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 ! -

Sweet and tender muffins with chocolate, banana and honey !

I loved the Cranberrie's recipe so much this time muffins are banana and chocolate !

Turn your oven on, these are really really good !

 For a dozen big muffins

   Il vous faut :    

For the main batter

1 3/4 cup flour (6.3oz/180gr)

3/4 cup whitesugar (6.3oz /180gr)

1/4 cup brown sugar (0.7oz/20gr)

7tbsp of slowly melted and cooled butter (2.8oz/80gr)

2 tsp baking powder

2 large eggs

1/2 cup of milk (4.2 fl oz/12,5 cL)

- whole milk -

3/4 cup of dark chocolate, chopped (2.5 oz/70 gr) 

- 70% -

3/4 tsp salt

For the bananas

2 cups bananas (10.6oz/300gr)

- 2 grandes bananes ou 6 petites -

2tbsp honey

For the Streusel

3tbsp flour 

1 tbsp + 1tsp white sugar

1tbsp light brown sugar

4tbsp softened butter

2 pinch of salt

2 tbsp unsweetened cocoa

Turn the oven on at 425°F

Make the streusel

Mix sugar, cocoa, salt, flour and butter in a food processor until mixture resembles coarse sand 

- 4 to 5 pressures -

Pour in a bowl, set aside

Prepare bananas 

Cut the bananas in small dices and stir honey by hand in them,

Cover and set aside.

Preparing the main batter

Butter and flour the mold if needed.

In a saucepan, slowly melt the butter and let it cool down a few minutes

\\ or use a microwave, 2 x 12secondes, stirring in between //

-------

Mix flour, baking powder and salt in a bowl, set aside.

In another bowl, use an electric beater to beat egs and sugar until white and fluffy

- 1 minute -

Pour in the butter, whisking, then the milk.

Add the flour little by little by whisking.

Cover and set aside 30 minutes

Stir in the bananas, the chocolate and fill your muffin tins.

Have the center a bit higher and spread streusel on the top, press lightly on it.

Bake 17 to 18 minutes

- Rotate muffin tray from front to bacj hafway through baking -

Let them cool down 10 minutes in their tins

 and 10 more minutes on a wire rack before eating them all !

 

 - Only one left... -

! See all the muffins recipes !

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 :)

Marbled cake

I've done all the recipes from Vovoi's book, at least, those working :) I'm back in my cookbooks !

"Exquises pâtisseries pour les Fêtes" de Christophe Felder, 

Choice was rather hard, because all the recipes seem delicious... My first pick is the marbled cake chocolate & vanilla.

I've done this one for a few years now, it must figure on my blog.

To be sure I haven't changed anything in the recipe since I've been using it, I've checked everything one more time. I hadn't changed a thing !

As good as usual, I can eat humongous piece of it !

- Creamcheese and chocolate icing -

For 1 big cake, or 2 middle sized cake (8inch by 4)

  You will need :   

for the batter

2 eggs

2cup and 1tbsp of flour (9.7 oz / 275gr)

6.1 oz of unsalted, softened butter (16tbsp / 175gr)

- sout of the fridge 1hour in advance -

1 cup 1/2 granulated sugar (13.2 oz / 375gr )

8.5 fl.oz  half & half (25cL)

1tsp of baking powder (0.2 oz/5gr)

3/4tsp  salt

flavours

4tsp unsweetened cocoa (0.9oz/25gr) de cacao amer en poudre

1tbsp vanilla extract

Turn your oven on at 375°C

In his recipe, Christophe Felder says to mix everything in a robot with a tool for working dough...

I don't have any, so here is what I've done :

Stir by hand, with a wooden spoon doing fluid but quick moves, rising the dough. the butter with sugar and salt to have a creamy batter

Add the eggs and stir until homogeneous

Finally stir in the flour with the baking powder

You have a soft and homogeneous batter

Divide it in two equal halves, in the first one, whisk in the cocoa.

In the other one, whisk in the vanilla

Use a whisk or a spatula by doing quick moves : cut and rise the batterMélangez au fouet ou par mouvement rapide en coupant/soulevant avec une spatule

Butter and flour your cakepan

- Christophe Felder says to spread melted butter on it and cover them with a parchment paper -

Start by pouring a thin layer with the cocoa batter (1/2inch) Do the same with the vanilla one etc...

Don't go further than 2/3 of your cakepan, it will rise a lot during baking :)

Bake it 40 minutes, without opening the oven. Depending on your cakepan, it often goes to 50 minutes.

Check the cooking by inserting a pick or a clean smooth knife in the center, 

if it comes out clean, it's baked !

Let it cool down at room temperature before turning out.

Christophe Felder gives the recipe for a chocolate icing made of "vegetaline" since I don't have any and I don't even know where to buy it in California, I will explain a Chocolate & creamcheese icing.

Chocolate & creamcheese icing

   You will need :   

1oz unsweetened chocolate

0.75 oz unsweetened cocoa

2.8 oz creamcheese

3.5oz powdered sugar

2tsp vanilla extract

3tbsp half & half  or water

2 pinch of salt

Melt the chocolate in the microwave with 2tbsp of water

Soften the creamcheese with an electric beater for 2 minutes, mix in the cocoa, the vanilla and the melted chocolate at medium speed

Mix in the sugar and the salt little by little, go on medieum/high speed.

Add in some water or half and half to obtain the perfect consistancy 

to spread on the cake.

- so good -