Double Chocolate Muffins

100% Dark chocolate Muffins

To celebrate our return to ths USA, I tried a 100% chocolate muffin recipe.

This recipe is from the Figaro's cookbook "Tendances gourmandes #02 "Intense chocolate"... My mum was probably in the need of some chocolate when she bought it :)

It's Syvie Girard-Lagorce's recipe. The picture were really bad but I wanted to try a chocolate muffin recipe :)

  Preparation    Easy, well explained, for a beginners

  Tasting    Good but nothing exceptionnal, they lack of tenderness, even if they are really soft.

Maybe it's the baking powder, or the cocoa instead of melted chocolate. They were better on the morrow.

  Ton conclude    I'm opened to other recipes.

For 2 dozen muffins

   Il vous faut :   

1 3/4c flour (200gr)

1 14 cup light brown sugar (250gr)

17 tbsp softened butter (190gr) 

3 eggs at room temperature

1 cup unsweetened cocoa (125gr)

2tsp baking powder (10gr)

1/2 tsp salt

1cup mik (25cL) 

1 cup bittersweet chocolate chip (175gr)

Preheat the oven at 370°F

Prepare your muffin tins with cooking spray or with butter

Soften the butter with the electric beater, beat in the sugar in 3 times.

Add eggs 1 by 1, beating each time until homogeneous.

In a bowl, stir flour, cocoa, baking powder and salt. Stir in that dry mix to the previous batter.

Mix until homogeneous.

 Little by little, stir in the milk 

 

When your batter is homogeneous, add in the chocoate chip.

Fill 2/3 of your tins,  slighty higher in the center.

Bake 15 to 20 minutes depending on the size of your tins.

At halftime baking, turn the tray front to back.

Mine were done after 15 minutes.

Use a toothpick to check moist.

Cool down on a wire rack before turning out.

Keep under a plastic film :)

! See all the muffins recipes !

Best Creamy Chocolate Pudding

Do you like chocolate, really do ? 

This is a recipe you have to try... 

It's the best chocolate cream I've ever tasted ! 

This recipe is from Cook's Illustrated, they really do have great recipes.

  Preparation    15 minutes top, so quick and easy !

  Tasting    So onctuous and creamy and... perfect, but if you prefer milk chocolate rather than dark chocolate, this recipe is not for you !

  To conclude    I did it 3 times in a row... loved it too much !

Serves 6 to 8

   You will need :   

1/2 cup white sugar

2tbsp cornstarch

- Maizena -

3tbsp unsweetened cocoa

- Van Houten or Hershey's unsweetened -

2 pinch of salt

- environ 2gr -

3 egg yolks

2 1/2 cup  milk (21fl.oz/62,5cL)

1/2 cup heavy whipping cream (2fl.oz/6cL) 

4tbsp unsalted butter (1.8oz/50gr)

1cup bittersweet chocolate ~80% cocoa (3.9oz/110gr)

2tsp vanilla extract

1/2tsp strong ground coffee

- I used Nespresso coffee -

In a small bowl, mix vanilla and coffee. Set aside.

Prepare together butter and chocolate in morsels. Set aside.

In a saucepan, stir in sugar, cocoa salt and cornstarch, mix.

Whisk in the yolks and the cream until homogeneous

Whisk in the milk until fully integrated.

Bring slowly to a boil at low heat, whisking slowly. It takes 7 to 8 minutes.

When all the surface is simmering/boiling. Count down 30 secondes while whisking.

Remove from heat and whisk in chocolate and butter in morsels. Whisk until homogeneous !

Whisk in the vanilla/coffee mix.

When you have an homogeneous cream, pour in a bowl and cover with buttered parchment paper.

Refrigerate 2 hours.

Whisk and serve !

 - I love so much chocolate ! -

The Soft Chocolate Tart of Antoine Zestermann

A new Chef Recipe... Let's have some chocolate !

