Chocolate Chunk Texas-size Muffins

Oh gosh, I can't believe I've been gone over a month! I haven't been baking much and honestly, I've been really busy with work and other things. Like learning how to use the new DSLR camera I got! I started taking a photography class and hopefully my pictures of my baked goods will get better and better!

I made these muffins the other day. They're fairly easy to make, just 2 bowls and some stirring together. I used milk chocolate, but I think I'd use a chocolate with a higher percentage of cocoa next time. The milk chocolate seemed a little too sweet. I made these muffins in a Texas- size pan because I have the pan and hardly ever use it and I like how the extra large muffins look! However, I brought the muffins into work for my co-workers and they were all eaten up!

Here's the recipe:
(Very slightly adapted from 1 mix, 100 muffins)

2 cups flour
1 tbsp baking powder
1/8 tsp salt
1/2 cup superfine sugar
1 cup chocolate chunks (I used a bar of chocolate from Trader Joe's that I chopped into chunks)
2 large eggs
1 cup milk
6 tbsp melted, cooled butter
1 tsp vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 400 F. Line a large (Texas-size) muffin pan with 6 wrappers. Sift together flour, baking powder, and salt into a lareg bowl. Stir in the sugar and chocolate chunks.

Lightly beat the eggs in a bowl and then beat in the milk, oil and vanilla. Make a well in the center of the dry ingredients and pour in the liquid ingredients. Stir gently until just combined; do not overmix.

Spoon the batter into the prepared muffin pan. I also sprinkled some coarse sugar over the tops of the muffins. Bake in the preheated oven for about 25 minutes, until well risen, golden brown, and firm to the touch. Let the muffins cool in the pan for 5 minutes, then serve warm or transfer to a wire rack and let cool completely.

Hope you enjoy!

Rich Chocolate Cake with Fluffy White Frosting

Every so often at work we have a pot-luck brunch to celebrate birthdays. This week we had one to celebrate the winter birthdays and also to welcome back a co-worker returning from maternity leave. I am always bringing baked godos in to work and everyone seems to enjoy them, so I always sign up to bake something for these pot-lucks. This time I said I'd bake a cake. I didn't have much time this week so I was looking for a simple cake to make but also something I hadn't made before. I turned to a cookbook that my friend gave me featuring all chocolate recipes. I found a cake recipe in there that looked good and the frosting recipe that went with it also sounded good and was a kind of frosting I hadn't made before. I halved the recipe for the cake and for the frosting because the original recipe yielded a 13 X 9 cake and since I work in a small office, we didn't need such a large cake. Everyone said this cake tasted good and it certainly was chocolatey!

The frosting was described as being marshmallow-y and it did taste like that. I've never had a frosting like this before but it was really easy to make even though it required using a double boiler and a candy thermometer. It had very few ingredients and it set up nice.

Here's the recipe:
(Slightly adapted from Good Housekeeping Favorite Recipes: Chocolate!)

1 cup flour
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 stick butter, softened (I used unsalted)
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 cup + 3 tablespoons milk

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease one 9-inch round cake pan. (I sprayed with baking spray).

In a bowl, combine flour, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.

In the bowl of a stand mixer, beat butter and sugar at low speed until blended. Increase speed to high; beat until light and fluffy, about 5 minutes.

Reduce speed to medium-low; add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Beat in vanilla. The mixture may appear grainy.

Reduce speed to low; add flour mixture alternately with milk, beginning and ending with flour mixture. Beat until batter is smooth, occasionally scraping bowl with rubber spatula.

Pour batter into prepared pan. Bake until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean, 40-45 minutes. Cool in pan on wire rack 10 minutes. Invert onto rack and cool completely.

Frost with Fluffy White Frosting:

1 large egg white
1/2 cup sugar
2 tablespoons water
1/2 teaspoon corn syrup
1/8 teaspoon cream of tartar

In a medium bowl set over a 3-4 quart saucepan filled with 1 inch simmering water, beat egg whites, sugar, water, corn syrup and cream of tartar with hand-held mixer until soft peaks form when beaters are lifted and mixture reaches 160 degrees F on candy thermometer, about 7 minutes.

Remove bowl from pan; beat egg-white mixture until stiff, glossy peaks form when beaters are lifted, 5-10 minutes longer.

Frost cake with frosting using a narrow spatula. Enjoy!

