In a large stainless-steel bowl set over a saucepan with 2 inches of barely simmering water (don’t let the bowl touch the water), melt the butter and chocolate, being careful not to let the chocolate scorch.  Whisk in 1 cup of sugar.  Remove from the heat and set aside.

In a medium bowl, combine all the dry ingredients and stir with a whisk to blend.  Set aside.

Using a stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, whisk the eggs with the remaining 1 cup sugar until the eggs have doubled in volume.  Stir half of the egg mixture into the melted chocolate mixture, then stir in half of the dry ingredients.  Repeat this process and stir until the batter looks like chocolate pudding.  Fold in the vanilla.  Pour the batter into the prepared pan, smooth the top, and bake for 30 minutes, or until the brownies are cracked around the edges.

Remove from the oven and let cool completely in the pan on a wire rack.  Lift the brownies out by grasping the two sides of the parchment paper.  Transfer to a cutting board and remove the paper.  Cut into 16 bars.

flourless chocolate cake

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Ah, spring.  You have arrived!  Over the past week I was pleasantly surprised to discover that the overgrown bush outside my front door is in fact a lilac bush.  Nice!  I am going to trim it a bit this week so I can enjoy the lilac fragrance indoors.  (Don’t tell my landlord.)

In other spring news, I baked a flourless chocolate cake for you.

This recipe is so simple.  It can be made from scratch to finished product in 45 minutes.  And also its delicious.  And gluten-free!

If you are making this for a birthday, as I did, don’t expect it to be birthday cake-like.  We took to referring to it as the “brownie-cake.”  It is rather flat and is so rich that no frosting is required so does not resemble a typical cake but it will still knock the socks off of all who eat it.  I converted a few naysayers who were skeptical of gluten-free baking with this cake.  It’s magical.  Just like spring.

Flourless Chocolate Cake (recipe found at www.epicurious.com from Gourmet magazine, November 1997)

  • 4 ounces fine-quality bittersweet chocolate (not unsweetened)
  • 1 stick (1/2 cup) unsalted butter
  • 3/4 cup sugar
  • 3 large eggs
  • 1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder plus additional for sprinkling

Preheat oven to 375°F and butter an 8-inch round baking pan. Line bottom with a round of wax paper and butter paper.

Chop chocolate into small pieces. In a double boiler or metal bowl set over a saucepan of barely simmering water melt chocolate with butter, stirring, until smooth. Remove top of double boiler or bowl from heat and whisk sugar into chocolate mixture. Add eggs and whisk well. Sift 1/2 cup cocoa powder over chocolate mixture and whisk until just combined. Pour batter into pan and bake in middle of oven 25 minutes, or until top has formed a thin crust. Cool cake in pan on a rack 5 minutes and invert onto a serving plate.

Dust cake with additional cocoa powder and serve with sorbet if desired. (Cake keeps, after being cooled completely, in an airtight container, 1 week.)

a classic, minus the gluten

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A friend of mine who is allergic to wheat once gave me the sage advice to not expect gluten-free things to taste like the gluten-filled counterparts that I am used to.  This has proven to be true in most areas but I will say that thankfully it is not always the case.  This gluten-free chocolate chip cookie recipe from the “Blackbird Bakery” cookbook is just as good as the Tollhouse version I grew up on.  I promise.

The main difference is that the dough for these cookies needs to be refrigerated for at least two hours prior to baking.  A minor inconvenience for a delicious cookie.  Just keep this tidbit in mind should you need to whip up a quick batch! 

The resulting cookies are moist and rich.  I think the greatest compliment that I can give them is that I plan to make them again even after my gluten-free diet is over with.  They’re delicious, and I don’t know if this is psychological but I swear I didn’t feel as heavy after eating a couple then I usually do with traditional chocolate chip cookies… so that meant I ate like four in a sitting.  No judgement.

