Halva Tahini Brownies

I might have mentioned  before (a million times) that I like Greek food. And when we went to Greece this summer, I had a great time browsing the little supermarket for random ingredients. I ate a lot of honey and sesame bars because they have a million different types there.

I also went to the supermarket specifically looking for halva - it’s like a crumbly nougat made with sesame seeds/tahini. I love the flavour of sesame and I’ve used tahini to great effect before in brownies. 

Halva was an obvious choice for a brownie topping – sweet but not overpoweringly so, with a beautiful nutty undertone and a mildly sticky texture when cooked. You can get halva in the UK but the only ones I could find were in a speciality food stop, therefore expensive. Obviously heading to Greece to get some was the next step.

Hazelnut Chocolate Fudge Brownies

Strap yourselves in, because this is a good one!

Brownies are consistently what I turn to when I need to bake something easy and delicious. And there are SO many different flavour combinations that I never get bored making them.

I recently saw a recipe for fudge-topped brownies and it just seemed like such a smart idea that I had to try it my way. I have a fond history with traybakes that use brownies as a base, because I think my mint-topped brownies are probably my favourite bake to eat.

The fudge portion hardens to a silky smooth layer which is just delicious. And obviously I added Nutella, chopped hazelnuts and edible glitter.

Ideally, I wanted the chocolate topping to be white chocolate to give a satisfying colour change, but I totally messed up melting it and it all kind of went to hell. Next time!

Oreo Brownies

I'm currently working night shifts, and I need this mid week pick me up..

Remember how much I love brownies? Well, I thought I had gotten to the end of the possible flavours and additions, but that would be like giving up, and I’m not a quitter!

Cheeky little surprise in store

Shoving Oreos in the middle of brownies is a revelation. It's not refined, or haute cuisine, but damn these taste good. 

It wasn’t easy initially to make, my first batch were really dry because I cooked them for far too long. I have learned and tweaked and I'm really happy with what we're at now. The next thing I want to do is make them with mint Oreos, (which are my favourite things in the whole world) because mint chocolate is my favourite flavour combination.

Salted Caramel Brownies

So, I’ve just come back from a fortnights holiday to hot and sunny Croatia and I slightly over-indulged. I had a lot of icecream. And frozen yogurt. And alcohol.

What I’m saying is, it was amazing.

And that theme of overindulgence should continue just one more day.. Which brings me to this post.

I love brownies. I love how easy they are to make, I love how delicious they are, I love when they’re all squidgy and fudgy and nearly falling apart when you cut them. So this is the next in my long line of brownie posts.

I have a terrible confession though (which I may have made before).. I can’t make good caramel. It’s really damn difficult for me (file this under “Can’t make correctly” before fudge). So, this is one of those times when I take a shortcut and use ready-made canned caramel. Sorry. Please, make your own if you can do that. I’ll stick to my tin and keep my saucepans un-burned. Caramel continues to cause me slight difficulties here because the top of the brownies burned a bit due to the caramel bits "catching".

Coconut Flour Brownies

The American system has come to my rescue, because my scales have run out of battery! So this recipe is in cups.

Part of this healthy eating kick is exploring a new variety of cooking. I’m not so much a fan of veggies, and I find them kind of boring. So I’m branching out into “raw” and cleaner baked goods. I spotted some coconut flour in Asda on my last shop, and I had to have it! I was a bit worried because the flour packet was teeny and expensive, but upon reading up on it, you need to use a lot less coconut flour than regular flour. That’s because it is very good at soaking up the wet parts of your recipe, so you need about a third of the amount of coconut flour that you’d normally use.

The thing that sold me was the recipe on the back of the box for pancakes! Pancakes are the ultimate breakfast food for me. Recipe coming soon.. I love pancakes so much..

This is my second time ever baking with coconut flour, so I slightly overdid the flour in this recipe because I got nervous to use too little. Therefore, I’ve adapted the final written recipe accordingly so you can get the correct fudgy texture. I went with mint chocolate (my FAVE), but if you don’t want that, just sub in plain chocolate. The coconut flour isn’t overpoweringly coconutty, so the mint doesn’t clash, but this could be awesome with coconut flour and added desiccated coconut.

Cream Cheese Brownies

The blog has been a bit too savoury lately (ie: two savoury posts in a row!)

So I thought I should rectify that with another type of brownie (I'm a tiny bit obsessed with brownies..).

I have been meaning to get more use out of the revelation of sesame-cheesecake mixture that I made for the sesame yoyos. And I really love brownies, but a few years ago when I attempted to make cream cheese brownies the whole thing was an unmitigated disaster. Like, "throwing the batch out" disastrous.

Nevertheless, these things are sent to try us! And if I never kept cracking on at recipes which had previously been fraught with difficulty, then this blog would be pretty empty. Trial and error, practice and tasting, that’ll get you where you need to go. Never give up!

And I’m glad I kept going, because I’ve cracked it! These are some of the nicest, nuttiest, creamiest brownies I’ve ever made! Please make them, you won’t regret it. Brownies, brownies, brownies!

Best Ever Squidgy Brownies

URGH. It's the start of a cold, miserable week. If you're anything like me, you'll need this to get you through to the comfort of the weekend..

I will concede that “best ever” is a bold claim. However, just make these and then tell me you feel differently. If your preferred brownie is dense and squidgy and moist*, unashamedly chocolatey, with the lovely crackly top, then this is the one for you. I brought these into work and they were a unanimous success!

