Chocolate, Cookies, and Peanut Butter Fudge

I was browsing my blog the other morning and realized that I have not posted candy or fudge recipes here in quite a while!! Given that they are my favorite treats to make and share I lost no time in making a batch to photograph and share. Today's recipe is really simple. Just a few ingredients from your pantry and you are set.

Chocolate and Nuts Biscuit Cake | No Bake Dessert Recipe

Now-a-days I am making a lot of no bake desserts. In this past week, I have been experimenting with multiple versions of Chocolate Biscuit Cake. At the beginning of the week I made a divine one with biscuits and cinnamon crackers, then shortly after that one with biscuits and candy, and today I made one with graham crackers and toasted almonds!!

Nutella Swirl Bread | Eggless Baking

I can hardly believe its June already! It feels like yesterday when I wrote my last post but its been two months since I posted a recipe on Annarasa. I have been cooking and baking a lot of the good stuff and am now back with new super delicious recipes to share. Spring will give way to summer and none too soon in my opinion! The weather has been really strange - abundant sunshine followed by heavy clouds and chilly winds.

The Best Banana Chocolate Chunk Cake | Eggless Baking

Three months ago in the throes of packing up to move, I baked a delicious cake. Yes, it was a banana cake, but this time I added a good cup of large chocolate chunks to it!! Banana and chocolate are undoubtedly made for each other and I generally like to pair dark chocolate with banana when I bake. Some of the recipes that are a favorite at my home are banana chocolate chip muffins, banana chocolate cookies and banana chocolate smoothie. The latter I always make with Ghirardelli chocolate sauce, mmmmm:)

Really Smooth Fruit and Nut Chocolate Caramel Bark

Now who doesn't like chocolate!! Its a love we all share, sometimes secretly and at other times with a passion. Yes, even adults behave like little children at its mere mention! As a child, I loved Amul chocolates, the long lost Double Decker (one of the most delicious chocolates ever, it was rarely available even in my childhood, but I heard so much about it from my parents and their siblings), Five Star Bar, Fruit and Nut Bar, and Cadbury Nutties!! Now my favourite chocolates are those made from dark chocolate, the darker the better!!

Chocolate Caramel Almond Bark

Things were so hectic over the holidays that I never really got round to making many of the treats I had planned. But with winter still around - half a foot of snow and freezing temperatures -it seems about right to go ahead and treat ourselves and our friends with some great goodies. I have been making something special every week (though rarely having the time to blog about it!!) - and this week it was the turn of chocolate bark.

Chocolate Almond Muffins

Last weekend I decided to treat us to some delightful muffins. I have been baking quite a lot of bread of late, and have been avoiding baked goodies like cakes, muffins, and cookies. But then, last Saturday I purchased a new muffin pan and I could not stop myself from inaugurating it:)

Chocolate Valentino for the February Daring Bakers

Nothing quite like chocolate for a Valentine's Day Treat!! And the Daring Baker's Kitchen has given us just the perfect recipe for this month!! In the words of Wendy and Dharm:

The February 2009 challenge is hosted by Wendy of WMPE's blog and Dharm of Dad ~ Baker & Chef. We have chosen a Chocolate Valentino cake by Chef Wan; a Vanilla Ice Cream recipe from Dharm and a Vanilla Ice Cream recipe from Wendy as the challenge.

I made both and they came out delicious!! The ice cream was Wendy's Vanilla Philadelphia Style Ice Cream Recipe. Sadly, it did not live to see the chocolate cake!! I had some old friends surprise us with a visit the weekend before Valentine's Day, and in my usual excitement I insisted they stay for dinner. For dessert I paired very ice cream with some pears poached in red wine. Sadly, no photographs of this :(

I made the cake on the 14th February, and as it was really too early to repeat the ice cream, I topped with with some walnuts!! The rich, dark and intense flavour of the chocolate was complemented beautifully and truly deliciously with the nuttiness of the walnuts. The recipe is a keeper!!

All text and photographs in this blog, unless otherwise noted, are Copyright of © Annarasa 2007. All Rights Reserved. Kindly do not reproduce without permission.

