Showing posts with label cocoa. Show all posts
Showing posts with label cocoa. Show all posts

Sunday, April 21, 2013

Brigadeiros

Chewy caramel insides are covered with chocolate sprinkles to make these sweets, essential at any Brazilian party. They are so easy to make too!




This week, #SundaySupper is celebrating celebrating.  What I mean is, we are sharing recipes that are perfect for showers.  Baby showers, bridal showers or whatever lovely gathering you are planning this month.  Our host is Brandie from Home Cooking Memories, so I think she will appreciate that I reached back to one of my favorite times to share this party favorite. 

Brigadeiros are an easy sweet treat that make an essential appearance at every celebration in Brazil.  We lived there for almost six years when our daughters were little.  In fact, both of them started school (a couple of years apart, of course) at the Omega School, which was a few blocks from our house, in the small neighborhood of MacaĆ© called Vivendas da Lagoa.  It was a tiny operation with fewer than 30 students ranging from the three-year-olds to one sixth grader, with most children falling on the younger end of the chart.  Enrollment was so small most years that when one child celebrated a birthday, the whole crowd was invited. The best part was that they all played well together, regardless of age or grade level.  We missed that interaction later, in bigger schools. 

In those days, MacaĆ© was a small oilfield town, short on amenities.  (I’ve been told it has progressed greatly since then, although I haven’t been back.)  Grocery shopping was limited and it was a challenge to do it all in one day, especially with at least one small child in tow.  Chicken was only purchased at the chicken shop, beef, pork and sausages at the butcher. If you wanted fresh vegetables, the best place was Hortifruti, the covered market.  Fresh milk was in limited supply so we bought UHT (ultra high temperature) milk that came in Tetrapaks.

For cheese, there were a couple of places you might get lucky, just don’t expect anything fancy.  But one thing that every shop had, even the little corner store in our neighborhood, were cans of the sweet sticky paste used for making brigadeiros.  When we left Brazil (and the supply I had brought in our shipment was exhausted) we had to learn how to make them without it.  Because, as I am sure you will agree once you try one, life is too short to go without brigadeiros. Fortunately, it isn’t that hard since you start with sticky condensed milk, available everywhere. 

Ingredients 
3 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa 
1 tablespoon butter plus a little extra for buttering your hands when you are rolling the little balls 
1 (14 ounce or 397g) can sweetened condensed milk (not evaporated milk) 
10.5 oz or 298g packet chocolate rice or sprinkles (You may not use them all.)
60-70 tiny paper muffin liners

Method 
In a medium saucepan over medium heat, pour in the condensed milk, then sift in the cocoa and add in the butter.




Cook over a medium heat, stirring gently to make sure it is well combined.



Keep stirring and cooking until it is quite thick, about 10-15 minutes.



Remove from the heat and let rest until cool enough to handle.  It will stiffen up even more as it cools. 

Put your chocolate sprinkles in a small bowl or other deep container. 

Rub a little butter into both of your palms.  Using a small spoon, scoop up a little of the sweet paste and roll it into small balls between your palms.


Use one spoon to scrape it off into your buttered palm. 

Roll it between your buttered palms to get a smooth ball. 

Drop it gently into the small bowl of chocolate sprinkles and roll it around until coated. Place each covered ball in a paper muffin liner. Place on a serving tray.




Continue until all the paste is finished.  Keep in a cool, dry place until ready to serve.


Do not share these with your helper, not matter how much he begs.  Chokit, noooo!


These little balls of sticky chocolatey caramel awesomeness are perfect for any party!  Invite the whole crowd and see if they can play nice.


Enjoy! 

And while you are at it, why not make a couple of special dishes from the rest of the #SundaySupper line up of April Shower recipes? 


Starters, Appetizers & Snacks
Soups, Salads & Sandwiches
Main Dishes
Cakes
Cookies, Brownies & Dessert Bars
Sweet Treats
Drink Recipes






Friday, February 1, 2013

Deep Chocolate Be Mine Bundt for #BundtaMonth



This one is for all of you folks who don’t have a Bundt pan.  Since this is the month of love and Valentines’ Day, I wanted to show you how you could get on the Bundt love train, without an actual Bundt pan.  I’ll be honest, this was an experiment but I am delighted to say it worked beautifully and you can now go forth and create Bundts in confidence.

