Nigella Lawson's ChocoPots

I can't believe it's October already. I'm gonna be 19.... in 13 days. :s Somehow i still feel like 16. I've decided since the beginning of September that i wanted to celebrate my birthday with my own cake. since I'm well, me, who needs like 3-4 times bake a messed up cake and leave the kitchen looking like it's been hit by a truck, i need a lot of practice.

And guess what, today is the first episode of the-messed-up-cake which ends in a emotional break down-kitchen wise. In a second i knew that i need chocolate. like, STAT!

and I'm back in the kitchen. My-look-alike-hit-by-truck-kitchen. Let's just skip that part. I've always been a huge fan of Nigella Lawson and i just simply, adore her. Her recipes are easy, quick, and you just can't go wrong. All you need is her ChocoPots to warm up your day.

 Oh, take a look at how it cracks, the crispy outside, gooey chocolatey, mmmm....

PS:  Sorry bout the pictures! It was raining cats and dogs so I couldn't get the picture with natural light.

Nigela Lawson's ChocoPots

• Butter for ramekins
• 3/4 cup semisweet chocolate chips
• 1 stick (4 ounces) unsalted butter
• 2 large eggs
• 3/4 cup superfine sugar
• 3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
• 1/2 cup chocolate chips

Place baking sheet in an oven preheated to 400°. Butter four 2/3-cup ramekins and set aside.

Using a microwave oven or double boiler, melt together the semisweet chocolate and the butter. Set aside to cool.

In a separate bowl, combine eggs, sugar and flour. Add cooled chocolate mixture, and mix until blended. Fold in chocolate chips.

Divide mixture evenly among ramekins and place on baking sheet. Bake until tops are shiny and cracked and chocolate beneath is hot and gooey, about 20 minutes. Place each ramekin on a small plate with a teaspoon and serve, reminding children that ramekins and chocolate are hot.

Chocolate Thumbprint Cookies

I've been craving for Chocolate Thumbprint cookies since last Eid ul Fitr, when my mom went crazy and bought almost all cookies from Harvest, our local bakery. Chocolate Thumbprint is my favorite, thou Harvest's called them White Button. why, they are as cute as a button indeed! it was really easy and fun to make, despite the part where you bake the cookies for 10 minutes, dipped ur thumb to the half cooked so freaking hot cookie dough, then put it back in the oven.

My red sore thumb is all worth it when I bite into these cute botton cookies, feel the vanilla cookies crumble into rough sand and blend gently with the silken dark chocolate. Oh, Heaven!

Chocolate Thumbprint Cookies
makes 4 1/2 dozen

1 cup plus 6 tablespoons unsalted butter, room temperature
1 cup confectioners sugar
1/2 tsp salt
2 tsp pure vanilla extract
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
6 ounces semisweet chocolate chopped
2 tsp corns syrup ( i used honey instead-it works too)

preheat the oven to 350 F. line two baking sheets with parchment paper. 


In the bowl of an electric mixed fitted with the paddle attachment, beat together 1 cup butter, the confectioners' sugar, salt and vanilla on medium speed until smooth about 2 minutes, beat in flour, beginning on low speed and increasing to medium until combined

Form balls using 2 teaspoons of dough for each, place balls 1 inch apart on prepared baking sheets. 

Bake 10 minutes, remove from the oven, and press thumb into cookies to make deep, wide indentations, rotate the pan, and return to the oven; bake until light brown on the edges, 7 to 9 minutes more. ( if the indentations begin to lose definition, remove cookies from oven and press again.) 

Transfer to a wire rack to cool completely. 

Combine the chocolate, the remaining 6 tablespoons butter and the corn syrup in a small heatproof bowl set over a pot of simmering water; stir occasionally until melted and smooth. 

Allow to cool a bit until slightly thickened. fill thumbprint with the chocolate mixture, and set aside to firm up. cookies can be stored in a single layers in airtight containers at room temperature up to 3 days.

Singapore Goodies

liat apa yang gue temukan pas kemarin ke Singapore waktu liburan!

