This week for Tuesdays with Dorie, Dharmagirl of bliss: towards a delicious life chose Tarte Noire on page 351.  What, you ask, is a tarte noir?  It is a rich chocolate ganache poured into a tart shell and served with a diet book.  Ganache, made of chocolate and cream, is the luscious concoction used to make chocolate truffles.

I was looking forward to making this, but when the time came, I had a rare, irrepressible urge to eat cake.  Now, I may get that urge once a year; unlike my spouse, Master Chow, I am not a fan of cake.  So, I decided to make ganache, and put it on a cake.  A luscious, moist, decadent cake.  I turned to one of my favorite blogs, Smitten Kitchen, for a recipe that I had bookmarked a while ago.

The result?  Extraordinary.  Truly, truly extraordinary.  It puts all other chocolate layer cakes to shame, although the Chocolate Stout cake is definitely in the same league.

Here is what I did and some advice, as well.  Instead of two, 10-inch pans, I used three, 8-inch pans to end up with a three layer cake.  The ganache was so rich, however, that I don’t think I will do that again; two layers is plenty, and if I make three layers, I’m going to use a jam or a chocolate pudding or mousse to fill some of the layers.  Instead of buttermilk, I used low fat kefir (a liquid yogurt), and that worked really well.

Use top quality chocolate.  Trust me.  I used a combination of Valrhona, Callebaut, and some bits of Guittard that I had laying about.

You MUST freeze the layers before you frost them.  The cake is so tender that if you try to frost it with unfrozen cake layers, they WILL fall apart, so plan ahead.  Just double wrap the layers in plastic wrap and pop them into your freezer until they are good and hard.  They will that while you are frosting the cake.

I also recommend that you place the bottom layer on a foil-covered cake round, then put strips of wax paper UNDER the round between the round and the serving plate.  The cake layers are so delicate that when I removed my wax paper strips

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, I tore up the bottom of the cake, as you can see here:

This cake, with the aforementioned modifications is on the repeat list. It was amazing, and one of the few chocolate cakes that I’ve ever had that did not disappoint.  Recipe below the jump, but be sure to visit Dharmagirl for the Tarte Noir recipe, and the TWD blogroll to see what others made!
continue reading "TWD – My Ganache Went on a Cake, Not in a Tart Shell"

Marthe of Culinary Delights selected White Chocolate Brownies on pages 110 and 111.  I’ll have a very blah photo going up by next Monday, because once again I’m out of town.  I made these in a rush, and the part that I did make was absolutely delicious.

First, I only made the brownie layer.  I bought the raspberries for these lovely brownies, but I ate them.  All by myself.  Before they could get put into the brownies.  And I have NO regrets!

I halved the brownie layer recipe

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, baked it in a 9-inch pan, and ended up with a very , very thin concoction that was incredibly delicious.  I didn’t taste the white chocolate at all, just the lovely orange zest.  This part of the recipe would make a fantastic layer in a more complicated dessert, I think, but if I make it again just for the brownie part, I won’t halve the brownie recipe and I’ll bake it in an 8-inch pan to get a thicker brownie.

Next week:  shortcakes.  I’ve never made them before, and I’m thinking that I’ll make them with raspberries, only this time I’ll buy extra.  Just in case.

This week

, Erin of When in Doubt…Leave it at 350 chose Mocha-Walnut Marbled Bundt Cake on pages 180 and 181 of Dorie’s book.  Basically, this is a buttery walnut bundt cake with a very dense, chocolaty chocolate swirl.

Did I say chocolaty?  That swirl was chocolate heaven.  The white part of the cake tasted a lot like banana bread to me, probably because of the ground walnuts in the batter.  And, for once, I really didn’t change a thing in the recipe – no tweaking, no additions, no omissions.

An elegant, rich cake that I will be making again.  Did I mention that it was chocolaty?  Yum.

To see what others have been up to, be sure to check out the TWD blogroll

, and Erin’s blog for this recipe.

I have been in a chocolate mood lately, a result of stress for me and not fluctuating hormones.  Fortunately, I came across this article: Eating more chocolate associated with fewer cardiovascular events.  Well, of course , I had to make something with chocolate for my heart, preferably with some butter and cream.  And sugar.  It was all for my heart, you see.

