Chocolate Chip Cookie Microwave Pudding + Recipe

Hello!

So I'm evidently riding a bit of a sweet-craving wave at the moment, and felt backed into a corner. I had a decision to make. Make a microwave treat and relinquish the right to dismiss them ever again, or use one of my precious and so recently made Double Choco Fudge Cookies that were posing as Emergency Freezer Cookies? Choices, choices. I decided to save my energy and not fight against the force of The Microwave, thus surrendering what little dignity I had left.

If you don't mind raw yolk, the mixture is good enough to eat!

I didn't want the mighty chocolate-y overload of the Chocolate Surprise Microwave Brownie Cake, so whipped up this warm cookie-style pudding instead. I have to say I have a certain satisfaction of using my nice ingredients for me, but this recipe is way too good not to share. I didn't 'taste the microwave' on this at all, and trust me I was looking, or rather, tasting for it.

Out of the oven

The texture was spongey, and I probably overcooked it by 10 seconds, but it worked. I'm feeling good.

Spoonful

I do urge you to try this recipe, even if you are a hardened cynic like me... this is one recipe that might sway you!

Chocolate Chip Cookie Microwave Pudding

Time: 10 minutes

Yield: 1 serving in a large microwave safe mug that can hold 12 fl ozStorage: batter can be stored covered in the refrigerator for up to 2 days, pudding can be stored covered in the fridge for up to 2 days. Best for a few seconds before serving.

Ingredients

• 1 tbsp butter or mild flavoured oil, such as rapeseed
• 1 tbsp white sugar
• 1 tbsp brown sugar
• 3 drops vanilla extract (can be substituted for a pinch of vanillinpulver, or scant 1/4 teaspoon of vanillijnsocker)
• 1 egg yolk (the white will not be used, so either reserve for up to 24 hours in an airtight container in the fridge or discard)
• pinch of sea salt (or any salt!)
• 1/4 cup baking flour (self-raising or plain are both fine)
• 2 tbsp chocolate chips (any type)

Method

1. Melt the butter in your mug in the microwave (should take less than 50 seconds on Medium power if the butter is cold). If using oil, simply add it to your mug.
2. Mix the sugars and vanilla into the butter/oil followed by the egg yolk and salt. Stir again.
3. Add the flour, and mix thoroughly until combined.
4. Add the chocolate chips, and stir to distribute.
5. Heat in the microwave on Medium power for 40 seconds.
6. Check the texture. Continue to heat in 10 second-intervals until you reach the consistency you like. I wanted a fairly firm pudding, so heated for 1.5 minutes.
7. The chocolate retains heat, so eat with caution, it's hot!

Cakey

Double Chocolate Fudge Cake Cookies

Recipe Base from Baker by Nature

I have some left over cream cheese that I want to use, and was certain I had saved a recipe on Pinterest that made some sort of black and white cookie that needed cream cheese. I had a look for it, but instead found a black and white cookie recipe that did not need cream cheese and a recipe for blueberry cheesecake cookies that I am figuring I confused in my mind.

In the oven. Magical

Although the black and white recipe seemed fairly simple, the ratios for both sides of the biscuit were not clear and I did not want to end up baking 70 biscuits.

I did a bit of browsing on my Biscuits, Cookies, and Pretzels board, and found an exciting recipe for quadruple chocolate pudding cookies, however the ingredients included cake mix that I did not have (and to be honest, would be reluctant to buy), so opted for this recipe base instead.

Hot Cake... Cookies!

The author is very particular about her methods but after a disaster attempt with coconut brittle this same day, I was grateful for her level of detail as it gave me the option to ignore or follow what I wanted to.

First Bite

The biscuits have a lovely cakey texture, and are so stuffed with chocolate and cocoa flavour that one is easily a dessert in its own right. I will be adding these to the store, post-haste!

Two bites!

Available at Samara's Baked Goods

Quadruple Chocolate Loaf Cake

Recipe base from Feast by Nigella Lawson through Not Quite Nigella.

