chocolate Archives - Page 6 of 7

Grilled Chocolate Sandwiches

I gotta give it up to Alice Medrich. Why? Because Grilled Chocolate Sandwiches…for real.

Why wasn’t it me who came up with melted chocolate on buttered, toasted bread? I crane my neck and scream at the chocolate gods:

Why? Why wasn’t it me?

As usual, they ignored me, but I’ll be alright. My girl, Alice Medrich, hooked me up.

Usually, when it’s snack time, I reach for a big ole box of Cheez-its. Sometimes, if Sriracha is on hand, which is always, I’ll make my favorite stove top popcorn. But this sandwich? Oh man, grilled chocolate sandwiches are my new favorite snack. I love that you can see the chocolate peeking through the sourdough. Hello!

I’m not gonna lie to you. I put extra chocolate in my sandwich. Hey, it’s not my fault, man! San Luis Sourdough has really long slices, alright? Plus, I needed the antioxidants or whatever.

Pay attention, now because this is simple: chocolate + buttered bread + grill = your next culinary adventure. Do it…then tip your hat to Alice Medrich…and of course, the gods of chocolate.

Grilled Chocolate Sandwiches Recipe

Grilled Chocolate Sandwiches Recipe barely adapted from Food52

Grilled Chocolate Sandwiches

Makes 2 sandwiches

Author: Alice Medrich

Serves: 2

Ingredients

Unsalted butter or olive oil
4 slices sweet or sourdough French bread or firm white sandwich bread
About 2 ounces broken or chopped semisweet or bittersweet chocolate, or ⅓ cup chocolate chips
Coarse sea salt (optional)
1 tablespoon sugar mixed with ⅛ teaspoon ground cinnamon (optional)

Instructions

Butter one side of each slice of bread generously or pour 2 T olive oil in skillet and swirl to coat.
In a skillet big enough to hold them, cook the slices butter side down over medium heat, just until pale gold on one side.
Put chocolate on two of the slices. Cover pan to make chocolate melt quicker.
Flip a naked slice on top, butter side up.
Cook, turning the sandwiches as necessary, until the chocolate is softened and the sandwiches are browned on both sides.
Sprinkle with sea salt and/or cinnamon-sugar, if using, and serve immediately.
Variation: Spread 2 T of peanut butter on the other slice of bread to make a Grilled Peanut Butter and Chocolate Sandwich.

Dark Chocolate Waffles & the Art of Conversation

I’m a people person.

Man, that sounds corny, but it’s true. I’m one of those people who draws energy from other people. Good lord, I’m starting to sound like someone who worked at the Psychic Friends Network. The truth of the matter is that if you’re sitting next to me at a cafe, I’ll just start talking to you like we’re old friends-I’m that chick. I mean, why not? Spread the joy…that’s my policy.

Usually, when this happens, I meet some interesting people. Or, at least have some fun and airy banter. Our conversation doesn’t have to be anything deep over a hot cuppa and biscotti. Let’s keep it light. Shall we?

And yet…

Sometimes it goes all wrong. On occasion, I choose the worst person with whom to start a chat. You know, that one dude who’s waiting desperately for someone, anyone to say anything to him, but doesn’t understand the art of conversation.

Check it out…

Dave and I went to Starbucks the other day for a coffee and a tea. I was in a mood and just wanted to get out of the house. We grabbed our drinks and sat down next to a guy working on his laptop.

“Let’s be friends.” I said.

“That’s the nicest thing anyone has said to me in weeks,” he replied, which of course, made me feel wonderful. I was all set to exchange pleasantries and then this happened.

“Usually, it’s white people telling me to go back to my own country.” Wow, um…that’s a bit much, but ok.

Dave tried to keep it light and said, “We usually try to keep that to ourselves.” Fantastic, I thought. Let’s laugh this away and get to talking about something else.

“I don’t consider you white. You’re too nice to be white.”

Ugh, I had chosen wrong. I chose to sit next to some nut job with an axe to grind. I wanted to scream at him “No! Keep it light, dumbass! You’re supposed to keep it light!” Instead, he unleashed upon us an endless stream of bullshit comprised of titles like Why Siri Sucks and My Healthcare Situation.

I guess I should’ve stayed at home. If I had I could’ve whipped up a batch of waffles and drank my tea in peace.

