Almost Flourless Dark Chocolate Cake

Bon Appetite!

Recipe for 30cm cake tin - for 12-16p.

I used a springform tin for easy release of cake.

INGREDIENTS (all at room temperature)

350g dark chocolate buttons

250g butter

1 tsp of cocoa powder

A pinch of salt (1/4 tsp)

2 tbsp of honey2/3 cup of spelt flour

1/2 cup of almond meal

2 tsp baking powder

8 L-size eggs (roughly 450g)
60g castor sugar

1 tsp cream of tartar

2 tsp of pure orange oil

1 tsp of almond oil (optional)

1 tbsp of normal or cake flour

​PREP

Preheat oven to 160C fan force or 180C non fan forced oven.

Line the bottom of the cake tin with baking paper.

Rub butter wrapping paper all over the side of the cake tin to evenly oil the side of the tin.
Lightly sprinkle/sift the cake/normal flour evenly all over the buttered side of tin.*

Break all eggs into whisking bowl. No need to separate the egg white from yolk.
Set aside.

Melt chocolate in a very large bowl over a pot of warm water. (Notes*)

Cut softened butter * into small pieces say 10.
Melt butter together with melting chocolate.
Remove from heat as soon as butter looks almost completely melted.

Add salt, cocoa and honey.
Stir till all ingredients are melted/combined.
Set aside to cool.

Mix spelt, almond meal and baking powder in a small bowl. ("Flour Mix")
Set aside.

Lastly, whisk the eggs. I used the help of a Kitchen Aid.
As eggs starts to be bubbly, add cream of tartar. Whisk to combine.

Add sugar soon after.
Continue whisking till eggs turned into a thick cream consistency and pale color.

COMBINING ALL INGREDIENTSAdd the orange (and almond) oil into the chocolate and butter mixture.

Fold in 1/3 of the Flour Mix and 1/4 of the creamy eggs mix. Gently fold till almost combined.

Repeat procedure till all flour folded and combined.

Fold in last 1/4 of egg mixture.

Pour combined mixture into the prepared cake tin and put into preheated oven immediately.

BAKE n SERVE

Bake in the oven for 35 minutes.

Turn heat off. Bake another 5 minutes with oven door closed.

Remove from oven.

Remove cake from tin after slightly cooled.

Serve as is or with cream or ice cream. *

Enjoy! Bonappetite!

NOTE

* I use stainless steel bowl as it helps in keeping mixture light. Bowl would later be used for combining all ingredients, so use one that is large enough.
* Heat is too high if bowl gets too hot to be touched/held by hand - take off heat when that happens.
* Save the butter foil wrapper for later use to "oil" the sides of the cake tin.

* I drop the tbsp of flour onto a side of the tin which is already buttered, and start rolling the tin slowly until all the side is evenly covered with flour.

* I like to rest the cake for at least 2 hours before serving.

* Cake will deflate slightly when cooling down because it is almost flourless.

Chicken Curry

One of the best curries I have made todate. Made of combination of store-bought curry paste and fresh ingredients.

For 8p
1.5kg of chicken thigh fillets, cut into half each.
1 packet of Tean's chicken curry paste (Malaysian product)
1 cm of fresh tumeric and ginger.)
1 stalk of lemon grass                  ) blend these till fine
1 carrot, cut into small pieces      )
6 pieces of kaffir lime leaves
2 large ripened tomatoes, chopped
1 very large red onion, chopped.
40g of gula melaka (about 2 tbsp)
3-4 tbsp of soy sauce
250-300ml of coconut milk.
4 stalks of fresh mint and of basil leaves
Beansprouts (taugeh) - about 8 handfuls
Oil (olive or peanut or veg oil)

Gently fry the blended ingredients in oil in a heavy based pot till softened.
Add Tean's paste, continue frying till oil separates.
Add tomatoes, onions, gula melaka, soy.
Add 1 cup of water.
Continue cooking on small to medium heat with lid on for about 1 hour, occasionally stirring.
Add chicken and coconut milk.
Cook on same heat till simmering.
Cook for 1/2 hour on small heat - for chicken to remain tender
Turn heat off.
Served with fresh taugeh, mint and basil.
Delicious with either noodles or steamed rice.

