Chocolate Covered Brigadeiro

We are having a chocolate party at work tomorrow and we are all supposed to bring in some type of chocolate to share. I finally decided to bring in Brigadeiro. I first learned about Brigadeiro several years ago after my sister's Brazilian friend told her about it. Then, this past November, I was in Brazil for my honeymoon and I rediscovered it.

Brigadeiro is all over Brazil and it is really good. Not only can you find it at any cafe, but young women walk around the cities with plastic containers filled with Brigadeiro and they sell the delicious chocolate candies to people walking down the street.

The basic Brigadeiro recipe contains only sweetened condensed milk, cocoa powder and a small amount of butter. The butter is optional. I wanted to experiment with the recipe and make it a little bit richer and more chocolatey, so for this version I added a large spoonful of chocolate chips and vanilla extract. I read somewhere that the sweetened condensed milk sold in Brazil is sweeter than the milk sold in America so I also added a little bit of extra sugar. To finish off my brigadeiro I decided to dip each candy in melted chocolate. I really wanted cover the chocolate covered brigadeiro in chocolate sprinkles but I was unable to find any that were made from real chocolate. I would like to find real chocolate sprinkles and make these again. It would also be fun to experiment with rolling the chocolate covered brigadeiro in finely chopped toasted nuts, or toasted coconut. I may feature another version of brigadeiro in the future!

Here is my version.

Ingredients
1 14 oz can sweetened condensed milk
1/4 cup bittersweet, good quality, chocolate chips (I used Ghiradelli)
3.5 Tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
1 Tablespoon sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions
Melt all of the ingredients together in a saucepan over medium heat. Stir constantly, for about 10 minutes, until the mixture begins to thicken and stick together. Remove from heat and pour into a buttered, glass dish. Once mixture has cooled it is ready to roll into balls. I like to wear gloves when I do this but you can use your bare hands if you prefer. Coat your hands/gloves with some butter and begin rolling mixture into small, truffle sized balls. Lay rolled balls on parchment paper. After you roll all of the batter into balls, you can dip them in melted chocolate.

Banana Muffins

Ingredients
1 cup whole wheat flour
1/3 cup almond flour
2/3 cup coconut flour
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup butter, softened2 large eggs
3 very ripe bananas mashed
1/3 cup soy milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions
Preheat oven to 350° and line 12 muffin tins with muffins cups.
Lightly spoon flour into dry measuring cups and level with a knife. Combine the flour, baking soda, and salt.

Blend sugar and butter until thoroughly mixed. Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. Add banana, vanilla soy milk and vanilla. Beat until blended. Add flour mixture and beat at low speed just until combined. Spoon batter into muffin cups. Bake at 350° for about 28 minutes or until a wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean.

Apricot Blueberry Cobbler

This incredible cobbler is adapted from Chez Panisse Desserts. There are many different combinations of fruits that can be used for the filling. As long as the fruit is ripe and fresh it should be delicious. The topping to this cobbler is spectacular - it almost reminds me of a sweet biscuit or scone or the shortcake in a strawberry shortcake recipe. I would like to experiment with the topping recipe and try making some sort of scone with it.

Filling Ingredients
3 cups chopped apricots
2 cups blueberries
1/3 cup sugar
1 1/2 T flour

Toss apricots and blueberries with sugar and flour.

Topping Ingredients
1 1/2 cups flour
3/8 tsp salt
4 T sugar
2 1/4 tsp baking powder
6 T butter
3/4 cup light cream

Mix flour, salt, sugar and baking powder together. Cut in butter and mix until mixture is course and crumbly. Stir in cream and mix until just combined.

Pour filling into a 1 1/2 quart gratin or baking dish. Top with large spoonfuls of dough. Bake in over at 375 for 35 minutes until topping is brown and fruit juices bubble thickly around it. Serve warm.

Linda's Olive Oil and Sauternes Cake

I decided to try another recipe from my Chez Panisse Desserts cookbook. I settled on Linda's Olive Oil and Sauternes Cake. The cake turned out well, however, I felt like something was missing. It may be because I couldn't find any Sauternes wine and I substituted an inexpensive bottle of Muscat wine. We didn't have anything to serve it with, the original recipe recommends serving the cake with apricot cream or jam. I think it would also be good with a light layer of powdered sugar sprinkled over the top or a thin drizzle of icing. I'd love to try this recipe again with a good bottle of Sauternes wine. I'll update this post next time I make the recipe.

Ingredients
5 eggs
3/4 cup sugar
1 T mixed orange and lemon peel grated
1/3 cup plug 2 T extra virgin olive oil
1/2 cup good sauternes
1 cup sifted flour
1/3 tsp salt
2 egg whites
1/2 tsp cream of tartar

Directions
Butter and four an 8-inch springform pan.
Preheat oven to 350.