I should have known that the recipe was too elegantly simple and indulgent to have come from anyone other than Nigella Lawson.

After my recent spat of sub-par cakes, I have been wandering through the endless wasteland of internet recipes, trying to find an interesting cake to make to somehow redeem my tattered reputation. I stumbled across this recipe on notquitenigella.com and as I had all the ingredients, I figured I could give it a go.

I'm not a huge fan of chocolate cake, and still feeling rather wary of cakes after the succession of relative failures, I didn't have the highest of hopes, but I'm no quitter.

This was a very easy cake to make... the hardest part was mixing the dry ingredients into the wet without over beating it. This was all alleviated once the hot water was added.

First attempt - milk chocolate chips

When I made this cake for a second time, I combined the wet with dry ingredients with a wooden spoon, added the water, and then went back to the hand mixer.

Having made three of these cakes two days in a row, I would say that I preferred the first cake where I used milk chocolate chips. I had nearly run out of milk chocolate for the second batch, so I used dark chocolate chips, that in my mind made it far too rich.

Second batch - mainly dark chocolate chips

I have to say that my first experience of this cake set a positive precedent, and it is so simple to make that I recommend this as The Go-To chocolate cake recipe.


Available at Samara's Baked Goods

Chocolate Chip Cookies

Recipe base from Hummingbird Bakery book

The batter was lovely and smooth, no complaints. I added more chocolate than was recommended, and I mixed white and dark chocolate rather than just dark.

I baked the cookies for 11 minutes each, and as with the Double Chocolate Chip cookies (see earlier post), I think this would have been alright with just 10 minutes as I found the biscuits a bit hard the next day.

The thing is I don't like homemade chocolate chip cookies, they always seem to taste a bit eggy to me, and this recipe was no different. I have been told about a Nigella Lawson recipe from her Kitchen book, that I may try, but I'm not sure I can be swayed on this.

The recipe should have produced 24 cookies; I managed to make 41.

Available at Samara's Baked Goods

Double Chocolate Cookies

Recipe base from Hummingbird Bakery book.

Once again, I committed the cardinal sin of melting butter and chocolate directly in the pan. I have to say, I doubt I will change this method; I'm impatient, and have no time to mess around with water-not-touching-the-bowl-above-which-will-overflow-anyway-as-I-don't-have-a-suitable-bowl faff.

I also knew that my laziness would mean that 'roughly chopped chocolate' would end up with ginormous chunks that wouldn't really work with the batter, so resorted to using chocolate chips instead. As I had about 100g of milk and dark chocolate each in chips, I used these rather than opening another bag of my precious dark chocolate chips, and convinced myself that it was alright as too much dark chocolate would be far too sweet. I also neglected to check my cupboard and didn't have enough light muscovado sugar, so topped up about 1/4 of the recommended amount with regular granulated (I wasn't going to use my hard-to-find caster sugar on this!).

The batter was very liquid, which I wasn't expecting - not sure why I didn't as the biscuits are mainly chocolate, and very little flour. Due to my aversion to sticky fingers (ironic, seeing as I love to bake), and also just the sheer impracticality of the attempt, I just used a dessert spoonful to mete out the cookies. The recipe said it should make 12, however I got 18 good sized cookies from the mixture; perhaps these were meant to be giant ones... the recipe didn't really state how large to make them, and any bigger would have resulted in more pans being used than the two that were recommended (I used three as I had 6 cookies per tray).

I found baking them for 12 minutes got them to the consistency and appearance that I thought was required, however in retrospect, 11 minutes would have probably been alright, especially to produce the chewiness that would be desirable in such a cookie.

I would definitely like to make these again.

Alongside Ginger and Oat Cookies

Available at Samara's Baked Goods

Dark Chocolate Cream Cheese Brownies

Based on the recipe from Nigella Lawson's How to be a Domestic Goddess.

The brownies came out perfectly, despite my misgivings that 125g of cream cheese was far too much.