 I had tried his Christmas cake with madarine "Bûche alsacienne aux clémentines confites" ... which was amazing, I wanted to try another recipe from Antoine Westermann

- The chef of our wedding's restaurant -

Antoine Westermann, in his book "La cuisine ménagère d'un grand chef" - Homecooking of a famous chef Antoine gives us a recipe of a soft chocolate tart with a topping made of ganache.... 

Really light of texture, it's almost a mousse. 

You have to keep the tart at room temperature to conserve its softness.

   Preparation    Easy and quick, you won't have a lot of dishes to wash :)

The recipe was well made but I 've missed a line... an important one : Pre-cook the dough !

I've also replace the cocoa buteer by regular butter so the icing-ganache may be a bit different in texture. You will also need a cooking thermometer... but if you don't have any, you can still manage it.

I could do better, but the chocolate cream was awesome !

   Tasting    Surprising taste on the first slice... The cream tastes like a chocolate cake ! Sweet and really soft... The icing is more than welcome, it's a really dark touche of bittersweet chocolate :) 

It was even better a day later The cram was even softer !

   To conclude    A soft, tender, with a "fondante" texture, which has satisfied everyone, dark chocolate lovers a much as milk chocolate lovers....

A real treat with a dark coffee !

For a 9inch pie

   You will need :   

1 cookie dough

- 350gr -

for the chocolate cream

3.4fl oz of milk (10cL)

3.4fl oz of half&half (10c)

2.5 of white sugar (70gr)

2.8 dark chocolate 70% (80gr)

5 egg yolks (2.8oz)

for the icing/ganache

3tbsp of half and half

4tsp of white sugar (20gr)

4 tsp of water

2.8 oz bittersweet chocolate (70gr

2tbsp softened butter

Prepare your cookie dough, flavour it with chocolate, vanilla or keep it natural.

Flatten it on 0.1inch (3mm) and place it in your tart pan, so it holds well on the edges.

Spread some beans or rice on the dough and put in the oven at 350°F for 15 minutes.

Let it cool down in the tart pan at room temperature.

Preheat your oven at 340°F

Prepare the chocolate batter

Coarsely chop the chocolate in a bowl

Put the eggyolks in a smal bowl and take a whisk.

Pour tje cream the milk and the sugar in a small saucepan at medium/high temperature.

Bring to a boil while stirring with your whisk to melt in the sugar.

Whisk in that cream on the chocolate and keep beating until well melted and integrated.

Add in the eggyolks and stir by hand with a spatula so the eggs won't be beaten or foamy.

Pour that chocolate batter in your tart and put it back in the oven for 15 minutes.

On the top, there will be a small crust but the inside will be really soft. Don't overcook !

Prepare the chocolate icing

Melt the sugar with the water and the chocolate woarsely chopped in a saucepan.

Bring to a boil at medium fire. At the first boil, add in the butter and the cream. Keep a gentle boil 20secondes. Pour in a bowl, let it cool down and keep refrigerated.

To use, heat it until you reach 100°F and pour it carefully on the chocolate tart.

OR

Instead of refrigerating it, wait 20 minutes or so at room temperature, to reach 100°F  

and the right consistency, then, pour it on the tart.

Keep the tart at room temperature !

Bon appétit...  :)

Chocolate and lemon cake... Soft and buttery cake !

It doesn't look that great...

But in fact *glups*

I don't know anymore, my favorite chocolate cake recipe may have become this one....

This is a recipe from Sébastien Gaudard's book with Françoise Bernard

"Le Meilleur des desserts"  It's a bible of the most famous classic french family recipe.

 Each of them gives its recipe of a classic cake, his advice and his knowledge of the cake.

It's a really nice book, though the pictures are really bad...

Françoise Bernard gives the classic recipe of the "Quatre-Quart", but Sébastien Gaudard 

proposes a "Cinq-cinquième" with a fifth ingredient in it : CHOCOLATE !

