HK custard steamed bao

I don't really know what the difference is between this recipe and the one which involves more ingredients such as 3 flours and salted butter that i used here but until I have time to try both (and i'm not really a fan of making custard from scratch), I thought I'd give this recipe a try. It is by the same blogger who gave me this highly successful black sesame bao that only needed one proofing, so I'm more keen to try this recipe. This recipe by LinXianShen again.

Being so easy to wrap, my shape is perfect!

Filling is a bit dry rather than the runny custard I was expecting

Custard 

Ingredients

4 egg yolks

150ml milk

30g corn starch

30g normal flour

1 tbsp sugar

30g oil or lard

Method

1. Pour ingredients into a non-stick saucepan or pot. Stir on a small fire. Stir until it comes together and is workable and can be folded, much like a dough. It should not stick to the pan.

2. Wrap with plastic wrap and it should touch the surface so the custard doesn't form a skin. Chill for at least 3 hours.

3. Divide into 10 portions and roll into balls.

Bao (makes 10)

Ingredients

400g flour (normal or bao flour)

5g sugar

4g yeast

200ml warm water

(Note: My flour package was 500g so I added in the extra 100g with 50g milk, which makes extra 2 kosong bao)

Method

1. Pour ingredients into a mixing bowl. With a pair of chopsticks, stir until the dough comes together into a claggy ball.

2. Knead until smooth, about 10 to 15 mins. Form a ball and tuck underneath to promote a smooth surface, 

3. Roll out into a rectangle, around ½ inch thick. Use a cutter to cut out circles of around 5cm diameter. [Alternatively, divide into 10 portions, roll into balls, then using the usual bao method to roll out a disc with thinner edges than at the centre.]

4. Wrap each custard ball in the disc and crimp together using bao wrapping technique. Turn it seam facing downwards. With palms, use a cupping motion to create a rounder ball.

5. Place each bao straight onto parchment into the steamer. Allow to proof for around 25 mins until the baos expand to about 1.5 times. Press a finger gently on the bao surface and the indentation should spring back.

6. Place the steamer on top of a wok of room temp water and turn up the flame to maximum. Steam for 15 minutes then turn off the fire and leave covered for 3 minutes. Serve immediately.

Recipe feedback

- Again another great recipe from LinXianShen! The filling is the BEST, so easy to wrap. However, it is very dry, but perhaps that is the cha chan ting type of custard bao.

- The dough isn't as pliable as the black sesame bao even though it's pretty much the same recipe but I still did about 13 to 14 minutes of kneading, this time in 29 deg weather compared to 23 deg weather. Maybe that makes all the difference. 

Summer yeasted Mantou and Bao (后酵母 method）

This mantou dough XiaoHong uses a different method with single proof by adding the yeast AFTER the dough has been kneaded. 

Ingredients

500g bao or regular flour

270g warm water

5g instant yeast + 5g water

Method

1. Mix the flour and water and knead until a dough forms. Cover and allow to rest for 15 minutes. The dough already comes out smooth.

2. In a small bowl, add 5g of instant yeast to 5g water. Mix until combined and bloomed.

3. Create a well in the dough and pour in. Slowly pull and fold from outside in and knead until combined for about 2 minutes.

4. Roll into a log and divide into around 10 pieces. Flatted and continue kneading and then form balls.

5. Place in a steamer lined with paper. Cover and allow to proof until 1.5 to 2x, until the dough springs back when gently depressed with a thumb.

6. With the steamer on top, turn on the flame to high and steam for 15 minutes. Turn off the fire and allow to rest for 3 minutes. The bao should be fluffy and moist.

Similarly the empty bao version by Little Goose Food  almost mixes the yeast in afterwards. This video describes a better method of making tall beautiful buns.

Ingredients

250g just boiled water

500g bao or regular flour

3g yeast

Method (makes 6)

1. Into the hot water, grab a handful of flour and put into the water. Use chopsticks to stir into paste.

2. Add the remaining flour and stir with chopsticks. This will yield a claggy dough. Use hands to gather into a ball. The hot water will break the gluten structures to make the buns more soft and bouncy.

3. Cover to rest for 10 mins.

4. Once it's relaxed, knead for 10 to 15 minutes until the surface is smooth. 

5. Press it flat into a rectangle and make an indentation in the centre. Add the yeast into the centre. Add around 1 to 2 tbsp of water just to dissolve the yeast. Roll up the dough and knead until the yeast is well incorporated, around 5 minutes. Using this method, it's easy to form a dough with a smooth surface.