The BundtaMonth theme for February is, of course, chocolate.  How could it be anything but?

BundtaMonth


Since it's the month of love and all, I chose to experiment using my heart pan because nothing says I love you like chocolate in the shape of a heart, am I right?  I followed these directions over on ehow with the addition of pie weights wrapped in parchment paper in the middle of my well-buttered ramekin.  I figured the weights would help hold the ramekin down in the batter and the parchment was insurance against the possibility of ruining my pie beads if the molten batter did flow over into the ramekin.  I’ve got photos below, so scroll on down to see how it worked.

Ingredients
For the cake:
1/2 cup or 115g unsalted butter, plus more to butter the pan and the ramekin
1/3 cup or 30g cocoa powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup or 125g flour, plus more for coating the buttered pan and ramekin
1 cup or 225g sugar
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
2 large eggs
1/4 cup or 60ml sour cream
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

For the Bundt filling and decorating:
1 cup whipping cream
Small container (about 4 1/2 oz or 125g) of raspberries or other pretty red berries.  Yes, red.  Don’t argue.

Method
Preheat your oven to 350°F or 180°C.

Butter the inside of your pan and the outside of the ramekin, thoroughly.  Now flour the inside of the pan and the outside of the ramekin.  If you are using a silicon pan, put it in the center of a metal cookie sheet.  Put the ramekin in the center of your pan.  Wrap your pie weights or some dried beans in a piece of parchment paper and tuck them into the ramekin.  Your makeshift Bundt pan is now ready for business.


In a microwavable glass bowl, add a half cup or 120ml of water to the salt and butter and sift in the cocoa powder.


Microwave for 20 or 30 seconds at a time, whisking in between, until the butter is melted and the cocoa has been incorporated.  Set aside.



In a larger bowl, mix together your flour, sugar and baking powder and baking soda.  Pour in the melted butter mixture and whisk until completely blended.  It will be very thick and look more like brownie batter at this point.



Add the eggs, one at a time, whisking until completely blended before adding the second egg.




Whisk in the sour cream and vanilla until smooth.



Pour your batter into the prepared pan and bake 30-35 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the cake comes out clean.



Remove the parchment with the pie weights and let the cake cool in the pan for 15 minutes.  Run a toothpick around the edge of the ramekin to loosen it.   Carefully lift the ramekin out of the hole.  Invert the cake on your baking tray and then turn it right side up again on your serving plate to decorate.




And, yeah, I know it's not all rounded and Bundt-like except for the hole but next time I am going to be more brave and try a deeper pan and more batter with a small metal mixing bowl in the middle to see how that works.

When the cake is completely cool, whip one cup of cream to stiff peaks.  Pile the cream in the hole of the cake and decorate with fresh red berries.  Serve each piece with some of the cream and a few of the berries.


Happy February and enjoy!



Have a look at all the other lovely chocolate Bundts we’ve baked for February below!   And here are just a few simple rules for joining up:

- Simple rule: Use chocolate - and bake us a Bundt for February
- Post it before February 28, 2013.
- Use the #BundtAMonth hashtag in your title. (For ex: title should read #BundtAMonth: Chocolate Cinnamon Bundt)
- Add your entry to the Linky tool below
- Link back to our announcement posts.

Chocolate Berry Bundt Cake by Heather from Hezzi D's Books and Cooks
Chocolate Bundt Cake with Balsamic Strawberry Sauce by Alice from Hip Foodie Mom
Chocolate Chobani Bundt Cake by Carrie from Poet In The Pantry
Chocolate Espresso Bundt Cake by Holly from A Baker’s House
Chocolate Mini Bundts with Matcha Flowers by Kim from Ninja Baking
Chocolate Raspberry Swirl Bundt Cake by Anita from Hungry Couple
Chocolate Rocky Road Bundt Cake by Tara from Noshing With The Nolands
Chocolate Turtle Bundt Cake by Kim from Cravings Of A Lunatic
Deep Chocolate Be Mine Bundt by Stacy from Food Lust People Love
Double Chocolate Swirled Bundt Cake by Laura from The Spiced Life
Chocolate Peanut Butter Layered Bundt Cake by Karen from In The Kitchen With KP
Red Wine Chocolate Bundt Cake with Mascarpone Whipped Cream by Kate from Food Babbles
Sour Cream Chocolate Bundt Cake by Renee from Magnolia Days
Quadruple Chocolate Bundt Cake by Dorothy from Shockingly Delicious
Vanilla and Chocolate Marble Bundt Cake by Anuradha from Baker Street
White Chocolate Raspberry Bundt Cake by Paula from Vintage Kitchen
 

Monday, September 10, 2012

Twix Muffins #MuffinMonday

Twix Muffins combine a sweet chocolate batter with crunchy Twix bars inside and on top for a batch of great snack muffins the whole family will love.

