Chictastic goes to America!

Howdy, I have some news for you chicsters! This is going to be my last post from Finland..

On this Sunday I'm leaving to spend 2 awesome months in Florida. It'll bring some changes to my blog and hopefully it's something refreshing for you guys. :) I'm not going to give out recipes like I usually do but visit in a different kind of dessert stores and whatnot. Hopefully you will enjoy these 2 months as much as I will!

PS.I hope you guys had amazing Christmas! :))

Easiest and the yummiest dessert for busy chicsters!

Hi folks!

Today's post is going to be short since I've been very busy with my Christmas cakes and chocolate boxes. Don't mind about the shortness because this is one of my personal favorites and doesn't even need too much preparations!

Chocolate fondant (3 pieces)

50g (1,8oz) Butter

50g (1,8 oz) Dark chocolate

1/2dl (0,2 cup) Flours

2 Eggs

3/4 dl (0,3 cup) Sugar

Start by greasing up 3 small cups. My tip is to cut little squares of greaseproof paper to put in the bottom so the fondant comes off easier. Go ahead and melt the chocolate and the butter together in a microwave or on the stove. In the meanwhile, whisk the eggs and sugar together into a fluffy foam. Carefully add the flours and mix it by lifting the batter back and forth, not too much of stirring! Then add the chocolate mix into the batter and mix it in a same way as earlier. Pour the batter into the cups and leave about 1cm (0,5 inch) empty so the fondant doesn't overflow when in the oven. Bake fondants for 10 mins, 185°C (365 F) with a convection mode or 190-195°C (374-383 F) with a normal oven mode. You can eat the fondant straight from the cup or pop it on the plate. Run a knife around the edges oft the cup to make sure the fondant doesn't stick to the cup when flipping it on the plate. Remove the little square from the bottom , add some whipped cream or vanilla ice cream to the side and enjoy! :)

After a long day, this really cheers me up and hopefully it does the same to your day! Till next time chicsters!

Ps. If you wanna make some extras and save them for later, just go ahead and put them into the fridge or freezer. When in the fridge, just add 2 more minutes for the baking time (=12 mins). If in the freezer, add 2 more on the fridge time (=14 mins). :)

Mix 'n' match!

What's up my chicsters!

Lately I've been working on lots of different kind of chocolates and whatnot. So here's a bunch of recipes for different kind of trearts..

Marmelade chocolates

So basically what I did  here was the same recipe as the Fox Candies and then just dipped them into the tempered dark chocolate. I used my chocolate mold when getting the marmelade into a shape and it worked just fine! Just dry those marmelades for 2 days so the chocolate sticks to them and don't roll them in sugar before dipping into the chocolate! ;)

Next up some Choco cones, you'll need:

Greaseproof paper

75g (2,6 oz)Dark chocolate

1dl (0,4 cup) Whipping cream

1 Tbsp Icing Sugar

1 Tbsp Mint liqueur

The trickiest part was definitely the cones. Cut 10 circles out of greaseproof paper (ø 8cm; 3,2 inch) and roll them into the cone shape. I had some troubles with this because no tape would hold on to the paper since the grease. So I took a big piece of tape and kind of just wrapped it around the cone and tried to get to stick to the other end of that same piece of tape. (I know this might sound very unclear to you but just go ahead and try what works for you best! :))

When you have conquered the cones it's time to move on to the actual cooking. Tempere the chocolate and use a smal brush to "paint" the cones from inside. When the chocolate has settled, do it again and put them into the fridge for 2h. Then you can carefully detach  the paper around the cones and you're ready to make the filling!

Whip the cream, icing sugar and the liqueur into a firm foam. Fill the piping bag with it and use a star shaped nozzle. Then just fill the cones and your'e done. How easy was that!?

Okay let's move on to the.. 

..Champagne truffles, you'll need for 10 pieces:

50g (1,8 oz) Dark chocolate

40g (1,4 oz) Milk Chocolate

0,3dl (0,13 cup) Whipping Cream

10g (0,35 oz) Butter

0,2 dl (0,08 cup) Champagne

140g (5 oz) Dark tempered chocolate

Some icing sugar

(The recipe was originally for 50 pieces so go ahead and multiply those ingredient measurements by 5 to get the 50/ more reasonable amounts ;)) 

Grease a small pan and put some plastic wrap on it. Put also a greaseproof paper on a baking tray. Put the dark and milk chocolates in a bowl which can be heated. In the meantime, mix the cream and butter in a thick bottom pan and make sure that it won't burn! Heat it up almost to the boiling point and then pour it on the chocolates. Wait 1 min and then add the champagne in it. Mix it by had or with a blender to get some smooth ganache.

