Eat: Easy Eggless Chocolate Cake

A few weeks ago, I shared the delicious Peach Upside Down Cake I made for Father's Day. Knowing my family to be serious dessert-lovers, right beforehand I decided to add another cake to the day's menu. This Easy Eggless Chocolate Cake lives up to its name and was the perfect choice for a last minute dessert. It has a short list of ingredients all likely to be in pantry--thereby avoiding a trip to your grocery store. It is also quick snap to prepare; within 10 minutes of starting this cake, I had it baking in the oven.

 

Depending on the topping you use, this cake can go in several different directions. I've made it twice and both times I paired it with a batch of homemade chocolate sauce. A plated piece of chocolate cake drizzled with a simple sauce presents beautifully, saves you time, and cuts calories.

Easy Eggless Chocolate Cake

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup sugar
3 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon coarse salt
1/3 cup vegetable oil
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 tablespoon white vinegar
1 cup cold water

Preheat oven to 350°F.

In a large bowl, stir together the "dry" ingredients: all-purpose flour, sugar, unsweetened cocoa powder, baking soda, and coarse salt.

Make a well in center of flour mixture and add the "wet" ingredients: vegetable oil, pure vanilla extract, white vinegar, and cold water.

Whisk until well combined and pour the batter into a greased 8-inch round baking pan. Bake 35-40 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Let cool completely in pan on a wire rack prior to flipping onto a serving platter.

recipe source: martha stewart

Eat: Muffins Galore!

 

Courtesy of Britannica ImageQuest

A few weeks ago, I shared a basic scone recipe that can be modified a number of ways depending on your mood and on-hand ingredients. Well, I've come to love that concept so much that I sought out something similar for muffins and quick breads. The possibilities are as limitless as your imagination–or your online searching skills. This recipe is much quicker than my scones, since you don't have to cut-in butter (I task I strongly dislike and often leaves me with sore wrists). When I'm feeling particularly lazy, I opt for the loaf version of this recipe instead of muffins. The differing instructions and baking times are included below.


Base Muffin Recipe (Betty Crocker Cookbook, 2005 edition)
Prep Time: 10 minutes
Bake Time: 18 minutes
Yield: 12 muffins or 1 (9”) loaf 

1-3/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/3 to 1/2 cup sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 large egg, beaten
3/4 cup milk
1/4 cup cooking oil
Extras (see below for ideas) 

1. Preheat oven to 375° F if making muffins OR 350° F if making a loaf. Grease your pan. 

2. In a medium bowl combine the flour, sugar, baking powder and salt. In another bowl combine the egg, milk and oil. Add the egg mixture all at once to the flour mixture. Stir just until moistened and lumpy. Incorporate any extras (see list below). 

3. Spoon batter into the prepared muffin cups or loaf pan, (muffin cups should be two-thirds full). 

4. For muffins, bake 18 to 20 minutes or until golden and a wooden toothpick inserted in centers comes out clean.

For a loaf, bake 50 minutes or until golden and a wooden toothpick inserted in centers comes out clean. 

6. Remove from the oven and cool in the pan on a wire rack for 5 minutes. Remove from pan and transfer to wire racks to cool a bit more.


Easy Muffin/Bread Variations

Apple Cinnamon: Stir in one chopped apple (with or without the skin depending on your preference) and 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon. Substitute packed brown sugar for the granulated sugar.

Bacon: Add 2-4 strips of bacon, fried crisp and crumbled, to the batter.

Banana-Nut: Decrease the milk to 1/3 cup, stir in 2-3 mashed bananas (around 1 cup) and 1/3 cup chopped nuts with the milk. Substitute packed brown sugar for the sugar.

Blueberry: Gently stir 1 cup fresh or frozen berries and, if desired, 1 teaspoon finely shredded lemon zest into the batter.

Raisin Bran: Pour the milk on 1-1/2 cups whole bran cereal and let stand for 10 minutes. Add this to the egg and oil. Decrease the flour to 1-1/4 cups and add 1/2 cup raisins. Optional: add 1/4 cup of molasses.

Cheesy: Stir 1/2 cup shredded cheese. into the flour mixture. Great options include Cheddar, Monterey Jack, or Feta.

Double Chocolate: Stir in 2-3 T cocoa powder and 1 cup semisweet chocolate chips. You can also add a splash of vanilla or almond extract.

Cornbread: (Do not use whole wheat flour.) Decrease flour to 1 cup and stir in 1 cup cornmeal with the flour.

Cranberry: Combine 1 cup coarsely chopped cranberries (fresh or dried) and 2 tablespoons additional sugar. Gently stir this into the batter. You can also add 1 T finely grated orange peel.

Date Nut: Stir in 1/2 cup chopped pitted dates (or raisins) and 1/3 cup chopped nuts.

"Donuts": Stir in 1/2 cup ground nutmeg with the flour. Once baked, immediately dip the hot muffins in about 1/2 cup butter, melted, then in a mixture of 1/2 cup sugar and 1 teaspoon cinnamon.

Oatmeal: Decrease flour to 1 cup and stir in 1 cup quick-cooking oats, 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg and 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon with the flour.

Pecan: Use 1/4 cup sugar. Add 1/2 cup chopped pecans to the batter. After filling the cups, sprinkle with sugar, cinnamon and more chopped nuts. 

Poppy Seed: Increase sugar to 1/2 cup and add 1 tablespoon poppy seeds to the flour mixture.

Pumpkin: (Don’t use whole wheat flour.) Stir in 1/2 cup pumpkin puree and 1/2 cup raisins with the milk and 2 teaspoons pumpkin pie spice with the flour. Sprinkle the tops with sugar before baking if desired.

