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Easy Chocolate Traybake

Chris Moyles' traybake takes inspiration from Mary Berry. It's simple to make and made primarily from store cupboard ingredients - a handy recipe to add to your repertoire!

By bbcfood · From Open Recipes · 13 ingredients
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Why it works: Cocoa powder and chocolate match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and 1,587 recipes mention both. Both carry 2-ethyl-3,6-dimethylpyrazine, which smells roasted, nutty. The science ↓

The recipe

Makes 20 slices
Prep30 min
Cook1 hr

Ingredients

Contains: egg, milk, wheat, tree nuts (auto-detected from the ingredients and method; we can miss things, so check labels)

Directions

Method written by CompKitchen from the ingredient list. Not the original author's method, not kitchen-tested.

  1. Heat the oven to 170°C (340°F). Line a 20cm (8in) square baking tin with baking paper.

  2. Put the cocoa powder in a bowl, pour over the 6 tbsp boiling water and stir until smooth. Set aside to cool slightly.

  3. Beat the butter and golden caster sugar together until pale and fluffy, about 3 minutes.

  4. Beat in the eggs one at a time, then the full-fat milk and the cooled cocoa mixture until evenly combined.

  5. Fold in the self-raising flour, ground almonds, baking powder and malted milk until no dry streaks remain.

  6. Spread the batter evenly into the tin and bake for 35 to 40 minutes, until a skewer inserted in the centre comes out clean.

  7. Leave the cake in the tin to cool completely, then spread the strawberry jam evenly over the top.

  8. Heat the double cream in a small pan until just simmering. Put the white chocolate in a bowl, pour the hot cream over it and stir until smooth and glossy.

  9. Pour the white chocolate ganache over the jam, spreading it to the edges, then chill for at least 1 hour until set.

  10. Lift the cake out of the tin using the paper, cut into 20 slices and serve.

By bbcfood. Recipe from Open Recipes.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.

  1. Cocoa powder + chocolatetop 2% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together1,587 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-ethyl-3,6-dimethylpyrazine (roasted, nutty).

  2. Butter + milktop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together81,222 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  3. Flour + almondtop 4% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together8,450 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Almond + chocolatetop 4% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together1,733 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-pentanedione (butter, sweet).

  5. Butter + almondtop 5% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together9,198 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-pentanedione (butter, sweet).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

Flavor stand-ins for the strawberry jam

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (cocoa powder, butter, sugar, egg, milk, flour, almond):

  1. Vanillabetter flavor fit
  2. Coconutbetter flavor fit
  3. Raspberrybetter flavor fit
  4. Strawberry jamthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against cocoa powder, butter, sugar, egg, milk, flour, almond. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes. This compares flavor only: it does not check the job the ingredient does in the dish (bulk, moisture, acidity, structure).