Pour the ganache into the plastic wrap pan and let it cool down there until it starts to settle. When it's still soft, scrape it up into a piping bag with a normal round nozzle and create little drops on the baking tray. Put the tray into the fridge for 20min so the ganache drops set.

When 20 mins are up, get some icing sugar on your hands and roll those drops into a little balls. Put the tray back into the fridge for 10 mins. 

At this point, you should tempere the chocolate and get a some kind of grid with a greaseproof paper underneath it on the table.

Dip the ganache balls into the chocolate and lift them onto the grid to cool down. I sprinkled some icing powder on them so there would be some kind of decoration. :)

Alright, huff.. puff.. you guys still with me?

The last but not the least we have Coconut Ice! 

Some butter for greasing

250g (9 oz) Fine sugar

1dl (0,4 cup) Coconut milk or whole milk (coconut milk just brings up the coconut flavor in them)

a pinch of salt

95g (3,3 oz) Coconut flakes

Start by greasing up a small pan and put a greaseproof paper to cover it. Throw the sugar, milk and salt into a thick bottom pan and heat it up until the sugar had dissolved. The increase the heat and let it boil until it reaches the "soft ball" (116°C, 241 F) level. Add the flakes in it and stir it thoroughly. Be fast since the mixture hardens pretty fast (at least with me) and pour it into the covered pan. Smoothen it out with a palette knife and let it cool down for a couple of hours. The you can chop it into the pieces and serve it. :)

Hopefully today was as enjoyable to you as it has been to me and I'll bring you some more chictastic treats on next week! :)

We're going nuts here!

Hello my friends!

It's first day of December and the snow we got yesterday, got me straight into the Christmas mood. :) We still keep the candy mode on and today we're making some macadamia chocolate caramel. So get your sugar and thermometers ready since it's about the get hot and sticky!

Dig from your cupboards:

200g (7 oz) Macadamia nuts

4 Tbsp Water

350g (12 oz) Sugar

125g (4,4 oz) Butter

1 Tbsp Molasses or Dark Syrup

1/4 Tsp Sea salt

1 Tsp Vanilla extract

1/4 Tsp Baking Soda

150g (5 oz) Dark Chocolate (60-70%)

So begin  by heating up the oven to 160°C (320 F). You need to get some tan on those macadamias but be careful! These nuts are very greasy so they burn easily if you don't keep an eye on them. Roast them for 5 mins and check up on them if they're golden brown. If not, giva a couple more minutes for them. Spread those golden goodies in a tin where they pretty much cover up the whole bottom. Then we move on to the caramel.

Measure the water, sugar, butter, syrup/ molasses and salt into a pan with a thick bottom. Heat it up with a low temperature so everything dissolves and mixes up together. Then bring the heat up and let it boil until the sugar reaches the 'hard crack' level (154°C). You see how the sugar cooks and get darker colored. At this point, remember that the sugar is EXTREMELY HOT! If you get that on you, it doesn't come off by wiping but put the part under some cold water so the sugar hardens.

When the caramel is cooked, take it aside and mix the vanilla extract and baking soda in it. Stir the mixture but not too much! Pour the caramel quickly on to the nuts and try to get it settled by shaking and tapping the sides a bit.

Chop the chocolate and sprinkle it evenly on top of the caramel. The caramel is still so hot that the chocolate simply just melt on it and you can smoothen it out with a palette knife. Let the treat cool down for a good while before cutting it roughly into the pieces. You can store it in a air tight box but don't put it into a fridge or a freezer.

In my opinion, it was fun to see a different side of the sugar. Earlier I have made fluffy marshmallows and smooth fudge but this time the texture was harder. There was some serious cooking and watching not to burn the sugar but I think I passed this one honorably. This combination was very neat with the sweet chocolate combined to a bit salty caramel. The macadamias gave their own texture for the treat so I'd give 8/10 for this. :)

See you next time!