Typically, I reach for a golden, crispy waffle, but not today. Today, I took a trip to the dark side.

These dark chocolate waffles are serious…not see-me-after-class serious, but are-you-really-trying to-have-this-for-breakfast serious. The answer is ‘yes’. Yes, I am and I did.

The kiddies probably won’t like this one. This breakfast is on the adult-side: super-rich, dark chocolate waffles that aren’t too sweet. Perhaps, that’s why I drizzled them with melted peanut butter. What?

Don’t wait for a special occasion. Make them today. Invite me over for breakfast and make them for me. If you do, I promise to be on my best behavior…and keep the conversation nice and breezy.

Dark Chocolate Waffles Recipe

Dark Chocolate Waffles Recipe from Bon Appetit

Dark Chocolate Waffles

Prep time

20 mins

Cook time

20 mins

Total time

40 mins

Author: Rick and Michael Mast

Serves: 6

Ingredients

2 cups all-purpose flour
½ cup unsweetened cocoa powder
¼ cup (packed) brown sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon kosher salt
3 large eggs, separated
2 cups buttermilk
½ cup olive oil
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
6 oz. bittersweet chocolate (at least 70% cacao), finely chopped
Nonstick vegetable oil spray
Unsalted butter, warm pure maple syrup and peanut butter (for serving)

Instructions

Preheat oven to 250°.
Whisk flour, cocoa powder, brown sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a large bowl.
Make a well in the center and add egg yolks, buttermilk, oil, and vanilla.
Blend with a fork, then gradually incorporate dry ingredients, mixing just until combined.
Using an electric mixer on medium-high speed, beat egg whites in a small bowl until soft peaks form.(It took about 6 min)
Working in 2 batches, fold egg whites into batter just until combined. Fold in chocolate.
Heat a waffle iron until very hot; lightly coat with nonstick spray. Working in batches, cook waffles until cooked through. Transfer to a wire rack and keep warm in oven until ready to serve.
Serve waffles with butter, syrup and peanut butter.

Happy National Chocolate Day

Happy National Chocolate Day!

Why didn’t I know about this earlier? I should be ashamed of myself, as chocolate and I have been BFFs for ages. Not to worry, there are plenty of great chocolate recipes out there for me and you. So, get ready to gorge yourselves.

I’ve been revisiting this recipe for months. Don’t you just love Twix bars? There’s even a pumpkin version. What? (Back to the Cutting Board)

These Salted Caramel and Nutella Stuffed Double Chocolate Chip cookies seem to be very popular. There must be a great reason, right?(Top with Cinnamon)

You could always make your favorite cupcake and top it with Salted Sour Cream Ganache. That’s what I’d do.

Can someone make this Devil’s Food Cake for me? It looks scary and decadent…perfect for Halloween. (Design Sponge)

If chocolate and mint is your thing, you can get crazy with these cookies. (Martha Stewart)

All in all, I’ll probably end my day with this Gooey Chocolate Cake…topped with a humongous scoop of coffee ice cream…’cause that’s how I’d like to roll. (Joy the Baker)

Enjoy!

If there’s no chocolate in Heaven, I’m not going.
Jane Seabrook

Easy Vegan Chocolate Cake & a Surpise Party

Listen up, everybody! The rumors are true. I’m throwing a surprise party and everyone’s invited. For whom, you ask? This grande soiree is for Margaret Fox.

I mean…I don’t know her personally, but what the hell? If she’s responsible for one of the easiest recipes I’ve ever made, then she deserves a vat of bourbon and a chocolate cake. One that she doesn’t have to bake herself, of course.

I spotted the recipe for Margaret Fox’s Easy Vegan Chocolate Cake on Food52. Immediately, I knew that it was something I had to make and probably very soon. One of the great things about this recipe is its simplicity. If you’re a baker, you probably have everything you need on hand. There will be no trips to the market because your boyfriend finished the eggs this morn. And don’t worry if your milk has gone south; you won’t need it, this go ’round. You’re good. Sit back and relax. You’ve got this.

