It seems I keep reading about chocolate chip cookies – David Lebovitz had a recipe for salted butter chocolate chip cookies and Tartelette had one for 36 hour gluten-free cookies. A few clicks later and I was suddenly reading an article from The New York Times on the quest for the perfect chocolate chip cookie. According to The New York Times’ research, the key elements of a delicious chocolate chip cookie are as follows:

• serve the cookies warm;
• use good quality chocolate, with a high percentage of cocoa (at least 60%). For an even better cookie, use chocolate féves, which are thin discs of chocolate and which will melt better, resulting in layers of chocolate in the cookie;
• have a high ratio of chocolate chips to dough (the cookie should be between 40-60% chocolate);
• make a large cookie so that there are three distinct textural elements – gooey centre, crisp outer and a strata in the middle where gooey mixes with crunchy;
• add some salt to take away the sweetness of the cookie; and
• rest the dough for 36 hours before baking it.

I was fine with all the tips except for the 36 hour one. As I have mentioned previously, I have a ‘want it now’ mentality when it comes to cooking. The whole concept of finding time to make a batch of dough but not getting to eat the results for several days was just too much for me. I planned to make these on 3 occasions before I actually got around to it… and even when I did get around to it, I confess, I didn’t immediately wait the 36 hours (oh, the shame!). I made the cookie dough, chilled it for a couple of hours, then made a batch of 8 cookies, before resting the dough another 30 odd hours and baking another batch. I rationalised that in baking some immediately and some after the correct chilling period, I could test the theory and determine whether it is worth the wait.

Saskia and I carefully tasted the cookie from the dough that was cooked almost immediately (about 2-3 hours rest time) and the cookie from the dough that had had the full 36 hour treatment. To be honest, there wasn’t a huge difference between them. The New York Times commented that the batch which had been rested for 36 hours baked up much browner than the other batches and had a richer, more toffee like flavour. Our first batch still browned very nicely and as to the toffee notes, there really wasn’t too much of a difference as far as we could tell. My recommendation would be to rest the dough for as long as you can, but don’t get too concerned about the precise timing. These babies were delicious after the dough had been given a short rest and they were delicious later on too.

Spelt chocolate chip cookies

Adapted from The New York Times.

Makes approximately 25 cookies – while this is a lot, I wouldn’t reduce the quantities as the cookies are delicious and the dough will freeze well. After an epic two days of cookie eating, I’m happy to have a rest from them and bake my last 8 another time, straight from the freezer. Yum.

480g plain flour (or 580g if using spelt flour)
1 1/4 tsp bicarbonate soda
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
pinch of sea salt
280g butter
280g brown sugar
225g caster sugar
2 eggs
2 tsp vanilla essence
570g chocolate, chopped (I used a mixture of dark chocolate (80% cocoa) and milk chocolate as I had that on hand)
sea salt

• Sift flour, bicarb soda and baking powder into a large bowl, stir to combine, add a pinch of sea salt and then set aside.
• In an electric mixer, mix butter and both sugars until very light and fluffy (about 5 minutes).
• Add the eggs one at a time and beat well after each addition.
• Add in the vanilla.
• Add in the flour mixture in a couple of batches and mix on low speed until just combined. Tip the chocolate pieces in and stir by hand until the chocolate is mixed throughout.
• Form the dough into a ball and refrigerate, 36 hours is best and you can leave it for up to 72 hours.
• When ready to bake, preheat the oven to 180C.
• Scoop the dough and form into large, knobbly golf-balls. I found it more difficult to shape the dough after it had been chilled for a longer period and used a knife to prise the dough apart, before shaping with my hands. Place the cookies on a tray lined with baking paper, with lots of space between them (I baked batches of 4 to a tray).
• Bake for 18-20 minutes until golden brown but still soft.
• Cool on a wire rack and then eat, still warm. Yum!

So it seems that this blog is quickly becoming a shrine to David Lebovitz. I do realise that this could get boring for you, dear reader, but, what can I say? His recipes are damned good. I promise to have a break from ‘David talk’ for a couple of weeks. Right after this post.

So I have never been particularly successful at making ice-cream myself, mostly because I lack the patience to do it properly. Usually, when I decide to make ice-cream, its because I want it *now*. Which would be fine if I had one of those impressive machines where you can add in hot custard and out comes ice-cream shortly thereafter. Unfortunately, I have a machine that needs the bowl to be pre-frozen and the mixture thoroughly chilled before anything resembling ice-cream can be made. To add time to the process, I also need to freeze the ice-cream my machine makes (well, lets say, my somewhat frozen custard) before it is edible in ice-cream form. This doesn’t bode well for my ‘need it now’ mentality and as a result, I have made exactly 4 batches of ice-cream in my machine in the 4 years I have owned it.

