Best Ever Chocolate Brownie

I needed to bake something for the school fair. It has to be able to be stored without refrigeration. So decided to try this recipe before baking it for the fair. These brownies came out delicious, rich and moist so I hope the people that buy my brownie at the fair will like it too.


Ingredients
150 g butter
300 g dark chocolate
1 1/2 cups brown sugar
4 eggs
1 cup flour
1/2 cup sour cream
1/2 cup chopped macadamia nuts

Steps
1. Line a greased baking tin with baking paper
2. Melt butter and chocolate over low heat, and transfer to a mixing bowl.
3. Add brown sugar and mix together, then mix in the eggs.
4. Add sifted flour and mix.
5. Add sour cream and nuts and combine thoroughly.
6. Pour mixture into the baking tin and bake at 180C for 30 mins.

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More Christmas Cakes

These are a few more fondant Christmas cake. They are all fruit cake and for the recipe click here.

The teddy bear and dog measures about 4 cm or 1.5 inch. All are made from gum paste or sugar paste.

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Christmas Cakes

Here's a season to be jolly...la..la..la..la. Christmas is just around the corner. I started taking an interest in cake decorating last year and made some Christmas cakes for my kids' teachers last year. So this year, I'm doing it again. I'm still in the process of baking and making the decorations. These are two of my completed cakes. I still have 7 to complete. That's why these cakes are only 6 inches in diameter.

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Daring Bakers Challenge

After two savoury challenges, we're back to cakes again. I'm missing the savoury challenges already. This month's challenge is Caramel cake and it is hosted by Dolores from culinarycuriosity.blogspot.com

When I read this month's challenge, I knew that this was going to be a very sweet cake. I like cakes but not overly sweet ones so I normally reduce the sugar specified in cake recipes and I did the same here.

My cake turned out dense and heavy. But it tasted good because of the caramel flavour. I do not know where I went wrong. When it first came out from the oven, it seem okay but after frosting and putting it in the fridge, it became heavy. I was going to try baking it again. But because I'm also baking and decorating all my Christmas cakes, I do not have the time. I'll be posting some Christmas cakes soon.

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Last Minute Again - Pizza

Since I've started working, I've left all the Daring Bakers' Challenges till last minute. I only started mine challenge a day before it was suppose to be posted and the dough needs to be rested one day in the fridge. So this is a real challenge for me. This month's challenge is hosted by Rosa's Yummy Yums and the challenge is pizza. This is the brief version of the recipe. For more detail, visit Rosa's site. The topping was up to our imagination. These are the pizza I came up with for dinner. I think that if you have a pizza stone the dough would come out nice and crisp.

This pizza has tomato paste, roasted capsicum, mushrooms, fresh tomatoes and feta cheese. I sprinkled some basil before eating.

This pizza has tomato paste, salami and cheese.

This is a sweet pizza with mascarpone cheese and yohurt mixed with some icing sugar and apples and some brown sugar on the top.

~ BASIC PIZZA DOUGH ~
Original recipe taken from “The Bread Baker’s Apprentice” by Peter Reinhart.

Makes 6 pizza crusts (about 9-12 inches/23-30 cm in diameter).

Ingredients
4 1/2 Cups (20 1/4 ounces/607.5 g) Unbleached high-gluten (%14) bread flour or all purpose flour, chilled
1 3/4 Tsp Salt
1 Tsp Instant yeast
1/4 Cup (2 ounces/60g) Olive oil or vegetable oil (both optional, but it’s better with)
1 3/4 Cups (14 ounces/420g or 420ml) Water, ice cold (40° F/4.5° C)
1 Tb sugar - FOR GF use agave syrup
Semolina/durum flour or cornmeal for dusting

Day 1

1. Mix together the flour, salt and instant yeast in a big bowl (or in the bowl of your stand mixer).
2. Add the oil, sugar and cold water and mix well in order to form a sticky ball of dough. On a clean surface, knead for about 5-7 minutes, until the dough is smooth and the ingredients are homogeneously distributed. If it is too wet, add a little flour (not too much, though) and if it is too dry add 1 or 2 teaspoons extra water.
3. With the help of a metal or plastic dough scraper, cut the dough into 6 equal pieces (or larger if you want to make larger pizzas).
4. NOTE: To avoid the dough from sticking to the scraper, dip the scraper into water between cuts.
5. Sprinkle some flour over the dough. Make sure your hands are dry and then flour them. Gently round each piece into a ball.
6. NOTE: If the dough sticks to your hands, then dip your hands into the flour again.
7. Transfer the dough balls to the lined jelly pan and mist them generously with spray oil. Slip the pan into plastic bag or enclose in plastic food wrap.
8. Put the pan into the refrigerator and let the dough rest overnight or for up to three days.

