Overnight Chocolate Babka {Marbled Brioche}

In polish, Babka means grandmother. In New York, Babka can be found in all of the Jewish bakeries, but not because that’s where the grandmothers like to hang, oh nooo.  

A Babka is also a buttery rich brioche like cake; it is marbled with chocolate or cinnamon goo much like a pre cut log of cinnamon roll dough, and then baked in a loaf pan. Traditionally it is topped with streusel but I opted for a glace icing (made with double cream) that I flavoured with a few drops of orange blossom water. Because chocolate and orange are two flavours that we should marry together at-all-times. 

I never visited a Jewish bakery during my short-lived time in New York last week. Needless to say, I deeply regretted it after I bit into the Babka and my mouth experienced all that crunch from the crust and chew from the cake/bread hybrid. 

Side note if you’re thinking about visiting New York: Please do, it will make you feel like Deb Perelman, if only for a couple of weeks. Also, there are the most amazing-ly (cheap) juicy burgers at Five Guys and almond croissants at Dominique Ansel’s bakery (not so cheap).

My brother in law bought me the New York Cult Recipes cookbook for Christmas and the Babka was one of the many impressive creations within (New York cheesecake is next on the list, but I’m afraid it’ll be too difficult not to destroy it with my mouth before taking pictures). Nearly all of the ingredients used in the Babka can be found tucked away in kitchen cupboards, which is one of the reasons why I chose it, whose got time to run to the supermarket on Boxing Day slash ever? 

Overnight Chocolate Babka

Adapted from New York Cult Recipes By Marc Grossman 

90 ml lukewarm buttermilk (or add 1 tbsp lemon juice to milk and leave to set for 1 minute)
1 egg + 1 egg yolk + 1 egg white
125g butter, melted + 100g, softened
300g plain flour
3/4 tsp dried active yeast
2 pinches salt
50g + 125g caster sugar
40g cocoa powder
2 tbsp demerara sugar

Note: I’ve discovered this thing recently. Its called refrigerating yeasted dough’s overnight so that they taste ten trillion billion times yeastier. Its amazing. But by all means, don’t feel like you have go with me on this. The Babka will taste just as good if proofed for just 1 hour before baking. I just like to proof dough for a little longer, almost like testing the waters before the dough ends up tasting like stale beer.

The Recipe

Make the dough. Add the buttermilk, egg plus egg yolk and melted butter to a freestanding mixer fitted with the dough hook. Add the yeast, salt, 50g sugar and plain flour and knead on medium speed for 6 - 10 minutes. The dough should come away from the bowl and feel elastic. Place the dough in an oiled bowl, cover and let rise in a warm spot for 1 and a 1/2 hours.

Make the filling. Stir together 125g sugar and cocoa powder. Set aside.

Shape and bake dough. Roll the dough out into a 40cm rectangle. Spread the softened butter over the dough and sprinkle its entirety with the filling. Roll the dough up along its length so that you have a short log instead of a long one. Twist the ends to seal in the mixture. Grease a 8/9 inch loaf tin and place inside. Cover and place in the fridge overnight.

Uncover the babka, brush with egg white and sprinkle with demarara sugar. Put a bowl of boiling water on the bottom shelf of the oven and place the babka on the top shelf. Leave to proof for half an hour. Remove the babka, preheat the oven to 180 C and bake for 50 minutes.

Make a simple glaze of icing sugar and cream and add a drop of orange blossom water. Drizzle over the top when still warm, as the babka is best enjoyed when fresh out of the oven, but lasts for 2 days!

I hope everyone had the best Christmas ever. What plans do you have for New Year's Eve?

Love Em xx

Maple Black and White Cookies

If I had to choose between a mango fresh from the Caribbean and an authentic dessert from somewhere around the world, I’d have to go with the latter.

Zucchini Pistachio Spice Cake With Lime Frosting

I know what you’re thinking. Is this food blogger a bag lady in disguise? Did she scatter birdseeds all over a cake that was served to her vertebrate guests? Yes, it’s true; the Central Park Pigeon Lady from Home Alone 2 has a strong desire for baked goods.

This is a mildly spiced zucchini (and I’m only calling it that because how fugly does courgette sound/look/read next to zucchini? Plus I love Italian food, so I think this grants me access to their terminology) cake studded with chunks of pistachio and the dust that accumulated from chopping said chunks, mixed with ground almonds.

Kurabiye Crescents {Almond Shortbread}

This is such a wedding biscuit. Look at it! All covered and tossed in icing sugar when it’s still warm, making the first layer of sugar go this warm yellowy colour that kind of tastes like almond buttercream.

This is the best traditional biscuit ever ever ever, ever.

