Pancakes are so much fun because 1) there’s virtually no screwing them up 2) you can customize them to taste and look like just about anything your little heart desires.

One morning I woke up and felt like doing two things – eating some chocolate for breakfast (not something I recommend often, but a craving is a craving) and establishing culinary racial harmony. In fairness, I’m no hero, I really just felt like the chocolate, but then thought it would be fun to do chocolate chip vanilla pancakes on one side, and some chocolatey pancakes on the other

For the chocolatey pancakes, I cheated a bit and just added some fancy hot chocolate mix to Sweetstacks batter – they were light, fluffy, chocolatey, and delicious.

For the second, I took my favorite vanilla pancake recipe, which makes simultaneously weighty and fluffy pancakes (don’t ask me how… actually, you can, it’s probably the abundance of creams and baking powder) and added Ghirardelli chocolate chips to the batter. Again, not something that I would recommend on a regular basis, but when nothing but chocolate will do, either of these options will satisfy an early Saturday morning craving.

One note – every pancake recipe I have suggests mixing the dry ingredients separately from the wet, but I personally don’t like an extra dish to wash, have experimented with combining in the same bowl, and found the results to be just as delicious as when they’re kept separate.

Enjoy!

Click here for a printable version of the recipe

Chocolate Chip Pancakes, Yields 8

Prep Time: 25 Minutes
Total Prep Time: 25 Minutes

Ingredients:

1 Cup Flour
2 Tbls. Sugar
1 1/2 Tsp. Baking Powder
1 Tsp. Salt
½ Cup Crème Fraiche or Sour Cream
½ Cup Milk
2 Eggs
1 Tsp. Vanilla
1 Cup Chocolate Chips
Butter for frying

Preparation:

In a medium bowl, sift together the flour, sugar, and baking powder. Mix in the salt, crème fraiche, milk, eggs, and vanilla until the batter is even and all dry ingredients incorporated into the wet.

Melt ½ Tbls. of butter in a frying pan over medium heat. Once melted, pour the batter onto the frying pan – the trick to even-ish circular pancakes is to pour the batter into the same spot. It spreads out much more evenly than if you try to pour in a circle.

Once you start to see little air bubbles around the sides and on the top (after 2-3 minutes), turn the heat down a degree or two, flip your pancakes, and cook for another 1-2 minutes. Continue with the rest of the batter, remembering to turn the heat back up to medium for the first side.

Drown in maple syrup and enjoy!

I heart brownies in a big way. Nigella Lawson, the cookbook author from whom this recipe has been adapted (begged, borrowed, and slightly stolen), touts as one of their highest virtues the fact that they can be whipped up in a matter of minutes. I would add to that sterling quality the fact that, unlike so many other “easy” desserts and confections, your sink will not look like a dirty dish graveyard – one bowl, one pan, one spoon, and one baking dish is all that this recipe requires.

Now that I’ve sold you on the recipe, I will relate a small pet peeve of mine, and that is the habit that we have of labeling recipes as the “perfect” or “best” such-and-such. In my quest for a decent brownie recipe, I came across a multitude that claimed to be “the best” or “perfect”, which is an obvious impossibility, given their wide variety. I balk at the supposition that the recipe author knows my tastes, or, worse, is assuming that their interpretation of the pinnacle for that particular foodstuff is superior to all others. It irks me, and, in an unsurprising development, I realized that I was guilty of the same crime, on my “Best” Ginger Cookie post. The morals of this story are that we don’t know each others’ tastes and I am a hypocrite.

This is all a relevant prelude to this very good brownie recipe. I wouldn’t ever call it perfect, because, if you like your brownies cakey, or light and fluffy, this won’t suit you at all. You may even label it the worst brownie recipe. If, on the other hand, you like your brownies to have a fair amount of heft, stick-to-your-ribs, and chew like they were fighting to stay in your mouth, then you might give this recipe a decent review. If you also happen to like when people say “there’s something special about this” because it has a particular flavor that they enjoy but can’t quite place, then you’ll rave about this recipe. These brownies are warm, comforting, moist, dense, and have a certain twinkle of flavor that can not be easily placed. Read down below to see the secret ingredient and, as always, enjoy!