6. Roll into a log and divide into 6 pieces. Knead each piece to release the gas, and form a ball with your palm. Then, roll to form a tall cone.

7. Place directly into the steamer onto parchment. Cover and allow to rest until 1.5x or until a finger indentation on the surface springs back.

8. Start a wok with water on high. Only when the water is rapidly boiling, put the steamer on top and steam for 15 minutes. Turn off the flame and rest for 3 minutes.

Similarly Chui Jie uses this recipe for summer. This recipe has 5g yeast with 250g water and 500g flour. She kneads 3x for around 5 minutes each, but rests in between each kneading. The dough is easier to knead than 15 mins upfront. She says using this method of adding yeast later, all the buns rise at the same time to the same size. She also starts the steaming from cold water.

3-flour Custard bao redux

This blog is littered with bao disasters, including this custard creamed bao that went so wrong (dense, raw and ugly and collapsed, using single proofing) I never tried custard or creamed corn-fillings again. I had also tried a milk bao that used 2 flours (cake and plain) but needed 2 proofings of about an hr each. It was nothing to write home about but relatively easy to work with. There was also a char siu bao dough that used normal flour, wheat starch, vinegered water with baking power but despite all that work, it looked ugly. While easy to work with, it was too stretchy and tore easily, and instead of rising, it grew sideways and was too flat. 

This recipe by Ruyi attempts to remedy all these attempts which uses 3 flours, oil and baking powder in an attempt to create fluffy dim sum bao. The video is particularly helpful with how to wrap and shape so that the buns come out round and smooth.

Ingredients

Custard filling

3 room temp egg yolks, try to remove as much white as possible

150ml milk

75g sugar

20g cake flour

50g salted butter (it must be salted or the butter will separate from the custard)

1. Whisk the egg yolks then add sugar and whisk till pale.

2. Add the cake flour and mix well then set aside.

3. Heat up the salted butter and milk on medium heat and stir once in a while until small bubbles form. Do not boil. Remove from the stove.

4. Quickly whisk the yolk mixture and slowly drizzling in half the scaled milk in a steady stream. Continue to whisk and pour back into the pot and back onto a medium heat.

5. Once the mixture starts to thicken, switch to low heat. Continue to whisk until lump and remove into a bowl. Cover with cling film right onto the custard to prevent it forming a skin.

6. Fridge for min 3 hrs or even overnight.

Alternatively just make instant custard filling

170ml milk

3 tbsp custard powder

2½ tbsp sugar

1. Combine the custard powder, milk and sugar in a pot. Bring to a boil but stirring constantly otherwise it will boil over.

2. Alternatively use a microwave at small increments at 50 to 80% power otherwise it boils over, been there done that! 1min 30s at 1000W.

3. Also keep in the cover and keep in the fridge for at least 3 hours or best overnight. 

Dough (makes 10)

160g superfine (9.5% protein)/HK/Bao flour (normal flour will yield a chewier dough)

40g cake flour

30g wheat starch

45g icing sugar

½ tsp baking powder

¾ tsp instant yeast

130ml room temp water

30ml veg oil

1. In a large bowl, add all the ingredients except the oil. Use a chopstick to ensure all the ingredients are combined.

2. Add the cooking oil in 3 batches and knead in until dough feels smooth, about 10 mins.

3. Divide the dough into 30 equal portions of around 43-44g each. Cover with damp towel and rest for 5 minutes.

4. Roll out one ball at a time with a thicker centre. Flatten to around 9.5 cm disc.

5. Divide the custard into 10 balls and roll each roughly into a ball.

6. In the centre of each dough disc, flatten the custard into the centre and cupping your hand, use a spoon to push the filing into the 'cup' formed by your hand. Pleat to seal and turn over onto the table. Using your sides of your palms, cup and rotate to form a round ball with a smooth surface.

7. Transfer to a lined steaming rack. Allow to proof until 1.5 to 2x. When depressed gently, the dough should spring back.

8. Place straight onto a steamer and turn on to high heat and steam for 15 minutes from room temp. Once done, turn off the fire and leave covered for another 10 minutes.

9, Best served warm but remove from the water to avoid getting soggy.

