Double chocolate chip brownies, just because she wanted to

Now that school is in full-swing, and my hours at work have moved forward so that I start earlier, we are finding weekday mornings kinda tough.  We all still wake at the same time as before, but now there's no leeway or spare time whatsoever, and we've had to learn to love the clock, not.  If you aren't at the kitchen table and done with breakfast by 7.25am you miss out.  Seriously.  I've had to get creative with what can nourish the kids on the hop...

And the afternoons aren't much better - between homework, chill time, swimming lessons, Brownies, Girl Guides, dancing class and gymnastics, there's little leeway there either.  And we want to add ski lessons in to the mix, crazy!
So when one of the kids expressed a desire to bake brownies, well, we had to look at the schedule!  I felt bad about that, that we couldn't be a bit spontaneous, but I suppose that teaching them about commitments and responsibility will always be valuable.  So when today dawned wet, and resolutely stayed that way all day - we knew it was time to indulge.

As with any good teaching opportunity, we got out the recipe and all our ingredients.  Then started to prepare everything, so we would be ready to just toss them into the mixture at the appropriate time. White chocolate was chopped, eggs were cracked and mixed with vanilla extract, flour was sifted and so on.

As she is young and less experienced than myself, a lot of the white chocolate chunks melted when added to the brownie batter, so we quickly chopped some milk chocolate and sprinkled it over the top.  Time was of the essence, so the next photo is of the tray in the oven (hence the darkness - also it's quite rich and chocolatey).

It was quite wobbly when the timer went off, so I left it another couple of minutes before I removed it to cool.  We had started making it just before afternoon tea-time, so The Team were itching to try it! I cut it up straight away, and we all sampled it warm.  We were impressed, but also confused because it seemed more cake-like than our fudgy brownie usually is.  

But after we'd had our warm fill, it got more brownie-like as it cooled, and by the time the photos were taken, it was perfect!  Yummy, and the perfect rainy day activity treat.

Pumpkin spice chocolate brownies

Thanks to the delicious chocolate chip pumpkin loaves I'd made a few days ago, I had more pumpkin puree to use.  I had looked out recipes for Pumpkin Snickerdoodle cookies, and Pumpkin cheesecakes, and Pumpkin chocolate chip cookies and so on and so forth.  But these American recipes seem to make huge quantities, like 4 dozen cookies, or 9" large cakes, and we just can't eat that much food quickly enough that it's fresh.  And as crazy as it sounds, we don't always have taste-testers handy to help us eat up all the delicious baking and cooking we do.  (if at this point you'd like to volunteer your services, leave a comment below, thanks)

So, I figured chocolate brownies with the delicious addition of pumpkin plus the relevant spice mix would work.

I used my go-to brownie recipe - you could use yours, or a packet mix, whatever you like really.  I layered in half the mixture, swirled some pumpkin across this part, then poured on the rest of the brownie batter and dolloped and swirled the remainder of the pumpkin puree on top.  I had recently found and bought Halloween coloured peanut M&M's, so sprinkled them on top.

I added the pumpkin pie spice mix to the brownie batter before I poured it in, so that it would fully mix.  I kept tasting it to check, and added 4 tsp of spice before I felt I could taste it.  This baked up quite strong-tasting, and on my first bite I must have bitten into a little puddle of ginger, so I got a little fright that they were too strongly spiced, eek!

I gave some to a friend to test, as she hadn't had pumpkin much before, and her family's verdict was that they were great - just the right amount of everything.  Team Becca liked them too, especially the edges as they were a bit less squidgy than the very middle.  I think it was more moist than usual because of the pumpkin - yummy!

Have eggs, will bake...

Every now and then I get to the stage where we've either run out of some particular foodstuff and need to go shopping, or have a glut of a foodstuff and need to use them up quickly before they go out of date.  Past excesses have included, but are not limited to, Maltesers, Crunchie bars, cucumbers (that was a weird one) and so on.  Today's glut was eggs.  My first thought was to make an omlette for the kids for dinner.  Then I came to my senses and remembered that I also had some Reese's Mini Peanut Butter cups to use up.  Fortuitous, no?

The recipe I use calls for cocoa and chopped chocolate, so sometimes I add in different things in place of the chocolate.  Today, I thought I'd try some peanut butter and chopped Reese's.  Another time I'd used white chocolate chips, or Reese's pieces and so on.  (I really should link here to those previous posts, but sadly I can't find them).

As with the Oreo cookie brownies from a few weeks ago, I left some of the pieces out so I could scatter them across the top, thus making sure that each brownie had some filling.

I think some of the chopped mini cups must have melted, because it doesn't look like there was so much throughout the brownie once baked, hmmm...

I'll wait till the girls get home from school, and we'll all try some then.  Then we'll know how much of a peanut butter taste runs through these delicious chocolatey treats, mmm...