The recipe that I present below is pretty much unadulterated from the source recipe (BBC Good Food), but I have made this several times since the original and I have changed it up slightly – substituting the half the chocolate for Nutella and adding hazelnuts with the choc chunks, or adding orange chocolate chunks and stirring through some orange zest.  No matter what you add, it always comes out delicious!

*this is the only situation in which that word is acceptable..

Cheeseburger Cupcakes

Ta-daaaaa!

I am a big fan of the TV show Bob’s Burgers. But, I prefer to bake. So this is my homage to Bob, who always names his burgers with a (sometimes cheesy) literary/pop culture reference.  

I have been wracking my brains trying to think of something clever to name these brownies as Bob would, and I can’t come up with ANYTHING. I am not creative. I have failed. Answers on a postcard.

I have another confession to make. I am kind of terrible at making things look pretty. I promise you, my food *tastes* great, but I can’t always get the cake to rise evenly, or ice things beautifully. My ganache always slips a bit, and my cupcakes always rise a bit too high in the centre. BUT! I wanted to give these a go. And I’m glad that I did, because I think they turned out pretty cool.

I already have great recipes for muffins and great recipes for brownies, so I have recycled those, if it aint broke don’t fix it.

Cocoa-nut Brownies!

Wordplay high-five!

My normal brownie routine is to begin by melting chocolate and butter together, and I decided to change things up a bit. I love the flavour depth and texture that cocoa powder brings to a chocolatey bake, so I decided to give it a go! I found that all cocoa gave the most incredible flavour, but a slightly cake-ier texture than I wanted, so the next time I made them I used 60g cocoa and 60g chocolate.

And combining the cocoa flavour bomb with some unadulterated coconut just felt like a winner to me. And oh wow. It was.

You know bounty bars? You know how happy they make people? Well, here they are in brownie form, SCORE! Completely dense and rich and chocolatey and kind of incredible. I love it when a brownie comes together (in my mouth). I baked mine for 40 minutes and that was PLENTY, so I’d start checking after 30 minutes and taking them out as soon as ready.

Sweet Potato Brownies

Okay, my love and admiration for the humble sweet potato knows no bounds. We all know this. I would eat it every day if society (and my boyfriend) accepted that. I love the juxtaposition between meat and savoury sauces and the surprise of the silky smooth sweet potato.

But to put it in something exclusively sweet? A brownie, nonetheless! It sounds like it wouldn’t work. I was sceptical right until I put one of these dense, sweet little treats in my mouth. Then I got right on board.

Also, correct me if I’m wrong, but this recipe might just be gluten-free. See, I don’t need flour in *every* recipe! Not that I am opposed to gluten, but I just think that there is nothing bad about making food that lots of people can eat.

Peanut Butter Brownies

All the stores are full of "healthy" food for New Years and I'm just like.. BROWNIES.

Everybody loves brownies. And, by transit of property, everybody loves the person who brings brownies.

I particularly love these because these really are "kitchen cupboard" brownies. We've all got a jar of peanut butter and some peanuts lurking in the back of the cupboard.

I’ve really been experimenting with all sorts of brownie types, because it is a basic recipe that lends itself so well to different flavours. We've had the classic, the orange, the mint, so far. 

These came about after I was googling “recipes with peanut butter” as you do, and I couldn't believe that I hadn't considered peanut butter brownies up until then. If you wanted to be really naughty, you could easily throw in peanut m&ms instead of the chocolate chips and peanuts. Not that I've ever done that. Ahem.

Chocolate Orange Brownies

Of all the food I bring into work (and I'm a feeder, so it's a lot), this is the one thing that people have requested (okay, begged) that I make again and again.

I do love a brownie, I’ve already done the classic and the mint, and when I had some leftover oranges, it seemed obvious to stick them in a brownie. That is how my brain works, don’t judge me.

Squidgy, dense, rich and sweet, studded with chocolate pieces – everything I want in a sweet morsel!

Chocolate Mint Brownies

Oh my. 

So, I was sitting at home, on a weekend evening, browsing recipes online. Don’t you judge me. I happened to google two of my favourite things: “brownie” and “mint.” And look what came up! Something so dense and chewy and chocolately, but with a delightfully crisp and creamy mint centre. This is what I have been waiting my whole life for.

It is fairly similar to my favourite traybake, and actual favourite thing that I cook: Peppermint squares (recipe to come). I find this a quite Americanised version, with the dense brownie base replacing the more traditional (to me) crispy cornflake base, and it is just delightful.

You need this in your life.

Classic Walnut Brownies

Packaged up for work

I have a confession to make. I am a bit crap at making brownies. It’s just one of my sticking points, like fudge (dear God, fudge haunts my nightmares). But every so often I get the urge to give it another go, because I am a bit stubborn like that, and brownies are so delicious.

I got the Mary Berry Baking Bible from my very thoughtful mum for Christmas and there are a few promising brownie recipes which I earmarked. One of which is the subject of this post. She hasn’t steered me wrong yet.

First of all, it is a gratifyingly simple recipe. Second, it has an amazing brownie ‘crust’ on top which I am ecstatic about. And finally.. It isn’t all goo in the middle! Rejoyce! Brownies: delicious. Me: successful. Winners all round.

Make these. Put whatever nuts you want in them. Eat them.