NuttyTart

Mageirocophilia

Chocolate Coconut Rum Cake

The merry theme Choclette picked for this month’s We Should Cocoa means I get to combine two of my favourite things – chocolate and alcohol. Woot! A generous amount of coconut rum gives this luscious chocolate cake some extra oomph. The cake is lovely and moist, and has that thin, crusty top that you get when making a cake with lots of melted chocolate. And it tastes like dark chocolate and coconut rum. Nom.

And now, it’s beginning to look a lot like cocktails! I have some coconut rum left and a bottle of ginger ale in the fridge, so… cheers!


Chocolate Coconut Rum Cake


1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

175 g fine-quality bittersweet chocolate, chopped

150 g butter, cut into pieces

1 cup Malibu rum

1 cup caster sugar

2 eggs

 

Preheat oven to 150 C. Butter a loaf pan and dust with cocoa powder.

In a bowl stir together flour, baking soda, and salt and set aside.

Place chocolate, butter and coconut rum in a saucepan; simmer over low medium heat, stirring until smooth.

Remove chocolate mixture from heat and, using an electric mixer, mix in caster sugar.

Beat in eggs, one at a time.

Stir in flour mixture until well combined.

Pour batter into the prepared pan and bake for 55-65 minutes, or until the cake tests done.

Dust the cooled cake with powdered sugar and enjoy! (The next time I’ll try this recipe for coconut whipped cream to serve with the cake, it sounds just perfect!)


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Butterscotch Muffins For Two

 

Sometimes you need to make just two muffins: a little bit of something sweet with that afternoon cup of coffee for you and a friend. Or, indeed, just for you!

 

 

 

 

 

Butterscotch Muffins for Two

 

1 egg white

2 tablespoons brown sugar

2 tablespoons butter, melted

1/2 teaspoon vanilla

1/4 cup all-purpose flour

1/4 teaspoon of baking powder

pinch of salt

1 1/2 tablespoons full milk or cream

 

Frosting:

1 tablespoon butter

1 tablespoon dark brown sugar

1 tablespoon full milk or cream

4-5 tablespoons powdered sugar

(a few drops of vanilla, if desired)

 

To make muffins:

Preheat oven to 175 degrees. Line a muffin pan with 2 liners.

In a bowl, whisk egg white and sugar until combined. Add in melted butter and vanilla; stir until mixed.

Add flour, baking powder and salt and stir until smooth. Stir in milk.

Divide batter equally between the 2 cupcake liners.

Bake for 10-12 minutes, or until muffins test done. Let cool completely before frosting.

To make frosting:

Measure butter in a microwave proof bowl and microwave until melted.

Add sugar and stir. Microwave the mixture in short (10-15 second) bursts, stirring once in a while, until the sugar has melted and the mixture is smooth and hot.

Add milk or cream and stir. Microwave in short bursts, stirring in between bursts, until the mixture thickens slightly and looks smooth and glossy. Let the mixture cool for a few minutes. (You can also preprare the frosting on the stovetop, simmering and stirring over medium heat)

Beat in powdered sugar (and vanilla, if using). If the frosting seems a little dry, add a little milk; if it’s too wet, add powdered sugar until a thick, smooth and spreadable consistency is reached.

Frost muffins; let frosting set; eat.

 

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Chocolate Devil Cookies

The theme of this month’s We Should Cocoa is cookies, and it is hosted by BakeNQuilt, whose Black and White Cookies make me want to weep because they’re so pretty (and no doubt delicious too!). My Chocolate Devil Cookies  don’t look like much – and in fact, the pearl sugar makes them look deceptively harmless, too. Do not be fooled however, for these deeply dark chocolate cookies pack a punch: the ingredient list includes ginger, cinnamon and cayenne pepper. The sugar and salt combo on top brings the flavour combination to perfection. I’m quite obsessed with these now.

 

Chocolate Devil Cookies (20 cookies)

 

7/8 cup all-purpose flour (1 cup minus 2 tbls, or 200 ml)

1/2 cup cocoa powder

3/4 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon ground cayenne pepper

¼ teaspoon ground ginger

75 g chopped dark chocolate

1/2 cup brown sugar

1/2 cup white sugar

1/4 cup rapeseed oil

1 egg

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

 

For dipping:

1 ½ tablespoons pearl sugar

1 tablespoon Maldon salt

 

Preheat oven to 175 C. Prepare cookie sheets.

In a large bowl, sift together flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, cinnamon, cayenne pepper and ground ginger. Stir in chopped chocolate.

In another bowl, mix together brown and white sugars, oil, egg and vanilla extract. Add to the dry ingredients and stir to combine. (As always, you may find you need to adjust the flour/wet ingredient ratio slightly to get the texture you want.)

