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Prepared by: Zoya Shunina
06/29/2020 Cooking time: 1 hour 30 minutes
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American pie “Crazy Cake” or “Crazy Pie” is an incredibly tender, super chocolatey and delicious dessert. Prepared literally from nothing, yet worthy of any holiday table.
How to make American Crazy Cake
Prepare the ingredients to make the pie.
Pour flour into a bowl.
Add 4 tablespoons cocoa powder.
Add sugar.
Pour in cold water or water at room temperature and refined sunflower oil.
Add baking soda, quenched with vinegar or lemon juice.
Mix the dough thoroughly with a whisk or mixer and pour into a baking dish. The diameter of my form is 18 centimeters.
Bake the pie in the oven preheated to 175-180 degrees for 55-60 minutes. Check readiness with a dry wooden stick. When pricked in the middle of the cake, it should come out clean.
While the cake is cooling, make the glaze. Place two tablespoons of cocoa powder and two tablespoons of sugar in a heavy-bottomed saucepan.
Add milk and butter.
Stirring constantly, bring the mixture to a creamy consistency. Cool afterwards.
Cover the cooled pie with chocolate glaze and sprinkle with nuts or cookies.
Slice the “crazy cake” and serve for dessert with tea or coffee.
Simple baking with kefir
Housewives also prepared a simple chocolate pie with kefir on the other side of the world from America—in the USSR. In many culinary notebooks of that time, this recipe is written under the name “Negro in foam.” Biscuit products use the same simple and affordable:
- 400 ml. kefir
- 3 eggs
- 250 gr. Sahara
- 10 gr. soda
- 130 gr. cocoa
- 250 gr. flour
For the “foam” (cream) you will need:
- 400 ml. sour cream
- 200 gr. Sahara
Progress:
- Pour soda into kefir, stir and set aside for a while. Meanwhile, beat the eggs and sugar with a mixer until the ingredients combine.
- Mix kefir and beaten eggs, add flour and cocoa to this mixture. Pour the resulting dough into a firm and bake at 180-200 degrees until the toothpick is dry.
- After baking, cool the biscuit on a wire rack, cut into two layers, which are coated with sour cream whipped with sugar. The top of the baked goods can be decorated with nuts or fresh berries and fruits.
There is no need to prepare cream for the pie; you can simply pour chocolate glaze or fudge on top of the baked goods, which can be made from water or fruit juice and powdered sugar.
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The Brownie Story: A Love for Chocolate and American Baked Goods
Brownies are as beloved in the vastness of America as charlotte is in our latitudes. Evidence of this is the thousands of variations of this simple dessert with a crispy crust and a dense, moist center.
Over the years and years of its existence, brownie has gone through many metamorphoses and became what we know it as - a classic American dessert.
We'll tell you how the brownie came to be, and you'll fall in love with this simple masterpiece of chocolate hedonism.
What is a brownie, or a little terminology
Brownie is a classic chocolate dessert that American housewives of all generations have made and continue to make for family evenings.
There are several reasons for this: it is tasty, simple, children and adults like it, and the most important thing is that it never gets boring.
The main secret of the chocolate miracle is texture .
Many might argue that brownies are simply chocolate cake cut into pieces. But Americans don't think so.
When preparing brownies, you need to achieve a slightly porous (but not fluffy), dense and moist structure of the dough in order to get something similar to porous, slightly melted chocolate. How to do it? Find out in the recipe, close to the classic one, “Coffee and Orange Brownies.”
Brownie has a lot more cocoa and less flour than muffins and cakes. And also a lot of sugar. It is this combination of ingredients that makes the texture and taste of the dessert completely different from other types of chocolate baked goods.
The ideal brownie is dense, flat, moist with cracks in the crust and not covered in frosting. Americans love to complement dessert with coarsely chopped pecans or almonds.
How did it all begin? Cherche la femme
Americans still often argue about the cornerstones of a recipe - hard or soft? Dark or milk chocolate? Warm and straight out of the oven or cold with sauce? How did Americans, and then the whole world, fall in love with brownies?
The story begins with chocolate
1670 Dorothy Jones and Jane Barnard opened a confectionery shop in Boston “to entertain the public by serving coffee and chocolate.” This is one of the first mentions of chocolate by the British in the American colony. As in Europe, there were mixed reactions to chocolate - some considered it very tasty, while more conservative sections of society considered it a source of sin and a sure road to hell.
But nothing stopped the growing popularity of the new dessert in elite circles.
At the beginning of the 18th century, wealthy families already considered it a tradition to enjoy a cup of hot chocolate at breakfast, prepared in a copper, stone or silver pot - this was the squeak of European and American fashion. Even Benjamin Franklin admitted his exceptional love for chocolate.
In the 19th century, brownies came onto the scene. The history of brownies began in Chicago, in 1893, at the Columbian Exposition, as always, because of a lady's whim.
Rich lady Mrs. Bertha Potter asked the chef of a Chicago hotel to create a dessert that would fit in every lady's lunch box and that could be eaten while visiting the exhibition.
This is how a very rich cocoa was born, moist and small - Palmer House Brownie . The first brownies were baked from large quantities of chocolate, butter, sugar, as well as flour and eggs. The brownies were topped with pecans and apricot jam.
