Chocolate Truffle Tart

A while ago in my post I told you about a Monday morning when I woke up as usual, followed my morning routines, and then realized I’m having a free day from work!

While I went back to bed me and S talked about the day that was starting, and he draw me a riddle. I’m not sure how this is called in English, but in Finnish as well as in Portuguese that particular word riddle is called “gallows”. Sounds brutal, yes, but the idea is to give the other person the amount of letters there are in the words, and she has to guess what those words are by asking, one at the time, if the words contain certain letters. If they do, the riddler adds the letter into the words. If they don’t, the riddler draws one piece of a gallows next to the words. The aim is for the player to guess the words before the gallows is ready and she is “hanged”.

You have this game too? I’m curious! At least it was known is Finland as well as in Brazil, even with the same name, so I guess it’s rather universal.

Anyway, my words in the game were _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _   _ _ _ _. And for some reason (maybe I was too tired) I didn’t get it right! The words were of course “chocolate cake”, which S wanted me to bake as for once I had time.

He spent his evening in a Finnish course (which by the way now ended and he did so well in the exam!) and I spent mine baking not a cake but a chocolate tart. I found two recipes, that I put together. The originals can be found here and here.

The Gourmet.com recipe for the filling says it should be chilled in a fridge for hours before serving, but we couldn’t wait and ate (+ photographed) it immediately when it was cooled.

Just a word of warning before I give you the recipe. Bake this tart to share it with a bunch of people. Otherwise you will eat it all by yourself.

Sinful Chocolate Truffle Tart

For the chocolate pastry:

5 dl all-purpose flour

1,5 dl cocoa powder

2 dl minus 2 tablespoons caster sugar

160 g butter, diced

2 eggs

(pinch of salt if you used unsalted butter)

For the chocolate truffle filling:

300g good-quality bitter-sweet chocolate, chopped

100g unsalted butter, diced

2 large eggs, lightly beaten

100 ml heavy cream

0,5 dl caster sugar

pinch of salt

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Prepare the pastry.

Place flour, cocoa, sugar, salt and butter in a bowl of food processor and process until fine as breadcrumbs. Add eggs and process until it holds together. 

Turn onto a lightly floured board and gently knead until smooth. Shape into a thick disc and cover with plastic wrap. Place in fridge for 10 minutes to rest. 

Line a bottom of a springform pan with baking paper. Lightly rub the sides with butter. I suggest you use a springform pan with removable sides because this tart is easier and prettier to serve like that. I used a 22 cm diameter pan.

Roll out pastry on a floured surface into about 5mm thickness. Place it in the pan so that the sides rise about 4cm.

Let it rest in the fridge while you preheat your oven to 175 C°.

Line pastry with baking paper, fill with beans or pie weights and bake for 10 minutes. Take it out, remove beans, and bake again for more 5 minutes or until firm. Set aside and let cool.

Prepare the filling.

Melt chocolate and butter in a bain marie over a saucepan filled 1/3 with water, over medium heat. Constantly stir until smooth, then remove from heat and let cool for 5 minutes.

Whisk together eggs, cream, sugar, salt, and vanilla in a bowl. Whisk chocolate mixture into egg mixture until combined well.

Pour filling into cooled crust and rap pan once on counter to eliminate any air bubbles. Bake until filling 1 inch from edge is set and slightly puffed but center trembles slightly when pan is gently shaken, 20 to 25 minutes. (Center will continue to set as it cools.)

Cool tart completely in the pan, about 2 hours. Chill, uncovered, until center is firm, at least 4 hours. Remove sides of the pan and sprinkle with cocoa to serve.

Snickers Cheesecake Brownies

“You have the fattest recipes of all…and soon also the fattest friends.” That was my friends reaction to the brownies I baked yesterday. They were originally meant for my friend’s baby shower, but (surprisingly…) I was so tired after the week at work that I had to skip the party. So that meant, that all the brownies were for me and S to eat! That sounds like a not-so-good idea, so I decided to give some for my friends to try too.

