Flour-less Chocolate Cake
Posted: 01 March '10 by Niall
Easy flour-less chocolate cake
As another weekend drew to a close, I thought that Kelly and I deserved a treat before getting back to the daily grind. When it comes to treats in our house, that means chocolate.
Here’s a recipe for a rich, moist chocolate cake.. And it’s easy. Three ingredients, that’s all!
It’s also a flour-less cake, making it suitable for coeliacs.
You can see more photos hereImage 1Image 2Image 3Image 4Image 5Image 6Image 7
Ingredients
- 450g of dark chocolate, roughly chopped
- 150g of unsalted butter – and a little more for greasing the cake dish
- 5 large eggs, separated
I’d also recommend some whipped cream and/or some ice-cream to serve with the cake – it’s so chocolate-y that you’ll need it!
Method
- Preheat your oven to 375F/190C.
- Take a saucepan, half fill it with water, and put it on a medium heat.
- Place the chocolate and butter in a heatproof bowl and set it over the saucepan of simmering water, making sure that the bottom of the bowl is not touching the water, stirring the mixture as it melts.
- Remove the chocolate mixture from the heat and allow to cool slightly.
- Butter the cake dish and line with a parchment circle then butter the parchment.
- Separate the egg yolks from the egg whites and put into two large bowls.
- Whip the egg whites until stiff peaks are formed and the whipped egg-whites do not move as you tilt the bowl (you’ll see that Kelly bravely volunteered for the age-old test for telling whether egg-whites are ready – if you can hold the bowl upside-down over your head without getting covered, they’re ready!).
- In the other bowl beat the egg yolks together.
- Add the egg yolks to the cooled chocolate, stirring lightly until the chocolate and egg yolks have mixed together.
- Using a metal spoon, fold in some of the egg whites into the chocolate mixture, followed by the remaining egg-whites when this first amount has been thoroughly folded in. When folding use light, circular motions with the spoon – do not mix – the idea is to keep air in the mixture. Fold until no white remains without deflating the batter.
- Pour your cake batter into prepared cake dish. The batter should fill the pan 3/4 of the way up the sides.
- Bake for 25 minutes -the top of the cake should have a firm crust, like the top of a brownie.
- Remove the cake dish from the oven and allow it to cool for 10 minutes or so before trying to slice or un-mould the cake.
- Serve with cream and/or ice-cream.
Enjoy!
Categories: Biscuits and Cakes > Dessert Course > Featured Post > Recipes
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Easy Raspberry Tart
Posted: 05 November '09 by Kelly
Raspberry tart
Niall and I went to my mum and dad’s house for some Hallowe’en celebrations at the weekend. Everyone was bringing a dish and I decided to make a dessert. This raspberry tart was delicious and surprisingly easy to make.
You can see more photos hereImage 1Image 2
Ingredients:
- 220g (1 cup) caster (superfine) sugar
- 300g fresh raspberries
- 50g unsalted butter
- 500g mascarpone cheese
- 150ml of cream, lightly whipped
- 1 teaspoon vanilla bean paste
Method:
- To make a raspberry syrup, put the caster sugar in a pan with 60ml (¼ cup) of water and stir over low heat to dissolve the sugar.
- Increase the heat and bring to the boil. Cook until golden, then remove from the heat. Mash 100g of the raspberries and stir into the syrup. Leave to cool.
- To make the base blitz a packet of shortbread biscuits (around 500g) in a food processor. Heat up 50g of unsalted butter in a pot and add the shortbread, stir until butter has mixed well with shortbread.
- Take out of the pot and add mixture to a cake tin. Make the base as thick or thin as you want and then pat the mixture down tightly and place in fridge to set for around 30 minutes.
- Mix together the mascarpone, cream and vanilla bean paste and spoon on top of the shortbread base. Arrange the rest of the raspberries on top and drizzle with the raspberry syrup.
Enjoy
Categories: Biscuits and Cakes > Dessert Course > Featured Post
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How to make apple crumble with custard
Posted: 30 October '09 by Niall
Apple crumble with custard
Ah, school dinners..
While I’m not one for desserts, I have a deep-seated love of jam roly-poly, spotted dick, apple crumble, and the rest of those stodgy, custard-covered, rib-lining sweets.
Here’s one of our favourites – apple crumble with homemade custard. The “homemade” part is important – none of that tinned gloop or coloured cornflour here! And you can certainly taste the difference.
You can see more photos hereImage 1Image 2Image 3Image 4Image 5Image 6Image 7
Ingredients:
For the crumble:
- 300g/101/2oz plain flour, sieved
- A pinch of salt
- 175g/6oz unrefined brown sugar
- 2 tablespoons of caster sugar
- 200g/7oz unsalted butter, cubed at room temperature
- Knob of butter for greasing
For the apple filling:
- 450g/1lb apples, peeled, cored and cut into 1cm/1/2inch pieces
- 50g/2oz unrefined brown sugar
- 1 tbsp plain flour
- 1 pinch of ground cinnamon
For the custard:
- 570ml/1 pint milk
- 55ml/2fl oz single cream
- 1 vanilla pod
- 4 eggs, yolks only
- 30g/1oz caster sugar
- 2 level tsp cornflour
You’ll also need a large saucepan, a whisk, a wooden spoon, and a good deep oven-proof dish.
