Chocolate Mousse Cake
So things are going up a notch on the filth factor with my Chocolate Mousse Cake (inc a plant based version!), Sticky Apple Crumble & Cinnamon Slices and THE BEST Brown Butter Triple Choc Cookies.
Hey Friends!
I hope you are well and have all had a lovely week? We are keeping this week’s rambles short and sweet (and basically non-existent) because we are in for a mammoth edition but less yap means we get to the good stuff more quickly though, right??
Please note I’ll update each recipe tomorrow with a downloadable PDF - verrrry conscious of time and wanting to ensure I get these recipes over to you ahead of any weekend baking!
We are kicking off the birthday month menu with all things filthy. I’m talking, cakes, breads, biscuits and all the bits inbetween.
First up, we have my Brown Butter Triple Chocolate Cookies. I am convinced this is what heaven must taste, smell and look like. Easy to make, quick to bake and the sort of cookies which you will want to have a secret stash of in the freezer at all times. This recipe is verrrrry close to the recipe I spent a long time developing a few years back when I was on the brink of opening a cookie business so I am super passionate about this recipe. Gooey, crisp, crunchy, soft, chewy, sweet, salty and ohhh so chocolatey. Just talking about them is making me crave them – brb, just off to go pop one in the oven to bake.
Now I have a solid snack to accompany me as I write the rest of this newsy, I won’t drool too much over the next recipe. I have made it clear before that apples for me are a snore snore kinda fruit. Why would I ever willingly opt to eat an apple when mangoes, strawberries, cherries, passionfruit and plums exist? But when they are smothered in cinnamon, topped in a crumble and drowned in custard? NOW you’re talking. Originally I wanted to make some sort of upside down apple caramel cake but after a few iterations, I still wasn’t happy so changed tactic and thank goodness. I can only describe my Sticky Apple Caramel & Cinnamon Slices as the love child of a cinnamon bun, focaccia, Danish Brunsviger and apple crumble all rolled into one. Wholly extra, totally unnecessary but hot fresh out of the oven and drenched in custard?? Near unbeatable.
And I say near unbeatable, because the main bake of the day is *that* girl. The girl who is too much, too extra, too extravagant, too indulgent and nearly too much to handle. I have shared a recipe for my Triple Threat Chocolate Cake a long time ago over here on the Last Bite but I wanted to revisit it as I knew it could be taken up a notch or two. And by notch, I mean we have introduced a new layer to my Chocolate Mousse Cake. 4 Layers of sumptuous, well balanced, chocolatey goodness topped with my beloved Amarena Cherries and a little drizzling of syrup to finish. This is a sexy sweet treat – the perfect cake to kick off my birthday month!
And because if all that wasn’t enough, I am sharing my Plant Based version of my Choccy Mousse Cake cause every tum deserves a bit of this yum.
We have got to keep the yap to a minimum today because a) I can already tell that this newsy is gonna be a longggg one and mostly b) I don’t have much time to write it. It’s 2pm on a Friday which means I have about 4 hours to get this over to your inboxes. Can I do it? I don’t have much faith but we’re gonna give it a good bloody go. Update: I did not get this to you by 6pm because I went for a quick 15 minute nap which lasted an hour?? Very sorry.
First up, are my dearly beloved Brown Butter Triple Chocolate Cookies.
Now here’s the thing. Every man and their Gran claim to have the best cookie recipe. Theirs is the best. You can’t beat it. World class cookies. The best you will find. Nope, nope, nopeity nope. I hate to break it to you folks but they are lying to you. They know their cookies aren’t the best. The know their cookies are okay, good at best. But mine? Mine are LEGIT the best. I say that boldly and I say that with every part of my being because the recipe I am sharing with you below is a mildly tweaked version of the recipes I came this ←→ close to selling a few years back.
They are rich, indulgent, moreish and are great eaten hot or cold – washed down with a pint of water (we are a no go milk zone over here) and you’re somehow refreshed to chomp down another 2 or 3. I don’t understand the science behind it but you know I am talking real facts here. They have a deliciously ooey gooey middle, crisp and crunchy outsides and have a triple C thiccc middle – just the way every good cookie should be. I am not a fan of the sad, slim, paper thin cookies. Gimme chunky and and gimme em all.
These are very easy to make and as they require an overnight chill in the freezer to ensure you have that perfectly baked gooey middle, this means you can bake as many or as little as you want whenever you want. Everyone needs an emergency cookie stash for when that Sunday at 7pm sofa slob session starts requiring a sweet treat – in 15 minutes, you got it.
At the very base of the dough is where the magic begins – the almighty brown butter, which you’ve probs seen flooding your feed and being used in every sort of baked good come this time of year BUT for good reason. Butter is delicious, absolutely. But brown butter? That my friends is elite level of butter. Here you melt the butter down until the milk solids begin to brown, producing this wonderfully nutty smell and taste. A real simple trick to elevating your bakes whether that’s for buttercreams (a brown butter cream cheese frosting sandwiching a spiced carrot cake??? Otherworldly – dramatics intended), cake batters, cookies, biscuits or breads.