Charlie and the fudge factory

Why hello there!

We still keep conquering the fascinating lands of candy kingdom. Today we give a chance for a one of the unknowns to introduce themselves at least to me. Chocolate fudge or fudge overall is a bit odd concept to me. It's not something we eat here a lot so that might explain it. But hey, it's chocolate again!

You will need:

4,5dl ( Sugar

2,5dl (1 cup) Whipped cream

100g (3,5 oz)Dark chocolate

50g (1,8 oz) Butter

0,5dl Syrup

50g (1,8 oz) White chocolate

Canola oil for greasing

Start by measuring the sugar, cream, chopped chocolate, butter and syrup into a pot with a thick bottom and mix them well. Keep heating up till the mixture starts to boil and the sugar melts in it. Raise the temperature and boil it for 7-10 minutes or till the "soft ball" level on the thermometer. You can also test the texture by dropping some of that fudge into a glass full of cold water. If you can mold the fudge into a ball shape, the mixture is perfect!

Wait until the fudge is around the body temperature and then you can use a mixer on it get it lighter colored and cooler. Grease the mold and at this point add the white chocolate chunks in the fudge. Pour it into the mold and let the fudge settle in the  fridge for 4-6 hours before cutting into pieces.

As far as I'm concerned, fudge isn't my cup of tea. Yes, I like chocolate and candies overall but this was just way too sweet for me. The recipe was extremely easy so this get some points from that. I'd give 6/10 for this and hopefully someone else finds this perfect :) See you next time chicsters!

Squishy Squishy

Marshmallows. People either absolutely love or hate these fluffy treats. I happen to belong to the haters... kind of. So I have been extremely enthusiastic to make these different kind of candies. I almost find it even more fascinating than baking itself but don't worry, I'll still keep on baking. :)

I fell in love with this candy making book, reading it over and over again. It is absolutely amazing how simple looking they can be yet they need very careful and patient cook. The chocolate lover in me wanted to prove that I am capable to do any kind of candies, not only chocolates.

The trickiest part of making these puppies was that the candies include all kind of unhealthy stuff. Not like it is a surprise to me but the fact that they don't sell all those ingredients in normal groserie store. It meant that I had to go hunting again. Last time I had troubles with finding some condensed milk, which actually turned out to be easy compared to this. I googled hours to find a simple bottle of corn syrup. It was vital to find it since it's not replaceable with normal syrup. Corn syrup isn't as sweet as normal syrup and it also give the certain kind of texture to candy. It's used almost in every kind of candy you can see on the store shelves.

They sell corn syrup in wholesale and basically the container, better like barrel, includes 30l (~8 gallons) of that syrup. How would I ever be able to use 30l of that to anything?! I barely use 1 tablespoon of that to one batch of this kind of candy. Finally I was lucky enough to find this lovely store which imports american products to Finland. They have a reasonable 500ml bottle of that syrup. For my Finnish readers I recommend to visit Behnford's (WTC Plaza Keskuskatu 7b 00100 Helsinki). Look for the bottle which is on the picture below.

So marshmallows, let's see what we need..

Marshmallow batter:

Vegetable oil for greasing the pan

50 g (1,8 oz) Icing sugar

50 g (1,8 oz) Corn starch

2 Egg whites

400g (14 oz) Fine sugar

1 tbsp Corn syrup

3 3/4 dl (1,6 cups) Cold water

4 tbsp Gelatin powder

1 tsp Vanilla extract

Red food color

Yellow food color

Ready?

So we start by greasing a baking tray or the greaseproof paper placed on the tray. I feel it's more hygienic with the paper, not a necessity though.

Sift the icing sugar and corn starch into the bowl and sift some of that mixture on the baking tray. I moved the strainer a bit too fast so my powder layer didn't come out too even. Afterwards I can recommend you  to make sure there's that powder all over that, it just comes off a bit easier in that way.

Whisk the egg whites into hard foam and set aside. They might separate a bit but it's easy to be fixed by whisking it some more.

Mix fine sugar, corn syrup and half of the cold water into a small pot on the stove. Stir until the sugar has dissolved. When that has happened, increase the heat and let it boil until it reaches the hard ball stage (130°C, 266 F) I bought a sugar thermometer just for these candy occasions since that shows the different stages between the numbers.

