Super fudgy brownies

I think that these are the best brownies I have made yet - the name says it all really, fudgy, chocolatey and delicious. I can see lots of tweaks being made to these - imagining peanut butter brownies and mint chocolate brownies - yum!

I came across these brownies on the rather delicious looking blog Maple Spice, and Deb in turn got them from the (now gone) blog Not a Rabbit, but they have been reposted at Cooking Vegan Food Up North too. As the recipe has already been converted into grams and mls for those of us who prefer metric, it was an absolute doddle to make them.

This is the recipe, reproduced with permission from Deb at Maple Spice. The only alteration I made is to substitute light olive oil for the specified veg oil.

Super fudgy brownies

Ingredients

150g granulated sugar - must be this type, not caster

60ml light olive oil

125ml chocolate soya milk

160g dark chocolate -I used a 150g bar of Green and Black's Cooking Chocolate

80g plain flour

2 Tbsp cocoa powder

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

Method

-Line a 7 or 8 inch square baking tin with baking paper (I used a 7" tin) and preheat the oven to 180C/Gas 4.

- Place the sugar in a blender and whizz until it's a fine powder and tip into a large bowl (I did this in a small handheld whizzer in two batches). As the original poster states, do not omit this part, it's what gives the brownies their crackly topping. Having read Deb's comments on Maple Spice I knew this step, although sounding odd, was important. Granulated sugar blended comes out somewhat in between caster and icing sugar - wierd!

- Mix together the flour and sifted cocoa powder and set aside.

- Pour the oil, chocolate soya milk and vanilla into the sugar and mix well.

- Melt the chocolate in the microwave and quickly whisk into the oil/sugar mixture.

- Quickly stir in the flour/cocoa mixture and mix well with a wooden spoon until it all comes together.

- Pour/scrape into the prepared tin and bake for 15 - 20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean. Mine took much longer than I was expecting. At 20 minutes the centre was still liquid and in total I ended up giving it 40 minutes, although it was probably done a bit sooner. I will try and take it out earlier next time.

- Leave to fully cool then refrigerate for a couple of hours before cutting. It wasn't explained why this is. I followed the example of Maple Spice and refrigerated before cutting and they were great. I also stored mine at room temperature.

Oh yum. Fudgy deliciousness! And just look at that crackly top too... mmmm! I will make these again (and again, and again) and I will try taking them out of the oven a little sooner too for even more fudgy goodness. I cut them into 12 pieces, which I thought was a good size. My only note would be that these are best eaten on the day of making - after that the cut edges go a little drier (but I think this is true of many brownies) but they are still utterly, utterly delicious!

Vegan chocolate banana brownies

After making Dan Lepard's banana muffins last week, I had some very ripe bananas left over and wanted to find a home for them. A standard banana bread wasn't appealing to me so I decided to search for brownie recipes.

I was very happy to discover that a book I already owned (Vegan with a Vengance) contained a recipe that someone else had adapted, and that I have adapted further. Thanks to Sara at the Veggie Eco Life for posting this delicious recipe!

Chocolate banana brownies
Ingredients
120g 70% cocoa chocolate (I used Lindt)
30g dairy free margarine (Pure Sunflower here)
1 tbsp light olive oil
2 large very ripe bananas, mashed
220g caster sugar
1tsp vanilla extract
90g plain flour
25g cocoa powder
1/4 tsp bicarbonate of soda
Method

- Melt the chocolate (I actually did mine over a pan of hot water, because I had different thicknesses of chocolate and wasn't sure about using the microwave for it - the irony of using a Lindt chocolate bunny for making vegan brownies hasn't escaped me...). When melted stir in the margarine until melted. Leave aside to cool for a bit.

-  Combine the mashed banana, vanilla extract and olive oil in a large bowl. Add the sugar and beat well to combine. The mixture will be very runny.

- Sift in the dry ingredients and then continue to mix until all combined. The mixture will now be much thicker.

- Spoon into the prepared tin and bake for 40 minutes. A cocktail stick/toothpick inserted will not come out clean.

- Allow to cool a little and then turn out.

Baker's notes

- I used my bundt tin (another idea from Sara), and lined it as best I could. I'm glad I made the effort because these stuck like anything to the tin, which was annoying! The brownie did come out in one, but wouldn't have had I not lined bits of the tin. It then broke up. D'oh!

- I reduced the sugar from the original recipe but these are still very sweet!

Deliciously chocolatey. It looked like the edges had risen up and baked more quickly than the middle, which appeared a little sunken. No matter, this made the brownie all squidgy and delicious with a fairly substantial chewy crust - just how I like my brownies. One of my colleagues said that she was surprised by how banana-ry these were, even though they were labelled 'Banana Chocolate brownies'. Something to do with not expecting the banana flavour, what with them being chocolate coloured! They were pronounced generally delicious.

