Chocolate cookies mini cakes

Very easy to make, delicious chocolate cookies mini cakes. I takes a while to set them but they wort to wait. Especially that cookies are more tender after a while. 

Ingredients for 6 big muffins:

• 225g dark chocolate (I used rum and raisin one)
• tin of condensed milk about 397 g
• 110g butter
•  about 300g cookies

Prepare big muffin tin, the best one in this case is silicone one.

Brake the chocolate and place it in a pot. Add condensed milk and butter.  Heat it up stirring all the time until chocolate melts. When the mixture is smooth set it aside. Add broken into small pieces cookies and mix them well. 

Divide the mixture among all muffin tin holes. 

Place in the fridge to set for a few hours preferably overnight.

When ready, cut around with hot knife. Remove from tin and place on the plate. I have decorated mine in Easter motives. 

  Enjoy !

Recipe in Polish

Chocolate muffins with nuts, fruits ...

Interesting recipe. Chocolate cupcakes which can be topped up with anything you like. I have already made them with apricots. This time I sprinkled them with granola, almond flakes and cranberries. They are delicious. 

Ingredients for 12 -14 muffins:

• 200g flour
• 3 tsp baking powder
• 2 tbsp cocoa powder
• 100g chocolate
• 3 eggs
• 100g sugar
• 1 mug of buttermilk
• 125 ml oil
• granola, almond flakes, cranberries and whatever else you would like to put on top 

Preheat the oven to 180C. Line muffin tin with paper cases.

Grate the chocolate and put into a bowl. Add flout, baking powder, cocoa and stir well. 

In separate bowl whisk eggs with sugar until pale and creamy. Add buttermilk and oil and stir well. 

Pour the wet ingredients into a bowl with dry ones. Mix them all until just combined. Spoon the batter into paper cases. Sprinkle with granola, nuts and cranberries. Bake in preheated oven 20 - 25 minutes.

Enjoy !

Recipe in Polish 

Malted chocolate cupcakes

Lovely, chocolaty with a hint of malt cupcakes. Truly recommend them.The recipe comes from "Cake days. Recipes to make everyday special. The hummingbird bakery".

Ingredients for 12 - 16 cupcakes:

• 150ml oil
• 75 ml milk
• 75 ml buttermilk
• 1 egg
• 1 and 1/2 tsp vanilla essence
• 240g flour
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 330g caster sugar
• 150 ml boiling water

Preheat the oven to 190C. Line muffin tin with paper cases. 

Pour the oil, milk, buttermilk, egg and vanilla into an electric mixer bowl and mix until just combine.

In separate bowl mix the flour, baking powder, salt and sugar. Sift about 1/3 of this mixture into a wet ingredients and whisk them. Then add 1/3 of boiling water and mix again. repeat until use all ingredients.

Spoon the batter into paper cases. Bake in preheated oven for 20 -25 minutes. When ready set aside to cool down. Prepare the frosting.

Frosting:

• 200g dark chocolate
• 240 ml double cream
• 115g malted - milk powder
• 50g soft cheese like Philadelphia
• 35g caste sugar
• Malteasers to decorate

 

 Melt the chocolate ether over the boiling water pot or in microwave. Set aside.

Pour the double cream into an electric mixer bowl add the malted - milk powder and whisk until stiffens. In separate bowl whisk the cream cheese and sugar until well combined. Add melted chocolate and mix. Then add whipped cream into chocolate mixture. Frosting is very rich and creamy. Spread the frosting over each cupcake and decorate with Malteasers.

Enjoy !

Recipe in Polish

Date and pecan tartlets filled with chocolate cream, gluten - free

Easy to make, gluten free, perfect dessert for hot summer days. There is no need to bake. Mixed dates and pecans are very sticky and it's easy to make tartlets of this mixture. Although a few minutes of chilling is recommended. To make delicious, rich, chocolate cream melted chocolate and Mascarpone cream is enough. We loved them.

 Ingredients for 4 tartlets:

• 200g dates
• 70g pecans

 Put the dates and pecans into blender and mix them until finely blended. The mixture should resemble bread crumbs but when pressed small bits should stick to each other. 

Divide the mixture among four tartlets' tins. Press the bits with your fingers or back of the spoon  to the bottom and sides of the tins. Insert to the fridge to chill for a few minutes.

In a meantime prepare the filling.

Ingredients for chocolate cream:

• about 120g dark chocolate
• about 150g Mascarpone cream
• 4 pecan halves for decoration
• chopped pecans for decoration

 Melt the chocolate in a microwave or in a bowl placed over a pot with simmering water. Set the melted chocolate aside for a few minutes to cool down. Then add Mascarpone cheese. Using and electric mixer whisk until smooth. 

