Deep Chocolate Chip Brownies

Last weekend I was in the mood for brownies. I wanted them to be simple, no nonsense, pure, thick, moist and very chocolaty. I went on a brownie blog hunt and came across David Lebovitz’s blog which featured the most incredible looking Dulce de Leche brownies. They weren’t quite what I was after but I saved the recipe and carried on hunting. However, I couldn’t get those Dulce de Leche brownies out of my mind, they just looked so indulgent and the perfect sort of texture I was craving, so I decided to adapt the recipe slightly and just make the brownie part sans the Dulce de Leche. I know some people who will think I am crazy for doing this but I didn’t want to taste anything other than chocolate in my brownies.

The recipe was very quick and easy to put together. I liked how it made use of a good quantity of dark chocolate as well as some cocoa powder to ensure they were truly chocolaty. I also added some white chocolate chips to my batter as I like to see them dotted throughout the brownie once sliced.

The resulting brownies were fabulous! About an inch deep (wow!) and with a gorgeous moist texture and certainly packed with rich chocolate flavour. They had a paper thin crisp sugary top which I feel is always the mark of a good brownie.

They were divine when eaten still ever so slightly warm, the white chocolate chips still a little soft and melty. Pure chocolate indulgence. I wouldn’t say they were my ultimate brownie as I like mine to have a bit of chew to them also, but they were very close! I found the following day they had gone a little more cakey but they were still very fudgy and delicious. I’m definitely going to be trying out the Dulce de Leche version sometime soon.

Deep Chocolate Chip Brownies
(Recipe adapted from David Lebovitz's blog)

Ingredients
115g butter
150g dark chocolate 60-70%
25g cocoa powder
3 eggs
200g caster sugar
120g plain flour
75g white chocolate chips (optional)

Method
Preheat the oven to 175C.
Line an 8 inch/20cm square pan with a long sheet of foil that covers the bottom and reaches up all four sides. Lightly grease the bottom and sides of the foil with a bit of melted butter or oil.
Melt the butter in a saucepan. Break up the chocolate and add to the pan, stirring constantly over a low heat until the chocolate is melted. Remove from heat and whisk in the cocoa powder until smooth.
Beat in the eggs one at a time, then stir in the sugar, followed by the flour. Finely stir in the chocolate chips if using but do not mix for long or else they will melt into the batter.
Spread the batter into the prepared pan. Bake for 30 - 35 minutes until the brownies form a light crisp surface and they feel slightly firm to the touch. A skewer inserted should come out with a few sticky crumbs attached, but no molten mixture.
Remove from the oven and cool to room temperature in the tin before using the foil to help you lift the brownies out of the tin. Cut into 12 squares.
Delicious eaten within a few hours when they are very soft, moist and the chocolate chips are still slightly gooey. They turn more fudgy and cake-like the next day.

Daring Bakers May 2010: Coconut & Chocolate Piece Montée or Croquembouche

The May 2010 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Cat of Little Miss Cupcake. Cat challenged everyone to make a piece montée, or croquembouche, based on recipes from Peter Kump’s Baking School in Manhattan and Nick Malgieri.

When I first saw this months challenge I was excited and a little daunted by the prospect of making a piece montée or croquembouche. A croquembouche is a tall tower of choux buns, stuck together with chocolate or caramel and often served at weddings or other elaborate occasions. In order to complete the challenge we had to make 3 required elements of the dish: the pate a choux, the crème patissiere, and the glaze used to mount/decorate it.

Even though we had to make the three required elements, how we presented the finished recipe was up to us. This made me much happier as it meant I could make smaller individual piece montée without having to create one huge desert. I adore pastry cream or crème patissiere, it’s so much nicer and more flavoursome than standard cream. For my crème patissiere I decided to replace the milk with coconut milk in order to add an extra flavour dimension to the dish. I also selected to make the chocolate glaze rather than the caramel to accompany the dessert as I thought the chocolate would complement the coconut better.

