Chocolate Ovaltine snacking cake - easy to make and delicious

When it comes to baking – and you know how addicted to it I am – there are certain ingredients one should always have on hand, and I certainly do: flour, sugar, eggs, butter, milk, vanilla extract, for instance – with these you can whip up a simple cake, make shortbread, a topping for a fruit crumble or even prepare a batch of pancakes.

Other ingredients, however, aren’t called for in recipes that much, but sometimes I’ll get them in an impulse purchase, only to stare at them in my cupboard/refrigerator/freezer for weeks on end. That happened with a small bag of Ovaltine weeks ago – my brother likes it with his milk in the morning, but since he doesn’t have breakfast here that often I had to find another use for the poor ingredient.

I found this cake on a cookbook I deeply love, and it turned out delicious: very chocolatey, very moist and dead easy to put together – Lauren Chattman suggests it to be served spread with a chocolate glaze, but I thought it would be too much: it is a snacking cake, so to me the simpler, the better.

Chocolate Ovaltine snacking cake
slightly adapted from the wonderful and foolproof Cake Keeper Cakes: 100 Simple Recipes for Extraordinary Bundt Cakes, Pound Cakes, Snacking Cakes, and Other Good-to-the-Last-Crumb Treats

½ cup (100g) granulated sugar
½ cup (70g) Ovaltine
1 cup (140g) all purpose flour
6 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder + a bit extra for prepping the pan
¼ teaspoons table salt
1 ½ teaspoons baking powder
2 large eggs
¾ cup (180ml) whole milk, room temperature
6 tablespoons (85g/¾ stick) unsalted butter, melted and cooled
1 teaspoon vanilla
icing sugar, for dusting

Preheat oven to 180°C/350°F. Lightly butter a 20cm (8in) square cake pan, line the bottom with baking paper and butter it as well. Dust everything with cocoa and knock out the excess.

Combine sugar, Ovaltine, flour, cocoa powder, salt and baking powder in a large mixing bowl. Using a wooden spoon or an electric mixer, stir in the eggs, milk, butter and vanilla until just combined.
Transfer batter into prepared pan and smooth the top. Bake for 35-40 minutes or until risen and a toothpick inserted in the center of the cake comes out clean. Cool in the pan over a wire rack for 20 minutes, then carefully unmold, peel off the paper and turn onto the rack. Cool completely. Dust with icing sugar to serve.

Serves 16

Milk chocolate cookies with malted cream

If I’m not mistaken – and over 6 years of blogging can play tricks on one’s mind, trust me – I first heard of “Food and Wine” magazine while watching season 1 of “Top Chef” when Gail Simmons was introduced. I’ve been using recipes from the magazine quite regularly lately, and if you’re not familiar with their website you should definitely check it out: there are tons of great recipes there, and these cookies are one of them – just be careful not to eat all the filling before putting the sandwich cookies together. ;)

Milk chocolate cookies with malted cream
slightly adapted from the always delicious Food and Wine

Cookies:
¾ cup (1 ½ sticks/170g) unsalted butter, softened
½ cup (88g) light brown sugar, packed
½ cup (100g) granulated sugar
170g (6oz) milk chocolate, melted and cooled slightly
1 tablespoon pure vanilla extract
1 ¾ cups (245g) all-purpose flour
2 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/8 teaspoon salt

Filling:
½ cup (113g/1 stick) unsalted butter, softened
½ cup chocolate malt powder, such as Ovaltine
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 ¾ cups (245g) confectioners' sugar, sifted

In a large bowl, using an electric mixer, beat the butter with the brown sugar and granulated sugar until creamy and smooth. Add the melted chocolate and vanilla and beat until smooth. In a small bowl, whisk the flour with the cocoa powder, baking soda and salt. Add the dry ingredients to the bowl and beat at low speed just until incorporated. Wrap the dough in plastic wrap and refrigerate for 30 minutes – in the meantime, preheat the oven to 180°C/350°F and line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper.
Roll the dough between 2 sheets of parchment paper to a 6mm (¼in) thickness and freeze for about 7 minutes. Using a 5cm (2in) round cookie cutter, stamp out as many rounds as possible and transfer to the baking sheets, 2.5cm (1in) apart. Gather the scraps and chill, with the cut-out rounds, for 10 minutes. Reroll the scraps and stamp out more rounds.
Bake the cookies, one sheet at a time (keep the other in the fridge) for about 10 minutes, until dry and set. Cool the cookies completely on the sheet over a wire rack.
Filling: in a medium bowl, using an electric mixer, beat the butter with the chocolate malt powder at medium speed until light, about 3 minutes – my mixture was a bit dry so I added 1 tablespoon sour cream to it (I would have used heavy cream if I had any). Add the vanilla and confectioners' sugar and beat until light and fluffy. Transfer the filling to a pastry bag fitted with a ½-inch plain tip. Arrange half of the cookies on a work surface, bottom side up, and pipe a 1-inch mound of filling onto each. Sandwich with the remaining cookies, pressing to spread the filling to the edges – I used a small cookie scoop instead of a pastry bag and placed rounded mounds of filling on the center of each cookie, topping with another cookie and pressing down gently to squish the filling.

