Caramel and pecan brownies

Moving house is not easy. Nope.

It's even more difficult when you have a little Snugglebug you'd rather be spending time with instead of packing.

Plus you don't get any down time. As soon as Snugglebug is asleep we are busy packing and bubble wrapping and taping everything. You know what that means? No time to bake :-(

A couple of nights ago, the taste tester wanted dessert. Usually I have a couple of dessert slices in the freezer for such 'emergencies', but this time we were all out.

This was the best opportunity to convince him that I would bake. Ten minutes!!! That's all I asked for. Usually 'ten minutes' in the kitchen means half an hour but this time it actually meant eight. That's right. EIGHT minutes to whip up the batter for the yummiest brownies ever.

I then stuck it in the oven and ran for my shower.
It was in the oven for precisely sixteen minutes!!!
They came out hot and gooey and yummy and amazingly perfect. When cooled, they were firm enough to cut in to little squares.
Remember, the best brownies are ready just as soon as they go past the 'undercooked' stage. The skewer should still have moist crumbs when inserted.

The amount of sugar in these is not as much because of the caramel. It had to balance out otherwise it would be way too sweet!

(The taste taster has declared these to be some of the worst pictures I have taken! Oh well :-P )

Ingredients:

-almost 3/4 cup butter
-1/2 cup cocoa powder
-2 eggs beaten
-1/4 cup sugar
-1/2 cup flour
-1 tsp vanilla essence
-1/2 tsp salt
-4 tablespoons Dulce de leche
-100grams pecans chopped

Method:
Preheat the oven to 180 degrees.
Line a baking dish with grease proof baking paper. I just cut a large sheet of the paper and crumple it into a ball as run in under water and then squeeze the water out. The open it up and line the dish that you are using. An eight inch tray would be good for this. The smaller the tray, the thicker the brownies and the longer the baking time.

Melt the butter in the microwave.

In a bowl, combine the cocoa powder with the melted butter completely.
Add in the sugar and stir.
Then add in the beaten eggs and stir till totally combined.
Add in the flour, vanilla essence and salt and stir to combine completely till you can't see any lumps of flour.

Fold in the pecans.
Pour the batter on to your baking dish.

Heat up the Dulce de leche slightly in the microwave till it's runny.

Pour it all over the brownie batter and swirl it around with a fork.

Stick it in the oven and let it bake for about fifteen minutes. It's ready once the skewer inserted has moist crumbs.

Serve it warm with ice cream while the caramel is still yummy and melty.

MmmMmmm

Enjoy :-)

-S

Chocolate Fudge cake..and a very very special 1st birthday :-)

A couple of months back we celebrated my baby boy's first birthday! 

The last year since we welcomed him in to our lives has been the quickest, most amazing time of our lives. 

All thanks to God for granting my family with such an amazing blessing.  Every moment of mine is filled with happiness and complete amazement at how such a little human being is growing right in front of our eyes.  Along with his development and curiosity comes a lot of crashes and bangs and mess and fun. 

Alhamdulillah I can not thank God enough! For his birthday we chose to invite family over and spend the day enjoying each other's company and showering our Snugglebug with lots of love (and gifts!). 

Since I am absolutely rubbish at decorating cakes, the task of creating him a birthday cake that was decent to look at was quite daunting.

Usually all I care about is the taste, but this time it had to look special and I had to make it myself! I contemplated different shaped cakes, from a dinosaur to Elmo but at the end I decided I wanted to enjoy making a cake that is me and that everyone will enjoy eating. Luckily for me all our family are chocoholics which made the entire task so much easier :-)

I decided on a deep, fudgey, ultra chocolatey cake covered in chocolate ganache and surrounded with chocolate fingers. I also loaded the top with Maltesers and chocolate buttons. The colour theme for the party was brown, blue and green so I just added some M&Ms for a pop of colour. This was the final result and I was very pleased with it :-) 

I then topped it with a matching topper that I designed and a blue star candle. All Done!! Yay!!

