Puppy Love

I had more chocolate tart today and I, uhhh, took more photos.
There's something very cute about white, red, and dark brown.

Chocolate Tart (with Chocolate Pastry)

Did I ever tell you that my Uncle Dave saw Bruce Willis at an amusement park once? I really like B-dubs.

I made something extremely chocolatey last night and fed it to my unsuspecting in-laws.

I rarely make tarts. I've been known to dabble in tarts of the lemon persuasion, but I seriously felt like some serious chocolate yesterday, so I found a recipe that struck my fancy and lost myself in a cloud of cocoa powder.

The recipe, which is from Taste.com, is a goodun! My pastry dough was a little too soft-- so I kneaded it on a heavily floured surface to firm it. If yours is not-quite-right, you can do that or perhaps just chill it for longer than 30 minutes.

Also, if I make it again, I might play around to make it a creamier chocolate rather than a richer chocolate. It was DEEVINE, but INTENSO. Or maybe instead of the chocolate pastry, do a regular shortcrust. Or maybe put some MINT in it! Oh boy.

Chocolate Tart with Chocolate Pastry
Chocolate Pastry:
125 g (just over 1/2 cup) chilled butter (I used margarine and it was fine-- or perhaps the marg is to blame for my pastry dough's softness)
1 cup flour
1/3 cup icing sugar
1/4 cup almond meal
1/4 cup cocoa powder
1 egg yolk

Custard Filling:
4 egg yolks
1 tablespoon custard powder
2 tablespoons castor sugar
200g chopped dark chocolate
300ml cream (couldn't find soy cream substitute in time)
1 cup milk (I used soy)

1. Place butter, flour, icing sugar, almond meal, and cocoa powder in the blender and process until it's like breadcrumbs. Add egg yolk.
2. Knead on floured surface. Shape into a disc, cover in plastic wrap, chill for 30 minutes.

3. Preheat oven to 200C (390F).
4. Roll pastry to 4mm thick (or so) and line tart pan with it, trimming the top edges to make it beautiful. Chill 15 minutes.

5. Line pastry with baking paper and fill with dry rice or beans. Bake for 10 minutes.

6. Remove beans/rice, bake 5 minutes.
7. Reduce oven temperature to 160C (320F).
8. Combine yolks, custard powder, and castor sugar in a saucepan. Add chopped dark chocolate, cream, and milk, and place over low heat. Cook, whisking occasionally, for 5 minutes.

9. Pour chocolate custard mixture into pastry. Bake 20 minutes.

10. Chill before serving with cream and raspberries.

Cool Things

I baked Chocolate Chip Cookies today.

Yeah, I know, BOoooOOoooo, boring, been done, spice things up!

They're really good, though.

Here they are:

And, I would also like to show you my baking box. My mom has always had a baking box for as long as I can remember. It's more like a Baking Box than a baking box... it was the be-all and end-all of baking supplies, a bottomless box of tricks waiting to be wielded in the kitchen. It's just a shoebox, but I'm obsessed with it.

Lastly, I got a little book to write my recipes in. I'm consolidating all the recipes I've jotted down in various Official Recipe Notebooks.

Little Orange Pound Cakes with Orange Glaze

I've moved house!

Which means: new kitchen, new hood, new views, new neighbours, new ceilings, new floors, new this, new that, bleep.

The first thing I baked in the shiny new abode was these cakes. My mom sent me a silicon mould with heart-shaped compartments for Valentine's Day, and I was all in a tizzy and had to use it right away. I don't have a pound cake recipe of my own, so I took a chance on the first one I came across.

I had one orange left from BAJA ORANGE SHRIMP FAJITAS, so I thought it best to have a pound cake of the orange-flavoured variety. BAAAA-JAAAAAAA!

The recipe is from My Wooden Spoon. I halved it because there are only six hearts in my mould, and I certainly didn't feel like two rounds of baking and I certainly didn't want muffin-shaped orange pound cakes (BORING)-- I'd just end up feeling bad for them because they'd have to sit around being boring while the cute heart ones were gobbled up in a hot second.

Here is the original recipe (un-halved):

Orange Pound Cake
1/2 cup butter, room temperature (I used margarine)
1 1/2 cups sugar
2 large eggs
1 1/2 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup freshly squeezed orange juice
1/4 cup milk (I used soy)
1/2 teaspoon grated orange rind

Orange Glaze
2 tablespoons orange juice
1/3 cup confectioner's (powdered) sugar

1. Preheat oven to 325F (180 C) and butter a 9x5 inch loaf pan
2. Cream butter & sugar, then add eggs and mix well; set aside.
3. In another bowl, mix flour, baking powder and salt.
4. In a measuring cup combine orange juice, milk and orange zest
5. Start adding the juice mixture to the butter mixture, alternating with the flour mixture until light & creamy
6. Spoon (pour) into pan and bake for 45 minutes or until center comes out clean with toothpick
7. Cool in pan and then remove from pan and drizzle with glaze

They were quite tasty. In my opinion, pound cake SUCKS when hot, so don't sneak a bite before it's cooled. I ate one of the little hearts when it was still hot and I thought my first baking venture in my new home was a failure and I was slightly disappointed. Then they cooled and I glazed them and they were delish and hope was restored.

