Suzi's Blog

Chocolate Crunch Cake with Milk Chocolate Frosting

by Brian on August 8th, 2010 in Dessert Digest,Recipes No Comments

There was a television series on PBS called Rumpole of the Bailey where a very clever lawyer was married to someone he described as “She Who Must Be Obeyed.” Not to her face, of course.

Not that I’m in that situation, but recently I heard Suzen say, “Too much chocolate.”

“What are you talking about?” I asked.

“Every damn blog post,” she answered.

Okay, I was hitting the chocolate pretty hard in the springtime, I admit. I did seek help and this summer has been filled with berries and fruit covered in natural, raw sugar. So think I’ve made enormous strides.

Now about this recipe for chocolate cake. I don’t know how I got it. I do not remember looking it up or printing it or anything. One day, there it was, printed out and on my desk. I would deny any responsibility for its appearance, but Suzen would not believe me. I may have accidentally downloaded while I was sleepwalking one night. Bad things do occur when you are chocolate deprived.

I won’t say this is the best chocolate cake ever. I will say, that if I ever have a formal last meal, this is the dessert I would request. The cake is divine. But the frosting is the killer. Milk chocolate frosting. A pound of milk chocolate plus whipping cream. I had the best time ever making this.

And the truth is, Suzen did, too. She decorated the cake. And she ate several pieces. I was just politely silent with every bite she took. One smirk from me and … Well, we won’t go there.

The one change we made in the recipe was to add crunched up Heath bars to the top of the cake as well as the middle layer. In fact, we divided the recommended four Heath bars, putting just two in the middle and then the remaining two on top.

Now, be honest. When you look at the picture of the cake above, don’t you just want to like your monitor? This cake is that good. As you plan for next weekend, buy some milk chocolate. Like a pound. Maybe more because you’ll want to taste test to make sure it’s good milk chocolate.

And to where to buy very good milk chocolate? Trader Joe’s has a house brand that is reasonably priced and exceptionally tasty.

Chocolate Crunch Layer Cake with Milk Chocolate Frosting

Yield: 10-12 servings

Cake Ingredients:

• 4 ounces unsweetened chocolate
• ½ cup hot water
• 1 ¾ cups cake flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• ½ teaspoon salt
• ½ cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature
• 1 ¾ cups sugar
• 3 large eggs, room temperature
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• ⅔ cup whole milk

Cake Preparation:

Position rack in center of oven and preheat to 350˚F. Butter two 9-inch diameter cake pans with sides 1‑¾ inches high. Line bottoms of pans with waxed paper. Butter paper. Dust pans with flour, tap out excess. Combine chocolate with ½ cup hot water in a small saucepan. Stir over low heat until melted and smooth. Cool to lukewarm, stirring often.

Whisk flour, baking soda and salt in medium bowl to blend. Using electric mixer, beat butter in large bowl until fluffy. Gradually beat in sugar. Beat in eggs 1 at a time, then vanilla extract. Beat in chocolate mixture. Add flour mixture in 3 additions alternately with milk in 2 additions, beating just to blend after each addition. Divide batter equally between pans. Bake cakes until tester inserted into center comes out clean and cake just begins to pull away from sides of pan, about 35 minutes. Cool cake in pans on racks 5 minutes. Cut around pan sides. Turn cakes out onto racks; peel off waxed paper. Cool Cakes completely.

Frosting Ingredients:

• 1 ¼ cups whipping cream
• ¼ cup light corn syrup
• ½ cup (1/2 stick) unsalted butter
• 1 pound milk chocolate, chopped

Frosting Preparation:

Combine cream, corn syrup and butter in heavy large saucepan. Whisk over medium heat until mixture begins to simmer. Add chopped chocolate. Reduce heat to low and whisk until frosting is smooth, about 1 minute; transfer to a large bowl.

Fill another large bowl with ice. Set bottom of bowl with frosting atop ice. Whisk until frosting is cool and begins to thicken, about 8 minutes. Place bowl of frosting on work surface. Using electric mixer, beat until color lightens and just until frosting becomes thick enough to hold peaks when beaters are lifted, about 2 minutes. Frosting will continue to thicken as it stands.