You can file this recipe under quick. Well, not as quick as Usain Bolt, but quick nonetheless. Quick as in: your batter has come together, you’ve placed it in the pan and it’s all set to go, but your oven hasn’t preheated yet. What? Yeah, this recipe is no joke. Just think of all the things you can do with that extra time. You could wash all the dirty dishes before you even open your oven door. Now, I’m not telling you to do that, I’m just saying it’s a possibility.

Full disclosure: if you’re looking for a super-chocolatey cake, I’d give this one a pass. However, it’s super moist, pairs well with a straightforward icing and will be ready in 45 minutes-start to finish. I went with a light sprinkling of powdered sugar which made the preparation even quicker. As a result, I had just enough time to wrap Margaret Fox’s gift. I hope she likes Chia Pets.

Easy Vegan Chocolate Cake Recipe

Recipe Slightly adapted from Food52

Easy Vegan Chocolate Cake

Prep time

15 mins

Cook time

30 mins

Total time

45 mins

Author: Margaret Fox

Serves: 6-8

Ingredients

1½ cup all-purpose flour
⅓ cup unsweetened cocoa
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 cup sugar
½ teaspoon salt
5 tablespoons neutral oil (like corn, canola, or vegetable)
1 cup cold water
1½ teaspoon vanilla
1 tablespoon cider or white vinegar
Confectioners' sugar (optional, for dusting)

Instructions

Heat the oven to 350° F.
Mix together the flour, cocoa, baking soda, sugar, and salt. Sift. In a separate bowl, whisk together the water, oil, vanilla, and vinegar.
Whisk together the wet and dry mixtures. If lumpy, whisk until smooth.
Pour into a greased and floured 9-inch round cake pan. (I used an 8-inch which I lined with a greased aluminum foil round)
Tap the edge of the pan against the edge of the counter, or drop from 6 inches to the counter several times to pop air bubbles.
Bake for 25 to 30 minutes, or until the top springs back when pressed gently. (My 8-inch cake needed the full 30 minutes)
Cool before removing from the pan and dusting with confectioners' sugar, or frosting if desired.

Easy Vegan Chocolate Cake Photo Notes

After being away from the studio for a few weeks due to illness, it was good to be back in the saddle. Unfortunately, I share a studio with a couple of fashion photographers and I’m the Felix Unger of our crew. Needless to say, the studio was in rough shape. Models are some of the messiest people on earth, so this ended up being more of a studio decontamination than photo shoot.

Gameplan

This was going to be pretty simple. I wanted to replicate window light with a bit of on-axis fill. The large simulated window would hopefully reduce the specularity created by the shiny surface of the easy vegan chocolate cake.

Lighting

I setup a light panel made up of 400 leelux as my main light 45 degrees behind the cake and used a silver umbrella for on-axis fill. I also added a white bounce card opposite the main light. I dialed in the exposure with my trusty Sekonic L-758dr and everything went according to plan.

Wrap-up

The real challenge wasn’t the lighting but the styling. A round dark cake without frosting isn’t the most photogenic object, so I decided to do something graphic and focus on the shape from above. To finish off the shoot, Mondo cut the cake and we did the traditional commercial shot with a slice on a plate. Overall, it was a pretty easy shoot with a clean studio as the payoff.

Set Shot

Tech Notes

Camera: Nikon D90
Lens: Tamron 17-50mm 2.8
Strobes: White Lightning x1600
Tripod: Manfrotto
ISO: 200
Focal Length: 48mm
Shutter: 125
Aperture: f/11

Salted Sour Cream Ganache & Why Mockingbirds are Great

Mockingbirds are assholes…incredibly talented, naturally gifted, vocally impressive assholes. Yeah, that’s kinda harsh, but it’s totally true. There once was a time when I slept freely: window open, fan blowing, enjoying a peaceful sleep. But all that changed when a flock of mockingbirds came and settled in the tree across the street.

Hold on. Deep breath. Let me start over.

Mockingbirds are great… great at imitating other birds, car alarms, wind chimes, you name it. Great at keeping me up at all hours of the night with their captivating, yet endless serenades. Great at inciting me into a (standing-barefoot-in-the-middle-of-the-street-with-a-hand-full-of-rocks) rage. True story. I’m not a violent person, mind you, but this is no joke. Don’t. Mess. With. My. Slumber.

Ugh, something had to change.

