2 easy chocolate desserts

I am married to a chocaholic. 

Anytime we are in a restaurant and the dessert order comes to the table, it will usually consist of a creme brulee for me, or some fruit based dish, and for Declan, whatever 'Death-by-chocolate' option is on the menu. His always has extra chocolate ice cream on the side and he often orders a hot chocolate with it.  Almost always, the waiter will automatically put the chocolate dessert with extra chocolate down in front of me, smiling. "The double chocolate cheesecake for the lady" at which I usually point to Declan indicating that he surely means the other lady! 

I find it hard to bowl him over with a chocolate dessert and so have given up trying to meet his approval. I am not sure that the dessert he is looking for actually exists! 

Anyway, to get to the point... these two desserts have been given the thumbs up by choco-boy himself, so I am fairly confident that any self-professed chocolate addict would be happy to be handed these offerings.

The first is a chocolate lava cake or sometimes called chocolate fondants. There are many versions of this dessert. Story has it that it was the result of underdone mini chocolate cakes, that when broken open oozed out uncooked batter from the centre, hence the name 'Lava cake'. They are not at all difficult to make and if you do overcook them a little, although you miss out on the oozy centre, you still get quite a yummy chocolate sponge, lovely with whipped cream.

Chocolate lava cake

This quantity serves 4 in individual ramekins

First, butter the ramekins (or you can use teacups) and dust with flour. Leave them in the fridge to set until you are ready.

Preheat the oven to 180c

In a bowl over simmering water, melt 100g butter and 100g plain chocolate until melted. Stir until well combined and leave aside to cool while you beat the eggs.

In a bowl, with an electric whisk or in a mixer, beat 2 eggs and 2 egg yolks with 120g caster sugar until pale and fluffy.

Mix in the chocolate mixture until combined.

Now sift in 50g plsin flour and fold until combined.

Put the mixture in the prepared ramekins and put in the fridge.

The beauty of this recipe is that it benefits from sitting in the fridge for a while until you are ready to serve them.

Put the ramekins on a baking tray and cook for 10 minutes at 180c.

They are ready when they are spongy on top but when pressed you can see they are squidgy and liquid in the middle.

Serve immediately dusted with icing sugar.

The next recipe uses up the leftover egg whites from the first recipe, so it is perfect if you want a couple of desserts for an event, maybe the puddings for the adults and the mousse for the kids.

This is Gordon Ramsey's recipe called four minute chocolate mousse.

You can flavour this as you want, but I like using Irel, a coffee and chicory essence which make the mousse taste extra chocolatey!

Otherwise, you could just add a small drop of vanilla and a tsp of very strong coffee.

Anyhow, to the recipe

Chocolate mousse

Heat 150ml of double cream in a saucepan until just before boiling point and take off the heat.

Add 100g plain chocolate broken into pieces and allow to melt into the cream

While you are waiting, beat one egg white with an electric beater until in fairly stiff peaks and add 50g caster sugar gradually until it is stiff and glossy.

Now go back to your melted chocolate, stir until it is creamy and blended together, put the chocolate cream into a bowl sitting in iced water to cool and when cooled, add another 150 ml of double cream. Then beat until the mixture forms soft peaks.

Now fold in the flavouring you want and the egg whites until combined, but be careful not to knock the air out of it.

Put into little glasses or ramekins or shot glasses and chill for an hour or two..

They are nice served with a biscuit, or with maltesers crushed over the top.

Enjoy!

Birthday cake.

Well, another year, another birthday party.
This year Robyn wanted a karaoke party and I was to do the Kitchen Wizards Cookery School pizza making thing. We also had ice cream sundaes which went down a treat. It was not to much hard work, food wise, really just the pizzas and sundaes. But the theatre came by way of the birthday cake.
I gave Robyn a choice of cakes, and she chose a Pinata cake.
What is that I hear you ask? Well, it is an ordinary layer cake, any variety you fancy. The top layer is hollowed a little to form a crater, which holds a treasure chest style pile of sweet and candy booty!
Over this, is placed a chocolate dome (here's where the fun started for me!) and that is decorated with beanies and this is the Pinata casing.

This is the chocolate cake with buttercream icing filled with sweets.

And this is the finished dome that covered the cake.

This cake did not seem too much of a hassle. To me, it was far easier looking than the other ones she was considering.
However, I did try many versions of the dome, on each one I swore it would be the last, but the version that worked was where I lined my mixing bowl with butter then cling film and put the bowl in the freezer for 5 minutes before spreading melted chocolate with a spatula over the interior of the bowl. I froze the bowl for five minutes between each application of chocolate, layering it up until it was about a centimetre thick.
The end was a bit choppy looking, but it had a short life so the rough edges were forgiven!
My friend Liezel came in and helped me with the smartie applique job, as my nerves were gone worrying the damn dome would shatter! We used writing icing to glue on smarties, m and m's and mini smarties. Then it went straight into the fridge.

