Truffle Cake

Posted on December 2, 2011 by sparecake

The evening after Thanksgiving it became suddenly imperative to have truffle cake. I sent my roommates out for ice cream and headed to the kitchen. Luckily, I apparently always have massive amounts of chocolate on hand!

Ingredients:

  • 4 eggs, separated
  • 16 ounces semi-sweet chocolate
  • 1 stick butter
  • 1 1/2 teaspoons flour
  • 1 1/2 teaspoons sugar
  • 1 teaspoon hot water

Beat the egg whites until stiff but not dry; set aside.

Melt the chocolate and butter until smooth.

My favorite sight!

Add the flour, sugar, and water and blend well. Add the egg yolks, beating well after each addition.

Fold in the egg whites, and turn the mixture out into a greased 8″ springform.

Bake for 15 minutes at 425 degrees, at which point it may still look uncooked.

Cool briefly, then chill in the fridge or freezer and serve with whipped cream or ice cream.

It’s the perfect cake for a chocolate craving!

Truffle Cake

From my mom.

  • 4 eggs, separated
  • 16 ounces semi-sweet chocolate
  • 1 stick butter
  • 1 1/2 teaspoons flour
  • 1 1/2 teaspoons sugar
  • 1 teaspoon hot water

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees; grease an 8″ springform pan

Beat the egg whites until stiff but not dry; set aside.

Melt the chocolate and butter until smooth.  Add the flour, sugar, and water and blend well. Add the egg yolks, beating well after each addition. Fold in the egg whites, and turn the mixture out into the prepared pan.

Bake for 15 minutes, then cool. Chill or freeze until firm, then serve with whipped cream or ice cream.

Posted in Dessert | Tagged , | 1 Comment

The Best Turkey!

Posted on November 30, 2011 by sparecake

Everything I made for Thanksgiving was vegan except for this, the most ridiculous turkey imaginable. It’s got a pork stuffing under the skin, to keep the breast meat moist, and bacon, garlic, and rosemary in the legs which flavor them nicely. I know you may be maxed out on turkey right now, but Jamie Oliver seems to think that this is good for Christmas, so…

Ingredients:

  • 4 tablespoons butter
  • a sprig of sage, leaves picked
  • 12 strips of pancetta or thinly sliced bacon
  • 1 bulb of garlic broken into cloves
  • 4 medium red onions, peeled
  • 2 sticks of celery, trimmed and chopped
  • a big handful of breadcrumbs
  • a handful of dried apricots
  • 10 1/2 ounces ground pork
  • zest of 1 lemon
  • a pinch of grated nutmeg
  • 1 large egg
  • sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
  • 12 small fresh rosemary sprigs, plus a few extra
  • 9-10 pound turkey, at room temperature
  • 2 carrots, peeled
  • 1 large orange
  • olive oil
  • 2 tablespoons plain flour
  • 2 pints chicken or vegetable stock

Heat a saucepan until medium hot and add the butter, sage, and half of the pancetta or bacon.

This immediately smells good!

Peel and chop two of the garlic cloves and one of the onions. Add the garlic, onion, and celery to the saucepan and fry everything gently until soft and golden brown. Remove from the heat and add the bread crumbs. While the mixture cools, roughly chop the apricots and stir them in. I didn’t think the apricot I ate at the time was great, but once they were a part of the stuffing they were a good addition. Once the stuffing has cooled, add the pork, lemon zest, nutmeg, egg, and some salt and pepper. Stir everything together well.

Smells even better now!

Preheat the oven to the highest it goes.

Slice the remaining pancetta or bacon in half and slice one or two of the garlic cloves until you get 12 small slivers of garlic. Place a sprig of rosemary and a sliver of garlic on one end of a piece of pancetta or bacon and roll it up, repeating with each.

I got Kyle to do this while I made the stuffing.

Wipe the turkey down with paper towels, inside and out. Stab the thighs and drumsticks in six places on each side and push the pancetta/bacon roll into the hole until it just barely sticks out. I had accidentally bought thickly sliced bacon, so it was fairly difficult to cram in, but we made it work!

