Chocolate Dobos Torte Rolls

Hello! For this blog post I have chosen to make "Chocolate (Dobos Torte) Rolls" from my book, Petite Sweets. 

I made these on a day when I was bored and wanted to make something easy. Based on the amount of ingredients and how simple the final product looked in the book, I thought it would be something I could whip up really quick and enjoy. Unfortunately, things definitely did not turn out the way I had planned. This probably turned out to be one of the harder recipes I made.

Just so you know what I had planned on eating at the end of the day, here's an image from my book:

Chocolate (Dobos Torte) Rolls from Petite Sweets (Ojakangas 30)

Looks good, right? Now take a look at the ingredients:

Cake:

• 2 large eggs, separated
• ½ cup powdered sugar
• ¼ cup all-purpose flour
• 3 tablespoons milk 

Chocolate Filling:

• 1 cup semisweet chocolate chips
• 8 tablespoons (1 stick) butter, soft

These are all common baking items so of course I already had all of them in the pantry and fridge ready to go. To start, I turned on the oven to 375°F. Then, in an electric mixer, I beat the egg yolks (that I had already separated) and powdered sugar. Once the mixture was thick, I "beat in the flour and milk until [the] batter [was] smooth" (Ojakangas 31). Once completed, I folded the mixture into a bowl with beaten egg whites. 
When everything was smooth and folded together, I spread the batter evenly over the parchment paper (Ojakangas 31) that I had already laid out. 

I placed the batter in the oven for 5-6 minutes. 

I wish I had mixed the egg more so that it didn't show as much in the final product, but it was edible, so I continued on with the directions. 
Or, I would have, if I had actually been able to peel the cake away from the parchment paper. Me, being the bad reader that I am, totally skipped over the directions which clearly stated, "Coat [the parchment paper] with nonstick spray and dust lightly with flour" (Ojakangas 31). 

I love having to do everything all over again. 

So, after throwing out my first miserable attempt at these chocolate rolls, I started my second batch. 
I repeated the whole process, this time making sure to mix the batter well instead of just folding the ingredients together in the last part. Oh, and I also sprayed the paper with nonstick spray. 

When evenly dispersed on the parchment paper, this batter clearly had less egg whites that were unbeaten compared to the last one. But, of course, one mistake was not enough for me. I had to be an unbalanced klutz and therefore, I accidentally made my batter run all over the baking sheet as I was traveling to the oven, so it wasn't as proportionate as I would've liked. This disaster resulted in... 

Many, many uneven spots and burning. The bottom of the cake was fluffier, which I think was how the whole product was supposed to be, and the top part barely had any batter so, with the extensive time in the oven, it burned. 

But I wasn't about to throw away this disaster yet. I took my spatula and cut out all the burned parts. Then I poked at each side of the paper slightly, and got it to separate. Now I was one step further than I had gotten last time. 

Since the cake part was finished, I started on the chocolate filling. This was the simple part. I placed a bowl on top of a pot of boiling water and filled it with the butter and chocolate chips. I stirred the two together and continued to do so until they were melted together. 
With both the cake and filling done, I started to spread the chocolate onto the cake. I didn't think ahead, though, and ended up spreading it on the whole thing. This didn't work out because, since I cut out the burned part, when I finished off the recipe by rolling the cake, some of the chocolate part wasn't covered by cake, as you can see below. 

Obviously, the end product looks nothing like the picture in the book. It's not as fluffy and cake-like. To me, it looked more like a tortilla. I thought it would be more pound cake-ish.

If I were to do this again... well, I wouldn't. But I guess I would make sure not to burn my cake (and maybe try to make it look more like a cake?) so when I rolled it, it would look semi-decent.

I would only recommend this recipe if you're master chef level or want a serious challenge. I don't think everything I went through was worth it in the end. I don't even know who ate the rest of it, my mom might've just thrown it in the trash when I wasn't looking 😢

Is there a recipe that you completely and utterly failed at making, like I did with this one? How did you try to fix it? 

Thanks for reading!

Ojakangas, Beatrice, and Roger LePage. Petite Sweets: Bite-Size Desserts to Satisfy Every Sweet Tooth. Portland, Me.: Sellers, 2009. Print.

Bakin' Brownies

   In honor of the holidays I decided to bake Peppermint Stick Brownies for my family and friends! In many different areas around the world you can almost guarantee the presence of brownies in parties for people of all ages. Thanks to the book Cookies Cookies Cookies By Shelli McConnell I figured out a way to bake brownies for my family and friends and add a little holiday spin on them!

A sample of how the final product
will turn out to be 

Ingredients Needed:

• 1 & 1/2 cups all purpose flour 
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda 
• 1 & 1/4 cups sugar
• 3/4 cup margarine or butter
• 1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder 
• 2 eggs
• 1 teaspoon vanilla 
• 1 cup milk
• 3/4 cup mint-flavored chocolate pieces 
• 1 cup chopped walnuts or pecans 
• Fudge Frosting 
• 1/2 cup broken peppermint sticks or coarsely crushed striped round peppermint candies 

Recipe 

Step 1: Pour and stir together the flour, baking soda, and baking powder in a medium bowl. Set aside.