I have made choux buns many times before, but this recipe proved to be a winner. It produced perfectly shaped little hollow buns, that were nicely golden brown and just the right combination of crisp and softness. It’s going to be my ‘go-to’ choux pastry recipe from now on. All the buns turned out perfectly formed.

The coconut crème patissiere also worked well and was incredibly thick and creamy. The coconut flavour really shone through and made it seem even more indulgent. When paired with the dark bitter chocolate glaze it was just heavenly. I’m not usually a fan of profiteroles but the silky smooth coconut crème encased in the light, crisp choux and topped with the rich bitter glaze was a taste sensation. I think I’ve been converted!

I presented by dessert in individual cocktail glasses which made them elegant enough for a special family dinner party dessert. I urge you to try them, particularly with the coconut crème patissiere, they were out of this world. Thanks Cat for such a divine dessert challenge! Click to see my fellow Daring Bakers desserts.

Coconut & Chocolate Piece Montée Croquembouche

Coconut Crème Patissiere
225ml whole milk (I used coconut milk)
2 tbsp cornflour
50g caster sugar
1 large egg
2 large egg yolks
30g unsalted butter
1 tsp vanilla extract

Method
Dissolve the cornflour in 55ml of milk. Combine the remaining milk with the sugar in a saucepan; bring to boil and then remove from heat.
Beat the whole egg and egg yolks into the cornflour mixture. Pour 1/3 of boiling milk into the egg mixture, whisking constantly.
Return the remaining milk to the heat. Pour in the hot egg mixture in a stream, continuing whisking.
Continue whisking (this is important – you do not want the eggs to solidify/cook) until the cream thickens and comes to a gentle boil, about 3-4minutes. Remove from heat and beat in the butter and vanilla.
Pour the thickened cream into a small clean bowl. Press clingfilm firmly against the surface to prevent a skin from forming. Allow to cool slightly before refrigerating until required.
Can be made the day before.

Pate a Choux

175 ml water
85g unsalted butter
¼ tsp salt
1 tbsp caster sugar
120g plain flour
4 large eggs
For Egg Wash: 1 egg and pinch of salt

Method
Pre-heat oven to 220C degrees. Line two baking sheets with parchment or silicon paper.
Combine the water, butter, salt and sugar in a saucepan over medium heat. Bring to a boil and stir occasionally. Once boiling, remove from the heat and pour in the flour. Immedietly beat vigeriously to encorporate the flour and prvent lumps from forming until it forms a thick dough.
Return the dough to heat and cook, stirring constantly until the batter dries slightly and begins to pull away from the sides of the pan.
Transfer to a bowl and stir with a wooden spoon for 1 minute to cool slightly.
Add 1 egg and beat in well. The dough will break up into lumps and look shiny, but this is normal. Keep beating and it will come back together.
Then add in the next egg and repeat the process until you have incorporated all the eggs.
Transfer batter to a pastry bag fitted with a large open tip. Pipe the choux about 1 inch-part in the baking sheets. Hold the bag in place and pipe out a small round blob. Choux should be about 1 inch high about 1 inch wide.
Using a clean finger dipped in hot water, gently press down on any tips that have formed on the top of choux when piping. You want them to retain their ball shape, but be smoothly curved on top.
Brush tops with egg wash (1 egg lightly beaten with pinch of salt).
Bake at 220C for 10 minutes, until well-puffed and turning lightly golden.
Lower the temperature to 180C and continue baking until browned and dry, about 15-20 minutes more. Transfer to a cooling wire to cool.
Store in a airtight box until required. Makes about 25-30 buns.

Filling the choux

When you are ready to assemble your piece montée, fill a pastry bag fitted with a small plain nozzel with the crème patissiere. Pierce the bottom of each choux with the tip of the nozzel and fill with the crème.
Have these all ready before you make the sauce/glaze.

Chocolate Glaze

200g dark chocolate, about 60% coco solids
150ml milk

Method
Break the chocolate into small pieces and place in a small saucepan long with the milk. Heat gently, stirring occasionally until the chocolate has melted and combined with the milk. Keep heating until the sauce thickens into a thick glossy sauce. Remove from the heat and use immediately.