Remove the tartlets from the fridge. Divide the cream among all of them. Smooth the cream on the top. Place one pecan halve in the middle of each tartlets and sprinkle the edges with chopped pecans.

Put them back to the fridge and chill them for a few minutes.

Then gently remove from the tins and enjoy ! 

Recipe in Polish

Chocolate and Amaretto mini cheesecakes (no bake)

Today I would like to present this divine chocolate cheesecakes. They are made of amaretti cookies, cream cheese, mascarpone and chocolate with a hint of Amaretto. I made them in a circular shape in silicone XL size muffin tin but still it was tricky to take them out.  I would recommend to use paper cases or make this cheesecake in a big spring form tin. Anyway I finally have mine out, decorated them in Easter style and enjoyed them a lot.

My inspiration comes form here.

Ingredients for bottom layer:

• 200g amaretii cookies
• 50 - 70g* melted butter
• 100g lady fingers biscuits

* I was concerned about amount of fat in this recipe. I didn't want to add a lot of butter to the bottom layer. I have added only 50g of butter but then realised that bottom layer was too crumbly. I would recommend to add more butter so the crumbs mixed with butter would be more moist. 

Melt the butter. Place the biscuits in the blender and blend them until resemble sand. Stir in the butter, press with your finger to check if crumbs stick together.

Divide the mixture among muffin tin cups. Press to the bottom with back of the spoon.

Set aside to the fridge to chill. Prepare the cheesecake layer.

Ingredients for cheesecake layer:

• 250g Mascarpone cheese
• 100g Philadelphia cream cheese
• 200g dark chocolate
• 25 ml Amaretto

Place the Mascaropne and Philadelphia cheeses in a blender, add the Amaretto and whisk until smooth. 

Melt down the chocolate either over the pot with simmering water or in microwave. Pour the melted chocolate into the blender. Whisk again until smooth and evenly chocolaty.

Spoon the cheesecake layer on top of the crumb layer. Put the tin into a fridge and chill for at lest 2 hours. Mine were in the fridge overnight. After that time remove form the tin and decorate with some almond sticks and chocolate eggs. 

 

  Enjoy !

Recipe in Polish

Chocolate Rum babas for Valentine's Day

Around this time of year my heart shaped muffin tin is widely used. This time I have baked heart shaped babas which are perfect for Valentine's Day. Rich in chocolate, yeast cake soaked in honey and rum syrup sounds like perfect romantic dinner dessert. They also not very much difficult to make. It is only the time you need to let the dough rise. 

The recipe comes form Jacqueline Bellefontaine "What's cooking. Chocolate" cookbook.    

    Ingredients for 6 babas:

• 100g flour
• 25g cocoa powder
• 6g yeast
• salt
• 15g sugar
• 40g dark chocolate grated
• 2 eggs
• 3 tbsp milk
• 50g melted butter

Into an electric mixer bowl put the flour, cocoa, yeast (check the packed they may need to be dissolved first if so add them to wet ingredients), salt, sugar and dark chocolate. Mix them until combined.

In separate bowl whisk the eggs with milk. Pour in warm, melted butter. If your yeast need to be dissolved add them now to the wet ingredients and stir well.

Pour the mixture into a bowl with dry ingredients. Mix with a dough hook for about 10 minutes.

Slightly brush the muffin tin holes with oil. Divide the dough among all muffin tin holes filling them half way. 

Set aside in a warm place, covered with kitchen cloth to let them prove. When the dough rises almost to the top of the tin preheat the oven to 200C. Bake the babas for 15 - 20 minutes. Remove form the oven and leave for a few minutes to cool them down.

 While the babas are being baked prepare the syrup. 

Rum and honey syrup:

• 4 tbsp honey
• 2 tbsp water
• 4 tbsp rum

Pour all ingredients into a sauce pan and heat them up until turn into a smooth, slightly thick mixture.

When babas are cooled down turn the muffin tin upside down and press the babas out. Drizzle the syrup over the babas and leave them to soak for about 2 hours. You may serve them with whipped cream.

Honestly we couldn't resist and we ate them before that time. They were delicious. Children loved them too but they ate the ones I haven't drizzled with rum. 

Enjoy !

Recipe in Polish

Gingerbread rolls with plum jam

This is lovely combination of flavours. Spicy, chewy dough filled with sweet and sour plum jam sprinkled with cinnamon sugar. Yes, they were chewy and dense not as regular yeast dough would be. The sugar gave them a nice crunch. We all enjoy them, even children. For those who willing to try recipe below.

Ingredients for 12 rolls:

• 250g bread flour (or plain one)
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 70g sugar
• 130ml warm milk
• 1 tsp dry yeast
• 20g melted butter
• 1/2 tsp cinnamon
• 1 tsp allspice
• 30g dark chocolate chips
• jar of plum jam
• cinnamon sugar to sprinkle (2tbsp sugar + 1 tsp cinnamon)

Put the flour, yeast, sugar, cinnamon and allspice in an electric mixer bowl. Stir all ingredients together. 