Chocolate Chip Cookies (slightly adapted from recipe found in “Blackbird Bakery Gluten-Free” by Karen Morgan)

  • 1 ¼ cups glutinous rice flour (Bob’s Red Mill Sweet White Rice Flour works just fine)
  • 1 ¼ cups sorghum flour
  • ½ teaspoon baking powder
  • 2 ½ teaspoons kosher salt
  • 1 teaspoon guar gum
  • 1 ½ cups packed light brown sugar
  • ¼ cup plus 1 tablespoon granulated sugar
  • ¾ cup (1 ½ sticks) unsalted butter at room temperature
  • 3 large eggs
  • 4 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
  • 3 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips

In a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, combine all the dry ingredients, including the sugars, and mix on low speed to blend.  Add the butter and mix on low speed until blended.  Add all the eggs at once along with the vanilla and mix on medium-high speed until light and fluffy.  Fold in the chocolate chips until evenly dispersed.

Cover and refrigerate for at least 2 hours or up to 2 days.

Position an oven rack in the center of the oven.  Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F.  Line two baking sheets with parchment paper or silicone baking mats.

Using a 1 ½ -inch-diameter ice-cream scoop, place mounds of dough 1 ½ inches apart on the prepared pans.  Bake one pan at a time for 13 minutes, or until the cookies are lightly browned on the edges, rotating the pan halfway through baking.

Remove from the oven and let cool on the pan for 5 minutes; transfer the cookies to wire racks to cool completely.

a Fat Tuesday cake for you

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I’m going to start with the bad news: unfortunately I did not bring home a prize at this year’s bake-off.  I was bummed but have consoled myself with these two thoughts: 1) a second trophy would just be plain ostentatious on top of my fridge, and 2) this cake recipe was not meant to be consumed in one-square-inch portions.

You see, at this bake-off we were asked to cut our desserts into one-square-inch pieces so that many people would be able to sample them and then vote for their favorite.  Problem is, this cake is best enjoyed as one big sloppy piece.  It’s a triple layer cake and you gotta get all three layers and the frosting in a single bite to capture all of its wonderment.  You live, you learn.

I  will admit that this recipe is not for every home baker.  If you are looking for a simple cake to make for a loved one’s birthday, this ain’t it.  This is the cake you make when you’ve got a few hours to spare and really want to impress people with something a little out of the ordinary.

My mom has a rule that any recipe she tries has to be two pages or less– if it’s more than two pages she says it’s too complicated.  Well Mom, this is a three-pager.  Sorry.

It starts out with a white chocolate/malt/milk powder crunch.  Then there’s the malt fudge sauce.  And the malt chocolate cake.

The one fussy thing about this recipe that I don’t love is that you have to whip up egg whites until they form soft peaks and then fold the egg whites into the batter.  It takes an extra seven minutes to do and then you have to figure out what to do with the egg yolks you don’t need, (I froze mine to save for ice cream-making at a later date) but I will admit it makes for a nice light, fluffy cake.

Once you’ve made the malt crunch, the malt fudge, and the malt cake you start to layer them up…

…and up…

…and up.

Then you whip up some cocoa mascarpone frosting and frost the heck out of those layers.  I mean, who says this cake is not a winner?  In my book it is.

Chocolate Malt Crunch Cake

Malt Crunch (adapted slightly from recipe found in “Momofuku Milk Bar” by Christina Tosi)

  • ¾ cup milk powder
  • ¼ cup flour
  • 2 tablespoons cornstarch
  • 2 tablespoons sugar
  • ½ teaspoon kosher salt
  • 4 tablespoons (1/2 stick) butter, melted
  • 6 ounces white chocolate, melted
  • ¾ cup malt powder

Heat oven to 250 degrees.

Combine ½ cup of the milk powder (reserve ¼ cup for later), flour, cornstarch, sugar and salt in a medium bowl.  Toss with your hands to mix.  Add the melted butter and toss, using a spatula, until the mixture starts to come together and form small clusters.

Spread the clusters on a parchment- or Silpat- lined sheet pan and bake for 20 minutes.  Cool the crumbs completely.

Crumble any milk crumb clusters that are larger than ½ inch in diameter, and put the crumbs in a medium bowl.  Add the reserved ¼ cup milk powder and toss together until it is evenly distributed throughout the mixture.

