{A Summer of Decadent Desserts} Loaded Peanut Butter Chocolate Brownie

In spite of V-Day and all the baking opportunities it brings, I was too busy making cake for the many non-Valentines-related baking opportunities this week. So today's Decadent Dessert actually dates back a few weeks - when it still felt like summer in Christchurch!

I seem to be making a habit of mutilating recipe names for my own purposes. 

The victim of this post is CenterCutCook's Peanut Butter Brownie Dream. Being a sucker for anything to do with brownie and peanut butter (separate AND combined!), I was doubly sucked in by this treat. And I think I spent five minutes looking at that fluffy-yet-decadent peanut butter mousse, trying to work out if I would ever - in my wildest dreams - be able to replicate it. If ever there was an appropriate time to add the word 'loaded' to something, surely this baby is deserving...

By the time I was looking at the ingredients list, there was no turning back. But a disappointment awaited me - in the form of Cool Whip. 'What on earth is that?!' I (and any other Kiwi readers) thought. Well, I'm still not entirely sure. Some sort of stabilised cream, 'loaded' with corn syrup? I was downcast and hopeless, thinking this dessert and I could never be together in the absence of this magical Cool Whip.

But where there's a will there's a... (Cool) Whip? Anyhow, I found that others in the world of blogging have needed to find a replacement for Cool Whip also. The most helpful recipes I found used stabilised cream in place of Cool Whip for desserts like this one. 

Home-made Cool Whip gives the topping dizzying height and delicious fluffiness 

Taking multi-step a bit too far? Maybe, but I believe it's worth it for the unique texture and firmness of that dreamy topping, loaded onto delectable brownie. If it feel like too many steps then you could use a boxed brownie or cake mix for the base instead. Just remember that decadence often benefits from a little more time... hopefully this series of multi-stage recipes convinces you (if you aren't already) that time is a worthwhile investment when baking! And time does not mean complicated, as this recipe is not hard to follow so don't be deceived by the look of the instructions - you can do this!!!

Here are the components and assembly details for making this masterpiece yourself. The brownie base and topping/assemblage recipes are slightly adapted from CenterCutCook - you can check out other great recipe ideas by multi-talented blogger Ashley here.

Chocolate Peanut Butter Brownie Base

Recipe adapted from CenterCutCook. 

1/3 cup good quality dark cocoa powder 
1/2 cup boiling water 
60 g dark chocolate, finely chopped (if you are using a regular cocoa powder you could use milk chocolate instead - make sure it's chopped really small because it will need to melt when mixed with the boiling water)
4 tablespoons (approx. 30 g) unsalted butter, melted (heat the butter, chopped in a heat-proof bowl and covered, for 1 minute in the microwave) 
1/2 cup vegetable oil 
2 eggs 
2 egg yolks 
2 teaspoons vanilla extract 
2 & 1/2 cups sugar 
1 & 3/4 cups plain flour 
3/4 teaspoon salt 
80 g chocolate chips
80 g peanut butter candy melts, roughly chopped (Wilton makes them and in NZ you can get them from some Living & Giving stores or online at Sweet Pea Parties and Cake & Kitchen). If you can't/won't get these melts, just use more chocolate chips or any peanut butter sweets that you can find, like M&Ms or Reeses Pieces).

Pre-heat oven to 180°C with a baking rack at the bottom oven. Line a 9 x 13 inch (23 x 30 cm) pan with baking paper (at the original recipe link you can read about the foil sling that Ashley suggests to make it easier to get the brownie out of the tin. I don't think this quantity requires it but if you are keen have a read!).

In a large bowl, combine the boiling water and the cocoa powder. Use a whisk to stir the mixture until the cocoa powder is dissolved. Add in the finely chopped chocolate, and whisk until all of the chocolate is melted (you may need to cover and leave the mixture for a few minutes to help the chocolate melt - but don't worry if not all the chocolate melts, since there will be choc chips also going into it!). Stir oil and melted butter into the chocolate mixture. 

