Culinary Concoctions by Peabody

Book Club was last night. Two things we always like to have is wine and chocolate so I thought I would supply the chocolate. Mini cupcakes are always the best because they transport easy and they can be consumed in one bite. The cupcake part is not really that special but the frosting is what gives it a little more of a decadent kick.
This month’s book club was different in the fact that most of us read the book. That could be because we chose to go old school and flashback to our days of middle school. If you are a man you didn’t read this book. But if you are a woman you most likely did….we read “Are You There God? It’s Me Margret” by Judy Blume. For those who have read it, you can only imagine how weird our discussion was last night.

In other news, I thought I was getting a new camera. Someone I know recently purchased a new camera and was looking the sell her old one. I was all ready to buy it when I discoverd that the lens I need to take my signature up close photos runs around $900. That is more than what the camera body and the 50mm lens combined were going to cost me. Sigh. So it looks like I am with the cheapo camera for awhile. 

Chocolate Cupcakes 

1/2 cup boiling water
1/4 cup butter
1 cup granulated sugar
1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon soda
1 egg, beaten
1/2 cup sour cream
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

In a mixing bowl, combine boiling water, butter, sugar, and cocoa. Beat until sugar is dissolved. Add sifted dry ingredients alternately with the beaten egg, sour cream, and vanilla. Fill greased and lightly floured cupcake cups about half full.
Bake at 350° for 25 minutes. Makes about 12 to 18 medium cupcakes or about 9 to 10 large cupcakes. If you are making  mini cupcakes then they only need to be in the oven for 12-14 minutes.
Chocolate Ganache Frosting

5 ounces bittersweet chocolate
3 ounces unsweetened chocolate
3/4 cup whipping cream
1/4 cup butter , room temperature
2 cups powdered sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup whole milk
1 teaspoon vanilla

1. Chop chocolates and transfer into a heat proof bowl.
2. Heat cream until bubbles form around the edge of the pan, pour cream over the chocolate.
3. Let sit for 1 minute then stir until combined.
4. Add butter to the chocolate (make sure its soft and at room temp) and stir until combined.
5. Whisk together sugar, salt, milk, and vanilla in another bowl until combined.
6. Pour the sugar mixture onto the chocolate mixture, then stir until combined and smooth.
7. Let sit at room temperature until thickened.
8. Beat with an electric mixer until fluffy.

I can say that because I am one. We have a rather stupid mentality of when something is broken or injured we just “tape it”. “Tape it” is probably the most used phrase there is in hockey. And so I taped it…my foot that is. Slammed a beer and went out and played. Now I’m not totally stupid, I did try and skate on Friday to see if I even could. I couldn’t stand on my skates if it was just a regular surface, but I had no problem skating on ice…so skate I did. Oh sure it was sore but not painful. And so like all moronic hockey players I played today. Not well, but not bad. I was more out of shape than anything…sitting on your ass for a month can do that…and there is nothing like a hockey game to let you know that you are out of shape.
And speaking of sitting on my ass, my foot injury has allowed to me to spend many an hour organizing my recipes. This has been great as I have found a few of my staples that I have been looking for. One of those was corn bread. Every since it went to hang out with my lost socks and keys I have been stuck trying corn bread recipes on various sites, never being happy with the results. They were almost too salty and just never seemed right to me or my hubby. So it was a happy day for me when I came across my double corn bread muffins. These babies are on the sweet side, containing 1/3 cup of sugar, but consider the source and her love of sugar :).
My foot as of now is doing fine…that is after enough beers that I am torturing the dog by singing Carpenters songs to her The real test will be tomorrow.

P.S. I know some of you are trying to comment but are getting nothing but a picture of cornbread when you send it…I have no idea why but I will sick my husband on it. Keep trying it might just be Wordpress having issues this morning.

Double Corn Cornbread Muffins

1 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup yellow corn meal
1/3 cup granulated sugar
1 TBSP baking powder
1 cup fresh or frozen(thawed) corn
2 large eggs
1/2 cup milk
1/2 cup canola oil

Preaheat oven to 400F.
Combine the flour, cornmeal, sugar and baking powder in a large bowl.
In a small bowl, combine the egg, milk, oil and corn. Beat well to blend.
Add the egg mixture to the flour mixture, stirring just enough to blend. Do not beat.
Fill the muffing tins, and bake 20-25 minutes, until golden brown.
Cool pan on a rack for a few minutes, then turn muffins out onto a rack and finish cooling.
Makes 12 muffins.

After our little group of bakers took on Battle Croissant it was decided that perhaps for our next group project we should chose something a little more on the less challenging side…you know, like a peanut butter and jelly sandwich . We all made suggestions. My suggestion was for a chocolate flour less cake. I have made many a flour less cake and I know that they are simple to make. Plus it is February, the month of chocolate! Well my idea was chosen and we picked Chocolate Intensity by Tish Boyle. This was actually very different from any flour less cake I had made before. The ones I had made use beaten egg whites to add volume, this did not. So as a result the cake is far more dense than the chocolate flour less cakes that I am used to. This was almost fudge-like, in a good way(as if that could ever be a bad way). They only disappointing thing was for my husband, who was very excited when this baby came out of the oven(remember not much baking has been happening on my end). But the minute he bit into it he was sad…it has a fairly strong coffee flavor(fine by me) and he is not a fan of the caffeine wonder(and we live in Seattle). It was so rich in fact that I chose to not put the glaze over the whole cake but just the individual slice. And as usual I made mini cakes, because the smaller they are, the more of them  you can eat!
To see what others were up to head on over to Brilynn, Quellia, Ivonne, Mary, Lis, Tanna, Helen, Veronica or Hester to see what they did with theirs.

