Beets & Chocolate

Wow - I would have never put those two together!

I went to the Farmer's Market Saturday and picked up my $30 box of organic fruits and veggies, and Oh My - Beets! I really didn't want them, but...I already had oranges in my fridge, so the oranges that were in my box - I swapped for extra zucchini, so I couldn't ask them to swap something else. I thought to myself "What in the world am I going to do with these things?" My husband said he liked them plain and my grandmother said she liked them plain. So since she was coming for a visit, I figured that I would use them some way or another.

I went on a hunt for recipes containing beets. Everything I found or every recipe that folks were giving to me contained vinegar or something of the sorts that totally did not appeal to me. I finally ran across this Beet Bundt Cake recipe on Epicurious. "Hmm - could this really taste good?" I read the recipe, read the reviews and decided that I was going to try it. I had wasted ingredients before on stuff that didn't turn out - why not with this one too?

So I started by trimming off the leaves (washing, drying and saving them for a salad or something) and washing the beets. I had read you could peel them before or after cooking, but that the skin helped them not to bleed so much during cooking. So, I did not peel them, wrapped them in alum. foil with a little EVOO and put them in the oven. Somewhere around 2 hours later they were finally done. (Good grief my gas bill is gonna be high!) So anyway, I put on some plastic food handling gloves and after they had cooled I peeled and diced them. I added them to my blender with a little oil and water and pureed them.

This recipe calls for 2 cups of beets, but I ended up with only a little more then 1 cup. I am not sure if I should have added anything else, like applesauce, to fill it to 2 cups, so I just left it at the 1c.

Another change I made was, per a suggestion on the review, changed out the oil for butter. I also, per review suggestions, added 1T cocoa and an double dose of melted chocolate chips. Oh and also suggested was to add an egg - and I did that too.

After I mixed everything together and poured the batter into the pan, I swirled in some mini chocolate chips for good measure! I mean, com'on - you can never have too much chocolate in/on anything!

I did not make a glaze or icing or sprinkle powdered sugar on top! It was great just plain. My 4 year old and 11 year old LOVED it. And, my 11 year old knew there was beets in it. (Today was his and my first time ever trying beets - a historic day for the two of us!) My husband hasn't had any yet, but I am not telling him there are beets in it, and I will see what he says!

Enjoy!

http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Beet-Bundt-Cake-354070