EMERGENCY Chocolate Cake

In WWII when some foods were rationed, people replaced eggs and butter with mayonnaise, which was readily available. When you try this recipe, you will see that they were right to do so.


Ingredients

• 1.5c white flour
  
• 1c sugar
  
• 1/2tsp baking soda
  
• 1/4tsp salt
  
• 1/2c dutch process cocoa
  
• 1/3c bittersweet chocolate chips (Ghirardelli)
  
• 1c espresso or 1c boiling water with instant coffee powder
  
• 2/3c mayonnaise (we used reduced-fat)
  
• 1 egg
  
• capful of vanilla
  

Preheat oven to 350. In a bowl, combine flour, sugar, soda, and salt. In a separate bowl, combine the cocoa and chocolate chips and pour in the (hot) espresso. Stir until smooth, then add the mayo, egg, and vanilla. Whisk together until smooth, then add to the dry ingredients and stir to combine. Pour into a well-greased 8-9" spring-form pan. Bake for about 30 to 35 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out MOSTLY clean with just a little bit of cake sticking to it.

Thoughts: This cake was delicious. Didn't even have a hint of the mayonnaise vinegar flavor. Rather, it was an incredibly moist, incredibly rich cake. And it was really easy and had cheap ingredients. I would definitely make this again. I made it for an olympics watching party and cut out rings of paper which I put on top, then I put powdered sugar on it and removed the rings (so you can see the olympic rings on top). Unfortunately, the cake was just TOO moist, and the powdered sugar got absorbed into the cake. I know, I have way too much time on my hands.

Disaster Index: 1/10

Two Coffee Drinks for Summer

One is based on something I had in Florence that the cafe in question called a "cappuccino freddo". The other is basically frappuccino. I should note: if you are in Florence, be aware that not every cafe has a cappuccino freddo. I asked for it at one place and they gave me something I did not want.

Anyway, for both, you first need cold-brewed coffee. Just combine coffee grounds and cold water in a jar at a ratio of about 1:4. It's a lot of coffee grounds. Seal the jar and shake vigorously. Set it on the counter for about 12-24 hours. I come by and give it a shake every now and again during that time, but it's probably not necessary. At the end of that time, strain it through a coffee filter (or in our case, a sieve with a paper towel) into another jar. Refrigerate.

Cappuccino Freddo
Put some coffee in a cup. Put the same amount of milk in a milk frothing device (I have this thing that's basically a french press that froths the milk by pushing it through the little strainer...). Add about two teaspoons sugar or brown sugar (more or less depending on your tastes) to the milk and stir until it's more or less dissolved. Froth the milk and pour over the coffee. Enjoy.

Frappuccino
Mix 1 part coffee to 3 parts milk (depending on the strength of your brew it could be more or less). Add sugar to taste - about 2 tbsp for 4 cups of liquid is close to the ratio we used.

Thoughts: Cold-brew coffee is different from normal coffee. As I understand it, different aeromatic compounds are released at different temperatures. Cold-brew yields something with very strong coffee notes without much bitterness. It's perfect for cold coffee drinks.

The drinks are great. I really like the cappuccino freddo, personally, because there's just a lot going on there with so few ingredients. The difference in sweetness between the frothy milk and the coffee makes it very enjoyable to drink. Claire likes the frappuccino, by contrast. We make it a little less sweet than the store-bought stuff, and we can use skim milk. So it's healthier, less cloying, and WAY cheaper.

Disaster Indeces: 1/10 all around.

Tiramisu

Pick me up.
Ingredients

• 3 large eggs, separated
  
• 3/4c granulated sugar
  
• big pinch of salt
  
• 3/4lb mascarpone cheese
  
• 20 lady-fingers
  
• a pot of espresso or similarly strong coffee - we used about 4-8oz
  
• 3oz semisweet chocolate, grated coarsely
  
• ~1 tbsp unsweetened cocoa
  
• 1 bread pan
  

Separate the eggs so you have three egg whites in one big metal bowl and two egg yolks in another large-ish bowl. You can do whatever you want with the third yolk - we don't need it*. Add the sugar to the yolks and beat until they turn pale and creamy. Now, with a clean, dry whisk, beat the egg whites with the pinch of salt until they form stiff peaks. THIS TAKES SOME ARM MUSCLE. Seriously. Throw the mascarpone in with the yolks and beat together. Now FOLD the whites in with the yolk mixture.

Now is the assembly. Just put 1/3 of the egg mixture into the bottom of the bread pan and spread evenly with a spatula. Put 1/2 the grated chocolate over it. Now, dip the lady fingers one at a time in the coffee and lay them out across the mixture until you've more or less covered the layer. In our bread pan, this takes 10 lady fingers (hence 20 in the ingredients) but depending on the size of pan, you could be looking at more or fewer. Feel free to spoon a little extra coffee over the lady fingers if you think they could use to soak up more, but be careful - if you dip them too long, they start to crumble in your hands right away. Better to play it safe, I would say, and just spoon a little extra on afterward.