Starting on the neck end of the turkey, work your fingers under the edge of the skin. Slowly work your hand in there, detaching the skin as you go, working all the way to the back of the turkey. It takes some time, but you can do it!

Once the skin is loosened, put the pork stuffing up there under the skin, small handful by small handful. If it grows lumpy in one area, you can even out the stuffing by running your hand along the outside of the skin. Once the stuffing is evenly distributed under the skin, tuck the edge of the skin under to hold it in.

There's a lot going on under that skin!

There’s no point putting the little pop-up thermometer thing back in, as apparently that huge layer of stuffing makes it not work.

Microwave the orange for 30 seconds to make it hot and then stuff it into the cavity at the other end of the turkey. Weigh the stuffed turkey and calculate the cooking time – 20 minutes per pound.

We weighed Kyle, then Kyle + turkey. Our turkey had gained 3 pounds of stuff!

Place the turkey in a large roasting pan and rub it all over with olive oil. Salt and pepper well. Slice the carrots thickly and add them to the pan. Cut the remaining 3 onions in half and add them as well as the remaining garlic.

Cover with foil and place in the preheated oven. Immediately turn the heat down to 350 degrees and roast until 45 minutes before the calculated time. Remove the foil and cook the remaining time, or until the juices run clear from the thigh if you poke it.

Carefully remove the turkey to a carving board and cover with foil. Take the tray with all the vegetables and turkey drippings and skim the fat. Add the flour and broth and put on the stove over high heat.

Boil until the gravy has started to thicken, then strain into a bowl. We tossed the onions and garlic but kept the carrots, and they were the greatest carrots I have ever eaten.

Carve the turkey, serve with the gravy, and enjoy!

There's a lot going on in here!

So much pork stuffing!

Considering I’d never cooked anything bigger than a chicken breast before…not bad!

The Best Roast Turkey

From Cook With Jamie by Jamie Oliver.

  • 4 tablespoons butter
  • a sprig of sage, leaves picked
  • 12 strips of pancetta or thinly sliced bacon
  • 1 bulb of garlic broken into cloves
  • 4 medium red onions, peeled
  • 2 sticks of celery, trimmed and chopped
  • a big handful of breadcrumbs
  • a handful of dried apricots
  • 10 1/2 ounces ground pork
  • zest of 1 lemon
  • a pinch of grated nutmeg
  • 1 large egg
  • sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
  • 12 small fresh rosemary sprigs, plus a few extra
  • 9-10 pound turkey, at room temperature
  • 2 carrots, peeled
  • 1 large orange
  • olive oil
  • 2 tablespoons plain flour
  • 2 pints chicken or vegetable stock

Heat a saucepan until medium hot and add the butter, sage, and half of the pancetta or bacon.

Peel and chop two of the garlic cloves and one of the onions. Add the garlic, onion, and celery to the saucepan and fry everything gently until soft and golden brown. Remove from the heat and add the bread crumbs. While the mixture cools, roughly chop the apricots and stir them in. Once the stuffing has cooled, add the pork, lemon zest, nutmeg, egg, and some salt and pepper. Stir everything together well and set aside.

Preheat the oven to the highest it goes.

Slice the remaining pancetta or bacon in half and slice one or two of the garlic cloves until you get 12 small slivers of garlic. Place a sprig of rosemary and a sliver of garlic on one end of a piece of pancetta or bacon and roll it up, repeating with each remaining piece until you have 12 rolls.

Wipe the turkey down with paper towels, inside and out. Stab the thighs and drumsticks in six places on each side and push the pancetta/bacon roll into the hole until it just barely sticks out.

Starting on the neck end of the turkey, work your fingers under the edge of the skin. Slowly work your hand in there, detaching the skin as you go, working all the way to the back of the turkey. Once the skin is loosened, put the pork stuffing up there under the skin, small handful by small handful. Once the stuffing is evenly distributed under the skin, tuck the edge of the skin under to hold it in.