Assembly of the Piece Montée

Once you are ready to assemble your piece montée, dip the top of each choux in your glaze (careful it may be still hot!), and start assembling on your cake board/plate/sheet. You can make mini individual ones or one large one. If making a large one, then you want to form the buns into a circle no bigger than 8inch/20cm in diameter. Continue dipping and adding choux to build up a tower of buns, which gets smaller with each layer. Use the glaze to hold them together as you build up.
When you have finished the design of your piece montée, drizzle with remaining glaze over the top and add additional ribbons, sugar decorations, nuts of flowers as you wish to decorate.

Makes 1 large or 6 individual Piece Montee’s

The Cake Slice April 2010: Banana Cake with Chocolate Frosting

When April’s winning cake was announced I was happy but not overly excited. Banana cake with chocolate frosting… sounds nice but pretty standard. The banana cake didn’t even have any nuts, chocolate chips or spices in it, so I was feeling rather nonplussed when I set about making this cake. All that changed when it came to tasting it though.

I didn’t want a large cake this month and so I halved the recipe and baked it in my latest baking tin purchase – do you know what one of these is?

It’s an éclair tin! Apparently you pipe the choux pastry into the tin and end up with perfectly shaped éclairs. However, me being me didn’t buy it to make éclairs – I bought it with the sole intention of using it to bake interesting shaped cakes! This month’s recipe was the perfect excuse to try it out and half the recipe filled the moulds perfectly.

The banana batter baked up lovely and springy and pleasingly golden brown. I could tell before they were even finished baking that I was on to a winner. I tasted a little of the raw mix and it was very light and creamy and obviously banana flavoured. I hate cakes that claim to be banana but have only the merest hint of banana, not so with this mix. If anything the lack of extra additions, that I was grumpy about earlier, actually let the banana shine through and be the star of the show.

I loved the shape of the cakes once they had finished baking, each one the perfect one person portion but much more interesting than a regular cupcake or loaf pan shape.

My frosting gave me a few problems. It was meant to be thick and spreadable but even after letting it cool it was still quite sticky and gooey. I tried spreading it as a middle layer inside one of the cakes but this just made it slide around and so I decided against doing a middle layer and instead used the frosting to coat the entire top and sides of the cakes. This worked well and the frosting actually set into a thick chocolate coating glaze.

In order to jazz them up a bit I melted some white chocolate and did a few arty drizzles over the top which I think makes them look much more elegant and rather like éclairs – only much more tasty in my book.

The flavour of the cake was wonderful. Very intensely banana with the sweet chocolate frosting being a perfect contrast. It wasn’t too thick or rich and provided a great outer shell to the sponge and helped keep them moist. The sponge itself was very light and springy and incredibly moist thanks to the use of buttermilk in the cake. So what started out as potentially being a bit of a plain Jane, turned into an unexpectedly delicious cake. Hurrah!

Click to see my fellow Cake Slice Bakers.
Banana Cake with Chocolate Frosting
(Recipe from Southern Cakes by Nancie McDermott)

Banana Cake
240g plain flour
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
1 tsp baking powder
¼ tsp salt
150g butter, softened
300g caster sugar
3 eggs, lightly beaten
1 tsp vanilla extract
110ml buttermilk*
300g mashed ripe banana

Chocolate Frosting
100g butter
40g cocoa powder
85ml evaporated milk or normal milk
500g icing sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract

* If you don’t have buttermilk you can make your own by stirring 1½ teaspoons of vinegar or lemon juice into 110ml of milk and leaving for 10 minutes.

