Tag: miscellaneous

No-bake Chocolate Peanut Butter Tahini Oat Bars

Kind of a mouthful. The good sort.

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Some breathing time during the week makes way for occasional creative insight. The early morning heralds possibility, and it’s only when my head hits the pillow that I realise how startlingly tired I am from the events of the day. The night pulls you in. Processed with VSCOcam with f2 presetProcessed with VSCOcam with f2 preset Processed with VSCOcam with f2 presetProcessed with VSCOcam with f2 presetProcessed with VSCOcam with f2 preset Processed with VSCOcam with f2 preset

There are so many things that make life sweet. Like this recipe. But there are also the cute coffee shop corners, insightful nutrition links I keep finding online, and inspiring folk everywhere. Here in London especially, there’s just no shortage of things to do, eat and see.

But yes. There’s just so much yes in this recipe.

No-bake chocolate peanut butter oat bars, bound together with earthy tahini, maple syrup and oats. 

There’s:

  • no flour
  • no egg
  • no sugar (as in your typical white sort, but the maple syrup provides all the goodness, and a wonderful flavour dimension)

and heck, even though I love all these things, it just means another 3 things you don’t have to lack and cry over. Easy.

The formula is simple, the taste lush. You don’t need much to handle in the first place. In fact, it’s so simple I won’t even provide a proper list of ingredients. Just some instructions, with a few cup measurements thrown in here and there. Oh right, and you need a pan. But I thought you would’ve figured that out.

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No-bake Chocolate Peanut Butter Tahini Oat Bars (makes 36 medium bars in a 9×9-inch baking pan)

Grease (line if you wish) a 9×9-inch baking pan. In a saucepan over low heat, melt together 100ml (a little more than 1/3 cup) maple syrup, 113g (one stick) salted butter, 270g (1 cup) peanut butter (smooth or chunky, do as you wish) and 180g of chopped dark chocolate. This will take about 3-5 minutes.

Take off the heat and stir in 80ml (1/3 cup) tahini, a half cup of chopped nuts (or more chopped chocolate), and 135g (1 1/2 cups) whole rolled oats. Pour the thick mix into your pan and let sit in the fridge until firm– around 30 minutes (yes that’s it!)

Cut into bars with a sharp knife and have a ball. There’s no real need to dress these up with anything, but I imagine them nice with chocolate hazelnut spread or more peanut butter on top.

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Chocolate Coffee ‘Mochi’ Cake

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I guess I should stop with the chocolate some time. Some time. In the future. Not now.

It’s been weeks since I left Japan, but I occasionally find myself reminiscing bits and parts of it. The little alleys, and corners, and scarily magnanimous people. Oh right, and the food. That.

I remember strolling into a little sweets shop with the rest of the family, and we were greeted by mile-high packs of mochi– little rice cakes made with Japanese glutinous rice. Mochi’s kind of like a magic food, consisting of polysaccharides, proteins, lipids and water. All weaved together to form this sticky, chewy, yet delicate mass. The gel-like consistency is actually due to lack of amylose in the starch grains of mochi rice, and it’s that sort of texture I wanted to recreate in this cake.

When I came across Food 52’s recipe for a chocolate mochi snack cake, I knew I had to give it a shot (and a little twist). Now I didn’t have the sort of rice necessary to make traditional mochi, but rice flour came close enough. And so rice flour it was.

I know I know, it’s a chocolate cake. Yet it’s much more than that. It’s akin to something bolder, and brighter, yet lighter. The crumb is so fine, yet each slice is perfect and straight-edged, holding its own, each bite one of chocolatey integrity.

This cake has:

  • an almost-crisp, sugary, crusty top
  • a soft, incredibly fine-crumbed interior
  • oozing pockets of chocolate chunks
  • a slightly squidgy, chewy middle
  • me smitten

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The secrets here are the addition of coffee, use of confectioner’s sugar, and the melting of chocolate, butter and honey as one of the first steps. Take your time making this– it’s simple but harbours close precision. I couldn’t resist adding a dash of coffee into the wet mix, and the result was moist and fragrant. You won’t regret dashing out to get that extra pack of confectioner’s sugar either– it yields the most fine and delicate cake crumb.