I love brownies, so for me these were not that ultimate. If you’re afraid of calories, then you should not try these out. I think I have written that sentence in some previous post too, haha. Seems like it’s basically impossible for me to cook/bake super healthy stuff. I will try harder, now when I also have less time to go to the gym (because of my work shifts)!

These brownies were a hit on my birthday party, and they will be a hit on your party too. The basic brownie recipe I took from my previous post (my fav brownies, always work) and doubled the amount. The inspiration for baking I got from Bakers Royale. Just take a look at their incredible photos! My photos aren’t very complementary, as I only now realize it’s not good to shoot brown on brown. Next time better!

Snickers Cheesecake Brownies

For the brownies:

200g butter

250g bittersweet chocolate

1,5dl caster sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla

1/2 teaspoon salt (leave this out if you use salted butter)

2 large eggs

2,5dl all-purpose flour

For the cheesecake layer:

400g cream cheese

2 eggs

1dl confectioners sugar

+ 4 Snickers chocolate bars

Prepare brownies: Chop the chocolate and butter and place them in a metal bowl over boiling water (bain marie). Stir frequently until the mixture has melted. Remove from the heat and mix in sugar, vanilla and salt. Let cool.

Using an electric mixer, mix the eggs one at the time into the chocolate mixture. When incorporated, mix in the flour and beat with a wooden spoon until the dough is shiny and smooth, about one minute.

Preheat the oven to 200 C.

Grease your small(ish) brownie (or other) pan with butter. Pour the batter into the pan and bake for 20 minutes.

While the brownies are in the oven, prepare an ice bath (cold water + ice cubes) in your kitchen sink. After 20 minutes remove brownies from the oven and place the whole pan in the water bath to cool.

Prepare cheesecake layer: Mix all the ingredients together using an electric mixer. Pour the mixture on the cooled brownie and put back to the oven for another 20-25 minutes or until the cheesecake looks cooked and firm.

Let cool and then press the chopped Snickers into the cheesecake layer.

Oreo Cookie Pops

Who can tell when doing pops became trendy? Cause I woke up to this hip thing only a few months ago, when a local magazine was telling that’s the “it” thing of the spring.

And since then I’ve tried to find proper paper sticks from the nearby markets to try different kinds of cake and cookie pops. I still did not, but for the party last weekend I desperately wanted to try out some pops, so I ended up getting me a packet of wooden sticks. Actually they worked perfectly. The only disadvantage, compared to paper sticks, are of course the looks. White paper sticks would for sure give some cuter appearance to already cute cookie pops. 

Talking about cuteness, I did some mistakes in coating my pops, and therefore they ended up being not-so-pretty. So I suggest, if you’re new to this thing like I was, to see some tutorial video before starting to coat the pops. That’s where I’ll be smarter next time too!

If you’re truly into pops I recommend you visit Bakerella, as there you can find instructions to any kind of pops you can dream of. This recipe I used was taken from a Finnish food & wine magazine Glorian Ruoka&Viini. 

Chocolate Sandwich Cookie Pops

350g chocolate sandwich cookies (like Oreos or Dominos in Finland)

100-150g cream cheese

2 tablespoons powdered sugar

225g semisweet chocolate

sprinkles, to decorate

paper (or wooden) sticks

Separate cookies from the cream filling. Mix together the filling, cream cheese and powdered sugar. Set aside.

Place the cookies in a plastic bag and crush them with a rolling pin until very small crumbs. If you have a blender or equivalent, that might do the job easier. 

Mix the cookie crumbs with the cream cheese mixture. If the mixture seems too crumbly add more cream cheese. You should be able to shape the mixture into firm balls quite easily.

Between your palms, roll the mixture into balls. Place them on a plate with parchment paper, cover with plastic film and refrigerate for at least two hours.

Prepare the frosting. Melt a small amount of your semisweet chocolate in bain marie. Dip the lollipop sticks one by one into the melted chocolate (about 1cm) and then stick them at least half-away into the cookie balls. Refrigerate for about 30 minutes or until the chocolate has set and the stick won’t fall off.

Continue with covering once the chocolate is firm. Melt the rest of the chocolate in bain marie. Dip cookie pops into chocolate, so that they are completely submerged (make sure to cover the chocolate around the lollipop stick!). It’s really important that the entire cake ball is covered with chocolate. Remove from the chocolate.

