July Daring Bakers Challenge - Swiss swirl ice cream cake

The July 2010 Daring Bakers Challenge was hosted by Sunita from Sunita's world - life and food. Sunita challenged everyone to make an ice-cream filled Swiss roll that’s then used to make a bombe with hot fudge. Her recipe is based on an ice cream cake recipe from Taste of Home

At first I was so excited by this challenge - interesting looking with many levels dessert is always fun to make. But - having hard time at work is very good if we talking about twisting your baking mood 180. So lately, after hitting home, I just dreaming about hot bath, my bad and big tasty sandwich - not about spending whole day in a kitchen. You can easily see the results here on a blog - almost nothing is happening in July. 

So i was even thinking  about skipping the challenge but yesterday I grab and push myself to the kitchen and I started working on that recipe.

The base for both in my version in Chocolate sponge Cake - oh how i love this one. Airy yet very rich in taste, lovely base for any kind of cake or dessert.

Than I made to versions of fillings for a rolls. Also I played a little with recipe and found a way to include my homemade Red Currant jam here. Hope you like mine cakes.

First one - Chocolate Swiss roll with chocolate ice creams and red currants jam

Layers - chocolate swiss roll filled with chocolate whipping cream, two chocolate ice creams layers and sour-ish red currant jam in a centre. Real chocolate extravaganza

Second was also chocolate swiss roll but this time filled with basic vanilla whipping cream, with two layers of vanilla ice creams but with hot chocolate fudge inside - well it was not classic fudge coz I mix it with ricotta cheese.

For recipe please hit this site which was a base for Sunita's Challenge.

June Daring Bakers Challenge - Chocolate Pavlova with Mascarpone Mousse

         The June 2010 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Dawn of Doable and Delicious. Dawn challenged the Daring Bakers’ to make Chocolate Pavlovas and Chocolate Mascarpone Mousse. The challenge recipe is based on a recipe from the book Chocolate Epiphany by Francois Payard

I am so glad that this month what was choosed is the lovely Pavlova. 

Baking meringue is always tricky but result is mostly wonderful. Crisp outside, chewy and rich inside this recipe is real winner. I did not change much - I just added crushed nuts to chocolate mascarpone mousse and some tart-sweet cherries for decoration and breaking taste. Also I really love strong taste of Mascarpone Cream used for drizzling.

Recipes could be easily find in DB blogs.

Crispy Chip Cookies for lazy days

You know those days when you do not feel like doing anything? Well, lately it was my thing. But since I had, and still have to, to write some paper works for Uni, I was more than that. I did not want to think about new recipes, to cook, to shot new pictures. Everything was too much for me, gosh.... 

So last night I needed a break, needed to break my bad routine. I just grab flour, butter, nuts and chocolate and baked Chip Cookies - talking about food for brain, yes? 

So if you need to study or work very hard bake those before - they will work, I promise.

Nuts and Chocolate Chip Cookies*:


200 gram flour
120 gram sugar
100 gram cold butter
2 small eggs yolk
3-4 tablespoon of caster sugar
1/2 or even less teaspoon of salt
:40 gram of dark chocolate, nicely chopped 
50 gram of mixed nuts, crashed

Preheat oven 180C/320F

In a bowl mix flour with sugar and add cutted into small pieces cold butter. Now using electric blender or your hand work with a cake mix - you don't want to heat it up too much so hurry up. You want to make something in a texture like big-pieces sand. After that add egg yolk, chopped nuts and chocolate. Make one dough and cool for 10 minutes. Now using either your hands or teaspoon make small balls, place them onto baking sheets and press them a little. Bake until golden a little. 

Take big cup of latte or cocoa and eat them. Take a small break today.

*Those are not classic, chewy american-style chip cookies. Mine are more crisp but i like them that way.

I'm going bananas, B-A-N-A-N-A-S! Chocolate-black currant trifle with bananas sponge biscuit

                 I was feeling like going bananas yesterday. And it's not coz I did this amazing dessert using bananas sponge biscuits. No, it's because yesterday were my birthday and, like it or not, it did came along with presents.

Some birthday present are unexpected. Some are good, some...well, not so much. One day you can receive something very uncommon, from someone that you almost forget about. It's weird. You hold a present and think : "what should I do about it?". Decisions, decisions, decisions - it seems like human life is based on that, and what worst, is the fact that usually those are not reversible. If you choose one way - you can't make it back. And this is real reason why I could feel little bananas.