Place eggs, egg yolks, and vanilla in a small bowl and whisk together for a few seconds to break up the yolks. Whisk the egg and vanilla mixture into the chocolate mixture. Stir in sugar, then sieve in the flour and add the salt. Stir until all ingredients are combined. Fold in the chocolate chips and roughly chopped peanut butter melts, if using.

Any other peanut butter nutters out there?! ;-)

Scrape the batter into the lined baking pan. Gently tap the full pan on the bench top a couple of times to make sure the brownie is spread evenly in the pan.

Bake on the bottom rack of the oven until a toothpick inserted into the brownie pulls out moist crumbs, not quite clean, which should take around 30 minutes depending on your oven. Remove the brownie from the oven and transfer the pan to a wire rack and cool until pan is ok to touch without burning yourself (an hour or so). Lift brownie out of the pan and cool on wire rack for another hour, at room temperature or in refrigerator.

I really like this brownie recipe for several reasons. Because of the seriously dairy-in-ated topping the loaded brownie must be kept in the fridge. This brownie is a good density without too much butter content, which means that it doesn't solidify to rock-solid in the fridge. Also, it leaves you with leftover egg whites, which are always useful if you're stockpiling meringue buttercream icing in your freezer for your next caking occasion...!

Peanut Butter Dream Topping

Recipe adapted from CenterCutCook.

1 cup peanut butter
250 g package of cream cheese, softened 
1 cup icing sugar 
1 x 8 ounce tub Cool Whip, or 250 g home-made Cool Whip (recipe follows).

In the bowl of a stand mixer or a large bowl if using a hand mixer, place the softened cream cheese and beat until light and fluffy. Add in peanut butter and mix at medium speed for a minute to combine. Slowly add in the icing sugar on low speed - mixture will be very thick. Beat in the Cool Whip at low speed until the filling is light and fluffy again.

Final consistency of peanut butter topping

Refrigerate topping until needed. 

Or just eat it now...on its own!

Home-made Cool Whip

Recipe adapted from Something Swanky. Makes enough for one quantity of Peanut Butter Dream Topping plus a little left over which could be frozen or served alongside the loaded brownie.

30 mL (2 tablespoons) cold water
1/2 teaspoon unflavoured gelatine
1/4 teaspoon cream of tartar
220 mL whipping cream
1 & 1/2 tablespoons sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla

Pour the water into a small saucepan and sprinkle the gelatine over the water. Let it sit for a couple of minutes then place the pan over medium-low heat and stir until gelatine dissolves. Remove from heat and let cool completely. 

Place one tablespoon of the whipping cream and the cream of tartar in a small zip-lock bag. Seal the bag and shake it until cream of tartar has dissolved completely and there are no lumps. If there are lumps, use your fingers to work them out. 

Pour the cream of tartar mixture into a large bowl (the bowl of your mixer if using a stand mixer) along with the rest of the whipping cream and the sugar. Beat with a hand beater or the whisk attachment on a stand mixer on medium speed for about two minutes. Once the cream mixture begins to slightly thicken, slowly pour in the cooled gelatine mixture while continually mixing. Add the vanilla. Continue to mix until the cream is thick and smooth.

Home-made 'cool whip' a.k.a. stabilised cream

Chocolate Topping 

If desired, use store-bought chocolate sauce or use the following instructions:

Combine equal cup quantities of finely chopped chocolate and simmering hot cream (half a cup of each should be sufficient). Cover for a couple of minutes and stir to combine. Leave to cool a bit before using on loaded brownie so as not to melt the topping.

Assemblage

Spread the peanut butter topping over the cooled brownie layer and place in the refrigerator for at least an hour. 

Just before serving, cut the dessert into small pieces and drizzle with chocolate topping. Store leftovers (if there are any!) covered tightly in the refrigerator.

{A Summer of Decadent Desserts} Cheesecake Chocolate Cake with Salted Caramel

Ah summer and its long sunny days. What could be better than dining late during those warmer nights? Ending them with a delicious sweet treat, that's what! 