After that layer, put 1/2 of what remains of the egg mixture (1/3 of the original amount if you're keeping track of the math here) and spread that evenly across. Add the remaining grated chocolate, another layer of lady fingers, and then the remainder of the egg mixture. Now sprinkle the cocoa powder evenly across the top (I recommend using a fine mesh sieve - put the cocoa in it and then tap the side to release the cocoa pretty evenly - it's just like sifting flour).

Chill for minimum 4 hours before serving. Serves 6.

*I'd consider adding it anyway

Thoughts: This was an amalgam of two recipes, actually - one we found online and one we found in a cookbook kicking around here. The flavor was FANTASTIC, but I'm afraid the texture was a little softer than I had expected. I think that one thing that would help is if the lady-fingers were a little spongier and a little less brittle. When they soaked up the liquid, they were just falling apart. Second of all, the custard (if I may call it that even though it is not, strictly speaking, a custard) was also softer than we had anticipated. This could be related to the egg whites. I think in the future, it would be advisable to use some cream of tartar in the preparation of the egg whites to get some stiffer peaks. This might help thicken up the custard. Second of all, I could use more mascarpone to egg ratio - that, too, might thicken it a little. Also, I would add a bit less sugar to the custard. I thought it bordered on too sweet. I would use just 1/2 cup next time. Personal preference, I guess. Finally, we could kick up the espresso flavor (if we wanted) with a little instant espresso powder. I would go easy on it, but it could potentially improve the flavors. Just an idea. Maybe if I used the espresso powder I would use full sugar just to even it out?

In the end, though, this was delicious and REALLY easy, except for whipping the egg whites. I would DEFINITELY make this again.

Disaster Index: 1/10

Cake in 5 minutes

In a mug, no less. In the microwave, no less.
Ingredients

• 4tbsp flour
  
• 4tbsp sugar
  
• 2tbsp dutch process cocoa
  
• pinch of salt
  
• 1/2 tsp instant coffee (optional - really adds to the chocolate flavor)
  
• 1 egg
  
• 3tbsp milk
  
• 3tbsp vegetable oil
  
• 3tbsp chocolate chips
  
• 1/2 vanilla or orange or almond extract
  

This is for serious. Mix the flour, sugar, cocoa, salt, and instant coffee in a microwavable mug. Stir (with a fork or something) and then add the egg. Stir until you get kind of a paste. Doesn't have to be perfectly combined. Add the remaining ingredients except for the chocolate chips, and stir until well combined. Add the chips and stir.

Microwave on high for 3 minutes (for a 1000W microwave) or a little longer otherwise (more on this in a sec). Serve with vanilla ice cream and a staggering sense of unreality.

Thoughts: I figured "heck, why not? If it doesn't work, I'm only wasting one egg." And it turned out. Pros: took five minutes. Pretty great flavor (really). VERY fluffy texture. Cons: A little on the dry side and a little rubbery. This may have to do with three things: 1) I didn't actually use chocolate chips when I made this recipe. They would have added a lot, I think, but I didn't have any. (The original recipe also suggested chopping up bits of candy bar if you don't have chips... I think they meant chocolate bars, but could you use a snickers bar? I PERSONALLY think this would probably be utterly disgusting, but I thought the cake would be too, until I tried it). 2) I didn't add vanilla / orange / almond extract. This, again, was a suggestion in the original recipe, but I didn't want to waste a precious commodity on what I thought would probably be a failed attempt at cake. The added liquid might have helped to keep the cake a LITTLE more moist. 3) I think the cake could have been microwaved just a LITTLE less. About half-way through the cooking, the cake rises above the lip of the mug (about an inch in my case). DON'T BE AFRAID OF THIS - it will go back down and not spill anywhere. The thing is, I think I probably could have turned off the microwave when it fell back to the level of the mug. But I let it keep going the full 3 minutes, and it was a TOUCH on the rubbery side after it started to cool. I bet that if you turn it off 20-30 seconds sooner, it'll be much moister.

Disaster Index: 3/10 - COULD ACHIEVE GREATNESS with a few minor tweaks. Problem is, it's probably tough to control minor tweaks like that. It's tough to play by ear with a microwave. STAY TUNED FOR UPDATES.