It's not any near to classic trifle but it's my party and I'll cry if I want to...or I should say - mess with recipe if I want to? Anyway ...

Chocolate-black currant trifle


16 small banana sponge biscuits ( mine were about 3 cm srednica )
1 cup of strong espresso ( if it's too strong for you - use chocolate drink or heated chocolate-milk )
50 gram of dark chocolate (plus some sugar if you want, i do not used any sugar - i like dark taste)
1 egg yolk
120 ml of heavy cream
4 tablespoon of black-currant jam


Prepare 2 tins or small 150 ml cups.
Make your espresso (or chocolate drink or heat your chocolate milk). And cool down a little - it must be still little worm but not hot!
On pan fry a little your jam to get it more runny. Turn the heat off.
Melt chocolate in a heatproof bowl over a high saucepan of boiling water (on small heat). Take off from the heat. In a big cup using electric blender whip egg yolk and heavy cream until it get little mousse-y. Pour slowly melted chocolate and using blender mix until you get nice light mousse.
Now take your biscuits and deep them in espresso (or chocolate). Be careful not to hold them too long, coz you will ended up wil bananas-biscuit-espresso mess. Chop them into big pieces.
Place one layer of biscuits, and one layer of chocolate mousse; now second layer of biscuits and second layer of mousse; last layer of biscuits and end with layer of current jam. Cool in fridge. You can serve it with nice spoon of banana ice-cream or cup of strong espresso.

Rustic Chocolate Tart

                       When I was little I had amazing chance to spend every holiday in a countryside. With my sister we could play all day long, not care about anything. I felt safe and careless. We had no idea about a real world out there, and it seems to be the right of childhood. Those days were also strong connected with food. We had as many fresh veggies and fruits as we like. Fresh milk take straight from grandma's cow. Real eggs. Those dishes that make us happy. Thick slice of old-fashioned bread, just with homemade butter and salt. Leftover dinner potatoes, fried later in the evening for supper, eaten together with two forks from one pan.

Those things were super simple, but we didn't know or need anything else. 

There are few things in culinary world that are take for granted. First - the simpler dish the best way to show the real taste of a product, and second - that anything made with chocolate is better than the same dish without it (of course I exaggerate, bu you get the idea). That's why this pie is so amazing. It incorporate simple pleasure and pure taste. Rich, gooey filling with crispy and light crust. It doesn't need any decoration, any things inside....no, it is pure perfection.




Rustic Chocolate Tart 


For crust:
400 grams (1 and 1/2 cup) of flour
200 grams ( in Poland - one stick ) of butter 
100-120 grams of sugar
1 real egg yolk ( those with 0 or 1 number printed on them )
optional : 1 tablespoon of thick cream ( I used 18% ) 


For filling:
200grams of good chocolate ( Godiva would be wonderful, but I ended up with surprising good Milk bars)
3 tablespoon of good, unsweetened cocoa
100ml of sweet cream
1 big egg or 2 small
Pinch of sea salt
optional : use some muscavado sugar if it's too strong taste for you. I didn't.


Preheat oven 180C/350F.
Mix four and cold butter to make crumbs ( by hands ). Beat egg yolk with sugar until it change color from yellow to more white shade. Add egg mixture to your crumbs and if it still too dry - add cream. Roll it in a circle and put in your tin tart. Cool in a fridge for half an hour.
Make filling. Put some deep pot with about 2 inches of water on a heat and bring it to boil. Now take some bowl and put it on the pot. Break chocolate into a small pieces and put them in a bowl. Stir occasionally until they totally blend. Add cocoa. Now pour sweet cream inside. Now, very important, key ingredient - sea salt. It change your filling completely. Playing with your mouth and showing whole different level of chocolate sweetness.
The last point is to beat egg in a cup and gradually add some chocolate. Just add one teaspoon and beat in a cup. Then another, and another, and another. Continue it until the egg mixture will be warm enough, so when you add it in a bowl of chocolate-cream mix, you will not end up with chocolate scramble eggs (which also could be fantastic, but it's not a point today). Take you crust from he fringe. Pour filling mixture on it and bake for 40 minutes or until you will see that a base is browning too much. Cool a little. Serve with just a spoon of thick, sweet cream and small cup of espresso coffee.