Double Chocolate Loaf Cake with Whipped Caramelised White Ganache

THIS POST IS SPONSORED BY DOVES FARM

Easter and Chocolate, it is a match made in heaven, or maybe just an excuse to enjoy more chocolate. Either way I couldn’t let the holiday pass without a very special chocolate recipe for you all. I wasn’t in the mood for anything too complicated but I did want a big hit of flavour, high impact, low effort. This bakery style loaf is dense but tender and has a rich chocolate flavour backed up with some Doves Farm Organic White Rye Flour. Wholemeal rye flour, which you may have seen me use many times before, especially paired with chocolate, has a strong tangy rye flavour and the added texture that comes with wholemeal flours. For this cake I wanted something that backed up the chocolate flavour but didn’t add as much of its own flavour, more of a team player than the star of the show if you will. For the frosting I went with a very simple whipped caramelised white chocolate ganache, topped with chopped mini eggs (it’s easter, they’re mandatory). If you’ve never made this type of chocolate before you can learn how to make it here, or you could just buy it.

Doves Farm Organic White Rye has a creamy off-white colour and a mild tangy flavour that is amazing in this cake. I call it a bakery style loaf, partly because it’s a large loaf but also because it’s a dense but tender loaf, it’s like if a British tea shop cake met an American pound cake and had loaf shaped baby. The rye flour adds a subtle tang which helps intensify the chocolate flavour and also helps gives this cake its characteristic texture. When you bake with rye, especially if you are substituting it for regular wheat flour, you’ll notice it absorbs more liquid than wheat flour. In this cake for example I have made versions with regular plain flour and a rye version and the latter was a noticeably thicker batter when made to the exact same recipe. To compensate for this, I have included a little more moisture than if making it with plain flour. As a general piece of advice, when it comes to alternative/ancient grains such as rye, when adding them into your baking it’s a good idea to start with a smaller amount and see how it affects your recipe. Generally if I am adding some to an existing recipe I would sub in 25% of the grain and this normally adds a new depth of flavour without changing the texture of the finished bake in any dramatic way. After that point you can add more of the grain should you think you’d like more of the flavour and if it hasn’t affected the texture in any negative way. In this cake for example I ended up using a 50% wheat flour cocoa powder mix and 50% Doves Farm Organic White Rye Flour for the perfect balance of flavour and texture. 

Doves Farm are a family owned British organic flour and food company, founded in 1978. Their Organic White Rye Flour is available direct from www.dovesfarm.co.uk or from Ocado, Sainsbury’s or Tesco. 

Double Chocolate Loaf Cake with Whipped Caramelised White Ganache
Serves 10-12

125g unsalted butter, diced
150g caster sugar
150g light brown sugar
5 large eggs
125ml sour cream
75ml strong black coffee
100g plain flour
50g cocoa powder (dutched/black)
150g Doves Farm Organic White Rye Flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp fine sea salt
150g dark chocolate chips

Whipped Caramelised White Chocolate Ganache
150g caramelised white chocolate, finely chopped
75ml double cream
Chocolate mini eggs, roughly chopped, for decoration

@theboywhobakes When caramel meets chocolate #caramelizedwhitechocolate #caramel #bakinghacks #SixNationsRugby #JDAirMaxMode #GameTok #fypシ #tiktokbaker #chocolatelover #chocolaterecipe ♬ Why Are There Boundaries - FKJ

@theboywhobakes Whipped caramelised white chocolate ganache #caramelizedwhitechocolate #whippedganache #SixNationsRugby #JDAirMaxMode #caramel #fypシ #tiktokbaker #chocolatelover #chocolaterecipe #ganache ♬ Orange Juice - Tomppabeats

To make the cake you’ll need a loaf pan that measures 9x4x4 (the type I prefer is known as a small Pullman pan and is available here). If you only have a traditional 1lb loaf pan (the type normally called for in a loaf recipe) you can make a batter 3/5’s of the above recipe and bake for about 45 mins.

Preheat the oven to 180ºC (160ºC Fan) and lightly grease your loaf pan and line with a strip of parchment paper that overhangs the long sides of the tin, securing in place with metal binder clips.

Place the butter in a small saucepan and place over low/medium heat and cook until the butter is fully melted. Remove from the heat and set aside for the moment. 

In a large bowl add the sugars and eggs and using an electric mixer whisk together for a minute or two until fully combined. Add the sour cream, and coffee and whisk briefly to combine. In a separate bowl whisk together the plain flour, cocoa powder, Doves Farm Organic White Rye Flour, baking powder and salt. As we are using both light brown sugar and cocoa powder it is advisable to sieve this mixture as both of these ingredients have a nasty habit of clumping. Add the dry goods to the egg mixture and use a balloon whisk to gently stir the batter together. Pour in the cooled melted butter and fold with the whisk until combined. Add the chocolate chips and very briefly mix into the batter. Be careful to only mix as needed, cakes with rye flour can become gummy if mixed for too long. Scrape the batter into the prepared loaf pan and bake in the preheated oven for about 60 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the cake comes out clean. Remove the pan from the oven and set aside for 20 minutes before carefully unfolding and setting onto a wire rack to cool completely. To ensure the crust of the cake is tender and hasn’t dried out, whilst the cake is still warm cover with a clean kitchen towel. The warmth of the cake is caught by the towel and slightly steams the outside of the cake helping ensure it stays tender.

For the ganache place the chocolate and the cream into a small bowl and place over a pan of simmering water. Stir occasionally until the chocolate has fully melted. Remove from the heat and stir until you have a smooth silky ganache. Refrigerate for up to 30 minutes or until the ganache has thickened up but is still spreadable. Remove from the fridge and using an electric mixer whisk the ganache until it turns into a pale and fluffy cream like texture. Spread this over the top of the cake and decorate with the chopped mini eggs.

Kept covered this cake will keep for at least 3 days.

Salted Black Cocoa Sables with Caramelised White Chocolate Chunks

I feel like this post needs to start with an apology to my fellow British bakers because to make this exactly as written will be a little bit tough. Black cocoa, the elusive cocoa used to make Oreos and of course this sable cookie, is a little tough to track down here at home in Blighty Right now, in the UK, there is only one brand of black cocoa availble (over on amazon of course) and I have no idea of the quality. I am lucky to have a stash I bought from King Arthur Flour over in the US and I use it sparingly not wanting to run out anytime soon. The good news is that in this recipe the cocoa is mainly used for look so your favourite cocoa powder will also make for a wonderful cookie, just remember this recipe should you find some black cocoa and want to try a recipe that put its dramatic look to good use. 

I also realise as I am typing this that many of you may also never have heard of black cocoa powder. Simply put it’s just another version of ‘Dutched’ cocoa powder. Cocoa powder comes in two main forms, natural and dutched. Natural cocoa powder is the leftovers after cocoa mass is stripped of its cocoa butter (this form is more common in the US). Dutched cocoa powder goes through one extra step, it is washed in a solution of potassium carbonate to neutralise the acidity found in natural cocoa powder, it also happens to darken the colour of the cocoa powder and give it a deeper more roasted flavour profile (people argue whether natural or dutched has the strongest ‘chocolate’ flavour but I’m not getting into that today). Black cocoa powder goes through a more intense version of this dutching process which gives it an almost entirely black colour. Generally it isn’t seen as having the strongest chocolate flavour compared to the more common cocoa powder varieties so I use it mainly when I want a more dramatic colour, often blending it with a regular ducted cocoa powder to give the best of both worlds. 

In todays recipe I use the black cocoa to make a cookie that looks incredible and also one that gives a chocolate flavour but without overpowering the hero ingredient of this recipe, caramelised white chocolate. If you know me you know I love nothing more than a batch of this magic ingredient. By slowly roasting white chocolate you can caramelise it and add a ton of caramel notes to the chocolate. If you’ve never made it before let this recipe be the reason you finally give it a go. 

If you don’t want to track some black cocoa down this will still taste incredible with regular ducthed cocoa powder so don’t let that stop you from whipping up a batch, 

Salted Black Cocoa Sables with Caramelised White Chocolate Chunks

Makes 30-35
140g plain flour
140g wholemeal rye flour (you can replace with plain flour if you prefer)
40g black cocoa powder
3/4 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp flaked sea salt
220g unsalted butter, room temperature
125g caster sugar
125g light brown sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
200g caramelised white chocolate (recipe below), roughly chopped

To make the cookie dough sieve the flours, cocoa powder and baking soda into a large bowl, pushing any lumps of cocoa powder through the sieve. I avoid sieving unless necessary and this is one of those time. Cocoa powder often forms little lumps so it’s always important to sieve it unless you want little dry pockets throughout your recipe. Add the salt and whisk everything together. Place the butter and sugars into the bowl of an electric stand mixer, fitted with the paddle attachment, and on medium speed beat tother for about 2-3 minutes just until smooth and creamy (you can do this with an electric hand mixer too if you want). We don’t want to beat lots of air into the butter we just want to make it soft enough that the flour mixture combines easily so don’t overdo it at this stage. Add the vanilla and mix briefly to combine.

Turn the mixer off and pour in the flour mixture. We don’t want to make a huge mess and have a cloud of flour and cocoa powder cover every surface in your kitchen so cover the bowl of the mixer with a kitchen towel and then gently pulse the mixer on and off just to get the flour combined a little before turning the mixer to low to mix it in properly. We want to mix in the flour just until it disappears into the butter but before the mixture forms a ball of dough, it should still look a little crumbly. Add the chunks of caramelised white chocolate and mix briefly just to distribute. Tip the dough out onto the worksurface and use your hands to briefly bring together as a uniform dough. Cut the dough into two roughly equally sized pieces and set one aside for the moment. Form each ball of dough into a log that is roughly 4-5cm thick. Roll the log of dough in parchment or clingfilm and refrigerate until firm, about 3-4 hours. Repeat with the second piece of dough. 

When ready to bake preheat the oven to 160ºC (140ºC Fan) 325ºF and line a couple baking trays with parchment paper. Unwrap one of the logs of dough and use a sharp knife to cut into slices about 1/2 an inch, just over a cm, thick. Place them onto the prepared baking trays leaving just a little space between. The cookies will spread but not significantly. Sprinkle each with a little extra flaked sea salt, unless you are one of those people that have sent me angry emails about your hatred of salt being sprinkled onto cookies you guys can leave it off and stop emailing me. Bake in the preheated oven for 14 minutes. The cookies wont look done, they’ll be incredibly dark so you cant use visual clues and if you press them they’ll feel too soft but trust the process, as the cookies cool they crisp up leaving you with a wonderful sable texture. Sable is French for sand and these cookies should have a slightly crumbly, almost shortbread like texture. 

Kept in a sealed container these cookies will keep for about 4-5 days.

Caramelised White Chocolate

300g white chocolate, minimum 30% cocoa butter content

To make the caramelised white chocolate simple roughly chop the chocolate and add to rimmed baking tray. I use an American style quarter sheet pan which is the same size as a regular 9x13 brownie pan so if you own one of those you can also use that. Place the baking tray into an oven that has been preheated to 125ºC. You’re basically going to leave it in there for anything from an hour to hour and half until it has reached your desired level of caramelisation. The one thing you need to do is a lot of stirring. 

Every 10-15 minutes you need to remove the tray and give the chocolate a really good stir. When the chocolate comes out of the oven it may look a little stiff, a little grainy. With a good stir the chocolate will smooth out and become liquid again. To prevent the chocolate from burning or become an unpleasantly grainy mess you must do this stirring very well and every 15 minutes. Don’t be tempted to leave the chocolate any longer between stirs, it will stiffen up to a place from which it cant be rescued. The reason I recommend white chocolate with at least 30% cocoa butter is that it melts thinner and is easier to work with. Once the chocolate has reached a rich golden brown colour remove it from the oven and scrape it into a container. I like to divide it into rectangular plastic trays so it almost resembles the original bar form it came in. Refrigerate until solid and then use however you fancy. You’ll note my cookie recipe only use 200g and my recipe for the chocolate uses 300g of white chocolate. The reason for this is two fold. The chocolate is so good you’ll need extra to account for everything you snack on as you make the cookie dough and secondly making a smaller batch makes it more prone to problems so 300g is the smallest batch I would recommend making.