Chocolate Brithday Desserts: Flourless Chocolate Cake

As mentioned in my previous Chocolate Birthday Desserts post, it was my friend Eriks Birthday this past weekend and I put myself in charge of desserts.  There was going to be a lot of people and I need a gluten free dessert that hopefully everyone would enjoy.  The first thing that came to mind was a flourless chocolate cake.  Any time I have had this cake, it has been really dense and rich, so you only need a tiny peice of it, which meant a 8" round cake would feed lots of people. 

This recipe came from Martha Stewart's Fresh Flavor Fast Cookbook and was super quick to whip up, it just needed pleanty of oven time.  I was a bit afraid I was going to really screw this up.  You have to beat the eggs whites twice to two different consistancies and they are basically the cake.  I assume because of the eggs, this cake was suprisingly light compared to similar cakes I've had.  It was still very rich, but was a bit more spongy in the center.  Maybe I didn't bake it long enough, I couldn't tell if it was pulling from the pan edges, but it had been in the oven 15 or more minutes than the recipe time, so I decided it needed to come out.  It was still super yummy and Erik was pleasently suprised by his second dessert that came out with candles and a loud, bar filling version of "Happy Birthday."  Give it a try, it's not as hard as it sounds!

Cooling, precandles

Flourless Chocolate Cake
8 to 10 servings

• 6 tablespoons unsalted butter, plus more for pan
• 8 ounces semisweet chocolate chips (I had a bit less, so I added a tiny bit of dark chocolate chips)
• 6 large eggs, separated
• 1/2 cup granulated sugar
• Confectioners' sugar, for dusting

1. Preheat the oven to 275 degrees with the rack in the center. Butter the bottom and sides of a 9-inch springform pan. Set aside.
2. Place butter and chocolate in a large heatproof bowl and place over, not in a sause pan of simmering water.  Stir occasionally until almost melted.  Remove from heat and stir until completely melted.  Whisk in egg yolks. Set aside.
3. In a large bowl, beat egg whites until soft peaks form. Gradually add granulated sugar, and continue beating until glossy stiff peaks form.
4. Whisk 1/4 of the egg whites into the chocolate mixture; then gently fold in remaining egg whites.
5. Pour batter into the prepared pan, and smooth the top with a rubber spatula. Bake until the cake pulls away from the sides of the pan and is set in the center, 45 to 50 minutes.
6. Cool completely on a wire rack; remove sides of pan. Serve at room temperature, dusted with confectioners' sugar.

Enjoy! 

He was very excited about this cake

Chocolate Birthday Desserts: Compost Cups

My friend and neighbor Erik had his birthday bash this weekend.  He is normally out of town on an annual ski trip, so he rarely has a bithday party with his New York friends and he wanted a big party this year.    It was an excellent party at a great bar, Local 61, in Brooklyn which could accomadate his massive guest list, friends from Ohio and Boston made a trip out for the extravaganza.  I made it my job to make a cake or dessert of some sort.  At first he claimed he didn't want one, and it always seemed like he and his brother were not much for sweets, so I wasn't going to do anything.  But I doubled check the night before to make sure he didn't want anything and found out that he apparently LOVES chocolate.  How I did not know this after three years is beyond me. 

Chocolate made my search much narrower and since it needed to be gluten free, a Flourless Chocolate Cake was the first thing that came to mind.  At breakfast the next morning with a couple of our friends the idea came up to make the dirt cupcakes that you see at a kids birthday with the  gummy worms coming out.  Why?  Because Erik is a Master Composter.  In his spare time he helped set up a composting program at the Gowanus Canal Concervancy and currently oversees the Grow NYC Compost Program.  Needless to say, he is serious about his compost.  So I decided I would be making two desserts, there were going to be a lot of people anyway.

