Cinnamon Chocolate Squares

It's the first week of November and here in Karachi, we have just felt the stirrings of the winter season. A small drop in temperature - a little bit of wind in the mornings and in the evenings.  The popping up of billboards displaying the many different types of textiles & designs that are oh so important for Karachi winters. My cats preferring to go outside instead of spending the night on the cold tiles. Lastly, the beautiful fresh produce in the markets - pomegranates, apples & oranges and of course the vegetables -fresh tomatoes, carrots, peas & more. 

Winter is also a great time for food - not only does the kitchen stop feeling like a furnace but the cold weather is all about comfort food & hearty meals with the entire family gathered and enjoying food together. Hot soups with garlic bread on the side, Kashmiri Chai being served at weddings, Hand whisked coffee and and shelling peanuts or chilgozay/pine-nuts on the side, Degh ka Haleem & Baazar ki Nihari, they all spell winter & family. 

For me, there's one spice that screams winter and that is cinnamon. I have always loved cinnamon, and I would keep grinding up "daalchinni/cinnamon bark" to make fresh batches of the powder & add it in just about everything. But its in winter desserts where this spice truly shines - apple pie with loads of cinnamon served with fresh vanilla ice-cream; carrot cake specked with walnuts & spice with a rich cream cheese frosting. This time going with the cinnamon theme, I decided to try out a new recipe from one of my favorite books - Cinnamon Squares from Baking: From My Home to Yours, by Dorie Greenspan.

It's a rustic looking tea-cake, with a gorgeous swirl of cinnamon, chocolate & espresso. The chocolate ganache (which I didn't do this time) would just be that extra element to turn into a delicious fit for a party cake! 

 

Cinnamon Squares
from Baking: From My Home to Yours, by Dorie Greenspan

Cake
1 1/4 cups plus 2 tablespoons sugar
1 tablespoon plus 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon*
1 1/2 teaspoons coffee powder
1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
pinch of salt
3/4 cup whole milk
2 large eggs
1/2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
10 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted and cooled
3 ounces bittersweet chocolate, finely chopped, or 1/2 cup mini chocolate chips
Frosting
6 ounces bittersweet chocolate, finely chopped
2 1/2 tablespoons unsalted butter, cut into 4 pieces

*Note: Cinnamon is made by grinding daalchinni/cinnamon bark in a spice grinder till its powdery. Keep it in an air-tight container in a cool place or in the refrigerator to preserve the flavor. Make a fresh batch every 2-3 months for the best flavor. 

Getting Ready: Center a rack in the oven and preheat the oven to 350 F. Butter an 8-inch square baking pan and line the bottom with parchment or wax paper. Place the pan on a baking sheet.

To Make the Cake: Stir 2 tablespoons of the sugar, 2 1/2 teaspoons of the cinnamon and the espresso together in a small bowl.
In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, the remaining 1 1/4 cups sugar, the baking powder, salt and the remaining 1 tablespoon cinnamon. In another bowl, whisk together the milk, eggs and vanilla. Pour the liquid ingredients over the flour mixture and gently whisk until you have a homogenous batter. Now, using the whisk or a rubber spatula, fold in the butter with a light touch, just until the butter is absorbed. You'll have a smooth, shiny batter.
Scrape half of the batter into the pan and smooth the top. Sprinkle the chocolate over the batter and dust with the cinnamon-sugar mixture. Cover with the rest of the batter and smooth the top again.
Bake for 35 to 40 minutes, or until the cake is puffed and beginning to pull away from the sides of the pan; a thin knife inserted into the center will come out clean. Transfer the cake to a cooling rack and let it rest for 15 minutes before unmolding it onto another rack. Peel off the paper, invert it onto the first rack, and cool to room temperature right side up.

To Make the Frosting: Put the chocolate and butter in a heatproof bowl and fit the bowl over a saucepan of simmering water. Cook, stirring gently and often, just until they melt. Be careful not to overheat the mixture so much that it thins out; the chocolate should be smooth, very shiny, thick and spreadable. (If it thins, leave the frosting at room temperature for a bit, until it thickens a little.)
Using an offset metal icing spatula or a table knife, spread the frosting in generous sweeps and swirls over the top of the cake. Allow the frosting to set at room temperature, then cut the cake into 9 squares, each about 2 1/2 inches on a side.


Serving: Serve the cake as is or, if you would like, with whipped cream.
 
