Chunky Chocolate Cookies

Last week I posted Raspberry and Chocolate Chip Cookies recipe up and not realising I didn't put up the recipe for traditional chocolate chip cookies. Opps my bad. I use two different types of roughly chopped chocolate to add texture and flavour to the cookies. 

Recipe: Makes 14 cookies (Recipe inspired by Cookies Galore Book)

        150g white chocolate, roughly chopped into chunks 
        150g dark chocolate, roughly chopped into chunks

         200g unsalted butter, at room temperature

·       150g golden caster sugar

·       1 egg

·       200g plain flour, sifted

·       1 teaspoon baking power

·       1 teaspoon of vanilla extract

Equipment:

·       Electric hand-mixer/Wooden spoon
        Bowl x 3 

        Sieve

·       Teaspoon

·       Tablespoon

·       Chopping Board
        Knife
        Baking Sheet x 2 lined with baking paper/silicone paper

1.  Pre-heat the oven to 180c/350f/Gas Mark 4 and grease the baking sheets with the light oil spray/butter and line with silicone paper.

2.  Chop up all the chocolate into chunks. Set aside. 
3.Cream the butter and sugar together until pale and fluffy.

4. Beat in the egg and vanilla to the creamed mixture.

5. Sift the flour and baking power together and then beat to the cookie batter. 

6.  Add the chocolate chips and mix well into the cookie batter (try not to eat at this stage). Drop rounded tablespoons onto the baking sheets. Make sure sure you space the cookies well apart or they will cook together and stick.

7. Bake in the oven for 15-20 minutes. Leave the cookies on the baking sheet for about 3 minutes and remove to a wire rack. 

Happy baking and have a great weekend! 

Caramelised Onion Tart (Pissaladiere)

Traditional, a pissaladiere is pizza-like based caramelised onion tart, topped with anchovies and olives, which is often served in Italy and France. The tart itself makes an excellent packed lunch or dinner (served with a salad). All I'm saying is give it a try, I know caramelised onions sounds like it will take ages to cook, and yes it does when you're starving, and the end result is worth the effort.

Serves 2 (or one greedy person-like me) (Recipe Adapted from Little Book of Lunch)

• 1/3 sheet puff pastry, you can used pre-made or make your own (if using pre-made puff pastry, remove from the freezer a day before)
• 3 tbsp olive oil
• 2 large onions, thinly sliced
• knob of butter (about a 1 tbsp)
• 1 large tbsp. dark brown sugar
• 2 spring thyme
• 6 anchovies
• 6 black olives
• A little milk for brushing
• a glass of water
• salt and pepper

Equipment Needed:

• Baking sheet lined with baking paper
• Frying Pan
• Wooden Spoon
• Pastry Brush
• Small bowl
• Glass
• Rolling Pin
• Fork
• Chopping board
• Knife

1.Turn the oven to 400f/200c/Gas Mark 6 and remove the pastry from the fridge. Grease and line your baking sheet.

2.Add the oil to the frying pan, place on medium heat and add the onions. Stir occasionally.
3.Add the butter, sugar, salt and pepper to the onions. Add the water to create a saucy consistency and to prevent burning.
4.Add the thyme and leave to cook for 15-20 minutes. Keep topping up the water occasionally and adding it to the pan.

Once the butter, sugar, salt and pepper has been added, the colour should start changing:

 

After 6 minutes

After 15 minutes

After 20 minutes

Ta-Duh! Done! Brown colour and soft onions that have reduced in size.

5.Meanwhile, roll out the puff pastry to fit your baking sheet. Trim or cut to fit. Place on the baking sheet and fold over the sides about 1cm to create an edge. Prick (or if you want to be all expert and pastry about 'dock') the base with a fork to let the steam out and prevent rising.
6.When the onion are soft and a dark brown colour (as seen in the last onion picture), take off the heat and spoon the mixture onto the pastry base taking care no to go over the 1cm edges. Smooth this with a knife.

7.Place the anchovies on top with a criss-cross pattern and add the olives in the middle of the pattern.

8.Brush the edges (with a pastry brush, not an old paintbrush. Don't worry its my version of a pastry brush so its clean.) with milk for a nice colour and bake for 12 minutes, until the pastry is crispy and golden.

Variation:

Ok if you're not a fan of anchovy or olives then that's fine. You can make a nice alternative by skipping out the thyme during cooking and crumbling over 50g feta cheese and THEN adding the thyme by sprinkling it on top.

