Chocolate Stout Cake

My aunt and uncle came to our house for dinner on Sunday night and I was craving something chocolate for dessert. This proved to be a crowd-pleaser. In spite of the fact that there are 2 cups of sugar in the cake, it is not very sweet at all. I upped the coffee measurement in the ganache (the original recipe called for 3/4 teaspoon) so it resulted in a barely sweet, delightfully bitter dark chocolate flavor. Since the recipe only calls for 6 tablespoons of cream, I used the remainder in the carton to make a homemade whipped cream that paired nicely with the cake. 

Lightly tweaked from Smitten Kitchen

1 cup stout (such as Guinness)

2 sticks of butter 

3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder (Smitten Kitchen recommends Dutch-process but I used this from Trader Joes and it worked well)

2 cups all-purpose flour
2 cups sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1/2 teaspoon coarse salt
2 large eggs
2/3 cup plain 2% Greek yogurt 

6 oz semi-sweet chocolate chips or baking chocolate (I used a mix of both)

6 tablespoons heavy cream
2 teaspoons instant coffee granules

Prepare cake:

Preheat oven to 350. Butter a bundt pan thoroughly, making sure to get into all the nooks and crannies. Bring 1 cup stout and the 2 sticks of butter to simmer in a heavy saucepan over medium heat. Add cocoa powder and whisk until mixture is smooth. Cool slightly. 

Whisk flour, baking soda and salt in a large bowl to blend. Using electric mixer, beat eggs and yogurt in another large bowl to blend. Add stout-chocolate mixture to egg mixture and beat to combine. Add flour mixture and beat briefly on low speed. Using a spatula, fold batter until completely combined. Pour batter into prepared pan. Bake cake about 35 minutes, when tester inserted into center comes out clean. Transfer cake to a rack and cool completely in pan, then turn cake onto rack and drizzle the ganache. 

Ganache: 

Melt the chocolate, heavy cream and coffee in the top of a double boiler over simmering water until smooth. Drizzle over top of cooled cake. 

Decorate with rainbow-colored non-pareils and serve with homemade whipped cream.

Famous Oatmeal Cookies

I have been making these cookies for years; in fact, they were the first baked good that I made when I was learning how to cook as a teenager. They are easy and delicious and you can customize them to your taste. I  had to do a bit of additional customization with this batch since I did not have shortening. As a substitute, I used two bananas (about 1 1/2 cups worth). The banana flavor is  nice and made for a chewy - and healthier! - cookie. If I do a banana substitution again I will significantly dial back the sugar content; maybe leaving out the granulated sugar entirely. I left out the water in this batch too which was a good idea, since the extra banana made the batter pretty moist. I also used pastry flour instead of all-purpose flour based on this handy substitution guide.  Finally, I added about 1/4 cup of butterscotch morsels and 1/2 cup of mini chocolate chips. As usual, this recipe produced a satisfying cookie!

Makes about 3 dozen cookies (the tin claims batter will make 5 dozen cookies but I have been using this recipe for about 20 years and I can't remember ever getting that many cookies out of it)

3/4 vegetable shortening
1 cup firmly packed brown sugar (I use light or dark)
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1 egg
1/4 cup water
1 teaspoon vanilla
3 cups oats, uncooked
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 teaspooon salt (optional)
1/2 teaspoon soda

Preheat oven to 350. Beat together shortening, sugars, egg and vanilla. Add combined dry ingredients and mix well. Drop by rounded spoonfuls onto greased or parchment-lined cookie sheet. Add-in ideas: chopped nuts, wheat germ, coconut, any kind of chip (chocolate, peanut butter, butterscotch, white chocolate, etc), raisins, dried cranberries or cherries, chia or flax seeds, etc. The possibilities are endless. Bake for 12-15 minutes depending if you prefer a chewy or a crispy cookie.

Sunken Apple and Honey Cake

The CSA provided a bag of teeny tiny apples last week which coincided with Smitten Kitchen's post of this cake which called for the use of teeny tiny apples! I didn't do any alterations to the recipe, but I decided not to include the honey glaze since I planned to take slices to work during the week and didn't want to deal with stickiness. As Deb describes it is a delicious cake and not too sweet. I am not a skilled apple corer (or food photographer) so my apples didn't come out as uniform as Deb's and my photo does not look very appetizing, but I would definitely make this again, next time trying it with the glaze to compare the difference.