Yeah, pretty ethereal.

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Chocolate Coffee ‘Mochi’ Cake (adapted from Food 52’s chocolate mochi snack cake recipe; makes a thick 9×9 pan of cake)

Ingredients

325g (2 cups) rice flour (I used Doves Farm)

190g ( 1 1/2 cups) confectioner’s sugar

1 tbsp baking soda

pinch coarse salt

180g (1 heaping cup) dark chocolate (70% cocoa), chopped into chunks

1.5 tbsp honey

1 tsp vanilla extract

2 eggs

500ml (2 cups) whole milk

120ml (1/2 cup) coffee (I used instant– one tablespoon dissolved in half a cup of boiling water, but use the better stuff if you can!)

113g (1/2 cup) salted/unsalted butter

160g (slightly less than a cup) chopped dark chocolate, mixed with 2 tbsp extra of rice flour

5 tbsp maple syrup/honey (for the topping)

 

Directions

Preheat your oven to 180C (350F) and grease and line a 9×9-inch brownie pan.

In a medium-large bowl, whisk together the rice flour, sugar, baking soda and salt. Put the 180g of chopped dark chocolate, butter and honey into another bowl and microwave for 1 minute. Take it out and stir until you get a smooth, homogenous mixture. Alternatively, do the same in a saucepan and over a low-medium heat.

Scrape the smooth chocolate mix into a large bowl (large because it’s going to hold quite a volume), then stir in the 2 eggs, milk, coffee and vanilla extract. Add the dry mix and fold into the wet mix until you get a smooth, rather wet, light brown batter. Probably much wetter than what you would expect, but not as sticky or glutinous as your typical brownie batter. Then stir in the extra 160g of chocolate chunks mixed with the extra 2 tbsp of rice flour.

Scrape the batter into your greased pan, and bake for 50 minutes in the preheated oven. Once out of the oven, pierce random parts of the cake with your fork or knife, then drizzle over the honey/maple syrup. Leave to cool for half an hour, then cut and serve. This cake can be kept for a week in an airtight container in the fridge, but as the original recipe from Food 52 states, it does taste better at room temperature (ah, what are microwaves for). Serve on its own, though it’s also delicious with a heavy hand of chocolate spread (as shown above) or whipped cream.

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Peanut Butter Stuffed Salted Brownie Cookies

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Cancelled morning lectures obviously means whining here about it being the last week of term and waxing lyrical about all things chocolate (once more). A bit on that later. If I start on chocolate now, I’ll probably forget to add other mundane details about my life, and who would want that right? The ‘first day of the last term’ is a funny thing to say; it really didn’t feel all that long ago when I was panicking to my mother about basic things I might or might not be able to do, like laundry, bedsheets and having enough Asian fare in uni to keep me sane, because the impulsive decision to buy Tesco meal deals doesn’t quite cut it most of the time. It’s all just whizzed by much too fast. The Friday flight home is both an ecstatic and nauseating thought to me.

Despite my pension for café fare, I’m embarrassed to say that not once have I had my favourite alone-time at any one café, though I’ve definitely had the chance to visit some must-see places on my list. I should do a write-up about one of them soon, before I forget and the tides of life push me far ahead, me in blissful oblivion, once more.

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The other day I bought the loveliest little tub of peanut-speckles cashew butter, and just knew I had to use it another mind get-up. It’s practically peanut butter because of all those peanut bits, and since not everyone likes cashew butter and peanut butter is easier to find in stores, I decided to put peanut butter in the recipe title instead of what it really is. It’s not even the processed sort, which some recipes insist on for better results, but really you get a perfect peanut-buttery flavour upon first bite even with the natural unprocessed stuff.

The densest, fudgiest brownie cookie with white chocolate and dark chocolate bits, filled with peanut butter (and in this case, for the sake of aesthetic and flavourful pleasure, salted caramel spread on top). 

