"Divine" Chocolate Torte

I wanted to make some kind of dessert to take round to Chris’s the other night as he had invited me over to watch a film. As he is the biggest chocoholic I know, something chocolaty was the obvious choice. I had a rummage though my recipe books and old cookery magazines and came across this recipe from an old BBC Good Food magazine. It appealed to me as it contained whipped egg whites meaning it produced a lighter torte than the more denser versions. After a few quick ingredient alterations I set about creating the torte. It was very easy to make and was setting in the fridge within the half hour.

I found that the torte didn’t require any time out of the fridge before being suitable to serve, due to the addition of the egg whites which kept the whole dessert light and moussey. We cut slices and eagerly picked up our forks. The forks sank effortlessly through the thick moussey layer and taste and texture was gorgeous. It just melted away on your tongue, all smooth, creamy and incredibly chocolaty while still being light and airy. Big indulgent grins spread across our faces and Chris pronounced the torte as being “divine.” Praise indeed from such a chocoholic.

Chocolate Velvet Torte
Ingredients
9 digestive biscuits
45g butter
2 egg whites
75g caster sugar
200g dark chocolate
250ml double cream
1 tbsp brandy

Method
Place the biscuits into a freezer or sandwich bag and bash them with a rolling pin until you achieve fine crumbs.
Melt the butter in a medium sized bowl and then add the crushed biscuits. Mix well until all the crumbs are buttery and then quickly press the mixture into the base of a deep 7inch loose bottomed cake tin. Pat down with the back of your hand.
Place the tin in the fridge to set while you prepare the filling.
Place a mixing bowl over a pan of simmering water (making sure the base doesn’t touch the water) and whisk the egg whites and sugar for about 5 minutes, until a thickened glossy meringue mixture is achieved. Remove from the heat.
Melt the chocolate in the microwave and meanwhile whip the double cream and brandy together until it just reaches the soft peak stage, you don’t want it too stiff.
Fold the melted chocolate into the meringue mixture, followed by the softly whipped cream.
Pour the chocolate moussey mixture into the tin and smooth the surface.
Cover with foil and leave to set in the fridge for a minimum of 4 hours or preferably overnight.
When you want to serve it, run a warmed knife around the inside of the tin to help release the torte. Unmold and serve immediately with a little extra lightly whipped cream if desired.

Ooey-Gooey Chocolate Pudding

I came home today craving something warm, chocolaty and gooey. I immediately thought of the self saucing chocolate pudding recipe I have been meaning to try out for weeks. I have made chocolate self saucing pudding once before, with my sister a few years ago. I’m not sure what we did wrong but it turned out very dense with an odd texture that turned to slime once it entered your mouth – not pleasant. I remember we had fun pretending it was a sewage works and even went as far sticking a few Lego men into it who were drowning in the slime. Since then I have always been put off by the idea of them. That was until recently, when I saw Bill Granger make his version of the pudding on one of his Saturday morning TV shows. His puddings turned out moist and fudgey with a lovely layer of sauce underneath and in short left me thinking ‘mmmmm I want one.’

So tonight I hunted out his recipe and adapted it slightly to suit my own taste. Bill’s recipe made four individual puddings but I chose instead to half the recipe and cook it all in one bigger dish. I also added a little brandy to the mix as I think that always goes well with chocolate. The original also states that a sugar, cocoa powder and water mix should be poured over the top of the pudding before going in the oven, which is what forms the sauce layer. Rather than do this I decided to experiment by making some hot chocolate and using that instead. I also used a mint hot chocolate to give it an extra twist.

The result? Delicious! The sponge topping was moist and fudgey in texture and the sauce underneath was glossy and gooey with a lovely hint of mint and better yet no slime in sight! My head is now buzzing with all the other flavour combinations I could try using differently flavoured hot chocolates – orange, hazelnut or mocha. Ohhhhh I bet it would be great using strong coffee instead of the hot chocolate. I see many more self saucing puddings on the horizon.

Mint Chocolate Self Saucing Pudding
(Adapted from Bills Food by Bill Granger)

Ingredients
60g plain flour
50g caster sugar
1½ tsp baking powder
2 tbsp cocoa powder
120ml milk
40g margarine
1 egg
2 tsp Brandy

1½ tsp hot chocolate powder – I used mint flavoured
120ml hot water

Method
Preheat the oven to 180C. Put all of the dry ingredients into a bowl and add the margarine, egg and brandy.
Beat everything together using a wooden spoon until nearly combined and then gradually add the milk, bit by bit.
The pudding mix should be quite thin and batter like once all the milk has been incorporated.
Pour the batter into two 250ml pudding moulds or one 5x7 inch/12.5 x 17.5cm oven proof dish.
Dissolve the hot chocolate powder into the hot water and drizzle all over the batter.
Place in the oven and bake for 20-25 minutes for the individual puddings or 30-35 minutes for the one big dish.
Once cooked you should have a dark spongy topping over a thick glossy sauce.Eat immediately and serve with cream or ice cream if desired.

Serves 2.

Mini Double Choc Chip Cookies

These cookies are loosely based on the well known Tollhouse Cookies. They are soft in texture and caramely in flavour with lots of little chocolate chunks throughout.

When I say these are mini, I mean mini. If you look at the picture below that green disc is actually a plastic milk bottle top that I added to the picture to allow a size comparison. These cookies are bite size and were perfect for dipping into a chocolate fondue that I made on Valentines Day to share with my boyfriend (Chris). They would also be great for children’s parties or for when you fancy a little treat and don’t want to eat an entire cookie. You could of course make them bigger and bake them for longer to get regular sized cookies.

Mini Double Choc Chip Cookies
(Adapted from: The Great Big Cookie Book by Hilaire Walden)


Ingredients
55g unsalted butter/margarine
40g caster sugar
35g dark muscovado sugar
½ tbsp vegetable oil
100g plain flour
¼ tsp baking powder
25g dark chocolate
20g white chocolate

Method
Preheat the oven to 180C or Gas Mark 4. Have a large baking tray ready, but there is no need to line or grease it.
In a bowl, beat the butter/margarine until soft and then add in both of the sugars and beat until well combined.
Add the vegetable oil and beat until incorporated. Then work in the flour and baking powder. The mixture should come together into a soft smooth dough.
Finely chop the white and dark chocolate and gently kneed into the dough until evenly distributed.
Then, break off small marbles sized pieces of dough and roll them into little balls. Set them on the baking tray about 1inch/2.5cm apart. Flatten each dough ball slightly with your hand.
Bake them in the oven for 8-10 minutes until lightly golden and just firm. Leave them to cool for 10 minutes on the baking tray before removing them to a wire wrack to cool.
These keep very well stored in an airtight container. Makes around 24 mini cookies.

Note: The cookies will be quite greasy when they first come out of the oven, this is due to the oil. I found that placing them on a sheet of kitchen roll after they were cool this got rid of any unwanted grease.