Deep and Dark | by Samer Farha
Sometimes you want some chocolate.
Sometimes, the urge is so strong you’ll dirty every pan and appliance in the kitchen in order to make something — anything — with chocolate. You’ll melt chocolate and make your own truffles; you’ll read old baking books and tweak recipes; you’ll even make your own bittersweet chocolate bars. Well, okay, maybe not you. Maybe, just maybe, I’m obsessive about chocolate.
I’ve always relegated the microwave to doing the tasks that would speed up things that I don’t want to wait for in the kitchen. Menial things: boiling water, melting butter, warming milk, and so on and so forth. Once in a great while (shh, don’t tell Nicole) I’d use the microwave to heat a frozen meal or reheat some left overs. Don’t you judge me — I was hungry!
Just Frosty | by Samer Farha
Despite the promises of various gizmos to let you cook bacon in the microwave, I was never tempted to use it as a way to actually, you know, cook anything. Until last Thursday, that is. I was carefully minding my own business when the wonderful and talented Rania (seriously, go buy something from her) tweeted about five minute chocolate cake in a mug.
After a lot of blinking I thought, “this can’t possibly be good. It’s prepared in a mug and then cooked! cooked! in a microwave.” Nicole would surely not approve.
A few days ago, I tried it out. Sure enough, it tasted good. Not nearly enough chocolate taste for me, and it was a bit on the dry side. But it worked. Start to finish it had taken 10 minutes, used one mug, one spoon, one plate, and one fork.
Immediately, I started to think of ways I could get more chocolate oomph out of this recipe. I played around a bit. It’s a very forgiving recipe. At the end of the day, even if you screw it up royally, it’s only cost you 10 minutes and 30¢ worth of ingredients.
Tonight, I think I might have hit a home run with it. Coming home from dinner and not having had dessert, and still wanting something, anything, made of chocolate, I started in on the mug. I reduced the flour a bit, preferring to increase the cocoa powder. I also melted some chocolate and replaced the oil with butter. Lastly, I replaced the milk with what I had on hand: Naked Juice’s Might Mango. I’ve always thought orange and mango tasted great with chocolate, so why not?
Well, I was right when I said “this can’t possibly be good.” I’ve now got a way to make a very rich, very deep, very chocolate cake in just ten minutes. This is most certainly not good.
The mango is sort of drowned out by the chocolate, so perhaps I’d stay with milk next time. But the cake, once cooled a bit, is really, really good. Moist (more so than the original), a bit crumbly, and very much made of chocolate.
Let Them Eat Cake. Now. | by Samer Farha
Let Them Eat Cake. Now.
- 3 tablespoons flour
- 3 tablespoons cocoa powder
- 4 tablespoons sugar
- 3 tablespoons semi-sweet chocolate chips, melted
- 1 large egg
- 3 tablespoons butter, melted
- 2 fluid ounces milk, orange juice, or other complimentary juice
Sift (yeah, you should) the flour, cocoa, and sugar into an extra large coffee mug (you can use a regular mug, but the cake will rise above the rim). Add a small pinch of salt, if you’d like. Melt the chocolate and butter together (1 minute on high should do the trick), and set aside to cool just a touch. Mix the dry ingredients well, making sure to get into the edges of the mug. Crack the egg into the mug and mix well. Add the rest of the ingredients and mix well. Don’t over work it, but you should make sure there’s very few lumps (didn’t I tell you to sift?).
Place mug in microwave and cook on high for about 3 minutes on high. Let it set up for two or three more minutes. Be careful: the ceramic of the mug will retain heat quite well, so handle with care. Carefully extract the cake onto a plate. Let it cool for a few minutes more and eat. Or cover in powdered sugar and eat. Or cover in some royal icing and eat. Or maybe make some whipped cream and eat. Or, you know, just eat it all ready!
Leave a comment if you try this out and let me know of your variations. I did discover that if you put chocolate chips in the batter, they will melt into the cake. I might try again with bigger chunks of chocolate, or maybe hazelnuts or something. Yeah, this wasn’t a good idea.
