Stuff yer bake

There is nothing better than tucking into a really rich, chocolately, gooey brownie and they are so easy to make, so I thought I would satisfy my chocolate urge and make a batch. I tend to follow Rachel Allen’s recipe in her book Rachel’s Favourite Food but sometimes play around with the recipe. I like to put nuts into my brownies as I think they really compliment the chocolate flavour, especially hazelnuts, and help to keep them moist but I’m never sure about putting nuts into them when they are for other people as not everybody likes them (in this instance they should be taken out and shot for the weird anti-nut people they are…. just kidding, don’t write in!)

This time I just went for rich dark chocolate swirled with white chocolate and very nice they were too. 

Makes about 14 large brownies

180g butter

150g good quality dark chocolate

100g good quality white chocolate

3 eggs

175g golden caster sugar

75g dark muscovado sugar

110g plain flour

tsp vanilla extract

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees centigrade and line a swiss roll tin (9 x 13 inch) with greaseproof paper. Melt the butter and dark chocolate in a bowl over some barely simmering water being careful not to overheat the chocolate. In another bowl melt the white chocolate then set it aside. Beat the eggs, sugar and vanilla extract together in a bowl until light and doubled in volume. Once melted, let the chocolate cool for a minute or two and then stir into the eggs and sugar mixture. Sift the flour and fold into the mixture then tip into the prepared tin, spreading it out to the sides. Take the white chocolate and drizzle spoonfuls over the top of the mixture and then take a skewer and swirl the white chocolate a little to make a nice pattern. Cook the brownies for about 15 to 20 minutes. They will still seem very soft and undercooked when they come out, the mixture will not spring back when you touch, it isn’t like a sponge. Everyones oven is different and it may be a bit of trial and error to begin with but that is no hardship as they will still be good to eat. Cut while still warm and take out of the tin when cool. Enjoy

Having seen a lot of failed attempts at Chocolate fondant puddings on Celebrity Masterchef this week, I thought I would like to give one a try. I have had shop bought ones before and relished their divine rich taste. To me they are the ultimate of decadent puddings, and the worst things for you always taste the best.

The recipe I followed from the BBC Food page seemed simple enough but I fell at the final hurdle of timings and ended up with a runny, albeit delcious, mess served with orange and vanilla ice cream. I remained undeterred, though, had another go the following night and left them in for a few minutes longer, which was much more successful but still not quite done enough. They still tasted absolutely divine, but I will keep trying until I get the perfect consistency. It’s a hard job, but somebody’s gotta do it!

I have seen quite a few recipes for panna cotta recently and since I have never tried to make it, I wanted to give it a go. I found this recipe and thought it looked nice and simple and now that the strawberries in my garden were starting to blush into a vibrant red colour, I wanted to serve them with it.

I first of all made the lemon thyme sugar. I bought a bunch of lemon thyme the other day to go with squid but I don’t actually like it much in savoury things as I think it tastes a bit soapy so I wondered whether I could make something sweet with it. Basil sugar seems to be very fashionable at the minute so I thought I would try and do the same with lemon thyme.

Pick the leaves off a small bunch of lemon thyme and blitz in a blender with about 6 tablespoons of caster sugar. It should go a nice green colour but will also be a bit damp so spread it out on a baking sheet and put in a very low oven for about 10-15 minutes until it has dried out. You can then keep your sugar in a sealed container and use it whenever you like. 

I made the panna cotta next and left it to cool in the fridge for an hour or so. 

Next take a couple of handfuls of fresh ripe strawberries (you can pretty much use any fruit you like here) hull and halve them and put into a saucepan with a tablespoon of icing sugar and about half a tablespoon of Limoncello liqueur. Warm the berries until the juices start to run but don’t let the strawberries go too soft. Take off the heat and leave to cool. 

Once the panna cotta is set, loosen it from it’s mould and turn out onto a plate, scatter the strawberries around and garnish with the lemon thyme sugar.

The texture and taste of the panna cotta was lovely but the only thing I didn’t like was that all the vanilla seeds sunk to the bottom of the mould and made the panna cotta look burnt and I also need to work on getting them cleanly out of the mould. I think my blowtorch may have to be used. I will definitely have another go at making panna cotta and might try a few different flavours too.