I found myself with a whole carton of sour milk in my refrigerator the other day. I have been using it up as much as possible. I made biscuits with it and a few other bits and bobs, and then today I decided to make this chocolate cake.
It is snowing like the blazes out there today. I think this is the most I have seen it snow since I moved back here, but I may deluding myself. It is the first major storm of the year.
What better to do on a day like today than to stay home, warm inside, and bake. I have noticed a few hardy souls out and about driving, but not me.
I am sticking to my four walls and doing what I love best. Warm and content with the smell of chocolate cake wafting through the air. What more could you ask for!
It doesn't get much better than this. This is a cake I adapted from a recipe I found in a baking book by Yossi Arefi entitled Snacking Cakes.
The original recipe used buttermilk and had a fudgy chocolate frosting. I decided there was not much difference between sour milk and buttermilk and so took the chance of having it work out. Happily it worked beautifully!
I also decided to make a French Vanilla Buttercream Frosting to top it off with rather than the chocolate frosting. I felt the chocolate might be a too rich for my taste. I know. Me <= crazy.
White frosting also sets off chocolate things much better in photographs as well, so there is a method to my madness. I also happen to really like vanilla frosting. My cake. My rules, although I will certainly share the chocolate frosting with anyone who asks.
As you can see the cake rose beautifully. It is dense and fudgy, incredibly moist and boasts a rich chocolate flavor.
Feel free to use buttermilk instead of the sour milk in this recipe. Both will work wonderfully, or you can sour your own milk by adding 1 TBS of lemon juice or white vinegar to a cup measure and adding the milk to fill it. Set aside for five minutes in order for the milk to clabber.
WHAT YOU NEED TO MAKE FUDGY SOUR MILK CHOCOLATE CAKE
Simple household ingredients. Nothing special here.
For the cake:
- 1 cup (200g) granulated sugar
- 2 large free range eggs
- 1 cup (240ml) sour milk (or buttermilk)
- 1/4 cup (60ml) canola oil
- 1/4 cup (55g) butter, melted
- 1 tsp vanilla extract (I only use pure)
- 3/4 tsp fine sea salt
- 3/4 cup (70g) sifted unsweetened cocoa powder (not drinking chocolate)
- 1 cup (140g) all purpose plain flour
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1/2 tsp baking soda
- 1/4 cup (60ml) hot coffee or water
Yossi specified Dutch cocoa powder. I only have regular cocoa powder.
For the frosting:
- 1 cup (130g) icing sugar, sifted
- 1/4 cup (55g) butter, at room temperature
- 1 TBS milk, or more as needed
- 2 tsp vanilla bean paste (you can use vanilla extract)
- 1 tsp lemon juice
- pinch salt
I also chose to decorate my cake with some sweet cake sprinkles. I chose a wintery looking mix of white stars and silver balls, white chocolate balls, and white shot.
I get my sprinkles from Sweetpolita. They have the nicest cake and cupcake decorations! They haven't asked me to tell you, I just like to share the things I use and like with my readers because I think you would like them too! They are just really nice.
HOW TO MAKE FUDGY SOUR MILK CHOCOLATE CAKE
I love making these snack cakes. They beat up all together in one bowl easily and then bake in one square pan. They are the perfect sized cake for a small family.
You begin by preheating the oven to 350*F/ 180*C/ gas mark 4. Butter an 8-inch square baking tin. Line with baking paper leaving an overhang on two sides. (I just use one long strip. It doesn't matter if two sides are not covered.) Set aside.
Beat the sugar and eggs together in a bowl until very light and foamy. (It will look like it is thickening) Beat in the sour milk, oil, melted butter, vanilla and salt until thoroughly emulsified. Whisk in the cocoa powder.
Sift the flour, soda, and baking powder together. Whisk into the batter until well combined and smooth. Stir in the hot coffee/water.
Bake in the preheated oven for 35 to 45 minutes. It is done when well risen and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. The top should also spring back when lightly touched.
Set on a wire rack and allow to cool in the pan for 15 minutes before lifting out of the pan and onto the rack to cool completely.
Leaving it to cool in the pan for those fifteen minutes helps to increase the density and fudginess of this lush cake. Trust me on this!
To make the frosting, measure all of the ingredients into a bowl and beat together with an electric hand mixer until you have a smooth, light and fluffy icing. It should be fluffy and not runny in the least.
