Outdated entry BUT still… I will blog about it .. haha
It’s kinda like our tradition that we have a bake-off on Christmas… haha.. I like it.. and we actually look forward to it every year 🙂 This year.. we made Chocolate dipped shortbread. We were at Dave and Jo’s place when they let us sample their neighbour’s cookies.. OMG.. it tasted so good!!! we decided to look for the recipe and try to bake something like that too! We were happy that it turned out very well – tasted like Danish cookies! haha.. and we gave them to our friends who loved them too!
Chocolate dipped Shortbread recipe
(From Food Network)
Ingredients
3/4 pound unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 cup sugar, plus extra for sprinkling
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
3 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
6 to 7 ounces very good semisweet chocolate, finely chopped ( We used Hershey’s special dark chocolate bar)
Method
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, mix together the butter and 1 cup of sugar until they are just combined. Add the vanilla. In a medium bowl, sift together the flour and salt, then add them to the butter-and-sugar mixture. Mix on low speed until the dough starts to come together. Dump onto a surface dusted with flour and shape into a flat disk. Wrap in plastic and chill for 30 minutes.
Roll the dough 1/2-inch thick and cut with a 3 by 1-inch finger-shaped cutter. Place the cookies on an ungreased baking sheet and sprinkle with sugar. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes, until the edges begin to brown. Allow to cool to room temperature.
When the cookies are cool, place them on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Put 3 ounces of the chocolate in a glass bowl and microwave on high power for 30 seconds. (Don’t trust your microwave timer; time it with your watch.) Stir with a wooden spoon. Continue to heat and stir in 30-second increments until the chocolate is just melted. Add the remaining chocolate and allow it to sit at room temperature, stirring often, until it’s completely smooth. Stir vigorously until the chocolate is smooth and slightly cooled; stirring makes it glossier.
Drizzle 1/2 of each cookie with just enough chocolate to coat it.
What’s Christmas w/o cake? haha.. so I attempted to try another new recipe!
For my cake, I used a 6″ round pan and used my big soup pot as the steamer. During steaming, my cake rose and the top of the cake was on the cover of the pot. I was very upset because that would mean that my cake won’t look nice/ might turn out underbaked. I allowed it to steam 10mins more that the desired time – that seem to do the trick. Cake looks very ugly though 🙁 Fortunately, I managed to slice the ugly top off.. and it looks flat and nice!!In future, I will definitely divide the batter into two 6″ pans.
For the fudge, it took forever to thicken so I added more cornflour and up the heat. Bad idea… fudge thickened too fast and became lumpy. sigh… it was not thick enough to be spread onto the cake. BH was like “let’s just pour on it?!! It will look nice la! Fudge mah!” I was just too upset that it’s not perfect – so I was “whatever lor.. anyway, it’s doomed already” and… tadah….
Topped it with walnuts and it looks so pro!!! The taste… was like heavenly!!! Chocolate overload!! 🙂 Because the fudge was lumpy, we shld have pour the fudge over a sieve before putting it on the cake. Anyway, the cake was so good that we couldn’t taste the lumps! 😀
Steamed Chocolate Cake with Fudge Recipe
(from Peng’s Kitchen)
For Cake:
Ingredient
150g unsalted butter
170g fine sugar
200ml evaporated milk
2 eggs, lightly beaten
125g plain flour
70g cocoa powder (I used Trader Joe’s, a local house brand)
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp vanilla essence
Method
1) Combine sugar, evaporated milk, vanilla essence and butter in a saucepan. Stir over low heat until sugar is dissolved and butter has melted. Remove from heat.
2) Add the beaten eggs into the slightly cooled mixture and stir till well mixed. Sift the flour, cocoa powder, baking powder and baking soda into a large mixing bowl. Add the eggs mixture over the flour and stir till smooth. (Batter should be runny).
3) Heat up the steamer. Lined and grease a 7″ baking pan. ( I used 6″ round pan) Pour the batter into prepared pan and place into the steamer. Cover the top of the pan loosely with a piece of aluminum foil.
4) Steam over medium heat for 45 minutes. Check for doneness by inserting a skewer into the cake. If it comes out clean, it’s done. If not, steam for a further 5 minutes.
5) Cool the cake in pan before turning out for frosting.
For chocolate fudge
Ingredients
35g cocoa powder, sifted
50gm corn flour, sifted
1 cup evaporated milk
2 egg yolks
175ml water
120g sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
50g unsalted butter
Method
1) Mix all ingredients well (except the butter. stir over double boiler at low heat till thickened. (takes abt 10mins to thicken)
2) Add butter, turn off fire and stir till the butter melts.
3) Spread the warm fudge over the cake to coat evenly.
4) Chill the cake in the fridge before serving.