Piquant & Sweet: A Lemon-Chocolate Yule Log via The Daring Bakers Kitchen

And so it is the end of 2008. What better way to celebrate the sweet and piquant memories of the year past that with lemons and chocolate!! This month's challenge is brought to us by the adventurous Hilda from Saffron and Blueberry and Marion from Il en Faut Peu Pour Etre Heureux. They have chosen a French Yule Log by Flore from Florilege Gourmand.

I was a little alarmed when I saw the length of this recipe. My primary concern was the number of eggs that make an appearance therein. We do eat eggs here but they are really not our favourite food. I do bake with eggs and where possible eliminate the yellows and I dislike the smell and taste of the same. I have tweaked this recipe as per our tastes and have made several substitutions along the way. This recipe is excellent and tweaks and will it yields a beautiful and utterly delicious dessert.

Lemon-Chocolate Yule Log
While the complete December Challenge can be found at SaffBlue's Google Group , my experience with this recipe is blogged below. Firstly, i have to say that I chose to half the recipe at the outset. To this end I chose a small loaf pan top assemble the dessert.

Element 1: Dacquoise Biscuit (Almond Cake) with Lemon
I followed the recipe and added some lemon zest and extract into the batter just before baking. I got a beautifully golden, moist, melt in the mouth cake.


Element 2: Eggless Dark Chocolate Chantilly
Again I followed the recipe here substituting the milk chocolate with the dark chocolate. The taste was spectacular!

Element 3: Dark Chocolate Ganache Insert
I followed the recipe as given - only the butter I used was salted.


Element 4: Praline Feuillete Insert
Things were going well and so I got adventurous and decided to make the Gavottes or lacy crepes myself. I found the recipe really simple, skipped the vegetable oil, and baked the crepe for around 25 minutes to get the desired level of crispness. Then I make some fresh almond praline and voila a dark chocolate crisp insert!


Element 5: Lemon Creme Brulee

Ingredients:
2tbsp granulated sugar
2 heaped tbsp cornflour
2tbsp cup water
1 cup soy milk (I used light version of vanilla soy sense)
1 tsp fresh lemon zest
1tsp lemon extract

Warm the water soy milk. Blend the cornflour and sugar into it taking care to eliminate all lumps. Place on a low heat and cook stirring constantly for 3 minutes. Remove from heat, let the cream cool, then add the lemon zest and extract. This is a variation on a recipe that I have long used to get using for custards and pastry creams!!

Element 6: Dark Chocolate Icing
I followed the original recipe by substituting agar-agar instead of the gelatin.

The Grand Finale
I prepared all elements of the cake on the same day. I kinda got on a roll once I started and became excited about the final result. Once all the elements were ready, I lined the loaf pan with some cling film and then some acetate. the layering for this cake is as follows:

Dacquoise Biscuit
Dark Chocolate Mousse
Lemon Creme Brulee
Dark Chocolate Mousse
Praline Feuillete Insert
Dark Chocolate Mousse
Dark Chocolate Ganache
Dacquoise Biscuit


I stuck the cake in the freezer, and I will ice it when we eat it. As it has been festive season, we are currently OD'ed on sweets and it just did not seem right to dive into it immediately. But having tasted virtually every element as I prepared it, I am assured that this cake is going to be delightful!!!! I will update this post in a few days when I intend to serve this for dessert. Meanwhile enjoy the photographs of the cake in preparation.

All text and photographs in this blog, unless otherwise noted, are Copyright of © Annarasa 2007. All Rights Reserved. Kindly do not reproduce without permission.

Back With a Puff: Chocolate Eclairs with a Daring Baker

Chocolate Eclairs, for me, are melt in the mouth Choux Pastry that brings with it an explosion of the cream puff, fresh cream filling, and the very fudgy chocolate glaze!! Its a recipe that I picked up sometime in high school and have many happy memories of seeing the joy it has brought to everyone I have shared it with. Needless to say, I was delighted when I found that Chocolate Éclairs by Pierre Hermé was the recipe chosen by Meeta and Tony for the August Daring Bakers Challenge!!