Storing: Wrapped in plastic, the cake will keep at room temperature for 2 days. It can be frozen for up to 2 months, but it's best to put the cake in the freezer unwrapped and then, when the frosting is firm, to wrap it airtight; defrost, still wrapped, overnight in the refrigerator. 
 
Playing Around
Cappuccino Squares: If you like the cappuccino flavor combination of coffee and cinnamon, you can easily switch the balance in this recipe by adding a jolt of coffee flavor to the batter. Just mix 1 tablespoon instant espresso into the milk and warm the milk in a microwave oven until it is hot enough to dissolve the coffee. Cool the milk and carry on.

Fudge Brownies - Guest Post

Hello everyone!

So for those who have been following my Facebook updates, they would know that today I am doing a guest post over at Mama, Baby & Diapers - a hilarious blog on the rantings of a MamaBaby aka AmmaJee, who is a self-proclaimed-super-mama-in-progress.

What I will be featuring is my favourite brownies recipe - the brownies are fudgey combined with just the right amount of chocolate flavor and they are ultra-moist. Best part – there is no chopping or melting of chocolate required which makes them so easy to make.

Please go to Mama, Baby & Diapers for the recipe.  

Also, these days, a lot of readers are not getting notifications and were asking me why I hadn't posted - I think it could probably be due to Facebook settings, so please like my page, and add me to your interest lists so that you get notifications.

One Bowl Chocolate Wonder

For me baking has always been very therapeutic from the entire process of selecting a recipe then gathering the ingredients to finally presenting the finished product to friends and family - creating something with basic ingredients and some kitchen gadgetry and then hoping that everyone will go "oh, that's so delicious" - that just makes all the time and effort that's put in seem so worthwhile.


People who have eaten baked stuff made by me are so used to me randomly adding ingredients like a dash of cinnamon or a bit of coffee powder or maybe some zest (depending on whats in season); I know that baking is an art and you are supposed to follow the recipe exactly, but while I will always follow the methodology I have this habit of always changing the recipe just a little bit. I always taste the final batter and adjust if required. It's become so habitual that nowadays when I don't do this random tweaking, I usually get a response that something seems to be missing.

One of my favourite cakes to make, also the most requested is this one bowl chocolate cake; I think I found this recipe in some magazine and it was titled "Magic Cake" and it was a pretty magical cake in terms of how easy it was - first add the dry ingredients then the wet ingredients then beat it for 2 minutes and bake: no creaming, no separating of eggs, no folding in the dry ingredients just dump it all in and your ultra-moist & chocolatey cake is ready to serve.

Later when my horizons for recipe searching increased (specifically in the days of broadband internet), I found out that this recipe is actually by Ina Garten (Barefoot Contessa) known as Beatty's Chocolate Cake and is similar to the Hershey's Chocolate Cake

Beatty's Chocolate Cake
Adapted from Barefoot Contessa at Home

Ingredients

Oil, for greasing the pans
1 3/4 cups flour
2 cups sugar
3/4 cups good cocoa powder, plus more for dusting the pans
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup buttermilk, shaken (1 cup milk + 2.5 tbsp vinegar or lemon juice; leave for 10 minutes till the milk curdles)
1/2 cup vegetable oil
2 eggs, at room temperature 
1 teaspoon vanilla essence
1 cup coffee (1 cup hot water + 1.5 tsp coffee powder)            
For Random Tweaking: I recommend adding a teaspoon of cinnamon powder; or a teaspoon of orange/lemon zest depending on what's in season; increase the flavor of coffee by adding 3 tsp of coffee powder instead of 1.5 tsp

Directions

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Grease one 13-inch by 9-inch rectangular cake pan. Line with parchment paper, then butter and dust the pan using cocoa powder.

Sift the flour, sugar, cocoa, baking soda, baking powder, and salt into a big bowl. Use a fork to mix all the dry ingredients together thoroughly. Make a well in the center of the flour mixture. Add all the wet ingredients. Use a spatula or a spoon to just barely mix the dry and the wet ingredient; the reason I do this is so that when I beat the mixture, it doesn't splatter. Beat for 2 minutes, using a spatula to scrape the bowl. Please note that the batter will not be thick as regular cake batters, but will be a bit liquid.

Pour the batter into the prepared pan and bake for 35 to 40 minutes, until a cake tester comes out clean. Cool in the pan for 30 minutes, then turn it out onto a cooling rack and cool completely.

Frost with your favourite ganache topping or dust with icing sugar and serve.

