Tuesday, March 29, 2011

Childhood Classics - Chocolate Self-saucing Pudding

I've definitely been in comfort food mode lately - between being glued to the television for a couple of weeks with the Christchurch earthquake, and then returning from Melbourne to discover a distinct chill in the air. Today is pretty nice in Wellington (because it's not the weekend) but the mornings and evenings are definitely cooling down, daylight is diminishing, and hibernation is becoming more appealing by the second.



Given these things, resorting to a classic like chocolate self-saucing pudding seems pretty much compulsory - how can you resist a bowlful of hot, spongy, chocolatey pud?



Growing up, we didn't usually have dessert, but the deal was that if I wanted it (which I always did!) I could make it (which I sometimes did, depending on motivation levels and how much homework I had to pretend to be doing). Chocolate self-saucing pudding was a frequent contender, since it takes almost no time to put together - and we had a microwave recipe which only took about 10 minutes to cook. Today I've gone with the classic Edmonds, with the cocoa amped up and some chocolate chips added, because there is no such thing as too much chocolate (I hope you agree - I seem to have a theme going on at the moment!).


What comfort foods do you dive for when the cold starts creeping in?

Chocolate Self-saucing Pudding
Ingredients
100g butter, softened
3/4 cup sugar
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla essence
1 1/4 cups flour
2 tsp baking powder
1 1/2 Tbsp cocoa
1/3 cup chocolate chips (optional)
Sauce
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 Tbsp cornflour
1/4 cup cocoa
2 cups boiling water

Preheat oven to 180 C. Beat together butter, sugar, egg and vanilla. Sift together flour, baking powder and cocoa then fold into the mixture. Spoon into an ovenproof dish (approx 8 cup capacity - a loaf tin isn't quite big enough, but you can always put some into a smaller container if you have surplus).

Mix together the dry ingredients for the sauce and sprinkle over the pudding. Carefully pour the boiling water onto the pudding, using the back of a spoon to avoid making holes in it. Bake for 35 minutes or until it springs back when lightly touched (I often take mine out a bit gooey, cos I like it like that, so I only cooked mine for about 30).

Monday, March 28, 2011

My Chocolate Tour of Melbourne

When on holiday I like to explore what I consider the important characteristics of my destination town or city - which basically means that Mr Cake is dragged into every chocolate shop I see and that I arrive home with a huge pile of goodies, ensuring waistband expansion continues beyond the holiday itself. Melbourne is a foodie dream and I knew there'd be chocolate everywhere so I did some research to determine the must-visit places.


The first chocolatey place we went was Max Brenner. We had spent the morning "shopping" - that is to say, visiting shops then leaving once we looked at the prices and did the exchange rate calculation. Did I mention the Kiwi dollar was at an 18-year low against the Aussie while we were there? Ugh! Anyway, not buying things apparently works up quite an appetite, so we stopped at Max Brenner for some refuelling.


I ordered a hot chocolate with crunchy waffle balls in it, as well as waffles with strawberries (waffle overkill!). Mr Cake ordered a babka, a brioche-type bread. My waffles were good - crunchy with fluffy centres, and the chocolate was very good chocolate - the strawberries helped balance it out a bit (especially since I went overboard and ordered a hot chocolate as well!). The drink was pretty good as well - not the most amazing hot chocolate (I think Duke Carvell's still wins that award for me) but still very good. The crunchy little balls of waffle were nice, though very sweet, and I probably wouldn't bother with those next time - they have a fairly varied hot chocolate menu so there are lots of other variants to try instead!

Mr Cake enjoyed his babka - again, very rich, but that is surely what you're after when dining in a chocolate shop.

They do have chocolates available for purchase as well but we'd reached saturation point and I couldn't contemplate choosing any (normally I have no problem imagining what would be good later even when my belly is completely full, this was a real chocolate overload).


A couple of days later we were wandering through St Kilda when I spied a Chocolateria San Churro shop. Once again, we were about due for a sit-down and I love anything donutty so churros are right up my street. We ordered a serving of churros each - mine with milk chocolate sauce, Mr Cake's with caramel - and I also got a box of their chocolates, one of each flavour (there were only nine so this didn't seem too unreasonable!).

The churros were yummy - hot and fresh and crunchy, with the requisite coating of cinnamon sugar, though the chocolate sauce was a bit sugary. The caramel sauce was extremely sweet and I thought only tolerable in combination with the chocolate - definitely comfort food, though, and really one serving would have been enough to share (not that we didn't finish them, ahem).


