chocolate chip

Triple Chocolate Brownies

- Michael 4 Comments

First of all, sorry for the lack of updates. As I am still laptopless in the evenings it’s kinda getting in the way. I am also no longer with a copy of lightroom, so apologies if the photos aren’t quite so good. My fingers have got so itchy that I’ve actually stayed in work late to get this posted, and likely will be doing so a few times this week (I’ve got Guinness cake and Blue Cheese Scones to write up as well)… Anyway, BROWNIES. My greatest foe (not really, but I had a couple of disasters the other week when I tried making some using various different recipes I found on the old interwebs. I knew I should have stuck to the usual one). I also got myself a new giant brownie pan. So wanted the excuse to make them. I thought I’d keep it simple with some triple chocolate brownies.

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I’m fairly sure I’ve ranted before about shop bought brownies being too cakey and how, to me, that’s just not what a brownie is. It should be a gooey, chocolatey mass of awesome.

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For a smaller 20cm tin halve the ingredients.

Update (September 2016): This recipe requires some serious whisking, I’d recommend you did this with an electric whisk or at the very least a hand-whisk.

Triple Chocolate Brownies
 
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Prep time
Cook time
Total time
 
Author:
Serves: 30
Ingredients
  • 250g unsalted butter
  • 250g best dark chocolate
  • 115g plain flour
  • 53g cocoa powder
  • 100g white chocolate
  • 100g milk chocolate
  • 4 large eggs
  • 370g golden caster sugar
Instructions
  1. Melt together the butter and dark chocolate, by placing a heatproof bowl over a saucepan of hot water. Making sure that the water doesn’t touch the bottom of the bowl. Stir the mixture together as it starts to melt, over a low heat. (You can do this stage in the microwave, but I don’t own one). Set the mixture aside to cool to room temperature.
  2. While it is cooling, preheat the oven to 180°C (160°C fan assisted) and grease/line your tin.
  3. Over a medium sized bowl, sieve the flour and cocoa powder in together.
  4. Roughly chop the white and milk chocolate into chips and set aside.
  5. Break the eggs and caster sugar into the bowl of your electric mixer and whisk on high speed until it looks thick and creamy. This can take anywhere between 3 and 8 minutes. When you take out the paddle, as it dribbles onto the surface and leaves a trail for a second or two then it’s perfect.
  6. Fold the chocolate mixture into the egg mixture. Slowly folding it until it’s completely incorporated. You want them mixed without knocking out all the air you just added in to the mixture with the whisking.
  7. Sift the flour mix into the egg/chocolate mix and mix until it’s completely combined. Again, being careful not to knock the air out. Followed by the chocolate chips.
  8. Pour this into the prepared pan. Ensuring that it is spread evenly, by pushing it around gently with the spatula.
  9. Place in the middle shelf of the oven and bake for 25 minutes (20 if using the smaller pan). You’ll be able to see if it is done by wobbling the tray slightly. If the middle wobbles it needs a little longer, so put it back in for another 5 minutes.
  10. Once cooked, remove from the oven and place on a wire rack, still in the tin and leave to cool completely before removing and dividing in to squares.

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Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup Cookies

- Michael 2 Comments

Now, I am well aware that my first post was also Reese’s cookies. But I made these yesterday, and while they are fresh in my mind I just have to write about them. They are simply incredible. My friend Daryl showed me the recipe, which she found on Kitchen Magpie. Couple that with there being two of my colleague’s work birthdays today, one of which is an American woman who adores peanut butter, it was kind of a no-brainer. I’ve made “cookies” that contained peanut butter cups before, but they were sort of… squidged? Yeah, that’s the word, into the top of the cookies, which were slightly more cake-like. These actually contain the cup inside the centre of the cookie. It’s the perfect amount of indulgence. I always get such funny looks from the cashier whenever I turn up at the till with a basket full of nothing but Reese’s cups. These went down an absolute treat at work with one of my colleagues asking me to bake them, and only them, once a week for the rest of my time with the company.

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Reese's Peanut Butter Cup Cookies
 
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Ingredients
  • 290-300g All-purpose Flour
  • Dash salt
  • 1 tsp Baking Powder
  • 115g Unsalted Butter
  • 150g White Granulated Sugar
  • 165g Packed Brown Sugar
  • 1½ tsp Vanilla extract
  • 2 Eggs
  • 150g Chocolate Chips (I used milk chocolate)
  • 12-15 Reese’s peanut butter cups
Instructions
  1. First of all, preheat your oven to 180°C (or 160°C fan).
  2. Cream together the butter and sugars until fluffy.
  3. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Followed by Vanilla.
  4. Separately mix together the flour, salt and baking powder before mixing it in slowly on a low speed. (At this point I noticed that my cookie dough was a tad too sticky so I added a bit more flour until it firmed up a little.)
  5. Fold in the chocolate chips.
  6. Now comes the fun bit.
 

Take a good sized dollop of the dough in your hand, don’t make it too large as this is just the base of the cookie. Squidge (yup, there’s that word again) the peanut butter cup into the top of the dough, flattening it slightly.

 

Squidge
Squidge

Take a similarly sized piece of the dough and cover the top of the cup, pushing it down around the edges of the cup.

Encased cup

Spread them out on a baking tray, covered with a baking sheet. Space them slightly, but don’t worry too much as they don’t spread a large amount. Press them down slightly.

Baking tray

Bake for 12 minutes, remove from the oven. Allow to cool slightly before transferring to a cooling rack.

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Fresh Cookies
They are incredible while still fresh and slightly gooey.