Cherry Brandy & Chocolate Surprise Cheesecake

Do you ever have some days or weeks where you are craving a certain food or flavour and you just can’t get it out of your head? Last weekend for me that was cheesecake. I just had a craving for it that wouldn’t go away. Normally my dessert of choice is something cakey or spongy, but last weekend I wanted rich, creamy indulgent cheesecake!

Being coeliac sadly means I can’t pop down the shops for a quick cheesecake fix, but have to make one myself. However this has its advantages. Not only do I love baking, but baking it yourself allows you the freedom to be as simple or wacky as you want with the flavours, plus at the end you end up with an entire cheesecake to devour, rather than a single slice wahhhha!

As I went cream cheese hunting I instead discovered a different sort of soft cheese called Quark. This cheese is almost like a cross between cream cheese and ricotta and feeling adventurous I decided t use it as the base for my cheesecake. This proved to be a very good idea as the Quark was thicker and creamier than normal cream cheese, which I’ve found can sometimes go a little runny when I’ve baked with it in the past. Like ricotta, the Quark is made with strained milk, meaning it’s a lot healthier than cream cheese too, all the more reason for a bigger slice!

I had a jar of Morello cherries in syrup that I had been wandering what to do with and so decided to make a cherry studded cheesecake. Cherry Brandy flavoured ice lollies used to be one of my favorites. I’d buy them from the ice cream van outside school and feel ever so grown up as it had ‘brandy’ in the title (can you still get these?) I decided to soak the cherries overnight in Brandy to give them a bit of more a kick.

Chocolate always goes well with cherries and so I made a chocolate biscuit base for my cheesecake, which also added a nice colour contrast. While preparing my cheesecake I suddenly decided to create a hidden middle layer of chocolate cheesecake, encased in the cherry cheesecake. This created a fun surprise when the cheesecake was sliced, as from the outside all you could see was the pale cherry. Chocolate and cherry are also a fabulous flavour pairing.

As I still had some cherry juice leftover I made a quick cherry jelly using a little of the agar agar powder I have been experimenting with recently. This finished the cheesecake off nicely and gave it a wonderfully glossy mirror top.

I was really pleased with my finished cheesecake and it certainly satisfied my cheesecake cravings. Morello cherries steeped in brandy, a hidden chocolate layer, a rich chocolate base and a glossy cherry glaze and combined into a velvety smooth and creamy cheesecake. What’s everyone else been craving recently?

Cherry Brandy & Chocolate Surprise Cheesecake

For the cherries

100g drained, pitted Morello cherries in syrup (reserve the syrup)

40ml Brandy

For the base

90g gluten free shortbread or digestive style biscuits

50g butter

20g caster sugar

10g cocoa powder

For the cheesecake

400g Quark or soft cream cheese

100g caster sugar

2 eggs

10g cornflour

50g dark chocolate

For the cherry jelly

130ml cherry syrup reserved from earlier

20g caster sugar

½ tsp agar agar powder

Method

The day before, remove the cherries from their syrup, cut them in half and place into a small bowl. Pour over the brandy, stir and cover with clingfilm. Set aside for 6 hours, or preferably overnight to allow the cherries to steep and absorb the flavour of the brandy.

The following day, line a 6inch/15cm deep springform tin with baking parchment. Wrap the base and sides of the tin with a large sheet of foil, you want it cover the whole base and up and sides of the tin in one piece. Repeat so you have two layers of foil wrapped around the outside of your tin.

For the base, blitz the gluten free biscuits in a food processor until they resemble fine crumbs. Add the sugar and cocoa powder and blitz again briefly.

Melt the butter, pour it over the cocoa crumbs and pulse briefly until and crumbs resemble damp sand.

Tip the biscuit mix into the base of your lined tin and press down into an even layer. Place the tin in the fridge to chill while you prefer the filling.

Preheat the oven to 175C.

For the filling, beat the Quark or cream cheese until smooth. Add the eggs and sugar and beat again until well combined.

Now remove one-third of this mixture and place it into a separate bowl. Melt the chocolate and add this to the removed third of the cheese mixture, stirring it together until well combined. Set aside.

Sift the cornflour over the remaining two-thirds of mix. Then pour the soaked cherries and their brandy liquid into the cream mixture and fold in to incorporate. It will turn a light pink colour and be quite runny, this is fine.

Pour half of the cherry cheesecake mixture over the chilled biscuit base, spreading it into an even layer.

