Cocoa-only brownies

I wasn’t planning on making brownies last weekend.

If I had been, I probably would have made one of the many recipes I have bookmarked with all kinds of exciting additions – coffee, peanut butter, cream cheese, mint, raspberries – the list goes on.

But as it happened, I decided that I needed brownies to make the battlements for my Rapunzel Castle, and laziness dictated that I would make them with ingredients I already had.

Without any chocolate on hand, I adapted the recipe I used for cinnamon blondies, which produced a nice fudgy result without any melted chocolate.

The results, without wanting to brag, were pretty much awesome.

The brownies were lovely and fudgy, with a crisp top, exactly how I like them. They were ever so slightly on the thin side, but perfect for the castle, and the extras went down very well with the pony.

I don’t know how soon I’ll make them again, as I do have such a huge list of brownie recipes to work through, but it’s defintely a useful recipe to have for no-chocolate emergencies!

Cocoa-only brownies

Makes 16 squares

• 115g butter
• 200g caster sugar
• 50g cocoa powder
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 egg
• 120g plain flour

Put the butter, sugar and cocoa powder in a mixing bowl and microwave in short bursts, stirring until all the butter has melted. Beat in the vanilla and egg – the mixture should be nice and glossy. Finally, stir in the flour, then spread into a greased and lined 8×8″ square tin. Bake at 180 degrees for 20-25 minutes, or until crisp on top but not overcooked. Leave to cool, then cut into squares and serve.

Black bean brownies

This month’s We Should Cocoa challenge, set by Chele of Chocolate Teapot, was to make something health conscious to start the new year.

I wasn’t immediately struck with inspiration, as my line of thinking is that chocolate is always unhealthy, but everything in moderation is ok – not that I always manage to stick to the moderation part!

As luck would have it, a few weeks ago Madison at Espresso and Cream posted these black bean brownies, at a very health conscious 130 calories each – and brownies with beans in just sounded too weird not to try!

Thanks to a few tweaks (adding chocolate chips and cutting into 12 squares instead of 16) meant that these brownies are actually more like 215 calories each – but that’s still kind of ok for a brownie!

You can’t taste the black beans, and the pony liked them, but they were a bit too cakey for me – I like brownies to be thick and gooey! They were interesting to try though, and I as a vegetarian I can even kid myself I NEED to eat one to get my daily protein fix…

Black bean brownies (adapted from Espresso and Cream):

Makes 12 squares

• 3/4 cup tinned black beans
• 1/2 cup sunflower oil
• 2 eggs
• 20g cocoa powder
• 100g caster sugar
• 1tsp instant coffee granules
• 1tsp vanilla extract
• 50g dark chocolate, melted
• 40g plain flour
• 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 100g milk chocolate chips

Blend the drained black beans in a food processor with the oil, eggs, cocoa powder and sugar for about a minute, until completely blended with no bits. Add in the rest of the ingredients, apart from the chocolate chips, and blend again to combine. Stir in the chocolate chips, then pour into an 8×8 square tin, lined with foil. Bake at 175 degrees for 20 minutes, then leave to cool before cutting into squares and serving.

Fudgy coconut brownies

With all the hectic Christmas baking that’s taking place at the minute, I needed something quick, easy and chocolatey to feed the friendly pony.

He hasn’t been best pleased, seeing me make biscuits, truffles and cakes to be given away as gifts, rather than eaten by him, so I wanted to make something that he could have all to himself.

Enter these fudgy coconut brownies, from the BBC Good Food site.

I’ve had them bookmarked for a while, but never got round to making them – I’m always seduced by more complex looking recipes!

More fool me, as these were great – thick, dense, chocolatey and definitely fudgy, with the coconut adding a subtle flavour and also some chewiness to the texture.

You’d never guess that they were made with cocoa rather than melted chocolate – a definitely winner!

Fudgy coconut brownies (from BBC Good Food):

Makes 16 squares

• 100g cocoa powder
• 250g butter
• 500g caster sugar
• 4 medium eggs
• 100g desiccated coconut
• 100g self raising flour

Grease and line an 8×8″ square tin. Put the butter, cocoa and sugar in a saucepan and heat gently until melted – keep stirring so it doesn’t stick on the bottom. When the butter has melted and sugar dissolved, beat in the eggs one at a time, then fold in the coconut and self raising flour. Pour the mixture into the tin, then bake at 180 degrees for 45 minutes – the top should crisp up and a skewer should come out with damp crumbs. Leave to cool, then cut into squares and serve.

The quest for the perfect brownies

Brownies can be AMAZING. But, they can also be a disaster – I’m thinking particularly of the pre-packaged ones which are little more than dried out cake.

I’m definitely a believer in fudgy brownies rather than cakey, and am always on the lookout for the ever elusive ‘perfect brownie’.

The snickers brownies I made were great, but a bit specialist to be my go-to recipe. The low fat brownies were also good, but not quite indulgent enough.

While blog browsing I’ve bookmarked lots of brownie recipes, but when it came to making some last week, it was Apple and Spice’s recpie which was chosen.

I agreed with Katie’s description of a good brownie, and decided to make them to take to the friendly pony’s work leaving party.