Click here for a printable version of the recipe

Secret Ingredient Brownies, Yields 12-15

Adapted from How to be a Domestic Goddess by Nigella Lawson

Prep Time: 15 Minutes

Baking Time: 25 Minutes

Total Prep Time: 40 Minutes

Ingredients:

1 ¼ Cups Butter, softened

8 oz. Best Bittersweet Chocolate,

4 Eggs

2 Tsp. Best Quality Vanilla

2 Tsp. Vietnamese Cinnamon (secret ingredient!)

1 ¼ Cups Sugar

1 Cup Flour

¾ Tsp. Salt

Preparation:

Preheat the oven to 350° and prepare the brownie pan (13x9x2.5 inches) by lining with parchment paper.

Melt the butter and chocolate together in a medium-sized sauce pan over medium heat. Keep an eye on it the chocolate as it melts, and make sure that the mixture doesn’t get too hot. Once melted, remove from the heat and allow to cool for 5 minutes.

In a large bowl, beat the eggs, vanilla, and sugar. Add the flour and salt and mix well. Add the slightly cooled chocolate and mix vigorously.

Pour the mixture into the lined brownie pan and bake for 25 minutes.

Remove the baked brownies from the oven and let them sit in the pan for 5-10 minutes before cutting, serving, and enjoying!

]]> http://besottedgourmet.com/2009/12/27/secret-ingredient-brownies/feed/ 4 http://besottedgourmet.com/2009/09/17/celebration-cake/ http://besottedgourmet.com/2009/09/17/celebration-cake/#comments Thu, 17 Sep 2009 15:10:22 +0000 Jessica http://besottedgourmet.com/?p=1960

Some much anticipated and celebration-worthy news flowed into the Besotted kitchen last week, to which, the only appropriate response was a confection that screamed “CELEBRATION!”

Now, normally, when eyeing the dessert section of my cookbooks and magazines, I tend towards the rustic sophisticate desserts – things like modern Apple Tarte Tatin, Honey Cream Peach Pie, Strawberry Rhubarb Pie – basically, anything that is part throw-back, part modern chic, baked into a buttery crust.

But, the problem is, Peach Pie says “lazy, end-of-summer supper”, and I needed this dessert to say “WHOO HOO, you did it!” The only logical solution was to go a big, fat cake, stick a bunch of candles in it, nearly burn down the kitchen with the flames, pour an ENORMOUS glass of milk, and revel in the good news.

This cake came from an ‘Advance Reading Copy’ of Baking in America by Greg Patent. Way back in the day, I used to work for a cookbook catalog company – two of the many perks were being able to spend your idle time perusing their vast cookbook library and to take home any ‘Advance Reading Copies’. This is the pre-publication status of a book, meant for the reader to review the content, but not worry about mundane things, like a table of contents, index, etc. Naturally, that makes the book a tad more difficult to actually use, but the price was right, and, as it turns out, so was the cake!

I was leery of this ‘white cake with chocolate frosting’ recipe, only because they are so often a major disappointment and not worth the calories. Store bought, box-cake, and wedding cake catastrophes have left me thinking of white cake as nothing more than a delivery device for frosting so sugary, you can actually feel the sugar granules gliding over your tongue. Perforated tastelessness with gummy frosting was not what I had in mind for my celebration, but the picture on the front of the cookbook looked so enticing (why are we so easily swayed by such things?!), and the recipe looked very promising, so I decided to give it a go, and it was amazing!

When was the last time that you had homemade white cake? Right, I couldn’t answer either. It seems like such an outdated relic, why would anyone go to the trouble of making white cake from scratch, when there are perfectly reasonable boxed alternatives? And, the simple answer is, because it’s wholly fantastic. Dense, moist, creamy, and totally delicious, this cake emerged from the oven like a dream. All it needed was a little chocolate buttercream frosting to make it truly ethereal, and the hard work and effort (yes, it does take more effort than boxed cake) was well worth it.

Enjoy!

