Spiced Dark Chocolate Souffle

I wanted to try making my first souffle, so I found a chocolate souffle recipe and tweaked it a bit.  This is the result.

5 lg Eggs, Room Temperature
4 t  Sugar3/4 c  Sugar1/2 c  Special Dark Cocoa Powder6 T  Flour1 t  Cinnamon1/4 t  Salt3/4 c  1% Milk3/4 c  Low Fat Half And Half2 T  Butter1 1/2 t  Vanilla

Separate eggs.  Put egg yolks and whites in separate, large mixing bowls.

Heat oven to 350 degrees.  Coat a 2 quart souffle dish with cooking spray and lightly coat with 4 tsp sugar.  Set aside.

In a small saucepan, combine the cocoa, flour, salt, cinnamon and remaining sugar.  

Gradually whisk in milk.  

Bring to a boil, stirring constantly.  

Cook and stir 1 - 2 minutes longer or until thickened.  Whisk in butter.

Add a small amount of the mixture to the egg yolks, mixing constantly.  

Continue to add small amounts until all of the chocolate mixture is blended with the egg yolks.  Add vanilla.  Set aside.

In another large bowl, beet egg whites until stiff peaks form.  

With a spatula, stir 1/4 of the egg whites into the chocolate mixture until to white streaks combined.  

Fold in remaining egg whites and transfer to prepared dish.

Bake for 40 - 45 minutes or until the top is puffed and center appears set.  Serve immediately.

Surprise Cupcakes

In honor of national chocolate cake day, I give you these cupcakes.  In honor of a friend's birthday, we enjoyed eating them.  Made with Special Dark Cocoa Powder, they are VERY rich, dark chocolate brownies, with peanut butter filling.  Regular cocoa powder can also be used.

  3/4 Cup Special Dark Cocoa Powder                                       3/4 Cup Sour Milk

  1 1/2 Cup All Purpose Flour                                                    3/4 Cup Water

  1 1/2 Cup Sugar                                                                       3 Tbl Vegetable Oil

  1 1/2 Tsp Baking Soda                                                             8 Tbl Butter

  3/4 Tsp Baking Powder                                                            1 Cup Jif

  3/4 Tsp Salt                                                                              13 Ounce Marshmallow Cream

  2 Large Eggs                                                                           

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Lightly coat muffin cups with baking spray. Set aside.

In a large bowl, sift together cocoa, flour, granulated sugar, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. In a separate bowl, beat eggs, milk, oil, and 3/4 cup water.  Beat into dry ingredients on medium until smooth.

Fill the muffin cups 2/3 full.  Bake until a toothpick inserted in center of a cake comes out clean, about 20 minutes. Let cool about 5 minutes, then remove cupcakes to a rack and cool completely.

 

In a large bowl, beat room temperature butter and peanut butter and marshmallow fluff on high until fluffy. Transfer 1/2 to a frosting gun.  If you do not have a frosting gun, use a zip-top bag and cut off one corner to make a 1/2-inch opening.  With a melon baller, scoop out center of each cupcake top and put into a small bowl. Fill cavities with peanut butter mixture using the filling in your gun or bag.  Level off the filling to be even with the top of the cakes, returning any excess to the bowl with the reserved peanut butter mixture.

Crumble the cake removed with the melon baller into the reserved frosting.  Mix well and top each cupcake with this mixture.

Olive's Fudge - From Mom

This chocolate fudge is quite good but the directions are a bit obtuse at the ending.  I kept the thermometer in and cooked the fudge until it read about 238.  When mom made this, she used regular cocoa.  I used Hershey's Special Dark to make a darker chocolate fudge.

  1/2 C Cocoa                                                                             1 Tsp Corn Syrup

  3 C Sugar                                                                                 3 Tbl Butter

  1/2 Tsp Salt                                                                              1 Tsp Vanilla

  1 C Evaporated Milk                                                               

Combine cocoa, sugar and salt.  Add milk, corn syrup and butter and cook on high until mixture boils, stirring occasionally.  Continue boiling without stirring until mixture is 232 degrees.  Add vanilla and continue to boil until vanilla loses its gloss.  Pour into a buttered pan and cool.