Brownie bites

These would be my most requested dessert from people. My Mum goes crazy over them. They are very rich, fudgey and chocolatey.

As they are rich, a little goes a long way. Each bite should be approx 1 table spoon.


Note that this recipe will make A LOT of brownie bites. This is not a bad thing as they are really popular, however the other option is to save half the recipe to eat as regular brownies and use the remaining mixture for brownie bites. Both the brownie and brownie bites do freeze really well though.


To cover the brownie bites, the amount of chocolate needed will depend on various factors including how thickly you coat the bites and whether you are making the whole quantity of bites at once. If you are freezing some of the bites to use for another occasion, I freeze them uncoated.

Ingredients:
Brownies 
Chocolate ganache (1/2 recipe)


Chocolate, melted - the type you use is optional. I used a combination of milk and dark.
1 tbs oil for every cup of chocolate (optional - to make it smoother)


Decoration
Mini easter eggs - or anything you like, the possibilities are endless.

Method:

Make brownies according to the recipe and allow to cool before crumbling into a bowl and mixing in the ganache. Use your hands - it is much easier that using a spoon! Alternatively place all ingredients in a food processor and process until smooth.


You want to achieve a texture similar to the centre of a truffle. Put mixture in fridge to cool for 15 minutes.

Roll into small balls (e.g. about a tablespoon size). At this stage, because I was making nests, I pushed my thumb into the centre of them to make a well. 

Pop them in the freezer for 30 minutes or so...this makes them easier to handle for the following steps.

Melt chocolate in a microwave safe bowl. Dip balls into chocolate. This is the hardest part. After doing a few you will get into a rhythm though. I found it easiest to use a couple of spoons. Be sure to shake of the excess melted chocolate otherwise you will really just end up with messy brownie bites with chocolate drips.
Add your decorations. Leave to set, either at room temperature or in the fridge. 


Notes:
Add your decorations fast as they will rely on the melted chocolate to adhere to the brownie bite. 
You can make them into different shapes

For decoration, you are only limited by your imagination. See here for a Christmas version.

Lemon slice... and lemon slice cake bites

Do you like my new glass bird canister? My wonderful husband gave it to me as a surprise, along with a square cake platter and glass dome. I love them all, and love the thoughtfulness of the present. It came as a wonderful surprise after a particularly hard week at work. 

This easy no bake slice has a great zesty lemon flavour. This, combined with the crushed biscuits, coconut and sweetened condensed milk makes this classic slice hard to resist. 

The recipe uses 3/4 of a can of sweetened condensed milk and one package of biscuits. If you want to use a whole can, I have provided the recipe below. This will make enough for one 18cm by 28cm and one 20cm by 20cm slice, or one 18cm by 28cm slice and lots of tablespoon sized lemon bites.

If you cut the slice into 4x6 squares this will make around 18 pieces for the 18x28 pan recipe.

You will need approx two lemons for this recipe.

Ingredients:

Base

80g butter
3/4 cup/250g sweetened condensed milk
1 package/250g Scotch finger biscuits
1 cup/85g desiccated coconut

1 tsp finely grated lemon zest*
1 tablespoon/20ml fresh lemon juice (Note – if your tbs measures 15ml, you will need to also add a tsp of lemon juice)

Lemon Icing
1 3/4 cups/250g icing sugar
2 tablespoons/40ml fresh lemon juice
1 1/2 tablespoons desiccated coconut, for sprinkling on top of slice

* This combination of the zest and lemon juice in the base, along with the lemony zing of the icing works well. But you can always increase the zest for a more intense flavour.

Method:
Grease and line an 18cm by 28cm baking pan with baking paper. I like to have an overhang of baking paper to allow easy removal of the slice once set.

Over a med-low heat, place the chopped butter and condensed milk in a small saucepan until mixture is smooth and glossy. Remove from heat and set aside.

Roughly break up the biscuits and place in a food processor. Blend until the mixture resembles fine crumbs. Add the coconut and zest, and pulse for a few more seconds until distributed evenly. Remove from food processor and place in a large bowl.

Add the lemon juice into condensed milk mixture, then add this mixture to the dry ingredients.Stir with a spatular until well combined. 

The mixture will look quite wet, don't worry - this is normal. Pour mixture into the prepared pan and evenly spread the mixture. The bottom of a spoon or a spatula works well - but it is a bit sticky so it takes a bit of patience. Refrigerate for 30 minutes to harden.

Alternatively, if you want to make lemon balls, pop in the fridge for 10 minutes to harden slightly, then roll into tablespoon sized balls. Place on prepared pan and pop back in the refrigerator for 20-30 minutes to harden.