Ooey Gooey Fudgey Chocolatey goodness!! :-)

By the end of the day we all were on a chocolate high including Snugglebug who had free reign since it was his birthday! The recipe for the cake was the fudge cake that my mum used to make when we were kids and brought back so many beautiful memories. That's what food does. It brings back the fondest of memories of us spending time around the table with our families and as children. I'm going to keep making this cake for my baby boy as he grows so he can create memories of it as he grows just as I did! :-)

Ingredients:

4 eggs

3 level cups granulated sugar

3 cups plain yogurt

3 and a half cups plain flour

2 tsp salt

2 and a half tsps bicarbonate of soda

1 cup cocoa

8oz butter/margarine

2 tsps vanilla essence

Place all the ingredients in to a large mixing bowl and mix together with a hand held mixer.

Bake on 180 degrees for about 40 minutes. It depends on your oven. Be very sure to remove the cakes just as soon as they are done or they will become dry and cake rather than fudge and yum.

Enjoy :-)

-S

Cheesecake in a Glass

Ever been in a last minute situation where you have to entertain guests for dinner? The type where you discover in the afternoon that you're going to have guests over in a couple of hours? That's when there isn't any time to focus on an elaborate dessert. You have to prepare the meal- and fast!!

But what's the fun if there isn't any delicious dessert to wrap up the evening?

Once again Nigella comes to the rescue. The one thing about her recipes are that they are completely foolproof and produce brilliant results!

I recently tried out a recipe from a dessert cookbook i was gifted with and followed it to the tee.. With disappointing results.

Not good!!!

This cheesecake in a glass takes less than fifteen minutes to prepare and could be made as little as an hour before serving.

Ingredients

200g strawberries (or 1 big punnet)

1 tsp caster sugar

4 digestive biscuits

100g cream cheese, at room temperature

2 tbsp icing sugar

125ml double cream

1 tbsp lemon juice

½ tsp vanilla extract

4 small glasses/ bowls

Method:

Quarter the strawberries, then cut in half again, to give pretty small dice. Put into a bowl, sprinkle with caster sugar, cover with clingfilm and shake the bowl once or twice.

Leave the berries to macerate while you put the biscuits into a freezer bag and bash with a rolling pin until you have a sandy bag of crumbs.

Measure the cream cheese and icing sugar into a bowl and whisk by hand. Add the cream, lemon juice and vanilla, and whisk gently to combine.

Divide the biscuit crumbs equally between your four glasses, and arrange in the bottom of each one. Spoon the cream cheese mix on top, dividing it equally between the glasses and covering the biscuits.

Divide the sugar-shiny strawberries between the glasses, to give a glossy, red-berried layer on each glass.

If you'd like a lemony cheesecake without any strawberries, I'd recommend adding some lemon zest to the cream mixture.

It's such a quick and easy recipe that has the best results!!

Oh and yes my cheesecakes have crushed flake on top of them :-) that's how the Taste Tester prefers them. Everything with chocolate tastes better. He's a man after my own heart ;-)

-S

Soft pretzels

Ten months! Thats almost how old my baby boy is. The months have passed in such a blur, so fast and so amazing. All praise and thanks to Him, I have enjoyed every precious moment that has passed.

Sleep deprived and exhausted as I may be, every second that passes is amazing, and I'm sure every mother out there can say the same about their children.

On that note, I am going to be trying out some baby teething biscuits soon and if successful, I will be sure to post the recipe here.

And I will try not to delay till my son is a teenager!

Anyway, this post is well overdue, and the pictures have been ready ages ago in my drafts, however I haven't had a moment to sit and write down the recipe...because every spare moment that I get nowadays is used to grab a quick meal, shower or nap.

The rest of my time is spent with a curious little snugglebug who loves to touch and press everything that his little eyes lay their sight on.

Oh also, forgive me for my typos and grammar/spelling mistakes. My brain is in scatter mode at the moment!!!

Now to the pretzels! The oh so soft, yummy pretzels!! The ones you can't help but gravitate towards at the mall!!

The other day my mum and I had gone to the mall where I spotted Aunty Annies..and they had samples!!! I was quick to choose the vanilla flavoured pretzels because the aroma was just mouthwatering.

I was definitely not disappointed and made sure I bought some on my way home.

They were soft, comforting, warm, buttery pretzels! 