Pierre Hermé's Chocolate Sablés

If I could control the way the wind blows, you’d probably be feasting your eyeballs on a hazelnut almond dacquoise. 

Apparently though, there is some crazy machinery that can control the wind, and it in turn, control the weather. If I could just get my hands on that piece of machinery, things would be a whole lot different. I could have used said machinery (god knows if its even a machine) and be like: “Wind, how about you blow that way today, and not on that gigantic piece of wood hovering over my pretty little rectangular torte which was JUST enrobed in the silkiest and most delicious ganache?”

After a laughing fit mixed with tears, I was so close to just leaving the thing to lye there forever. 

Deflated.

The dacquoise inventor, Joanne Chang from Flour Bakery suggested I made parfaits with the crushed remains, I took her advice, obviously, the woman has knack. 

It was like throwing my aching heart into a glass and drinking it as if it were a glass of red.

RE ganache, 150g  37% (Green & Blacks), 150g 33.6% milk (any brand, just to soothe the taste a little), 100g 70% dark chocolate  (Green & Blacks) and 480g double cream = go there.

Cue rebound sables. Egg whites play a key role in giving these biscuits the crumbliest texture. We like things that melt in our mouths, yes? A small amount of icing sugar provides just a smidge of sweetness, and the corn flour content within the icing sugar also lifts the texture to a feeling in my gob I’ve never quite experienced before.

We won’t need much cocoa – a little goes a long way here. But it has to be dutch processed because its not as sweet, has a deeper colour (which darkens the cookies better than natural cocoa when baking, to make them look even more delicate) and smoother taste. Smooth is good when its coupled with crumbly. Crumbly, smooth, short sables right outta Pierre Herm’s kitchen.

As I had a bunch of nuts lying around from the previous disaster, I’ve made these sables go four humble ways.

Feeling a little…. 

Patriotic?

Or maybe you’re just feeling downright crazy?

Toasty?

Like you could dip yourself into a pool of chopped hazelnuts?

Pierre Hermé's Chocolate Sablés

The Recipe:

Sables:
30g dutch process cocoa powder
3 tbsp egg whites
100g icing sugar
260g plain flour
250g unsalted butter, very soft
Pinch sea salt

Decoration:
100g Green & Blacks milk or white chocolate, melted
chopped nuts or sprinkles
1m (open star) nozzle & disposable piping bag

The Method:

Preheat the oven to 180 C and line to baking sheets with parchment paper.

This bit is important. Sift the cocoa, flour and salt and set aside.

Make sure the butter is very soft. Place in a bowl and whisk until light and creamy. Add the icing sugar and whisk until paler in colour. Add the egg white, mix until blended.

Stop the mixer. Pour in the flour mixture. Whisk on medium speed until just incorporated.

Fit a piping bag with a 1M nozzle and spoon the mixture inside, make sure there are no air bubbles. Pipe W's onto the baking sheets, spaced a couple centimetres apart.

Bake for 11 minutes - no longer. The cookies will be delicate - leave to cool on the sheets and then transfer to a sealed jar.

To decorate, dip in melted chocolate, then dip in sprinkles or nuts. Leave to dry on parchment paper.

Biscuits will last up to one week.

When my torte died, I thought to myself – how the hell did you scrape the short list when you’re this much of a careless clutz? Then I remembered that some of you nominated, then I made this ingenious recipe. Then I shared the recipe. Now I feel better.

Voting for the Cosmopolitan Awards ends this month; if you fancy giving me your vote, please click here and go to the “Best Food Blogger’ category. 

Thank you! Love and peace, Em xx

Brown Butter Buckeyes

Brown Butter Buckeyes 

I am a lazy girl. 

If you’re lazy too, peanut butter balls might just be the key confection you’ve been looking to make all your life, to fill in the gaps between waking up at 1pm and dinner – on your day off, and not the one you called in sick, of course.

I first lay my eyes on these big balls of beauty a year ago here, I luuuurvved the idea of digestives adding an extra crunch to a sweet peanut butter candy, it works especially well for anyone who is not a fan of crunchy peanut butter.

After a scant bit of research I was fully ready to create my own delicious peanut butter balls (not to be mistaken for the overly sweet cake pop). The name ‘Buckeye’ comes from the Ohio buckeye tree in America and the balls are made to look like an actual buckeye which falls off the tree in the autumn/fall. If you’re having trouble placing an Ohio buckeye tree into your imagination, just think of a conker. So famous buckeyes are to this state, that they have even named a football team after it!

The traditional recipe for a buckeye calls for 6 cups of icing sugar. My recipe has a quarter of that, more cream cheese and a whole lot more of digestives.

