Chocolate Fondants "Tak Jadi"

The picture from the book, DISHY DESSERTS has fascinated me for some time now, because this looks like another version of chocolate cakes with a molten centre. And recently, at the Alliance Francaise, in Lorong Gurney, I sampled their chocolate fondant, which didnt look anything to shout about from the outside, but the minute you sank you teeth into it, YUMMMMMMY. (the cafe there is part of the french culinary school, and gourmet supply shop, Gourmandines).

Anyway, since Tuesdays are baking experiment days, I decided to be bold, and try this particular recipe. Maybe I did it wrong, so I'm putting it here so that someone else can try it and tell me if it worked. As you can tell from my pics, mine looks NOTHING like what its meant to look like in the book.

Shoobee doo lang lang:

250gm unsalted butter (now, this seemed like a HECK of a lot of butter)
250 gm dark chocolate

Melt the chocolate and whisk in the butter. (I shortcut this by zapping in microwave. Result was a very watery choco butter solution)

1 cup plain flour
3/4 cup cocoa

Sift together in a bowl. Put aside.

2 eggs, 1 cup sugar

Whisk together, until light and creamy.

Add this into the melted chocolate. Mix, and fold in the flour & cocoa. Pour into 6 individual "dariole" moulds...(dunno what that is, but I just used some tart tins), 3/4 full, and refrigerate for at least 3 hours. (I only refrigerate for 2 hours)

Take out from fridge, plonk onto a baking tray, and bake at a preheated 200C oven for 12-14 minutes.

Now, mine looked and smelt good, but the texture was awful. Also, it was sickeningly rich, I think the butter and chocolate just makes one nauseous after two mouthsful. The texture was all wrong, it was like a mousse, with uncooked flour.......

Any takers? Try and let me know.

Pigs In Blankets

Nigella Lawyson's Pigs In Blanket

My Pigs In Blanket

One of the reasons why I love reading Nigella's cookbooks and watching her show, is how she makes everything seem so effortless, and so human. Not to mention the doses of wit thrown in sometimes. And who on earth cooks in their nighty, with perfectly manicured nails and coiffured hair???

Anyway, this recipe is from Nigella Bites, and I happened to catch it on TV as well. So, last friday, I decided to be adventurous and try this instead of the normal sausage rolls, for my Cell Group. Unlike her, I didn't use pigs, but chicken, but somehow, chickens in blankets doesn't have quite that same ring.

Blankets:

3 cups self raising flour, 1 heaped teaspoon salt
1 cup grated cheddar cheese
1 egg & 1/2 cup vegetable oil
1 cup milk

Pigs : Cocktail franks, or in this case, ayamas sausages hacked into two

Mix the sifted flour with the grated cheddar. Mix the egg, oil and milk together, and dump into the flour cheese mixture and stir until you can a cohesive dough. Add more flour if necessary.

Roll out any which way you want, but not too thick, because, (and this is one of my all time favourite Nigella phrases), these ARE pigs in BLANKETS, not pigs in DUVETS.... roughly cut out into rectangles or rough squares.

Roll up the franks/sausages at a diagonal, and glaze with egg & milk solution. Bake in 220C oven for 10 minutes or so until brown.

Actually, tastewise, its nothing to shout about, as I personally prefer buttery flaky pastry, and this one, devoid of butter, tastes a bit too healthy, but when served warm, it's not too bad. I'd recommend tweaking the blankets with some butter, for a quick pastry fix. And its really fast to make, so if your audience are not so discerning, or are mainly kids, its much cheaper than using pampas puff pastry.

Almost Flourless Carrot Cake

I saw this recipe in masak masak's blog, and felt compelled to try it immediately, because it sounded reminiscent of a carrot cake I had in Australia years ago that was made by a friend, Shiew Ling, that was very very nice. Very carroty.

I won't regurgitate the recipe here, as you can get it from the above link. Now, for the one I made (you can see my photography is nowhere near to Masak Masak's pictures, which are always brilliant), my first bite into the cake, and I thought, "oh my goodness, this tastes too almondy". You know how almond has a very distinct taste, like almond jelly (hung ngun tau foo), and you either like it or hate it in a very durian-esque way. Hence, I wasn't sure if Masak Masak meant use more walnut or almond.

But, oddly enough, after the initial shock, this cake kinda grows on you. Firstly, it is oil-less, virtually flourless, and exceedingly healthy sounding. Hence my curiosity, how can such a cake be moist. It was moist. From the carrots, apparently. I guess you could un-healthirize it by smearing cream cheese frosting over it.....