As I regularly make blondies, with a recipe that requires self-raising flour, I found these rather flat and disappointing, although I knew that was exactly what they were meant to look like.

I commited the cardinal sin - mainly out of laziness - of melting my butter and chocolate directly in the pan over a low heat. I would never do this if I was melting chocolate alone, but I felt the fatty buffer of the butter(!) would protect the chocolate adequately.

The brownies tasted good, I managed to make 30 tiny bite sized pieces out of them, even despite surrendering what I felt would have made at least half of my bites to the baking paper. Perhaps I shouldn't also grease the baking paper.

I probably wouldn't bother making this again; to be honest, I only did them to use the cream cheese left over from the Multi-Coloured Velvet Cake debacle (see earlier post), as dear friends who know me, also know that I don't like to waste anything! 

Triple Chocolate Merlot Bundt Cake

Recipe from Restless Chipotle (LINK)

Beautiful, extremely indulgent, chocolate cake

Requires around 600g of chocolate chips, and half a bottle of merlot for the cake and ganache.

I used a mix of dark and milk chocolate chips, pretty much 1:1.

The bundt tin I used was too small, so the cake rose above the edge, fortunately it didn't spill over. I felt this affected the baking time (1hr 10 minutes). I will get a larger tin for the next time I try this cake (which I will be doing)!*

My first ever Bundt

Whilst I appreciate that browned butter adds to the richness and depth of flavour, I think I will choose when to go through this process, depending on the intended consumers. My colleagues will probably not discern the difference between the flavours beyond 'chocolate', so if it is for them, I doubt I will go beyond just melting the butter.

The Cut

*I made my second attempt at this cake in March 2015, and following my notes, reduced the amount of batter in the tin. I may have been a bit too heavy handed with my reduction, as the cake that came out was pretty pitiful. I made cupcakes with the 'left over' batter, and they were pretty nice. I need to work out that happy fill point of the batter...

2nd attempt - March 2015

Marbled Chocolate Brownies

Based on BBC Good Food Recipe: LINK

This is a good base recipe, however I feel that it needs tweaks.

The brownies went down a storm at work, despite the fact that I was a tad disappointed by the texture and consistency of them. When I have made brownies or blondies in the past, they have not been quite so indulgent and more sticky cake-esque, than moist butteriness.

I had reduced the butter to 200g, which I felt was the right amount, however should I make this again, I will change the flour to self-raising, increase the flour to 180g, adding 90g to the dark chocolate rather than 50g to even out the quantities of dark to white, and also provide more absorbency for the butter.

I found making the checkerboard effect rather tedious and messy, and found that the two different batters didn't bind together very well (perhaps because I didn't swirl them enough for the marbling), so I would probably exchange 100-120g of dark chocolate for 80-100g of milk chocolate, which may also reduce the richness of them. I was not able to get golden caster sugar here in Sweden, so mixed 150g light brown soft muscovado sugar, with 150g of white caster sugar. I may increase the white to muscovado ratio, as the latter also contributes to the richness of the brownie. To lighten the load of the arrangement of the batters, I will probably layer the batters, and then attempt some vigorous swirling for the marble effect.

The baking time and temperature definitely needs to be reassessed; after reading others' comments on the site, I checked the temperature and baking time on other successful brownie recipes that I have used and set the temperature at 180 deg C (non-fan assisted), and baked for 45 minutes. From the moistness of the brownie, it wouldn't have hurt it to be in the oven for another 5 minutes, however this temperature and time has been successful in the past. When I used a fan oven, I baked brownies at 170 deg C for 40 minutes, plus another 5 with the temperature off, but the fan on. I always cool brownies in their tin for 15 minutes before turning them out.

With this recipe I buttered and lined my tin (with light buttering on top of the paper), however I found that with the lack of 'stability' or binding-ness, the mixture stuck to the paper, and being someone who hates wasting things, I felt too much came away with the parchment.

I will probably try it again, however will have to experiment with it a couple of times before I think it is worthy of achieving an 8/10!

Rating #1: 5/10