Banana Cake

Heat the oven to 180C. Grease and flour two 9 inch cake pans. Combine the flour, bicarbonate of soda, baking powder and salt in a medium bowl and stir with a fork to combine well.
In a large bowl, combine the butter and sugar and beat well, about 2 minutes. Add the eggs, one by one, and then the vanilla. Beat well for 2 to 3 minutes, scraping down the bowl occasionally until you have a smooth batter.
Using a large spoon, stir in half the flour just until it disappears into the batter. Stir in the buttermilk and then the remaining flour the same way. Quickly and gently fold in the mashed banana and then divide the batter between the 2 cake pans.
Bake at 180C for 25 to 30 minutes until the cakes are golden brown, spring back when touched lightly in the centre, and begin to pull away from the sides of the pan.
Cool for 10 minutes in the pans on wire racks. Then turn out onto the racks to cool completely.

Chocolate Frosting

Combine the butter, cocoa and evaporated milk in a medium saucepan. Place over medium heat and bring to a gentle boil. Cook, stirring often for about 5 minutes, until the cocoa dissolves into a dark shiny essence. Remove from the heat and stir in the icing sugar and vanilla. Beat with a mixer at low speed until you have a thick smooth frosting.

To Assemble

Place one layer, top side down, on a cake plate and spread about a third of frosting evenly over the top. Cover with the second layer placed top side up. Spread the rest of the frosting evenly first over the sides and then covering the top of the cake.

Makes 1 x 9inch cake. Serves 10-12

What to do with Leftover Egg Whites? Bake Nutty Cinnamon Chocolate Chip Buttermilk Cake

A bit of a long title, but it sums up this cake. Nuts, cinnamon and chocolate chips all combined into an egg white buttermilk cake. Sounds good doesn’t it, well it wasn’t just good, it was amazingly good, almost addictive, I couldn’t stop eating it! I found a version of this cake on Chef In You blog while looking for recipes to use up leftover egg whites and stumbled upon an egg white cake containing yoghurt, hazelnuts and chocolate chips and decided to try it – with a few of my own tweaks of course!

I added buttermilk to the cake which helped make it incredibly soft, tender and moist while the egg whites keep it light and fluffy. The cake part of its own would be delicious but it’s the additional dark chocolate, cinnamon chips and chopped nuts sprinkled on top and inside the cake that make it spectacular. They add little pockets of sweet spicy cinnamon, bitter chocolate or nuttiness with each bite, in perfect contrast to the smooth fluffy cake. Most of my centre sprinkles sank to nearer the bottom of the cake but this didn’t matter as I ate the cake with my fingers, selecting little bits of cake with a few sprinkle bits in each nibble. (Have you ever noticed how much more enjoyable it is to eat cake with your fingers?)

I was lucky enough to find American cinnamon chips in an American food shop a few weeks ago, but if you can’t find them then just toss some white chocolate chips around in some ground cinnamon and use those instead. I used a mix of pecans and walnuts in the sprinkle but you could use any nuts you like, or even some raisins or chopped apricots would be nice. I love how the top sprinkle became toasted and crunchy while the middle sprinkles remained soft and melty. Mmmm it was so yummy.

Next time you have a few leftover egg whites don’t even think of throwing them away or turning them into boring meringue – make this cake instead and I am sure you won’t be disappointed. It looks quite plain and simple, no elaborate decoration or frosting - but in my option it’s the best use of egg whites ever!

Nutty Cinnamon Chocolate Chip Buttermilk Cake
(Recipe adapted from Chef In You blog)

Cake
100g butter
200g caster sugar
3 egg whites
1 tsp vanilla extract
240g plain flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
220ml buttermilk

Topping & Centre Sprinkles
50g chopped nuts – I used pecans & walnuts
50g dark chocolate chips
50g cinnamon chips

Method
Preheat the oven to 180C. Grease and line the base and sides of a 9x5 inch loaf tin.
Mix all the sprinkle ingredients together in a bowl and set aside.
Start by whisking the egg whites until they becoming opaque and fluffy, but they don’t need to hold a peak.
In a separate bowl, cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add the egg white and vanilla and mix gently.
Sift over half the flour and fold in gently, followed by buttermilk and then the remaining flour along with the bicarbonate or soda and baking powder.
Pour half of the batter into the loaf tin and scatter over half the sprinkle mix.
Cover with the remaining batter and the rest of the sprinkle mix.
Bake for 1hour – 1hour 10 minutes until a skewer inserted in the middle comes out clean (This sounds like a long time but it needs it!)
Allow to cool for 10 minutes before turning out onto a wire rack and leaving to cool completely before slicing.
Wrap well in clingfilm to store and eat within 5 days.
Eat and enjoy

Chocolate Chip Cookies

I realised recently that there is a distinct lack of cookies on this blog. That’s not because I don’t like cookies, far from it, but given the choice of cookie or cake – I choose cake every time. However, I thought it was about time I had a little break from cake, dusted off my baking trays and baked some cookies.