Lastly, if you want an even richer nutty flava then it is absolutely necessary to brown that butter! It will add just 20 minutes to your assembly job (because it would be a crime to call this sort of think baking) but you won’t regret it I promise, lazy being. 

Buckeyes with brown butter

The Recipe
Makes 26 Buckeyes 

100g cream cheese
390g smooth peanut butter
145g brown butter* or plain unsalted, melted
300g icing sugar
14 digestive biscuits/350g
For the coating:
350g good quality melted chocolate of your choice

Special Equipment
Toothpicks
Vegetable oil (to thin the melted chocolate out)
Electric scales

Note* if you're gonna go ahead and brown the butter, all you need to do is put it in a saucepan on medium heat and whisk away until the frothy goodness turns a light shade of golden brown.

The method

Start with the digestives; there are two ways to get a shardy yet fine-ish crumble with these - which is exactly what you want. You can either give them a 30 second whizz in the food processer (my preferred method, do this if you're lazy and own a dishwasher), or put them all in a sturdy plastic food bag and beat them up with a rolling pin.

In the bowl freestanding mixer or a large bowl and an electric whisk, beat the peanut butter and cream cheese until the mix has lightened in colour - about half a minute.

Add all of the digestive crumbs to the peanut butter, remembering to scrape down the sides of the bowl for even distribution.

Alternately add the brown butter (it doesn't have to be cold when you add it in!) and icing sugar until you get a huge bowl of thick golden crumbly looking stuff. Set aside. The buckeye filling will last in the fridge for 3 days so you can always wrap it in cling film and come back to it when you're ready.

Next, line a fairly large baking sheet with parchment. Depending on how anal you are, grab a pair of scales and weigh out pieces of peanut butter dough at 43-45 grams each. This weight gives a big buckeye.

With each piece of buckeye, stretch out both your palms with the dough in the middle and gently roll it around until eventually, you have a round ball. Do this until you have no dough left and put in the fridge to set for at least 20 minutes.

Melt the chocolate over a ban merie. Add no more than a tablespoon vegetable oil to the melted chocolate and stir in to give a smoother consistency.

Pick up a buckeye with a toothpick and gently immerse the ball 3 quarters the way into the chocolate and roll around until you have what looks like a 'buckeye' (a bit of peanut butter showing at the top).

Put back on the baking tray and take the toothpick out.

Leave to set until the chocolate coating hardens and enjoy for 3 days!

BEFORE I FORGET! Keep your buckeyes in the fridge for ultimate freshness. Although...I highly doubt they will last long enough for that!

Love Em xx

The New (Pudding) Age Christmas

Jamie Oliver's New Mince Pies 

I have always hated this part.

We are currently in that mid-holiday bit of December. 

Slap bang in the middle of post-Christmas blues and NYE pre party planning. Not much really happens, if you’re like me, you might be receiving uni feedback left right and centre and constantly doubting you’re ability to perform as a student. 

But put those worries aside for now because I am here to present you with very very dodgy lit photographs from the puds and pastries I made on Christmas Day! You can understand why, surely.

Nigella Lawson's Chocolate Pudding

We had your not-so-traditional mince pies where the mincemeat was rolled into puff pastry, scattered with flaked almonds and bursting with rinds of clementine (thanks Jamie Oliver). 

Shortly after came your not-so-traditional Christmas pudding. Darling, it daren’t contain any pruned grapes! In fact, the only traditional feel our Christmas pud had was the fact that it was steamed – which is surprisingly simple to do by the way. It was a chocolate cake, shaped as a pudding (kind of) and prepared like a Devils Food. Atop lay the richest most decadently thick AND creamy chocolate sauce (thanks Nigella Lawson).

Jamie Oliver's New Mince Pies Assembly Job

Jamie Oliver's New Mince Pies 

Now to wish everybody all the best in the New Year, and a very merry post-Christmas mid holiday awkward bit of December! What are your plans? Love Em xx

PS. Click on the links above for both of these amaaaaaaaazing recipes.

Spiced Chocolate Cupcakes with Gingerbread Buttercream

Who has started their Christmas baking test-runs yet? Does anybody even do tests for such things? If you’re an inexperienced cook and you’re having the ol’ lot over, I’m guessing you’ve currently got a test-run turkey in the oven. That’s perfect because it’s a Sunday as well, just replacin’ the chicken for a turk really.  Here are my Christmas test run cupcakes, in unnecessarily copious amounts of pictures that I wish to share with you. Yes. You obviously wanted to look at every single picture I took that day. Obviously.

