Tuesday 12 July 2011

Cake




Given how much I like my food, it’s surprising that I still haven’t done a food related post.  I watch the Food channel a lot, and I especially love baking and dessert related shows like Ace of Cakes…mmmm…cake.  I would say I have more of a salt tooth than sweet, but I like making sweet treats more because they seem to make other people so happy!  As I said last time, one of my favourite things to do in the winter is bake, and I usually find time to make something on the weekend.  There’s something really comforting about baking – it’s generally pretty easy, and at the end of the day, anything is bound to taste good with enough butter and sugar!

If you’re not a confident baker you should still try the recipe below, you can basically make it in one bowl and it will only take about 15 minutes to prepare (with about 20-25 minutes baking time).  Plus it's super adaptable (see variant suggestions at the bottom).  Enjoy!

CHOCOLATE BROWNIE

Ingredients:

150g butter
¾ cup cocoa powder
1 ¼ cups sugar
3 eggs
½ cup flour
½ tsp baking powder
Few grinds of salt (optional)
Oil spray/baking paper

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 170°C.
2. Chop 150g butter into large cubes and melt. Either do this on low heat on the stovetop, watching carefully and stirring often OR in microwave on medium heat, 20 seconds at a time.
3. Stir ¾ cup pure cocoa powder into the melted butter until there are no lumps and it resembles velvety melted chocolate.  DON’T taste it. Trust me.
4. In a large mixing bowl, pour 1¼ cups sugar and 3 eggs. Beat with a hand beater or an electric one until pale and quite fluffy.
5. Add the cocoa/butter mixture to the larger bowl and gently fold through until everything is just combined.
6. Sift in ½ cup of plain flour and the ½ teaspoon baking powder. Fold through again until just combined.
7. Optional:  Add ¼ tsp or a few grinds of salt.  This sounds weird but makes the chocolate flavour way more delicious.  Just make sure you mix this in thoroughly!
8. Line a shallow brownie tin (approx 20cm square by 4cm high) with baking paper, or spray with oil.
9. Pour mixture in and spread flat with a spatula.
10. Bake in oven for approximately 20-25minutes or until a knife/skewer comes out  cleanly and the brownie no longer wobbles when you shake the tin gently.

Leave to cool before turning out (otherwise the brownie will fall to pieces and that would be a tragedy).

I recommend keeping in an airtight container and only cutting off pieces as you eat them.  Cutting it all up at once means that it can go stale more quickly.

Enjoy, and if you feel adventurous try adding some (or all!)of these to the completed plain brownie mixture:

Nuts:  I highly recommend a big tablespoon of crunchy peanut butter and some roasted peanuts, but macadamias are really good too.

Chocolate chunks: Whatever your favourite chocolate is...white chocolate is good!

Coffee:  Dilute 2 tsp of instant coffee in 2 tsp of hot water. Add to the plain brownie mix.  This amount won’t make the brownie taste like coffee, but it will intensify the chocolate to a dark chocolate flavour brownie.  I do this one nearly every time.

Alcohol: Try adding a couple of teaspoons of bourbon. (Chocolate chunks with this would be awesome too) YUM.

 Last but not least...add spoonfuls of soft pre-made caramel (eg Highlander Caramel) as a middle layer to the brownie and on top before cooking.




2 comments :

  1. Rachel is making this for dessert at your folks this evening! She said "It better be good :)"

    ReplyDelete
  2. Yay!! It is VERY good, I promise!! :D

    ReplyDelete

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