Choc Berry Brownies

We're about to move house. We are having our first baby in May (woah!) and we need somewhere more baby appropriate - no steps, a dishwasher, a more accessible outdoor area etc. We found a new place much quicker than anticipated, which is great but I am definitely going to miss our current place. This has been our first flat together and we've been here for over a year, so it's home. I am sure our next place will be even better, but I'm sentimental. I have really enjoyed cooking in the lovely, sunny kitchen, so I thought it was fitting on our final Sunday here to spend some time doing one of my favourite things. I'm also trying to use up all the leftover bits and bobs we have in the fridge and freezer to make the move that little bit easier. Hence my choice for today - Choc Berry Brownies.

A friend gifted me some lovely 72% Lindt dark chocolate from a recent trip to Europe and whilst I love dark chocolate, I found this a little too intense for just eating so what better opportunity than to use it for a brownie. I also have a lot of frozen berries that I haven't been eating because of the hepatitis A berry recall, even though the brand I have hasn't been affected I avoided them just in case. But cooking the shit out of them should kill any bugs, so it's a good way to use them up.

This recipe is a 'healthy' one from the Healthy Food website. It's a little bit better for you as some of the sugar has been replaced with banana and some of the chocolate with cocoa powder - although I didn't have quite enough cocoa so used more chocolate after all. It uses low-fat spread instead of butter and trim milk, but you could just as easily use butter and whole milk if you prefer - it would make it a bit more like a traditional brownie, this one has more of a cake texture.

Oil

80g reduced-fat spread, melted

1/2 cup packed soft brown sugar

2 eggs

1/2 cup trim milk - I used whole milk.

1 ripe banana, mashed

1/3 cup cocoa powder - I didn't have quite enough so added extra chocolate and a little extra flour.

3/4 cup flour

1/2 cup self-raising flour

50g dark chocolate, chopped - I used about 75g

150g frozen mixed berries

2 teaspoons of icing sugar or icing sugar/cocoa mix to dust.

Preheat over to 180 degrees celsius. Grease a 20cm, square cake tin with a little oil and line with baking paper. Beat spread and sugar with a wooden spoon. Add eggs and beat to combine. Fold milk, banana, cocoa and flours into the mixture until just combined. Fold chocolate and berries into the brownie mixture. Spoon the mixture into the tin and bake for 20-25 minutes or until firm to the touch. Leave cooked mixture to stand in the tin for 10 minutes before removing and slicing into squares. Dust with icing sugar or a mix of icing sugar and cocoa.

I used a slightly smaller, round cake tin which meant my mixture was higher in the tin than it would've been in a larger, square tin. I found I had to cook it for about 40 minutes for it to be cooked through. It definitely needed all the cocoa, despite my extra added chocolate, so it wasn't quite as dark or rich as I would've liked. It was nice and soft and moist though and the banana helped with both this and the sweetness. Perhaps not a legit brownie, but yummy all the same.

Banana Bread

Oh haaaaaay! It's been a month since I last posted but I've had a some other exciting-and-kind-of important-sort-of life-changing stuff occupying my time of late. And I've actually just been pretty busy with quite a few weekends away from home, but I have still managed to squeeze in some cooking here and there.

I was working from home the day I made this, which meant when I finished up for the day I had some time to put a banana bread in the oven. There were a couple of dire-looking bananas in the fruit bowl, which normally I chuck straight in the freezer for future use in cakes or smoothies, but I was inspired to whip something up then and there. I looked for a 'healthy' recipe for banana bread, something without as much sugar and fat and found one on BBC Good Food. I didn't quite have the right amounts of everything so I adapted it a bit to suit, and added some extras.

140g flour - wholemeal would make this even healthier, but I didn't have any.

100g self-raising flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon baking powder

pinch of salt

1/4 teaspoon mixed spice

1/4 teaspoon cinnamon

2-3 ripe bananas, mashed - I think 3 is best, but I only had 2.

4 tablespoons of agave syrup - I only had honey, so I mixed about 3 tablespoons of clover honey with a little hot water, to make it more like a syrup. I used a little less as I didn't want it to be too sweet.

3 large eggs, lightly beaten

150ml of low-fat, plain yoghurt - I didn't quite have 150ml so about 50ml was some mixed berry yoghurt I also had in the fridge.

chopped pecans or walnuts (optional - and I didn't opt for these).

Pre-heat oven to 160 degrees celsius, fan bake. Put all the dry ingredients in a large bowl and line a loaf tin with baking paper - make sure you leave it coming up over the sides a bit. In a second bowl, combine the mashed bananas, agave syrup/honey, beaten eggs and yoghurt. Add to the dry ingredients and mix until just combined. Pour into the tin and sprinkle the nuts on top, if you're using them. Bake for 1 hour 10-15 minutes, until a skewer comes out clean - mine was done in just over an hour though so keep an eye on it. Cool on a wire rack and eat warm, or like the Aussies do, slice it, toast it and spread it with butter, cream cheese or even lemon curd at breakfast time. Store in an airtight container and it should last at least a few days, longer if you're toasting it.

I was a bit over the usual for breakfast and this was a bit of at treat for the rest of the week but it didn't taste overly sweet and a couple of slices with butter were surprisingly filling. It wasn't quite as banana-ry as I would've liked, so I'd use 3 bananas next time. I've recently bought an Easiyo yoghurt maker too, which is great as I use a lot of natural yoghurt, both in cooking, smoothies and just to eat, so it's nice to be able to make your own. It's also great served with any sort of sweet cake instead of cream, to take the edge off the sweetness a wee bit. Enjoy!

