The Tale of the Chocolate Mousse Brownie

Why does chocolate have a way of getting absolutely EVERYWHERE when I bake with it?  Is this just me?  Its like it wants to get me in trouble.  Leaving crumbs on my face and arms.  Letting the whole world know that I have just licked the bowl clean.  And the beaters.  Maybe the spatula too.

Which is why I will not leave the house for the rest of the evening.  Also because, unsurprisingly, I'm not feeling too hot.

Ohhh chocolate, you are my weakness.

It's been a long time since I baked anything with chocolate.  The 'chocolate only' section of my Pintrest has been taunting me for a while.  This is something I felt I had to remedy.

One particular recipe was calling my name.  A layer of brownies covered with a layer of chocolate mousse?  I am so in.

I made a couple of notes today mid-bake:

2:23 PM.  The first layer of chocolate is in the oven. I took a taste off the spatula and OH-MY-GOD. I might have died and gone to heaven.  I don't know if I will be able to give these away.

2:25 PM.  The smell.  My kitchen smells like a chocolaterie.  AH.  My mouth is watering.  I wish there was some way I could share this over the internet.

3:00 PM.  What do you mean refrigerate for 24 hours?!?  That is pure madness.  I don't know how I will contain myself.

Which brings me to 3:30 PM.  My kitchen is spotless, but so is the mixing bowl - and my body hates me for it.  I don't think I will go near chocolate for a while.

So good news: it looks like my brownies will leave the house after all.

If you are in Kingston expect a delivery in the next few days!  If you are out of town I am so sorry.  I really am.  Really really.

À la prochaine,

Vianne Rocher

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Lemon Cupcakes with Coconut Glaze Frosting • Happy Victoria Day

'Afternoon!

This week, as requested, I have made cupcakes.  Or "muffins with icing".

I chose these lemon coconut cupcakes as they go well with the sunny weather and a cup of tea.

I slaved over them for houurrs.  They took a lot longer than I anticipated.  Mostly this was because I do not own an electric hand mixer.  Please can somebody let me know when they go on sale at Canadian Tire??

You cannot truly appreciate our ancestors' cooking hardships unless you have tried to whip cream by hand.  Cooks must have had MASSIVE arm muscles back then.  And probably carpal tunnel as well.

I am going to be sore tomorrow.

In the end I actually gave up on the recipe's instructions and invented my own because, well, let's face it, I do NOT have strong arm muscles.

This is roughly what I ended up with for the icing:
1 cup icing sugar
1/3 cup coconut cream

No whipping required.

The final product reminds me vaguely of a Mr. Kipling lemon sponge cake.  I have no complaints.

And speaking of Mr. Kipling...I brought some bakewell tarts back with me from my trip to England, and just about peed my pants when I broke into them on Thursday. Such a treat.

Ta-ta-for-now!

Nicola ♡

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Miraculously Delicious Cinnamon Coffee Cake

Today is the first Sunday of my summer in Kingston!  I've just returned from a week's holiday in the UK and Ireland, and am full of inspiration for breakfasts and tea biscuits, among other things.

I had big plans for today to test out a rhubarb coffee cake (recipe here).  I picked out a nice bunch of rhubarb at Loblaws this morning so I would be prepared for an afternoon bake.

Or so I thought.

When I got home I soon realized what I had bought was NOT rhubarb but SWISS CHARD.  Taking a test bite off the end I was shocked by the overwhelming lack of flavor.  Not at all how I had remembered it from my childhood.  Apparently rhubarb is only in season for a short time of the year (and not today).  According to Google I am not the only one who has been fooled by the sneaky doppelganger.

Stumped, I almost decided to forget the blog today and focus on other house chores.  But at this point I had already laid out all of the other ingredients, so I took a chance and let my creativity loose, and rhubarb coffee cake turned into a beautifully spongy and moist cinnamon coffee cake.  If its not obvious, I was suitably impressed with myself (even though I only made a few small deviations from the rhubarb recipe...but shhhh).

This recipe is SO worth keeping.  It turned out reaaaally well.  The only problem is, I don't know what to do with it all as my housemates are not home...Anyone in Kingston want a piece of coffee cake? Or three??

Here is the recipe I used (adapted from the one above):

4 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp table salt
2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp ground cinnamon
2 cups light brown sugar
1 cup unsalted butter, room temp
2 large eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract (artificial, 'cause I'm a poor student)
2 cups buttermilk*

Topping:
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 tsp ground cinnamon

*I used a substitute for this, since they didn't have it at the grocery store (I had rotten luck with that today didn't I?).  Adding 2 tbsp of lemon juice to 2 cups of milk did the trick.

Preheat oven to 350F.  Grease 9x13 inch baking pan.  Combine first four ingredients in small bowl and set aside.  Cream butter and sugar in large bowl.  Add eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition.  Stir in vanilla and buttermilk.  Gradually fold in flour mixture.  Pour batter into prepared pan and spread evenly with back of spoon or spatula.

Lightly mix brown sugar and cinnamon together for topping, leaving a few larger crumbs for texture.  Sprinkle evenly over batter.

Bake in center of oven for 50 mins, or until toothpick comes out clean.

Before I go, I would also like to add I made a suuuper scrumptious dinner tonight.  Spicy pepper crusted pork chops with a spinach garden salad.  YUMyumyum.  Also by chance the Rosé I had in my fridge was the perfect compliment to the spiciness.

I think I'm getting good at this.  When's the next meal time????