My brother in currently in his first year of uni and every month I have been sending him little packages of baked goodies. So far he has had cereal bars, brownies and peanut butter krispie treats and this month I thought it would be ideal to send him some of the cookies I was planning to make – another incentive.

These cookies are your simple crowd pleasing chocolate chip cookie. Quick and easy to make, crispy round the outside and chewy in the centre. I used a combination of white and dark chocolate that I cut into pieces myself in order to keep it nice and chunky. I used an ice cream scoop to measure out my cookie dough which helped make the cookies lovely and thick, ensuring a chewier centre.

I posted most of them to my brother who demolished the lot in about 2 days flat, so I think he liked them. Personally I would have liked them to be a little softer, as well as having a chewy centre, but this is just personal preference. Anyone got any tips for achieving a softer cookie, or should I just bake them for a couple of minutes less?

They were best when still warm, while the chocolate was all soft and melty.

Chocolate Chip Cookies

Ingredients
110g butter
70g caster sugar
80g dark soft brown sugar
1 egg
½ tsp vanilla extract
200g plain flour
½ tsp baking powder
50g dark chocolate
50g white chocolate

Method
Preheat the oven to 180C. Line two baking trays with baking paper or silicone liners.
Beat the butter until soft and fluffy. Add the caster and dark brown sugars and beat until combined.
Mix in the egg and vanilla (don’t worry if it looks a little scrambled) followed by the flour and baking powder. Mix until just combined.
Chop the white and dark chocolate into 1cm chunks. Work them into the dough until well incorporated.
Use an old fashioned ice cream scoop to measure out equal scoops of dough. Place them on the trays with 3-4cm space between each one. Flatten the balls slightly with your fingers until you have a thick disc rather than a mound.
Bake in the oven for 8-10 minutes. They should be lightly brown around the edges but still seem quite soft in the centre. (They firm up on cooling).
Allow to cool on the trays for 1 minute before transferring to a cooling rack.

Makes 9-12 cookies

The Cake Slice February 2010: Mississippi Mud Cake

This month we baked a Mississippi Mud Cake. Normally I think of mud cakes as being tall, dense, sticky cakes but this cake is quite different – a cross between rocky road and brownie. It consists of a chocolate pecan studded sponge, topped with mini marshmallows and drizzled with hot chocolate sauce. Rich, sticky and very indulgent!

This cake received mixed reviews in our group, people either seemed to love it or loathe it. Personally I was firmly in the ‘love it’ category. A lot of bakers complained it was far too sweet, I didn’t find this to be the case. It was still sweeter than your average cake, but not unpleasantly so. However, I didn’t use the mound marshmallows as part of the topping which probably reduced the sweetness level quite considerably. The reason I left out the marshmallows is that no one in my family are fond of them and I wanted people to eat the cake.

I think brownie is a better description for this baked treat than cake. I consider cake to be soft, fairly light and spongy but this recipe resulted in a single layered moist, rich and sticky chocolate gooey brownie square. It was scattered with chunky pecans which added a nice textural contrast, were utterly delicious and made it seem even more brownie like.

To really push this ‘cake’ over the edge the whole thing is drizzled in a gooey chocolate glaze that sets into a thin chocolaty sugary crust. Mmmm it was divine. Just look how moist and fudgy it was. I may even use this recipe next time I want a batch of brownies! I also halved the recipe and baked it in an 8inch tin, as the full recipe made quite a large amount. My advice would be forget the marshmallows and enjoy the rich chocolaty fudgy cakey-bronwieness YUM!