Combine pearl sugar and Maldon salt on a plate. Form cookie dough into 2,5 cm balls and dip each ball in the sugar&salt mixture. Flatten the balls slightly and place on cookie sheets.

Bake in the preheated oven for 7-9 minutes, or until just done around the edges but still moist inside.

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Mint & Chocolate Shortbread Biscuits

Mint and Chocolate Shortbread Cookies

Mint and chocolate are a classic combination, and here they meet in a crumbly and buttery shortbread biscuit. Oh my!


This time I only used dark chocolate when garnishing the biscuits, and added some mint extract to the chocolate. Plain chocolate would work just fine too, and the addition of white chocolate would be wonderful. Prettier! Even more chocolate!


Mint & Chocolate Shortbread Biscuits (30-36 biscuits)


1 cup butter, softened
1 cup caster sugar
1 egg
2 teaspoons peppermint extract (or mint extract)
2 2/3 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
green food colouring, to taste (or to sight, really!)


For garnishing:
dark chocolate
white chocolate
peppermint or mint extract (optional)


Cream together the butter and the caster sugar until light and fluffy.
Beat in the egg. Stir in the peppermint extract.
In another bowl, combine the flour and salt. Add to the sugar mixture; stir to combine.
Add food colouring until the dough turns the desired shade of green, a drop or two at a time, mixing well. (If your food colouring is anything like mine, you will likely use several drops – I think I ended up with close to a teaspoon! So feel free to add 2-3 drops on the first round. :-) )
Roll the dough into a log: the diameter of the log will be the diameter of your cookies. To get about 30 cookies, you should aim for a log 4-5 cm in diameter. Wrap the log in plastic wrap and refrigerate for 1 hour.
Preheat oven to 200 C. Line cookie sheets with baking paper.
Slice the log into 0,5-1 cm slices and place slices on cookie sheets.
Bake for 7-9 minutes in the preheated oven, or until just getting lightly golden at the edges. (A bit tricky to gauge as the biscuits are green, so you might want to bake a test biscuit first!)
Remove from cookie sheets to cool on wire racks.
When the biscuits have cooled, melt chocolate (and mix in a few drops of peppermint extract, if using).
Drizzle the biscuits with the melted white and/or dark chocolate – or dunk half of each biscuit in chocolate, or cover the entire biscuit with dark chocolate and drizzle some white chocolate on top, or vice versa. Whatever takes your fancy!


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Caramel Apple Muffins

These humble looking muffins are hands down the most delicious apple recipe I made this autumn. This butterscotch-flavoured muffin, chock full of apple bits, contains an extra treat: a caramel heart. It took a few tries to perfect the recipe – turns out that if the caramel sauce is not thick enough, it will just melt into the batter, for example! But, all is well that ends well, and I very much enjoyed eating all the previous versions of this recipe too!


I suppose one could play with frostings to make the muffins prettier, but they’re so rich and good as-is that I never got around to trying a frosting with them.

 

Caramel Apple Muffins (12 muffins)


Caramel sauce:
7 tablespoons heavy cream (100 ml – or 1/2 cup minus 1 tbls)
7 tablespoons brown sugar (100 ml – or 1/2 cup minus 1 tbls)
1 tablespoon butter
1 teaspoon vanilla sugar


Muffins:
2 ½ cups all purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
½ teaspoon baking soda
¼ teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon vanilla sugar
½ cup brown sugar
2 tablespoons golden syrup or treacle
1 ¼ cups buttermilk (or equal parts milk and plain yogurt)
90 g butter, melted and cooled
1 egg
1 ½ cups chopped apples


To make caramel sauce: Place cream, sugar and butter in a small saucepan over medium heat.

Bring gently to boil, stirring. Allow to simmer, stirring occasionally, for 8-10 minutes.

You want a thick sauce – but keep in mind that the sauce thickens further as it cools and you want end to up with spoonable goo, not a solid lump (I did that once! ;-) )! Drag a spoon across the bottom of the pan: you should be able to see the bottom for a second or so before the thickened mixture closes in on itself and covers the bottom again.

When the sauce is ready, remove from heat and mix in vanilla. Allow to cool.
To make muffins:
Preheat oven to 220 C. Prepare a 12-hole muffin pan: either grease or line with muffin liners.
In a large mixing bowl, combine flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and vanilla sugar.
In another bowl, combine brown sugar, treacle, buttermilk, melted butter and egg.
Pour wet mixture on top of the dry ingredients and mix just until combined.
Fold in chopped apples.
Drop a heaping tablespoonful of the batter in each hole of the muffin pan. Using a teaspoon, fashion a little “nest” in the batter for the caramel sauce in each muffin. Divide the caramel sauce between the muffins.
Top with the remaining batter. Try to make sure that the batter covers the caramel sauce – it might still bubble out of a few of the muffins so consider protecting the bottom of your oven! My caramel sauce has only ever spread across the muffin pan, but it never hurts to be prepared, eh?
Place muffin pan in the preheated oven and lower oven temperature to 180 C. Bake for 20 minutes, or until muffins are golden and test done.


