Showing posts with label Chocolate. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Chocolate. Show all posts

Brownies...


So, brownies: overdone? maybe. Well I'm quite particular when it comes to brownies; not too soggy, not too dry, crispy edge etc. So, where better to turn than trusty Nigel Slater for a recipe. He gets this kind of thing. And I can safely say he gets it right again. This is where I'm going to turn for brownies from now on.

Ingredients:
• 300g Caster Sugar
• 250g Butter
• 250g Dark Chocolate
• 3 Eggs & 1 Yolk
• 60g Plain flour
• 60g Cocoa Powder
• Half teaspoon Baking Powder

Method:
• Preheat oven to 180°C and line a 22cm square tin.
• Beat butter and sugar together throughly.
• Break the chocolate up and melt 200g of it, set aside to cool slightly. Chop the remaining.
• Gradually beat in the eggs into the butter and sugar, then mix in all the chocolate.
• Fold in the sifted dry ingredients, then pour into the tin.
• Bake for 30 minutes until slightly risen and a skewer comes out slightly less than clean. Cool before cutting up.
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Peanut Butter & White Choc Brownies...

This is one of a few things that I made for my birthday. These mini brownies (or blondies) were ideal to take into work to share around. For us it was a given that we'd like them, peanut butter being something of a favourite. To me, the end result is not so much like a brownie, but is a very tasty, dense mini cake with the perfect contrast of salty and sweet from the peanut butter and white chocolate respectively. Moreish.

• Cream the butter, peanut butter and sugar together. Beat in the egg and vanilla essence.
• Sift the flour and baking powders and add to the mixture with the chocolate chipe to form a dough.
• Spread into a square tin and bake at 170°C for 25 minutes until golden brown.
• Cool in the tin before slicing.

Notes:
• Taken from
Rachel Allen's Bake
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Traybake...

We've been wondering how I've had this blog going for the best part of a year and not yet posted this recipe? It's one of my family signature snacks, so it was always going to end up on here. The truth is that I think I simply hadn't made it in that time; you might say it was taking a bit of a break, but this time it certainly came back with a bang. One of the best batches ever made.

There are tonnes of chocolate and bicuit based fridge-set traybake (just 'traybake' for short) recipes out there, they all offer something slightly different. I've experimented with various additions and quantities in developing this over the years and settled roughly at the recipe you'll see below. It's a development of my Grandma's recipe, which has been a staple at many a family get together and always eagerly looked forward to. You can muck around with it, but please (for mine and my Grandma's sake) don't switch the biscuits for Ginger Nuts and don't add marshmallows. That's not traybake.

...well, go on muck around if you must. That's what baking's about, but keep it quiet.

• Melt the butter and chocolate in a pan over a very low heat. Keep an eye on it, stirring often.
• Meanwhile, crush the biscuits and hazelnuts in a mixing bowl with the end of a rolling pin. You want a good variety of biscuit piece sizes, ranging from around 1p coins to dust. If you want my opinion it's best at around 25% larger pieces, the remainder as dust. You just need to crack the hazelnuts.
• Add the fruit and coconut to the bowl and stir through.
• Drizzle the condensed milk over the mix then pour in the chocolate and stir thoroughly.
• Press down flat in a 20 x 20cm tray lined with baking paper and refrigerate until set.
• When it is set, cut into squares or if you want, melt a further 4oz of chocolate and spread over the top and set before cutting.

Notes:
• The condensed milk is a 397ml can so you want about 200ml. It keeps for a week or so (maybe longer??) in a container in the fridge so you can make another batch.
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ChocNut Squares...

Make. These.
I discovered these on Eat and Be Happy, another blog I've been reading. I couldn't resist the temptation of peanut butter and chocolate and promptly gave them a go myself. I had to adapt the recipe from cups into grams, and in so doing made a few modifications to the overall process. This included changing the base from a syrupy krispies to classic chocolate krispies base.

These need some refrigeration to set and are best kept in the fridge as the chocolate topping and peanut butter centre are so good when set and fudgey. As an alternative, you could substitute the fudge topping for straightforward chocolate like a caramel shortbread. I think the crackling of a thick chocolate topping as you bite into a square would seriously add to the eating experience.

• Melt the milk chocolate and 1 tbsp syrup. Stir into the rice krispies and press into the bottom of a lined 20 x 20cm tin.
• Set aside to harden.
• Meanwhile, melt 150g dark chocolate and the peanut butter in a pan over a low heat.
• Pour this over the rice krispie mixture and spread evenly. Place in the fridge to cool.
• After an hour of chilling, make the fudge topping.
• Melt the rest of the dark chocolate, the butter and 2 tbsp syrup in a pan over a low heat. Stir in the cocoa powder once melted.
• Allow to cool slightly in the pan for 5 minutes, then pour into the tin and spread over the top.
• Cool for a further hour until set, then turn out and cut into squares.

Notes:
• Makes about 25 squares
• Best kept refrigerated.
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White Chocolate Cheesecake with Berry Sauce...

I first had this cheesecake at some friends' house, and couldn't believe how good it was. So, inevitably I looked up the recipe and have actually changed very little. As it's gluten free in the original I've substituted for normal digestives which I prefer to the chocolatey base. There are loads of potential vaiations to this once you have the basic cheesecake mixture you can just go with whatever you can lay your hands on. This time round I made a simple berry sauce for a topping.

• Melt the butter and crush the biscuits then combine and press into the base of a 20cm tin (ideally with removable base or spring-form). Chill for 2 hours.
• Melt the chocolate and cool slightly.
• Meanwhile beat the cheese, cream and icing sugar in a bowl until well combined.
• Fold in the cooled chocolate thoroughly, then pour over the biscuit base.
• Chill for 2-3 hours to set.

Notes:
• For the berry topping I heated up 200g mixed berries with about the same amount of sugar until it began to thicken. Cooled and then poured over the set cheesecake.
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Chocolate & Chilli Fudgey Cake...

A colleague of mine brought this cake in to work a few weeks back. A few of our more conservative colleagues were not convinced, but I loved it and had a good few portions.
Naturally, I wanted to recreate it so got the recipe from her.

Ingredients:
300g Caster Sugar/Light Brown Sugar
250g Butter
3 Eggs
100g Plain Flour
100g Self-raising Flour
500g Dark Chocolate
1 or 2 medium-sized Chillies
200ml Double Cream

• Preheat oven to 150°C and line a 20cm cake tin.
• Beat the butter and sugar together until creamed.
• Beat in the eggs, one at a time.
• Melt 300g of chocolate, cool slightly and add to the mixture.
• Stir in the flour and finely chopped chilli.
• Bake for around 1¼ hours, leave to cool for 10 minutes in the tin.

Icing:
• Melt the remaining chocolate and mix into the cream. Cool slightly to thicken.
• When the cake is fully cooled, spread the icing on top.

Notes:
• It’s hard to define how much chilli to put in. Chocolate masks chilli quite well, so I added finely chopped chilli to the mixture until I could taste it. The resulting cake has only a hint and a very slight tingle on the tongue. It also takes away the sweetness of the chocolate leaving just the rich flavour.
• Adapted from
this recipe
• Makes at least 12 slices.
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