I flipped through my cookbooks and recipe binders until I found a flourless chocolate cake, which I will share next, and a Chocolate Ricotta Mousse recipe from Real Simple.  I added some crushed Gluten Free chocolate cookies to the top and placed a gummy worm and Swedish Fish in little terra cotta pots I bought for muffin making.  They turned out super cute and were very rich and yummy.  The blending of the ricotta and chocolate smoothed out texture of the ricotta and made is silky.  The cookie crumbled added a nice crunch to the texture.  I was not a fan of eating the gummies with the chocolate, but they certainly good on their own.  You should definately give this recipe a try. With or with worms.

Compost Cups
6 servings

• 15 oz ricotta (one container)
• 2 tbsp powdered sugar
• 4 oz semisweet chocolate
• 2 or 3 chocolate cookies (gluten free if desired), crushed
• milk chocolate shavings
• gummy worms
• Swedish Fish

1. Melt the semisweet chocolate chips in a microwave dish.  Make sure you do not burn it so start with one minute on high, stir and put it back in for increments of 15 to 20 seconds, stirring in between each time.  There should be a few unmelted chunks the final time you stir them, and the stirring will finish melting it all.  It shouldn't take more than three minutes total in the microwave, depending on you machine.  
2. In a blender (or food processor if you have one), blend the ricotta, sugar, and melted chocolate until smooth.  Make sure to stop the blender and scrap down the sides to get everything mixed well.
3. Line six terra cotta pots with parchment paper and place a gummy worm in each one.   Fill the pots with the chocolate mousse mixture.  Sprinkle the crushed cookies on top.
4. Put them in the fridge to set up for bit, then stick the Swedish Fish in, they should not sink down once the mousse is a bit thicker, and sprinking the chocolate shavings on top.
5. Real Simple's recipe says that you can store this in the fridge for up to two days and to bring it to room temperature for serving.

Enjoy!

Cookie Dough covered in Chocolate

That's right I said it. Cookie dough covered in chocolate! Got Chocolate every so kindly posted this recipe from Paula Deen and I wasted no time sending it to my mom for our annual candy making fest. I thought the dough by itself was delicious and could have just keep eating them.  My brother loves cookie dough. LOVES it. Most of the time when we made cookies, we had to make sure he was out of the house, otherwise we would lose half our dough before it was  over.  We were able to make the dough while he was out of the house, but he came in while were dipping.  He didn't like them much. Everyone else did.  I think he's just a purist, he would probably ate all the dough predipping .  There's no eggs and they're no bake so I could just mix up some dough over the summer for snacking right? 

These are no bake, no egg amazingness.  They are super easy to make, just need time to set in the fridge.  I didn't make any changes other than using almond bark for the coating.  I recommend flouring your hands to make the balls.  While ours were in the fridge, they kind of flatted out, so we had to reshape them a bit before we dipped them.


Chocolate Covered Cookie Dough 
makes about 80 truffles  

• 1/2 cup butter, softened
• 3/4 cup firmly packed brown sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 (14-ounce) can sweetened condensed milk
• 1/2 cup semisweet chocolate morsels (chopped into smaller pieces or use mini ones) 
• 1 cup finely chopped pecans or walnuts
• 1 package of chocolate almond bark

1. In a large bowl cream butter and brown sugar with an electric mixer at medium speed until creamy. 
2. Add vanilla. Gradually beat in flour and add milk. 
3. Add chocolate morsels and pecans, mixing well. 
4. Shape into 1-inch balls.  Place on waxed paper; chill 2 hours.
5. Melt chocolate bark following package directions. 
6. Using a  fork, dip cookie balls into candy coating to cover. 
7. Place on waxed paper and chill to set.

Enjoy! 

Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies

I'm not the kind of person who has cooking staples on hand. I don't have a  well stocked pantry (if you can even call it that) of basic items, so when I make a recipe, I generally have to buy some supplies. It bothers me to no end when I am left with random, unused ingredients. After making pulled pork recently, I was left with half a package of dried apricots. What in the world am I going to do with dried apricots?! I don't really like the texture, so I don't see myself eating them as a snack. The next logical answer: bake cookies, of course :)

I am a fan of adding cranberries to oatmeal chocolate chip cookies, so I decided the apricots (or any other dried fruit) would be an easy substitute. And in some alternate universe, I can claim they are healthy because they are upping my fruit and vegetable intake.

Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Apricot Cookies

(adapted from a cookie recipe found here)

2/3 cup white sugar

2/3 cup brown sugar

1 cup butter, softened

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1 teaspoon vanilla

1/2 teaspoon salt

2 eggs

3 cups old fashioned oats

1 cup all purpose flour

2 cups chocolate chips (I ended up using an entire 12 oz bag. Who really wants to have chocolate chips lying around anyway?)

couple handfuls chopped, dried apricots (very scientific)

Preheat oven to 375°F. Mix butter with sugars until incorporated and creamy. Add the eggs and mix to combine. Stir in the vanilla extract.

Separately, combine the baking soda and powder, salt, flour, oats, chocolate chips, and apricots. Add the butter mixture and mix only until just combined.

Drop by rounded tablespoons (I made mine way too big) onto an ungreased baking sheet about 2" apart. Bake 8-10 minutes until the edges are crisp and the centers are slightly soft (I would take these before they look crispy. They didn't seem like they were firming up and I ended up with pretty brown bottoms. I would suggest taking them out after about 10 minutes and let them cool on the pan.).

Happy New Year!!

Merry Christmas with Blackberry Chocolate Spice Cake

For my birthday this year I was in Montana and decided to bake something more than my  favorite rainbow chip cake from a box as a thank you to my friends who were letting me crash on their couches and dragging me around for a week.  The only recipes I brought along were those already on my laptop and since I had time I decided to try this New-Fashioned Blackberry Chocolate Spice Cake that I saved in 2008.  In the end, the grocery store I was at did not have Blackberry Pie filling so I used Raspberry instead.  I was also missing the chocolate extract. I could have gone to another store, but was being lazy, it was my birthday after all. The cake still turned out amazingly good. It was super rich. You only needed a very small slice. 

Birthday Cake

My mom saw pictures of the cake and wanted to make it for someones birthday at work but never did.  When we were talking about things that I wanted to make over my vacation, she said she wanted to make this cake.  For this round we couldn't find the chocolate extract again or the chocolate bars with orange so we substituted unsweetened baking chocolate.   Everyone enjoyed the cake, although for some the unsweetened chocolate chunks were too bitter.  I personally did not think they were very noticeable.  In the first cake I made with the orange chocolate, you could really taste the orange and I think it made the taste of the spices stronger.  This version was still really tasty and rich. I cut it into 16 pieces and I think it could have been cut into more.  

Christmas Cake

 Blackberry Chocolate Spice Cake

• Unsweetened cocoa
• 1  (18.25-oz.) package devil's food cake mix (we tested with Betty Crocker)
• 1  (3.4-oz.) package chocolate instant pudding mix
• 3  large eggs
• 1 1/4  cups  milk
• 1  cup  canola oil
• 1  tablespoon  vanilla extract
• 1/2  teaspoon  almond extract
• 2  teaspoons  ground cinnamon
• 1/4  teaspoon  ground ginger
• 1/4  teaspoon  ground nutmeg
• 1/4  teaspoon  ground cloves
•  8 oz. unsweetened baking chocolate, chopped
• 1  (21-oz.) can blackberry pie filling
• 2  (16-oz.) cans chocolate fudge frosting
• Garnish: fresh blackberries

