chocolate brownies for tn

this is an oldie, but a goodie which i first made in 1991 when i was expecting miss c. never to do things by halves, i made a double or triple quantity batch in my large pan. i have since shown much more restraint and have been making single quantity batches of this. yesterday, tn and his family came over for a visit - they were in town from perth, and i had to make this because tn likes it...actually, i remember him liking chocolate truffles, as well, which i will save for the next time they come over for a visit.

125g butter, cubed
150g dark chocolate, broken into pieces
250 grams brown sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla essence
75 grams plain flour
25 grams self raising flour
125 grams chocolate chips

line a square 19 cm pan with baking paper. preheat the oven to 180 degrees celcius.

place the chocolate and butter into the thermomix bowl and melt for 6 minutes at 50 degrees on speed 1. add the sugar. eggs and vanilla and combine for 10 seconds on speed 5. add the flour and combine for 10 seconds. scrape the nowl down and combine for another 5 seconds. add the chocolate chips and pour the mixture into the prepared pan and spread it out the best you can. you don't have to mix the chocolate chips through the thick batter because they'll get mixed in when you pour this mixture out and spread it out. bake for 30 minutes. whatever you do, don't over bake the brownies. they should be cooked through, yet somewhat fudgey in the middle.

these brownies are supposed to have good keeping qualities, but i wouldn't know because they always get eaten up...even the triple quantity batches...

chocolate sorbet

i though i should post this since lulu asked for it especially.

100 grams sugar
50 grams glucose syrup
50 grams cocoa
80 grams water
1 small tin coconut cream
2x350 grams ice cubes
1 egg white (optional)

place the sugar, syrup, cocoa and water into the thermomix bowl and combine for 3 minutes at 50 degrees celcius on speed 3.
add coconut cream and the first lot of ice and blend for 10 seconds on speed 10.
add the remaining ice and egg white and blend for 1 minute on speed 9, using the spatula to assist the ice cubes combine with the mixture.
serve immediately.

pretend truffles

these are pretend truffles, and purists will scoff and say worse, but i think they aren't half bad considering they have pretty healthy ingredients. again, i made these with the thermomix...it was there, and when it's there, it's easy to use.

250 grams almonds, brazil nuts, sunflower seeds.....whatever nut/seed you have on hand
75 grams sesame seeds
100 grams honey
40 grams cocoa

place everything in the thermomix bowl and blitz on speed 10 for 5-10 seconds, depending on the texture you like. form the mixture into balls, roll in coconut and refrigerate to firm up before serving.

choclate crackles

miss c had her party on saturday, and she made specific requests; she wanted fairy bread and chocolate crackles. can you believe it? she's nearly 18 (we had the party early) and she wanted children's party food. beanstalk did voice his disdain by asking if i had to listen to her, but then, i had already worked out what i was hoping to do.
the fairy bread was a real hit. it was gone...
chocolate crackles were popular too, but the time they were brought out, most of the crowd had had their fill.

250 grams copha
5 cups rice bubbles
1 cup coconut
1 1/2 cups icing sugar
5 tablespoons cocoa

melt the copha.
combine the rice bubbles, coconut, icing sugar and cocoa in a large bowl and pour over the copha and mix thoroughly.
spoon into 24 paper patty pans and leave to set.

that's it.

pots of chocolate creamy stuff

i had sal over tonight on a spur of the moment thing. we had spent a good part of the day together, but i felt since she has such small windows of opportunity to hang with me, we should do dins as well.
in the meantime, because blutsie and golden one had taken wiggy, sly and acka dacks to the easter show, i had to collect engine from day care. i didn't factor anything in, except that i thought it would be nice to have sal over.
so i get myself to day care and one of the carers yacks to me for ages, and i'm thinking, "please let me take engine....i don't know why, but i have to take him". i still hadn't registered that i would have to make dinner (i was tired, but i knew i had to get home to do something).
eventually, i'm home and wondering what to do. i thought we could have a nibbly thing and settled on my old faithful - brazilian cheese puffs. sal wasn't in the mood for seafood (we have just finished easter), so my original plan of having prawns was not a good one, so i started thinking along the lines of meat...steak....so got some veal steaks and cubes. that was somewhat of a mistake - the veal cubes weren't uniformly tender - some bits were nice, and some bits were chewy....
hopefully, i redeemed myself with dessert....