Place small spoonfuls of the chocolate cheesecake mix over the top of the cherry cheesecake until it is all used us. Gently try and smooth the chocolate cheesecake into an even layer, but don’t worry too much about making it perfect.

Then pour the remaining cherry cheesecake mix on top, covering the chocolate filling inside. Tap the cheesecake on the counter 2-3 times to remove any trapped air.

Place the foil wrapped tin into a larger deep baking tray.

Fill the tray with boiling water so that it reaches halfway up the sides of the cheesecake tin.

Carefully transfer this to the 175C preheated oven to bake for 50-60minutes. The cheesecake should be set around the edge but still a little wobbly in the centre when gently shaken.

Once baked, quickly remove the cheesecake tin from the water bath and return it to the switched off, but still warm oven. Leave the oven door ajar and leave the cheesecake to cool down gradually for 45-60 minutes.

For the jelly, start this once your cheesecake has been cooling in the oven.

Add another 130ml of cherry juice to a small pan along with the sugar and agar agar. Heat gently, stirring until the sugar has dissolved.

Bring the mixture to the boil for 15 seconds, then remove from the heat and allow to cool for 3 minutes.

Remove your partially cooled cheesecake from the oven and carefully pour the hot cherry glaze over the top. It must still be hot, or else it will have set into a solid.

Carefully transfer the cheesecake to the fridge and allow to chill for at least 4-6 hours before serving.

Makes 1 x 6inch/15cm cheesecake

Devnaa Indian Sweets Tiffin Box: A Review

Now, this may look like a fancy box of chocolates – but don’t be fooled. These are not just your ordinary box of truffles and caramels, oh no. These are so much more indulgent and exciting than that!

Devnaa is a relatively new company who make gourmet boxes of sweet Indian treats, specially developed to represent the infamous tiffin boxes of India, used to transport food. They also make Indian inspired bars and drinking chocolates too. The box itself looks very artisan, but lift the lid, peel back the paper and the most intricate box of beautifully decorate chocolates are revealed. However, these are not actually ‘chocolates’ as we known them, but a range of specially designed and delicately spiced classic Indian sweets, which have been enrobed in chocolate and beautifully decorated.

Bite into one of these and you won’t find ganche or salted caramel, instead your get to experience a pistachio barfi delicately flavoured with cardamom and rosewater and encased in dark chocolate and finished with chopped pistachios. Or, how about a coconut barfi enrobed in milk chocolate or one of the other fabulous combinations including vanilla, saffron, orange, strawberry and chai!

I’m not much of a chocolate lover – shocking I know. On the odd occasion I have been given a box I usually eat one or two and then put them in a cupboard and forget about them. Not so with these divine creations. I was so excited when I opened the box that I ate two just after breakfast. I just couldn’t resist trying them immediately.

My first choice was Cinnamon Chai. A signature chai blend of cinnamon, cardamom, ginger and close infused barfi which is enrobed in milk chocolate. Wow, it was divine. You could taste all the spices, the cardamom in particular, but nothing too strongly overpowered anything else. The spices were delicate and fragrant and worked so well with the coating of smooth milk chocolate. The barfi itself had a creamy, yet slightly crumbly texture and wasn’t overly sweet, which let the spices really shine through.

I couldn’t resist trying another one and selected the Velvety Vanilla. A Madagascan vanilla barfi with hints of saffron and cardamom, covered in white chocolate. This was fabulous too. Again I loved the cardamom flavour and how you could see speckles of it throughout the barfi. The saffron flavour was subtle but still noticeable and also gave a light golden hue to the barfi. So good, I sat there in my PJ’s grinning over my box of Indian treats.

All the barfi sweets were amazing and I’d much, much, much sooner be presented with a beautiful box of these than a box of regular chocolates (even the expensive ones). I adored their soft melt-in-the-mouth texture, how the spices were delicate and yet still shone through, how the centres were made from delicious barfi rather than chocolate or truffle based and the presentation is stunning. Plus, this particular box (Signature Indian Sweets Collection) is entirely gluten free! (although some of their other Inidan Sweet boxes do contain gluten so ask before buying).

So friends and family take note, next time its my birthday, Christmas or you are just feeling generous…keep your chocolates and jewelry, I’ll have a box of these please! I might even let you try one too.