Until next Sunday,

Nicola ♡

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Happy Easter • End of Exams

Hey all!

Today I played Easter Bunny and ran around campus handing out cookies.  Or I guess I should say hopped.

Last night I wrote my last exam. Wahoooo!

Because of exams, I hadn't baked for two weeks, and my sweet tooth was feeling a little deprived.  I felt I had to make up for this lost time.

So I made three desserts today.  I guess you could say I went a little overboard.  Or maybe I was just feeling guilty to be done my term when a lot of my friends were still studying?  Either way, I had a lot of fun bounding across town with cookie tins full of goodies.

My first experiment were these Salted Caramel Pretzel Blondies.  They were a hit.  Super happy with this recipe.  Also, who'd have thought you could put pretzels in brownies??  Genius.

But there was a small flaw in my plan to try these out - they only made about a dozen.  How was I supposed to go about delivering them to my friends?  Was I supposed to be selective about who got one??  This was just not going to work.

So I dove into my second dessert of the day - regular old chocolate chip cookies.  Without reaaaally thinking about it, I doubled the recipe, because I figured, the more the merrier, right?  But then when it got to adding the chocolate chips, I realized I only had about a quarter of a cup - a fragment of what I would need.  And you seriously cannot bake chocolate chip cookies without the chocolate chips.  That is just NOT a thing.

My solution?  Break up a chocolate Easter bunny I had stashed in my room (sad face).  Turns out this was a really good plan because there were Smarties inside it as well!

Which brings me to my third dessert.  And you might wonder: WHY on EARTH would she need more cookies when there were already at least 3 dozen on the way?? Well...apparently the chocolate bunny didn't go as far as I thought.  The last of the cookie dough was very sparse of chocolate.  Getting creative again, and thanks to my friend Justin for the idea, I pressed preztles into the cookie dough as a 'replacement' for the chocolate.  But it is hardly an acceptable alternative.

Unfortunately this means my diet today was mostly pretzels and cookie dough...hmm.

Too bad it was Easter Sunday or I could have just run to the corner store and solved all my problems in one go.  Oh well.

Not that I have much to complain about - it was such a beautiful day today! To spend the day baking and walking around outside was a dream.  I hope everyone got to take a break to enjoy the sun at some point.

To anyone still writing exams, I wish you all the best of luck, and I apologize if I couldn't find you on my tour about campus today!!

Take care,

Nicola ♡

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Celebratory Scones

Rejoice! Praise all the baking gods/goddesses of this world! I've fixed my oven! Hallelujah! My blog can go on!

In case it wasn't obvious, the oven in my house has regained its functionality.  As of a couple hours ago.  In celebration, and in spirit of my upcoming trip to the UK, I whipped up some classic tea scones (see recipe here).

I don't know if its because I was in such a great mood when I made them, but they are FABULOUS.  Perhaps it is just purely the satisfaction of having a working oven again.  Ovens are truly magical instruments.  It is amazing how much my happiness relies on my oven.

Having gone so long without an oven, I am overwhelmingly inspired to bake everything and anything.

Things on my must-bake list include:

1.  These next-level raspberry scones.

2.  Feeling the approaching summer vibes, this upside down pineapple cake looks particularly appealing.

3.  GAH. I have no words for this. #addict

Finally, I will add (if I may), that given stress is high with the looming final exams season and last-minute assignment submissions, I hope you will take a moment every once and a while to admire your surroundings.  Remember that no matter you worries, fears, and concerns - you are amazing, you can do it, and at the end of the day - life goes on!

Have a wonderful Tuesday!

Nicola ♡

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No-Bake Birthday Bars

Helllloo.  Happy Sunday!

And happy birthday to my wonderful housemate!  A little bit colder today, but the sun was out, so we can pretend it's spring, right?  Still no oven, so instead of birthday cake I put my own spin on these No Bake Elvis Bars.  Although if you made those, I'm sure they would taste nothing like these, as they call for coconut oil, which I couldn't find for the life of me.

In case you're curious, here is my (very) loose adaptation:

Crust:

1 1/4 cups graham cracker crumbs

1/5 cup of sugar

6 tbsp margarine, melted

1/2 tsp almond extract

Filling:

3-4 ripe bananas

5 tbsp smooth peanut butter

2 tsp vanilla extract

1/4 cup olive oil (doesn't have to be olive; it was the only thing I had)

Drizzle:

1/2 cup bittersweet chocolate chips

2 tbsp margarine

1 tbsp milk

For the crust, combine all ingredients in a bowl, then press firmly and levelly into a 9" square pan.  Chill in freezer for at least 10 minutes.  It turned out a little too crumbly so I would definitely use a few more tablespoons of margarine in the future.

While the crust is in the freezer, blend the filling ingredients together.  It should have sort of a pudding consistency.  I added more banana/peanut butter as necessary to find the right balance.

Spoon the filling onto the crust and smooth it out with a spatula.  Put the pan back in the freezer and let it set.  This took about 1-2 hours.

Once the bars had set I melted the chocolate chips, margarine, and milk together in the microwave.  Drizzling this on the top was the fun part.  I then put it back in the freezer until the chocolate solidified.  These can be eaten straight from frozen and must be kept in the freezer! (If you leave them out, they will melt and turn into banana pudding!!)

I'd be curious to see if I could make a better crust next time!

As a side note, I noticed while I was making these that they are really similar in principle to the banana squares I made a few weeks ago....Maybe I just have a thing for banana, chocolate, and peanut butter combined.  But then - who doesn't???

Ta-ta-for-now!

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