Chocolate brownies

A simple recipe from Bill Granger that will fill your home with the wonderful aroma of molten chocolate. You should always have all the ingredients already in your pantry. Which actually means you could (or should) always make brownies. Crispy on the top and soft and almost gooey in the centre, this basic recipe is also very adaptable (check out Rufus’ food and spirit guide to make them alcoholic).

Ingredients makes 16 squares

1. 2 1/2 cups Caster sugar – I actually use half a cup less because I like them less sweet (and to make them healthier??)
2. 2/3 cup Cocoa powder (no sugar just pure cocoa powder)
3. 1/2 cup plain flour
4. 1 tsp baking powder
5. 4 eggs, beaten
6. 200g butter, melted
7. Generous pinch of salt if you’re using unsalted butter, small pinch if using salted butter. I am a firm believer that everything sweet tastes better with salt.
8. 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
9. 200g dark chocolate buttons

Method

1. Preheat oven to 160C (315F)
2. Stir the sugar, cocoa powder, flour, salt and baking powder together in a bowl
3. Add the eggs, melted butter and vanilla extract and mix until combined
4. Mix in the chocolate buttons
5. Pour into a lined 22cm square tin and bake for 80 – 90 minutes. Stick a skewer or a raw stick of pasta in to the middle and if it comes out clean, it’s ready.
6. While the block is still warm, cut into 16 pieces
7. Dust with cocoa powder and serve with a scoop of vanilla ice-cream

South African Style ‘(Mel)ktert’…

My first guest post! I love guest posts because I get to share with my friends and fellow bloggers the delicious food that I get to experience with and from other friends and fellow bloggers.

I get so excited when I meet people who are as passionate about food as me, and it always amazes me how many different personalities of “foodies” there are out there. My friend, Melody, is a new resident of Singapore from her native South Africa, and I am always learning something new about South African cuisine and wines from her. She is one of those amazing cooks that loves to experiment and mix things up and I get so inspired by her. The photo below (that I took in harsh halogen lighting) does the milk tarts absolutely no justice. They are gorgeous – cute and delicate and creamy and simply moor-ish. I might have to raid her fridge for the bigger tart she made. She is also an awesome mum with a brutally honest and always entertaining blog about children, food and life in Singapore, melonearth. Please read on for the delectable details from Melody!

Individual traditional South African milk tarts

We’ve all been dying to get together for a catch up, good old board games and a ‘night in’…and of course something yum for the tum.  I woke up on Friday feeling like baking, so instead of my original offering of bringing along a cheese board, I opted for a typical South African delight that’s not too heavy on the gut before we headed into chaos with the board games…even though I used half the sugar, I’m not sure if it was the ‘milk tarts’ or the delicious red (and special bottle of white I brought along) that gave us the sugar rush to carry on till 1am, either way, we had a blast.

The start to the evening was a tad annoying as I refused to glad wrap my tarts for fear of squashing them, so instead, I ended up dropping one…then our dear ‘Uncle’ taxi man had NO idea where we were going and took us on a joy ride around Singapore.  Finally arriving, we made our way up to a homely, beautiful welcome and an instant happy place where dear friend Carol insisted I do a guest post…I am honoured, but admittedly, I was a little scared, as I am by no means a foodie like Carol, I’m just a babbling masterchef wannabe…so here goes!

For the pastry:

2 Cups of flour

1 egg

1/2 cup sugar

2tsp Baking powder

125g butter

pinch of salt

Cream butter and sugar together, add egg and all other ingredients till it’s a soft, stiff dough.

It makes a lot of dough, so you can do 2 dishes with this or as I did, 1 full tart and 12 cupcake size tarts.

Bake at 180 degrees until light brown.

For the Filling:

4 1/2 Cups Milk (1.125l)

21/2 Tbsp cornflour

3/4 Cup Sugar (I used brown, raw sugar)

2 1/2 Tbsp flour

Dash vanilla essence

blob of butter

1. Bring milk to the boil slowly, make sure it does not boil over

2. Beat eggs, sugar, flour, cornflour well together and pour into the boiled milk.  Mix well

3. Allow mixture to thicken, then add in the butter and vanilla essence and continue stirring.  The mixture should resemble a porridge consistency.

4. Remove from heat and pour into the shells

5. Leave to stand for about 10 minutes, sprinkle with cinnamon and refrigerate until ready to serve

Enjoy, I know we did (and I still am with the extra full sized tart in my fridge…).

xx

Delicate piped shortbread cookies

I have had a bit of an obsession with shortbread since I made Christmas cookies, and I have found a recipe that makes a cookie lighter than air and that literally dissolves on your tongue.