Only make your icing when you are ready to use it, as it sets relatively quickly! Make icing by combining sifted icing sugar and lemon juice in a small saucepan over low heat. Continue to stir mixture until completely smooth. Remove from heat and use immediately.

Ingredients for a whole can of condensed milk:

Base

126g butter
1 can sweetened condensed milk
250g packet scotch finger biscuits plus 150g scotch finger biscuits
1 1/2 cups plus 1 tablespoon/134g desiccated coconut

1 3/4 tsp finely grated lemon zest

1 1/2 tablespoons/30ml fresh lemon juice

Lemon Icing
2 3/4 cups/395 icing sugar
1/4 cup/63ml fresh lemon juice

Refrigerate slice until cold and firm then remove from the pan and cut into pieces. Store slice in an airtight container in the refrigerator or freezer.

Christmas pudding brownie bites

So... it is already February and I am doing a Christmas post? It is waaaaaay too late. But I have an excuse.... we have been very busy. We have bought sold a unit and bought a house. We have packed up 5  years worth of stuff and moved it. And that isn't even taking into account the usual things in life that keep us busy... such as our jobs.


Christmas pudding brownie bites
Ingredients:
1/2 quantity of brownies
1/4 quantity of chocolate ganache
Melted dark chocolate
Melted white chocolate
Red and green candy decorations


Method:
Make brownies according to the recipe and allow to cool before crumbling into a bowl and mixing in the ganache. Use your hands - it is much easier that using a spoon! You want to achieve a texture similar to the centre of a truffle. Put mixture in fridge to cool for an hour.
Roll into small balls (e.g. about a tablespoon size - they may look small, but they are rich). Pop them in the freezer for an hour or so...this makes them easier to handle for the following steps.
Melt dark chocolate in a microwave safe bowl. Dip balls into chocolate. This is the hardest part. After doing a few you will get into a rhythm though. I found it easiest to use a couple of spoons. Be sure to shake of the excess melted chocolate otherwise you will really just end up with messy brownie bites with chocolate drips.
Leave to set, either at room temperature or in the fridge. Melt white chocolate and use approx 1/2-3/4 tbs to drizzle over each of the brownie bites. Work quickly to add the "holly" garnish, by simply sticking them on while the white chocoloate is still soft. 

Chocolate Brownie Roll-Out Cookies two ways

We are in the process of putting our home up for sale. It is a small, two bedroom unit (i.e. a "shoebox") and we have basically out-grown it. Because weekends are filled with open for inspections (and the house will have to look spotless at all times), I decided to impose a baking ban on myself. So I (sadly) pack up the majority of my baking stuff - cupcake and cake pans, the electric mixer, food processor, rolling pin - basically everything except a set of measuring cups and one mixing bowl. All of it is now stored in boxes at my parents house (including, it seems, half the contents of our house - thanks heaps Mum and Dad!) This baking ban lasted one week - I felt like I was going crazy! So I panicked - and decided that I had just enough equipment at home to make these cookies...if I used a wine bottle to roll them out.I was confident I would have all the ingredients, so I got to work. I realised I didn't have sugar, and I was about 2 tablespoons short of cocoa! Luckily the wonderful Mr X came to the rescue and picked them up from the supermarket on his way home.


The original recipe leaves them plain and un-iced but I decided to top half with chocolate ganache and the remaining half with caramel.

Cookie recipe from Smitten Kitchen

Ingredients:
Cookies
3 cups plain flour
pinch of salt

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 cup unsalted butter

1/2 cup salted butter, softened
1 1/2 cups white sugar
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla bean paste 
2/3 cup unsweetened cocoa

Chocolate ganache
100g dark chocolate, chopped
100g milk chocolate, chopped
1/2 cup thickened cream


Cheats caramel
1 can sweetened condensed milk
2 tbs golden syrup
2 tbs brown sugar


Method:
Cookies
Preheat oven to 176 degrees C. Line baking trays with baking paper. 
Mix flour, salt and baking powder in bowl and set aside. Pop the softened butter, sugar, eggs, vanilla and cocoa in a large bowl and beat to combine (or mix with a spoon, it works fine). Gradually add in the flour, and mix until just combined. The dough should be nice and smooth. Wrap in cling wrap and pop in the fridge for one hour, or roll out dough and cut into shapes and then pop in the fridge. I rolled out the dough immediately and cut into shapes, and this worked well. The dough was really easy to work with - I spread out some baking paper, sprinkled out a little cocoa and shaped the dough into a roll. I placed another piece of baking paper on top, then used a rolling pin wine bottle. I rolled the dough out to a thickness of about 7cm.