3/4 cup cream
pinch salt
200 grams dark chocolate, chopped
2 eggs, at room temperature
2 teaspoons liqueur


put the cream and salt in a small saucepan (don't try this in anything anything bigger because this makes a small quantity....a small quantity which is very, very rich).
bring to the boil, and add the chocolate.
stir until the chocolate melts. do this over low heat.
beat the eggs with the liqueur and add them to the hot chocolate mixture.
remove from the stove and use a blending wand (i use my bamix) to combine the mixture.
pour into 8 or 9 espresso coffee cups. make sure the servings are small - this is rich.
cover with cling wrap and refrigerate for a couple of hours.

an alternative to the coffee cups is to pour the mixture into chinese soup spoons - with this confection, less is definitely more.

apple and sultana scrolls

these are essentially a glorified scone, with yummy things rolled inside and drizzled on top to make them interesting. and irresistable. feel free to vary the filling and icing - think chocolate chips instead of sultanas....caramel icing instead of chocolate icing.....berries instead of apples....get the drift?
the first time i made these scrolls was in august 2004, just before i went to pick miss c and miss k up from school. the weather hadn't quite warmed up and the air was still a little nippy in the afternoon. they were just out of the oven and i made lots of chocolate icing to drizzle over them. to be really honest, the temptation is to drizzle them with chocolate icing the minute they come out of the oven. however, if you let them cool a bit before pouring the icing over, the icing will look better, so it will depend on whether you want them to look more aesthetically pleasing, or whether you want them super gooey and sticky. your call.
try not to overhandle the dough - once it is just mixed, go onto the next step of gently rolling it; there is no need to knead the dough. just think of it as toughening the dough each time you knead. this is a scone dough, remember?

2 cups self-raising flour
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 tsp mixed spice
60g butter
1/2 cup milk
1/3 cup sultanas
extra flour, for dusting
1 large granny smith apple, peeled, cored, finely diced

chocolate icing
1/2 cup icing sugar
2 tbs cocoa powder
3 tbs milk

preheat oven to 200°C. line a baking tray with baking paper.
place flour, sugar and mixed spice in a large bowl.
melt the butter and combine it with the milk.
make a well in the centre of the flour and add the milk mixture. use a round-bladed knife in a cutting motion to mix until evenly incorporated and the mixture just comes together. turn dough onto a lightly floured surface and gently use a lightly floured rolling pin to roll out dough into a 25 x 30cm rectangle.
sprinkle with apple and sultanas. starting from the long side, firmly roll dough into a log. cut the log into twelve 2cm thick slices. arrange scrolls cut-side up, side by side on prepared tray.
bake in oven for 30 minutes or until golden and cooked through.
remove from oven and transfer to a wire rack.
set aside for 10 minutes to cool.
meanwhile, make the chocolate icing; combine the icing sugar and cocoa powder in a small bowl. add the milk and stir until combined and smooth.
drizzle scrolls with chocolate icing and serve.

chocolate ripple cake

i finally had a chance to make this in september for will's birthday. i say finally because we have been meaning to get around to trying out the recipe for years now. sounds silly, doesn't it? you'd think that we would just make it and that would be that. well, it took some time because i didn't want to make it for no reason at all and have to eat it all by myself - in circumstances such as these miss c and miss k are absolutely no help whatsoever. and like i need to eat a whole chocolate ripple cake all by myself and make myself more jiggly than i already am.....ugh....let's get on with the recipe....

1 packet chocolate ripple biscuits (these are a plain chocolate biscuit without a chocolate coating)
600 millilitres thickened cream, whipped, with a little sugar
sherry

dip a biscuit into the sherry and spread with some cream. place on plate. repeat with another biscuit and sandwich the two biscuits and stand them on the plate sideways. repeat with all the biscuits and place the biscuits next to each other on the plate until you get a log. cover the entire log with cream and cover with cling wrap and place in the refrigerator overnight.

i made the one for will's birthday without the sherry and from what i've heard, it was fine. instead of the log, i arranged the biscuits so they resulting cake looked like a round cake with little bits of the biscuits just peeking out from the cream. another way of arranging the biscuits is to curve them around as the log is forming to make a ring cake. the ring cake needs to be made with double quantities of biscuits and cream and looks fabulous with mixed berries overflowing out of the centre.

hot chocolate fudge sauce

this is something for true chocolate die hards. also, very simple, and microwavable, if a stovetop isn't available or too much trouble. try it on ice cream, as if u needed to be told.