I like food hybrids like cruffins and cronuts and whathaveyous. Brownie cookies are on the list. The shape and form resembles that of a cookie, but the texture is all of what you want in a good fudgy brownie– this is not quite the chewy sort, but more dense and fudge-like. Definitely more than what you would guess the texture is akin to in the first picture above. The middle is soft, the edges still squishable. Best part? Adjacency of salt and sweet. Nothing beats it. Yes, my description vocabulary needs a bit of a boost, but squishable is still a word. And an accurate one here, at that.

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Peanut Butter Stuffed Salted Brownie Cookies (makes 18-20 medium-sized cookies)

Ingredients

125g (half cup) creamy/chunky peanut butter (natural or processed; either works fine)

30g (1/4 cup) powdered sugar (doesn’t need sifting)

large pinch salt

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

210g (slightly less than 1 3/4 cups) all-purpose flour

35g (1/2 cup+couple of tablespoons) cocoa powder, doesn’t need sifting (I suggest Green and Black’s here)

1/2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

115g (1/2 cup or 1 stick) salted butter (unsalted works too, but flavour is enhanced with salted)

230g (1 packed cup) dark brown sugar

60g (a heaping 1/3 cup white sugar

2 eggs

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

110g (one heaping half cup) of dark chocolate chips or chopped chocolate

*optional: an extra handful of white chocolate chunks/chips (30g) and one heaping tablespoon of salted caramel sauce

 

Directions

Preheat your oven to 180C (350F) and grease (line if you want) 2 baking trays. In a medium bowl, mix together the first 4 ingredients to make the peanut butter filling. Roll into small balls; you should have around 20 balls, if not more or less. Place the balls on a small baking tray and place in the freezer while you work on the brownie cookies.

In another bowl, whisk together the flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, chopped chocolate (both white and dark) and salt. In a large bowl, whisk together the butter, eggs, two sugars and vanilla extract (add the heaping tablespoon of salted caramel here, if you wish!). Pour the dry mix into the wet mix and mix until just combined. Take out the frozen balls of filling from the freezer. Scoop a heaped teaspoon of dough onto a baking tray, then place one ball of filling in the centre, press down a little, then take another teaspoonful of dough and place on top, smushing around the sides of the filling ball so it’s nicely covered. Repeat until the balls are all enclosed within the gooey chocolatey dough you made.

Bake in the preheated oven for 10 minutes– resist baking for longer even though the cookies look and feel weak to the touch after such a short baking time. If you happen to have made very large cookies, then bake for 11-12 minutes, but nothing more than 12. Leave to cool for at least half an hour before eating. These cookies will keep in an airtight container for up to 5 days, but they’re best eaten within 2 days, during which they retain the ultimate taste and texture. Eat with coarse salt sprinkled on top or more salted caramel sauce.

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Red Velvet Cake Bars

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Truly no frills.

And way too hard to mess up, to be perfectly honest. There are a few reasons why I’m in love with this red velvet cake recipe. Why? A list seems appropriate, yes. These cake bars (or mini circular-sort cakes, if you would like, those work too) are:

  1. The most moist, fluffy and tender red velvet cake bars your lips will ever meet.
  2. Have a deeper chocolate flavour than most red velvet cake recipes
  3. Have actual melted chocolate in the batter (!!)
  4. Cream cheese frosting. That is all.
  5. Thick, creamy, vanilla bean-ified frosting.
  6. Frosting.

Red velvet has gotten quite a bit of flak recently. Most everyone has tried these dainty red cakes slathered in cream cheese frosting. However, due to its perceived nature of artificiality and lack of distinct flavour thanks to too many a sticky-topped, mass-produced factory version, people have come to believe the one true hero of the eponymous red velvet is really just that cream cheese frosting… and not much else. If I may quote someone from my favourite TV series– red velvet is a lie!

The chocolate notes have been forgotten, abandoned, and what was once known (I remember the trend hitting hard around 2-3 years ago) for unbeatable moistness and tenderness has been passed off as that unnecessary trendy thing with too much red food dye. 

With this recipe, hopes have been revived.

