Easy Chocolate Brownies

Now that I've had a couple of weeks to get back to normal eating after Christmas, it's time to bring out the chocolate recipes again for a bit of a sweet treat.

Brownies would have to be one of the easiest treats around and this recipe is particularly easy. Just melt the butter and stir in all the other ingredients! To mix it up a bit, you can use whatever add-ins you like. I used desiccated coconut and raisins, but you could be really indulgent and use chocolate chips, nuts or fresh rasperries or blueberries. A combination of everything is pretty good too!

To make this brownie into more of a dessert, serve it warm with a dollop of double cream or ice cream and a drizzle of chocolate or raspberry sauce. Easy, delicious indulgence!

Easy Chocolate Brownies

125g butter, cubed

1/4 cup cocoa 

3/4 cup caster sugar

2 eggs

3/4 cup plain flour, sifted

3/4 cup add-ins (coconut, chopped nuts, raisins, sultanas, choc chips, fresh berries)

Preheat oven to 180 degrees.

Grease a rectangular slice tin well. Line if your pan needs it.

Melt butter in a saucepan and then stir through cocoa and sugar until dissolved.

Remove from the heat and add eggs, stirring well between each addition.

Stir through flour and your chosen add-ins.

Spread mixture over the base of the tin and bake for 25-30 mins, or until a skewer comes out clean.

Cool for 5 minutes in the tin, then turn out onto a rack to cool.

Serve on it's own or with cream, ice cream, chocolate topping and fresh berries.

Enjoy!

Macadamia And Ginger Shortbread

As much as I love a piece of Christmas cake or a mince pie at Christmas time, sometimes it's nice to have something a little bit lighter. Just a little morsel of something sweet and delcious. My mother in law makes great shortbread biscuits and rum balls every year, so I really can't compete with her on the biscuit stakes. The solution is to make flavoured shortbread, which is completely different, but oh so good.

This macadamia and glace ginger version I came across three or four years ago and have been making it ever since. It is delicious! A beautiful combination of buttery shortbread, nutty toasted macadamia nuts and sweet, but bitey glace ginger. Perfect to enjoy with a cup of tea or to give away as a homemade gift.

This shortbread is nice and short and can tend to be a bit crumbly. Make sure you don't overcook it, otherwise it can be really hard to cut into pieces without falling apart. Making it into one large 'biscuit' makes it very quick to make. If you have a mixer, it really only takes a few minutes to combine all the ingredients.

If you don't normally like glace ginger, I'd suggest that you try this recipe and see if it changes your mind. Being finely chopped it just adds a beautiful flavour without being overwhelming. If you really can't stand it, maybe use dried cranberries instead for a festive look.

Macadamia And Ginger Shortbread

100g macadamia nuts

250g butter, softened

1/2 cup caster sugar plus extra to sprinkle

2 cups plain flour

1/2 cup cornflour

100g glace ginger, finely chopped

Preheat oven to 140 degrees.

Spread macadamia nuts on a baking tray and toast for 8 minutes or until golden. Remove from the oven and allow to cool.

Coarsely chop nuts and set aside.

Use a mixer or hand beater to cream butter and sugar until light and creamy.

Add flour and gently mix to combine.

Stir through nuts and ginger.

Tip dough onto a large piece of baking paper on a baking tray and shape into a large rectangle, about 1cm thick.

Score dough into fingers and then prick with a fork and sprinkle with a little extra caster sugar.

Bake for 30 minutes or until pale golden.

Remove from the oven and cool completely on tray before cutting into fingers at markings.

Wrap in cellophane with red and green ribbons to give as a gift, or store in an airtight container for a week or so (if it lasts that long!)

Enjoy!

Golden Spiced Christmas Biscuits

This year I've tried to add some Christmas baking into the kids Advent calendars, so that they're not having chocolate every day. Weekends really are the only time we have for baking, so biscuits were in order this weekend.

As much as I love gingerbread, sometimes they can be a bit strong for the kids. These spiced biscuits have a beautiful treacle flavour from the golden syrup and brown sugar and a nice mild spice from the cinnamon and mixed spice. My husband even proclaimed that they were the best Christmas biscuits I've ever made! Smiles all around.

I think these biscuits are perfect just as they are, but if you do like a more gingery flavour, add 1/2 tsp ground ginger to the mix too.

Decorate with icing pens if you have them, or icing in a piping bag with a very fine tip. You could use  sprinkles or silver cachous if you liked too.

Enjoy them with a cup of tea or coffee when you want something sweet, but not too rich and fancy.