Birthday Mini Coconut Cupcakes 2 ways – Chocolate and Coconut & Lime Butterflies

On Saturday A invited me round to his house for a film night with some of his friends. Everyone was bringing something to share and I decided to bake some mini cupcakes. It’s my birthday today, so I think my brain was already thinking about cake! I love how mini cupcakes are cute and individually sized, the perfect thing to share around when you want just a little something sweet.

I decided to make coconut cupcakes and then decorate them two different ways with two different flavours in the hope there would be something to suit everyone. Plus, I always think a mix of colours and flavours look more appealing than having everything the same.

 

Half of the mini cupcakes were topped with chocolate frosting and some lightly toasted coconut, while the other half I turned into mini butterfly cakes, filled with some of my leftover zingy lime curd. I was happy with how they both turned out but I loved the lime curd butterflies. I’ve not made butterfly cakes for years. They always used to make an appearance at birthday parties, lightly dusted with icing sugar. I felt quite nostalgic making them.

 

I thought most people would go for the chocolate topped ones, but the lime butterflies actually disappeared first. I still love its zesty vibrant flavour. Both varieties had disappeared by the end of the night though. Of course I had to taste one of each beforehand, for photography and quality control purposes you understand.

 

A is taking my out for dinner tonight to celebrate my birthday, and then my family are coming to visit during the May bank holiday, so I’m going to have a special couple of weeks!

Mini Coconut Cupcakes

Ingredients

60g gluten free flour (I used 40g brown rice flour, 15g buckwheat flour, 5g tapioca starch)

50g butter

35g creamed coconut (from a block, not the liquid)

60g caster sugar

1 egg

¼ tsp xanthan gum

¼ tsp coconut extract

¾ tsp GF baking powder

Butterfly Curd Filling

2 tbsp lime or lemon curd

Chocolate Icing (makes enough for 24 mini cupcakes)

70g butter

25g dark chocolate

10g cocoa powder

140g icing sugar

1 tbsp milk

Decoration

2 tbsp desiccated coconut

Mini Cupcakes

Preheat the oven to 170C. Line a mini cupcake tin with 24 paper cases.

Soften the block of coconut cream in the microwave until softened. Make sure the butter is very soft too. Weigh out all the ingredients into a bowl and beat together until smooth, light and fluffy.

Divide the batter between the paper cases using a teaspoon.

Bake for 12-14 minutes until risen. They will remain quite pale.

Allow to cool in the tin for 5 minutes before transferring to a cooling rack.

Chocolate Icing

Make sure the butter is soft and beat until soft and fluffy. Melt the chocolate, pour over the butter and mix until combined.

Sift over the icing sugar and cocoa powder and mix together carefully using a spatula, until most of the sugar has combined.

Add the milk and beat with an electric hand mixer until light and fluffy. Add a little more milk if necessary.

Transfer the icing to a piping bag fitted with a large star nozzle. Pipe on top of the cooled mini cupcakes.

Decoration

Heat a dry frying pan over a low heat. Add the coconut and mix slowly with a spoon, until lightly toasted and golden. Do not walk away as it can go from white to burnt in seconds.

When toasted, transfer to a plate and leave to cool.

Lime Butterflies

Run a sharp knife in a circle, cone formation around the top of the cooled cupcakes, about 3mm in from the edge. Remove the middle cone of sponge.

Fill the cone void with half a teaspoon of lime curd, or filling of your choice.

Cut the removed sponge cone in half to create two 3D triangle shapes.

Place these at a slight angle back on top of the filled cupcake, to look like the wings of a butterfly.

Dust the top lightly with icing sugar.

Makes 24 mini cupcakes

Prune & Beetroot Brownies

Yes I know another beetroot recipe, but this is the last one I promise, at least for a few weeks! I decided to have another go at making beetroot brownies. I made some about 5 years ago and remember them being very tasty. Recently there seems to have been a surge of beetroot brownies and chocolate beetroot cakes around, which got me craving one again.

Back in my uni days I actually did my dissertation about the acceptability on taste of replacing the butter in brownies with fruit and vegetable purees. Beetroot was one of the veg I used and worked very well, producing a moist and tender brownie with no added butter. Another variety I tried was using pureed prunes. This too worked well, although it gave a denser and very sweet tasting brownie.