Chocolate Intensity
from Tish Boyle’s The Cake Book
makes one 9-inch cake or two mini 4 inch cakes

8 ounces bittersweet chocolate (preferably 62% cocoa), finely chopped
12 ounces (3 sticks) unsalted butter, cut into pieces
1 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup brewed coffee
6 large eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/8 tsp salt

Preheat oven to 350F. Butter the bottom and sides of a 9-inch round cake pan. Line the bottom with a parchment round and butter the parchment. (If you’re using a pan with a removable bottom like a springform, make sure to wrap the pan with 2 or 3 layers of foil.)

Place chopped chocolate in a large bowl.

In a saucepan over medium-high heat, stir butter, sugar and coffee until the butter is melted and mixture is boiling. Pour the hot mixture over your chopped chocolate. Let stand for 1 minute then gently stir until chocolate is melted and the mixture is smooth.

In a medium bowl, whisk the eggs vigorously until blended. Whisk in the vanilla and salt. Slowly add about 3/4 cup hot chocolate mixture to the eggs, whisking constantly. (Tempering the eggs with a little bit of the hot chocolate mixture will prevent “scrambled eggs” when combining the two mixtures.) Add the egg mixture to the hot chocolate mixture and whisk to combine well.

Strain the batter through a sieve (to catch any cooked egg bits) and then pour batter into prepared pan. Set cake pan in a large roasting pan and fill the pan with enough hot water to come halfway up the sides of the cake pan. Bake for 35-45 minutes, until the center is shiny and set but still a bit jiggly. Transfer cake pan to a cooling rack and cool for 20 minutes.

Run a thin knife around the edge of the pan to loosen the cake. Place a cardboard round on top of the pan and invert the cake onto it. Remove pan and carefully remove the parchment paper. Refrigerate the cake for at least 2 hours before glazing with chocolate glaze.

Chocolate Glaze

6 ounces bittersweet chocolate, finely chopped
2/3 cup heavy whipping cream
1 tsp vanilla extract

Place chopped chocolate in a medium bowl.

In a small saucepan, bring the cream to a boil. Remove pan from heat and add the chopped chocolate. Let stand for 1 minute then gently stir until chocolate is melted and the glaze is smooth. Gently stir in the vanilla. Transfer glaze to a small bowl and cover the surface of the glaze with plastic wrap and let cool for 5 minutes at room temperature before using.

To glaze the cake:

Place the chilled cake, still on the cake round, on a wire rack set over a baking sheet. Slowly pour the hot glaze onto the center of the cake. Smooth the glaze over the top and sides, letting the excess drip onto the baking sheet.

Scrape the extra glaze from the baking sheet and put it in a small ziploc bag. Seal the bag and cut a tiny hole in one of the bottom corners. Gently squeeze the bag over the top of the cake to drizzle the glaze in a decorative pattern. Refrigerate the cake at least one hour before serving.
Special thanks to Mary for getting her post up early so super lazy me could just copy and paste the recipe.

Alright, I know you are sick of looking at the carrot cake, I am too. But I just don’t have time right now to really put anything up. So I will throw a Dorie recipe your way. I got mini Bundt pans for Christmas and realized that I never broke them in, so yesterday was as good a time as any.

Milk Chocolate Mini Bundt Cakes

For the Swirl:
3/4 cup chopped walnuts
2 tsp unsweetened cocoa
2 tsp sugar

For the Cake:
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1 stick unsalted butter
1/3 cup sugar
1 large egg
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 cup whole milk
7 ounces milk chocolate, melted and cooled

For the Glaze:
2 ounces bittersweet chocolate, finely chopped
2 tsp light corn syrup

Preheat oven to 350F. Butter your Bundt pans.
To make the swirl: Toss the nuts, cocoa and sugar together in a small bowl.
To Make the Cake: Whisk together the flour, baking powder and salt and set aside. In a bowl beat the butter and sugar together on medium speed until smooth, about 3 minutes, scraping down the bowl as needed. Add the egg and beat for 1 minute more, then beat in the vanilla. Reduce the mixer speed to low and add half the flour mixture, mixing only until it is incorporated. Add the milk, and when it is blended into the batter, add the remaining flour mixture, again mixing just to incorporate. finally, add the chocolate and mix to blend.
Fill each of the mini Bundt molds with a little batter, then decide the swirl ingredients evenly among the molds and top off the Bundts with the remaining batter.
Bake for 20-22 minutes. Transfer the pan to a rack and allow the cakes to rest for 5 minutes, then invert them onto a rack and let them cool to room temperature.
To make the glaze: Melt the chocolate in a heatproof bowl over a saucepan of water. Stir in the corn syrup. Pour glaze over Bundts. Let glaze set at room temperature, which will take about 15 minutes.

Source: Adapted from Baking: From My Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan