there's always more room for chocolate

So, you might be thinking that this little cookie looks very similar to another little chocolate cookie featured here a while ago.

I will forgive you for thinking that because yes, there is a slight similarity in that they are both beautifully chocolatey and a little crackly in appearance.

But. There is a beautiful difference between the two. Let me elaborate.

Sometimes you might be in need of a fast chocolate fix. My old favourite just does not quite match these shiny-cracked beauties in speed of getting from bowl to oven to mouth to satisfy that chocolate craving. These are so quick to make. 20 minutes from start to finish. I kid you not. They are softer, shinier and gooey-er than my old favourite - and the very reason that my old favourite is just that - old. These are the new kids on the block and they're here to stay.

I have made scores of these cookies over the last few months and I love them just as much every single time.

Without further ado, I give you...

The Chocolate Brownie Cookie

Ingredients:

200g dark chocolate (70% cocoa solids)
50g unsalted butter, very soft
2 eggs
150g caster sugar
25g plain flour
1 tbsp cocoa
¼ tsp baking powder
50g chocolate chopped (optional - I tend not to bother and save the chocolate for another occasion!)


1 :: Pre-heat the oven to 180C / Gas Mark 4 & grease 3 large baking trays
2 :: Break up the chocolate into squares, put them in a glass bowl and melt
in the microwave or in a glass bowl over a saucepan of simmering water.
3 :: Chop up the butter then stir into the chocolate. (The heat from the
chocolate melts the butter.)
4 :: In a different bowl, put the eggs and sugar in and use an electric mixer
to beat them for 4 minutes.
5 :: Beat in the chocolate to the egg and sugar mixture.
6 :: Sieve in the flour, baking powder and cocoa & gently fold in with a metal spoon.
8 :: If you are adding chocolate chunks, stir these in gently.
Place 1 heaped tsp of mixture onto the tray, leaving plenty of space in between each cookie.
10 :: Bake in the oven for 10-12 minutes. They will look soft when you take them
out, but that's ok, they'll get a bit harder when they cool down, and you don't want to lose the gooey-ness

If you'd like to add a bit of a twist, swap the regular dark chocolate for dark choc&orange. Trust me, you won't regret it if you do.


Cake Count: 660

reminiscing

My, oh my. It has been a while since I last posted here.

In the excitement of getting engaged, I have totally failed to keep two blogs alive.

Here goes for take two with Bake2010.

Believe it or not, I have been baking since I last posted here. Sadly there is not a whole lot of photographic evidence of this, so you'll just have to take me at my word.

This time last year, I baked carrot & cardamom cupcakes to take with me on my first ever date with the man who is to become my husband in just a few short months.

These are definitely a bit of a twist on the more traditional carrot cake recipes but it really does work having a little kick of cardamom, so, give it a go and let me know what you think!

Carrot & Cardamom Cupcakes (recipe from Cupcake Heaven by Susannah Blake)

Ingredients: (makes 12 fairy cakes or 6 large cupcakes)
100g soft brown sugar
160ml sunflower oil
2 eggs
grated zest of 1 orange
seeds from 5 cardamom pods, crushed
1/2 teaspoon of ground ginger
200g self raising flour
150g carrot, grated (about 2 - 3 smallish carrots, off the top of my head)
60g pecans, chopped (optional, but good if you're the nutty type)

For the icing:
150g marscapone
finely grated zest of 1 orange
1.5 tsp lemon juice (optional)
50g icing sugar, sifted

1 :: Preheat the oven to 180C / gas mark 4

2 :: Place the sugar in a bowl, along with the oil and eggs. Stir in the orange zest, crushed cardamom & ginger

3 :: Sift in the flour and fold in, followed by the carrot and nuts, if using

4 :: Spoon the mixture into your cake cases and bake for 20 - 25 mins until well risen and a skewer inserted comes away clean

5 :: Leave to cool on a wire rack, then beat together all of the icing ingredients and spread or pipe on, depending on your desired look


Cake count :: 600

Brownies

Simply because sometimes brownies is exactly what a family needs. Especially when there are five hungry children to feed.

These brownies are less of the goo&crunch variety, more of the dense&rich type.

Scrumdidliiumptious.

Cake Count :: 574

Cake Friday

One of the children I look after goes to a secondary school where they employ this brilliant idea:

Cake Friday

Each Friday, three children in the tutor group bakes enough cakes for 1 per pupil, so everyone gets 3 cakes.

Last week, it was our turn to bake, but it was a bit of a last minute thing, and tagged on to the end of an afternoon of baking these and these. So this is what we cobbled together:

Chocolate Honeycomb Crunch
Ingredients:
225g / 8oz butter
225g / 8oz caster sugar
200g / 7oz self raising flour
25g / 1oz cocoa
3 eggs

For the Icing:
50g / 2oz hard margerine (comes in 250g block form - I use Stork)
200g / 7oz icing sugar, sifted
25g / 1oz cocoa
2 tbsp milk
1 Crunchie Bar, crushed


1 :: Preheat the oven to 180C / Gas Mark 4
2 :: Place 24 cupcake cases in two 12-hole muffin trays (if you only have one, just bake in two batches)
3 :: In a large mixing bowl, beat together the butter and sugar until creamy
4 :: Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition
5 :: Sift in the flour & cocoa and fold in with a metal spoon. (If you want to be speedy, just carrying on mixing with electric beaters)
6 :: Put 1.5 heaped dessertspoons of the mixture into each cupcase
7 :: Bake in the preheated oven for 15 - 20 mins, then leave to cool on a wire cooling rack.