Pour half of the melted white chocolate over the crumbs and toss until your clusters are enrobed.  Then add the malt powder and toss with the milk crumbs until all of the crumbs are a light brown.

Pour the remaining melted white chocolate over the crumbs and continue tossing until all of the clusters are enrobed.  Refrigerate for about 20 minutes to cool and then toss again and break up large clusters.  The crumbs will keep in an airtight container in the fridge or freezer for up to 1 month.

Malt Fudge Sauce (adapted slightly from recipe found in “Momofuku Milk Bar” by Christina Tosi)

  • 2 ounces 72% chocolate, chopped
  • 1 cup malt powder, sifted
  • 1 teaspoon molasses
  • ¼ teaspoon kosher salt
  • 2 tablespoons corn syrup
  • 1/8 cup sugar
  • ½ cup heavy cream

Combine the chocolate, malt powder, molasses, and salt in a medium bowl.  Set aside.

Combine the corn syrup, sugar, and heavy cream in a heavy-bottomed saucepan and stir intermittently while bringing to boil over high heat.  The moment it boils, pour it into the bowl holding the chocolate.  Let sit for 1 full minute.

Slowly begin to whisk the mixture.  Then continue, increasing the vigor of your whisking every 30 seconds, until the mixture is glossy and silky-smooth.  The sauce can be used immediately or stored in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 2 weeks; do not freeze.

Chocolate Malt Cake (adapted slightly from recipe found in “Baked: New Frontiers in Baking” by Matt Lewis and Renato Poliafito)

  • 2 cups cake flour
  • ¼ cup all-purpose flour
  • ¾ cup cocoa powder
  • 1 tablespoon baking powder
  • 1 teaspoon baking soda
  • ¾ teaspoon salt
  • ¼ teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
  • 1 cup malted milk powder
  • ½ cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, softened
  • ½ cup vegetable shortening, at room temperature
  • 2 cups sugar
  • 1 tablespoon pure vanilla extract
  • 2 cups ice cold water
  • 4 large egg whites, at room temperature

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F.  Butter three 8-inch round cake pans, line the bottoms with parchment paper, and butter the parchment.  Dust with flour, and knock out the excess flour.

Sift the flours, cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and nutmeg together into a large bowl.  Whisk in the malted milk powder.  Set aside

In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat the butter and shortening on medium speed until creamy, 3 to 4 minutes.  Add the sugar and vanilla and beat on medium speed until fluffy, about 3 minutes.  Reduce the speed to low.  Add the flour mixture, alternating with the ice water, in three additions, beginning and ending with the flour mixture.  Scrape down the bowl, then mix on low speed for a few more seconds.

In a medium bowl, beat the egg white until soft peaks form.  Do not over-beat.  Gently fold the egg whites into the batter.

Divide the batter among the prepared pans and smooth the tops.  Bake for 40 minutes to 45 minutes, rotating the pans twice during the baking time, until a toothpick inserted in the center of each cake comes out clean.  Transfer the cakes to a wire rack and let cool for 20 minutes.  Invert the cakes onto the rack, remove the pans, and let cool completely.  Remove the parchment.

 

Cocoa Mascarpone Frosting

  • 1      (8-ounce) package mascarpone cheese, at room temperature
  • 1      stick butter, softened
  • 2      cups confectioners’ sugar, sifted
  • ¾      cup cocoa powder, sifted
  • 3.5      oz. milk chocolate bar, chopped and melted

Blend mascarpone cheese and butter together in a mixing bowl with beater or stand mixer fitted with paddle attachment at medium speed until combined. Add cocoa powder and confectioners’ sugar and blend on low.  Add melted milk chocolate and blend until smooth.

Assemble Cake:

Place one cake round on plate.  Re-heat the Malt Fudge Sauce if necessary by microwaving at 30-second intervals in the microwave until at spreadable consistency.  Spread approximately half of the Malt Fudge Sauce over the cake and smooth with a spatula.  Sprinkle about ½ cup of the Malt Crunch over the fudge.  Place second cake round on top and repeat with Malt Fudge Sauce layer and Malt Crunch.  Place third cake round on top.  Frost top and sides of cake with Cocoa Mascarpone Frosting.