1/5 sugar, 1/5 eggs, 1/5 butter, 1/5 flour, 1/5 chocolate... oh my god.

Try it, it's awsome and really easy :)

Lemon and chocolate are a perfect match...

For 6 to 9 people

   You will need :   

Each ingredient at room temperature

2 eggs, weighted

- mine were 4,4 oz -

Same weight of sugar

- 4,4 oz -

Same weight of salted butter

- 4,4 oz -

Same weight of flour

- 4,4 oz -

Same weight of dark chocolate : 70%

- 4,4 oz -

2 tsp of baking powder

Finely shredded lemon zest (1/3 of a meyer lemon)

Turn the oven on at 350°F

All the ingredients at room temperature

Prepare the zest

Peel the thin skin of the lemon, without grating the white part. Cut it in small pieces. 

- You can use a cheese-grate to peel it -

To avoid having a dry lemon after that, put some plastic film all around it.

Make the cake

Beat the eggs with the sugar and the zests until white

- about 3 minutes at high speed -

Melt the chocolate in the microwave in a bowl stirring it each time

- 4x30 secondes - 

When it's melted, stir in the softened butter

Stir in the chocolate-mix to the previous batter. 

Stir by hand to have a soft and souple batter.

Mix flour and baking powder together and stir that mix little by little in the previous batter.

Butter and flour your mold (or use a cooking spray)

Fill the mold to the 2/3

- it raises pretty well -

Put in the oven at least 30 minutes

- mine took 35 minutes -

Insert a toothpick in the center of the cake to check moist.

I hope you will like it as much as I did :)

Chocolate cake #3

Cake #3

Done ! I've tried the 3rd recipe of Vovoi !

Compared to the other ones, it's more friable/cripy because of the grounded almond and it has to be done in a high mold (at least 2.2 inches)

It's taste is well-balanced between almonds and chocolate, it's a tea-time cake, or to mix in some yogurt, with some fruits, something to make it less dry.

You can keep it really well, and it's really different from the other ones. 

I would advise this one to people who are not huge fans of chocolate

For a 7 to 8 people cake

For 4 eggs, 5.6 oz of butter, chocolate and sugar (160gr) , 2.3oz of flour (65gr) and 2.8oz of grounded almonds (80gr) 

   You will need :   

4.4 oz of dark chocolate (125gr)

3 Tbsp of water d'eau

3.5 oz of butter (6.5 tbsp / 100gr)

- Vovoi puts 4.4 oz -

3.5 oz of sugar (0.4 cup / 100gr)

- Vovoi puts 4.4 oz -

3 eggs

1.4 oz of flour (2.5 tbsp / 40gr) de farine

- Vovoi puts 3tbsp -

2 oz of almond powder (4 tbsp / 60gr)

1 pinch of salt

Turn the oven on at 325°F

Melt the chocolate with the water in a casserole on low heat

Stir the butter in it when the chocolate is half-melted

When it's shiny and smooth, remove from the fire and pour in a bowl

Add the eggyolks one by one

- keep the eggwhites in a bowl, in the fridge -

Then stir by hand with the sugar for at least 3 minutes

Add the flour and the almonds little by little,

stir by doing small circular movements

You have a dense dough, don't stir it too long

Beat your eggwhites until stiff with a pinch of salt

Integrate them to the dense chocolate dough in 4 times, 

do it slowly, always the same way, cut and rise with your spatula

Pour in a buttered mold

Put in the oven for 45 minutes, check the cooking by inserting a knife in the middle of the cake, 

if it comes out clean, it's baked. Start to check after 35 minutes

Turn out when tepid

Chocolate sweets

An easy and quick recipe, it reminds me of chocolate "Charlotte"

Vovoi has a lot of sweets and candy style recipe in her cookbook.

But this is more a cake than a sweet, they are easily sliced and eatable by hands though.

It doesn't need to be cooked.

