Sunday Baking Project: Fudgy Brownies for days or hoardes

 

Second weekend in a row I've made these brownies, first time around was for an unofficial (we're in Covid times people) end of season netball get together where I offered to bring dessert... and this weekend which was to make again for my colleagues at work after listening to the wistful sighs when I described my last weeks' antics.

They are really fudgy and moist,

And it's easy to do and takes very little time, and it makes at least 18 good-sized brownies, 30 smaller ones.   You can start and finish these in an hour.

I got the recipe from the lovely Kim at All Consuming's blog, which she got from Food52.   I tweaked a little between what both these to arrive at these and I think that's what great about this recipe.  You can tweak it easily.  I will add dark chocolate chips and frozen raspberries I think next time.  This time I added peanut butter protein powder and a tsp of baking powder -  the original recipe calls for no baking powder, espresso powder, nuts and icing. Tweak as you feel fit - up to you!

Ingredients:

• 225gr butter, at room temperature
• 3 packed cups of brown sugar
• 1 tb vanilla extract
• 8 eggs
• 1 1/2 cups plain flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 2/3 cup cocoa
• 1/2 cup peanut protein powder (Omit if you like)
• 250g milk chocolate chips

Method:

Preheat oven to 170degrees c

Spray a rectangle baking pan (Mine is 23x33cm or 9x13inches) and cover with baking paper and spray again.

Mix your butter with brown sugar until smooth and well combined (about 2-3 mins on low-ish speed)

Then add the vanilla and then the eggs one-by-one and mix well

In a separate bowl, combine the dry ingredients (flour, cocoa, baking powder and in this case the PB2 powder).

While mixing on lowest speed gradually add the dry ingredients to the wet.  Do not add chocolate chips yet.

Try not to eat too much of the mix... it's hard I know.

Pour and spread the mixture into your pan and sprinkle your choc chips on top.

Put into the oven and bake between 23 - 28 minutes.  You basically don't want it jiggly in the middle.

Leave to cool for 30mins to an hour before lifting out of the pan and then cut into squares, triangles, whatever you like :)

Oozy, fudgy goodness.

Apple, Custard and Cinnamon Tea Cake

With kids going back to school next week, I'm feeling a bit anxious.  I think it's partly just part of releasing my precious frills to the risks, which hopefully are low.  Some of it is probably a bit of separation anxiety, I will just miss having several touch points with them a day and lastly I think it also means that the 'going back to norm' means it's getting more likely I'll have to wear work clothes and not slippers every day and I'll be braving commutes to and from work in a nearish future.   It's just change, and there's always adjustments..

So I'm getting in some home-baking whilst I can.  My work schedule is chaotic but I quickly whipped this up and put it in the oven in a small break between meetings and it does take 1.5 hours to cook so worked well into my schedule.

Smells amazing too whilst it's cooking - I mean seriously is there nothing better on a cold day at home than beautiful smells coming from your kitchen?

I adapted this recipe from taste.com.au  They use coconut and no cinnamon in theirs.  But you know me... cinnamon... mmmmmm......

You have some choices - stew your own apples or buy tinned apples (I keep them in the pantry to have with yoghurt) buy custard or make your own (I made mine in the thermomix in 8 mins) . swap out the apples for pears, peaches, apricots....  apricot and coconut would be delish....

Ingredients:
150g butter softened
2/3 cup caster sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 1/2 cups self raising flour
1 1/2 cups milk
1 cup custard
2 cups (400g) stewed apples
1 tsp ground cinnamon

Method
Preheat oven to 160 degrees c

Grease and line tray (I used a square tin) with baking paper

Cream your butter with sugar - if your butter isn't softened, grate it... (confuse your kids that you are making cake with cheese) .




and then add your eggs and vanilla.  Don't be concerned if it looks like this.



Remove from your mixer and spoon in 1 cup of flour and stir through.     Then add 3/4 cup milk and combine.



Do another cup of flour and the rest of the milk, then the last half cup of flour.  Your batter is ready.







































Spoon half your batter into the pan, spread into the corners.

Add half your apple and all your cinnamon, then half the custard.







































Add rest of your batter and then apple and custard on top, spread it to the corners.






































Pop into the oven for 90 minutes.

Remove - let cool..for about 15 minutes (or as long as you like it's nice warm or cold)





Lash it lovingly with custard or eat it on its' own!

