'Crazy' Chocolate Cake

This was the very first cake I made on my own when I was a kid. Since then I've baked a lot of chocolate cakes - most of them fancier and more complicated (especially after watching an episode of Bake Off ). They haven't really been better, and they've definitely not been easier.

I've seen it by various other names, we always called it crazy. The only change I made from the original recipe I used as a child is that I use coconut oil in place of vegetable oil, and I cut the amount of soda since I now live at high altitude. 

The icing recipe is the same one my grandmother used. It's very much like old fashioned fudge (back before marshmallow fudge took over). I cook it a little longer than I used to, again, because of the altitude. My mother used to beat it over a pan of ice water to thicken it to frosting consistency, but I pour it on warm, so that some of the icing will soak into the cake before it cools. 

Crazy Chocolate Cake  

1 cup sugar

1 1/2 cup flour

3 tablespoons cocoa

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 tablespoon vinegar

6 tablespoons melted coconut oil

1 cup water

Blend dry ingredients in a 9x9 inch square baking pan. Make a well in the center and add the remaining ingredients. Blend with a fork.  

Bake at 350 degrees for 30 to  40 minutes

Chocolate Icing

1 cup sugar

1/2 cup water

3 tablespoons cocoa

1 teaspoon vanilla

2 tablespoons butter

Mix sugar, water and cocoa in a medium saucepan (it will bubble up quite high when it boils). 

Bring to a boil and cook without stirring for 5-7 minutes. Remove from heat and add butter and vanilla. Beat until thick. 

Crepes

We've been on a bit of a crepe-fest around here. I'm not sure what prompted it, but possibly it was just that I found a recipe that was simple and never failed. It's so good, in fact, that the teenager in the house used the recipe to make a 20 layer crepe cake for a French class assignment with no help from me.

Our usual fillings are much less grand. Fresh squeezed lemon juice and sugar is the most frequent, with Nutella and strawberries a close second, although recently we combined the two with lemon curd and strawberries.

The original recipe came from Paper and Ink. The only alteration we make is to reduce the amount of sugar and vanilla. Maybe it's my vanilla, but I felt it was too strong, and with so many of our fillings being very sweet, having the crepes a little less sweet gave a better balance. I leave both vanilla and sugar out for savory crepes


Basic Crepes

1 c flour
1/4 t salt
1/2 T sugar
1 1/3 c milk
1 t vanilla
3 eggs
3 T melted butter

Sift together flour, salt and sugar in a large bowl. Whisk together the milk, vanilla and eggs. Gradually whisk the milk/egg mixture into the dry ingredients blending thoroughly to eliminate lumps. Whisk in the melted butter. If possible, allow the mixture to stand for 30 minutes.

Heat a crepe pan or 12-inch nonstick skillet to medium. Lightly coat it with butter. About 1/3 cup batter and quickly swirl to cover the bottom of the skillet. Cook until the underside is golden brown - about 2 minutes. Loosen the edge with a spatula, flip the crepe and cook another minute. Repeat until the batter is used up, adding more butter to the pan as needed.

Chocolate Panna Cotta

This dessert combines some of my favorite things - it's smooth and creamy, very chocolate-y and super quick and easy. 

Chocolate Panna Cotta

1 3/4 cup heavy cream

1 1/2 teaspoon unflavored gelatin

2 Tbs Sugar (adjust depending on your taste or the sweetness of your chocolate)

2 oz finely chopped bittersweet or semi-sweet chocolate

dash of salt

Instructions:

Sprinkle the gelatin over 1/4 cup of the cream, and leave to stand until softened - about 10 minutes. 

Pour the remaining 1 1/2 cup cream into a small saucepan. Add the sugar and salt. Heat slowly until it just reaches the boiling point. 

Remove from the heat, add the chocolate and whisk until smooth. Return to the heat and add the gelatin mixture. Heat gently until it is completely dissolved. 

Pour into ramekins or stemmed glasses. Chill several hours or until set. 

Hot Fudge Cake

Long ago and far away, I used to make this recipe fairly often. And then I just sortof forgot about it. It seems the world forgot about it, too. I mentioned it at work the day after I made it, and no one else had even heard about it. What else could I do but change my February blog post plan and share this recipe instead?

The ingredients are simple, the recipe is quick and easy, and the result: a chocolate cake with its own warm, fudge sauce. The ingredients separate into two layers, with a cake layer on top and a thick, chocolate sauce underneath. As it comes out of the oven, the sauce bubbles up through the cake here and there a bit like lava bubbling up through the ground.