Chocolate Brownie

Some friends moved into a new place not too far from where we live, invited us over for dinner and we were on dessert. I just happened to have most of a leftover Reese's Peanut Butter Egg hanging around the house post Easter, that looked a little something like this:

www.candyblog.net

Drool. I love the combination of peanut butter and chocolate - so sweet, but so salty - but this egg was a little full on, like American-candy full on. So rather than giving myself one hell of a serious sugar high, I thought this would be great in brownie. Because this egg is so intense and sweet, I was looking for a slightly healthier recipe, but one that would still be fudgy. Hello www.healthyfood.co.nz!

Chocolate Brownie

1 cup unsweetened apple puree or sauce

1/3 cup cocoa powder

3/4 cup self-raising flour

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 cup sugar

1/2 teaspoon of salt

1/2 cup dark chocolate chips

3/4 cup (70g) walnuts (optional)

Now before you start getting any kind of healthy idea from this, remember I said healthier. The apple puree I used was sweetened, so I used a little less sugar, as I didn't want the brownie to be overly sweet. Aaaaand instead of using nuts, I just used the chopped up Reese's egg - which made about a cup total.

Preheat the oven to 175 degrees celsius. I used regular bake, not fan bake, as I wanted the brownie to cook slowly so it would stay fudgy and not dry out. Lightly oil a 20cm x 20cm baking dish. I used an enamel dish that was about 20 x 15, and 5 cm deep as I planned on cutting it into more bite size pieces, rather then squares. 

Put the apple puree in a bowl and sift in the cocoa, flour and baking soda. Add the sugar and salt and mix until just combined - over mixing will toughen the brownie. Gently fold in the chocolate chips and nuts (or the excess amounts of chopped up Easter egg) and transfer to your baking dish. Bake for 25-30 minutes until the centre is still fudgy when you stick a skewer in it. As mine was in a deeper pan, 30 minutes was about right. Let's just say 'fudgy' one more time.

You're meant to cool the brownie in the dish for 5-10 minutes before turning it out and then slice it when it's cold, but I made these not long before we had to leave so I just cut them into small pieces in the pan, and put them into a plastic container. Dust them with icing sugar, or serve them with cream or yoghurt. I usually prefer the tartness of yoghurt with something sweet like this, but surprisingly, this wasn't as sickly sweet as I thought it would be and the chunks of the peanut butter centre from the egg were just amazingly good. Small pieces were definitely a good call though! I'm totally sold on using apple puree in brownies now - it results in a really nice (all together now) fudgyness and help it to not be overly rich in sweetness.  

If I made this again, I'd probably still omit the nuts (just because I don't want nuts taking up any room chocolate could be taking up), and cut up some Whittakers chocolate, rather than using chocolate chips. I consider myself a bit of a brownie connoisseur- in the eating rather than the making - and it's hard to get that soft chewy texture, with the crunch of chocolate chunks and the crispy top, but this is a pretty good go to recipe. 

Mini Plum Crumbles

This dessert would make a great follow up to the smokey bbq pulled pork from my last post. It's pretty simple - you might already have most of the stuff at home, like I did - and it's pretty quick to make too.

Why did I make it? I was given some beautiful plums by some friends when I was visiting the Hawke's Bay a couple of weekends back. They were starting to go a bit soft and I didn't want to waste their deliciousness.
Where did this recipe come from? From my head - a bit of conglomeration of all the crumble recipes I've ever used.
What's it good for? When you've got an excess of fruit, when you want a warming dessert or just because it's delicious - I like to add just a wee bit of sugar when I stew the fruit so it's still a bit tart, which goes beautifully with the sweet crumble topping.
How many people can eat it? This recipe made two mini crumbles, but just multiply it for more
What do I serve it with? Ice-cream, cream, yoghurt....whatever you fancy really. I served it with plain, unsweetened yoghurt with a little sprinkle of cinnamon on top. I find that I need something to counteract the sweetness, so I'm a big fan of yoghurt with rich desserts.

What do I need?

It's important to stay hydrated while cooking

300g plums (stones removed, cut roughly into quarters) or any fruit you choose like peaches, cherries, apples etc
1 tsp caster sugar
10g butter
20g brown sugar
40g rolled oats
2 tblsp flour
1 tsp mixed spice
1/2 tsp of cinnamon



How do I make it?

Preheat the over to 180 degrees celsius. Pop the plums into a small saucepan. You might need to add a little bit of water, but my plums were pretty juicy so I didn't bother. Sprinkle the sugar over the fruit and gently simmer on a low heat until the fruit is tender. You might want to adjust the amount of sugar to your taste or to the type of fruit you're using, While the plums are doing their thing, make the crumble. Cut the butter into small pieces (it's easier if it's at room temperature at this point) and put into a bowl with the brown sugar, rolled oats, mixed spice and cinnamon. Use your fingers to rub the mix together until it looks like something that vaguely resembles breadcrumbs. At this point, I found my mix was a bit too melty-buttery (wasn't really complaining), so I added some flour. I could have used more than 2 tablespoons, but just use your judgement based on how the mixture looks.
Your fruit should be done by now. Mash it up a bit if it needs it and then spoon it into ramekins. Top with the crumble mixture and bake for about 15 minutes or until the crumble is bubbling and the top is a wee bit brown. Enjoy - but don't burn your tongue like I did!