Thursday, September 22, 2011

Garbanzo Bean Chocolate Cake



I know, I know, I probably lost some of you just with that title, but let me tell you it's good! September is a busy birthday month and I just wanted t
o try a cake that was a little bit better for you than the standard cake. I started scouring the internet and stumbled across this cake recipe that had hundreds of glowing reviews and thousands of people saved the recipe..and did I mention it's gluten free! I have to say I was most intrigued. I LOVE my chocolate so when I read a flourle
ss dense chocolaty cake made of beans, I thought no way.


Ingredients

  • 1 1/2 cups semisweet chocolate chips
  • 1 (19 ounce) can garbanzo beans, rinsed and drained
  • 4 eggs
  • 3/4 cup white sugar
  • 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
  • 1 tablespoon confectioners' sugar for dusting

Directions

  1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease and flour a 9 inch round cake pan.
  2. Place the chocolate chips into a microwave-safe bowl. Cook in the microwave for about 2 minutes, stirring every 20 seconds after the first minute, until chocolate is melted and smooth. If you have a powerful microwave, reduce the power to 50 percent.
  3. Combine the beans and eggs in the bowl of a food processor.
    Process until smooth. Add the sugar and the baking powder, and pulse to blend. Pour in the melted chocolate and blend until smooth, scraping down the corners to make sure chocolate is completely mixed. Transfer the batter to the prepared cake pan.
  4. Bake for 40 minutes in the preheated oven, or until a knife inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean. Cool in the pan on a wire rack for 10 to 15 minutes before inverting onto a serving plate. Dust with confectioners' sugar just before serving.

The key to making sure this comes out really smooth, Don't skimp on the time you blend the beans in the food processor! For this party I topped mine with a dark chocolate ganache..mmm...so good. I took one reviewers tip and served it after it cooled completely. It seems much more fragile when hot. I think I will have fun playing around with this recipe because it will certainly be making another appearance soon!

Popsicle!


So I've been feeling under the weather lately, but now it's time to catch up on my recipes! On September 14th my beautiful daughter turned two! Each day with her brings new surprises and challenges to what my definition of being her mommy means. She is like her daddy; a burst of beaming energy from the moment she wakes up in the morning. She eats like my husband too (lots of little meals). She loves breakfast food, fruit, and variety so I'm constantly trying to think of new ways to reinvent her favorite foods. Here are 2 sneaky non-baking recipes for her favorite "ice cream". Anything put in Popsicle molds is "ice cream" to my daughter and I'm going to milk every minute of this phase until she gets wise!
One of our favorite fruits is watermelon..oh if they had good ripe watermelon year round I'd swear I'd live off it.
Sadly, it is past watermelon season, but I will try to sneak in one last one and to my disappointment it will be overly ripe. That is what inspired this delightful treat. One mushy watermelon..just pureed in
my food processor then poured in the mold with a little bit of mini chocolate chips and frozen...mmm so good! Layla loved them too.
The other thing I've been putting in my Popsicle molds is yogurt. We use Organic yogurt usually in strawberry or vanilla. Here I poured in the strawberry, again a
few
mini chocolate chips and voila! Layla loved it so much she left none to share with Cara.

Friday, September 9, 2011

Happy Birthday Brian



On Wednesday my family celebrated my little brother's 26th birthday at Citizen's Bank Park watching the Phils sweep the Atlanta Braves. Whooohoo!! When it comes to family events my mom and I often split the baking duties; she makes her yummy cakes and I decorate them. Years ago, we took a cake
decorating class at A.C. Moore. It was a brief class on learning how to use fondant. If you aren't familiar with the product it's basically like edible play doh...though if you asked me when I was a kid, I thought all play doh was edible. It is not. It is salty and disgusting, children don't try it. Fondant however is like eating a sugary taffy. There is designer fondant that apparently tastes like tootsie rolls and there is a recipe for marshmallow fondant somewhere in my files- Note to self: try these in the future. Anyway, in the pictures above and below you can see the phils hat, baseball, and jersey are all made from the fondant. I also used Wilton spray food coloring for the sides of the cake. Easy to use, great coverage, but WARNING it gets everywhere! I didn't realize it until
I went to wipe down my kitchen and was getting lots of red dye. Ugh, What a pain! I do recommend the product, but in the future I will put down lots of newspaper first.

Thursday, September 8, 2011

Meet the critics


Number 1- My husband! Jonathan, age 31, gym rat and a healthy eater, but will on occasion indulge his sweet tooth or good old Italian roots. When we first started dating I read the book Your Diet is Driving Me CRAZY. That was in 2004 and I’m pleased to say we’ve found our happy medium in the kitchen. Lots of veggies and lean protein is the way to this man’s heart.

Number 2- Layla, my soon to be 2 year old. She eats like her Dad; many little meals throughout the day. The key to keeping her pleased is variety. She loves her fruits like her mama and cheese…though lots of that definitely doesn’t agree with her.

Number 3- Cara, our four year old Newfoundland. Cara is as sweet as

can be and always in the center of the kitchen or under the table. Newfs are a smart breed and she knows that where Layla is there is sure to be food nearby. Keeping in mind the list of no no foods for dogs, the only thing she won’t eat is bananas. She will eat her own vomit if I let her, but not bananas? I find this hysterical.

As for myself, I think the list of things I’m allergic to is longer than the list of my don’t likes. I can’t eat walnuts, pecans, or hazelnuts so you will often see substitutions or omissions if those are called for in a recipe. I had an allergic reaction to MSG and soy in college so I watch for both of those ingredients. I’m not a fan of veal or lamb. Since we’ve gone Organic/ Grass Fed our meat consumption has decreased quite a bit. We are also a no HFCS household. The more we read ( I should say Jon-but he gives me the Cliff notes version) the more we are moving toward local farm fresh.

Welcome

My name is Jackie Chain. I am 28 years old, have my own mural business (Jackie Chain Murals LLC), have a learning disability (forgive my grammar), a wife, mother, part of a very large Irish/Italian family, volunteer with the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation, a Zumba and Yoga girl, and clean freak-as much as you can be with a 2 yr old and a shaggy dog. I love being outside- especially the beach, painting/drawing, glittery/sparkly things, chocolate, martinis, learning new crafty stuff and experimenting with recipes.

I wasn't born with a great memory…which I swear got much worse after having my daughter. Often the phone is ringing, my husband and I are attempting a conversation, our 125 lb Newfoundland is laying in the middle of the kitchen floor, and my beautiful 2 year old is climbing my leg...all while I'm attempting to bake. This scenario often led to "wait what was I doing" “did I add that ingredient” and "where did I put that recipe?" and thus the idea of this blog was born!

I think that is all you need to know about me…Our life in the Chain household is often described as crazy busy so I will do my best to keep the posts brief. There will be a mix of baking, art, and undoubtedly my adventures in motherhood. If you happen to stumble across my blog and want to join the fun- please do! And off we go!