Turkish Delight Brownies

There are some days in a girls' life that can only be saved by chocolate.  Today I had one of those days and opted in favour of turkish delight to cure my ailment instead of my usual chocolate peanut of choice - the packaging is so pretty and pink!

Having made (and been obsessed with) snickers brownies earlier this year (please excuse the terrible iphone photos), I pushed my chocolate boundaries by using turkish delight instead of snickers as the brownie filling.

The result?  Delicious, naturally, but the flavour was really light from the turkish delight and was almost lost in the brownie because I used dark chocolate instead of plain chocolate.  Also where the turkish delight didn't melt or do whatever it may have done at high temperatures, there are lumps of it through the middle of the brownie rather than a layer like the snickers ones had.  Didn't effect the taste but it did look kind of weird...

Brownies (from http://bit.ly/hsO5ZG)
4 oz plain chocolate, chopped
3/4 cup butter
280g caster sugar
3 eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
pinch salt
1 cup plain flour
around 250g of your chocolate bar/sweetie of choice; suggestions include snickers, bounty, creme egg and percy pigs (haven't tried but it would look pretty)

1) Preheat oven to 180 degrees and grease an 8x8 square tin
2) Microwave the chocolate and butter until the butter has melted; stir together until the chocolate has melted.
3) Stir in sugar, eggs, extract and salt.
4) Gradually add in the flour and stir until combined.
5) Pour half the mix into the tin, cover with chopped chocolate of choice and cover this with the remaining mixture.
6) Bake for 30 minutes and try to let them cool a bit before eating because they have burnt me many a time by tempting me with their chocolatey snickersy filling.

Chocolate Courgette Brownies

I have a weird, possibly unhealthy, addiction to courgettes.  I like to grill them, roast them, barbequeue them, put them in pitta bread and cover them in hummous.  Naturally, the next step is to put them in a baked good.  Thus my search for courgette brownies was born!

They're weird if I'm honest but I quite like them....you can taste the courgette and they're a bit bitter maybe is the word I'm looking for but not really (not good at explaining) but I would make them again.  They are also vegan which is fun (I am not, I have no willpower).
My brownies had no walnuts because I ran out, no icing because I simply couldn't be bothered and I used wholemeal flour instead of white just because I can and I think I actually like it now....

Whilst perusing the internet, I found myself on mumsnet (unplanned) where a similar recipe was listed but with half grated carrot and half grated courgette as a way to trick your child into eating more vegetables.  Having had a parsnip forced upon me disguised as a chip as a young child I'm not keen to promote sugary baked things in this way.  Vegetables should be embraced into baking (except some really bad beetroot brownies I made a while ago that tasted like dirt) and not as a way to force feed a child.  That just reflects badly on the brownies in the end.

Courgette Brownies (makes 24)
125ml vegetable oil
300g caster sugar
2 tsp vanilla extract
250g plain flour
40g cocoa powder
1 1/2 tsp bicarb
1 tsp salt
250g grated courgette
60g chopped walnuts

-Icing
6 tbsp coca powder
4 tbsp butter/marg
250g icing sugar
4 tbsp milk
1/2 tsp vanilla extract

1) Preheat the oven to 180 degrees and line a 9''x13'' tin
2) Mix together the oil, sugar and vanilla until well blended
3) Fold in the dry ingredients, courgette and nuts
4) Bake for 25 minutes until the brownies spring back when gently touched
5) For the icing (they're fine without, unless you want them sweeter) melt the cocoa powder and butter together and set aside to cool.  Blend together the icing sugarm milk and vanilla then stir in the cocoa powder mix.  Spread over the cooled brownies.

Snickers Brownies

I love snickers more than is normal so when I found a recipe for Snickers brownies online here; I got over excited and wanted to make some so I forced my boyfriend to 'help me make them' for pudding one night.

As usual I wanted to eat them as soon as they came out the oven so I burnt my tongue and mouth and fingers but it was worth it, they're soo yummy; they're gooey in the middle and the snickers tastes amazing baked.

I made more the next day but used Bounty bars instead (I made another batch of Snickers ones too, just incase) and they were just as good because the coconut made it fun!

Snickers Brownies
4 oz plain chocolate, chopped
3/4 cup butter
280g caster sugar
3 eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
pinch salt
1 cup plain flour
around 250g of snickers (have extra to eat otherwise that would be wrong)

1) Preheat oven to 180 degrees and grease an 8x8 square tin
2) Microwave the chocolate and butter until the butter has melted; stir together until the chocolate has melted.
3) Stir in sugar, eggs, extract and salt.
4) Gradually add in the flour and stir until combined.
5) Pour half the mix into the tin, cover with chopped chocolate of choice and cover this with the remaining mixture.
6) Bake for 30 minutes and try to let them cool a bit before eating, even if they keep looking at you, resist them.  A burnt tongue is not cool

Procrastination....

It turns out that spending an entire day (3 hours) in the library is conducive to hard work....just perhaps not the kind relevant to my degree...I baked an experimental cake when I got home.

I had a chocolate and apple cake at a little cafe near the house during the summer and have wanted to replicate the flavours since – but, it being a late evening in January, the fruit bowl was barren, all but a pear.  I now know that using super moist fruit in a cake makes it dense, delicious, but a heavy sponge, so what I made was closer to a brownie in texture.

The substitution of 2oz of caster sugar for 2ox of soft brown sugar aided in the caramel taste, but heavier texture.  I think I thought I was being more healthy/clever by using the brown sugar.

Served in squares, the cake was lovely warm with vanilla ice cream.

Chocolate pear brownie cake
6oz self-raising flour - 1tbsp
1tbsp cocoa powder
4oz caster sugar
2oz soft brown sugar
3 eggs
dash of milk
juicy pear

1) Preheat the oven to 180C and grease and line an 8" square cake tin.
2) Cream together the butter and sugars until light and fluffy.
3) Beat in the eggs, one at a time.
4) Fold in the flour and cocoa powder - remember to replace 1 tbsp flour for the tbsp of cocoa powder.
5) Add the milk and pear and fold until combined.
6) Pour into the tin and bake for 20-25 minutes.
7) Allow to cool before serving otherwise you will burn your mouth.