whisks' orange coconut custard

this is my answer to making a dairy, egg and gluten free pouring custard to serve with christmas pudding, or any cake, or anything (or nothing) for that matter.

the rind an orange
60 grams sugar
10 grams maize cornflour
500 grams coconut milk
orange liqueur, optional, but nice to add for something festive

place the orange rind, sugar and cornflour into the thermomix bowl and grind on speed 10 for 10 seconds. take a good long sniff of this mixture - it smells so good.
add the coconut milk and cook for 8 minutes at 90 degrees at speed 4.
if you're adding some orange liqueur, now's the time to add it...at your discretion, and give it a stir in the thermomix on speed 4 for about 5 seconds.
pour this into a jug and serve. just a warning, this is hot, so if you want to have a taste, spoon some out to let it cool, then have a taste. very delicious. as with all custards, this one will form a skin. if you like the skin, you don't have to doo anything. if you don't want a skin to form, place a piece of baking paper on the surface of the custard and remove it before serving.

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...