Book Review–Gu Chocolate Cookbook

Once in every 3-4 months, we have a book sale organized in our office by lunch time by the book people, where we can buy book at a discount rate. Usually cheaper than the high street prices. Some times even cheaper than Amazon. Usually they will have lots of cookbooks, kids books and some novels. I love cookbooks so I make sure that I pay a visit to the sale, every time the book people comes to our site.

This time among all the lovely cookbooks I spotted the Gu chocolate cookbook. I didn't know that Gu had published a book on chocolate, so it came as a surprize to me and I knew I was going to buy that book instantly. Who wouldn’t just look at the cover picture. However people do say don’t judge the book by its cover! So I went in. Every page I turned I felt good. At the end of it it was like a magnet got stuck in my mind and hand, I just had to buy the book!

The hard covered, 200+ pages book contains many interesting recipes along with the usual suspects. The book has 6/7 chapters and you can choose recipes based on your situation demands. I just love the last chapter name its called “…for Chocolate Extremists”. The pictures of the book kept me glued to the book for a long time. They just looked out of the world. If you are  a chocolate lover, trust me you need to have this book.

I came back to my desk and just couldn't resist letting everyone know about my latest treasure. One of my colleague suggested that I should bake a cake from the book. I knew I was going to make something from the book soon but his suggestion narrowed it down to the exact thing. There were two chocolate cake recipes I was toggling between, but then in the end decided to go with Chocolate mousse cake with chocolate glaze on top.

I started on with the sponge which was pretty easy and straight-forward. Just melt the butter (200gm )add sugar(200gm) and start the mixer. Now added one egg at a time upto 5 eggs (the recipe suggested 6 but I thought 5 would be enough). I got the chocolate melted in a double boiler and set aside to cool down before adding to the cake mix. In a separate bowl I mixed all the dry ingredients, 150gms flour, 3tsp baking powder and 1tbsp baking soda (my addition).  Added the dry mix spoon by spoon to the wet mix while continue to mix with that electric mixer. Finally added the melted chocolate and gave it a good mix again.

I had preheated the oven to 170 degrees and placed a lined cake tin in it before starting on the cake mix so by now the oven is and the tin both are ready to bake. just pour the cake mix on the tin and baked for 50-55 minutes or until the skewers came out clean. Took the sponge out to cool it down and turned the oven down.

Now on to the chocolate mousse. This is an eggless mousse, just two ingredients 200gm dark chocolate and 200 ml double cream. Beat the cream till it forms the soft peak and melt the chocolate and add into it to a smooth mix. Chocolate mousse is ready for the spread. All I needed is the sponge to cool down. Since there was some time to that so I started to make my chocolate glaze.  Again started with melting 100 gm chocolate with 100ml double cream. To that added 100 gms of caster sugar and half a sachet of gelatine mix with 2 tbsp of water. I made the gelatine mix before so that no lumps formed in the chocolate glaze. Mixed every thing together and when it turned in to a rich dark pool of chocolate sauce, took it off the heat and let it cool.

Building the cake: I must say this was the toughest part of all. I have done this before but not with chocolate cream. I have always found cream and cream cheese frosting is the best frosting. Easy to spread and holds shape well. This chocolate mousse spread wasn’t an easy one. It took me longer time to do the icing than I anticipated and It wasn’t as smooth as I expected. Maybe I should have beaten the cream a bit longer but anyway, here I was spreading the mousse on the cake.first I added a bit of mousse to the cake base so that when I work on my sponge it shouldn't move. Next cut the cake in to half and spread generous amount of mousse on top of the bottom half.Carefully placed the top half of the sponge. Now covered the cake with rest of the chocolate mousse. This took a while. Finally when I finished I placed the cake in the fridge to set for at least 2-3 hrs. Then pour the glazed on top of the cake, making sure to cover every bit of it. Once that’s done, placed the cake back in to the fridge for the glaze to set on mousse and this time overnight.

I must say I didn’t manage to get the look I was after but I hopes it would taste good, and that’s what happened. My team mates loved it. I took the cake to office on Monday morning and there was nothing left when I left the office that evening. I was happy, all that hard work paid off.