The chocolates were a bit of a let-down, unfortunately. The chocolate itself wasn't particularly nice, and had an unpleasant mouth-coating aftertaste, and the fillings were all very artificially flavoured and overly sweet. I probably shouldn't be surprised, given the look of them - but I live in hope. I would go back for the churros but wouldn't go near the chocolate cabinet.

On our last day there I made it my mission to make it to another few chocolate stores - the previous evening when I was checking locations and seeing how many we could cram in to our limited time Mr Cake asked me what I was doing. When I told him he looked in horror at my list so I pared it back a little - by about half. The things we do for love! ;-)


First stop was Chokolait, hidden away in one of the arcades off Little Collins Street. Actually, all three of the last-day stores we visited were in arcades, which was quite fun - since I'd figured out there were chocolate treasures to be found we went through lots of little lanes of shops we might otherwise have missed. Never underestimate the value of having crazy missions on your holidays - there are often unforeseen benefits!

 
Chokolait had lots of flavours, which made choosing very hard. I did eventually manage to select some, though I'm sure the saleslady was fed up with my dithering by the time I figured it out. ;-)



These were pretty good, although despite trying to avoid liqueur flavours some of these were still a bit boozy for me. I did enjoy them though - they vanished pretty quickly! The white chocolate ones were very good, which as a white chocolate fan pleased me greatly.
 

Next stop was Koko Black, which I had longingly gazed upon in Victoria Market earlier in the week - but I knew the chocolates would never have made it home if I had bought them at the beginning of our break, and it is nice to be able to stretch out the holiday treats a bit.


These were by far the best chocolates we had - every single one was delicious, with some great flavours. They were well balanced, with the flavours coming through distinctly without letting you forget you're eating chocolate. Of particular note were the Tikal chilli chocolate, which was absolutely fantastic, gently hot, perfect, and the Leatherwood honey, smooth, sweet and gooooood.

The downside of buying chocolates on holiday to eat when you get home is that you can't go back and stock up on the ones you like. Or perhaps that's a good thing...


The last stop was Haigh's, which was a surprisingly large store, with all sorts of gorgeous gift boxes as well as the standard counter fare. The service was friendly and I was particularly impressed when our box of precious meltables was put inside an insulated bag to protect it from the heat. Since I was already toting another couple of boxes I transferred those into the insulated bag as well, which enabled all my goodies to tolerate a pretty warm Melbourne day exceptionally well (last time we were in Aussie I bought fancy Easter treats for my family, but they got very melty before I managed to get them home - they were still gobbled up but it does detract a bit!). So nice one, Haigh's - other chocolate shops take note!


The chocolates were pretty good, not quite as fantastic as the Koko Black ones but they had some very interesting flavours, and the chocolate itself was very good. We found the nougat ones especially good, though the cream-filled ones were mostly pretty underwhelming. The big bar was a chai bar - Mr Cake's choice - which was really nice, sort of fudgey filling but very true to the chai flavour. My favourite was the wattleseed one, which had a dark (but not too dark) coffee-like flavour to it. A little bit different.

They also had lots of lovely ideas for gifts, and though I was looking for my greedy self I would have been tempted by the teddy bears or purse shaped boxes if I was in a giving mood. ;-)

So in summary - Melbourne = chocoholic's dream destination. It certainly passed my test of a good destination. What slightly offbeat things are your must-do holiday activities?





Max Brenner, Chocolateria San Churro, Chokolait, Koko Black and Haigh's are in various locations around Melbourne - see the websites for details.

Friday, March 25, 2011

Simple Chocolate Brownies

I was sent this recipe by a friend ages ago, when I was trying to hunt down the perfect brownie (not that my search has completed now - it probably never will). Last night I was looking for something to bake for work - I need to induct my new colleagues into the practice of eating more sugar and fat than perhaps they need - and spied this hidden amongst scores of other I-must-try-this-someday recipes.


It's dead easy, and the best part: you only need a saucepan, a wooden spoon, scales and a pan to bake them in. I love recipes like that - so little clean-up. I wouldn't be without my kitchen scales and prefer weighing everything if I can - since you can then weigh the ingredients straight into the bowl.