Optional:
I added 1 packet of tau fu pok, and 12 pieces of seaweed fu chook to the curry once simmering after adding chicken and coconut milk.

Bon Appetite!

Squidgy Brownies

350g dark chocolate buttons
100g brown/caster sugar
100g butter, chopped up
50ml olive oil
3 XL eggs
1 tbsp of milk
Pinch of salt
50g of SR flour
1 tsp of corn flour
3 tbsp of almond meal
1/4 tsp of cream of tartar
1/2 tsp of baking powder
Optional: 1/2 tsp of orange oil

Preheat oven to 170C fanforce

Measure and mix SR flour, corn flour and baking powder. Set aside.
Melt chocolate on heated bain marie with butter. Then, add salt, oils, stir. Remove from heat, set aside. 
Meanwhile, separate egg whites and yolks.
Whisk egg whites till bubbly, add cream of tartar. When trails of ribbons forms, add 1/2 of the sugar and whisk till soft peaks.
Separately whisk egg yolks till bubbly, then put on bain marie, continuing whisking, add remaining sugar and whisk till light yellow. Remove from heat, and whisk till almost creamy white.
Add almond meal into the chocolate mixture followed by egg yolks in 2 batches, and fold.
Sift 1/2 the flour mix into the mixture, fold. 
Add half of the egg white mixture, fold.
Add remaining flour mix, fold. 
Add remaining egg white and fold. 
Pour into 20 cm square baking tin, lined with baking paper.
Bake for 30 minutes.
Open oven door slightly, kept apart by 1 wooden ladle, and bake a further 4-5 minutes. This removal of steam gives it a crispy top. 
Remove and cool at least 30 minutes before serving.

Note: Using part olive oil and butter makes this less rich than if all butter were used. 
 
Bon Appetite!

Blackberry Raspberry Muffins with White Chocolate

 Ingredients - 6 large muffins
2 cups of berries - I used frozen blackberries and raspberries (if dont have both, either will do).
2 tbsp of sour cream. roughly 40g
100g of baking white chocolate buttons
60g of butter
1 tsp of pure vanilla extract.
3/4 cup of slightly luke warm soy milk
6 tsp of brown or castor sugar
180g of self raising sifted cake flour
1/2 tsp of baking powder (or 1 1/2 tsp of baking powder if using normal cake flour ie not self raising)
Pinch of salt
1 egg
1/4 tsp cream of tartar

Preheat oven to 180C fan force.
Put 6 large baking paper cups to line the muffin tray moulds.

Put white chocolate, sour cream and butter in a large glass or stainless steel bowl, sitting over pot of hot water like a bain marie, to melt the ingredients.
Take off heat and stir as soon as butter has just melted. Otherwise, it becomes very heavy as butter turns to oil.
Separately, mix the cake flour, baking powder well, salt, set aside.
Separately, whisk the egg till bubbly, add cream of tartar. Whisk till foamy, then add sugar slowly, and whisk till soft peak.
Sift 1/2 of the flour mixture into chocolate butter sour cream mixture and fold.
Sift in 1/4 of flour and fold. Add 1/2 of egg mixture to help loosen the mixture.
Slowly drizzle soy milk around edge of bowl, and add vanilla extract.
Add berries. 
Add remaining flour and egg.
Fold till combined. Distribute mixture evenly amongst the 6 muffin moulds.
Bake for 23-25 minutes.
Remove from oven.

(Note: if don't have sour cream, just substitute with 40 g of butter)
(Note: if you are using standard cupcake size moulds, probably can do 7, bake for about 20 minutes)

Bon Appetite!

Will Woods Raspberry Tart

Cream Pattiserie tips

- 1 egg yolk to 100g flour for pastry
- 1 egg yolk to 100ml of milk
- put a handful of sugar when boiling milk to prevent milk from sticking to bottom
- Corn starch prevents egg from curdling when pouring hot milk into it
- Cool milk/egg mixture before adding cream to lighten up the mixture.