Oreo Brownies are a hit

We've made brownies often before, and this time I had some Mini Oreo's that were nearing their use-by date.  So what better to mix together than cookies and brownies?  Mmm.

I chopped up some chocolate and also added 2/3rds of the cookies into the mix, then dotted the remainder of the cookies on top of the brownie before it was cooked.  I had tried Rolo Brownies before, and not been thrilled with them, so was hoping for better results this time.

And I got them - these were perfect.  The right amount of cookies throughout and most pieces ( I cut them small so not every piece) had a mini cookie on the top too.  And the best bit of all?  These were for us, not a customer!  Oh yeah baby!  (Though, because we're good like that, I took some in for Mini-1's teachers - and they gave glowing reviews)

I had my first try out in the garden with a tall glass of cold milk - mmmm...

Honey, I shrunk the cake club

I belong to a cake club.  You probably aren't surprised, and probably also already know that.  It's similar to a book-club, in that you all get together to chat, but you bake a cake to a set theme.  Then you eat all the cakes and talk about them.  Seriously.

We decided to go off-piste this meeting (I love the sound of that phrase.  It conjures up breaking-of-rules, and being a dare-devil.  I never went off-piste when skiing, as it was usually the black runs that had the off-piste areas, and they were challenging enough as it was.  Although actually, I think Dad and I did go off-piste once when I was in my later teens.  It was at Mt Hotham, and the run was the Blue Ribbon and I'm sure if you skied directly under the chairlift that was technically off-piste.  I tell you, those moguls were huge!  Ahhh, great times) and go mini.  Petit Fours was the theme, and go small but many was the instruction.

I ummmed and ahhhed over what exactly to bake/bring this time.  Cupcakes are smaller than cake, but I couldn't decide which flavour.  Cookies are smaller than cake, but again I had trouble deciding which ones.  Then I had a brainwave, whilst reading an email.  Brownies bites.  With peanut butter!  A la the late, great Betty Crocker.  And a star was born. 

Other bakers brought mini cupcakes, whoopie pies, chocolate dipped fondants, macarons, baked donuts and so on.  Mmmm, mmmm...

And H came in later with some super-tasty mini eclairs, in chocolate or caramel

We had a few new members this meeting, and here we can see some of them licking their fingers in delight, and giggling at whatever funny thing one another may have said.  Oooh, cake club - another winning evening!

Pink, purple and a touch of sparkle? Must be birthday time

I got a message on my Facebook page, having been suggested to a customer by another local baker who was fully booked (thank you!).  She wanted some cupcakes and a traybake for a birthday that weekend, and I was only too happy to help.  The brief was pink and purple with a touch of sparkle, and I really enjoyed making these ones.  They are a Classic Vanilla cupcake (vanilla cake with vanilla buttercream icing) with the addition of pink and purple colours and sugarpaste accents (I used to call it fondant, but my Cake School teacher told me off one time too many ;)).  I used the Sugarflair colours Grape Violet and Pink, and was surprised and pleased at how deep the purple intensified once it sat for a little while.  Below is the matching tray of brownies, rich and luscious and dusted with Vanilla Icing Sugar from Sweden and a touch of sparkle.  Happy birthday Leanne, hope you loved your surprise! 

Who ate the last Rolo brownie?

After the success of, and wonderful feedback on, the Ferrero Rocher brownies, I felt it was time to try again.  Refreshed from our wee break down south (to family in London via friends in Nottingham, via lots of lovely, tasty and delicious food at restaurants that don't exist in our city) I thought to try the brownies with Rolo chocolates this time.

In order to get a better mix of cooked brownie and melted chocolate, I scored the brownie before placing in the chocolates and also put them in less close to the end of baking time.  Overall, I think next time I'll actually put the chocolates in at the beginning of baking time, rather than near the end.  In this way I expect they'll fall slightly into the mix and thus bake into each piece (and thus the kids won't be able to pick the choc off the top).  A friend suggested baking a tray and putting a different type of chocolate into each square - to compare and contrast how the different chocolates perform.  A fab idea I think!

Ferrero Rocher and chocolate brownies? Yes please!

Mr Becca received a large tray of Ferrero Rocher chocolates a while ago as a gift from work.  I don't recall why, and he doesn't really like them that much, so they'd stayed wrapped in the box for some months.  For lack of any other way to use them (obviously, I love them and could eat them, but I'm really trying hard to keep my weight at a healthy level, and 2 dozen chocolates wouldn't help that at all...)  I thought I might try them in Brownies.  As you do. 

