Chocolate Self-Saucing Pudding

Yesterday evening we invited Simon, one of Jeff's colleagues, to join us for supper. I fixed lasagne (recipe here)... the first I've ever made, and it turned out delicious.

(This is a couple pieces reheated for tonight's supper.)

For dessert I baked a chocolate cake-pudding using a recipe I cut out months ago and hadn't gotten around to making. It's a Chocolate Self-Saucing Pudding - think chocolate cake meets chocolate brownie meets chocolate sauce... yeah, it was VERY chocolaty and rich! The best thing was, it's delicious and quick to throw together.


Chocolate Self-Saucing Pudding
Source: Sainsbury's Magazine, by Nigel Slater (I really love his simple, yet creative cooking style!)

Ingredients
150g self-raising flour
2 lightly heaped Tbsp cocoa powder
45g ground almonds
200g light muscovado (raw) sugar
75g dark chocolate, finely chopped
200ml milk
25g melted butter
1 tsp. vanilla
1 large egg

For the sauce:
175g golden caster sugar
75g cocoa powder

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees C, fan 160 degrees C. Lightly butter a heatproof oval baking dish, about 1.5 litre capacity. Put the flour, cocoa, almonds, muscovado sugar and chocolate in a mixing bowl. In a separate bowl, mix the milk, butter, vanilla extract and egg with a whisk. Pour the milk mixture into the dry ingredients and stir thoroughly. Pour into the buttered dish.

For the sauce, mix together the golden caster sugar with the cocoa powder and scatter over the pudding (like you would with a crumble). Pour 500ml freshly boiled, but not actually boiling, water into the dish - yes, on top of the sugar and cocoa powder. Do not mix it in... just let it be.

Bake for 40 minutes until the top is springy. Take out of the oven and let it rest for 10 minutes (don't skip this resting, it is essential). Serve with cream.

Week 32 Bump

At 32 weeks, BeeBee is growing bigger... and so am I! I'm beginning to feel her kick increasingly more under or near my rib cage. It's also beginning to prove hard to sit straight because of the size of my bump. The reality of labor is starting to dawn on me, too, now that it's only 8 weeks or so away... a bit scary.

But putting those things aside, BeeBee and I are doing well. I went to see the GP (doctor) on Tuesday for a general checkup, and all is well. We couldn't hear her heart beating too loudly, but we think this is because her back was turned to the outside. She continues to move around loads, especially during sermons at church... really, I think it's because I've just stood to sing a hymn... but we'll tell our pastor it's because she's loving his sermons.

BeeBee was especially excited to find out that her Grandma (my mom) is coming to visit a week on Tuesday. On Thursday morning, while getting ready, I thought it would be really nice to have my mom here, instead of having to wait until mid-March, the day before my due date, for her to arrive. Out of curiosity, I looked up flights and found a reasonably priced ticket with Continental. I called her just after 8:00am her time to ask whether she wanted to come in just a week and a half, just to be together and talk about baby things, no real agenda. So after talking it over with Norm, she booked a ticket to come over! Yay! I really wish it were this week, but I guess I'll just have to be patient (not one of my stronger virtues).

Chocolate Chip Cookies

As you can probably imagine, working at the checkouts, scanning items over and over and asking customers the same questions over and over, gets a bit BORING. From time to time my mind wanders on to bigger and better things like, "Gee, don't freshly baked chocolate chip cookies sound good?" Then my mind wandered to the ingredients that usually go in to making a batch and whether I had them already at home: butter... yep, eggs... yep, chocolate chips... yep, and so on.

So I wanted to try a new recipe and came across one titled "Best-Ever Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies"... yeah, that would do. Not only did they sound completely tempting, but the recipe uses cornstarch... how unusual is that?! They didn't require any fancy ingredients either, such as cake or bread flours, like others do. Twenty or so minutes later... BING!... I had the best-ever chewy chocolate chip cookie in my mouth. (Okay, in case Ms Etchells is reading this, your's are absolutely fantastic, and your's are the best oatmeal chocolate chip cookies.)

The Best-Ever Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies
Source: http://kelseysappleaday.blogspot.com/2011/08/best-ever-chewy-chocolate-chip-cookies.html

Ingredients:

3/4 c. unsalted butter, softened

3/4 c. brown sugar

1/4 c. granulated sugar

1 egg

2 tsp. vanilla extract

2 c. all purpose flour

2 tsp. cornstarch

1 tsp. baking soda

1/2 tsp. salt

1 c. bittersweet chocolate chips

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

2. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, cream together butter and sugars until fluffy and light in color. Add egg and vanilla and blend in.