Melt the butter. Warm up the milk. Pour warm milk into the dry ingredients mixture and start mixing with dough hook. Pour in the melted butter. Knead the dough for a while then add salt. Knead a few more minutes and add the chocolate chips. Continue kneading for 5 minutes. 

Then transfer the dough the bowl cover with cling film and leave it to rise in warm place for 1 hour.

Then with a rolling pin roll the dough into relatively thin rectangular. Spread with plum jam and roll along the longer side. Then with a sharp knife cut into 12 slices.  Place each slice in a muffin tin (you can slightly grease the tin before). 

Set aside in a warm place. Cover with kitchen towel and let the rolls prove.

Preheat the oven to 200C. Mix the sugar and cinnamon. 

Sprinkle the rolls with cinnamon sugar and insert into hot oven. Bake for 30  minutes. When ready remove form the oven, set aside to cool down and enjoy !

For recipe in Polish look there.

Chocolate swirl buns

Soft, fluffy yeast dough filled with chocolate and cinnamon - this is the perfect autumn snack. I know that yeast dough needs patience from the person who prepares it. But it is worth it. And those particular buns can be prepared day earlier, stored in the fridge and baked in the morning. Imagine having them for Saturday breakfast .... The recipe comes from this website.

Ingredients for 12 buns:

dough:

• 120 ml milk
• 50g sugar
• 1 and 1/2 tsp dry yeast
• 1 room temperature egg
• 250g flour
• 45g soft butter
• 1/2 tsp salt

Pour the milk into a sauce pan add pinch of sugar and heat the milk up to the body temperature. The best way to check if the temperature is right is to put finger into a warm milk. If you don't feel the milk is too hot is perfect. Add the dry yeast and set aside. Let stand until foamy.

In a meantime put the sugar into a bowl add the egg and whisk with fork until creamy. Whisking continuously pour in slowly the milk mixture. 

Sift the flour and salt into an electric mixer bowl. With the dough hook  mix the flour and slowly pour in the milk mixture. Mix until all ingredients combine. Then add the butter and let it knead until butter is absorbed by the dough. Knead the dough for about 10 minutes. Transfer the dough to the greased bowl cover with a linen cloth and set aside to rise. 

Prepare the filling.

filing:

•  45g butter
• 50g sugar
• 200g chocolate
• 3/4 tsp cinnamon

Break the chocolate into smaller pieces and place them in a blender. Add the butter, sugar and cinnamon and blend until resemblance fine crumbs.

Set aside.

Prepare the muffin tin. Grease slightly each muffin nest.

When the dough is double in size transfer it on dusted with flour kitchen worktop. Punch and leave to rest for about 5 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 180C.

With a rolling pin roll the dough into a rectangle. Sprinkle with chocolate filling and roll along the longer side. With a sharp knife cut into 12 slices. Place each slice into prepared earlier muffin tin. Cover with linen cloth and set aside to prove for about half an hour.
If you planing to eat the buns for breakfast keep the muffin tin in a fridge overnight.

After half an hour brush the buns with mixture of whisked egg and milk. One egg and 2 tablespoons of milk. 

Insert into preheated oven. Bake for 15 - 20 minutes until well risen and golden.

Enjoy them warm or cooled down :)

Choc crunchies cupcakes

Very chocolaty, crunchy ... just delicious. And they are very easy to make. The recipe comes form 'Let's cook. 52 cakes, bakes and chocolate' BBC GoodFood. 

Ingredients for 8 cupcakes:

• 200g digestive biscuits
• 100g butter + extra for greasing
• 3 tbsp honey
• 2 tbsp cocoa powder
• 50g raisins (I used dates)
• 200g dark chocolate

Prepare the muffin tin. Grease 8 nest with thin layer of butter. Set aside. 

Place the digestive biscuits into a plastic bag. Seal the bag and bash into uneven crumbs with a rolling pin. 

Melt the butter and honey in a pan. Stir in the cocoa and raisins/chopped dates. Add the biscuit crumbs and stir them in. Spoon this mixture into prepared earlier muffin tin pressing the crumbs with a back of the spoon. 

Melt the chocolate. You can place the chocolate chunks in a bowl and melt the chocolate simply placing the bowl into a microwave. Or you can place chocolate chunks in a heatproof bowl over a pan of simmering water. When melted spread the chocolate over each biscuit base. You may decorate them with small chocolate pieces, I used white chocolate hearts.

Insert the muffin tin into a fridge and chill the cupcakes for at least half an hour.