10. Keep in the fridge and steam for 10 minutes on high heat to reheat. Else store in the freezer and steam on high heat from frozen for 15 minutes. Custard sld be eaten when the bao is warm otherwise it is hard.

Black sesame bao with black sesame filling

I last tried a black sesame bao here with minimal kneading but both the dough and filling were too wet making it too hard to work with; and again here as a black sesame mantou that was also a very wet dough. This is a recipe with minimal kneading and proofing by LinXianShen.

Filling (makes 1 cereal bowl volume of filling)

100g roasted black sesame powder

15g glutinous rice flour

40g white sugar

20g lard

250g water

1. Put in a pot and on low fire, heat until it bubbles and turns into a sticky slurry (still quite liquidy). 

2. Put in the fridge to harden.

Bao dough (makes 10)

400g bao or regular flour

25g roasted black sesame powder

1 tbsp sugar

4g instant yeast

½ C of warm milk (use more or less as needed)

1. Combine with a chopstick until no more dry flour.

2. Roll into a dough. Knead for about 10 to 15 minutes until smooth.

3. Roll out into an oblong, about ½ inch thick. Use a 4 or 5" cutter to stamp out circles.

4. Using about 2 chinese tablespoons of cold filling, encase in the bao skin. Make into round buns and place in a steaming basket.

5. Cover and proof for 20 mins.

6. Turn on the flame to high (water from room temp) and steam for 13 mins. Turn off the fire and leave covered for 3 mins.

Recipe feedback

- Compared to the previous black sesame bao, this recipe is perfect! The filling amount is just enough and the dough is very workable. Shows that you don't need oil in the dough to make it pliable.

- Only issue is I forgot to roast and grind the sesame BEFORE making the filling (so I put it in the food processor after cooking), and also couldn't be bothered to grind the white sesame seeds (I ran out of black) for the dough. It turned out well because it gave the bao some crunch!

- I thought the lack of proofing time would make the bao hard but i was wrong! I really hand kneaded for 15 minutes with all my newfound arm power and then rested for maybe 10 mins while I prepared the steamer and washed up, before wrapping and forming the baos. Also, the bao only got 20 minutes at the end to proof, so I was worried cos they hardly seemed to have grown in size. Steaming at full heat really caused it to poof up so much that they all stuck together and to my steamer!

- Tip - really roll out the dough as large as possible (leaving the centre thicker) cos the filling is very liquid even after being in the fridge for 6 hours. The tip of cupping the palm to hold the dough and then 'applying' the filling onto the dough worked; then pleat, crimp and seal as per usual bao technique. Even though I then turned the seam over onto the parchment and the shape wasn't totally round, bao came out ok and didn't look too weird with the pleats underneath.

Chocolate burnt basque cheesecake

From my favourite auntie Kathrine Kwa's collection. My previous 2 recipe attempts either were too much work because no beater was used, or used a blender but then the air caused it to rise too fast and then it looked ugly (but correct basque look!). Both recipes used a high temperature (230deg C) so it would rise and brown nicely (but have to watch like a hawk) while the inside remains jiggly. However due to that high temp, they would crack too. Hence this recipe uses a lower temperature more akin to baking Japanese-style souffle cheesecake sans water bath, but baked for longer and without switching off the oven (to prevent falling and cracking). Will this yield more consistent and pretty results?

I also decided to revert to JOC's method of slowly blending everything in to incorporate as little air as possible, hoping if there is less air, it won't collapse as dramatically. Her recipe kept it almost like a baked custard and used corn starch but because I didn't beat it at all so substituted cake flour to give it more structure.

Ingredients

500g cream cheese (2 packets Philly), softened

120g sugar

5 eggs

250ml whipping cream (she used 200ml but I only had a 250ml pack)

250g melted dark chocolate (70% cocoa)

10g cocoa powder

10g cake flour 

Pinch of salt

Method

1. Prepare a 8 inch pan in the traditional basque method with foil and 2 layers of crumpled parchment. 

2 Meanwhile, melt choc bar over bain marie or in microwave on small increments. 

3. Next, melt in the cream cheese.

4. Once incorporated, add the sugar and stir until well combined.

5. Switch of the heat. I kept in the bain marie because this recipe has no oil so I was afraid it would harden. Add eggs one at a time and beat well after each. Make sure to only add the next egg when the previous one has been combined, otherwise it becomes hard to keep it lump free once more liquid goes in.

