The Best Brownies

Every month, at work, each team takes it in turns to bake cakes to sell for charity. This month was my team's turn and I decided to make Brownies, I thought I would share my recipe for these delicious things, they are one of my favourites :)

Ingredients:
150g Unsalted Butter
200g Light Brown Suguar
100g Dark Brown Sugar
4 Eggs
75g Cocoa
150g Plain Flour
1 tsp Bicarbonate of Soda
pinch of salt
200g Milk Chocolate

I love baking Brownies, I love the process, the smell of them baking and eating them when they are still warm! The trick to a good Brownie is good quality chocolate. Without fail I will always make Brownies with Dairy Milk Chocolate (unless I'm making a variation, but more on that later!). 

I usually start off by preheating the oven to about 190°C. I find it easier to make sure that the Chocolate is chopped before starting anything else too, just so that you know everything is ready to go the minute all of the ingredients are combined. 

 Now you can start baking!

First of all, melt the butter over a low heat and add the sugar, keep on the heat and mix until combined. Then sift the flour, cocoa, bicarb and salt together in a bowl.

Add the melted butter and sugar mix to the dry ingredients and stir well. In a separate bowl/jug/cup/whatever you can lay your hands on, beat the eggs and add to the mixture, give it another good stir.

As the mixture is still warm at this point, you need to work quickly through the next part. Add the chocolate chunks to the mixture and quickly stir them in (just quickly, otherwise those chocolate chunks will melt into your brownie mixture and whilst it will still be delicious, you will also be chunkless).

Quickly spoon the mixture into your baking tin and pop into the oven. In my fan assisted oven, they usually take about 10-15 minutes. you are looking for a nice bouncy top but not too firm.

I usually add a dusting of icing sugar too, just to give it that little extra sweetness on top. 

You can do different variations, adding different types of chocolate or adding white chocolate chunks. The variation I did alongside this one was a mint chocolate brownie. Instead of Dairy Milk, I used Nestle Aero Mint and I added a good splash of peppermint flavouring to the beaten eggs before adding it to the chocolate mixture. The possibilities are endless, but I will always come back to the usual chocolate brownie, in my opinion, no other variations can beat it :)

Hot Cross Buns - but better!

Personally, I like hot cross buns, Gavin however does not like the currents and sultanas, I went in search of a recipe for a hot cross bun that he would like and in my opinion this recipe is far better than the traditional hot cross buns!

Ingredients:
For the buns:
18oz Plain Flour
1 and 1/2 tsp Mixed Spice
2 and 1/2 tsp Yeast
50g Sugar
350ml Lukewarm Milk
2 Eggs
200g Milk Chocolate
For the crosses:
Plain Flour
Water
For the glaze:
Water
Sugar

Firstly, sieve the flour into a large bowl, without doing my trick and getting flour everywhere

Then add the Mixed Spice to the mound of Flour

Add the Yeast and Sugar and mix together

Warm the milk so that it is lukewarm, add the eggs to the milk and beat lightly, then add to the dry mixture and combine it together until it forms a dough. On a floured work surface knead the dough until it's smooth and elasticy, this took me about 7 minutes of kneading to reach this point, but it depends on your kneading speeds :)

Place in a lightly floured bowl and cover with cling film, then leave it in a warm place for 1 hour to prove. During this time, the dough will double in size

Knock it back to it's original size and fold in the chocolate chunks

Divide mixture into 12, place on a baking tray and cover with cling film. Take it back to the warm place and leave to prove again for 30 minutes, they should double in size again during this time. Whilst they are proving, now is a good time to preheat your oven to 190°C 

Mix together approximately 3 tablespoons of flour to 6 tablespoons of water, the mixture should be a thick paste that can be piped. Place in a piping bag or just a sandwich bag and cut the end off and pipe the crosses on top of the buns. Now they can go into the oven!

The smell of a hot cross bun baking in the oven is, quite frankly, amazing! They took about 12 minutes in my oven, when they were a golden brown on top and hollow sounding when you tap the bottom of the bun, out they come. Whilst they are cooling, add 50g sugar and 60ml water to a small saucepan and bring to the boil and simmer for 5 minutes. Whilst the buns are still warm, brush the glaze lightly over the tops - serve warm, whilst the chocolate is still melted and yum!

Useful Tips Gained: Making a glaze - I've never actually had to make one

Items to Purchase: None

Items Added to Amazon Wishlist: None

Miscellaneous Items Wished for: Lots of ingredients to make different breads, I really need to get around to trying out some of the more exciting breads in Paul Hollywood's book 

Are Blondies Really More Fun?

I was quite literally told to make this recipe and to not judge or ask questions until I had tried the finished item. Because this project was actually Gavin's demand , he was my assistant during this bake. 

For those of you who have no idea what Blondies are (neither did until very recently!), they are a type of Brownie, the main difference being that they are made with White Chocolate, making them Blonde instead of Brown - hence the name.

The Project: Are Blondies Really More Fun?
Ingredients: 
For the Blondies:
100g White Chocolate
125g Unsalted Butter
225g Light Soft Brown Sugar
1tsp Vanilla Extract
3 Large Eggs
100g Plain Flour
50g Self Raising Flour
4 Tablespoons of Horlicks
100g Maltesers
60g Milk Chocolate
For the Topping;
35g Maltesers
60g White Chocolate

Blondies require longer in the oven than a cake on a lower  heat - so the first step was to preheat the oven to 150°C (Fan), then on with the baking.

Melt the white chocolate in a bowl over boiling water - avoiding the whole burnt chocolate that ruins the taste of your baked goods issue :)

When it starts to melt, you can add the butter to the bowl, once completely melted, you mix them together, resulting in a smooth mixture.

Next, you add the sugar, beaten eggs and vanilla extract to the melted chocolate mixture, you really need to make sure that you stir this well, soft sugar tends to clump together, leaving little annoying pockets of sugar that you really do not want.

Sift the self raising flour, plain flour and Horlicks into the mixture and stir until combined.

When you are happy that the mixture is sufficiently stirred, you can add in the Maltesers and chopped milk chocolate chunks.

Then pour into your prepared tin and pop into the oven.

It takes about 30 minutes in the oven to finish. Once done, you can prepare the topping whilst it is cooling. Crush the remaining Maltesers and melt the remaining white chocolate.

Scatter the chopped Maltesers on top of the Blondies and drizzle the white chocolate and we are done!

I promised that I would stick to the recipe perfectly for this project, I was true to my word, although I do have some things that I would change about the recipe and some things that I would do differently. For example, I would not include the extra chopped chocolate, it's not necessary, in it's place I would add some kind of nut, perhaps walnuts or pecans, something to add a crunch and to break up this very rich Blondie. 

 I also woud not add the Maltesers to the main mixture, if you spoon in half the mixture into the tin, then add your Maltesers on top and cover with the remaining mixture, you will end up with Maltesers scattered more evenly.

Overall, I was pleasantly surprised, generally I liked them. They are a good idea and a nice twist to normal brownies. Give them a whirl for yourself :)

Useful Tips Gained: None
Kitchen Items to Purchase: None
Items Added to Amazon Wish List: None