Chocolate Babka

Chocolate babka - a delicious, yeast based sweet bread with swirls of cinnamon spiked chocolate. It's VERY good.


Recipe Adapted From: First Look Then Cook
A standing mixer, dough hook attachment and large amounts of patience are required for this recipe.
Ingredients - Dough (11 x 21 cm (4 x 8 inch) loaf)
1 tsp white sugar
1 package dry yeast (about 2 1/4 tsp)
3/4 cup warm milk - not too hot to drink, otherwise you'll kill the yeast.
6 tbsp white sugar
1/4 tsp salt
1 large egg yolk
7.5 ounces normal flour (about 1 2/3 cups)
5.85 ounces bread flour (about 1 1/4 cups)
5 tbsp butter, cut into pieces and softened
Oil


Ingredients - Filling
1/2 cup white sugar
3 tbsp cocoa
1 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp salt
4 ounces dark chocolate


Ingredients - Streusel
2 tbsp icing sugar
1 tbsp all purpose flour
1 tbsp butter, chilled and clopped into pieces


Method - Dough
1. Dissolve the yeast and the 1 tsp of white sugar in warm milk in the bowl of a stand mixer.  Let stand for 5 minutes.


2. Stir in vanilla extract, salt, egg yolk and the 6 tbsp sugar using the dough hook attachment on your mixer.


3. Measure or weigh the flours and place them in a single bowl.


4. Add 6 ounces of the combined flours to the milk mixture, and beat with the dough hook until blended.


5. Add 5 tbsp butter, beat until blended.


6. Add the rest of the combined flours to the dough, beating in between additions.


7. Place the dough into a large bowl coated with oil.  Turn the dough over so it is completely oiled.  Cover the bowl and let the dough rise in a warm place free from drafts (just on your tabletop should be fine) for 1 1/2 hours or until the dough has doubled in size.  To test for doneness, gently press two fingers into the dough.  If the indentation remains, the dough has risen enough.


While the dough is rising, make the filling and streusel.


8. Punch the dough down, cover again and let it rest for 5 more minutes.


9.  Line a loaf pan (preferably 22cm x 15cm or so) with baking paper.


Method - Filling
1. Using a knife or a food processor (the latter is much easier) finely chop the chocolate.

2. Combine the chopped chocolate with the rest of the ingredients for the filling in a small bowl.  Set aside.


Method - Streusel
1. Place all the ingredients for the streusel in a small bowl.


2. Using your fingers, rub the butter into the dry ingredients until it resembles coarse meal.

Method - Assembly
1. Place the dough on a generously floured, clean surface.  Roll the dough out to an approximate 40cm (16 inch) square.

Omigosh it't the Speeding Turtle's HANDS!  GAH!

2. Sprinkle the filling over the dough, leaving a 3cm border around the edges.

3. Roll dough up tightly into a cylinder.  Pinch together the ends and the seam to prevent leakage of filling.

4. Holding dough by the ends, twist the dough 4 - 5 times as if wringing out a towel.  Make sure that the whole cylinder is all twisted, not just one part.  If it's not all twisted, it's not all pretty!


5. Fold the dough in half and fit into the prepared loaf pan.

6. Cover and let rise 45 minutes.  While its rising, preheat the oven to 175 degrees C (350 degrees C).


7. After the 45 minutes has passed, sprinkle the streusel evenly over the top of the dough.

8. Bake in the preheated oven for 40 minutes or until the loaf sounds hollow when tapped.

9. Cool the babka in the tin for about 10 minutes, then remove from the tin and cool completely on a wire rack before slicing.

Churros

Churros.  Delicious, golden sticks of friedness.  Dusted with icing sugar and dipped in chocolate.  What more can I say?

Recipe Adapted From: South China Morning Post Magazine 2006

Ingredients

100g butter

150mL water

1/8 tsp salt (omit if using salted butter)

130g plain flour

3 - 4 eggs

Heaps and heaps of canola oil.

Method

1. Melt butter, water and salt in a heavy based saucepan.  Heat until boiling.

2. Add flour all at once, and stir with a wooden spoon until the mixture is smooth and comes away from the sides of the pan.  Cook for a further 30 seconds, stirring continuously, then remove from heat.

3. Add 3 eggs one at a time, stirring vigorously to combine.  It will look like total mush just after you add it, but have faith and keep stirring!  Make sure each egg is completely combined before you add the next one.

4. Beat the last egg in a separate bowl and add gradually to the mixture until it is a thick sticky paste that forms a peak when you lift the spoon up.

5. Transfer the dough to a piping bag fitted with a star tip.

6. Heat your oil in a large pan (I use a wok).  It should be hot enough that the dough sizzles furiously when you add it to the oil.

