Chocolate Roulade, Chocolate Jelly Roll

My brother's birthday was yesterday.  He requested a chocolate cake for dessert.  I told him, "No problem, a Chocolate cake is easy".  Then I went and made is harder and turned it into a Chocolate roulade.  It was really not that hard.  I just had never successfully made a jelly roll that held together before.  I am quite proud of myself that this one turned out well rolled, not falling apart, and delicious.

Chocolate Roulade, Chocolate jelly roll

3 eggs
1 cup sugar
1/3 cup water
1 tsp vanilla
1 cup cake flour
1/4 cup cocoa powder
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
powdered sugar

Chocolate Ganache
4 oz semi sweet chocolate
1/2 cup heavy whipping cream

Heat oven to 375 degrees.  Line jelly roll pan with parchment paper.  Beat eggs, water, and vanilla together for about 5 min until fluffy.  Beat in sugar gradually.  Mix together dry ingredients and slowly add to egg-sugar mixture.  Beat until smooth.  Pour the batter into the parchment paper lined jelly roll pan.  Bake at 375 degrees for 12 - 15 min or until a toothpick comes out clean.  Flip the cake over onto a powdered sugar or cocoa powdered covered parchment paper.  Remove the top layer of parchment paper.  While the cake is still warm, roll it.  Refrigerate, seam side down, for 15 min.  Unroll the cake and fill with chocolate ganache or jelly.  Roll it up again and cut off the ends.  Sprinkle with powdered sugar and refrigerate until ready to eat.

Beat together 3 eggs, water, and vanilla for about 5 min.  Slowly incorporate sugar.

Mix together the dry ingredients and beat until smooth.

Pour batter into a parchment paper lined jelly roll pan.

Bake at 375 degrees for 12-15 min.

Dust another parchment paper with cocoa powder or powdered sugar.

Carefully flip the cake over on top of the cocoa powdered dusted parchment paper and remove the baking layer of parchment paper.

While the cake is still warm, roll it up and refrigerate for 15 min with the seam side down.

Meanwhile, make chocolate ganache.  I used 4 oz semi-sweet chocolate to 1/2 heavy cream.  Bring the cream to a boil, remove from heat and add chopped chocolate.  Stir together until smooth.

Remove cake from the refrigerator and unroll.

Spread out the filling.

I also added whipped cream.

Roll the cake up again and cut off the ends.

Dust with powdered sugar.  I used Hershey chocolate syrup to give it a pretty design on top.

Enjoy.

Gingercake

I hear that ginger is a good natural remedy for morning sickness.  I have had pretty bad morning sickness during this pregnancy.  I also have pretty bad cake cravings.  A Gingercake would take care of both of my problems.  Right?  I should add that this tastes better than any gingerbread I have had and it made my kitchen smell like Christmas for two days.  It was amazing.  I also got to finally use my Treacle.  I went on a Treacle quest two years ago after reading "Alice in Wonderland."  I was surprised how hard it was to find here in Utah.  Thank goodness for the "London Market".  

Gingercake

1/2 cup butter, room temperature
1/2 cup brown sugar
2/3 cup Treacle
4-5 inche piece of fresh ginger root, finely grated
2 eggs, beaten
1 cup flour
1 cup self rising flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
3/4 cup heavy whipping cream

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Cream together butter and brown sugar.  Add treacle, grated ginger, and beaten eggs.  Mix together dry ingredients and slowly add to the the mixture.  Add heavy cream last and mix until smooth.  Pour cake batter into a well greased pan.  Bake at 350 degrees for 50 min or until a toothpick comes out clean.  Cool cake for 10 min before turning it out to cool.

 Finely grate about a 4" piece of ginger root.  This part smells wonderful.  I will never use ginger powder again.  That's a lie, but using real ginger made a huge difference.

 Cream together butter, brown sugar, ginger, and treacle.  I finally got to use my Treacle.  Best day of my cooking life.  Add beaten eggs.

 Add the flour mixture.

 Add the heavy cream last and mix until well incorporated.

 Pour cake batter into a well greased pan and bake for 50 min at 350 degrees.

 Allow the cake to cool for about 10 min before turning it out.

 Sprinkle with powdered sugar and serve with heavy cream.  I have been craving heavy cream poured over a hot dessert lately and this satisfies that craving.

 Or whipped cream.

Enjoy.

Week 17: Turnip

Week 17:  F1 baby is the size of a turnip.  I have no turnip jokes.   Turnips are just not funny.  I made Turnip stew.

Turnip stew

1 cup chicken broth
Salt, Pepper, Italian Seasoning, or any seasoning
1+ pounds of potatoes, peeled, and cut into 1" pieces
1 pound beef, cubed into 1" pieces
A handful of carrots, rough chopped
2 Turnips, peeled, and cut into 1" pieces

Crock pot on LOW for 7-9 hours.

Crock pot the stew.  Add the chicken broth and seasoning first, followed by layering meat, potatoes, carrots, and turnips.  Note to self:  Use 3 cups of broth next time.

Crock Pot cook on LOW for 7 - 9 hours or until you cannot stand the delicious smell in the house anymore and start picking at it early.  Garnish with parsley.

Enjoy

Here I am with my 17 week baby bump.  The horizontal striped shirt really brings out how much weight I've gained.  No more skinny jeans for me.  I am starting to shop for maternity clothes.  I still get bouts of morning sickness.  I started a "Days without Incident" board for my own amusement to see how long I can go.  The longest I have gone is 11 days since I found out I was pregnant.  My goal is two weeks without an incident.  I also started Prenatal Yoga this week.  I hope that will help bring down my anxiety about having a baby.

Apple Dumplings

I found this darling recipe in my 1978 Betty Crocker cookbook.  The cookbook was a wedding gift to my parents.  I "borrowed" it from my Mom a couple of years ago.  To this day it still has the best chocolate chip cookie recipe I have ever tried.  The cookie chapter is worn and stained with years of family love.  We had what Mom called "Brownie Sunday".  It was not always brownies, just a dessert baking day, and always on a Sunday.  Chocolate Chip cookies were made just as often as brownies.  I honestly think the cookie chapter was the only chapter we used growing up.  I found this recipe as I was flipping through the book.  I was craving a dessert that I could pour heavy whipping cream over something hot out of the oven.

Apple Dumplings

Pie dough

2 Baking apples

3 Tbs raisins (I hate raisins so I used cranberries instead)

3 Tbs chopped nuts

1 cup packed brown sugar

1/2 cup water

Heat oven to 425 degrees.

 Heat to boiling the brown sugar and water.

 Roll out pie dough into 7" x 7" squares.  Chop nuts and raisins and mix together.  Core the apples, but do not peel.  Place the apple in the middle of the Pie dough square.  Fill the apple core with nuts and raisins.  Fold pie dough over the apple.

Place the doughed apples in a baking pan.

 Pour the brown sugar syrup over the apples.

 Bake at 425 degrees for 40 min.  Every 10 min or so spoon the brown sugar syrup over the apples.

 Take the baked apples out of the oven and pour a generous amount of heavy whipping cream over them.

Enjoy.