This recipe comes pretty close! The great thing is, it isn't too difficult and the results are brilliant!

They are ofcourse, best served on the day they are made, but are pretty good for two days after! 

Ingredients: (I got about 20 pretzels out of this)

One packet quick action yeast
2 tablespoons caster sugar
1 teaspoon salt
275g/2 cups bread flour
275g/2 cups plain flour
350ml/1.5 cups lukewarm milk
100g/4 tablespoons butter

For the dipping:
2 cups very hot water
2 tablespoons bicarbonate of soda/baking soda

For the coating:
50g/2 tablespoons melted butter
caster sugar/ cinnamon/ vanilla sugar

Method:

Mix the yeast, salt, sugar and flours in a large bowl. Stir 100g melted butter into a measuring jug containing the lukewarm milk.
Gradually pour the milk and butter in to the flour and mix. You may not need all the liquid. When it comes into a soft ball of dough, knead for about 8-10 minutes.

Cover the bowl with cling film or a plate and let it rise in the warm room until double in size- about 1-2 hours.

Preheat the oven to 200c and cut the dough in to 20 equal portions.
Roll each piece into a thin sausage about 1 1/2 feet long. (don't use any flour or it won't roll) - the plus side of this is less mess :-)

To form the pretzel, cross the ends of the rope then twist to cross them over again. Take the twisted ends up to the top of the hoop and flip the whole thing over.

Dissolve the bicarb in a bowl with the very hot water.

Dip each pretzel into the bicarb water, drain them on a cooling rack while you do the rest. 

Put non stick baking paper onto two baking sheets and place your wet pretzels, scruffy side down, on to the baking sheets. Bake for five minutes, spin the tray around and bake for another 4-5 minutes more. so a total of 9-10 minutes. Do not over bake!

While the pretzels are baking, melt the last 2 tablespoons of butter and brush each pretzel with it.
Dip immediately in the caster sugar mixed with cinnamon or vanilla sugar. You could also make them savoury by sprinkling with sea salt and seasoning!

This is really a great recipe, even for people like me who aren't very great at binding dough.
I found the recipe here.

Give it a go and enjoy :-)

-S

Hazelnut & oat raisin cookies

A couple of months back my friends and I had a meet up where someone brought these gorgeous chewy, oaty and hazelnut cookies. 
They didn't look so appealing but once we all tasted them.. We basically went nuts!!!!
I have never tasted anything non-chocolately as amazing as these cookies!
As soon as I got the recipe, I quickly started baking a batch. Trust me, one batch is NOT enough!!!
Fresh out of the oven with only a couple of minutes for them to cool down.. The taste tester was sold!!
YAY!!!
Wondering whether we were the only ones so crazy for these cookies, I packed a couple for my parents and passed them along. The reason for my uncertainty was that- there isn't any chocolate in these.. How can they be so good??

Yup they too fell majorly in love!!
I then baked another batch because I was so happy :-)
.. And then another to take to the family in London!! I was soo happy to see them.. From the oldest of 70 years to the youngest of 12- go crazy for these!!!
It was sooo worth the effort!!!
Here's the recipe..
Go bake them NOW!!!

Ingredients:
100g hazelnuts
100g undated butter, softened
200g soft light brown sugar
1 egg, beaten
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 tbsp runny honey
125g self-raising flour, sifted
125g jumbo porridge oats
Pinch of salt
100g raisins
A little milk if needed

Method:
-Preheat the oven to 190C/375F/Gas 5. Toast the nuts on a baking sheet for 5 minutes.
-Once toasted, rub with a clean tea towel to remove most of the skins.
-Roughly chop the hazelnuts and then set aside.
-In a bowl, cream together the butter and sugar with an electric whisk till smooth.
-Add the egg, vanilla extract and honey. Beat well until smooth once more.
-Combine the flour, oats and salt in a separate bowl, and stir to mix.
-Stir the flour mixture into the creamed mixture and beat until very well combined.
-Add the chopped nuts and raisins and mix until evenly distributed throughout.
-If the mixture is too stiff to work with easily, add a little milk until it becomes pliable.
-Line 2 or 3 baking sheets with parchment and roll the dough into walnut sized balls.
-Flatten each ball slightly, leaving plenty space between them.
-Bake in batches for 10-15 minutes until golden. Cool slightly, then move to a wire rack.
-Leave to cool completely before serving.

