Baked Sunday Morning - Oatmeal Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Scones

So here is the second recipe I've made out of Baked Elements, Oatmeal Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Scones and I've gotta say I'm loving this cookbook to bits! This week the bloggers from Baked Sunday Mornings are baking out of the peanut butter section of the book which is my second favourite after Caramel. 

 

Now lets get down to business, in a large bowl mix together flour, brown sugar, bi-carb soda, baking powder, salt and oats. Using your fingers rub through chilled butter.

 

Then make a well in the centre and mix in buttermilk, egg yolk and crunchy peanut butter. Mix together with choc chips and pat out gently to form a large round.

 

On a lined tray place scone dough and gently brush with egg white then sprinkle with raw sugar, or as I have with caramelised cacao nibs. Then using a knife divide into 8 wedges. Bake @ 180 degrees fan forced for approx 20 minutes, turning halfway through for an even bake.

 

The scones are done when they pull apart easily. Leave to cool for 5 minutes before breaking up and enjoying with.....

 

Strawberry Jam, butter and homemade Salted Caramel spread, Yum!

 

These scones were simple to make and although I'm a huge fan of salted caramel they just tasted better with jam. The cacao nibs gave an extra hit of flavour too. Check out how everyone else went and find the recipe at Baked Sunday Mornings. 

 

Baked Sunday Morning's - Devouring Brooksters

These could be one of the best treats I've made yet, a BROOKSTER! I'm already contemplating different varieties to bake. So for those like me who have never heard of a brookster before this is my definition; a brownie topped with cookie mixture baked together resulting in a golden crunchy topping, fugdey centre and bursting with rich dark choc chips.

 

This is the first recipe The Baked Sunday Morning's group have made out of Matt and Renato's new offering Baked Elements. I'm still waiting for the arrival of my copy in the mail, but lucky for me you can find the recipe for brookster's here, at baked sunday mornings.

 

First I made the yummy cookie dough containing butter, caster & brown sugar, plain flour, bi-carb soda, salt, eggs, vanilla and choc chips. This mixture is then chilled for 3 hours. 

 

Next I whipped up the brownie batter combining flour, salt, cocoa powder, dark chocolate, butter, eggs, sugar and vanilla. Look at that shinny mixture!!

 

Then I divided the gooey brownie batter between 12 lined muffin tins and chilled for 3 hours.

 

Using my trusty ice cream scoop I deposited cookie dough on top of the brownie mixture and baked for 28 minutes @ 180 degree fan forced oven, rotating half way through. 

 

They came out puffy and golden and my house smelt delightful!

 

And I had enough left over cookie dough to bake a few trays off as well. These took about 18 minutes @ 180 degree fan forced oven, rotating half way through.

 

You can easily devour these little gems as is or serve with berries and ice cream for dessert. This recipe's going in my keeper box and I'm anticipating the post any day now to find out what else we'll be making in the coming weeks. Check out how everyone one else went with the Brooksters at baked sunday mornings.



Mississipi Mud Pie

Baked Sunday Morning has come around again! When I first browsed through Baked Explorations this was one of the many recipes I noted down to try. What an extravagent pie, Oreo cookie crust, flourless chocolate cake, chocolate pudding and whipped cream!

The pie crust is made of blitzed oreo's and melted butter pressed into a lined tin, chilled for 10 minutes in the freezer and then baked for ten minutes.

Whilst the pie crust is cooling I made the flourless chocolate cake, omitting the coffee as some people didn't like the taste. Instead I just added the same quantity of water. Now I followed the directions but ended up with way to much cake batter, I wonder if anyone else did? I filled lined muffin tins with the rest of the mixture and baked them with the cake. I may of overfilled my tin as well because it took neally an hour to bake instead of the recommended 40 minutes.

The chocolate pudding was quite easy to make you just mix together sugar, cocoa powder, cornflour, salt, egg yolks and milk in a pot. Whisk till it boils then remove from heat and stir through butter, vanilla and chocolate. This mixture is then covered with cling wrap, taking care to pat it down to the surface to prevent a 'skin' from forming whilst cooling.

This is the sunken cake after coming out of the oven.

And as the choclate pudding was ment to go on top, I pushed the cake in and down to make room.

Once the pudding and cake had chilled for around 3 hours, I poured the chocolate pudding on top followed by sweetened whipped cream.

After chilling for another 30 minutes I used a nice sharp hot knife to slice through the pie revealing the gooey layers inside. I spruced it up with an oreo and then I got a bit carried away with the remaining pudding and cake...

I layered in a cocktail glass, cake, chocolate pudding, crushed oreo cookie, whipped cream and garnished with golden caramelized cacao nibs, an oreo and a my new favourite snack, a sweet chilli pretzel!

Then my sister suggested coating a pretzel in gold as well,

And then I found some colourful poprocks in the cupboard, Mmm this is my masterpiece!!!