If you think yours is not fluffy enough, beat in additional icing sugar one heaped dessertspoonful at a time until you get the proper consistency.
Spoon onto the top of the cake and spread over in swoops and swirls. I sprinkled the cake sprinkles on top as soon as I finished frosting it so that they would stick nicely.
Store any leftovers in an airtight container. I have an old cookie tin that works beautifully.
I wish my camera would take photographs that did this cake complete justice so that you could see how really dense and fudgy this cake is. You will simply have to take my word for it.
I wish I had someone here to share this with, but alas I do not. I guess I will just have to take some over to my next door neighbor Sheila after bit when the snow slows down, if it slows down. It wouldn't hurt to check on her and see how she is doing in this stormy weather or see if she needs anything anyways!
That's what being a good neighbor is all about!
All of the content you see here on this page, both photography and written, are the sole property of The English Kitchen, Marie Rayner. Any reposting or misuse is not permitted. If you are reading this elsewhere, please know that it is stolen content and you may report it to me at mariealicejoan at aol dot com.
I don't know about you, but I like to cook a roast dinner of some sort at the weekend. I had a pork rib loin roast in the freezer that I wanted to use up. I thought this week would be an excellent time to do so.
We are all tired of turkey and beef and ham. Pork is a break from all the holiday meals we were enjoying in December. It is both delicious and comforting. Today's pork is also very lean when compared to the pork of yesteryear!
Roasted to perfection, this delicious garlic and butter herbed pork loin makes a delicious option for your Sunday dinner, or for any special occasion really. Not only is it tender, flavor-filled and moist, but it comes with its own roasted vegetables on the side.
All you need to cook in addition to what you see here is perhaps some potatoes or rice. I didn't even bother with that. I had plenty on my plate regardless to having any starch. As a diabetic I don't always need the carbs!
As you can see it basically cooks in one dish. Meat and vegetables. Nothing could be easier. All are coated with a delicious mix of herbs, and garlic.
They are also dotted with butter, ensuring extra tastiness! Chicken stock helps to keep everything moist and also provides plenty of pan juices to make a tasty gravy!
There is also no need to sear or brown the meat ahead of time. Simply pop everything into your roasting tin/dish and pop it into the oven.
Easy peasy, lemon squeezy.
WHAT YOU NEED TO COOL GARLIC BUTTER HERBED PORK LOIN
Nothing too out of the ordinary, that's what. Simple ingredients done well. The deliciousness of this easy speaks for itself.
For the meat and vegetables:
- 2-3 lb boneless pork loin roast, with a thin cap of fat
- 1 small turnip (swede/rutabaga) peeled and cut into 1 inch cubes
- 3 large carrots, peeled and cut into thick slices on the diagonal
- 2 small cabbage, trimmed and cut into thick wedges
- 4-5 cloves cloves peeled and minced garlic
- 1 teaspoon dried thyme
- 1 tsp dried summer savory (if you can't find it use marjoram)
- 1 tsp dried sage leaves
- 1 tsp paprika
- Kosher or sea salt and fresh cracked pepper to taste
- 6 tablespoons butter
- 1 cup (240ml) chicken stock
For the gravy:
2 TBS butter
2 TBS flour
2 cups (480ml) of pan juices and stock to make up the full amount
This always turns out fabulously tasty. That mix of herbs goes wonderfully with everything and what can I say about garlic and pork? It is a marriage made in heaven!
The vegetables are nice and tender and are all things which also go very well with pork. I adore the combination of pork and cabbage. They are also nice made into a hash with the leftover cooked pork in the following days.
HOW TO MAKE GARLIC BUTTER HERBED PORK LOIN
I love roast dinners like this. There is only a very simple preparation needed. The dinner basically cooks itself!
You will need to preheat your oven to 425*F/ 230*C/ gas mark 7. Have ready a roasting tin/casserole large enough to hold the meat and vegetables.
I like to cut criss-cross slashes in the fat on top of the meat. This helps the flavors of the garlic and the herbs to get right into the meat, adding to its deliciousness.
Place your meat in the center of the roasting tin, arranging the vegetables on either side. Sprinkle the garlic, herbs, salt and pepper evenly over everything.
Dot with the butter. Pour the chicken stock into the pan. I pour the stock down the side edge so as not to disturb the butter, garlic and herbs. Cover the whole dish tightly with aluminum foil.
Roast in the preheated oven for 1 hour. Uncover. Reduce the oven temperature to 325*F/160*C/ gas mark 3.