Ingredients (makes about 25 cookies)

1. 125g butter at room temperature – get the best you can buy because you can really taste it
2. 35g icing sugar
3. 50g cornflour
4. 90g plain flour
5. Good pinch of salt if using unsalted butter

Method

1. Cream butter and sugar till light and fluffy
2. Add the flours and mix on low speed till you get a soft dough
3. Pipe shapes on to a cookie tray lines with parchment paper
4. Put into the fridge for 30 minutes to help them keep their shape while they bake
5. Heat oven to 180C while cookies are in the fridge and bake straight from the fridge for 20 minutes until golden brown

Delicate Shortbread Christmas Cookies

I’ve made shortbread with rice flour before, and this time I substituted half a cup of plain flour with cornflour to make the shortbread melt in your mouth (rather than have the crispy texture you get with rice flour). Use the best quality butter you can find because you can really taste it in shortbread. I also use a vanilla bean paste but you can use pure vanilla extract. Just don’t use anything labeled “imitation” – apart from being made in a lab, it leaves a bitter aftertaste.

These rich, tender cookies go perfectly with a nice hot cup of tea.

Ingredients makes about 40 stars

1. 250g unsalted butter at room temperature
2. 1/2 cup confectioners’ sugar
3. 1 tsp vanilla bean paste or pure vanilla extract
4. 1/2 – 3/4 tsp salt (I think every sweet thing needs salt for balance, so it might be a bit heavy for some, adjust to your own taste)
5. 1 3/4 cups plain flour
6. 1/2 cup cornflour

Method

1. Cream the butter till light and creamy (about 1 minute)
2. Add the sugar and vanilla and continue beating for another 2 minutes
3. Stir flours into the butter/sugar mix until just combined
4. Put the dough onto a large piece of clingfilm, shaping into a rectangle as you go, wrap/cover and let rest in the fridge for an hour
5. Preheat oven to 180C (350F)
6. Roll the delicate dough on a floured surface to about 1/4 inch and cut out whatever shapes you want. Dip the cutter into a bowl of flour before you cut each cookie to help you get the dough out of the cutter
7. Place on a baking paper-lined tray and decorate with any sugar or silver cachous you want
8. Bake for 10 minutes till lightly brown
9. Let cool for 5 minutes before moving to a wire rack to cool completely
10. You can decorate with any icing once cooled if you fancy

Triple Chocolate Tea Cake

Triple Chocolate Tea Cake

I have been wanting to bake something for a while now. I’ve missed the smell of the flat as the cake cooks, and for something sweet to have with my afternoon cup of tea or coffee.

But what to make ? I have recently taken to making cupcakes and cookies just because it means that you can have small portions and also not make so much that D and I are forced to eat it all *wink*.

D’s immediate response when I asked him what he felt like ? CHOCOLATE.

So I decided on making the most chocolatey thing I could think of – a simple chocolate cake with chocolate buttons and chocolate butter icing.

I went searching for a recipe for a moist, light cake – nothing too heavy – and I found one that ticked the boxes, with the additional benefit of being able to be made in the same pan that you baked it in. I found this on the trusty joyofbaking site and then used a separate recipe for chocolate butter icing.

Ingredients

For the cake

• 1 1/2 cups (195g) plain flour
• 3/4 cup (150g) granulated white sugar
• 1/4 cup (25g) unsweetened cocoa powder (not Dutch-processed), sifted
• 1/2 cup (50g) dark chocolate drops/buttons
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/3 cup (75g) unsalted butter, melted
• 1 cup (250ml) warm water
• 1 tbs lemon juice or vinegar
• 1 tsp vanilla extract

For the icing:

• 6 tbs butter
• pinch of salt
• 1 1/2 cups icing sugar
• 2-3 tbs milk

Method

• Preheat oven to 180C (350F) and place rack in centre of the oven
• In an ungreased 20cm (8 inch) square cake pan, stir together the flour, sugar, sifted cocoa powder, chocolate drops, baking powder, baking soda and salt
• Add the melted butter, water, lemon juice/vinegar and vanilla extract
• With a fork, mis all the ingredients together until well blended
• Bake in preheated oven for about 40-45 minutes or until a toothpick (or raw stick of spaghetti) inserted into the centre of the cake comes out clean
• Remove from oven and place on a wire rack to cool
• Once the cake is cool, ice with chocolate icing. You can even cut the cake in half horizontally and add an extra layer of icing in the middle for that extra chocolate hit
• For the icing, beat the butter and salt together until light and creamy
• Slowly beat in the icing sugar
• Add 1 tbs milk at a time and beat well to get a softer consistency

Sausage rolls – with added newness !