Click here for a printable version of the recipe

Golden Butter Layer Cake with Chocolate Frosting, Serves 12
Adapted from Baking in America

Ingredients:

For the Cake

1 Cup Butter, at room temperature
½ Tsp. Salt
2 Cups Sugar, divided
2 Tsp. Best Quality Vanilla Extract
3 Eggs, separated
3 Eggs
3 Cups Cake Flour, sifted
1 Cup Milk

For the Frosting

4 oz. Semi-Sweet Chocolate, broken into pieces
½ lb. Cream Cheese, at room temperature
½ Cup Butter, at room temperature
½ Tsp. Best Quality Vanilla
¼ Tsp. Best Quality Almond Extract
2-3 Cups Confectioner Sugar, sifted

Preparation:

Preheat the oven to 350°. Line two 9-inch round cake pans with parchment paper. Butter the parchment paper and sides of the pans with butter. Set aside.

In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat the butter on medium speed until smooth, about 1 minute. Add the salt, ¼ cup of the sugar, and the vanilla and beat on medium-high speed for 1 minute. Beat in 1 ½ cups of the sugar, ¼ cup at a time, allowing each addition to be incorporated before adding the next.

Scrape the bowl and beat on medium-high speed for 5 minutes. While the batter is beating, you can get on whipping your egg whites. In a separate, medium-sized bowl, whip the egg whites with an electric whisk on medium speed for 2-3 minutes, until peaks start to form.

Add the remaining ¼ cup sugar in four parts, whisking between each addition, to incorporate the sugar. Be careful not to over-whisk… the egg whites and sugar should be thick and glossy, but not meringue-stiff. Set the egg whites aside and return to the batter.

Add the egg yolks to the batter and beat for 2 minutes on medium-high speed. Add the whole eggs, one at a time, and beat for 1 minute in between each addition. It does seem like a lot of waiting around, but it’ll be worth it in the end.

The real hero in my kitchen

Scrape down the bowl. While on medium-low speed, add the cake flour and milk in alternating thirds (1 cup cake flour, 1/3 cup milk), allowing to beat in between additions until fully incorporated. Scrape down the bowl, as necessary.

Fold 1/3 of the egg whites gently into the batter. Once mostly incorporated, add the remaining 2/3 of the egg whites to the batter and fold in until fully incorporated.

Divide the batter between the two round cake pans and bake for 35-40 minutes.

Meanwhile, get on with the frosting….

Melt the chocolate in a double-boiler, makeshift or otherwise.

Put cream cheese, butter, vanilla, and almond extract in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment and beat at medium speed until creamy. Add the confectioner sugar ½ cup at a time and beat until smooth.

Who needs the cake?!

Add the melted chocolate to the mixture, and beat on medium-low speed until full incorporated. Set aside.

Once your cakes are out of the oven, let them cool completely on a cooling rack. When you’re ready to frost them, plop about ¾ of a cup of frosting onto the top of one of the cakes, and, using a flat spatula, spread elegantly around the cake. Carefully, lift the other cake and set on top of the frosted cake.

Check the sides of the cake for any major bumps and smooth them away with a paring knife. Plop another ¾ cup of frosting on top of the second layer of cake, and smooth with the spatula just as you did with the first. To frost the sides, I added a tablespoon or so of frosting to 8 equidistant spots and smoothed around the side with the spatula.

Stick a big candle in the top, pour a big glass of milk, celebrate, and enjoy!

After two previous attempts – one solid, one mildly disastrous – I think I’ve finally got the hang of my ice cream maker. The main take-aways from the first two attempts were:

1. Follow directions

2. Re-read the directions and make sure you’re following them as they are actually stated on the directions, and not concocting new directions in your own head.

Once those two directives were firmly planted in my brain (along side the horrid memory of the ice cream maker bouncing and spurting all over my counter), I managed to turn out a really, REALLY good batch of ice cream.

I’ve become mildly obsessed with the cherry/chocolate combination as of late and whipped up a batch of creamy almond-tinted ice cream, laden with heavy bits of cherry and dark chocolate chunks. I knew I had a winner on my hands as I watched the cherry juice slowly bleed into the steaming cream, but I didn’t know quite how good it would be until I folded the big chunks of cherry and chocolate into the ice cream. It’s heavenly.