Food Lust People Love: Twix Muffins combine a sweet chocolate batter with crunchy Twix bars inside and on top for a batch of great snack muffins the whole family will love.
This past week has been full of fun days and one not so fun day. Last Friday I sat around in a room at the American Hospital in Paris, first waiting for my dear husband to be taken in for minor surgery, then waiting for him to return (which he did, in good health - yay!) and then waiting for them to release him. Those were nine plus hours I’ll never get back but it was all worth it in the end.

One good thing about sitting around and waiting is time to read.  I read Sylvia Plath’s The Bell Jar in its entirety again.  It’s been a very long time and it was just as good as ever.  You know when you are a student and you are made to read a book and sometimes you just hate it because you HAVE to read it?  I hardly ever suffered like that. Why?  Because I have an older sister.  That’s right.  Three years older.  So most of the time I read those books way before I had to, when she brought them home for her English classes, and so I could enjoy them without the pain of essay writing or critical analyses to suck out the joy.  And then, when it came time for me to really, really read them, I was one step ahead of the game.  

But enough of the not-so-fun day.  One of the FUN days this week involved shopping at a store named Casa with my friend, Mary, where we bought pretty new muffin liners and new muffin tins!  I didn’t realize how old and stained my own muffin tin was until I started taking regular photos for Muffin Monday.  But I couldn’t find a new one in Cairo.  So I tried to pretend I wasn’t ashamed of the old tin and just kept posting. Behold, the new muffin tin, just in time for Twix Muffins!

Twix Muffins 

Since I was baking in an unfamiliar kitchen, I kept the recipe simple this week and just followed instructions like a good girl. The only change I made from the original recipe was the addition of more Twix bars for topping.  Because, when it comes to Twix muffins, more = good.  

Ingredients
5 Twix bars (They come two in each individual packet.)
2 cups or 250g flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
½ teaspoon baking soda or bicarbonate of soda
3 tablespoons cocoa powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup or 120g sugar
1 egg
1/2 cup or 110g butter, melted and cooled
1 cup or 240ml milk
2-3 Twix bars for topping
Powdered or confectioners' sugar, optional

Method
Preheat oven to 375°F or 190°C and grease muffin tin well or line with muffin cups.

Cut the first five Twix bars into small pieces.


Mix flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cocoa and Twix in a bowl.



Slice the extra Twix bars for topping.  Set aside. 



In another bowl, beat eggs, sugar, milk and butter until smooth.



Add the wet ingredients to the flour mixture and stir gently until just combined.




Divide your batter into the muffin cups and top with the extra sliced Twix bars.

A new muffin tin!  This one is actually Mary's but mine is identical.
Food Lust People Love: Twix Muffins combine a sweet chocolate batter with crunchy Twix bars inside and on top for a batch of great snack muffins the whole family will love.

Bake for about 20 - 25 minutes in your preheated oven.  Remove from the oven and allow to cool for a few minutes.

Food Lust People Love: Twix Muffins combine a sweet chocolate batter with crunchy Twix bars inside and on top for a batch of great snack muffins the whole family will love.


Remove from muffin tin and allow to cool completely on a rack before sprinkling with powdered sugar, if desired.  We decided not to cover the extra Twix pieces with sugar so we left the muffins naked.

Food Lust People Love: Twix Muffins combine a sweet chocolate batter with crunchy Twix bars inside and on top for a batch of great snack muffins the whole family will love.

Enjoy!

Food Lust People Love: Twix Muffins combine a sweet chocolate batter with crunchy Twix bars inside and on top for a batch of great snack muffins the whole family will love.


And here are the links to some of my past muffins: