Old Fashioned English Elderflower Cordial

The English summer is thought to start when the elder blossoms end and the berries ripen. The citrus aroma floating down country lanes also heralds a bountiful harvest for the forager and home-brewer. Elderflower cordial is a wonderful base for all sorts of culinary treats…lemonade, sorbet, mousses, jelly, desserts, beverages, glazes etc. by KarenBurnsBooth on Sunday, June 17, 2012

Old Fashioned English Elderflower Cordial

Oven Baked Chicken and Aubergine Parmigiana

A wonderful version of the Italian classic where the chicken is quickly pan fried to seal in all those lovely juices before being oven baked for ease and convenience. This can be prepped earlier in the day making it a great and tasty meal for a dinner party or company; prepare to oven bake stage and then cover with cling film and store in the fridge – allow to come to room temperature before baking. by KarenBurnsBooth on Sunday, June 17, 2012

Oven Baked Chicken and Aubergine Parmigiana

Calming Coconut Chai

Spices are extraordinarily high in anti-oxidents. Cloves and cinnamon for example are in the top 10 list of high ORAC rating foods (Oxygen Radical Absorbance Capacity), a system used to measure the anti-oxident content of a food. Great for anti-aging and disease prevention. by millie-07 on Sunday, June 17, 2012

Calming Coconut Chai

chocolate swirl buns

chocolate swirl buns

A few years ago, I conquered one of what has to be one of the seven wonders of my culinary world, chocolate babka. Babka, if you’re new to it, poor you, is a brioche-like sweet yeast cake, usually rolled thin and spiraled around a filling of chocolate, cinnamon, sweet cheese or fruit, and is often studded with streusel. And I know that most people save their gushing prose for lemon meringue pie, 8 inches high, or brownies with swirls of peanut butter, candied bacon and candy bars inside, I know that most people hadn’t heard of babka before it became a punch line, but Alex and I fondly remembering the grocery store chocolate babkas — with endless spirals slicked with bittersweet chocolate — of our childhood and I couldn’t rest until I cracked the code at home.

a sticky, rich babka/brioche dough
grind your chocolate with sugar

Martha Stewart made it easy, as her late mother’s chocolate babka is the finest out there, and not just because it contains the complicated twist patterns, pebbles of streusel and touch of cinnamon that it’s just not right without. Nope, her version won all prizes because it was completely and totally, borderline indecently, overcrowded with chocolate. The chocolate-to-dough ratio is staggering. It’s… unseemly. It’s… some kind of wonderful.

your chocolate filling awaits

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