Grateful thanks to Sara at the Veggie Eco Life for bringing this recipe to my attention. The original recipe calls for a topping layer, and I would never have thought to adapt this to miss off the topping. I think this is another of the occasions where lack of pictures in a recipe book means that I would otherwise have missed a really good recipe. I would definitely make these again, and next time I might try them in a more standard shape tin.

Baker's confession: I scraped all of the stuck bits off the tin and popped them straight into my mouth when no-one was looking. Mmmm, stolen bits!

Squidgy chocolate squares - unconventional brownies

I really fancied a rich chocolate square, brownie like but not a brownie, if that makes sense. After some hunting I came across this recipe for vegan brownies on allrecipes.co.uk and it seemed to fit the bill.

As usual, I adapted the recipe slightly, un-veganising it (sorry!) to include some butter (I'm sure it would work really well as stated though!) and halving the recipe. I made it in an 8" square tin, but next time I think it would be better in a smaller tin, to make a thicker square.

Squidgy chocolate squares
Ingredients
125g plain flour
175g demerara sugar
32g cocoa powder
1/2tsp baking powder
1/2tsp salt
125ml water
62ml light olive oil
62g butter, melted
1/2tsp vanilla extract (or 1tsp if not using chocolate essence)
1/2tsp chocolate essence (optional)

Method
- Preheat the oven to 180C/Gas 4. Grease and line an 8" square tin, or a slightly smaller one for thicker squares, but be prepared to adjust baking time.
- Mix flour, sugar, cocoa powder, baking powder and salt in a large bowl.
- Add the water, olive oil, butter, vanilla extract and chocolate essence if using.
- Mix well, pour into prepared tin and level.
- Bake for 25-35 minutes, depending on how squidgy you want the middle! (I think mine took about 35 minutes)
- Allow to cool, and very, very carefully remove from the tin. I wasn't careful enough and mine broke, but they were still delicious!

I really enjoyed these - they were deliciously fudgy and gooey in the middle - fabulous! I think next time I'll try them with either light or dark muscovado sugar or perhaps half and half of each, to add a little more depth of flavour to the sweetness. I might also add some chocolate chunks or some dried cranberries too, but wanted to make the recipe as stated first time round to make sure it wasn't a complete disaster!

Chocolate honeycomb 'brownies'

I don't make brownies very often, but when my latest issue (March 2011) of BBC Good Food arrived in the post I flicked through it as usual and these caught my eye. They are part of a fairly new series in the magazine called 'Junior Cook' - recipes made by children submitted to the magazine and these are called 'Alex's mega brownies'. I can't find the recipe online yet, but when it appears I'll try and remember to link to it, but the original recipe has got a milk chocolate and cream cheese topping too, which I didn't fancy making.

I've called them 'brownies' in inverted commas because they aren't as fudgy and gooey as most people like their brownies, but instead are a rich, fairly dense shallow cake type bake. But none the worse for that! It's just that I don't want people to get the wrong idea about how these turned out for me. I was actually quite sceptical about the recipe before I started because the instructions clearly say a 20cm square brownie tin and then the picture is a rather obviously rectangular cake. It does sometimes make me wonder whether all of the recipes are triple tested to the word, as they claim.

I had a packet of Belgian milk chocolate coated honeycomb that I wanted to use up - yum, chocolate coated honeycomb! I thought that it would add an interesting texture to the brownies so I added this and then a few white chocolate chips too, as I had an open packet of those. Do you like the spotty decoration? J gave me some stencils for Christmas so I thought I'd try them out to break up the monotonous brown-ness!

So here is the recipe with my (minor) modifications:

Chocolate honeycomb brownies
Ingredients
100g softened butter
175g caster sugar
2 large eggs, beaten
75g plain flour
50g cocoa powder
1 tsp baking powder
3 tbsp milk
100g chocolate coated honeycomb
about 30g white chocolate chips (I wouldn't bother with these next time)

Method
- Preheat the oven to 180C/gas 4 and line a 20cm square brownie tin with baking parchment.
- Beat the butter and sugar together then add the eggs one by one.
- Sift in the flour, cocoa powder and baking powder then add the milk.
- Mix everything together then stir in the chocolate honeycomb.
- Spoon into the tin and level the top.
- Bake for 30 minutes (mine took 40) until the top is set, then cool completely.

Enjoy!