As soon as I  saw this recipe I knew I had to make it. I also was a little smarter this time and started making the ice-cream before I had any cravings for it. The most difficult aspect of making this ice-cream was realising that the paddle to my ice-cream maker had mysteriously disappeared, just as I was ready to churn it. I made an emergency dash to some friends that live nearby and borrowed their ice-cream maker (thanks V & M!).

So how was it? This ice-cream stays pretty soft, so it was light and creamy in texture. It was rich in flavour, with strong caramel and a hint of salt (I may add a little more next time). It was honestly one of the best ice-creams I have eaten and was hands down the best I have ever made (though to be honest, the bar wasn’t set too high on that count). I will definitely make it again (just need to find that bloody paddle to my ice-cream maker!).

Salted butter caramel ice-cream

From David Lebovitz

For the caramel custard

• First, make an ice bath by filling a large bowl with ice cubes, adding a little water and sitting a smaller metal bowl into the larger one. Pour half the milk (250ml) into the metal bowl and rest a strainer over the top.
• Make another caramel with the 300g sugar (as per above).
• Once caramel is finished, remove from the hear, stir in the butter and salt, then whisk in the cream. Stir in the other 250ml of milk.
• Whisk the yolks in a small bowl, then add a little of the warm caramel mixture. Stir the mix constantly, then scrape the yolks back into the saucepan. Cook the custard over the heat until the mixture thickens (about 71-77C on a thermometer).
• Pour the custard into the metal bowl through the strainer, into the chilled milk. Add vanilla, then stir until the mixture cools. Chill the mixture in the fridge overnight.
• Churn the mixture in your ice-cream maker. Crumble the praline into bits and crumble into the ice-cream. Freeze until firm (or as firm as it will be, this ice-cream is pretty soft).
• Enjoy!

As I have previously mentioned, I recently bought David Lebovitz’s Ready for Dessert. I love sweet things!

After an almost disaster with the Daring Baker’s Swiss Roll challenge, Saskia and I whipped up these cookies. I was headed to an afternoon tea and had planned on taking the Swiss Roll, but when things were looking disastrous we made these as a back up. These were simple to make and pretty damned delicious.

The recipe calls for 260g of peanut butter, although we only had about half that amount. We improvised and whizzed up some macadamia nuts to make a nut butter. These cookies still had quite a peanut flavour but were a bit milder thanks to the macadamia. They were really chewy and buttery, and perfect with a cup of tea. I’ll be making these again!

Peanut butter and macadamia cookies

Adapted from David Lebovitz’s Ready for Dessert

200g macadamia nuts
2 tbs neutral tasting oil (vegetable oil or grapeseed oil, not olive oil)
175g plain flour (or 210g if using spelt flour)
1 tbs baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
115g unsalted butter, melted
100g caster sugar, plus extra for coating the cookies
120g brown sugar
130g creamy peanut butter
1 large egg, at room temperature

• First, make the macadamia butter. Place the macadamia nuts into a blender and blend until broken into small pieces. Add the oil until it forms a paste and a small amount of salt to taste.

• Whisk together the flour, baking powder and salt in a small bowl and set aside.
• Beat the butter, both sugars, peanut butter and macadamia butter on medium speed until it is smooth.
• Beat in the egg.
• Add the flour mixture and blend just until the dough comes together.

• Cover the mixture and refrigerate for at least 2 hours, or overnight.
• Pre-heat the oven to 175C.
• Let the dough come to room temperature. Line a baking tray with paper. Pour some caster sugar into a small  bowl.
• Roll the dough into 3cm balls, roll in sugar and place on the baking trays. Use a fork to press the biscuits down:

• Bake until the cookies start to brown around the edges (about 9-10 minutes), the cookies will look a bit uncooked in the middle. Don’t wait until the cookies look completely cooked, they will lose their lovely chewiness.
• Cool on the trays until they are firm, then transfer to a wire rack.
• Enjoy!

July is a time full of family birthdays, with Mr M, my mother then my sister-in-law, C all having birthdays in a row, with a week separating each.

When we got together for my mum’s birthday, I naturally offered to do the cake baking, particularly as I was itching to test out my brand new cookbook from David Lebovitz ‘Ready for Dessert’ (and yes, I am *always* ready for dessert). The only stumbling block was that mum requested a caramel cake, which is fine, but it seems David has a thing for chocolate (and so do I) and his book was filled with decadent chocolatey goodness.