I also want to bring up something important at this point. I went wrong somewhere after this since my marshmallows settled too fast and I didn't get to smooth it up. I'm still not 100% sure what went wrong so hopefully you succeed better in this!

Soften the gelatin powder in the rest of that cold water and proceed with the instructions given on the powder's container. Okay, now we get to the tricky part where you have to be fast.

Right before the sugar liquid reaches the 130°C start to heat up the gelatin on the stove too. When the sugar liquid is the right temperature, mix it up with the gelatin and add the vanilla extract.

Whisk the egg whites nonstop while slowly pouring the mixed liquid into it. Keep whisking until they're properly mixed. Then whisk it again until you can create little soft piles from it, recipe says at least 7 mins of whisking but with me, the batter cooled down so much that it started to settle. So try to hit the perfect time with that.

Divide the batter into 2 different bowls so you can add the food color. A couple of drops should do it but it's up to you what kind of color you want it to be. The recipe still tells you to whisk some more until it's stiff. I shouldn't have and soon you'll see why..

Spread the yellow batter on the tray and then pink one on it pretty quickly. then you should have just enough time to smoothen it out before it starts to settle. Let the marshmallow to settle for about 5 hours.

After 5 hours you can go ahead and sift some of that icing sugar/corn starch powder on the marshmallow sheet. The you can cut into pieces you like and add again some of that powder. In the beginning, they might absorb a lot of it but be patient. :)

Serve right away or keep them in a airtight box.

So up there you can see my attempt with these. By the looks, one could say that it's a total disaster. I had to leave rest of that yellow batter to aside since I got to the point where it was no use to spread on the pink one. It simply just stuck to the palette knife. I should just have done a simple one-color batter and spread it there. My expectations of myself were just too high and I thought it was a piece of cake even though I have never even made these! :D

But hey, how did they taste like?

Honestly, I thought I was eating the actual marshmallows bought from a store. The texture and flavor was EXACTLY the same! We were all fascinated by the fact how close they were to the mechanically produced ones. This process made me understand better the difficulty on candy making and actually kind of like these soft pillow-like candies. All I need to do is to realize the limits of my skills and that way to improve them little by little. 

We see again on the next time when I'm making chocolate fudge so keep the spirit up chicsters!

The Candyman Can!

It is time for my favorite part! I will dedicate the next couple of weeks for candies and master the art of candy making!

Today we're starting with the easiest recipe I have ever used. This treat is adored by my family and especially by my  dad. Ice chocolate. Looks like any other chocolate but wait, there's more! As soon as you put it in your mouth, it literally melts and spreads the ice cool-like feeling in your mouth without being cold.

Here you go:

200g (7 oz) Dark chocolate

100g (3,5 oz) Coconut butter

2-4 Drops of peppermint extract

Oh by the way, I found these little candy tins from a normal groserie store and here's a picture for my Finnish chicsters in case you're looking for ones. ;)

Just melt the butter and chocolate separately and then mix them together. The mixture you'll have isn't that thick at all so don't worry, everything's allright. ;)

I like to use this little cup for pouring it in the tins since I can have everything under control and it's easier to pour with the little lip on the cup.

After you're done pouring, place the chocolates into the fridge to harden and that's pretty much it. I hope you enjoy these as much as we do!

Happy Father's Day!

It's a good day to be a dad!

Todays post is going to differ a little bit from what I have usually written here. It's basically baking but today's version is going to be a salty cake. For the father's day I treated my dad with this beautiful modern version of salmon sandwich cake. This is actually one of the cakes I made for my graduation party and it was absolutely the favorite one!

Sandwich cakes are very traditional festive food in Finnish culture. There's a lot of bread in it so it was nice to find an updated version of this cake. In this one the cream cheese replaces the bread but it definitely fill you up with only one piece. This cake was actually my dad's only wish for the brunch table so let's dive in it.

