Nutella Buns

I absolutely promise to provide a better picture for this recipe later. I've just been trying about a new kind of method with making buns, one I could have freshly baked buns more often. As it now is, I rarely make them just because it seems such a project with leavening for several times and all that. Now I only baked a couple of them, which are the ones you can see in the picture. But I promise more photos will follow later on. There aren't the best-looking ones either.

These are like cinnamon buns, just with Nutella inside. I'm not exactly sure how much cinnamon buns differ from what is understood with cinnamon buns in Finland, these are the Finnish kind, the ones I've learned to make and love since childhood. For now, being busy to get this recipe into the World Nutella Day round-up, I'll give just in Finnish measurements and will come back later to give the converted measurements.

Nutella Buns

5 dl milk
50 g fresh yeast
2 eggs
2 dl sugar
1 tbs cardamom
1½ tsp salt
about 1 kilo flour
200 g butter

Take out everything you need for the dough a couple of hours before baking so that the ingredients are at room temperature when you start.

Crumble the yeast to milk (body-temperatured) and stir. Add the eggs, sugar and spices stirring well. Add a little flour first, mix it up and then add some more kneading with your hand (or with a stand mixer). Add the soft butter and continue kneading until the dough detaches from the sides of the bowl and doesn't stick to your hand.

Let the dough leaven under a towel until doubled.

Press the air bubbles out of the dough. Let the dough rest under a towel for 10 minutes. Form the dough into desired sizes and shapes. Let the buns rise under a towel.

Break the consistency of an egg and use the egg to "grease" the buns.

Bake the buns in the middle of the oven in 225 C for about 10 minutes.

***

This recipe is part of the 5th World Nutella Day round-up. Sara Rosso of Ms. Adventures in Italy and Michelle Fabio of Bleeding Espresso with put together all of the entries of this year World Nutella Day round-up.

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Happy World Nutella Day!

This is my start for celebrating the 5th World Nutella Day! This wonderful day is hosted by Sara Rosso of Ms. Adventures in Italy, Michelle Fabio of Bleeding Espresso. This post is just in case I don't have time to finish my "real" post today. I'm baking something out of Nutella today, but we'll see if it makes it on the blog today as well. Anyway, have a great nutella-y day!

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Texas Sheet Cake

Continuing with the American dishes. A couple of weeks ago my hubby had his birthday and for that I decided to try this recipe I got from a dear friend in the States. I could not miss out on an opportunity to make this cake as it contained both chocolate and cinnamon together (both of which I adore!)  and I was pretty sure that the buttermilk would do only good things for this cake.

I was not disappointed. This cake was delicious! Wonderful! The frosting could've been a bit firmer but I was pretty sure it stayed so runny because I didn't get the American measurement of it, or maybe I should have let it set a little while longer. Which I was not able to do because this cake smelled so divine! It also could be that it's supposed to be fairly runny? I don't know. Anyway, it did not bother me one bit and I'm sure to make this cake again some time. Which unfortunately won't be very soon, as I've decided to buck up and take a closer look at what I eat and exercise more. The summer really messed up my eating routines... My only chance is to make it and take it - not being the only one eating it besides my husband - and hopefully there will an opportunity like that in the near future.

I'll give you the recipe as I was given it plus giving the Celsius grades. With the amount of powdered sugar I'd just add it as you go until you think the consistency is right.

Chocolate Sheet Cake or Texas Sheet Cake

1 c. buttermilk
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1 tsp. cinnamon
1/4 tsp. salt
2 eggs
2 c. granulated sugar
2 c. flour
1/2 c. butter
1/3 c. vegetable oil
4 tbl. cocoa powder
1 c. water

Preheat oven to 375 F / 190 C degrees. In a large bowl, combine first six ingredients. In another bowl, combine sugar and flour. Bring butter, oil, cocoa, and water to a boil on the stove. Pour over flour mixture and mix well. Add chocolate mixture to the buttermilk/egg mixture. Pour into a greased sheet pan or jelly roll pan and bake for 25 minutes. Frost while warm.

Chocolate Frosting

1/2 c. butter
6 T. milk
3 T. cocoa powder
1/4 tsp. salt
1 bag powdered sugar

On the stovetop, combine butter, milk, cocoa, and salt until the butter is melted. Do not boil. Pour into a large bowl and add powdered sugar, until it is to the desired consistency. Should be spreadable. Frost the yummy warm cake, and don't forget to lick the beaters. Enjoy!!