Fresh raspberry tart

Recipe by: Careme Pastry

Preparation time: 40 min

Cooking time: 30 min

Serves: 6

Ingredients

Sweet shortcrust pastry

• 250g plain flour, sifted
• 100g unsalted butter, diced, chilled*
• 100g pure icing sugar, sifted
• Pinch salt
• ½ vanilla bean, seeds scraped
• 9 egg yolks
• 1 tablespoon milk

Vanilla crème pâtissière

• 500ml milk
• 1 teaspoon vanilla bean paste
• 7 egg yolks
• 125g caster sugar
• 60g cornflour
• 150ml thickened cream
• 2 punnets (250g) raspberries

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Method

Sweet shortcrust pastry

1.      Place all ingredients except for egg yolks and milk into a food processor. Process mixture, tilting and gently shaking bowl until mixture resembles almond meal or breadcrumbs. Remove from processor and transfer to a bowl, making a well in the centre. Place 6 egg yolks into well, then using your hands, work egg yolks into crumb mixture until just combined. Do not knead the dough, the mixture should be crumbly. Form dough into a ball and place in a clean bowl, then wrap with plastic wrap and refrigerate for 20 minutes to rest.

2.      Preheat oven to 180°C (160°C fan-forced). Lightly grease a 22cm loose-bottomed tart tin and line base with baking paper.

3.      Place pastry on a lightly floured work surface. Using a lightly dusted rolling pin, start to evenly flatten dough, keeping it as round and neat as possible around the edges, making an indent in dough at quarter turns. With even pressure, turn and lift pastry in a clockwise direction, rolling to a thickness of approximately 3mm. To check if the pastry is the correct size for the tart tin, place the tart tin over the pastry, there should be at least a 5cm border the whole way around. Line the base of the tart pan with baking paper. Carefully line the tart tin with the pastry, and chill in the refrigerator for 15 minutes.

4.      To blind bake the pastry case, line base with a cartouche made from baking paper. Fill tart shell with pie weights or a dried pulse (eg. chickpeas), to the top of the shell to help support the sides and weigh the base down during cooking.

5.      Place tart tin on a tray and bake in oven for 15 minutes. Remove tart tin from oven, check pastry is lightly golden before removing weights and baking paper. Combine remaining egg yolks and milk in a bowl and brush pastry well with the mixture, before returning to oven to cook for a further 10 minutes or until golden. Remove tart from oven, allow to cool completely.

Vanilla crème pâtissière

1.      For the pastry cream, place 400ml milk and vanilla in a saucepan and bring to the boil. Meanwhile whisk egg yolks and sugar in a bowl, then add cornflour and remaining 100ml milk, whisking until combined.

2.      Gradually whisk milk mixture into egg mixture until combined. Return mixture to a clean saucepan set over medium heat. Whisk vigorously and continuously until the pastry cream begins to bubble. Remove from heat and transfer to a bowl.  Cover with plastic wrap (the pastry cream should come into contact with the plastic wrap to form a seal) and refrigerate for about 1 hour or until cool. This can be made a day in advance.

3.      Once pastry cream is cold, whisk cream to soft peaks, then fold through pastry cream until combined.

4.      Fill tart shell with pastry cream mixture , arrange with raspberries, and dust with icing sugar to serve.

Notes: Tips:
When making pastry:
*Freeze butter to keep cold in warmer temperatures.
*Do not over-process or dough will form a paste and activate gluten.
*If your hands are warm when working with pastry, you can cool your hands down by dipping them into a bowl of iced water.
*Do not use rice when blind baking as the heat cannot penetrate the base of the tart causing the sides to burn. Use either pastry weights or chickpeas.

When making crème patissiere/pastry cream:
*Add a pinch of sugar when heating milk to prevent it from catching on the base of your saucepan.
Bon Appetite!

