Chocolate deliciousness

Just in time for when I got this annoying sore throat and cough, I made the perfect pick-me-ups for when you have a cold: chocolate pastries. More precisely I made Sarah Bernhardtbakelser, a more luxurious version of the swedish chocolate macaroons (chokladbiskvier). While chokladbiskvier usually are filled with a plain or chocolate buttercream, sarah berhardt pastries are filled with chocolate ganache. It's a rich chocolate truffle on a crispy and chewy almond cookie, coated in even more chocolate (usually not white, that's just my preference).

Not a lot of people make these themselves -- unless they're part of the recent homebaking trend (though those people seem to prefer elaborate cupcakes and french macaroons) -- as they're considered time consuming and hard to make. While they might not be the thing for new or stressed bakers, they're not that difficult to make at all.

My best trick for making these as painlessly as possible is actually to make the almond macaroons (i.e. the bases of the pastries) one day and then finish them another day. At times I've made a relatively big batch of the macaroons and popped them all in the freezer only to thaw and finish a few at the time later.

My second trick is to choose the right recipe for the almond macaroon base. Normally I love Sju sorters kakor and I do follow their recipe for the chocolate ganache, but I never use their almond base recipe. It's too firm. It's much better to double the amount of egg white, making it more runny (like cake batter). That way you'll get a real smooth surface and not too thick cookie that doesn't bake properly. However, if you prefer a thick base then Sju sorters kakor's recipe is for you.

And last but not least: make sure the ganache -- once on the macaroons -- is really cold and set before dipping in the chocolate. And make sure the chocolate isn't too hot as it'll melt the ganache and/or result in a really thin coating.

I made the white chocolate coating way too thick this time, but you can't really have too much chocolate, now can you?

If you've never eaten these -- I promise they taste 10 times better than my crummy pics make it look! Promise!

*

Footnote: Sju sorters kakor is a very popular recipe book that was first printed in 1945 and has since been reprinted and revised many times (in 2005 they printed the 83rd edition). That's almost 70 years that it's allegedly never been out of print. My mum have three different editions of the book, I have one. The title can be translated as "seven types of cookies/cakes" (kaka means both cake and cookie/biscuit, though not cake as in tårta/gateau/torte) -- the number of baked goods you were supposed to serve when having guests. Of the seven on should be a soft cake, e.g. sponge, and one should be a kaffebröd, e.g. cinnamon rolls. The published have printed an edition in english called Swedish cakes and cookies [link to Amazon page with preview].

Where I've been today

I'm not one to take a camera with me when I go somewhere and I don't have a modern mobile phone with a camera, but this time when we went to Helsingborg (where my dad is currently hospitalised, awaiting an operation) I couldn't resist taking a photo or two with my sister's phone camera.

So that's Helsingborg. With Denmark and Helsingör at the horizon. There probably are better views of the city, but this is the one we often see as we walk to the city centre. We took these photos (in the rain) from the parapets at Landborgen by Kärnan. A landborg is a kind of plataeu with a sudden drop, which can -- like in Helsingborg -- offer lovely vantage points.

As mentioned it was raining and my sis only have a tiny memory card in her phone so we didn't take any more pics (if you want more urban photos than my usual rural photo settings, se a post I made this winter: Båstad and Laholmsbukten). I added a filtre to the pic above to make it less chilly and dull -- which made want to do something with the first pics too:

Anyway, I did some shopping and while it was mostly food (read: chocolate and gräddbullar) and craft supplies etc, there was one find I wanted to share. Not today as I'm too tired to get out the camera (getting up at 6 again tomorrow, the harvest isn't over yet), but hopefully soon.

While uploading my photos from the mobile, I found a few other pics I've taken with her camera once when we were in the car together. We saw this fab sunset and as I was sitting on the right side of the car, I borrowed her camera to take a few snapshots. Through a dirty car window. While the car was in motion. These were part of that photo session:

This last phtos is taken between Vantinge and Förslöv. The other two are closer to home.