Method:
- Preheat the oven to 180C/350F/Gas 4.
- Place the flour and the brown sugar in a large bowl and mix well. Taking a few cubes of butter at a time rub into the flour mixture. Keep rubbing until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs.
- Place the apples in a big saucepan and put a drop of water – it will help the fruit to start breaking down. Place over a low heat
- When the fruit starts to break down, add the cinnamon and the white sugar
- Let the apples simmer, stirring occasionally – be careful though – while you want the apples to start to break down, you don’t want a puree. You still want some nice pieces of fruit in there.
- When you’re happy with the consistency, remove the saucepan from the heat and spoon the mixture into an oven-proof dish
- Sprinkle the crumble mixture over the top, so that there is a good inch of the crust over the whole dish
- Bake in the oven for 40-45 minutes until the crumble is browned and the fruit mixture bubbling
- Take a knife and slice the vanilla pod down the length of the pod
- Place the pod in a second saucepan, making sure to get all of the small black seeds from the blade of the knife in there as well
- Add the milk and cream to the saucepan and bring the lot to simmering point over a low heat
- Remove the vanilla pod
- Whisk the yolks, sugar and cornflour together in a bowl until well blended
- Pour the hot milk and cream on to the eggs and sugar, whisking all the time with a balloon whisk
- Return to the pan, and over a low heat gently stir with a wooden spoon. You’ll know when the custard is thick enough when a clear line remains when you run your finger down the back of the custard-covered spoon
- Spoon a serving of the apple crumble into a bowl and pour some of the custard over the top – heaven!
Categories: Dessert Course > Featured Post > Recipes
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Brownies with white chocolate buttons
Posted: 28 October '09 by Ciara
Brownies with white chocolate buttons
I was “surfing the net” a few weeks ago looking for a brownie recipe and came across a Nigella Lawson one. I have to confess, it was the first time that I have ever tried one of her recipes and I can tell you I was delighted with the results. These have to be the nicest brownies I have tasted. The gooey centre is to die for! I tried them firstly, for myself, Cor and Sophie and must admit I ate the majority of them.
The second time I made them was at the weekend just past, for my family in Belfast and they absolutely loved them. This time round, I added more chocolate buttons. You’d swear they’d never seen chocolate the way they went on about them.
You can see more photos hereImage 1
Ingredients:
- 375g dark chocolate - I use Green & Blacks as they are made with 70% cocoa solids
- 375g unsalted butter at room temperature
- 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
- 6 eggs
- 350g caster sugar
- 225g plain flour
- 250g white chocolate buttons
- brownie tin
Method:
- Preheat oven to 180C/Gas 4/350F
- Line brownie tin base and sides
- Melt butter and chocolate together in a bowl over a pot of boiling water
- In another bowl, beat eggs with sugar and vanilla extract
- Sift the flour into another bowl with salt
- When chocolate mixture has melted let it cool before beating in the eggs and sugar, then the flour
- Fold in white chocolate buttons, then beat slightly and scrape unto brownie tin
- Bake for 25 minutes until the top is dried to a paler brown and the centre is dark and gooey
Enjoy
Categories: Biscuits and Cakes > Dessert Course > Featured Post > Recipes
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Kelly’s Strawberry Swirl
Posted: 24 September '09 by Kelly
I am usually of the thinking that a dessert is not a dessert unless it is oozing and dripping with chocolate. BUT my mind was changed (well sort of) when I tried a Gordon Ramsey dessert he made on the ‘F’ Word. I can’t remember the name so I have decided to name it ‘Kelly’s strawberry swirl’. You can obviously change the name to your own…
It is a really simple dessert to make and you can make it in advance and keep it in the fridge for whenever your guests arrive. Simple and delicious…
Ingredients
- 2 Punnets of strawberries, quartered
- Balsamic Vinegar
- One large tub of vanilla custard
- Small tub of double cream
- Approx 80g of meringues crushed
- Sugar
Method
- Cut the strawberries into quarters and place them in a bowl
- Add about half a small bottle of Balsamic vinegar
- Add 5 tablespoons of sugar to the strawberries and balsamic (or enough so whenever you taste the vinegar has lost some of its acidic taste)
- Put all of this into a pan with NO oil and simmer until the strawberries have cooked and created a ‘jam like’ consistency
- While this simmers you can now start to make the rest of the dessert
- Place the custard into a bowl and add half of a small tub of double cream and stir
- Once the strawberries are almost ‘jam like’ you are ready to construct the dish
- Get a large tall glass and add the custard and cream first
- Add the crushed meringues
- Add the strawberries
- Repeat this until your glass if full
This really is a delicious dessert, very tasty and simple to make.
Enjoy
Categories: Dessert Course > Recipes