Microwave the orange for 30 seconds to make it hot and then stuff it into the cavity at the other end of the turkey. Weigh the stuffed turkey and calculate the cooking time – 20 minutes per pound.

Place the turkey in a large roasting pan and rub it all over with olive oil. Salt and pepper well. Slice the carrots thickly and add them to the pan. Cut the remaining 3 onions in half and add them as well as the remaining garlic.

Cover with foil and place in the preheated oven. Immediately turn the heat down to 350 degrees and roast until 45 minutes before the calculated time. Remove the foil and cook the remaining time, or until the juices run clear from the thigh if you poke it.

Carefully remove the turkey to a carving board and cover with foil. Take the tray with all the vegetables and turkey drippings and skim the fat. Add the flour and broth and put on the stove over high heat. Boil until the gravy has started to thicken, then strain into a bowl.

Uncover the turkey, carve, and serve with the gravy.

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Cranberry Salsa

Posted on November 28, 2011 by sparecake

Post robbery, we did manage to pull together a really delicious Thanksgiving. I borrowed a camera and got some pictures. The first recipe I made is a cranberry salsa recipe I got from my mother several years ago, and have been making every year since. I love it! It’s tangy, sweet, and just in every way delightful.

Ingredients:

  • 1 cup water
  • 1 cup sugar
  • 1 12 ounce pack cranberries, rinsed
  • 1 8 ounce can crushed pineapple
  • 1 large green onion, chopped
  • 1 small can chopped green chiles
  • 1 teaspoon fresh lime juice
  • 1/4 teaspoon ground cumin

Bring the water and sugar to a boil over high heat until the sugar has melted into the water. Add the berries and reduce the heat to medium.

Simmer the berries for eight minutes, stirring frequently. Add the remaining ingredients, including roughly half the juice from the can of crushed pineapple.

Stir everything in and continue to cook until the berries grow tender and begin to burst.

Remove from the heat and eat, or chill and eat sometime in the next three days. It’s so good!

I hope everyone else had delightful Thanksgivings!

Cranberry Salsa

From my mom!

  • 1 cup water
  • 1 cup sugar
  • 1 12 ounce pack cranberries, rinsed
  • 1 8 ounce can crushed pineapple
  • 1 large green onion, chopped
  • 1 small can chopped green chiles
  • 1 teaspoon fresh lime juice
  • 1/4 teaspoon ground cumin

Bring the water and sugar to a boil over high heat until the sugar has melted into the water. Add the berries and reduce the heat to medium. Simmer the berries for eight minutes, stirring frequently. Add the remaining ingredients, including roughly half the juice from the can of crushed pineapple, and continue to cook until the berries grow tender and begin to burst.

Chill up to three days.

Posted in Dinner | Tagged , , , | 3 Comments

soooo

Posted on November 22, 2011 by sparecake

Just to let you all know, I won’t be posting a recipe tomorrow, because someone broke into our house today and stole, among other things, my computer. Raging right the heck out.

Posted in Uncategorized | 4 Comments

Chocolate Chip Whopper Cookies

Posted on November 21, 2011 by sparecake

Last time I hung out with Ted to make white chocolate pretzel peanut butter cookies, we watched the first episode of Game of Thrones. We’ve got a lot more episodes to go, which basically means  a lot more cookies!

These cookies use cardamom, which neither of us had ever used before. The dough had a coconut flavor the whole time it was coming together, but that faded once they were baked.

Ted and I seem to use a lot of hammering in our recipes...

Ingredients:

  • 1 cup unsalted butter, softened
  • 3/4 cup granulated sugar
  • 3/4 cup brown sugar
  • 1/2 tsp. cinnamon
  • 1/4 tsp. cardamom
  • 2 egg, room temperature
  • 2 1/4 cups flour
  • 1 tsp. baking soda
  • 1 tsp. salt
  • 1 cup Whoppers (about 3/4 of them crushed into big chunks with the remainder left whole)
  • 1 cup chocolate chips

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

Cream the butter, sugars, cardamom, and cinnamon until light and fluffy.