Bad Boy Chocolate Pizza

Wow, another post just after I posted those cookies yesterday? I've had some extra time to do some baking since my work closed today due to an ice storm and I left work early yesterday because the roads were so bad. I've always loved the idea of a chocolate pizza, but had never made one before. This recipe is from Max Brenner's cookbook, Chocolate: A Love Story. Have you ever been to Max Brenner's before? There's one in NYC and in Philadelphia. Last year I went to see the Rockefeller Christmas tree with my friends and we stopped at Bryant Park where they have all these shops during the holiday season. There, they had a Max Brenner stand and we all got his Italian drinking chocolate. It was seriously the best hot chocolate I've ever tasted! I dreamt about that hot chocolate! Then, this fall, my friend and I went to the city and went to his restaurant for lunch, where they serve french fries dusted with cocoa! The food was good and while I was so tempted to order dessert, as everything on the menu sounded delicious, my friend and I were heading to a few other places for sweets, so I passed. I'dhad this cookbook for awhile but hadn't made many recipes from it yet. I want to try a lot of recipes from this book but today I chose to make this dessert pizza.

The recipe includes a recipe for pizza dough or you can also use store bought pizza dough. I made the recipe included for the pizza dough but I don't know if I'd use it again. I followed the recipe exactly but the dough didn't exactly come together very well- it was very crumbly and I had to add extra water when kneading. It rose well for me, but I think I like my usual pizza dough recipe better. I also added some peanut butter m&ms and some leftover coconut from yesterday's cookie recipe. I loved all the different chocolates in this recipe!

Here's the recipe:
(From Max Brenner's Chocolate: A Love Story)

Pizza Dough:

1/2 cup water
1 envelope dry yeast
2 cups flour, plus more for kneading
1 tsp salt
3 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted, plus more for bowl

Heat the water to 110 degrees F. In a small bowl, mix the warm water and yeast. Let stand until the yeast dissolves, about 5 minutes. In a food processor, blend the flour and salt. With the machine running, slowly add the melted butter and then the yeast mixture. Mix until the dough just comes together.

On a lightly floured surface, knead the dough, adding more flour if necessary, until smooth, about 1 minute. Transfer the dough to a large buttered bowl, turning ocne so the butter coats the dough. Cover with a clean kitchen towel and set aside in a warm, draft-free place until the dough doubles in volume, about 1 hour. Punch the dough down and form into a ball. The dough can be used immediately or stored airtight in the refrigerator for 1 day.

Chocolate Pizza recipe:

Pizza dough (above recipe, or 1 pound store-bought pizza dough)
2 tsp unsalted butter, melted
1/4 cup nutella
1/2 cup semisweet chocolate chips
1/2 ounce milk chocolate chips
1/2 ounce white chocolate chips
1 cup chopped large marshmallows or miniature marshmallows
(I also added coconut and peanut butter m&ms)

Position a rack on the bottom of the oven and preheat to 450 degrees F. Line a large baking sheet with parchment paper.

Roll the dough into a 9-inch round. Transfer to the prepared baking sheet. Using your fingers, make indentations all over the dough. Brush with the melted butter. Bake until the crust is crisp and pale golden brown, about 20 minutes.

Immediately spread the nutella over the pizza, then sprinkle with the chocolate chips, marshmallows (and any other chocolate candy you want to add). Bake until the chocolate just begins to melt, about 2 minutes. Cut the pizza into wedges and serve.

Enjoy!

BAKED Sunday Mornings: Double Chocolate Loaf

Welcome to another installment of Baked Sunday Mornings! I'm sorry I haven't been baking/posting very much- I've been busy with work and then all the snow we've been having here hasn't put me in the baking mood. I was excited to try the double chocolate loaf as it seemed like an easy recipe and I love chocolate and peanut butter together. This is a pretty basic recipe to make- you pretty much just stir everything together and it doesn't take very long. I didn't make the peanut butter cream cheese spread that went along with the recipe. Instead, I put in a combination of chocolate chips and peanut butter chips so that the loaf would have the peanut butter taste. I also halved the recipe and made them in two mini loaf pans.

I also sprinkled some extra peanut butter and chocolate chips on top of the loaf before baking for some extra peanut butter taste. In the mini loaf pans, the loafs baked for about 40 minutes before they were done. These tasted nice and chocolatey!

If you want to see how everyone else's chocolate loaves turned out, or you want the recipe, head on over to Baked Sunday Mornings. Enjoy!