This is my chocolate bundt cake redemption. The last time I made a chocolate bundt cake (my first ever bundt cake), it looked a treat, and tasted okay... but it was very very very dry. Just a big, dense, chunk of cake that was not nearly moist enough to be eaten without lots of frosting or ice cream to hide its serious flaw. I needed to redeem myself, and prove to myself that a moist bundt cake is a thing that exists! Not sure what it is about January and chocolate bundt cakes, but almost exactly one year later I attempted the choco-bundt once again. I succeeded! This cake received rave reviews from everyone I fed it to... the best part is that everyone said, "it's so moist". BAM. Mission accomplished. It doesn't hurt that I brushed it with a rum-favoured simple syrup before I glazed it... an optional step, but like really, why not? The 2nd annual chocolate bundt! Will this become a yearly tradition? I am not sure, but I'm certainly not complaining if it does. Chocolate Bundt cake with Rum GlazeRecipe Adapted from Food & Wine Cake:
Soaking Syrup:
ENJOY! You don't even need ice cream! But I wouldn't turn it away if it were offered... :)
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Sometimes you just want a cookie. A scrumptious, chewy, chunky hunk of love to nibble on with your tea or coffee, or to savour with hot cocoa before bed. Sometimes, you just want a piece(or, let's be honest, pieces) of chocolate. A silky, melt-in-your-mouth, decadent hunk of love to nibble on when you need that hit, or to savour after a meal. Sometimes, gosh darn it, you want both. At the SAME TIME. Wish granted! This cookie is two hunks of love delivered to you in one beautiful chunky, chewy package. Oats, a pinch of cinnamon, and milk chocolate go into this cozy cookie which is topped off with that lovely triangle of swiss goodness studded with nougat and almonds. Now you just have to decide, do you pick off the Toblerone and eat it first? Or do you eat the cookie surrounding it, saving Toblerone Island for last? Or do you just munch all the way through in a linear fashion? You may want to try all three methods to find the one that suits you best ;) Chunky Milk Chocolate TOblerone CookiesRecipe adapted from Trey Winkle of R Bar & Grill
It is about time for some serious dark chocolate business around here. ***RANT WARNING***I have posted a shocking amount (okay, 2) of recipes including white chocolate already... shocking because for a long time I have turned my nose up to white chocolate. I think I have done so because white chocolate is a lie in that it is not technically even chocolate. I have (sometimes too passionately) argued this scientific fact with friends. It does not contain any cocoa solids, only the fat that is pressed out of cocoa nibs to make REAL chocolate. However I suppose you do need to use cocoa beans in order to procure white chocolate, and perhaps if we just consider white chocolate a thing on it's own and not compare it to the wonderful deep dark real-deal chocolate, it is okay, and okay to enjoy. There, I had to get that off my chest, and I feel better. But back to my roots and the soul of my very being, which I'm pretty sure is made of dark chocolate. I am a proud chocoholic, lover of all things bittersweet and a true believer that the darker the chocolate, the better. Join me, if you will, on the dark side. These cookies invited one of dark chocolate's best friends over for a play-date and they got up to NO GOOD. Luckily for us it's the delicious kind of no good. That's right, peanut butter. When peanut butter and chocolate get together to play, it's hard for it not to be a good day. Cookies filled with cocoa AND dark chocolate chunks, peanuts AND swirled with peanut butter... HELLO! These cookies will be as good as the ingredients you use to make them. For me that means using the good dark dark chocolate, salted peanuts, and all-natural peanut butter. Amen. Prep your milk glasses for dunkin', folks. Chocolate Peanut Butter CookiesRecipe from Mast Brothers Chocolate
JANUARY!!!!! January, you're great. You're full of hopeful resolutions for the future, snowy days, and feelings of fresh starts. You know what you deserve? ICE CREAM. Good thing my resolutions this year have nothing to do with eating healthy. Instead, they have to do with the making and eating of many a fine ice cream. 2016... in my own little world shall be known as the year of homemade ice cream! I do love a good challenge, especially one that challenges me to get creative in the kitchen. Hence, I am commencing the 12 Months of Ice Cream Project! It is fairly self-explanatory, there are 12 months of the year, so I will make 12 new flavours of homemade ice cream. It can't be that hard, right? If in the ever evolving case of my life I happen to be abroad or busy or forgetful, I will make up for a month by making two ice creams another time. It's okay, I just get more ice cream. There are no rules really, I AM IN CHARGE! Basically, my goal is to try as many recipes as possible from THIS BOOK which was a gift to me from my parents. They know me well. They also just want me to make them ice cream. I'm definitely cool with that. I am a big fan of Jeni's Splendid ice creams. Although I have never actually set foot in one of her shops, let alone taste any of her creations, I have used her recipes to make my own homemade ice creams. I can say that they are my favourite recipes to use! They are simple to follow, always turn out amazing, and do not leave me with with half a dozen egg whites to deal with. I am a fan. One day, ONE DAY I will visit a Jeni's shop, and what a splendid day that will be. The only downside will be having to choose which flavour... As for January, I decided to go for something simple, a classic: Milk Chocolate. You might be saying, BORING! PREDICTABLE! I did too at first. But I had to. Choco Ice Cream and I go way back. It's my go-to. Fail safe. Can't go wrong. Etc etc. Also, If I can make a good chocolate ice cream, then I think I have succeeded at life. My mother often tells me the story of when she was pregnant with me, and how she would crave chocolate ice cream. The night before I was born, my mother woke up in the night, crept downstairs, and savoured a bowl of chocolate ice cream. Mere hours later, I entered the world... (probably ravenous for more chocolate). Like I said, chocolate ice cream and I? We have a special thing. Milk Chocolate Ice CreamRecipe from Jeni's Splendid Ice Creams
We're off to a grand start. Here's to more homemade ice creams!
Forever I shall remain a fan of the humble chocolate chip cookie. And forever I will be trying all of the variations on said cookie. The chocolate chip cookie: a simple phenomena, yet there are a zillion different variations out there, and everyone claiming that THIS is the BEST, or their ULTIMATE FAVOURITE SUPREME DREAM cookie. Well I apologize, but I love them all. Whenever I see a new recipe for chocolate chip cookies, no matter how awesome the ones I have made previously were, I want to try this new recipe. I want them ALL! And so when I found a recipe for "Whole Wheat Chocolate Chip Cookies" which claimed that the use of whole wheat flour had not a thing to do with healthiness, but all the things to do with depth of flavour, I was sold. Think about a slice of bread. There is white bread, which holds a certain nostalgia and blank canvas for other ingredients. However there is also multigrain bread which, in most cases, can add a lot of flavour. Don't think about trying to be healthy, think about flavour. Anyways these cookies are not shy on butter and sugar, so yeah healthy is not the point here. Not the point guys. But it does make me feel better about wanting to eat cookies for breakfast... (a thing that I do quite frequently) As I was daydreaming about how whole wheat flour could change the chocolate chip cookie game, I thought, why not double-deepen the flavour by also using brown butter too? Nutty browned butter + whole wheat flavour ... must equal greatness. Am I right? We have already learned about my love of brown butter in the last post. You knew this was going to happen. Because of the brown butter and the fact that you must chill the dough overnight, these cookies require a small amount of planning ahead. But they are oh so worth it! Also, if one does not plan for anything else, one must always plan for cookies ;) Whole Wheat Brown Butter Chocolate Chip CookiesRecipe slightly adapted from Jessica Fechtor found in her amazing book, Stir
Happy baking :) |
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