1/2 cup cocoa
1/2 milk
125 grams dark chcoclate
125 grams butter
4-6 marshmallows

place everything in a saucepan over low heat and stir until smooth, adding sugar to taste. serve immediately once sauce boils.

chocolate chip cookies by whisks

these cookies are both crispy and chewy - crisp on the edges and chewy towards the middle. to keep them chewy in the centre, it's important not to over bake them; you want them to be sufficiently cooked so they hold together, and still be chewy.
if small mounds of dough are placed on the baking tray to make small cookies, the resulting cookies are not unlike the ones from famous amos. i remember to first time i had a famous amos cookie and thought that they were so buttery, crisp and crunchy - i didn't know that my cookies were a no effort clone of famous amos. the actual intention of these cookies was to copy those of mrs field - these aren't a mrs field's clone, but i'm very happy with them, as are miss c and miss k and all those who have had them.
because these cookies are so quick and easy to make, i often like to whip up a batch before we go somewhere, and there's nothing as homey and comforting as fresh cookies. they also make the house smell welcoming. if you know you are going to see some friends soon, why not surprise them with a batch of these?
feel free to mix and match with the chocolate - if you do end up using chopped up block chocolate, the ones with nuts are very good - and i just love the irregularity of the chopped chocolate - it adds a certain charm to the cookies, don't you think?

1 cup softened butter
1/2 cup sugar
1 1/2 cups brown sugar
2 eggs
2 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 1/2 cups self raising flour
3/4 teaspoon salt
600 grams chocolate chips (or chopped up block chocolate, which is my preference)

preheat oven to 190 degrees celcius.
in a large mixing bowl, cream together the butter, sugars, eggs, and vanilla.
add the flour & salt.
mix together.
stir in the chocolate chips.
place walnut-sized dough portions a baking tray lined with baking paper. i find that six lumps of dough fit on the baking tray comfortably. i like to use a small ice cream scoop to scoop out the cookie dough so my hands don't get messy and so the cookies are fairly even in size.
bake for 10-13 minutes or just until edges are light brown. the time the cookies are in the oven really depend your preferences and your oven.
makes 30 cookies.

chocolate cake in a mug

apparently this recipe has been doing the rounds on the email circuit (although no one has sent it to me yet....), but i thought it might be nice to add it here just for the fun of it. it works quite well, and since you know what goes into it, it's got to be better than those packet mixes for cake in a mug. i don't see how this could be any more difficult than a packet mix, and since there aren't any odd ingredients, the average pantry should have what one might need to achieve this instant gratification. well almost instant....3 minutes isn't that long to wait.

remember to use a large mug and only mix the ingredients until just combined as over mixing microwave cakes can make them rubbery. it's better to undercook, than overcook microwave cakes. if you aren't sure about what your microwave is like, err on the side of caution and cook the cake for 2 minutes, then check to see how it is. allowing the cake to rest after cooking is also important because microwave cakes continue to cook even after the power has stopped. oh, and it mightn't be a bad idea to put the mug on a plate in case the cake overflows.

just for the record, a tablespoon is 20mls, if that helps

4 tablespoons self-raising flour
4 tablespoons sugar
2 tablespoons cocoa
1 egg
3 tablespoons milk
3 tablespoons oil
1 mug

place flour into mug, add sugar and cocoa; mix.
crack in 1 egg; mix.
pour in milk and oil; mix until just combined.
put in microwave for 3 minutes on maximum/high power.
wait until it stops rising and sets in the mug.
tip contents out of mug onto saucer and enjoy!

coconut mint crunch kisses by whisks

sounds like a real mouthful, doesn't it? well, i really tried to shorten it down from "chocolate coconut peppermint crunch kisses"!
i made these for miss k to take to her coeliac friend's place this morning. i was actually trying to think of what gluten free treat to make last night, but only came up with this recipe this morning. yesterday, we went to sticky where we got a huge bag of pepermint candy and i was determined to think of some thing gluten free to make with them. initial thoughts were to make a slice with the crushed candies and rice cookies, but the combination just didn't appeal to me, so this is what i came up with. if everything is at hand, and the candies crushed, this really only takes a moment to make - the rest is chilling time - it took me less than 10 minutes (felt like 5) to put together and while it was in the fridge, i had my shower and breakfast. it was then chilled sufficiently to cut and bring to lizzie's place!