Separate the 5 eggs and beat the yolks with half the sugar until light colored and thick. Beat in the mixed grated peel. Beat in the olive and then the Sauternes. Mix the flour and salt and beat into the egg mixture until just mixed.
Beat the 7 egg whites with cream of tartar until they hold soft peaks. Beat in the remaining sugar until the egg whites hold stiff peaks. Fold into the egg yolk mixture thoroughly.

Pour into the prepared pan and bake for 20 minutes. Lower the oven temperature to 300 and bake for another 20 minutes. Turn off the oven, cover the top of the cake with a round of buttered parchment paper and let site for 10 minutes. Remove the cake from the oven and let it cool in the pan.

Chocolate Gelato

I was searching for a simple chocolate gelato recipe that was not terribly unhealthy. Most of the recipes I came across called for heavy whipping cream or half and half. I finally stumbled upon this recipe by Alice Medrich. I new right away this was going to be good and was happy find that the base is whole milk rather than cream. Unfortunately I did not have any Scharffen Berger cocoa powder so I used ghiradelli instead. I followed the original recipe pretty closely although I did not have a mesh strainer so I skipped that step. The recipe that follows is my verision.

Ingredients
3 cups whole milk
2/3 cup granulated sugar
3/4 cup unsweeted cocoa powder
1-1/2 tablespoons cornstarch

Directions
Mix 1 cup milk, sugar, cocoa and cornstarch together in a bowl until completely blended. In saucepan, heat remaining 2 cups milk over low heat. When hot, add cocoa mixture and continue to stir over low heat until all ingredients are dissolved and mixture is very smooth. Pour mixture into a shallow glass plan, cover with a layer of saran wrap (make sure saran wrap is touching mixture) and chill in freezer until very cold (about 2 hours). Once mixture is chilled, freeze in an ice cream maker.

Vegan Breakfast Muffins II

Yum! I think this might be the best version of vegan muffins that I have developed so far. I know a muffin recipe is good when my fiancee Lee chooses to eat one for breakfast over a leftover brownie or granola! This recipe is similar to my Vegan Breakfast Muffin recipe but has different spices and carrots! The great thing about the Vegan Breakfast Muffin recipe is that you can experiment with different kinds of flour, fruits and vegetables. My favorite thing about this muffin recipe is there is absolutely no added sugar.

Ingredients
1 1/2 cups oat bran
1/2 cup whole wheat flour
1/2 cup coconut flour
1/2 cup garbanzo bean flour flour
3/4 tsp ginger
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1/4 tsp salt
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1.5 cups applesauce
1 very ripe banana mashed
2 whole carrots grated
2 Tbsp olive oil
2 Tbsp soy milk
8 pitted dates chopped into tiny pieces

Directions
Mix all the dry ingredients together. In a separate bowl mix together remaining ingredients. Add wet ingredients to dry ingredients and mix until just combined. Bake at 450 for about 13 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.

*I baked my previous Vegan Breakfast muffins at 400 for 17 minutes. My oven temperature is always off and so I often check it with an oven thermometer. I thought I was baking these muffins at 400 but it turns out I was baking them at 450. Anyway, this recipe works baked at 400 or 450, but if you bake at 450 it will take about 4 or 5 minutes less time.

Variatons
*You can substitute any combination of flour that you like, as long as you have 1 1/2 cups total. I have tried buckwheat, oat flour and spelt flour so far.

*You can add any kind of chopped fruit, shredded vegetables (carrots or zucchini), nuts or dried fruit. Two weeks ago I added chopped strawberries and it was delicious.

*If you prefer a sweeter version you can add up to two Tablespoons of honey or agave nectar. If you want to add more that two tablespoons honey or agave nectar you can reduce the soy milk or olive oil by an equal amount.

Vegan Breakfast Muffins

This is a wonderful, very healthy, vegan muffin recipe. These muffins are rich in whole grains and full of healthy ingredients. They are not a sweet muffin. If they are not sweet enough for you try adding 1/4 cup brown sugar or more agave syrup.

Ingredients
1 1/2 cups oat bran
1/2 cup whole wheat flour
1/2 cup coconut flour
1/2 cup buckwheat flour
1/2 tsp ginger
1 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp salt
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1.5 cups applesauce
2 small, ripe bananas, chopped
2 Tbsp olive oil
2 Tbsp soy milk
2 Tbsp agave
1 Tbsp vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Mix dry ingredients together in a large bowl. In a separate bowl mix together remaining ingredients. Add wet ingredients to dry ingredients and stir until blended. Divide batter into 8 muffin cups lined with paper liners. Bake for about 17 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Muffins will be slightly gooey inside but will become drier as they cool.