6. Transfer to a bigger mixing bowl if needed. Add in the whipping cream in and beat lightly, but don't overbeat and incorporate too much air.

7. Lastly add the melted chocolate and use a spatula to stir in. Once mostly combined, you can return to the beater at low speed.

8. Sift in the cocoa and cake flour, and pinch of salt.

9. Pour into a lined 8" cake tin. Lightly tap on the countertop to dispel bubbles.

10. Bake on the middle shelf at 220 deg C for 30 mins. Grill with upper heat for 2 to 3 mins until top is darker.

11. Remove from oven and leave in tin for 10 mins to cool so it doesn't crack or shrink. Top sld still be slightly jiggly.

12. Once slightly cooled, remove from tin but do not remove the paper. Continue to let it come to room temp. Chill in fridge for at least 6 hrs or best overnight.

13. To cut cleanly, use a knife dipped in warm water and wipe after each cut with damp towel.

Feedback

- Even though the temp was lowered by 10 deg C, it still cracked! But I believe this had more to do with the basque-style of lining the tin with crumpled parchment and my cake 'caught' on the craggy edges and tore itself.

-

Claypot rice

Based on the SoupedUpRecipes version of claypot rice (uses beef) which uses her claypot that I bought, I changed the ingredients I have available. I also adapted the method from the definitive Cantonese chef's version by MadewithLau (uses chicken). 

Ingredients

250g raw meat, thinly sliced

2 lap cheong, sliced

½ tsp salt

⅓ tsp baking soda

1 tbsp chinese cooking wine

dash of white pepper

1.5 tbsp dark soy sauce

1 tbsp corn starch

2 tbsp cooking oil for fragrant oil or replace with sesame seed oil

1.5 tbsp minced garlic

2 tbsp white part of scallion

2 tbsp minced ginger

1 bunch baby bok choy or suitable green leafy veg

3 dried shitake mushroom, rehydrated and sliced (Optionals include rehydrated lily bulb and black fungus. Bear in mind however that you don't want to stack anything but lay out all the ingredients flat, so reduce the proportions accordingly)

360g white long grain rice with 1.5C water (including mushroom soaking water) - I used 2 rice cups of rice and 2.5C liquid (water + mushroom water)

Seasoning sauce

1.5 tbsp soy sauce

1.5 tbsp oyster sauce

½ tsp fish sauce

1 tsp sugar

¼C water

Method

1. (Optional) Prepare the fragrant oil because the raw meat will be steamed above the rice so there is no milliard reaction. Scald aromatics in oil. Leave aside to cool and discard the used aromatics. Once cooled, add it to the marinade for the meat.

2. Marinate the meat (Optional: add the optional cooled fragrant oil.) Can also add sesame seed oil. Marinate the mushroom slices in any leftover marinade too.

3. Wash and soak the white rice for 15 minutes. (For brown rice, soak 8h). Discard the soaking water.

4. Cook the seasoning sauce and set aside.

5. Coat the claypot with lard. Put in the soaked rice and add in 1 tsp of oil/lard. If not using aromatic oil, briefly stir fry the thin sliced ginger and the rice in the oil. Fill with boiling water. Cook on med high heat for 10 to 12 mins until nearly all the water has evaporated. Resist the urge to keep opening the cover, you will see the edges under the lid stop bubbling. You can remove the lid and poke holes in the rice (see the videos) to allow the steam to rise)

6. While waiting for the rice to cook, wash and scald the veg.

7. Turn off the heat and remove the lid. Lay the raw marinated meat slices and lap cheong onto the rice, taking your time. Try to spread out and don't pile so ingredients can cook evenly.

8. Replace the lid the drizzle sesame oil around the rims of the lid. This will drip down the side.

9. Turn back on to medium heat and cook for 5 more minutes to cook the ingredients. 

10. Once you heard the sizzling sounds, turn heat up to medium. Use oven mitts to rotate the pot (including the sides) every 20 seconds so that the base is evenly heated for the scorched crispy base. Do this for another 2 to 3 mins.

11. You can drizzle more sesame oil down the side or even lard and continue to scorch but keep a nose out for burning.

12. Turn off the flame. If using a raw egg, crack an egg in the centre and cover for another 2 minutes. Done! Add blanched baby bok choy on top and garnish with scallions. Drizzle on the seasoning sauce and mix at the table.

