Chocolat à Gingembre Tartelettes

yesterday.. with all that snow and breeze... all i yearned for all day was... something sweet... something spicy.. something gingery yet gorgeously chocolaty ... so at lunch time... i googled and rampaged the internet in search of that perfect recipe for me... while gingersnap cookies and dark chocolate tart with gingersnap crust were close contenders... by themselves,  they weren't enough. i wanted more. wanted them both all at once.. in a bite... so after returning home i set out to tweak the two and mix-and-match their recipes to create  my own chocolaty-gingery-deliciousness... Chocolat à Gingembre Tartelettes, that is Chocolate in Ginger Tartlets.   the name was an afterthought. after the first bite i was convinced that i had tasted something awesome.. something that demanded a better name than chocolate in ginger tartlets.. so i googled a little more and decided on naming my dessert after a close cousin of it... Tartelettes au Chocolat et Gingembre Confit...

okay.. so with all that exuberance you must have realized by now how happy this dessert made me....  Nishi LOVED it and so did my little one... since we could not resist the sight of chocolate, we had it for breakfast this morning and were absolutely delighted. ... the heat of the ginger balanced out the bitter sweetness of the coffee and chocolates so..oo  well. whats more... the chocolate filling in the tarts  is devoid of any cream or butter. pureed tofu does the work instead while assuring your taste buds all along that they are having nothing but the best...  also, with that added touch Nuttela, I am certain that these tartlets will be a party-winner everytime.... irrespective of whether it is a party for kids or grownups... 

ingredients:

for the tart shells: (using the proportions below i made 15 gingersnap cookies and 6 tart shells)

3/8 cup unsalted butter, room temperature

1/2 cup brown sugar

1/2 cup white granulated sugar

1/4 cup unsulphured molasses

1/4 cup cup pureed tofu(i used 7oz lite firm tofu pureed with 1/4 cup applesauce)

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

1 2/3 cups + 6 tablespoon all-purpose-flour

1/3 cup oats flour (i ground old fashioned oats)

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon salt

2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

1 inch ginger freshly grated

7 cloves ground 

for the chocolate filling : (the proportions given here filled the 6 tart shells to the brim)

1/4 cup semi-sweet choco chips

1/2 cup pureed tofu(i used 7oz lite firm tofu pureed with 1/4 cup applesauce)

1 tablespoon vanilla extract

1/8 cup espresso 

3 tablespoon Nutella (Chocolate Hazelnut Spread)

for garnish:

4 almonds grated

3 almonds chopped lengthwise in half

6 raisins chopped in halves.

what i did: 

For the ginger shells, I sifted all the dry ingredients together and kept the mixture aside. Next, I whisked both the sugars and molasses along with butter until the mixture looked smooth and uniform. to this, i then added the pureed tofu, vinegar and grated ginger and beat the mixture some more. finally i folded in the dry ingredients into the wet mixture, 1/4 cup at a time. after a while when the mixture became dough-like and tough to whisk, i kneaded in the remaining dry ingredients into it. then i let the prepared dough rest for about 30 minutes on the kitchen counter.

In the meantime, I  preheated the oven to 350 degrees F; lined a two baking sheets with parchment paper and 6 of a 12 cup muffin tray with paper baking cups and prepared the chocolate filling.

For the chocolate filling, I put the pureed tofu, espresso and vanilla extract in a saucepan and simmered the mixture over low heat for about 3-4 minutes. next i added the semi-sweet chocochips in the mixture  and let it stand for a few minutes until chocolate chips got soft, then i whisked the mixture until it became smooth.  finally i added in the Nutella one tablespoon at a time and stirred some more till the mixture acquired the colour and consistency of chocolate ganache.  

Next, I rolled 15 walnut sized balls and 6 lemon sized balls of the dough. and while i set the walnut sized balls on the baking sheet and put them to bake for 22-25 minutes, i pressed the lemon sized balls against the  walls of the prepared baking cups all the time trying to make sure that the dough walls have an equal thickness on all sides. at this point i also sprinkled some grated almonds into each of the dough shells.

After the first set of ginger cookies were done, I put in the prepared muffin tray into the oven. 25 minutes later when I pulled out the muffin tray from the oven, the "shells" looked somewhat like this...

their centers had puffed up ... but since the gingery bakes were still soft ... so i pressed the center down with a small spoon like this....

and shaped the bakes into gingery tart shells... and this is how the shells looked after being pressed...