Not showing them because they're amazingly good or anything. But I kind of like the blur. If nothing else they might be fun photos to use as a base for digital art doodles or digital collages. And the dirty car window adds a certain touch to the pics, don't you think?

Recipe: Nutella chocolate

It's Christmas today and of cause I've had time to cook both traditional and less traditional sweets. This year, I experimented with Nutella -- not something I buy very often, but was inspired by all the American Nutella recipes on Pinterest -- and came up with this, a version of the peanut chocolate recipe. I see it as a tastier version of ischoklad. We used to do ischoklad every christmas when we were kids, but I never really liked it when I got older. 

This recipe has the same soft, melting character as ischoklad, but with more flavour and a less buttery feeling. If you want to avoid transfats and palm oil, you can use homemade Nutella, but not having tried it myself I can't say if the texture will be the same. There are several recipes for it online, just google "homemade nutella" and see which recipe you prefer. One simple recipe for chocolate hazelnut butter can be found here.

This recipe lists the exact ingredients I used, but you can use whatever chocolate you prefer -- certainly no need to use both dark and milk chocolate.  You probably want to avoid sweet chocolate as the Nutella is already packed with sugar. Unless it's for kids who wouldn't mind a mild, sweet chocolate taste.

*

Nutella chocolate

100-125 gram Nutella (or other brand of chocolate hazelnut spread)
125 gram dark chocolate 55-60 %
25 gram milk chocolate 36 %
½-¾ dl roasted and skinned hazelnuts (optional)


1. Chop the chocolate.

2. In a heat-resistant bowl, melt the Nutella and chocolate in a waterbath on the stovetop or in the microwave oven. Stir well to completely mix the ingredients.

3. Pour into mini muffin cups or ischoklad cups.

4. Add a couple of hazelnut to each cup if you want. You can also add the nuts to the chocolate before pouring it in cups if you prefer that (in that case, you might want to chop up the hazelnuts a bit first).

Store cool in an air-tight container.

*

Note: Hazelnuts can be roasted in a skillet on the stovetop or in a pan in the oven. Mine were roasted at 225 °C (437 °F) 5-10 minutes, stirring a few times during the process. Rub the cooled nuts with a towel to remove the skins. Roasted hazelnuts have a fuller taste and you don't get the slightly bitter off-flavour of the skins.

Recipe: 3 x chocolate sauce

[I have no useful photo, sorry. But, hey, it's chocolate

sauce -- you all know what that looks like, right? To 

tempt you, I insert a pic of my chocolate cream instead]

Internet is dangerous: you can sit down to check one thing and then when you look up again it's hours later. One thing leads to the other. While I can spend hours looking at jewellery and beads, one thing that really captures me is recipes. I can suddenly get an idea for something I'd like to bake -- I bake and make desserts rather than cook -- and go off searching for fitting recipes at Google, Matklubben, Pinterest etc. Especially the latter two can make me forget time and space. And sometimes when I don't look for recipes, I'm inspired to share some of my favourites here on the blog. Like I'm doing today.

Hope you enjoy them!

*

I like chocolate. If you didn't already know that (perhaps from looking at the list of recipes on this blog). When I don't have any delicious chocolate ice cream -- like Berte Glass Kladdkaka -- and have to make due with vanilla or pear, I of cause have to add chocolate sauce instead. As a kid, mom would make a nice sauce with cream, cocoa powder, butter and sugar, but nowadays I prefer chocolate-based recipes.

Note: Different countries have different types of cream. By whipping cream I mean what we in Sweden call vispgrädde, a thick cream with 40 % fat. Two of the recipes below are from UK and aussie books, translated into Swedish. What type of cream was used in the original recipes, I don't know. 

*

Creamy chocolate sauce

A lovely, rich sauce! Use your favourite quality chocolate: a recipe is never better than the chocolate used. I prefer making it with Odense 36 % milk chocolate. Next time I make this, I'm thinking about adding some Nötcreme. Or why not try to add a spoonful of peanut butter or Nutella?