RECIPE: Large moist and light blueberry banana loaf

Everyone loves an easy cake, no more than me.  I'm not one for too many steps and fussing around.  I'd be a terrible patissier because I'd want to take shortcuts.  This one is just ingredients in two bowls, combine and bake.  Gotta love that.  The inclusion of sour cream makes it not only moist but really light, and I think I'll be using sour cream a bit more going forward with my cakes because even though I'm not a real cake person (I looove cheesecake) this is one I will admit, I had more than a few slices.....

The other good thing about this one is it makes 15 decent slices so if you were to make this for school lunches - you will get the 'return on investment' in your time... I'm going to make this again next time I cater morning tea at work or church.

Ingredients:

3 cups plain flour

2 1/2 tsp bicarb soda

3/4 cup frozen or fresh bluberries

1 tsp cinnamon powder

3 bananas, mashed

3/4 cup sour cream

2 eggs

250g butter, melted and cooled

Topping (optional)

Extra bluberries

1 banana, sliced

Method:

Preheat oven to 170 degrees c

In a mixing bowl,  combine flour, baking powder, cinnamon and frozen blueberries and mix to combine.

Mix your sour cream bananas, eggs, and butter in another bowl

Combine together either with a spoon, or in a mixer.  It's a stiff dough so might be better with a mixer if you have one.  Don't worry if your bluberries pop :)

Place into a square or round tin or 2 greased loaf pans.
Place some blueberries and sliced banana on top.

Bake for 1 hour, check if it's cooked by using the skewer method.
Cool in the tin for about 10 minutes before turning out on a cooling rack for another 30 minutes minimum before serving.

Store in an airtight container for up to 5 days or freeze in portions or whole for later.

Yum!

Necarine and lemon cake

This time of the year is great for a number of reasons... firstly the weather is cooling down and the days are gloriously sunny (mostly).  Secondly Easter is on it's way and there's time to slow down, have some time off and spend with the family.  Food-wise there's a the glut of the summer fruit available at good prices and the winter produce is starting to creep in and be more affordable.

I got 2 kilos of beautiful white necatarines this morning for $6 and although we'll enjoy eating them, I wanted to make a cake with them also.  This recipe came from epicurious but had cinnamon in it also... now it's never like me to omit cinnamon but today I did because these necarines were so delicious and I wanted them to be the star of the cake.

You can use plums or peaches, or even apple if you like but if you were going to use apples I would add the cinnamon, and it's just a teaspoon mixed with the sugar on top.

Ingredients:

125g butter, at room temperature

3/4 cup caster sugar

2 eggs, at room temperature

Zest of 1 lemon

Juice of half a lemon

1 1/2 cups self raising flour

3-4 nectarines, cut into 8ths

Sugar for top of cake (about 3 tb)

Method:

Preheat oven to 175 degrees c

Grease a 9 inch springform pan generously with butter

In a mixing bowl, cream the butter and sugar until it's light and fluffy
Add egg one at a time then zest and lemon juice.  Mix well

Lastly add the self raising flour and mix for a minute until lovely and smooth.  At this point you want to eat it.  You're only human after all...

Spoon into your tin, I pile mine into the centre and smooth out to the edges.

Place your nectarines in any arrangement you like.  I've started from the edge in a circle and then the centre.

Sprinkle sugar evenly over the top.  Pop in the oven on the centre shelf of the oven and bake for 1 hour.

Test with a skewer and if it comes out clean, take out of the oven.  If it isn't clean, pop back in and check ever 5 minutes until it comes out clean.

Leave to cool for about 10 minutes before unlodging any sticky bits from the sides with a knife and then unlocking your springform to let the cake cool further.

Serve warm or cold - and enjoy!

Sweet pumpkin loaf (in the thermomix, and not)

Hello!  For those of you who don't have a thermomix - don't worry - you can use a food processor too!  If you don't have a thermomix, use a grater and a large bowl.  Many people ask me : 'Is the Thermomix worth the money?' and I can't really answer that because $1,900 is a lot to some and not much to others.  To me it's a lot of money, and I don't use it all the time but it is a quality appliance that I do use and it's great as my 'supporting act' rather than the 'star' of my kitchen.   

This is one recipe which it's a great supporting act, because it can chop up pumpkin within an inch of it's life in seconds... the grating would take me five minutes, but here it takes 10 seconds in the thermomix.

Now onto the recipe!