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Dark Chocolate Cheesecake Bars

Dark Chocolate Cheesecake Bars

A very, very rich chocolate cheesecake – like a dark chocolate truffle! Use high-quality, high-cocoa chocolates for this one and I guarantee that you will not miss the frosting. A little piece goes a long way!


As a side note, I couldn’t use by far the best photo I took, because there was a cat hair sticking out of the cake in that one. Oy. The joys of cooking with cats. ;-) So here is a runner-up photo, sans the feline touch!

 

 

Dark Chocolate Cheesecake Bars (24-32 bars)

 

Crust:
350 g vanilla cream filled chocolate biscuits
90 g unsalted butter, melted
1/4 teaspoon salt


Filling:
225 g bittersweet chocolate (I used Lindt’s 80% cocoa)
225 g semisweet chocolate (53% cocoa in this one for me)
450 g cream cheese, softened (at room temperature)
315 ml white granulated sugar
200 g sour cream (at room temperature)
4 large eggs (at room temperature)


Preheat oven to 175 C. Line a 23 cm x 33 cm (9” x 13”) pan with foil and butter the foil.
To make crust: Process biscuits into crumbs in a food processor. Add melted butter and salt and mix until crumbs are evenly moistened.
Pour the mixture into the prepared pan and press down to form a crust, covering the bottom of the pan.
Bake in the preheated oven for 15-20 minutes, or until set.
To make filling: On top of a double boiler, melt the chocolate, stirring occasionally until smooth. Allow to cool a little.
In a large mixing bowl, beat the cream cheese and sugar until smooth and creamy.
Add sour cream and mix well.
Add eggs one at a time, mixing just until incorporated.
Add melted chocolate and mix until smooth.
Pour the filling evenly over the crust; smooth the top.
Bake in the preheated oven until the sides of the cake puff up a little but the center is still a bit wobbly – 25-30 minutes. Thou Shalt Not Overbake.
Allow to cool on a wire rack before transferring to the fridge – refrigerate for at least 8 hours.


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Sugar Cinnamon Muffins

Sugar Cinnamon Muffins

My my, these are the most delicious thing I’ve ever put together using such simple ingredients. Also know as French Toast Muffins, they have a wonderful rich and crumbly texture – and the butter, sugar and cinnamon topping is just the right finishing touch.

 

I didn’t actually use all of the butter that the topping recipe calls for – I had about 20 g left over – but I think it’s easier to dip the muffins if there’s more butter in the bowl. But, I suppose you could use a pastry brush and brush the butter onto the last few muffins – I just used the leftover butter in baking that same day, thinking it couldn’t have been too contaminated by a baked muffin top. ;)

 

Sugar Cinnamon Muffins


Muffins:
350 ml all-purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
125 ml sugar
75 g butter, melted
1 egg
125 ml milk


Topping:
50 ml sugar
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
50 g butter, melted


Preheat oven to 175 C. Lightly oil 8 holes of a 12-hole muffin tin.
Sift together the dry ingredients, stir. Add wet ingredients and stir until just combined. Do not overmix.
Divide batter between the 8 muffin tin holes.
Bake for 20-25 minutes, or until just beginning to turn golden.
To make topping: mix sugar and cinnamon in a small bowl. Place melted butter in another small bowl. Dip the top of each muffin in butter and then roll in sugar&cinnamon mix.


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Blackcurrant Swirl Cheesecake

Blackcurrant swirl cheesecake

CHEESECAKE!

 

With blackcurrants!

 

It’s delicious! (And quite pretty too)

 

The fork is actually not huge; it’s a perspective illusion thingy. :-)

 

 

 

Blackcurrant Swirl Cheesecake


Blackcurrant puree:
225 g fresh or frozen blackcurrants
50 g caster sugar


Crust:
350 ml graham cracker crumbs
60 ml caster sugar
115 g butter, melted


Filling:
600 g cream cheese, softened
175 ml sour cream
2 eggs
225 g caster sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla extract


