Monday, February 18, 2013

Boca Negra


Boca Negra.  Black Mouth.  This certainly must refer to the density of chocolate in these babies; impossible not to have a black mouth while eating one.  Impossible, not to have a smile on that mouth as well.   These are incredible chocolate bombs, indeed fudge-like when eaten out of the fridge.  And the bourbon added in just makes that smile bigger.  Topped with white chocolate bourbon cream and you almost have to laugh.  These were an ideal match for my husband as he loves chocolate and he loves bourbon; a perfect fit for Valentine's Day.

So this recipe is pretty simple.  Make a bourbon simple sugar.



Use it to melt the butter and chocolate.



(That's a lot of butter and chocolate).





Add some lightly mixed eggs and sugar.  Add a touch of flour.  Pour and bake (in a water bath) until a skin forms on the top.  Do some flipping and the cake unmolds.



That last step was my only downfall.  Somehow the cake, when unmolded just fell apart.  I have a feeling I didn't bake it long enough, although I cooked it for 10 minutes longer than the recipe called for.  Or maybe I should have waited a bit for the cake to set instead of trying to flip it right out of the oven.   Anyhow, I could not let this amazing batter go to waste.  I scooped up as much as I could and plopped it into ramekins (about 7 total).  I then put these ramekins back in the water bath for 5-10 more minutes.   I have no idea if this affected how they turned out, lacking a comparison, but they were fabulous.  And my husband thought they were pretty great too.




These were topped with a white chocolate bourbon cream.  Over the top for sure.



And here is Rhiannon back on the swing.


This post is part of the Tuesdays with Dorie baking group.  See our host for the week, Cathy at Frederick Food Garden,  for the recipe.

Monday, February 4, 2013

Focaccia



This was supposed to be the perfect base for our Superbowl sandwiches!  It was still edible but clearly not the perfect, fluffy base I was envisioning.  It was all going so well, until I squished the painfully-slowly-risen loaves (yes, it took over 36 hours to raise this dough) with my palms in order to pop bubbles with a razor blade, as instructed.  I must have overdone this step, or maybe my dough did not have a lot of extra air to get rid of.   Whatever the case, my loaves were quite flat with only puffy, focaccia-like edges.   We took those end pieces and made our sandwiches.  Goat cheese and grilled veggies (see below) were excellent as suggested in Baking with Julia.






This recipe is part of the Tuesdays with Dorie cooking group.  The host this week is Sharmini of Wandering Through. See this link for the full recipe.


Rhiannon hating the snow.