Ingredients

700g pumpkin, skin off

200g wholemeal flour (1 cup)

200g plain flour (1 cup)

100g caster sugar (1/2 cup)

170g canola oil (3/4 cup)

3 eggs

1 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp bicarb soda

1 tsp cinnamon powder

15g vanilla extract (1 tsp)

50g maple syrup (2 tb)

25g Pepitas (2 tb)

Method:

Preheat oven to 200 degrees

Scrape off your pumpkin seeds and pop them on to baking paper, and pop in the oven.

Chop your pumpkin up and put into the thermomix, chop by rising the speed gradually up to 8 over 10 seconds, and your pumpkin should look like this:

If you don't have a thermomix, but have a food processor, suggest you use a grate function and grate the pumpkin and put into a bowl.  If you don't have a food processor hand grate into a bowl.

Next, to the thermomix add all the rest of the ingredients besides the pepitas.

Mix for 30 seconds speed 4 reverse.  It should look like this! Smells good too!  Otherwise - add dry ingredients to the pumpkin and stir, crack your eggs into a separate boil and quickly whip the oil in and then mix that into the dry ingredients.

By now your pumpkin seeds should be lovely-toasty.. so remove those and turn down the oven to 160 degrees.

Add those pumpkin seed and any more pepitas you like and stir it through the mixture.

Line and grease a loaf pan and add your mixture

Sprinkle some pepitas on top

Bake for 1 hour, check it's ready by using a skewer or knife in the middle of the cake.  If it comes out clean, it's ready, if not, put it back for 10 minutes and try again.  When it is ready, leave to cool on your bench for about 30 minutes before lifting out.

You'll want to eat it right now because that mix of cinnamon, pumpkin and sweetness of maple will be calling you 'eat me, eat me!'

Slice up and eat on it's own or with a bit of butter, nice and melty..

Sunday baking project: Festive Rhubarb Cupcakes with stiff cream icing

I'm getting with the Christmas spirit early - in fact I've been in Christmas preparations most of the year believe it or not, as we're going to be in New York City for Christmas this year!  So all the presents for those not coming with us are bought, wrapped and a few remaining to be delivered, and now I'm just starting to get excited!  

I made these today for our work Christmas barbecue tomorrow as  I was asked if I could make a cake. However I think cupcakes are much easier - there's no cutting and you don't need a plate, people can just pick up, and devour. I guess I could have made a Christmas cake or mince pies or something but I think you can overdose on those in the lead up to Christmas - and a lot of kids don't like them so I opted for these.  Rhubarb looks so festive, and tastes so yummy.

I put the Christmas carols on and Eloise and I started to get in the mood: Singing merrily along to 'Jingle Bell Rock' it was lovely!  

So here we go- easy, moist and a crowd pleaser - hope you give them a go!

Ingredients: (makes 24)

Cupcakes

1 bunch (4-5 stalks) rhubarb

200g butter at room temperature

1 cup caster sugar

2 eggs

1 tsp vanilla extract

2 cups self raising flour

1/2 cup sour cream

Icing

1 block (250g) philadephia cream cheese

1/2 cup caster sugar

1 tsp vanilla extract

2 cups whipping cream

Method:

Preheat your oven to 180 degrees C

Chop your rhubarb int 1/2 cm chunks or slightly thicker or smaller if you like.

Cream your butter and sugar, add vanilla extract and eggs, one at a time until it's well combined.
Add one cup of flour and mix well on a low speed.

Add sour cream and mix again on a low speed.
Yes, you can try it now if you must!  It looks spectacular - no?

Add your second cup of flour, and mix again on low.

Do NOT mix on high or you cover your kitchen in flour as Eloise discovered (while White Christmas was playing, no less!)

Lastly mix in your rhubarb.

Spoon into lined cupcake tins and bake for 20-25 minutes

I really must swap my trays over half time, the top layer got a bit more of a tan... ;)

Set to cool.

For your icing, whip your cream cheese and sugar together until well combined.

Keep whipping and gradually add your cream

When it becomes heavy and stiff, stop beating.  It should stick to your beater(s) like this and NOT drop.

Push into a piping bag with your desired tip (I used 1M) and get icing your cakes - they need to be COLD when you do this, not even warm... or your cream will melt!

Don't they look pretty?

Sprinkle now if you want to - I found some little sugar trees at a very cool cake supplies shop in Malvern Vic when I was visiting this week

Very festive!