3. Mix in flour, cornstarch, baking soda and salt. Stir in chocolate chunks.

4. Using a standard-sized cookie scoop or tablespoon, drop dough onto a prepared baking sheet. Bake for 8-10 minutes, until barely golden brown around the edges. (The tops will not brown, but do NOT cook longer than ten minutes.)

5. Let cool, on the sheet, on a wire rack for five minutes. Remove from baking sheet and let cool completely. Makes approximately 27 medium-sized cookies. Try not to eat them all.

Baby Wish List

With approximately 2 months to go until BeeBee's arrival, it's about time that Mommy and Daddy start to buy more practical things for her, other than just cute outfits and a bumper for the crib. It has been suggested to me to put together a wish list so that family and friends around the world can easily purchase a gift for her. Please don't get me wrong. We are not demanding gifts from you, but if you would like to contribute to our baby preparations by way of buying something from the wish list, by all means: LINK to Wish List

I do plan to add more to the list, so please check back over the next few days (and weeks). Thank you!

Banana Bread

After the day that both Jeff and I had, I was so glad that I had baked a comforting loaf of banana bread this morning. This recipe is quite easy; no special equipment, or special skills for that matter, is need to make this delicious quick bread. It's a great way, too, to use up very ripe bananas. Love food, hate waste.

Banana Bread
Source: Betty Crocker's Cookbook, copyright General Mills 2001, page 50
Lowfat (supposedly)

Ingredients
1 1/4 C. sugar
1/2 C. butter or stick margarine
2 large eggs
1 1/2 C. mashed very ripe bananas (3 medium)
1/2 C. buttermilk
1 tsp. vanilla
2 1/2 C. all-purpose flour
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. salt
1 C. chopped nuts, if desired (I didn't desire)

1. Move oven rack to low position so that tops of pans will be in center of oven. Heat oven to 350°. Grease bottoms of only of 2x 8-inch loaf pans or 1x 9-inch loaf pans with shortening (I simply sprayed a 9-inch pan with vegetable oil).
2. Mix sugar and butter in large bowl. Stir in eggs until well blended. Stir in bananas, buttermilk and vanilla; beat until smooth. Stir in flour, baking soda and salt just until moistened. Stir in nuts (if using). Divide batter evenly between pans if using 2 8-inch pans (I used a 9-inch pan).
3. Bake 8-inch loaves about 1 hour, 9-inch loaf about 1 hour 15 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool 10 minutes in pans on wire rack.
4. Loosen sides of loaves from pans; remove from pans and place top side up on wire rack. Cool completely, about 2 hours, before slicing. Wrap tightly and store at room temperature up to 4 days, or refrigerate up to 10 days.

I don't think our loaf will last beyond tomorrow...

Robert and Beverly's Visit

Robert and Beverly (Jeff's parents) visited for 6 days this week. We mainly relaxed at home, but did manage to get out and about - even with it being the first week of January!

We visited the town of Ludlow, about a 30-minute drive south of our house.

Robert was picking out a phesant for supper... okay, I think he was really eyeing the sausages in the display case.

Ludlow Castle - it wasn't open, but we got to see it from the gate.

Ironbridge - the village of Ironbridge is where the first bridge made of iron (go figure) was built in 1779. The area around the Ironbridge Gorge is said to be where the Industrial Revolution began in Europe. (This is located about 15 minutes from our house.)

Other highlights of Robert and Beverly's visit was a walk through Shrewsbury and lunch in a tea room, a walk through Attingham Park, church on Sunday and a visit to Mothercare (baby store) in Telford.

Week 30 Bump

I can hardly believe that there's only 10 weeks (or so) to go until our little lady enters this world. She is growing quite rapidly now and has become even more active, especially in the evening. Two nights ago, I saw my stomach move for the first time when she kicked. She was very active yesterday evening, and I watched her create wave-like movements across my bump. Luckily I'm able to still sleep pretty well, and only once (this week) has she woken me at 5am with her rolling around... I really don't mind at this point.

Her Granny and Grandad have been to visit this week. Beverly brought with her a white blanket knitted by her mother, Ina, for Sharon (Jeff's sister) when she was born... priceless. Jeff and I ordered BeeBee's cotbed/crib and changing table this week, too, and her room is mostly cleared out now, but the clothes still need to be put away.

The next doctor's appointment is next week and I'll see the midwife again on February 6th.