This particular recipe leaves things nice and chunky (my personal preference), but you could certainly chop items smaller or even blend the hot cream (carefully) after it’s done simmering.

Enjoy!

Click here for a printable version of the recipe

Cherry Chocolate Chunk Ice Cream, Serves 8

Prep Time: 45 Minutes

Cooling, Freezing & Churning Time: 8 Hours (Plus, the ice cream maker has to be in the freezer at least 24-48 hours before churning)

Total Prep Time: 8 Hours 45 Minutes

Ingredients:

1 ¾ Cup Heavy Cream

¾ Cup Milk

½ Cup Sugar

1 Tsp. Salt

2 Cups Cherries, pitted and rough chopped

1 Tsp. Almond Extract

1 Cup Semi-Sweet Chocolate Chunks

Preparation:

Heat half of the pitted cherries, 1 cup of the cream, milk, sugar, and salt in a medium sauce pan over medium heat until the mixture just starts to steam, about 10 minutes. Turn the heat down to low and let simmer for 15 minutes.

Pour the mixture into a large bowl and add the remaining ¾ cup of cream. Mix well. Allow the mixture to sit on the countertop for 15 minute before cooling in the refrigerator for 4 hours. Pop your chocolate chunks into the freezer while the mixture is cooling.

Once cooled, add half of the chocolate chunks (½ cup) to the mixture and churn, according to your ice cream maker’s instructions.

Once the ice cream is finished churning (it should look creamy and soft, but decidedly solid), fold in the remaining cherries and chocolate chunks, package, and return to the freezer for another 2-4 hours until very solid and ready to eat.

Soft Serve-style... still yummy, but best to let it harden a bit more.

Enjoy!

I am very nearly done with recounting the cupcake recipes from PT’s Birthday Extravaganza. I probably should have saved the best for last, but I like to keep things interesting, so I’m featuring the popular favorite from that evening (and the mornings after) in this third installment.

This recipe was the amalgamation of inspirations found across the web and in my own dear How to be a Domestic Goddess. I loved the rich dark chocolate and cherry cake that Nigella featured, but I was looking for a more outstanding presentation than the simple, recommended cherry on top.

I found a cherry merengue topping recipe, doctored it a bit to fit with the cupcake, and then decided, since it was a special birthday, that a little extra something was called for, so I dipped the final cherry merengued cupcake into melted chocolate.

And the result looked spectacular (if I must say so myself), and it tasted even better – the cake itself was lush, moist, and bursting with cherries; the merengue was light and dreamy, and its dark chocolate topping put it sublimely over the top. PT and friends chose wisely in their election of this Cherry Chocolate Cupcake as the best of the four offered – it can a special occasion of the biggest birthday or your average-Joe Tuesday.

Click here for a printable version of the recipe….

Cherry Chocolate Cupcakes

Prep Time: 90 Minutes

Baking/Cooling Time: 2 ½ Hours

Total Prep Time: 4 Hours

*Note: I know the Total Prep Time looks scary, but most of this is just waiting for cooling and melting to take place – if you have 4 hours to putter around the house and intermittently work on other projects, this is a perfect recipe.

Ingredients:

For the Cupcakes:

½ Cup Butter, softened

4oz. Bittersweet Chocolate, in pieces

1 1/3 Cups Best Quality Cherry Jam (containing real cherries)

½ Cup Sugar

¼ Tsp. Salt

2 Eggs, beaten

1 Cup Cake Flour

For the Merengue Topping:

4 Egg Whites

1 ¼ Cup Sugar

1 Cup Butter, at room temperature, cut into pieces

¼ Tsp. Almond Extract

4oz. Bittersweet Chocolate, melted

Preparation:

Preheat the oven to 350°. Line a muffin tin with baking cups.

Over medium-low to medium heat, melt the butter in a heavy sauce pan. Once melted, add in the broken up chocolate pieces, stir for a minute, remove from the heat, but continue to stir until the chocolate has melted into the butter.

Add the cherry jam, sugar, salt, and eggs to the sauce pan. Continue to stir until the mixture is smooth. Add the flour and mix well.

Pour the batter into the baking cups about ¾ of the way full. Bake for 25 minutes, remove from the oven and allow to rest for 10 minutes in the pan before removing to a cooling rack for 30 minutes.

