“Mothers are those wonderful people who can get up in the morning before the smell of coffee.”
Author Unknown
Expresso Love.Have you heard the song? Its sung by my favourite band of all time, Dire Straits, whose timeless, classic music never ceases to amaze! Money For Nothing, Sultans of Swing … yank them up to the ‘are you crazy levels‘ and its nirvana for me!! Similar to the effect coffee has on me. Espresso love … Those who have known me for long, know that coffee is my favourite flavour of all time. There was a time when every celebration cake was coffee or espresso. Then came food blogs … each offering fresh perspective, new insights, flavours I had never dreamt of using. Now fruits of the season charm me and prod me to pick them off shelves. Good days are back again and we’re treading slowly into stone fruit season. I made a delicious chocolate & cherry dessert yesterday; should be my next post! Here’s a sneak peek…Yet I couldn’t let the mother in me not post about coffee this week.I was googling for coffee or espresso muffins, one link led to another, and I halted at a tempting site espresso machine reviews.I don’t own an espresso maker, though I do have a coffee maker of sorts; the reviews made me want to own one of those beauties!The lad decided to explore the site further and offered to buy me one for Mother’s Day! He read the reviews and zeroed in on the rancilio silvia review. “Would you like this one Mama?”, the ever charming creature queried. Ever since I ordered the misplaced pinch cap for my Sigma lens from ebay and it was shipped from the US, he thinks we can ship anything in! It’s a great idea, but one who is oceans apart from those mean machines, these espresso dark-chocolate chip cupcakes are good enough, for now at least. Are you a coffee junkie? Does your morning begin with a cuppa coffee? Mine does. Coffee just makes things better! These muffins are great for a coffee loving Mum! Nothing like a deep, delicious espresso cupcake to make the day complete. Dark chocolate pairs beautifully with coffee, and IMHO, a creme chantilly topping might compliment these cupcakes nicely too. I love the cases too, and have to thank my friend Bina for sending these vibrant and beautiful liners to me. I love the colours Bina!
[print_this]Recipe: Espresso Chocolate Chip Cupcakes with a Chocolate Espresso Ganache
Prep Time: 15 minutes
Total Time: 40 minutes
Ingredients:
2 cups all purpose flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 pinch salt
1/2 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
3/4 cup vanilla sugar
1 tbsp espresso powder {or 2 tbsp coffee powder}
1 tsp pure vanilla extract
1 egg
1 cup milk, room temperature
1 cup dark chocolate chips
Method:
Preheat oven to 180C. Line {or grease} a 12 mold muffin tray
With a fork, whisk together the flour, baking powder and salt in a bowl. Reserve
Beat the butter, vanilla sugar, espresso powder, vanilla extract and egg in a large mixing bowl.
Add the flour mix and milk, and blend on low speed until smooth, 30 seconds.
Fold in the chocolate chips
Spoon into muffin cases upto 2/3 full.
Bake for 15-20 minutes, until springy to the touch. Cool in the tin for about a minute before putting the muffins onto a wire rack to cool completely.Top with ganache if desired. {Recipe follows}
Recipe: Chocolate Espresso Ganache
Prep Time: 5 minutes
Total Time: 5 minutes
Ingredients:
100gms dark chocolate, room temperature
50ml low fat cream
1/2 tsp espresso powder
Method:
Place the chocolate and cream in a heat proof bowl, and microwave on full power for 30 seconds. Stir, and give it another 10-15 seconds if need be.
Add the espresso powder and blend well with a spoon until smooth and shiny. Cool and use.
The January 2011 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Astheroshe of the blog accro. She chose to challenge everyone to make a Biscuit Joconde Imprime to wrap around an Entremets dessert.
HAPPY 2011 you wonderful peeps. It’s the first daring ‘time’ of the year, and this challenge lived up to the name D A R I N G! This was a challenge, and certainly not one for the faint hearted which was how I felt when I read and re read it. For starters, I couldn’t figure out the imprime from the entremet, all gobbly gook to my mind, terms I had fleetingly read before yet never gave much thought to.