Continue to roast for a further 1 to 1 1/2 hours until the pork juices run clear, the vegetables are tender and the pork registers an internal temperature of 145*F/63*C.
Remove the pork and vegetables to a platter. Tent with foil and set aside to keep warm. Resting the meat like this helps any juices to be reabsorbed, keeping your meat moist and tender.
Skim fat from the pan juices and add stock to the amount needed to make the gravy.
Cook over moderate heat, whisking constantly, until the mixture bubbles and thickens. Cook for several minutes longer. Taste and adjust seasoning as required with salt and black pepper.
I did not need any additional seasoning at all.
Serve the meat, cut into thick slices, along with a portion of vegetables for each person and some of that delicious gravy spooned over top.
As you can see the meat is deliciously moist and tender. So are the vegetables. Both together are comfort food bliss. All you really need on the side, if anything, are some potatoes or some rice.
Nobody needs to know how easy this was to prepare. You could actually throw some medium sized baking potatoes into the oven along side of the roast for the last hour and a half of cooking if you wanted to.
Just wash them really well, prick with a fork and place them into the oven right on the oven rack. Again, easy peasy.
Simple. Easy. Delicious. Who could ask for anything more than that!
All of the content you see here on this page, both photography and written, are the sole property of The English Kitchen, Marie Rayner. Any reposting or misuse is not permitted. If you are reading this elsewhere, please know that it is stolen content and you may report it to me at mariealicejoan at aol dot com.
On Wednesday nights my father usually meets with some lady friends for Fish and Chips at one of the local restaurants. Occasionally I go to meet him there and have dinner with the ladies and him.
He has been after me to bake him some cookies for a while now so I thought today I would bake him some Jam Jams and bring them with me to the restaurant to give to him. I thought they would make a nice surprise.
My father just loves Jam Jam cookies. He also loves Molasses cookies. These Jam Jams are the perfect combination of the two and comes from the annals of my Big Blue Binder.
The Big Blue Binder is a large plastic covered binder which I have been gathering recipes in since I was a young girl. It has been all the way across Canada and back and across the Atlantic ocean and back as well. It is one of my treasures.
It is filled with old family recipes, recipes clipped from magazines over the years, handwritten recipes shared with me by friends, etc. It is filled with tried and trues. I reckon everyone has something like my Big Blue Binder.
This is a recipe I got from my good friend Leona back in 1981. Our husbands were both in the Canadian Armed Forces and serving on a base in London, Ontario. We met at a Bingo at the Junior Ranks mess on a Sunday evening and have been fast friend ever since!
Not only did we have a love of Bingo in common, but we both also loved to cook and to bake for our families. Quite a few of my tried and trues come from Leona.
I love recipes that come associated with happy memories and beloved friends and family, don't you? I never bake these cookies without thinking of my dear friend and remember the happy times we spent with each other through the years bingo-ing, laughing and cooking!
The original recipe (as most older recipes) was not complete with instructions, temperatures, finished amounts, etc. Those older recipes rely on the cook/baker knowing a bit about what they are doing.
I have worked out the temperatures, etc. for you as well as the amounts of flour needed. The original recipe only said one word . . . flour. haha
WHAT YOU NEED TO MAKE MARITIME JAM JAM COOKIES
Simple ingredients you probably already have in your larder and cupboard.
- 1 cup (220g) butter (I use salted)
- 1/2 cup (120ml) mild molasses (In the UK you can use 60ml golden syrup and 60ml dark treacle)
- 1/2 cup (100g) soft light brown sugar, packed (you could also use muscovado)
- 1 large free range egg, lightly beaten
- 2 tsp baking soda, dissolved in 3 TBS hot water
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1 tsp vanilla
- 3 1/2 cups (490g) all purpose plain flour (you may need a bit more, plus you will need more for rolling out the dough)
- jam for filling (I used seedless raspberry jam, you will need about 3/4 tsp for each cookie pair)
These are somewhat different than the cookies you will see in the shops here in the Maritime Provinces. The Jam Jam cookies there are produced by Purity a Newfoundland company and are not molasses cookies per se.
These are molasses cookies, and I like this version better than the Purity one because . . . one, I love Molasses Cookies, and two, homemade is always infinitely better!