The 100th post!

I cant believe I am writing my hundredth post! A few years ago someone asked me ‘Why don’t you start blogging?’ and I laughed. Me? Blogging? And now look at me, completing my maiden ton!

I wanted to do something special for this post and as usual breaking my head over this for some time. Then on Twitter I saw a tweet from Bristol Bites that she was taking up a challenge to raise funds to support a very noble cause. It is called Live Below the Line. The charity that is fighting against the world poverty. They had a challenge for the participants to have at least three meals of the day costing no more than £1 /day. The event started on 7th May and went on till 11th. While taking up this challenge you can have sponsors who would sponsor you by donating money to Live Below the Line for this noble cause. I was really excited and immediately asked Emily (Bristol Bites) that I am interested to take part, how do I do it? She got back to me immediately with all details and an invitation to join her team. I signed up and accepted her invitation on T-2 days.

I had to plan my all 15 meals for the challenge and have on £5 to do so. Not only the main items I need to buy within that but also the other things like salt, oil , pepper or any spices I intend to use should also be included in your budget. So I measured roughly how much I need for the 5 days and calculated the price of them (salt, teabags and oil) and added in my list. Here is what my list looked like.

My shopping and item cost list for the 5 days challenge :

Price Items
-----------------------------
0.85 6 eggs
0.20 0.5 kg Potato @40p/kg (Local veg shop)
0.35  350 gm Mushroom @£1/kg (Local veg shop)
0.39 pasta (500 gm)
0.45 300ml oil @ 15p/100ml
0.20 0.5 kg Onion (Local veg shop)
0.44 4 Instant noodles @ 11p
0.52 1.5kg plain flour
0.35  basic jam
0.07 teabags 20 @27p/80 bags
0.47 basic bread
0.017 50gm basic salt @34p/kg
0.18 Ground Black Pepper, Basics 25g
0.49 1 pint Milk
-------------------------------------------------------
4.977 Total

Armed with my above shopping list and my fingers cross I started my challenge on 7th May.

Day 1 : 7th May 2012

Breakfast: 2 slices of bread toasted and with jam + a cup of black tea

Lunch: Mushroom and onion pasta (cooked enough for at least 2 meals, stored the left over for another meal )

Dinner: Made hand made roti and potato fry (I made some 10 rotis and enough potato fry for another 2 servings.)

Day 1 felt quite good, was very tired by the end of it because I also had to make food for my little one and my hubby, which was obviously different from my food.

Day 2:  8th May 2012

Breakfast was again the same as day 1 , Jam toast and tea. 

Lunch : left over roti and potato fry and a cup of tea with milk this time.

Dinner : I just had a packet of instant noodles. Easy and lazy meals.

Day 3: 9th May 2012

Breakfast : Same old same old, jam toast and tea. Three days in a row, so started to get a bit boring now! I consoled myself saying to morrow I will have something different.

Lunch: Mushroom and onion pasta, left over from day 1. So no cooking for me!

Dinner: I still had 2 rotis left but there were no cooked potato left so I cracked two eggs and made two omelettes with them adding quarter of an onion, salt and pepper to each omelette. Next wrapped the omelettes in the rotis to make two individual egg roles, to complete my dinner. A little bit of tomato ketchup would have lift the flavours but that wasn't in my budget.

Day 4: 10th May 2012

Still going on ok but started to feel the pressure. Still 6 more meals left, and I am already running low in steam. Especially because I am addicted to chocolate, and that wasn’t there in my budget! I tried a lot to fit at least some chocolate in my budget but it was just not possible. Now I know I have chocolate in my fridge and I am craving for it but can’t have it! Every time I open the fridge to take something out, I felt, that bar was staring at me and asking “why I am still untouched?” Ignoring such temptation was real tough for me!  

Breakfast: I made muffins. Her is how I did! I used 2 eggs, instead of butter I used oil (2 tbsp), I didn’t have sugar in my budget but there were lots of jam so used quite a lot of them and there were no shortage of flour and milk! They aren't the best muffins I had ever tasted but it was a change from my regular jam and bread. I had 2 of 5 muffins I made.