So I whipped out the recipe for Double Chocolate and Cherry Scones with Crème Fraiche and Cherry Preserves from Baking Obsession, one of my favorite blogs.  Because I had no idea where my dried cherries were, and I needed a chocolate fix fast, I omitted them and substituted chocolate chips for the chocolate chunks.  I needed the full amount of cream, including the optional 2 tablespoons to pull the dough together.

These were freaking fantastic.  Even my husband, who likes chocolate but prefers other flavors, thought they were amazing.  Definitely on the repeat list.  And if I could give one bit of advice, use a really good cocoa.  I used Pernigotti

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, which is absolutely amazing.
continue reading "Fantastic Chocolaty Chocolate Scones"

This week, Kait of Kait’s Plate selected My Best Chocolate Chip Cookies, page 68.

I have to admit, straight out of the oven

, I wasn’t thrilled about these.  I had cut up a bunch of chocolate chunks to use, and added walnuts, and the chocolate flavor was overwhelming to me.

But then, a new day dawned.  And the overnight rest melded the flavors into an awesomeness that is hard to describe.  My husband loved the bit fat chunks of Trader Joe’s 70% Belgian chocolate.  I loved the buttery cookie studded with walnuts. I think I got 36 cookies out of the recipe

, and if I’m honest, about 30 of those went down my gullet.  Not my husband’s, MINE.

Thank heavens I’ve been hitting the gym.  That’s all I have to say.  Oh, and be sure to check out the TWD blog to see how many cookies everybody else ate!

This week, Steph of Obsessed with Baking chose Cocoa-Nana Bread, page 46.

Basically, this is a chocolate pound cake, and the furious debate the addition of banana inspired over at Tuesdays with Dorie is something to behold.  Having just run out of bananas

, and about to leave town again to help my auntie through her hip replacement surgery, there was no freaking way I was going to run to the grocery store if I didn’t have to, and I didn’t have to.  So, I did the only thing I could do under the circumstances, and went low fat by subbing full fat sour cream for the bananas.

A bit of TWD humor there, fellow bakers, just a bit of humor.  I try not to get on the scale any more, if you get my drift.

So, instead of two mashed bananas, I added 3/4 cup of sour cream (you could also use a thick yogurt), and also one tsp. of vanilla extract.  The result was a gorgeous chocolaty loaf that my husband devoured.  I kid you not – I had one piece

, and that’s it.  He ate the whole thing, and that’s saying something for a guy who’s not a big fan of chocolate.

So, I’m glad I ran out of bananas because this turned out so well.  Next time, I may add some coffee crystals to the batter to deepen the chocolate flavor, and maybe drizzle it with a chocolate ganache.  Because nothing says “DIET” like chocolate, cream, and butter, don’t you think?

Some time last year, I ran across Smitten Kitchen’s post for Chocolate Babka, and I’ve had it bookmarked ever since.  Last week, before I went out of town, I had the opportunity to make it, and use up over two pounds of chocolate.

Two and a quarter pounds, to be precise.

The recipe also called for 5 sticks of butter, but I tweaked that and got away with about 3 sticks.

Here is a quick summary:  the bread is FANTASTIC.  My husband took one bite and told me it didn’t need any more butter.  But he also felt that there was “too much going on” between the chocolate filling and streusel topping, and I agree.  When you check out the recipe at Smitten Kitchen, I would recommend that you incorporate the butter slowly, bit by bit, as you would in a traditional brioche recipe, instead of dumping all the butter in at once.

My mistake:  for some reason, I missed the part of the directions that said to finely chop the chocolate.  I used chocolate chips, and totally forgot to give them a whir in the food processor. The nice part was that I have pockets of gooey chocolate . . . the problem is that the filling kept falling out.  Another note on the filling – I eliminated all the butter from it, and the bread did not suffer a bit.  I discovered this when I made Peter Reinhart’s cinnamon buns, which have no butter in the filling and I didn’t even miss it.

I’ll definitely be making this again, even without all the filling because the bread is so incredibly good.

It has been a busy morning.  Backed into a ditch at 6:00 am, and AAA just towed me out.  Now, off to take my auntie to medical appointments!

And be sure to check out Susan’s weekly YeastSpotting roundup every Friday.

I love it when I can do several things at once.  For example, blog about a chocolate cherry bread for Bread Baking Day (BBB), and that same bread uses ingredients that I had on hand (for Frugal Fridays), and closes out my week of chocolate!  For BBB #22, our challenge is Sweet Breads hosted by Hefe und mehr.