 

I hit upon the idea of using pureed beetroot to replace the butter in my brownies and combining it with pureed prunes, this time to replace the sugar in my brownies, as both prunes and beetroot are naturally very sweet. I had a quick internet search for prune and beetroot brownies and was actually quite chuffed when I couldn’t find a single one. There were plenty of prune OR beetroot brownies, but no prune AND beetroot brownies – a new brownie innovation hurrah! Feeling very excited I set to work.

The brownie batter turned out quite thick and a little coarse from the blitzed prunes and beetroot, but smelt very rich and inviting. I did use chocolate in the recipe, but as it was dark chocolate this would have contributed very little sugar or fat to the recipe. The lick of the spatula also tasted lovely.

 

After baking the brownies had puffed up slightly and yet set into quite a heavy feeling brownie. On slicing I was pleasantly surprised it was actually very light, moist and fudgy in texture, similar to a flourless chocolate cake. It had a fabulous deep chocolate colour with a dark ruby hue to it.

 

The top surface was slightly crackled and nicely sticky. The flavour was of a strong earthy chocolate, largely down to the beetroot, with a fabulous springy bite and nice chew from the pureed prunes. It was perfectly sweet and almost treacly in flavour which I think was contributed by the prunes. It was really rather addictive and I didn’t feel at all guilty eating 1 or 2…ok 4 squares in one afternoon as they must be relatively healthy brownies. Not that you’d know it!

 

The following day the brownies had become more compact and a little dense, but stayed wonderfully fudgy with a slight chew. So if you are looking for a chocolaty Easter treat that won’t pile on the pounds, maybe give these prune and beetroot brownies a go! Gluten, wheat, dairy (if non dairy choc), added fat and added sugar free! Probably higher in fibre, lower GI with added vitamins and minerals too. Now you can have your chocolate brownie and eat it too!

Happy Easter Everyone

Prune & Beetroot Brownies

An Apple & Spice original recipe

Ingredients

200g cooked beetroot

100g soft prunes

150g dark chocolate 60-70%

15g cocoa powder

60g brown rice flour

2 eggs

¼ tsp gluten free baking powder

2 tsp vanilla extract

Method

Preheat the oven to 175C. Line the base of an 8inch tin with baking paper.

Place the prunes into a food processor and blitz until a thick sticky paste is formed. You may need to scrape down the sides of the mixer every so often.

Remove the prunes, and add the beetroot. Puree until very finely chopped and almost pureed.

In a medium sized pan melt the chocolate until smooth and glossy, then remove from the heat.

Lightly beat the eggs and then quickly mix them into the warm chocolate mixture, followed by the vanilla.

Add the prune and beetroot purees and fold together.

Scatter over the flour, baking powder and cocoa and fold in well to create a thick, slightly coarse mixture.

Spread the mix into the prepared tin and bake for 25 minutes.

It should be evenly risen, firm yet slightly squishy to the touch. Leave to cool for 20 minutes in the tin before removing to a rack to cool.

Slice and enjoy

Chocolate Beetroot Cake with Beetroot Glaze

I’m sorry I have not posted in a while. I had a cake in mind and a blog post all ready to go only to be hit with a nasty stomach bug, meaning food has been the last thing on my mind. I’m pleased to say I’m now well on the road to recovery, my taste buds have rejoined me and I have rediscovered my appetite! So without further ado, here is a rather belated chocolate beetroot cake.

Chocolate and beetroot has now become another ‘classic’ flavour combination, but aside from a chocolate beetroot brownie a few years ago, I have not explored the pairing much myself. I love fresh beetroot, its moody, dark, blood red colour and mysterious earthy flavour always draws me to it. A few weeks ago I picked up a huge pack and enjoyed a happy few days eating it roasted or shredded into salads and sandwiches. However, it got to a stage where every time I opened the fridge I seemed to discover yet another beetroot still waiting to be used. There is only so much beetroot I can take before my mind starts imagining how to include it in a baked treat.

Beetroot and chocolate seemed the place to start and I decided on a simple cake. I wanted the beetroot to be the star of the show and so shunned anything covered in mountains of cream or frosting in flavour of a simple snack cake. I then hit upon the idea of jazzing it up with a glaze, made a fabulous vibrant pinky/purple using the juice of the cooked beetroot. This added both a burst of vibrant colour and little sweetness, while being completely natural, no food dye required!