Lunch: Instant noodles. Made them slightly different! boiled the noodles in plain water and then fried them with little onion and mushroom and the taste maker it comes with. Wasn’t bad!  

Dinner:  Made Alu paratha. Ideally we would have it with yoghurt and spicy pickle but both were not not my budget so had them just like that! Trust me it was good on its own. Had 3 out of 12 I made.

Day 5 : 11th May 2012

This was the last day of the challenge and I was eagerly waiting for it. Finally after this day I will be able to eat what ever I want, when ever I want! Trust me that dark chocolate bar in my fridge was calling me like anything and I was doing the hours countdown..15, 14, 14.5…

Breakfast: My fabulous muffins I made yesterday! I guess any thing hot out of the oven taste much better than a day old! Anyway, just two more meals left to go.

Lunch:  Left over Alu parathas and cup of tea.

Dinner: I had two of the eggs left, so decided to make some French toast (savoury version, not the sweet one!) with the bread! Basically beat the eggs with salt, pepper and finely chopped onions, dip the bread in the egg mix and shallow fry them. 

Post Challenge: 12th May 2012 and onwards

I used most of the items in my shopping list. The thing I was left with was half a pack of bread, some flour, half a bottle of jam and 2 packs of instant noodles. It might not have shown in the above meal description but I did finish all the teabags and milk I had in my budget. Now, I am back to my usual routine. During the challenge, I was so tempted to eat chocolates, I thought when the challenge ends, the first thing I would eat is that bar of chocolate sitting in the shelf of my fridge door. Surprisingly enough I didn't. I just went on with my usual life and food and forgot about the chocolate!

Well, that didn’t last long! I received a pack of Billington’s sugar and a recipe to make some chocolate muffins from Baking Mad. I made the batter but due to this last week challenge and the fact that I was working with chocolate, I was running out of patience and instead of making muffins and I made a batch of chocolate brownies and before I know almost half of it was gone! 

I couldn't raise much, but after reading my story if you feel like donating for this noble cause you can still do it here.

Chocolate Cupcakes and a sweet moment to remember

Time flies, and just like that I didn't realise how these last six months came and went. So many things happened during this little time. I remember the day very clearly when my mum was coming to be with me for sometime. I was so excited and happy when I saw her coming through the doors, I was jumping with joy and happiness. She was here for the most important event of my life. I was so glad that she came and was with me for the birth of my baby. With the baby, my mum and my better half, time passed by like a blur and now I feel so sad as she will be leaving this weekend.

Now that I have sat down to write this post I am reliving all those countless moments of pure joy and fun we had together. This post won’t finish if I try to pen down all of then but one such sweet moment was when we celebrated her birthday. It was always she who baked my birthday cake when I was growing up and this time I thought of baking one for her. I can’t tell you how nervous I was, especially because I was baking for her birthday. But she kept telling me keep it simple and gave me enough confidence so that I can finish my cupcakes. I made very simple chocolate cupcakes just like she wanted without the frosting on top and she loved it!

Ingredients:

2 eggs

100 gm plain flour

100 gm brown sugar

100 gm butter

2 tsp baking powder

1 tsp baking soda

3 tbsp Cadbury's cocoa powder

Method:

Melt the butter and add the sugar to it and start beating it. Add the eggs and continue beating till the mixture turns pale yellow and smooth. Mix all the dry ingredients together in a separate bowl then take one table spoon at a time and add into the wet mixture and keep beating. Continue this process till you have finished adding all the dry mix to the cake mix.

Preheat the oven to 180 degree C. Place the muffin cases in the the muffin tray and pour the cake mix on the muffin cases with a tablespoon. Bake for 20 minutes or till the cupcakes are done. Once done take them out of the oven and let them cool. you can do any frosting you like but I kept it simple and served it just like that.

Valentine’s Day- Trio of Desserts

Every year on Valentine’s day I try to do something special. Last year it was chocolate. As you know that I am obsessed with chocolate and baking so this year it had to be baking. On top of that I got a chance to be one of the 15 bloggers who would take part in Baking Mad UK’s Valentine’s Day competition. Baking Mad UK had sent me a box full of baking goodies for this competition hence I had twice as many reasons to do some baking.