7. Pipe lengths of dough into the oil.  Put the tip of the piping bag near the side of the pan and squeeze, then when the desired length of dough is in the oil use a knife to shear the flow of dough off at the piping bag.

8. Let the churros fry.  Turn them over a couple of times in the oil so that the whole thing is golden brown.  

9. When golden brown, remove the churros from the oil and place on a plate covered with paper towel.

10. Dredge with sugar and/or cinnamon, dip in chocolate or another sauce and eat while they're warm!

This recipe, when using a large star tip, creates a crunching on the outside and fluffy on the inside churro.  If you use a smaller star tip, then you should get a crunchier churro.

Here's a tip - for more churro goodness without having to buy more oil, after you've finished frying let the oil cool then tip into a glass jar or glass container.  You can store the oil for more churro use later!

Nougat

Yes, the Speeding Turtle lives.

She comes bearing gifts!  Here, have some sweetness - nougat.

Recipe Adapted From: The Fundamental Techniques of Classic Pastry Arts
A strong, standing electric mixer and a candy thermometer are required for this recipe.
Ingredients

640g nuts (suggested 280g almonds, 160g hazelnuts, 160g walnuts and 40g pistachios)
2 large eggs
280g honey
240g corn syrup
600g sugar
75mL cold water
Cornflour for dusting


Method
1. Toast the nuts.
If you are doing it in an oven, preheat the oven to 93 degrees C.  Combine nuts on a sheet pan.  Toast in the preheated oven for about 15 minutes, turning frequently, until the nuts are nicely coloured and aromatic.
Alternatively, toast the nuts using a frypan.  Combine nuts in the frypan and heat, mixing frequently.

I used hazelnuts, almonds and walnuts - all unblanched (they still had their brown skins on).

2. While the nuts are toasting, prepare the rest of the nougat.  If the nuts finish toasting before the base is done, keep them warm by either opening the oven door (if toasted in the oven) or re-warming the nuts a bit when you are whipping the egg whites.

Separate the two eggs and place the egg whites into the bowl of your mixer, fitted with the whisk attachment.  You don't need the yolks.

3. Set up two heavy based saucepans on your stove.

In one saucepan, combine the honey with 40g of the corn syrup in a small, heavy based saucepan over low heat.  Bring to a boil.

At the same time, combine the remaining corn syrup with the sugar and the cold water and bring to a boil.

4. As soon as the honey mixture comes to the boil, begin whipping the egg whites.  When the honey mixture reaches 130 degrees C (266 degrees F) on a candy thermometer, pour it over the whipping egg whites.

5. Continue whipping the egg whites.  When the sugar mixture has reached 139 degrees C (282 degrees F) on the candy thermometer, pour it over the whipping egg whites.

6. When the meringue begins to stiffen, stop the mixer.  Remove the whip attachment and replace with K beater/paddle attachment.  With the speed on low, add the nuts, beating until just blended.

7. Place a silicone liner on a flat work surface and dust it with corn flour.  Do this quickly, so you can roll the nougat out while it's still hot.

8. Pour the hot nougat out onto the liner and roughly spread it out a bit.

Dust the top of the nougat with corn flour and place another silicone liner on the top.  Using a rolling pin and your hands, flatten the nougat out.  

Now, the French pastry book said to roll it to a 1.3cm thickness, but dude, that's super thin.  So I made mine a bit thicker.

9. Allow the nougat to cool and then, using a sharp knife, cut the nougat into small squares.

Eat and enjoy!

Eve's Chocolate Cake

Or, in my mum's words, Chocolate Omelette.

Indeed, this cake is a chocolate omelette; and with only 4 ingredients, it is super (ahem) healthy.  Compared to some other things, at least.  The cake is made with chocolate, a dozen eggs, a little butter and a little sugar.  Most of the mousse-y batter is baked, but some is kept aside and spread lusciously on the top of the cake when it's done.  (Caution - raw eggs can cause salmonella, so it might be better to keep the raw batter to people you don't mind too much about making sick).
The cake itself is light and fluffy, but apparently it becomes denser when chilled.  I wouldn't know - my family polished it off the night it was made.  That's how good it was.