Truth be told, I almost never got down to doing it. For 3 days the almond flour mix sat on the counter staring at me, and I merrily baked around it. Then it was time for cake as it was SILs birthday. I couldn’t muster up the courage so fell back on thoughts of making a Strawberries & Cream Mac-o-range Cake that I had recently made for a friend. But guilt is a strange friend, and ribs you till you give in.I did feel guilty… and eventually gave in to the challenge, and a challenge it certainly was. Finally, after a long time, a challenge to shake the daring bit in me. I admit I was unsure, almost frightened and on totally alien ground. I made the pattern and just left it in the freezer overnight as I didn’t want to mess it up. The next morning was breezy easy though, as all I had to do was make the joconde batter & pour it on. I had 3 trays. The first was obviously too close to the heat source {element below} and my pattern got ‘brownish’ hues. UGH! So I went with using just the upper element for tray number 2 and 3 and that worked really well. I did I small portion with instant coffee too, and as you can see that pattern really came out well! WOOT…satisfaction!!
Entremets (French baking term)- an ornate dessert with many different layers of cake and pastry creams in a mold, usually served cold.
A joconde imprime (French Baking term) is a decorative design baked into a light sponge cake providing an elegant finish to desserts/torts/entremets/ formed in ring molds. A joconde batter is used because it bakes into a moist, flexible cake. The cake batter may be tinted or marbleized for a further decorative effect. This Joconde/spongecake requires attentive baking so that it remains flexible to easily conform to the molds. If under baked it will stick to the baking mat. It over baked it will dry out and crack. Once cooled, the sponge may be cut into strips to line any shape ring mold.
My pink patterned joconde might have looked much better, had my strawberry mirror not decided to step off the top. It wasn’t quite the perfect consistency {in hindsight I should have cooled it a lot more} and some portion of it went over the edge, between the entremet and mousse strips and made a slight mess. Even the chocolate mousse should have been cooled a bit more. Another change ‘next time’ will be to sprinkle the chopped strawberries over the Bavarian cream, rather than before. I think they pressed into the chocolate mousse, and should have really stayed with the Bavarian. Oh well… lessons learnt!!The entire experience of the joconde, the enteremet, the assembly and the mousse was fabulous. A real daring challenge, and a wonderful learning process. The cake was MUCH loved {even though I wasn’t a 100% happy with the looks}. The taste was great with the deeply decadent dark chocolate mousse beautifully complimenting the light as air strawberry Bavarian cream. Great marriage of flavours and very,very indulgent. I wanted a better looking joconde, and a better looking cross section for the strawberry entermet, yet the espresso entremet I made a week later made up for everything! {The sponge stayed fine in the fridge cut into strips, with the mousse in place, for a week! Baking & dessert making in winter is good!!}I had enough joconde to line the 8″ cake, make a bottom for it, and still plenty left for some coffee joconde. Those were 3 smaller portions, topped with a layer of the chocolate cream, followed by an espresso panna cotta. I whirred the trimmed cake bits in the food processor and folded them through the panna cotta to give it some body! Worked well and didn’t collapse. The taste was fabulous too! I had left over panna cotta-cake crumb mix, which I set in the coffee mugs, topped with pipings of the patterned patterned joconde-decor paste. Nothing wasted!!
All is all this has been a fantastic challenge, and a huge learning experience. The coffee imprint gave me a sense of how beautiful a sponge imprint can actually be, and this is such a versatile beautiful medium. Hail Daring Bakers, I’ve felt challenged after ages, and this was top stuff. I loved it!
Thank youAstheroshe for the exciting and daring challenge, and thank you as always Lisa of La Mia Cucina and Ivonne of Cream Puffs in Venice for hosting this fab kitchen!! Do stop by HERE and check the ‘stamps’ that our other daring folk have left around the globe.
Thank you Suma @ Cakes & Bakes for sending me the mousse strips. They were fantastic!
Joconde imprime /entremets Recipe Source: From Chef John O, The International Culinary School in Atlanta, Georgia USA. Joconde Sponge
YIELD: Two ½ size sheet pans or a 13” x 18” (33 x 46 cm) jelly roll pan
¾ cup almond flour
½ cup plus 2 tablespoons icing sugar
¼ cup cake flour *See note below
3 large eggs
3 large egg whites
2½ teaspoons white granulated sugar or superfine (caster) sugar
2 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted *Note: How to make cake flour: http://www.joythebaker.com/blog/2009/09/how-to-make-cake-flour/ Method:
In a clean mixing bowl whip the egg whites and white granulated sugar to firm, glossy peeks. Reserve in a separate clean bowl to use later.
