Nutella Cream Layer Cake

After reading Jess's post on her red pitaya yoghurt mousse cake from My Birthday Cake by Kevin Chai, I decided that I will be using the same book soon to make a layered cake. Since I have bought the book, I would have to make an effort to use it. The recipe that came to mind was the hazelnut cream cake.

Since there were leftover cream from my recent truffles making, I thought I would put it to good use. Afterall, heavy cream does not store very well and has to be consumed quickly once the pack is opened. All that is left is the hazelnut chocolate spread. Naturally, Nutella was the wise pick here. When it comes to cream frosting, I do not like plain whipped cream. At the very least, I would prefer cream chantilly - vanilla flavoured whipped cream with icing sugar added. In this case, Nutella would lend a rich chocolatey taste to the otherwise plain dairy whipped cream.  

I took out my Wilton cake leveller and my plastic turntable, both obtained from Phoon Huat. These are the baking toys that will come into good use for any layered cakes.

Instead of using the sponge cake recipe as stated, I used a chocolate sponge recipe from another book, similar to the sponge used in my strawberry yoghurt mousse cake, since I did not have any chocolate sponge mix on hand.

Cutting the sponge cake is quite straightforward when using the cake leveller. Simple hold the handle, adjust the height of the cutting wire and cut through the cake in a smooth sawing motion.

 

Notice the grooves on the sides of the cake leveller. The height of the cutting wire can be adjusted by moving the ring attaching the wire up and down and resting on the grooves. The cutting wire may look thin but it is actually taut and strong.

Using the cake leveller to cut sponge layers will result in uniformly sliced layers with smooth flat tops.

Due to the warm humid weather (as always), I had to firm up the cake (with the cream frosting) in the refrigerator so that it will be easier to smoothen the hazelnut cream icing. If the cream is too soft, It will slide down the sides easily.With the help of the plastic turntable, it was so much easier to smoothen the hazelnut chocolate cream. I recall watching a pastry chef working with a turntable at Jurong Point. Back then, I stood aside and watched carefully how the cream frosting was spreaded around the cake, learning some nifty tips and techniques which I applied to my own cream cake.

Overall, I feel that I could have done better with the layering and coating with cream. I should have sliced off the slightly domed top of the sponge and ensured the layers are of equal height. The cream layer is abit too thin to be noticeable towards the edges. Perhaps I will increase the amount of cream next time. I also forgot to do the crumb coat first, resulting in some stray crumbs making their way to the frosting. Nevertheless, it served as a good practice for preparing a layered cake. Since I regarded this as a practice, I did not decorate the top and sides. I will probable use chocolate love letters (wafer sticks) to surround the sides and top the cake with some unskinned hazelnuts next time as suggested.

Tastewise, I like the richness of the hazelnut chocolate cream. It reminds me of melted chocolate ice cream! The sponge is soft and moist but much more springy compared to the one used in the strawberry yoghurt mousse cake even though the recipes are very similar. Maybe this is due to the addition of cocoa powder.  

Bakertan's Chocolate Factory - Part II

2 boxes of  rum and raisins dark chocolate truffles. The size of these truffles were smaller compared to the white chocolate matcha truffles.

Rustic, homemade look

I tried to 'temper' the chocolates using the seeding method without a candy thermometer and it did work for a short moment. The chocolate coating was glossy but when it set, it turned dull, probably due to rapid change in temperatures. 

Notice the inconsistency in the colour of the chocolate coating. This is due to the chocolate undergoing extreme change in temperature. The chocolate coating has developed a chocolate bloom.

Plain dark chocolate truffles with dark chocolate ganache centers. These chocolates were made using a simple inexpensive chocolate mould.

