Espresso Brownies

When you just pull a batch of Espresso Brownies out of the oven and your sister texts you to ask if you're free and can she come over for coffee... like she even had to ask!

Espresso Brownies

Makes 16 - depending on how big you slice them

200g dark chocolate, chopped

200g unsalted butter, chopped, plus a little extra for greasing

4 eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

200g caster sugar

2 tablespoons espresso coffee (or very strong coffee)

200g plain flour, sifted

1/4 teaspoon salt

Icing sugar, for dusting

Preheat the oven to 180°C.  Line a 25cm x 20cm baking pan with foil.  Butter the foil and set aside.

Put the chocolate and butter in a heatproof bowl and put the bowl over a pan of gently simmering water.  Stir until melted and smooth.  Set aside to cool slightly.

In a large mixing bowl, beat the eggs, vanilla and sugar together with a wooden spoon.  Add the coffee and the cooled chocolate mixture and stir to combine.  Add the flour and salt and stir until it is just incorporated.  

Pour the batter into the prepared baking pan and bake for 20 - 25 minutes.  The top should be set, but it should still be gooey underneath.  

Leave to cool in the pan until just warm.  Remove from the pan, using the foil to lift, slice into desired size and dust with icing sugar.  I served them dusted with icing sugar and also with a dollop of  my French Vanilla Ice Cream. 

Tahini Cookies with White Chocolate and Pistachios

If you would like the recipe for these delicious Tahini Cookies with White Chocolate and Pistachios, head over to Bakelife and check out my daydreams... I mean, my post.

Brambleberry and Toasted Pecan Brownies

Do 30 minutes of interval training, 30 minutes of strength and conditioning, come home and eat a brownie... story of my life.

Brambleberry and Toasted Pecan Brownies

adapted from here

250g unsalted butter

180g dark chocolate (70%), chopped

385g caster sugar

2 teaspoon vanilla extract

4 eggs

150g plain flour

100g toasted pecans (I like to keep them in large chunks)

100g frozen brambleberries (or blackberries)

Cocoa powder for dusting

Preheat the oven to 180C.  Butter a 23cm square cake pan, line the base and sides with foil, butter the foil and line the base with baking paper.  Set aside.

Put the butter and chocolate into a medium saucepan and put it over a low heat.  Heat gently until melted, stirring occasionally. Once melted, remove from the heat and set aside to cool for about 10 minutes.

Once cooled, add the sugar, vanilla and whisk briskly.  Add the eggs one at a time, whisking well after each addition.  Dump the flour in all at once and stir with a spatula until just combined.  Gently fold in the pecans and frozen berries.  

Spoon the batter into the prepared pan and bake for 45 - 50 minutes.  The edges will be starting to set, but the centre should still have a slight wobble.

Cool the brownies completely in the tin before dusting with cocoa powder and slicing.

Serve slightly warm with ice cream or whipped cream, or unadulterated at room temperature.

Passionfruit Melting Moments

I made these on the weekend to take to the volleyball and have with coffee while I sat in the stands of a freezing stadium and cheered for my boys.  A girl's got to keep her energy levels (and core body temperature) up, right?

Passionfruit Melting Moments

slightly adapted from here

Makes 8

For the biscuits:

30ml pasionfruit juice (*Put the flesh of about 3 passionfruit into a small blender, pulse briefly just to loosen the flesh from the pips.  Pass through a fine sieve to collect the juice.)

220g unsalted butter, at room temperature

100g pure icing sugar (not icing mixture)

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

250g plain flour (I used "00" flour)

75g cornflour  

For the Filling:

60g unsalted butter, chopped, at room temperature

120g pure icing sugar, sifted

1 1/2 tablespoons passionfruit juice (*Collected the same way as above, adding a few of the pips back into the mixture for visual effect.)

Make the Biscuits:

Preheat the oven to 140C.  Line two baking trays with baking paper.  Set aside.

Put the passionfruit juice, butter, icing sugar and vanilla into the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment and beat on medium-high speed until thick and pale, about 5 minutes.  Stop the mixer and scrape son the sides of the bowl and add the flour and corn flour.  Mix on low speed until just incorporated and a smooth dough has formed.