Grape Tomatoes, Rosemary, Roasted Garlic Foccacia

Serves 4-6

500g strong flour/white bread flour
1 heaped tbsp fine semolina
2 tsp of dried yeast or about 14g
About 50ml olive oil, plus extra for kneading
150 g of grape tomatoes, or any small sweet tomatoes (about 30)
2 sprigs of fresh rosemary, leaves only.
 Sea salt and freshly ground pepper.
In a jug, mix 120ml of cold milk from fridge with 150ml of just boiled water
1/2 a bulb of garlic ie about 6-7 cloves.

Prep 1
Wrap up the whole garlic in aluminium foil with skin on. No need to break the cloves apart. Put in oven. Turn oven on at 200C or 180C fan forced. Bake for about 25 minutes. Remove from oven, remove foil. Using a scissors, cut off top of bulb of garlic, and squeeze out all the melted roasted garlic into a bowl. Its like a garlic paste. Leave for later to spread over dough.

Leave oven on.

Prep 2
Separately, in a big mixing bowl, thoroughly mix flour, semolina and yeast with a pinch of salt, say half tsp.
Make a well in the middle, and pour in the liquid in jug and oil.
With a fork, mix the mixture until it comes together like a ball.
Cover with damp papertowel or cling wrap and leave for 15 minutes.
Tip the dough out onto a lightly oiled surface and knead for a couple of minutes, using push, fold, knead method, until smooth and elastic.
Cover with cling wrap to rest for 15 minutes.
Repeat kneading motion.
Cover with cling wrap and leave to rise about 1 hour or double in size.
Preheat oven to 200C.
Place the risen dough onto an oiled baking tray say 28x20cm. I used a large rounded pizza baking tray.
Grease your fingers with a little oil and prod out the dough to the edges of the tray, dough is about 2 cm thick.
Gently and lightly, rub roasted garlic all over the top of the oiled dough surface.
Press the whole tomatoes into the dough so that they are only slightly poking above the surface. Scatter rosemary, sea salt and pepper all over. Drizzle with a little olive oil all over.

Bake for 30 minutes until golden.

Turn out of tray onto a rack, cool down and rest for at least 30 minutes before slicing and serve. Or if you like, transfer to board and serve immediately, but the resting provides better texture.

Note: I also steam the oven with 2 ladles of icecubes before putting the dough in, to facilitate dough rising in the oven. If you are doing this, leave oven door open with heat still on at end of 25 minutes, and bake with oven door open for another 5 minutes to let steam out and let the crust crisp up.

Bon Appetite!

Dan Lepard's Double Chocolate Lamingtons.

Ingredients

300g castor sugar

50g cocoa

75ml milk

50g unsalted butter

50g dark chocolate

50ml sunflower oil

4 medium eggs

100ml low-fat natural yoghurt

3 tsp vanilla extract

175g plain flour

3 tsp baking powder

For the coating (makes 750ml)

15g cocoa

50ml cold milk

175ml boiling water

200g dark chocolate, finely chopped

450g icing sugar

1-2 250g bags coconut (that is, much more than you would think)

Method

1. Line the base of a deep, 20cm square cake tin with non-stick paper and heat the oven to 170C (150C fan-forced). Put the sugar and cocoa in a bowl and beat in the milk. Melt the butter and chocolate in a saucepan, and add to the sugar mix along with the oil. Beat in the eggs until smooth, stir in the yoghurt and vanilla, and mix in the flour and baking powder. Pour into the tin, cover with a slightly domed sheet of foil and bake for an hour. Lift off the foil for the last 15 minutes. Remove, cool in the tin and, while warm, cover with cling film.

2. For the coating, mix the cocoa and milk until smooth, whisk in the boiling water, then stir in the chocolate until melted. Whisk in the icing sugar until dissolved and pour into a deep, wide jug. Cut the cake into nine, dunk each piece in the coating and fish out with two forks. Roll in coconut and leave to set.

Note: Lepard advises putting foil over the cake because it helps the cake rise more evenly. You'll have about 250 millilitres of coating left over - just the stuff, he says, for lamington milkshakes with ice-cream and coconut.