Day 2

1. On the day you plan to eat pizza, exactly 2 hours before you make it, remove the desired number of dough balls from the refrigerator. 
2. Dust the counter with flour and spray lightly with oil. 
3. Place the dough balls on a floured surface and sprinkle them with flour. 
4. Dust your hands with flour and delicately press the dough into disks about 1/2 inch/1.3 cm thick and 5 inches/12.7 cm in diameter. 
5. Sprinkle with flour and mist with oil. Loosely cover the dough rounds with plastic wrap and then allow to rest for 2 hours.
6. At least 45 minutes before making the pizza, place a baking stone on the lower third of the oven. Preheat the oven as hot as possible (500° F/260° C).
7. 
8. NOTE: If you do not have a baking stone, then use the back of a jelly pan. Do not preheat the pan.
9. Generously sprinkle the back of a jelly pan with semolina/durum flour or cornmeal. Flour your hands (palms, backs and knuckles). Take 1 piece of dough by lifting it with a pastry scraper. Flatten and toss it.
10. When the dough has the shape you want (about 9-12 inches/23-30 cm in diameter - for a 6 ounces/180g piece of dough), place it on the back of the jelly pan, making sure there is enough semolina/durum flour or cornmeal to allow it to slide and not stick to the pan.
11. Lightly top it with sweet or savory toppings of your choice.
12. 
13. Place the garnished pizza on the parchment paper onto the stone in the oven or bake directly on the jelly pan. Close the door and bake for about 5-8 minutes.
14. 
15. Take the pizza out of the oven and transfer it to a cutting board or your plate. In order to allow the cheese to set a little, wait 3-5 minutes before slicing or serving.

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Happy Birthday

My husband's birthday is this week. So I've made him this birthday cake this week end. He loves chocolate(but of course that's not his first love) and so I am making a Chocolate Almond Cake for him. It turned out almost like a chocolate mud cake. But it's lighter and moist but still rich.

Ingredients
250 grams of chocolate
125 grams unsalted butter
250 grams semi sweet chocolate
1/2 cup orange juice
6 eggs, separated
200 grams almond meal
1 cup castor sugar

Steps

1. Line 20 cm round tine and preheat oven to 170C.
2. Put the butter and orange juice in a saucepan and heat over low heat until the butter has melted. 
3. Take of the heat and add chocolate. Stir until all the chocolate has melted.
4. Beat the egg whites in a separate bowl and gradually add 1/2 cup of the castor sugar until soft peak. Leave this for later.
5. Beat the egg yolks with the other 1/2 cup of castor sugar until light and creamy. Beat in the cooled chocolate & butter mixture.
6. Fold in the almond meal. Fold in the beaten egg white.
7. Pour in tin and bake for about 45 - 50 minutes.

I decorated it with dark chocolate ganache and white chocolate ganache. The ganache is chocolate melted in hot cream. I do not have the exact measurement of cream to chocolate. 

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Avacado, Mango, Tango

I've just started work recently after being a stay at home mum for four years. So I do not get the time to surf the internet as often as before. For September's Daring Bakers' challenge, I assumed that posting date is the last day of the month. So I was going to do it this week end. I found out yesterday after visiting FBB's website that it was yesterday. So, I made my lavash about 2 hours ago. This month's challenge was hosted by Shellyfish . These are the short description of steps to make lavash (to view the full description, I'm sure shellyfish would post it on her site) :-
Makes 1 sheet pan of crackers

* 1 1/2 cups (6.75 oz) unbleached bread flour or gluten free flour blend (If you use a blend without xanthan gum, add 1 tsp xanthan or guar gum to the recipe)
* 1/2 tsp (.13 oz) salt
* 1/2 tsp (.055 oz) instant yeast
* 1 Tb (.75 oz) agave syrup or sugar
* 1 Tb (.5 oz) vegetable oil
* 1/3 to 1/2 cup + 2 Tb (3 to 4 oz) water, at room temperature
* Poppy seeds, sesame seeds, paprika, cumin seeds, caraway seeds, or kosher salt for toppings.

1. In a mixing bowl, stir together the flour, salt yeast, sugar, oil, and just enough water to bring everything together into a ball. You may not need the full 1/2 cup + 2 Tb of water, but be prepared to use it all if needed.


2. Sprinkle some flour on the counter and transfer the dough to the counter. Knead for about 10 minutes. The dough should not be tacky.

3. Ferment at room temperature for 90 minutes, or until the dough doubles in size. (You can also retard the dough overnight in the refrigerator immediately after kneading or mixing).

4. Roll the dough to about 15 inches by 12 inches. But I manage to roll into 1 1/2 sheets. One thicker and the other thinner. You might need to rest it every 5 minutes so that it relaxes and does not shrink back. Dust the top with some flour.
Transfer onto tray.


5. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit(I used 180 degrees Celcius) with the oven rack on the middle shelf. Mist the top of the dough with water and sprinkle a covering of seeds or spices on the dough. I used sesame seeds on the thin dough and cumin seeds, sesame seeds and cracked pepper on the thick dough. I cut the dough using a pizza cutter. You can leave it in one piece and break it after baking.

6. Bake for 15 to 20 minutes, or until the crackers begin to brown evenly across the top (the time will depend on how thinly and evenly you rolled the dough).

7. When the crackers are baked, remove the pan from the oven and let them cool in the pan for about 10 minutes. You can then snap them apart or snap off shards and serve.




These lavash can be served with dips or salsa. Mangoes are starting to get into season. So I've made 2 salsa to go with it. I've used mango and avacado in one and avacado, seeded tomato and capsicum in another. Mixed it with some olive oil, squeeze of lemon juice and salt. Could add some red onions, herbs and chilli too. Tasty, healthy and yummy. Big hit with the kids.

Ingredients used for my salsa.

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