Rum and Raisins Truffles / Plain Dark Chocolate Truffles - see notes below (recipe adapted from Chocolate: 70 of the best recipes from Hamlyn)

Serving size: 15 -20 pieces
Equipment and materials:
1) 2 Heatproof bowls
2) Spoon
3) 2 Fork
4) 3/4 inch or 1 inch Melon baller (optional)
5) Measuring spoon set
6) Baking/parchement paper
7) Foil/paper mini cupcake liners
8) Saucer
9) Clingfilm
10) Baking trays
11) Diposable food gloves
12) Knife for chopping chocolate

Ingredients:
50 ml heavy cream (whipping cream)
85g bittersweet (60% cocao) dark chocolate, finely chopped (use the best quality you can afford)
35g raisins finely chopped and soaked in 2 tbsp dark rum for 1 hour, covered  (I used Meyer's dark rum)
1-3 tsp dark rum
120g - 150g dark chocolate pistoles or finely chopped

Method:

Making the Chocolate Ganache: Place 85g of finely chopped bittersweet dark chocolate in a heatproof bowl.  Place heavy cream in a saucer and heat it untill it is almost coming to a boil on medium heat. Turn off the flame and remove the saucer. Pour the cream over the finely chopped dark chocolate and allow chocolate to sit for a while in the heated cream. Stir gently to allow chocolate to melt and blend in with the cream. Do not overstir or the mixture may become grainy. The smooth cream and dark chocolate mixture is known as a dark chocolate ganache.

If dark chocolate is not completely melted: Place the heatproof bowl over a saucepan filled with water. The bowl should fit snugly onto the saucepan and the bottom of the bowl should not be in contact with the water in the saucepan. Bring the water in the saucepan to a low simmer on low heat. This is known as a double boiler. Stir the chocolate cream mixture gently to obtain a smooth ganache. Do not overstir or the mixture may become grainy.

Cooling and flavouring ganache: Remove heatproof bowl from the heat and allow ganache to cool. Add rum soaked raisins to the cooled ganache. Next, add in 1-3 tsp of dark rum to taste. Place a piece of clingfilm over the bowl and press onto the surface of the ganache. Refrigerate ganache untill firm.

Shaping chocolate ganache balls: When ganache is firm, use a 3/4 inch melon baller to scoop out rounded (slightly heaped) portions onto a tray lined with baking paper. Refrigerate these portions for 10 minutes or untill firm. Using the disposable food gloves, roll the chilled portions into round balls. Refrigerate these round balls for another 10 minutes or till firm. Melt remaining 120g dark chocolate in another heatproof bowl using the double boiler method on low heat.

Coating ganache balls with dark chocolate: Using the tines of 2 fork, dipped the round ganache balls into the melted dark chocolate to coat. Lift the dipped ganache ball away from the melted dark chocolate. Rotate and transfer the coated balls at the same time between the 2 fork to ensure ganache balls are well coated all around. Transfer coated ganache balls to a tray lined with baking paper. Allow the dark chocolate coating to set at cool room temperature. Alternatively, refirgerate coated ganache balls untill firm.

Storing chocolate truffles: Line truffles with mini cupcake papers and store truffles in a single layer in the refrigerator for several days. Serve truffles at room temperature, not chilled and directly from the refrigerator.

 
Notes:

1) For Plain Dark Chocolate Truffles, omit the raisins and rum. Follow the above method as stated.

2) For Liqueur Truffles, omit the raisins and rum. Add 1-3 tsp of desired liqueur to taste. (Bailey's is a

good choice)  

3) Chocolate truffles are best eaten at room temperature. When eaten chilled, the chocolate flavour is 'trapped'.

4) It takes some practice to melt dark chocolate. Dark chocolate is easier to melt as compared to white chocolate. The best is to use low heat. If the water in the double boiler comes to a strong boil, the heat may cause the dark chocolate to burn. Burnt dark chocolate is dry and cannot be melted anymore.

5) Do not allow even a drop of water to come into contact with the melted dark chocolate. The dark chocolate will seize and will be unusable. If this happens and you still want to salvage the dark chocolate, add in more water instead and stir constantly. The melted dark chocolate will become smooth but end up being watery, affecting the taste and texture. Use it as a chocolate sauce instead.

