Triple Chocolate Brownie

I once came across a rather heated discussion about how Brownies ought to be.  Crumbly or Chewy?  It's astonishing how passionate  some people can get when it comes to their food. 

It reminds me of how Jamie Oliver almost  started civil war in Spain after adding chorizo to his  Paella and tweeting about it.  Fortunately for me, being a mere mortal/unknown blogger, I do not fear being the receiving end of somebody's wrath  for bastardising a national dish. (^_^)

So back to the Brownie question. Crumbly or chewy? To compromise,  my friends , is the key to good foods and world peace. Why settle for one gustatory gratification when you can have both? Take this brownie recipe for example, the sides and top is both crumbly and crisp, yet once sliced, it is a gooey, fudgey and chewy. The best of both worlds.

Ingredients:

250 g dark chocolate

200 g butter

50 g coconut oil

3 eggs

200 g brown sugar

50 g white sugar

1 tsp. vanilla

130 g flour

30 g cocoa powder

3/4 tsp. baking soda

1/2 tsp. salt

150g  of your favourite, chocolate chip 

 Whisk together eggs, white and brown sugar and vanilla until well combined

 Put a heat-proof bowl over a pot of steaming water. Melt butter, coconut oil and chocolate together. Once chocolate mixture is smooth and lump-free, take bowl from the heat. Rest for 5 minutes.

 Whisk egg mixture into the chocolate mixture.

 Sift flour, cocoa and salt and fold into the chocolate mixture .

 Add in the chocolate chips. Stir! Stir!Stir!

Bake in a preheated oven ( 180°C) for 20 minutes.
Allow to set for about 20-30 minutes before slicing.

Best eating warm as it is or with a scoop of your favourite ice cream and sauce. Yum!

Chocolate and Peanut Butter Cake

My blog turns 5 today!

What better way to celebrate this milestone than indulging in one of my favorite food combinations?! Chocolate and Peanut Butter!

Not only did I thoroughly enjoyed this decadent and rich treat, but I got to lit a candle, made a wish and blew it too! Made me feel like a kid again.


Now back to my blog, what ought to be spur of the moment past -time became a long-lasting and enjoyable hobby. 5 years , 2 laptops , 4 cameras and  161 posts later my baby, The Babbling Spoon,  is still here with number of supporters continuously growing.


It was an interesting 5 years and I got to bask in  occasional quirks that came with food blogging.   I might not earn a penny from this but doing what I love the most ( cooking, eating , travelling, photography ,  talking to people , eating some more) and sharing it in this blog is gratifying and rewarding enough.

So, thank you dear readers and followers for continuous support support!

Moist Chocolate cake

600 ggranulated sugar

360 g flour

160 g unsweetened cocoa powder

2 tsp. baking powder

2 tsp. baking soda

2 tsp. salt

3 eggs

175 ml vegetable oil

350 ml milk

1 tbsp. vanilla

instant coffee powder dissolved in 300 ml boiling water
butter for greasing

1. Put dry ingredients in a large mixing bowl and whisk together until well combined.

2.  Then add eggs, milk, vegetable oil and vanilla into the bowl. Beat using an electric mixer until  cake batter  is thick and homogenous . I let my big , mean kitchen machine do the dirty works for me.

2 . In a small cause pan, boil water and dissolve coffee powder. 

3. Add the hot coffee into the cake batter . Keep on beating the batter under high speed for 2-3 minutes. 

4. Grease bakings pans. (3  8-inches or 4 6-inches, like I did.) Evenly divide cake batter into your well greased pans. Bake in a preheated ( 180 °C) over for 30-35 minutes or until toothpick inserted comes out clean. Allow to cool.

Peanut Butter Frosting

150 softened butter

275 g Philadephia cream cheese

1 tsp. vanila

1 whole jar ( 350 g) peanut butter

250 g icing sugar

3-6 tbsp. cream

1. Using a kitchen machine or electric mixer , beat together butter , vanilla and cream cheese until pale and thick.

 2. Beat in peanut butter ( I used the chunky peanut butter just to play with textures ) and icing sugar.

 3. Gradually beat in cream until desired consistency is achieved.

4. Frosting should be thick but spreadable.

Chocolate ganache

150 g bitterchocolate

1 tbsp. butter

3 tbsp. cream

 1. Place a heat-proof mixing bowl over a pot of boiling water. Do not let water touch the mixing bowl. Put chopped chocolate and butter and allow to melt.

 2. Take mixing bowl from the heat and stir in cream.

3. Allow ganache to cool down a bit. About 10-15 minutes.

Assemble cake!

Put a layer of chocolate cake on to your cake platter. Smooth a generous amount of frosting , spreading it evenly. Carefully put another layer of cake. Top again with frosting.

Spread frosting on top as well as the sides of the cake. I suck at cake decorating and frosting, but it tasted great nevertheless. plus the crunchy texture of the peanuts certainly add some  character to it. Pop cake in the fridge for 20-30 minutes to solidify it. You can use this time to make your ganache .

Carefully pour ganache on top of the cake, let it sexily drip to the sides.

Hold on to your horses, look at the fruit of your labor, appreciated....

And eat! Do not forget to share with the people you love. 

Peanut Butter stuffed Chocolate Cookies

Peanut Butter stuffed Chocolate Cookies

Grey.... Who doesn't know Christian,  fifty shades of trouble,  Grey?  He might me a fabric of somebody's imagination but he made women believe in fairytale and  SM   ! A billionaire who  might share Donald Trump's self confidence but not his  over inflated ego and hair issues.

