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In this article:
- Chocolate Fudge Welsh Cakes Recipe
New home-baking ingredients supplier LemonVanilla challenged me to find a novel use for Chocolate Fudge Brownie Pieces. They reckon these small cubes of chocolate fudge are ideal for adding to cakes, ice cream, desserts, in hot chocolates, sprinkled on milkshakes, and liberally scattered on chocolate slabs. But I wanted to see if I could incorporate them into a spot of home baking.
I initially thought of baking chocolate fudge cookies (substituting chocolate chips in a chocolate chip cookie recipe for the fudge pieces). But then I thought it would be more interesting to see whether the fudge pieces would work in place of currants in a Welsh delicacy.
Welsh cakes are a tasty snack that go very well with a cup of tea or a mug of hot chocolate. They're traditionally cooked on a griddle pan and taste incredible fresh off the stove with a dusting of caster sugar. As a side note, if you find yourself in Cardiff or the South Wales Valleys, follow your nose and seek out some freshly baked treats. They're worth every penny.
Ordinarily, you'd make Welsh cakes with a blend of lard and butter. If you wanted to be true to heritage, you'd pop currants into the mix. You'd also neatly roll the mixture out using a rolling pin and use a circular cutter to make perfect 1cm thick rounds of dough.
But if, like me, you're a no-nonsense eager beaver with a sweet tooth, you'll use your hands to bash out the dough instead of using a rolling pin and you'll eyeball what a circle should look like, plus you'll substitute extra butter for the lard you don't have, trade in the currants for chocolate fudge cubes, and use a frying pan in place of a griddle pan (that, again, you don't have).
I managed to get seven cakes out of my mix, but could have got eight if I'd used a rolling pin and cutter.
Dry frying the cakes on a medium heat, the fudge pieces warmed up faster than the dough did, so scorched in places as the Welsh cakes cooked in the pan. I tried not to move the cakes around too much so as to prevent the faces of the cakes blackening with burnt sugar.
Overall, I think they look pretty good. They're chunkier than your average Welsh cake (or more sensibly portioned perhaps?).
Fresh out of the pan, these are lovely. Warm, crumbly, and buttery, with a hint of spices in the mix too. The slightly molten nuggets of chocolate fudge add bursts of chocolatey flavour together with a gentle chewiness.
These keep well for a few days in an airtight container, but firm up and dry out the longer you leave them. Served cold, they exhibit more of a chew but the flavour of the chocolate fudge is more pronounced.
Next time I make these, I might try to better sandwich the fudge pieces between two thin layers of dough to protect them from scorching during cooking. I might also substitute around 10g of flour for cocoa powder for an extra chocolate flavour.
Chocolate Fudge Welsh Cakes Recipe
A hat tip goes to Lucy at the BBC Good Food team. I drew inspiration from her traditional recipe, adapting the ingredients to what I had to hand, and adapting the method for my inner lazy chef.
Chocolate Fudge Welsh Cakes Recipe
Traditional Welsh cakes with a chocolate fudge twist
Makes approximately 8
Chocolate Fudge Welsh Cakes Ingredients
- 225g self raising flour
- 100g unsalted butter (room temperature)
- 85g caster sugar
- ½ tsp mixed spice
- 1 egg
- 60g Chocolate Fudge Brownie Pieces
Chocolate Fudge Welsh Cakes Method
Step 1 / Mix Ingredients
Pop the flour, butter, sugar, mixed spice and egg into a large mixing bowl. Crumb the ingredients together. It starts off lumpy but eventually comes together in a ball. If you need to loosen the mixture, add a drop of milk. Add the Chocolate Fudge Brownie Pieces right and the end and mix into the dough.
Step 2 / Portion the dough
Divide the mixture into equal portions. You can get around eight generous Welsh Cakes out of the mixture. Form balls, then squish to around just under 1cm thick.
Step 3 / Heat a Pan
Ideally, you'd now whip out a griddle pan. It probably does a better job than a non-stick frying pan, but the latter is all I have to hand so it'll do. Pop it on a medium heat. Dry fry the Welsh Cakes for around 3-4 minutes on each side. Be careful not to burn them.
Step 4 / Serve
They taste best warm out of the pan, but beware - the Chocolate Fudge Brownie Pieces will become molten and boiling hot. Give them a few minutes before you tuck in. Alternatively, enjoy cold with a mug of hot chocolate or a cup of tea. Eat them within a couple of days otherwise they dry out.
You can find the pouch of Chocolate Fudge Brownie Pieces alongside other home baking ingredients over at LemonVanilla. They also stock pouches of chocolate couverture, chocolate moulds, inclusions, decorations and other bits and bobs to help you with your home baking. At the time of writing they offer free next working day delivery on orders over £25.
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If you try this recipe at home, please let me know how you get on in the comments below.
