Chocolate Orange Drizzle Cake by MollyDunlop

This is a cake my mother used to bake. I have retyped it from an old clipping from a long-forgotten magazine. [quantities are given by weight] 6 oz. luxury margarine (this dates it, I'd use butter)
6 oz caster sugar (superfine sugar)
3 eggs
6 oz self-raising flour (or AP four plus about 2 tsp baking powder)
2 tablespoons milk
finely grated zest of 2 oranges
Orange syrup:
juice of 2 oranges
4 oz sugar
Chocolate topping:
4 oz plain (dark) block chocolate
1/2 oz butter
Grease a 2 lb loaf pan and line with grease-proof paper. Cream the margarine (or butter) with sugar till soft. Beat in eggs one at a time. Fold in sifted flour slowly and add cold milk with last of flour. Add orange zest. Turn mixture into prepared pan and bake in moderate oven (350 F, gas mark 4) for about 1 hour until well risen and golden brown. Turn the cake out onto a rack and allow to cool. When it is nearly cool, make slits across the top with a sharp knife (mother used to attack it with a roasting fork) then drizzle the prepared orange syrup across the top so that it soaks into the cake. When it is completely cool, swirl the chocolate topping over the cake.
To prepare orange syrup:
Mix strained orange juice with the sugar.
To prepare chocolate topping:
Break the chocolate into small pieces and place in a bowl with the butter; allow to melt over steaming water. Mix well and use immediately.

Liz's Chocolate and Salted Caramel Tart

For the sweet shortcrust pastry
200 g plain flour
100 g chilled butter, cubed, plus extra for greasing
1 tbsp icing sugar
1/2 - 1 lightly beaten eggs

For the caramel
225 g caster sugar
100 g chilled butter, cubed, plus extra for greasing
100 ml double cream, or regular cream
1 heaped tsp sea salt, flakes

For the chocolate layer
100 g caster sugar
2 eggs
2 egg yolks
250 g dark chocolate
150 g butter, cubed

1. For the sweet shortcrust pastry: place the flour, butter and icing sugar into a food processor and whiz briefly until the butter is in small lumps. Add half the beaten egg and continue to whiz for another few seconds or until the mixture looks as though it may come together when pressed. You might need to add a little more egg, but not too much as the mixture should be just moist enough to come together. If making by hand, rub the butter into the flour and icing sugar until it resembles coarse breadcrumbs then, using your hands, add just enough egg to bring it together. Reserve any leftover egg to use later.


2. With your hands, flatten out the ball of dough until it is about 2cm thick, then wrap in cling film or place in a plastic bag and chill in the fridge for at least 30 minutes.


3. When you are ready to roll out the pastry, butter a 23cm deep loose-bottomed tart tin and remove the pastry from the fridge, placing it between two sheets of cling film (larger in size than your tart tin). Using a rolling pin, roll the pastry out to no thicker than 5mm. Make sure to keep it in a round shape as well as large enough to line both the base and the sides of the tin.


4. Remove the top layer of cling film, slide your hand, palm upwards, under the bottom layer of cling film, then flip the pastry over (so that the cling film is now on top) and carefully lower it into the tart tin. Press the pastry into the edges of the tin (with the cling film still attached) and, using your thumb, ‘cut’ the pastry along the edge of the tin for a neat finish. Remove the cling film, prick the base all over with a fork and chill the pastry in the fridge for another 30 minutes or the freezer for 10 minutes.


5. Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 180C/fan 160C/gas 4. Remove the pastry from the fridge and line with foil, greaseproof paper or baking parchment, leaving plenty to come over the sides. Fill with baking beans or dried pulses (all of which can be reused repeatedly), then place in the oven and bake blind for 15–20 minutes or until the pastry feels dry in the base. Remove from the oven, take out the baking beans and foil/paper, brush the base of the pastry with any leftover beaten egg, then cook in the oven for another 3 minutes or until lightly golden. Remove from the oven and set aside.


