Chocolate Chickpea Loaf

 

This definitely goes down as one of the greatest miracles I've ever witnessed in my entire life. No flour, no butter. And yet... sigh. Beautiful. Just beautiful. Watching this baby rise up from the oven was one of the happiest and most exciting things to have happened to me this year.

Okay so I'm exaggerating a little. But I still can't believe that this cake has no butter or flour in it. I gave a slice to my mom and even she was shocked. With that said however the recipe definitely needs some tweaking. Texture wise it was great. It was like a cross between a pound cake and a muffin. Taste wise however, something's definitely missing. I can't figure out what. More sugar maybe. And a pinch of salt? Hmmm... help?

But anyway, moving on... if you've got any friends with restrictive diets, this cake should solve most, if not all of your problems. I got the recipe off some Jewish website. You can check it out here. In the meantime...

Ingredients 

2 cups cooked, drained chickpeas/garbanzo beans
1/3 cup orange juice
4 large eggs, at room temperature
1 cup packed brown sugar
1/4 cup cocoa
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
Cooking spray or oil 

Preheat oven to 350°F. Lightly spray a 9 x 5 x 3-inch loaf pan and line with buttered parchment or wax paper. In a food processor, process chickpeas and orange juice until very smooth. 


Add eggs, one at a time, pulsing after each addition. In a medium bowl, whisk together sugar, cocoa, baking powder, and baking soda. Add to processor and pulse until just blended. 

Pour batter into prepared pan and bake for 50 minutes or until toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Remove cake from oven and let cool on a rack for 15 minutes before removing from pan.

Crunchy Black Sesame Butter Cake

Okay I'll admit that the sesame seeds were thrown in on a whim. But thank god I did. This goes down as one of the best tasting cakes I've ever made. The sesame adds a nice nutty but not too overwhelming flavour to the cake. And not to mention the fun of biting into the crunchy toasted sesame bits. I heard somewhere that sesame seeds are supposedly good for your skin too. But thats probably the Chinese in me talking.

Oh and you'll probably notice from the pictures that I baked them in a cupcake format. Thing was I had some leftover paper cups that I've been wanting to use so yea. But take my advice and bake this in a loaf pan instead. I reckon it'll taste a lot better.

Ingredients

125 grams butter, room temperature
125 grams white sugar
30 grams brown sugar
4 small eggs (or 3 large ones)
125 grams self-raising flour
50 grams black sesame seeds

Heat oven up to 180 degrees Celsius and position rack in the middle. Butter a 9 x 5 x 3-inch loaf pan and line with buttered parchment or wax paper. Set aside. Cream butter and sugars together until smooth (about 2-3 minutes). Add in the eggs one at a time, blending fully until well incorporated before adding the next one. Sift in the flour, 1/3 at a time, and fold. Add in the sesame seeds and fold again. Pour into a prepared loaf pan and smooth the top. Bake for 30 to 35 minutes or until toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.

Enjoy!

Chocolate Chip Hazelnut Cookies

"As Harold took a bite of Bavarian sugar cookie, he finally felt as if everything was going to be okay. Sometimes, when we lose ourselves in fear and despair, in routine and constancy, in hopelessness and tragedy, we can thank God for Bavarian sugar cookies."

Was watching Stringer Than Fiction the other day. Love this scene. Its the one where Maggie forces Will to eat a cookie. And then she goes on about the list of things than she baked during college. I've never been a Will Ferrell Fan but I have to say that this movie is really good. And Emma Thompson just so effortless in her role as an eccentric author suffering from writer's block.

Watch this movie. Please. And then when you're done, go make yourself a cookie. Or better yet, Chocolate Chip Hazelnut Cookies. Chewy and full of brown sugar goodness, the use of self-raising flour also make these cookies a breeze to prepare.

So what are you waiting for? Go! Bake! And don't forget the glass of milk once you're done :)

Ingredients

125 grams butter
120 grams brown sugar
30 grams white sugar
Pinch of salt
150 grams self-raising flour
2/3 cups chocolate chips
50 grams chopped hazelnuts

Melt butter over a double boiler. Once fully melted, combine with the sugars and salt and blend. Sift in the flour and fold until well incorporated. Add in the chocolate chips and hazelnuts and fold. Drop by the tablespoons onto a baking sheet and bake at 180 degrees Celsius for 15-18 minutes (depending on how chewy you want it to be). Remove and allow to cool for 15 minutes.

