Steve's Chocolate Pound Cake

This is a chocolate loaf that I used to make whenever my friend Justina's husband was coming to a party. It's not too sweet but very moist. I am going to try something a little different and make individual loaves; I have an issue with this cake being a little toooo moist, if you know what I mean. That sounds creepy; I just mean it it easy to undercook and then harshly overcook. Here's to mini-loaves!!

Eaaaaat meeeeeeeeeeeeee!!

You will need:

3 oz semisweet chocolate (I use Chipits chocolate chips cause I'm lazy like that and they melt well)
1 1/2 c all purpose flour
2 Tbsp cocoa
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1 c butter (UNsalted, of course)
1 c granulated sugar
3 eggs
1 tsp vanilla

Preheat an over to 325 degrees, grease up an 8-pack mini-loaf pan or a 9x5 regular loaf pan. Melt the chocolate over low heat, set aside. Measure all of your dry ingredients (flour, cocoa, baking powder and salt) together in a medium bowl or largish measuring cup (less dishes!!), stir with a fork until well mixed.

In a stand mixer, beat the butter until it is all smooth, add in the sugar and beat until it is light and fluffy. It will actually lighten in colour, so give it a bit.

Lighter! Trust moi!

Beat in the eggs very well, just one at a time, then the vanilla and then melted chocolate. Dump all the flour in at once and only mix until it is all moistened. Pour into the pan(s).

Bake for 50 minutes for a full loaf and 40 for individual sized loaves; you want a clean cake tester before you pull them. Cool for 10 minutes on the rack before you invert for complete cooling.

They are terrific with fresh whipped cream, or ice cream or all by itself.

For Justina for Steve!

Tuesday Bonus: Fudge Cookies

This is another super fast weekday cookie; another one that can be whipped up while the fella is watching the kids and you are cleaning up from supper (ginger EVERYwhere!).

You will need:

2 c (12 oz) semi-sweet chocolate chips
2 oz unsweetened chocolate
2 Tbsp butter (unsalted ALWAYS)
2/3 c sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
1/4 c all-purpose flour
1/4 tsp baking powder
1 c smashed pecans (TOASTED)

Everything you need

First, preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Then melt the butter (have I done my butter rant? no? When I say butter, I only ever mean UNSALTED. I would never use salted butter for baking and I haven't found a use for it while cooking either. I don't know why anyone would; I actually stopped following a favourite chef because he used salted butter in cookies. THEN added salt. Madness) with one cup of the chocolate chips, so half what you have there. I can't tell you how many times I have had to double the batch because I threw the whole 2 cups in. Add in the unsweetened chocolate (supposed to be chopped, but I never do that, because some always gets left on the cutting board and therefore not in my mouth) and melt slowly over medium-low heat. Stir the whole time, working those chunks of unsweetened chocolate with the butter.

Once it is smooth and amazing, remove from heat.

Add in sugar, eggs, vanilla, flour and baking powder. Once it is smooth, add in the rest of the chocolate chips and the smashed pecans. To smash pecans, place in a small baggie and mash with a rolling pin. Much easier to contain than on a cutting board.

Line three cookie sheets with parchment paper (or however many you have); this is a very sticky cookie and you don't want to try to dig these suckers off. If you are going to use the same sheet more than once, make sure you cool the sheet before you cookie-it.

12 cookies to a sheet, but they don't spread much, so feel free to load them up. This makes three dozen, so maybe two sheets of 18? Whatever works!

Zee awesome cookie scoop

Bake at 350 for 8-10 minutes until the tops aren't shiny anymore and they are a little cracked out looking.

36 nuggets of awesome

You don't need to cool them as long as chocolate chip cookies, maybe 15 minutes before you pack them up. I still like to freeze half of the batch in a ziploc baggie with the air removed. So good! Enjoy!