Salted Caramel Brownies

For the last few months, I've been working as a cook and baker at a cafe where I live. My favourite thing to make has been these brownies, and I've just about perfected the perfect recipe! I've also been using gluten free flour to appeal to our gluten-intolerant customers, which still works fine.

Ingredients: 

185g unsalted butter
185g good quality dark chocolate
85g plain flour (gluten free)
40g cocoa powder
3 large eggs
275g caster sugar

For the salted caramel:

120g caster sugar
1tbsp butter
6tbsp double cream
1tsp sea salt

Method: 

1. Preheat oven to 180C. Grease and line(!!!) a medium (about 13 inch) square baking tin. Place the broken up chocolate and butter in a microwaveable dish and microwave on full power for about 2 minutes. Don't worry about the chocolate burning, once the butter has melted it will prevent this and help melt the chocolate. Remove from the microwave and stir until fully incorporated. Leave to cool whilst you do the other steps.

2. Whisk the eggs and caster sugar together until it looks thick, creamy and leaves a trail in the bowl. 

3. Sift flour and cocoa powder into the egg mixture, then add the melted chocolate mixture and GENTLY fold together. It's important that you don't beat it together otherwise you'll lose all that air you just beat into the eggs. 

4. Bake in the oven for about half an hour, or until the top looks shiny and the mix doesn't wobble when you try to move it. Remember, underbaking it is better than overbaking it, you want them to be nice and gooey. Note: once out of the oven, leave the brownies in their baking tin so that you can easily pour on the salted caramel later. Otherwise you may be faced with a lot of caramel overspill!

5. Once removed from the oven and cooled, you can make the salted caramel *do not make it whilst the brownies are in the oven, it'll set before the brownies are cool enough to be coated!* 
Start by placing the sugar and 6 tablespoons of water into a saucepan (preferably with a silver or light-coloured base so you can see the changing colour of the sugar). Place on a medium heat and wait for the sugar to dissolve and the mixture to boil. DO NOT STIR! Put down that spoon. No really. You can swirl the mixture around by tilting the pan from side to side, but stirring it will cause it to re-form crystals and cause the mix to be lumpy. 

6. Keep a close eye on your sugar. Once it starts to turn slightly darker than golden brown, remove it from the heat and add the butter and swirl it into the mixture. Now add the cream, being careful as the mixture will bubble and hiss. Now you can stir it all together and stir in the salt. 

7. Wait for it to cool slightly and taste for desired saltyness. Once the mixture is starting to thicken up a little, pour over the brownies creating an even layer. 

8. Leave to set, then cut into brownies. EAT!

Double chocolate oat cookies

Here's another really simple, quick recipe for you to try. As always, you can dabble with the recipe, take out the cocoa powder and add some dried raspberries and white chocolate, or some raisins, or some extra chocolate.....

Makes about 20 small cookies, or 10 big ones


Ingredients: 

• 125g plain flour

• 3 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder

• 1 teaspoon baking powder

• 1/2 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda

• 1/2 teaspoon salt

• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

• 110g margarine or butter

• 110g dark brown soft sugar

• 100g caster sugar

• 1 egg

• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

• 100g porridge oats

• 50g milk chocolate

• 50g dark chocolate

Method: 

1. Set the oven to 180C/ gas mark 4. Grease and line at least 2 baking trays (you might need more later depending on how big you want your cookies to be). Prepare your chocolate by bashing it into little pieces (its best to do this in a teatowel because bags split easily) or chopping it.

2. Cream together the butter and sugar. To soften the butter you should leave it out of the fridge for at least 2 hours before starting, or failing that, pop it in the microwave for 20 seconds.

3. Add the egg and vanilla essence and beat together. Stir in the dry ingredients.

4. Drop onto a baking tray about 2 tablespoons at a time. Mould them so they're slightly circular. Make sure you leave at least 5cm between each cookie, because they spread out a lot in the oven!

5. Bake for 8-10 minutes, until they feel quite firm around the edges. They'll still feel really gooey on top, but they will firm up when they come out of the oven, leaving you with lovely chewy cookies! Leave to firm up on the baking tray for about 5 minutes before transferring onto a plate (or into your mouth if you can't wait that long). 

6. Enjoy!

What I'm making for Valentine's day

So me and my boyfriend decided we were gonna stay in for V-day this year, and cook something super special, figuring even if we buy the best ingredients, it'll still be cheaper than going out for a posh meal. So here's what I'll be making tonight... Pictures to come! Where's the main, you ask? Well, the boy's making beef wellington (lucky me!) using Gordon Ramsay's recipe... so if you want that, go have a Google!