Different method by Habibi who really likes lard.

- Use Thai medium grain rice which is less sticky and each grain is distinct. 

- Same volume to water to rice.

- Add lard to rice and water.

- Prepare the cured meats. Do not cut up the lapcheong into small pieces as you want the oil to burst in your mouth. Either leave whole and then chop up when serving, or cut into 3 batons for easier cooking because. Use duck or goose liver and also cured 3 layer pork (la rou) in addition to lap cheong.

- Marinade cured meats in marinade soya sauce, sugar, oyster sauce and sesame seed oil.

- When water has almost evaporated (around 7 to 10 mins), use chopstick to poke holes in the rice. Add the meat.

- Sauce: light and dark soya sauces, pepper, oyster sauce, sugar, shallot oil, garlic oil.

- Once rice is done, turn down heat to low. To check if rice is crispy, poke the chopstick on the side of the pot. If it goes through easily, the rice isn't crispy enough.

- Add more lard around the edges of the pot. To crisp up the edges, put the pot at the corner of the stove and rotate it every minute. Try again with the chopstick test. To serve the meat, use a scissors to cut up

Kimchi pancake

I have tried so many kimichi pancakes and they always fail. Either too doughy (if using only all purpose flour) or they fall apart. After my thought, I think I finally realised it's because many of the recipes omit egg! Secondly, even if there is no egg (like you see real ahjumohni doing), they will put the veg on the pan, then pour on the flour batter, then flip and pour on the egg! The egg really is the glue! Finally, I see many non-Koreans put in the different veg (kimchi, scallions, etc) and then pour on dry flour, (egg), liquid, etc all separately. I tend to do that out of laziness but my pancake falls apart! I had a sudden epiphany that maybe I really need to be mixing everything together first and lightly whisking to activate the gluten in the flour, and the egg as the glue!

So here is a true Korean chef's recipe - Chris Cho's kimchi pancake. Not just a random non-Korean blogger or K-influencer whose mom/dad cooked.

Ingredients

1/2C flour

1/2C potato starch

1/3C water

1/3C kimchi juice

3-4 tsp garlic

3-4 tsp sesame oil

Salt and pepper to taste

1 egg

½ onion

2 scallion (lengthways)

2-3 C drained kimchi, chopped

1/2C pork, thinly slicked

Method

1. Mix all the ingredients except the egg and beat with a chopstick. Taste the batter to check seasoning. Adjust seasoning if required. Batter will be thick.

2. Add the egg and beat in.

3. Add all the ingredients in and mix the batter. 

4. Check the consistency (see the video) and adjust with more flour and potato starch if required. When using your finger to lift the batter out of the bowl, it sticks to the finger and barely falls off.

5. High heat, heat up pan till hot. Splash of oil. Pour on the batter and shape edges within first 30 seconds (otherwise it can't be re-shaped).

6. 2 minute high heat, flip and 2 more mins on high heat. Turn down heat to medium and flip for 2 minutes, then flip again for 2 minutes.

7. Along the way, press down with spatula to flatten out. Splash oil around the edges.

8. Invert out onto chopping board and chop up into squares.

Black vinegar pig trotters

This is my favourite dish and also my dad's. I even wanted to eat it so much that I bought a claypot specifically for it, as vinegar has a disastrous effect on metal. Even though it's supposed to be safe on stainless steel (even the bloggers differ on this), I don't want to be subjecting my precious pots that I got when I got married and are meant to last me a lifelong, on this. Although it's traditionally for confinement ladies and thus considered very 'heaty', it's great for winter. I also found out from various blogs that it only becomes heaty when brewing the ginger and keeping it in black vinegar like a herbal tincture, and using old vinegar. It's less heaty when using young vinegar.

For me, these are the most seminal recipes: Burning Kitchen (has video) and Christine's talk about the herbal tincture method, BeautifulVoyager (has video) used it for her confinement but modernised the method, but Spice'N'Pans (has video) did it for everyday eating. Interestingly, Annielicious even cooks it the traditional way over the charcoal stove in a clay pot, and adds wine-soaked red dates! I might try that one day. Here is a compilation of all their tips but for everyday eating rather than confinement. 