Puree the blackcurrants in a food processor. Strain through a sieve. You should end up with 100-120 ml of smooth puree.
Place the puree and sugar in a small saucepan. Heat over a medium heat, stirring, until the sugar has dissolved. Allow to simmer for 8-10 minutes, until thickened, and set aside to cool.
To make crust: Preheat oven to 175 C. Line the base of a 24 cm spring form tin with non-stick baking paper; grease tin.
Crush biscuits (10 Digestives or an equal amount of other graham crackers) and stir in sugar. Add melted butter and stir with a fork until crumbs are moistened.
Press the crumb mixture into the bottom of the prepared tin and bake for 6-8 minutes. Allow to cool.
To make filling: Set oven to 150 C. Blend the cream cheese until smooth. Add sour cream, eggs, sugar and vanilla, and beat until combined. Pour the cream cheese mixture over the base. Drizzle the blackcurrant mixture over the cheese filling and swirl lightly with a knife.
Bake for 40-50 minutes, or until the sides are set but there is still a small circle of jiggliness in the middle.
Leave to cool at room temperature, and refrigerate until ready to serve.


 

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Cheese and Chilli Spiral Rolls (Salami Optional)

Cheese and chilli rollsOnce upon a time I lived in a tiny town. There’s not much one can say about it and I wasn’t terribly sad when I moved out. One of the things the tiny town does have going for it, however, is the local bakery. Firstly, they make the most divine vanilla & jelly donuts, that are a) triangle-shaped as opposed to round, and b) somehow inexplicably far more delicious than anyone else’s. Secondly, they make the most divine cheese & herb spirals. Cinnamon roll-like thingies that are savoury and cheesy and herby and wonderful.

 

I decided my life really needed more savoury cheese spirals. And cheese & salami spirals. Don’t see why you couldn’t throw in some chopped ham too, or make a Mediterranean version with pesto, olives and sun-dried tomatoes, or a spinach and feta combo, or…

 

Cheese & Green Chilli Spiral Rolls or Salami Spiral Rolls


Dough:
300 ml milk
25 g fresh yeast
1 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons sugar
300 ml bread flour
appr. 400 ml all-purpose flour
2 tablespoons vegetable oil


Cheese filling:
100 g garlic cream cheese
150 g grated cheese
1 (113 g) can chopped green chillis


Salami filling:
50 g garlic cream cheese
100 g chopped salami
100 g grated cheese
1 (113 g) can chopped green chillis


For egg wash: one egg, lightly whisked


Crumble yeast into a bowl; add salt and sugar.
Heat milk gently to 37 C and pour into the bowl, whisking until the yeast has dissolved.
Add flour, a little at a time, and knead until the dough begins to pull away from the sides of the bowl and no longer sticks to your hand (as always, you might find that you need more or less flour than called for). Knead in oil. Cover the bowl and let rise for about an hour, or until the dough has doubled.
Butter a 9” square or round cake pan.
Roll the dough out into about a 30 cm x 40 cm square (11” x 15”) – the exact size and shape is not critical here! Spread the cream cheese evenly on the rolled out dough and sprinkle cheese, chillis (and salami) on top. Roll the dough up, starting with the wider side, and cut into nine pieces. Place the pieces into the prepared pan, cut side up. Cover and let rise for about 30 minutes.
Preheat oven to 175 C. Brush the risen rolls with egg wash. Bake for 30-35 minutes.


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Chocolate Oat Balls

Chocolate Oat Balls

We Should Cocoa again! This month’s challenge is hosted by Elizabeth, and the theme is chocolates and truffles. I was looking forward to trying a recipe for rum-flavoured chocolate balls that were based on grated chocolate (not melted!) and ground almonds (not crushed cookies!), but unfortunately the recipe was quite disastrous, and I had to turn said balls into cupcakes instead (fragile texture but great taste, so hurrah!). So, that was that. I had no plan B and no special ingredients in the cupboard. What can one do? Well, one can almost always find the ingredients to make Swedish chocolate balls, chokladbollar, the coconut covered delights. Except now, as I had no coconut. Then again, I thought, chokladbollar are not strictly speaking a chocolate confection: they contain cocoa powder. What if I go ahead and chocolefy them a little? Ta-da: this recipe. I really like these. I adore the chewy texture provided by the oats, and more chocolate can only make chokladbollar better.


Chocolate Oat Balls


150 g butter, at room temperature
200 ml caster sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla sugar
4 tablespoons cocoa powder
350 ml rolled oats
2 tablespoons strong brewed coffee
30 g dark chocolate, melted


grated chocolate, for rolling the balls in (In my frenzy I forgot to take note of how much chocolate I grated! My educated guess is around 50 g.)


Beat butter and caster sugar until light and fluffy.
Add vanilla sugar and cocoa powder; beat until well combined.
Add oats and mix well.
Add coffee and melted chocolate; mix. If the mixture is too wet, add a little oats; if the mixture is too dry, add a touch of coffee.
Form into balls and roll balls in grated chocolate. Keep refrigerated.


 

 

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