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The perfect oatmeal chocolate chip cookies

I use Google Reader a lot. I mean - a lot. Two years ago, just before I started my own blog, I found the amazing supply of food blogs out there. I originally meant to find one foreign one and one Finnish one that I would visit actively and the other ones I liked would be visit more randomly. Guess how long that decision lasted? I don't think even a month, especially after I discovered the usefulness of Google Reader. It was very easy for me as a Gmail user to also start using Reader, and that on the other hand allowed me to follow a larger amount of blogs. Nowadays I have at least a couple of dozen food blogs in my Reader and I check it on a daily basis and usually notice pretty quickly when my favorite bloggers have posted something new. I also use the Share, Star or Like features that Reader offers and by using them, expand my list of "want to try" recipes. That way, whenever I feel like trying something new, I can just click at my shared or starred items and browse through them seeing what inspires me the most at that given time. This recipe has been on the list ever since I saw it in Joy The Baker in the end of April. A week ago I got a sudden inspiration to make these. An added bonus was that I could use my new measuring cup set and didn't have to try to convert the measurements into metric ones.

These turned out oh, so well... Luckily I decided to make the whole batch and not halve it, which was something I also considered. No, I didn't eat them all at once, although it wouldn't have been anything out of the ordinary, instead I offered some to friends that came over, saved a couple for the next day and from the rest I made a couple of stashes in the freezer, so I'll have the pleasure of enjoying them later too and not gain ALL the weight at once.

What I most loved about these was the texture. They were big, crisp on the outside and just soft enough from the inside. This is exactly how I like my cookies. I yet have to achieve the same texture in ordinary chocolate chip cookies, but with these I really hit the mark and next time I'm making the normal chocolate chip cookies, I'll make them as big as these and see what becomes of them then. Until then, I at least have a full-proof oatmeal chocolate chip cookie recipe.

I was in a bit of a hurry while making them, however, as well as live in Finland instead of the States and not the mention feeling a little bit creative, so I made some moderations to the recipe in regard to for example ingredients. I will give the recipe as I made it. As I can't buy chocolate chips ready like is the case in US, I've developed a habit of buying a chocolate bar (about 200 g) and funneling my sometimes occurring frustration of not being able to buy chocolate chips into smashing that chocolate bar into pieces and using them instead of the ready chips. Works quite nicely. This time I bought a new-comer in the chocolate genre, Marabou Polka, which is Kraft's basic milk chocolate with pieces of Polkagris, i.e. mint candy, in other words candy canes, only not in cane form. I think the mint gave a nice addition to the cookies and to the sweetness of Marabou's milk chocolate, which is sweeter than Fazer's, my favorite brand.

Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies

adapted from Joy the Baker which again adapted from Southern Living

with the size of the dollops I made, makes a bit more than 2 dozen cookies

ca. 1 cup vegetable oil

1 cup granulated sugar

1 cup brown sugar, packed

2 large eggs

1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract

2 1/2 cups uncooked oats

2 cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon baking soda

3/4 teaspoons salt

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

200 g milk chocolate bar with mint caramel pieces (Marabou Polka)

ca. 1 cup orange juice

Before starting to bake, chill the chocolate in the freezer and break into about chocolate chip sized pieces.

Mix the sugars and oil and add the eggs, beating well. Add the vanilla extract and beat until blended.

Whisk together the oats, flour, baking powder, baking soda, spices and salt. Add to the oil and egg mixture slowly beating on low speed until just incorporated. Add the orange juice until the texture of the batter seems right. Stir in the chocolate chips. Make big dollops of the batter (I used an ice cream scoop).

Bake at 350 degrees F / 175 C (I forgot to check what 350 F is in Celsius and took a wild guess and baked them in 200 C) for 10 to 13 minutes or until they’ve reached your desired doneness.

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Mud cake with licorice bits

I made this cake for Midsummer and we enjoyed it with fresh raspberries. I took the recipe from another Finnish blogger. This was yum and exactly what we needed to have in the mids of all the rain. Something that is warm, full and fresh at the same time.


100 g butter
150 g dark chocolate

150 ml sugar
2 tsp vanilla sugar
3 eggs

150 ml of flour
½ tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt

Any sort of soft licorice


Melt the butter and chocolate on a low heat in a saucepan. When the chocolate is completely melted, take off from the heat. Add the sugar and vanilla sugar and stir. Add the eggs one at a time and stir in between.

