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Lindt Chocolate Brownies

Happy Easter!!! What better way to spend a rainy Easter Saturday than baking brownies and listening to Al Green, with my little Sous Chef Dash!!

In the spirit of Easter, I thought today’s baking post should most definitely be chocolate themed!!

Poor little fella really wanted to sample the goods, but unfortunately wasn’t so lucky!! No chocolate for this bubba!!

I used this recipe by Jamie Oliver – to make it super chocolately I used Lindt 70% Dark Chocolate, and dutch coca (it’s Easter time after all!!). They were easy to make, and tasted delicious (although extremely rich!!)

Ingredients

250 grams unsalted butter
200 grams Lindt 70% cocoa dark chocolate
80 grams cocoa powder
65 grams plain flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
360 grams caster sugar
4 eggs
** you can also add additional ingredients such as raspberries, walnuts or whatever you fancy!!!

Method

Pre-heat oven to 180 degrees Celsius. Grease and line a square brownie tin with baking paper
Melt chocolate and butter in a large bowl over a pot of simmering water on the stove (make sure your bowl does not touch the water)
Sift flour, cocoa, sugar and baking powder into a seperate bowl
Add melted chocolate mixture to dry ingredients
Beat eggs and add to mix, stirring until consistency appears silky
Bake for 30 minutes

Top – Country Road

Enjoy your Easter long weekend!! How will you spend it? Eating chocolate? Sleeping in? Chocolate induced naps? All of the above sounds pretty good to me!!!

Lemon and Ricotta Pancakes

I rarely digress from my standard peanut butter and toast in the morning, but this morning I decided for something special I’d make pancakes!! As a child I would make pancakes every weekend for my mum and brother, but haven’t made them in years….to make them a bit more exciting than the standard kind, I opted for a ricotta and lemon flavour…and they were awesome!!!

I served them with extra ricotta cheese and maple syrup. The recipe makes a large quantity of batter so you can easily save some for another day.

Here is the recipe – adapted from this recipe from taste.com.au

Ingredients

1 1/2 cups milk (I used almond milk in mine)
1 egg
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 cups self-raising flour
1/4 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
1/3 cup caster sugar
25g butter, melted – for frying
2/3 cup smooth ricotta cheese
finely grated zest of 1 lemon rind

Method

Whisk milk, egg and vanilla together in a jug. Sift flour and bicarbonate of soda into a bowl. Stir in sugar. Make a well in centre. Add milk mixture. Whisk until just combined. Stir in ricotta and lemon rind.
Heat a large non-stick frying pan over medium heat. Brush pan with butter. Pour a generous spoon into the pan and cook until bubbles appear on surface before flipping. Brush pan with butter between batches pancakes.

Do you have a Saturday morning breakfast ritual in your house? What is your go-to Saturday breakfast?

Dairy Free Flourless Orange Cake

What better to do on a rainy day than to bake a delicious (dairy free) treat!!! I’m still on the dairy free bandwagon and am running out of ideas (that aren’t lemon themed!!!). It’s also gluten free, which is even better.

This was super easy to make – and the fun thing? You boil the oranges, then puree them whole, skin and all!!! Best thing – you can make this cake with just one bowl and there are only five ingredients.

Here is the recipe – taken from SBS Food Network.

Ingredients

2 oranges, washed
250 grams caster sugar
6 eggs
250 grams almond meal
1 teaspoon baking powder
icing sugar, to serve

Method

Bring a large pot of water to the boil. Wash the oranges and cook in the boiling water for 2 hours. Drain, allow to cool to room temperature. This step can be done ahead of time.
Preheat the oven to 160°C. Grease and line a 22 cm cake tin with baking paper (or grease with dairy free spread such as Nuttelex and coat with flour).
Beat the eggs and caster until well combined. Add in your oranges (cooked and whole!!). Use a barmix to pulverise the oranges into the mix (you will find they break down really easily once cooked).
Stir in the almond meal and baking powder. Pour the batter into the prepared tin. Bake for 1-1¼ hours, until the top is golden and a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean.
Allow to cool in the tin. Dust with icing sugar

Dairy Free Lemon Friands

So I’m still on a dairy free elimination diet and have been looking for something lemon flavoured to bake (my love of delicious lemons is well documented here and here!!). Friands are a tasteful looking cake to serve for afternoon tea and were surprisingly easy to make.