LUCU BANGET kan? gue benar-benar menganga waktu lihat ini di lantai bawah bag foodcourtnya Takashimaya. dan guys, ini gula, loh. Edible, loh. bisa buat digrogotin dan diemut buat lo semua yang doyan abis sama gula, atau dijadiin pajangan kue. detailnya! dan semua dibuat dari tangan, karema semua piecenya berbeda.

ini juga. dinosaurus pinknya dibuat sebagian dari gula dan hard jelly.

trus lihat hasil rampokan gue dari pojokan toko coklat dilantai bawahnya Paragon. Nama tokonya Chocolat Factory. dan ini bukan toko coklat biasa. coklat-coklatnya sudah di packaging sedemikian rupa untuk hadiah. lucu-lucunya ga ketulungan. this one crack me up. the most honest chocolate! ga kepikiran kan hitungan kalori akan berdamai?
ada juga yang chocolate dengan size coffee beans dengan berbagai rasa untuk dikemil. kalau waktu itu gue sedang fit ( asma lagi nyerang waktu itu) gue akan beli lebih banyak lagi.
dan ini yang paling gue suka. mereka menyelipkan pembatas buku, Be Happy dikantong plastiknya.

setuju bangeett... Eat chocolate, Be Happy!

Valentine's day!

 know maybe it's a litte bit late, but
Happy Valentine's Day!

or maybe for some, shitty fcuklentine day. well for me, it's fall for chocolate day. remember what they say?

i whipped up some really good (and easy!) chocolate layer cake for valentine's day. well maybe it's not really a cake, maybe you can call it pudding. or parfait. or whatever. u named it. one thing it's true though, it's yum.

you're gonna need :

200 ml ganache ( store-bought chocolate pudding will do too)
brownies
fruits you like. ( i used oranges and strawberries)

i used betty's instant fudge brownies because
1. i'm too lazy to whipped up my own brownies,
2. betty's taste sooo damn good.

i whipped up my ganache with ratio of 1 : 1. so 1 part of chocolate with 1 part of cream. this time, i used 200 gr of chocolate and 200 ml of cream.
chop the chocolate to pieces, and melt then on double boiler. let it cooled for a few minutes then incorporated the cream.

sometimes i like to put my ganache in the refrigerator until it reached the desireable consistensy

i added some chunk of white chocolate because i was running out of my dark chocolates. teehee. don't worry, it won't change the flavour, these dark babies are waay too strong.

bake the brownies according to the box's direction ( your favorite recipe or store-bought brownies will do too) and cut them to squares

cut your fruits, i cut my stawberries to squares and add some sugar in it

then, the fun part. assembling!

put the fruit first,

dipp some chocolate

add the brownies

then more chocolate

fruits,

and more chocolate! ( oh I loveee them!)

sprinkle some grated white chocolate, tied it with a ribbon, and there you go

full of love valentine's gift.

enjoy!

Chocolate? Monggo bu.... :)

This is the next big thing in chocolate industry, I'm telling you.

Rasanya enak, empuk dan meleleh dimulut.
Dan ada taste khas yg bikin alis naik in wonder. Rasanya remind me of something ancient in indonesia.. Rrmm herbs... Apa ya?
Pas gue tengok ingredientsnya, ada jahe disitu. Ow, unique!

Pertama kali kenal chocolate monggo itu oleh oleh dr jogya dr miss astari anjani yg liburan disana. Gue makan sepotong, enaaaak bgt. Trus gue simpen dikulkas dan kelupaan. Waktu inget lagi, udah kadaluarsa. Shoot.

Trus yang kedua, oleh oleh dr miss putri matahari dr solo. Cepet cepet gue ludes habis. Yang ketiga, baru baru ini di sogo foodhall pim 2. Dibagian lorong coklat, bertumpuklah chocolate monggo berbagai ukuran dan rasa, siap untuk gue borong.

Kalo gak inget kapasitas dompet, udah gue ludesin tuh coklat. Hahaha

Kelebihan dr coklat ini adalah semuanya indonesia. Produk lokal dengan kualitas top! Cocoanya jg cocoa indonesia yang sebenarnya berkualitas oceh. ( Tp semua diekspor jd kita gak ngerasain-kayaknya. Ga gitu ngerti gini2an gue)
Rasanya enak, dan buat teman teman diluar sana yang peduli lingkungan, coklat ini terbungkus oleh kertas daur ulang :)
Packagingnya juga one of kind, don't you think so? ada juga yang bergambar berbagai tokoh dongeng dari indonesia, gadis bali, dan lain-lain. sorry gak punya gambarnya.
Beli produk lokal! Chocolate monggo membuktikan kalo produk lokal juga sama bagusnya kok dgn produk luar :)

Sosok yang memperkarsai chocolate monggo ini bisa dibaca dibagian 'sosok' kompas hari ini, sabtu 13 juni 2009.
Sejujurnya, gue sangat terinspirasi baca artikel dikompas ini. Gue jg mau ah, memajukan tanah air kita dengan usaha gue. Ayo maju generasi muda. Kalau bukan kita, siapa lagi?

Ah gue jd ngalor ngidul nih. ;p