Chocolate Chip Pound Cake

Ingredients  

They are mostly, if not all, pantry staples that you probably have right now.

• Chocolate chips: traditional semisweet chocolate chips that are used for cookies. I usually use Ghirardelli semi sweet Chocolate chips and Hersheys semi sweet baking chips. You can also use semisweet chocolate chunks.
• Sour cream: regular, full fat.
• Unsalted butter.
• Eggs: large, fresh.
• Sugar: both white and brown sugar (light or dark) are used for this recipe.
• All purpose flour.
• Baking powder and baking soda: both act as leaveners. Make sure they're active and not expired.
• Salt: I use kosher salt for my baking, but table salt also works. 
• Vanilla - I use pure vanilla extract or pure vanilla paste when available, but a good vanilla essence (artificially flavored) also works.
• Almond extract: I love how it adds another subtle flavor, but you can omit it if you don't have it. Don't buy it just for this cake. I use Simply Organic pure almond extract or Nielsen Massey pure almond extract.

 Easy steps

• Beating: using an electric mixer (handheld or stand mixer with the paddle attachment) is the best option to cream the butter with the sugar and eggs (images 1-2).
• Incorporating the flour: always beat just until it is all incorporated. Use the mixer at the lowest speed. The more you beat the flour the more the gluten develops and that makes for a tougher cake. We don't want that, do we? You can also use a spatula for this part so there's not a chance of overbeating. 
• Chocolate chips: mix them in with a spatula so they don't get stuck in the beaters (image 4).

Cake pans 

If you're wondering what type of pans you can use to bake this sour cream cake, let me tell you that they can be made as cupcakes, layer cakes, loaf cakes, in a regular bundt pan, or as mini bundt cakes.

• This recipe today is baked in a rectangular 8x11-inch pan. A square 9-inch pan also works and the batter is enough for 2 loaf pans (about 8x5-in each), 15-18 cupcakes, 1 tube cake, 2 or three layers (8 or 9-inch, depending on how thick you make them), or 10-12 mini bundt cakes. If you use a larger 9x13=inch pan the cake will not be as tall. These are approximate, but you get an idea. 

The crumb will hold really well if you want to fill and frost it (I suggest you make it the day before and keep it refrigerated so the crumb tightens and you can fill it more easily), or decorate it if making cupcakes.

Sour cream in cakes

Sour cream substitutes some of the butter and/or milk, it adds incredible moisture to the cake and makes for a tight crumb.

So the cake is dense (in a good way) and moist which makes it perfect for road trips, picnics, potlucks, and as a snack cake. The sour cream adds a slight tanginess that balances the amount of sugar and other sweet ingredients.

I personally think sour cream in a cake is one of the best things ever discovered! Love it, and is probably the recipe I would choose as my first option. The index in this blog has some of my favorites like the lemon pound cake, chocolate bundt cake, blood orange mini cakes.

I decided to go for a simple chocolate chip pound cake, as I told you before, baked as a snack cake in a rectangular pan, sort of a sheet coffee cake if you will.

Freezing 

• Pound cakes can be frozen very successfully and this chocolate chip recipe is no exception.
• Make sure you wrap it first in plastic, then in foil, and label them (date and what it is). It will keep for a month. Or maybe more, but it starts to get a bit of the famous freezer burn flavor.
• Defrost it at room temperature if whole, or cut it in slices before freezing and warm them in the oven individually before eating every time you want a snack.