The idea is the birthday girl having had the 'Happy Birthday' sung, smashes open the cake to reveal the loot inside. This is when the feeding frenzy began and the cake was literally pulled apart! I have never seen anything like it!!!

I have the video up on youtube of the cake being demolished
Worth a look!!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nvt7lNfCiM8

Tapas and Cocktails

I am running some classes once a month on a Friday for adults on different themes. The next one coming up is Tapas and Cocktails. It is really handy to have a few recipes in your repertoire for when you have guests over for evening drinks or even afternoon drinks, as we are now fast approaching our Irish summer....all two weeks of it.
There are a few cocktail recipes covered alright, but the main focus is the grub,  and all of these dishes are family friendly. As tested by my own kids.
Not wanting to give away too much, as I do want people to actually show up at the event (!), I have one of the recipes below.

This one is such a popular snack, and so simple. all the other fancy treats you will have made just don't stand a chance!!


Rosemary and black olive foccacia

First make a batch of white yeast bread. For a swiss roll sized tin you need 600g of strong white flour. The little tins I used in the picture are half sized trays, measuring 20cm x 30cm and 300g of flour fits one, but you know what..... life is too short to be getting stressed about very particular measurements. Why not go for it and make a full 1kg batch of bread and use whatever tin you have. Any dough left over, make rolls or a loaf of plain white bread. That's what I'd do.

So on that note, here are the ingredients for a 300g batch and a 1kg batch.

Small batch
300g strong white bread flour
1t salt
1t sugar
1 sachet of dried active yeast (7g)
200ml warm water

Large batch
1 kg strong white bread flour
1 T salt
1 T sugar
3 sachets of dried active yeast
625ml of warm water

Before I get going, I just want to talk about yeast if you have the patience. If not, skip this bit.
There are so many types of yeast and different ways to use it, you could do a ten week training course on it. It is one of those things that the more you learn about it, the less you realise you know. I have been baking yeast bread for years and I am only really now starting to learn from my past results, what flour works and what different yeasts taste like.

Basically yeast in it's natural state is hard to come by. Fresh yeast can be bought in good bakers, or in health food shops. I got some in GET FRESH in Rathfarnham recently. It has a very short shelf life, and must be refrigerated or frozen and can be an acquired taste. It smells and tastes of beer, which is only understandable as beer is made with yeast.

If you are using fresh yeast, you need to activate it, as it is dormant and waiting to be woken up and fed! To do this you put it in warm water with sugar and watch it foam up (like beer!)

Other types of yeast that are more widely available and are more practical in an ordinary household kitchen as they can be stored for longer are

Active dried yeast which needs also to be dissolved in warm water and sugar and is granular and has a lovely flavour. This one is my favourite and the one I use the most. I love the reaction of the yeast in the water, it is pure alchemy. It adds theatre to making bread, and if you are looking for a gimmick to get your kids into the kitchen, this might just be your man. Especially if you put 200ml of warm water in a small 250ml jug, it will spill over like Vesuvius. Always a fun show.

Quick Yeast or Instant Yeast which needs no extra help, it is already awake and ready to go. There is a really nice one you can get in most healthfood shops or in gourmet shops made by Doves farm, who incidentally also make nice flour.

But the most widely available type and the one you are more likely to use is the sachet variety, and you can get it almost anywhere you can get groceries. I saw it in Texaco in Rathfarnham recently!

It is perfectly good and you get good results. I personally find it completely flavourless, but I do like my bread to have a taste. A stron flavour may not be your cup of tea in which case go for the sachet option. Tesco do a version of this, also good results but equally flavourless. Good value though, less than €1.50 if memory serves.

All these yeast options have instructions as to how much to use in relation to your quantity of flour, but I am going to give you a little guide here.


PER KG OF STRONG WHITE FLOUR

FRESH YEAST =  20G

ACTIVE DRIED YEAST = 1 1/2 TBSP

INSTANT FAST ACTION YEAST = 3 SACHETS

You would really need to play around with it a bit and see what results you get. It is hard not to make successful bread. It is one of those fairly resiliant things that is kid proof.


Anyhow, back to the foccacia

So, to make the bread, mix the salt with the flour and the sugar with the water and the quick yeast into the flour (or dissolve if using another variety, see above)

Stir the flour and make a well. Mix the water in  in two batches with one hand while holding the bowl with the other. Purists will tell you to do this directly on the counter. But trust me a bowl makes the clean up a little more manageable.

The mixture will first make a porridge consistency then as it uses up the flour it gets crumbly, then you need more water. You are looking for a dough that uses up all the flour without being sloppy. If you need to add a bit more warm water, do.