I trawled through my cookbooks and was feeling generally a bit uninspired with the suggestions on offer. In Nigella Lawson’s ‘How to be a Domestic Goddess’ she includes a recipe for an Autumnal birthday cake, a layered cake spiked with maple syrup. This looked perfect.

As I was baking the cake I came across a slight problem, that I had bought a bottle of maple syrup, but the original recipe calls for a total of 1 litre of maple syrup (750 mls in the cake and 250mls in the icing). My bottle was a paltry 500mls. Not good (and serves me for being disorganised and not carefully reading the quantities prior to heading to the supermarket). Somewhat panicked, I substituted golden syrup for 250ml of the maple syrup and set about trying to find an alternative frosting that would work with the cake. I settled on a butterscotch cream cheese frosting,  adapted from the Magnolia Bakery Cookbook , basically because we had all the ingredients in the house, and maple and butterscotch go together right?!? I also decided to steal an idea from the Magnolia cookbook and place toasted pecans in between the layers:

So how was this experimental cake? It was very tall (given it was two layers), quite dense and had the very rich frosting, so tiny pieces were required. Since the frosting has cream cheese in it, is isn’t super sweet and there is a little hint of salty savouriness. The cake itself didn’t taste all that maple-y, which is probably because I didn’t use enough of the stuff, though I have read elsewhere  that the original was almost too maple-y (the quote is “it tasted like pancakes”). The toasted pecans gave a nice textural element and a slight earthy, toastiness.

All in all, it “wasn’t my best cake ever” (thanks for that Mr M) but it was pretty tasty and mum reported that it improved overnight and was absolutely delicious when she took it in to work the following day. It would be worth trying the recipe with the correct quantities of maple syrup and seeing whether it made a difference…

Butterscotch, maple and toasted pecan layer cake

For the cake

170g butter, softened
75g caster sugar
3 large eggs
750ml maple syrup (or, if you fail at buying the right amount of maple syrup – 500ml maple syrup and 250ml golden syrup)
400g plain flour (or 480g if using spelt flour)
6 tsp baking powder
180ml hot water

For the frosting

• Pre-heat the oven to 175C.
• Mix the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add the eggs one by one. Beat well after each egg is added. Gradually pour in the maple syrup and continue beating until smooth.
• Mix the baking powder and flour. Spoon in half the flour mix into the butter and eggs, followed by the hot water, then the remainder of the flour. Beat gently until smooth.
• Divide the batter between 2 8inch round, springform cake tins. Bake for 40 minutes.
• Allow to cool completely before frosting.
• To make the frosting, beat the cream cheese and butter in an electric mixer until smooth.
• Add the sugar, golden syrup and vanilla and beat until smooth and creamy. Cover and refrigerate for 1 hour before using.
• Toast the pecans in a 175C oven for about 10 minutes, until lightly coloured and fragrant. Chop roughly.
• To assemble, place one cake on the serving platter, spread with frosting and most of the chopped pecans. Layer the other cake on top and cover the top and sides with frosting. Garnish with more chopped pecans.
• Enjoy!  

Up until recently, I had never heard of whoopie pies. However, suddenly the damned things were everywhere on the blog front and even the New York Times explained that whoopie pies are ‘having their moment‘.

So what is it? It’s somewhere between a cake and a cookie, sandwiched with frosting. This American treat has its origins  in New England, where it is sold in petrol stations and milk bars. According to Wikipedia, an alternative name for a whoopie pie is the gob, which doesn’t sound too appealing to me at all.

Anyway, I decided to give them a try. These are incredibly easy to make and you probably have all the ingredients already (except perhaps the buttermilk, although apparently you can make your own in 5 minutes). These pies are traditionally made with chocolate cookie/cake sandwiched with vanilla frosting, although there are many variations. I decided to make some pies with traditional vanilla filling and the remainder with butterscotch filling, because I love caramel. Traditionally, these pies are also of quite a decent size (the recipe below is meant to make 6 pies), but I decided to make mini versions.  According to the writers of a cookbook titled ‘whoopie pies’, apparently making them mini is also acceptable.

So how were they? I actually preferred the traditional vanilla to the butterscotch filling as the pies are quite dense and the butterscotch was perhaps a bit too subtle. The texture of the pies is different to anything I have eaten before and I can only describe them as a cake-like biscuit. I enjoyed the novelty of these and they were so easy I would definitely whip up another batch again.

Whoopie Pies

Adapted from the New York Times

Ingredients

Note: this recipe originally makes 6 filled pies, although I made smaller pies and made about 16.
Also note, the quantities for the buttercream are enough for all the pies. If you wish to make both fillings, halve the recipes.

For the vanilla buttercream

Method

For the vanilla buttercream

For the butterscotch buttercream

• Beat the cream cheese and butter in an electric mixer until smooth.
• Add the sugar, golden syrup and vanilla and beat until smooth and creamy.
• Cover and refrigerate for 1 hour before using.

• Use an ice cream scoop, spoon or pipe buttercream on flat side of half the pies, then sandwich another pie on top. Store in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 3 days, or wrap individually and freeze for up to 3 months.
• Enjoy!

The Daring Bakers’ July challenge was a Swiss roll ice cream cake (see here). We made all the essential elements but did not quite manage to put them together. I was in charge of making two ice creams. Emily and I made the Swiss roll together. Here follows our recipes…

I’ve tried making ice cream a few times before but have not had oodles of success. I’ve gleaned from the blogosphere grapevine that David Lebovitz is the guru of ice cream, so I spent a little time perusing his blog and came away with some great ideas. I now know that the key for quality homemade ice cream is to not be afraid of fat. It is fattiness that gives ice cream its creaminess. Similarly, the key for quality homemade sorbet is to add liquid sugar such as glucose, golden syrup or honey or a little alcohol (or in my version, both). This stops the sorbet becoming too frozen and icy.

I’ve also run into trouble before by being impatient and pouring my custard or sorbet juice into the ice cream maker before it is thoroughly chilled. Don’t do this! Be sure to chill your custard or juice before putting it in the ice cream maker – preferably overnight. And then, after you take it out of the ice cream maker, chill it again so that it is properly frozen before serving. In my opinion, the Orange and Campari Sorbet was the winner of the day. It was incredibly easy to make and easily incredibly delicious.

Orange and Campari Sorbet

Adapted from David Lebovitz (but changed quite a bit)

Ingredients
1000mL orange juice (about 10 oranges)
100g granulated sugar
80mL Campari
75g golden syrup

• Place your oranges in hot water for a few minutes to heat them up. This helps to extract extra juice. I used about 10 oranges.

• Squeeze your oranges to create juice. There is no need to strain out the pulp; it adds to the texture!

• Put the sugar and golden syrup in a small non-reactive saucepan. Add enough juice to cover the sugar and syrup. Heat the mixture until the sugar is completely dissolved.

• Stir the sugar mixture with the remaining juice.

• Chill overnight before freezing in your ice cream machine. I then re-froze the mixture after taking it out of the machine to help it become completely frozen.

Mint Choc Chip Ice Cream

Adapted from David Lebovitz

Ingredients
250mL full fat milk
150g granulated sugar
500mL heavy/double cream
Pinch of salt
60–80g fresh mint leaves
5 large egg yolks
140g dark chocolate, chopped

• Warm the milk, sugar, half the cream, salt and mint in a medium saucepan.

• Scald the milk, then remove it from the heat. Cover and let it stand for 1 to 2 hours to infuse.

• Strain the milk mixture to remove the mint. Press the mint with a spatula to extract as much flavour and colour as possible. Discard the mint.

• Pour the remaining cream into a heavy bowl and place a clean strainer over the top. Set up an ice bath or sink-full of very cold water.

• Warm the milk mixture again but keep it well below simmering point. In a separate bowl, whisk together the egg yolks well. Very slowly whisk the warm milk into the yolks and then pour back into the saucepan.

• Warm the custard and stir constantly until it thickens and coats the back of a wooden spoon. It should reach about 77°C. Don’t let it simmer or boil – it will curdle!

• Strain the mixture into the cream and stir over the ice bath to stop it cooking and cool it down.

• Place the custard in the fridge overnight before freezing it in your ice cream machine.

• Place a storage container in the freezer to cool it down. When the ice cream is nearly ready, melt the chocolate slowly in a double boiler until just melted and smooth.

• When the ice cream is ready, remove the cool storage container from the freezer. Drizzle some of the chocolate over the bottom of the container. Pour some of the ice cream over the top. Drizzle some more chocolate over the top of this and quickly stir through to break up the chocolate. Continue layering and stirring the ice cream and chocolate until it is all used up. Place in the freezer to chill for several hours.

• Enjoy!!

Grated Chocolate Swiss Roll

Adapted from the 1989 Australian Women’s Weekly Cakes & Slices Cookbook

Emily and I made the Swiss roll together. The recipe we used is from Emily’s mum’s 1989 Australian Women’s Weekly Cakes & Slices Cookbook. Emily used to make this when she was six years old, but two fully grown women still managed to have some extreme troubles with this dish! The roll broke up a lot when we rolled it up the first time (it was undercooked) but we just rearranged it so that the cracks were all underneath and cemented together with cream. Our advice is not to panic – like we did – if it looks like things might go awry. The roll was surprisingly salvageable. In terms of taste, it was pretty good. The cake part was lovely and light due to the whipped egg whites and grated chocolate. An oldie but a goodie.