Sift almond flour, confectioner’s sugar, cake flour.
On medium speed, add the eggs a little at a time. Mix well after each addition. Mix until smooth and light.
Fold in one third reserved whipped egg whites to almond mixture to lighten the batter. Fold in remaining whipped egg whites. Do not over mix.
Fold in melted butter.
Reserve batter to be used later. Patterned Joconde-Décor Paste
{I made half of this}
YIELD: Two ½ size sheet pans or a 13” x 18” (33 x 46 cm) jelly roll pan
14 tablespoons/200g unsalted butter, softened
1½ cups plus1½ tablespoons Confectioners’ (icing) sugar
7 large egg whites
1¾ cup cake flour
Food coloring gel, paste or liquid COCOA Décor Paste Variation: Reduce cake flour to 6 oz / 170g. Add 2 oz/ 60g cocoa powder. Sift the flour and cocoa powder together before adding to creamed mixture. Method:
Cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy.
Gradually add egg whites. Beat continuously.
Fold in sifted flour.
Tint batter with coloring to desired color, if not making cocoa variation. Preparing the Joconde- How to make the pattern:
Spread a thin even layer of décor paste approximately 1/4 inch thick onto silicone baking mat {I used parchment} with a spatula, or flat knife. Place mat on an upside down baking sheet. The upside down sheet makes spreading easier with no lip from the pan. Pattern the décor paste – Here is where you can be creative. Make horizontal /vertical lines (you can use a knife, spatula, cake/pastry comb). Squiggles with your fingers, zig zags, wood grains. Be creative whatever you have at home to make a design can be used. OR use a piping bag. Pipe letters, or polka dots, or a piped design. If you do not have a piping bag. Fill a ziplock bag and snip off corner for a homemade version of one.
Slide the baking sheet with paste into the freezer. Freeze hard. Approx 15 minutes.{I froze it overnight}
Remove from freezer. Quickly pour the Joconde batter over the design. Spread evenly to completely cover the pattern of the Décor paste.
Bake at 250ºC until the joconde bounces back when slightly pressed, approx. 15 minutes. You can bake it as is on the upside down pan. Yes, it is a very quick bake, so watch carefully.
Cool. Do not leave too long, or you will have difficulty removing it from mat.
Flip cooled cake on to a powdered sugared parchment paper. Peel off parchment gently. Cake should be right side up, and pattern showing! {The powdered sugar helps the cake from sticking when cutting}
Preparing the MOLD for entremets:
Start with a large piece of parchment paper laid on a very flat baking sheet. Then a large piece of cling wrap over the parchment paper. Place a spring form pan ring, with the base removed, over the cling wrap and pull the cling wrap tightly up on the outside of the mold. Line the inside of the ring with a curled piece of parchment paper or mousse strips overlapping top edge by ½ inch. CUT the parchment paper to the TOP OF THE MOLD. It will be easier to smooth the top of the cake.
Chocolate Cream
2 egg yolks
40gm caster sugar
100ml milk
150ml low fat cream, {25% fat}
1 vanilla bean, scraped
200gm dark chocolate, chopped Method:
Simmer the milk, cream and vanilla bean and leave to steep for 30 minutes.
Beat the yolks with sugar until pale & creamy.
Bring to a simmer again, and pour about 1/2 cup over the beaten yolks, stirring quickly with a balloon whisk to incorporate fully. Pour this back into the remaining milk/cream mixture in the pan, and continue to cook over low heave until the custard thickened and coats the back of the spoon. {Make sure it doesn’t boil} Remove from heat immediately, and strain over the chopped dark chocolate. Stir until smooth. Cool well, until it loses the heat but is still pour-able, yet quite thick. Pour about an inch over the cake base, and allow to set completely in the fridge, at least an hour, before adding next later. Strawberry Bavarian Cream
4 egg yolks
1/3 cup vanilla sugar
1 vanilla bean
1/2 cup + 3 tbsp milk
1 1/4 tbsp gelatin {reduce to 1 tbsp if you use high fat cream}
400m cream (25% fat)
400gms strawberries Method:
Whisk the egg yolks with a balloon whisk with 1/3 cup of vanilla sugar until smooth.
