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Tag: chocolate

Orange-Chocolate Muffins With Almonds

Indeed a sumptuous muffin, half orange and half chocolate, that certainly will charm any guest.

2 cups all purpose flour
½ cup sugar
3 teaspoons baking powder
½ teaspoon salt
½ cup toasted, chopped blanched almonds
2 eggs, beaten
¾ cup orange juice
1/3 cup butter or margarine, melted
2 ounces semi-sweet chocolate, melted
Grated rind of 1 large orange

Preheat oven to 400°. Brush twelve 2½" muffin cups with melted butter or coat with vegetable spray.

In a mixing bowl combine the flour, sugar, baking powder and salt. Stir in the almonds, leaving ¼ cup to sprinkle over tops of muffins. Combine the eggs, orange juice and butter. Stir into the dry ingredients until just well mixed. Remove half the batter to a second bowl. To one-half the batter add the melted chocolate, mixing rapidly until smooth. To the other half of the batter add the grated orange rind, mixing well. Holding the muffin tin slightly tipped, spoon in the orange batter on one side of each muffin cup. Fill the other side with chocolate batter. By lightly touching the batter you can keep each under control — and they certainly do not have to be perfect. Sprinkle tops with remaining almonds. Bake muffins 20 minutes.

To toast almonds, spread the nuts in a cake tin and place them in a 300° oven. Toast about 15 minutes, stirring occasionally. Watch carefully to avoid burning.

From Mary Gubser’s “Quick Breads, Soups, and Stews“, Publ. Council Oak, ISBN 0-933031-33-5

Queen of Sheba Cake

Dense gateau-style chocolate cake with ground almonds.

Serves 8 to 10


CAKE

125 grams semisweet chocolate
125 grams unsalted butter
3 eggs-separated
125 grams granulated white sugar
1/2 tsp. vanilla 125 grams ground almonds


GLAZE

50 grams white wheat flour-sifted
100 grams semisweet chocolate
50 grams unsalted butter


  1. Preheat oven to 175°C (350°F).

  2. In a small pan, melt chocolate over low heat. Cool to room temperature.

  3. In a mixing bowl, cream butter and mix in melted, cooled chocolate. Add egg yolks, one by one, and half of the sugar, beating well after each addition. Mix in vanilla. Fold in ground almonds and then flour.

  4. In another bowl, whip egg whites just until they are stiff. Add remaining half of the sugar and beat until egg whites are glossy, about 30 seconds more.

  5. Stir 1/4 of the egg whites into chocolate mixture and then fold in the rest of them. Pour mixture into a 20-cm (8-inch), buttered and floured cake pan.

  6. Bake until cake shrinks slightly from sides of the pan and the top springs back when lightly pressed with a fingertip, about 30 minutes. Cool cake in pan for a few minutes before turning it out onto a cake rack to cool completely. At this point, cake can be stored in an airtight container for a week.

  7. For the glaze, a few hours before serving, melt chocolate with butter over very low heat. Stir gently.

  8. Put cake on a rack and spread warm glaze over its top and sides, working quickly to finish before glaze sets.

To make ground almonds, cover them with water, bring to a boil, drain, and then slip each almond out of its skin by pinching between your thumb and forefinger. In a 175°C (350°F) oven, toast almonds until they are light golden, about 10 minutes. Cool. In a food processor, grind almonds with a few tablespoons of the sugar by turning machine on and off.