They were maybe a tiny, tiny bit undercooked, but that’s a million times better than overcooked when it comes to brownies, and they went down REALLY well at the barbecue. They’re definitely the best brownie I’ve made so far, although there are so many others I want to try it might be a while before I come back to these again…

Double chocolate brownies, slightly adapted from this recipe:

• 140g butter
• 200g dark chocolate
• 180g caster sugar
• 1 tsp vanilla essence
• 2 eggs
• 85g plain flour
• 1/4 tsp baking powder
• 90g milk chocolate, chopped

Heat the dark chocolate and butter over  a pan of simmering water until melted and stir to combine. Remove from the heat, then stir in the sugar. Beat in the vanilla and eggs, one at a time, until well mixed and glossy. Sift in the flour and baking powder, mix until fully combined, then add in the chocolate chips and mix again.

Pour into a greased and lined 8×8″ tin and bake for approximately 30 minutes. Mine took about 27, but I have a massively temperamental oven, so keep checking until a skewer comes out with s few sticky crumbs, rather than liquid batter on it. Leave to cool, then cut into 16 squares and serve.

Snickers Bar Brownies

My computer has returned! I am very happy about this, and over the next week will hopefully catch up on blogging some of the things I’ve baked recently.

First off, Snickers Bar Brownies. Partly because I only have one photo so it’ll be quick, and partly because they’re really, really delicious.

I used a recipe from the brilliant Poires Au Chocolat who has an amazing blog full of delicious looking treats – meaning that when she describes a recipe as “the best brownies I’ve ever made” you know they’re going to be good.

I took half the batch to a girls night and the other half to a barbecue, and both went down really well with a couple people asking for the recipe. Providing you don’t think about calories, these are sure to be a success!

Snickers Bar Brownies (slightly tweaked from this original recipe)

• 110g  butter
• 50g dark chocolate
• 2 eggs, beaten
• 110g light brown sugar
• 100g golden caster sugar
• 50g plain flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 40g extra dark chocolate
• 2 normal sized Snickers bars

Chop the 40g dark chocolate into chunks, and chop the Snickers bars down the middle lengthways, and then into slices. Melt the butter with the 50g dark chocolate, then beat in the eggs, sugars, flour and baking powder. If it’s really hot let it cool down a little, so the extra chocolate wont melt. Mix in the chopped chocolate and Snickers bars, then spread the mix into a lined 8×8″ square tin. Bake for 25-30 mins at 180 degrees.

Leave to cool (if you can wait!) then slice into squares and serve.

Healthy chocolate brownies – Does such a thing exist?!

If you’re thinking of baking something healthy, chocolate brownies probably won’t be the first thing that comes to mind. Or the second, or third, or fourth… But if nothing but the chocolateyist of treats will do, then really it has to be brownies – so if it’s possible to find a way of making them slightly less guilt-ridden then I’m all for it.

Angela Nilsens Ultimate Brownies

Angela Nilsen has done a great series of ‘Ultimate Makeover’ recipes, taking similarly calorie laden delights and trying to make them a little bit healthier.

Her ‘ultimate’ chocolate brownies recipe, taken from the BBC Good Food site, uses some cocoa powder rather than all chocolate, and her secret ingredient is mayonnaise. I’ve heard of it being used in cooking before so when I read the ingredient list I wasn’t totally disgusted, but still… I was dubious.

I followed the recipe to the letter… apart from swapping muscovado sugar for plain light brown sugar, and making my own buttermilk by combining milk and lemon juice. You’ll come to see that it’s very rare I stick to a recipe exactly, which often backfires but in this case didn’t seem to make much of a difference.

The brownies turned out dark and sguidgy, although not with the crusty top I usually like to have. I’m also a fan of brownies with added chocolate chunks, but I suppose that would be asking too much from a ‘healthy’ version. They’re supposedly just 191 calories each…

The testers at work were impressed, apparently you’d never be able to guess they were low fat, and I’ve had requests to make them again, so all in all I’d say they were a success.

Ultimate Chocolate Brownies

Ingredients:

• 85g dark chocolate , chopped into small pieces
• 85g plain flour
• 25g cocoa powder
• ¼ tsp bicarbonate of soda
• 100g golden caster sugar
• 50g light muscovado sugar
• ½ tsp coffee granules
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 2 tbsp buttermilk
• 1 egg
• 100g mayonnaise (I used low fat supermarket brand)

Method:

1. Heat oven to 180C/fan 160C/gas 4. Pour enough water into a small pan to one-third fill it. Bring to the boil, then remove the pan from the heat. Put the chopped chocolate into a large bowl that will fit snugly over the pan without touching the water. Sit the pan over the water (still off the heat) and leave the chocolate to melt slowly for a few mins, stirring occasionally until it has melted evenly. Remove the bowl from the pan, then let the chocolate cool slightly.
2. Meanwhile, lightly oil and base-line a 19cm square cake tin that is 5cm deep. Combine the flour, cocoa and bicarbonate of soda. Using a wooden spoon, stir both the sugars into the cooled chocolate with the coffee, vanilla and buttermilk. Stir in 1 tbsp warm water. Break and beat in the egg, then stir in the mayonnaise just until smooth and glossy. Sift over the flour and cocoa mix, then gently fold in with a spatula without overmixing.
3. Pour the mixture into the tin, then gently and evenly spread it into the corners. Bake for 30 mins. When a skewer is inserted into the middle, it should come out with just a few moist crumbs sticking to it. If cooked too long, the mix will dry out; not long enough and it can sink. Leave in the tin until completely cold, then loosen the sides with a round-bladed knife. Turn out onto a board, peel off the lining paper and cut into 12 squares.