Black Prince Cake 

Known in Russia as Black Prince, this is a cake made with lightly moist chocolate sponge layered with sauce that tastes a bit like toffee, and finely chopped or ground nuts. My version also includes sour cherries which makes it similar to Black Forest cake. Black Prince in the Wood if you like J

 Ingredients

For the sponge

• 3 medium or 2 large eggs
• 180 g sugar
• 180 g sour cream
• 120 g plain flour
• 2 level teaspoons bicarbonate of soda
• 50-70 g dark or bitter chocolate, grated; or, 2-3 tablespoons cocoa powder; or, a mixture of both
• 50 g ground or finely chopped almonds, hazelnuts or walnuts

 For the sauce

• 400 g tin sweetened condensed milk, boiled (see below for instructions)
• 150 g butter
• 100 g ground or finely chopped nuts
• (Optional) 2-3 teaspoons brandy, cream liqueur or strong sweet wine

 Also

• 1-2 handfuls sour cherries, fresh or frozen, stoned

For decoration

• Some more ground/chopped nuts, and/or nut flakes
• A few cherries, if desired
• Butter-cream icing, if desired

Method

Sponge

Beat eggs and sugar together until pale and smooth. Switch your mixer to a low speed and add the sour cream in 3-4 increments (or more). Stir the bicarbonate of soda into the flour, fold into the egg mix. Add chocolate/cocoa. Lastly, fold in the nuts.

(NB Most common versions of the recipe don’t include nuts at this stage, but I find that they improve the structure. Made as is, with just 120 g flour, this cake had collapsed on me a couple of times. Adding a little nuts makes sure the cake keeps its shape, yet does not make the sponge denser in the way an equivalent amount of flour would.)

Transfer the batter into a greased cake tin. A springform tin is best, because you’ll be layering the cake in it afterwards. It’s important that the tin is no larger than 18 cm diameter because we want a tall cake. Don’t worry, the batter is too runny to bake to a volcano shape! Mine usually comes out with a perfectly flat top.

Bake at 180 C/350 F for approx. 30-40 min, or until a wooden stick inserted into the middle comes out dry.

Sauce

Boil the condensed milk. This will need to be done in advance.

Peel any labels off the tin and place it in a saucepan, on its side. Do not open or pierce the tin. Pour in enough water to cover the whole tin + an inch or so. Cover, put on a hob and heat until the water begins to boil. Then turn the heat right down and cook for 1 hr 30 min. Check that the water is bubbling slightly. Don’t worry the tin will not burst AS LONG AS you make sure the water doesn’t boil away.

Allow to cool completely before opening. When ready, boiled condensed milk has a dark caramel colour and a taste very similar to toffee.

Leave butter on the counter until it is room temperature. If you wish to speed up the process, cut into small chunks or slice. Cream the butter with a spoon or mixer on low speed. Add the cooled “toffee” and nuts and beat together until well combined.

Layering

Slice the sponge horizontally to make 3 equal size layers. If not using a springform tin, lay two sheets of parchment paper, crosswise, into the tin so you can later lift the cake out by pulling at the ends.

Lay the first piece of sponge into the tin. Place half of the cherries onto the sponge, holes down, so that the juices moisten the sponge rather than make puddles in the sauce. There’s no need to defrost frozen cherries, but if you have, pour the drained juice over the sponge. Spoon the sauce in between and over the cherries. Place the next layer of sponge on the top, then cherries and sauce. Finish with sponge and a layer of sauce, but reserve a couple tablespoons for later.

Refrigerate overnight.

Take out, carefully lift out of the tin onto a serving plate. Spread the remaining sauce over the sides.

Decorate as you wish, the easiest way to do it is to dust the top and sides with ground nuts. I used some cherries, almond flakes and butter-cream icing (creamed butter, icing sugar, cocoa powder), and dusted the sides with almond powder.

(Please be lenient on my decorating ability, this was only my third ever go with the icing bag!)

I also like this cake with pieces of prune instead of cherries.

These were tasty, I enjoyed the chewy butterscotch and chocolate. I have to agree that I liked them just as much without any chocolate at all. I think if I were to do it again, I'd get some orange-infused bittersweet chocolate for them - my 66% bittersweet/33% milk choc. was too sweet IMO -- I liked the Mohn bars better.

