The Corkless Mind

Tag: chocolate

Helen Goh’s Chocolate ‘O’ Cookies.
I recently purchased myself a copy of Yotam Ottolenghi and Helen Goh’s book, Sweet. Having read the book numerous times cover to cover, and making mental and actual notes of what to bake and when. For me, Sweet reminds me of one of those CD’s (yes, I am that old) that you could listen to without skipping a track. The only dilemma I face, is to not scoff my face with all the deliciousness from this decadent book.

One of the first recipes in the book, is that of Helen Goh’s. The decadent Chocolate ‘O’ cookies. The chocolate ‘O’ cookie, came about by Helen setting herself a challenge of creating a cookie that could rival the infamous chocolate chip cookie at Ottolenghi. The ‘O’ is a nod to a few things, namely to Thomas Keller, whose own version of the oreo biscuit inspired the base of this biscuit, and of course the obvious ‘O’ on Ottolenghi’s shop door. The ganache made in this recipe is an absolute genius new way to make it, and at the risk of sounding clichéd , life-changing!

I thought sharing this recipe this time of year would be a great addition to all things chocolate being baked, tempered and shared! This recipe takes a while to make, but is oh so worthwhile!

Helen Goh’s Chocolate ‘O’ Cookies.

Ingredients:

For the cookies:
- 190g unsalted butter, cubed (at room temperature)
- 130g caster sugar
- 1/2 teaspoon sea salt flakes (I used Maldon smoked sea salt flakes)
- 220g plain flour
- 75g cocoa powder
- 1/4 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
For the water Ganache:
- 1/2 cinnamon stick
- shaved peel of 1/2 clemengold mandarin or orange
- 1/2 teaspoon of chilli flakes
- 90ml boiling water
- 125g dark chocolate (70% cocoa solids), roughly chopped into 1 cm pieces
- scraped seeds of 1 vanilla pod
- 1/4 teaspoon of sea salt flakes
- 50g caster sugar
- 50g liquid glucose
- 50g unsalted butter, cut into 2 cm cubes
Method:

To make the cookies, place the butter, sugar and salt in a bowl and mix with an electric mixer or stand mixer(with a paddle attachment). Beat on a medium-high speed for 3 minutes, or until light and fluffy. Sift the flour, cocoa powder and bicarbonate of soda into another bowl, reduce the speed of the mixer to low, then add the dry ingredients in two batches until a dough forms. Tip the dough onto a clean, lightly floured surface and knead gently until smooth and uniform. Wrap the dough in cling film, press to form a disc, and set aside in the fridge for up to 1 hour to firm up.

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees C/160 fan. Line two baking trays(or if you like me, have only one, then bake them in batches) with parchment and set aside. Remove the dough from the fridge 10 minutes before rolling, to make it malleable to roll. Divide the dough in half, then on a clean, lightly floured surface roll out the dough to a thickness of 3mm. Using a 6cm round cookie cutter, cut out 44 circles and place them on the parchment lined tray/s. Bake for 13-15 minutes, rotating the baking tray halfway through baking. Set aside and leave to cool in the baking tray.

To make the ganache, place the cinnamon, orange peel and chilli flakes in a small bowl and cover with boiling water. Set aside to infuse for 30 minutes. After the water has infusing for 20 minutes, prepare the sugar syrup. Place the chocolate, vanilla seeds and salt in a separate bowl(medium sized) and set aside. Place the sugar and glucose in a small pan and melt over a medium heat. Do this until the sugar has melted. Increase the heat to medium-high and boil until the caramel turns a light amber colour, this takes about 5 minutes. Remove from the heat and add the infused water and aromatics. (Don’t worry if the sugar seizes in the pan, just return to the heat and stir until all sugar has dissolved). Return the caramel to the boil, then strain the liquid over the chocolate and vanilla; the aromatics can be discarded. Leave for 2-3 minutes until the chocolate has melted, then stir to combine.

Add the butter, one piece at a time, stirring continuously one piece at a time, stirring until all butter pieces have been incorporated and the chocolate mix is smooth. Place in the fridge until the ganache is firm. Using a teaspoon, take a heaped amount of the ganache and spread onto the underside of the biscuit, spread evenly toward the edges of the biscuit using the back of the spoon, then sandwich with another biscuit and set aside. Repeat this with he remaining biscuits and ganache.

Happy Easter to all who celebrate! x
March 27, 2018
Chocolate brownie waffle sticks

We all have that one or in most cases, couple of kitchen appliances that gather up dust in a room or at the back of a cupboard becoming more of a clutter issue than something that can add value to your daily cooking lifestyle. Mine shamefully, is my slow cooker, vegetable steamer and waffle maker. All very useful and handy in their own rite! But take up far too much space on my already tiny kitchen counter.