Add the eggs, beating after each. Add the flour, baking soda, and salt and mix until just combined.

Add the Whoppers and chocolate chips and stir until well mixed.

Scoop the dough onto cookie sheets, spacing cookies 2 inches apart.

Bake 7-8 minutes until the cookies look nearly done.

Allow to cool for several minutes, then remove to a rack to finish cooling.

Get a big glass of milk, and enjoy!

Malted Chocolate Chip Whopper Cookies

From Fields of Cake and Other Good Stuff.

  • 1 cup unsalted butter, softened
  • 3/4 cup granulated sugar
  • 3/4 cup brown sugar
  • 1/2 tsp. cinnamon
  • 1/4 tsp. cardamom
  • 2 egg, room temperature
  • 2 1/4 cups flour
  • 1 tsp. baking soda
  • 1 tsp. salt
  • 1 cup Whoppers (about 3/4 of them crushed into big chunks with the remainder left whole)
  • 1 cup chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

Cream together butter, sugars, cardamom, and cinnamon until light and fluffy. Add eggs, beating after each addition. Add flour, baking soda and salt mix until just combined. Add Whoppers and chocolate chips and stir in until well mixed.

Scoop dough onto cookie sheets spacing about 2 inches apart.
Bake for 7-8 minutes until the cookies look nearly done. Allow to cool on pan for several minutes, then transfer to a rack to cool.

Posted in Dessert | Tagged , , , | 2 Comments

Baked Beans

Posted on November 18, 2011 by sparecake

Until now, I’d never made baked beans. I’d also never owned a cast iron skillet or a crock pot. My, how times have changed! I’d actually tried this recipe once, a year or so ago, but hadn’t realized until I was getting started that you have to prepare dried beans. I tried some ‘speed softening’ method I found online that didn’t really work, then left it all in the crock pot for so long, trying to soften the beans, that the rest of the ingredients burnt. Second time, I learned that just soaking the beans overnight also doesn’t do it, even with 10 hours in a crock pot as well! But finally, if you follow the directions on the bag of beans to soften them with hot water, you’ll get the perfect beans!

These beans are a bit sweet, a bit spicy, and a bit bacon-y. Perfect, no? The best thing about the recipe is that, while you could in theory completely cook this day of, it works very well if you prepare  it the night before, then dump it in a crock pot on your way out the door to work. In fact, if you had enough empty room in your fridge for the crock, you could put all the ingredients in there the night before and be REALLY fast in the morning!

Ingredients:

  • 1 lb navy beans, cooked according to package directions
  • 1 white onion, chopped
  • 1/2 lb bacon
  • 1 32-oz bottle of ketchup
  • 1 cup sugar
  • 2 Tbsp molasses
  • 1/4 cup apple cider vinegar
  • 1 cup water
  • 1/4 cup mustard
  • 2Tbsp Worchestershire sauce
  • 1/2 Tbsp cayenne pepper (more if you want it spicier)
  • 2 Tbsp garlic powder
  • 1 Tbsp paprika
  • 1 tsp salt
  • 1 tsp pepper

Cut the bacon into small bits and cook on the stove. I just cut the bacon into the pan with kitchen shears.

While the bacon is cooking, begin putting the remaining ingredients in a large bowl.

Sugar and Spice!

Add all the remaining ingredients (other than the cooking beans) to the bowl, including the cooked bacon and the bacon grease.

Mix the ingredients, cover the bowl, and put it in the fridge. When the beans are cooked, drain them and put them in the fridge as well.

Whenever you’re ready to cook, combine all the ingredients in the crock pot and cook on low for 8 to 10 hours while you go to work and get on with your life. Serve still warm.

By cooking the bacon the night before, and the dish itself the next day, you get two days of delicious-smelling house!

A reasonable meal!

Triple Threat Baked Beans

From Heather’s Dish.