Once removed from the chocolate, excess coating will start dripping off of the pop. Hold the cake pop in one hand, and gently tap your hand to help remove excess coating, turning the pop as you go.

Place to dry either standing in a jar (so that the pops won’t touch each other) or inverted in small candy cases. 

When the chocolate has set slightly, decorate with sprinkles. You might want to wait a little bit after covering the balls, as the weight of the sprinkles can misplace the chocolate if you decorate them too quickly. 

Let to dry completely before enjoying.

Layered Fudge Brownie, Chocolate & Peanut Butter Mousse Cake

In my post of zucchini & tomato galettes I gave a hint that I was preparing myself a birthday cake which, when successful, would be THE cake of the decade. Well now the birthday party is over, and I can proudly tell you, that it was THE SH*T. It must have been the best cake I have ever stuck my spoon into. It got so many compliments from my guests that I didn’t have time to count.

In a nutshell: it was perfect.

Now, I am so sorry to provide to you these photos that really don’t do justice to the cake. The thing is, that the moment I finally got to put the cake on the table, cut it and photo shoot it, the sun was just setting, which can be seen in the pictures. After the first piece was cut, people attacked the cake so that just minutes after there was nothing left. I succeeded in saving one big piece in my fridge - which some hours later I saw a girl eating. So, I succeeded in saving a small piece in my fridge after that… Which, on the next day, I did my best in photographing. The quality of the pics is a pity mostly, because I really wished I could show you how amazing it was. Just for you to see, that you HAVE to give it a try too! But now you just have to take my word: do yourself a favor and prepare this cake.

A couple of words about the inspiration and the process of doing the cake. First of all, the cake is a combination of several recipes I found. The recipe for the fudgy brownie base was taken from Sugar Duchess.  It was by far the best cake base I have ever come across. The execution of it had some set-back though, as it’s baked in a water bath in the oven, and my cake pan leaked water in. So my brownie base was basically wet and broke in pieces when I took it out of the pan. So you might wanna line your pan very properly with aluminium foil before baking.

Cracking of the brownie wasn’t too harmful, as the toppings saved the situation perfectly. I especially loved the chocolate mousse recipe found from Delicious Magazine, as it didn’t require gelatin. For some reason I’m not a big fan of gelatin, and every time I can avoid using it, I will. This mousse got perfectly firm after staying overnight in the fridge. A great choice was also the other topping, peanut butter mousse, for which I took the recipe from here. I made only half a portion of the original amounts, and that was more than enough for my 22cm diameter cake. Lastly, I decorated the cake with simple chocolate ganache and pieces of Snickers bar. In the end, the cake could actually be called a gigantic Snickers, as that’s how it tasted like.

Hope you enjoy, and please, tell me what you think after trying this!

Killer Fudge Brownie, Chocolate & Peanut Butter Mousse Cake

For the brownie base:

300g high-quality semisweet chocolate

4 large eggs, yolks and whites separated, room temperature

0,5dl + 2 tablespoons sugar

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

120g butter, room temperature

For the chocolate mousse:

150ml double cream

225g semisweet chocolate

4 large eggs, yolks and whites separated

For the peanut butter mousse:

300g creamy peanut butter

250g cream cheese, room temperature

2,5dl powdered sugar

1 tablespoon vanilla extract (I left this out)

250ml double cream, chilled cold

Prepare the brownie base. Preheat oven to 200 C. Place a rack in the middle of the oven and below it a deep baking sheet almost filled with water. Prepare a 22cm-24cm diameter spring form pan by lining the bottom with parchment paper and greasing the sides lightly with butter.

Chop the chocolate into small chunks and melt in a metal bowl on top of simmering water (bain marie). Set aside to wait.

Place the room-temperature egg whites in a large, grease-free mixing bowl with about a third of the sugar. Using an electric mixer, start beating on slow speed, gradually increasing the speed. Beat until the whites begin to look fluffy. Add the remaining sugar, salt, and vanilla, and continue to beat until the meringue is shiny.

Next, using a whisk, stir the soft butter into the melted chocolate until completely incorporated. Then whisk in the egg yolks (I used electric mixer). Using a wire whisk, fold half of the meringue into the chocolate mixture. Fold in the remaining meringue with a rubber spatula, being sure to mix in the heavier batter at the bottom of the bowl.

Pour the batter into the prepared pan. Place the cake in the oven. Bake for 26-28 minutes (for me it took 45 minutes to bake, so keep checking how it will be with your oven). The top will be shiny, and a cake tester inserted into the center will come out clean.

Remove the cake from the oven and let it cool to room temperature. Refrigerate the cake for 1 hour, then run a knife around the edge of the pan and invert the cake onto a serving plate. Remove the bottom of the pan and the parchment paper circle, and replace the ring from the spring form around the cake; it will be the mold for the two mousses.

Make the chocolate mousse. Whip the cream and set aside. Melt the chocolate over a pan of gently simmering water. Remove from the heat once melted, beat in the egg yolks, then fold in the cream. Whisk the egg whites in a bowl to soft peaks, then fold into the chocolate mixture. Spoon evenly over the brownie base and refrigerate overnight.

The next day, well before serving time, prepare the peanut butter mousse. Using electric mixer, beat peanut butter and cream cheese in large bowl to blend. Add powdered sugar and vanilla extract and beat until well blended.

Using clean dry beaters, beat whipping cream in medium bowl until stiff peaks form; fold into peanut butter mixture in two additions. Spoon filling on top of the chocolate mousse and spread evenly. Refrigerate for at least 4 hours.

For decoration:

100g semisweet chocolate

100ml double cream

+ one Snickers bar

Bring double cream to a simmer in a medium heat. When lightly simmering, add chopped chocolate. Once the chocolate starts to melt, remove from the heat and stir until fully incorporated. 

Garnish the cake with slightly cooled ganache and chopped Snickers.

Cookie Dough Truffles

Let me warn you right at start. What follows will by no means be good for your figure. It will consist only of sugar and fat. But if you, like me, rather work your a** out at the gym than care about the calories, continue reading.

Last week I prepared totally, decadently, delicious cheesecake and cookie dough brownies.  The cookie dough recipe was for a much bigger portion than I needed for the brownies (really a proper portion to bake cookies), so after making the brownies I still had a generous reserve of cookie dough in my fridge. 

So, after doing some googling I bumped into different kinds of candies made of cookie dough. Because I didn’t have much time and it had to be something simple, I ended up preparing these cookie dough truffles. And I’m glad I did. For a person who loves sweets these are an ultimatum. Although not as good as truffles made of just chocolate.

The cookie dough recipe itself is the same as I posted in the brownie post. Just to refresh your memory.

Sinfully Unhealthy Cookie Dough Truffles

For the cookie dough:

100g butter, melted

250ml brown sugar (I used muscovado which gave a slightly coffee-like flavor to the dough)

100ml caster sugar

4 tablespoons milk

500ml all-purpose flour

1 tablespoon vanilla extract (I left this out)

pinch of salt

For coating:

200g dark semi-sweet chocolate

(50g white chocolate)

Prepare the cookie dough. Mix all the ingredients together into a smooth dough (add the flour last). Add in chocolate chips, cacao nibs etc. if you like. Refrigerate for 1 hour.

When the proper time has passed, take the cookie dough from the fridge and shape into 2cm balls. It’s best to first warm the cookie dough pieces a little between your hands, that makes the shaping easier. 

Once all the cookie dough is used, put the balls into a freezer for 20 minutes.

Prepare the coating only when you are ready to do your truffles. Melt the chocolate in bain marie (in a bowl on top of a boiling water) stirring occasionally. Take off the heat once completely melted.

Using a dipping tool (or any other tool you find proper) dip and roll each cookie dough ball in melted chocolate until completely covered. I just used my hands for the dipping - not the neatest way to do it but worked perfectly for me. 

Place the ready balls on a plate that’s covered with lightly greased parchment paper (this will prevent them from sticking). Refrigerate for at least 30 minutes or until the chocolate has completely set.