Baking Notes:

• Panning these up required every flat cooking surface I owned. Fortunately, it was really cold and windy outside, so I could put an (empty) fresh-out-of-the-oven sheet pan on the back porch, and it was cold within 3-4 minutes.
• I ended up adding an extra half cup of flour to get the batter out of the 'runny' stage
• Don't put them in a sealed container for the wife to take to school, or they end up adhering to one another...

My last chocolate experiment was a bit (allright, a large bit) too sweet. This time, I eliminated the extra butter, brown sugar, and maple syrup, and went with 2 oz of bittersweet choc chips and 2 oz of milk choc chips. I added 5 oz of dried cherries and 4 oz of pecans. I also used 100% home-milled flour (mix of hard red and white wheat) and the sourdo.com Russian starter. After an initial 4 hour proof, I shaped and put in a pullman pan. Because my kitchen feels like a meat locker these days, I put the pullman pan in the microwave oven and put two cups boiling water in a sealed plastic container, then stuck it inside as well. It rose for 2 more hours, then I put the pullman pan into a cold oven, set it on 375 degrees F, and baked for 2 hours 15 minutes.

The sweetness is just about perfect for a breakfast/dessert bread. I think I'll add more cherries next time, but otherwise I'm pretty happy with it.

You know what's good? Chocolate chip blueberry pancakes with pecans. Don't want to make pancakes every morning? Try this.

I started with PR's BBA basic sourdough recipe, using a milled mixture of 50/50 hard red and hard white wheat with KA New England sourdough starter. I then added the following:

• 5 oz dried blueberries
• 4 oz pecans
• 4 oz milk chocolate chips
• 2 tablespoons softened butter
• 1/4 cup dark brown sugar
• 1/4 cup maple syrup (for god's sake, real maple, not that goo in a plastic jug. If you don't have real, use maple extract or leave it out.)

The pictured loaf used 6 oz of chips, which was too much. I've adjusted to 4 oz. I did a stretch and fold every 45 minutes for 3 hours, then left it alone to rise another two hours, then put in the fridge overnight to retard.

The next problem I faced was that I really didn't want chocolate melting into my baking stone. Solution? Pullman pan! After retarding the final dough overnight, I let it warm up for a couple of hours, then shaped it and put it in a 13" x 4.5" x 4.5" pullman pan and let it rise for three hours. It was about 3/4 up the pan, and unlikely to go much higher on its own. I put the lid on the pan and put it into a cold oven, set it to 375 degreesF, and went away for two hours. I pulled the lid back far enough to check the browning, and let it have another 20 minutes. YMMV.

It needs no butter or anything else, and has been our breakfast all week.

Posted a little bit later than intended, but its out there now, my mid-week bake, another attempt at a Honey WholeWheat and a Chocolate Sour Cherry loaves.

I am trying to achieve that lovely soft wholewheat texture you find in American breads – think gourmet WholeFoods and delis type, not the horrible Subway kind that squashes in your hand.

I am quite please with that I got at the end, probably a bit more room to play with the recipe – it didn’t spring in the oven as much as I hoped, but the flavour is very close to what I have in mind.

The other one, Chocolate Sour one was a spur of the moment thing, really. I am not really into chocolate breads, especially not the ones that use cocoa powder, I find them too sweet and not chocolaty enough. I found some lovely Valrhona chocolate in my sweets box and some dried sour cherries in the pantry – why not? Sounds like they go together, lets give it a go.

I do like the chocolate in it, especially after you’ve toasted it and the chocolate goes all soft and melty. Could do with more sour cherries, as the cherry flavour isn’t particularly strong, I just didn’t have any more at hand.

I will be trying both of these recipes again, that’s for sure

Full recipes and more photos on my blog

Find more recipes on my blog Dessert Before Dinner

Everyone in the family loved this recipe. It was great with butter and trout roe when it was fresh out of the oven, and this morning it was perfect with cream cheese and smoked salmon. The crumb is tender and the crust was firm, creating a wonderful contrast. It's great right now, but this bread will be even better with soup or smoked fish in the winter. Like all brown breads, this is a hearty, winter weather bread. It has a very complex flavor and it is even better a day or two later.