The cake itself is on first glance just a chocolate cake, but if you look more closely you can see a definite rustic burgundy hue to the sponge. It also smelt different to regular chocolate cake, slightly earthy, mysterious and yet still very chocolaty. The flavour too was chocolaty, only more complex with an undertone of there being something a little bit extra special included, without it actually screaming beetroot. I would liken it to when you add just a touch of coffee to chocolate cakes, you don’t necessary taste the coffee, but it adds a depth and richness to the chocolate. This seemed to work in the same principle.

On the first day the cake was light and tender but over the next two days it became softer and stickier as the beetroot released its moisture into the cake. I think the cake was at its optimum about 2 days after baking, when I couldn’t stop eating it. The arty drizzle of beetroot glaze worked really well against the flavour of the cake and added little bites of sweetness against the rather intense chocolate flavour of the cake.

This was a delicious cake and I loved its simplicity yet complex flavour. I’ll be experimenting with other beetroot baked treats again, it’s worth the ruby stained hands, although you could always buy the precooked stuff – just not the kind in vinegar please!

Chocolate Beetroot Cake with Beetroot Glaze

Cake

180ml vegetable or sunflower oil

180g gluten free self raising flour

55g cocoa powder

1 tsp bicarbonate of soda

200g caster sugar

250g cooked beetroot (or 350g raw)

3 eggs

1 tsp vanilla extract

Beetroot Glaze

80g royal icing sugar (*see note)

Juice from the cooked beetroot

Method

Preheat the oven to 170C and grease and line a deep 8inch springform tin.

If you are using a packet of cooked beetroot then continue onto the next step. If using raw beetroot, trim the ends and peel the skin from the beetroot. Cut each beetroot into quarters and place into a small glass bowl. Add 1 tbsp water and cover the top with clingfilm. Microwave on high for 8 minutes until the beetroot are just softened. Set aside to cool, but do not throw away any of the beetroot juice created.

Place your cooked beetroot (reserve any juice for later) into a food processor and blitz until you have fine shreds. Add the eggs and blitz again. Add the oil and vanilla and mix again until well combined.

Sift the flour, cocoa powder and bicarbonate of soda into a bowl and add the sugar. Pour your beetroot mixture on top and fold everything together using a large spoon of spatula.

Pour the cake mix into the tin and bake for 35-40 minutes until slightly springy to the touch and a skewer inserted in the middle comes out clean.

Leave the cake to cool in the tin for 10 minutes, before running a knife around the edge of the tin and releasing the cake from the tin. Leave to cool completely.

Once cooled, place the royal icing sugar into a small bowl and slowly add the reserved beetroot juice, 1 teaspoon at a time, until you achieve a thick, yet drizzle-worthy glaze. It will be a gorgeous bright purple colour.

Transfer the cooled cake to a serving plate and artfully drizzle the glaze over the top of the cake.

Leave to set for 20 minutes before serving.

Makes 1 x 8inch cake

The cake tastes even better as it ages, as the beetroot slowly releases its moisture into the cake making it turn softer and moister. I found 2 days in it was at its best.

* Note: Royal icing sugar sets hard and won’t be so easily absorbed into the cake, making for a better finish. You can use regular icing sugar in place of the royal icing sugar, but it will remain wet and soak into the cake and disappear over time

Daring Bakers Challenge November 2012: Chocolate Crinkle Cookies

The Daring Bakers challenge this month was a great choice! Christmas is fast approaching and the Holiday season is the time for sharing and Peta of Peta Eats is sharing a dozen cookies, some classics and some of her own, from all over the world with us. Peta provided us with 12 festive cookie recipes and we got to choose which one to bake. It was a hard choice, but when I came to this recipe for chocolate crinkle cookies, I knew I had to bake them. These cookies have been on my ‘must bake’ list for literality years. I’ve no idea why it’s taken me so long to get round to baking them, so when they turned up on the list it seemed the ideal opportunity.

All I can say is – why on earth has it taken me so long! These cookies are amazing! I can’t believe what I’ve been missing out on all these months, years even! If you’ve never tasted them yourself, don’t delay and bake some soon, they are fabulous.

The cookies are made using a very soft dough that must be chilled, rolled into balls, coated liberally in icing sugar and baked. During baking the cookies puff up and crack, creating a crazy paving style surface of icing sugar with the dark chocolate cookie dough peaking through underneath.

