Category Archives: Desserts and baking

Cooking international, Desserts and baking

Warm Flourless Chocolate soufflé

serves 6..

  • Egg yolks- 3 ea
  • Sugar- 30 gm
  • Cocoa powder- 30 gm
  • Cornflour -15 gm
  • Egg whites- 3 ea
  • Sugar -30 gm
  • Chocolate dark- 120 gm
  • Butter- 100 gm

Additional butter to grease ramekins

Additional sugar to dust ramekins with.

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.

  1. Pre-heat oven to 200 C.
  2. Grease ramekins with some melted butter and line with sugar, just enough to coat the bottom and sides of the ramekins.
  3. Separate egg yolks and whites.
  4. Melt chocolate and butter over a double boiler
  5. Whisk egg yolks and sugar till well combined and fluffly.
  6. Sieve cornflour and cocoa powder together
  7. Add cornflour and cocoa mix to chocolate mix.
  8. Whisk egg whites with 30 gm sugar till stiff .
  9. Mix egg yolk mix and chocolate mix.
  10. Fold in egg whites, a little at a time, to ensure we do not lose too much volume.
  11. Fill into the ramekins approximately ¾ th full.
  12. 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.
  13. 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.

Cooking international, Desserts and baking

The orange and poppy seed cake

Orange poppy seed cake

This cake I made at work but m writing a condensed smaller version which can fit domestic ovens and don’t need a huge amount of eggs etc.

  • Butter 60
  • Oil 60 g
  • Sugar 150 g
  • Eggs 2 nos
  • flour 150 g
  • almond powder 50 g
  • Baking powder -7 g
  • orange -1 slice thinly
  • Vanilla essence
  • Orange flower water
  • Poppy seeds- 5 g

heat sugar with 25 ml water and make into syrup and poach orange slices for a little bit and drain. Cool down syrup

preheat oven to 175 C and get your tin lined with baking paper . Arrange orange slices on base.

cream the butter and oil mix with the sugar syrup .

add eggs and essences. Mix flour almond poppy and baking powder.Fold into the mix and pour into tin.

bake at 175 C for 25-30 mins until done . Cool down and invert. Don’t share ..😆😆

Cooking international, Desserts and baking

Sourdough loaf

Baked loafWith 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.
  • Cool down on wire rack .
Cooking international, Desserts and baking

Sour dough -oil poached bread fritters

2 Comments

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 😛

Desserts and baking

The happyness muffin with blueberries

These evolved from a class of students that Moi used to teach at Whitireia Poytechnic , in New Zealand /Aotearoa. Ive eaten muffins all over the world and truly these were so awesome moist, and chock full of berries or you could replace them with something else..

While we are on that topic, there was a muffin place called M#ff^in break( of all the things), which were some of the worst ive ever eaten. i counted 5 berries in one, like they kept one person on slave rates to count the nos of frozen berries to chuck into each little muffin cup.

So this recipe makes 12 medium sized ones or could make smaller mini sized ones about 30 odd..the cooking time for those is about 60% so about 12 -14 minutes, you have to check its not an exact science.

  • Flour sieved 200 g
  • Cornflour sieved with above -40 g
  • baking powder sieved with flour and cornflour together- 10 g

ok stop , before going any further, preheat your oven to 180 C on fan assisted mode and get your muffin tin and cups ready( muffin cups even the disposable ones need t be sprayed or brushed with some oil)

  • Butter 48 g
  • oil 48 g melt together
  • Eggs 2 large sized 6–65 g each
  • Sugar 180 g
  • vanilla essence – enough to take the egg smell off
  • milk -100 ml
  • Blueberries –120 g atleast, so you get a good mouthful in each bite

The way forward is quite easy…Whisk the eggs , sugar and essence together over a bowl of hot water till thick and foamy. you could do this the old fashioned way with a good whisk or use the electric hand blender, dont worry i wont judge you.

then slowwwwly add in the melted butter oil mix , and milk and dont whisk. Use a spatula or spoon ti mix gently so all the aeration isnt lost. Then pour in your flour/cornflour/baking powder blend, the one which had been all sieved togther.( to blend well , remove any bits of paper/ plastic or glass which could go in..and also make the mix lighter).Put on the greased cups/ yes even the disposable baking cups so the batter doesnt stick horribly. Bake at 180C fr 8-20 minutes turning midway once or twice.

Take these out and take a bow, your kids will love you forever( well atleast till the muffins last). I will make a batch with my happy kids tomorrow and post a pic..