Simmer 1/2 cup of milk and 200ml cream with 1 scraped vanilla bean, bean included. Turn off heat and allow to infuse for 30 minutes. Bloom gelatin in 3 tbsp of cold milk
Put the pan back on simmer. Once the milk mixture comes to a boil, take it off the heat and whisk into the yolk mix, somewhat like in French pastry cream.
Return to a heavy bottom pan, and place on medium heat until the custard thickens and coats the back of a spoon, stirring constantly.
Take off and whisk in bloomed gelatin. Strain and leave to cool. {You can quicken the cooling by stirring the bowl held over a bowl of ice.}
Once it is completely cooled, whip 200ml of cream with 1-2 tbsp of Castor sugar and 1 tsp of vanilla extract, and fold it into the custard gently but thoroughly. You will notice the Bavarian thickening. Sprinkle chopped strawberries over the set chocolate cream, and pour the Bavarian mousse over. Leave to set overnight. Espresso Panna Cotta with cake crumbs
500ml low fat cream
1/2 cup sugar
1 tsp espresso powder
1 tsp instant coffee
1.5 tbsps gelatin, bloomed in 1/4 cup water
1 cup cake crumbs, from left over joconde trimmings Method:
Steep the espresso and coffee powder in 1/4 cup heated cream for 10-15 minutes to intensify the flavour.
Combine the cream, sugar and steeped cream and simmer till it comes to a slow boil.
Take the cream mixture off the heat. Whisk in the gelatin, strain & allow to cool, but not set. Continue to stir it so that a skin doesn’t form. Stir in the cake crumbs.
Pour over the cold chocolate cream, and let set undisturbed overnight.
“I got the sun in the morning, and the moon at night…” From the musical ‘Annie Get Your Gun’
These lines come back to my head sometimes, more often these days, especially since I am kind of finding feet easily. The lines from the musical Annie Get Your Gun, a play I auditioned for when I was in Delhi University. Needless to say, I didn’t grab a role {Shahrukh Khan did … snapped up a lead role}. All I did get was to help behind the scenes, sets etc. It was too many years ago, when Barry John and his Theatre Action Group helped us stage the play in college. What remains in my mind is the fun we had, the exuberant screenplay, costumes, lights, singing, dancing… and FEET tapping!
Yes of course, I’m back to my macaron obsession, the endless obsession to find feet as perfect as those walking the net, at Ladurees, at Mactweets, at Jamies, at Barbaras … the list is endless.The greatest glory in living lies not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall...said Ralph Waldo Emerson, and that leads to our challenge at MacTweets this month…
…Did you catch the FALL in there? Yes, it’s MacTweets Attack Season 13…lucky for some, unlucky for none, Jamie & I hope! It’s to do with fall macarons.Did fall leave you with an impression, with a ‘connect’?This is the time of the year in the Northern Hemisphere where the leaves turn red, gold, auburn … where the days grow dark and cold. Jamie & I have called for ‘fall in feet’ in macarons this time. Whatever it means to you – flavours, colours, emotions. If you are in the Southern hemisphere {we hear you Shaz}, bid fall goodbye.
It was a strange morning, where I had no time as usual, but much to do. I had lemon curd to make, Ottolenghi’s puff pastry to put together, sponges to bake, cookies for the lads outstation trip…and of course, the quintessential feature of my life – laundry! No time for the net or books, an egg white in hand, I turned to my adopted David Lebovitzchocolate macarons recipe.It’s a simple one – 1 egg white, 1/4 cup almond meal, 1/2 cup icing sugar, 2.5 tbsp granulated sugar, 1.5 tbsp cocoa powder. While measuring the stuff out at express speed, I saw the ground coffee beans that Asha sent me.