This week, I’ve cracked out the waffle maker and challenged myself to use each appliance at least once a week for something different, something unconventional. I got the idea from a Food network show called ‘The Kitchen’, Sunny(one of the hosts) made the most delicious looking brownie waffles in a waffle maker! I of course had to try this out with one of my favourite brownie box mixes, I usually don’t do box mixed goodies, but I am such a fan of Nomu, I couldn’t resist the temptation to skip a few steps 🙂

The waffle machine I used is an electronic one. If you hate mess, this comes with a caveat. This might be because I put a little too much batter into the machine, or might be the machine itself, I found the batter drips and funs along the sides of the machine on to my counter. The result however, is a crisp on the outside and pillowy soft on the inside type of texture. I of course added a little bit more chocolate chips to my batter, because chocolate! Chocolate will always be a vice that I would have no restraint over.I made a quick chocolate ganache and a strawberry coulis/syrup to dip the brownie waffle sticks into. You can of course add your own dipping.

Chocolate brownie waffle sticks:

Ingredients:
– 1 chocolate brownie box mix

– Extra chocolate of your choice

– 1 punnet of strawberries

– 1 cup of sugar

– 1/2 cup water

– 4 eggs

– 140g butter melted

– dipping of your choice

Method:
Mix the brownie mix per instruction. Gently stir in extra chocolate chips. Lightly brush the waffle machine with oil or butter to ensure the waffle will easily pull apart from the edges. Heat waffle machine per manufacturers instruction using a big spoon, spoon in a bit of batter in each section and close until the machine notifies you it is ready and cooked. Set aside to cool and serve with a dipping of your choice. To make the strawberry coulis/syrup. Cut the strawberries in quarters and add to a small pot with sugar and water. Cook until macerated and a syrupy consistency is achieved. Drizzle over the waffle and cut into sticks.

**This post is in no way sponsored and projects my honest opinion**

August 18, 2017
Roasted Sunbutter with chocolate.

I seem to have a healthy(excuse the pun) obsession with nut/seed butters these days. I could spread this luxurious paste on anything, from toast to dipping fruit into the nut/seed butter for a quick healthy snack option. This week I spotted a special on the sunflower seeds at my local supermarket and decided that I would experiment and make my very own homemade Sunbutter in my NutriBullet. I normally don’t have leftover chocolate, I think I might have forgotten about it and probably stashed it away for a rainy day… So with Sunbutter in mind I decided to use the leftover chocolate to give it a more dreamy luxurious feel.

This recipe is modeled off of a general guideline to make nut butter.
Roasted Sunbutter with a hint of chocolate.
Ingredients:
250g of Sunflower seeds

2 x Tablespoons of coconut oil

Two tablespoons of cocoa powder or four blocks of 70% dark Lindt Chocolate

Pinch of salt

Two tablespoons of honey
Method:
Place the seeds on a baking tray with parchment on and roast in a preheated oven(180 degrees C) for 10-15 minutes(watch it carefully as you don’t want the seeds to burn) set aside to cool.

Once the sunflower seeds are completely cooled down, in a large NutriBullet cup, add only the seeds and blitz till the oils of the seeds are extracted and the grainy texture becomes oily and comes together, blitz every 30 seconds then scrape down the cup with a spoon. Once an almost paste like consistency is obtained, add the salt and coconut oil. Blitz for a further 30 seconds until a smooth consistency is achieved. Add the honey and melted chocolate/cocoa powder and blitz again for another 30 seconds.

Serve on toast, with fruit on the side or seed crackers.
*the melted chocolate I heated up the microwave with 10 second blasts in between and add a little milk in at the end to make the mixture runny.
There are so many things you can do with nut/seed butters. I am an avid smoothie drinker and maker, so it’s only natural that I add some of the Sunbutter to a smoothie. I made a Banana, Whey protein, honey, coconut milk and Sunbutter power up smoothie. Just add all the ingredients to the cup and blitz, easy as that! For best results, freeze banana slices, this will give your smoothie a smooth and creamy texture whilst keeping the smoothie really cold too.
If you own a NutriBullet and love the nifty little gadget as much as I do, then please share some other ways you best utilize yours.
Dominique x

January 25, 2017
Fudgey dark chocolate and tahini brownies.

Inspired by a visit to my new favourite ice cream parlour in the heart of Cape Town I felt compelled to recreate my flavour experience. For the past week all I could think and dream about is their mesmerizing Chocolate Tahini flavour with glorious nutty notes from the tahini paste and an unmistakable velvety smooth texture no ice cream I’ve ever had possesses. Feeling like I’ve been bewitched and in a chocolatey daze, I’ve taken the flavour combination and put my own twist on it.