This month I've been trying out some gorgeous recipes that have been floating around the blogsphere; recipes where salted caramel, thick chocolate brownie and rich cheesecake layers interlace with flowing ganache or flavoured buttercream. The sort of desserts that fully deserve being described as 'decadent'. 

These recipes tend to involve a number of steps spread over several hours (or days!) but all the effort is... Totally. Worth. It.

So for the next couple of posts I'm going to do some promos of other baker's great ideas by trial and taste test. Hopefully you'll find you're a fan of their work and support the many inspirational (and irrepressible!) bakers who spend so much time developing recipes for anyone to try for free! 

First up: Salted Caramel Chocolate Cheesecake Cake from Shugary Sweets.

You might notice that I've called it something different in the title of my post. I'm a little bit of a grammar cop - the adjectives (eg. chocolate) in English need to come before the nouns (e.g. cake). 

It's not like I care or anything... but this dessert is difficult to grammarise(sp?!), because there are really two cakes: chocolate cake and cheesecake. But the cheesecake is not chocolate flavoured, it's plain/vanilla-ish. 

See the problem? By calling it a chocolate cheesecake cake you could misunderstand and expect the cheesecake to be chocolate flavoured. 

And you would be bitterly disappointed (well, maybe).

Also, by starting the description with 'salted caramel' you could expect the cake to infused with that flavour, rather than topped with it. 

And you would also be disappointed (although not really, because there's still lots of lovely caramel in the icing!). 

I'm not writing this in criticism - I just feel like I need to clarify why I've called it by different name (a rose, anyone?!). 

So that no-one would be disappointed. 

If it makes it better, I've used the original name in my computer file name for the photos I took of it...

Ok, ok, let's just have pictures instead of words.

That's better - well, not the best images (can't wait to get a new camera soon so I don't have to use my phone one!!!) but I hope it makes the grammar-point. And there shall be no disappointment.

Bring me the notes for this recipe! (Before Grammar Cop spoils this post any more...) 

• The recipe is really easy to follow but takes a bit of planning; I made the chocolate cake first because - unless you split the mixture between two cake tins - it needs to be thoroughly cooled and preferably refrigerated before attempting to cut it through the middle. Which brings me to the next point...
• Cook the chocolate cake well. I used the Sweetapolita recipe but thought that it needed to be a little bit gooey to go with the cheesecake layer, so I shortened the cooking time. And... I was the one who was disappointed - it was so gooey that I couldn't cut through the middle to split it into layers without making a huge mess. Lesson learned. 

Nothing risked, nothing gained...

• Well oil the tin and use baking paper on the base for the cheesecake layer. This is a base-less cheesecake (i.e. no biscuit crumb) - but it works really well! I was a little unsure if the cream and sour cream in the mixture would prevent it from solidifying in the oven, but nope, it set great! 

Cheesecake layer on its lonesome

• Add cooled caramel sauce to the buttercream. This may seem like common-sense... but yeah. By this point in the recipe, you probably wish the whole thing would end so that you can just EAT the cake, hence you might opt for a pre-made caramel sauce. If you're still telling yourself 'no pain, no gain', the recipe includes a link to a sauce-making process that requires a candy thermometer. You may not have one of these or, like me, you might not trust your thermometer as far as you can throw it (perhaps I should get a new one, you say? Perhaps you are right... or perhaps I just want an excuse to throw something around in the kitchen!). In this case, you could use the easy and super-delicious recipe below that I've developed by checking out other recipes and trialling them.

Applying caramel buttercream to the cake-cheesecake-cake stack

• Use a water bath to melt chocolate for the ganache. Burnt chocolate is lame and next-to-useless (unless you really are trying to make sure your guests don't come back again). Because I am prone to burning chocolate just by looking at it, I've given a safer method below for making ganache by heating the cream only.

Salted Caramel Sauce

1 cup white sugar
1/4 cup water
1/2 cup whipping cream
50g butter, roughly chopped (salted or unsalted, whichever you prefer)

1 tsp salt

Combine the sugar and water in a heavy-based saucepan over a medium heat and stir until sugar is dissolved.