So…after altering my sleep schedule, purchasing a case of earplugs and buying stock in Ambien, I’m a new person. Mockingbirds are awesome now. I totally appreciate them. They’re my new best friends…really.

Now that I’ve been converted to a lover of all-things mockingbird, I’d like to celebrate with cupcakes…jumbo sized cupcakes with salted sour cream ganache. Whew, that’s a mouthful!

I like this recipe because the frosting is easy to make. Frosting is the reason why I don’t make cakes more often. All that whipping, making sure the frosting is the right consistency and then a crumb coat? Are you serious?

For this batch of cupcakes frosting is out and salted sour cream ganache is in. This ganache has two ingredients: dark chocolate and sour cream. It makes for a slightly tart dark chocolate topping which is nicely complimented by a sprinkling of Fleur de Sel. I suppose you could add a third, powdered sugar, so there would be a bit more sweetness to it. Either way it’s perfectly enjoyable. Kinda like the singsong brilliance of the mockingbird…as long as I’m not trying to sleep, that is.

Salted Sour Cream Ganache Photo Notes

by David

I was dead tired during this shoot. In addition to running a commercial studio, I do A LOT of outside retouching. It pays the bills, but fixing the work of awful photographers can be exhausting.

One of the things I love about food photography is the fact that most of the work is done in-camera. If a shooter lights a cookie from the wrong direction, no amount of Photoshop is going to save the day. To correctly light any type of still life, the photographer has to know the nature of the object. Does it have texture? Is it translucent? Is it reflective etc….? These are all factors a photographer has to take into account before snapping a single shot. If you figure out the object, carefully style it, and light accordingly, the work in Post is going to be minimal.

Lighting

So how did I light these objects? I did it all in Photoshop (just kidding). The lighting setup is pretty simple with one large light panel very close to the subjects. This created a nice soft wrap-around light with a fast fall-off. The fill is provided by a white bounce card.

Tech Notes

Camera: Nikon D90
Lens: Tamron 17-90mm 2.8
Strobes: White Lightning x1600
Tripod: Manfrotto
ISO: 200
Shutter: 125
Aperture: f/13

Salted Sour Cream Ganache Recipe

Sour Cream Ganache recipe slightly adapted from Umami Girl
Sour Cream Cupcakes recipe slightly adapted from Anne Burrell

Sour Cream Ganache

Author: Carolyn Cope

Prep time: 2 mins

Cook time: 5 mins

Total time: 7 mins

Serves: 6

Ingredients

10 ounces dark chocolate(I used Ghirardelli’s 60% Cacao)
1 cup sour cream
Pinch of salt

Instructions

Place chocolate in a microwave safe bowl.
Heat chocolate in the microwave in 30 second bursts.
Make sure to stir chocolate after each 30 second burst.
Once the chocolate is completely melted mix in a little bit of the sour cream to temper the chocolate.
Add the rest of the sour cream and stir to combine.
Do not refrigerate before using.
Store in the refrigerator for 1 week.

Recipe slightly adapted from Food Network

Sour Cream Cupcakes

Prep time

20 mins

Cook time

25 mins

Total time

45 mins

Makes 6 jumbo cupcakes

Author: Anne Burrell

Serves: 6

Ingredients

2 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
Pinch salt
1½ sticks unsalted butter at room temperature
1½ cups sugar
3 eggs
1½ teaspoons vanilla extract
½ cup milk
¾ cup sour cream
Special equipment: jumbo cupcake pan

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
Combine the flour, baking powder and salt in a large bowl. Reserve.
In the bowl of a stand mixer combine the butter and sugar. Using the paddle attachment beat the butter and sugar together until they are light and fluffy. Turn the mixer off and scrape down the sides of the bowl.
Beat in the eggs, 1 at a time. Mix vanilla, milk, sour cream and add slowly. Scrape down the sides of the bowl, as needed. With the mixer on medium speed, gradually mix in the flour.
Spray muffin tin Baking Pam or line with paper cups. Fill the muffin cups about ⅔ of the way, dividing the batter evenly.
Put in the preheated oven and bake for 20-25 minutes. Check about halfway through and rotate the muffin tin.
The cupcakes are done when a toothpick comes out clean when inserted into the middle of a cake.
Remove from the oven and let cool completely on a wire rack, frost and sprinkle with salt, if using.