Chocolate Brownies

Something I've been meaning to try for a while is to bake some brownies. I found a recipe on Thursday that looked pretty good so I gave it a go...

Ingredients. Strangely I couldn't find anywhere that sells Cookeen any more so I got some weird "Stork for Pastry". Whatever that is...

Melt the fat then add quite a lot of cocoa.

Mix!

Add sugar. I hope this is right - it looks a bit 'odd'.

Add some vanilla, eggs and a bit of salt. Mix again!

Bake. I made one batch with some chopped walnuts and one with chocolate chips. This is the walnut, but I think the chocolate one was better by a long way.

I Like Fudge

There's only one thing I like more than toffee, and that's fudge.

This is actually a bit of cheat's recipe. If I was going hardcore there'd be clotted cream, corn syrup and all sorts of complicated ingredients and instructions. I might try that another time, but for now I'll just have to lose a couple of marks for taking the easy route.

Some of the ingredients I'll be using. Sound familiar?

Melt some chocolate chips and some butter. We don't want this to seize like with the truffles so keep all the equipment bone dry. Also, don't put the bowl's handles right over the lip of the saucepan where the steam comes out so it's really hot when you go to pick it up. I found it kind of hurts.

Q. Why was the cat so small?
A. Someone fed it condensed milk.

Once you've recovered from the terrible joke, mix the condensed milk in to the chocolate, heat it a bit more then pour into a clingfilm-lined cake tin and allow to cool.

I phail piping. It kind of looks like a little drunken mouse with dysentry scampered across it in the fridge :-(

Oh well, I'm sure it will taste fine... I hope.

I Like Toffee

There's only one thing I like more than fudge, and that's toffee.

Some of the ingredients I'll be using.

First things first. I didn't have any chocolate chips, but I did have some chocolate and a food processor. And then I had some chocolate chips.

Melt some butter and sugar together. Keep the heat low to start with so it all dissolves together.

Once it's all combined we can turn the heat up a bit more.

And a bit more...

And a bit more...

Pour it out to cool (suspiciously like the praline a few weeks ago).

Once it's cooled a little bit sprinkle the chocolate chips on top. The residual heat of the toffee will melt it and it can them be smoothed out over the surface. At this point we've basically got a massive Dime bar.

Add some chopped nuts for a little treat. I didn't have any chopped nuts, but I did have a bag of mixed whole nuts and a food processor. You know the rest...

And that's that, for now.

Shortbread

Shortbread's one of my favourite treats, so I was both delighted and disappointed when I found out over Easter just how stupidly easy it is to make. Delighted because of course now I can make it whenever I want. Disappointed because I didn't know sooner. All those wasted years...

Anyway, here's some photos.

Mix 8oz butter and 4oz sugar, then add 12oz plain flour. Allow to stand for 30 minutes.

Roll out to desired shape, about 15-20mm thick. Score the cutting lines, and make holes all over with a fork to stop bubbles forming. Cook for 35-40 minutes at 180°C. It'll still be slightly soft when it comes out so cut it right through before it cools otherwise it'll be brittle and just crumble everywhere. Lightly sprinkle with granulated sugar once cool.

This was supposed to be a picture of the finished product but I don't know what went wrong. Maybe my kitchen caught fire and I didn't notice.

Rum and Praline Truffles

I've been cooking again - I finally got a recipe off my brother for some truffles he made over Christmas. Better late than never I suppose...

Melted sugar cooling on a greased, heatproof surface. Add crushed hazelnuts while still heating the sugar if you like. Crush the end result into tiny pieces once cooled.

Four batches of praline. 2 with, 2 without nuts.

Gently melt chocolate over hot (but not boiling) water. Most recipes will tell you to avoid getting water in the chocolate, even to the extent of drying anything used to stir it, because it will seize. We *want* it to seize though. Use hot water, or water with coffee granules dissolved in it.

Yuck. It seized. Add butter and milk next, but be warned, it's gonna get worse before it gets better...

Told you so... This is the white chocolate version and it looks a bit, er, wrong.

Keep stirring it - it'll all combine eventually and make a nice smooth sauce.

Add the praline we made earlier, then cool for 1/4 day.

Four batches of truffle mixture, ready to roll.

Roll the end result into little balls, then coat in chocolate vermicelli, or just dust with icing sugar for a more rustic look. Keep them cool or they'll go a bit squashy. This is showing just half the yield.