Mississippi Mud Cake (brownie)
(Recipe from Southern Cakes by Nancie McDermott)
For the Cake (brownie)
200g butter, cut into big chunks
55g cocoa powder
4 eggs, beaten well
1 tsp vanilla extract
450g caster sugar
180g plain flour
¼ tsp salt
115g chopped pecans or walnuts

Mississippi Mud Frosting
400g icing sugar
55g cocoa powder
100g butter, melted
110ml milk or evaporated milk
1 tsp vanilla extract
100g mini marshmallows or large marshmallows, quartered


Method – Cake (brownie)
Heat the oven to 180C. Grease and flour a 13x9 inch pan. In a medium saucepan combine the butter and cocoa powder and cook over medium heat, stirring now and then, until the butter is melted and the mixture is well blended, about 3 – 4 minutes. Stir in the beaten eggs, vanilla, sugar, flour, salt and pecans and beat until the batter is well combined and the flour has disappeared.
Quickly pour the batter into the prepared pan and bake for 20 to 25 minutes until the cake springs back when touched gently in the centre and is beginning to pull away from the sides of the pan.
While the cake bakes, prepare the frosting so it is ready to pour over the hot cake.

Method – Mud Frosting
In a medium bowl combine the icing sugar and the cocoa powder and stir to mix well. Add the melted butter, milk and vanilla and beat everything together well. Set aside until the cake is done.

To Serve
Remove the cake from the oven, scatter the marshmallows over the top and then return the cake to the hot oven for about 3 minutes to soften the marshmallows.
Place the cake, still in the pan, on a wire rack. Pour the frosting all over the marshmallow dotted cake and eat straight away or allow to cool to room temperature. Cut the cake into squares and serve.

Note: The recipe also works well when halved and baked in an 8inch square tin.

Chocolate Raspberry Buttermilk Cupcakes for Valentines Day

Valentines Day is nearly here and it provides the perfect excuse to start thinking of pink, cute and heart shaped sweet treats. I decided to bake some Valentines themed cupcakes to share around with my friends and family, as even though I am currently without that special someone, I see that as no reason not to enjoy the baking opportunity it provides.

As chocolate and Valentines Day seem to go hand and hand, I obviously settled on chocolate cupcakes but wanted to add a little something extra to make them a bit more special. After thinking of flavour pairings I decided to mix some raspberry jam into both the cake batter and the frosting. I’m sure some people will disagree, but in my opinion chocolate and raspberries are a wonderful flavour pairing, more so than chocolate and strawberries as I find the raspberry flavour more intense against the bitter chocolate.
I have recently been experimenting with replacing some of the butter in cake mixes with buttermilk. I have found it results in a slightly denser, more fudgy yet moister cake. You don’t always want fudgy cupcakes but for a chocolate Valentines themed cake it’s perfect. When topped with a swirl of pink raspberry buttercream and a scattering of cute teeny tiny heart sprinkles it is a sweet treat emulating love and romance. A combination of fudgy chocolate base with sweet and creamy frosting finished with a hint of fruitiness. Go ahead and bake some for your friends or loved ones and whatever you do this weekend for Valentines, I hope it’s a happy one.

Chocolate Raspberry Buttermilk Cupcakes for Valentines Day
Chocolate Raspberry Buttermilk Cupcakes
120g self raising flour
100g caster sugar
60g butter
80ml buttermilk
20g cocoa powder
2 eggs
1 tsp baking powder
1 tbsp raspberry jam

Raspberry Buttercream
130g butter
260g icing sugar
2 tbsp seedless raspberry jam
Pink food dye
Heart sprinkles to decorate

