fifteen minutes of fun

If you will allow me, I would like to wax lyrical for a few moments about my baking slot this afternoon.

Some of the best times I've had baking have been been I've had a recent caffeine hit.

Today was one of those days. I'd had a coffee at an establishment where the coffee is a little stronger than I am used to, and leaves me buzzing.

What a fun feeling that can be.

So, fresh from my coffee, I decided I needed to bake.

Why? Because I love to, and because it gives me a little something more to write about in this little space.

Then came the decision of what to bake. For some reason, i seem to be a bit stuck on chocolate at the moment. I love the beautiful brown stuff, I really do, but today, it feels like Summer, and Summer & Fruit are always a beautiful combination. Even though I wanted to bake something light and fruity and summery, I couldn't help but gravitate towards chocolate. Maybe it's my hormones. Who knows. So I let my hormones, or whatever else it was, do the talking, but asserted my criteria of baking something new. Not the same old same old.

Anyhow, I flitted to and fro across my room, from my reading chair to my laptop, searching for inspiration amidst the pages of my baking books & from the most brilliant source that is joy the baker. (This woman is brilliant, and it really is worth the effort to convert her American measurements to taste the goodness of her recipes.)

In the end (which actually took about 3 minutes - it's amazing how fast I can get things done with the help of caffeine), I settled on some chocolate malt squares. This satiated my need to bake something chocolate, and something new.

Here's a little rundown of the thoughts whizzing through my head as I baked, which ended up in the form of a top 10 list (although as I type this, I'm not sure that there's actually 10 things on this list, but it has a better ring to it than 'top 4' or likewise).

1) Oooh that vanilla extract smells good. I am so glad I discovered the value of buying more expensive vanilla extract. It is so worth it.

2) There's something quite fun about creating flour clouds as you sieve. Sieving always reminds me of my Grandad pouring tea.
Random connection to sieving? Yep.
You see, I remember my Grandad pouring tea from a teapot (my family only like proper tea), and pouring it from an increasingly great height, thus giving you 'high tea.'
I like to sieve from great heights because more height gives you more air, and air is good, and because it reminds me of my Grandad. I also like it because you create an unavoidable mess, but that's ok, because it's necessary.

3) Yeees, the sun is shining and I am warm & wearing an apron and that is a happy combination.

4) I like that this recipe calls for Ovaltine. The malty smell reminds me of home & my Mother making bedtime drinks.

5) I enjoy the slight thrill that comes from multitasking while baking - stirring the melting bowl of chocolate on the hob and beating the eggs & sugar simultaneously. There's always the chance that this could all go horribly wrong, and that's exciting.
(Thankfully, it never has gone horribly wrong, except for the time where I might have draped the electrical cord from the beaters in the flame from the hob. That might not have been a good thing to do.)

6) This caffeine makes me want to race. Right now, the only racing I can do is against myself&the clock. So that's exactly what I do. The race is on to make these bites of chocolate goodness within the time specified necessary for making them: 15 minutes.

7) Woohoo! I succeeded at number 6. To the minute. And I managed two trips to the recycling bin in that time & welcomed home three of the five children I live with. Success.

If you've made it this far, thanks for indulging me. Here's what I baked..

Chocolate Malt Squares (yields 16 - 20 depending on how big you allow the pieces to be)

Ingredients
175g light muscovado sugar
175g butter
400g dark chocolate (no need for 70% cocoa solids, but if you like it, use it.)
175g wholemeal self raising flour
2 tsp vanilla extract
6 tbsp Ovaltine (or alternative malt-based drink)
3 eggs

1) Pre-heat the oven to 190C / Gas Mark 5. Grease & line an 8 " square tin

2) Melt 175g of the chocolate and the butter in a heatproof bowl over a pan of simmering water

3) In a small bowl, combine the Ovaltine with 2 tbsp water & set aside

4) In a large mixing bowl, beat together the eggs & sugar until nice & frothy

5) Add the vanilla extract & Ovaltine mixture to the eggs & sugar and mix together

6) Stir in the melted chocolate & butter

7) Sift the flour in, pouring in the grains that don't sieve, they add interesting texture

8) Chop up the remaining chocolate and stir in

9) Bake in the pre-heated oven for 40 mins until a skewer inserted comes away almost clean. (A bit of residue is good because the squares will be slightly gooey.)

10) Place tin on a wire cooling rack & leave to cool in the tin


My overall verdict on this recipe?
To be honest, I thought that there was a bit too much chocolate in this recipe. I'd like t0 try it again with less, and maybe substitute some of the dark choc for maybe some chocolate orange, although this might take away from the subtle malt taste.

You could probably enhance the malty-ness with Malteasers.

They have a texture that falls somewhere between brownies & sponge cake, and the wholemeal flour adds to this. Nicely squishy&moist without being gooey.

I'd like to try these again, adapting the recipe slightly. Watch this space...

Cake Count :: 676