  • 1 lb dried navy beans
  • 1 white onion, chopped
  • 1/2 lb bacon
  • 1 32-oz bottle of ketchup
  • 1 cup sugar
  • 2 Tbsp molasses
  • 1/4 cup apple cider vinegar
  • 1 cup water
  • 1/4 cup mustard
  • 2Tbsp Worchestershire sauce
  • 1/2 Tbsp cayenne pepper (more if you want it spicier)
  • 2 Tbsp garlic powder
  • 1 Tbsp paprika
  • 1 tsp salt
  • 1 tsp pepper

Cook beans according to package directions. Drain.

Cut the bacon into small pieces and cook. Combine bacon, bacon grease, and remaining ingredients in a large bowl. Pour in crock pot or cover in a bowl and refrigerate overnight. Cook in the crock pot, with cooked beans, 8 to 10 hours on low heat, or 4 to 5 hours on high.

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Basic White Bread

Posted on November 16, 2011 by sparecake

After months of making super bread for sandwiches all the time, I thought maybe I’d switch things up and make a new bread. This white bread comes together faster than the super bread and has a very light, but noticeable and nice, butter flavor.

Ingredients:

  • 2 cups warm water
  • 2 tablespoons sugar or honey
  • 1 tablespoon or packet active dry yeast
  • 1/2 cup dry milk (optional)
  • 2 tablespoons butter, softened
  • 6 cups all-purpose flour
  • 1 tablespoon salt

Begin by stirring the sugar and yeast into the warm water in a large bowl. Let sit for several minutes until it starts to bubble.

Once it’s started bubbling, add the dried milk, butter, salt, and 5 1/2 cups of the flour. Pour the remaining 1/2 cup out on your work surface. Stir the ingredients in the bowl together until it begins to hold together.

Turn the mixture out onto your floured surface and then knead 3 or 4 minutes, until most of the bits stay in the ball of dough as you work.

Set the dough aside to rest for several minutes while you wash, dry, and grease your large bowl. Return to the dough and knead 3 to 4 minutes further until it feels smooth and springy.

Put the bread in the greased bowl and rotate so it gets greased on all sides. Cover the bowl and let the dough rise until doubled (about an hour) somewhere warm and draft-free. In the oven with the oven light on usually works well.

When you can poke your finger into the dough without in springing back, it’s fully risen. Punch the dough down and knead briefly. Cut into two pieces, and place each in a lightly greased bread pan to rise another hour.

With 10 or 15 minutes left of the rise, preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

Bake the bread for 35-40 minutes, until golden brown. Remove from the oven, and the pans, and let cool completely on wire racks until cool.

This bread is easy and tasty, although I think I’ll mostly still stick to the super bread because I like that it’s got lots of protein.

I’ll be submitting this to YeastSpotting, hosted this week by Tartine Bread Experiment.

Basic White Bread

From the King Arthur Flour Cookbook.

  • 2 cups warm water
  • 2 tablespoons sugar or honey
  • 1 tablespoon or packet active dry yeast
  • 1/2 cup dry milk (optional)
  • 2 tablespoons butter, softened
  • 6 cups all-purpose flour
  • 1 tablespoon salt

Stir the sugar and yeast into the warm water in a large bowl. Let sit for several minutes until it starts to bubble. Once bubbling, add dried milk, butter, salt, and 5 1/2 cups of the flour. Pour the remaining 1/2 cup out on the work surface. Stir the ingredients in the bowl together until it begins to hold together.

Turn the mixture out onto your floured surface and then knead 3 or 4 minutes, until most of the bits stay in the ball of dough as you work. Set the dough aside to rest for several minutes while you wash, dry, and grease your large bowl. Return to the dough and knead 3 to 4 minutes further until it feels smooth and springy.

Put the bread in the greased bowl and rotate so it gets greased on all sides. Cover the bowl and let the dough rise until doubled (about an hour) somewhere warm and draft-free.

Punch the risen dough down and knead briefly. Cut into two pieces, and place each in a lightly greased bread pan to rise another hour. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

Bake the bread for 35-40 minutes, until golden brown. Remove from the oven, and the pans, and let cool completely on wire racks until cool.