Bakertan's Chocolate Factory: Part 1

Tomorrow will be the Blogger's meetup initiated by Pei-Lin. At the thought of meeting up with other fellow food bloggers, I feel kind of excited. Afterall, this is my first meetup and I always thought it would be great to meet up like-minded people sharing the same passion for food and its preparation.  

Each of us is supposed to bring along one homemade food item for the potluck. I have long decided that I would be doing chocolate truffles. Since everyone knows how to bake and is pretty proficient at it, I decided not to do any baked goods. Cooking is out of the option as I only have that few kitchen tricks up my sleeves, hardly worthy to be brought along for the potluck. Furthermore, a potluck would signify an excess of food. Chocolate truffles are hardly filling and hence would be a good idea for an after-meal dessert.  

The first time I made chocolate truffles was ages ago, dating back to about one and a half years back. Back then, my best friend was leaving Singapore for China on an overseas exchange. Hence, I made some Bailey's chocolate truffles for his farewell. My maiden attempt turned out well. Making Chocolate truffles seems like an easy affair with few ingredients to handle. However, it is time consuming having to chopped chocolates finely, melt the chocolates, make the ganache, refrigerate the ganache, scoop the truffle centers and coat them with chocolate. The weather is definitely not on my side since Singapore is humid and warm all year round. We only have one season here and that is Summer.

In total, I made 3 different flavoured chocolate truffles to bring along to the meetup: green tea white chocolate truffles, rum and raisins truffles and lastly plain dark chocolate truffles. Out of these, the green tea truffles took the longest time to prepare. I started with the green tea truffles first and gained some practice. Making the rum and raisins truffles became much easier afterwards. For the plain chocolate truffles, I used a simple chocolate mould to differentiate them from the rum and raisin truffles, since both are covered with dark chocolate.

Rolled green tea truffles centers

Notice that the truffle is sweating due to condensation.

Green tea truffle speckled with matcha powder. The idea is inspired by this website

Reminds me of mooncakes. Anyway Mid-Autumm will be coming soon..

Truffle centers actually look like pandan lotus paste

I chose 3 of the not so good looking ones and sampled them. Taste is not too shabby. Those who do not like white chocolate probably will not appreciate the sweet milky caramel taste.

Thats all for now regarding tomorrow's  preview. Will take more pictures on the remaining truffles soon....

Green Tea Truffles ( recipe adapted from Truffles: 50 Delicious Decadent Homemade Chocolate Treats by Dede Wilson)

Serving size: 11 pieces

Equipment and materials:

1) 2 Heatproof bowls
2) Spoon
3) 2 Fork
4) 3/4 inch or 1 inch Melon baller (optional)
5) Measuring spoon set
6) Baking/parchement paper
7) Foil/paper mini cupcake liners
8) Saucer
9) Clingfilm
10) Baking trays
11) Diposable food gloves
12) Knife for chopping chocolate

Ingredients:
50 ml heavy cream (whipping cream)
120g white chocolate, finely chopped (use the best quality you can afford)
1/2 to 1 & 1/2 tsp matcha powder
120g white chocolate pistoles or finely chopped
a little matcha powder to sprinkle on green tea truffles

Method:

Making the chocolate ganache: Place 120g of finely chopped white chocolate in a heatproof bowl. Place cream in a saucer and heat it till it is almost coming to a boil on medium heat. Off the flame and remove the saucer. Pour the cream over the finely chopped white chocolate and allow chocolate to sit for a while in the heated cream. Stir gently to allow chocolate to melt and blend in with the cream. When chocolate is blended with cream, the resulting mixture will be cream coloured. The mixture cream chocolate mixture is known as a white chocolate ganache.

