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Whenever I need to bake something that is a little decadent, I better have a good enough reason for making it because sugar, butter and refined flour aren’t the three best words to use in this household. My mom’s been impressing upon me to cook something healthy instead of feeding my love handles with all the baked goodies. But I just can’t get myself to cook the way I bake; baking is way more fun and they photograph better as well. So what’s today’s baking excuse? My cousin is coming over!
I wanted to make a dense chocolate cake with chocolate chips and toasted hazelnuts and started looking through my books to find the right recipe for a good chocolate cake to which I could make the chocolate chip and hazelnut additions. My search came to an end when I found a recipe for Devil’s Food Cake in
Jill O’Connor’s Sticky, Chewy, Messy, Gooey. However, I made drastic improvisations, like use yoghurt instead of buttermilk, granulated sugar instead of brown sugar and milk instead of water. So at the end of it, there wasn’t much left in common between the recipe I ended up with and the one in the book. But the cake, oh my, the cake turned out beautifully! So, so moist with the hot milk and yoghurt and wonderfully chocolatey with not one, but three types of chocolate – semi-sweet chocolate chips, cocoa powder and the best of all, 60% cacao dark chocolate.
This is going to be my to-go recipe for my chocolate cake. If you’re a fan of hazelnuts, then go crazy and add more of it in the batter and sprinkle some on top of the batter just before you push it into the oven. And I think this would be great with walnuts as well.
Triple Chocolate Devil Food Cake with Toasted Hazelnuts
Yield: 8-10 servings
(This recipe is perfect for a huge double layer cake. I made a few cupcakes and baked the rest of it in a 9 inch square pan.)
1/3rd cup cocoa powder
4 oz / 100g bittersweet chocolate (I used 60% cacao)
1 cup hot milk
2 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup / 200g yoghurt
½ cup / 1 stick butter
½ cup vegetable oil (flavourless, odourless)
2 cups / 400g granulated sugar (can reduce this by 50g if you don’t like it too sweet)
3 large eggs
2 cups /250g all purpose flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
½ tsp salt
1 cup semisweet chocolate chips
½ cup hazelnuts, chopped and toasted
- Grease the cupcake moulds or the cake pans with non-stick cooking spray or butter. When using the pan, line it with parchment and spray another layer of cooking oil. Preheat the oven to 350F or 175C.
- In a large bowl combine the cocoa powder and chocolate and pour in the hot milk. Stir till the chocolate has melted and the mixture is consistent. Stir in the vanilla and yoghurt.
- In another large bowl or a bowl of a stand mixer, beat the oil and butter together until light on medium speed. Add the sugar a little at a time and beat until creamy. Beat in the eggs, one at a time; beating for about 1-2 minutes after each addition.
- Sift the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt together. Reduce the speed of the mixer and add the ingredients in the following order – 1/3 flour, ½ liquid, 1/3rd flour, 1/2 liquid. Fold in the final third of the flour by hand using a large spatula until the flour is just combined.
- Fold in the chocolate chips and hazelnuts. Reserve some to sprinkle on the top.
- For a 9 inch cake bake for 25-30 minutes or 15-20 minutes for cupcakes, or until a skewer comes out clean. Let cool completely before unmoulding.
I can’t remember how I heard about The Sharper Your Knife, The Less You Cry first; I think I bumped into on Amazon where it was listed as one of the books customers bought along with the one I was looking at. When I found out that this story has Le Cordon Bleu as the main focus, I was overjoyed! I ordered a copy immediately.
The Sharper Your Knife, The Less You Cry is a lovely memoir of Kathleen Flinn who pursued her long standing dream of studying at the world’s finest culinary school. Once her job let go off her, her boyfriend encouraged her to follow to go to Paris and said, “Do you want to be on your deathbed, wondering why you never went?” 24 days later, she was at Le Cordon Bleu.
The book chronicles her way though cooking school with a little bit of life thrown in (though I would have loved to read more about what goes on in the kitchen). Through the book you will have gone to Paris and back.
Inspiring, riveting and emotional – I couldn’t keep the book down (even while climbing the stairs to my office!) I loved it so much – I want to give a new copy of this book to one of you!
There are a whole bunch of recipes in this book, but French haute cuisine is not for me (just yet 
). However, I did make the Banana and Nutella Crepes from this book.
Banana and Nutella Crepes
Yield: 8 crepes
Recipe source: The Sharper Your Knife, The Less You Cry
For the crepe batter
¾ cup / 80g all-purpose flour
Pinch of salt
2 tbsp sugar
1 cup / 250 ml milk
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 eggs
3 tbsp butter, melted
Filling for the crepe:
Thinly sliced bananas
Nutella (the proportion of this can never be defined – dollop them on the crepes to your hearts content.
- Whisk together the dry ingredients in a bowl, making a well in the centre.
- In a Pyrex jug or another bowl, mix together the milk and the vanilla.