Method
Preheat the oven to 170C. Line a cupcake tray with 12 paper cases.
Your butter needs to be soft so either leave it out for a few hours or warm it gently in the microwave to soften.
Weigh out the flour, sugar, butter, baking powder and cocoa powder into a bowl. Add the eggs and beat until the mixture starts to form a thick batter. Add the jam and pour in the buttermilk. Whisk until smooth, creamy and slightly lighter in colour, about 1 minute.
Divide the batter equally between the paper cases and bake for 20-22 minutes until the cupcakes are risen and springy to the touch.
Allow to cool in the tins for 10 minutes before transferring to a rack to cool completely.
Meanwhile, make the buttercream. Beat the butter until soft and creamy before sifting in half the icing sugar. Beat until all the sugar has been incorporated and then add the remaining half of the sugar.
Tint the buttercream a pale pink and beat in the seedless raspberry jam. If the mixture seems very stiff add milk, half a tablespoon at a time, until it becomes a soft spreadable consistency.
Once the cupcakes have cooled, pipe on the raspberry buttercream and decorate with heart shaped sugar sprinkles or other sprinkles of your choice.
Share, eat and enjoy with friends or loved ones.
Makes 12, easily doubled.

Chocolate Chestnut Truffle Torte

As both my brother and sister were visiting for the holidays a delicious dessert was on the cards and seeing as they are both complete chocoholics, I knew chocolate would have to be the main feature. My brother in particular is such a chocoholic that he won’t even consider eating a dessert that doesn’t involve chocolate. In my opinion he doesn’t know what else he is missing out on, but as he was home for a visit I was more than happy to accommodate. When I found this torte in a recent food magazine I knew it more than met his requirements.

The original torte called for a sponge base, but I changed this to a chocolate biscuit base, as I wanted something with more of a textural contrast to the soft torte. I also added in a shot of Brandy to add a little extra decadence, a decision that was noticed and appreciated by my siblings.

The torte is quite unassuming to look at, but it tasted fabulous. It was quite dense and truffle-like in texture when cut, but light and melting in the mouth thanks to the addition of whipped egg whites in the mix. It was packed with rich chocolate flavour that developed and intensified as the torte softened in your mouth. The chestnut puree still contained tiny amounts of ground chestnut pieces which added to the texture and resulted in a creamy nutty flavour which was the perfect pairing to the rich bitter chocolate. The Brandy made it taste very decedent and just that little bit more special. The chocoholics were more than satisfied and couldn’t help but let out a little moan of ‘Mmmm’ when they took their first bite.

Chocolate Chestnut Truffle Torte
(Recipe adapted from BBC Good Food Magazine)Ingredients
200g Bourbon biscuits (these are chocolate crème sandwich cookies)
50g butter
1 x 435g can unsweetened chestnut purée
2 eggs
400g dark chocolate (around 60%)
600ml double cream
2 tbsp Brandy

Method
Grease a 25cm/10inch springform tin and line the base with baking paper.
Start by making the biscuit base. Place the biscuits, crème filling and all, into a food processor and blitz until you achieve fine crumbs. Melt the butter, drizzle it over the biscuit crumbs and pulse until mixed and the crumbs look damp.
Pour the crumbs into the tin and press down well to a flat even surface. Place in the fridge to firm up while you make the topping.
To make the truffle topping, separate the egg whites and yolks into different bowls. Add the chestnut puree to the egg yolks and beat until well combined (it won’t go completely smooth).
Melt the chocolate, Brandy and half of the cream together in a bowl set over a pan of simmering water. Once melted and glossy, remove from the heat and beat it into the chestnut mixture.
Whip the remaining half of the cream until thick enough to hold its shape, but not too stiff, before folding it into the chocolate mixture.
Whisk the egg whites until stiff peaks form. Carefully fold them into the chocolate mixture until no streaks remain.
Pour the rich chocolate chestnut mixture over the chilled biscuit base and shake gently to level the surface. Place in the fridge to chill and firm up for at least 5 hours, or preferably overnight.
When ready to eat, run a hot knife around the edge of the pan to release it from the tin. Dust the top with cocoa powder and serve with lightly whipped cream or crème fraiche if desired.
The torte can also be frozen for up to 2 months. Allow to thaw in the fridge overnight before using.
Serves 12-16

Note: The torte contains raw egg and so is not recommended for pregnant women or people recovering from illness.