I will definitely be making these again. Although they're not the fudgy gooey sort of brownies a lot of people look for in a brownie recipe, they appealed to me greatly. They were slightly chewy and chocolatey and I really think that the addition of the chocolate coated honeycomb was inspired. I didn't really know how (or if!) it would work, but I really, really loved it. The pieces stayed together (I don't know if this was because they were coated in chocolate before they went in, because I've been wondering about making my own honeycomb and using that, but am concerned that without a protective chocolate coating it will all just dissolve into the brownie mixture during baking) and there was a delicious caramelly, honeycomb flavour that worked really well with the brownies. The textural contrast was fab too - it was delicious biting into a bit of chewy honeycomb after the softness of the brownie, and I love the way the honeycomb gets stuck in your teeth! I wouldn't bother adding the white chocolate chips again though, they didn't really add anything flavour or texture wise.

Snow-flecked chocolate brownies

Happy December everyone! We had our first real frost here this morning, and boy was it chilly, so these rich, decadent brownies suddenly seem very appropriate for the weather and the festive time of the year!

Maria chose Nigella Lawson's snow-flecked chocolate brownies for this month's sweet and simple bake, you'll be able to see everyone else's brownies over at the sweet and simple bakes blog so pop across and see what you think. You can find the recipe here, so I won't repeat it on my blog (especially as I'm so late in posting this anyway!). I made half of the given quantity and baked it in an 8x8" tin. Although the recipe states 25 minutes, I cooked mine for 35 and they were still quite squidgy (isn't that a great word!) in the centre. I cut them into 12 pieces, which seemed about right.

These really were extremely easy to make - I think lining the tin was the longest and most involved part of the recipe. And because the butter is melted, not softened, I didn't even need to remember to remove it from the fridge! Always a bonus!

I'm afraid I do have a small confession to make though.... I don't really like making brownies all that much. I think it's a combination of not really enjoying eating them, and not knowing when they're cooked, but they just aren't my favourite thing. These brownies also suffered the 'I don't know if they're done - I'll leave them in the oven a little longer' fate, but they don't seem to have suffered too much and were certainly well received at work. I don't think I'd make them again unless specifically requested, but I'm sure they tasted great - how can that amount of chocolate, sugar and butter not taste great!!! And T will be pleased to know that provided I remember to take it with me at Christmas, there is a piece residing in my freezer for him.....

Fabulous double chocolate and pear brownies

Ahh, the chocolate kick intensifies. Still wanting, craving chocolate (well, who doesn't really) I decided that brownies were the way to go because it's been ages since I made them. I do have a particular recipe that I like making, but was on the lookout for a new (perhaps even better) one and came across this one, on the Waitrose website. If you haven't yet found the Waitrose recipe website, please do take a look. There is always loads of inspiration there and it's free! (And you don't have to shop in (admittedly quite expensive) Waitrose to make the recipes - they don't specify loads of own brand stuff that can't be substituted, there are quite often nutritional breakdowns of the recipes, which is always handy).

Anyway, these brownies caught my eye because you don't often see fresh fruit and brownie recipes and it appealed. I could just imagine the refreshing slight crunch of the pear and the softly yielding gooeyness (if that's a word, and if it's not, it should be!) of the cakey part. I had to sub out the Brazil nuts (allergic) and decided that 100g dark chocolate, chopped would be a great substitute, which it was!

Uncut brownies. I don't know why they look marbled like that, I didn't do anything special to them! Anyway, the recipe. This was really easy. So there's no excuse not to make them pronto.

Double chocolate and pear brownies
Makes 24
Ingredients
250g butter
200g Dark 70% Chocolate, roughly chopped
250g Caster Sugar
3 large (free range) eggs
1 large ripe pear, peeled, cored and diced
100g Dark 70% Chocolate, roughly chopped (sub white or milk if you prefer)
175g self raising flour, sifted
3 tbsp Cocoa Powder, sifted

Method
- Preheat the oven to 180°C/Gas mark 4. Line a 30cm x 20cm x 4cm rectangular tin with baking parchment.
- Put the butter and 200g dark chocolate in a small pan and place over a very low heat until melted, stirring occasionally.
- In a large bowl, beat the sugar and eggs together until pale and fluffy, using an electric whisk for speed. Gradually pour in the melted chocolate mixture and continue whisking until combined.
- Fold in the flour and cocoa then stir in the pear pieces and the remaining chocolate pieces.
- Pour the mixture into the prepared tin and bake for 30-35 minutes, until the brownies are just set.
- Remove from the oven and allow to cool in the tin. Cut into 24 squares before serving.

You can see the pear pieces better in this last picture. How were they? Well, fabulous! However, I found that the pear didn't work quite as well as I had hoped - my pear was perhaps a little too soft, or it cooked too much in the oven as it was soft in texture. All down to personal taste though. And the brownie part was seriously good stuff. I will make these again but will probably use 100g of 70% dark and 100g of really good (not too sweet) white chocolate like Green and Black's. They went down a storm at work.

Make them though - they're seriously good!!!