Assembly Ingredients:

• 4 1.4 ounce chocolate-covered English toffee bars (such as Heath Bars or Skor), cut into ¼-inch dice
• 7 ounces milk chocolate (such as one Hershey’s bar)

Cake Assembly:

Place 1 cake layer, flat side up, on an 8-inch diameter tart pan bottom or cardboard round. If desired, place pan bottom with cake atop 8-inch diameter cake pan to make a simple decorating stand. Top layer with 1 ½ cup frosting, spreading to edge. Sprinkle evenly with diced toffee. Top with second cake layer, flat side down. Press slightly to adhere. Spread thin layer of frosting over top and sides of cake to seal and set crumbs. Spread remaining frosting over top and sides of cake (if frosting becomes stiff, stir gently spatula to loosen).

Stand chocolate bar on a short end. Using a vegetable peeler and starting at top edge of 1 side, run peeler down length of bar (chocolate will come away from side of chocolate bar in curls). Pile chocolate curls atop cake. Chill at least 2 hours. Cake can be made 2 days ahead. Cover with cake dome and keep chilled. Let stand at room temperature 1 hour before serving.

Source: Epicurious

Girl Scout Thin Mint Cookies, Version 1

by Brian on June 2nd, 2010 in Dessert Digest,Recipes No Comments

Not all addictions are bad. For example, we all need our addition to water and to oxygen to survive. And some of us need that annual addiction to Girl Scout Thin Mint cookies to survive, too.

I’ve never bought any other Girl Scout cookie except the Thin Mints. And although I do buy several boxes, they don’t last through the year. I just learned you can freeze them, but even that wouldn’t work for me.

I’ve wanted to make the cookie myself — not that I won’t support the Girl Scouts still — but a week after my four boxes are gone, what am I to do? It’s a long, long way to next spring.

I have googled and searched and baked and I’m still looking for the right recipe. There are many attempts out there to duplicate the Thin Mint, but I haven’t found one that is truly satisfying yet. There are lots of silly ones, like the idea of coating a Ritz cracker with chocolate mint. That’s not going to work and you don’t even have to test it to know that.

Along the way, some of the candidate recipes have been good and I’m presenting one below. It’s a good chocolate mint wafer. I can’t get the right coating for it yet, but if I do, or if I find a true substitute for the original thin mints, I’ll let you know.

And if you know of a true Thin Mint recipe, please share it. In the meantime, this Thin Mint Wafer is good on its own or would be ideal as a sandwich cookie. If you are making a sandwich cookie, cut the frozen dough a full ¼ inch thick or more, and bake only 13 minutes so the cookies remain soft, not crisp. Then take two of these wafers, and cement them with some mint buttercream. Chill the sandwiches slightly before eating to intensify the mint flavor.

Thin Mint Wafers

Yield: about 40 cookies

Ingredients:

2 ¼ cups all purpose flour
¼ cup cornstarch
6 Tablespoons cocoa powder
½ Teaspoon salt
1 cup white sugar
½ cup of butter, room temperature
⅓ cup milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon peppermint extract

Preparation:

In a small bowl, whisk together the flour, cornstarch, cocoa powder and salt.

In a large bowl of an electric mixer, cream together the butter and sugar. It’s best to first cream the butter, then add the sugar one tablespoon at a time. With the mixer on low speed, add in the milk and the extracts. The mixture will look curdled. Gradually, add in the flour mixture until fully incorporated.

On wax paper bases, shape the dough into two logs, about 1 ½ inches in diameter. Warp tightly in plastic wrap or foil and freeze for at least 1-2 hours, or until the dough is very firm

Preheat the oven to 375° F.

Slice the dough rounds not more that ¼ inch thick. If they are too thick they will not be crispy. Place on a parchment lined baking sheet. The cookies will not spread very much, so you can put them quite close together.

Bake for 13-15 minutes ,until the cookies are firm at the edges. Cool the cookies completely on a rack before dipping in chocolate or using frosting to make sandwich cookies.

Source: Adapted from bakingbites.com