Ingredients for roll
4 eggs, separated
½ cup caster sugar, plus extra for sprinkling
2 tbs hot water
60g dark chocolate, finely grated
½ cup self-raising flour

Ingredients for vanilla cream
½ cup thickened cream
2 tsp icing sugar
1 tsp vanilla essence

• Preheat the oven to 180°C. Line a 25cm x 30cm rectangular baking pan with baking paper and grease well.

• In a small bowl, beat the egg yolks and sugar for about 5 minutes until it is thick and creamy.

• Grate the chocolate finely and weigh out 60g.

• Transfer the mixture to a large bowl. Fold in the hot water, chocolate, then sifted flour.

• In another small bowl, beat the egg whites until soft peaks form. Fold this into the other mixture and pour into the prepared pan.

• Bake in the oven for about 15 minutes. It should be just cooked. Meanwhile, sprinkle some foil (or baking paper) that is larger than the Swiss roll tray with some caster sugar.

• When the Swiss roll is ready, turn it immediately onto the prepared sugared foil or paper.

• Trim the crisp edges from the Swiss roll. Roll it up in the foil or paper from the long side. Stand for 2 minutes, unroll, and cool.

• Do not stress if you have a disaster like we did! You can patch up the breaks with cream and manoeuvre them out of sight.

• To make the vanilla cream, beat the cream, icing sugar and essence in a small bowl until soft peaks form. Spread the vanilla cream on the cooled Swiss roll and roll up. Voila!

The July 2010 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Sunita of Sunita’s world – life and food. Sunita challenged everyone to make an ice-cream filled Swiss roll that’s then used to make a bombe with hot fudge. Her recipe is based on an ice cream cake recipe from Taste of Home.

Like a lot of people, I love crema Catalana. I have tried to make it several times before, with limited success. The first time, I curdled the custard when caramelising the sugar under the grill. The second time, I curdled the custard by overcooking it on the stovetop (see here). The third time, I curdled the custard by having the oven temperature too high. Thankfully, it was a case of fourth time lucky. My most recently attempted crema Catalanas were perfectly rich and creamy on the inside with a thick crackle of caramelised sugar on top.

Here follows my recipe, with all my tips so that you can all make it at home on the first try!

These quantities will fill four 150mL cazuelas. One word of warning: these take a few days to make so think forward…

Ingredients
375mL cream, pure with about 45 percent milk fat
125mL full fat milk
Rind of ½ a lemon
Rind of ½ an orange
1 cinnamon quill, hit with a pestle to shatter
4 large egg yolks
90g caster sugar
Demerara sugar, for dusting

• Combine the cream, milk, rinds and cinnamon in a heavy-based saucepan. Bring slowly to the boil, stirring constantly, and then take off the heat.

• Pour the mixture into a separate bowl and place a piece of baking paper on the surface to avoid a skin forming. Let the mixture cool, then leave it overnight in the fridge for the flavours to infuse. The mixture can be left for a short time, but the flavours will be less pronounced.

• When you are ready to make the custard, preheat the oven to 130°C. Use a strainer to remove the rind and cinnamon from the cream mixture.

• Slowly warm up the cream mixture, but keep it well below simmering point. Meanwhile, whisk the yolks and caster sugar for several minutes until they are thoroughly creamy (see picture below). Gradually whisk in the warm milk mixture.

• Pour into a saucepan and stir continuously over a low to medium heat. If you have a thermometer, let the mixture reach about 80°C. It should thickly coat the back of a wooden spoon as in the picture below. Do not let it get to simmering or boiling point or it will curdle!

• Pour the mixture into a separate jug to stop it cooking and allow for easy pouring.
• Line a baking tray with a tea towel and place the ramekins on top. Pour the custard into four separate 150mL ramekins or cazuelas.

• Pour hot water into the tray until it reaches most of the way up the ramekins. This keeps the custards below boiling point in the oven. (You can pour the water in the tray when it is in the oven to avoid spillage, but I found that this meant that the oven was open for too long and lost too much heat.)

• Put the tray in the oven. Cook for  about 40 minutes until the custard is just set but not browned on top. Monitor closely to ensure that the custards do not overcook.

• When the custard is just set, take the cazuelas out of the oven and let them cool. Place the ramekins in the fridge overnight to set.