Swedish limpa bread

Ingredients

• 1.5 cup all-purpose flour (plus extra, as needed. You'll see)
• 1/2 cup rye flour
• 1 package active dry yeast
• 1 tbp sugar
• 1.5 tsp grated orange peel
• 1 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp crushed fennel seed
• 1/2 tsp crushed caraway seed
• 3/4 cup water (plus 4 tsp, for later)
• 3 tbp molasses (plus 1 tbp, for later)
• 2 tbp butter
• 2 tsp coffee
• 1/2 tsp whole fennel seeds
• 1/2 tsp whole caraway seeds

Combine the all-purpose flour, rye flour, yeast, sugar, orange peel, salt, and crushed seeds in a large bowl. Whisk to combine. Set aside.
In a small saucepan, heat 3/4 cup water, 3 tbp molasses, and 2 tbp butter over low heat until it reaches about 120-130 degrees F. We just guessed on this one. Heat it for about 5 minutes or something. Stir in the coffee.
Stir the water/molasses/butter/coffee mixture into the dry ingredients with a rubber spatula. The resulting dough will be very sticky. Very sticky. And it won't look like bread dough. Add extra all-purpose flour until it does look like bread dough.
Turn in out onto a well-floured surface and knead for about 2 minutes. Cover with an inverted bowl and let sit for 5 minutes.
Continue kneading the dough for another 5-8 minutes, until the dough is smooth and elastic.
Shape dough into a ball, place in a large greased bowl (we used pam) and also pam the top of the dough. Loosely cover with greased plastic wrap.
Do the microwave trick and let the dough rise in the microwave for 75 minutes.
Turn dough out onto counter. Using your hands, press the dough down into a rectangle. Use your knuckles to dimple the bread. Fold the bread in thirds (the short way), press it out again with your hands, then fold it in thirds in the other direction. Pinch the seams shut. Drop this rectangle into the bread pan.
Cover loosely with plastic wrap and do the microwave trick again. Let it rise for an hour.
Preheat the oven to 350 F.
Stir remaining 4 tsp water together with 1 tbp molasses. Set aside.
After an hour, uncover the bread and make 3 diagonal slashes in the top of the dough. Use a bread knife or steak knife for this or else it won't work. Trust me. I've tried.
Bake for 20 minutes. Take bread out of oven and brush the top liberally with the molasses mixture. Sprinkle the top with the whole caraway and fennel seeds.
Bake for another 10 minutes. Take bread out of oven and brush top with molasses again. The top should be starting to look pretty dark at this point. This is normal. It is not burned.
Bake for another 10 minutes. Take the bread out. Let it cool in the pan for 5 minutes.
Turn the bread out and let cool for another 5 minutes. Eat it.
Ok. I'll just tell you right now. We skipped 2 out of 3 of the final steps. Can you guess which ones?

Thoughts: This was pretty sweet. And also delicious. I was worried that the amount of molasses in the bread would make it totally gross, but you can't really even taste it. The caraway and fennel are killer. Dan can't think of anything to add. We bought WAY more rye flour than we needed for this recipe, so chances are, we'll make this bread again, but using a different recipe. More to follow.

Disaster Index: 1/10

Mocha Cake

Ingredients

• Pam, or other cooking spray
• 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
• 3/4 cup whole wheat pastry flour
• 1/2 cup Dutch processed cocoa
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 2 tbp canola oil
• 2 tbp melted butter
• 2 eggs
• 1 banana
• 3/4 cup lowfat yoghurt
• 3/4 cup ricotta cheese
• 2 tsp vanilla extract
• 3/4 cup granulated sugar
• 1 tbp espresso
• 2 oz. good-quality dark chocolate

For the frosting:

8 oz. cream cheese

1/3 cup powdered sugar

1 tsp vanilla

1 tsp espresso

1 small square chocolate

Preheat oven to 350 degrees and put oven rack in center position.
Spray a 9x13 cake pan with Pam and set aside.
Whisk together flours, cocoa, salt, baking powder and baking soda.
In a large mixing bowl, mix butter and oil. Add eggs and banana and mix to incorporate.
Fold in yoghurt, ricotta, vanilla, sugar, and espresso. Melt chocolate and add chocolate.
Gradually add dry ingredients into the wet ingredients. DO NOT OVERBEAT.
Pour batter into pan and put in oven. Let bake for 25-30 minutes. Cool completely.
While cake is cooling, make frosting:
combine all ingredients into a bowl and beat until soft and creamy. Spread frosting over cake and cut into 32 squares. Shave chocolate over the entire cake. Each square = 100 calories. Not bad.

Thoughts: This was an ok recipe. The original called for 2 eggs and 2 egg whites rather than 2 eggs and 1 banana, but I think the banana worked out ok. The original also calls for 1.5 cups lowfat yoghurt rather than half yoghurt and half ricotta. If you were going to make this recipe, I would make sure you had all the ingredients before trying to make it. Substitutions can be risky.
Make sure you cover this cake immediately because it dries out quickly in the fridge. It was pretty tasty, all taken. I'll let people qualify my remarks as they see fit.

Disaster Index: 3-4/10.

Espresso Miel

A quick recipe, if you can call it that.

I added a little Penzy's China Cassia cinnamon to the coffee grounds before I brewed them (in my Bialetti espresso maker). You have to be careful with this stuff. I probably added 1/6 tsp, but it was almost (almost) overpowering.

Anyway, add honey and milk and you have an "espresso miel" (it's what they call a similar concoction at Electric Earth Café).

Disaster Index: 3/10 - it had a nice flavor, but it's nothing special. If you want something different, it's good.