Golden Spiced Christmas Biscuits

1 cup plain flour + extra for dusting

1/2 cup brown sugar

1 tsp ground cinnamon

1/2 tsp mixed spice

75g butter, cubed

1/4 cup golden syrup

Icing pens for decorating

Preheat oven to 160 degrees and line 2 baking trays with baking paper.

In a food processor, combine flour, sugar, spices and butter. Whiz until the mixture resembles bread crumbs.

Tip into a bowl and add golden syrup. Using your hands, mix until a soft dough forms.

Tip out onto a lightly floured bench and knead for a minute or so until the dough is smooth.

Wrap in plastic wrap and put in the fridge for 30 minutes.

Roll the dough out onto a lightly floured surface until 5mm thick.

Cut out your desired shapes and place onto trays with a little bit of room for spreading.

Bake for about 10 minutes, or until golden.

Remove from the oven and cool on trays before transferring to a rack to cool completely.

When cold, decorate as desired with icing.

Enjoy!

Coconut, Strawberry And Macadamia Loaf

I love to bake, but prefer to make simple, everyday cakes, slices and biscuits that I can indulge in every day. Sometimes the super rich, fancy treats can be a bit too much. Plus, they don't really last, so unless we're having a dinner party, I tend to avoid making them. I'm really the only sweet-tooth in the house as well, so if I make something sweet, I end up eating the whole thing. Not great for the waistline!

With strawberries being so cheap and beautiful at the moment, I couldn't resist coming up with a recipe to use them. I'll still probably make up a couple of batches of strawberry jam for Christmas presents and maybe a cheesecake, but this loaf was lovely.

It's quite a dense loaf, due to the coconut, but would be perfect as an indulgent breakfast or morning tea, toasted and then topped with whipped ricotta and a few fresh strawberries. Yum! Straight out of the oven, it tasted pretty good too.

The strawberries add nice little bursts of sweetness and flavour and the finely chopped macadamias a bit of crunch. 

My breakfast and morning tea for the week is definitely sorted. :-)

Coconut, Strawberry and Macadamia Loaf

2 eggs
1 1/4 cups of milk
1 tsp vanilla essence

70g butter

2 1/2 cups plain flour
2 tsp baking powder
2 tsp cinnamon 
1 cup caster sugar
3/4 cup desiccated coconut

1/2 cup macadamia nuts, chopped

1 cup strawberries, chopped


Preheat oven to 160 degrees.

Grease a 13x23cm loaf tin.

In a small bowl, lightly whisk the eggs, milk and vanilla essence.

In another small bowl, melt the butter in the microwave in 20 second bursts and allow to cool slightly. 

Whisk the cooled butter into the egg mixture. 

In a large bowl, sift flour, baking powder and cinnamon.

Add sugar, coconut and macadamia nuts.
Make a well in the dry ingredients, and pour in the egg mixture. Stir gently until all combined, but don't over mix.
Gently stir through the strawberries.

Spoon into the loaf tin and bake for 1 1/2 hours, or until a skewer comes out clean. If it seems to be browning too quickly, cover the top loosely with some foil.
Leave to cool slightly in the tin and then turn out onto a rack to cool.

Serve as is or cut into thick slices and toast.

Enjoy!

Super easy banana bread

On a cold, wet Melbourne day, what's better than the smell of something delicious baking in the oven. With a few bananas in the fruit bowl that had seen better days, banana bread was the only option for afternoon tea!

I like my banana bread to be a bit dense, but not too cakey. It needs to be able to be eaten fresh out of the oven with lashings of butter or thickly sliced and toasted with ricotta and honey. Delish!

This version has so many variations, that its great. It's super easy too. Today I added some coconut to the mixture, but you could add nuts, choc chips, fresh or frozen berries, whatever takes your fancy. One word of warning though - it won't last long!

EASY  BANANA  BREAD

2 medium bananas
2 tablespoons golden syrup
1 tablespoon brown sugar
1 egg
1 cup SR flour (wholemeal or white)
pinch salt
cinnamon sugar
1/4 -1/2 cup chopped nuts, coconut, choc chips or berries

Preheat oven to 180 degrees and grease and base line a small loaf tin.
Mash banana with golden syrup and sugar and combine well.
Stir in lightly beaten egg, then sifted flour and pinch of salt.
Gently stir in extras until just combined.
Pour into tin and sprinkle with cinnamon sugar.
Back for about 30 mins or until cooked.
Turn on to a rack to cool, or eat straight from the oven.

Now to sit down with a cup of tea and relax :-)