1. Preheat oven to 350°. Grease 2 (9-inch) round cake pans, and dust with cocoa. Set aside.
2. Beat cake mix and next 10 ingredients (to the cloves) at low speed with an electric mixer 1 minute; beat at medium speed 2 minutes. Fold in chopped chocolate. Pour batter into prepared pans.
3. Bake at 350° for 30 to 32 minutes or until a wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool in pans on a wire racks 10 minutes. Remove from pans to wire racks, and cool completely. Wrap and chill cake layers at least 1 hour or up to 24 hours. (Due to time constraints, I ended up only letting cool for about 15 minutes on the rack before putting in the fridge for an hour or so.)
4. Using a serrated knife, slice cake layers in half horizontally to make 4 layers. Place 1 layer, cut side up, on cake plate. Spread one-third of blackberry filling over cake. Repeat procedure twice. Place final cake layer on top of cake, cut side down. Spread chocolate fudge frosting on top and sides of cake. Drizzle remaining filling over top of cake, letting it drip down sides of cake. Cover and chill in refrigerator until ready to serve. Just before serving, garnish, if desired.

Enjoy and Merry Christmas!

Holiday Party!

I love this time of year.  I love the excuse of the holidays to create absolutely delicious treats that you never make any other time.  Every year I say I am going to make them at some other time, but I never do.  I think it would ruin the pure joy when I do have those tasty treats, like candy cane cookies, chocolate covered peanut butter balls, chocolate covered cherries, chocolate covered coconut balls, and almond bark.
My last year at MSU in Bozeman my friends and I got together to make candies and cookies for holidays.  It was so fun to spend time with my close friends in the kitchen, everyone making something to share.  I decided to carry this with me to New York and for the past four years I have had a party.  Everyone brings their ingredients or dough and makes or bakes their treat at my tiny apartment.  This year I mixed up some mulled wine and baked brie as I pretend to be the perfect hostess. 
The mulled wine was really good and simple and since I was debating between mulled wine and spiked cider, this recipe was a perfect in between.  I was doubling the recipe for the large group and used a $3 Trader Joe's Shiraz  for the wine and only half the ginger in the recipe because that was all I had on hand.  It was still delicious.

mulled wine in progress, step one

mulled wine, the finished project

 As for the brie, I made it once using the recipe and since then have made it by memory.  I love the raspberry jam and smear a lot of it on top and pour plenty of syrup on the top.  I normally use a round of brie, but this time i used two wedges and two croissants packages.

Bake brie yummyness. Messy looking, perhaps.

Now on to the goodies.  Every year I make favorite candies that my mom and grandma make back home and one new one that and friends mom introduced me to: chocolate covered peanut butter balls, chocolate covered oreo balls, and chocolate covered peanut butter sandwiches.  If you can't tell, I love chocolate.  We always use almond bark for our covering needs. They have it in white and chocolate.  You can use either one for dipping, but I prefer the chocolate on the peanut butter balls and white on the oreo balls. 

Chocolate Covered Peanut Butter Balls 

• 1/2 cup butter melted
• 1/4 cup corn syrup
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 3 1/2 cups powdered sugar
• 1 cup peanut butter
• 1/2 cup rice krispies (only if you use creamy PB) 
• almond bark (or some kind of candy chocolate) 

Mix all ingredients except almond bark.  I like to put it in the fridge for a bit, but you don't have to.  Roll it into quarter sized balls.  Melt almond bark by directions on package and dip in the balls in chocolate.  Place on wax paper to cool.  Store in the fridge. 

Chocolate Covered Oreo Balls

• one package of oreos (or Trader joes jo-jos, and excellent alternative)
• one package of cream cheese 
• Almond bark

Crush the oreos and mix with the cream cheese.  Roll into quarter sized balls and dip in almond bark.  Place on wax paper to cool. Store in fridge.

Chocolate Covered Peanut butter sandwiches

• Ritz Crackers 
• Peanut butter
• Almond bark

Place peanut butter between two ritz crackers and dip in melted almond bark.  Store in fridge.

The spread of candies, cookies and bars we made this year.

My mom typically mixed the left over almond bark with almond slivers and spread it out on a cookie sheet then break it into pieces once it cooled.  Also called Almond bark.