• When custard is fully set, sprinkle about 2 teaspoons of demerara sugar evenly over the top. Using a blowtorch, caramelise the sugar without blackening it. Sprinkle and caramelise a second layer of sugar to make the crust extra thick. (If you don’t have a blowtorch, you can use a hot grill. Simply place the ramekins in an icy water bath or the freezer for about 15 minutes beforehand to cool them down. Next, sprinkle the sugar evenly on the custards and then place under a very hot grill for a few minutes. Monitor closely to avoid the custards overheating and curdling.)

• Wait a few minutes for the sugar to harden, serve and enjoy!!

Lately, I have been making a lot of custard-based dishes. In an upcoming post you will see that I’ve had a second attempt at my failed crema catalanas and a top secret Daring Bakers’ challenge also involved a custard.

While this is all well and good, it means that – until yesterday – I had a large bowl containing 10 lonely egg whites in my fridge.

What to do? I would usually just make meringues, but you need to make A LOT of meringues to use up 10 egg whites. I had to think harder and google more. After a bit of searching, I found a page on  David Lebovitz’s fabulous blog with a long list of ideas.

After perusing this list, I decided to make financiers/friands. This seems to be a good way to use up a large batch of egg whites.

These are based on a recipe from Stephanie’s Cook’s Companion but I royally stuffed them up by getting the quantities for sugar and flour completely mixed up (and forgetting to buy plain flour). From there, I had to wing it so I feel I can claim this recipe as my own.

This recipe makes about 36 small friands (about 5cm wide by 3cm high). Use the smallest moulds you have. The key flavour in this recipe is the beurre noisette – the nut brown butter. The caremelised tones shine through and lift this into something quite special.

Ingredients
250g unsalted butter
1 cup spelt flour (or plain flour)
½ cup self raising flour
2 cups castor sugar
220g ground almonds
10 egg whites
100g frozen (or fresh) berries

• Preheat the oven to 180°C and butter moulds well.
• Set up a bowl sitting in ice or cold water for the beurre noisette.
• Cook the butter in a heavy-based saucepan over a low to medium heat until it becomes light brown. Stir constantly. This takes about 5 minutes and it will separate out and foam up and do all sorts of alarming things before it turns brown. As soon as the butter becomes brown, take it off the heat and pour it into the ice bath bowl to halt the cooking. It will have flecks of brown in it – that is normal.
• Sift the flour into a large mixing bowl and stir in the sugar and the almond meal. Make a well in the centre.
• In a separate clean and dry bowl, whisk the egg whites into a froth. Pour into the well and gently stir to combine.
• Add the nut brown butter and continue to stir gently to combine.
• Spoon the mixture into the moulds. Place about three berries on each friand.
• Put the friands in the oven for about 20 minutes until they have browned slightly on the top. Let them cool in the moulds a little before turning them out on a cake rack.
• Sift over some icing sugar for decoration.
• Best eaten warm!

At the moment, it seems like a huge number of my friends are getting engaged and married. In this vein, two weekends in a row I was asked by friends to make cupcakes for their wedding related festivities, firstly, for the kitchen tea of Z and secondly, for A’s engagement party.

My friend B came around and we made the cupcakes for Z together. Given that the bride’s mother and sister are gluten free, a flourless orange cupcake seemed appropriate, and I topped it with a cream cheese and white chocolate frosting from the Magnolia bakery cookbook . I also made some vanilla cupcakes with vanilla icing for Z from the same cookbook. I thought the purple tinted vanilla frosting looked particularly cute.

One week on, I found myself in the kitchen again, this time to bake for A. I was a little disappointed when A chose the exact same flavours as Z, but was cheered when she decided to have a chocolate frosting on her vanilla cupcakes instead. I used the same recipe for the flourless orange cake but decided to try a different recipe for the vanilla cupcake and frosting as I thought the one from Magnolia was a little bland (controversial I know, given that Magnolia Bakery is credited with the cupcake revival). I tried out Thomas Keller’s cupcake recipe from Ad Hoc at Home. The method was significantly more complex than the cupcakes from Mangolia (which really shouldn’t be surprising), and involved making two meringues, resulting in a significant number of egg yolks in my fridge.

To add to the degree of difficulty, I also converted the recipe to spelt flour and had a panicked moment when it looked like the cupcakes were about to explode all over the oven (something that has happened before). I was kneeling on the floor almost ready to cry and cursing myself for trying a new recipe and mucking around with random flour when I needed to bake 90 cupcakes and only had a couple of hours before the party. Thankfully, there were no explosions and the cupcakes turned out well.

I preferred Keller’s vanilla cupcake recipe because the use of whipped eggwhites made the cake light and airy. While I was dubious about the chocolate frosting, it was absolutely delicious. I will definitely be making it again.

