Tag Archives: chocolate

(Almost Vegan) Everyday Chocolate Loaf Cake

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Ok, let me first start off by saying that you know you have the most badass kittens ever when they behave during a food photography shoot while blasting some ZZ Top on the record player (ie. not jump on the kitchen table full of delicately placed reflector boards, powdered sugar and cake crumbs everywhere). They’ll tear up practically everything else in the apartment they can get their hands on (although they haven’t broken anything yet… knock on wood!), whether it be shredding a roll full of toilet paper, a candy wrapper or clothing tag, but when it comes to mommy’s kitchen baking projects, they are practically angels. Sweet little angels.

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And then they curl up with me on the couch as I edit the photos and write this blog post. Man, am I the luckiest kitty mama ever or what? I really need to get on sharing more photos of those rascals. Gee whiz. But in the meantime, we have more important issues to discuss. Like this (nearly vegan) Everyday Chocolate Loaf Cake. Very serious, important issues.

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I think this is, by far, my favorite photo shoot I’ve ever done. It helps that I finally found some decent photography backdrop equipment and tools (thank you Goodwill and recycled/reclaimed lumberyards!). I finally got around to thumbing through this book From Plate to Pixel  by Helene Dujardin a few weeks ago and man, it has me ridiculously inspired. Her food photography is definitely at the highest esthetic level in my opinion, and exactly what I strive to achieve as far as color, depth of field, texture, and style go. I love it. It’s practically my new bible.

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I found this loaf cake recipe while fiddling around on Foodgawker last night and was instantly frothing at the mouth, and luckily already had all of the ingredients on hand. However I decided to be a bit adventurous and make it almost vegan. Almost vegan because I subbed out the butter for canola oil, and made up my own almond “buttermilk” with apple cider vinegar and lemon juice. But I didn’t leave out the (one) egg. I wasn’t in the mood to fool around with it further. Striving to leave the main integrity of the cake to stand up alone, I didn’t want to compromise the texture or flavor too much. Sometimes I think butter tends to dry out cakes too much, which is part of the reason I have favored vegan baking for many, many years. Canola or coconut oil is always a great option when you crave that moist texture, especially when it comes to loaf cakes. They can dry out pretty fast if you’re not careful. But this turned out wonderfully. The only thing I might change next time I make this is to add some chocolate chips to the batter to enrich the chocolate flavor and add some melty goodness to the mix. Otherwise, I wholeheartedly encourage you to give this a try. There’s a reason it’s called an “everyday” loaf cake–more than likely you already have all of these ingredients on hand to many any day, everyday! Oh, and this would be a delicious snack with some peanut butter spread on top. Jus’ sayin’.

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 (Almost Vegan) Everyday Chocolate Loaf Cake

Adapted from the original recipe in At Home With Magnolia 

Makes one 9x5x3-inch loaf cake

  • 1/2 cup canola oil
  • 1 cup vanilla almond milk
  • 1 teaspoon apple cider vinegar
  • 1 tablespoon lemon juice
  • 1 cup firmly packed light brown sugar
  • 1/2 cup granulated sugar
  • 1 large egg, at room temperature
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
  • 3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
  • 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1/4 teaspoon salt
  1. Preheat the oven to 325ºF. Spray a 9x5x3-inch loaf pan with coconut or canola oil, set aside.
  2. In a measuring cup, pour out your almond milk and stir in the cider vinegar and lemon juice. Set aside to curdle for at least 5 minutes.
  3. In a large bowl, combine the sugars and the oil on medium speed until combined and slightly fluffy. Add the egg, then the almond “buttermilk” and vanilla.
  4. Sift in the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda and salt. Fold with a spatula (otherwise you may dust your entire kitchen with cocoa powder!) until well-blended but not over mixing. Scrape the batter down into the bowl, ensuring all ingredients are well incorporated.
  5. Pour the batter into the prepared pan and bake for 55 minutes (may be 50-60 mins depending on how hot/cool your oven runs). Insert a toothpick into cake to check for doneness. Cool on a wire rack for 10-15 minutes, then invert onto your serving platter. Dust with icing sugar before serving.

Pumpkin Chocolate Swirl Buns

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You’re probably thinking this is a mistake. A huge unseasonal mistake. Because pumpkin isn’t supposed to show up on blogs at the beginning of Spring. Is this girl crazy? Pumpkin belongs only in the Fall, you say! Well I say heck with that business. I’m an all-year-round pumpkin eating kind of lady. I keep it on hand 24/7. The world just feels chaotic and uneasy without a huge stockpile of cans of pumpkin puree in the cupboard. That’s just how I roll.