Divide the dough into 16 even portions (about 40g each), roll into balls and places them on the prepared baking trays, making sure they have enough space to spread during baking.  Dip the tines of a fork into flour and press lightly on top of each ball to flatten slightly and leave an imprint.

Bake for 15 minutes, rotate the pans and bake for a further 15 minutes.  Gently transfer onto a wire rack to cool completely.

Make the Filling:

Put all the filling ingredients into the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment and beat on medium-high speed until smooth.

Spread the filling on the underside of half of the biscuits, then sandwich them together with the remaining biscuits.

Chocolate and Raspberry Brownies

The addition of raspberries here makes these brownies healthy.  Well, that's what I keep telling myself every time I go back for another slice.

Chocolate and Raspberry Brownies

slightly adapted from here

200g dark chocolate, chopped

250g unsalted butter, chopped

1 3/4 cups light brown sugar

4 eggs, at room temperature

1 1/3 cups plain flour

1/4 teaspoon instant coffee powder

1/4 teaspoon baking powder

1/3 cup cocoa powder

Pinch of salt

125g fresh raspberries

Preheat the oven to 180C and grease and a line a 23 x 23cm baking pan with baking paper.  Set aside.

Put the chocolate and butter into a saucepan and place it over a low heat until melted, stirring continuously.  Remove from the heat and leave to cool slightly.

In a bowl, sift the flour, coffee powder, baking powder, cocoa powder and salt and mix to combine. Set aside.

In a separate bowl, whisk the sugar and eggs together.  Add the cooled chocolate mixture and mix to combine.  Add the dry ingredients and stir with the whisk until just combine.  Pour the batter into the prepared pan and sprinkle the raspberries evenly over the surface.  Bake for about 30 minutes.  The sides should be just set, but the centre will still be a little wet.  The brownie will continue to cook as it cools, so it needs to be a little "under" when you take it out to get that desireably gooey finnish.  Take it out of  the oven, transfer it to a wire rack and leave to cool to room temperature in the pan before removing and slicing.

Gingerbread Oat Cookies

These must be the most divine breakfast cookie ever - breakfast, because oats.




Gingerbread Oat Cookies
slightly adapted from here
Makes 16 - 18

100g spelt flour
75g rolled oats (not instant)
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon fine sea salt
3/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground allspice
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
200g dark muscovado sugar
75g unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 vanilla bean, seeds scraped
1 egg

Preheat the oven to 180C.   Line two baking trays with baking paper.  Set aside.

Put the flour, oats, baking powder, salt, pepper and spices into a mixing bowl and whisk to combine and break up any lumps.

In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat the butter, sugar and vanilla seeds on medium-high until they become light and creamy, about 5 minutes.  Beat in the egg, mixing well until fully incorporated.  Reduce the speed to low and add the dry ingredients.  Mix until just combined.

Using a 2 tablespoon ice cream scoop, spoon out balls of dough onto the prepared trays, leaving plenty of room between each scoop for the cookies to spread.

Bake for 12 - 15 minutes, or until golden and starting to crisp at the edges.  Leave the cookies to cool on the baking trays for 5 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.

Chewy Choc Chunk Skillet Cookie

This is what you make for dessert when the Cookie Monster is coming for dinner... and by Cookie Monster, I mean me.

Chewy Choc Chunk Skillet Cookie

adapted from here

For the Cookie:

75g (1/2 cup) plain flour

Pinch of sea salt

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

200g dark chocolate, chopped 

100g unsalted butter, plus extra for greasing

3 eggs

110g (1/2 cup) dark muscovado sugar

110g (1/2 cup) golden caster sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

100g dark chocolate, chopped into chunky chunks

100g toasted pecans

15g (1/4 cup) barberries

To Serve:

French Vanilla Bean Ice Cream (or your favourite flavour store bought ice cream)

Make the Cookie:

Preheat the oven to 170C.  Grease a 25cm enamel skillet with butter.  Set aside.

Sift the flour, salt and baking powder into bowl and set aside. 

Put the chocolate and butter into a heat-proof bowl and set the bowl over a pan of simmering water. Don't let the bowl touch the water.  Heat until melted.  Remove from the heat and set aside to cool.

In the the bowl of an electric mixer, put the eggs, both sugars and vanilla and beat on medium-high for about 2 minutes.  Reduce the speed to low and add the melted chocolate mixture.  Once combined, add the flour mixture and mix on low until just combined.  Turn the mixer off and add the chocolate chunks, pecans and barberries.  Fold them until just incorporated.

Spoon the mixture into the prepared skillet and bake for 35 - 40 minutes.  The top should be set, but the centre will still have a little wobble to it.  Remove from the oven, and leave it to cool completely in the skillet.  Serve in wedges with your favorite ice cream.

Vanilla Bean and Gingerbread Macarons

I'm not usually big on glitter, but when I saw these awesome macarons, I decided if there was ever a time to break out the sparkles, it was now.  Once I committed to the task, there was no stopping me.  I was In The Zone baby.  I was a regular, Tinkerbell with her magic dust. Though, I think I ended up wearing more glitter than the macarons.   In fact when I was done, you could have stuck me on top of the Christmas tree and I wouldn't have looked out of place.  Fun though.

Vanilla Bean and Gingerbread Macarons

adapted from here

Makes about 25


For the Macarons:
110g ground almonds
200g icing sugar

Pinch of fine sea salt

1 vanilla bean, seeds scraped
90g egg whites (about 3 egg whites)
25g caster sugar

For the Buttercream:
60g unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 cups icing sugar, sifted
1 tablespoons cream
Pinch of fine sea salt
1 teaspoons ground Gingerbread Spice Mix (below)

For the Gingerbread Spice Mix:
2 teaspoons white peppercorns
1/4 whole nutmeg
12 whole cloves
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground ginger

Make the Gingerbread Spice Mix:
Put all the spices into a spice grinder (I use a dedicated coffee grinder), and blitz to smithereens. Set aside. Note: This will make more than you need for this recipe, but will keep in an airtight jar for months.

For Decorating:

Sugar syrup (1/4 cup caster sugar and 1/4 cup water brought to boil until the sugar melts and cooled)

Silver and red edible glitter

This template for the pinwheel effect

Make the Macarons:
Trace 3.5 cm circles onto two sheets of baking paper.  I use this template.  Turn the baking paper over so that the ink is on the back and line 2 large baking sheets with the baking paper. Set aside.

Put the ground almonds, icing sugar, salt and vanilla seeds into a food processor and blitz to mix.  Sift into a large mixing bowl. Set aside

Put the egg whites and caster sugar into the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the whisk attachment. Whisk on medium for about 5 minutes, then on high for another 5 minutes. You will have a stiff meringue.

Add the almond mixture to the meringue and begin to mash and smear them against the sides of the bowl. You don't have to be careful here, the point is to deflate the egg whites. After about 40 folds, you should have a mixture that is the consistency of molten lava - slow flowing. Start checking your mixture at 30 folds and go easy from there. If you over mix, you will have a batter that is runny. If you under mix, you will have a batter that is too stiff. Both with be difficult to pipe. You are looking for a batter that, when dropped from a spoon, back into the batter, it disappears back into the rest of the batter in about 20 seconds.

Spoon the batter into a large disposable piping bag and snip a 5mm hole in the tip. Pipe the mixture onto the baking paper, using the circles as a guide. Pipe until the circles are almost full as the mixture will spread a little on sitting.

Preheat the oven to 140C.

Rap the baking sheet against the counter a couple of times. This will get rid of any air bubbles. Leave them uncovered and at room temperature for 30 minutes. This will allow the macarons to form a skin on the surface. They should feel dry when very carefully touched.

Bake, on tray at a time for 16 - 18 minutes, or until you are able to easily peel the macaron from the baking paper. Leave to cool completely on the baking sheets for 10 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.

Make the Buttercream:
Put the butter into the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment and beat on medium until smooth. Add the icing sugar and beat (slowly at first), until fluffy. Add the cream, salt and spice mix and beat for 2 - 3 minutes until whipped.

Spoon the buttercream into a disposable piping bag and snip a 5mm hole in the tip. Pipe onto the bottom sides of half of the macarons and top with the other macarons, sandwiching the filling between them. 

To Decorate:

Brush the tops of each macaron with the sugar syrup.  Sprinkle a some with silver glitter and sprinkle some with red glitter for the solid colours.  For the pinwheels, place the pinwheel template directly on top of the macaron and sprinkle with red glitter.  Gently lift the template off and quickly flip the macaron over so that any excess falls off.