English Grandma’s special spiced rum and raisin brownies
So English Grandma was visiting last week. It was her birthday and as usual here at English Towers, this meant that the birthday person had the honour of choosing their own cake. Except of course English Grandma didn’t really want a cake, in fact, didn’t really want to be reminded that she was 70 at all. It’s a great age, though, I reckon. It’s the same age as Raquel Welch (about whom the term ‘looks good for her age’ equates to calling the north pole ‘a bit nippy’) and Ralph Lauren, for goodness sake, who’s classier than Ralph?
Plus, there are so many bonuses to being 70: you can be as outspoken as you like, wear odd socks, shave your dog’s hair into weird patterns, use beer towels for curtains (Hubby actually had an aunt that did that) or walk around with your hair sticking up like Fr Jack out of Father Ted, because, let’s face it, who’s going to say anything to you about it? And even if they do, you can club them with your handbag and get away with it. Bonus.
Anyhoo, digressing. So I had to think of a nice dessert which would please the chisellers, who insist on cake at birthdays (what child doesn’t) and be unbirthdaycakey enough to please the mother. I know she likes rum and raisin and I toyed with the idea of rum and raisin ice cream, but then the cake-ish issue reared its ugly head again. ‘I know!’, said #2,’ birthday brownies!’. Fabulous. And for an added twist, I thought I’d get the rum and raisins in there too. Here goes, then:
3 tbsp rum (I used Morgan’s Spiced Rum)
Couple of handfuls (about 50g) raisins or sultanas
200g dark chocolate (this one was from Lidl and had a very pleasing ‘snap’ to it)
170g butter (salted is best with chocolate, or add a pinch of salt)
3 eggs
225g caster sugar
110g plain flour
1/2 tsp ground mixed spice
So first preheat the oven to 180/gas4 and plop the raisins into the rum to soak. Melt the butter and the chocolate in a bain-marie (yes, I know you know, but some people don’t, so I still have to point out that we’re talking about a heatproof bowl over a saucepan of simmering water, not touching the bottom of the bowl):
When the butter and chocolate start to melt, turn the heat off and let it melt gently using the residual heat. When it’s all melted together, put it to one side to cool slightly.
Meanwhile, take out your Very Special Anniversary KitchenAid (or a whisk and a bowl, if you’re not as lucky as me). Crack in the eggs (if you don’t have a small red chicken with an attitude problem who lays eggs that are approximately half her body weight, don’t worry, they sell eggs in Tesco too)…
…and whizz them together with the sugar until they’re nice and fluffy:
I’d just like to point out that this is a complete excuse to use the KitchenAid as I’ve actually just mixed the eggs and sugar with a fork before now, and it comes out exactly the same. Still…
Fold the flour and mixed spice in to the eggy sugary mixture - nice and gently because (altogether now): working the gluten in the flour too much will make the end result tough:
…and finally, stir in the melted chocolate and butter and the rum and raisins:
Put some bake-o-glide or greaseproof paper in the bottom of a lasagne tin, pour the mixture in:
… and bake for about 35 minutes until the top is all cracky and shiny, but the inside is still retaining a hint of gooeyness.
Leave to cool slightly.
Fight off children, reminding them that this recipe contains alcohol and is therefore for the over 18s only, and serve with a flourish, or some vanilla ice cream, to 70 (shhh) year old birthday girl.
Oh, and absolutely no singing of ‘happy birthday’, okay? She might hit you with her handbag.
Happy (belated) birthday, Mum!
Fetch the defibrillator! Double chocolate cookie dough brownies
So my lovely friend, fellow Disney 7 adventurer and blogger, Laura, kind of acts like my chocolate pimp – any sign of any chocolate action anywhere on the web and she’s all over it – it’s gatherered up and sent to me before I can blink. I like this. Which is why Laura is my friend.
Here, then, is Laura’s latest discovery – sniffed bloodhound-like from the bowels of the interweb and delivered to me ready to be fiddled with and muddled with and twiddled with and delivered to you, sparkly, new and fattening. Aren’t you lucky? Many thanks to the incredibly clever lady at One Ordinary Day for sharing this one.
Double Chocolate Cookie Dough Brownies
First, then, you need to make some brownies, for which you need my double, triple, quadruple, tested brownie recipe:
200g bar dark chocolate
170g butter
3 eggs
225g caster sugar
110g plain flour
110g nuts if you want, or chocolate chips, or nothing – see if I care…
So melt the butter and chocolat in a bain-marie (bowl over saucepan of just simmering water – not letting bottom of bowl come into contact with water – you know the drill). Turn the water off when it’s just bubbling and stir the mixture gently until it’s combined. Take it off the heat and allow it to cool to blood temperature (one doesn’t want extra scrambled eggy bits in one’s brownie, trust me).
Meanwhile, whisk the eggs and sugar together. I don’t put raising agent in my brownie as I guess they’re supposed to be quite fudgy and heavy, but I whisk the eggs and sugar to add a few bubbles. Don’t if you don’t want to – it’s just me being picky.