Now you have a dough. LIGHTLY flour the counter. Too much flour and you make your dough very dry.
Knead for 5-10 minutes until the dough becomes smooth and elastic.

Clean out your bowl, oil well with extra virgin olive oil, put in the dough, cover with cling film and leave in a warm place until you are ready for it really. But it needs to be a minimum of half an hour. You can leave it on the counter, so long as it is not in a draught. You don't want the yeast to get chilly or it will not cooperate.  The dough needs to double in size. The warmer the environment, the faster it does this, but the longer it takes to do this, the more yeasty the flavour.
A way to illustrate this is to put a bowl of dough in the hot press, forget about it (by mistake) and come downstairs the next morning to a very strong smell of beer in the hall! You will be greeted with an enthusiastically overflowing bowl of fizzy bread mush and a VERY strong smell of yeast.

When it is doubled in size, punch the dough in the bowl to deflate it. This is another good job for the kids! Take it out of the bowl and 'knock it back' by pressing and kneading to get rid of any air that has been introduced while proving.

Now shape it. For 300g of dough, you use the whole lot for a half a tray.
If you are using a kg, you should get a large swiss roll tray of foccacia and a bread loaf left over.

You want to press your dough into a rectangle no thicker than 3cm deep.
( That's about the size of one slice of toasty bread) It takes a good bit of wrestling and persuasion, but put the dough into the tray and push it into the corners. Using your clenched fist. Press all over so it is more or less the same thickness all over.
Then using your fingertips, indent the dough all over, like cheek dimples to form little wells in which the olive oil will sit.

Then drizzle about 2 T of olive oil and tilt the tray from left to right and side to side so the oil sits in all the dimples.
Sprinkle over some sea salt and cover with sprigs of rosemary and black olives.

Bake at 200c for 10 - 12 minutes. This does not take long at all so don't take your eyes off it after 10 minutes

Cut into squares when cool. It will keep really well under cling film if you want to make it the morning of your bash.

This is also a great one for picnics. You can put on sundried tomatoes or whatever takes your fancy.

A little less about the baking!! Pasta Arrabiata

I have been blogging a fair bit recently about baking. Due to a busy few months, I have been falling back on my stand bys for dinners and have had not too many new offerings for you all. I have been depending on more help from the troops. The kids are starting to get good at cooking by themselves now, and due to them going to the cookery classes with me every week, they are developing into quite knowledgeable little foodies! (They would not admit this to their friends of course! Pizza and goujons are the official line)

I am not inclined to cook much pasta and pasta sauce at home. I think my college life particularly when I moved out and lived on pasta for economic reasons, has meant that pasta is only an occasional fall back for me. It is however one of the top two or three all time kid favourites, so it is handy to have a few go-to recipes in your pocket.

This is a little gem It is a version of every other tomato based sauce, with only a couple of additions, but it is very tasty and laced with basil it is even yummier.
I have added bacon to the classic Arriabiata and made my own version. I was liberal enough with the chili and I was surprised the kids didn't protest about it, but I said nothing, and they said nothing, so nothing was said!!
Of course it goes without saying that you can leave it out, or indeed adapt this whichever way you want.


Pasta Arrabiata

First, chop an onion and a clove of garlic quite finely. I have taken to using a little mini chopper for speed and to protect my poor eyes!
Next, cook off a packet of bacon lardons (about 200g) in a dry pan for  a few minutes until they are cooked.
In a saucepan, put a couple of tablespoons of olive oil and add the onion and garlic and cook for a minute or two. Then add in some chopped chili, to taste. I used about a  half a teaspoon from a tube of fresh chili that I keep in the fridge as I don't often have chilis in the vegetable drawer. (You can get these near the fresh herbs in the supermarket)

Cook for a minute and add a tin of chopped tomatoes, a pinch of salt and a quarter teaspoon of pepper and a quarter teaspoon of sugar.
Add some chopped basil and cook for a minute until bubbling, then add the cooked bacon. Taste for seasoning after a minute or two and adjust salt and pepper to taste.
I left the simmering sauce for  about 20 minutes, this gave me more than enough time to cook some fusili pasta, although I think Penne is the usual partner for this, you can serve it with whatever takes your fancy.

This took no time at all and would be a great weeknight fall back. The kids loved it anyway and Daniel made it the following day for lunch, so it obviously went down well!

While I am at it, this is the little mini chopper I was talking about. I bought a few of them and I use them in the cookery school for chopping onions and garlic, for speed and also to avoid a class full of teary students! They are handy little things and only two parts and a blade need to be washed. Just as fast as a chopping board. They do go from coarsely chopped to a paste in seconds so you have to be on the ball, but I think they are great. I got them on sale in Kildare village for €17. I can't guarantee that you'll get it for that, not sure what they are going for, but well worth having to expedite the chopping portion of food prep!