If white chocolate is not completely melted: Place heatproof bowl over a saucepan filled with water. The bowl should fit snugly onto the saucepan and the base of the bowl should not be in contact with the water in the saucepan. Bring the water in the saucepan to a low simmer on low heat. This is known as a double boiler. Stir the white chocolate and cream mixture until the white chocolate melts completely to obtain a smooth ganache.

Cooling and flavouring ganache: Remove heatproof bowl from the heat and allow ganache to cool. Add in 1/2 tsp of matcha powder to the cooled ganance. Mix evenly. Add more matcha powder to taste if required. White chocolate is very sweet so strike a balance between the green tea flavour and the milky sweetness of the white chocolate. Allow ganache to cool. Place a piece of clingfilm over the bowl and press onto the surface of the ganache. Refrigerate ganache till firm.

Shaping matcha white chocolate ganache balls: When ganache is firm, use a melon baller to scoop out rounded (slightly heaped) portions onto a tray lined with baking paper. Return to refrigerate these portions for 10 minutes or till firm. Using the disposable food gloves, roll the portions into round balls. Refrigerate for another 10 minutes or till firm.

Coating ganache balls with white chocolate: Melt remaining 120g white chocolate in another heatproof bowl using the double boiler method on low heat. Using the tines of 2 fork, dipped the round ganache balls into the melted white chocolate to coat. Lift the dipped ganache ball up from the melted white chocolate. Rotate and transfer the coated balls at the same time between the 2 fork to ensure ganache balls are well coated all around. Transfer coated ganache balls to a tray lined with baking paper. While chocolate coating is still soft, sprinkle a pinch of matcha powder randomly on top of each coated ganache ball. Allow the white chocolate coating to set at cool room temperature. Alternatively, refirgerate coated ganache balls untill firm.

Storing chocolate truffles: Line truffles with mini cupcake papers and store truffles at cool room temperature covered or in the refrigerator for several days. Serve truffles at room temperature, not chilled and directly from the refrigerator to enjoy the flavour.

Notes:

1) It takes some practice to melt white chocolate. White chocolate has to be melted using low heat over a double boiler and constantly stirred gently. If the water in the double boiler comes to a strong boil, the heat may cause the white chocolate to burn. Burnt white chocolate is dry and cannot be melted anymore. From experience, white chocolate is the hardest to melt among all chocolates.

2) As an alternative, roll the ganache balls onto matcha powder. It will work fine too.

3) Another alternative would be to roll the ganache balls onto grated white chocolate. This was the intention in the book by Dede Wilson

Banana Kueh with Chocolate Frosting?

What was meant to be a banana cake turned out to be a banana kueh instead. I had planned to try out the banana cake with chocolate frosting from Nancie McDermott's Southern Cakes. Borrowed the book a second time and I was tempted to at least try out one of the promising cakes.

I can only say my journey was wrought with perils. Only several hours after I assembled the cake did I realise I made a grave mistake. I added too much buttermilk, thinking that the cake required 1 cup when the recipe stated 1/2 cup. This was a blatant mistake. No wonder the cake did not seemed to rise much. There was far too much liquid for the amount of raising agents.  

Problems did not just stop at that. While making the frosting, the cocoa and butter mixture turned into an oily messy instead of a shiny essence as described as in the book. This was a familiar sight as I had such encounters previously. Determined to produce the frosting, I re-attempted and this time round I did not follow the instructions in the book. What I did was melt the butter first then added the evaporated milk and the cocoa powder. This should had been the proper method. There were still random grains of unmelted cocoa lying around but I decided to proceed with the addition of icing sugar. It was like undissolved bits of Milo powder when room temperature water is used.