While the cupcakes are baking, you can get on with the merengue topping….

Heat the egg whites and sugar in a double-boiler (or makeshift) and whisk constantly until the sugar has dissolved and the mixture reaches a temperature of 160°, about 10 minutes.

Probably the least delicious-looking part of the recipe, but well worth it in the end....

In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, add the egg whites, sugar, and almond extract. Whip on high speed (increase the speed steadily, pausing at each interval for a beat or two) for 5-7 minutes, until the egg whites and sugar are thick and form peaks.

It's starting to get good!

Switch the mixer’s attachment to the paddle attachment. With the mixer on medium-low speed, add the soft butter two tablespoons at a time, mixing well between each addition.

Oh my, this is SO good!

You can leave the merengue topping white, or do as I did, and add a bit of food coloring for a splash of color.

Once the cupcakes have cooled, add the merengue topping to a pastry bag (or a makeshift pastry bag made from a plastic bag) and pipe the merengue topping around the tops of the cupcakes.

Put the cupcakes in the refrigerator for 1-2 hours, to allow the merengue topping to harden a bit.

When the 1-2 hours is almost up, melt the chocolate in a double-boiler (or makeshift double-boiler) for 5-10 minutes. Remove the cupcakes from the refrigerator and swirl the top of each into the melted chocolate. Allow to cool at room temperature until the chocolate is hard and serve, about 20 minutes.

 
Enjoy!

Hump day gets a little lift from blackberry mascarpone filled chocolate fudge cupcakes

It was PT’s birthday a few weeks ago, and I admittedly went a bit nuts in the cupcake preparations. I had fully intended to back a sheet cake sized to feed the 25 party attendees, but after reading Smitten Kitchen’s quite frankly frightening list of do’s and don’ts regarding sheet cake preparation and transportation, I decided that cupcakes would be much more practical…. Three days later, I could be found in my apartment-turned-bakery grooving to Lady Gaga with 3 types of frosting in my hair, surrounded by cooling racks, and stepping across boxes of cupcakes.

The results....

I made 4 different kinds of cupcakes, each with their own frosting and topping, filling, and personality. I’ll include each of the recipes over the coming weeks, but I wanted to start with PT’s favorite, a dangerously dense and dark chocolate confection that remains cake-like in name only. The cupcake is a thick chocolate fudge, filled with blackberry mascarpone that spreads over the top of the cake. The final touch are two ripe blackberries that serve as a light, juicy counterpoint to the richness of the cake.

These cupcakes are essentially a re-jigging of Nigella Lawson’s Baby Lava Cake recipe, just baked and topped a bit differently. They are at their best when fully brought to room temperature, and be sure to have a tall glass of milk on hand to wash them down.

Click here for a printable version of the recipe

Chocolate Fudge Cupcakes with Blackberry Mascarpone, Yields 12

Ingredients:

For Cupcakes

¼ Cup Butter, at room temperature

12 oz. Best Quality Bittersweet Chocolate

½ Cup Sugar

4 Large Eggs, beaten together

1 Tsp. Best Quality Vanilla

1/3 Cup Flour

For Mascarpone filling

2 Pints Blackberries

1 Cup Water

¼ Cup Sugar

8 oz. Mascarpone

Preparation:

Line your muffin tin with 12 baking cups.

Preheat the oven to 400°.

Melt the chocolate in a double boiler (either real or makeshift). Set aside to cool slightly.

Cream the butter and sugar together with a mixer at medium speed. Slowly add the eggs and then the vanilla. Add the flour, and, once incorporated, add in the cooled chocolate. Continue mixing on low-medium speed until the batter is very smooth, about 1 minute.

Pour the batter near to the top of the baking cups and bake them for 12-14 minutes. Remove from the oven and let them sit in the muffin tin for 10-15 minutes. Carefully remove the cupcakes from the muffin tin, taking care not to squish their soft middle. Allow to cool on a baking rack for at least 45-60 minutes while you make the mascarpone filling.