But catching such man is like going out fishing for blue whale  in the pacific with a brittle twig. Probability of sighting one, 76%, catching however,  null. No flawless, killer bud and sexy eyes to bait the rod here. Not everybody is Anastasia Steel! I don't even blush! I turn green, when embarrassed!

Now,  since having my own Christian Grey is ruled out  , I'm going to settle for second best thing.

Just a sexy..

Peanut Butter stuffed chocolate cookies

Twice as rich

Peanut Butter stuffed chocolate cookies

It's soooo naughty , my mama will definitely disapprove.

Peanut Butter stuffed chocolate cookies

Ingredients:

115 g butter, at room temperature

100 g brown sugar

50 g granulated sugar

2 medium sized eggs

1 tsp. vanilla extract

160 g all purpose flour

50 g unsweetened cocoa powder

1 tbsp. baking soda

1 pinch of salt

2 tbsp. cornstarch

100 g chocolate chips or chunks

1/2 cup peanut butter + 1/2 cup icing sugar, refrigerated overnight

1. Mix peanut butter and icing sugar well. Refrigerate for few hours until it hardens. Scoop 1 teaspoon of peanut butter and form into  balls. Pop peanut butter balls back in the fridge to keep its shape.

2. Cream together butter and sugar until pale and fluffy, around 5 minutes.

2. Beat in eggs and vanilla extract.

3. Sift together flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, salt and cornstarch.

4. Using a dough hook, mix dry ingredients and wet ingredient until well combined. Do not over beat. Fold in chocolate chips or chunks.

Transfer dough into a clean bowl, cover with a cling foil and refrigerate for hours or even overnight. Baking cold dough stops it from spreading and flattening when baking.

7. Scoop cookie dough into balls. Flatten and place  hardened peanut butter ball at the centre of each cookie dough.

8. Seal the sides of the dough and make sure that peanut butter is fully encased so it doesn't leak while baking. 

9. Bake in a preheated oven ( 180°c) for 8 to 9 minutes . Let cookies in the baking pan for 5 minutes before transferring unto the wire rack.

Aaaaaaaahhhhhh...

Eyes rolling at the back of my head, indecently  moaning , face exposing a myriad of blissful expression with a look that could probably rival Anastasias' when she's in a throng of  sexual euphorias. Sorry for the language, I'm currently in  a  midst of a major cookiegasm.

Do you want to share this 7th heaven? Give this recipe a try!

Chocolate Flan

Hubby and I were invited for dinner two days in a row and I promised to bring dessert to both . I was contemplating and  planning for days which dessert to make, from ice cream cake to lavish trifle. Alas, the day before the first celebration, I was so exhausted from work and was really not in the mood to do anything in the kitchen , however, a promise is a promise. So  I decided to make something quick and simple and the last Cheesecake Flan recipe came to mind. I whipped one the night before the first party, refrigerate it in the morning and bring it cold that evening. It was wiped out in no time. The same family members are coming to the dinner party the next day. This time, I made a chocolate version of the first flan. Why what do yah know, I liked it even better! This is not for the faint hearted! It was dense,  deliciously heavy and sinfully chocolatey.  Encore! Encore!

Chocolate Flan

I was not able to take a picture of the preparation since it was late and making this is such a brisk.

Ingredients:

1 cup white sugar

500 ml cream

250 ml chocolate milk

300 g bitter chocolate, chopped

1 pack Philadelphia cream cheese

250 g Mascarpone cheese

4 egg yolks

3 whole eggs

1 can condense milk

Baking Instruction:

1. Heat white sugar in the pan until caramelised. Pour caramel into your flan mold/ ramekins. Allow to cool.

2. Put together chocolate milk, cream and chopped chocolate in a sauce pan. Let it simmer gently until chocolate melts , stir and let the mixture becomes homogeneous. Set aside to cool for about 10 minutes.

3. Using a blender or electric mixer, mix cream cheese, mascarpone , eggs , egg yolks and condense milk. Blend/ mix until smooth. Slowly pour chocolate-milk-cream mixture . Continue mixing until everything is well incorporated.

4. Pour flan mixture over caramel .

5. Bake Bain-Marie ( water bath) for 40 to 45 minutes , depending on the size and thickness of your pan,  at 165 °c until edges are set but the center still a bit jiggly. The flan will harden as it cools. Allow to cool off completely before refrigerating.

6. To serve, run a thin knife around the edge of the flan, invert onto the serving plan. Serve cold.

White chocolate and orange mini cakes

These small delectable mini cakes are  highly addictive!  My colleague brought a box of these babies at work and it was devoured by the team in no time. Beautiful things ought to be shared after all and that's exactly what she did. Sharing recipes became a nice habit at work and I intend to pass it forward.

Ingredients:

300 g white baking chocolate, chopped
100 g butter
100 g white sugar
120 g al purpose flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp- salt
5 eggs
Orange aroma or rind of one orange

Baking Instructions:

 1. Melt butter and white chocolate together. I pop a bowl of chopped white chocolate in the microwave for less than a minute at 400 watts. Stir in butter and heat it up again for another half a minute until smooth.  You can heat it using a water bath instead.

 2. Using an electric mixer, beat eggs and sugar until thick and pale.

 3. Beat in orange aroma or  rind, if using.

 4. Pour butter and chocolate mixer into the bowl. Stir until well incorporated.

 5. Mix together flour , salt and baking powder. Sieve and add into the bowl. Carefully fold everything until smooth and lumps dissolve.

 6.  Grease or butter baking pan. I used silicon moulder . A muffin pan is an alternative. Leave ample space between the mini pan as cake rises and grows as it cooks. Bake in a preheated oven ( 160°C) for 40 minutes or until toothpick inserted comes out clean.

Perfect with morning coffee or during afternoon tea..