I chose three cookie cutters all roughly the same size (small, 3-4 cm wide). Cut out the cookies and transfer to the baking tray. They don't spread during baking so they can be placed relatively close together.

Bake 6 to 10 minutes (baking time will depend on thickness of cookies and size of your cookie cutters. Watch them closely during last stages of baking - you want the edges firm and the centres still a bit soft and puffy (this puffiness settles on cooling.

Transfer to a wire rack to cool.

Chocolate ganache
To make the ganache, put cream in a microwave safe jug and put it in the microwave on medium for one minute. Stir, then return to microwave for another 30 seconds. Remove from microwave and add chocolate, stirring regularly until chocolate is melted and incorporated. Put aside to cool.


Cheats caramel filling
To make the cheats caramel, put sweetened condensed milk in the microwave on medium for four minutes on medium, stirring every few minutes. Return to microwave and reduce heat to medium/low for a further 6 to 8 minutes, stirring regularly. It will start to thicken and the colour will become deeper. Remove from microwave, add golden syrup and mix well. Add brown sugar and mix well. Return to microwave on med/low for a minute. Stir again and set aside to cool and thicken.


Assembling the cookies
Dip a cookie in the ganache, coating it evenly. Lightly tap off excess. Repeat with half the remaining cookies. Leave to dry.

Put some of the cheats caramel into a piping bag and pipe a dollop onto a cookie. Repeat with remaining cookies.

Apple crumble slice for Dad

Dad has relatively simple tastes when it comes to baked goods. Chocolate (no white chocolate), banana or apple cinnamon.

This apple crumble slice can be served hot or cold. It has a buttery biscuit base, apple and cinnamon filling, with a brown sugar and cinnamon crumble topping. It is definitely not a pretty slice - the topping making it a little messy to serve, but it smelt great baking in the oven.

Ingredients:

Apple filling
3 apples, peeled, cored and finely chopped
1/2 cup firmly packed brown sugar
1 tablespoon cinnamon
2 tablespoons cornflour
4-5 tablespoons butter

Base
1 1/2 cups plain flour
1/3 cup sugar
Pinch of salt
1/2 cup butter

Crumble topping
1/2 cup firmly packed brown sugar
1/3 cup plain flour
1/4 cup unsalted butter
1 tsp cinnamon

Method:

Melt butter in pan and add apples, stirring for two minutes. Add sugar, stir until dissolved. Add cinnamon and stir thoroughly, then add corn flour to thicken. Cook for a further five to seven minutes. You want to have the apples just cooked - not soft and mushy. Keep warm while you make the base. you want to add this to the base straight from the oven.

Preheat the oven to 176 degrees C. Grease and line a 20 x 20 cm cake pan. Cut the baking paper bigger than the baking pan so you have some overhang for easy removal of the slice after baking.

For the base, place the flour, salt and sugar in a large bowl and whisk to combine. Add the butter and use an electric beater on low to mix until it resembles sandy crumbs. Use your hands if it's easier!


Tip the mixture into the baking pan and use your fingers to press the mixture evenly into the bottom of the pan. Pop in the oven and bake for 16-20 minutes, until golden brown at the edges. Watch closely after 15 minutes, but mine took closer to 20.

While the base is baking, get the crumble mixture ready. Mix butter, sugar, flour and cinnamon in a small bowl. You want to pour the mixture onto the base while still warm from the oven, so have it ready! Spread apple evenly over base. Sprinkle the crumble on top.

Return to the oven and bake for another 10-15 minutes, until crumble is golden. Leave to cool before slicing.

Bite-sized nutella brownies

On Saturday I found myself with a few minutes to spare. I am a sucker for nutella, so I thought I'd give these a whirl. They are super easy. Better yet, you probably don't even need to go to the supermarket if you want to bake them. All 5 ingredients are likely to be in your pantry!


Makes 24 mini cupcake sized brownies.
Ingredients:
1 cup nutella
2 egg
10 tablespoons plain flour
Chocolate, to decorate.


Method:
Grease and line mini cupcake pans with 24 liners.
Soften nutella slightly in microwave (don't melt). Add nutella and the egg to a bowl, and whisk until nice and smooth. Add flour, and whisk until combined. 
The batter is quite thick. Spoon batter equally into 24 liners (1/2 to 3/4 full), and sprinkle with chocolate to decorate. Bake for 10-12 minutes.


Shoeboxgirl