- Add a third of the milk mixture and the eggs to the well, slowly incorporating in the flour.
- Whisk in the remaining milk and melted butter.
- Allow it to rest for 30 minutes.
- Heat a non-stick pan on a low-medium heat and dab or brush it with a little butter. (However, if yours is a newer non-stick it will be fine so you don’t worry about it sticking to it too much.)
- Scoop about ¼ of the batter and pour it on the heated pan, making sure it is not too hot.
- Tilt the pan to evenly cover with the batter.
- The crepe is ready to flip once the edges are slightly browned. Stack them up.
- Now with each crepe, spread some Nutella on it and line with slice bananas. Have it the no-fuss way by rolling it up or simply fold it over like an omlette and serve. YUM!
Rules for the giveaway:
- Leave a comment on this post telling me about what you are currently reading or which book is next on your list.
- Facebook fans and e-mail subscribers, automatically qualify for the giveaway. To up your chances of winning, become a fan of The Purple Foodie and subscribe to my regular email updates!
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The giveaway is open to local and international readers until the 25th of July, 2009.
Another month, another challenge for the Daring Bakers, yet the one thing that hasn’t changed is me typing super fast to make it in time for posting! And to tell you the truth, it is for this very rush that I wait till the last minute to bake. Maybe this leaves me with little time to dress up the baked creation; but I really wouldn’t have it any other way. Plus I can actually eat it while I type!
The April 2009 challenge is hosted by Jenny from Jenny Bakes. She has chosen Abbey’s Infamous Cheesecake for the challenge. The recipe is a basic one; which means there is a lot of room for creativity. And I really mean *A LOT* I suggest you check out what the
other Daring Bakers did to understand just what I mean by that.
I baked the lovely cheesecakes in ramekins to be served individually. I used digestive biscuits instead of Graham Crackers and added toasted hazelnuts while mixing together the crust ingredients in the food processor. And I have got to tell you – the results were AMAZING. Two tablespoons of hazelnuts in the crust transformed the cheesecake for me. I didn’t feel the need for anything more. I now know what food in heaven tastes like! But just to gild the lily, I whipped up some white chocolate ganache and spread it over the cheesecake with Nutella. You could also add a tablespoon of Frangelico in the batter for an even more pronounced hazelnut flavour.
Try it – you will love it! Hope over to
Jenny’s blog for some very neat ideas on how you can play with the flavours.
Most definitely one to remake in the (hopefully very near) future!
Abbey’s Infamous Cheesecake:
FYI, I made 1/3rd the recipe and it turned out beautifully, as you can see. I also tweaked the crust recipe a little by adding 2 tablespoons of ground hazelnuts. Make sure to grind the hazelnuts with the sugar so that it remains powder-y and not oily.
Crust:
2 cups / 180 g graham cracker crumbs (I used digestive biscuits)
1 stick / 4 oz butter, melted
2 tbsp / 24 g sugar
1 tsp. vanilla extract
Cheesecake filling:
3 sticks of cream cheese, 8 oz each (total of 24 oz) room temperature
1 cup / 210 g sugar
3 large eggs
1 cup / 8 oz heavy cream
1 tbsp. lemon juice
1 tbsp. vanilla extract (or the innards of a vanilla bean)
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (Gas Mark 4 = 180C = Moderate heat). Begin to boil a large pot of water for the water bath.
- Mix together the crust ingredients and press into a 9 inch springform pan or ramekins.
- Combine cream cheese and sugar in the bowl of a stand-mixer (or in a large bowl if using a hand-mixer) and cream together until smooth. Add eggs, one at a time, fully incorporating each before adding the next. Make sure to scrape down the bowl in between each egg. Add heavy cream, vanilla, lemon juice, and and blend until smooth and creamy.
- Pour batter into prepared crust and tap the pan on the counter a few times to bring all air bubbles to the surface. Place pan into a larger pan and pour boiling water into the larger pan until halfway up the side of the cheesecake pan. If cheesecake pan is not airtight, cover bottom securely with foil before adding water.
- Bake 45 to 55 minutes for a 9 inch cake or 15-20 minutes for ramekins or until it is almost done – this can be hard to judge, but you’re looking for the cake to hold together, but still have a lot of jiggle to it in the center. You don’t want it to be completely firm at this stage. Close the oven door, turn the heat off, and let rest in the cooling oven for one hour. This lets the cake finish cooking and cool down gently enough so that it won’t crack on the top. After one hour, remove cheesecake from oven and lift carefully out of water bath. Let it finish cooling on the counter, and then cover and put in the fridge to chill. Once fully chilled, it is ready to serve.
A spoonful of
nutella makes the medicine go down!
I earnestly believe Nutella can bring world peace. Who wouldn’t be transported to a completely different world with something as little as a spoonful of Nutella?
Today is World Nutella Day and I only need an excuse to use up some more Nutella instead of devouring it off a spoon. With a little help from my eating partner, I knew Nutella Pinwheel Cookies would be perfect.