Step 2: In a large sauce pan combine the sugar, margarine or butter, and cocoa powder. Place sauce pan over medium heat and stir constantly until margarine or butter is melted. Remove from heat.

Step 3: Add eggs and vanilla into the same sauce pan from step 2. Use a wooden spoon and lightly beat just till combined (don't overbeat).

Step 4: Add the milk and the newly formed chocolate mixture alternately (adding in the two new substances in small amounts while switching between the two). Beating after each addition. 

Step 5: Stir in chocolate pieces and walnuts or pecans. Spread batter into a greased baking pan. Bake in a 350 degree oven for 25-28 minutes or till a wooden toothpick inserted near center comes out clean.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                Step 5: Stir in chocolate pieces and walnuts or pecans. Spread batter into a greased baking pan. Bake in a 350 degree oven for 25-28 minutes or til wooden tooth pick inserted near center comes out clean.

 Step 6: Cool brownies in pan or wire rack. Frost with Fudge Frosting. Sprinkle with crushed peppermint. Cut into desired bars.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                             Step 6: Cool brownies in pan or wire rack. Frost with Fudge Frosting. Sprinkle with crushed peppermint. Cut into desired bars.

Want your brownies to have even more holiday spirit then it already does? Shelli McConnell has created a way for that very thing to be possible, "here's a secret, mint-flavored chocolate pieces are nestled in the center of these chocolaty brownies" (McConnell 16). My loved ones fell in love with the sweet surprise that was found in every delicious peppermint stick brownie, and because of that I can promise that your loved ones will too! 

Did you bake anything special for your loved ones in honor of the holidays?

If so what did you bake? Did your family enjoy it?

Happy Holidays Everyone!

McConnell, Shelli. Meredith Corporation. Des Moines: Meredith Corporation, 1992. Print.

トリプルチョコレートチップクッキー (TRIPLE CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIES) <(^.^<)

                         


                          Hi, welcome to this blog. Enjoy my journey into cooking and baking.
                             
           I love cookies, and I love chocolate. When I saw this recipe, it was a match made in heaven.
          In the cookbook "The taste of home cookbook" by Readers Digest, Paula Zsiray's recipe says "My daughter was awarded first prize in the cookie division of a local Chocolate Festival with this                                  recipe. We think the scrumptious cookies are a winner, too!" (Page 545)  
                                  These cookies butter be good. (Ha get it? Butter? No? Okay...)

                                                                        YOU'LL NEED:

                                             -1 cup or 6 ounces of semisweet chocolate chips                                                                                          -1/4 cup butter, preferably softened                                                                                                           -1 and 1/4 cup of all-purpose flour

                                                        - 6 tablespoons of canola oil
                                                        -3/4 cup packed brown sugar
                                                        -1 teaspoon of vanilla extract
                                                         -1 cup white chocolate chip
                                                        -1/4 teaspoon baking powder                                      
                                                    -1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
                                                                   -1/2 cup sugar
                                                                        -2 eggs

                                                Things are about to get sticky... literally.

                                                        This recipe yields 42 cookies                                                                        
Step 1: mix the sugars with the butter and oil and beat them together until it looks like wet brown sugar
                 
Step 2: add the eggs and the vanilla extract to the mix and beat the new mixture until it looks like a nice brown gooey soup
                     
Step 3: take the flour, baking powder, and cocoa powder and sift it together

Step 4: take half of the dry mixture and mix it in the wet batter (preferably hand mixed at this point)

Step 5: take the other half of the dry mixture and dump it in the batter
         
Step 6: now fold in the semisweet chocolate chips and the white chocolate chip in the batter

OVEN INSTRUCTIONS:
-preheat oven to 350° F
-spoon the cookies on a baking sheet
-bake the cookies for 12-15 minutes depending on how you like your cookies

                                                                           (Step 1)

(Step 2)

(Step 4) 

(Step 6)

(baking the cookies)

(Final product)

I liked these cookies because it was so chocolatey, and was really easy to make. The recipe states that it'd make 42 cookies, but I only had 29. I think this is because I like my cookies a medium size, while their cookies look like they were just a small dollop when they put it in the oven. If you want the full amount, you should use a spoonful of batter, unless you have a preferable size for a cookie. If you do make the cookie bigger, the time may increase to 15 minutes or higher. You can tell the cookie is done when the outside is crispy and the inside isn't gooey. 

I would rate these cookies 8/10 because of how I made them because the texture wasn't right for me. For difficulty, I feel like this cookie gets a 2/10 because it was really simple and was just a process of adding ingredients to a bowl and baking it afterwards. Overall, I found that this process was fun because to me, cooking and baking is a relaxant to the stress of school and other issues outside of school. 

What do you do to relax from stress?  Would you make this cookie in the future?                          Leave it in the comments below!

 C is for.... COOKIESSSSSS NOM NOM NOM :3

Zsiray, Paula. "Cookies & Bars." The Taste of Home Cookbook: From the World's #1 Cooking Magazine. Greendale, WI: Reiman Media Group, 2010.