Starter: Grilled field mushrooms with pesto and parmesan

Ingredients: 

2 large field mushrooms
1 small baguette
1 jar pesto
2 tbsp grated parmesan
olive oil
2 eggs

Method:

1. Chop off about 2 slices of your baguette, and put that and two teaspoons of pesto into a blender, and blend until it forms a paste. Put the kettle on.

2. Wash and fry the mushrooms for about 2 minutes on each side in the olive oil, then remove from the pan. Spread the mushrooms with your pesto mixture, then sprinkle the parmesan over the top.

3. In the same frying pan, add some more olive oil, slice two big slices off the baguette, and fry until they've soaked up all the oil and are nice and crispy (like two big croutons). Put the mushrooms under the grill until the parmesan has gone nice and crispy.

4. Meanwhile, poach the eggs. Fill a saucepan with boiling water, add a few drops of vinegar and swirl the water around so it makes a little whirlpool. When it's doing this, quickly and gently crack your eggs into the water. This way they'll stay together and you'll get perfect poached eggs. After about two minutes the eggs should be done, remove with a slotted spoon.

5. Assemble: put the croutons on the bottom, followed by the mushroom, followed by the poached egg. Slice through half of the poached egg so that the yolk oozes all over the mushroom (it makes it look posh).

And you're done!! An impressive and pretty simple starter.


Dessert: Melting chocolate pots (makes 3)

Ingredients:

110g butter
75g flour
55g good quality dark chocolate, minimum 75% cocoa solids
150g sugar
2 eggs

Method:

1. Grease 3 ramekins.

2. Melt the butter and chocolate together slowly in a bowl over a pan of slightly simmering water, making sure the bowl doesn't touch the water.

3. Whisk the sugar and eggs together until thick and pale, then fold the flour in gently, then the chocolate mixture. Separate equally into the ramekins, and chill until needed, or for at least an hour.

4. When you're ready, preheat the oven to 200C and bake the chocolate pots for 12-14 minutes, or until the tops have set. Remove from the oven and leave for about 5 minutes. Tip them out and serve with cream.


Enjoy your Valentine's day guys! Love is all around xx

Chicken and sweet potato curry

This recipe was the product of an empty cupboard, and turned out surprisingly well!

What you’ll need (serves 2)

2 breasts of chicken

1 red onion

1 sweet potato

2 tbsp creme fraiche

about half a mugful of milk

1 tsp curry powder

1 chicken stock cube

2 portions of rice

1. Get your rice cooking according to the packet instructions. Meanwhile, peel and chop the sweet potato into rough chunks and put in a pan with water to cover. Boil for about 15-20 minutes until it’s soft enough to mash.

2. Whilst all that’s doing, cut the chicken into strips and dice the onion. Fry the onions until transparent, then add the chicken and cook all the way through.

3. Once the sweet potato is cooked, mash it until its…er…mash. Then mix in the creme fraiche and the curry powder, and the stock cube (crumbled). It’ll be quite thick at this point, so add some milk until it’s a curry sauce sort of consistency.

4. Add the sweet potato mixture to the chicken and onion, and serve with the rice. Eat!

Pancake perfection

Today marks a special day in a student's food calendar, a day of gorging oneself on a delicacy that typically comes just once a year.... that's right, IT'S PANCAKE DAY! So here's a recipe for you to make the perfect pancakes and impress your housemates with your culinary skills. I've also given you the recipe for an amazing toffee sauce you can use to top you pancakes.. You're welcome.

Ingredients:

110g plain flour

2 eggs

About half a pint of milk

1 pinch salt

Method:

1. Stick all the ingredients in a bowl and whisk until there are no lumps in the mixture. Ideally you'll leave the mixture for an hour or two so that all the lumps come to the top and you can rewhisk it, but let's be honest, once you have pancake mixture you're gonna want to make pancakes ASAP. If you want really thick american style pancakes add a little bit of flour to make the mixture thicker. This way it'll hold its own in the pan so the pancakes will stay small but thick.

HANDY TIP!

If you're a bit of a gym buff and have a protein shaker handy, put all the ingredients in there instead and shake it up. This saves you the energy of whisking, and also the mixture can pour straight out of the shaker into the pan, saving on unnecessary washing up!