Make em, bake em, eat em and repeat. These are cookies done the filthy way.
Please note the below were developed in collaboration with All Things Butter, who I am a brand partner for but will always encourage buying good quality produce and ingredients!
Recipe Makes: 10 Chunky NYC Style Cookies
Recipe Serves: This feels like a trick question cause I can never eat just 1 cookie, it’s gotta be two so with that maths – 5?
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Dough
225 g All Things Butter Unsalted, diced
115 g Light Brown Sugar
110 g Caster Sugar
1 Large Egg
115 g Condensed Milk
1.5 tsp Vanilla Bean Paste
310 g Plain Flour, sifted
50 g Cornflour, sifted
1 tsp Baking Powder, sifted
½ tsp Bicarb, sifted
½ tsp Sea Salt
100 g Milk Chocolate, roughly chopped
100 g Dark Chocolate, roughly chopped
80 g White Chocolate, roughly chopped
M E T H O D –
Into a pan, add the unsalted butter and place over a low to medium heat. Gently melt the butter. Once melted, continue cooking until the milk solids begin to turn a dark golden brown colour. They’ll pool at the base of the pan looking like crumbs and the butter should smell buttery. Remove the pan from the heat and place into the fridge to cool.
Once cool but not set firm, pour 225 g brown butter into a mixer bowl alongside the two sugars. NOTE: you need to melt more butter than needed in the recipe as the water content will reduce when being cooked so make sure you weigh it before adding to the bowl.
Cream together for a minute or two on a medium speed using a paddle attachment on your stand mixer. We don’t want this to be light or fluffy, we just want this combined. NOTE: If you do not have a stand mixer, you can use an electric hand whisk or a wooden spoon.
Next, add the egg, condensed milk and vanilla. Again, mix until just combined – if you continue to mix and the base of the dough becomes aerated, you will be left with a more cakey consistency, as opposed to cookie.
In a separate bowl, add the plain flour, cornflour, baking powder, bicarbonate of soda and salt. Mix using a balloon whisk. NOTE: If you do not have cornflour, you can sub for same quant flour. I have had a few people ask me if the cornflour is a necessity and for this recipe, I would highly recommend using it. It helps to not only promote a more tender, chewier middle but it also helps to inhibit the gluten development and prevent the cookies from spreading too much when baking.
Mix the 3 chocolates together before add 3/4 of it and the mixed flour to the mixer bowl.
Mix on a low to medium speed until everything has just combined and there are no visible streaks of flour.
Use an ice cream scoop to scoop out dough balls (I opt for approx 115 - 120 g dough ball to make 10 cookies). Press the tops and sides of each dough ball into the remaining chopped chocolate chunks and place onto your lined baking tray. The taller you shape your cookie dough ball (eg cylindrically as opposed to round) the chunkier the cookie will be.
Place the baking tray into the freezer and leave for at least 1 hour, or until frozen through. NOTE: I opt for an overnight freeze just to allow the cookie to completely freeze through and allow time for the gluten to relax and flour to hydrate. Do not thaw before baking, bake straight from frozen.
Once frozen, preheat the oven to 160CFan/180C/350F/Gas Mark 4.
Place a few of the dough balls onto a lined baking tray leaving plenty of space around each one and bake for 15 minutes – anything more than this will produce a more cooked through cookie where the internal texture isn’t gooey.
Remove the tray from the oven, use a glass or cookie cutter to scoot around the edges to tidy up and let the cookies sit on the tray for at least 45 minutes before moving them onto a cooling rack. NOTE: moving the cookies before they have set may result in a delicious mess. If you are unable to pick them up, continue letting them cool on the tray until you are.
Moving onto the next bake on the menu, my Sticky Apple Crumble & Cinnamon Slices.
..or an cinnamon bun slash focaccia slash apple crumble slice?
...orrrr a sticky cinnamony apple crumbly kinda thing?
If you can’t tell, the name of this little jumble of yum is still tbc but I honestly couldn’t wait to share this recipe because as a massive bread fiend, this is essentially what my dreams are made of.
It’s sticky, warming, lightly spiced, heavily flavoured, sweet, tart, crunchy, crumbly and pillowy soft. Have I just mashed up a danish brunsviger, cinnamon bun, focaccia and apple crumble all into one? Yes. And honestly, it’s changed my life a little.
We’ve got a cardamom spiced dough, drowning in a sticky dark sugar, apple and cinnamon butter and finished with a hefty sprinkling of crumble. Each slice is moreish, comforting and disgustingly delicious. Served up solo or drowning in a vanilla laden custard, this is good mood food at its finest.
I also like to think this recipe debunks the whole idea and notion that baking bread is hard or difficult – as long as you have a stand mixer or electric hand whisk (use the dough hooks!), you will be just fine. I would advise against making the bread by hand as it is an enriched dough meaning we use butter – and a lot of it at that. But what you do end up getting is something so sumptuously soft, you’re going to have a hard time stopping at just one slice.
Best eaten fresh out of the oven for a slice of sticky, gooey, warming, comforting buttery bread and drenched in custard or topped with a scoop of vanilla ice cream.
