Temptation for chocoholics

This recipe took me me back in time, long time back, when I was an English language and Literature student at Zagreb University, Croatia. Probably second year student, when I was "a young and beautiful girl" as my daughter said. HUH!?
I was learning English language, so any book, newspaper or magazine was good practicing material. Me and my friend went often to British or American center and borrowed stuff to read.
On one of those occasions I picked up a magazine (don't ask me what it was, I haven't got a clue), and this is where I picked up this recipe, along with other two (Banana Brownies and Crisped toffee cakes). I think they were the recipes sent by readers, as there were no photos or anything, but the names sounded so good to me. I've always loved chocolaty-crispy-toffeeish-fudgeish stuff.
I copied the recipe, and it stayed in my notebook all these years. Because I never had the right occasion or all the necessary ingredients to make it.
Finally, it's day has come, last Sunday. The expectations that built over the years left me a bit disappointed at first, I didn't know exactly what to think of it. But I ate one slice after another, and liked it more and more with each bite. And finally, when my husband said it was really good, that was it (he rarely says that about sweet stuff, he's more of a savoury type of person). The recipe is now labeled as "GOOD. TO REPEAT".
The kids liked the bottom crust only, so that left me with more of the chocolaty top to enjoy.



CHOCOLATE FUDGE SLICES

225 g flour
150 g butter
50 g powdered sugar
1 egg yolk

200 g dark chocolate
390 g (375 ml) sweetened condensed milk
50 g butter
3 eggs
50 g self-raising flour
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Sift the flour and powdered sugar together in a mixing bowl.
Add cold butter, chopped.

Rub until you get coarse crumbs.
Add the egg yolk,

and knead to get a smooth dough.

Line a rectangular (18x28 cm) tin with wet baking paper

and press the dough in to cover the bottom of the tin. This little rolling pin is an excellent helper, isn't it?

Bake in an oven preheated to 180°C until golden (around 20 minutes, but check often, you don't want it get too dry.

In the meantime melt together the chocolate, the condensed milk and butter (I did it in the microwave oven - 2,5 minutes at 500W, checking and stirring every 30 sec.).

At this point, it's actually hard to resist and not lick the whole stuff, it's soooo good!

Remove from heat (or from the microwave) and add the eggs, flour and vanilla extract.

Mix well, and pour over the dough base when it's done.

Bake again until the cream is set. The recipe said 45-50 minutes. Well, after only 30 minutes the top of my cake was set and the toothpick came out clean, so I took it out.

Let it cool in the tin. Then lifting both ends of the baking paper remove from the tin and cut.

A tip, use a warm knife to cut chocolate cakes, in this way it won't crumble. I usually pour boiling hot water into a tall glass and leave the knife in it for a few minutes. Dry the knife with a paper towel, cut the cake, dip again for a few sec. and repeat.
The cake was even better the next day.

I wanted to put some in the freezer, but it was gone before I could do it :-O




(Cro)
CHOCOLATE FUDGE SLICES
(MEKANI ČOKOLADNI KOLAČ)

225 g brašna
150 g maslaca
50 g šećera u prahu
1 žutanjak

200 g čokolade
390 g (375 ml) kondenziranog mlijeka
50 g maslaca
3 jaja
50 g samodizajućeg brašna (brašno s dodatkom praška za pecivo)
1 žličica ekstrakta vanilije

TIJESTO: Prosijati brašno i šećer u prahu u zdjelu, pa umiješati hladan maslac narezan na listiće. Trljajte prstima da dobijete mrvice. Umiješajte žumanjak pa mijesite da dobijete glatko tijesto.
Tijesto ravnomjerno rasporedite u kalup (18x28 cm) koji ste obložili papirom za pečenje (savjet: namočite papir za pečenje u hladnu vodu pa dobro iscijedite. Na taj način će lakše prionuti za kalup). Stavite peći u pećnicu zagrijanu na 180°C dok ne dobije zlatnu boju.
U međuvremenu, za KREMU, rastopite čokoladu, kondenzirano mlijeko i maslac miješajući dok ne postane glatko (može i u mikrovalnoj pećnici). Sklonite s vatre, umiješajte jaja, brašno i ekstrakt vanilije. Prelijte preko tijesta i pecite opet dok se krema ne ščvrsne. U receptu je pisalo 45-50 minuta, ali ja sam ga pekla samo 30 minuta, i bio je savršeno pečen.
Ostavite u kalupu da se ohladi. Podignite oba kraja papira za pečenje pa izvadite cijeli kolač i izrežite na ploške.
Kolač je bio još bolji sutradan, kad je tijesto malo omekšalo.

Ako ne možete naći samodizajuće brašno, napravite ga sami: umiješajte 3,6 g praška za pecivo u 100 g običnog brašna, prosijte ili miješajte ručnom žicom da se prašak ravnomjerno rasporedi.



(Ita)
CHOCOLATE FUDGE SLICES
(DOLCE MORBIDO AL CIOCCOLATO)

225 g di farina
150 g di burro
50 g zucchero a velo
1 tuorlo d'uovo

200 g di cioccolato fondente
390 g di latte concentrato zuccherato
50 g di burro
3 uova
50 g di farina autolievitante
1 cucchiaino di estratto di vaniglia

Setacciate la farina e lo zucchero a velo in una ciotola, aggiungete il burro freddo tagliato a pezzetti. Strofinate con le mani fino a ottenere delle briciole.
Aggiungete il tuorlo e impastate una frolla liscia e morbida.
Ricoprite una teglia rettangolare (18x28 cm) con la carta da forno (bagnata e strizzata bene) e ricoprite il fondo con la frolla. Infornate nel forno già riscaldato a 180°C per circa 20 minuti, finché la superficie e leggermente dorata.
Nel frattempo, sciogliete il cioccolato, il burro e il latte concentrato (in una teglia o nel microonde), mescolando spesso.
Togliete dal fuoco (o dal microonde) e incorporate le uova, la farina e la vaniglia.
Versate la crema di cioccolato sopra la base di frolla e infornate di nuovo.
La ricetta diceva 45-50 minuti, ma in realtà sono bastati 30.
Lasciate raffreddare il dolce nella teglia. Alzando la carta da forno, togliete il dolce dalla teglia e tagliatelo a barrette. Conservate a temperatura ambiente, coperto per farlo rimanere soffice.