I was skeptical about the amount of icing sugar used. It says 4 cups which is about a whooping 460g of sugar needed. In the end, I only used 300g of icing sugar to allow the frosting to reach a fudgy consistency. When I sampled the frosting, it was disgustingly sweet! Imagine even a sweet tooth like me cannot stand the sweetness. Nevertheless, I assembled the cake and prayed that the overall taste would not be so sickly sweet afterall. Thankfully, the sweetness of the assembled cake was mellowed down to an acceptable level, albeit it was leaning towards the sweet side. Perhaps due to the chilling of the the cake overnight, it tasted like a chocolate frosted layered banana kueh. Interesting~ 

My Lessons Learnt:
1) Read the ingredient list CAREFULLY.
2) Melt the butter first before adding the cocoa powder. Do not dump both the butter and cocoa together to melt.
3) Avoid frostings with ridiculous amounts of sugar.

Once Bitten, Twice Not Shy

 

When I first got hold of my Martha Stewart Cookies, I thought to myself that there would be lots of delicious cookies for me to look forward to. The book seem to promise delectable cookie recipes with mouth-watering pictures. Nah. I was proven wrong when I tried out my first Martha Stewart cookie. It ended up as a melted pool of buttery mess in the oven. I could not bear to dump them and so I tried to salvage them to the best of my ability.

The cookies ended up staying in the oven much longer to firm up. What I gathered from the experience was  the recipe had way too little flour to create a good structure. Taste-wise, there were too many elements, causing the cookie to lose it focus. As the saying goes, "too many cooks spoil the broth".

I thought of chucking the book aside after the horrid experience. Later, I thought I would give the book another chance, to prove that my purchase was not all in vain .

Browsing through the book, I decided upon a Milk Chocolate Cookie recipe. This time round, I checked the ingredient list to make sure that it is a safe recipe and not one that would spell disaster.

Thankfully, Martha Stewart did not disappoint this time round. The cookies were supremely rich, chewy and brownie-like. In fact, It would have made a good brownie recipe.

Do not let the wrinkled appearance of these round disks fool you. They certainly spell chocolate with a capital C.

On my visit to NTUC Xtra today, I picked up a book - 300 Best Chocolate Recipes, at a great bargain price of 12 SGD. It would have cost around 33 SGD elsewhere. The author Julie Hasson had caught my eye and without much consideration, I made the purchase.

Milk Chocolate Cookies ( recipe adapted from Martha Stewart Cookies )

Equipment: Cookie trays/ sheet, baking parchment/paper

Cookie Dough:

140g plain flour

40g dutch processed cocoa powder ( I used Varlhona)

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

220g milk chocolate, ( 110g coarsely chopped, more if desire and 110g finely chopped)

115g butter, cubed

200g caster sugar (try cutting down on this)

2 eggs (60g each including shell)

1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract

Method:
1) Preheat oven to 160 degrees C.
2) Line cookie pans with baking paper.
3) Sift dry ingredients into a large bowl and whisk together to ensure uniform distribution.
4) Place a heatproof bowl over a pan of simmering water without the bowl touching the water.This is known as a double boiler. Melt the finely chopped chocolate and butter. Stir to obtain a smooth mixture. Allow to cool.
5) In a large bowl, beat cooled chocolate mixture, sugar, eggs and vanilla on medium speed until well combined. Add in flour mixture in 3 batches and beat on low speed to obtain a smooth batter. Scrape bottom and sides of bowl with a spatula to incoorporate loose flour. The resulting batter is very thick.
6) Fold in coarsely chopped milk chocolate chunks.
7) Scoop out rounded (slightly heaped) tablespoons of dough onto lined trays. Bake for 15 minutes. When done, the cookies will look puffy and soft but will deflate into flat disks upon cooling. Allow to cool for 2 minutes on tray before transferring to wire racks to cool.

Note:
1) Do 2 cookies as a test batch to determine your baking time. Repeat if necessary.
2) Cookies will stick to baking paper. Use a spatula to scrape underneath the cookies slowly to release them.
3) Try cutting down on the sugar as cookies are quite sweet.

Chocolate Chip Cookies

It has been quite a while since I baked any cookies. Previously, my bakes were mainly in the area of tarts or cakes. Now its time to give more attention to my cookie recipes.

