Double chocolate loaf cake

Someone said recently that I bake lots of cookies but not cakes. So I decided to show him and since he is always after chocolate cake, I found this recipe. I also added a heap of craisins that I found in my pantry :)

Ingredients: -
175g softened butter , plus extra for greasing
175g golden caster sugar
3 eggs
140g self-raising flour
85g ground almonds
½ tsp baking powder
100ml milk
4 tbsp cocoa powder
50g plain chocolate chips or chunks

Method: -
Heat oven to 160C. Grease and line a 2lb/900g loaf tin with a long strip of baking parchment. I used my square tin because I wasn't sure if my loaf tin was large enough.

Beat the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in the eggs, flour, almonds, baking powder, milk and cocoa until smooth. Stir in the chocolate chips, then scrape into the tin. Bake for 45-50 mins until golden, risen and a skewer poked in the centre comes out clean.

Cool in the tin, then lift out onto a wire rack over some kitchen paper.

Blueberry intense chocolate cookies

Tried out last week's cookie recipe with a bar of Lindt Blueberry Intense. Wow, I didn't realise that the berry flavours in that bar are so powerful! The cookies now have a lovely fruity taste :) Quite different but still great for my cookie fix this week. I might try using all the different flavoured bars over time!

Itsy Bitsy Chocolate Chip Cookies

Cannot remember how I came across this recipe but I am glad I did. They are yummy!

Ingredients: -
5 ounces (approx 140g) good-quality semi-sweet chocolate bar
1 cup whole wheat pastry flour (but you can substitute unbleached all-purpose flour)
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup old-fashioned rolled oats
1/2 cup walnuts, very, very finely chopped (by hand)
1/2 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature
scant 1 cup natural cane sugar (or brown sugar)
scant 1 tablespoon organic unsulphured molasses (blackstrap)
1 large egg
1 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 cup large-grain sugar (for ex: turbinado)

Method: -
Preheat your oven to 350F (175C) degrees. Line a couple baking sheets with parchment paper.

Finely chop the chocolate bar into 1/8-inch pieces, more like shavings really. Try to avoid big lumps and chunks, which make flattening out the cookie dough later more difficult.

In a mixing bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, oats, walnuts, and shaved chocolate. Set aside.

Using a mixer (or by hand) beat the butter until fluffy. Beat in the sugar and mix until it is also light and fluffy. Scrape down the sides of the bowl once or twice. Beat in the molasses, then the egg, mixing until both are well incorporated, scrape down the sides of the bowl once or twice. Beat in the vanilla. Add the flour mix and stir by hand until the ingredients barely come together into a uniform dough.

Scoop out the dough in exact, level teaspoons, then tear those pieces of dough in two before rolling each 1/2 teaspoon of dough into a ball shape. Place two inches apart on the baking sheets. Gently flatten each dough ball into a thin, round patty with two fingers and then sprinkle the top of each cookie with a pinch of large-grain sugar. Bake for 7 minutes or until cookies are golden and fragrant. Remove from oven, and cool on a wire rack.

Makes about 12 dozen tiny, bite-sized cookies.

Oatmeal Peanut Butter and Chocolate Chip Cookies

Tried a colleague's peanut butter and chocolate chip cookies not long ago. They were so good that I have been thinking about peanut butter cookies for a while. I found this recipe in my collection.

Ingredients: -
3/4 cup butter (170g)
1/2 cup white sugar
1 cup packed brown sugar
2 eggs
1/3 cup peanut butter
1/4 cup water
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
2 cups rolled oats
1 cup semisweet chocolate chips

Method:-
1. Preheat oven to 175 degrees C.
2. In a medium bowl, cream together the butter, brown sugar and white sugar. Beat in the eggs one at a time, then stir in the peanut butter, water and vanilla. Combine the flour and baking soda, stir into the creamed mixture. Finally, stir in the rolled oats and chocolate chips. Drop by teaspoonfuls onto an unprepared cookie sheet.
3. Bake for 8 to 10 minutes in the preheated oven, until the cookies are lightly toasted on the edges. Remove from the baking sheet to cool on wire racks.



They turned out not quite like the ones I had before but they are still good!

Coconut M&Ms

I've been passing these at a candy shop at the train station for many days so I thought I would have to try it.
At first, they taste a little weird but it does grow on you and after a while, just tastes like M&Ms. Apparently I smelt like coconut after eating the pack :P

Peanut butter biscuits

Haven't done any baking for a while. Since I had some time this morning, thought I would try out a recipe I saw yesterday. They are quite good!


Ingredients:
1/3 cup cold-pressed canola oil
1/2 cup unsalted organic peanut butter
1 cup brown sugar
1 large organic egg
1/2 tsp pure vanilla extract
2 tbsp water
1-1/4 organic whole spelt flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp organic ground cinnamon
1/4 cup bittersweet chocolate, at least 70% cocoa mass

Method:
Preheat oven to 180C. Line a baking sheet with greaseproof paper.

In a medium bowl beat together oil and peanut butter until well combined. Beat in brown sugar. Add egg, vanilla and water, beating until well combined.

Combine spelt flour, baking soda and cinnamon in a separate bowl. Stir into peanut butter mixture. Stir in chocolate chunks. The batter will be very thick and quite sticky.

Drop by tablespoonfuls onto prepared baking sheet and bake for 8 to 10 minutes. Cool in tray for 5 minutes then remove to cooling rack.