Bottom crust:

185 g (6,5 oz) Finn crisps

100g (3,5 oz) Butter

4 tbsp (or more) Milk

Cream cheese filling:

4 Leaves of gelatine

250g (9 oz) Cold-smoked salmon

1,5 Pots of dill (compare to the pot in the picture)

1 Red onion

4dl (1,7 cup) Whipped cream

400g (14 oz) Unflavored cream cheese

75g Roe (prefer salmon roe)

Ground white pepper

Juices from 2 Limes

Decoration:

100-150g (3,5-5 oz) Cold-smoked salmon

200g (7 oz) Unflavored cream cheese

1 Lime

Parsley

+ 24-26cm, 9,5-10 inch cake tin (this one is made with 26cm and I ran out of fish to decorate the top with so make sure to have some more of that salmon if you're making the cake with a bigger tin)

Okay, let's start by covering the bottom of the cake tin with some greaseproof paper. I also added one of those plastic strips on the edge to make sure to have a pretty cake. The recipe also suggested to oil the edge but I prefer the strip.

Then we move on to the bottom crust. Melt the butter and chop the finn crisps in the mixer. Make sure that the crisp crumbs aren't too big because we want to have a nice and tight crust on the bottom. When you're done with smashing them, mix the crumbs into the butter and make sure the butter has gotten everywhere. Then you can spread it on the bottom of the cake tin. Spread it evenly and press it lightly with spoon so it gets tight. Add some milk on it after that so it get a bit moist and stays together.

Chop the salmon into pieces or use mixer for that. Don't cut it into too little pieces so theres some texture in the cake. Just a couple of turns with mixer!

Alrighty buddy! The we chop the onion and the dill to go with the salmon. Whisk the cream and add the salmon, onion, dill, roe and cream cheese in it. It's pretty thick paste at this point but don't be scared. When you add the lime juice in it, it's easier to spread into the cake tin. :)

Okay, at this point there might be differences with products so make sure to read the instructions for the gelatine leaves. For my leaves, put them into the bowl with 4dl of  cold water for 5 mins. When there's about 2 mins left, start to heat up the lime juice. When time's up, squeeze the extra water off from the leaves and bring the juice up to boil. When you see the first bubbles, melt the leaves one by one into the liquid while stirring.

When each of them have dissolved in there mix it with the filling we made earlier. Make sure to mix it well so the cake settles properly. The we can pour it into the tin and let it settle for 3h before detaching the edge.

Here you see my attempt to fix my mistake. I made the cake for my graduation party with a smaller tin so I didn't take in consider that since the tin is bigger, of course I need to have more salmon.. So I did my best to make it look good. What do you think?

Anyways, whisk the cream cheese, until it softens a little bit so you can pack it all up into the piping bag and decorate the edges of the cake with the cheese. Finally add some parsley around the cake as you will.

So that's it for today folks! For the next couple of weeks I'm going to dive into the world of candy. I can already tell you that nothing beats the home made chocolate or marshmallows! ;) Stay tuned chicsters! 

Mousse au Chocolat

Chictastic day for you all!

Today is the day we have all been waiting for. It is time to reveal the best accomplishment I have achieved so far. This is the chocolate mousse cake! I apologize beforehand for the pictures since I was too exited while baking. Therefore some of them might be a bit fuzzy or I don't have pictures of every single step.

As far as I'm concerned, this cake is the most amazing thing I have eaten for awhile. It is perfect for a more fancier occasion but still simple enough to bake when you're hungry for something sweet! Even my brother asked if I could bake a new cake for his name day on next week. Can't say no to that!

There's a lot of steps in this one but don't be scared. It's actually very simple to make so here we go..

Dough inside:

1/2 dl (0,2 cup) Flours

1dl (0,4 cup) Cocoa powder

2 1/3 tbsp Corn starch

8 Egg yolks

1dl (0,4 cup) sugar

5 Egg whites

Filling:

1dl (0,4 cup) Blackcurrant jam

Mousse:

4dl (1,7 cups) Whipped cream

250g (9 oz) Dark Chocolate

5 Egg yolks

1/2 dl Sugar

Decoration:

Cocoa powder

Berries

+ 24ccm (9,5 inch) cake tin 

Here's actually everything you need. Not that much of ingredients, huh?

Okay, begin by covering a baking tray with a greaseproof paper. Then sift all of the, flours, cocoa powder and corn starch together into a bowl. You'll need 2 another bowls also since you'll froth the  egg yolks with half of that sugar (1/2 dl, 0,2 cup). Then again the egg whites in another one with rest of that sugar (1/2dl, 0,2 cup).