I made two batches – one plain lemon, and one lemon and blueberry!! I actually think the plain lemon ones were my favourite, but the berries add an extra flavour if you like them.

I also made a lemon glaze to pour over for an extra lemon kick!!

Recipe

Ingredients

6 egg whites
1 ¼ cups icing sugar
1 cup almond meal
½ cup plain flour
100 ml coconut oil
1tsp vanilla extract
1 cup blueberries (if desired)
zest of 1 lemon
juice of half a lemon and 50grams caster sugar to make optional lemon syrup glaze

Instructions

Heat the oven to 180C/350F
Grease a friend or muffin tin with a little oil
Whisk the egg whites and vanilla extract until frothy
Sift over the icing sugar, almond meal and flour.
Add the oil and lemon zest and berries
Mix gently to combine
Divide the mixture among the friand holes
Bake for 25 minutes
Stand in the pan for 3-4 minutes, then turn out and cool on a wire rack.
To make lemon glaze, simmer lemon juice and caster sugar on low heat until thick and syrupy – drizzle over friands whilst still warm
Dust with icing sugar to serve.

Dairy Free Chocolate Hazelnut Biscotti

Recently I’ve gone on a dairy and soy elimination diet – never did I realise it would be so hard!! Diary and soy are in practically everything, even bread!! I’ve been on the hunt for some diary and soy free recipes to satisfy my chocolate cravings – these Hazelnut Chocolate Biscotti sure are a winner!!

They’re the perfect treat to have with a morning coffee and were fairly easy to make too. I think these will become part of my regular baking rotation!!

Because these babies are double baked, they can be stored in an airtight container for up to two weeks, and make a great gift. They’ll also be great to have on hand for when friends pop by for coffee!!

I modified the recipe based on this one , from taste.com. Based on the original recipe, I also added in some coffee (because everything is better with coffee!) and doubled the original amount of cocoa to make them extra chocolatey!!

Ingredients

1 cup raw hazelnuts
1 and 2/3 cup plain flower
4 tablespoons dutch cocoa
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
3/4 cup caster sugar
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
3 eggs, lightly beaten
Finely grated rind of 1 orange
1 tablespoon espresso coffee disolved in 1 tablespoon boiling water

Method

Preheat oven to 200C. Roast nuts on an oven tray for 10 minutes or until golden and skins are flaking. Rub well in a clean tea towel to remove skins. Chop coarsely.

Sift flour, cocoa, sugar, baking powder and cinnamon into a bowl. Combine eggs, orange rind, coffee and nuts in a separate bowl. Gradually add egg mixture to dry ingredients, stirring to form a dough. Turn out on to a lightly floured surface. Knead briefly then halve. Shape into two 25cm-long logs. Place logs on a baking paper-lined oven tray. Bake for 15 minutes. Remove from oven. Stand for 5 minutes.

Slice logs diagonally into 5mm-thick slices. Place slices on oven trays and return to oven for 10 minutes or until dry. Cool on a wire rack.

I modified the recipe based on this one, from taste.com. Based on the original recipe, I also added in some coffee (because everything is better with coffee!) and doubled the original amount of cocoa to make them extra chocolatey!!

Ingredients

1 cup raw hazelnuts
1 and 2/3 cup plain flower
4 tablespoons dutch cocoa
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
3/4 cup caster sugar
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
3 eggs, lightly beaten
Finely grated rind of 1 orange
1 tablespoon espresso coffee disolved in 1 tablespoon boiling water

Method

Preheat oven to 200C. Roast nuts on an oven tray for 10 minutes or until golden and skins are flaking. Rub well in a clean tea towel to remove skins. Chop coarsely.

Slice logs diagonally into 5mm-thick slices. Place slices on oven trays and return to oven for 10 minutes or until dry. Cool on a wire rack.