It's best served the day it's made, so I usually make a half recipe for my family of three. We like it warm from the oven with a scoop of ice cream.

Hot Fudge Cake
1 cup flour
1/2 cup sugar
2 tablespoons cocoa
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup milk
2 tablespoons melted coconut oil or butter
***
1 cup packed brown sugar
1/4 cup cocoa
11/4 cup very hot water

Heat oven to 350. Mix all the ingredients above the asterisks. Pour into ungreased 9 inch square pan.

Mix together the brown sugar and cocoa. Sprinkle it on top  of the batter. Pour the hot water over the top.

Bake 45 minutes.  Spoon it into a dessert dish as is, with the sauce spooned over the top, or add a scoop of ice cream.

Banoffee Pie

I've had many dinners out in my lifetime, but for some reason, one specific meal I had more than a decade ago at a little restaurant on the south coast of England sticks in my mind. No doubt due in part to dessert - a previously unknown to me pie called 'Banoffee Pie'.

It was years before I learned how to make it, and years more before I tried it myself. The reason I never made it was, to be honest, the recipe scared me. Really.

All the recipes I found required you to take  an unopened can of evaporated milk and boil it for a few hours to make the toffee. Not something I wanted to attempt no matter how good the result.

Then I discovered Dulce de Leche - caramelized milk that I could simply buy at the store.

So, I made my first Banoffee Pie, and it was simple to make (all you do is assemble, really), and heavenly to eat - and I don't even like bananas.

Banoffee Pie

1 baked pie shell
2 large, or three small bananas
1 jar Dulce de Leche
1.5 cups whipping cream
1 T brown sugar.

Spread the Dulce de Leche in the bottom of the pie shell. Slice bananas evenly and arrange on top. Whip the cream with the brown sugar, and pile on top of the bananas.

Bliss

Pumpkin Roll

This used to be a staple of my November baking. I think it's time I brought it back.

Pumpkin Roll

3 eggs
1 cup sugar
2/3 cup pumpkin
1 tsp lemon juice
3/4 cup flour
1 tsp baking powder
2 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp ginger
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup powdered sugar
1 8 oz package cream cheese, softened
4 tablespoons butter
1/2 tsp vanilla

Beat eggs at high speed for about 3 minutes. Stir in sugar gradually. Add pumpkin and lemon juice. Stir together the flour and spices Fold into the pumpkin mixture. Spread in a greased and floured 15x10x1 inch jelly roll pan.

Bake at 375 degrees for 15 minutes. Turn out onto a towel sprinkled with powdered sugar. Sprinkle top with more powdered sugar. Roll cake and towel together. Cool.

Meanwhile, make filling: combine all 4 filling ingredients in a medium bowl. Beat until smooth. 

Unroll the cooled cake, spread with filling and re-roll. Keep refrigerated.

Hot Fudge Sauce

The sky is grey today and the temperature is dropping. It's about 40 degrees colder today than it was at the same time yesterday. The rain started this afternoon and the weatherman tells us that it's likely to turn to snow before morning.

Our first snow storm. Everyone knows what that means - hot....fudge? As in Sundae?


Sure. Why not?

 Hot Fudge Sauce

1/2 cup cream
3 tablespoons butter, cut into pieces
1/3 cup sugar
1/3 cup dark brown sugar, firmly packed
pinch of salt
1/2 cup cocoa powder

Place cream and butter in a heavy 1 quart pan over moderate heat. Stir until butter is melted and cream comes to a low boil. Add both sugars and stir until they are dissolved. Reduce heat. Add salt and cocoa and stir briskly with a small whisk until smooth.

Drizzle it over some ice cream, and enjoy.

Clafouti

This is one of our favorite summertime desserts, and with cherries in season right now, it's the perfect time to make it. 
It isn't very photogenic - at least mine isn't. Fortunately, it tastes much better than it looks. 



I have tried a number of recipes, but found I like Julia Child's version the best. I reduced the sugar slightly, since the original version was too sweet for me. I also leave the pits in the cherries, but you can use pitted if you prefer.


Clafoutis

1 1/4 cups milk 1/3 cup sugar 3 eggs 1 Tablespoon vanilla 1/8 teaspoon salt 1/2 cup flour 3 cups cherries 1/4 cup sugar Cream for serving  Whisk together the milk, sugar, eggs, vanilla, salt and flour making sure there are no lumps. Pour a 1/4 inch layer of the batter in a buttered baking dish. Place in the oven and bake just until batter is set. Remove from the heat and spread the cherries over the batter. Sprinkle on the 1/4 cup of sugar. Pour on the remainder of the batter. Bake at 350 degrees for about for about 40-45 minutes. The clafouti is done when puffed and brown and and a knife inserted near the center comes out clean.