Thus began a strange conversation in the head, and a battle for flavour. I rapidly changed my mind from chocolate to coffee. For me, coffee is very fall, just the thing to cheer me up when the weather becomes cold and the days become short, I was virtually chatting to Asha in my head. “Asha, that coffee calls my name every time I look at it, you know”. Beating the whites, I added some egg white powder for good measure.
Thank you for the dried egg whites Bina, where would I be without friends like you? A few quick whisks in, and Bina was virtually peering over my shoulder…”Count to 10 Deeba, the cut in the batter should disappear, then it’s good.Yes, now it looks fine to me”. Another buzz and it was sweet Lili Phuah who contributed,“I find it easiest to make the macarons using a teaspoon vis-a-vis a piping bag“.“OK”, I nodded, remembering reading her macaron mail for the nth time. So I played along, a virtual party, but I loved it…
I went the teaspoon way, and woot, it worked. This is what I’ll do in future too. It’s a little more painstaking as compared to a piping bag, but it does give me more control, and better ‘plops‘!By the end of the session, I had the shells resting …with such hope, I just knew I would soon be doing the jig {but then of course, I have always suffered such confidence!}. I found success pretty soon. Saw Jamie beaming at me across my macs, taking me back to that first tweet we shared when she found her feet when I threw her the macaron gauntlet… that was ages ago, and how this whole macaron madness began! Literally dragged Mr PAB to the kitchen the minute he woke up – he beamed with pride! Knew his wife would find her feet one day! Now all is good with the world!!
History repeats itself they say, and it happened for me. I had a project a few days later, some folk coming in for a shoot, and I brazenly decided to take another stab at macarons that very morning. As if I didn’t have enough to do already, but confidence goes to the head, as it did to mine, and I decided to do a Pumpkin Pie Spice batch. Substituted the cocoa powder with 3/4 tbsp of pie spice … and could not believe the feet when I saw them! Maybe I’m finally getting into the swing of things…who knows! 2 ‘feeted’ batches of macarons later, I think it’s time to pay some attention to variety in fillings! Yes, have found feet, now to find flavour!
What does FALL charm you with? Vibrant fall colours, harvest, or is it the holiday season? Are deep cinnamon flavour, apples, cranberries & walnuts your calling? … Or then, is it the warm comfort and luxury of hot cocoa or warm spiced cider? My fall macarons are coffee for the warmth of the season, and pumpkin pie spice for all things nice! I ‘fell’ for both!!
Do you want to join us making MACARONS?
If you do, you are most welcome to join us for this challenge, or the next. You can find all the information at our dedicated macaron blog MacTweets. We generally post the round up by the end of every month, following which a new challenge is posted!
So here we go, feet for Macfeet, Macfall … errr MacTweets!
Coffee Macarons & Pumpkin Pie Spice Macarons with Dark Chocolate Ganache as adapted from David Lebovitz’s recipe Macaron Batter 1/2 cup powdered sugar 1/4 cup powdered almonds 1 tbsp ground coffee or 3/4 tbsp pumpkin pie spice 1 large egg white, at room temperature 2 1/2 tbsp granulated sugar 1/2 tsp egg white powder Method: Preheat oven to 140C. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper. Grind together the powdered sugar with the almond powder and cocoa so there are no lumps; use a blender or food processor since almond meal that you buy isn’t quite fine enough. In the bowl of a standing electric mixer, beat the egg whites until they begin to rise and hold their shape. While whipping, beat in the granulated sugar until very stiff and firm, about 2 minutes. Carefully fold the dry ingredients, in two batches, into the beaten egg whites with a flexible rubber spatula. When the mixture is just smooth and there are no streaks of egg white, stop folding. Using a teaspoon, or piping bag, drop / pipe the batter on the parchment-lined baking sheets in 1″ circles evenly spaced one-inch (3 cm) apart. Rap the baking sheet a few times firmly on the counter top to flatten the macarons, then rest for about an hour. Bake them for 15-18 minutes. Let cool completely then remove from baking sheet.
