Coincidence (noun): a striking occurrence of two or more events at one time apparently by mere chance.
Serendipity (noun): good fortune; luck; the faculty or phenomenon of finding valuable or agreeable things not sought for.
Was it a coincidence or serendipity that just days after bookmarking these roasted pear and chocolate chunk scones, I discovered that the Sourdough Surprises project for this month was sourdough scones?
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These have been on my “to-make” list for a long time since first seeing the recipe on 101 Cookbooks. Black beans in brownies? How could you not be intrigued?
Once I actually read the recipe through, I realized that it included agave syrup, which I didn’t have – but I remembered seeing a version using brown sugar on Christina’s beautiful blog De La Casa. The only changes I would make to the recipe for next time are to add a little bit more sugar (I like my brownies bittersweet, but I felt these could be just a little sweeter) and to toast the pecans to keep them crunchy and enhance their flavour.
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Since making macarons for the first time last Christmas, I have been saving egg whites in the freezer to make them again. I promised myself before we moved (twice in 6 weeks actually, ugh!) that I would only bring those frozen egg whites to the new house if I made macarons ASAP. So I did.
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There has been an absence of chocolate around here lately, which is kind of surprising because I’ve found myself craving it often. I somehow have no chocolate in the house (probably because I ate it all the last time I was craving chocolate) other than the unsweetened baking kind and cocoa powder. Anyway, my point is: more chocolate….
I am currently navigating my way through some silly government bureaucracy, and if you’ve ever had the misfortune to be in that position, you probably know that (regardless of which government you’re dealing with) it can seem like an endless string of hoop jumping, inordinately long waiting periods, and many frustrating encounters with a wretched automated phone menu….
Once again, the start of spring and the approach of Easter mean that it’s hot cross bun season. I had pretty good success last year making hot cross buns, so I gave them another try – but this time I added chocolate, because almost anything is better when you add chocolate. Prior to this, I had never actually had a chocolate hot cross bun, but I have seen them in bakeries and heard wonderful things about them (apparently they are very popular in Australia). There doesn’t seem to be a huge amount of recipes available on the internet, so I decided to come up with my own. I added cocoa powder and chocolate chips (plus dried cherries and apricots) to my existing hot cross bun recipe, along with a healthy dose of cinnamon and cardamom, with which I have recently become enamoured and which happens to go very well with chocolate. And for the cross on top, white chocolate….
Aka, The Easiest Dessert Ever.
When I was at home suffering from the plague last week, I had a major craving for chocolate, specifically something rich and creamy and easy. These chocolate pots de crème satisfy all of those criteria: throw some chocolate chips and eggs in a blender, blend with some steaming hot coffee, chill, and eat. Couldn’t be simpler, or more decadent! I topped them with a little coconut cream (I didn’t have any whipping cream) and they were totally delicious. It’s a good thing I only discovered these recently, or I would have been making them once a week. Very dangerous.
Technically, I don’t think you can call these “true” pots de crème, because they don’t actually contain any cream, nor are they baked in a water bath. However, the flavour and texture are pretty much right on. The hot coffee serves to cook the eggs and imparts a little bit of coffee flavour, but mostly it just intensifies the chocolate flavour. I think you could use hot milk or cream instead of coffee and change up the dark chocolate chips for milk or white chocolate, and add whatever flavours you want (I added a pinch of cinnamon). I intend to do lots of experimenting with this one – it got rave reviews from everyone who tried it, and was waaaay too good not to make again soon! So if you need a quick chocolate fix, here you go: you can thank me later.
Adapted from the Pioneer Woman. Makes 4 servings.
In a blender jar, combine:
6 oz semi-sweet chocolate chips
2 eggs
a small pinch of salt
1 tbsp or so of liqueur (I used French vanilla Kahlua)
Put the lid on and blend to combine.
Pour in 1/2 cup very hot coffee and blend, blend, blend. You are supposed to pour the coffee in through the hole in the lid while the blender is going, but I’m not very good at reading instructions and just dumped the coffee in all at once, then put the lid back on and blended. It worked fine.
At this point you can also add a pinch of cinnamon or a dash of vanilla if you feel so inclined.
Pour the blended mixture into 4 small vessels of about 1/2 cup capacity.
Chill them in the fridge for a few hours until cold and set. Top with lightly sweetened whipped cream (or coconut cream) and devour.
