Hazelnut Brownies

Cut into 16 pieces

I love this chocolate brownie recipe!  Chocolate doesn't last long in this household!  I first heard of a cocoa powder recipe from reading a Food and Drink book written by the host Michael Barry.  Sadly, from Googling his name I found out he died in 2011.
I have made brownies many times varying the extra ingredient.  Prunes, and glacé cherries in the centre work well!  This time, I used hazelnuts.  I chose to put them on the bottom so they wouldn't burn if I put them as a topping and I would still get that slightly underbaked (or perfectly baked) gooey centre.  These are lovely and chewy on the edges.
You can make these cow-free by using Pure spread.  They're not as decadent but still taste good!

Makes 16 Brownies

Ingredients:

100g Butter
40g Cocoa Powder (I use Green & Black's)
2 large Eggs
225g Sugar (I used caster sugar but you can make it more fudgey with the brown varieties)
1tsp Vanilla Extract (Omitted as I didn't have any but it does make it nicer)
Pinch of salt
50g Self Raising Flour
100g Hazelnuts (I used the snacking variety with skins on)

Method:

1. Melt the butter in a bowl in the microwave.  Use short blasts and keep an eye on it!  Add the cocoa powder and mix together.

Dark and brooding!

2. While the cocoa mixture is cooling, cream the eggs and sugar

Beat it in <2mins

Whizzy Whisk!

 I bought the Whizzy Whisk at a Foodies Festival.  They were £10 each or 2 for £15!  I was wondering if this was going to be one of those gadgets that you buy and don't use.  The demo was really good and I was sold!  This is the 2nd time I have used it!  This is a toil-free way of baking!  It works by using a plunging motion and the spring rotates the whisk end.

3.

Mix in the dark and brooding cocoa mixture

Add the Vanilla extract and pinch of salt.

4.

Hmmmmm!

Fold in the flour

5.   

Line your baking tray with Baking Parchment.  This is a silicone lined paper that makes it non-stick.  Pop your hazelnuts into the lined tray.  Preheat fan oven to 180C

6.

Ideally, you would pipe the mixture into the tray.  I don't bake enough to faff around with that!  I gently spooned blobs of the mixture into the tray.  This is to keep the hazelnuts spread out.  Once the mixture has been transferred from bowl to tray, smooth over with the back of the spoon.

Bake for 35mins but do check before that time.  You want a soft centre if possible.

Review:

These were good and very rich!  The corner pieces didn't have many hazelnuts.  Next time, I will put a whole layer of hazelnuts!  Buying the snacking hazelnut variety with the skins adds extra fibre.  They were good without the vanilla extract.

Blueberry and Orange Muffins

Traditionally it is lemon and blueberry muffins but I wanted to be different.  Muffins are simple and easy to make.

Makes 12 Muffins

Ingredients:

300g Self Raising Flour

100g Caster Sugar

1tsp Baking Powder
Pinch of Salt

175ml Soy Milk

125ml Corn Oil

1 Egg
The peel of 1 Orange, grated
150g - 200g Fresh Blueberries (plus 12 for decorating)

Method:

1.  Wash blueberries and let them dry.  Take 1 tsp flour and put to one side.

2.  Grate an orange and finely chop the zest.  I think using the zest setting releases too many oils and I prefer bigger bits of orange.

3.  I didn't sift my flour this time because my sieve was acting as a colander for my blueberries.  It didn't make much difference.  Great time saving tip!
Add baking powder, sugar and salt.  Stir thoroughly.

4.  Measure the milk and oil into a measuring jug, add egg and beat together. Add the orange peel.

5.  Fan oven on, heat to 170c.
Line the muffin tin with 2 paper cases for each hole.  In a bowl, mix the 1tsp flour with the blueberries.  Then tip this into the flour/sugar/salt/powder bowl.
When the oven is hot enough, you can mix the wet and dry ingredients together.  I did this by putting the liquid into a bowl and then tipping the dry ingredients.  Combine until just mixed, do not over-stir.

6.  Spoon evenly between cases.  Apply a blueberry on top.  Bake for 20-25mins.

Review:

I think orange worked well.  I will experiment with putting some of the juice into the muffin mix next time.  I love how the blueberries bleed, they create a gorgeous marbling effect on top.  The great thing about home baking is that it is custom made and this one is bursting with blueberries!

Garlic and Rosemary Potato Wedges

 I have an abundance of potatoes to use up that I bought for the Christmas meal.  I wanted something moreish and simple.  I had cooked garlic and rosemary roast potatoes for Christmas and still had that fresh (or not quite as fresh) rosemary to use up.  I took out all the possible potato wedges seasonings from my cupboard.  These included: garlic salt, Cajun seasoning, oregano, rosemary, celery salt and chilli powder.  In the end, I settled on fresh rosemary and fresh garlic with salt & pepper.

The only bit of research I needed was the oven temperature and how long to bake them for.  Jamie Oliver came up first but he /gasp par boils them first!  Wedges are supposed to be simple and oven cooked.  You might as well make roasties if you're going to parboil them.  Then I stumbled upon a student recipe website: http://studentrecipes.com/recipes/party-foods/potato-wedges/

Makes...loads!

Ingredients:

Potatoes (I happened to have King Edwards and they worked well)

Extra Virgin Olive Oil (this was the only Olive oil in my house)

4 sprigs of fresh Rosemary, stalks removed

8 cloves of fresh Garlic, squashed, deskinned and roughly chopped

Plenty of Salt and freshly ground Black Pepper

Method:

1. Wash the potatoes and cut into wedges.  I do this by halving them lengthways (biggest surface area as possible) then quartering each half lengthways (8 wedges per large potato).  The potatoes were extremely starchy so I soaked them in cold water.

Cold bath

2. Drain the potatoes.  Meanwhile get a large baking tray/roasting tin and drizzle oil on the base.  Apply half the rosemary and garlic bits.  Place the potato wedges evenly in one layer as possible.  Liberally apply salt and pepper.  Sprinkle the rest of the rosemary and garlic and slug more oil on top.

3. Cook at 200C for 40 mins.  I turned them over halfway.

Serve with lemon mayonnaise.

Review:
Hmmm, these were really good!  I ate waaaaay too many.  Minor improvements would be more even cooking which would require uniform potatoes.  I did have some parts of the tray with more oil than other parts.  I think the wedges would benefit from a proper tossing in the oil and seasonings!
Note to self:  Make these instead of roast potatoes for Christmas because they were so much more simpler to make and tastier too!