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I found it in my mother’s huge collection of cake recipes (quite literally a huge grey file labelled ‘CAKES’), and modified it to taste and texture. The red velvet batter has the perfect hint of chocolate, and the cream cheese frosting is rich, cram-jammed with real vanilla bean and the right amount of tang. I could go on about this cake and how easy it is, but I don’t think I need to bore you with the details. Let’s get to it, because life is short and there’s no point wasting time wasting time.

Ingredients (makes enough for 3 batches of cake bars in an 8×8-inch pan, or 3 6-inch cake layers)

For the cake bars:

120g soft, unsalted butter

330g castor sugar

300g all-purpose flour

2 eggs

50g cocoa powder

1 heaped tablespoon red gel food colouring

1 tbsp vanilla bean paste (or substitute with the same amount of vanilla extract)

50g bittersweet chocolate, chopped (preferably from a bar, but chips are fine here too) and melted in 30-second increments in a microwave

250ml buttermilk (or mix 240ml whole milk with one tablespoon of white vinegar, and leave to rest for a while before using– the mixture should be slightly curdled)

pinch of salt

2 tbsp white vinegar

1 1/2 tsp baking soda (bicarb soda)

For the cream cheese frosting (enough for the tops of 3 batches; make double this amount if you wish to frost the sides as well):

42g unsalted butter, at room temperature

1 tsp vanilla bean paste (or sub with vanilla extract)

180g cream cheese, at room temperature

200g icing sugar

pinch of coarse salt

Directions

Preheat your oven to 180C (350F) and grease and line your cake pans, be it 8×8-inch square baking pan(s) or 3 6-inch round cake pans. Melt your chopped plain chocolate in the microwave and set aside for the time being. Take your cream cheese out from the fridge so it has time to come to room temperature. If you’re making your buttermilk (because you’re like me and can’t be bothered to run to the grocery store just to buy that packet of buttermilk), mix together the whole milk and white vinegar in a bowl and set aside as well.

In a large bowl and with an electrical whisk or Kitchenaid if you have one, beat together the softened, unsalted butter and white castor sugar. Beat until pale and fluffy, at least 30 seconds or so. Add the eggs one at a time and beat between each addition. Add the vanilla bean paste at this point, and then sieve in the cocoa powder. When sieving, I find it handy to place your bowl on a weighing scale and then sieving in the cocoa powder until you reach the 50g mark. Beat the vanilla bean paste, cocoa powder and your melted chocolate on a low speed until it’s all combined. You should have a thick, sticky, dark batter.

At this point, add your red gel food colouring. I used a heaped tablespoon, but you may want more or less depending on colour preference. Start with a teaspoonful of food colouring and then work from there. I find that a heaped tablespoon (I used a ‘Christmas Red’ hue) does the trick, producing a rich, deep, carnation red, nothing too pink or too dark.

In a separate, smaller bowl, whisk together the flour, salt and half a teaspoon (it’s part of the amount stated in the ingredients list above) of fine salt. This is the dry mix. Add half of this to the chocolate-butter mix you just put together, then add half of the buttermilk. Beat on low speed briefly, then add the rest of the flour and the rest of the buttermilk. Using a spatula, scrape down the sides and make sure all the batter is evenly mixed, folding from the bottom  and coming up through the sides and middle.

Now for the kinda magical bit, and what gives the batter a final kick and ridiculous level of moisture! In a small saucer, mix together the remaining 1 tsp of baking (bicarb) soda and 2 tsp of white vinegar. The mixture will fizz up. Immediately tip it into the batter and mix in thoroughly with a wooden spoon.

Pour the batter into your cake pans and bake in the preheated oven for 20-22 minutes. If you’re using 6-inch cake pans, check at the 20-minute mark– insert a wooden skewer into the middle of the cakes; if they emerge with wet red batter then bake for 5 more minutes. With an 8×8-inch cake pan, these will be done by 20 minutes, but every oven is different, and they may take 2 minutes more or less.

While the cakes are baking, make the cream cheese frosting. In a large bowl and with an electrical whisk, beat together your soft, unsalted butter and cream cheese. Then, beat in the vanilla bean paste, icing sugar and salt.