Raspberry and Chocolate Chip Cookies

Its been a little difficult to do some baking at the moment as I'm still getting settled into London again but I really wanted to bake some snacking cookies with a difference. Its a twist on a traditional chocolate chip cookies. With the addition of raspberries into the batter gives the cookies a sweeter Summer taste. 

Recipe: Makes 15 cookies (Recipe inspired by Cookies Galore Book)

        100g white chocolate chips
        100g milk chocolate chips
         150g raspberries 

         200g unsalted butter, at room temperature

·       150g golden caster sugar

·       1 egg

·       200g plain flour, sifted

·       1 teaspoon baking power

·       1 teaspoon of vanilla extract

Equipment:

·       Electric hand-mixer/Wooden spoon
        Bowl x 3 

        Sieve

·       Teaspoon

·       Tablespoon

·       Masher
        Knife
        Baking Sheet x 2 lined with baking paper/silicone paper

1.  Pre-heat the oven to 180c/350f/Gas Mark 4 and grease the baking sheets with the light oil spray/butter and line with silicone paper.

2.  Take 100g of raspberries and mash them in a bowl until a pulp. Set aside. 
3. Roughly chop up the rest of the raspberries (50g) and set aside. 
4.Cream the butter and sugar together until pale and fluffy.

5. Beat in the egg and vanilla to the creamed mixture. Add the raspberry puree at this stage and mix well. 

6. Sift the flour and baking power together and then beat to the cookie batter. 

7.  Add the chocolate chips and roughly chopped raspberries and mix well. Drop rounded tablespoons onto the baking sheets. Make sure sure you space them well apart as they will expand.

8. Bake in the oven for 30 minutes. Leave the cookies on the baking sheet for about 3 minutes and remove to a wire rack. 

Your cookies should have still be a little soft but not raw. If you do find they are a little raw, don't freak out like I did when I first made these cookies. Simply pick them up carefully and place them back on a baking tray and into the oven for 5 mins. Keep an eye on them because cookies are temperamental and them will burn. 

Gluten-Free Chocolate Formal Suit Birthday Cake

University is finished for me, and as from yesterday, I'm officially not a student anymore (No more student discounts nooo!!!).  Now its time to play the waiting game for results. 

Lets start with good news, including my first official job as a pastry chef in London (wooo! Yes you can applaud). I can't say where I'm working at this stage, but its super fantastic, but because I'm an enigma I keeping it quiet. However, I am sad to leave my current job. All the people I was working with made it feel like it wasn't work but it was a playground of chocolate and discussing odd customers. Thank you all for making the time more fun and special.

Also, I'm doing another patisserie course in September, so by a technicality, I'll be a student (again!!) and I'll be living the grand student life, with my other half. That's right totally living the dream. So now that university is over I can focus loads more on the blog. So watch this space baking lovers!

But enough about that, how are you? I hope that you've been enjoying the summer so far. This weeks cake is a gluten-free 2 tiered cake with decorated to look like a suit. Its kind of my second attempt ever on making a novelty cake and the first time making this cake design. The cake was designed for my friend Zoe, who requested it for her boyfriend Scott, who likes a little bit of luxury in life. A guy who is smartly dressed and has good taste (especially in cake). 

So here it is, Scott's Gluten Free Chocolate Birthday Cake. 

Scott, I hope you enjoyed your birthday and you had an excellent time. Hope you enjoyed the cake. You have a lovely girlfriend who deserves a great big hug and thank-you for all her effort for organising your birthday bash!

Recipe: Makes 2 gluten free cakes with  2 layers in each cake.

·       

        460g dark chocolate at least 70% cocoa solids

·       240g unsalted butter, at room temperature

·       700g golden caster sugar

·       6 large eggs, separated

·       740g Doves Farm Gluten-Free Plain flour, sifted

·       4 teaspoons gluten free baking power

·       3 teaspoons gluten free bicarbonate of soda

    1 teaspoons salt

·       1litre semi-skimmed milk, at room temperature

·       4 teaspoons of vanilla extract

Chocolate Buttercream

·       175g dark chocolate, at least 70% cocoa solids

·       225g unsalted butter

·       1 tablespoon semi-skimmed milk, room temperature

·       1teaspoon vanilla extract

·       250g icing sugar, sifted

Decorating:

·       200g  Midnight blue sugar paste

·       Edible glue

·       500g white sugar paste

·       500g grey sugar paste

Equipment:

·       Electric hand-mixer
        Bowl x3

·       Mixer/wooden spoon

·       Measuring Jug

·       Sieve

·       Teaspoon

·       Tablespoon

·       20cm/ 8 inch square cake tin x 2

·       15cm/ 6 inch square cake tin x 2

·       Palette knife

·       Light oil spray/butter for greasing the tin

·       Silicone paper

·       Heatproof bowl

·       Saucepan filled with water

·       Metal spoon

·       Scissors

·       A4 paper

·       Pen

·       Ruler

·       Small sharp knife

·       Grey ribbon

·       Double sided tape

·       Silver board

·       Cake smoother
        Large serrated knife

For the Cake (Recipe adapted from Cupcakes from Primrose Bakery):

1.    Pre-heat the oven to 170c fan/190c/375f/Gas Mark 5 and grease the tins with the light oil spray/butter and line with silicone paper.

2.    Break the chocolate into pieces and place in a heatproof bowl over a saucepan of barely simmering water. Stir occasionally until completely melted. Set aside to cool.

3.    In a large mixing bowl cream the butter and sugar until pale and smooth, which should 3-5 minutes using an electric mixer. Put the egg yolks into the creamed mixture and beat well.

4.    Add the melted chocolate to the creamed mixture and beat well.

5.    Combine the flour, baking powder, bicarbonate of soda and salt in separate bowl all sieved together. 

6.    Combine the milk, and vanilla extract in a jug.

7.    Add one-third of the flour to the creamed mixture and beat well. Pour in one-third of the milk mixture and beat again. Repeat these steps until all the flour and milk has been added.

8.    Clean your whisk!

9.    In a clean bowl whisk the egg whites with a clean whisk, until soft peaks form.

10.Carefully fold the egg whites with a metal spoon into the cake batter.

11.Divide the mixture between the two cake tins and bake for 30 minutes. Insert a skewer in the centre of the cake and if it comes out clean it’s done.

12. Remove from the oven and leave the cakes in their tins for about an 1 hour  before carefully placing on a wire rack to cool. Once completely cool, you can ice the cake.

13. If you need to trim the tops of the cakes to make them flat do so at this stage when completely cooled. 

For the Buttercream (Recipe adapted from Cupcakes from Primrose Bakery):

1.    To make the chocolate buttercream, melt the chocolate as in step 2 of the cake recipe. In a large mixing bowl beat the butter, milk, vanilla extract and the icing sugar until smooth-this can take several minutes using an electric hand mixer. Add the chocolate and beat until all of the chocolate has been incorporated. 

2.    To assemble use a palette knife to spread the icing into the middles of each cake and around the outside of the cakes.

To Decorate (Adapted from My Cake Decorating Magazine):

1.    Roll the white icing to cover the bigger cake, trim as needed and

place on the silver board. Then roll out the grey icing to cover the smaller cake. Set both cakes aside for now.

2.    Measure the height and width of the bottom tier of the cake and,

 using these measurements as a guide, draw a triangle on a sheet of A4 paper-So one side should be the height of the cake and the other should be the width of the cake. Cut out this triangle.

3.    Knead a section of the midnight blue paste and roll out thinly. Place the triangle on top of the paste and, using it as a template, cut around it with a small knife. Repeat this until you have 8 triangles. Set aside.

4.    Roll out the midnight blue paste again and cut out 2 circles for the buttons.

5.    Roll out the midnight blue paste again. Using a cake smoother, cut a strip of paste roughly 20cm long and 6cm wide. Fold the two ends of the strip over to meet in the middle and stick them down with edible glue. Pad out the loops with kitchen paper, then pinch the strip in the centre to make realistic-looking creases.

6.    Cut a second shorter (7cm long and 4cm wide) and wrap it around the front of the bow, using edible glue to stick two ends of together at back. Allow your bow to dry or it is going to melt!

7.    Attach the midnight blue triangles to the bottom tier using edible glue-This is of course is the jacket of the suit.

8.    Using the previous triangle temple make a lapel shape. Roll out the midnight blue taste (again!!) and cut out the lapel shape. Brush with edible glue and place onto the front of you cake.

9.    Stick on the buttons that you did in step 4.

10.  Take the grey ribbon and wrap around the base of the top tier and seal with double sided tape.

11.  Carefully place the top tier onto the bottom tier with edible glue (or any leftover buttercream).

12. Finally, brush the bow tie with edible glue and stick it to the front of the top tier. Hold in place for a couple of minutes. 
13. Optional, you can pipe a birthday message or the birthday boys initials, if you like by using vanilla buttercream icing or premade icing.  

I hope you've been enjoyed reading and what's your favourite gluten free recipe? Leave a comment to let us know!