Mia (9 year old) requested Chocolate Muffins, with a chocolate centre.
I think she meant Fondant puddings, or as the US people call them Lava Cakes.
There is a problem. Joseph who is 10, has not long come out of an egg allergy.
When I made Fondant puddings, they were a huge success but he felt funny afterwards and I think maybe that middle gooey bit, is maybe just a bit too much uncooked egg-wise.
So I put on my Thinking Cap and Google Finger and finally decided I would make Cup cakes and somehow get Ganache in the middle. No egg problem then.
After quite a bit of research, this is the recipe I came up with.
Rachel Allen’s Chocolate Cake.
I used Orange Infused Chocolate, which really enhanced the flavour.
It made 10 good size not oversized Cup Cakes
I started with a melon baller, removing some of the bottom and stuffing in Ganache.
The replacing the lid. But you had to remove the paper casing
The lovely Nadia who ’does’ for me, thought I should cut off the top and stuff from there.
Good idea.
Here is Rachel Allen’s Recipe from her “Bake” TV series currently screening on Food TV.
Ingredients
For the cake
125 g dark chocolate
3 tbsp milk
150 g butter, at room temperature
150 g caster sugar
3 eggs
200 g plain flour
1 tbsp good quality cocoa powder
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp bicarbonate of soda
Pinch salt
Icing sugar, for dusting (optional)
For the Ganache
300 mls cream
300 mls chocolate
Method
Preheat the oven to 180C.
Prepare muffin tins
I used bigger than normal paper linings which gave a nice size cake.
So I got 10 out of the mixture
For the cake:
Place the chocolate and the milk in a bowl sitting over a saucepan of gently simmering water and heat until the chocolate has melted.
(Make sure the bottom of the bowl doesn’t touch the surface of the water.)
Set aside to cool slightly.
Beat the butter until very soft then
Add the caster sugar and continue to beat until the mixture is pale and fluffy.
Beat in the eggs, one at a time, then
Fold in the melted chocolate.
Sift in the flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, pinch salt and the bicarbonate of soda,
and fold in gently to mix.
Divide the mixture between muffin tins and bake in the oven for 17-20 minutes,
or until a skewer inserted into the middle of each cake comes out clean.
Remove the cakes from the oven and allow to sit for five minutes
before placing them on a wire rack to cool.
For the Chocolate Ganache
Heat the cream till it comes to the boil
Add chocolate, broken into small pieces
Let sit for about 30 seconds
Stir till dissolved and set aside
Once the cakes are cool
Cut a hole in the top
Fill with Ganache and push top back in
Dust with Icing Sugar
Very popular served with just a bit of whipped cream to cut down the richness
Now onto the Faggots or Actually Rissoles
500 gms beef mince
1 small red onion chopped finely
1 tablespoon dried oregano
1 tablespoon rosemary leaves chopped
50 gms breadcrumbs
1 egg
Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
2 tablespoons tomato ketchup
Mix all ingredients well shape into oval shapes and roll in Panko breadcrumbs
Set aside in the fridge till you are ready
I used Olivado’s Rosemary Infused Avocado Oil
for some extra flavour
When brown all over, let sit for about 5 minutes to rest
Serve with Crispy Roast potatoes, Gravy if you can be bothered
And of course Ketchup
For the healthy part of the deal
Beautiful Salad
1/4 cabbage finely sliced
1 yellow pepper finely sliced
1/2 head Broccoli very finely sliced
10 cherry tomatoes. Seeds and juice squeezed out and sliced
1 stalk celery finely sliced
Dressing
I squeezed the tomatoes into a bowl and strained the juice as a base for the dressing
Just for a little extra tomato flavour.
Also let the dressing sit for a couple of hours, just to soften the flavour of the onion
So the strained juice of the tomatoes
1/2 teaspoon sugar
Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
1 teaspoon Dijon Mustard
2 tablespoons white balsamic vinegar
1 shallot or small red onion finely chopped
6 tablespoon good olive oil
I used Diana and Dave's home grown beautiful Olive Oil
Lucky me.
Mix the 1st group of ingredients with a fork till emulsified
Slowly drip in the olive oil
Taste and adjust the seasoning if you need to.
Pour as much dressing as you would like over the vege.
The kids just loved the dinner
For example. How about that for an empty plate?
And to wash it down
Homemade Lemonade Cordial
The lemons have been great this year
So simple, courtesy of my friend Mary
1 cup fresh lemon juice
4 cups sugar
6 cups water
30 g citric acid
Bring lemon juice, sugar and water to the boil.
Stir to dissolve sugar.
Boil one minute.
Off heat add citric acid.
Cool and store in sterilized bottles in fridge.
She also put strips of rind in or even lemon grass.
But I didn't do that for the kids
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