Spiced: Stir in 1 teaspoon cinnamon, 1/2 teaspoon ground allspice, 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger and a pinch of ground cloves and ground nutmeg with the flour.

Zucchini: Stir in 1 cup grated zucchini (squeezed dry to remove excess moisture) and 1/2 cup chopped walnuts with the milk.

Many of these ideas can be combined, like Spiced Pecan, Blueberry Poppyseed, or Chocolate Oatmeal. So far, I've only tried the Double Chocolate (with a handful of oats thrown in), but I'm planning to make a batch of Spiced Pecan this week!

Eat: Chocolate Mud Cake & Kahlua Coffee Cookies

My recent flurry of travel has reminded me how fortunate I am to have people I can count on for time-consuming favors. Like dropping me off at and/or picking me up from: the train station, the bus station, and the airport. Such dependability and helpfulness should be rewarded...with baked goods! Here are a few of the recipes I've tried lately.

Chocolate Cobbler Mud Cake

For my parents, I baked a chocolate cake. I inherited my seriously sweet tooth from them and had a feeling this confection would hit the spot. My parents spoke so well of it that I made a second cake for my coworkers (snagging two pieces for myself and Matt first!). The original post on Southern Plate refers to this dessert as a "cobbler", which is definitely a misnomer as it features neither fruit nor crumbly crust. The finished product has a thick layer of chocolate pudding with fudgy cake on top; therefore I am renaming this concoction a "mud" cake. It is wonderfully rich and moist, plus all of the ingredients are likely to be found in the average kitchen pantry.

1 cup self-rising flour

3/4 cup sugar

2 tablespoons cocoa

1/2 cup milk

1 teaspoon vanilla

2 tablespoons vegetable oil

3/4 cup brown sugar

1/4 cup cocoa

1 3/4 cup hot tap water

Mix together the flour, sugar, and cocoa. Then stir in the milk, vanilla, and oil. Pour the batter into a greased 8x8 inch pan.

Combine the brown sugar and cocoa in a small bowl. Sprinkle the blend evenly over the cake batter. Very slowly and gradually, pour hot water over the entire thing. Bake at 350 degrees F for 40-45 minutes.

Kahlua Coffee Cookies

For my in-laws, I baked a batch of to-die-for cookies. Imagine a normal double chocolate cookie but with coffee grounds and Kahlua. Oh my word. Fortunately, I did save a few of these for us! I love coffee-flavored desserts and these are so dark and flavorful that just one or two make for a satisfying snack. I slightly modified a recipe from the Food Network . I wanted to make a large batch, so I used smaller spoonfuls of dough. The end result was thin, crispy cookies. If you prefer the opposite (thicker but fewer cookies), adjust the spoonfuls accordingly.

1 cup flour
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup white sugar
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup chocolate chips + grated chocolate, to taste
1 stick of butter, softened
1 egg, beaten
4 tablespoons Kahlua
2-3 tablespoons instant coffee (or espresso) granules
1 tablespoon coffee grounds

Mix together all of the dry ingredients first, then add the remaining. Scoop heaping tablespoons onto a baking sheet (a few inches apart) and bake for 8-10 minutes at 375 degrees F. Let cookies sit on the baking sheet for a few minutes before transferring to a cooling rack.

Eat: Chocolate-Dipped Peanut Butter Pretzels

 

Merry Christmas, everyone! Today is a day for many things. For me, it is a day to celebrate Christ's birth while also spending time with my family and friends, eating way too much food, and rocking my favorite red sweater. However, today is decidedly not a day for blogging! With that in mind, I'm going to keep this post short (in its length) and sweet (in its recipe).

I first set out to make these Chocolate-Dipped Peanut Butter Pretzels for my coworkers but quickly doubled the recipe so my family could enjoy them as well. This doubling, coupled with a few modifications on the original recipe, resulted in a decently long kitchen session. I'm sure that if I make them again, the process will be faster. Regardless, the final product is delicious! These little guys are salty and sweet and crunchy and soft. So everyone is bound to like something about them!

Happy holidays to you all! I'm looking forward to trying all sorts of new recipes in 2012!

TOTAL TIME:2 hours (including inactive cooling period)
YIELDS: 60+ candies
MY SOUNDTRACK: Battles

1 jar of creamy peanut butter (I bought the cheapest I could find!)
2 tablespoons of butter, softened
1+ cup powdered sugar
Flour, as needed
Bag of bite-sized pretzels
1-2 bags of semi-sweet chocolate chips

Combine the peanut butter and softened butter in a large mixing bowl. Gradually add the powdered sugar. Your goal is to get the peanut butter blend to be easily rolled into small balls without being sticky and getting all over your hands. I had to keep adding and adding sugar until I finally started adding flour to avoid insanely high sucrose levels. The amount of peanut butter that you use will determine how much sugar and/or flour you will ultimately need.

Scoop out teaspoon-sized portions of the peanut butter blend. Using your hands, roll each bit into a small ball (it does not need to be perfectly shaped) and sandwich it between two pretzels. Repeat this until you run out of peanut butter, placing each new sandwich onto a baking sheet.

Place your tray(s) of pretzels in the refrigerator for an hour.

Pour the chocolate chips into a double boiler and melt over low heat. Dip one pretzel at a time into the melted chocolate, covering only half of it. Allow excess chocolate to drip back into the pan and place the pretzel onto a piece of parchment paper. Repeat for the remaining pretzels.

Store the pretzel bites in the refrigerator or freezer until serving time.