A couple of tips for cupcake making. Don’t fret too much if you end up with a couple of warped cupcakes, just slice the top to make them flat and hide the imperfections with the frosting.

Cupcake liners are from Robert Gordon and I bought them at Cake Deco. I like these liners because they are pretty but also because they are strong enough to stand up on their own once filled, which made it easier to get several batches in the oven at once even though I only have one muffin tray.

I like to refrigerate the cupcakes before I transport them so that the frosting hardens a little. The cupcakes should be served at room temperature, cold frosting is not very nice.

Magnolia’s vanilla cupcake with vanilla buttercream

Adapted from More from Magnolia by Allysa Torey

Note, I often find American recipes too sweet. I have reduced the quantity of sugar in both the cupcake and the frosting. In the frosting I used less than half the sugar suggested and it was still sweet enough for me.

Makes approximately 40 mini sized cupcakes.

For the cupcake

330g plain flour (or 400g if using spelt flour)
3 tsp baking powder (or 2 tsp if using spelt flour)
220g unsalted butter, softened
400g caster sugar
4 large eggs, at room temperature
240ml milk
3 tsp vanilla extract

• Pre-heat the oven to 170C/350F.
• Line your muffin tin with cupcake liners.
• In a bowl, combine the flour and baking powder and set aside.
• Cream the butter in an electric mixer until smooth. Add the sugar in batches and mix for about 3 minutes, until fluffy

• Add the eggs one at a time, then beat well after each.
• Add one third of the flour mixture, mix, then 1/2 the milk. Alternate with the remaining flour and milk, beating after each addition.
• Spoon the  batter into the liners, about 3/4 full.

• Bake for 20-25 minutes. Rotate the pans once while baking.
• Allow the cupcakes to cool completely before frosting.

For the frosting

220g unsalted butter, softened
350g icing sugar
80ml milk
4 tsp vanilla extract

• Place the butter, half the sugar, the milk and vanilla in a large mixing bowl.
• Beat with a mixer for about 3-5 minutes, until smooth and creamy. Gradually add the remainder of the sugar, beating well after it is added.
• Continue beating until the icing is of a consistency that can be  piped. You can add extra sugar to the mixture if it is too runny.

• Add food colouring and stir to reach the desired shade. We had a slight disaster with our ‘violet’ food colouring turning the icing an inky blue, thankfully we had some red colouring on hand to correct the colour:

• Fill a piping bag with a star shaped tip and pipe frosting onto the cooled cupcakes. Top with a candy flower decoration.

Keller’s white cupcakes with chocolate buttercream

Adapted from Ad Hoc at Home, by Thomas Keller

Note: as I said above, this is a more complex recipe than the Magnolia one but I do think it is worth the effort. Make creme anglais or creme brulee with your excess egg yolks!

Makes approximately 40 mini sized cupcakes.

For the cupcakes

360g flour (or 430g if using spelt flour)
2 tsp of baking powder (or 1.5 tsp if using spelt flour)
pinch of salt
160g unsalted butter, at room temperature, cut into pieces
550g caster sugar
2 tsp vanilla extract
300ml milk
180ml eggwhites (from about 6 large eggs) at room temperature

• Pre-heat the oven to 170C/350F.
• Line your muffin tin with cupcake liners.
• In a bowl, sift the flour and baking powder and stir in the salt. Set aside.
• Beat the butter and 300g of the sugar together for about 5 minutes, until the mixture is pale and thick.
• Beat in the vanilla.
• Add one third of the flour mixture, mix, then 1/2 the milk. Alternate with the remaining flour and milk, beating after each addition.
• Transfer the batter to a large bowl – it will be thick.

• Put the eggwhites in a clean bowl and whisk on medium until they begin to foam.
• Begin mixing on high speed and slowly add the sugar. Beat until the meringue is thick and glossy and almost holds stiff peaks.

• Fold about a third of the meringue into the flour mixture to lighten it, then add the rest of the meringue and stir gently until combined.

• Spoon the mixture into the liners – fill the liners just above 2/3rds full as the mixture will rise quite a lot.
• Bake for 20-25 minutes. Rotate the pans once while baking.
• Allow the cupcakes to cool completely before frosting.

For the frosting

380g caster sugar
180ml eggwhites (from about 6 large eggs) at room temperature
370g butter, cut into pieces, at room temperature
140g dark chocolate – I used 70% cocoa

• Combine sugar and eggwhites in a heat proof bowl. Set the bowl over a pan of simmering water (the water should not touch the bottom of the bowl). Whisk until sugar has dissolved and the mixture is hot to the touch (approx. 150C to 160C). This took about 5 minutes.
• Working quickly, pour the mixture into a stand mixer and whip on high speed. Continue whipping until the mixture is thick and holds stiff peaks and the whites are cool to the touch – about 15 minutes.