Sausage rolls with onion, sage and chestnut stuffing

I made two small changes to my standard sausage roll recipe today. First, I added chopped cooked chestnuts, which I can luckily find in my supermarket in vacuum-sealed packs, and used the puff pastry that comes in blocks rather than sheets. It means that there is a touch of sweetness in the sausage mix, and you can control the thickness of the pastry. I think the pastry:sausage ratio with thicker pastry = the best sausage rolls I’ve made. Our maths lesson for today is brought to you by my Mother in law’s awesome sausage rolls she always bakes loads of when we visit.

Ingredients

1. 6 good quality pork sausages (or about 350g sausage meat from the butcher)
2. 1 large onion, finely diced
3. 1 handful sage leaves, chopped
4. 150g cooked chestnuts, roughly chopped
5. 1 block puff pastry, thawed at room temperature
6. 1 egg, beaten

Method

1. Pre-heat oven to 200C/390F
2. Combine the sausage meat, onion, sage and chestnuts together in a large bowl
3. Roll out the pastry to about 1/4 inch thick
4. Place lines of the sausage meat along the length of the pastry, roll over and seal edges lightly
5. Cut into 2 inch thick slices and place on to a wire rack over a oven-proof tray and brush with the beaten egg
6. Bake in the oven for 20-25 minutes or until golden brown

UK feasting

AMAZING lamb chops at L&L’s BBQ extravaganza

I love visiting D’s family in the UK. It’s always about non-stop catching up over food, with discussions about what to eat next, over endless cups of tea between meals, and often with one (or several) of Mummy May’s Sausage Rolls.

I’m also going to share photos of just a portion of the food that we consumed at L&L’s all-day “grazing” BBQ on a gorgeously sunny and warm Autumn day. We really lucked out with the weather on this trip. The temperatures we had in the UK were higher than they had in Summer ! Made tucking in to all that food even more enjoyable.

Mummy May’s sausage rolls

But first, those sausage rolls I was talking about earlier. It’s a serious challenge to eat just one of these. Must be because they’re made with chestnuts, and with added love (awww).

The recipe is not all that different from my recipe, but little changes make all the difference ! For a start, she uses a block of pastry rather than ready-rolled sheets, which give it a more rustic and thicker pastry (that you can adjust to your taste), and also adds chopped chestnuts. It’s amazing how those little nuggets of sweet nuttiness make the whole thing zing in your mouth.

She made heaps of these in readiness for our visit and they were pretty much snacked on throughout each day.

That is, except on the day we visiting L&L’s gorgeously renovated home for a BBQ.

Teriyaki salmon steaks

Basically we got there at 12.30 and ate pretty much non-stop till about 6, absolutely stuffed full of champagne and seemingly endless food – both from the BBQ pit, as well as gorgeously fresh and delicious salads.

Rocket and feta salad

On the menu of the day: tender lamb chops (D says that he still dreams of them), teriyaki salmon steaks, marinaded chicken drumsticks (my favourite of the day, and also apparently of the resident wasps!), thick pork sausages, prawns and steak. Salad-wise there was a fresh rocket with feta salad, boiled rosemary potatoes, cherry tomato salad with pesto dressing, coleslaw, and a whipped smoked salmon dip. And for dessert, home-made white chocolate panna cotta with a strawberry coulis.

Home made white chocolate panna cotta with strawberry coulis

Gosh just reliving that day makes my tummy hurt but always, always, with an enormous grin.

And to think they are hosting Christmas lunch at their place this year. Wish we weren’t 9,500 miles away and could be part of that feast – there was turkey, ham AND goose mentioned !!

And so our short visit to the UK ended shortly after, and D and I were on our way to Italy….

Chocolate fondant

Super rich, this is a dessert to be served after a light(er) meal but I personally think it should be a compulsory way to end all meals.  This recipe is adapted from one I found from Felicity Cloake in the Guardian

Ingredients (serves four)

1. 100g dark couveture chocolate – I used Lindt 70% cocoa
2. 90g unsalted butter plus more for greasing the ramekins
3. 2 tsp cocoa powder
4. 2 egg whites and 1 egg yolk
5. 85g castor sugar
6. pinch salt
7. 2 tsp plain flour