6. For the caramel: put the sugar and 75ml water into a heavy-based saucepan over a low heat and stir until the sugar dissolves. Add the butter, stirring to melt, increase the heat to medium and allow to bubble away, stirring occasionally, for about 15 minutes or until the mixture is a light toffee colour. Mix in the cream and sea salt and boil for another 2–3 minutes until slightly thickened. Allow to cool.


7. For the chocolate layer: whisk the sugar, eggs and egg yolks until thickened and creamy in colour. Gently melt the chocolate and butter together in a bowl over a saucepan of simmering water (the bowl should not touch the water), leave to cool for a minute and then add to the sugar and egg mixture, whisking until smooth and glossy.


8. Spread the caramel over the cooled pastry base and spoon over the chocolate mixture, spreading it evenly. Bake for about 20 minutes or until it is almost set but still a bit wobbly. Allow to cool in the tin for 40–45 minutes before removing from the tin and serving in slices.

I can't WAIT. I might make two...

Fruit Salad by bookseller

At this time of year, my vote would be for an enormous fruit salad. You can make a syrup by boiling down orange juice (and lemon juice, if you got) with some zest, maybe a few cardamoms, and some sugar; when it's the consistency of, say, light cream (don't go all the way to maple syrup), glug in some liqueur if you have any (Gran Marnier?), and toss it all with the berries, any other fruit, ideally some orange segments (the cherries are out, they would go nicely), and stick it in the fridge to marinate. Come time to serve, toast some walnut halves and scatter them on top -- or pistachios, they'd be pretty, maybe some fresh mint. Offer some whipped cream or Greek yogurt to anyone who wants, but it will be just wonderful without, and nobody will feel remotely deprived.

Romany Creams by liz isabella

Biscuit
1/2 lb butter, plus 1 tablespoon butter
1 cup sugar
2 cups flour
1 1/2 cups desiccated coconut
2 ounces semisweet baking chocolate, melted
1/2 cup boiling water
1 teaspoon baking powder

Butter cream filling
1 lb icing sugar
1/4 lb butter, softened (not melted!)
1/8 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3-4 tablespoons milk
A couple of teaspoons of reserved melted chocolate

Method

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

2. Cream together butter and sugar; add flour, coconut, and baking powder.

3. Dissolve melted baking chocolate by whisking into boiling water; add to mixture. Reserve a teaspoon or two to mix into your filling.

4. Roll mixture into small 1-inch balls. 5. Place balls on greased cookie sheet and, using a fork, press criss-cross to flatten.

6. Bake in a moderate oven, 350F, for 10 to 12 minutes until desired doneness (some people like them crispier than others); let cool on a wire rack.

7. Make the butter cream filling: cream one-third of the icing sugar with softened butter and salt in large bowl.

8. Blend vanilla extract, 2 tablespoons milk and remaining sugar into mixture.

9. Gradually stir in remaining milk to filling until desired spreading consistency is reached.

10. When cookies have cooled completely, sandwich them together with the butter cream filling.

Peach Torte by Alecto the Night Owl

1 c butter
1 egg
1/2 c sugar
2 c flour
2 tsps baking powder
pinch if salt

Cream butter and sugar together. Add the beaten egg. Add sifted dry ingredients. Take out enough for topping - 3 cookie-sized balls. Press into a 10" or 11" springform pan.

Filling:
1 28 oz can of peaches
2 small packages of cooked chocolate pudding (can use mousse)

Make pudding/mousse per instructions. Drain the peaches and line the bottom of the pan. Cover with the pudding/mousse. Flatten out the dough balls and arrange on the top in a pleasing manner. Bake at 350°F for 40-45 minutes. Serve garnished with whipped cream or creme fraiche. This is good still warm from the oven or cold.

Mincemeat Pie by Grizzled Adams

Updated to today from an Old Sturbridge Village recipe.