Mix together the flour, baking powder and salt. Add the wet ingredients into the dry ones and mix well.

Cover a ca. 22-24 cm in diameter baking tin with baking powder and grease it. Pour the batter into the tin. Drop the licorice bits in and on top.

Bake the cake in 160 C for about 30-40 minutes until it has set so that it (barely) holds together. Do not bake the cake to be too dry, it's best when it's moist.

The blogger, whose recipe this is, stated that the cake is best when it has had time to cool down some hours or over-night. We just ate it as it came out of the oven. The rest was eaten the next day, both versions were really good.

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A sort of (Finnish) brownie with my twist

I made these (maybe Finnish) brownies a while ago. Usually the frosting has coffee in it, but I replaced it with orange juice as I'm not a huge fan of coffee.

4 eggs
3 dl sugar
150 g margarine/butter
200 ml milk
2 tsp vanilla sugar
3 tsp baking powder
3 tbl cocoa powder
500 ml flour

200 g Marabou's Daim chocolate

Frosting:
4oo ml (227 g) confectioner's sugar
2 tbl cocoa powder
2 tsp vanilla sugar
50 g of melted margarine/butter
orange juice from 4 tbl up to when the consistency is right

Beat the eggs and sugar into a foam. Add the melted butter. Mix up the dry ingredients together and add them to the batter through a sieve in turns with the milk. Add the crushed chocolate and stir it in. Pour the batter into a baking sheet covered with baking paper and bake in 200 C in the middle of the oven for about 15-20 minutes.

Put together the dry ingredients of the frosting. Add the melted butter and orange juice in turns little by little until you have the right consistency. Pour the frosting on top of the little cooled down cake and spread it with a knife or a spatula to a even layer. Sprinkle with dried coconut or sprinkles. Let the frosting set and cut into squares.

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Chocolate Pots

To celebrate the fall break I had last week, and life in general, I made a purchase. I bought four little ramakins. I have desired to have such pots for a while now and so I wanted to use them as soon as possible. We spent a couple of days at a summer place relaxing in the middle of corn fields and no street lights and the end the day that included raking the leaves and having a wonderful sauna, I made Nigella's ChocoPots. The recipe can be viewed from the video attached. I didn't write down the recipe, so I didn't use specific measurements but worked according to my memory.

I got to say that it is not often when things are too chocolatey for me, but these were hard-core and I could have well lived with half a portion. I wasn't to be frightened with the overwhelming chocolate though and am perfectly ready to try these again, making only half as much as last week. The first impressions were heavenly and the first half I enjoyed tremendously.

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Chocolate-oatmeal cookies

I had had a drive to bake already on Friday evening and as Saturday took me to movies, to see The Other Boleyn Girl as a good English major should, and my schedule for going to town didn't allow stops to shop for candy, I decided to bake something for me to eat at the movie theater. I turned to my recipe file and did indeed find a suitable one after a moment of digging.



The recipe I found served as a reference and, I'm happy to say, I improvised in baking the cookies as we didn't have everything at home that the recipe included. I write it down as I did it.

100 g of dark chocolate
50 g of peanuts and cashew nuts
2 dl of flour
1 dl of oatmeal
1 dl of high-fiber bran mix
1 tsps of vanilla sugar
1 tsps of baking powder
little less than 100 g of baking margarine
a full tbs of peanut butter
1 dl of brown sugar
a splash of milk


Crush the chocolate and the nuts. (My "crush", especially with the chocolate, had the consistency of a flour as I didn't do this be hand.) Mix the dry ingredients together.

Foam the soft margarine, peanut butter and brown sugar. (In the original recipe one egg was to be added at this point, but I didn't have eggs in the house so I didn't add it.) Add the dry ingredients and mix until smooth.

The batter was slightly too dry because there was no egg, so I added a splash of milk and mixed it up again. Then I formed cookies with my hands and placed them on a baking tray covered with baking paper.

Bake in the middle of the oven in 175 Celsius degrees for about 10-12 minutes.

