Fudgey Chocolate Brownies

I've never met a single person who dislikes brownies, and I'm willing to bet that anybody who does is probably miserable, surly and eats cauliflower for fun. This is a Jamie Oliver Recipe. Not usually a big fan myself, but this recipe really cannot be knocked.



Ingredients:

• 250g unsalted butter
• 200g dark Fairtrade chocolate (70% cocoa solids), broken up
• 80g cocoa powder, sifted
• 65g plain flour, sifted
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 360g caster sugar
• 4 large free-range or organic eggs
• optional: zest of 1 orange
• optional: 250ml crème fraîche

Directions

1. Preheat your oven to 180°C/350°F/gas 4. Line a 25cm square baking tin with greaseproof paper.
2. In a large bowl over some simmering water, melt the butter and the chocolate and mix until smooth.
3. In a separate bowl, mix together the cocoa powder, flour, baking powder and sugar, then add this to the chocolate mixture. Stir together well. Beat the eggs and mix in until you have a silky consistency.
4. Pour your brownie mix into the baking tray, and place in the oven for around 25 minutes. You don’t want to overcook them so, unlike cakes, you don’t want a skewer to come out all clean.
5. Allow to cool in the tray, then carefully transfer to a large chopping board and cut into chunky squares.

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Pancake Day - Butterscotch Sauce

In the UK yesterday, we celebrated Pancake Day. Lots of lemons were bought, and pancake races were held up and down the country. My husband and I had pancakes for breakfast, and we decided to break from the traditional lemon and sugar toppings and opt for a scrummy butterscotch sauce.

This recipe below is definitely a keeper. I'll be making it many more times!




Ingredients

• 50g/2oz butter
  
• 50g/2oz golden syrup
  
• Vanilla pod, split
  
• Lemon juice (approx 1/3 lemon)
• 75ml/2½fl oz double cream

Directions

1. Place the butter, brown sugar, golden syrup and vanilla pod in a small saucepan. Bring to a gentle simmer.
2. Remove from the heat and add the lemon juice to taste.
3. Stir in the double cream.
4. Remove the vanilla pod before serving.

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Happy New Year - Chocolate Marshmallow Cake

My in-laws are throwing a new year's eve party tonight, and I offered to bake something sweet for their guests. I decided on making a chocolate marshmallow cake because it's sweet, chocolatey and doesn't contain anything that fussy eaters will turn their noses up at. I baked two chocolate sponges, using an incredibly easy recipe I found online (see below), and I sandwiched them together using a mixture of melted marshmallow and cream.

I've seen lots of marshmallow frosting recipes that I could've used to frost the outside of the cake, but I feared that this would be too sickly for some guests and I opted for a candy pink butter icing instead. I finished the cake with an assortment of marshmallows, and lots and lots of edible glitter! In fact, the cutesy girliness of this cake has caused my friend to dub it "Melted Barbie Cake."

Happy new year! x



Incredibly Easy Chocolate Cake

Ingredients

• 1 + 1/4 cup self raising flour
• 2 tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 2 pinches salt
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 tbsp vanilla essence
• 1/2 cup milk
• 1/2 cup flavourless vegetable oil
• 2 eggs

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 350 deg F (Gas mark 4 or 180 deg C). Grease a 9 inch (23 cm) cake tin.
2. Mix flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, salt, sugar and vanilla essence in a bowl.
3. Add milk/water, vegetable oil and eggs. Mix everything together until smooth, either by hand or by using an electric mixer at slow speed. If the batter is too runny you may add slightly more flour.
4. Transfer to bake tin and bake until a wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean, approximately 35 to 45 minutes.

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Lemon and Strawberry Hearts

Perhaps these little treats are too summery for this time of year, but they're so dinky and light I can't resist knocking up a batch whenever I have some cream that needs using up. Cream usually needs to be used within three days, and if I have no use for it (or in this case - I'm sick of drizzling it over mince pies) I whip it, and stir in lemon juice/zest and some icing sugar. The lemon helps preserve the cream, meaning that you can enjoy it for a few days more. I use it to sandwich puff pastry hearts that I've cut from a ready rolled sheet (and then drizzled with chocolate). Throw in a few sliced strawberries and you have the perfect little dessert.

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Raspberry Creme Patissiere Flan

This recipe is perfect if you need to make a quick dessert but you're feeling a bit lazy. It doesn't require much effort and is stilll yummy! I used a shop bought flan case (lazy as I am) and filled it with home made creme patissiere (vanilla pastry cream to those of us who like things simple). I topped the cream with raspberries and a sprinkling of icing sugar. Simple and scrumptious.




Creme Patissiere

Ingredients

• 1 ¼ cups whole milk
• 3 egg yolks
• ¼ cup granulated sugar
• 1/8 cup all-purpose flour
• 2 tablespoons plus 2 teaspoons cornstarch
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Directions

1. In a small saucepan, warm the milk over low heat until it is just hot enough to steam.
2. While the milk is warming, whisk together the egg yolks, sugar, flour, and cornstarch until the mixture is completely smooth.
3. Once the milk is steaming, add half of it, whisking constantly, to the egg mixture.
4. Add the milk and eggs back into the hot milk, continue stirring, and heat it for 1-2 minutes, until the custard reaches 170F on a digital thermometer and is very thick.
5. Remove from the heat, stir in the vanilla extract, and chill before filling pastry.

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Plum Ice Cream

My mother in law has a lovely plum tree in her back garden, and a few weeks ago she noticed that several plums had started to drop from it. My younger brothers in law decided to climb into the tree, and after giving it a good shake, hundreds and hundreds of plums fell from the tree! After the inevitable plum fight, my MIL gave me a hundred or so plums to take home and thus began my plum recipe week. The first thing I made was this yummy plum ice cream. I found the recipe on a great blog called Pink Parsley. You can find the recipe here: http://pinkparsleycatering.blogspot.com/2010/08/plum-ice-cream.html



So far we've only eaten it on it's own, but I imagine it would go very well with a lemony dessert.

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Maple and Pecan Cheesecake

I love making cheesecakes. Any kind, any time, anywhere. I would probably bathe in cheesecake if it were possible. The great thing about them, is once you've mastered the basic recipe you can make all kinds of wonderful variations. This is a little no-bake cheesecake I invented for two rumbly tumblies.



Ingredients:

• Crushed digestive biscuits / graham crackers (I used 8 to make two individual cheesecakes)
• 3 tbsps butter (To every 8 crushed biscuits/cracker)
• 250g soft cream cheese
• 90ml double cream
• 30g icing sugar
• 85g cushed pecan nuts
• 3 tbsps maple syrup
  

Directions:

1. To make the crust, melt the butter either in a microwave or in a pan over a low heat and stir into the crushed biscuits and crushed pecans. If the mixture is too dry for your taste, add a little more melted butter.
   
2. Press the crust mixture into two ramekins, cooking rings or a small springform pan.
3. In a seperate bowl, add the cream cheese, double cream, icing sugar and maple syrup. Stir until combined.
   
4. Press the cheese mix onto the crust. Drizzle a little maple syrup over top and finish with a cluster of pecans. Chill in the fridge for 2 hours or more before serving.
   

Yields 2 generous servings - perfect for a cosy night in!

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