The recipe as posted on the DB Challenge shows Éclairs as consisting of 3 elements:- Pate a Choux, or Choux Pastry or Cream Puff Dough, Pastry Cream, and Chocolate Glaze. The detailed recipe is as follows:

Chocolate Éclairs @ Chocolate Desserts by Pierre Hermé
makes 20-24 Éclairs

Making the Cream Puffs:

1. Take one portion Cream Puff Dough (see below for recipe), fresh and still warm
2. Preheat your oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C). Divide the oven into thirds bypositioning the racks in the upper and lower half of the oven. Line two baking sheets withwaxed or parchment paper.
3. Fill a large pastry bag fitted with a 2/3 (2cm) plain tip nozzle with the warm cream puff dough.Pipe the dough onto the baking sheets in long, 4 to 41/2 inches (about 11 cm) chubby fingers.Leave about 2 inches (5 cm) space in between each dough strip to allow them room to puff.The dough should give you enough to pipe 20-24 éclairs.
4. Slide both the baking sheets into the oven and bake for 7 minutes. After the 7 minutes, slip the handle of a wooden spoon into the door to keep in ajar. When the éclairs have been in the oven for a total of 12 minutes, rotate the sheets top to bottom and front to back. Continue baking for a further 8 minutes or until the éclairs are puffed, golden and firm. The total baking time should be approximately 20 minutes.
5. The éclairs can be kept in a cool, dry place for several hours before filling.

Assembling the Eclairs:

1. For this you need the Chocolate Glaze (see below for recipe), the Chocolate Pastry Cream (see above for recipe), and the cooled Eclairs.
2. Slice the éclairs horizontally, using a serrated knife and a gently sawing motion. Set aside the bottoms and place the tops on a rack over a piece of parchment paper.
3. The glaze should be barely warm to the touch (between 95 – 104 degrees F or 35 – 40degrees C, as measured on an instant read thermometer). Spread the glaze over the tops of the éclairs using a metal icing spatula. Allow the tops to set and in the meantime fill the bottoms with the pastry cream.
4. Pipe or spoon the pastry cream into the bottoms of the éclairs. Make sure you fill the bottoms with enough cream to mound above the pastry. Place the glazed tops onto the pastry cream and wriggle gently to settle them.
5. If you have chilled your chocolate glaze, reheat by placing it in a bowl over simmering water,stirring it gently with a wooden spoon. Do not stir too vigorously as you do not want to create bubbles.
6. The éclairs should be served as soon as they have been filled.

Pierre Hermé’s Cream Puff Dough Ingredients & Recipe:
½ cup (125g) whole milk
½ cup (125g) water
1 stick (4 ounces; 115g) unsalted butter, cut into 8 pieces
¼ teaspoon sugar
¼ teaspoon salt
1 cup (140g) all-purpose flour
5 large eggs, at room temperature

1. In a heavy bottomed medium saucepan, bring the milk, water, butter, sugar and salt to the boil.
2. Once the mixture is at a rolling boil, add all of the flour at once, reduce the heat to medium and start to stir the mixture vigorously with a wooden spoon. The dough comes together very quickly. Do not worry if a slight crust forms at the bottom of the pan, it’s supposed to. Yaounde to carry on stirring for a further 2-3 minutes to dry the dough. After this time the dough will be very soft and smooth.
3. Transfer the dough into a bowl of a mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, or using your hand mixer or if you still have the energy, continue by hand. Add the eggs one at a time,beating after each egg has been added to incorporate it into the dough.You will notice that after you have added the first egg, the dough will separate, once again do not worry. As you keep working the dough, it will come back all together again by the time you have added the third egg. In the end the dough should be thick and shiny and when lifted it should fall back into the bowl in a ribbon.
4. The dough should be still warm. It is now ready to be used for the éclairs as directed above.
5. Once the dough is made you need to shape it immediately. You can pipe the dough and the freeze it. Simply pipe the dough onto parchment-lined baking sheets and slide the sheets into the freezer. Once the dough is completely frozen, transfer the piped shapes into freezer bags. They can be kept in the freezer for up to a month.

