Melt the chocolate and butter with the coffee in a heavy-based pan.
Mix together the flour, bicarbonate of soda, light muscovado sugar, golden caster sugar and cocoa powder in a separate bowl. Break any lumps with your fingertips.
Beat the eggs and stir in the buttermilk.
Pour the chocolate and egg mixtures into the flour, stirring to a smooth consistency.
Pour into your prepared tin and bake in a preheated oven.
Chop the chocolate for the ganache.
Heat the cream and sugar until nearly boiling and pour over the chopped chocolate.
Cut the cake in half or thirds and lift the layer or layers off.
Put the bottom layer on your serving dish and spoon on a little ganache over. Repeat with the next layer if you've cut your cake into thirds.
Put the top layer on the cake and pour over the remaining ganache.
Use a palette knife to smooth it over the surface.
Decorate with chocolate curls.
1
Sift the dry ingredients together. The dry ingredients are: flour, sugar, salt, baking soda, and cocoa. Simply place all the dry ingredients in a sifter and shake it back and forth over a bowl to eliminate the clumps.
2
Stir in the liquid ingredients and stir well. These are the vinegar, oil, vanilla, water and egg. Some people like to add these ingredients individually, but others stir them together in a second bowl and before adding them to the dry ingredients.
3
Pour the mixture into an 8-inch greased and floured round pan. The grease and flour will keep the mix from sticking to the pan.
Put water in a kettle and plug it in. If you do not have a kettle, then put water in a pot and put it on the stove. Or use an immersion heater and warm up the water in a separate heat-proof mug. The easiest method is to use a microwave.
Take the instant coffee and put about one slightly rounded teaspoon (this may vary based upon how strong one likes their coffee) in a mug.
Pour just a teaspoon of the very hot (nearly boiling) water into the mug; only enough to dampen the instant coffee. If you use sugar, put in your sugar granules.
Now, with a metal spoon, crush the slurryagainst the side of the mug (this technique is called a “Fagin Transform”).
Stir in the rest of the hot water.
Add fresh whole milk, fresh half-and-half, or non-dairy creamer to the coffee if desired. Evaporated milk from a can (undiluted) may also be used...
Mix strong bread flour, salt and fast-action yeast together in a large bowl. Quickly stir in lukewarm water and olive oil and bring together to a rough dough.
Tip out the mixture onto a lightly floured worksurface and knead for 5 mins until you have a smooth, springy dough.
Roll out into a thin round (you may have to stretch it with your hands a little) and place on a floured baking sheet.
Add your favourite toppings (such as tomato passata, mozzarella, vegetables or cured meats), place the floured sheet on top of the preheated sheet and bake for 10-15 mins, until the pizza is golden and crispy.
1/2 cup of warm water
1 package (2 1/4 teaspoons) of active dry yeast
3 1/2 cups of flour (bread or all-purpose)
2 tablespoons of olive oil
3 cups of homemade pizza sauce
Favorite pizza toppings
4 cups of grated mozzarella cheese
Cornmeal
2 teaspoons of salt
First, thoroughly clean a sturdy surface. Making sure it’s dry, heap your flour onto it, and in a bowl, mix some warm water with yeast, salt and sugar.Using warm (roughly blood temperature) water will help the yeast react better – not too fast, and not to slow
Make a deep, high-walled well in the middle of the flour. Slowly start adding a third of the water. Using a fork, bring the flour in from middle, retaining the well shape. Gradually add the remaining water until a sticky dough is formed. Don’t worry if it feels too wet – go with it!Kneading makes a huge difference. Working your dough for 10 minutes will help to release the proteins in the flour and give you a stronger, more stretchy end product.
Transfer to an oiled bowl. Here, fold the dough into itself a few times – this will help to delay the process slightly. Cover with clingfilm and allow to double in size (about 45 minutes to an hour).
Divide your dough into balls – a general rule is approximately 200g per portion. Now it’s time to form your dough into rounds before their final prove. Use both hands in a scissor motion, bringing the edges of your palms together – this will give you a smooth top and pinched bottom, ensuring an even rise.
Place, evenly spaced, on a lightly floured tray. Leave approximately three centimeters between each round. When they’ve expanded enough to touch each other, they’re ready!
Carefully remove each round with a fish slice or pastry scraper, taking care to retain their shapes. Turn the smooth side down onto lightly floured surface
Shaping
Option one (playing it safe)
Using fingertips and middle of fingers, gently stretch your round into a flat circle, and keep pushing the edges out until it reaches your desired size.
Option two (for the brave)
Get to the end of option one and pick up the dough, place fists together, and stretch the dough out with a circular motion to increase diametre.
Option three (for the showoff)
Toss in the air and use the weight of the dough as it lands to stretch it even thinner. This takes practice – don’t do it in front of guests until you’re confident!
Topping & baking
Place your base onto a baking tray that’s been lightly dusted with semolina or flour.
To achieve a good, even spread of sauce, it’s worth purchasing a flat-bottomed ladle. Alternatively, ladle as evenly as possible and spread with a large tablespoon to fill in the gaps. Next, cover with your chosen toppings
It’s best to place the topping ingredients where the sauce is thinnest. This will reduce the final weight and make it easier to transfer into the oven in one piece.
To ensure a great bake at home, make sure your oven is as hot as it can possibly get. Don’t put your pizza in while the oven is still getting up to temperature.
Using up leftover pizza dough
Dough remnants can be rolled into grissini (breadsticks). You could also try a plait, or little dough balls.
To do this, smear a little oil onto a baking sheet and space your leftover dough shapes about a finger width apart. Bake in a hot oven until golden and crispy. Try adding toppings like sesame seeds, black pepper, or dried chilli by brushing a little egg white over, then sprinkling them on top.
Don’t use any harsh chemicals on your smartphone or computer screen. While most displays have a glass panel (thus leading you to use Windex or other glass cleaner), these chemical-laden cleaners that can contain acetone, ammonia or alcohol aren’t healthy for your electronic devices, as they can strip away the screen’s protective coating.Instead, you should just use a small amount of water, or use a specialized cleaning solution that’s meant for screens, such as iKlenz or eScreen, if you want a clean screen with minimal effort. You can create your own homemade solution using a 50/50 mix of distilled water and white vinegar.
1
Choose a microfiber cloth. This is ideal for cleaning a touchscreen. Some devices will have such a cloth included or perhaps you can borrow one you use on your sunglasses.
The cost of such cloth varies. For cloth recommended by companies for their products, the price can be considerably higher simply because of the recommendation. Look around for a good deal on such cloth or substitute with a cheaper but still effective microfiber cloth.
This is perhaps the most important step. Not only do you need the right materials, but you also need to know the correct method to clean your screen. Here’s a step-by-step:
Turn the device off and unplug it if it requires outlet power (like a computer monitor).
Start by taking a dry microfiber cloth and wiping off the dust and any other loose objects.
Next, take your microfiber cloth and damp it slightly using either water or the specialized cleaning solution. You don’t want too much that it’s dripping; just get it damp. Do not spray the solution directly on the screen.
Use light, rapid circular motions on the screen. The circular motions will cut down on streaking, and pressing down too hard could break your device.
Keep cleaning the screen until all smudges and imperfections are gone.
Finish the job by taking the dry side of the microfiber cloth and wiping the screen dry if any solution is still present.
That’s all there is to it! It might sound like there are a lot of precautions to take, and there certainly are, but once you have it nailed down, you won’t think twice about using a paper towel and Windex, and the process should simply come naturally to you.