HOW TO MAKE MARITIME JAM JAM COOKIES
As I said above the original recipe was basically just a list of ingredients, and some of them were quite vague as to the amounts, and there were no instructions listed at all. I have endeavored to make these instructions as simple and yet as exact as I can!
You need to begin by preheating your oven to 350*F/180*C/ gas mark 4 and lining several large baking sheets with some baking paper. The recipe makes approximately 26 jam filled double cookies, so you can use one baking sheet twice, or two baking sheets. Its up to you.
Cream the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy. Your butter should be at room temperature. Actually I usually have all of my ingredients at room temperature when I am baking. It just works better that way.
Beat in the egg, salt, vanilla, molasses, and soda until well combined. I am not sure why in the old days they always requested that you mix the soda with hot water. Perhaps it was to make sure the soda dissolves. In any case I do exactly that and then beat it in.
The mixture might look a bit curdled at this point, but don't worry you are going to start beating in the flour now and that will sort that out. I beat it in 2 cups (280g) at first with the electric hand mixer and then I beat in the remainder (about 1 1/2 cups 210g) by hand.
Your dough should be stiffish but not dry. You want it to be quite malleable about the consistency of play dough. So don't add too much flour.
Once you have your dough to the right consistency you can start rolling it out on a lightly floured surface using a lightly floured rolling pin. I usually do this in quarters. I roll out a quarter, (1/4 inch thick) and cut out my rounds with a 2 1/2 inch cutter, placing them 1 1/2 inches apart on the baking sheet.
Once I have cut all the rounds that I can from that quarter, I gather the scraps and knead them into another quarter measure of the dough. That way you don't end up with really floury dry cookies (if that makes sense). You can see why you don't want your dough to be really dry and crumbly to begin with.
Once the dough has all been rolled out and placed onto the baking sheet(s), it is time to bake them. It takes approximately 12 minutes at 35/*F/180*C. You will know they are done when they are set on top and golden brown on the bottoms.
Because they are a brownish cookie you won't really be able to tell from looking at the color on the top.
Scoop them off onto a wire rack to cool completely. You can then sandwich them together in pairs, using about 3/4 tsp of jam in the middle for each pair.
If you want to make them really stick well together you can return them to the oven briefly (in pairs) and this will heat the jam up a bit and they will stick together better. Or (and this is what I do) I sandwich them together while they are still quite warm.
I can't wait to see my father's face when I turn up with these tonight! I think he is going to be really excited to see them. I am going to be really happy as well because making him happy makes me happy!
My sister stopped by with some mail this afternoon and I was able to give some to her to take home as well. That also put a smile on my face.
These cookies are really nice served with an ice cold glass of milk. I hope you will enjoy these traditional Maritime favorites as much as we do!
Yield: 26 jam filled cookies
Maritime Jam Jam Cookies
Prep time: 15 MinCook time: 12 MinTotal time: 27 Min
This is a recipe I got from my friend Leona about 40 years ago now. This is a crisp molasses cookie sandwiched together with raspberry jam in the middle. A maritime tradition. The original recipe used margarine. I use butter.
Ingredients
- 1 cup (220g) butter
- 1/2 cup (120ml) mild molasses
- 1/2 cup (100g) soft light brown sugar, packed
- 1 large free range egg, lightly beaten
- 2 tsp baking soda, dissolved in 3 TBS hot water
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1 tsp vanilla
- 3 1/2 cups (490g) all purpose plain flour
- jam for filling
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350*F/180*C/ gas mark 4. Line several large baking sheets with baking paper. Set aside.
- Cream the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy. Beat in the egg, salt, molasses, vanilla and soda until well combined. Stir in the flour to give you a stiff dough.
- Using a lightly floured rolling pin, roll the dough out on a lightly floured flat surface to 1/4 inch thickness. Cut into rounds using a 2 1/2 inch cutter, gathering up scraps and re-rolling as needed.
- Place onto a baking sheet leaving 1 1/2 inches between each cookie.
- Bake for 12 minutes until done. (They will be firm on top and golden brown on the bottoms.)
- Scoop off onto a wire rack, and repeat baking process until all cookies are baked.
- Sandwich pairs together with about 1/2 to 3/4 tsp of jam in the center. Store in an airtight container.
All of the content you see here on this page, both photography and written, are the sole property of The English Kitchen, Marie Rayner. Any reposting or misuse is not permitted. If you are reading this elsewhere, please know that it is stolen content and you may report it to me at mariealicejoan at aol dot com.
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