Nutty Brownies

 

I feel so bad for polishing these brownies off within a day. But they contained my absolute favourite taste combinations of all time: chocolate and nuts. The added spoonful of coffee helps to enrich the chocolate flavour. Don’t worry, it won’t taste of coffee at all. It is perfectly sublime, dense chocolatey-ness with a luxury cashew nut bite. yum

Nutty Brownies

150 g butter, softened

240 g caster sugar

3 large eggs

2 tsp vanilla essence

20 g plain chocolate (minimum 65% cocoa solids), chopped (optional) 

50 g raw cashew nuts, chopped  

90 g plain flour

50 g cocoa (I use Green & Blacks Organic Cocoa)

½ tsp baking powder

½ tsp salt

1 tsp instant coffee (optional)

Preheat oven to 180ºC/ 350ºF. Line a 9x9-inch square baking tin with greaseproof paper.

In a large bowl mix together your butter and sugar.

Add your eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. Add vanilla essence. Sprinkle in the chocolate, if using and fold your cashew nuts into the mixture. (I tend to break my cashews down by putting them in a food bag and bashing with a rolling-pin. That’s the fun part). 

Add flour, cocoa, baking powder and salt and mix until combined. The mixture should be quite viscous and shiny looking.

Slowly spoon it into the tin and spread evenly with the back of a metal spoon. Try to alleviate any bubbles on the surface before putting into your oven. Bake for 30-35 minutes, or until an inserted skewer comes out clean. 

Allow to cool in the tin for ten minutes before removing. 

Brownies II (the one that was perfect)

I just had to get these the way I wanted. So I found another recipe. I am pleased! This is the one. It tastes as if it could be shop bought and its got a slight crust surface on top and dense middle! For me, this is the perfect brownie! Some may prefer my previous one which was more 'cakey', but hey – some like Pepsi, some like Coke!

Brownies

Hello. I'm having a hard time deciding on a new design for this blog. I haven't posted in a while, naughty me, as I've been waiting to post to a brand new 'look'. But it hasn't happened. I have managed to do something though. Make Brownies? Yep.

I've eaten brownies before, but never actually made any. They seemed boring to me. I chose to bake some after tasting a batch made by a friend of a friend, who hardly ever bakes! Her's tasted so good (to the point I wondered if she'd bought them) that I thought, if a stranger-to-baking can produce brownies like those, then so can I! So. These were nice enough with a satisfying chocolate and cocoa hit. However, since delving into the world of brownies, I've discovered they seem to fall roughly into two types. The cake-type brownie or the fudge-type brownie. I found the texture of these to be more of the 'cakey' type than the 'fudgy' type. Neither is wrong or right – I just prefer the fudgy type with a slight crisp crust.
So, not bad, but I need to try again. Just for me  :-)

Cheesecake Brownie Bites

 
When I began my baking journey, I would sometimes refer to Food Blogging for Dummies, written by Kelly Senyei. Being a Blogger herself, she also hosts a lovely blog, Just a Taste which I occasionally dip into for recipe inspiration and ideas. Here's one recipe that took my fancy and also went down a treat  :-)

(Being a US recipe, I used my iPhone app to convert the cup size measurements to English metric system on the day).