Once the cakes are baked, leave to cool on cooling racks for at least half an hour before removing from the pans and cutting off the tops (the cutting off part is unnecessary if you’re baking these in an 8×8-inch cake pan). If you’re using the square baking pan, spread on the cream cheese frosting, then cut into bars. If you are using 3 6-inch cake pans, spread on a large dollop of cream cheese frosting on one layer, then stack with the second layer, and repeat. If you’re making a cake this way and you’re done with the last layer, immediately let the cake set in the fridge, for the cream cheese frosting will start to melt all over the place otherwise. With the amounts stated above, I could make a stacked 2-tier cake and one 8×8-inch square cake (with lots of leftover cake from the tops!). These cakes can be stored in the fridge in an airtight container for up to a week.

Tender is the crumb.

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No-bake Honey Avocado Tartlets

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I’ll break it down for you. What you see is basically mashed avocado, honey and cream cheese, sitting atop a gingersnap crust. A little shaved chocolate on top. Weird? Ew? Yeah, the rest of my family thought so too. Until they tried it… And loved it. My sister included, and she scoffs at anything that ‘tries too hard’ or ‘just doesn’t work’. Thankfully, this ‘works’. There’s none left in the fridge now, and that makes me happy.

It’s tiny revelations like these that make me determined to carry on pursuing a growing creative streak, egging me on, to keep experimenting with wacky combinations, as well as the tried-and-true stuff. I know I’m typically all about easy, but what’s striking about this particular combination of avocado and gingersnap is its hidden complexity. Look, I had leftover gingersnaps that looked pretty neglected, all the other choccies and biccies stealing the limelight, simple M&S stuff tucked away in the very corner of the fridge. And then, of course, the avocados. On the brink of mild brownness, tenderness (yes, ok, rottenness). Everything was so simple, so random. Nothing to lose. I’ve seen a few avocado frosting recipes before on some health blogs and decided to give the touch of cream cheese a go, though I chucked in some honey, instead of powdered sugar, which was a strong contender as I sat in the kitchen wondering what really would go best with what I had.

The cream cheese in the filling luxuriates what would otherwise simply be avocado on very sweet toast. The gingersnap offers some bite to sharpen its creamy, wholesome counterparts- lots of good unsalted butter and the ripe avocado. Each tartlet is small but rich, holding up its worth. Have two or three the morning after you make them for pure pleasure. Best straight out of the cold fridge, when the filling is slightly stiffer, and the flavours, especially that of the honey, taste fresh and distinct. Creamy, dense, delightful.

Honey Avocado Tartlets (makes around 12 mini 2-inch tartlets)

10 gingersnaps, crumbled (90g after a good smashing)

20g melted butter

half an avocado (around 65g)

50g cream cheese, softened

1 tablespoon thick honey

Either in a food processor or ziploc bag with a rolling pin, bash/whizz the biscuits till you get fine crumbs. Mix this with the melted butter. I used a rolling pin to bash the biscuits, then mixed the butter in by hand. Hand work is so therapeutic. The end result should feel like wet sand.

In a 12-mold tart pan (or if you would like bigger tarts, you can use a muffin tin), press around a tablespoon and a half of the mix into the molds. It took me a good 15 minutes to do this for all 12, but patience is key. Press, press, press. Just try not to let the sweat drip into your work.

In a small bowl, mash the avocado, honey and softened cream cheese together. If your cream cheese is as hard as a block from the fridge, microwave it for a minute or so, or until it’s much softer and pliable. Using a teaspoon measure or your fingers, put (or pipe, if you’re feeling all posh) the filling into the centre of each mold. Place the tart pan into the fridge and let them rest there for at least 4-6 hours. Pop each tartlet out to enjoy later on in the day or the next morning. The crust will be firm and almost crisp. If you want, add some chocolate shavings on top by using a knife and a block of good dark chocolate (thank you extra Mast Brothers goodies), the knife scraping bits off away from you, almost like how you would sharpen a knife. Drizzle more honey on top. These last 3-4 days in the fridge.

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