Boysenberry & toblerone brownie

Thanks to Healthy Food Guide NZ for the recipe!

3 eggs, seperated
1c castor sugar
3/4c low fat vanilla yoghurt (I used Meadowfresh Live-Lite because I had it in the fridge, Vanilla Spice and Vanilla Toffee)
1 1/2 tbsp vegetable oil
1 1/4 c self-raising flour
3/4c cocoa powder
1/2c frozen berries (recipe used raspberries, I used boysenberries and cut them in half)
50g toblerone, cut the triangles in half

-  Preheat oven to 180 deg C, line a 30x20cm baking tin with baking paper
- Combine egg yolks, sugar, yoghurt and oil in a mixing bowl.
- Sift in flour and cocoa and mix well.
- In a seperate bowl beat the egg whites until they form soft peaks.
- Fold in to the other mixing bowl (make sure you fold it in! Otherwise it takes ages for them to mix!)
- Pour mixture into the baking tin and spread evenly with berries and toblerone
- Bake for 20 mins or until skewer comes out clean
- Cool completely before removing from tin and slicing.

The texture is absolutely perfect - but more like cake than brownie (I may have over-baked it) - not as fantastic tasting on it's own as the last brownie I blogged about but the toblerone (I didn't get any berries on my slice) really completed it. Not too sweet, not moist or dry, but don't make this recipe unless you are putting stuff on top!

Fruit sponge

2-3 cups sweetened fruit
2 eggs
2 heaped tbsp sugar
2 tbsp flour
1 tsp baking powder

Today I did the unthinkable. I did two things I hate. Touched/cut feijoas, and stewed fruit. I did it because there was lots of left over fruit in the lunch room at work, and because I didn't have anything else to do and felt like making Tom some pudding. I cut up 2 pairs and 5 feijoas and used a handful of frozen boysenberries. I put about 3/4c water in the pot with them and 1 1/2 tbsp sugar, and boiled them for 10 minutes.

Then....
- Beat eggs and sugar until thick
- Fold in flour and baking powder
- Bake at 190 deg C for 30 minutes

Easy! I halved the sponge mix, because I intended to make a mini pudding but apparently I used too much fruit so it's poking through the sponge at the top! Tom loved it, and said "If I didn't know you better I'd swear there was feijoas in this" - he was surprised to learn that there was! I had a mouthful of what I hope was boysenberries and some sponge and it was nice :) But no guarantees on quality, Tom isn't picky ;) 

Low fat banana choc chip loaf

Baking on a Monday just feels so wrong. But I was away for the weekend, and Tom has no morning tea (because caramel popcorn and vege chips are too girly apparently!) so I thought I'd best use the bananas that I took from work so that I could bake with them.

• 2/3 cup white sugar
• 1/4 cup margarine, softened
• 2 eggs
• 1 cup mashed bananas
• 1/4 cup water
• 1 2/3 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon baking powder

- Preheat oven to 170 deg C

- Beat butter and sugar until smooth. Add eggs water and banana and mix.

- Add flour, salt, soda and baking powder and stir to combine. Pour into a greased loaf tin.

- Bake for approx. 60 minutes until brown and pulling away from the edges.

Verdict - YUM! A bit heavier than I like my banana cake to be, but this is a loaf after all. I added the perfect amount of chocolate chips, not so many that your hands were covered in melted chocolate after eating it. And it lasted all week without going dry/mouldy! Success. 

Peanut butter choc chip shortbread

This morning's mission is shortbread. I've never even made regular stuff but instead of starting there (because a) I love a challenge and b) Tom doesn't fancy shortbread) I went straight for peanut butter.

Thanks to http://theviewfromthegreatisland.blogspot.co.nz for the recipe...

1/2c (approx 125g) of room temperature, unsalted butter

1/3c peanut butter

1/2tsp vanilla

1 1/4c all purpose flour

1/4c icing sugar

1/2tsp sea salt (which I just happened to have in the cupboard- who'd have thought?)

3/4c milk choc chips

- Cream butter and peanut butter. Add vanilla.

- In a seperate bowl, combine sugar, flour and salt. Add to wet ingredients and mix until just combined. (At this point, because I only started with 110gm butter I had to add a little more because it was just too crumbly)

- Stir in chocolate chips (I only used about 2/3 of what I had, and am leaving the rest to put on the top.

- Roll into a log (on grease proof paper). Wrap, and refrigerate for a few hours.

- Cut into short-bread style thick slices and bake for 12-14 minutes (presumably on 180 deg C)

I have used Pams dark compound chocolate drops, but the recipe does say MILK CHOCOLATE- apparently this is needed to complement the peanut butter... So I gave in and went and bought some Nestle milk choc drops to put on the top, and had a sneaky taste of the cookie dough before baking it, it tasted good. But I do think that the milk choc drops on top, which softened but didn't totally melt, really made the cookies. These are crisp and buttery (or peanut buttery!) like shortbread should be, and since I'm also not a huge shortbread fan I love the chocolate addition. I had them in the fridge for about 2 hours and they were perfect slicing texture (almost rock hard!) I LOVE THESE! Yum.

Pavlova!

Tonight I attempted the kiwi classic, the Pavlova. We're going to a pot luck dinner tomorrow night and I've watched my Mum make it twice now and convinced it's time to try it on my own.