Cookies always warrant a satisfying treat for me whenever I am hungry or just itching for a munch. I could eat several of them in one go. This was the case for my one-day old chocolate chip cookies. I ate about 12 of the 16 cookies I baked and they were all gone the next day. I did have the intention to share it with some friends though, guess they just did not have the fortune to enjoy these snacks.

Baking chocolate chip cookies seems like a easy task. Getting the desired texture is another different story. Some people like it dense and chewy - supporters of the Subway cookie, others like it crunchy like the Famous Amos cookies. For me, I am alright with both the chewy and crunchy variations. Would prefer the Subway variation slightly better though.  

The recipe I referred to churned out cookies that were soft, cake-like and tender with crunchy crisp edges. These were unlike any cookies I have tasted. After a day of storage in non-airtight containers, they became slightly chewy. It was a good break from the usual chocolate chip cookies.

This is the first time that I am making giant 2-tablespoon sized cookies. Making these large cookies required less effort to shape the dough into mounds and scooping them onto the baking trays. However, I could only bake 3 to 4 such cookies in a batch due to the size of my baking trays.

Cakey Chocolate Chip Cookies ( recipe adapted from Chocolate Chocolate by Lisa Yockelson)
Serving size: 15 - 18 cookies

Equipment and materials: 

1) Stand electric beater/ handheld electric beater or wooden spoon
2) Measuring spoon set
3) Spatula
4) Mixing bowl
5) Wire rack
6) Cookie trays/Baking trays
7) Flour sieve
8) Parchment/baking paper
9) Weighing scale

Cookie Dough:

125g plain (all-purpose) flour

20g cake flour

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp salt

115g unsalted butter, softened

80g light brown sugar

50g caster sugar

1 egg (60g)

1 tsp vanilla extract

185g semisweet chocolate chips

extra chocolate chips (see notes)

Method:

Prepare Oven: Preheat oven to 180 degrees C.

Prepare dry ingredients: Sift dry ingredients into a large bowl. Use a balloon whisk to whisk the mixture well to ensure uniform distribution.

Making the batter: Beat the butter on medium low speed for about 3 minutes. Add in both sugars and beat for a further 3 minutes. The butter mixture should be light and fluffy. Notice that the volume of butter mixture will increase noticeably after beating. Next, add in the egg and beat until combined. Blend in the vanilla extract to ensure the flavour is evenly distributed.

Incorporating the flour and chips: Add the flour mixture into the butter mixture in 2 additions. Beat until just combined for each addition. This is when all flour particles are absorbed and there is no visible trail. Scrape down the sides and the bottom of the bowl with a spatula to ensure that the dough is evenly mixed. Lastly, fold in the chocolate chips.

Shaping the dough: Scoop 2-tablespoon-size dough onto the baking trays lined with baking paper. Leave some space between each cookie. The cookies will spread to about 3 inches during baking.

Ready to bake: Bake cookies for about 13 - 15 minutes. Cookie centers will be soft but will set upon cooling. Leave cookies to cool on baking sheets for 2 minutes before transferring to wire racks to cool completely.

Note:

1) Use one cookie dough as a test batch to determine the required baking time for your oven.

2) The last bit of cookie dough may have less chocolate chips. Fold in some extra chocolate chips.

Art of The Chocolate Tart

These days, tarts are fast becoming part of my baking routine. With some leftover cream from a previous bake, I decided to churn out some chocolate tarts.

Flipping through my collection of bake books, I decided to marry two recipes from two different books. Instead of making a whole 10 inch tart, I thought it would be nice to tweak things a little. Why not make smaller tarts instead? Well, it seemed pretty straight forward, but there is slightly more work involved in making smaller tarts. I have to measure out the exact weight of dough for each small tart tin and press the dough in to fit. The recipe made enough for 13 tarts, meaning that I had to repeat the pressing dough into tart tin process 13 times. I would not say it is difficult to do so, but the repetitive nature is enough to bore me. What a chore!

