Sacher torte for world chocolate day

Happy world chocolate day! To celebrate, here are some random musings about chocolate that I tend to have while browsing pinterest, cooking, or generally just living. 

For me, chocolate is extremely nostalgic. I think the first time I saw chocolate as not just chocolate but CHOCOLATE was while reading Willy Wonka and the chocolate factory as an eight year old. I’ve never wanted to eat chocolate more. Until I saw the film. 

Chocolate pudding was the highlight of my childhood. It was one of the limited selection of desserts that did the rounds on our dinner table over the week and I preferred it so much over vanilla custard, fruit cream, stewed peaches, which were few of the others. When i started baking, a couple of years ago, I saw a recipe for ‘chocolate pots de creme’ and I realised it’s nothing more than the chocolate pudding from the 90s! I will always call it chocolate pudding, the more honest, more humble name for the fancy pots de creme. 

Now, I’m a dark chocolate over milk chocolate person, I dream of godiva truffles and ghirardeli 70% chocolate bars and not willy wonka ones, I’m a huge sucker for liquor in my chocolate, or coffee, or sea salt. My mom’s 2-minute chocolate cake is still my favorite but this is a close second.

A sacher torte is essentially a rich, 2-layer chocolate cake,  with apricot jam in between and a dark chocolate glaze on top. YUMMY. A friend sent me some homemade apricot jam and so I gave it a shot! I’ve made many chocolate cakes in my life and I can’t say i’ll ever not like a chocolate cake to be fair but this one really…takes the cake ?! 

You decide - here’s the recipe: adapted from Cake Bible by Rose Levy Beranbaum

Ingredients: 

For the cakes: 
2 egg yolks
1 whole egg
45 g unsweetened cocoa powder
2/3 cup boiling water
1 1/2 tsp vanilla
150 g flour
200 g sugar
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
140 g unsalted butter
A jar of apricot jam 

For the chocolate cream glaze: 
250 g bittersweet cooking chocolate
1 cup cream

Process: 

Preheat your oven to 180 ˚ Celcius and line two 7-inch cake tins with greased parchment*  
To make the cakes, mix together the flour, salt and baking powder in a bowl. Set aside. 
Beat the butter and sugar until fluffy. Add vanilla & eggs. Beat again. 
Mix the cocoa powder and boiling water in a bowl and stir until smooth. Add to the batter. 
Lastly, with the mixer on low speed, add the flour one spoonful at a time. 
Divide the batter equally in two pans and bake for about 25 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the centre comes out clean. 
Let the cakes cool before inverting onto a wire rack. The cakes will be very tender so be careful and gentle. 
Take one layer of the cake and spread apricot jam on top. Place the second layer on top of the bottom layer. 
Place the cake on a wire rack with a tray underneath. 

To make the glaze, melt the chocolate over a bain marie or in 30 second spurts in the microwave. Add the cream and whisk until smooth. 
Gradually pour the warm glaze on top until it fully covers the cake. Decorate with raspberries, cherries or leave as it is. 
Let it cook on the rack and then refrigerate until ready to serve - or eat right away! 

Peach cobbler

Summer in delhi feels like one of two things: Either you’re baking inside an oven or melting in the humidity. There are also exactly only 2 good things about summer.

Vacations. Lucky for me, I got to get out of hot , hot delhi and spend a week in Simla and then Thailand. New things I’ve eaten this month: Mango sticky rice, Rambutan, eggplant gyozas and a tiramisu magnum bar. You might have seen lots of this on instagram, in addition to pictures of me drinking beer (a rarity!!) and kicking sand around on the beach.

Coming back home to delhi would’ve been a huge downer if it wasn’t for Ben overreacting to my homecoming. Close second to seeing ben is the only other great part about summer in Delhi - the ripe juicy summer stone fruit. My fridge is stocked with the juiciest alphonso mangoes, himalayan cherries, peaches, apricots, litchis and watermelon. p o s s i b i l i t i e s.

Here is a summer dessert wishlist of sorts: Vanilla ice cream with frozen litchis. Mango Ice cream. Cherry muffins. Watermelon popsicles. Apricot jam. Cherry pie. Peaches and cream. 

Last year, I made a peach cobbler for Better Home and Gardens Magazine (july 2016 print issue). Delicious, fuzzy, juicy peaches, baked with a crumble on top and eaten warm with ice cream of choice of course (I’d recommend ginger Ice cream)!  

Here is the recipe, guys!

For the peach filling:

450 g sliced peaches
2 tbsp lemon juice
1/3 cup sugar
1 tbsp cointreu
1/2 tsp vanilla extract

For the crust:

1/2 cup flour
60 g butter
3 tbsp sugar
1/2 tsp baking powder 3 tbsp milk
1 tbsp almond meal

1 pint Ginger Ice cream

Process:

Place the sliced peaches in a saucepan over low-medium heat. 
Add the lemon juice, sugar, cointreau and vanilla extract.
Stir constantly and cook until the peaches are soft.
Pour the peach mixture into a baking dish and set aside
In a large mixing bowl, combine butter and sugar. Stir well.
Mix in the flour, baking power and almond meal and combine with a spoon, until a sticky dough is formed.
slowly add in the milk and mix until fully combined.
Drop spoonfuls of the batter on top of the peaches in the baking dish.
Continue until the peaches are covered with the batter.
Don’t worry if there are any gaps. 
Bake for about 30 minutes until the top is golden brown.
When done, remove from oven and let it cool
 Serve with a scoop of ginger ice cream
 

Peppermint chocolate almond bark

Things are getting very very busy as I prep to leave for Uni in a couple of months, and so the newest development in my life is that I have started meditating in the mornings and running in the evenings, which might seem a little contradictory in nature but it actually functions like a very well balanced see saw of energy and calm. (Does that make sense ?) Meditation is everything it promises to be - peaceful, satisfying, humbling and remindful of the fact that no matter how much is on your (my) plate, there’s still some space for more. 

Speaking of satisfying feelings, there is something really soothing about tempering chocolate. If you haven’t done it before, it is a little bit tricky and demands precision but it’s also very quick to learn and fun to practice. This chocolate almond bark was (as always) a last minute, unplanned thing and came out of my sudden urge to up the fancy on another dessert. You can make it in under 15 minutes, then let it harden, break it in shards and use it an embellishment on a cake or any other dessert or an ice cream sundae, and so on; be creative! 

It also opens a window of options - i made my mine with sea salt and pralined almonds, but you could use hazelnuts, cranberries, coconut, or a whole bunch of other things. Imagine there are no rules, so use whatever is in your pantry and tastes good with chocolate! The only rule-ish advice is, use good (GREAT) quality cooking chocolate. Since chocolate is basically the entirely of what you’re making, use the best quality you can. I recommend Valrohna or Ghirardelli. For this particular recipe I used Ghirardelli 70% Chocolate - my favourite ! 

Ingredients:

200 g cooking chocolate
2 tsp peppermint oil
1 cup pralined almonds, slightly crushed
sea salt 

Process:

Line your oven pan with tightly with cling wrap and keep aside
Melt the chocolate in a heatproof bowl suspended over a pan of simmering water
Use a wood spatula to mix and stir as it melts. 
Remove from heat when melted completely & add 2 tsp of peppermint oil and stir
Pour into the prepared pan and sprinkle with pralined almonds (or nuts of your choice) and sea salt
Refrigerate till hardened completely
Break into pieces and store in a cool dry place or in the fridge if you live in a warm climate like I do!