Now, pour in your chocky/butter mixture, stir until combined then bung in the flour and the whatever else you’re using: cherries/chocolate chips/nuts, etc. Or nothing.
Line a lasagne tin or baking tin with greaseproof (or have bits of bake-o-glide cleverly cut into the right shape, if you’re really anal about it *cough*), pour in the mixture and bake for about 35 minutes at 180/gas 4 until the top is shiny and cracked but the middle is still dense and squidgy. Leave to cool.
Now, for the cookie dough mixture:
130g butter, softened
130g muscovado sugar
100g caster sugar
4 tbsp milk
1 tsp vanilla extract
100g dark chocolate, chopped (or chocolate chips)
200g plain flour
So whizz up the butter and sugars with the electric whisk, add in the milk and vanilla and whizz some more. Stir in the flour (it seems a lot, but it all goes in eventually). Finally, stir in the chocolate chips. Spread over the top of your cooled brownie and refrigerate.
Finally, to make sure your guests really suffer a coronary, melt another 100g of chocolate and drizzle it all over the top. Chill to finish. Serve in very small pieces as this is very, very rich indeed. Oops, sorry, I just drooled a little on the keyboard, let me get that…
Dark chocolate and peanut butter brownies
The little man’s school doesn’t allow any form of pre-packed sweets or snacks in their packed lunches. That means no crisps, no sweeties and absolutely no chocolate bars. Now I’m not an ogre, and while a healthy sandwich, some carrot sticks and an apple might be the way to go, it’s a bit bloody boring, frankly. So I like to slip in a small something to perk up his lunch a little – on the understanding that all the healthy stuff has to be eaten first, obviously. Home-made snackage is, happily, completely acceptable, so my current obsession is tray bakes, muffins, biscuits and flapjacks – anything to enliven the tupperware, as it were.
This one turned out pretty well, and, as I explained to him, peanut butter is good for you too, which makes this practically a health food (and if he’s not looking, I slip in some finely chopped dates, which add a nice toffee taste as well as being good for him):
175g dark chocolate
100g butter
70g crunchy peanut butter
2 eggs
170g caster sugar
110g plain flour
Preheat the oven to gas 4/180 degrees. Melt together the chocolate, butter and peanut butter in a bain marie (or a heatproof bowl over a saucepan of simmering water):
Remember not to let the water touch the bottom of the bowl – you want it all to melt very gently. Turn off the heat as soon as it’s starting to melt and continue to stir occasionally, letting the residual heat melt everything together.
Meanwhile, whisk the eggs and sugar together (spiky hair optional):
When it’s really light and fluffy, sieve in the flour and fold gently through:
Now pour in your melted butter, chocolate and peanut butter mixture and stir gently until just combined, then pour into a baking tin:
Pop it into the oven and bake for about 25 minutes, until even and slightly cracked on top. Remember you want to retain some squish in the middle. When cool, cut into squares and store in an airtight container, ready to enliven the lunchbox (or if you’re feeling all posh, serve warm with whipped cream). I guess you could say they’re nutty but nice. Ahaha.
In other news, EnglishGrandma is a-visiting, and last night I tried out the recipe that I’m going to co-post with Curious Wines (you’re going to love it – they’re going to choose wines for us to complement one of my recipes). Trouble is, after spending a whole afternoon toiling over oven-roasted butternut squash risotto, and chicken breasts stuffed with a sage, apple and red onion stuffing, taking step-by-step photos of the whole process, my camera promptly turned itself off and I lost every single photo. Not. Happy. Still, it came out well. I’ll just have to repeat the whole thing and photograph it all over again. Tsk.
Ooh and in other other news, I’m a Disney Blu-Ray Ambassador! Yay! Lots of film reviews coming your way, including one each from the English Smalls. Be afraid.
Chocolate chip whiteys or white chocolate brownies, or blondies…
My poor Ma’s flight was delayed until 11pm on Friday. How desperate is that? Nobody needs to spend 5 hours adrift at Dublin Airport, it’s just not fair. The only thing to do there is drink and buy vast amounts of overpriced cosmetics. Oh, hang on though, that sounds like quite good fun. Still, she’s home now and we’re all more or less returning to normal (by normal, I mean our alcohol consumption has levelled out and the pink meringue pie is finally finished), although the children are flush with cash and chocolate, but then that’s usual after a visit from Grandma.
In other news, the cookery book I worked on as recipe tester and general skivvy has finally been published and I got my sparkly new copy in the post, complete with my name in it! And okay, whilst it’s not quite as good as having your own cook book published, some of the recipes in there are mine, so I’m still rather pleased. Although in a typically spectacular piece of Frank Spenceresque cack-handedness, I then tipped a bottle of kitchen cleaner all over it without noticing and had to spend a ridiculously long time unsticking all the pages, but honestly, I’ve come to expect nothing less from myself.