Ingredients

1 1/4 pounds of beef round or leftover roast

1/4 pound suet

1 1/2 pounds apples

1 cup raisins or currant

1/2 cup white sugar

1/2 cup brown sugar

1/8 teaspoon pepper

1/2 teaspoon salt

2 teaspoons cinnamon

1 teaspoon clove

2 teaspoons nutmeg

1/4 cup brandy

2 cups cider or apple juice

Double recipe for Pie Crust

1 tablespoon butter (optional)

1. If uncooked meat is used, simmer beef 2-3 hours or until very tender, adding suet for last 1/2 hour of cooking.

2. When cooked, chop beef and suet very fine, into about 1/4-inch pieces.

3. Pare, core, and chop apples to make 3 cups.

4. Mix beef, suet, apples, raisins or currants, white and brown sugars, spices, brandy and cider or apple juice.

5. Prepare pie crust.

6. Line pie plates with pastry, fill each with half of meat mixture. Cover with top crusts, seal edges, slit holes on top for steam to escape. If desired, spread a thick layer of butter on pastry for flaky upper crust.

7. Bake 3/4 hour in 400°-425° oven.

Yield: Two 9-inch pies

Christmas Pudding Ice Cream by MollyDunlop

[Recipe from the Two Fat Ladies]

Christmas Pudding Ice Cream

1 Christmas pudding (I can't remember what size; don't go mad)

1 quart good vanilla ice cream

Soften the ice cream, and turn it into a large bowl. Crumble the Christmas pudding, then stir the crumbs into the softened ice cream. Refreeze in (a) suitable container(s). You can add a tablespoon or two of brandy, but be careful--too much will interfere with the refreezing.

The Christmas Pud. Ice Cream makes a very good bombe: pistachio ice cream for the outer layer, CP ice cream in the middle.

Strawberry, balsamic vinegar and mascarpone cream pudding by liz isabella

Ingredients

250g/8oz strawberries (hulled)
1 tbsp grenadine

1 tsp black peppercorns

100g/3oz caster sugar

1 tsp balsamic vinegar

1 tbsp vanilla extract

1 tbsp strawberry liqueur or vodka (we used vodka)

200 ml/7 fl oz single cream

250g/8oz mascarpone cheese


Method

1) Place the hulled strawberries in a bowl and crush lightly with a fork or potato masher. Mix in the grenadine and set aside.

2) Place peppercorns in a pan. Heat on a stove for a few minutes, until the corns crack and roast. They'll look shiny. Allow to cool and then coarsely crush in a mortar and pestle.

3) In another bowl mix the caster sugar with the balsamic vinegar,vanilla and the liqueur or vodka. Mix in the single cream.

4) Beat the mascarpone and mix into the single cream mixture.

5) Spoon a little of the crushed strawberries into the bottom of martini glasses, wine glasses or knickerbocker glory glasses. Spoon over a little of the cream mixture, and sprinkle with some peppercorns.

6) Repeat until the glasses are full, finishing with the cream and the final sprinkle of pepper. Garnish with whole or cut strawberries.

Summer on a Spoon by Bibbety

the zest of one lemon

1 cup water

1/2 cup sugar

Bring to a boil and then let simmer for 5 minutes. Cool. (I put it in the fridge for 5 hours.)

Combine the lemon syrup (I left the zest in; you could strain it out) with

1/2 cup lemon juice,

2 Tbsp limoncello

1/2 cup sparkling water

Put the mixture in your favourite ice cream maker (I have a Donvier) and freeze.

If you don't have an ice cream maker, I'd freeze it, and every thirty minutes or so stir it around. It might be more like a granita, but I'll bet it would still be tasty.

I'm still wondering what I should serve with it. Perfect cherries? Icy limoncello, of course.

Peach Cake by Picklehead

2 T golden syrup (is there golden syrup in the US? Is it called something else?)

3 large peaches, skinned and cut into eighths (the recipe calls for tinned peaches, but when you have fresh ones available, using tinned is an abomination unto the Lord)

5 1/2 oz. butter, melted

5 1/2 oz. golden caster sugar

2 large eggs

4 fl. oz. buttermilk (single cream also works)

1 t. vanilla

1/4 tsp. baking soda

6 oz. flour

Preheat the oven to 180 C/350 F. Grease a 9-inch cake pan and line the bottom (not the sides) with wax paper. Drizzle the golden syrup over the base and arrange the peach slices on top.

Whisk the butter and sugar. Add the eggs and whisk. Add the buttermilk, vanilla and baking soda. Sift in the flour and stir.

