Review–Chocolate

First I receive a baking book and then some chocolate for review. Both have no connection between them but it happened almost at the same time. May be this is called coincidence. Anyway, I received these two bars of chocolates form Seed and Bean for review recently and here is what I think about them.

The first one is Organic Creamy White Chocolate flavoured with lemon and poppy seeds. Initially, I was quite sceptical about the combination but when I tested it, it felt like I am eating the lemon and poppy seed cake, the only difference is its texture. The white chocolate has a very creamy, sweet and smooth texture. It melts in mouth and when the chocolate is gone you will have some poppy seed left in your palate. Which is not necessarily a bad thing. If you like sweet chocolates then this is definitely one for you to try. The unique thing about this bar is the addition of the seeds. I haven't tried anything like this before and must say I liked what I had.

The second one is Organic Extra Dark Chocolate flavoured with mandarin and ginger. Now this one is my favourite. With 72% cocoa solids the bar tasted smooth bitter-sweet, I would stress more on bitter than sweet. It will leave you with an aftertaste of orange with slight heat of ginger. And to top it all this particular bar is vegan.I loved it. 

Of course both the bars are gone now, but if you would like to have a go, then visit Seed and Bean Organic. 

17/30 Photo a day–In your bag

Other than the usual suspects one thing you will always find in my bag is Chocolate. They can be of any form, like dark chocolate bars or dried fruits covered in chocolate or nuts covered in chocolate or chocolate fudge or all of the above. This is a picture of some home made chocolate covered dried fruits. More on that can be found here.

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”

Time for Goodies

Last Monday I had an invitation to the Sainsbury’s food blogger meet in London. I was all set to go and on the day of the event I had to cancel my invitation because I had to be in another place at the same time. It wasn’t very happy about it as I have been waiting for it. Anyway, it may be next time. The next day, I received an email from Sainsbury’s, which cheered me up! I was about to receive a box full of goodies from Sainsbury’s. Isn’t that wonderful! It made me feel like it was already Christmas.

Friday morning, I received a huge box in the morning post. Much bigger than the pervious panettone box. And guess what I found inside the box? Here is the list. Thank you so much Santa Sainsbury’s for making my this Christmas so very special. Cheers!!!

Taste the difference Almond Panettone – Italians are known for their taste when it comes to Christmas treats. I have tried the Panettone with chocolate bits and now this lovely almond one. It seems after baking this light, buttery textured Italian cake is hung upside down, which helps produce the exceptionally moist finish.

Taste the difference Swiss Truffles – The box had four types of truffles, and I have enjoyed them all.

• Rich Dark, made with single-origin chocolate from Madagascan Trinitario beans;
• Milk Chocolate, a traditional Gysi-family recipe using chocolate from Ghana and Ecuador;
• Vanilla Caramel, with fresh Swiss cream; and
• Marc de Champagne, filled with genuine French Marc de Champagne made with Pinot Noir, Pinot Meunier and Chardonnay grapes

Foiled chocolate racing cars – These little treats are ideal for Christmas stocking, but I would suggest buy them closed to Christmas eve, else you will just have to buy more and more of these goodies. As far as I am concerned I have finished these too. .

Taste the difference fruit and nut topped Christmas pudding is about as good as it gets. The glossy, luxury fruit topping is made with three different French glacé cherries, American almonds and pecans and some sweet-sour candied Moroccan orange halves. The pudding ingredients include juicy Turkish raisins and Greek currants mixed with Californian sultanas and Chilean raisins – all soaked in a warming, boozy blend of sherry, brandy and mixed spices. The pudding is gently steamed and then cooled before maturing for six months, allowing the world-on-a-plate flavours to develop just in time for Christmas.

Taste the difference Holly leaf Christmas cake is baked at a low temperature and the oven gets blasts of steam throughout the cooking process, helping to give it an exceptionally moist finished texture. When cooled it is laced with Cognac before being hand finished with a rich layer
of marzipan, white icing and hand-made edible holly and berry decorations.

Shortbread selection packed in a cute Scottish dog shaped box, just melts in mouth. Its buttery smooth texture is just ideal for a cuppa!   

Note: Some of the images are courtesy Sainsbury’s and I am taking a break gobbling down these gorgeous goodies.

Little Delights

Once upon a time in a land far far away there lived a little girl. She lived in a little cottage and had a little garden full of strawberries, peaches, apricots pineapple and many more fruits and vegetables. Near her little cottage there were two small springs each had melted chocolate flowing through them. One was dark chocolate and the other one was white. On a bright sunny day she would go to her garden, hand pick some fresh fruits and get two bucket full of chocolates and make little delights for the afternoon market in the village.   

Ingredients:

Method:


The little girl decided to dress the strawberries in a suit with a bow. Some of the apricots in white dress with dark laces decorated on them and some in dark hat. Let the well dressed fruits relax for sometime and then she took them to the market.