the stinking best chocolate loaf (but do we have to say loaf?) and potty training.

We tried potty training at the beginning of last week. I was feeling brave and honestly I was 1. Tired of buying so many diapers every month (I have two littles in diapers x2 - it adds up!) and 2. I read a little article titled: “signs your child is ready to be potty trained” and my son exhibited most of them - like pausing to pee in his diaper or wanting me to change his diaper right away etc.The first three days were met with such resistance I cried at the end of day three and gave us both a break. (No amount of treats could really convince me or son, that this was worth pursuing).I tried to use clever lingo the next couple of days though to not *fully* give up that fight - like - Ewe! Yucky poops in diaper, let’s put that poop in the toilet! (Drops poop in toilet while baby son watches. Son is super interested in poop, and asks to flush the toilet.)I’m sorry, is this too much information?I tried to put him on the potty only once or twice a day after that and sometimes he’d go pee and other times he wouldn’t. Either way I praised his attempts to “try to go pee” so enthusiastically you’d think he’d just told me he got accepted to Stanford. “Yay! Yay! GREAT JOB MY BOY!” And I’d give him a treat for trying.Do we support participation trophies?By day seven, he saw his cute underwear he’d picked out a week ago laying next to his diapers and asked to wear them. He was so stoked.He also wet his pants 5 times in a row that day. My heart hurt but he was trying to hard to “see when the peeps was coming”. And enjoyed the extra bubble baths that came as a result.The next day he asked to wear his underwater again and only wet his pants once.The next day after that, he was fully potty trained.Still to this day it’s all a little fresh and new but every time he goes pee on the toilet I clap and smile so big and look him right in the eyes and cup his adorable perfect face and say - “ I am so proud of you!”And this last time he said “Thank you mommy. I’m so proud of you too.”I’m pretty sure he doesn’t know what those words mean quite yet, but the fact that he said them back made me immediately leak tears.He doesn’t know about the piles of extra laundry I’ve stayed up well past midnight to get done, or the fact that I love hims so much I’d give him my life in a heartbeat. He doesn’t know how much I read and research and try  to teach him right and well or how hard we’ve worked to make his little tiny lego dreams come true - and it doesn’t matter.Sometimes we just all need a little praise you know? Especially from our people. Especially after potty training weeks.This loaf cake is easy, it’s very very chocolatey, slightly dense and AMAZING the day it’s made. The word loaf teeters on the side of potty training talk to me so…… this all just seemed appropriate. Don’t hate my mild potty humor okay? It’s just who I am.Okay I love you. Email me if you need some more potty training tips - but either way, this loaf’s for you.

the best stinking triple chocolate loaf

This recipe makes two loaves. I’d love to say that we always keep one loaf and give the other away but we’ve always (always) kept both of them and had no trouble polishing them off. Don’t judge me. This loaf is a dream. Like it’s a dense-ish cake with a delicate crumb, melted bittersweet chocolate and a crusty cracker-like top that almost acts as a roof to the incredible moist chocolatey goodness inside. I just used two words I don’t like to describe this cake: moist and loaf. But goshdangit, make this anyway. You wont regret it. 

Adapted from: Ina Garten's latest cookbook: Cook Like a Pro

• 1 cup / 250g super hot water ( (like almost boiling))
• 5 ounces /150g bittersweet or semisweet chocolate, chopped or disks or chips ((bittersweet = at least 70% cocoa, I recommend bittersweet))
• 2 tablespoons / 10g unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1 teaspoon instant coffee granules or espresso powder
• 1 cup (2 sticks) / 16 tablespoons / 227g salted or unsalted butter, room temperature
• 1 cup / 200g granulated sugar
• 1 cup / 220g dark brown sugar ((if you only have light brown sugar, that works!) )
• 3 large eggs (, room temperature, preferably pasture raised)
• 2 teaspoons vanilla
• 2 cups plus 2 tablespoons / 250g + 16g all-purpose flour, divided (125g = 1 cup flour) ((see resources for my recommended flours))
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 ½ teaspoon kosher salt ((if using salted butter reduce to 1 teaspoon, if using sea salt increase to 1 ¾ -2 teaspoons ) )
• 1 cup / 170g bittersweet or semisweet chocolate chips

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F / 180 degrees C. 

2. Measure out all of your ingredients.

3. In a medium sized bowl, pour 5 ounces / 150g bittersweet chocolate, coffee granules / espresso powder. Pour super hot water over it all and let it sit for a minute. Then stir it all together until it creates a melted pool of liquid goodness. Set aside for 15 minutes or until it’s cooled down quite a bit. 