Note: The texture of this cake is ultra-moist, hence I find it unsuitable for mold pans; similarly, I prefer icing it with a simple ganache or a glaze on it; 

Chocolate Cake with Coffee Filling

I know I have been on a really long hiatus from blogging .. I haven't had time to bake in so long .. all I have done is make a pile of recipes to try which hopefully I plan to try once I am free from this long and busy wedding season ..

This is a cake I made for a close friend of mine on her birthday .. She absolutely loves desserts and I wanted to do something special for her .. Initially I had planned to send her at least three goodies and one cake to work (one brownies, one cookies and one peanut butter) .. the peanut butter idea fell apart due to the realization that I can't make a cake and three goodies on a weekday .. but I did manage to send her brownies and chocolate chip cookies and I made the cake for her birthday lunch with friends

This is not a cake based on a single recipe, just an amalgamation of different recipes with some tweaking .. The only inspiration behind this cake was that I wanted to do something different, by which it had to be a non-chocolate cake.  I decided on coffee as a flavor filld with a pastry cream, topped with a coffee-chocolate ganache and a sprinkling of almonds for some crunch ..
Coffee Cake

4 eggs
Sugar - 200g
Butter - 200g
Flour - 200g
Baking powder - 1 tsp
Instant Coffee - 2 tsp mixed with a bit of water

Pre-heat oven at 170 C.
Beat butter and sugar together. Add eggs one at a time and beat well. Then add flour and baking powder mixture (both need to be sifted together earlier). Beat together. Add the coffee mixture.

Bake for 40 minutes.

For the Pastry Cream
I follow the pastry cream recipe that is there at JoyofBaking (link given below). The amount of pastry cream will be quite a lot since I only used about 1 cup as it was a small cake, however, the leftover amount can be refrigerated and used for other cakes and desserts.
Pastry Cream Recipe - JoyofBaking

For the glaze
4 oz milk chocolate
200 grams cream
1 tbsp coffee

Warm cream, either on stove or in the microwave, then add chopped up chocolate. Mix both together till the chocolate melts, and it makes a smooth mixture. Add the coffee and taste the glaze. In case more chocolate/coffee is needed, then add cocoa powder or coffee powder accordingly.

In order to assemble the cake, first cool the coffee cake, then split it in half. Fill the cake with pastry cream. Then on top, spread the coffee chocolate glaze and sprinkle with almonds.

Chocolate Blackout Cake

This cake is phenomenal. There are 3 layers of dark chocolate cake, filled and topped with the most yummiest chocolate pudding and then finally topped off with cake crumbs.The pudding and the chocolate cake are pretty good on their own, however, combined together they are the best combination possible.

I remember the first time I made this cake and it seemed like the leaning tower of Pisa because I didn't cut the layers properly. However, from then with a bit more practise combined with the realization that patience is absolutely necessary when cutting a cake, I have managed to ensure that my cakes are straight.

I got the recipe for this cake from Cook's Illustrated Holiday Baking.

Chocolate Cake in Under 5 Minutes ..

You know those times when you are craving a piece of chocolate cake and you want it like in the next 5 minutes; well, that's actually doable and within 5 minutes. I had wanted to try making a microwave cake and when I saw this recipe at The Cupcake Project it was the push I needed to make it right away.

It's not the most amazing of chocolate cakes, but considering the time required and the ease of the recipe, its a great way to reduce a craving.
Chocolate Cinnamon Cupcakes

Ingredients:
2 tablespoons flour
2 tablespoons brown sugar
1/2 tablespoon white sugar
4 ½ teaspoons cocoa powder
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon (I love cinnamon but in case you don't like cinnamon that much, please add less)
 4 ½ teaspoons milk
1 tablespoons butter, melted
½ egg, lightly whipped
Icing sugar for sprinkling

Mix flour, brown sugar, cocoa powder, cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice, and ginger in a small bowl.Mix in milk, butter, and egg.Pour the mixture in a ramekin/microwave safe glass bowl/individual silicon cupcake liner.Make sure you do not use any aluminum/metal pan in the microwave. Microwave on medium for one minute.

Microwave again on medium for thirty seconds. Use a skewer to test if the cake is done. If there are no crumbs when the skewer/knife is inserted then the cake is done. Alternatively, the cake should bounce back when touched with a finger. If cake is not done, then microwave for 30 seconds more.

Sprinkle with icing sugar in the end.

Adapted from Chocolate Spice Cupcakes for Two at PaulaDeen.Com