To make the blackberry mascarpone, start by breaking the blackberries down into a lumpy jam. Boil the 1 Cup of water and sugar in a sauce pan over medium-high heat for 3-5 minutes, just until the mixture is slightly thicker.

Add the blackberries to the sauce pan and stir continuously for 12-15 minutes. The blackberries will start to break down and meddle with the sugar water after 5-8 minutes, like in the photo above. Continue cooking until it reaches the consistency of a hot jam. Remove from the heat, allow to cool for 15-20 minutes.

Add the mascarpone to the cooled blackberries and mix well.

Prepare your cooled cupcakes for the blackberry mascarpone by scooping a small bit of the soft middle out, leaving a small bowl for the filling. I use a teaspoon, holding it vertically and twisting gently to scoop out enough of the cake to leave a hole one inch in diameter and about 1/2-1 inch deep.

Once all of the cupcakes have been scooped, use a small spatula to fill the cupcakes with the mascarpone and spread as a topping over the top.

Top each cupcake with two blackberries, serve with a tall glass of milk, and humbly receive the forthcoming praise.

These are marvelously lush and exceedingly easy to prepare individual cakes

Every once in awhile, you come upon a recipe so perfect, so simply and consistently outstanding, that it is virtually un-tweakable.

This recipe from Nigella Lawson’s acclaimed How to Be a Domestic Goddess is just such a recipe; I’ve made it countless times to stunning effect. The only reason I would have tweaked it would be for my own ego’s satisfaction and not because it would have improved it, which is why it comes to you essentially unaltered.

These little cakes are simple to make and splendid to present. The dense cake cracks open to reveal a cascade of luscious, oozing melted chocolate. Don’t worry, they are fully baked – the recipe calls for a heavier egg and fat to flour ratio than your typical cake, which keeps the center pudding-like, despite adequate time in the oven.

You can serve these cakes with any accompaniment, but I am exceedingly fond of crème fraiche for several reasons – 1) I tend to always have some in the house 2) it’s just a bit tart, which counterbalances the denseness and richness of the cakes beautifully 3) it’s not sugary – the last thing you want with such a chocolatey dessert is a bit more sugar.

Although the original recipe says that you can make the batter in advance and stick it in the fridge for a few hours, I’ve never had much luck with that, unless the batter has had a chance to come to room temperature. I would mix the batter just before sitting down to dinner and pop them in the oven after the main course; they only take 13 minutes to bake, which will give you time to digest.

Click here for a printable version of the recipe

Baby Lava Cakes, 6 Servings

Ingredients:

12oz Bittersweet Chocolate

¼ Cup Butter, softened

½ Cup Sugar

4 Eggs

½ Tsp. Salt

1 Tsp. Vanilla

1/3 Cup Flour

Crème Fraiche, to serve

Preparation:

Grease the ramekins with butter (as an aside, I detest greasing pans for baking with spray non-sticks – they always smell vaguely metallic and never do quite as good a job as plain old butter.)

Fold a piece of parchment paper in two; lay three ramekins top-side down on the parchment paper and draw circles around their circumference. Cut the circles out and line the greased ramekins with them.

Pre-heat the oven to 400° with a cookie sheet warming inside.

My yankee ingenuity and thriftiness keep me from spending $200+ on a real double-boiler. This makeshift version is an effective and inexpensive alternative.

Set the chocolate to melting over a double-boiler, stirring occasionally. Remove from the heat once thoroughly melted and allow to cool.

This recipe affords the hungry and undisciplined cook many wonderful spoon-licking opportunities.

Add the butter and sugar to the bowl of a mixer and cream. Add the eggs, one at a time, allowing each to be absorbed by the mixture before adding the next. Add the salt and vanilla. Once all of the liquid ingredients have been mixed thoroughly, add the flour and mix until incorporated.

Once the melted chocolate has cooled, stir this into the batter. The batter should be luscious, thick and glossy.

Divvy the batter amongst the ramekins. Remove the cookie sheet from the oven, place the ramekins on it and return to the oven. Bake the baby lava cakes for 13 minutes.

Remove the cakes from the oven. Allow to cool for 5 minutes, and then tip them, carefully, upside down onto a plate or into a steep bowl. Spoon on crème fraiche according to your liking.