Makes about 2 ½ dozen cookie sandwiches – I used a 4cm square cookie cutter and got 28 sandwich cookies

Ovaltine brownies

You must be thinking I’m crazy for making brownies after all the food indulgence of the holidays, but in my defense these were made especially for my nephew: he loves brownies and I like spoiling him. :)

The recipe comes from DH magazine - oh, what a surprise – and originally called for Horlicks. Since I’ve never seen it here in Brazil, I slightly adapted the recipe to use Ovaltine instead.

I don’t mean to brag but have the feeling that these got me several points towards becoming his favorite auntie. :)

Ovaltine brownies
from Donna Hay magazine

125g dark chocolate, chopped
2/3 cup + ½ tablespoon (157g) unsalted butter, softened
¾ cup (131g) brown sugar, packed
2 eggs
¾ cup + 2 tablespoons (125g) all purpose flour
1/8 teaspoon baking powder
2 ½ tablespoons cocoa powder
½ cup (75g) Ovaltine
½ cup (78g) dark chocolate chips/chunks
Ovaltine extra, for sprinkling

Preheat the oven to 180°C/350°F. Lightly butter a square 20cm (8in) baking pan and line it with foil, leaving a 2.5cm (1in) overhang. Butter the foil well.
Melt the chocolate and butter in a medium metal/glass bowl set over simmering water until the mixture is smooth. Remove from heat and set aside to cool for a few minutes.
Add the sugar and eggs and stir to combine. Sift the flour, baking powder and cocoa over the chocolate mixture, add the Ovaltine and stir until smooth. Mix in the chocolate chunks/chips.
Pour the mixture into the prepared pan and bake for 30 minutes or until just set – do not overbake.
Cool the cake in the pan, then carefully remove it using the foil handles. Sprinkle with the extra Ovaltine – it will melt and become a sticky topping – and cut into squares.

Makes 16

Ovaltine thins with cinnamon sugar

After a visit to Lizzie’s beautiful blog – if you still don’t know it, stop reading me and go check her amazing cookies – I started feeling a little nostalgic: she posted a Calvin & Hobbes strip, and I absolutely love Calvin & Hobbes. It reminded me of when I worked as a teacher and one of my lovely students gave me two Calvin & Hobbes books as a gift - Ana Paula, if you’re reading this: xoxo. :)

Back then I did not bake as much as I do now – with two jobs and working Saturdays, it was a bit difficult – but my students were such special people I would gladly bring them cookies every day. And I’d start with these bars.

Ovaltine thins with cinnamon sugar
slightly adapted from Donna Hay magazine

1 cup + 1 ½ tablespoons (218g) caster sugar
1/3 cup (100g) Ovaltine
2 ½ cups + 2 ½ tablespoons (375g) all purpose flour, sifted
2 eggs
¾ cup (170g) unsalted butter, melted and cooled
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
½ cup (100g) caster sugar, extra
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 egg white, lightly beaten

Preheat the oven to 180°C/350°F; lightly butter a 30x40cm (12x16in) baking tray and line it with non-stick baking paper, leaving a 2.5cm (1in) overhang*.
Place the sugar, Ovaltine and flour in a large bowl and mix to combine. Add the eggs, butter and vanilla and mix until the mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs – I used an electric mixer in low speed.
Press the dough into the prepared baking tray, filling it completely.
In a small bowl, combine extra sugar and cinnamon. Brush the cookie dough with the egg white and sprinkle with the cinnamon sugar mixture. Bake for 20-25 minutes or until golden – mine baked for 35 minutes.
Allow to cool in the tray for 10 minutes, then carefully lift it out of the pan – I had trouble lifting the huge uncut cookie from the pan; after a few tries, I slid a thin metal removable bottom (from another baking pan) under the foil and removed the whole thing from the pan.
Cut into rectangles/bars.

* I used a 26x40cm pan, lined with generously buttered foil

Makes 24