Recipe Adapted From: Citrus and Candy; recipe originally from France by Damien Pignolet
Ingredients (26 cm (10 inch) cake - half this recipe fits a 20 cm (8 inch) springform tin)
360g bittersweet chocolate, roughly chopped
50g unsalted butter, softened
12 extra large eggs, separated
30g caster sugar (for whipping with yolks)
20g caster sugar (for egg whites)
Chocolate and cocoa for decoration

Method
1. Preheat oven to 150 degrees C.  Grease and line a 26-28cm springform tin.  (Or a 20cm one, if you are making half a batch)

2. Melt the chocolate and mix in the butter.

3. In a separate bowl, whisk the egg yolks with 30g caster sugar until pale and thickened.

4. Combine the egg yolk mixture with the melted chocolate and butter.

5. In a large, clean and dry bowl, whisk egg whites until soft peaks (make sure you don't overbeat, because the whites will become dry). Add the 20g caster sugar and beat until stiff peaks.

6. With a spatula or spoon, mix a quarter of the egg whites into the chocolate mix to lighten it.  Add the chocolate mix to the rest of the egg whites and fold gently until combined.

7. Spoon out a quarter of the completed batter into a bowl, cover and refrigerate.

8. Pour the rest of the batter into the prepared cake tin and bake for 30 minutes.  It should still be moist in the centre - to test, lightly press your finger into the middle of the cake.  The indentation should remain when you take your finger away.

9. Turn the cake out directly onto a serving plate.  Remove the springform ring and base, let cool. The cake should collapse a bit, leaving a crater in the centre.  Mine didn't really collapse - perhaps I baked it a bit too long, or maybe I shouldn't have flipped it.  Oh well.  It was yummy anyway.

10. Remember that leftover batter in the fridge?  Scrape it out onto the top of the cake and spread around to the edges.

Sprinkle with chocolate curls or shaved chocolate, and dust with cocoa.  We sprinkled ours with Haigh's drinking chocolate.

Serve.

Happy baking!

Marshmallows & Rocky Road

What is fluffy, soft and rolled in coconut?  What is fluffy, soft, coconutty and chocolatey too, with nuts optional?
Marshmallows and rocky road, of course; super easy to make and super tasty to boot.


However; to make marshmallows, you do require an electric mixer that isn't too old.  Before we got our KitchenAid, Mum was making marshmallows with her old (really old) handheld mixer.  While beating the mixture, the mixer motor emitted a puff of smoke and died with a pffling noise.  So be careful if your mixer is super old.


Recipe Adapted From: The Cooks Book of Uncommon Recipes
Ingredients
2 cups white sugar
3 envelopes unflavoured gelatin
1/4 tsp salt
1 cup cold water
1 tsp vanilla extract


Method - Topping (for marshmallow)
Here in the Speeding Turtle's kitchen, we usually cover our marshmallows in toasted coconut.  Before you get started making the marshmallow, toast about 1 cup of coconut in a frypan while stirring.

Line a 22 x 35cm baking tin or equivalent with baking paper and sprinkle some of the coconut on the bottom to roughly coat it.  

Then make the marshmallow...you will need to toast some more, fresh coconut later.

Method - Marshmallow
1. Combine sugar, gelatin and salt in a saucepan.

2. Stir in the cold water and allow to rest for 5 minutes (so the gelatin can soften.)


3. Place the saucepan over a low heat.  Stir constantly until the sugar has dissolved.  The mixture should not boil!  When the sugar has dissolved, remove from heat.

4. Stir in the vanilla extract.  Pour the mixture into a large bowl while still hot and, using an electric mixer, beat at high speed until it is thickened and will stand in soft peaks.  It should take about 10 - 15 minutes.

5. Spread the marshmallow into the prepared pan immediately, making it smooth and even.

6. Let the marshmallow stand for a while to set.


7. Using a sharp knife, cut the marshmallows into even cubes/rectangular prisms and roll in some more toasted coconut.

8. Store in an air-tight container.  Or, alternatively, just eat 'em.


Ingredients - Rocky Road [per batch of marshmallow]
350g dark chocolate
1 cup coconut (toasted)
Nuts if desired


1. Melt the chocolate and stir in the toasted coconut.  Stir in nuts at this point if you are using them.

2. Roughly chop your tray of marshmallow, it is nice if they are different sized and a bit 'rocky'.  Drop the marshmallow chunks into the chocolate mixture 3 or 4 at a time, mixing between additions (more and they get stuck together when you mix).


3. Spread the rocky road mixture into a baking paper lined tin (22 x 35cm or equivalent).

4. Leave the rocky road in a cool place to set.  Don't put it in the fridge, however, because the chocolate may 'bloom' and get a whole pile of whitish dots on it.


5. When the chocolate has hardened, take the rocky road out of the baking tin and cut up into whatever size you want.

6. Search through the chunks of rocky road to find one with lots of chocolate.  Eat.

Tips and Tricks
 - For marshmallows with a bite of coffee, substitute the water (in step 2 of the marshmallow method) for weak coffee.  It's nice.