Oh- one more thing, if you are on the east coast, can you please tell me where to find almond bark?  I bring it back from the mid west every year because I can't find it here.

One of my Favorite Cookies: Turtle Cookies

I have no idea why these are called Turtle Cookies.  They are chocolate goodness made on a waffle iron.  My mom has made them for as long as I can remember.  It has been a long time since I've had them and a few weeks ago I got a hankering for them.  Unfortunately I do not have a normal waffle maker, only a (broken) Belgian one. I decided that I wanted them so much that I asked for a waffle iron for Christmas and so that the next time I had a craving, I wouldn't have to wait for my next trip to South Dakota to get them.
Randomly I was talking to my mom about the waffle iron and she said that my little brother wanted one as well.  For the same reason.  They are so good my brother is willing to wait for them to be baked instead of eating the dough. That means something.

Image from Tasty Kitchen (once I actually make these I will add some pics)

Since it is cookie week (at least on Twitter), I decided I had to add these in honor before I actually baked them.  In fact, I am not sure if I have ever actually made them, I have watched them being made and helped make them for sure.  I have brought a old gallon ice cream bucket full of them back to college after a break at home.  I will definitely be making them over my long break at home in between all my other cookie experiments.

Turtle Cookies
I cup melted butter
1 1/2 cup white sugar
4 eggs, beaten

4 tbsp cocoa
2 cups flour
2 tsp vanilla


Mix and bake on a waffle iron for 1 minute on medium heat, or until baked through.  Cool on wax paper then frost.
Frosting 
1 1/2 cup powdered sugar
1tbsp cocoa powder
milk
coconut
Mix together p. sugar and cocoa.  Add milk until slightly it had a pourable consistence, but not so much that it's runny. Sprinkle coconut on top. Allow to cool and store stacked with wax paper in between to keep from sticking together.

Caramel Sea Salt Brownies

In addition to the salad combination I luckily stumbled upon, I also brought some brownies to the Thanksgiving feast at my boyfriend's apartment this year. I am more confident with sweets and baking then other types of cooking but will admit I've made good friends with Betty Crocker over the years. I never had a problem cutting corners and using a mix. "Made from scratch" never brought me the same satisfaction as I think other people feel. I'm not in this for pride. I'm here for tasty treats! 

I had a bit of a roadblock this Thanksgiving though. My boyfriend and his family revel in doing things the hard way. "Made from scratch" is Kurt's middle name. Practically everything on the table was grown in his parent's garden in Ohio or from nearby. The turkey was raised by a local kid. They would probably grind their own flour before stooping to the level of using a boxed mix of some sort.

So while my Thanksgivings growing up consisted of Stove Top stuffing, cranberry sauce in the shape of a can, and Stauffer's macaroni and cheese, I needed to step up my game, roll up my sleeves, and give this made from scratch thing a try. I had been eying this brownie recipe from a blog I typically read and thought I would give it a try.

The ingredients were pretty basic. However, I would not wait until the Tuesday before Thanksgiving to get your supplies at Whole Foods. It's a madhouse! 

Olivia does a pretty good job of walking you through the recipe and adding some hints. Here are a few of mine:

-I found it helpful to measure out the flour and sugar into small bowls (Martha Stewart style) before starting to cook. Some of the steps move quickly and I didn't want to be fumbling with measuring cups while burning things.

-I let my caramel thicken too long and probably cooked the whole thing in the oven too long. This combined with refrigerating overnight turned my brownie into a brick. It softened a little in the microwave, but I would be mindful of those things and maybe even slice into portions as soon as it comes out of the oven because it will be difficult to cut later.

-In that same vein, wash your caramel saucepan immediately. Otherwise the caramel will harden and be a beast to clean out!

-There isn't any egg in the brownie mixture, so it has a tendency to be crumbly. It is great served warm over some vanilla ice cream. The sea salt is a great complement to the rich and sweet brownie!