Dairy Free Banana Bread

With my recent switch to diary and soy free, I’m struggling to find things I can eat that taste good!! With chocolate, cakes and pastries of the menu, I’ve now started making my own with a diary/soy free twist.

This banana bread recipe is a winner!! It’s so easy to make, I can have one ready to go in the oven in about 10 minutes. It’s a new favourite for me!!

Lemon Bars

Keeping with my lemon themed baking (see my lemon yoghurt cake here!!), I decided to give these delicious lemon bars a go!! They’re based on the recipe from the Tartine Cookbook, but I saw the recipe on the Late Afternoon Blog and they looked so good I had to give them a go!!

Sometimes I have those days where I get it all wrong!! I attempted these two nights ago after just getting my little baby to sleep. After making a beautiful base and having the filling ready to go, I some how managed to burn the hell out of the base, set off the smoke alarm and wake my poor bubba!! I didn’t have enough butter left to try and re-bake the base so had to throw away my filling after hand squeezing so many lemons!! 🙁 Baking fail!!

My oven seems to be set to overdrive so today I tried again but made a few temperature tweaks.

It was worth the second try!! They look impressive, but were actually quite easy to make. They’re very sweet, so I’ll be having mine with coffee!! They also keep in the fridge for 4 days.

Ingredients:

Crust

1/2 cup icing sugar

1 1/2 cups all purpose flour

3/4 cups unsalted butter at room temp

Filling

1/2 cup all purpose flour

2 1/4 cups caster sugar

1 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice (approx 5 large lemons)

6 large whole eggs

1 large egg yolk

Directions :

Pre-heat the oven to 175 Degrees Celsius and butter 9 by 13 inch pan.

To make the crust, sift the sugar into the bowl of an electric mixer. Add the flour and butter. Beat on low speed until you get a nice soft dough. Evenly spread the dough on the bottom of your buttered pan (I just patted it down with my fingers).

Bake for 15 – 20 minutes, or until the crust is golden brown. Make sure the crust is cooked evenly.

While the crust bakes, prepare the filling. Sift the flour into a mixing bowl. Add the sugar and mix together. Add the lemon juice and a little bit of lemon zest. Stir until the sugar has dissolved. Next add all of the eggs and whisk well.

When the crust is ready, pull out the oven rack keeping the pan on the rack and pour the filing directly into the hot pan. Drop the temp down to 150 Degrees Celcius and bake for 25 minutes or until the filling is no longer wobbly.

Let cool almost all the way through. Cut into rectangles, top with powdered sugar and serve.

Lemon Yoghurt Cake

So at 39.5 weeks pregnant, what better way to pass the time than to bake a delicious lemon yoghurt cake!!

This is a super easy cake to make and tastes delicious. I’ve tried a few different recipes, and this one is the best!

While I seem to be getting rounder by the day, keeping busy has been a good distraction from the aches, pains and tiredness of the downward slope of the last trimester.

….and the plus side of being pregnant, is that I can sample the goods guilt free!!

Dress – Metalicus

Lipstick – NARS Dragon Girl

Chocolate Chip Cookies

Do you have a “flow” activity, that helps you to disconnect from the drudgery of everyday life and get caught up doing something fun?

Today my flow activity was….Baking!!

I decided to make Tollhouse cookies!! It was my first attempt, but they turned out pretty darn good!!

I followed this recipe, but added chopped and whole hazelnuts and crushed walnuts. Here are the results!!

and here’s how I enjoyed the splendour of my work…

Cake Stand by Donna Hay
Flippy Skirt by Country Road
Lipstick – Impassioned, by Mac

Baking Therapy – Afternoon Scones

There is nothing more delightful on a Sunday afternoon then an impromptu tea party!! This afternoon I decided to bake some scones, following this recipe.

They turned out to be delicious, especially with a very large serve of jam and cream.

Baking is far more fun when you have someone to share it with. Today I invited a friend over for a good cup of tea, some gossip and scones!!

In a study by Diener and Seligman (2002), groups of happy people and unhappy people were compared. The group of happy people were showed to have good social relations, including socialising regularly and having strong social relationships.

Want to be more happy? Start with a good catch up with a friend!!

Can Daleks be happy too!?