2 egg whites

1 tsp corn flour

1 tsp white vinegar

1 tsp vanilla

1 1/2c castor sugar

4 tbsl boiling water

Preheat oven to 180 deg C

Combine all ingredients, beat with electric beater for 15 minutes. Pile onto a flat oven tray covered in non-stick baking paper. Smooth out and squash down until it is cake sized and shaped with as few "flicks" as possible. Bake for 10 minutes, then turn oven off and leave in oven for a further 60 minutes. DO NOT OPEN THE OVEN.

Decorate with cream and seasonal fruit, and enjoy the taste of home-made pav! Yes, mine may be cracked a bit around the outside but at least she hasn't collapsed.

Tastes AMAZING! Was a hit at the pot-luck dinner :)

Choc chunk brownies

Yesterday when I was making muffins, I should've remembered we have a farewell morning tea at work tomorrow for Lloyd, who's leaving us for London. So this afternoon, while I tried to ignore the fact that I wagged the gym and upped my chocolate intake, I googled in search of an ultimate brownie recipe. It's hard, because no recipe is perfect. One needed 7 eggs, another needed golden castor sugar (!?), another wanted choc chips AND a block of cooking chocolate, another was purely in ounces and I couldn't be bothered converting the measurements. In the end I decided on this one...

3/4c cocoa

1/2tsp baking soda

150g melted butter

1/2c boiling water

2c sugar

2 eggs lightly beaten

1 1/3c flour

1tsp vanilla

1/4tsp salt

1/2c walnuts or similar (I chose not to add nuts purely because I don't have any)

2c choc bits (I cut up one of the new Whittakers Peanut Chocolate blocks)

- Preheat oven to 180 deg C

- In a bowl, combine cocoa and baking soda. Add half of the melted butter and boiling water, stir until mixed completely.

- Stir in sugar, eggs, vanilla and remaining butter.

- Stir in flour and salt.

- add nuts/chocolate pieces and pour into a greased 30cmx20cm tin (I used a smaller one, because that's all I had)

- Bake for 35-40 minutes.

Well, the bad news is I forgot the vanilla, because in the recipe I am reading from it lists vanilla as an ingredient but it doesn't say where to add it so I somehow completely missed it! However the brownie is still AMAZING, the only brownie I've ever made that I've been happy with. Would like to use a whole block of Whittakers chocolate next time instead of just half a block, but the odd mouthful of peanut butter was delicious anyway. I used a smaller pan that recommended above and it made a delicious, chunky brownie.

Now I just have to master how long to let it cool for because cutting it. I'm impatient, and it often crumbles a little...

Definitely recommend this recipe!

Banana choc chip muffins

So I buy bananas with the intention of eating them, then before I know it they're over-ripe. I assume tons of people have the same problem. I always try to utilise them in baking but I'm cautious of getting sick of banana baked goods. But today I put that aside and made some good old banana choc chip muffins. Recipe courtesy of NZ Woman's Weekly...

3 mashed bananas

1/2c sugar

100g melted (properly melted!) butter

1 egg

2 tbsp milk

1 1/2c flour

1tsp baking powder

1tsp baking soda

1- 1 1/2c choc chips

- Preheat oven to 180 deg C

-Combine banana, sugar, butter and egg in a bowl. Stir to combine (this is why it's important that the butter is properly melted)

- Add flour, baking powder and soda, stir to combine, don't over stir. Add choc chips.

- Spoon into muffin tin and bake for 20-25 minutes.

SO EASY! Verdict: These are delicious! I have given up using muffin cups as I find the grease just saturates them at the bottom, whereas if you sit the muffins on a paper towel when you remove them from the tray some of the excess oil can be removed. I don't recommend using 1 1/2c choc chips, 1 cup should be plenty. I will definitely make these muffins again, not too banana-ry and totally delicious. Microwave it for 20 seconds for a warm, tasty treat. I just think that next time I'll only add about 3/4c of choc chips... They're quite messy to eat with all that chocolate!

Chocolate Chunk & Berry Cookies

Recipe courtesy of the Australian Womans Weekly Recipe Book, I think... Tom photocopied it from his work. Plagiarism!

125g softened butter

3/4c brown sugar

1 egg

1tsp vanilla

1c plain flour

1/4c self raising flour

1/3c cocoa

1/2tsp baking soda

90g dark chocolate

125g berries

- Preheat oven to 180 deg C

- Beat butter, sugar, egg and vanilla with an electric mixer until combined.

- Stir in flours, cocoa and soda alternately with chocolate and berries (I used tinned boysenberries)

- Drop tablespoons of mixture onto trays, flatten slightly (about 5cm apart, ideally more as these melt and spread)

- Bake for 15 minutes and let stand for 5 before transferring onto a wire rack.

Verdict: Tom loves them, but he's not picky. personally I think this recipe is better suited for brownie, or muffins. They never crisped up and are extremely moist which I don't like in cookies. Also, learn from my mistake - don't use the electric mixer when you add the berries! We ended up with a hundred undetectable berry fragments, which may have been where I went wrong.

All in all I'll never make this again, unless I make a brownie. However, the mixture was DELICIOUS, light and moussy. Should've just eaten it like that!