I’d otherwise slate the test-runner…what’s the point? Do you not have anything better to do with your time? Just chance it! But alas, I have become one of those weird test-run people. And boy, AM I GLAD. This chocolate cupcake slightly resembled a brownie (now would be a good time to mention that it was still delicious)! It was by no stretch of the word a light and fluffy cupcake, but a  kind of dense and dry topped brownie! Crossing THAT one off my Christmas baking list… next time I’ll go for a bitta stout in my liner, maybe even a bitta treacle, plus A LOT more spice in the batter. Don’t be afraid to be generous with the festive spices in a chocolate cake, it has a tendency to be masked by the intense flavours of chocolate you see.

Some good news – the buttercream was lovely, spicy and not too sweet. Rich, coming from a crusting buttercream recipe aye. But with a distinct lack of vanilla extract, and TONS of cinnamon and ginger, there is just this amazing balance of sweetness. The spices really do cut through all of that icing sugar! Still, I’ve got my eye on a mascarpone frosting, who knows how many more test-run’s my kitchen will see before the big day! 

The Recipe:                                   Makes aproximately 16 cupcakes 

The Cakes

100g dark chocolate, minimum 50%

4 eggs

100g self raising flour

2 and a half tsp cocoa powder

pinch of salt

225g caster sugar

175g soft butter

1 tsp vanilla extract 

Quertar tsp cinnamon
Quarter tsp ginger (optional)

The Buttercream

300g icing sugar

150g unsalted butter, soft

1 and a half tsp ginger 

2 tsp ground cinnamon 

1 tsp milk

The Method:

Preheat the oven to 180C and line a muffin tray.

Over a ban-marie, heat the butter and chocolate together till melted.

Take off the heat, add all of the sugar, mix together and then set aside to cool.

With a whisk, mix for 3 minutes until slightly fluffy, add the eggs in one at a time.

Fold all of the dry ingredients (including the spices if you wish) until just incorporated.

Lastly fold in the vanilla. Fill the cupcake liners two thirds full and bake for 25 minutes.

For the frosting, beat the butter in the bowl of a freestanding mixer for half a minute.

Add the icing sugar bit by bit, lastly the spices until well incorporated.

Pipe and frost. I used a small french tip for these cupcakes.  

Expect a *possible* birthday cake  on the blog this week, as I'll be turning the big 20 on Wednesday. But let's not mention that again, just comment below and make me feel sane by telling me you also had a Christmas baking test-run today, please! Love Em xx

Chocolate Olive Oil Cake

Chocolate Olive Oil Cake 

I made this cake in celebration of getting my car back, which might explain the lack of recipe posts, sincerely sorry, please forgive! It was my first day on the road so I made a quick dash to Morrison’s to pick up the necessities. Cocoa, sugar, olive oil, ground almonds… “did she really just say olive oil? For a cake? AND NO FLOUR? AGAIN? WHAT KIND OF BLOODY BLOG IS THIS?” might be your current thought process, but seriously, it was divine. 

Moist, a little wobbly with this shine that certainly weren’t left from the traces of under cooked cake what-so-ever. The olive oil spoke out for the cocoa-only chocolate cake recipe quite positively; it intensified the chocolate flavour ten fold. I walked into the kitchen after purposefully avoiding it for half an hour (perhaps for a little smelly surprise) and was greeted with a waft of deep and almost savoury chocolatey-ness. 

Another cake plus is that unlike my lemon, almond & polenta cake, this one didn’t sink in the middle! (the addition of cocoa powder means the cake is less like a delicate soufflé, and more like a cake with ground almonds added to it, and not the other way around) Hurrah! I think this unsinkable 8 incher is perfect for a dinner party, maybe you want to wow your guests with some outside the box baking, which this cake delivers, all thanks to that trusty half price bottle of olive oil. 

Chocolate Olive Oil Cake 

Adapted from Nigella Laweson's Chocolate Olive Oil Cake in Nigellissima 

The Recipe:

2 tsp vanilla extract

50g cocoa powder

120ml boiling water

150g olive oil

150g ground almonds 

Half tsp bicarb of soda

Quarter tsp salt

200g caster sugar

3 large, free range eggs

The Method:

• Preheat the oven to 150C fan, or 170 electric. Spray a loose bottomed 8 inch tin or grease with butter and set aside.
• Add the cocoa powder, vanilla and boiling water to a measuring jug and stir until smooth. Set aside.
• In a bowl add all of the dry ingredients and combine. 
• In a freestanding mixer whisk the eggs for 2 minutes until frothy. 
• Now alternately add the chocolate mixture and dry mixture until everything is together and looking nice and runny.
• Pour into the prepared tin and bake for 45 minutes.
• Leave to cool completely in the tin so the cake holds its shape. 
• Enjoy!

Love Em xx