Pour the batter over the peaches and bake for 45 minutes. Cool for five minutes, then turn out onto a platter.

Serve with vanilla ice cream.

Apple Clafouti by Picklehead

FOR THE BATTER:

3 eggs

1 cup milk or heavy cream

8 tbsp. unsalted butter, melted

1 tsp. vanilla extract

2⁄3 cup all-purpose flour

1⁄2 cup sugar

1⁄2 tsp. salt

FOR THE APPLES:

4 tbsp. unsalted butter

4 tart apples, peeled, cored, and sliced

1⁄2 cup plus 2 tsp. sugar

2–3 tbsp. brandy

Ground cinnamon

1. For the batter: Preheat oven to 400°. Put milk, eggs, 6 tbsp. of the butter, vanilla, flour, sugar, and salt into a blender, blend until smooth, and set aside. Grease a 10" pie plate with remaining butter, then set in oven to heat.

2. For the apples: Melt butter in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add apples, 1/2 cup of the sugar, and brandy and cook until apples are glazed and warm, about 5 minutes.

3. Remove pie plate from oven and immediately pour in half the batter. Arrange warm apple slices over batter, reserving juices, then pour remaining batter over apples. Sprinkle remaining sugar and a little cinnamon over batter and bake until clafouti is golden and set in the center, 25–30 minutes. Drizzle with warmed reserved apple juices.

Key Lime Fudge by falalala

1 8-ounce can of evaporated milk
1 2/3 cups sugar
½ tsp. salt
12 large marshmallows
2 cups white chocolate chips
1/8 cup grated lime rind
2 Tblsp. Key lime juice (try Nellie & Joe’s famous Key Lime Juice)

Line an 8”x8” square pan with aluminum foil; grease foil with butter.

Combine the first three ingredients (through salt) in a large heavy-bottomed saucepan over medium heat. Bring to a boil; boil 8 minutes, stirring constantly. Remove pan from heat. Add the marshmallows and remaining three ingredients to the milk mixture, and stir until the marshmallows are melted and the mixture is smooth. Pour fudge into the prepared pan. Cool completely in the refrigerator. Cut into small (or large!) squares, and enjoy.

Had I thought of it in time I would have put a graham cracker crust at the bottom of it. I just sampled the stuff and it's not bad...I'm making a bunch of different things to wrap up on pretty plates with cellophane to bring over to the neighbors and to parties, and this looks to be a decent addition. (If you do make it, make sure to keep stirring the stuff...if if don't watch out it burns quickly and then you get little charred bits mixed in which doesn't look at all appealing.)

Cookie Link

TT--specifically the seasonal cookie exchange-- has spawned a new food blog, devoted to cookies: Talkin' Bout Cookies.

Baked Apples by Sicut Cervus and Picklehead

And if you DO like baked apples, there's no easier and better way to do them than cored from the top -- but leaving 1/4" of core at the bottom -- with the core space crammed with walnuts and then maple syrup [REAL 100% maple syrup of course, not maple-flavored pancake syrup!] poured in and a little cinnamon sprinkled on top. Set them in 1/4" of water in a 375 degree oven and take them out when they are wrinkled and just beginning to collapse.

Or remove a few sausages from their casings and break them up into bits - saute for a bit, then stuff them into cored apples and pour maple syrup over them. Cook until the apples are soft and the skin is about to fall off them.

