Chocolate mud muffins

I forgot to record the recipe I used... but they were delicious, and here is photographic proof!

Vege frittata

8 eggs
6-12 cherry tomatoes, quartered
1 onion, diced
4 button mushrooms
Frozen spinach (thawed)
Frozen peas (thawed)
Grated cheese
Salt & pepper
3/4c milk

-Lightly brown onion and mushrooms in a buttered fry pan. When browned, throw in cherry tomatoes for 30 seconds or so.
-Pour into the bottom of a lined baking dish, mine was about 25x15cm. Add spinach and peas.
-Whisk milk and eggs, add salt & pepper to taste. Pour into baking dish.
- Top with cheese. I also put cheese in the egg mixture, but not as much as I would normally add to cheese sauce.
-Bake at 180deg C for 30 mins

Brookies (brownies + cookies)

Cookie dough:
1c + 2 tbsp plain flour
1/2tsp salt
1/2tsp baking soda
115g softened butter
1/2c brown sugar
1/4c white sugar
1 egg
1tsp vanilla
160g choc chips

Brownie batter:
115g butter cut into cubes
3/4c plain flour
1tbsp cocoa powder
1/2tsp salt
140g chocolate, chopped (I used chocolate chips)
3/4c white sugar
1/4c brown sugar
3 eggs, room temp
1tsp vanilla

Make cookie dough:
- Add flour, salt and baking soda in a bowl, stir to combine and set aside.
- In a large bowl, mix butter and sugars until smooth and creamy. Add egg and beat, and add vanilla.
- Slowly add flour mixture and beat to combine. Fold in chocolate chips.
- Cover bowl and refrigerate for 3 hours.

Make brownie mixture:
- Combine flour, salt and cocoa powder in a bowl.
- Put 2 inches of water in a large pot and bring to the boil. Set a heatproof bowl on top (make sure bowl isn't touching boiling water) and melt butter and chocolate. Take off the heat, but keep bowl on the pot, and add sugars. Leave to cool to room temp.
- Add eggs, whisk until just combined. Then, using a spatula (to avoid too much air in the batter) stir in the vanilla and fold in flour. Do not overmix!
- Pour into a greased muffin tin, have each muffin hole halfway full. Put in fridge for 1 hour.

- Preheat oven to 190deg C and place rack in centre of oven. Take brownie batter out of the fridge.
- Roll cookie dough into small balls and flatten into a disc, and then press discs on top of the brownie batter.
- Bake until cookies are golden, 17-19 mins ish.

Okay, these didn't cook properly. It may have something to do with me not leaving everything in the fridge for long enough, but it also may be our oven as 3 down one side cooked and the others didn't. Might be worth trying again, but given how many ingredients went into it, it was kind of a waste and I might be too scared to try again! but they smelt INCREDIBLE and they looked so cute!

You live, you learn.

Eggless chocolate mint cake

4 1/2 c flour
3c white sugar
1c cocoa
1c vegetable oil (I used Canola)
3c Water
3tsp baking soda
1/2tsp salt
3tbsp vanilla essence (I used mint essence, hence choc mint cake)

- Preheat oven to 185 deg C
- In a large bowl (and I mean LARGE! Not just a normal baking bowl, it goes all over the bench, I promise you!) sift flour, cocoa, soda and salt. Add sugar and combine.
- Add oil, water and vanilla and mix.
- Pour into a large, greased cake tin (I used a small cake tin and a loaf tin, unsure how much this is going to rise...) and bake for an hour.

Well this may be interesting. I used 2c normal sugar and 1c castor, because I ran out of sugar. I used canola oil because that's all we had. I used 2/3c cocoa and 1/3c of something chocolatey the flatmate had on her shelf. And lastly, I used mint essence because I simply didn't have enough vanilla.

So let's be honest. If this is edible, I will be very (but pleasantly) surprised!

Cross your fingers for me. Also, my bench and floor are filthy because I didn't have a big enough bowl, and my clean skirt is also covered in cocoa.

Update: I wish I had taken a photo, this cake looked beautiful with cream cheese icing. I made my flatmate do a taste test, and even though he will eat ANYTHING he really wasn't impressed. But then Tom had some and really enjoyed it, but it was EXTREMELY minty- he said you had to know it was mint chocolate before taking a bite. So the moral of today's story is, when substituting vanilla essence for mint essence, probably don't use 1:1 ratio.

Might make this again, but I think I preferred my mint cupcakes here.... http://bakeittoenjoyit.blogspot.co.nz/2012/07/mint-chocolate-cupcakes-with-mint-cream.html

Flourless choc brownie cookies

3 cups icing sugar

2/3 cups cocoa powder

1/4 teaspoon salt

3 large egg whites, room temperature

1 tablespoon vanilla extract

1 1/2 cups milk chocolate chips

- Preheat oven to 180deg C. Line baking sheets with baking paper.

- In a large bowl combine icing sugar, cocoa and salt. Add egg whites and vanilla and stir until just combined. Add choc chips

- Spoon small amounts onto baking paper and chill in fridge for 5mins for dough to harden a little.

- Bake for 10-12 mins until slightly cracked. Cool on wire rack.

Wow these are DELICIOUS. But you must remember to take them out when they first start cracking or they fall apart. I am literally scraping my first lot off the baking paper and eating with a spoon, can't waste them because it's so delicious! 

Lemon custard muffins

3 tbsp custard powder
8 tbsp all purpose flour
1 egg
1 tbsp yoghurt/cooking oil
1/2 tsp any flavouring agent (e.g. vanilla, lemon)
1/6 tsp baking powder
4 tbsp powdered sugar (or more if you like sweeter muffins. I used 5)
100ml water (up to 130ml depending on consistency)

- Preheat oven to 190deg C
- Mix all ingredients (I only used 100ml water and my mixture was still extremely runny)
- Full muffin cups 3/4 full (I only got 7 out of this recipe)
- Bake for 15-18 mins, let cool on wire rack.

Wow. These were terrible. Tasteless, didn't rise at all, and the weighed a tonne. And yes, 1/6tsp of baking powder was exactly what the recipe said.They don't look anything like the picture on the original recipe ...see http://mykitchenflavors-bonappetit.blogspot.co.nz/2011/12/custard-muffins.html

I'm not even uploading a picture. And even Tom wouldn't eat them...

Melting moments/yoyos

125g softened butter
3/4c plain flour
1/4c icing sugar
1/3c custard powder

- Preheat oven to 160deg C
- Use electric mixer to beat butter until creamy.
- Add dry ingredients and mix to combine.
- Using your hands, roll mixture into small balls (remember that you will be joining these in pairs, so the more the better!) and use a fork dusted in icing sugar to flatten these.
- Bake for 15mins or until very lightly browned.
- Let cool for 30 mins

60g softened butter
2/3c icing sugar
2tsp lemon rind
1tbsp lemon juice

- Beat butter and icing sugar with electric mixer until light and fluffy
- Add lemon rind and and juice and beat until combined
- Spread icing over cookies and sandwich together

I'm not sure if this recipe is less-than-ideal or if my butter being melted instead of softened failed me. My cookies are alot flatter than melting moments should be, so next time I'll try only lightly softening the butter.