Ingredients

500g to 1kg ginger - mix of old and young (Bentong ginger if possible is more aromatic)

1 to 2 full front trotters, chopped into pieces (around 700g to 1.5kg). The front trotters are preferred for their meat and the back for collagen. Possibly use a mix of both ie 1 front and 1 back foot..

3 tbsp sesame seed oil

6 hard boiled eggs, peeled

750ml of black sweet vinegar, Chan Kong Thye (bulldog picture, use Pink double strength) or 1 bottle of 2 bottles (600ml each) Pat Chun sweetened vinegar (the only one I could find in my Asian grocer)

5 tbsp brown sugar (or more to taste) or 100g gula melaka or palm sugar

Pinch of salt

Coarse salt (for washing the trotters)

2l water (for boiling)

Method

1. Prepare the ginger. Scrub it clean and cut into chunks. If using young ginger, skin doesn't need to be removed, but do remove loose bits. (Extra step: dry in the sun for a week to absorb the vinegar) Smash/bruise it to release the flavour.

2. Prepare the trotters. Rub the trotters with coarse salt while washing. Wash to remove any blood. Blanch the trotters. In a big pot, add 2l of water or enough to cover the trotters. Add the trotters to the cold water and bring to boil. If adding trotters to boiling water, the trotters will be sealed and the blood remains. Boil for 10 to 15 mins. Discard the water. Wash the trotters again to clean off the scum.

3. Optional way to prepare trotter from SoupedUpRecipes braised trotters: Soak for 2 hrs in water with sliced ginger, crushed spring onion, 2 tbsp of chinese cooking wine. Using the same water, bring to a boil and then boil for 10 minutes. Discard everything and wash the trotters clean of scum.

4. Pat dry and use the knife to scrape off any hair or pluck them out with tweezers. It's easier to pluck after being blanched.

5. The confinement method is to fry in a dry wok at medium low heat, fry the ginger until very dry. Once dry, add the 3 tbsp sesame seed oil and continue to fry but be careful not to burn. Alternatively for everyday eating, add sesame oil. Without needing to warm up the pot and oil, and fry the ginger until dry. 

6. Optional: lightly brown the trotters, then add the sugar at this point and lightly caramelise the sugar.

7. In a clay pot, pour in the entire bottle of black vinegar and use the bottle to measure 1 bottle's worth of water (enough to cover the trotters), and pour that in. Bring to a boil. Transfer the trotters and ginger to the claypot. The trotters should ideally go into hot liquid or skin will shrink and turn hard. Once boiling, add in the brown sugar (if didn't do step 6).

8. Turn down to medium low and simmer for 1 to 1.5 hours until soft. (if using the stainless steel pot or wok, 30 minutes of simmering suffices). Stir every 30 minutes or so. You should be able to poke through the trotter with a chopstick. If intending to steep and store, don't cook for too long as the trotters will continue to soften in the vinegar. *Also possible to use IP and cook for 10 minutes for tender trotter and 15 mins for fall off the bone.

8. Check seasoning and add salt if needed. Add the hard boiled eggs in the last 15 minutes only. Let the eggs soak in the sauce for at least 4 hrs. The trotters (without eggs) will taste better the next day and can be soaked for up to 3 days and will taste even better.

9. To store, remove the eggs and store separately from the sauce or they will dehydrate and harden. Store the sauce in a glass or ceramic vessel, not metal. The pork will continue to soften as it steeps in vinegar so depending on how soft they were cooked to begin with, consider whether to store together. 

10. To reheat, reheat only enough to each time (few eggs, few trotters and enough vinegar) over the stove. The microwave will only cause the trotters to harden. This can be stored in the fridge for up a month but the trotters must remain submerged. If keeping for that long, take out the sauce every week and reboil then cool down and re-store.

Double dark choc chip brownies

I have so many brownie recipes that use only cocoa and no chopped cooking chocolate or melted choc chips- a standard recipe with extras like choc chips and nuts or fruit, and a Hershey's dup trying to re-create the recipe from my childhood which came off a Hershey's cocoa box, blondie brownie cheesecake, peanut butter brownie. I've experimented with different types of sugar (white, brown or mix) to try to achieve just the right texture of melting fudge with a crispy top (that remains even the next few days) without it becoming too much like chocolate cake.

