Double mocha chunk cookies

Want to know the best part about these cookies? Except for the fact that they are deliciously dark, decadent with just the right ratio of crunch vs. gooeyness? It's the fact that they're Fairtrade. 

It's Fairtrade week which means we should all be focusing on looking out for that little (but very important) black logo and popping that product in our trolleys. Chocolate and coffee are two of my favourite things in the world and I use them in stacks of recipes (see my caramel latte loaf recipe here or the uber delicious tiramisu eclairs recipe here) and they also happen to both be Fairtrade products. To find out more on what Fairtrade means you can check out their website: www.fairtradelabel.org.za but basically, it's all about looking after the farmers and the people that work so hard to harvest and grow those coffee and cocoa beans! And I like the sound of that. 

Something I also like is the idea that I can dig into a warm, melty batch of these cookies, and know that somehow, I'm contributing to making the world a better place. 

Now, go forth and bake up a batch so you can too!

Double mocha chunk cookies
Makes 20

1 cup cake flour

1/2 cup cocoa powder

½ tsp bicarbonate of soda

½ tsp salt

250g Fairtrade dark or milk chocolate, chopped

125g butter

1 tbsp Fairtrade ground coffee

1 1/2 cups sugar

2 eggs

1t vanilla extract

Sieve flour, cocoa, bicarbonate of soda and salt together. Melt half the chocolate with the butter and ground coffee in a saucepan over a low heat and allow to cool. Beat melted chocolate mixture, sugar, eggs and vanilla together and gradually add flour mixture. Stir in the rest of the chopped chocolate. Use an ice cream scoop to drop lumps of dough onto lined baking sheets. Bake at 180C for 12 minutes until cookies are flat and cracked but slightly moist inside. Allow to cool then store in an airtight container.

The lovely people at Eat Out have nominated me for Best Local Food Blog in SA so if you like my recipes please head on over to their page and vote! 

Caramel latte loaf cake

Caramel is the new vanilla. The food world has fallen in love with the flavour and though it will never be better, caramel is rather like chocolate's sexy cousin. It's headily sweet and totally decadent. Add a pinch of salt to the mix and you have an earth-shattering combination that is basically the crack cocaine of the culinary world. The reason for this? Consuming fat, sugar and salt all together is a serious sensory overdrive for our brains - it releases dopamine and adrenaline and totally gets our neurons fired up. Exactly the way drugs do.

 And before you feel guilty about shovelling another spoonful of caramel straight out the jar, don't, because genetically we're supposed to be attracted to foods with this tantalising trifector. It's a matter of survival people. We need salt because we can't produce our own. We need fat for energy and our sugar cravings are linked to being able to tell which foods are edible. So, make this caramel latte loaf cake and then enjoy every morsel guilt-free, because you can't fight genetics. 

Caramel latte loaf cake

Makes 2

230g Stork Bake margarine, softened

230g sugar

4 eggs

250g cake flour

1 tsp baking powder

pinch of salt

½ cup tinned caramel

2 tsp corn flour

30ml espresso

Caramel cream cheese frosting

240g cream cheese

4 tbsp Stork Bake margarine, softened

½ cup tinned caramel

1 tsp vanilla

3 ½ cups icing sugar

pinch of salt

Preheat the oven to 180C. Grease and line 2 standard loaf tins.

Cream the margarine and sugar together until light and fluffy. Add the eggs slowly, one at a time until completely incorporated. Sift the flour, baking powder and salt then stir into the margarine mixture. Divide the batter in two and mix the caramel, cornflour and espresso into one batch. Spoon alternate types of batter into the loaf tins to create a blotchy affect. Then, using a skewer, gently swirl it around in the batter to marble the cake. Bake in the preheated oven for 20-25 minutes or until a skewer inserted in the middle comes out clean.

To make the icing, cream the cream cheese and margarine together until light and fluffy. Then add the caramel, vanilla, icing sugar and salt. Use to ice the cooled cake.

Can't get enough of caramel? Try this Sticky caramel pudding, or classic creme caramel or how about some caramelised chocolate?

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Not your average cuppa joe

As a child I remember being told by my grandfather that I’d get worms in my tummy if I drank coffee. It never dawned on me that this was actually a big fat fib since he drank 5 cups of the strong black stuff each day… And besides, I would deal with worms any day just to get my daily caffeine fix.

Any addict worth their coffee beans, should know what Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee is only (arguably) the best coffee in the world! So when I received a last-minute invitation to a very special tasting of this extremely expensive coffee, to say that I jumped at the chance would be an understatement!

But who would be so generous to share their bean treasure? David Donde, coffee evangelist and owner of TRUTH. coffeecult, that’s who. TRUTH. specialises in brewing and roasting artisinal coffees – in their own words “We roast coffee. Properly.” At TRUTH. coffee is a religion. There could not be a better place to worship the awesomeness that is Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee, than at TRUTH.

I was told that the only way to taste coffee is by sipping an espresso. So, with the buzz of excitement filling the TRUTH. roastery, I savoured the taste of this exorbitantly expensive brew... I, with my sweet tooth, didn’t even feel the need to reach for my usual 2 sachets thanks to it’s velvety smoothness. Only slightly acidic and with a chocolatey after-taste, it was pure perfection in a cup. But perfection has a price: R60 a shot.

So why is it so expensive? Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee is classification grown in the Blue Mountains of Jamaica. Over the last few decades, it has developed a reputation that has made it one of the most expensive and sought-after coffees in the world. In order to be labeled as such, Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee beans must comply with a number of criteria set by the Coffee Industry Board of Jamaica: it must be grown in the Blue Mountains between the elevations of 3000 and 5500 feet. No coffee can be grown above this, as the area is forest reserve, and any coffee grown below this altitude cannot be labeled Jamaican Blue Mountain. So there is a limited amount of JBM coffee and a very high demand for it, hence the exorbitant price.

I’m sure there are many people out there who would raise more than an eyebrow at paying R60 for a cup of coffee, but think of it this way, anybody who has ever spent more than R350 on a bottle of wine, has payed about R60 for each glass… You could argue that it’s an excellent vintage from a good estate, but the same can be said for a cup of coffee. Ever heard of the quote “Life’s too short to drink bad wine”? well after that rather indulgent cuppa… I say life’s too short to drink bad coffee!

TRUTH.
http://www.truthcoffee.com/

Photography by Julia Housdon