I had seen someone do it with Cadbury's Creme Eggs and it looked like a good idea, as apparently you add the chocs on top just 5 minutes before the baking time is complete.  I don't like Creme Eggs, though the rest of The Team do, very much.   So I had no intention of doing it with them, but felt the Ferrero Rocher's would do nicely.  So at the appointed time, I removed the tray from the oven, popped on the chocolates, and returned it to the oven for the final 5 mintues.  They actually weren't that easy to keep in position, as the crust had started to form on the brownies and I had to push a little to get them in.  So some are lower in than others, and some started melting faster than others.

I waited till the whole tray cooled, sprayed it with edible gold lustre spray and took them down to our friend's house.  We didn't get the chance to eat them the same night, but the next.  And I made sure to photograph them before biting into them!

Valentine's is for cupcakes, and brownies part 2

I'm sorry to say that I'm not great at blogging on time, but we are baking every few days.  Since my last post, we've done five things that I'd love to show and tell you about...  Sorry.  I shall most likely post about them at some point rather soon, then back-date them so that the blog runs chronologically correctly.

So, to today's baking.  As mentioned earlier in the month, I had thought to offer cupcakes and brownies for Valentine's Day treats and had been lucky enough to secure a few orders for delivery locally.  I did some cupcakes for last Friday that were requested to be a mix of chocolate and vanilla icing on vanilla sponge

The little red hearts are soft jellies, ostensibly healthy treats for kids.  But I read somewhere that although they are made of nearly pure fruit, because of the high fruit content they are very high in sugar too.  Oops, not for the kids any longer!  And I learnt how to put a 'watermark' on the photos, cute huh?!  Here's a choc vanilla beauty, up close and personal

For today's orders, I chose white and red icing.  Though as you can see, the red wasn't red at all!  I added what I thought was quite a lot of paste - what do you guys use to make red buttercream?  This shade is called Christmas Red and is by Sugarflair...  And I've gone back using non-toxic food safe glitter as it has now been re-approved by our FSA.  One brand, EdAble Art, is fine and luckily most of my stock is that brand.  Phew!  With the other colours, I shall just use them to glitter sugarpaste removeable decorations, job done.

As for the brownies, I did them in a stack of 4 squares, dusted with vanilla scented icing sugar (a treat brought back to me by my good friend P from her native Sweden) and red glitter.  Wrapped in clear cellophane bags and tied with a red rubber band, Becca Bakes business card and sparkly red and gold heart ribbon.  As you do.  Mini-2 and I did the morning deliveries together, and we all did the evening ones (though the girls waited in the car while I ran to the front doors).

Valentine's is for cupcakes, and brownies

I couldn't help but notice that all the other bakers on Facebook were offering treats for Valentine's Day, and figured the old adage was apt, 'if you don't ask, you don't get'.  Coupled with the fact that I hadn't made chocolate cupcakes often enough to feel really confident about them, and we have... ta da!!  Chocolate cucpakes with chocolate buttercream icing.

For some reason, despite using the same size cake cases and the same ice-cream scoop to fill them, the cakes didn't bake as flat as the vanilla usually do.  I followed the recipe as I do for vanilla, and they still tasted soft, light and lovely, just had a little volcano in the middle.  Do you have any idea why that happened?

The chocolate buttercream wasn't as problematic, just light and delicious.  Mmmm....

I played around with the candy letters I used to make the X and O on the rear cupcake, and whaddya know - it spelled out my name!  haha

Here are some photos taken by my friend Jill over at Aspire2be. creative photography, great aren't they?!

I'm more confident with Vanilla, so that's the offer for Valentine's - along with Chocolate Brownies for those who prefer their treats dark and decadent.  What would you choose?

Christmas at school, Becca style

I felt quite pleased to be asked by Mini-1's school to provide brownies for the adults to nibble with their tea/coffee after the Carol Concert (which was held before the Christmas Fayre).  To be fair, it's a fairly small school so I knew it was an achieveable request, and offered to do 2 trays and cut them into bite-size pieces so they'd be a) manageable and b) go further.  Mini-2 and I arrived after the concert, but just before the fayre started and were thrilled to be greeted by many parents, (some of whom we didn't even know) congratulating us on the delicious brownies!  No idea how they knew I made them, but very pleased nonetheless. 

Then it was the turn of the class party.  I had considered offering to bake mini cupcakes for the class, but knew it wasn't officially sanctioned by the Scottish Government (not conducive to the Healthy Eating in School (or elsewhere, for that matter) Policy) and so the Education Dept didn't allow it.  But then the class teacher shyly asked if I could.  Sure of course, I said, but I couldn't make as few as 16 - could she pass out the rest?  Oh yes, was the quick reply.  And thus it was that I handed in 4 dozen similarly decorated little Christmas beauties.

And I'm pleased to say that these too got great reviews!

Too many eggs = Fritatta or Brownie?

