Double Chocolate Day

There's a guy that Duncan works with, P, who's allergic to eggs. I used to feel guilty every time Duncan took some of my baking to work - it all had eggs in it, and P couldn't have any of it. So, Amazon to the rescue. I found a book on baking wthout eggs (Bakin' Without Eggs by Rosemarie Emro), and started baking a few things from it, which seemed to be fairly well received. But then I sort of stopped baking as often, and things didn't go to work with Duncan.

However, P recently helped me out with sourcing a good price on my Dad's birthday present. He's good at that kind of thing, among all the other stuff he does to help people out, and I figured he deserved a little thank you. So I dug out the egg-free baking book, and whipped up a batch of the chocolate muffins that had gone down so well before. Apparently they went down pretty well this time too - not just with P, but with everybody else there too. So well, that I'm making another batch this weekend. Although, for variety, I plan on using Green & Black's Maya Gold cocoa, instead of their plain cocoa powder. Hopefully that should give a slight orange spice taste to them.

As the chocolate muffins were going to work, I thought we might need something else chocolatey to stay behind. This time, it was out with the not-quite-so-bad-for-you baking book (One Smart Cookie by Julie van Rosendaal), and into the chapter on brownies, where I picked a simple plain chocolate brownie.

Recipes:

Chocolate Sour Cream Cupcakes
(Adapted from Bakin' Without Eggs by Rosemarie Emro)
225 grams plain flour
50 grams cocoa powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
225 grams sugar
250 ml sour cream
125 ml vegetable oil
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
125 ml soda water

Preheat oven to 350F/180C Placu muffin cases in muffin tin.
In a large bowl, sift together the flour, cocoa and baking powder. Add the sugar and mix through.
In a jug, beat together the sour cream, vegetable oil, vanilla and soda water.
Add the wet ingredients to the dry, and stir until completely mixed.
Divide between muffin cases.
Bake for 15 to 20 minutes.


Easy Cocoa Brownies
(Adapted from One Smart Cookie by Julie van Rosendaal)
50 grams unsalted butter -- melted
200 grams caster sugar
1 large egg
2 large egg whites
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon instant coffee granules -- dissolved in 1 teaspoon water
140 grams plain flour
50 grams cocoa powder
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt

Preheat the oven to 350F/175C. Line an 8x8 inch pan with non-stick baking parchment.
In a large bowl, mix together the butter and sugar until well combined.
Add the egg, egg whites, vanilla and coffee. Stir until thoroughly blended and smooth.
In another bowl, combine the flour, cocoa, baking powder and salt.
Add the dry ingredients, together with any optional additions, to the egg mixture and stir until just combined. Do not overmix.
Spread the batter in the pan. Bake for 25 - 30 minutes, until the edge is starting to pull away but the middle is still slightly soft. Do not overbake.
Cool in the pan. Cuts into 16 pieces.

Chocolate Cake

I was in the mood for chocolate this week, so chocolate cake of some description had to be made. These started out with a recipe for low-fat brownies that I got off the SparkRecipes website. I made quite a few changes to the recipe, either because I wasn't quite sure what was meant, or just because it felt right. I mean, when a recipe of American origination calls for apple sauce, what exactly do they mean? I'm not sure - will things turn out OK if I use that jar of stuff I normally eat with my roast pork? I decided not to risk it, and instead of using the applesauce, I used mashed banana instead. I'm fairly certain that in most baking cases the two things can be interchanged; in a low-fat recipe like this, hey are both intended to do the same job - act as a replacemet for some of the fat. It certainly didn't seem to cause any harm here.
The next substitution I made was the use of self-raising flour instead of the plain plus raising agent. Why? Well, I wasn't sure exactly which agent the original writer meant - does baking soda equal bicarbonate of soda, or baking powder? Normally I'd use bicarbinate of soda. However, with the use of banana instead of apple I also wasn't sure about how dense the mixture would be, so decided to skip the whole problem and just use the self-raising flour.
The result? Not quite a classic brownie, which is supposed to be very dense. This is more of a cake, but a very moist one. Completely delicious.

Recipe:
75 grams self-raising flour,
2 tablespoons cocoa powder (I used Green & Blacks)
1/4 teaspoon salt
50 grams dark chocolate (again, Green & Black's, 70%)
20 grams unsalted butter
145 grams light brown sugar
1 egg
1 egg white
6 tablespoons mashed banana
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 350F/175C. Line an 8 inch square baking tin with non-stick baking parchment.
In a small bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder and salt.
In a large bowl over a pan of simmering water, melt together the chocolate and butter.
In another small bowl, whisk together the egg, egg white, brown sugar and vanilla extract.
When the butter and chocolate have melted, remove from the heat and leave for a minute or so to cool slightly.
Pour the egg and sugar mixture into the melted chocolate, stirring constantly. Add the banana, and mix until well combined.
Add the flour mixture to the wet ingredients, a couple of tablespoons at a time, mixing each addition until combined.
Pour into the baking tin and bake for 20 minutes.

Chocolate Cherry Brownies

No clear verdict on the cookies from last week. I've decided I'm not keen on them; the treacle in my opinion just overpowers everything else. Duncan, on the other hand, thinks they're really good. If I do make them again, I'll definitely reduce the amount of treacle used.

I got this recipe from the SparkPeople website. It's an American website, so the recipe is in cups. I think I'm getting used to working in them now. The basic recipe is just for plain chocolate brownies, with nothing in them. Naturally I couldn't leave it like that, so after a bit of thought I decided that the bag of dried cherries I had in the cupboard would be a good addition.
The recipe says that the batter will be a bit thick. It's not kidding. I'm used to a brownie batter you can pour out of the bowl; this one you have to dollop spoonfuls of into the pan, and then attempt to spread them out to a single even layer.
Just like there's an absolute commandment for muffins (do NOT overmix), there's one for brownies. What is it? Do NOT overbake. What did I do with these? Overbake. Not by much, according to the timing given in the recipe, but enough so that the brownies were drier than I'd have ideally liked. I'll know better next time. I also didn't use the full quantity of cherries, but I think I should have.

Recipe:
1 cup sugar
2 large eggs
2 teaspoons instant coffee, dissolved in 1 tablespoon water
1/4 cup butter, melted
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup plain flour
2/3 cup cocoa powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
50 grams dried cherries, chopped if large

Preheat oven to 325F/160C. Line an 8 inch square baking pan with non-stick baking parchment.
In a large bowl, whisk together the eggs and sugar until thick and creamy.
Add the dissolved coffee, melted butter and vanilla to the egg mixture. Whisk gently until combined.
In another bowl, mix the flour, cocoa and salt.
Gradually add the dry ingredients and cherries to the egg mixture. The batter will be very thick.
Spread the batter in the prepared pan. Bake for 20 - 25 minutes.
Cool in the pan. cuts into 16 pieces.