Biscuits have a rhum syrup in them, the inside is a chocolate mousse.

Alcool is pretty strong, it's not a recipe for children ;)

The cake has to be made the day before

For 6 to 8 people

   You will need :   

 4.2 oz of solft lady finger (120gr) 

4.2 oz of dark chocolate (120gr)

3.2 oz of butter (90gr)

3 eggs

For the syrup

2.1 oz of sugar (60gr) de sucre

- 12 squares, I think it's a bit too much -

- I've put only ten,1.8oz (50gr) - 

3tbsp of rhum

2.4 fl oz.

1 large pan or dish, 3inch hight

Make the chocolate mousse

Separe yolks and eggwhites, keep your eggwhites with a pinch of salt in the fridge.

Put the chocolate in a casserole on low heat, make it melt with 1tbsp of water

When the chocolate is half-melted, add the butter,

Let it melt at low heat, stirring until smooth and homogeneous

When it's the right consistency (as on the picture), pour it in a bowl and add the yolks one by one

Stir well after each one

Beat the eggwhites until stiff and add them to that mix

- but cutting, rising, not squeezing them, use a spatula -

If you want to put a frosting, keep some of the chocolate cream before adding the eggwhites.

Making the syrup

Melt the sugar with the water in a casserole on low heat

It takes approximatively 7 minutes, then add the rhum

Stir it and pour it in a plate with edges

Put the soft lady fingers in it

-  3 to 4 seconds on each side -

Place one layer of biscuits, then a layer of mousse, another layer of biscuit

Depending on your dish/mold, display them as you want

I made it in a silicone mold, it allowd me to turn it out easily

The frosting

 Vovoi says to frost it with the chocolate cream you have kept (before adding the eggwhites), use a spatula or a flat tool to cover your cake with it

Enjoy :) 

Vovoï's Swiss chocolate cake

Seconde recipe :)

Swiss Chocolate Cake, gâteaux suisses...

the recipe seemed alright, stiff eggwhites were promessfull :)

Compared to the first one, he is less creamy,

the chocolate/sugar quantities are different, less sugar, 

more chocolate, its tasting is lighter, 

it doesn't have the sugar crust either.

It's less dense and more crumbly because it has more flour than the other one (and more butter) 

It's a basic chocolate cake recipe, as we have all eaten at an anniversary when we were kids

My other half prefered the first one, 

I prefer this one, chocolate cakes are often heavy on my stomach, 

this one is exactly what I need :)

But why cake"s" ?

And why the Swiss origin ?

If you have an explanation... I've looked online but haven't found any !

   You will need :   

a half pound of 72% chocolate (250gr)

a half pound of sugar (240gr)

1 cup of flour (125gr)

1/2 cup of slightly melted butter (4.4oz / 125gr)

- 15 to 25 sec in the microwave -

3.4 fl. oz of water (10cL)

4 eggs

Turn on the oven at 350°F

Put the chocolate and the water to melt in a small casserole

- low/medium gas -

Reserve the eggwhites in the fridge and blend the yolks with the sugar until white

As soon as the chocolate has melted, add it to the yolks/sugar and blend it together

Pour the flour little by little by doing growing circular movements from the center of the bowl

with your wooden spoon

Add the slighlty melted butter and blend it for 5 to 6 minutes,

it should get a bit thicker and heavier to blend

Beat the eggwhites until real stiff and add them to your mix at the last minute, in 3 times

Blend them by cutting, and rising the dough, as if you wanted to close the chocolate on the eggwhites

Butter the cake pan"s", fill them and put in the oven

I would say to try in small cake pans (muffins pan ?) instead of a big one,

I did it with a cake pan of 8.6inches (22 cm), it cooked 30 minutes 

so it's one big swiss cake instead of many :)

Depending on your pan, the cooking time will change,

check the cooking by inserting a clean and smooth knife in the middle of the cake, 

if it comes out clean, it's cooked.