On Poaching Fruit by bookseller

...you can poach just about any non-berry fruit (and you can poach berries, too, but you get pie-filling), though depending on what kind of apples you have, they might do better as apple sauce. If you wanted to make apple-pearsauce, that would be delicious, too: Just core and slice the fruit (peeled or not -- if the fruit haven't been sprayed, I tend to leave peels on) and put them in a big pot (nonstick, ideally) with a splash -- really, just a splash -- of water or cider or apple juice or white wine or whatever you have around, and a fistful of sugar (brown would be nice). If you would like to spice things up a bit, you could add two or three whole cloves, a cinnamon stick, a vanilla bean that you have slit in half the long way and scraped the seeds from (into the pot) with the point of a knife (throw the scraped bean in as well), some strips of lemon zest (that's the yellow part of the rind, none of the white pith that lies just beneath), five or six green cardomoms that you have cracked with the flat of a heavy knife or the bottom of a pan, maybe 1/4 teaspoon of powdered ginger (or say 1/3 cup of crystalized ginger -- that would be delicious) or an inch of fresh ginger (sliced but no need to peel). The fancy way to add these spices is to tie them into a square of muslin or cheesecloth, so that you can just pull the spices out when everything is cooked, but that's not really necessary, though if you throw in whole cloves or cardomoms or pieces of vanilla bean, etc., you might want to fish them out before you mash. Anyway, any of those spicing options would be delicious, and you could even combine them -- lemon and cloves and vanilla? Cardomom and ginger?

Put the pot over low heat, covered, for maybe 15 minutes, which should be long enough for the fruit to start giving up its liquid. It will look quite dry at first, and you'll be tempted to add more water/cider, but you really won't need to; the fruit has plenty of liquid of its own. But if you do, it's not a problem; if the sauce winds up with more liquid than you'd like, once the apples/pears are cooked, you can just turn the heat up under the pot and boil away the excess. Anyway, just keep cooking it until the apples/pears are soft enough to mush. Taste it periodically to see if you'd like to add more sugar or maybe a splash of lemon juice. It's enormously forgiving; you can add some sugar now and then more again in 20 minutes, etc. When the fruit is soft, mash it as you'd like. I like my applesauce kinda chunky, so I go at it right in the pot with an old-school potato-masher, but you could chuck everything in the blender (LET IT COOL A LITTLE FIRST) if you want things smooth (you will REALLY want to pull the whole spices/fresh ginger out first, if you go that route). I can't really give you times or amounts of sugar, because different apples and pears break down at very different rates, and require very different amounts of sweetening. Also, how sweet you'd like it is really up to you.

Once it's mashed, let it cool, and then, if you want to booze things up, add whatever appeals -- brandy, Amaretto, a handful of raisins or chopped dried figs that you have soaked till soft in rum. Up to you. It's all good.

Baked apples I have never loved, but poached whole pears are a classic Eastern European dessert, and a lovely thing. For half a dozen pears, I'd make a brew of roughly 2 cups of wine (dry Marsala would be nice -- I'd stay away from dessert wines, and whites rather than reds are traditional, but there's no need to hew to tradition) and 2 cups water, a scant cup of sugar, one or two sticks of cinnamon, a vanilla bean (halved and scraped, as above), and maybe a couple of cloves and/or some lemon or orange zest (peel it off with a vegetable peeler and use a paring knife to scrape off any enormous bits of white stuff; it doesn't matter if the strips you get are big or small, thin or fat). Bring this to a boil in a largeish PAN -- not a pot -- you want something wide enough to accommodate all the pears in one layer. While that's coming to a boil, core the pears FROM THE BOTTOM (leave the stem intact). I like to peel them from the stem end about halfway or two-thirds way down, so they still have some skin on at the bottom. Don't worry how ragged your coring job is; nobody will see it.

Once the brew has come to a boil and all the sugar is dissolved, pop your pears in, turn the heat down quite low (you want a slow simmer) and cover the pot. Let everything simmer for perhaps 20 minutes, turning the pears at the ten-minute mark. At 20 minutes, test the pears with the point of a knife; if everything's tender all the way in, you're done. Take the pears out with, ideally, a slotted spoon (if you use a regular spoon, it ain't the end of the world), turn the heat back up and boil the brew hard, UNCOVERED, for maybe 10 minutes, until it has the consistency of, say, melted jelly (you don't really want the consistency of honey or maple syrup -- that's too thick). Taste it (use a wooden spoon, to avoid burning your lips, and blow on it first). You might want to add a little lemon juice or perhaps some honey, even a slug of Calvados, should you have some lying around, or rum or brandy. Pour in any juice that the pears have given off while sitting on the counter, and stir up the syrup. Let it cool to room temp, pour it all over the pears, cover, and put in the fridge overnight to chill. You can eat them cold or nuked, with whipped cream, creme fraiche, Greek yogurt, with a sprinkle of toasted walnuts, a drizzle of honey. You can take the pears out again, nuke them (I'd opt for medium power) and boil the syrup down again till it really does thicken, and pour that over the pears. With some vanilla ice cream? MAMA! Or hold the ice cream, put the pears on plates standing up with a few toasted nuts scattered around, and you have an elegant dessert that would be at home in Paris or Prague or Poland.