180 grammes chocolate (white, milk, dark, flavoured)
15 grammes unsalted butter
6 tablespoons whipping cream
(3 tablespoons golden syrup if using dark chocolate)
2-3 pinches vanilla sugar


1. Break or chop the chocolate in pieces.

2. Put all ingredients but the vanilla sugar in a heat resistant bowl (e.g. steel or glass) and place over a sauce pan with simmering water. Don't let the water boil: the steam can ruin the chocolate if it touches it and the chocolate can react badly to being melted too fast.

3. Stir every now and then until the chocolate melts and the sauce is fully mixed.

4. Add the vanilla and serve -- the sauce should be eaten whilst warm as the sauce will harden when it cools down.

Yields about 3 dl sauce.

*

Snickers sauce

If you love Snickers and milk chocolate, this is the sauce for your ice cream. This one is really heavy and sweet so you only need a small amount for each portion. Even if you just love chocolate sauce, I suggest not doing too much of it the first time. For a less sweet peanut chocolate sauce, see Nigella's recipe for Chocolate Peanut Butter Fudge Sundae -- our new favourite!

4 Snickers bar
2/3 dl milk
1 3/4 dl whipping cream
100 grammes milk chocolate


1. Chop the Snickers bars and chocolate into pieces.

2. On low heat, stir the Snickers in a sauce pan with the milk and cream until the candy bars are melted. Add the chocolate and keep stirring until they too are fully melted.

3. Let the sauce cool slightly and serve lukewarm.

Yields about 5½ dl sauce.

*

Klasse Kock's chocolate fudge sauce

Klasse Kock (kock = chef) was a character in the TV advent calendar one year. He shared recipes suitable for younger cooks and later some of those recipes and many more were published in books. One of them was called Klasse Kocks godisbok. My sis bought that book and this sauce, called Cool Kolasås, became a favourite. You can probably use a few drops of vanilla extract instead of vanilla sugar if the latter isn't available where you live.

1 dl sugar
½ dl golden syrup
1 dl whipping cream
50 grammes butter
1 tablespoon cocoa powder
1 teaspoon vanilla sugar

1. Mix all of the ingredients except the vanilla sugar in a sauce pan.

2. Let it boil gently at medium heat for 10-30 minutes. Stir every now and then.

3. Add the vanilla sugar and stir well.

4. Serve warm or cold. (Don't boil too long if planning on serving the sauce cold: the sauce hardens a lot when it cools down).

Tips: in the original recipe, the sauce should be boiled for 30 min., but my experience is that the sauce will be too hard if boiling that long. Depending on how fast the sauce thickens, you might want to let it boil for just 10-15 minutes. Keep in mind the sauce will harden when cool if you boil for too long.

*

PS! My own "Pinterest collection" of recipes can be found here. Warning: lots of chocolate and peanut butter!

Recipe: Super-simple white chocolate fudge

It's a grey Monday so why not brighten up the day with some chocolate? For more chocolate, check out my other recipes too.

This easy-to-make treat is somewhere between a chewy chocolate truffle and soft fudge. In the original recipe, which I found here, chopped gummi bears are added. I've never used that myself. The first time I made this fudge, I added dried blueberries in half and kept the rest plain. Once I added shredded coconut (as seen in the pic above). Next time I'll probably add lemon flavouring and perhaps also some liquorice. In other words: stick with the plain recipe or just add anything you like. Chocolate morsels, nuts, nougat -- anything.


340 gram white chocolate
1½ dl sweetened condensed milk (≈ ½ jar)
½ pinch salt
¼ teaspoon vanilla sugar



1. Line a 20 x 20 cm pan with baking paper.

2. Chop the chocolate and melt in a glass bowl in a water bath. (The water should simmer, but not boil.)

3. Stir in the condensed milk and salt.

4. Add vanilla sugar and any additional ingredients of your choice. Stir well.

5. Pour into the pan and let cool in the fridge for about 2 hours.

6. Cut the fudge into squares using a knife or scissors.

The fudge will last up to two weeks if stored cold and covered.