4. Butter and flour two 8 ½ x 4 ½ inch loaf pans lining just the bottoms with parchment while your chocolate mixture cools.

5. bakers tip: how the heck do I properly butter + flour a loaf tin? You should: butter the entire pan with softened salted butter (so all over the sides + bottom), then place cut-out parchment on bottom of the tin (it should line the bottom of tin exactly, so it’s like a little rectangle) - the parchment should stick to the butter - then butter the top of the parchment, and then sprinkle / coat the entire tin with flour. 

6. In an electric mixer with the paddle attachment, beat together butter, brown sugar + granulated sugar for 5-7 minutes or until really light and fluffy.

7. Add eggs one at a time, incorporating each egg into the sugar + butter mixture.

8. Add vanilla and beat again for a few seconds.

9. In a large bowl, sift together all of your dry ingredients (flour + baking powder + salt + cocoa powder) - remember we’re reserving 2 tablespoons of the flour to mix in with our chocolate chips.

10. Alternating in thirds, add a little bit of the flour mixture, mix on low, then add a little bit of the melted chocolate mixture, mix on low - and repeat 3 times, beginning and ending with the flour mixture. Scrape the sides + bottom of the bowl down before your final mix-in. Take care not to over mix. Mix until juuuuuuuust incorporated and you don’t see any more dry bits.

11. Mix 2 tablespoons of reserved flour with 1 cup / 170g chocolate chips.

12. bakers tip: coating the chocolate chips in flour prevents them from sinking to the bottom of the cake. 

13. Using a rubber spatula, gently fold the flour-coated chocolate chips to the batter. (If you forgot to reserve the flour and accidentally added it to the batter already, don’t stress - but don’t coat the chocolate chips again in flour, just add them naked!) 

14. Pour batter evenly between your two loaf tins and bake for about 45-55 minutes. (Keep in mind that if your batter is cold, they will take longer to bake *see third time saving tip!*) They should form a nice crack on the top, and not appear to jiggle or be liquid-y at all. If you feel the tops are getting too dark, tent them with foil to prevent burning and continue to bake.

15. bakers tip: Insert a tooth pic into several places along the top of the loaf to test doneness. There’s a difference between hitting a melted chocolate chip and batter! The toothpick will pull a few crumbs when the loaves are done, and not be completely clean when they come out. But if the tooth pic is wet with batter, and the cake appears wet in the crack, it’s not done. But crumbs attached to the tooth pic? We’re done.

16. Let loaves cool for about an hour or so before you try to get them out of their tins. These loaves are best served slightly warm as-is or with a bit of butter. Store tightly wrapped, at room temperature for 3-4 days, or in the fridge tightly wrapped for a week. 

17. You can easily freeze one loaf for a few months or so if you don’t think you can manage to eat two loaves at once. OR you can give one to me? xo 

18. bakers tip: You can freeze individual slices and toast them off in a toaster oven and smear a little butter on there - for a fresh breakfast too.

big bakers tip: This cake is fairly easy to whip together as a last minute treat, but please please measure out everything for this one ahead of time (I mean you should really do this for everything you bake, but this cake in particular can get a little confusing because we use chocolate in so many different ways). ;)

Also, if you want this cake a tiny bit more wholesome - use a whole grain flour instead of a white all purpose one - see resources. 

time saving tips: 3 tips for you 1. You can easily make these loaves in their entirely and wrap them tightly and freeze them for a month or two. Bring to room temperature, slice and then toast off individual pieces in a toaster oven or quickly in a pan over the stove top. OR 2. You can measure out all of the dry ingredients ahead of time for a jump start. (This can be done up to a week ahead of time.)  OR 3. You can make the batter entirely ahead of time, store it in the fridge tightly wrapped - bringing it to slightly-colder-than-room temperature and give it a quick light stir. This batter is entirely thick when chilled (it’s all that chocolate), so letting it rest at room temperature for an hour or so is helpful.

substitutions: If you need to go dairy free -I think melted coconut oil would work nicely here in place of the butter. Maybe even vegan butter? I haven’t tried either yet, but just make sure you whip the oil/butter with the sugars until they look like they’ve blended together really well. You can also use any fresh flour here. I’m not sure about gluten free flour though - but with the right tweaks I’m sure it’s fine. I just haven’t played around with a gluten-free option yet.

resources: i highly recommend flourist flour (I've used red fife for this loaf and it's fabulous - but it does make the load a teeeeeny bit more dense?) bob's red mill organic flour or organic king arthur organic all purpose flour. 

i love guittard cocoa powder and chocolate.