You can also do this in the oven, with the pears standing up in a roasting pan that you cover with tinfoil. If you do that, you can first stuff the pears (where you've cored them) with, oh, some toasted walnuts and butter and brown sugar mixed together, or with dried fruit plumped in brandy, etc. That's very swanky, but frankly, I tend to like the simpler, unstuffed, stove-top method best.

Fruit Compote by bookseller

So I had a bunch of fruit -- say half a dozen each plums and white nectarines, plus smallish amounts of raspberries and blueberries, that I had bought in a fit of greed before the Dow collapsed, and that was about to turn up its toes. Plus which it was all somewhat challenged in the delicious department. So -- with the Down now having collapsed -- in a fit of newfound frugality, I decided that rather than pitch the lot, I would poach it, and make compote.

I boiled up a scant cup of sugar (well, for those mindful of my earlier post re lower-carb eating, I used Whey Low, my beloved sugar sub), a cup of fresh orange juice that I had, in a previous fit of frugality, frozen in an ice-cube tray, and three cups of water with a vanilla bean. I sliced the plums and nectarines, tossed them into the brew, and let it all simmer away, covered, for about 10 minutes. Removed the sliced fruit, boiled the brew down to about two cups of syrup, and let everything cool overnight. Once it was cool, I poured the juice that the plums and nectarines had given up overnight into the syrup, and tasted the syrup. It was a beautiful dark pink from the plum-skins and had a very pleasant plum-and-citrus flavor, but it was missing a little...something.

AhhhHA! In the back of the cupboard I had a large mason jar full of creme de cassis that I had made a couple of summers ago from organic black currants, vodka, and Whey Low. I poured in a healthy glug -- maybe a quarter-cup, certainly not more than that -- and stirred it up.

Oh. My. God. Delicious to the tenth power. I mixed the now-cooled plums and nectarines with the raspberries and blueberries, ladled Syrup of the Gods over everything, ladled the remaining cup of SoG into a teeny Tupperware for...for I'm not sure what I'll use it for, but I must avoid the temptation to just suck it down straight, and put both containers in the fridge. I am now counting the minutes until it will have chilled sufficiently to become my lunch, with some Greek yogurt. DAYUM. This is one of the best things I have ever made.

ETA the reason I am so devoted to Whey Low is that it tastes and functions exactly like sugar, but has the calories and carbs of Splenda (which I can't stand). Anyone wanting to make their own Compote of the Gods from the above description could certainly just use sugar with pretty much identical results.

Ginger Pound Cake by curly

2 ½ C flour
2 C sugar
2 tsp baking powder
½ tsp salt
2 sticks butter (1/2 lb.) softened
4 lg eggs
3 lg egg yolks
½ C milk
1/3 C grated fresh ginger
1 Tbsp lemon peel, grated
1 tsp vanilla


Set rack in bottom 1/3 of oven and preheat to 325. Grease and flour a 12 C bundt or tube pan.

Place flour, sugar, baking powder and salt in mixer with paddle beater and add butter. Beat on low speed until well combined.
Combine remaining ingredients in a separate bowl.
Increase mixer speed to medium and add 1/3 of liquid ingredients.
Mix on medium for 2 minutes, then stop and scrape bowl. Add another 1/3 of liquid ingredients, mix 2 minutes and scrape.
Add remaining 1/3 of liquid, mix 2 minutes, scrape and give batter a last vigorous mix by hand. Pour into pan and smooth top.
Bake 1 hour or until toothpick inserted in thickest part of cake comes out clean.
Cool 10 minutes in pan on rack, then invert onto rack and cool completely.

Lemon glaze:

3 C confectioner’s sugar
2 Tbsp lemon juice
2 Tbsp white rum or water


Stir ingredients together in medium saucepan until smooth. Add sprinkles of water as needed. Heat until just lukewarm and drizzle over cake.