Speaking of rolling, have you ever made cinnamon rolls? You know, you roll out the dough after you let it rise over an hour, then let it sit a bit longer before you bake em. You roll up the filling and then slice the rolls and put them in a baking dish so they all clump together. These are pretty much the same thing. They require the rolling part. Except these are baked separated in a muffin pan.

Can I just say that these are ridiculously amazing? Honestly these are one of the best things I’ve ever baked in my entire life. I’ve always been a little scared of baking with yeast. I feel like it takes too much time and isn’t always worth it. But this morning I hung out in my pajamas till noon, cleaned the house, played a little Hall & Oates on the piano, and baked these pumpkin chocolate swirl rolls. You gets it done. It all works out. The yeast eventually rises. You make buns.

The dough turned out perfect. I baked them for 15 minutes, and they were just golden on top, still moist in the center. They’re best right out of the oven when the chocolate is still melty and warm. The crunchy sugary topping is also a lovely, unexpected touch.

It’s really pretty simple. Just set aside about 3 hours to make these and you and your buns will be golden. And sugary. And chocolatey. And pumpkiny. And full of only your wildest dreams. I considered taking these to work tomorrow but I kind of changed my mind after the first bite and 3 buns later… I am going to eat all of these myself. No joke. (Sorry coworkers.)

Pumpkin Chocolate Swirl Buns

Slightly adapted from Hungry Girl Por La Vida and Smitten Kitchen

Makes 12 buns

Dough:

  • 1/3 cup warm milk of any kind
  • 1 1/2 teaspoons active-dry yeast
  • 1/3 cup brown sugar
  • 1/2 cup pure pumpkin puree
  • 1 egg, lightly beaten
  • 2 1/4 cups flour
  • 1/2 teaspoon fleur de sel sea salt
  • 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
  • 1/8 teaspoon nutmeg
  • 4 Tablespoons unsalted, softened butter

Filling:

  • 3 Tablespoons unsalted butter
  • 1/4 cup brown sugar
  • 1 cup dark chocolate (60%) chunks
  • pinch of fleur de sel sea salt

Egg Wash:

  • 1 egg
  • 1 Tablespoon cream
  • white granulated sugar, for sprinkling on top
  1. In a glass measuring cup, combine warm milk with yeast and a pinch of sugar. Allow to proof 5 minutes. Stir in the pumpkin and the egg. With a hand mixer, combine flour, remaining sugar, salt, cinnamon and nutmeg. Add the yeast-pumpkin mixture and mix on low to combine. Add the butter 2 Tablespoons at a time, mixing until the butter is incorporated before adding the rest. The dough will be quite sticky and stringy. Using your hands, knead the dough for 1-2 minutes until shiny and throughly combined. Place in an oiled bowl, cover with plastic and allow to rise until doubled in size, about 1 hour.
  2. While the dough rises, make the filling. In the bowl of a food processor, process all ingredients until all of the butter is distributed and you have an uneven, gravely mixture. Set aside.
  3. Liberally butter a 12-cup muffin tin. Set aside.
  4. Once dough has risen, turn the dough out onto a well floured surface and gently deflate. Allow to rest 5 more minutes, before rolling the dough out into a large rectangle, the short end measuring about 12 inches–the long edge can be about 18-22 inches. Sprinkle the chocolate filling evenly over the rectangle (it will be bumpy) and begin rolling from the short end all the way up into a 12-13 inch log and pinch to seal. Gently saw off about 1-inch spirals, placing each into a prepared tin. Cover loosely with plastic wrap and allow to rise another hour.
  5. Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 325*F.
  6. Whisk together the egg and cream, brush gently over the tops of the proofed buns and sprinkle liberally with sugar. Bake in the center of the oven for 15-20 minutes. Mine took 15 minutes as my oven runs hot, as I also reduced the temperature from the original 350*F and they still cooked on the lower end. Remove from oven and cool on a rack for at least 15 minutes before serving.

Thyme & Salted Chocolate Chunk Cookies

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Every chance I can get to incorporate some of my favorite savory herbs into baking recipes, I am ecstatic. Rosemary, sage, and thyme are some of my favorite ingredients ever. So when I found this recipe I couldn’t wait to see what thyme would taste like in some chocolate chip cookies!

Chocolate chunks have easily become my new favorite chocolate baking chip. Their shape holds up well even after baking and being melted, and they tend to stick out a bit more pronounced than regular chips. Here I used a 62% and it went really great in these. Not too dark, not too light and milky.