Chocolate Pastry Cream Ingredients & Recipe:
2 cups (500g) whole milk
4 large egg yolks
6 tbsp (75g) sugar
3 tablespoons cornstarch, sifted
7 oz (200g) bittersweet chocolate, preferably Velrhona Guanaja, melted
2½ tbsp (1¼ oz: 40g) unsalted butter, at room temperature

1. In a small saucepan, bring the milk to a boil. In the meantime, combine the yolks, sugar and cornstarch together and whisk in a heavy‐bottomed saucepan.
2. Once the milk has reached a boil, temper the yolks by whisking a couple spoonfuls of the hot milk into the yolk mixture.Continue whisking and slowly pour the rest of the milk into the tempered yolk mixture.
3. Strain the mixture back into the saucepan to remove any egg that may have scrambled. Place the pan over medium heat and whisk vigorously (without stop) until the mixture returns to a boil. Keep whisking vigorously for 1 to 2 more minutes (still over medium heat).Stir in the melted chocolate and then remove the pan from the heat.
4. Scrape the pastry cream into a small bowl and set it in an ice‐water bath to stop the cooking process. Make sure to continue stirring the mixture at this point so that it remains smooth.
5. Once the cream has reached a temperature of 140 F remove from the ice‐water bath and stir in the butter in three or four installments. Return the cream to the ice‐water bath to continue cooling, stirring occasionally, until it has completely cooled. The cream is now ready to use or store in the fridge.
6. The pastry cream can be made 2‐3 days in advance and stored in the refrigerator. In order to avoid a skin forming on the pastry cream, cover with plastic wrap pressed onto the cream. Tempering the eggs raises the temperature of the eggs slowly so that they do not scramble.

Chocolate Glaze Ingredients & Recipe:(makes 1 cup or 300g)
1/3 cup (80g) heavy cream
3½ oz (100g) bittersweet chocolate, finely chopped
4 tsp (20 g) unsalted butter, cut into 4 pieces, at room temperature
7 tbsp (110 g) Chocolate Sauce (recipe below), warm or at room temperature

1. In a small saucepan, bring the heavy cream to a boil. Remove from the heat and slowly begin to add the chocolate, stirring with a wooden spoon or spatula.
2. Stirring gently, stir in the butter, piece by piece followed by the chocolate sauce.
3. If the chocolate glaze is too cool (i.e. not liquid enough) you may heat it briefly in the microwave or over a double boiler. A double boiler is basically a bowl sitting over (not touching) simmering water.
4. It is best to glaze the eclairs after the glaze is made, but if you are pressed for time, you can make the glaze a couple days ahead of time, store it in the fridge and bring it up to the proper temperature (95 to 104 F) when ready to glaze.

Chocolate Sauce Ingredients & Recipe: (makes 1½ cups or 525 g)
4½ oz (130 g) bittersweet chocolate, finely chopped
1 cup (250 g) water
½ cup (125 g) crème fraîche, or heavy cream
1/3 cup (70 g) sugar 1)

1. Place all the ingredients into a heavy‐bottomed saucepan and bring to a boil, making sure to stir constantly. Then reduce the heat to low and continue stirring with a wooden spoon until the sauce thickens.
2. It may take 10‐15 minutes for the sauce to thicken, but you will know when it is done when it coats the back of your spoon.
3. You can make this sauce ahead of time and store it in the refrigerator for two weeks. Reheat the sauce in a microwave oven or a double boiler before using.
4. This sauce is also great for cakes, ice-cream and tarts.

What I Did:

I followed the recipe for the Cream Puffs as per Herme, though I made only half the quantity. The dough was really easy to make and came together very well. I used my especially purchased piping bag to pipe out the eclairs. The size of my eclairs was around 11/2". I baked them for around 24 minutes total following the method above, but found it was just simpler to bake in the middle rack of the oven. The Choux Pastry turned out beautiful, firm, and sounded hollow when I gave it a gentle tap.

When the puffs cooled down I filled them with fresh whipped cream, and covered the tops with the chocolate glaze. Simple, beautiful, and delicious!!
All text and photographs in this blog, unless otherwise noted, are Copyright of © Annarasa 2007. All Rights Reserved. Kindly do not reproduce without permission.