This year I thought of being brave and attempt to do not one, not two but a trio of desserts. Because I was making 3 different things I had to go for the low effort, high reward combination. After a brainstorm I decided to go for a shortbread biscuit, a cake and a combination of white and dark chocolate mousse.

Although it may seem like a lot but all of these are very easy to prepare desserts and the best part is you don’t need to make them all together. I made the chocolate mousse a day earlier and kept it chilled in fridge for overnight. Also the dough for the shortbread can be made in advance and kept in the fridge but I only kept it for couple of hours to set.

White and dark chocolate mousse

Let me begin with the white and dark chocolate mousse. Initially I thought of making white chocolate heart surrounded by the dark chocolate but wasn’t sure how will it turn out so as a back-up plan I went for the popular angular presentation. But when I finished making both the glasses, I couldn't decide which one to put forward. So here you go, both the glasses full of delicious white and dark chocolate mousse.

For white chocolate mousse I used:

100 gm Silver Spoon white chocolate

200 ml extra thick double cream

1tsp of Silver Spoon Vanilla Paste

Silver Spoon Sugar balls (optional)

Method:

Melt the white chocolate in the double boiler on a simmering heat. Keep stirring till it is a smooth mixture. Remove from the heat and keep it aside. Beat the double cream till it forms soft peak. Be careful while doing that as the cream become harder if you continue to beat. Now add the vanilla paste to the melted white chocolate and the add the cream to it and keep mixing until every thing is mixed properly and no lumps remaining.

For the angular presentation, I used a wine glass which I placed on one corner of an empty container and lean the glass on the other side of the container in a way that when the white chocolate is poured it covers the wine glass diagonally. Keep the whole arrangement, in the fridge and let it chill for 6-7 hours or even overnight.

When the white chocolate mousse is set, I started making the dark chocolate mousse. For this I used the recipe that I had made before only thing the I changed is the type of alcohol. This time it was cherry liquor, quantity was same.  Once ready pour the mousse on the wine glass by keeping the glass straight now the chill the glass in the fridge for another 6-7 hours or until set.

For the heart shape I simply placed a heart shape cookie cutter  in the glass and pour the white chocolate through it and filled it only half. Once set then pour the dark chocolate around the cutter and let it set. Once that is done then I took the cookie cutter slowly out and filled the heart shaped cavity with white chocolate mousse again. keep in the fridge till it is set.

For serving I used Silver Spoon Sugar balls and few orange peals on top. Trust me you wont be disappointed.

Shortbread Biscuit (makes 12 biscuits)

To go with this creamy mousse I made these shortbread biscuit which will provide the change in texture to the dish. I didn’t know making shortbread biscuit will be this easy. All I needed was four ingredients listed below.

Ingredients:

130 gm plain flour

115 gm Butter (at room temperature)

30 gm Icing Sugar (I used the lemon flavoured Icing sugar from Silver Spoon)

1 tsp of Silver Spoon Vanilla Paste

Method:

Beat the butter (I used an electric mixer) till smooth and creamy then add the sugar and vanilla paste and keep beating. Now add the flour and keep mixing till it forms a dough like consistency. Take it out of the bowl to make a round dough, cover it with cling film and chill in the fridge for couple of hours. This is also something you can make in advance. When you are ready to make the biscuits, take the dough out of the fridge and keep it in room temperature for 15 –20 minutes or until the dough is soft enough to roll and cut cookies out of it. Place the dough between two cling film and start rolling till the dough is quarter of an inch thick. Using the cookie cutter of your choice cut the cookies from the flattened dough.

Line a baking sheet on a baking tray and pre heat the oven to 180 degree. Bake the cookies for 12-14 minutes or until the cookies are lightly brown on the side. Cool them in a wire rack and they are ready to eat. I drizzled some melted dark chocolate from Silver Spoon which you can melt on bag and cut a small corner to drizzle on them but that is purely optional.