Next up was deciding the amount of chocolate filling for the tarts. I made a small portion and it was sufficient to fill 6 of the tart crusts. After filling the 6 tart crusts, I soon realized that the filling was too bitter for my liking. What I did next was prepared enough filling for the rest of the tart crusts. I then scooped out the fillings from the tarts I have already prepared and mixed them in with the rest of the newly prepared filling, added some honey and it was good to go.

Silky Chocolate Tarts (Crust recipe adapted from Tarts: Sweet and Savoury)
Equipment: 3 inch (measured from top) individual tart tins. Mine comes in a pack of 12.

Pate Sucree:
200g flour
60g icing sugar
85g diced unsalted butter, softened and at room temperature
2 egg yolks
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
2 tbs iced water

Method:
1) Sift flour and sugar into a bowl. Use a whisk to distribute the ingredients evenly.
2) Pour the flour and sugar mixture onto a clean surface. Make a well in the middle.
3) Place the butter, egg yolks and vanilla in the well. Use one hand to peck the butter and yolks together until it becomes like scrambled eggs
4) Using a long palette knife, spoon flour over the well and chop throughout to mix the butter mixture and the flour mixture. The end result should be lumpy.
5) Add the iced water and continue chopping with the knife.
6) Using both hands, bring the mixture to a ball of dough.
7) Wrap it in clingfilm and allow dough to chill for 45 minutes.
8) Preheat oven to 180 degrees C
9) When dough is chilled, weight 30g dough for each tart tin. Press dough evenly to fit the tins.
10) Chill dough for 20 minutes before baking.
11) Place a piece of baking paper over the top of the tart tins. Fill with baking beans or dry beans/ raw rice. Place in oven and bake for 10 minutes.
12) Remove baking paper and baking beans and return tart crusts to oven and bake a further 10 - 15minutes till crusts are dry.
13) Allow crusts to cool and remove from tart tins when done.

Silky Chocolate Filling:
225ml cream
180g dark chocolate (50 - 60% cocoa)
1 tbs liquer of choice: Bailey's, Rum, Cointreau, Kahlua will do fine.
2 - 4 tbs corn syrup/ honey (start with 2 tbs, add more if desired)

Method:
1) Heat cream in a heatproof bowl over a double boiler. When cream is hot, add the chocolate. Allow chocolate to soften then stir to allow chocolate and cream to combine.
2) Remove bowl from heat. Stir in corn syrup and liquer. Allow chocolate filling to cool
3) Spoon chocolate filling into individual tart crusts. Chill tarts in fridge until filling is set.

When the Tastes Combine

Sometimes, it would be nice to combine two of your favourite flavours. What I did was to dig out this Chocolate Rum and Raisin Cupcakes recipe from Tempt: Cupcakes to Excite by Betty Saw. This is the 2nd time I have done this recipe. The 1st time I tried it out after borrowing the book from the library, I knew I had to re-cake this recipe once again.

Thankfully, I got hold of a copy of the book on offer at more than 60% off from the original price. What a great bargain man! And to think that I would actually find it to be in a place like NTUC Fairprice Extra..

This time round, I increased the proportion and added more raisins which is to my liking. I also upped the amount of rum to give it a stronger kick. The alterations did not fail me and there it was - moist chocolatey cupcakes with a the right blend of rum - not too subtle not too overpowering. When the tastes of rum and chocolate combines, it is just amazing!

The cupcakes are so moist that the top layer remains slightly fudgy, as can be seen in the pictures above.

Chocolate Rum and Raisins Cupcakes ( Recipe adapted from Tempt: Cupcakes to Excite by Betty Saw)

Equipment: Muffin tin with holes 5cm in diamter measured from the base, cupcake liners/paper

Ingredients:

105g raisins, chopped

60ml dark rum

130g unsalted butter, softened

110g caster sugar

3 eggs (60g each) , separated and at room temperature

150g dark chocolate ( I used 60%), melted

110g self raising flour, sifted

1 tbs dark rum

Method:

1) Preheat oven to 160 degrees C and line muffin tin with cupcake liners/paper.