I tried chocolate bread for the first time about three years ago, and I wasn’t too impressed.  A year or so later, I gave it another shot and bought a loaf from Wegman’s.  Now, that bread was really good – it tasted of chocolate with a faint sweetness in the background.  They produce it seasonally, I think from December through February, and I decided to make some one day so that I could have a good chocolate bread whenever I wanted it.

Enter Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day: The Discovery That Revolutionizes Home Baking, by Jeff Hertzberg and Zoë Francois.  I’ve had the book sitting on my bookshelf for over a year, and it is full of post-its marking the breads I would like to try.  But it was not until recently that I finally made something out of this wonderful book.  Of course, I chose the Chocolate Bread for Chocolate Week.

I had never made a no-knead bread before, so I had to mightily resist the Urge to Knead.  You see, I like kneading, but I like learning about different breads and techniques even more, so when I caught myself stirring a bit too much with a wooden spoon I stopped immediately, even though there were still a few streaks of white through the dough.  You see, this dough as a LOT of chocolate – 9 ounces of chocolate and a full cup of cocoa, so it’s pretty dark, and unincorporated flour really stands out.

My thoughts on the bread: the chocolate flavor really comes through, so pick one that you like.  If you prefer milk chocolate, this bread may not be for you – it has the true intensity of bittersweet chocolate.   I think using chocolate chips instead of the 5 ounces of chunks would work out fine.  The bread was a tad too salty for me, so next time I might use just one tablespoon of salt.  The cherries that I added were a nice bright counterpoint.  As for the texture, the the loaf was tender and very rich – I could eat only small slices.  The crust was not chewy at all.  I liked the bread with butter, and Nutella was fabulous on it.  The original recipe says to bake it for about 35 minutes, but mine took 65 minutes to reach an internal temperature of 190 F. The loaf is on the repeat list, and I look forward to playing with the recipe a bit more.

I was really amazed at how quickly and easily this bread came together, and I’m looking forward to trying more recipes out of the book.  And be sure to check out Susan’s weekly YeastSpotting roundup every Friday – it’s a great source of inspiration and instruction for me and a lot of other bakers.  Next Friday, Nick of imafoodblog will be hosting for Susan, so be sure to check out his blog.

continue reading "Chocolate Cherry Bread – Day 5 of Chocolate Week, and Bread Baking Day!"

*UPDATED 12/26/2011*

I first saw this recipe on Deb’s Smitten Kitchen a while back, and bookmarked it.  Then forgot about it.  Luckily, I saw it on Jenn’s Use Real Butter recently, and that gave me the kick in the pants I needed to make this delicious, moist, easy, incredible chocolate cake.  Jenn and Deb weren’t kidding – this bundt cake is amazing, and I plan on making it a lot in the future.  I am not a big fan of layer cakes, but I love a good bundt cake, and this one is the best chocolate bundt cake I’ve ever had.  Plain.  No ganache, no frosting, just a dusting of powdered sugar.  My husband asked if I wanted him to take it in to work – my usual method of getting these things out of the house – and let’s just say, I said “no.”  Actually, I said, “NO WAY!”

I used a coffee-chocolate stout, so I did not add any extra espresso crystals to the batter, my usual modus operandi when it comes to chocolate desserts.  All I can say is, you have to make this cake!
continue reading "Chocolate Stout Cake – Day 4 of Chocolate Week"

These may not look like much, but boy, were they good!  My usual go-to scone recipe is one by Dorie Greenspan, namely her Cream Scones.  But, cream has a lot more calories than buttermilk, and I wanted to expand my repertoire, so I dug up this recipe and fiddled with it a bit.  I added lemon zest, white chocolate, and dried cherries, plus a little extra sugar.  I am not a big fan of really sweet stuff (usually), but I increased the sugar because I served these with a brunch and I needed something sweeter than these scones would have been had I followed the recipe exactly.

Two tips:  leave the white chocolate in big chunks or it will melt into the batter, or use white chocolate chips, which will hold their shape better.  Finally, these scones rise quite a bit, so if you make 8 scones out of the recipe, as I did, they will be big.  These are definitely on the repeat list!
continue reading "White Chocolate Cherry Scones – Day 3 of Chocolate Week"