Posted in Bread | Tagged | 5 Comments

Strawberry Cream Cheese Bread

Posted on November 14, 2011 by sparecake

This bread is currently sitting on the counter cooling, and every time I go in the kitchen I’m strongly tempted to take a huge bite out of the middle of the loaf. I’ve made it several times before, and it’s super delicious!

Ingredients:

  • 1/2 cup butter, softened
  • 1 cup sugar
  • 4 ounces cream cheese, softened
  • 2 eggs
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 2 cups flour
  • 2 teaspoons baking powder
  • 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1/2 teaspoon Kosher salt
  • 1/2 cup buttermilk
  • 1 1/2 cups strawberries, rinsed, dried (or thawed) and chopped


Grease and flour a 9X5″ loaf pan and set aside.

Cream the butter, sugar, and cream cheese until fluffy. Add the eggs, beating after each, then the vanilla.

Stir together the dry ingredients in another bowl, then beat into the butter mixture in two additions. It’ll be pretty dry at this point.

Beat in the buttermilk until just combined, and it’ll go back to batter-texture.

Gently fold in the strawberries.

Pour out into the prepared pan.

Bake at 350 for 50-60 minutes, until a toothpick inserted near the middle comes out clean.

Cool in the pan for 5 minutes, then turn out on a wire rack to cool. If you can’t eat it all at once, this freezes well and will bounce back for breakfast another day.

Strawberry Cream Cheese Bread

From My Baking Addiction.

  • 1/2 cup butter, softened
  • 1 cup sugar
  • 4 ounces cream cheese, softened
  • 2 eggs
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 2 cups flour
  • 2 teaspoons baking powder
  • 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1/2 teaspoon Kosher salt
  • 1/2 cup buttermilk
  • 1 1/2 cups strawberries, rinsed, dried (or thawed) and chopped

Grease and flour a 9X5″ bread pan. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

Cream the butter, sugar, and cream cheese until fluffy. Add eggs, beating after each, then add the vanilla and beat.

In another bowl, combine all the dry goods and stir together. Blend the dry goods into the butter mixture in two additions. Add the buttermilk and blend until just evenly mixed. Gently fold the strawberries in, the turn out into the prepared pan.

Bake for 50-60 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool in the pan for 5 minutes, then turn out on a rack to cool further.

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News You Can Use

Posted on November 13, 2011 by sparecake

Well hey now. I’ve been noticing over the last week that I’m edging pretty close to 100 posts, and I figured that if I’m ever going to set up an index for this blog, I had better do it before I have too many posts to handle. So, an hour of copying and pasting links, a few minutes of staring quizzically at help pages, and a few trips downstairs to work on some bread later, and it’s done! If you look under the header image, there are now categories of recipes that’ll lead you to pages of recipe links, saving you from endless scrolling back through the blog to find that one recipe you sort of vaguely remember might have existed at some point. I hope this helps make the blog more useful! Please, if you see any broken/wrong links at any point, let me know, and as always if you have thoughts on foods you’d like to see or any other suggestions, leave a comment!

Posted in Uncategorized | 1 Comment

Chocolate Orange Ravioli

Posted on November 11, 2011 by sparecake

The Jamie Oliver book I got the other week mentioned that you can make pasta from pretty much any liquid and flour. I liked the idea, and immediately started thinking of dessert pastas. Brilliant!

Ingredients:

  • 13.5 ounces all-purpose flour
  • 1 large egg
  • less than 3/4 cup orange juice + 1/2 cup orange juice
  • 2 dozen or so Hershey’s miniatures
  • 2-3 cups powdered sugar
  • cocoa powder and flour, for rolling
  • water for gluing

Start off by freezing the chocolate bars, unwrapped, for several hours.

Crack the egg into a measuring cup, and fill the remainder of the way up to 3/4 of a cup with juice.

Put the flour in the bowl of a food processor and, with the processor running, pour the liquid in. Continue processing until smooth and elastic, 2-4 minutes.