I’ve always preferred thick, dense and pillowy cookies, but every now and then a thin, flaky and buttery cookie catches my eye and will do the trick. I wasn’t expecting these to turn out so flat like saucers, but regardless, they were absolutely delicious. The thyme wasn’t too much–just an unexpected earthy punch of flavor that pairs super well with the sea salt and chocolate chips. If you’re a lover of thyme as much as I am, then you will definitely love these. Make sure you bake them long enough so they brown around the edges. One half of my batch didn’t get baked thoroughly and the dough fell apart. They don’t set up well if they’re not thoroughly baked. Just a little warning. Enjoy!

Thyme & Salted Chocolate Chunk Cookies

Adapted from Desserts for Breakfast

Makes approximately 14-18 cookies

  • 1 cup all-purpose flour
  • 1/2 cup whole wheat flour
  • 1 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1 teaspoon fleur de sel
  • 2 tablespoons fresh thyme leaves
  • 2 sticks unsalted butter, cold and cut into small cubes
  • 1 cup dark brown sugar
  • 1/2 cup white sugar
  • 1 tablespoon molasses
  • 2 eggs
  • 10 oz dark (62%) chocolate chunks
  • sea salt, to sprinkle

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Prepare sheet pans lined with parchment paper.
2. In a bowl, whisk to combine the all-purpose flour, whole wheat flour, baking soda, salt, and fresh thyme leaves. Set aside.
3. With a hand mixer, cream the butter for about 2-3 minutes. Scrape down sides of bowl as needed.
4. Gradually add the brown sugar, white sugar, and molasses to the butter, beating until light and fluffy.
5. Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition.
6. Mix in the dry ingredients and then fold in the chocolate chunks until well-distributed.
7. Form each cookie using about two tablespoons of dough per cookie. Roll into a ball and place on the prepared pan, pressing down slightly to form a thick disc. Leave room between each cookie–they will spread. Sprinkle a small amount of sea salt on each cookie.
8. Bake for 12 minutes, rotating the pan halfway through the baking time, until the edges of the cookies are just turning brown. Remove from the oven and let cool on the pan on a rack for two minutes before removing the cookies from the pan and cooling directly on a rack.

Mint Chocolate Crème de Menthe Bundt Cake

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I created this cake based on the inspiration from two main things:

1. My grandfather on my dad’s side used to drink straight up Grasshopper’s every evening after dinner while watching the telly, and I swore I’d never forget the scent that wafted through the room. Nor would I ever forget the bright green food colored liquid resting in the vessel he would raise to his lips. I was frightened and intrigued at the same time. I thought the stuff was cough syrup.

2. My grandmother on my dad’s side would make the classic Crème de Menthe “Grasshopper” sheet cake, full of preservatives with a Betty Crocker cake base mix, the liqueur, hot fudge, and cool whip. An ice-box cake, if you will. It was effing amazing. I can’t assure you at what point of my childhood I finally put two and two together and realized the yummy green minty stuff in the after dinner dessert cakes she’d make was the same stuff I was horrified my grandfather was poisoning himself with. It looks something like this:

Crème de menthe liqueur comes in the clear liquid form, and also in the green-dyed form. As tempting as it was to go without the food coloring, it just isn’t the same experience if it isn’t green, right?! Ok, you feels.

I Googled to the moon and sun and back and couldn’t, for the life of me, find a from-scratch crème de menthe/”grasshopper” bundt cake. At all. So, once again, I took matters into my own hands and found a way to adapt to the “Naughty Senator” bundt cake from All Cakes Considered. No preservatives or trans-fats here. No pistachio pudding mixes. This is straight up hard-core crème de menthe bundt cake purity.

It was super fun to make. Dye-ing things green, separating batter, swirling things together (as shown above). And it smelled incredible. The chocolate is a nice touch to balance the pure mint green batter out. And the swirling effect looks uber pretty, too.

I hope it isn’t too late for your St. Patrick’s Day baking plans to make this. I promise, it’s super easy, you really just need a bottle of that green stuff and you’ll be fine. Promise. You won’t regret it.

Mint Chocolate Crème de Menthe Bundt Cake

Adapted from All Cakes Considered, Food & Wine Magazine

Makes one 12-inch bundt cake

For the cake:

  • 2 1/2 cups sugar
  • 1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa
  • 2 sticks unsalted butter, at room temperature
  • 4 large eggs
  • 3 1/2 cups sifted all-purpose flour
  • 3 teaspoons baking powder
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 1 cup sour cream (or milk)
  • 3/4 cup Crème de Menthe liqueur, plus 2 teaspoons
  • extra green food coloring gel (optional)

For the chocolate ganache glaze:

  • 3 ounces semi-sweet/bittersweet chocolate
  • 1/3 cup heavy cream
  • 1/2 teaspoon corn syrup
  • 1/2 tablespoon unsalted butter
  1. Center an oven rack and preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Prepare your bundt pan by spraying with cooking oil, and flour. Remove excess by tapping out the rest.
  2. In a small bowl, whisk together 1/2 cup of the sugar with all of the cocoa powder. Set aside.
  3. Using a mixer on medium speed, in a separate bowl, cream the butter then gradually add in the remaining 2 cups of sugar. Add the eggs one at a time, beating after each addition.
  4. In another separate large bowl, dry whisk together the flour, baking powder and salt.
  5. Add 1 cup of the flour mixture to the creamed butter and sugar bowl, beat, then add 1/3 cup of the sour cream and beat again. Repeat until all of the flour mixture and sour cream are blended into the batter.
  6. Pour half of the batter into a clean medium bowl. Add the 3/4′ths cup of menthe liqueur. Mix together well. If you’d like the batter greener, just add some gel coloring.
  7. Pour 2/3rds of the now green batter into the bottom of the cake pan. Set aside the remaining green batter.
  8. Clean off your beaters, dry, and return them to the mixer. Add the cocoa and sugar mixture to the plain “yellow” batter and add the remaining 2 teaspoons of menthe liqueur. Beat until smooth.
  9. Using your spatula, pour the chocolate batter over the green batter in the pan.
  10. Layer the remaining 1/3 of green batter over the chocolate batter and marble (using a small spatula or plastic knife, cut through the middle of the batter ring to the bottom of the pan. Bring the utensil toward you and then up toward the side of the pan. Rotate the cake pan with your other hand and repeat. Do about 2 rotations total, no more).
  11. Bake for 45-50 minutes. When the cake tests done (check with toothpick), let cool for at least 30 minutes, then invert and unmold onto a cake rack.
  12. To make the chocolate ganache glaze: In a small saucepan, bring the cream to a boil. In a heatproof bowl, combine the remaining 3 ounces of chopped chocolate with the corn syrup and butter. Pour the hot cream over the chocolate and let stand until melted, about 5 minutes. Whisk until smooth. Let the ganache glaze cool until thick but still pourable, about 5 minutes.
  13. Pour the ganache over the cooled cake. Let the cake stand until the glaze is set, at least 30 minutes, before serving.

Guinness Chocolate Cheesecake

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guinness chocolate cheesecake

As I’m sure you’re well aware, St. Patrick’s day is just around the corner and we all know what that means pretty much two things: the color green, and a nice frosty glass of Guinness stout. Two things I absolutely love: green is my favorite color, and stouts (especially the Guinness extra stout) are one of my favorite beers. The next baking recipe will include some green hues in it, but for now I’m going to focus all of my attention of the Guinness and present you with this delectable Guinness Chocolate Cheesecake.

I’ve baked with Guinness quite a few times in my life. Not to mention vegan chocolate stout cupcakes (for some reason I didn’t get around to posting that recipe a few years ago… I should fix that). Stout can do such amazing things once it is incorporated into baked goods. Obviously it pairs well with chocolate, hence chocolate chips, cocoa powder, and in this cheesecake. It’s absolutely insane. Almost like a flourless and dense chocolate cake, very fudgy, creamy, but also light like a chocolate souffle. But better.

Honestly, does it look like it could get any better? This is the ultimate chocolate dessert. It’s especially enhanced with a squeeze of whipped cream on top and a few sliced strawberries or raspberries. What more could you want? If you’re looking for a dessert recipe to take to a potluck St. Patrick’s party or to host at your home, look no further. This is all you’ll need. (And a few more bottles of Guinness…) Just make it ahead of time the night before!

Guinness Chocolate Cheesecake

From: Closet Cooking

Ingredients:

  • 1 cup honey graham cracker crumbs
  • 3 tablespoons cocoa powder
  • 1 tablespoon sugar
  • 2 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
  • 12 ounces 56% semisweet chocolate, chopped
  • 2 tablespoons heavy cream
  • 3 (8 ounce) packages neufchâtel cream cheese
  • 1 cup sugar
  • 1/2 cup fat-free sour cream
  • 3 eggs
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 3/4 cup Guinness Extra Stout

Directions:

  1. Mix the graham cracker crumbs, cocoa powder, sugar, and butter and press into the bottom of a 9 inch spring form pan.
  2. Melt the chocolate in the cream in a small saucepan over medium heat.
  3. Cream the cream cheese in a large bowl with a hand-held mixer.
  4. Mix in the sugar, chocolate, sour cream, eggs, vanilla, and Guinness.
  5. Pour the mixture into the spring form pan.
  6. Bake in a preheated 350F oven for 55 minutes.
  7. Turn off heat and leave cheesecake in the oven with the door slightly ajar for 60 minutes.
  8. Let cool completely and chill the cheesecake in the fridge overnight!
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