In Other News..

I know this is a baking blog, but I thought I'd take a shot at making a non-baking related post.

You've probably come onto this website hoping for pictures of cupcakes and brownies and stuff - sorry to disappoint you today! But, I've got lots of baking planned for next week, so stay tuned!

I live in London, and the weather here is awful - it was pouring with rain today!

Regardless, my friend Rebecca and I braved the weather and headed into town for some shopping..

This is Rebecca, beautifully modelling a waterproof jacket.

Anyway, we had a little bit of lunch in Selfridges and spotted a Pinkberry (a very yummy frozen yoghurt concession inside the department store's food hall)..
I doubt that anyone actually cares, but our fro-yo's were amazing!

Left (mine) - Natural with strawberries and Oreo pieces.

Right (Rebecca's) - Natural with strawberries, raspberries, mango, brownie bites and heath bar pieces.


I guess this remotely relates to the purpose of the blog as a whole...
Anyway - hope you enjoyed that quick update.
I'd suggest you check out Pinkberry as soon as possible, because it is delicious!

Twix Brownies

Yay! More brownies!!

This time, with chunks of Twix!

I've been experimenting with lots of different brownie recipes lately, but I always seem to go back to Lorraine Pascale's Brownie Recipe..

I altered the recipe ever so slightly, but all credits go to her!

I've already eaten 3 of these (as well as around 4 from the last batch of Mars brownies - someone please stop me!)

Ingredients

165g butter

220g dark chocolate

3 large eggs

2 extra egg yolks

little bit of vanilla

165 light brown sugar

2tbsp plain flour

1tbsp cocoa powder

pinch of salt

3 normal sized Twix bars, cut into chunks..

Preheat oven to 180C, and line a baking tin etc..

Melt the butter and chocolate either in the microwave or on top of a saucepan, and leave to cool for a few minutes.

Cut up the Twix bars!!

In another bowl, beat the eggs, yolks and vanilla until light and fluffy. Next, add in the sugar in two batches and continue to mix.

Then, fold in the chocolate mixture, and then the flour, cocoa powder and salt until just combined..

Fold in the Twix chunks, and then pour into the prepared tin!

Bake at 180 for 25-30 mins..

You know what, just click this link - Lorraine explains it all much better.

Too Good For Words!!!

This is my staple brownie recipe, and there is no doubt that I'll be coming back to this for years to come..

It's a little bit fussy (i.e. hand-mixer, melting chocolate and using up 5 eggs) but definitely worth it!!

Any type of mix-in work with this! I've used Oreos and Maltesers before and they matched up perfectly with the brownie's texture and sweetness!

Mars Bar Brownies

I was having a little mooch around the supermarket thinking 'what would taste nice in a chocolate brownie?'. 

I narrowed my list down to Mars, Twix, Rolo, and M&Ms. 

For some bizarre reason, Sainsburys DIDN'T sell regular M&Ms, only peanut! Not amused..

So, that plan fell through.

I couldn't be bothered for Rolos either, but I'll attempt that at some point in the very near future (maybe even inside a cupcake?)

Mars and Twix it is...

I thought I'd test out a couple of different brownie recipes for each of the chocolates, so the Twix one is to follow in another post.

For the Mars Bar Brownies..

Ingredients

6oz butter, softened

4oz dark chocolate

1/2 cup caster sugar

3 large eggs

tsp vanilla

pinch salt

1/2cup plain flour + 1 teaspoon

5 snack size Mars bars, cut into chunks.

Preheat your oven to 180C, and line an 8x8 pan with parchment paper, or just use a disposable foil dish (these are SO much easier)..

Melt the chocolate and butter over a saucepan on a low heat, and leave to cool.

While it's cooling, grab a cutting board and knife and dice the Mars bars into small pieces..

Next, stir in the sugar, vanilla, salt and eggs into the chocolate mixture, and then gradually add the flour in until just combined.

Spread half of the batter into the baking tin and then create an even layer of Mars, before pouring the rest of the brownie mix on top so that all the chocolate chunks are covered.