The dough contains a generous amount of light brown sugar, melted dark chocolate and a few ground nuts, which all give the finished cookies a great flavour and wonderful soft and slightly chewy texture. The chew reminded me of a similar texture to a coconut macaroon. Although the cookies look like they will be crisp and crunchy, the outer shell is wafer thin and the inside is wonderfully soft and cakey with a pleasing chew in the centre. Almost brownie-like.

The recipe makes rather a lot of cookies and so I took some into work Monday morning to share with my colleagues. One colleague commented that they looked very festive, which made me smile, as that was exactly the intention of this months Bakers challenge. I hadn’t prompted her at all. When the cookies are first coated in the powdery icing sugar, they do look like fluffy snowballs!

I’m so pleased I finally got to bake these cookies and I will certainly be making them again. They would be great to have on hand for non mince pie lovers over Christmas. They would be ideal to bake with children too, as rolling the cookies into balls is fun, and your hands tend to get a little chocolate covered, and most children I know love getting a little messy, especially if it means they get to lick their fingers afterwards.

Thanks Peta for choosing such a great challenge. Click to see the Daring Bakers blogroll.

Chocolate Crinkle Cookies

Ingredients

80g hazelnuts, skinned (I used almonds)

30g caster sugar

175g dark chocolate, around 60%

330g plain flour (I used 300g gluten free flour)

20g cocoa powder

2 tsp baking powder

½ tsp salt

100g unsalted butter, softened

300g light soft brown sugar

2 eggs

55ml whole milk

1 tsp vanilla extract (I used ½ tsp almond)

90g icing sugar

Make the Cookie DoughPut oven rack in middle position and preheat oven to 170°C.

Toast the hazelnuts in a shallow baking tray in oven until skins split and nuts are pale golden, about 10 minutes. Remove from oven (turn the oven off), then wrap hazelnuts in a kitchen towel and rub to remove any loose skins. Leave to cool completely, before blitzing the nuts with the 30g caster sugar in a food processor until finely ground.

Melt the chocolate, either over a pan of simmering water or in the microwave until smooth and set aside.

In a clean bowl, beat together the butter and brown sugar until creamy, about 3 minutes. Add eggs 1 at a time, beating well after each addition. Beat in melted chocolate until combined. Add milk and vanilla (or almond), beating to incorporate.

Scatter over the flour, cocoa powder, baking powder and salt. Add the ground nuts on top and mix together using a spatula until well combined.

Cover the bowl with clingfilm and chill in the fridge for 2 hours, until firm.

Bake the Cookies

Preheat the oven to 170°C. Line 2 large baking sheets with baking paper.

Sift the icing sugar into a bowl. Halve dough and chill 1 half, wrapped in clingfilm.

Roll heaped teaspoonfuls of the dough between your hands to create 1 inch balls. Place them on the baking trays until you have used all the first half of the dough.

Roll the balls in the icing sugar, making sure they are very thickly coated. Carefully place the coated balls on the baking trays, leaving a 2 inch gap between each one. (I managed to get 12 to a sheet).

Bake, the cookies in the oven, switching the sheets half way through if baking two trays at once. Bake for a total of 12 minutes. The cookies should be puffed and cracked when cooked and still be very sot to the touch. They firm up on cooling.

All the cookies to cool on the tray for 3 minutes before sliding the cookies, still on baking paper, onto cooling racks and leaving to cool completely.

Repeat with the remaining half of the cookie dough.

Store in an airtight container once cooled.

Makes about 50 cookies. (Recipe can be easily halved)

Intensely Chocolaty Mousse

This is the best chocolate mousse I have ever made/eaten. It’s rich and intensely chocolaty, but also incredibly light and…moussey. The whole thing can be made from start to finish in about 15 minutes and what’s even more amazing is that it’s made with only 4 ingredients and one of those is water!

I invited a friend round for dinner with only a few hours notice, meaning it was a matter of ‘what can I make using the ingredients I have!?’ I did a simple stir fry for the main course, it’s amazing what a bit of ginger and chili can do to some rice and vegetables, but I wanted something more special for dessert.

I had a quick flick through some recipes and settled on Delia’s recipe for chocolate mousse. It needed only a few ingredients and seemed very simple to prepare. Plus I loved how I could make it straight away and leave it to sit in the fridge until required, meaning no last minute panic in the kitchen. 

