restaurant-style desserts – My Whisk and I

These pancakes are not cocoa-chocolatey-looking but actually contain real chocolate in the batter!! Whether you serve them with ice-cream, fresh fruit and Chantilly cream or plain, from-the-pan, you will love them! Yields about 12 pancakes depending on the size of your pan.

80g dark chocolate, 70% cocoa
250ml + 100ml milk
90ml caster sugar
200g cake flour
100ml water
3 eggs
2,5ml vanilla
butter for frying

Chop the chocolate into small pieces and add it to a small saucepan.
Pour in 100ml milk and place on a very low heat.
Stir the mixture until the chocolate has melted completely and remove from the heat.
Add the 250ml milk and caster sugar and stir to dissolve the sugar. Set aside.
Sift the flour into a mixing bowl.
Pour the water, eggs and vanilla into a jug and whisk it together.
Pour the egg mixture into the flour in a very thin stream while whisking. Pour slowly, whisk quickly …. you don’t want lumps in your batter!
Now whisk in the chocolate mixture in the same way.
Cover the batter with a tea towel and allow to stand for one hour.

Heat a frying/crêpe pan until it is very hot.
Add a knob of butter and swirl it around so that it covers the surface of the pan.
Pour in a ladleful of batter and swirl again to evenly distribute in the pan.
Turn the heat down slightly and cook the pancake for 1 minute.
Turn the pancake over with a spatula and cook for another 30 seconds. (The combination of sugar and chocolate burns really easy!!)
Keep going with the rest of the batter until you have a heavily stack of chocolate pancakes.
Serve warm.

These cakes are like little jewels of chocolate and orange that explode in your mouth. This is an easy dessert when you are entertaining friends and want to impress.

Orange syrup:
200ml sugar
200ml water
zest from one orange

For the cake:
320g De Villiers Chocolate: orange and vanilla, 70% dark or any other dark chocolate
250g butter, cubed
300g brown sugar
5 eggs
100g cake flour
100g self-raising flour
30ml orange liqueur or brandy

For the orange syrup:
Strip the zest from the orange with a vegetable peeler.
Put the strip of zest flat onto a chopping board and slice into needle-wide strips with a sharp knife. Cut all of the zest into these needle strips. Put aside.
Add the sugar and water to a small saucepan and place on a high heat.
Stir the mixture until all the sugar has dissolved. DO NOT stir again.
Add the zest-needles to the mixture and bring the mixture to a boil, FOR ONE MINUTE.
Take the saucepan from the heat and set aside to cool.

For the cake:
Preheat your oven to 160℃.
Grease 12 small baking moulds or a 12-hole standard muffin tin.
Chop the chocolate. Melt the chocolate in a heatproof bowl over a saucepan with simmering water. Stir every now and then until all the chocolate has melted and the mixture is completely smooth.
Remove from the heat and put aside.
Add the butter and sugar to the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment.
Cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy.
Turn the mixer down to a medium speed and add the eggs one at a time, waiting for each to be incorporated.
Turn the mixer to its lowest speed and add the slightly cooled chocolate, liqueur and flour.
Scoop the batter into the prepared mould and bake for 30 minutes.
Remove the cakes from the oven.
Cut the cakes flush with the moulds you baked them in while still very warm. This will leave you with a flat surface to stand the cakes once you plate them.
Spoon about 20ml of the cold syrup onto the cut-side of the warm cakes.
Remove each cake from the mould (stand them up – the way you will serve them) and spoon the rest of the orange syrup over.
Serve slightly warm or at room temperature.

Tag: restaurant-style desserts

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