Before the second layer of batter..

Bake for 30-35 minutes depending on your oven, but I took mine out after exactly 30. If a toothpick comes out clean, it's overcooked! You want moist crumbs, and the brownie should be firm-ish to the touch!!!! 

I love how some of the Mars chunks have risen to the top of the batter! Leave the brownie in a cool, dry place until ready to cut and serve.

I find that, with a gooey brownie, they can be a tad difficult to cut unless they've been chilled for a bit. I made these in the evening and was planning on serving them the next morning, so I wrapped the entire brownie up and put it in the fridge overnight. Then, in the morning, they were much easier to cut and retained their texture after sitting at room temperature for half an hour or so.

I was just being silly here - and yes, they did all topple over!

Good recipe..

Could definitely work with other chocolates too, but the caramel and nougat from the Mars works so well with the actual brownie.

Next project, Twix!!

Stay posted, it's coming up next!

J x

Easy Cheesecake

Here's the story.

I just got back from a holiday in Ibiza, and whilst we were there we went to a beach called Tropicana, and had some scrummy cheesecake at the restaurant. It's probably the best cheesecake I've ever tasted - perfect balance between creamy and sweet, and it had a little bit of strawberry coulis to cut through the tartness of the cheese. YUM

Just in case you don't believe how amazing it was, see for yourself.

DIVINE

 3 seconds later....

Well worth the calories...

Anyway, since I got home I've been craving cheesecake.

It's the best type of cake, hands down... 

So, I thought I'd make one. 

I actually got this recipe from one of my mum's old Evelyn Rose cookbooks - she's had it for over 30 years! It actually has specks of food inside, and some of the pages are a little stuck together (that's probably just leftover ingredients)..

This recipe was the most attractive, because it's the only tried and tested recipe I know of that is LOW FAT!

YES, low fat!

And still tasty.

Ingredients

Base

250g digestive biscuits, bashed into crumbs/dust with either a mallet or rolling pin (your choice)

70g melted butter

In the classiest way possible, pulverise the biscuits! You could also use a food processor to do this, but rolling pins are more fun!

Mix together with the melted butter, and then press into the bottom of a baking tin. No need to pre-bake, but I would suggest using baking paper or at least greasing the tin if you don't have one of those springform pans that come away at the bottom (like mine).

Firstly, preheat the oven to 180C

 Filling

240g curd cheese

240g quark cheese

1/2 tsp vanilla

1/2 tsp lemon juice

50g melted butter

2 eggs, separated, put the whites to one side

50g caster sugar

2 tbsp corn flour (corn starch)

5 oz soured cream (the reduced fat version, of course)

Place the cheese, vanilla, lemon, butter, egg yolks, sugar, cornflour and soured cream in a large bowl (yes, exactly the order that they're listed), and beat with a whisk until smooth and thick - no handmixer needed.

In another bowl, whisk the egg whites until they form stiff and glossy peaks, and then add in 2 extra teaspoons of caster sugar and beat for another 15 seconds.

Fold this into the cheese mixture, and then spoon it into the tin on top of the digestives.

Bake for around 30 mins at 180, and then turn the oven off and leave it in there for another 4-5 mins.

Cheesecake can often be tricky, especially since all ovens are different. It's so easy to under or over bake it, so DON'T leave the kitchen and make sure you keep your eyes on the oven.

The recipe said that it'd be ready when the outer inch of the cake was firm to the touch. The middle of the cake 'jiggled' (is that a professional term?) when I moved the tin, but it was cooked. Cheesecake continues to bake even after it's out the oven, so it's better that it's undercooked than over. Overcooked cheesecake = EWW

Leave the cheesecake in a cool area (ideally out of your immediate sight, so you don't pick at it in the meantime), and once cooled, put it in the fridge until ready to serve.

The Final Product

(I realise that there is a massive chunk missing - I can assure you, I had nothing to do with that..........)

It's not exactly like the glorious Ibizan cheesecake I had, but it is relatively AMAZING considering this version has around 1/16th of the calories.

Enjoy! I know I will..

Jenny x