Dark Chocolate Ganache Filling 100gm dark chocolate 2-3 tbsp low fat cream Method: Melt half the chocolate, coffee and the cream on simmer in a pan, stirring constantly. Once melted and bubbling, take off heat. Add the rest of the chocolate and stir until all the chocolate has melted. Cool. To assemble Match equal halves of macarons, and keep together. Use a small spoon or piping bag/nozzle, deposit a tiny amount of ganache on the flat side of the macaron, and sandwich with another of the same size. Sandwich them, squeezing gently. Leave to set in fridge.
“Oh good look its coffee o’clock :))…”
Linda@goodshoeday via twitter
How sweet that tweet was, music to my very ears! I saved it the minute I tripped across it ages ago. I’m a 100% coffee person, and it easily wins hands down as my most favourite flavour in sweet stuff; {garlic holds first place for savoury}. The PAB family is a coffee happy one too, and I am glad the kids are big enough to enjoy the odd coffee doused cake. Year after year, when it comes to my birthday, I always have this coffee cake plan in my head, and the day before, I leave a coffee cake sponge to mature beautifully in the fridge. This year was complete madness! My sis is over from the US with her kids, leaving me hair-brained with no time to plan. So I trashed all plans to bake me a cake…
Mr PAB came back from work, asked if I had baked me a cake {I ALWAYS DO … because I like to}, and I shook my head in negative, in despair and tiredness. He said he’d go and get me one first thing in the morning. Just then the lad said he and his sister would bake me one the next morning…”You just sleep late Mama,” he ordered with a twinkle in his eye! {Words like that are enough to give me sleepless nights!}
I shot out of bed very early in the morning in sheer fright. My kitchen in their hands, a mess that would be unbelievable, one that I would not be able to shriek about … party pooper, yes that’s me. I was in the kitchen in a heartbeat, and back to my books. First stop was Ottolenghi: The Cookbook, but that didn’t have a coffee cake recipe. Coffee coffee coffee…that was the only mantra in my mind, with a cuppa coffee in my hand! Then I leafed through Indulge, which I reviewed for Blogger Aid a while ago. The options seemed far too involved given the time frame… I had to get the cake into the oven before the kids woke up!
My next stop was this beautiful cake decoration book by Roland Mesniers – Basic To Beautiful Cakes that I had won at an event hosted by the Daring Kitchen. My Cinnamon Buttercream Autumn Cake cake got me this gorgeous book which landed at my doorstep, with a sweet note from the ‘daring ladies‘, Lisa ofLa Mia Cucina and Ivonne of Cream Puffs in Venice! In January this year, I was inspired to bake this Strawberry Bavarian Cream Cake from the book.
I reached for the index and got to the coffee pages pronto. A Coffee Genoise Sponge – holy yum! This was just the thing.
About the sponge, the author writes, “Mrs Clinton’s Coffee Genoise … Mrs Clinton loved coffee desserts in every form. The Mocha Cake in my book Dessert University was a favourite. Espresso sorbet, served with a cinnamon whipped cream, was another. I turned to this recipe for Coffee Genoise again and again because it is so versatile, and because the genoise, flavoured with instant espresso powder, takes on a strong, pure coffee flavour.”
Just reading the introduction had me walking on clouds, dreaming of coffee nirvana, making me forget everything else but coffee! Pure Coffee Flavour?YES PLEASE! It was even better that my sis had got me a jar on instant espresso powder. I also got a heavy duty angel cake tin {Ahn, I got it, I did!!}, bags of spices from whole foods, chocolate chips, almond meal … never-ending delights, just how I like my goodie bag ! The espresso gave me pure delight, and I had the bowl of water on simmer in no time.
It’s a simple and versatile sponge to make, largely fuss free. It rises thanks to air beaten into it over simmering hot water. Be careful not to release the beaten air as you fold the flour in. The melted butter adds just the right luxury to the crumb… not heavy at all, but moist. It’s a cake we went FAST! Mr PAB didn’t look particularly pleased with the smallish size.
The cake was inspired by a series of bakes I did for a project a short while ago; {will write more about that when and IF it sees light of day}. For the project I made a Kiwi-Strawberry Cream Cake, a Espresso Coffee Cream Cake and a Deep Chocolate with Burgundy Cherries Cake. For two of the cakes I used my trademark scrolls, this time in the lace border again, as it seems to have caught on as my signature style, and I love doing it!
