Glueten Free Cherry Chocolate Pudding Cake

I have a friend who should not be eating a lot of gluten but she loves baking. She was drooling over the Cherry Chocolate Pudding cake that I made, so I decided to try making her a cake of her own (well actually I put her to work in the kitchen to show her how to do it). I also decided to make it a smaller cake, as it is a fairly rich cake and even with taking it to work with me it was hard to get through a 9 x 13 pan of it. What we ended up with was an 8x8 pan of gluten, egg and dairy free cake!

Ingredients:
¾ + 2 tbsp all purpose GF Flour mix (I used Kinikinik brand)
¼ cup organic whole brown sugar
3 tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder
1 ½ tbsp baking powder
3 tbsp coconut milk (you could also use almond, soy, or rice - I just had coconut on hand)
¼ cup applesauce (unsweetened)
1 cup cherries - rough chopped

½ cup organic whole brown sugar
1 ½ cup hot water
2 tbsp cocoa powder

Method:
1. Preheat the oven to 350F. (if using a glass pan cook at 325F).
2. In a bowl mix together the flour, sugar, ⅓ cup cocoa powder, baking powder, milk, and applesauce. (I had to add an extra 2 tbsp of milk, try mixing without before adding it. The batter should be thick but not dry).
3. Fold in the cherries.
4. Spoon the batter into a greased and floured 8 x 8 pan (or a pan lined with parchment paper).
5. In the same bowl mix together the dark brown sugar, hot water, and ¼ cup cocoa.
6. Poor overtop of the batter.
7. Bake 35 to 40 minutes (the cake will be set but not firm, you should see some pudding bubbling up on the edges.).

Cherry Chocolate Pudding Cake

I came home from vacation with a bunch of cherries and knew I had to do something with a few of them before I made myself sick eating them. I found a recipe for cherry chocolate pudding cake, and I had been wanting to try a pudding cake for a while. I had remembered them from when I was younger and loved the goey pudding mixed in with the cake, so I decided to give it a try. I did change the recipe a little bit to cut down on the sweetness and make a darker richer chocolate.


Ingredients:
1 and 3/4 cups All Purpose Flour
1/2 cup Sugar (1 original recipe)
1/3 cup plus 1/4 cup Unsweetened Cocoa Powder
3 tablespoons Baking Powder
¼ + 2 tbsp cup Milk
1/2 cup Unsweetened Applesauce
1 cup Cherries, fresh/frozen, pitted
1 cup Dark Brown Sugar
3 cups Hot Water

Method:
1. Preheat the oven to 350F.
2. In a bowl mix together the flour, sugar, ⅓ cup cocoa powder, baking powder, milk, and applesauce. (I had to add an extra 2 tbsp of milk, try mixing without before adding it. The batter should be thick but not dry).
3. Fold in the cherries.
4. Spoon the batter into a greased and floured 9 x 13 pan (or a pan lined with parchment paper).
5. In the same bowl mix together the dark brown sugar, hot water, and ¼ cup cocoa.
6. Poor over top of the batter.
7. Bake 35 to 40 minutes (the cake will be set but not firm, you should see some pudding bubbling up on the edges.).


Reviews;
This cake got good reviews and it was even good cold the next day. However, O decided that he would like it better without the cherries, or with the cherries chopped into small pieces. I am sure I will make this again at some time.

Black Forest Cookies (Bulldogs)

Black Forest Cookies,

I made Black Forest preserves this summer and have been wanting to try using some in some baking, so this week the Bulldogs got Black Forest Cookies using the preserves.

All I knew I wanted for these cookies was rich chocolate cookie, somehow incorporate the preserves and topped with something creamy and light. Basically, I wanted the deliciousness of a Blackforest cake in cookie form.

When I saw these cookies on My Kitchen Café, I thought they looked great as the base for my cookie. I decided on a thumbprint cookie to try the flavor combinations.

Cookie: (makes about 3 to 4 doz)
Ingredients:
2 cups all purpose flour
2/3 cup cocoa powder
1 tsp baking powder
½ tsp baking soda
1/8 tsp salt
¾ cup butter (soft)
1 1/3 cups sugar
2 eggs
2/3 cup sour cream
¾ cup chocolate chips

Black Cherry Preserve (or cherry filling of your choice)

Vanilla Buttercream – I used Billy’s Buttercream from Martha Steward and added a little extra sugar to make it stiffer (recipe below)


Directions:
1.Mix the dry ingredients together and set aside.
2.Cream the butter and the sugar until light. Add the eggs one at a time and beat until well mixed.
3.Add 1/3 of the flour to the butter mixture, followed by ½ the sour cream. Repeat until all the ingredients are incorporated. Fold in the chocolate chips.
4.Drop the cookies onto a baking sheet with teaspoons and bake at 350F for 12-13 minutes, until set.
5.When the cookies come out and are still warm press a whole in the middle of the cookie. Let cookies cool on a wire rack.
6.When cookies are cool, spoon the black cherry preserves or cherries or jerry jam into the middle of the cookie. Top the cookie with vanilla buttercream to cover the cherry filling.


Vanilla Buttercream
1.In a bowl beat ½ cup of butter until it is soft and creamy. Add 1 cup of powdered sugar, followed by ¼ cup of milk and 1 tsp of vanilla. Beat until smooth.
2.Add another 2 cups of powdered sugar and mix. Add up to another cup of powdered sugar, ¼ cup at a time until it is a thick pipe-able consistency.
3.Put in a piping bag, fitted with a wide tip (or a ziplock with the corner cut out) and pipe onto the cookies.

Reviews:
Everyone loved these cookies, and despite fears that they would be too sweet they turned out fine.
The cookies are great on their own as well if you looking for a good chocolate cookie.

The Bulldogs:
Sadly the losing streak is now at 2, as they lost on Saturday morning. The cookies have been unabe to make up for the cold weather and early mornings.

Fresh Cherry Cobbler

Alright, so I had still more cherries left in my fridge, they were getting to point that they absolutely had to be used in the next day or so, and I was at the point were my stomach was letting me that under no circumstance should I be eating even a quarter of the amount left. So, what do I do with all these cherries? That is right – I bake something, that way the hubs will consume it or share with the boys at work, and I no longer have to worry about it.

I did some googling and came across bakin’ and eggs, and a yummy looking recipe for Fresh Cherry Cobbler.

Filling:

5 cups Bing cherries, pitted

1 cup sugar

1/4 cup water

4-5 teaspoons cornstarch

Topping:

1 cup all-purpose flour

1/4 cup sugar

2 tablespoons brown sugar

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon cinnamon

3 tablespoons cold butter

1 egg, lightly beaten

3 tablespoons milk

Directions:
Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Butter a 2 quart baking pan
In a saucepan over medium-high heat mix together the filling ingredients and cook until bubbling and thickened – about 10 minutes, stiring frequently. (Start with 3 teaspoons of cornstarch and add more if the mixture is not thickening – remember it will thicken a little more when it cooks in the oven and when it cools).
Pour filling into the prepared baking pan.
While the filing is cooking mix together the flour, sugar, baking poweder and cinnamon in a new bowl. Cut in the butter until the mixture become crummy (not bad, just looks like crums).
In another bowl combine the egg and milk. Then stir the mix into the flour mixture until just combined.
Top cherry filling with tablespoons of dough. Bake for 20-25 minutes, or until topping is golden in color.
Serve with ice cream.


Reviews:
Hubs and his friends enjoyed it. I don’t know if cherry cobbler isn’t the hubs favorite or if he has been overwhelmed by all the fruit and new things in the house lately, but it actually lasted for more than a day! He says it was great, so I am going with he has to much food going on in the house.

Freezing Cherries Take 2

So after freezing plain cherries, I decided to be a little adventures and try freezing the cherries in a syrup. Upon looking, I decided I wanted something I could just pop out of the freezer and into a cobbler or pie like I do with my apricot and peach pies. This is now sitting in my freezer and looking pretty good. I will have to take it out soon and see how well it worked.

Ingredients:
5-6 cups of cherries
1 cup sugar
1/4 cup lemon juice
4 tbsp cornstarch

Directions:
1. Wash, stem and pit the cherries.
2. In a saucepan combine the juice from the cherries, sugar, lemon juice and cornstarch in a medium saucepan. Heat over medium heat.
3. Heat the mixture until it becomes a thick syrup (5-7 minutes)
4. Add the cherries, I heated for a little longer at this point as there was additional juice with the cherries from them sitting while I made the syrup.
5. Pour into a large freezer bag, squeeze all the air out and seal. Label and place in freezer.

Baking:
Remove from the freezer and let thaw, place in a pie or top for a cobbler. Bake according the instructions for a pie or cobbler - whichever you have decided to do.

I will let you all know how this turned out when i get it out of the freezer to try!

Freezing Cherries Take 1

I have a lot of cherries around the house and not enough baking projects right now to use them all. I know that everyone says to just eat them, but there are only so many cherries I can eat before I start feeling a little sick. I decided to try freezing the cherries, and having never froze cherries before and reading a bunch of different ways, I decided to try freezing them with and without a syrup. The first is without a syrup:

1. Wash and stem the cherries. Then pit the cherries and lay out flat on a baking sheet.
2. Place the baking sheet into the freezer until the cherries are frozen and firm.
3. Once the cherries are frozen, measure them into freezer bags. Squeeze as much air as possible out of the bags and seal. I did bags of 6 cups (pies and cobblers), 2 cups (muffins, breads ect) and one bag of 1 cup (brownies).
4. Label the bags and place them back into the freezer. I think these should last for 6 to 12 months.

I look forward to be able do some baking with these later this fall/winter.

Sweet Cherry Jelly

I had tons of sweet cherries, and while I love them fresh, I had made myself sick on them already and there was no end in sight to the cherries. After some hunting I found a sweet cherry jelly (as opposed to the more abundant recipes for sour cherries) and decided to try it. Why jelly you might ask, as opposed to the less work of jam? Well I don’t like fruit chunks, that is right, I am an odd duck, but I just can’t get over the texture of chunks of fruit in my food. (As a note, this also means that I do not eat anything that involves cooked fruit – so no pies for me). Anyways, I wanted to be able to enjoy this lovely mix, so I opted for the jelly not the jam.

The recipe I found was on the kraft Canada site. I have made a couple modifications to their recipe and posted it below, but you can see the original here.

Ingredients:
10 cups stemmed sweet cherries
1/2 cup water
3 1/2 cups sugar
1 box CERTO Pectin Crystals

Directions:
1.Crush the cherries ( a potato masher works well here, but make sure you are wearing something that you don’t mind staining, the really juicy cherries shoot juice everywere!). Do this in small batches and remove the pits. Note: The original recipe says to put the pulp
2.Transfer the pulp of the cherries to a large saucepan and add the water. Bring the mixture to a boil, stirring occasionally, over medium heat.
3.Once the mixture is boiling, reduce the heat to medium low, cover, and simmer for about 10 minutes, stirring occasionally.
4.Pour the mixture into a jelly bag (if you don’t have one, you can use layered cheesecloth) and let the juice drain out. Note: The original recipe says not to squeeze to the bag, but I will often do at least a gentle mixing of the contents to make sure I get all the juice out.
5.Measure exactly 3 ½ cups of juice (I used the original recipes 8 cups of cherries and was a little short, if you are you can always just start at step one and make a little more juice. The juice you have already made can sit for a while with no ill effects on your jelly).
6.Mix the juice and the pectin crystals in a large saucepan and bring to a full roiling boil on high heat. Once the mixture is boiling, stir in the sugar and bring it back to a full boil (ie, when you stir the mixture the boiling doesn’t stop) and boil for 1 minute. Stir constantly at this point.
7.Remove from heat and skim the foam from the top, you can take up to 5 minutes to do this, but I like to keep it at about 3. (note, I always keep the foam in a Tupperware, and then snack on it later, it is still really tasty!)
8.Pour into warm and sterilized jars (I usually do this by running them through the dishwasher or having them sit in boiling water for 5 minutes). Fill to ¼” of the rims and seal with 2 piece lids.
9.Let them sit at room temperature until set.

Cherry Chocolate Brownies

Alright, so coming home from the inlaws I brought with me a few pounds of cherries. Alright is was probably 10 to 15 pounds of cherries, but they were oh so good. Upon making both myself and O sick from eating cherries I decided I needed to get some of these things out of my fridge to remove the temptation and give my poor stomach a break.

I have done a few things with the cherries, but I will start with the brownies. My inspiration came from watching the Cherry episode of Unwrapped on the Food Network. They featured a cherry brownie, and I thought that was a great idea. I got to work on google and didn't come across a recipe that caught my fancy, so decided to try my own.

A quick note - the cherries I used are a very dark and sweet cherry. I don't know what kind they are, as around here we just call them BC cherries - I doubt everyone in BC growns the same cherries, but hey what do I know.


Ingredients:
½ cup butter
3 oz dark chocolate (I used and 85% cocoa chocolate bar)
1 cup sugar
½ tsp vanilla extract
¾ cup flour
~1 cup fresh cherries, stemmed and pitted ( I pulsed these in the food processor so they were anywere from 1/4 to ½ of a cherry.)
½ cup chocolate chips

Directions:
1. Melt the butter and chocolate together in a saucepan over low heat. Once it is smooth add the sugar and vanilla removing from heat. Then add the eggs, stirring to avoid cooking the eggs – no one wants chunks of scrambled eggs in their brownie!
2. Stir in ½ cup of the flour. Depending on how juicy your cherries are you may not need the other ¼ cup of flour.
3. Fold in the Chocolate chips, followed by the cherries. If your cherries were quite juicy and the batter became thinner, add the ¼ cup of extra flour and fold in.
4. Pour into an 8x8 baking dish (I line mine with parchment paper, alternatively you could butter and flour the dish) and bake at 350F for 35 minutes.


Reviews
This was a moist brownie somewere between a my fudgey brownie and a cake like brownie. O enjoyed them and they smelled great.