After all this, you're supposed to have 3 bowls in front of you; flour bowl, egg yolk bowl and egg white bowl. Start by carefully mixing the egg yolks into the egg whites and finally adding the flours into the mix carefully again. Awesome! 

Feel free to spread the dough onto the baking tray smoothly. Bake the dough in 180°C (350F) for 8mins in the middle of the oven. Prepare another greaseproof paper on the table. Spread some sugar on it and when the dough on the tray has cooled down a little, flip it on the sugared paper. This dough is actually the same recipe if you'd be making a Swiss roll. Therefore we're moving on with same steps on here. Before you take off the greaseproof paper which is on top now, here's a tip I learned from my mom. Get the dishcloth wet, prefer cold water, and swipe it over the paper on the dough a couple of times. It helps it to get off easier. :) Cut off 2 circle pieces for the cake. Make sure they're a little bit smaller than the cake tin.

I know, there's a lot of leftover dough but don't worry. We, for instance, ate it with ice cream. It was just perfect combination!

I used my mixers lid to get a perfect circle, though it was big enough to get pieces small enough for the cake. :D Of course, this part of the cake is going to be covered with chocolate mousse so it doesn't really matter if they're perfect or not.

When the greaseproof paper is off, you can prepare the cake tin. Just if you're wondering, my tin is a little bit broken so I have to keep the edge closed with some duct tape. Anyways, cut a piece of greaseproof paper to fit the bottom of the cake tin. If you can see from the picture, I have used a strip of plastic to help me when taking the edge off. It also gives a clean form for the cake. I have bought mine from a special baking store but you can also make you own from stiff plastic. Just make sure its high enough so the mousse isn't all over the cake tin and table when you're pouring that. I usually dont tape it to stay in form. Just making sure that when I'm pouring the filling or whatnot that the strip stays against the edge of the cake tin.

Place the first layer on the bottom of the cake tin. At this point I was wondering if the circles should've been bigger or not. I would say that this is the minimum size since there would be too much of the mousse for the one piece of cake otherwise. Then we continue by taking the jam and spreading it all over the first layer. I left some space on the edges so when you're placing the second layer the jam won't come out. Place the 2nd layer on the jam and lightly press it down so it will be compact. After that, it's time for the delicious mousse!

Start by whipping 3 1/2 dl (1 1/2 cups) of whipped cream. When you're done with that put it in the fridge for later. Melt the chocolate in water bath. I always cheat on this. I have never learned to melt chocolate in this way so I just use microwave for this. So I promise, my chicsters, that now on I will melt chocolate only by water bath! Microwave is not so reliable for that.

Oh, let's keep going, shall we? Prepare another water bath for the rest of the ingredients. Whip the egg yolks, sugar and rest of the whipped cream (1/2dl, 0,2 cup) on the water bath. Keep heating it until it gets thicker. So there's 3 different bowls in front of you again: chocolate bowl (cup in my case), egg mix bowl and whipped cream bowl from the fridge. Mix some whipped cream and egg mix into the chocolate. It gets a little bit thinner so you can pour it into the egg mix bowl next. For the final step, mix carefully the whipped cream in it.

Pour it instantly into the cake tin and put the cake with the cake tin into the freezer. The original recipe said to keep it there for over night or even longer. Of course we didn't want to wait for that long! I ha it in there for 4h and at that point it was solid enough to be cut. If you keep it there over night or longer, let it melt for 4h before serving. Decorate the cake by sifting some cocoa powder on top of the cake and add some berries on it too. I would say the raspberries would go perfectly with this one. ;) As the final step, take the strip of plastic off from the side by pulling carefully.

My cake got a ugly stamp on it when I covered it before putting into the freezer. Unfortunately I don't have any pictures of decoration since I didn't decorate it in any way. It's almost winter so it's basically impossible to get fresh berries from anywhere so yea.. For my surprise, I didn't have a single problem with this. Everything went steady and smoothly from the beginning to the end and everybody just adored this, including me. We ordered this cake "Marble chocolate cake" for my graduation party and I can honestly say that this cake beat the marble one 6-0. The fact that there's a surprise inside of this cake is just amazing. It totally changes the texture in there and the slightly sour jam inside just blows your mind! Totally 12/10 for this one! Hopefully you'll try this at home and have absolutely chictastic time while munching this!

PS. This is perfect cake for freezing it up for later occasion!