I've actively avoided using cooking chocolate and melting choc chips just because it's extra store cupboard items to stock but I've never achieved the right level cake with fudginess without it going over the top to become too raw, and I think that's the limit of using pure cocoa powder. When I encountered the gateau,  it opened up my mind to the possibility of chopping baking chocolate as a fudgey but cakey alternative.

Here comes RecipeTinEat's easy recipe which uses both chopped choc bar and choc chips. Except I don't like melting choc chips with butter as I feel there are other ingredients like stabilisers in the choc chips, so I've swapped them and used the pure block of cooking chocolate as my base. 

Ingredients

200g butter, melted

200g dark choc bar, chopped

1C brown sugar (175g(

3 eggs, beaten

1 tsp vanilla extract

½ C (75g) flour

¼ C (30g) cocoa powder

180g/1C dark choc chips (chopped), leave some for deco on top

¼ C fruit or chopped walnuts (optional)

salt pinch

Method (8 inch square pan)

1. In a microwave or bain marie, melt the butter and chopped chocolate bar. Leave to cool slightly.

2. Combine the sugar, vanilla with the melted choc mixture.

3. Add the beaten eggs and combine.

4. Sift in the flour, cocoa and salt.

5. Mix in the dark choc chips. Mix in any optional chopped walnuts, etc.

6. Pour into the prepared tin (with parchment overhang).

7. Bake at 180 deg C for 24 (very fudgey almost raw), 28 (gooey) to 32 minutes (cake-like). Rest in tin for 10 minutes before removing/lifting out of the tin. It will look too soft and undercooked! Allow to cool at least 20 minutes before slicing up.

Feedback

- Not entirely sure if I read the recipe wrongly as I swapped the add-in chips for the choc bar to melt. However, i did use 20g less of choc bar with the butter as the bar was 180g straight off the packet and I didn't bother topping up the 20g. The result was a very oily brownie with oil oozing out when it first came out of the oven, pooling in the centre but the sides were dry! I slathered the oil onto the sides and it seemed to absorb back in. 

- It was really also very flat, maybe that's normal? Even an additional 20g wouldn't have made much difference to the height.

Banana, walnut, raisin and choc chip muffins

Using this fruit and nut loaf recipe, I again upsized it to make muffins.

The one perfect muffin!

Ingredients (makes 12 muffins)

3C flour

1½ tsp baking soda

¾ C packed brown sugar

a pinch of salt

1 tsp lime juice or apple cider vinegar

3 eggs, beaten

2 tsp vanilla extract

160 ml melted butter (approximately 0.7C)

4 mashed bananas

½ C raisins (rehydrated in tea, juice or water, then strained)

½ C choco chips

½ C walnuts, chopped; with whole walnuts for decorating

1 tsp cinnamon powder

Method

1. In a big bowl, mix the dry ingredients: flour, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon powder.

2. Add the raisins and toss in the flour to coat so that they don't sink. Add in the choc chips and chopped walnuts. Reserve a few choc chips and whole walnuts for decoration.

3. Add the packed brown sugar and ensure that everything is well incorporated and no big chunks of brown sugar. Set aside.

4. In a smaller bowl, mash the bananas with a fork.

5. Add in the melted butter, beaten egg, lime juice and vanilla extract. 

6. Add the wet to the dry ingredients and gently fold in. Fold until the flour is just mixed in, there might still be some dry bits. Do not over mix. The batter will be quite thick and chunky.

7. With a cookie scoop, fill into lined muffin tin, approximately ¾ to the top.

8. Decorate the with whole walnuts and/or choc chips.

9. Bake at 175 deg C for 31 minutes until cooked through. (Note: the skewer trick doesn't work as the inside batter will be very liquidy from the fruit and choc).

10. Leave in the tin for 5 minutes to cool slightly, then remove muffins and continue cooling on a wire rack. 

Feedback

- Quite dry unlike the original banana loaf, maybe recipe needs more oil. When mixing, it did have lots of dry flour that eventually absorbed the moistness of the banana. However it doesn't fall apart so maybe that's fine. Tender crumb (from not over-mixing and I snuck in ¼ cup of leftover bread flour!)

- I didn't increase the sugar ratio and it was still sweet enough.

- I am not sure if the baking soda really did its job as there was hardly any lift, but at least I didn't taste the baking soda this time. I might try with proper baking powder next time.

- The addition of bread flour adds a crunch that stays even after a few days (after reheating).