For the Icing
1 :: Melt the butter in a saucepan
2 :: Remove from heat then add the sifted icing sugar & cocoa, stirring gently with a wooden spoon. At this stage, the icing will not look like a great consistency, but don't worry, the milk changes that.
3 :: Add the milk and beat until a smooth, shiny consistency is reached.
4 :: Using a knife, spread a generous amount of the icing onto each cooled cupcake.
5 :: Sprinkle a little bit of honeycomb-Crunchie goodness onto each cake.


Sidenote: I often find that the fat separates from the sugar - I haven't yet worked out why this is but the solution is to add a little more milk. It works like a dream.

Cake Count :: 558

B&W Pinwheels

A very good friend of mine had a little accident the other week involving her bike, some frost, her chin, the road and some glue.

So it was time to bake some get well soon biscuits.

They were a bit faffy to make in that chilling, rolling & lots of cling film is involved. I don't get on with cling film very well. Aussie's like to call it 'glad wrap'. I'm not quite sure why because it does not make my heart feel glad when I have a run in with sticky biscuit mixture and cling film. But there we go. That was what was required to make these beauties.

And I do think they are quite beautiful, if I may say so.

Cake Count :: 534

Chocolate Chequerboard Cake

There are some old classics in the cake world that never let you down and everybody loves.

The first cake I ever learned to bake is one of these classics. Straight from my Mother's kitchen.
There's nothing fancy about this sponge, but it's perfectly perfect when all you want is a light tea time sponge.

So, when cake was requested by the children I look after, this is what came out of the oven.

I'm afraid this post has stumped me a number of times. Or rather, blogger has failed me on more than one occasion in writing this post. I cannot recall the number of times I've typed out the recipe and then lost all the text, so for now, it's a recipe in photos.

Cake Count :: 502

an unexpected favourite

Well this week has turned out to be another little boost towards my 2010 goal.

It all started on Monday evening. At the job I have that involves me cooking for some lovely people, I had been more productive than usual, so had less cooking to do on Tuesday. I asked the lady who I cook for if there was anything she'd like me to do instead of cooking as I'd have extra time on Tuesday, she said, 'you could bake some cakes for the kids?'

Aaaaah. Music to my ears.

At this, one of the children piped up, 'ooh can we have one of those tall square cakes?'

Interpretation provided by Mum: Battenburg.

I have to say, I do not like this cake, but I understand the beauty of it. So, I suggested a compromise:

Chocolate Chequerboard Cake.

But that is for another blog post.

{You're getting a glimpse into my rambly mind here. You see, I'd uploaded the photos for this blog post with the intention of telling you about my favourite cookie, but I have digressed. Back to the original.}

So anyway, after the mention of Chocolate Chequerboard Cake, one of the other children mentioned that on Thursday her school was having a non-uniform day in aid of Haiti, and she'd quite like to make something to sell at a stall at lunchtime.

{Interpretation: She'd like me to make something to sell at the stall. Fine by me.}

And that's where these cookies come in.

Up until 2007, I had not managed to bake a good cookie. The mixture would always look great, but would then spread and go all crispy in the baking process.

I have since then, discovered a secret ingredient: Condensed milk. What a beautiful ingredient. My cookie companion.

During a cookie conversation with a friend, I mention my lack of a good recipe, and she said, 'My mum has a great recipe for cookies. l've never tried it, but it's supposed to be really good. I'll get it for you.'

Now, I don't know about you, but often when people say they'll pass on a recipe, it doesn't happen. Not for lack of good intention, but because, with a recipe like this, as is so often the case, you need to go and find it / ask someone to pass it on, etc, and so the buck gets passed and dropped.

Thankfully, this friend is the most organised person I have ever met. She does not forget. So, a few days after our conversation, I had the recipe in my hand for what was to become my favourite cookie recipe to date.

So, dear friends, here is the recipe, being passed on, just as it should be. I love that my growing recipe collection isn't made up simply of beautiful books stuffed full of recipes written by somebody else, but consists of recipes from here, there and everywhere. From family and friends, and family of friends, and websites lovingly created by people who love to bake. Even as I write this, I am getting excited about the prospect of all the recipes that are to be found.

Enough of my jibber-jabbing, and onto the recipe...

Double Chocolate Cookies :: Makes about 22 {depending on how big /small you make them}

Ingredients
200g / 7oz dark chocolate
60g / 2oz unsalted butter
60g / 2oz white chocolate chips
225g / 8oz self raising flour
397g / 14oz tin condensed milk

1 :: Preheat the oven to gas mark 4 / 180C / 350F

2 :: Break up the dark chocolate and melt, along with the butter, in a glass bowl over a pan of simmering water.

3 :: Once melted, remove from the heat and stir in the entire can of condensed milk. Set aside for 10-15 mins to cool slightly.

4 :: Stir in the flour gradually (no need to sieve).

5 :: Stir in the white chocolate chips. On this occasion I cut up a bar of white chocolate as it was cheaper to buy it in this form than in ready-made chips, but roll with whatever you feel like. Personally, I think that little chips look better than cut up chocolate, but there we go.

6 :: Leave the dough to chill in the fridge for 30 minutes.
This was the first recipe that made me see that cookie dough really is, and should be, dough-like, just as the term suggests. It feels brilliantly springy to touch - not that you would ever catch me doing such a thing...

8 :: Spoon heaped teaspoons of the mixture onto a greased baking tray, leaving plenty of space in between to allow for spreading. If you want the cookies to have a smooth-ish appearance, it might be worth rolling the ball of dough in your hands before placing on the tray, but I quite like the rough-rocky-like apppearance they have from just scooping and pushing onto the tray.

9 :: Bake in the preheated oven for 10 - 12 minutes.
The cookies are ready when they're just starting to go crisp on top but are still very soft.
Remember that cookies always harden as they cool, so you do not want to bake them until they're hard, unless you want to bite into a brown rock!

Cake Count :: 501