Russian Black Bread 

Ingredients

• 2 packs active yeast
• 1 pinch sugar
• ½ cup warm water
• 2 cups water
• 1 oz unsweetened chocolate
• 4 tbsp unsalted butter
• ¼ cup dark molasses
• ¼ cup cider vinegar
• 2 oz (1/2 cup) whole wheat flour
• 2 ¼ oz (1 cup) wheat bran
• 13 oz (3 cups) bread flour
• 11.25 oz (3 cups) rye flour
• 2 Tbsp caraway seeds
• ½ tsp fennel seeds
• 1 tbsp minced shallots
• 1 tbsp ground dark roast coffee
• ¼ cup cornmeal
• 1 tbsp all purpose flour
• 1 tsp caraway seeds

Directions

1. Heat 2 cups water, butter, chocolate, molasses, coffee grounds and vinegar on stove until butter and chocolate are melted. Set in refrigerator to cool. Too hot liquids will damage the yeast.Proof yeast with ½ cup water and pinch of sugar
2. Sift together flours and bran.
3. In separate bowl, add fennel, shallots, caraway and 2 cups of the mixed flours. Add chocolate mixture and yeast to the flour. Continue adding flour half a cup at a time until the mixture pulls away from the mixing bowl.
4. Knead until mixture is springy yet dense. Place in oiled bowl and let proof until doubled in size (about a hour and a half).
5. Remove dough from bowl and divide into two pieces. Shape pieces into boules and dust tops with cornmeal, flour and caraway mixture. Let rest for 45 minutes
   
6. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Just before baking, slash tops of loaves. Bake for 45 minutes or until dark.

I know this is the Fresh Loaf and this isn't a bread, but I just want to share this recipe with you.

The souffle, one of the world's most feared desserts.

You'll need:

Rhubarb compote:

• 100g of rhubarbs (frozen are great), cut into centimetre chunks.
• 25g sugar
• A splash of water

• 100g of good quality white chocolate
• 2 eggs, seperated yolks from whites
• 60g sugar

Other

• Unsalted butter
• Sugar

Instructions:

Butter the inside of your ramekin and refrigerate it.

Make the rhubarb compote: Put the ingredients into a pot, heat it up and let it simmer until it get a somewhat smooth consistency, don't worry if it has a few chunks. Set it to cool.

Melt the chocolate in a water bath, get some water boiling in a pot and place a bowl on top of the pot and place the chocolate in the bowl and wait for it to melt completely. Take the bowl off and let it cool a little.

Whisk the eggwhites with the sugar until they become somewhat stiff, not really stiff, but certainly full of air.

Add the eggyolks and rhubarb compote to the melted chocolate. Make sure the chocolate isn't too hot, so the yolks cook.

By this time you should butter your ramekin again, so it has two layers of butter. Put it back in the fridge.

Carefully mix the eggwhites with the chocolate/rhubarb mix. Gently turn the whites in without knocking any air out of the mixture, little by little.

When all has come together, take out your cool ramekin and pour some sugar into the bowl and pour all the excess sugar out.

Gently spoon the souffle dough into the bowl, make sure not to get any dough on the edges or knocking any air out. Fill up the bowl all the way up and use a knife to make the surface completely even. Use the tip of your thumb to clean the edges of the bowl, so the souffle has no resistance at all when rising.

Your oven should at this point be at exactly 200 degrees celcius. Place the souffle on a low rack. It is very delicate, so keep an eye on it at all times, it should take about 6-8 minutes for the souffle to rise to it's desirable glory. Watch it.

By the time it's finished it should have risen 1-1½ centimetres over the top of the ramekin and still have a gooey centre.

Bon appetit!

Ahhh bread and chocolate! I don't have much of a sweet tooth but do find a warm baguette spread with dark chocolate irristable (to my taste much better than overrich chocolate croissants). 

I'm not a fan of Nutella (too sweet) and I've often wished someone would make a grown up version of Nutella with dark chocolate. So I was pretty excited when I spotted Nusco Dark Chocolate at  my fave food import store the other day.

 I just spread a little Nusco on a slice of toast and it was excellent!  Highly recommend this product.

I purchased a 400g jar for $3.45 but see that it's available online.   Check it out!

I was inspired by JMonkey's bread from 2008 & from another bread I tried from Mike Avery's blog.  This bread was absolutely delicious.  I used my usual recipe for my sourdough boules with a 7-grain soaker so I wouldn't feel so guilty feeding it to my family.  I added 50 grams of Dutch cocoa, 100g of dried cranberries, and chocolate chips, folding it in the way JMOnkey showed so the chocolate wouldn't burn.  Worked fantastic. 

Hey Mark,

Had a palmier this morning at the Victoria Falls Hotel up in Zimbabwe which included finely chopped or grated chocolate.  Just saying...

Paul