2. Get a frying pan on the hob and heat up about a tablespoon of oil in it. Here you need to make the oil really hot, so that it starts to smoke, otherwise the pancakes will stick and you won't get to flip them, which is, of course, half the fun.

3. Put a little mixture in the pan and swill it around to cover the base of the pan and leave it alone for about 20-30 seconds until you see a few bubbles lifting the pancake up. Now if you give your pan a wiggle the pancake should come loose (if it doesn't, use a spatula to release it). Once you have your loose pancake, flip away, trying not to stick it to the ceiling. After another 20 seconds or so your pancake will be cooked!

4. Repeat about 50 times... and choose your topping.

For the toffee sauce (optional)

100g sugar (preferably brown)

100g butter

100ml cream (preferably double)

All you need to do is melt the butter and sugar together until the sugar has dissolved, add the cream and heat it up. You're done!

Have a great pancake day everyone, watch this space for some great valentine's recipes xx

Yule Log!!

This is a bit of a trickier one for those of you who like making food look pretty and fancy a bit more of a challenge. It's a basic cake mixture with some cocoa powder, and a simple butter cream. Some people like to spread their roll with jam as well as butter cream to add extra sweetness and a bit of zing, so like always, do what you want with this recipe!

Ingredients:

For the roll:

150g Self raising flour
150g Butter
150g Caster sugar
2 eggs
2 teaspoons cocoa powder

For the buttercream:

100g Butter
150g Icing sugar
2 teaspoons cocoa powder

1. Heat the oven to 180C/gas mark 4. Grease and line a 9x13' baking tin.

2. Put all of the ingredients for the roll into a bowl and mix with an electric whisk or by hand until it's lump free and creamy looking. Beat it for as long as possible to get maximum air in there!

3. Pour the mixture into the baking tin and bake for 9-10 minutes, making sure a knife inserted into the cake comes out clean.

4. Tip the cake out onto a piece of greaseproof paper/foil/cling film and remove the other greaseproof paper from the top. Cut a strip of cake about 2 inches thick off the cake and place on top of the other piece of cake. Now roll the cake up starting from this small piece of cake, using your chosen lining paper to help you. Leave to cool completely.

5. Meanwhile you can get started on the butter cream. Put all ingredients in a bowl and whip up until combined and creamy looking. If it seems a little too thick, add a splash of milk.

6. Once your roll has cooled completely, very gently unroll it and begin decorating! Spread a little butter cream on the inside of the roll, then cover the rest of the roll. Remember, butter cream covers a multitude of sins, so don't panic or give up if your roll splits a little when you're unrolling it. Believe me, it happens to me every time! Cover the roll with the remaining butter cream, and use a knife or fork to draw some line patterns on the butter cream to make the whole thing look like a log. To finish, you can sprinkle some extra icing sugar or preferably caster sugar over the log to make it look like it's frosted. If you have any holly nearby stick a sprig on the log to make it look super Christmassy!


This'll probably be my last post before Christmas, so I hope you guys have a fantastic festive season and Santa brings everything you've wished for!

xx

Lemon Drizzle Cake

Friends and family are constantly asking me for this recipe, so here it is. It's a yummy, seriously lemony, seriously simple cake. Minimal ingredients, maximum taste!

Ingredients:

150g Self-raising flour
150g Butter, softened
150g Caster sugar
2 Eggs
2 Lemons
200g Icing sugar

1. Preheat oven to 180C/gas mark 4. Grease and line a 9x13' baking tin.

2. Whisk up the flour, caster sugar, butter and eggs in a mixing bowl until thick and creamy looking, and mix in the zest of the 2 lemons (you can zest lemons by grating them on the spikey bit of your cheese grater).

3. Bake in the oven for about 20 minutes, or until the sponge springs back when poked, and a knife inserted into the middle comes out clean.

4. Meanwhile, juice both of your lemons , putting about 3 dessertspoons full in a separate bowl to make your icing later.

5. When your sponge is done, remove from the oven and, with a kebab skewer or something equally spikey, poke about 12 holes evenly spaced into your cake. Now pour the lemon juice into these holes so that the cake soaks it all up. Leave for 10 minutes to allow the juice to be soaked up, then remove from the tin and leave to cool for about half an hour.

6. Now for the icing. Add the remaining lemon juice to the icing sugar and mix until it resembles icing. If it's a bit thick, add a few drops of water, and if it's too thin add more sugar. You want the icing to be pourable (or drizzlable) but not too runny. Now drizzle the icing all over the cake until it looks pretty, and leave to set.

7. Enjoy!