Tip #1: I know vanilla sugar isn't common worldwide -- the same way vanilla extract isn't common in Sweden. You can easily make your own [it's pretty much vanilla seeds or vanilla aroma mixed with powdered sugar] or substitute with vanilla extract. You can't always substitute the two, but in this case it should be fine. One teaspoon vanilla sugar equals one pinch of vanilla extract, according to Dr. Oetker.

Tip #2: You can also melt the chocolate in your microwave oven, there is a risk the chocolate will cool before the batter is completely mixed. Don't add all the condensed milk at one time as it will cool the chocolate too fast, but once added work quickly so the chocolate doesn't harden before all the ingredients are added.

Recipe: Simple chocolate cream

It's Friday and why not begin the weekend with a yummy chocolate treat that you can make in just a couple of minutes?

This cream is my version of a Swedish recipe for an American-inspired brownie frosting using sourcream (gräddfil). I prefer to eat it newly made with sliced bananas, but it can be used in many other ways too: as filling in cakes, swiss rolls, cookies/biscuits, as cake frosting, in desserts. And, I guess, on sandwiches if you live in one of those countries where chocolate and chocolate creams considered spreads. Anyway you like it.

I've used milk chocolate (36 %) from Odense, which is one of my favourite. It can be found in the baking aisle rather than the chocolate/candy section in the store and it's not at all as sweet as, say Marabou milk chocolate. This one has a rich chocolate flavour. Of cause, you can use any chocolate you like and can find where you live. Keep in mind, though, that it always pays to use good quality chocolate. It doesn't have to be the most expensive brand, far from it, just avoid the really cheap ones.


Ingredients

200 grams chocolate
1½ - 2 dl mascarpone (2 dl = approx. 250 grams)



Melt the chocolate in a glass bowl in the microwave oven or a water bath. If using a microwave, stir after a minute or so and watch carefully to avoid overheating the chocolate.

When melted, slightly stir the chocolate with a fork to make sure there are no lumps of chocolate left. Then add the mascarpone, a little at the time. Stir and whisk it into the chocolate with the fork until it is fully blended.

At this point, the cream is very soft and fluffy, perfect for a dessert like the one I described above with the bananas. When stored cold -- and it should be stored cold -- the cream will harden somewhat. How much depends on how much mascarpone you use.

I estimate the above recipe is enough to make four servings of a banana and chocolate cream dessert, depending on what you add to it.


PS! If the bowl in the picture looks "messy", it's because I melted the chocolate and mixed the cream in it. If just making a small batch (a quarter or half of the recipe above) for yourself, it means less washing up if making the cream in the same bowl you intend to eat it from. Just don't choose a bowl that's too small or it will be hard to mix the cream.

Recipe: Peanut chocolate

I'm somewhat buzy right now, but I thought I'd share a simple recipe for some chocolate sweets. Inspired by the fact that me and my sis agreed on making Christmas sweets this weekend. No pics of the finished chocolates I'm afraid. We love using white chocolate for this, but all types work well. You can even make two batches using different chocolate and mix them.


Peanut chocolate

100 g peanut butter (we prefer crunchy)
100 g chocolate (milk, dark, light, white -- which ever you prefer)
1 dl roasted and salted peanuts

1. Begin by rinsing the peanuts in water rubbing them with a paper towel to remove some of the salt. You don't want to remove all of it as it balanses the flavour, but it can be too salty if you use the nuts straight from the package. Rubbing will not remove as much salt as rinsing. Make sure you dry the nuts if rinsed.

2. Melt the peanut butter and chocolate in a bowl in you microwave or a water bath on the stove. Stir every now and then so the two ingredients blend.

3. Add the peanuts and stir.

4. Using a couple of spoon, drop the peanut chocolate into small cupcake cups and store cold.

Variation: You could also pour it into a baking pan lined with bakery paper or greaseproof paper and put in the fridge to cool down. When hardened, you can cut the chocolate into squares with a knife. Store in a box with greaseproof paper between each layer. I prefer using cups as the sweets, especially if using white chocolate, are soft and melt easily. With a cup your hands don't get sticky.