This is a cake I baked a few days back an hour before I had to fly out from Sydney to Singapore enroute to Mumbai. Was meant to be a surprise dessert to take to meet my friends from a long time back. They are christened as Gatarganga for the filthy language they use when talking to each other ..Ahh boys who still pretend that they and I are teenagers.
I was very pleased to see that it survived the journey in my backpack all the way to here so I thought to write down the recipe before I get senile or dementia or both.
Butter softened -75 g
Oil( vegetable )-50 g
Sugar brown or white – 125 g
Flour 95 g
Almond powder- 50 g
Baking powder-10 g
eggs large-2
Cream 50 g
Cocoa nibs – 10 g/1 t( these are for the crunch and a hint of bitterness to contrast with the sweetness of the cake.
Sliced almonds -20g/1 T
I made this like a modified version of a pound cake. First things to do is get your oven preheated before you start to175 C. Line one 8 inch cake tin with baking paper atleast at the base( or use a precut silicone cake base)
whisk the eggs with sugar and add a little vanilla extract. Melt the butter and oil and add to the whisked eggs mix. Add in the cream and mix lightly.
Mix together the almond flour and baking powder and fold it into the egg mix. Gently mix in the cocoa nibs.
Pour it into the cake tin and top with sliced/ flaked almonds. Bake for between 20-25 mins or a bit more till done .
We used to make this dark chocolate souffle in my hotel in Dubai and serve it in our Latin American restaurant Pachanga, and 5 years and several menu changes later this was one item which had stood the test f time. Never fails to please or your money back!!
Method.
Pre-heat oven to 200 C.
Grease ramekins with some melted butter and line with sugar, just enough to coat the bottom and sides of the ramekins.
Separate egg yolks and whites.
Melt chocolate and butter over a double boiler
Whisk egg yolks and sugar till well combined and fluffly.
Sieve cornflour and cocoa powder together
Add cornflour and cocoa mix to chocolate mix.
Whisk egg whites with 30 gm sugar till stiff .
Mix egg yolk mix and chocolate mix.
Fold in egg whites, a little at a time, to ensure we do not lose too much volume.
Fill into the ramekins approximately ¾ th full.
Bake at 200 C for 8-10 minutes, for soufflé with a soft centre. For a fully cooked and drier product can be cooked for upto 12 minutes.
Dust with icing sugar and serve with vanilla ice cream.
Note- these soufflés can be kept in the refrigerator and cooked to order and will stay without losing significant volume for upto 1 day.
With sourdough there are hundreds and thousands of recipes that you can find but all you need is practice..
This recipe is in two parts and take two days to finish..roughly as in you start one night and the next evening you can have your bread.
part 1
Water 100 g
Flour 90 gm
Rye flour or whole wheat flour – 10 g
Sour starter- 10 g
Mix and keep overnight
The next morning
take all starter and add to
water 400 g
flour 540 g
whole wheat flour -60 g
salt 12 g
then you autolyse this.( Autolyse is a term used by bakers to make you feel inadequate). It’s just light mixing to let the gluten get hydrated .
keep for 30 mins . And the you stretch and fold.. ..I’ll try and put some vdos to show this but it’s really simple . You pull the dough and fold into three like a trifold .
then rest for 15 mins and repeat and do this 4-5 times.
let the dough rest then for 8-12 hrs in the fridge or a cool area so it slow ferments and develops complex flavours .
Divide into two boules or baguettes.. pre heat the oven to 230 C.shape and slash the bread. I will look to make a vdo and add that on at some stage .
Preheat the tray or stone you are baking on and slide the prepared doughs ( do it on non stick baking paper) Bake for about 30-35 minutes.
Actually we are cheating a bit by saying oil poached . I did that just to make it sound healthy. Well it’s great for your mental health when the little monsters you make it for say yummy can we have some more ….but it’s not really poached more like deep fried ..good bye right artery of the heart .
The dough does have oats inside so supposed to reduce your bad cholesterol.But if you truly want to be healthy then you will be and won’t be trolling the internet for ways for heart health.
The good bit is you can say no..Ahh who are you kidding , when u dip one of these puppies in the chipotle tamarind sauce all resolve melts away..
Without much ado..
Sourdough starter approximately 200 g
Water – 75 ml
Oats – 50 g
Flour to make into a soft dough- 300 g( can use a mix of wholewheat and white)
Salt to taste
Sugar- 5 g/ 1 t
Basil and parsley to flavour or you can add your favorite herbs or even kimchi..
Olive oil- 20 ml
Oil to gently poach…😆😆😆
The method is to simply mix everything and keep it till it’s very bubbly , then shape into small balls and deep fry poach in oil 😛
stories of foods from the world over, laced with a hint of sarcasm and some black humour, its not for everyone, but then never was meant to be..