Macadamia & chocolate chip cookies

Haven't baked anything in a long while so I thought I'd do some baking today since it is a holiday. Saw this recipe on the Masterchef forums and I was quite tempted because there is a particular brand of macadamia and white chocolate chip cookies that I really like which I can only get from the Magnolia Square fairs. I only did a half-sized batch (which already got me 41 cookies) and used chocolate chips since I had those at home. They are yummy!

Ingredients:
400 gm White Chocolate
340 gm Macadamias
225 gm Butter at room temperature
225 gm Brown sugar
170 gm Granulated sugar
1 tsp Salt
3 Eggs
60 ml Honey
2 tsp Vanilla extract.
510 gm Plain flour.
1.5 tsp Baking Soda.

Method:
Chop the chocolate and nuts coarsely and set aside.

Mix together the butter, sugars and salt until well combined.

Add the eggs, honey and vanilla and mix until combined.

Sift the flour and baking soda in and mix until combined.

Stir in the chocolate and nuts.

Portion the mixture out using heaped dessert spoonfuls. Roll the portions into balls using the palms of your hands and press down slightly on a baking tray lined with baking paper.

Bake at 175C for 15 minutes.

White Chocolate Cherry Brownie

With Christmas around the corner, there are so many cake and cookie recipes in the newspapers. I decided to test out one yesterday.

Ingredients: -
* 185g white chocolate
* 150g chopped unsalted butter
* 1 cup caster sugar
* 1-1/4 cups plain flour
* 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
* 3 lightly beaten eggs
* 100g roughly chopped glace cherries

Method: -
Preheat oven to 170C. Line a 20cm (base measurement) square cake pan with non-stick baking paper.

Place white chocolate and butter in a heatproof bowl over a saucepan half-filled with simmering water (make sure the bowl does not touch the water). Use a metal spoon to stir occasionally until the chocolate melts and is smooth, then set aside to cool.

Place flour, sugar and baking powder in a large bowl. Make a well in the centre and add eggs and the chocolate mixture. Fold in the cherries until just combined. Spoon the mixture into the prepared pan.

Bake for 30-35 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the centre comes out slightly sticky. Cool in the pan for 5 minutes then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.



It turned out quite yummy! :D

Bunnies - The chocolate kind

Being the day after Easter, all the Easter chocolates in the shops were on sale! I already had my eye on a couple of items so today was the day to get them :) Lindt bunnies here I come! I got a stuffed one, a dark chocolate one and a multitude of smaller ones. Charli gave me one as well. I've got a whole range of sizes now.

You guys smell weird...

Wanna raid the fridge together?

Something's baking!

I found these at the market today - lime and orange chocolate chips! Had to try baking something with these so they are sitting in the oven as we speak!

Lime chocolate

Charli got us some chocolates from her Europe trip. Here's a really interesting one - a Lindt Lime and Green Pepper in 70% bitter chocolate. The chocolate is hardly sweet and the lime gel has a nice sourish tinge. Lovely! Won't be getting more of these any time soon though.

Dark chocolate M&M

I spotted these today. They must be quite new or I just haven't been paying attention at the chocolate areas in the supermarket.


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Scary weather

This was the wind blowing over a puddle outside on the balcony. The rain probably accumulated overnight.

There was really scary weather this morning. I thought it was about the worst wind I've seen. Although there wasn't very heavy rain, the wind was SO STRONG. I could feel the building vibrating. We didn't dare go out to church even.

We managed to make it out for church in the evening when the wind eased. Got this giant bag of M&Ms from Big W. :D

Visit to the Organic Expo

Went to the Organic Expo yesterday. It was great fun! So many things to buy and sample! I didn't expect that it would be that large too. I tried to buy as much as I could carry since everything was cheaper than the usual prices. Luckily Darlink came to help me lug them all home. Pity it doesn't happen here every year though.

Yum yum!

Chai chocolate! Yummy! I wonder what is it with me that makes me want to eat everything that says Chai on it.

Festivals

So much was happening this weekend in the city. On top of the FINA festival happening at the Birrarung Marr, there was the Wicked Sunday at Federation Square as well today. Part of the Melbourne Food & Wine Festival, this festival had stalls selling chocolates, wines, gourmet ice-creams, pastries, nougats, rich cheeses and coffee. Naturally it was rather crowded.We had ice-cream and bought chocolate and pastries. :)

Crowds where there is food


















It was a lovely day too! After a slighly more rainy than usual Friday and Saturday, the sunny blue sky was nice (not that I am complaining about having rain). Nevertheless, it was quite cold still.

A nice but windy day!


















Had intended to try and catch some of the performances around but the rather cold wind made it not too nice sitting around waiting for the events to start. I am not really prepared for winter yet so the jacket was not warm enough. So it turns out that I did not manage to even watch a single performance at the FINA festival :( But then again, knowing how it is here, there will be another excuse for a festival coming up.

On our way back, we passed by Lonsdale Street and there was the Antipodes (Greek) Festival. Couldn't believe how many things can be going on in the city at one time.

Almost fruit from the tree

99% cocoa! 

My sis got a chocolate bar that is 99% cocoa! There is no sugar in the ingredients at all. It does not taste pleasant at all...you'd really be eating this for health benefits only.

Cute chocolate boxes

Nice chocolates! 

Received some cute looking boxes of chocolate from the sis...they look so pretty I don't really want to open them up.

Cherry chocolate

Chocolate - it is good for you 

Have been eyeing this bar for a long time! Seeing cherries on the label just lures me...couldn't resist and finally got it. This does not really come cheap - it costs $10.95 on its own but we bought a bunch of 3 sizes for $15.95.