I then let the prepared shells rest for a while, about one hour, before pouring the chocolate filling into them. Finally i garnished them with almonds and raisins. and because Valentine's dry is around the corner and I heart my husband and he hearts chocolates, i did one last thing...before putting these chocolate filled ginger shells to refrigerate overnight... I doodled a little chocolate heart on the almond in his tartlet... 

kiddish yet cute... isn't  it :)  

notes and after thoughts

as i mentioned, i adapted the cookie dough recipe from Joy of Baking. There, she tells you to bake the cookies until they are dry and firm on top. That made me bake them for 25 minutes. Though with the added moisture from the chocolate filling, 25 minutes of baking seemed just right for the tart shells, the cookies felt hard. maybe 20-22 minutes of baking time and few hours of cooling would be perfect for the desired snappiness of the cookies. 

since i had not baked eggless gingersnaps before, i set out with a little more ingredients than would be required just for the ginger tart shells. with the extra dough i baked 2 trays of cookies before starting on the  Chocolat à Gingembre Tartelettes. baking the cookies first, helped me decide on how i needed to treat the cookie dough in order to create the ginger shells. 

in the recipe for the chocolate filling i added only 3 tablespoons of Nuttla, because while mixing, that felt very sweet. however it did not seem too sweet after cooling. though the sweetness was perfect for us, if you like your desserts really sweet you can probably add few more spoons of Nuttela in the filling and enjoy the deliciousness....

Happy baking !! and fill me with your notes and comments on this if you stop by... I'll love to hear...

Sending this to 

Thursday's Treasures @ Chocolate, Chocolate & more, Wednesday Extravaganza @ Hunger Little Girl

Vardhini's event Bake Fest # 16-Cooks Joy hosted by Surabhi of  My Cook Book 

Valentine's Day recipe contest- Priya's Versatile Recipes

Bon Vivant #12 - Quixotic Fixes at Summee's Culinary Bites

Healthy Food for Healthy Kids - Event at Nithu's Kitchen

Vardhini's event  Sweet Luv 2013: Event Announcement (CJ #4) at Cooks Joy

Cook like a Celebrity Chef at Food Corner

p.s : Read more:http://www.joyofbaking.com/Gingersnaps.html#ixzz2K5xh4Trw 

Chocolate Avocado Coffee Cake.

okay.. so i am officially addicted to cooking with oats. and if you have been there.. you know exactly what i am talking about. it was past midnight yesterday when i took the first bite of my bake of the day.... Chocolate Avocado Coffee Cake.. mmm.... it tasted good... may be a little more sugar would be better.. but Nishi disagreed. he said it was perfect with his espresso..... that was that... so after two failures, there was a success. Yaay !!

for a while I have had chocolate avocado cake in my mind. i had pinned Joy the Baker's Vegan Chocolate Avocado Cake ...  and because Nishi LOVES chocolate and i like avocados i had a good mind to try it out.... but.. somehow i never got around baking it until yesterday... it  thus happened that while baking the strawberry cobbler  the previous night it struck me that the same oats-flour-sugar mixture can be used for the crumb in a coffee cake... and that prompted me to bake this moist flavorful dense chocolaty coffee cake using the aforementioned recipe as a guideline. i must mention here that though i could smell the avocado in the first few minutes of baking... as Joy the Baker said... 'not a lick of it could be tasted' later. it merely substituted the fat required.. with the goodness of avocado. now isn't that lovely.

ingredients

for the cake

1 cup minus 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1/2 cup oats flour (i ground old fashioned oats)
2 tablespoons cornflour
3 tablespoon unsweetened cocoa powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 cup  sugar
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/8 cup vegetable oil
1/4 cup soft avocado, well mashed
1 cup milk
1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar
1 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

for the crumble

3/8 cup oats flour
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/8 cup + 1 tablespoon all-purpose flour
3 tablespoon butter, softened
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

what i did.

For the crumble, i combined the brown sugar oats, flour, cinnamon and  butter in a bowl till the mixture was coarse and then set it aside.

For the cake, I first preheated the oven to 350 degrees F, greased and floured a 9.25x5.25x2.75 inch  bread loaf pan and set it aside.

Next I combined all the dry ingredients (all-purpose flour to baking soda) except sugar in a bowl and the wet ingredients in a separate bowl and let them stand for a while till the mixture of wet ingredients  became turbid. I then added the sugars to wet mixture, stirred it for a while before beating in the dry ingredients into the wet mixture to form a smooth batter. To this I added the mashed avocado and whipped the batter some more before pouring into the prepared pan and putting it in the oven.

10 minutes later I pulled out the pan and topped the settling batter with the prepared sugar-oats-flour-cinnamon mixture and then put it back in the oven to bake for another 35 to 40 minutes, until a toothpick inserted came out clean. i then let it cool for a while before digging right into that chocolaty crumbly loaf.

after thoughts. 

though Nishi felt otherwise... those with a sweet tooth like me will perhaps like a little more sugar in the cake. maybe 1/3 cup of brown sugar instead of 1/4 cup or an extra helping of crumbs... but for others this might be the perfect bite with their tea or coffee... 

Sending this to , Slightly Indulgent Tuesdays @ SS& GS, Cooking with seeds -  Priya versatile recipes  event hosted by Amruta Pore,

 the event New "U"- Cooks Joy hosted by Vardhini,

and the event  Bon Vivant #11 - Healthy Appetite  at Sumee's Culinary Bites.

Cheesy Pinwheel Puffs

Oh ! Its past midnight. I had a good mind to stop by before twelve and wish you all Happy 26th ! Hope your day was good. Mine was much better than yesterday. The  prescribed medicines and spoons full of honey did a good job and though it might take some time before Pradyot can be declared fit... he was much better today....  and since i was a little relaxed i decided to venture a bit into the kitchen..

Back in fall I had seen an episode of Giada at Home where the chef had baked these Cheesy Pastry Puffs. The recipe had seemed fairly simple. So I had pinned it for posterity,  till I recently chanced upon it again. This time driven by our love for everything Greek, I decided to try it out with a Mediterranean twist. And guess what.. with the richness of their colors and mix of the flavors these gorgeous Cheesy Pinwheel Puffs became an instant hit..  I must admit that though very flavorful, the copious amounts of cheese make them a little heavy and sinful.. However they are so tasty that no one stop at one :)

ingredients

for the puffs.

3/4 cups ground oat flour (I ground them in the coffee grinder), plus extra for dusting

1/2 cup all purpose flour

1/4 teaspoon baking powder

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup unsalted butter, cut into small pieces, chilled

1 cup shredded Sharp Cheddar

2 cloves of grated garlic

4 1/2 tablespoon pureed spinach, chilled (I microwaved some frozen spinach and pureed it)

for the filling. I tried few combinations.

store bought pizza sauce + mozzarella

feta cheese

feta cheese + homemade avocado hummus 

homemade avocado hummus sprinkled with copious amounts of dried coriander.

for the avocado hummus

2 cups of boiled chickpeas
2 avocados
8 green olives
2 cloves of garlic, mashed
2 tablespoon of dried coriander
1 teaspoon salt
3 1/2 teaspoon lemon juice
zest of 1 lemon
2 tablespoons of extra-virgin olive oil

what i did.

For the avocado hummus, I combined all the ingredients in the blender and pulsed at regular intervals till the mixture became smooth. (the mentioned quantities yield  around 26 oz of the hummus. once refrigerated, they can be used over a month.)

For the puffs.  I placed an oven rack in the center of the oven;  preheated the oven to 375 degrees F; lined two baking sheets with parchment paper.

Next combined the oat flour, all purpose flour, baking powder, salt and butter in a bowl and mixed them till the mixture formed a coarse meal. Then added the grated garlic, cheese and chilled spinach puree, one tablespoon at a time till the mixture formed a smooth pale greenish ball.

Then on a lightly floured plastic wrap,  rolled out the dough and divided it into 4 equal rectangles, each about 1/4-inch thick. Spread the store bought pizza sauce + mozzarella on one, feta cheese on the second, avocado hummus + feta on the third and avocado hummus and copious amounts of dried coriander on the fourth rectangle. Starting with the long side, I then rolled up the dough, jelly-roll fashion, wrapped them in plastic wraps and set them to freeze for 30 minutes.

Next unwrapped the dough one at a time, carefully cut out slices from each of them, about 1/4 inch thick and arranged them 1 inch apart on the prepared baking sheets.  Then baked them until they were puffed and light green in color, about 18-20 minutes. Finally I let them cool for about 10 minutes before taking the first bite.

Nishi and I both agreed that we liked the pinwheels with the avocado hummus  and feta cheese filling the most. but that might just be our love for feta, hummus and everything Greek.  the others were just as delicious. so do try them and let me know which one was your favorite... I'll love to hear.