Turn the heat up to medium-high and stir until the sugar water begins to boil. Now, put down your spoon somewhere that you won't be tempted to pick it up from for awhile. But don't go and sit down - you need to keep your eyes firmly trained on that sugar water! You're waiting for it to begin to change from clear into an amber colour. This takes approximately five minutes and during this time you MUST NOT STIR the water - it's the law. If the sugary build up around the edge of the water level starts to drive you crazy, I will permit you to take a pastry brush and gently sweep those bits into the bubbling liquid. But no more than that. 

When the sugar water starts to look golden-coloured, take the pan from the element quick-smart. You may be tempted to wait to see if all the liquid will turn amber, not just one part/half/quarter/smidgeon. Resist temptation - it's not worth the pain of burnt caramel. 

With the pan off the heat, you are now permitted to pick up your spoon. Add the cream slowly, stirring well and keeping your skin as far from the top of the pan as possible in case the liquid spits up. When all the cream is incorporated, add the butter and salt, and stir to melt and combine the butter. The more butter you add, the thicker the caramel will be when it sets.

At this point, some people would put the pan back on the heat and stir the mixture in an attempt to thicken it. I don't think this makes a difference - it will thicken just as well at room temperature. But if you've got time to kill, I won't stop you!

This recipe makes enough to add to the buttercream, garnish the cheesecake cake with, plus extra to spoon over individual slices. Mmmmmm....

Dark Chocolate Ganache

115g dark chocolate chips or finely chopped block chocolate
1/3 cup whipping cream

Place the cream in a heavy-based saucepan over a medium heat and stir until it starts to simmer. Just before the cream starts to bubble, snatch the pan (carefully!) off the heat and add the finely chopped chocolate. Stir the mixture until smooth. 

If any solid bits of chocolate remain, cover the pan with a lid and leave off the heat for 5 minutes, then stir again. If there are STILL solid bits, transfer the mixture to a microwave-safe container and nuke for bursts of 10 seconds, stirring after each until you have a lump-free, perfectly homogeneous chocolatey syrup.

You don't need to accompany this rich dessert with anything, but if the density and decadence are overwhelming, try some unsweetened yoghurt and fresh fruit!

Five Bakes 'Til Christmas!

Isn't it every year that we wonder how Christmas came so fast?! 

For me, it's a case of so many Christmassy baked goods to have a go at, so little time...

Fortunately I'm recovered from my Baking Goal of the Year (post coming soon) and have been trialling holiday fare aplenty, to the delight of my family and co-workers. 

Here are the results of my testing and trialling; for each of the five days til Christmas, I have a baking inspiration. 

For the First Bake of Christmas: Chocolate Gingerbread Cookies

The latest Donna Hay magazine has this fabulous cover, incorporating her delicious choco gingerbread recipe made with many different star cutter sizes to create a gorgeous cookie Christmas tree (yes, that is also a reindeer cookie - amazing!!):

I'd never eaten chocolate gingerbread, but since I love both words separately I knew that I could learn to love them combined. Unfortunately I can't publish her recipe because it's not available on the net for free as far as I can see. To be honest, although it was as delicious as I expected, it had a LOT of golden syrup in it which meant I had to roll out the dough between baking paper sheets and freeze it for an hour before I could cut it out without the biscuit shapes warping. I rolled the leftover dough into balls and pressed a white choc button into them - double chocolate yum! Here are the results of my efforts:

The original recipe also suggested dipping the chocolate in salt, but I only tried that with the one little salt-sprinkled gingerbread man you see in the photo above. Apparently, it worked - but I wasn't willing to be the guinea pig so I can't know for sure!

Choc-dipped and on a plate for morning tea at work!

A similar recipe that I'd like to try is this one from Handle the Heat. I'm not sure how they'd go with cookie cutters, but they have fresh ginger in them and look moist and chewy! Mmmmm....

