Easy Guilt-free Chocolate Cake

Though I am not a big fan of the Moosewood cookbooks, I did find this gem of a recipe in one of the books.  This has become my standard chocolate cupcake recipe.  You can make the batter in less than five minutes and if you use good quality cocoa, it makes a dark brown cupcake that is light, airy and not too rich.  While I am inherently suspicious of all things vegan as butter MUST be better, do not be turned off by this recipe.  It really is fabulous.  You can also dress it up with a chocolate butter-cream frosting.  However, the glaze below is easy and tasty.

Yield: 12 cupcakes or one 9" round cake 

1  1/2 cup white flour
1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder, Droste or Valhrona
1 t baking soda
1/2 t salt
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1 cup cold water or coffee
2 t vanilla extract
2 T white vinegar (this works with the soda to raise the cake)

Glaze (I find half of this is enough for the cupcakes)

1/2 pound good quality bittersweet chocolate
3/4 cup hot water, milk or half-and-half
1/2 t vanilla

Preheat oven to 375 F.  If you are making cupcakes, place 12 paper muffin cups in the muffin pans.  For the cake, butter and flour a 9" round cake pan.

Sift together (or mix well) in a big bowl, flour, cocoa, soda, salt and sugar.

In a two-cup measuring cup, measure and mix together the oil, water or coffee and vanilla.  Pour the liquid ingredients into the bowl of dry ingredients and mix until smooth with a whisk.

When the batter is smooth add the vinegar and stir JUST UNTIL MIXED! (You will see pale swirls where vinegar and soda are reacting, stir just until these are almost gone.)

If you are making cake, bake in a 9" round pan for 25 to 30 minutes.  For cupcakes, fill the tins with the batter until about 1/8" below rim and bake for approximately 20 minutes.  Bake just until a toothpick comes out clean when inserted in the middle.  Try not to over bake; the batter makes a moist cake, if you over cook it will dry out.  The cake keeps for several days in the refrigerator in a well sealed container.

Let the cake cool in the pan before removing and adding glaze.

Making the Glaze

Melt the glaze ingredients in small heavy saucepan over the lowest heat, stirring constantly.  I have found that some chocolates do not melt well, for instance Sharffenberger.  (Since Sharffenberger was bought out, the new chocolate never emulsifies properly.)  Since I don't own a microwave (nasty oversized piece of useless equipement), I can't advise you on how to melt the glaze. If you try the nuker, just do it very slowly at low power.

When the mixture is smooth remove from the stove (err on the side of taking it off the stove sooner with a few lumps still remaining rather than later) and spoon over the cake.

Refrigerate for at least 30 minutes before eating.

Note on Cocoa:
Use only very high quality cocoa, otherwise you’ll get these reddish brown cupcakes that don’t taste right.  If you think Ghiridelli is good chocolate, think again!  And don’t even try Nestle or Hershey cocoa, they are disgusting!

Ad Hoc Ultimate Pie Crust

Hands down the best pie dough I have every made or eaten.  This has great flavor and results in a very flaky tender crust.

Yield: one double or one single crust pie dough

Double Crust Pie:

2 1/2 cup flour
1 1/4 t salt
2 1/2 sticks (10 oz) unsalted butter cut into 1/2 inch pieces and chilled
about 5 T ice water

Single Crust Pie:

1 1/2 cup four
3/4 t salt
1 1/2 sticks (6 oz) unsalted butter cut into 1/2 inch pieces and chilled
about 3 T ice water

Combine flour and salt in a bowl. 

With a pastry blender work until butter is the size of peas.  Do not over work.

Sprinkle on the water and mix with a fork.   (If it's a dry day, add an extra tablespoon of water). If you've done this right, the dough is not yet holding together.  Again with the pastry blender, work the water into the flour until it starts to all hold together and no more.  Knead the dough briefly just until smooth.  This will be less than ten times. The dough should still be cool to touch, if it's warm you've over worked it.

Roll into a ball and flatten into a 3/4" thick disk (or two disks for a double crust, one disk slightly larger than the other).  Wrap in plastic wrap and let sit in the fridge for an hour or up to two days.

If the dough is too hard to roll, let rest at room temp.  Do not roll by force, you will stretch it and it'll shrink when baking.

Berry Pie with Crisp Topping

Yield: one pie

1 unbaked pie crust (I use Ad Hoc's version, by far the best I've tried)

Filling:
5 cups  fresh organic local berries, well washed
2/3 cup sugar
1/4 cup flour
1 1/2 T lemon juice

Gently mix the filling together and let sit for 15 minutes.

Preheat oven to 400. Meanwhile make the crisp topping.

Topping:
1/2 cup flour
1/4 cup lightly packed brown sugar
1/2 cup toasted pecans or walnuts
1/4 t cinnamon
1/4 t freshly grated nutmeg
1/2 t grated orange peel
4-5 T cold unsalted butter

Mix together the dry ingredients in a medium bowl.  Cut in the cold butter until well mixed and crumbly.  Add the nuts and use pastry cutter to mix them in and break them up a bit.

Add the filling to the pie crust.  Add 1-2 tbsp butter cut into small pieces.  Sprinkle the topping evenly over the berries.

Bake for 10 minutes at 400 degrees.  Reduce the heat to 350. Bake 35-40 minutes or until the top is lightly browned.  This pie may drip, so place some aluminum foil under the pie pan.