If you want to decorate your truffles after that, melt small amount (about 50g) of white chocolate in bain marie and using a spoon make stripes or whatever shapes your creative mind asks you to do in the truffles. I would have used rainbow colored sprinkles if I had them!

Opening a new blog with a chocolate soufflé

Welcome to enter my brand new food blog! I have been maturing the idea of a blog for a longer time now, and finally, here it is.

I get inspired by food, very much so. I like to stimulate my senses with it. Another thing that strongly inspires me is cinema as a form of art. Especially important for me are the films of French new wave, directors like Jean-Luc Godard, Francois Truffaut, Éric Rohmer, Jaques Rivette and Alain Resnais. My ultimate girl crush is of course Anna Karina, who’s known as a muse of Godard, as well as the star of several Nouvelle Vague films. As maybe obvious when considering my love for French new wave, the inspiration for the title of this blog is taken from Nouvelle Vague too. One of my absolute favorites in this film genre is Jean-Luc Godard’s À Bout de Souffle (Breathless by its English title), starred by Jean-Paul Belmondo and Jean Seberg.

Photo: fact.co.uk

Photo: fact.co.uk

Photo: fact.co.uk

Besides being a place for myself to save the recipes that I have successfully (or not always so successfully) tried along the time, the purpose of this blog is to inspire and get inspired by other food (or film) lovers. After all, food is not only a source of nutrition, but a source of life in many other ways too. It’s nutrition for senses, for soul, for social interaction and gatherings. It’s succeeding, sometimes failing and learning. It’s something for relaxation, for your own time, or something for enjoying together. So feel free to comment, ask and share your ideas with me!

The only possible way to kick off this blog is with a recipe of soufflé, a lightweight French cake based on egg whites beaten to glossy meringue, typically baked in small size ramekins for a beautiful look. It’s a delicate form of art, this making of a soufflé and everyone who once tried it, knows how easily they fall flat. I succeeded pretty well this time, although my soufflés ended up being much smaller than in the original recipe.

The recipe was adapted from Martha Stewart. I added my own chocolaty twist with a ganache, the simple recipe of it can be found below.

Fluffy Chocolate Soufflés (6 small ones)

150g bittersweet chocolate (I prefer the ones containing at least 70 % of cocoa)

6 tablespoons sugar + some extra for baking dishes

250ml milk

5 large egg whites

3 large egg yolks

3 tablespoons all-purpose flour

Unsalted butter, for baking dishes

Confectioners’ sugar, for dusting

Preheat oven to 200 C. Butter your chosen baking dishes (this recipe is enough for approximately 6 of 150ml dishes, I made mine in small coffee cups) and coat with sugar.

Chop chocolate and melt it in a plastic/glass bowl in a microwave or placing the bowl over a pot of boiling water. Stir occasionally until smooth. Set aside and keep warm.

Heat up the milk in a saucepan but don’t let it boil. In a large bowl, using an electric mixer combine yolks and 4 tablespoons of sugar until light and fluffy. Mix in flour until well combined. Still mixing, slowly add half of the hot milk.

Add mixture to the saucepan with remaining milk. Bring to boil stirring constantly. Simmer for 2-3 minutes more, then add the melted chocolate. Transfer into a large bowl, cover with plastic wrap and keep warm.

In a bowl, beat egg whites using an electric mixer until the mixture forms soft peaks (approx. 5 minutes). In the original recipe it says to add a pinch of cream of tartar in this phase, but as I am unfamiliar with this product, I omitted it. Gradually add 2 remaining tablespoons of sugar and mix until stiff and shiny.

Gently spoon 1/4 of the egg whites into the chocolate mixture and stir until smooth. Add the rest of the whites and mix carefully. Spoon the batter into the baking dishes and bake for 12-15 minutes until the soufflés have risen slightly and become crusty. Don’t open the oven while baking.

Dust the soufflés with confectioners’ sugar and serve immediately with warm chocolate ganache.

Easy Chocolate Ganache

100ml heavy cream

100g semi-sweet chocolate

Chop chocolate in a small saucepan, pour in the cream and heat up until silky and smooth.