Like most brownies, it's not the cheapest baking you could make - adding lots of chocolate and butter drives the price up a bit - but making a whole batch should only cost a little more than buying one piece of brownie at a cafe and it's just as good as most cafe brownies I've tried (I've actually sworn off them, as good ones are so hard to find - feel free to offer your recommendations in the comments! - but the bad ones can be quite horrible).


As always I used chocolate I like to eat - it makes a big difference to the taste. Usually I prefer eating milk chocolate but this recipe has quite a lot of sugar in it and I felt using dark chocolate would help balance that out, so went for Whittakers 70% Dark Ghana, which I was pretty glad about. The recipe calls for two cups of add-ins - chocolate chips or walnuts - and I used all chocolate chips (an assortment of part-bags I had left, so I had dark, milk and white). In retrospect, and although I usually prefer my brownie nut-free, I think chopped walnuts would have been better than the extra chocolate in this version. 


I think it's important to try brownies both hot from the oven and once they're completely cooled - purely in the interest of research, you understand. ;-) So we had some last night, and to be honest I found it too sweet as a dessert brownie - the sugar was just a bit much. I have had another today, though, and they are much better now - the chocolate flavour manages to overcome the sugar. I think I still prefer the ones I made last time, but these ones are still good once cooled - I may be biased as I do prefer eating them fresh out of the oven and since these ones didn't deliver in that area they don't make it to the top of the podium.


So: quick and easy to make, very sweet, and plenty good enough to impress sugar-starved workmates. ;-) I did overcook mine slightly - so easy to do with brownies! - so I trimmed off the edges (who am I kidding, I always trim the edges off brownies and slices to make them look pretty... I just normally eat the offcuts, but this time they're not so nice).

Do you like nuts in your brownie or do you prefer a super chocolatey chocolate hit?



Easy Brownies (adapted from Yogic Knitter's recipe)
Ingredients
125g butter
100g dark chocolate
200g caster sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
90g flour
200g of any of the following: chopped walnuts, macadamias or pecans, or dark, milk or white chocolate drops

Preheat the oven to 160 C. Line a brownie tin with baking paper.

Melt the butter and chocolate over low heat in a saucepan and stir until smooth. Remove the mixture from the heat and mix in the sugar, eggs and vanilla. Add the flour and mix, then add the nuts or extra chocolate and mix until combined. Pour into the prepared baking dish.

Bake for 25-35 minutes, until a skewer comes out without goo on it. Cool and cut into squares.

Wednesday, March 23, 2011

Louise Cake

Today's recipe is not that exciting, but it is a bit of a Kiwi classic, and as unbeatable now as it was when I was four and thought it was named after my friend Louise, or 'wees', as I rather unfortunately pronounced her name back then.


The recipe I used was from the Edmonds cookbook, and was called macaroon cake. The recipe didn't include jam but once the jam is added it is pretty much exactly what I'd call Louise cake - a thick, cakey base, jam centre, and coconut topping. 


As with any recipe that begins with the instruction "cream butter and sugar" electric beaters make life easier, but so long as you're equipped either with an appliance or some good muscles it's pretty easy. The base is similar to sponge, but cooks up denser so that it's closer to what I'd identify as slice. 


The topping is very simple, egg whites, sugar and coconut, and the egg whites just need to be a bit stiff before you mix the rest in. The oil in the coconut will deflate the egg whites a bit but that's fine.

I made mine round, though more often this is made as a slice and served in squares (I just didn't have a square tin big enough). I don't think having it in wedges detracted anything from the flavour - it was still really yummy. How is it that jam (which is pretty good on its own) becomes somehow magical when baked into the middle of things?


Louise Cake (adapted from the Edmonds cookbook)
Ingredients
125g butter, at room temperature
1/2 cup sugar
3 egg yolks
1 tsp vanilla essence
1 1/2 cups flour
1 tsp baking powder
2 tbsp milk
3 tbsp jam (traditionally raspberry but whatever you like will work)
Topping
3 egg whites
1/2 cup sugar
1 1/2 cups coconut

Preheat oven to 180 C. Cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add egg yolks and vanilla and beat well. Mixed flour and baking powder together, and add alternately with milk. Spread into a greased and lined tin - 23cm square or 25cm round. Spread jam over cake batter.

Beat egg whites until soft peaks form. Fold in sugar and coconut. Spread over cake. Bake for 30 minutes or until a skewer comes out clean. Leave to stand in the tin for 10 minutes before turning out.

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