I have to shout out a big thank you to this crazy girl Nachiketa from Crazy Over Desserts, who drove miles down to visit me late at night on my birthday with a cake baked especially for me. A coffee-cinnamon cake, with a chocolate ganache, rum soaked raisins within. A gorgeous cake, with a beautiful card made by her little niece just for me.
SIMPLE COFFEE GENOISE
Adapted minimally from Roland Meisner’s Basic to Beautiful Cakes, pg 190
4 large eggs {I added and extra yolk because the eggs were a medium size}
1 cup sugar
1 tbsp instant espresso powder
1 cup flour
Pinch of salt
1/4 cup unsalted butter, melted and cooled
Method:
Preheat the oven to 190C. Line the bottom and sides of a 8″ spring form round tin. Grease and dust with flour.
In a large bowl, beat the eggs with the sugar over a bowl of simmering hot water for about 5 minutes till thick and mousse like.
Take off water and continue to beat till the mixture cools down, about 5-7 minutes. Add the espresso and beat in again for a minute.
Fold the flour through gently, in 3 goes, lightly till it’s mixed through well. Be careful not to release the beaten in air.
Take a cup of this batter in another bowl, and mix the melted cooled butter through it. Now gently fold this back into the rest of the batter.
Turn the batter into the prepared baking tin, and bake for 30-35 minutes, till a tester comes out clean.
Filling:
1 tbsp coffee dissolved in 3 tbsp water with 1 tbsp sugar
400ml low fat cream
2 tbsp powdered vanilla sugar
1 tsp coffee essence {or 1 tsp instant coffee}
Method:
Whip together till medium peaks form.
Brush each side of the cake with the coffee syrup, and sandwich with the filling. Resrve any remaining cream for garnishing the top.
Topping:
300ml low fat cream
2-3 tbsp vanilla powdered sugar
1 scant tbsp instant espresso powder
Dark chocolate for garnishing
Method:
Whip together until stiff peaks form. Frost the sides of the cake first, and then the top. Garnish as desired.
♥ Thank you for stopping by ♥
~
A reminder for this months MONTHLY MINGLE. If you are BAKING WITH FRUIT this month, do send it in to Monthly Mingle posted HERE. You have until November 23rd, 2010.
“Baking chocolate-chip cookies – an act that makes all seem right with the world….”
Dorie Greenspan on twitter
Don’t you just love that line? I chanced upon the tweet from Dorie Greenspan a few days ago and the words stuck to my mind. Strangely enough I had a batch of chocolate chip cookies in the oven at the time. Sounded so true and all seemed good with the world. Come to think of it, cookie baking time is always therapeutic, chocolate chip cookies more so. The dough gets together without a fuss, doesn’t need special attention, and the cookies are ready in next to no time!
The hub was leaving for HKG that night and likes to carry some home made cookies with him. It’s always been like that. No matter where he goes, he finds it comforting to carry some with him. This is a basic recipe I have used for ever, and am not sure where I got it from. What I do know is that I’ve played around with the basic recipe to suit our tastes, and it accepts additions pretty whole heartedly. Throw in some walnuts, substitute some alternative flour like buckwheat, use brown sugar for white … always gives good results!
It was coffee on my mind again, so in went some instant coffee, all the time a song playing in the back of my head, “Who Stole the Cookie from the Cookie Jar?” It wasthe Cookie Jar Song which we often sung as kids in school, and through the long days of summer vacations under the hot Indian sun. Cookies weren’t typically baked in Indian households, and our window to these delightful goodies were from virtual tuck boxes in Enid Blytons Malorie Towers, Secret 7’s and Famous 5’s! Mom sometimes baked cakes, no cookies, and the cookies we got in India from bakeries were always referred to as biscuits (boring old ones). At that time, the very idea of stealing cookies from a jar was exciting and intriguing. Who was to know that life would come full circle, and I would be baking cookies to fill jars one day?
The winner picked by the Random Number Generator from about 190+ comments is Simply_complicated, a Canadian thirty-something, mother of two, a crafty kind of gal who loves cooking, baking, and experimenting with recipes and patterns.She blogs at Left of average, south of normal! Here is what she said in her comments …
what a great looking recipe! what a nice giveaway! you’re wonderful! if i were to win, i would definitely pick the ice cream maker… just the thing to make tasty summer treats for my family!