2) Combine rum and raisins and allow to soak for 3 hours.

3) Cream butter and 55g sugar until light and fluffy. Add egg yolks one by one until combined

4) Add one tbs rum to the rum soaked raisins. The rum should have evapoarated after 3 hours. Stir in rum raisins mixture and melted chocolate to combine. Next fold in the flour until well combined.

5) In a separate clean bowl, beat egg whites until foamy. Add remaining 55g sugar gradually and beat until egg whites are almost stiff. The egg whites should be moist and creamy and not chunky.

6) Fold one third of beaten egg white to the mixture in 3) to lighten. Fold in remaining egg whites until combined using a whisk.

7) Scoop batter into cupcake liners and bake for 20minutes or until toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean.

Notes:

1) Recipe makes about 14 cupcakes

2) Taste of cupcake matures as day passes

3) Use a clean metal (preferably) bowl and beater to beat egg whites.

Supremely Fudgy Brownies

Whoever came up with Brownies is truly a genious. How could anyone possibly resist this tempting rich piece of chocolate goodness? Brownies come in different texture. There is the cakey version, the fudgy version and the cross between the fudgy and cake-like. I like my brownies to be fudgy and gooey most of the time. When paired with ice-cream, I will prefer it to be cake-like but warm and very moist, almost slightly gooey.

 

This time round, I attempted my first recipe from Lisa Yockelson's Chocolate Chocolate. The book comes with a pretty hefty price of  78 SGD. Luckily I picked it up as a book bargain at Harris at just 30 bucks. As with other brownie recipes, this one was easy to execute, except that the recipe called for unsweetened chocolate. Unsweetened chocolate is one ingredient that is hard to come by and most supermarkets do not carry it.

I have only come across 2 brands of unsweetened chocolate so far - Baker's unsweetened chocolate and Hershey's unsweetened chocolate. I used the earlier as it was recommended by the book as one that is of superior quality. Unsweetened chocolate bars can be found in Cold storage, Ntuc fairprice extra outlets and Sheng Shiong.

As the name suggests, the brownies turned out dense and fudgy with a crunchy crust, exactly like the ones in the book. I have tried several different brownie recipes and this recipe is definitely one of the better ones.

Supremely fudgy brownies ( recipe adapted from Lisa Yockelson's Chocolate Chocolate )
Equipment: 9 inch square pan

Ingredients:
130g plain flour
30g cake flour
2 tbs akalized cocoa powder ( Hershey's cocoa is not akalized)
1/4 tsp baking powder
1/8 tsp salt
225g unsalted butter, melted and cooled
120g unsweentened chocolate, melted and cooled ( 4 individually wrapped squares)
4 eggs, 60g each
280g granulated sugar (I cut down on 120g of sugar on my 2nd attempt)
1 1/2tsp vanilla extract

Method:
1) Preheat oven to 160 degrees C.
2) Sift all dry ingredients into a large bowl and whisk them together to distribute evenly.
3) Mix melted butter and melted chocolate until well combined.
4) Whisk eggs to combine egg whites and yolks, about 30 seconds. Add in sugar and whisk another 30 seconds.
5) Add the vanilla extract and chocolate butter mixture to the egg-sugar mixture. Stir till combined
6) Add in combined dry ingredients and stir to form a batter. The final batter is smooth and gooey, possibly with some air bubbles.
7) Bake at 160 degrees C for 25 to 35 minutes. If the middle part is still shiny and lava like whereas the perimeter is dull and dry, return it to the oven and bake a further 5 minutes.The colour of the crust should be uniformly dull and the middle part should be slightly squidy as compared to the sides which have a firmer feel.
8) Allow the brownie to cool in the pan, for about 2 to 3 hours before refrigerating for 1 hour.