At the beginning of the 20th century, brownies became a part of the lives of housewives and became firmly entrenched in the kitchens of American women. And now they love brownies as much as we love charlotte, because you can experiment with it and always enjoy the bright chocolate taste with different shades.
Source: https://sladkoe.menu/vkusnye-istorii/istoriya-brauni-lyubov-k-shokoladu-i-amerikanskoj-vypechke/
Crazy cake without cocoa
Some vegetarians have refused to consume cocoa, as it is believed that particles of tropical insects may get into the powder. Therefore, you should explore this baking option.
Compound:
- lemon;
- soda – 10 g;
- refined oil – 150 ml;
- sugar – 400 g;
- flour - how much dough will take (usually 2 cups is enough).
Recipe for crazy cake:
- Wash the lemon thoroughly with a brush and wipe with paper napkins.
- Remove the zest using a coarse grater and squeeze the juice from half the fruit.
- Mix all this in a cup into which we pour baking soda. Bubbles on the surface will indicate that the powder has been extinguished.
- Pour in sunflower oil, which must be purchased refined without adding flavorings.
- Add granulated sugar.
- All that remains is to add in small portions the flour, which has previously been sifted to get rid of the crumbs and saturate the composition with oxygen. That’s when you’ll get a lush bake.
- Transfer the resulting mass into the prepared pan.
- Place in a hot oven (180˚) for 35 minutes.
After checking for readiness, take out the pie and cool.
Everything you need to know about brownies
Crispy on the outside, chewy-soft on the inside - the American dessert brownie combines all the best from cake, cupcake and cookies and has won the love of millions of gourmets around the world. Even those who do not like sweets at all and are indifferent to chocolate cannot refuse a piece of this dessert. The perfect treat for the perfect start to the day. Or evenings.
How to make the best brownie? We will teach!
How did brownie come about?
Today's brownies bear little resemblance to their legendary predecessors. The ideal is when under the crispy crust there is a soft chewiness, a light condensed sensation and a melting taste in the mouth. What to compare with? Nothing. Brownie is a brownie. You need to try it once to fall in love forever.
Due to its bitter taste, even those who don’t like sweets will enjoy this dessert.
Why are brownies square?
Making brownies square is not a tribute to tradition, but to convenience. This dessert is most often prepared on baking sheets. Next comes the geometry with a knife - cutting into squares is the easiest way. Well, it just so happens that holding a piece of brownie 2-2.5 cm thick is most convenient.
But dessert has no limits - cut off exactly as much as you think is beautiful. It can be a large plate and a small portion, or vice versa - a large portion on a small plate. Or you can even break it up and pour maple syrup on top.
After all, brownies are not only food, they are also art!
When making brownies, it is not necessary to adhere to classic forms and canons.
Types of Brownies
Brownies are all about the balance of butter, eggs and flour. The more eggs there are, the more rubbery the dessert will be. The less, it becomes liquid inside.
At the same time, the brownie should not resemble fondant - the filling of a properly prepared brownie will never run down your hands. Flour adds more biscuitiness to the dessert. And there are recipes that do not use flour at all.
And even those in which there is no place for chocolate. It's all a matter of taste and imagination of the cook. It is traditional to distinguish the following types:
Source: https://www.foodstorm.ru/brauni/
Baking in a slow cooker
If you are frugal, then here is an amazing recipe where you can save money only on the basis. But there will be something to surprise guests at the festive table. This is a fairly high-calorie dessert, containing 264 kcal per 100 g.
Prepare the following products for the biscuit:
- flour – 400 g;
- vinegar - 1 tbsp. l.;
- sugar – 350 g;
- cold water – 450 ml;
- cocoa – 45 g;
- salt – 1/8 tsp;
- flour – 400 g;
- soda – 2 tsp;
- vegetable oil – 50 ml.
For the cream you will need:
- cream – 20 ml;
- soft cottage cheese – 350 g;
- powdered sugar – 70 g.
For the ganache:
- cream – ½ cup;
- dark chocolate bar – 120 g.
Step by step recipe:
- Pour cocoa and flour into a large cup through a sieve, add sugar, soda and salt. Let's connect.
- Separately mix ice water with oil and vinegar.
- We make a hole in the dry products, into which we pour the liquid ingredients.
- Using a spoon, mix into a thick dough.
- Grease the multicooker bowl with a small amount of oil and transfer our chocolate dough there.
- Set the mode to “Baking” for 1 hour and 10 minutes.
- After checking for readiness with a match or a toothpick, take it out using a stand for steaming dishes.
- After the base has cooled, cut the cake into equal parts using thread or a very sharp knife.
- For the cream, just beat the chilled cream with powdered sugar and add the cottage cheese mashed in a blender. Apply to the bottom cake and glue it to the second one.
- To make the glaze, heat the dairy product (do not boil), add chocolate pieces and combine everything thoroughly.
- After cooling slightly, spread on the surface of the pie, helping with a silicone spatula.
It is better to let the dessert brew in a cool place for a couple of hours before cutting into portions. We hope the recipe with the photo in the slow cooker will help decorate the holiday table.