When chilled remove form the fridge. Leave on the kitchen counter for half and hour. Then turn the muffin tin upside down and bang on the kitchen board. This should release each cupcake without any harm. Place the cupcakes on a plate and enjoy !   

Chocolate muffins with apricots

Those muffins look very pretty: dark cake, orange fruit and white icing. Lovely combination of colours I hope you will share my opinion. This is my favorite type of cake, light and fluffy, not too sweet and, thanks to fruits content, little bit sour. The recipe a little bit change by me comes from this website.  I tried to make them healthier so plain flour was replaced by wholemeal one. 

Ingredients for 16 muffins:

• 200g wholemeal flour
• 3 tsp baking powder
• 2 tbsp cocoa powder
• 100g grated dark chocolate
• 3 eggs
• 100g sugar
• 1 cup of buttermilk
• 125 ml canola oil
• 8 fresh apricots
• almond flakes

Preheat the oven to 180C. Line muffin tin with paper cases.

Grate the chocolate on finely shreds and place them in the bowl. Add the flour, baking powder, cocoa and mix them well. Set aside.

Break the eggs into separate jug add the sugar and whisk until pale and creamy. Add the buttermilk and oil and mix well. Pour this mixture into the dry ingredients bowl. Combine until all ingredients are just moist.

Spoon the batter into muffin cases, half full.

before baking

On top of each muffin place half of apricot, sprinkle with almond flakes. 

 

Bake in  preheated oven 25 - 30 minutes. Until skewer inserted in the middle comes out clean.

When ready remove from the oven and set aside to cool down.

In a meantime prepare the icing.

Incing:

• 1/4 cup icing sugar
• 1 tbsp milk

Place all ingredients in small bowl and combine with a spoon or fork until smooth and thick.

Spread the icing on top of each muffin.

 

Enjoy !

Frosted chocolate cupcakes

Chocolate cupcakes with chocolate frosting sounds delicious doesn't ? Rich chocolate cake with velvety chocolate cream mmhmm..... I was especially happy with this frosting as it turn out to be soft and creamy but at the same time kept the shape. Not to forget to mention that the frosting didn't turn dry on outside on the next day. The recipe comes form 'Easy cupcakes'.

Ingredients for 9 - 12 cupcakes:

• 115g soft butter
• 115g caster sugar
• 2 eggs
• 115g self- rising flour
• 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1 and 1/2 tbsp cocoa powder
• 55g chocolate

Preheat the oven to 180C. Line muffin tin with paper cases.

Break the chocolate into small pieces and melt it down placing the bowl in microwave. Set the melted chocolate aside.

Place the butter, sugar, eggs, flour, baking powder and cocoa in an electric mixer bowl and beat them together until pale and creamy. Then stir in the melted chocolate.

Spoon the batter into paper cases 3/4 full. Bake them for 15 - 20 minutes until well risen and spongy to the touch. Transfer them to a wire rack and leave them to cool .

While the cupcakes are cooling down prepare the frosting.

Ingredients for frosting:

• 150g chocolate
• 200ml double cream
• 140g butter
• 280g icing sugar

Break the chocolate into smaller chunks and place in a medium size bowl.

Pour the cream into a sauce pan and heat it up until  boiling. Pour the cream over chocolate and stir until chocolate melts down. Set aside for about 20 minutes to cool down and thicken stir occasionally.

Put the butter into an electric mixer bowl. Beat the butter until fluffy adding icing sugar spoon by spoon. When smooth beat in the chocolate mixture. Chill the frosting for 15 - 20 minutes. Then spoon the frosting into a piping bag fitter with nozzle and pipe on top of each cake. You can add some chocolate decorations as well. 

Enjoy !

Express way chocolate dessert

This is chocolate heaven. Perfect, divine ... and extremely easy to make. I think every chocoholic would be delighted. It is crunchy on the top with melted chocolate hiding inside. It can be transferred on the plate but for some reason I couldn't do this with mine. But I think they looked lovely hiding in ramekins.

Ingredients for 6 desserts:

• 300g chocolate
• 100g butter
• 130g sugar
• 4 eggs
• 60g flour
• pinch of salt

Preheat the oven to 200. Grease ramekins and set aside.

Put the butter and chocolate chunks into a bowl and melt the together. You can put the bowl into microwave or place the bowl on top on the pot with hot water. Stirring all the time. When chocolate and butter are melted put the bowl aside.

Break the eggs and place the in separate bowl, add the sugar and beat until smooth and creamy. Then add the melted chocolate and stir. At last but not at least stir in the flour and salt. 

Pour this thick mixture into the ramekins. Insert into oven for 15 - 20 minutes. 

The batter will rise a lot while baking then will decline  a little bit. 

You can serve them warm with an ice cream or a whipped cream.

Enjoy !