Ah, it's that time again - too many eggs in the fridge.  While I'd love to make a fritatta for the whole family to eat, I'm kidding myself if I think the kids will eat enough to make it worth my while.  So Brownies it is.  I'm going to try the Hummingbird Frosted Brownies again, because they need 5 eggs.  The last time, you may recall, they were absolutely divine to eat but not solid enough in the middle.  So this time, I baked them for a few moments longer, then another 5 minutes longer than that at 10c lower a temperature in the oven.  I didn't want to frost this time, as it's for us and we really don't need the extra calories. And instead of finely chopping 30g of dark chocolate within, this time I sprinkled 50g of dark chocolate chips across the top. You can sort of see them below, as little dimples.   Et voila!

Ok, ok, I admit that I'm not a great food stylist, and I'm happy to accept all constructive criticism you pass my way - but I bake a darn tasty Brownie, yum yum! 

The Cake Doctor is in...

'Hi Becca! Could I please order some more malteser slice and brownies :) may actually be medically addicted! Lol xx' 

I switched on my computer yesterday to see this on our Facebook page.  Of course, a few emails back and forth later and I was convinced I was going to be able to soothe her addiction and ease her longings.  Funnily enough, Mr Becca is actually Dr Becca, and confirmed that the NHS (National Health Service, to you non-British readers out there) would not pay for such treatment.  So Clare had to go private, and came to us. 

I didn't take any photos, as we've all seen a few Malteser Traybakes and trays of Brownies by now.  Suffice it to say, they were dusted with edible glitter to my heart's delight - and Clare's.  And I posted this on Facebook today, so spread the word cake-lovers!

'Becca Bakes wants to let you know that the Cake Doctor is in. If you're feeling unwell or know someone who is, have an addiction to Brownies or Maltesers, or even have a prescription for cupcakes - we can help. Just email or leave a message on the wall, we're here to help. Be sure to tell all your friends...'

Marbled toffee brownies

We had friends visiting this week, on Monday and Tuesday mornings, and I felt like trying something a little bit different for them.  I had recently come across a little booklet that had been an insert in an old, old copy of BBC Good Food magazine (I know this because it said so on the booklet, tee hee) and it was all about chocolate and sponsored by my favourite brand, Lindt.  After reading through and discovering that we were short of some ingredients for many of the recipes, or they wouldn't suit for one reason or another, I chose the aforementioned brownies.  After a brief chat with Mr Becca about the house-bound availability of fresh double cream, we determined that I'd need to run out and buy some (it was the girls' dinnertime at this point, and hair-washing bath was soon to follow (a high point of the week for dearest Daddy, not) so kind of late).  Luckily, our nearest supermarket had some and I was home quite quickly.

The recipe required that you melt 250g of dairy milk toffee sweets with the cream to make the sauce, and I only had a bag of 200g so used that.  In retrospect, I think even 300g would be better, as I can't notice the internal layer of toffee when eating the brownies.  You were to layer most of the brownie mix with the toffee mix then the remainder of the brownie mix and bake for 40-45 minutes.  The recipe called for 100g of pecan nuts roughly chopped, but I only had nibbed hazelnuts and again, in retrospect, feel that this was too much.  After it had cooled, you were to warm up the sauce and drizzle it over the top, along with some melted chocolate too. 

Luckily, both mums and all the kids loved it, and didn't feel the same way as I about the lack of toffee and abundance of nuts.  Score.

Gift box of baked treats

Clare, the bride who had requested the individually-boxed cupcake favours a few weeks ago (and been so pleased with them - all the children at the wedding had loved them), wanted to give a different sort of thankyou gift to her wedding photographer.  Her thought was to do some Brownies, Malteser Slice and cupcakes - my thought was to box them up and make a little treat out of them.  After some discussion about decoration, I got down to business.

In order to get the goodies as fresh as possible, I baked the Brownies first and did the Malteser Slice while the Brownies were baking.  Kind of, after the washing up was done and the surfaces cleaned and sanitised, but you get my drift.  Making a paste of the syrup, chocolate, biscuit and Maltesers was a tough job, but someone had to do it...

Once the brownies had cooled a bit, they were cut up and boxed

Then it was time to deal with the rest of the Malteser Slice.  The colours chosen for the decoration of the cupcakes was red, white and black so I sprinkled the white chocolate top layer with red and graphite edible glitter and left it to set.

Then it was on to the cupcakes.  I felt that these had to be done last, as they taste best when eaten within about 48 hours of baking (even better if within 24).  It's difficult to make only 4, so here's what we started out with...

I had used whitened vanilla buttercream icing and put a little red colouring around the inside edges of the piping bag to get the effect.  It was less red in my mind, but Clare loved these.  The black glitter was darker in my imagination too, but it hasn't come up so dark in these photos.  Here's another, what do you think?

And my friend Jill, over at aspire2be photography, took this arty shot for me

And here we see the final treat box, all cut and wrapped in fire-engine red tissue paper.  Hope the recipient loved it as much as the client did.