Although the recipe suggests to make this over two days I ran out of time and made it all the same day, it turned out great. This was a very rich pie and I'm definately glad I got around to making it but next time I'm thinking of adding a layer of caramel in there as well. I hope everyone else had fun making this recipe I can't wait to check out their blogs and see how they went xx

For the Mississipi Mud Pie check out the recipe at Baked Sunday Mornings.



Tim Tam Birthday Cake

 

I came across this  fabulous cake on one of the many blogs I follow and couldn't resist. Raspberricupcakes has some pretty amazing idea's from cakes made to resemble Tim Tams or Twix bars to a cheesecake made with M & M's and pretzel's. I made this for my brother in laws birthday during the week as Tim Tams are one of his favourite biscuits and I thought this was the perfect excuse to make it.

Rasperricupcake uses two layer's of chocolate sponge but I preferred to use a simple chocolate cake recipe. Then a layer of chocolate icing was whipped up and slathered on, followed by your choice of crushed up Tim Tams (I went with caramel).

This was sandwiched together with another layer of chocolate cake and evenly trimmed.

I placed the cake on a cake board lined with baking paper strips and drizzled over the semi-set milk chocolate ganache. Then I used a palate knife to create the chocolate rippled effect.

A cookie cutter was used to cut a 'bite' out of the cake to reveal the lovely layers and then the baking paper was removed leaving a clean cake board.

Overall the Tim Tam cake was a winner at our house, it tasted delicious and was fairly easy to make. I would recommend adding more milk to the filling to make it lighter as mine was on the firmer side rather then soft and creamy like the biscuit. For Raspberricupcakes Tim Tam cake recipe and many more fun yummy treats go here.



Chocolate Coffee Cake...Without Coffee

It's a Baked Sunday Morning again and this week the challenge was Chocolate Coffee Cake. For those that are new to my blog every two weeks there's a group of bloggers that bake the same recipe out of Matt Lewis & Renato Poliafito's Baked Explorations cookbook.

This week I wasn't going to do the challenge as I'm not too fond of butter cream and only a few people in my family enjoy the flavour of coffee, but then I thought I'd soldier on and make my own version. For the recipe go here, Baked Sunday Mornings.



The recipe called for a Classic Chocolate Cake but when it came to assembling I did away with one of the three layers of cake as it was getting to high for my liking. Next came the Coffee butter cream minus the coffee & with an addition of more vanilla. Not being a fan of butter cream I only made half the amount to layer between cakes.

Then I made a rich ganache using equal amounts of thick cream and dark chocolate. I like a rustic homemade look so I doused the cake in semi-set ganache and swirled it with a palette knife until I was happy.

To finish it off I sprinkled it with caramelised cacao nibs dusted in gold shimmer. These two little monsters look impressed!

The cake was lovely and moist, the butter cream gave it an extra hit of flavour and the ganache turned it into what all chocolate tortes should be, deliciously decadent.

 And uhh, little Livy Lou enjoyed herself to!

Chocolate Hazelnut Charlottes & Rich Fudge Sauce

I was down to my last three slices of chocolate brioche (yum, yum, yum) in my freezer so I thought tonight's the night to make these little beauties.

I've been wanting to make these for awhile now, the recipe has just been jumping out at me every time I open the cookbook Chocolate Epiphany by Francois Payard. The delicious chocolate brioche recipe can also been found in this book and I hope to make it again soon so I can post it for you. The pudding is a simple recipe and you can switch the brioche with a fruit loaf or why not try left over croissant's?

Chocolate-Hazelnut Charlottes

For the custard:
2 large egg yolks
1/4 cup caster sugar
1/4 cup cocoa powder, sifted
1 cup heavy cream

For the charlottes:
3 thick slices of chocolate brioche, cubed
80g hazelnuts, toasted and chopped
70g dark chocolate chips
unsalted butter and sugar for the moulds

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees C. Brush 8 x 125ml dariole moulds with melted butter and coat with sugar tipping the excess out.
In a large bowl mix together yolks, sugar and cocoa powder, gently whisking in cream to make a smooth custard.
Tip the cubed brioche, hazelnuts and chocolate into the custard mix, tossing together to coat. Spread mixture evenly between moulds pouring over any remaing custard.
Place on a tray and bake 20 - 25 minutes until just set.
Invert mould onto serving plate and serve with a scoop of quality vanilla icecream and warm fudge sauce.

Fudge Sauce
Recipe from momofuku milk bar by Christina Tosi

30g dark chocolate
2 tablespoons cocoa powder, sifted
pinch of salt
1/4 cup glucose
2 tablespoons caster sugar
1/4 cup heavy cream

Heat glucose, cream and sugar in a small saucepan until it boils. Remove from heat and stir in cocoa powder, salt and chocolate to you reach a smooth consistency.

This is an awesome sauce that you can keep handy in your fridge for up to two weeks and can be reheated gently in the microwave to make any dessert that little bit more delightful.







The ones that didn't get eaten have been frozen for another night when we're in need of a chocolate fix. I've decided this is very close to a bread & butter pudding, try it out and let me know what you think.