Prepare a glass of milk. Dunk the cookie inside the milk. Eat the cookie... and enjoy.

Mom's Apple Cake

Just like how everyone is born under an astrological sign, I believe that everyone is also born with a deep, spiritual connection to a specific type of dessert. Some are pudding people. Others (like me) are brownie people. My mom? She's a apple cake. One of the best out there too (if I do say so myself).

This is probably my favourite cake of all time. Its warm, homey and very 'mom'. Eat it straight out of the oven for best results. You can also drizzle it with some vanilla sauce but in my humble opinion? Just have it as it is.
 

I got so excited that I dug straight into it before taking a picture.

Ingredients

125g butter, at room temperature

150g white sugar

3 eggs

250g self-raising flour

4-5 tablespoons milk

3 medium apples, cored and sliced

1 tablespoon ground cinnamon

2 tablespoons brown sugar

1 cup walnuts, chopped

Warm oven to 200 degrees Celsius and butter a 10 inch round baking pan. Toss sliced apples with cinnamon and brown sugar.

Cream butter and sugar until creamy and smooth. Add in eggs one at a time, beating after each addition until well blended before adding the next. Continue to cream the batter until white and fluffy.

Fold in the flour a bit at a time until well incorporated. If batter is too thick, add in 4 tablespoons of milk one at a time, until desired consistency. Pour into baking pan and arrange the cinnamon-sugared apples as follows:

Then sprinkle the chopped walnuts around:

Lower the oven temperature to 180 degrees Celsius and bake for 35 - 40 mins.

Bon appetit!

OMFG Cocoa Brownies

Brownies are tricky business. Since time out of mind, people have fought, argued and spilled precious batter over them. Some like it chewy, others like it cakey. Will we ever arrive at a consensus? I don't know...

...and frankly, I don't care. After all, why argue when you can just eat? These brownies were inspired by Smitten Kitchen's best cocoa brownies. Like Deb, I was highly skeptical about them at first. After all, brownies without chocolate? That's just wrong.

But I was craving for brownies and alas...! There was no chocolate to be found in the house! Desperate, I scoured the web and came across two different recipes that dared me to take the plunge. One was Deb's and the other was from Allrecipies's Absolutely Best Brownies. I couldn't decided which I liked better so I came up with my own and fired ahead. One and a half hours later...

The world as I know it has changed. I've changed. For better or worse, the deed is done. I'm not sure if I can ever go back but you know what? I don't want to! Ever! These brownies were so good, even my mom came down after brushing her teeth and took a bite... and then some more... and some more...

Take the plunge. I urge you. It'll be the best thing you done for yourself in a long time. Trust.

Ingredients

125g unsalted butter
250g white sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
60g cocoa powder
2 teaspoon milk (or vanilla extract)
2 eggs
60g all purpose flour

Optional additions

2/3 cups chopped and toasted walnuts

Heat up oven to 180 degrees Celsius and position rack in the middle. Line a 9 X 13 inch baking pan with baking paper.

Melt the butter, sugar, salt and cocoa powder together over a double boiler, stirring until the ingredients are well incorporated (don't fret if you can't get it smooth. Gritty is fine.)

Take off the heat and stir in the milk. Once the batter has cooled down somewhat, add in the eggs one at a time, beating after each addition until the batter becomes smooth.

Sift in the flour and gently fold until you can't see it anymore. Then vigorously beat it for about 20 seconds. Fold in the walnuts if using.

Pour the batter into the baking pan and bake for 15 to 17 mins.

Voila! Enjoy!

*I reckon these would taste even better in a 9 X 9 / 8 X 8 inch baking pan. If using either make sure to increase baking time to 20 - 25 mins.

Awkward introduction

So. About me. First thing's first, let me just say that I am not good at introductions. I find them incredibly awkward and nerve-wrecking. I could go on and on about how much I hate this but I guess I should get over myself and just get on with it already. So here goes:

I'm currently a full time student but I will be graduating shortly to (hopefully) do something productive with my life. I love cooking, baking, eating and... dogs. Because who doesn't like fur on their clothes every now and then right? In regards to the former part , I haven't got much experience so most of it is pretty much just based on trial and error. But regardless, I am planning on opening up my own lil' dessert shop one day so until then, I don't really know what I am going to do but, the fact remains that in approximately 15 years time, I will have saved enough money to fulfill my dream.

So there. Oh and nice meeting you.