Method

1. Start by buttering the insides of the ramekins, making sure you butter the bottom edge well
2. Dust the inside with cocoa
3. Melt the chocolate and butter on the stove over low heat
4. In a large bowl, using an electric whisk, whisk the sugar and eggs and salt together until thick and foamy
5. Slowly combine the melted chocolate and butter, and then the flour
6. Pour into the prepared ramekins and chill in the fridge for at least an hour
7. When ready to serve, preheat oven to 200C (390F)
8. Take the ramekins from the fridge and bake for 13 minutes exactly.  The tops should be set (and slightly cracked) and coming away from the edges.
9. Let sit for 1 minute, then gently turn out on to a plate
10. Serve with a dusting of cocoa and a dollop of cream or just strawberries

Quinoea, Apricot and Nut Clusters

In the middle of my detox, I found myself craving for something sweet (chocolate, to be honest), but processed food is one of the big no nos for me this week, so I was thrilled to find this genius way of getting my sweet hit sans sugar (I replaced the sugar in the original recipe with honey) with the added bonus of quinoea.  The original recipe is from Martha Stewart.com. If you’re interested, the basics of my detox are here.

Ingredients (makes about 10)

1. 1/2 cup quinoea
2. 3/4 cups old-fashioned rolled oats
3. 1/4 cup shelled raw sunflower seeds
4. 1/4 cup shelled raw pistachios, chopped
5. 1/2 cup dried apricots, thinly sliced
6. 1/4 cup honey
7. 1/4 teaspoon coarse salt
8. 1 tablespoons vegetable oil
9. 1 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
10. 2 eggs

Method

1. Preheat oven to 180C (350F)
2. Bring 1 cup of water to a boil in a small saucepan. Add quinoa; return to a boil. Stir quinoea; cover, and reduce heat. Simmer until most liquid is absorbed and quinoa is slightly undercooked, about 10 minutes
3. Transfer to a rimmed baking sheet and bake, fluffing with a fork occasionally, until pale golden, 30 to 35 minutes. Let cool in a large bowl
4. Spread oats on baking sheet; bake until lightly browned, about 15 minutes. Add oats to quinoea
5. Spread seeds and nuts on baking sheet; bake until lightly toasted, about 7 minutes. Add to quinoa mixture; let cool
6. Reduce oven temperature to 150C (300F)
7. Toss nuts, apricots and salt with quinoa mixture
8. Beat honey, oil, and vanilla into eggs; stir into quinoa mixture
9. Line a baking sheet with parchment.  Spoon 1/4 cup firmly packed batter onto sheet for each cluster – space 3 inches apart and bake until crisp, about 25 minutes
10. Let cool on a wire rack. Store, loosely covered with foil, up to 2 days

The Rolls Royce of Chocolate Chip Cookies

Honestly. Do not even bother with any other recipe. It’s apparently all about the resting of the dough for at least 24 hours that makes this cookie magical. Add the use of Valrhona chocolate discs, French butter and a sprinkle of Maldon salt on the top of the cookie and how on earth can you go wrong ?

This recipe (adapted from the NY Times – my recipe below uses less sugar and butter) makes a mountain of dough and I like smaller cookies, but just make it once and freeze individual scoops in freezer bags for warm cookies with a big mug of tea any time you want.

Time: 45 minutes plus at least 24 hours for resting dough

Ingredients (makes about 30 3-inch cookies – see freezing tip above)

1. 2 cups cake flour
2. 1 2/3 cups bread flour
3. 1 1/4 teaspoons baking soda
4. 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
5. 1 1/2 teaspoons coarse salt
6. 250g unsalted butter
7. 1 cup light brown sugar
8. 1 cup granulated sugar
9. 2 large eggs
10. 2 teaspoons natural vanilla extract
11. 500g bittersweet chocolate – broken, chopped if not in discs.  Buy the best you can and at least 60 percent cocoa content
12. Sea salt flakes

Method

1. Sift flours, baking soda, baking powder and salt into a bowl. Set aside.
2. Using a mixer fitted with paddle attachment, cream butter and sugars together until very light, about 5 minutes
3. Add eggs, one at a time, mixing well after each addition. Stir in the vanilla.
4. Reduce speed to low, add dry ingredients and mix until just combined, 5 to 10 seconds
5. Drop chocolate pieces in and incorporate them without breaking them
6. Press plastic wrap against dough and refrigerate for 24 to 36 hours. Dough may be used in batches, and can be refrigerated for up to 72 hours.
7. Take out dough about 30 minutes before you’re ready to bake and preheat oven to 180C (350F)
8. Scoop mounds of dough (the size of golf balls) onto baking sheet, making sure to turn horizontally any chocolate pieces that are poking up; it will make for a more attractive cookie
9. Sprinkle lightly with sea salt and bake until golden brown but still soft – about 18 minutes
10. Transfer sheet to a wire rack for 10 minutes
11. Enjoy warm !