Nutella Pinwheel Cookies
Yield: 25-30 cookies
125g / 1 stick butter, softened
½ cup sugar
1 egg yolk
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 heaped cup sifted flour
¼ cup Nutella to spread, a little more won’t hurt, but be careful not to overdo lest it ooze!
2-3 tablespoon, toasted, chopped hazelnuts
- Preheat oven to 175C/350F.
- Mix the butter and sugar together till creamy.
- Mix in the egg yolk and the vanilla essence. The mixture should be light and well combined.
- Stir in the flour and refrigerate the dough for 15 minutes so that it can firm up and facilitate easy rolling.
- Next, roll out the dough into a rectangle of ¼ inch thickness.
- Spread the Nutella making sure to leave one finger space on all four sides. Again, we don’t want the Nutella to ooze out!
- Sprinkle over the chopped hazelnuts and roll up the dough.
- Refrigerate for another ten minutes before cutting the slices.
- Lay the slices on a lined baking sheet and bake for 12-15 minutes till slightly golden at the edges. Baking time will vary depending on how thick you’ve cut them. Colour is a good indication.
Now there are two ways you could cut the slices – with a knife (surprise!) and a better, neater way would be with a firm thin wire (found some leftover wire from my flower making class back in school!). When you use a wire you will have a very clean looking pinwheel with no unwanted brown Nutella spots, and a crumbly looking texture, much like the first picture. When you use a knife, you will see that the Nutella smears the rest of the cookie while the knife passes through the dough, albeit smooth textured (the second image).
I’ve had my box of Arborio rice for almost over a year now, but never came around to making some risotto. Not because I’m not a fan, but because I was quite intimidated. The box of rice remained vacuum-sealed so I wasn’t so worried (once open, it is advisable that you store it in the refrigerator, else it will go bad really soon).
Once I got down to making it, it was fun. Indian readers, think of it as an Italian khichdi – no really, that’s all it is. 
What’s more, all the carbs and fat gets balanced off by the workout you get by stirring away rice and adding the broth ladle by ladle. That said, Alton Brown does say that you don’t really need to stir it constantly, but I’d just wanted to be absolutely sure the first time I made risotto. Another thing I only recently learned is that a quick way of making the risotto would be to cook it in a pressure cooker and it will be ready sooner than you think! The only thing I don’t like about risottos is that they cannot be made ahead of time since they absorb in all the moisture and the dish gets quite dry.
Risotto can be made with a lot many variations – with seafood, herbs, spices, mushrooms, cheese, and what have you. What’s interesting is that you don’t really need so add much cheese because the rice is extremely starchy; it assists in attaining that perfect creamy texture.
Some Risotto do’s and don’t:
- Choose a heavy pan with a thick bottom and sides to help distribute heat evenly.
- It’s best to buy thoroughly cleaned risotto rice because you want to avoid rising it as the creamy texture is attained by the starch on the rice.
- It’s best to use homemade broth. Follow Alton Brown’s recipe – you won’t be disappointed.
- Always let the broth simmer while adding it ladle by ladle. Keeping both, the rice and broth at similar temperatures will help in achieving the texture sooner; which means being kind to your arm.
Here I’ve tried to replicate a risotto I had at a local restaurant. It was extremely creamy and luscious 3 cheese risotto with asparagus and toasted hazelnuts (I’m not a fan of nuts in my food, but the hazelnuts give it an amazing bite to it – really shouldn’t omit it!)
Three Cheese Risotto with Asparagus and Hazelnuts
2 tbsp olive oil
1 onion, chopped
400g Arborio rice
150 ml dry white wine
1.5l vegetable or chicken stock , simmering
60g asparagus, the tough ends trimmed and then blanched
2 tbsp butter
50g Pecorino Romano with truffle bits, grated
50g Gruyere cheese, grated
50g Parmigiano Reggiano, grated. Some more for the table.
30g hazelnuts, toasted
- In a heavy bottomed pan heat the butter and oil together. Add the onion and cook on a low flame until soft and translucent
- Add the rice and stir on a high heat for a few minutes. Keep stirring, or the rice will stick. Add the wine and stir until it has evaporated.
- Turn down the flame now. Add the stock a ladle at a time. Keep stirring until all the stock has been absorbed, then add some more! You might not require all the stock, so keep checking on it. The grain should be nice and plump to look at and have a slight bite to it. I like to add a few spoonfuls of extra broth because I like my risotto to be a little looser than usual – you can avoid that if you like. Add salt if the broth is not salty enough. Also, add the asparagus at this point.
- Turn off the heat and then beat in the butter and pecorino, gruyere and half the parmigiano reggiano cheese. Stir until everything has come together beautifully. Cover it with a lid for a minute. Then serve immediately. Stir in the hazelnuts just before serving. Top with the rest of the Parmigiano Reggiano cheese.