The results were amazing! It was so quick and simple to make and tasted divine. Packed full of chocolate flavour yet still wonderfully light for a dessert. It contains no cream meaning it’s not too heavy or sickly and no marshmallows or gelatin so it wasn’t sticky or overly sweet. In fact its vegetarian, gluten free and also dairy free if you use a high enough percentage dark chocolate. As this mousse is basically melted chocolate lightened with some whipped egg whites, a rich intense dark chocolate is the way to go.

I also added a splash of rum to my mousse for an extra after dinner indulgence, but it’s just as fabulous without it. I loved how when you took a spoonful the mousse let out a little squish sound as you broke through the air bubbles. It just melted on the tongue.

Do give this chocolate mousse a go. People often say simple is best, and this chocolate mousse is the perfect example of that.

On a separate note, I’ve just changed computers and lost my usual photo editing programme and don’t like this new one at all! I can’t get it to do what I want. Can anyone recommend a good one? Preferably free and easy to use. Just simple applications like brightness and contrast, I’m not after anything fancy! Thanks.

Intensely Chocolaty Mousse

(Recipe from How to Cook by Delia Smith)

Ingredients

200g dark chocolate – 70% cocoa

120ml water

3 eggs, separated

40g caster sugar

1 tbsp rum or liquor of choice (my addition)

Method

Place a glass bowl over the top of a saucepan filled with gently simmering water. Break the chocolate into small pieces and place into the bowl along with the 120ml water and rum if using. (if you add cold water to unmelted chocolate they will melt together into a lovely glossy mixture. Don’t try and add any water to chocolate that’s already melted, or it will seize into a horrible mess). Allow to melt and combine gently, stirring occasionally until you have a glossy mixture.

Meanwhile, separate your eggs, placing the whites into a large clean bowl.

Remove the melted chocolate mixture from the heat. Lightly mix the egg yolks until they are broken and then add them a little at a time to the chocolate mixture. Stirring with a spatula until combined. (The chocolate will thicken)

Whisk the egg whites until soft peaks form. Scatter over half the caster sugar and whisk again. Add the remaining sugar and whisk until the egg whites start to form stiff peaks.

Fold a third of the whisked egg white mixture through your chocolate mixture, stirring with large folding strokes, until no streaks remain.

Add half the remaining egg white mixture and fold in more gently, before adding the last of the egg whites. Do not over mix or you will knock out all the air.

The chocolate mixture will be quite soft and runny at this stage.

Carefully pour the chocolate mousse into 6 serving glasses and place in the fridge to set for at least 2 hours. (Can be made the day before)

When ready to serve, decorate with a little whipped cream or a fine grating of white chocolate.

Eat and enjoy

Makes 6 individual mousses

The Cake Slice September 2012: Chocolate Peanut Butter Mousse Cake

I was so excited when this month’s winning cake was this Chocolate Peanut Butter Mousse Cake. I am a great lover of peanut butter and have been rooting/voting for peanut butter cake creations for several years, every time one happens to come up for the vote. Usually, they are outvoted, but this month it won – hurrah!

I have issues with this recipe being labeled as ‘cake.’ There is no baked element in the dessert and nothing spongy about it. To me it is more of a mousse torte or layered cream…pie? Seeing how this is a cake baking group and it’s listed in the book as a mousse cake, I’ve decided to leave it as ‘cake’

The ‘cake’ itself was quite time consuming to make, being made up of 4 different layers, all which needed mixing and chilling separately. It starts out with a chocolate biscuit base, followed by a creamy peanut butter mousse, topped a dark chocolate mousse and finished with a dark chocolate glaze and a scattering of salted peanuts. Sound good, doesn’t it?!

I’ve made desserts in the past that were quite time consuming and when eaten, they are nice, I’ve felt they weren’t really worth the effort. This mousse cake however, was fabulous and worth every second of preparation. I loved the contrast between the crisp biscuit base and the rich and creamy mousse layers. The peanut butter flavour really shone through and worked so well against the dark chocolate elements. Slightly sweet, but then also a lingering saltiness from both the nuts on top and the peanut butter itself. A delicious creamy, crunchy, sweet and salty combination.

The recipe called for smooth peanut butter, but I only had slightly crunchy peanut butter on hand and I think this actually worked to the cakes advantage. Having a few chips of peanut actually in the mousse layer gave it some texture, as otherwise I think the thick peanut butter and chocolate mousse layers might have been a bit too soft and airy with nothing to bite on. I loved being able to distinguish the different layers.

