This recipe is adapted from the Hungry Girl newsletter. I really love her stuff but I don’t like the fact that a lot of the ingredients she uses are terribly processed, and as far from “natural” that you can get. I am also not a fan of consuming aspartame or Splenda, you just never know, you know?  So here is the recipe with some minor modifications:

Chocolate Lava Cakes
(makes 4) 

For Filling
1/4 c. sugar free chocolate pudding (approx. one snack cup)
1/2 tbsp mini semi-sweet chocolate chips
1 tsp. light or fat free liquid creamer
1/2 tsp. light whipped butter or margarine (like Becel)

Place chocolate chips in a glass (I used my glass measuring cup) and set aside. Pour the creamer in a microwave safe bowl with the butter and heat in the microwave for about 15 seconds until butter has melted and mixture is very hot.  Pour the mixture over the chocolate chips and stir until the chips dissolve. Allow to cool for about 5 minutes and then add the pudding and stir well. Spoon the mixture into four evenly spaced mounds on a plate and freeze for about 25 minutes until they’ve firmed up a bit.

For Cake
1 cup moist-style devil’s food cake.
1 tbsp baking cocoa
1/4 cup fat free liquid egg
1 tbsp. mini-semi sweet chocolate chips
2 dashes salt

*Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Place chocolate chips and cocoa in a small heat resistance bowl. Add 1/4 cup boiling water and stir well until chips and cocoa have dissolved. Add 1/2 cup cold water and stir well.
Pour the cocoa mixture into a mixing bowl. Add cake mix, egg substitute and salt to the mixing bowl and whip with a whisk or fork for about 2 minutes. Please note that the batter will be quite thin.

Once the pudding mounds in the freezer are a bit firm, spray four baking ramekins (approx. 4 inches in diameter) with a little bit of vegetable oil. Evenly spoon the cake batter into the ramekins. Remove chocolate mounds from the freezer and place one in the centre of each batter-filled ramekin. If the mounds are frozen to the plate, use a sharp knife to “scrape” them off.  Put the ramekins in the oven and bake for 15-20 minutes. Cakes will look shiny when done.

cakes before going into oven

Carefully remove the ramekins from the oven. You can eat the cake right out of the ramekin (but make sure you let it cool a little bit because it will be very hot), or wait until it has cooled completely and plate the cake by running a knife along the edges and flipping it upside down. Pop it in the microwave for about 15 seconds to heat it back up before serving. 

Personal notes: 
Like I mentioned, I adapted this recipe from the Hungry Girl. I only made little modifications, like using plain cocoa instead of a packet of diet cocoa mix because I don’t like the aspartame in it, nor did I use the sprinkle of granulated Splenda in the batter because I found the cake sweet enough as it was (and because I don’t like using Splenda anyway). I was going to use egg whites instead of the  liquid egg but I actually forgot. I will definitely try it with egg whites next time I make them, you never know if something turns out until you try.
Anywho, I’ve made these 3 times this week for 3 different occasions and all three times I got rave reviews, the best one was from my friend’s husband (who stays away from anything fat-free btw!) who said that just adding a scoop of icecream and you could sell these at any restaurant… now that’s a compliment if I ever heard one!  So there you go, delicious lava cakes at at least half the calories of any of the cakes you can get in a restaurant. I tell you, you won’t be dissapointed!

Now, on to Iraq. I think all of the world has heard about this country in the last few years and I was always curious to learn a little more about their culture. So here is just a small peek about what they’re all about.

The Republic of Iraq, also known as Mesopotamia, is located in Western Asia. It borders Jordan to the west, Syria to the northwest, Turkey to the north, Iran to the east, and Kuwait and Saudi Arabia to the south. It has a narrow section of coastline on the Persian Gulf. The rivers Tigris and Euphrates (I remember my ancient history classes!) run through the centre of Iraq from north to south. Baghdad is the capital city.

Interesting Facts:
- The region between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers is identified as the cradle of civilization and the birthplace or writing and the wheel. WOW!
- The Iraqi cuisine is generally heavy with more spices than most arab cuisines

Recipe: BA’BA BEH TAMUR (filled pastries)
These pastries have different fillings, I decided to make the almond since it’s what I had available but if you’d like the recipe for the cheese or date fillings please email me and I will send it to you.

Dough:
1 package active dry yeast
1 cup lukewarm water (105 to 115 degrees)
3 cups all-purpose flour, sifted
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 tablespoon ground fennel
1/2 cup (1 stick) plus 2 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
- Combine yeast and water; set aside 10 minutes.
Mix together flour, salt, baking powder, fennel, yeast mixture and
melted butter in bowl and mix until everything comes together (better if done with an electric mixer but don’t overbeat).
Cover with damp cloth. Let rise until doubled, about 1 hour.


Almond Filling:
1 cup ground almonds
1/3 cup granulated sugar
1 tablespoon rose water
1 tablespoon orange blossom water (see the notes, I had to use a substitution)
- Combine all ingredients well.
Putting it together:
Preheat oven at 425F. Roll out dough about 1/4 inch thick; cut into 3-inch rounds (with a cookie cutter or a water glass). Place approx. 1 tsp of filling in center. Brush edge
with water; fold to make a half-moon shape. Seal edges with tines of fork. Bake in a preheated oven 15-20 minutes, or until golden brown.

Notes: Although the recipe called for mixing the dough with an electric mixer I ended up doing it by hand. I only have a hand held mixer and it was hard to get the dough to the right consistency so I mixed it with a wooden spoon and then used my hands. It worked well. I assume that using one of those large electic mixer would’ve made it easier but no pain no gain, right?
Rose water was quite easy to find in the ethnic food section of my local supermarket but I couldn’t find orange blossom water anywhere! So I searched through the lovely and very informative Cook’s Thesaurus http://www.foodsubs.com and found that I could use orange extract. BE CAUTIOUS though, the extract adds a little bitterness to the filling so what I did is use 1 1/2 measures of rose water and only 1/2 measure of orange extract. Worked like a charm.
You can also get away with not using the fennel in the dough but I found that it added to the middle eastern taste, you can grind the fennel in a coffee grinder. Note to the wise, try to have a separate grinder for your spices or the coffee taste will transfer into everything you grind.

Verdict: These pastries were quite tasty and perfect to have with afternoon tea or a snack. They have a very subtle taste and not too sweet, there’s just a hint of rose taste but just enough to give it a distinct flavour. The recipe made about 40 of them and they were all gone in one sitting! I actually brought them to work for a potluck, my opinion is that if they’re all gone by the end of the work day then it’s because everyone liked them. This was a very easy recipe and, aside from letting the dough rise for an hour, not time consuming at all. Try it! You will not be disappointed!

finished pastries