Back in the kitchen, then, to knock up these little beauties. I think they’re really supposed to be called ‘blondies’ but in this house they’re called whiteys:
225g white chocolate (make sure it’s a nice one, although I’m sure making it with Milky Bar wouldn’t kill you)
170g butter
3 eggs
225g caster sugar
110g plain flour
50 chopped dark chocolate
Melt the white chocolate and the butter in a bowl over a saucepan of simmering water, making sure the bottom doesn’t touch the water (bain marie, you knew that though, blah blah):
In another bowl, mix up the eggs and sugar – don’t whisk or anything, but make sure they’re well combined. Add in the melted chocolate mixture, then the flour and finally the dark chocolate chunks:
Tip into a greased and lined rectangular tin (you really must get some bake-o-glide, it’s fab) and bake for about 30 - 35 minutes. You don’t get quite the same shiny, cracked effect as with the dark chocolate brownies, and the dark chocolate chunks do sink to the bottom, but the result has a slightly lighter, chewier effect and is rather pleasing. Oh, and if you’re not totally fruit-phobic like #2, these would be exceptionally nice with a handful of raspberries instead of the dark chocolate. It’s a really nice, fool-proof recipe, this one. In fact, if I ever write my own recipe book, I’ll put this one in it. And I’ll keep it well away from the kitchen cleaner too.
Disgustingly Fattening Chocolate Fudge Brownie Cake
225g good quality dark chocolate
6 oz butter
3 eggs
8 oz caster sugar
4oz plain flour
For the ganache:
Small tub double cream
Small bar dark or white chocolate
Melt your butter and chocolate in a bain-marie (bowl over saucepan of simmering water) or in the microwave if you’re brave enough, but I always burn it. As always with this type of method, take it off the heat as soon as it’s well on the way as you need it just warm – you should be able to put your finger in it – any hotter and you’ll have lumps of scrambled egg in your mixture. Not attractive. In a different bowl, then, stir the eggs and the sugar until well combined, then add in the cooled butter/chocolate mixture and the flour. If you want to go completely bonkers you can add in some chopped white chocolate now which makes it look very pretty. Combine well then divide between two 8′? diameter cake tins (use spring form tins, or butter and line them as they’re a sod to get out). Bake at 180 degrees for between 25 and 30 minutes until all trace of wobble in the middle is gone and they look all cracked on the top. They’ll still be nice and fudgy in the middle.
Leave them to cool on a wire rack while you make the ganache. Again, melt the chocolate (I used dark again, but you can make white chocolate ganache which looks very pretty in this), making sure it’s not too hot, then slowly whisk in a splosh of cream. If it looks too thick add a bit more and continue until it’s a nice spreading consistency. Don’t panic if you make it too runny as it’ll thicken up in the fridge.
Whisk the rest of the cream, then place your first layer of brownie cake onto your serving dish or cake stand. Spread first with a layer of ganache, then with a layer of the whipped cream and add your second cake layer. Spread more ganache on the top. Add candles, sing happy birthday, serve, then sit back and revel in all that calorie-induced glory.
Pistachio & Dark Chocolate Brownies
Another little gastronomic intermission for you today then. Made some pistachio brownies while we had our scary guests and they turned out rather good so seeing as I’m the laziest cook in the world and this is the easiest recipe, I thought I’d share. This is a bastardisation (can I say that?) of my mate C’s fantastically good brownie recipe and Rachel Allen’s one from ‘Rachel’s Favourite Food’, pared down for the incurably idle. There’s an excellent opportunity for some child labour here because the pistachios taste so much better if they’re the shell-on salted kind (trust me, the salt really works), so enlist the help of your small people to shell enough pistachios to end up with 4oz (don’t, by the way, enlist the help of your stupid greyhound – Bertie tried to get his nose into the bowl of shells and ended up smashing it on the floor – I’m still crunching on the occasional pistachio shell now – no of course I didn’t hoover – there’s no R in the month). They’ll love you for it, I promise. Next time I’m going to try this with the Green and Black’s Cherry chocolate and some almonds. Ooh, or the Butterscotch with some pecans…yum. Anyhoo, here goes:
225g – there’s no room for the parsimonious in brownie making – of Green and Black’s 70% dark chocolate
6 oz butter
3 eggs
8 oz caster sugar
4 oz plain flour
4 oz shelled salted pistachio nuts (roughly chopped, or don’t bother if you’re really idle)
So, melt your butter and chocolate in a bain-marie (bowl over saucepan of simmering water – yes, I know you knew that, but just in case…). Take it straight off when it’s nearly there as you only need it just warm – you should be able to put your finger in it – any hotter and you’ll have scrambled eggs. So mix up the eggs and the sugar (you don’t need to whisk or anything, just until they’re combined), then add in the butter/chocolate mixture, the flour and the nuts. Bung it in a greaseproof paper-lined tin (I used my lasagne tin which is rectangular (11x7x1.5) and bake for about 35 mins at 180C/350F/gas 4 (sorry!!) until it looks all shiny and cracked on the top, but still deliciously squidgy in the middle. Cool, then stuff into face. Magic.