Oh, and I've made these since. It's the Strawberry Cake I've shown you before-- just muffin-sized!

Peanut Butter Cookies (Blossoms)

I've been thinking about peanut butter a lot lately. Thinking about putting it in my mouth. A few nights ago, my friends and I had a girl's night and I felt I ought to bring something sweet for after the veggie burritos. I decided on peanut butter squares, I made them, and they sucked. To be fair to the squares, they tasted quite nice, but the consistency and appearance were downright disappointing. So, I will not give you the recipe, nor will I write another lick about it. I'll provide you with a photo, though:

The failure left me feeling unfulfilled. So, onto another peanut butter treat! A tried and true and tremendous recipe for peanut butter cookies. It's my Mom's, and the original recipe is actually for Peanut Butter Blossoms. However, most unfortunately, Hershey's Kisses aren't available Down Under (except at USA Foods, where the going rate for a little bag containing five Kisses is $5 or something), so when I make them they're just plain old peanut butter cookies.

They're never as amazing as Mom's, of course. Mom isn't as enamoured of baking as myself, but when the mood strikes and she whips up a batch of something, they're always perfect! She must have inherited that from my Grandpa, who actually makes the actual best chocolate chip cookies in the actual world.

But mine are still good.

Peanut Butter Cookies (Blossoms)
1 3/4 cup flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup shortening (my mom always uses shortening, I use butter/margarine)
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 cup sugar (plus a little extra sugar for rolling)
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup peanut butter
2 tablespoons milk

1. Preheat oven to 350 F (175 C) (after the dough is chilled)
2. Mix flour, baking soda, and salt in a small bowl
3. In a large bowl, mix shortening/butter, egg, vanilla, sugar, brown sugar, peanut butter, and milk
4. Gradually add the dry ingredients to the wet, mixing all the while
5. Chill the dough for 2 hours or more

6. Roll into perfect little balls and roll the perfect little balls in sugar
7. Bake 8-10 minutes

8. If you are doing Blossoms, press a Hershey's Kiss into the center of each cookie right after they come out of the oven

I bet some readers cried when they got to instruction #5. I HATE it when I have to chill dough, because I want the cookies now now NOW NOW.

Peanut Butter Cups

G came home from work and I said, 'Go to the kitchen and get something sweet!'
He said, 'Did ya bake?!'
The answer was no.

So, technically, this post doesn't belong on this blog. But peanut butter cups are one of my favourite things and I want to showwwww you the ones I maaaaaade, okay?

I made eight little ones in silicon cups, and one big one in a mini tart pan. Oh, and I also made three peanut butter balls.

Peanut Butter Cups
Chocolate-- it really depends how many you want to end up with! I used one bag of Cadbury chocolate chips.
3/4 cup smooooooth peanut butter
3/4 cup icing sugar
2 tablespoons melted butter

1. Boil water in a saucepan, then remove from heat and place bowl of chocolate chips on top
2. Stir until the chocolate melts, then add 1 tablespoon butter
3. Spoon into moulds (app. 1/4 full) and use a small spoon or spoon handle to smear the chocolate up on the sides

4. Place in fridge to set
5. Thoroughly mix the peanut butter, icing sugar, and 1 tablespoon melted butter (taste it, and go ahead and make it more peanut buttery or more sugary according to your liking)
6. When chocolate has set, roll the peanut butter into small balls, place them in each mould, and smoosh them down a bit

7. If the chocolate in the bowl has hardened, repeat the melting process, then spoon it over the peanut butter just to the brim of the mould
8. Return them to the fridge to set!

When they hard, eatum.

Strawberry Cake to Have with Tea

The other day, two of my favourite people brought over a punnet of strawberries! Oliver and Georgia had gone strawberry pickin' in the country and their bounty was too great to keep to themselves.

I ate a fair few strawberries over the next couple days, but my efforts weren't making much of a dent. So, I confronted the large punnet head-on, and baked a darn cake.

I wish I could describe to you how much I enjoy this cake. Maybe I enjoyed it so immensely because I was just a leetle drunk when I had a piece last night. But, then again, my husband wasn't drunk and he really dug it. Also, I had another piece this morning and it was just as good-- with a lil bit of whipped cream, oh HELL YEAH.

Strawberry Cake
1 cup flour
1/2 cup sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup milk
1 egg
2 tablespoons melted butter
2 cups sliced strawberries

Crumb Topping
1/2 cup flour
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 cup melted butter
1/3 cup chopped nuts (I used pecans)

1. Preheat oven to 375 F (190 C)
2. Mix flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt in mixing bowl
3. Add milk, egg, and butter
4. Spoon into 8-inch pan (in the past, I've used the plain, 8-inch cake pan, but this time I used a slighter larger but shallower tart pan)
5. Top with strawberries
6. Combine crumb ingredients
7. Sprinkle over batter in pan
8. Bake 30-35 minutes

What would you guys do if I just got stuck like a broken record and I was like:
5. Top with strawberries
5. Top with strawberries
5. Top with strawberries
5. Top with strawberries

You'd be like, 'ONTO THE NEXT DIRECTION, JO BEAN!'

The only direction you need: Go make a cake, fool.