For the Second Bake of Christmas: Brie-stuffed Mini Savoury Muffins

Before I get carried away with the sweet treats that are rife during the holiday season, here's one for the savoury fans. 

Using Allyson Gofton's recipe as a base, I included 100g diced ham and all the fresh oregano in the garden to whip up a batch of these for a work lunch. When the batter is mostly baked, you cut a slit in the mini muffins, add a small slice of your favourite soft cheese (Brie was in our fridge at the time), and bake for a few minutes more. 

Very moreish, these mini muffins are a great dilution to the huge amounts of sugar that will no doubt be consumed during the festive celebrations! A nice Boxing Day brunch perhaps?

For the Third Bake of Christmas: Salted Chocolate Caramel Tart

To make one thing clear... ilovechocolateandsaltedcaramel! 

This is a really rich, Christmassy (or other special occasion) kind of dessert that got the approval of my family-in-law :-) Luckily, Donna Hay shares the recipe, one from her latest cookbook 'The New Easy', here on her website. No, I'm not advertising for DH - I'm just her biggest fan.

Image: Donna Hay

The salt flakes on top really add to the flavour, believe me! I found that the caramel didn't thicken very much until I left it to go cold. It really is a good idea to eat it ALL in one sitting, otherwise the caramel will ooze out of the remainder... and with fresh berries is the BEST (thanks Robyn!).

For the Fourth Bake of Christmas: Caramel-Crusted Rhubarb Pudding

This is a fancy name for a crumble, but it's kind of appropriate because this is definitely a flasher-than-average crumble! 

I'm not sure if it's rhubarb season because my rhubarb plant doesn't seem to have an OFF-season! It's just been crazy all year round and lately the stalks have been thicker than I've ever seen them. Occasionally I thin it out, we have some friends over (thanks D & T!) and a rhubarb pudding is born. 

This recipe from Chelsea Sugar is plenty sweet for the slightly tart rhubarb and the topping bakes into a tasty, crunchy shell - yum!!! If you have access to a rhubarb plant this is a must-try. You can do as I do and coat your chopped rhubarb in caster sugar before putting it into your baking dish, if you're worried about the tartness. Adding some ginger and cinnamon to the crumble mixture is also good!

Pudding before baking

And for the Fifth Bake of Christmas: Red Velvet Cake with Peppermint Cream Cheese Icing and Red Velvet Mousse

I haven't had much luck with red velvet cake recipes, but once I found this gorgeous recipe for red velvet mousse (who would have thought?!), I knew I needed an equally great cake to pair with it. Those red-topped cupcakes look very Christmassy, methinks!

Image: i am baker (http://iambaker.net/red-velvet-mousse-with-raspberry-vanilla-cupcakes/)

Then I stumbled on this recipe from My Cake School. It doesn't rely on the buttermilk method, as I call adding vinegar to milk to separate it like buttermilk. It does have a whole cup of sour cream which I thinks is what makes it denser than you expect for red velvet, but my-oh-my is it delicious. Even more so when smothered with peppermint cream cheese icing and finished with that amazing mousse...

 Yes, it looks more like I'm celebrating Valentine's Day - but I couldn't help myself when I realised that the gorgeous icing hearts my friend D had handmade would go so well with the red mousse. 

Yes, the mousse did cry red tears onto the cake - after adding the chocolate and food colouring to the stiff cream, it lost its stiffness more than I expected. I'd add less chocolate next time (and probably less food colouring...). But at least they were delicious red tears!!

For those curious about cakery details, I used a Wilton 1M piping tip to pipe the 'shell' borders, by piping half the distance of each shell in one direction, then doubling over top in the opposite direction. Easy and effective!

Dense and delicious!

I suggesting omitting some sugar from the cake and mousse, as the cream cheese icing is very sweet - but the peppermint is a nice, fresh touch. 


Happy Christmas baking - I hope some of these ideas inspire you to try out something tasty and slightly unusual!

xoxo

Kayaking Up A Cake-Fall

I've been a bit quiet on the blog front - but plenty of scheming is happening in the background!!! 