I found the dough very spongy at this stage.

Cover it and let it sit for 20 minutes at room temperature.

After the rest, pull off about a quarter of the dough, roughly a handful. Recover the rest and set aside. On a floured surface, roll the dough out to crepe thickness. Fold it in thirds like a letter.

Fold that in half the other way.

Roll out crepe-thin again, and fold the same way. Roll out a third time as thin as possible, and set aside.

Roll out a second portion of the dough the same way. After rolling out the second quarter of the dough, cover the first part you rolled out with a lightly moistened paper towel.

Roll out the next portion of dough using cocoa powder instead of flour.

Cover the second piece of dough that you rolled out with flour with a lightly moistened paper towel, and roll out the remaining portion of dough in cocoa powder.

Brush the first piece of dough you rolled in cocoa with a bit of water and place chocolate bars on it with over a centimeter between each.

This one's not actually brushed with water yet, I was just checking out how many would fit.

Take the first piece of white dough and press it over the chocolate, pressing it down firmly between the chocolate bars. Cut between each.

Trim the pasta down so that there isn’t a ton of extra around each chocolate, and press the edges shut firmly around the chocolate bar. Set prepared ravioli aside to dry slightly. Place a large pot of water on the stove to boil.

Do the same with the other half of the pasta, then put the first plate of prepared ravioli in the water. After dropping them in the pot, stir once to make sure they’re not stuck to the bottom then leave until they float. Remove with a slotted spoon and set aside to dry. They cooked in 3 or 4 minutes for me. Boil the second plate of ravioli after the first.

The pasta rolled in cocoa stays nicely chocolate looking, which I had been unsure about. The chocolate in the middle is gooey but should stay inside.

Whisk together the orange juice and powdered sugar until a good pouring glaze thickness, then pour over the ravioli like pasta sauce.

…I don’t actually have any pictures of eating it like proper humans, which we did at work the day after I made it. At home, Kyle and I just dipped the ravioli in the sauce and ate them over the sink. Classy!

You can do pasta with, I think, pretty much any liquid you want, in about the same way. You can use other flours, too, but you’ll need at least some all-purpose so that you’ve got enough gluten formation.

Chocolate Orange Ravioli

  • 13.5 ounces all-purpose flour
  • 1 large egg
  • less than 3/4 cup orange juice + 1/2 cup orange juice
  • 2 dozen or so Hershey’s miniatures
  • 2-3 cups powdered sugar
  • cocoa powder and flour, for rolling
  • water for gluing

Unwrap and freeze the chocolate bars several hours before you want to start.

Crack an egg into a measuring cup, and fill the remainder of the way up to 3/4 of a cup with orange juice. Put the flour in the bowl of a food processor and add the liquid with the processor running. Continue processing until smooth and elastic, 2-4 minutes. Cover the dough and let sit for 20 minutes at room temperature.

After the rest, take one quarter of the dough and recover the rest. On a floured surface, roll the quarter of the dough out to crepe thickness. Fold it in thirds like a letter, then in half the other way. Roll out again, and fold a second time. Roll out a third time, as thin as possible, then set aside.

Roll out a second quarter of the dough the same way, then cover the first rolled out piece with a lightly moistened paper towel. Roll out the third quarter using cocoa powder instead of flour, then cover the second piece of rolled out dough with a lightly moistened paper towel. Roll out the remaining quarter of the dough in cocoa powder.

Lightly brush the first piece of cocoa-rolled dough with water. Place frozen chocolate bars at least a centimeter apart on the dough, then cover with the first piece of flour-rolled dough. Cut off excess pasta to the sides of the chocolate, then press together the edges around the pasta to close. Set aside the ravioli to dry.

Put a large pot of water on the stove to boil. Make the second two pieces together to create a second batch of ravioli. Boil the first batch of ravioli until they float, 3-4 minutes. Remove the pasta from the water with a slotted spoon and allow to dry.

Whisk together the 1/2 cup orange juice and the powdered sugar, then pour like pasta sauce on the raviolis.

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