375 grams dark chocolate
150 grams butter
300 grams peppermint candies, crushed
1 1/2-2 cups shredded coconut

melt the butter and chocolate on defrost in the microwave. once the mixture starts feeling quite warm, stir until smooth. add the candies and coconut gradually, stirring to coat. pour into a lined 15cm x 26cm tin. smooth the surface and sprinkle with extra shredded coconut. cool, then refrigerate. once firm, use a round 3cm cookies cutter to cut out the kisses to serve.

crunchy chocolate peanut slice

this slice is delicious, no doubt about it and to think that it came about from a decent, but not favourite biscuit. on the 4th, i made chocolate peanut biscuits which had to take a back seat to the hokey pokey biscuits. since i couldn't let the perfectly good biscuits go to waste, and also to satisfy my desire to try out a new slice recipe, i hit two birds with one stone and put them together and the result was a great new slice!

this process also lead to a new discovery - i thought it might be better to refresh the week old biscuits by microwaving them. well, warm biscuits simply crumble with gentle agitation - no need for a food processor of rolling pin here. do make sure it is gentle agitation as anything too rough will render tough crumbs rather than tender ones, or just crumble the biscuits with your fingers.the plain biscuits i thought were a necessary addition to add texture, as without them, the slice is very dense and rich - the crunch gives the whole a another dimension.

this, again, is a very easy slice - just melt and mix, really, and you can't have it any easier than that. quite delectable.

200g butter
300g chocolate peanut biscuits, crumbled
100g plain biscuits, chopped roughly
6 tbsp golden syrup
4 tbsp cocoa powder

line a 20cm square baking tin with baking paper.
melt the butter and syrup in a pan. stir in the cocoa, then thoroughly stir in the biscuits.
spoon into the tin and press down firmly with the back of a spoon.
chill until set.
slice as desired.

chocolate peanut butter dreams by whisks

these are surprisingly good, especially when you consider how easy they are to make. they're fudgey and they don't heat up the house too much since they're a stovetop creation, so no oven required! they are quite rich, so don't go overboard eating them, unless your constitution can handle it (how many times can i keep saying they/theyare/they're?). i made mine by pouring the mixture in a loaf tin lined with baking paper and slicied bars off as required, rather than making little mounds of mixture.

1 1/2 cups sugar
5 tablespoons cocoa
1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup milk
3 cups quick oats
1 cup peanut butter (smooth or crunchy)
1 teaspoon vanilla

put the sugar, cocoa, butter and milk in a large saucepan and bring to the boil. allow to boil for one minute, then remove the saucepan from the heat.

add the oats, peanut butter and vanilla and mix well. this can be done with a wooden spoon, or if you don't have the energy, an electric mixer.

at this stage, you can either drop tablespoons of the mixture onto a baking sheet lined with baking paper, or pour the mixture into a lined cake tin to set in one piece so you can slice it up to serve.

leave the mixture to cool before serving. refrigerating the mixture will make it fudgier. your call - i like it fudgier.

chocolate peanut biscuits

while i was in london, julia asked me to find a recipe for these biscuits. julia had tried them when we were at high school. debbie gates' mother had made them and julia had never quite gotten over the delicious peanutty, chocolatey crunchiness. she did get the recipe, but has since lost it. my mission, should i chose to accept it, and i have, was to endeavour to recreate or find a recipe for such a biscuit. hmmm....chocolate, peanuts AND crunchy....

unfortunately, these aren't IT, but they are very nice nonetheless - it just gives me an excuse to try out other variations until i achieve THE biscuit.

125 grams butter
3/4 cup sugar
1 egg
pinch salt
1 cup peanuts
1 1/4 cups self raising flour
2 tablespoons cocoa

preheat oven to 180 degrees celcius.
cream the butter, sugar, salt and egg in a medium bowl with a mixer.
add the nuts and cocoa.
mix, then add flour. combine well.
form the dough into walnut sized balls and place them on a baking sheet lined with baking paper. press the balls down lightly with a fork or the bottom of a glass dip in sugar (so the dough doesn't stick to the glass).
bake for 15-20 minutes.