This month I've focussed on my first commissioned cake - a 21st birthday cake for the son of a lovely (and very trusting!) friend of mine. According to my friend, a personalised kayaker heading down a fearful waterfall is the epitome of her son's experience as a professional sportsman. And so I learnt how to make the figurine - my first sugarpaste model ever - and the other decorations from this image that I was given to base the design on: 

A challenge indeed! I'll let you decide how I did from the following pictures (photography by our talented friend Dru):

Admittedly, I did a practice figurine first and improved on my technique and colours, especially the arms. Moral of the story: wait until it dries! Drying each part separately before attaching to the torso was really important, as was waiting until the arms were solidly connected to the body before trying to position the oar. This waiting for drying saved many tears the second time round... The pebbles were two colours of sugarpaste rolled together for a marbled effect, and the river/fall was done in a similar way. The little trees went through a garlic press - I tried so many things to get a good effect until I stumbled on that tool!

The cake itself was my go-to chocolate cake recipe, filled with mango marshmallow buttercream made using a double quantity of this recipe plus mango puree, coated in dark chocolate ganache, and covered in chocolate fondant. Whew! It was a huge milestone for me, and not perfect (especially the fondant, as is evident in some of those photos). But it provided lots of learning and good practice for another scheme I have coming up... stay tuned for details! 

Warming Up to Spring with Pizza Pinwheels

The last couple of days have been a chilly, windy return to wintery weather (regardless of the sun!) - what I hope will be the last stint of cold and yuck before a long summer. It got me thinking about warmer things - like hot soup, and savoury scrolls (pizza pinwheels, as I prefer to call them). This is a recipe that I've been wanting to share for awhile now, not just because they are so popular at shared morning teas! And it's super simple because you get to use whichever scone dough recipe you know and love. 

This morning my grandfather passed away due to illness - we had been expecting him to succumb for a month or two. I think he would have loved these pinwheels. A stand-out memory of him at the lunch table involved him including a cheese and jam sandwich with every midday meal! Minus the jam for this recipe but I don't think he'd mind, as long as there was plenty of cheese ;-)

Pizza Pinwheels

Ingredients for quantity of scone dough from your favourite recipe (mine is Edmonds!)
4 tsp dried herbs of your choice (I love oregano!)
1 cup grated cheese
4 Tbsp tomato paste

A well-worn page in my Edmonds cookbook 

Sift together the dry ingredients for your scone dough, including the dried herbs.

Rub in the butter to the dry mixture as per your scone dough instructions.

 Once the texture of the mixture is like breadcrumbs, add 2/3 of a cup of the grated cheese.

Slowly add the milk (1 to 1 & 1/2 cups if you're also using the Edmonds recipe) and 'cut' into the mixture with a knife. The best consistency is when the mixture separates into what look like many doughy ribbons, like the second image below. Then use your hands to knead it into one large lump of dough.

Perfectly 'cut' dough

 Separate the dough into two equal-sized parts...

For each half of the dough, shape it into a rectangle with your hands, then roll it out onto a floured board or bench-top. Try to make it about half a centimetre thick, a hand-span wide, and a rolling pin's length-long!

Spread the tomato paste on two-thirds of the width of the dough. 

Use a small amount of milk to moisten the edge that is not covered in tomato paste. Roll up from the tomatoey edge to the moistened edge (you might find it easier to roll by cutting the dough rectangle in half first).

Action shot!

Once rolled up, secure the moistened edge by pressing it onto the roll. Use a sharp serrated knife to cut the pinwheels approx. 1.5cm thick. 

Arrange the pinwheels on a lightly floured or papered baking tray with at least 2cm spacing.

Use a pastry brush to paint the tops of the pinwheels with milk and add a sprinkle of the remaining cheese to each one.

Bake for 10 to 12 minutes in a hot oven (check your scone recipe - probably around 200 degrees C). Cool on a baking rack once done.