You can find the recipe here.

Enjoy :-)
-S

Banoffee Pie

The past two months have flown by so quickly. My entire life has taken the biggest turn with the arrival of my beautiful baby boy! I can't thank Allah enough for this blessing. Every single moment is spent caring for a whole entire tiny human being.
Surreal!!
I have been able to carry on baking and making desserts though!! Surprisingly enough!
I thought once my little baby would make an entrance, all my kitchen antics would fly out of the window. Well we can't live without sustenance can we?
Blogging however, seems to have taken a back seat. I really have missed taking pictures and writing about my baking..so hopefully this means I'll try and post more often.

My first attempt to making a dessert was a couple of weeks ago. Banoffee pie!!!
Creamy, decadent, sticky, sweet, buttery and crumbly....oh so delicious!! Luckily this recipe is so quick and requires each step to be made in shifts. Which is perfect for me :-)
First, a buttery, crumbly base made with digestives and topped with a gorgeous, golden caramel layer and finished off with bananas, cream and (ofcourse) chocolate.
You can't have any dessert without chocolate. That's just wrong!!!

So far everyone who has tried this pie has fallen in love. Try making it. You will too :-)

Ingredients

For the base:
500 grams digestive biscuits
150 grams butter (melted)

For the Caramel:
100 grams butter
100 grams dark brown soft sugar
397 grams sweetened condensed milk (one can)

For the topping:
1 carton double cream
1 pack (2 fingers) Cadbury's twirl (I choose this because it is the perfect hit of chocolate!)
4 large bananas

Method:
Line your springform pan with greaseproof baking paper and grease it using butter.
Place the digestive biscuits in a food processor and whizz until they are completely crushed. Pour in the melted butter and whizz again till it starts sticking together.
Pour it in to your pan to create a base. You can also place some of it on the sides of the pan to create a pie shell.
Place in the refrigerator for a couple of hours or in the freezer.

In a non-stick pan, melt the butter and the dark brown soft sugar until the sugar dissolves. Pour in the condensed milk and keep stirring. Once it comes to a boil (It will start spitting so be very careful and maintain a distance from the pan)- let it boil for minute, while continuously stirring. It will become thick and come off the edges of the pan. Pour it on top of the base and place it back in the refrigerator for a couple of hours.

Once the caramel has completely cooled, beat the double cream in to soft peaks.
Slice the bananas and place on top of the caramel. (To avoid the bananas going black too quickly, instead of putting lemon on them which could cause them to taste slighty different, I submerge the bananas in boiling hot water for a couple of minutes before peeling . The skin will go black. This way the bananas don't go black in the pie for 2-3 days).
Pour the Whipped cream on top of the bananas and sprinkle the top with chocolate.

Leave in the refrigerator to chill for a couple of hours before serving.

Enjoy :-)

-S

Iced Coffee

After posting my last entry I was asked how to make the Iced coffee drink that was in the background of the pictures...

Its really really simple and quick to make and accompanies brownies (or anything else really) well!!

It doesn't really have any specific amounts for the ingredients and you pretty much have to go with taste.

Ingredients:

Instant Coffee

Whole Milk

Sugar

Vanilla Icecream (optional)

Cocoa powder

Serve with:

Whipped cream

Chocolate sauce

Method:

- Mix the instant coffee with sugar to taste and boiling water. (You have to use a generous amount of coffee because of the milk and ice cream that you will be adding)

- Pour the mixture, with a couple of pints of milk in to the blender. You can also add the vanilla ice cream (if you want to) at this point.

- Add some cocoa powder in to the mixture

- Blend it all together

- You can either store this in the fridge before serving so that it is chilled or if you have made this well in advance, freeze the mixture in ice cube trays and then blend them before serving.

- Drizzle some chocolate or caramel sauce in your serving glass and pour in your iced coffee, topping it up with whipped cream and more chocolate sauce.

Enjoy :-)

-S