My New Favorite Brownies

One of the things I like to do occasionally is revisit old recipes and update them with healthier ingredients, like using butter or coconut oil instead of vegetable oils or shortening, or real whipped cream in a recipe that called for..that other stuff or even adding the fat and egg yolks back in to recipes that were 'lightened'. 

In the process, I think I discovered my new brownie recipe.  I used to make these a long time ago, then switched to another recipe that I used for years. It's chocolatey without being too sweet - and if you're a regular reader, you know how I feel about that. It also makes that smooth, crunchy crust on the top that was missing from the recipe I was using. It's also quick and easy since it's made with chocolate chips. 

As usual, I used Ghirardelli. The packages are no longer 12 ounces, so I used a full bag and part of another. You can add nuts if you like, or more chocolate chips to the batter before baking to make chocolate chip brownies. 

Brownies

2/3 c. butter

1 1/2 c. sugar
4 tablespoons water

12 ounces Ghirardelli 60% dark chocolate chips

2 tsp vanilla

4 eggs

1 1/2 c. flour

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

Butter 13 X 9 inch baking pan. Combine butter, sugar and water in a small saucepan and heat until butter is melted. Remove from heat, add chocolate chips and vanilla. Stir until smooth. Transfer to large bowl. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition.  Blend  in combined dry ingredients, and additional chips or nuts if you're using them.  Spread in prepared pan. 
Bake at 325 degrees for 30 minutes, or until knife inserted in center comes out clean. 
Cool and cut into squares. 

Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cake

I was given this recipe many years ago by a relative. It's an easy, simple cake that requires no frosting so is great for picnics or lunch boxes.

Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cake

1 3/4 C boiling water
1 c uncooked oatmeal
1 c lightly packed brown sugar
1 c granulated sugar
2 large eggs
1 3/4 c flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 T cocoa
1/2 tsp salt
12 ounces chocolate chips

Pour boiling water on oatmeal and let it stand 10 minutes. Add sugars and butter and stir until butter melts. Add eggs and mix well. Stir in remaining ingredients.

Pour batter into greased and floured 9x13 inch pan. Bake 350 degrees for 40 minutes

Individual Chocolate Souffles

These little chocolate souffles seem like a special occasion dessert, but are actually quite easy. They can even be made ahead and frozen until you are ready to bake them. I like to make them for our New Year's dinner. This recipe should make four to six souffles, depending on the size of your ramekins. I usually get six.

Chocolate Souffles

5 oz good quality, bittersweet chocolate
5 Tablespoons unsalted butter
1/2 cup sugar
2 large eggs and 2 egg yolks
1/4 cup flour
dash salt

Butter and sugar individual souffle dishes. Melt chocolate and butter in a medium bowl over simmering water, stirring occasionally. Allow to cool to lukewarm.

In a large bowl, beat sugar, salt, eggs and yolks in large bowl 5 minutes at high speed. Sift flour over mixture and fold in. Gradually fold in lukewarm chocolate mixture. Divide among prepared dishes.

Bake at 400 degrees, until puffed on top and beginning to crack - about 15-20 minutes. Center should remain soft. Carefully unmold into serving dishes and serve warm, with cream.

Panna Cotta

We like having dessert as much as the next family, but we generally prefer something simple and not too sweet. This Panna Cotta recipe is just the thing for those occasions. Adjust the sweetener depending on the level of sweetness you prefer. 

Panna Cotta

2 cups heavy cream

2 tablespoons sugar, or honey if you prefer
1 teaspoon of vanilla
2  teaspoons gelatin

1. Heat 1 1/2 cups of the cream and the sugar over low heat until sugar is dissolved and cream is hot, but not boiling. Remove from heat and stir in the vanilla.

2. While cream heats, sprinkle the gelatin over the remaining cream in a medium-sized bowl and let stand 5 to 10 minutes.

3. Pour the very warm cream and sugar mixture over the gelatin and stir until the gelatin is completely dissolved.

4. Divide the Panna Cotta mixture into lightly oiled custard cups for unmolding into serving dishes, or into goblets or other decorate glasses to serve without unmolding. Chill several hours, or until firm. 

5. If unmolding, run a thin sharp knife around the edge of the cup. Unmold onto serving plate

6. Garnish as desired

Four servings