Congratulations to you!! Do send me your address and contact details as soon as possible so I can arrange for the Cuisineart Ice Cream Maker to be delivered to you. Wish you an exciting summer ahead, with loads of chilled goodies!
COFFEE CHOCOLATE-CHIP COOKIES Makes about 2 dozen cookies. I always make a double batch.
Ingredients:
100gms unsalted butter, room temperature
2/3 cup vanilla sugar (or granulated)
1 egg
1 tbsp instant coffee powder
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup plain flour
1/4 cup whole wheat flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
pinch of salt
1/2 cup chocolate chips
Method:
Sift the flours, baking soda and salt. Keep aside in a bowl.
Place butter, sugar, egg, coffee powder and vanilla extract in a large mixing bowl, and whisk with a hand blender until well mixed. {You can even do this by hand if you don’t have a blender. In this cake, just beat the egg lightly with a fork first.}
Add the sifted flour mix and chocolate chips to the bowl, and mix well.
Drop tablespoons on an ungreased cookie sheet, leaving about an inch between each to allow for spreading.
Bake at 180C for 12-15 minutes till golden brown.
Allow to cool on cookie sheet for a minute, and then transfer to rack to cool completely. Store in an airtight box in a cool place for 4-5 days.
I have my biscotti moments…at times, I will suddenly alight & set off to make a biscotti with a ‘flavour of the moment‘ off the top of my head. This particular moments’ flavour turned out to be coffee & roasted almonds.
A delicious, crisp biscotti!
I made these some time ago, & am tempted to set off & bake some now…only problem being that I’ve cut a nerve in the palm of my right hand & am incapacitated as far as baking/cooking goes. Which leaves me with very little to do; torturous, but my own fault. Was careless & got a shard of broken ceramic do the damage…:0(
Biscotti date to Ancient times. The term literally means “twice baked.” These hard biscuits fueled armies and fed travelers. Flavor variations and culinary techniques evolved according to time and place. German zweiback, Jewish mandelbrot, British ship’s biscuit, and American hardtack are similar in purpose and method.
Ingredients:
Granulated sugar – 2/3 cup
Olive Oil – ¼ cup (or canola oil; I used olive)
Eggs – 2
Vanilla extract – 2 tsp
Baking powder – 1 tsp
Salt -1/8 tsp
Flour – 1 1/4 cups
Stir in the flour mix; & gently turn the almonds into the dough. Mix in.
Transfer the dough to your parchment lined baking sheet and form into 2 logs, about 12” X 3 ½”. The dough is sticky, so you may have to dampen your hands to form the log.
Bake for 35 minutes, or until firm to the touch & light golden brown.
Remove from oven and cool for about 10 minutes.
Transfer the log gently to a cutting board and cut diagonally into 2 cm slices with a sharp serrated knife.
Reduce oven temperature to 135 degrees C. Place the biscotti, cut side down, on the baking sheet. Bake 8 minutes, turn slices over, and bake for another 8 minutes or until golden brown.
Remove from oven and let cool. Store in an airtight container.
Makes about 20 – 24 biscotti
Note: Roast the almonds at 180 degrees for about 10 minutes, till the skin begins to crack open. Allow to cool, & then chop. Roasting brings out the sweetness & flavour in almonds. Can be done in advance.
This is a healthier version of the biscotti which I normally make. Have substituted some of the plain flour for whole-wheat flour & was quite pleased to see the kids enjoy them as much as we did. It’s always a good idea to gradually substitute plain flour with a portion of whole-wheat flour to increase the nutritive value…these are good, healthy cookies with no butter. Made with olive oil & full of nuts, they’re headed for Ivy @ Kopiaste & Ben @ What’s Cooking US for an event we can’t do without…Fat Chefs or Skinny Gourmets? (an event co-hosted by 2 of my fave bloggers).The call is to make something that you consider Diet Food for its nutritious value (high in vitamins and other nutrients and low in calories). I think we all need a little nibble at tea & this quite fits the bill!