The cake could probably have done with being left to set overnight rather than just an hour as it was still a little soft on serving, but this didn’t stop it tasting fabulous. Anything peanut butter is a winner in my books and paired against the rich dark chocolate mousse, ganache and base, it was delicious. I also loved that the only element I needed to adapt to make it gluten free was the base, and that the mousse didn’t contain any gelatin, meaning its vegetarian too! A winning ‘cake’ all round.

Next month, October, is our last cake baked from our current cake book by Tish Boyle, and we’re all going to bake the cake of our choice. Then in November we’ll be starting a brand new book for the upcoming year. Now I just need to decide which recipe to choose!

As this is nearly our last cake from our current cake book, we are now opening up group to fellow cake baking enthusiasts who wish to bake with us for the upcoming year. Places are limited and you will need to buy a copy of the new cake book to participate, so dedicated bakers only please.
Anyone wishing to join us can email my new co-host Paloma at (love.for.coffee[AT]gmail.com) along with their name, blog name, blog URL and email address for details. Please put ‘New Cake Slice Member’ in the subject box

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Chocolate Peanut Butter Mousse Cake

(Recipe from The Cake Book by Tish Boyle)

Chocolate Cookie Crust

180g chocolate cookies (I used GF shortbread cookies)

55 g unsalted butter, melted

10g cocoa powder (my addition as my cookies were plain)

Peanut Butter Mousse

142g cream cheese, softened

30g unsalted butter, softened

144g icing sugar

200g creamy peanut butter (I used finely ground crunchy)

¼ tsp salt

400ml double cream

Chocolate Mousse

142g dark chocolate, chopped

100g milk chocolate, chopped

200ml double cream

80ml whole milk

65g caster sugar

1tsp vanilla extract

Chocolate Glaze

85g dark chocolate

80ml double cream

Garnish

Few chopped salted peanuts

Chocolate Biscuit Base

Have ready a deep 9inch springform pan.

Either blitz the biscuits in a food processor, or put them in a bag and bash them into crumbs using a rolling pin. (Stir through the cocoa powder if using vanilla or plain biscuits) Once crushed, melt the butter, drizzle over the biscuit crumbs and mix well. Press the mixture into the base of the tin and press down into an even layer.

Place in the fridge to firm up while you make the peanut butter mousse.

Peanut Butter Mousse

Beat the cream cheese and butter together until creamy, about 1 minute. Add the icing sugar and mix until well blended. Add the peanut butter and salt and mix until well  combined.

In a clean bowl whisk the double cream at high speed until soft peaks form. Beat half the double cream into the peanut butter mixture using a spatula. Once combined, gently fold the remaining cream in the peanut butter mixture, mixing until no streaks remain.

Spread the mousse onto the chilled biscuit base and spread into an even layer. Refrigerate while you make the chocolate mousse.

Chocolate Mousse

Place the chopped chocolate into a bowl. In a small saucepan, combine the milk and sugar and bring to a boil over medium heat, stirring frequently until the sugar dissolves. Pour the hot milk over the chocolate and stir until the chocolate is completely melted. Stir through the vanilla extract and set aside to cool slightly.

Beat the double cream until soft peaks form. Fold a third into the chocolate mixture and mix well. Follow this by half of the remaining cream and finally the last of the cream. Beat again with an electric mixture to help aerate the chocolate until slightly thickened.

Spread the chocolate mixture over the top of the chilled peanut butter mousse and place in the fridge to set for at least an hour.

Chocolate Glaze

Once the chocolate mousse layer is set, make the chocolate glaze.

Place the chocolate into a small bowl. Heat the cream until steaming hot, but not boiling, and then pour this over the chocolate. Stir gently until the chocolate is melted and mixture is smooth and glossy.

Allow to cool for 15 minutes before using.

Decorate

Run a sharp thin-bladed knife under hot water and wipe dry, then run the knife between the cake and the side of the pan to release the cake; reheat the knife as necessary. Remove the side of the pan. Pour the glaze over the top of the cake and spread out over the surface. Try not to let it drip down the sides. (I spread my glaze on the cake while it was still in the tin, sprinkled it with the peanuts and then let it set for a smoother finish).

Sprinkle the top of the cake with the peanuts and chill in the fridge for at least 1 hour before serving.

To serve, slice the cake with a hot knife, wiping it clean between each cut.

Store in the fridge and eat within 3 days.

Makes a 9inch mousse cake

Note: I halved this recipe and made it in a 6inch round tin.