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The birthday cake for a licorice fan

My husband's favorite candy is licorice. For a baking enthusiast, first girlfriend, now wife, this caused minor problems in the beginning. Chocolate, which is my favorite, is so much easier to use in baking than licorice. After the first couple attempts it even seemed that licorice is not suited for baking. Since then my eyes have opened to the possibilities and last Friday when I baked my husband his birthday cake, the theme was licorice. I adapted the licorice muffin recipe by Kinuskikissa.

1 ½ dl of milk
6 Kick bars
150 g of margarine
1 ½ dl of sugar
2 eggs
2 ½ dl of flour
2 tsps of baking powder
2 ½ tbls of cocoa powder
1 dl of Tyrkisk Peber crush
1 Lakumatto

At first I greased and sprinkled the cake form with breadcrump and took out the margarine from the fridge to soften. If you don't have Tyrkisk Peber crush, I would crush the candies at this point. My advice would also be to cut the Lakritsimatto in pieces at the same time and not do as I did, which was nearly forgetting the whole licorice bar.

Next I cut the Kick bars into pieces and put them in the saucepan with the milk. I used non-fat milk, but others are fine too as well as cream. I let them heat up mildly until the licorice had melted into the milk, which took surprisingly long. I let the mixture cool down, but the milk was still somewhat warm when I mixed it up into the batter.

I foamed the margarine and sugar and added the eggs. I mixed the dry ingredients and the Tyrkisk Peber crush and added into the batter with the licorice milk.


According to Kinuskikissa's recipe the batter makes 12-20 muffins and because of that I was confident that with the same amount of batter I could make a cake. In addition, I didn't make the frosting, because my plan was to serve the cake with vanilla ice cream.

I kipped the batter into the cake form and sprinkled the pieces of Lakritsimatto on top and pressed them deeper with a fork.

I baked the cake in lower part of the over in 175 C for roughly 40 minutes.



The result was loved by the birthday boy, which made the baker a happy wife indeed. We didn't miss the frosting as the soft vanilla ice cream replaced the need and complemented the flavor perfectly. Kick-milk provided ab all-round licorice flavor. The pieces of licorice inside the cake soften to wonderful lumps, that you can't see but will taste. The Tyrkisk Peber also gave a nice salty and strong touch. The biggest flaw of the cake was that it was so fulfilling that you couldn't possibly eat more than one piece, but thinking positively, now we have a licorice dessert waiting in the freezer for two more times.

After such a delightful experiment I'm also happy that the favorite candies of both of us seem to be well suited together. The first time I baked with licorice I made muffins with an ordinary white batter. Later I have discovered that cocoa and chocolate indeed go well with licorice.

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The starting of the blog with Daim chocolate muffins

Is there another possibility to start up a blog that is called Heart of Chocolate than with a recipe about chocolate? I'm a great friend of muffins and of Daim, I could even claim Daim as my favourite chocolate. Daim products are from the Swedish Kraft Food. I imagine that they are not commonly sold outside Europe, so here's Wikipedia's describtion: The Daim bar (originally known as Dajm in the original Swedish, and Dime in the UK and the Ireland) is a crunchy butter almond bar covered in milk chocolate that originated in Sweden in 1953, produced by the Swedish company Marabou. If I'm correct cou can buy the tiny little Daim candies, not the bars, from Ikea all over the world.

Anyway I had been very anxious to try out this recipe of a fellow blogger.

12 large ones, 15-20 smaller ones

1 bar of Marabou's Daim chocolate (100 g)
150 g of margarine or butter
1 ½ dl of sugar
2 eggs
3 ½ dl of flour
2 tablespoons of baking powder
2 ½ tablespoons of cocoa powder
1 ½ dl milk or cream

Crush half of the bar roughly. Foam the margarine and sugar. Add the eggs. Combine the dry ingredients and add to the batter together with the milk. Finally add the crush mixing it up with a bowl scraper.

Fill the muffin cups half-full, add a piece of chocolate to each as a heart and cover with the batter. Bake in 225 C for roughly 12-15 minutes.

I made 12 muffins from the batter. I used my 12-holed silicone muffin tray, which is absolutely marvellous! When you let the muffins cool down a bit, the silicone will also cool down and won't be hot because the tray is elastic, it's really easy to get the muffins out: you can just press them up from the bottom. The shape of the muffins stays nice and the batter won't stick to the edges of the cups. And despite it being elastic and of silicon, it is strong enough to support the muffins and they will rise upwards. These muffins tasted wonderful and were good company to us while we were watching Friends.

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