I’ve tried the Lindt dark chocolate studded with toasted sesame seeds and is quite a favourite of mine, but never have I thought to pair chocolate with Tahini. It’s always those flavour pairings that we don’t expect to go together that end up blowing our minds and surprising our tastebuds. I tried making gluten-free chocolate cookies, a Nigella recipe using Buckwheat flour, dark chocolate and I added tahini. The recipe is from the book Simply Nigella, and seems rather interesting because of the toasty, nutty taste the buckwheat lends to the cookie against the tartness of the dark chocolate and the complementing nuttiness of the tahini too. The cookies were okay but didn’t quite get my stamp of approval to make the cut for a blog post( if you know what I mean)

The brownies are from a classic standard brownie recipe, of which I have tweaked a bit.

Ingredients:

-177 ml all purpose flour(I used cake flour as that was what I had on hand)

-177ml cocoa powder

-1 tablespoon instant coffee powder

-1/4 teaspoon salt

-1/4 teaspoon baking powder

-120g caster sugar

-2 tablespoons of tahini

-60ml Greek yogurt(plain yoghurt)

-2 tablespoons melted unsalted butter(cooled)

-2 beaten eggs

-1 teaspoon vanilla paste

-1 punnet of fresh raspberries.
Method:
Preheat oven to 180 degrees C. Grease a baking pan and cover in baking parchment. In a bowl, whisk the flour, cocoa, instant coffee powder, baking powder and salt until combined. I used my stand mix for this step, using the flat beater attachment, mix together the yoghurt, sugar, butter, eggs and vanilla until just combined then fold in half of the raspberries. Pour into prepared pan and spread evenly. Add the tahini in blobs and swirl around in the pan. Place remaining raspberries on top press in slightly. Bake for 20-25 minutes until the edges are crisp and the middle is set.

* if you don’t have instant coffee powder, add the same amount of granulated coffee to hot water then add at the end of the mixing process of the batter just before adding the raspberries.

* Cool the brownies in the pan completely before taking them out to slice.

* Lastly serve with an ice cream of your choice or even a quenelle of marscapone for a more indulgent feel.

Treat yourself!

Dominique.

January 17, 2017
Nigella’s Chocolate Chip Cookie Pots.

Naturally I love cooking and baking things that I love to eat, I think that is one of very few secrets of good cooking, that and simplicity. I love Nigella Lawson’s style of cooking it’s quick and no fuss, humbling yet soulful. I don’t think anyone could resist a ‘straight out of the oven’ freshly baked Chocolate chip cookie, never mind eating the raw cookie dough out of the mixing bowl.

This recipe is from Nigella’s latest cookbook titled ‘Simply Nigella’ there are so many recipes I simply must try when I gift myself this aesthetically inviting book! I’ve read that the book is something of a celebration of life.

Lying in bed dreamily yearning for summer and listening to Nigella’s latest series of podcasts(Summer Sound Bites) all I can think of is entertaining this summer. The thought of laughter together with cocktails and good food shared with family and friends, definitely excites me and makes my heart smile.

As always, I added a little something extra, a touch of Nutella in the middle to make the cookie that more gooey and indulgent. The recipe for the Chocolate chip cookie pots is up on Nigella’s website.

August 15, 2016
Matcha Madeleines

Since last week I had been obsessed with all things green and this week is just another continuation of that healthy obsession. Perusing a baking feed on Pinterest I noticed a scarlet Madeleine that instantly took my breathe away I knew I had to recreate it and add my own twist to it.
Matcha, in recent years have been taking the western world by storm. Matcha is a fine green tea powder that derives from the same source as green tea leaves. It has been dubbed as a superfood with many health benefits. Loaded with antioxidants, if consumed regularly only then will one reap all the health benefits of prevention of cancer, lowering of cholesterol and blood pressure and strengthening the immune system.

The Madeleine recipe is from Woolworths Taste magazine’s website, the only difference is the addition of Matcha into the batter towards the end of folding. I had only just recently bought my very first Madeleine pan, as I really wanted to recreate the scarlet Madeleine and make it my own. I dipped the madeleines in white chocolate and with the beautiful golden Madeleine in the middle I added Matcha to the melted chocolate mixture, simply because I love the contrast in colour and who knew matcha tasted spectacular in white chocolate!?

The photos were all taken in the height of a very nasty storm (believe it or not). I absolutely adore the lighting as it makes everything appear so pure.

I’m trying to be creative when it comes to props in my photos, as good props are rather hard to find, so at this point I find myself just scavenging around my apartment looking for interesting things that would give my photos that extra special touch.

This post was collated whilst listening to the whimsical Si tu vois ma mère by Sidney Bechet. (Yes, I am dreaming of Paris :))

In honour of her up and coming birthday, I leave you with a Julia Child quote.

“People who love to eat are always the best people” – Julia Child.

*information sourced from Eat out and Tea Mill*

July 21, 2016