A Very Simple Creme Fraiche Topping by Kat167

Chill a pint of heavy cream with a good healthy spoonful or two of sour cream and a tablespoon of sugar for at least 15 minutes. Then mix it for a tangy whipped cream suitable for strawberries and pound cake. Or, you know, Thin Mints.

Erythrosine's Sour Cream Fudge Cake

From The Joy of Cooking, 1997 edition
Makes 8 servings

This not-too-sweet chocolate cake has a tender, soft grain. Excellent gussied up with chocolate frosting or ganache; remarkably satisfying served plain with coffee.

Preheat the oven to 350°F. Grease and flour two 8x8-inch pans or two 9x2 inch round pans or one 13x9-inch pan, or line the bottom(s) with wax or parchment paper.

Melt in the top of a double boiler or in a microwave oven on medium just until melted and smooth:

3 ounces unsweetened chocolate, coarsely chopped

Sift together into a large bowl:

1 3/4 cups cake flour (that's 1.75 cups)
1.5 cups sugar 1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt

Add and beat on high speed for exactly 2 minutes:
1 cup sour cream
6 tablespoons (3/4 stick) unsalted butter, softened

Add the melted chocolate along with:
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/4 cup hot water or coffee (0.25 cup)

Beat for exactly two minutes. Scrape the batter into the pan(s) and spread evenly. Bake until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean, 20 to 25 minutes in square or round pans, 25 to 30 minutes in a 13x9 inch pan. Let cool in the pan(s) on a rack for 10 minutes. Slide a thin knife around the cake to detach it from the pan(s). Invert the cake and peel off the paper liner(s), if using. Let cool right side up on the rack. If desired, frost with Chocolate Satin Frosting or ganache, or serve plain, sprinkled with powdered sugar, or accompanied with whipped cream.

Chocolate Ganache, also from The Joy of Cooking, 1997 edition
Makes about 1.5 cups

The sleek, rich chocolate coating on a European torte or an elegant restaurant dessert is apt to be chocolate ganache, as is the center of a rich chocolate truffle. Ganache is a French term that refers to any combination of chocolate and cream.....

Bring to a boil in a small saucepan:

3/4 cup heavy cream

Remove from the heat and add:

8 ounces semisweet or bittersweet chocolate, finely chopped

Stir until most of the chocolate is melted. Cover and let stand for ten minutes. Stir or whisk very gently until completely smooth.

Stir in:

1 tablespoon liqueur, or more to taste (optional)

For a pourable glaze, let stand at room temperature, stirring occasionally, until the mixture cools to 85° to 95°. For frosting, let stand until spreadable. If the frosting becomes too stiff, set the pan in a larger pan of hot water and stir until softened; or remelt and cool to 85° to 95° to use as a glaze. This keeps for up to 3 days at room temperature or up to 1 week refrigerated. Or freeze for up to 3 months. Soften or melt before using.

Chocolate Chip Pecan Cookies by Always Chaotic

3 Cups semisweet chocolate chips

1/2 cup butter

4 oz. unsweetened chocolate

4 eggs

1 1/2 cups sugar

(1 tbs instant coffee granules--optional. Sometimes I use them, sometimes I don't)

2 tsp vanilla extract

1/2 cup flour

1/2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

2 cups pecans

Preheat oven to 350 (I usually do 375, though). Melt 1 1/2 cups of chocolate chips, all the butter, and the unsweetened chocolate. Stire until smooth. Remove from heat.

Beat eggs, sugar, coffee granules, and vanilla together. Add melted chocolate mixture and stir.

In a separate bowl, combine the flour, baking powder and salt; stir into batter. Fold in the remaining 1 1/2 cups chocolate chips and the pecans. Drop by tablespoonful onto baking sheets lined with parchment (or nonstick baking sheets). Bake 8 minutes until crackled and shiny on the outside and still soft inside.

This recipe is best when the weather is not humid. Usually I use semisweet chocolate chips for the melted chips, but bittersweet for the chocolate chips added at the end.