When I was growing up, my Mum and I baked a lot of cookies together, and one of my favorites was the Chocolate Thinsees from a cookbook called Golde’s Homemade Cookies. These were a dark chocolate cookie made of a soft batter and topped with chopped nuts, and during baking they spread out thin and became satisfyingly chewy, yet soft, with a texture almost more like cake than cookie. Sounds odd, but I loved them and as soon as I was old enough to use the oven by myself, I made them all the time – they were totally addictive.
A few weeks ago I had some mandarin oranges languishing in my fruit bowl, and I decided that orange-flavoured cookies would be the best way to use them up. I pulled out my copy of Golde’s cookbook, and came across the Chocolate Thinsees recipe. Chocolate and orange is a tried and true combination, but I didn’t have any of the semi-sweet chocolate that the recipe called for. I did, however, have some white chocolate, so I decided to make White Chocolate Orange Thinsees and top them with Brazil nuts. It was a good call.
These thin, crisp cookies are sort of like French tuiles, but with a chewier texture. They weren’t quite as cake-like as I remember, but they were just as addictive – they barely lasted a whole day, and by the time the last batch came out of the oven, I had already eaten so many that I have no idea how many I actually made. Golde suggests that these make a great tea cookie. I suggest that you make them immediately and just try to stop yourself from eating them by the handful!
Adapted from Golde’s Homemade Cookies by Golde Hoffman Soloway
Preheat oven to 300˚F.
In the microwave or over a double boiler, melt:
2 oz white chocolate, roughly chopped
Set aside to cool slightly.
In a medium bowl, cream together:
1/2 cup unsalted butter, soft
2/3 cup brown sugar
1 tbsp orange zest
When light and fluffy, stir in the melted white chocolate, then add:
2 eggs
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
Mix until well blended, then stir in:
1/2 cup all purpose flour
dash salt
Mix well. The batter will be quite soft.
Drop the batter by teaspoonfuls on a baking sheet lined with a Silpat or parchment paper. The cookies will spread a lot in the oven, so leave a few inches of room between them – I found six per sheet to be plenty. Sprinkle the cookies with chopped nuts (about 3/4 cup total) – I used Brazil nuts.
Bake in the 300˚F oven for 15-18 minutes, until light brown at the edges and set in the middle. Let the cookies cool on the baking sheet for 2 minutes before removing them to a cooling rack with a thin spatula. If they have all run into each other to form one giant cookie, cut them apart with a sharp knife before removing them from the baking sheet.
I dare you not to eat them all in one day!
PS – It was brought to my attention that I’ve been nominated for the “Kreativ Blogger Award” by Sibella of Baking with Sibella. Thank you Sibella, I’m very flattered! However rather than listing seven things about myself and nominating seven other blogs, I would encourage you to visit Sibella’s lovely blog and check out her gorgeous baking – I’m especially taken with her Non Plus Ultra cookies.
Audax Artifex was our January 2012 Daring Bakers’ host. Aud worked tirelessly to master light and fluffy scones (a/k/a biscuits) to help us create delicious and perfect batches in our own kitchens!
Audax, who can offer a wealth of information, tips, and tricks for every challenge (even when he’s not hosting it), did not disappoint with this one. When I saw that the challenge was scones, I honestly wondered how much I would learn, being that I already considered myself to have “mastered” scones – I learned to make them in grade 7 Home Ec, and have been turning them out very successfully ever since. The spirit of this challenge was to find a way to make scones that works best for you, and Audax did a ton of research on what makes a good scone and the techniques to use to make them more flaky or more tender and cake-like. All things I never knew before! He also went into the difference between a scone and a biscuit, which as far as I understand, mostly comes down to geography: they are essentially the same thing, but in America they are called biscuits, and anywhere with a British influence they are called scones. In general, I personally tend to think of scones as sweet (or served with sweet things) and biscuits as savory (or served with savory things).
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This Chocolate Hazelnut Banana Bread is sure to derail your New Year’s resolutions to eat less sugar and/or chocolate. I have stopped trying to make those kinds of resolutions for myself, because they never last long and I just straight up love sugar and chocolate (luckily I also love exercise, so it balances out). The collection of over-ripe frozen bananas in my freezer was approaching epic proportions, so I figured it was time for a batch of the best banana bread in the entire world ever. I’m also trying to find ways to use up the crazy amount of Nutella that I got for Christmas that doesn’t involve eating it straight out of the jar (at least I use a spoon), and the logical progression was to combine the two. 
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