• Switch to a paddle attachment and on medium speed, gradually add pieces of butter. Make sure each batch is incorporated before adding more.

• Keep beating until all butter is incorporated and the frosting is thick.
• Melt the chocolate over a double boiler and allow to cool slightly. Pour the chocolate over the frosting and blend to combine:

• Fill a piping bag with a star shaped tip and pipe frosting onto the cooled cupcakes. Top with a candy flower decoration.

Mum’s flourless orange cupcake with white chocolate cream cheese frosting

Flourless orange recipe is an old standby. The frosting is adapted from the Magnolia Bakery cookbook.

Makes about 50 mini cupcakes.

For the cupcakes

3 unblemished oranges
240g almond meal
225g sugar
7 eggs
1.5 tsp baking powder

• Wash oranges, put in a saucepan with boiling water and simmer for about 2 hours. Add extra water as necessary. Drain and set aside to cool.
• Pre-heat the oven to 160C.
• Line your muffin tin with cupcake liners.
• Place whole oranges in a food processor and blitz to a puree.

• Add the almond meal and sugar and blend briefly. Add eggs one at a time, mixing between each addition. Add the baking powder and mix.

• The mixture will be quite liquid.
• Fill the cupcake liners almost to the top, as the mixture will not rise very much.

• Bake for approximately 30 minutes.
• Allow to cool completely before frosting.

For the frosting

225g white chocolate (good quality)
450g cream cheese
85g butter, softened
2 tsp vanilla extract

• Melt the chocolate in a double boiler and allow to cool until lukewarm.
• Beat together the cream cheese and butter until smooth (about 3 minutes). Add the vanilla and beat well.
• Add the melted chocolate and beat well.
• Fill a piping bag with a star shaped tip and pipe frosting onto the cooled cupcakes. Top with a candy flower decoration.

Enjoy!

]]> http://itpleasesus.com/2010/07/05/cupcake-o-rama-flourless-orange-vanilla-cupcakes/feed/ 7 http://itpleasesus.com/2010/06/27/chocolate-meringue-cake/ http://itpleasesus.com/2010/06/27/chocolate-meringue-cake/#comments Sat, 26 Jun 2010 20:00:05 +0000 Saskia http://itpleasesus.com/?p=2739

The Daring Bakers’ challenge for June was chocolate pavlova. We decided to go a little off track this month and make a dish using chocolate and meringue, but – let’s be honest – this really isn’t a pavlova at all! This chocolate-coffee-meringue cake was made by my grandma throughout my childhood and it starred in a few birthday parties during my formative years. The recipe is originally from a school fundraising cookbook, potentially from the 1960s (though I would have to double check that). It’s a real nostalgia dish for me. Somehow my grandma’s version usually turns out twice as high; but we tried our best!

Ingredients
6 egg whites
12 oz (340g) caster sugar
2 level dessert spoons of ground instant coffee
6 oz (170g) dark chocolate
600mL cream

• Preheat the oven to 120°C.
• Prepare the baking trays: trace 3 circles on baking paper that are nine inches each in diameter. You can use a nine inch dessert plate to create the circles. Place the baking paper on baking trays and stick them down with some canola spray or meringue mixture.
• Whip the egg whites until firm. Be sure that the bowl and beaters are clean and dry because any contamination will prevent whipping.

• Add the sugar gradually, ensuring that the grains dissolve as much as possible. Continue to mix, but be careful not to overmix.
• Grind the instant coffee into a powder if it isn’t already fine. Add the coffee to the egg whites as they are nearing stiff peaks.

• Divide the mixture evenly onto the three circles.

• Try to make the circles equal in size and as flat as possible.

• Put the meringe circles in the oven for 2 and a half hours until they are very crisp but not burnt. Let them cool out of the oven.

• For the cream filling, whip the cream.
• Melt the chocolate in a double boiler or microwave. Ensure that it doesn’t get too hot and burn. Cool the melted chocolate a little and then mix with the whipped cream.
• Then, construct the cake. Spread the chocolate cream over the top of the meringue circles. Place one on top of the other to create the cake.

• Finally, spread the cream over the sides of the cake and cover up any messiness. Place the cake in the fridge overnight to ‘combine’. To serve, grate chocolate over the top.

The June 2010 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Dawn of Doable and Delicious. Dawn challenged the Daring Bakers’ to make Chocolate Pavlovas and Chocolate Mascarpone Mousse. The challenge recipe is based on a recipe from the book Chocolate Epiphany by Francois Payard