Recipe Makes: 1 x 20 by 30 cm / 8 by 12 inch deep baking tin
Recipes Serves: 12
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Dough
125 ml Double/Heavy Cream, room temp
125 ml Water
7 g Active Dry Yeast
50 g Soft Light Brown Sugar
415 g Strong Bread Flour
5 Cardamom Pods, ground
1 Egg, large
5 g salt
1 tsp Vanilla Bean Paste
100 g Unsalted Butter, room temp
For the Topping
300 g Dark Brown Sugar
200 g Unsalted Butter, diced
400 g Seasonal Apples, peeled & finely diced*
1.75 tbsp Cinnamon Powder
1 tbsp Stem Ginger Syrup (from the jar), optional
½ tsp salt
*keep the peeled and diced apple in water with a good squeeze of lemon to prevent them browning until you need to use them
Crumble
100 g Plain Flour
60 g Unsalted Butter, fridge temp & diced
50 g Caster Sugar
10 g Demerara Sugar
½ tsp Vanilla Bean Powder/Paste
M E T H O D –
The night before, make the dough. Add all the ingredients, bar the butter, to a stand mixer bowl. Mix on a low-to-medium speed for 5 mins until a rough dough has formed.
Add the unsalted butter and mix on a medium to high speed until incorporated. Once combined, mix on a medium speed for 5 mins until the dough is soft and not sticky.
Place the dough in a large, oiled bowl and cover with clingfilm/saran wrap. Leave to sit at room temperature for 30 minutes, before popping in the fridge to prove overnight.
The next morning, remove the dough and let it sit at room temperature for 30 minutes.
Line a 20 by 30 cm / 8 by 12 inch deep tin with greaseproof paper. Leave to one side.
Transfer the dough to a lightly floured worktop and, using a rolling pin, roll out to the approximate size of your tin.
Press the dough into base of the dish, then cover with clingfilm and leave to prove in an unheated oven, with a tray of boiling water placed at the bottom, for 1 ¾ hours.
Whilst the dough is proving for the last time, make the topping. Add the sugar, butter, cinnamon powder and stem ginger syrup (if using) to a pan and gently melt the butter over a medium heat, mixing until everything is smooth. Add the finely diced apple and cook for a further 5 minutes until lightly softened. Set aside to cool.
Make the crumble by adding the flour, butter, caster sugar and vanilla to a bowl. Mix and rub the ingredients with your fingertips until it begins to resemble breadcrumbs. Keep mixing until it starts to get clumpy. Add the demerara and mix through. Alternatively, add the flour, butter, caster sugar and vanilla to a food processor and pulse until clumpy. Mix through the demerara before leaving to one side or if making in advance, pop in the fridge.
Once your dough has proved, remove from the oven and preheat the oven to 180°C fan/200°C/390F/gas mark 6.
Using your fingers, dimple the dough by pressing all the way down to the bottom – just as you would when making focaccia. Be generous with the dimpling as the sugar butter will pool into these pockets.
Pour the cooled sugar butter over the top followed by a generous sprinkling of crumble.
Pop the dish into the oven for 25 to 27 minutes until the crumble is golden brown and the dough has reached an internal temp of 92°C/197°F.
Best served up warm and drizzled with a good glug of custard on top. If leaving to cool, keep/store at room temperature to prevent the dough from hardening.
And so, we move onto the main bake of the day. The first recipe lined up for a super filthy, incredibly extra, disgustingly delicious birthday month. Now don’t get me wrong, I am not one to go huge on my own birthday (but do love going OTT for others) but let’s be honest – when do I ever need an excuse to whip up something a little extra naughty? And why do it just once, when we can do it all month long??
So folks, with that in mind, I thought it was time to revisit one of my old faves – my Chocolate Mousse Cake aka my Triple Threat Chocolate Cake. Except this time, it’s not so much triple and very much so quadruple but that doesn’t sound quite as jazzy does it?
It’s outrageous on all accounts. Extremely rich, incredibly decadent, totally over the top, sickeningly sumptuous and undoubtedly memorable. It’s everything I look and want for in a naughty sweet treat, all finished off with a cherry on top. Whilst it looks like trouble, I assure you that it’s fairly simple to put together and each component individually is easy to nail.
As always, I am a big champion of mixing things up and tailoring things to ensure they tickle your tastebuds so be brave with introducing or taking away elements. As the dessert is incredibly rich, it needs a sharp tartness to help balance it out so I opted to top with syrup-soaked wild cherries but this would also work phenomenally well as an additional layer sat on top of the chocolate crunch in the form of a compote. If not cherries, opt for raspberries or blackberries – I have plenty of recipes sitting in the archives for a compote so have a little dig through to find one that floats your boat.
Whilst I encourage an overnight set for the mousse, I also test ran this making it in a few hours one morning and it worked perfectly – whether you’re looking for a make ahead dessert or a naughty pud you can throw together in a few hours, THIS is ya gal.
Recipe Makes: 1 x 20 by 30 cm / 8 by 12 inch deep tin
Recipe Serves: 15 portions
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