Coffee cake with Nuts and Chocolate Ganache

Finally to complete the trio of dessert I made this cake. Can’t think of celebrating Valentine’s Day without a cake and not just any cake, a coffee cake.

Ingredients:

2 eggs

75 gm flour

75 gm butter

75 gm lemon flavoured Icing sugar from Silver Spoon

1 tsp of Silver Spoon Vanilla Paste

2 tsp baking powder

1 tsp baking soda

For decorating the cake, I used:

Handful of mixed nuts pieces

Coffee and walnut cake Icing

50 gm Silver Spoon easy melt dark chocolate

25 gms butter

2 tbsp cherry liquor

 

Method:

Beat the eggs first until light and fluffy, to that add the melted butter and sugar and continue beating. Once you have a well combined homogeneous mixture add the flour slowly, little by little to the mixture while continuing to beat. Add the baking powder, baking soda and the vanilla paste to the cake mix and continue to beat. Pre heat the oven to 180 degree C, grease a cake tin/loaf tin and pour the cake mix in. Bake for 25 minutes, insert a thin skewer in the cake to check if it has baked properly. if the skewers come out clean then its done else if it comes out sticky then bring the oven temperature down a bit and bake for some more time until its done.

For building the cake I used a ring cutter to cut a round portion of the cake then slice in horizontally. Make the coffee cream icing then spread between the cake layers and sides.Now on a plate spread the nuts and roll the cake on it to cover the sides of the cake. Make the chocolate ganache by melting the chocolate with the butter and the cherry and pour on top of the cake and serve. Sending this to English Mum’s ‘baked with love’ Bakeoff and Teenz’ Yummy Delights Valentine’s Day Event.

Valentine’s day – Part 2

Although you can buy practically everything from the supermarket its always nice to have some personal touch to the food we cook or share. They don't have to be perfect and that’s the beauty of it.

I have got these beautiful bars of chocolate from Sainsbury, you can eat them just like that or you can use for your baking. I did. I noticed I don’t have any cupcake recipes here. Its Valentines day, another excuse to have chocolates and cakes. Not that I would like to bake a huge cake but a small one just for two of us or some cup cakes which we can finish in one go.

 

I had some beautiful little chocolate truffles which I thought I could use for decorating these chocolate muffins as my dear husband is not very fond of creamy icing.  After all, I was making these muffins for him only. BTW guess what I got in return, a trip to SFO and LA. Isn’t that great! Well it's our milestone anniversary weekend as well!

 

As usual I am referring to Nigella’s recipe. As you know if it involves chocolate and indulgence but is quick and easy, it has to be Nigella. For these little chocolate cupcakes I used her recipe from Nigella Feasts – Comfort Food. Here is a link to the video Choc Chip muffin.

  Ingredients :

For the cupcakes:

First the list of dry ingredients:

100 gm of dark chocolate (melted)

1/4 th cup of dark chocolate chip (recipe suggested 3/4th cup but as I used 100 gm of dark chocolate so I reduced the chocolate chip amount )

1+ 3/4 th cup sugar

1 + 3/4 cup plain flour

2 tsp of baking powder

1/2 tsp of baking soda

List of wet ingredients:

1 cup of milk

1 cup vegetable oil

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 egg

For the icing:

100 gm dark chocolate

100 gm white chocolate

100 gm melted butter

2 tbsp cherry Liquor (for the dark chocolate icing)

Sainsbury’s TTD Chocolate truffles

 

Method:

Pre heat the oven to 400 degree F. Mix all the dry ingredients together in a bowl and keep it aside. In a separate bowl add one by one all the wet ingredients and whisk it together so that the egg is mixed well. Now add the mixed wet ingredients to the dry ones and mix it well. Place the muffin cups on the baking tray and scope the cake mix in them. Bake them in the oven for 20 minutes.

For the icing melt the dark and white chocolates separately and add 50 gm of butter to each of the melting chocolate. keep stirring and then finally add the cherry liquor to the dark chocolate for little extra flavouring.Once the muffins are cooled down I put the icing on them and decorated them with the chocolate truffles.

I am sending this as an entry to Maison Cupcake’s event Forever Nigella #2 “Seduced by Chocolate”