Chocolate Brownies....

This morning I did some baking with Little C as we haven't done any for a while and I decided on Brownies for today's bake.  I haven't made them for ages and I've seen a lot of pictures on Instagram that have made my mouth water.

I have been using the same Brownie recipe for a couple of years and I'm not sure where I got it from.  It's just written on a scrap of paper in my recipe folder.  I really like the results I get from this recipe and I sometimes mix it up with a few nuts or some raspberries for a change.

Here's the recipe if you fancy trying them: 

150g Plain flour
200g butter
300g caster sugar
4 eggs
80g Cocoa powder
1 tbsp vanilla extract 
1tsp baking powder
0.5 tsp salt
100g good quality dark chocolate

• Preheat the over to 175C (165C for fan ovens) and grease and line a brownie tin.
• Put the butter into a small saucepan and melt, put this to one side to cool.
• Break your chocolate up into smallish pieces.
• Sift your flour, baking powder and cocoa together and mix in the sugar and salt.
• Whisk the eggs together with the vanilla extract and add to the dry ingredients. 
• Mix in the slightly cooled butter so you have a batter and then fold in the chocolate pieces.
• Scrape the mixture into the brownie tray and bake for 20-25 minutes.

Its the first time I have baked these in this particular oven and I found that 175C was a bit too high as they weren't as gooey in the middle as I would have liked, although they are still pretty scrummy.

I'm rather looking forward to sitting down later with a brownie, a nice hot cuppa and The Great British Bake Off this evening.    

Courgette's Galore

As the courgettes in my garden seem to be thriving and producing a bumper crop we are having to think of many different ways to use them.  We have been eating them in the usual stir fries and steamed, but I’ve had to be a bit more inventive with some of the bigger ones.

Firstly I made some courgette, pea and spinach soup from a recipe I got out of my New Convent Garden Soup book.  This was delicious and had a lovely texture.  I think I will be making up a nice big batch of this and freezing some.  I wouldn’t normally eat much soup this time of year, but as the weather has been so cold and wet I’ve needed something hot at lunchtime a little more often.

Next came a bit of an experiment.....courgette cake!  I had a look on the internet and found a recipe that sounded nice for a courgette and lemon cake.  I was a bit sceptical, but I love carrot cake and I do have an awful lot of courgettes to use so I had nothing to lose.  The result was lovely, a little lighter than a carrot cake, with a lovely hint of cinnamon.  It is lovely and moist, but lemon didn’t come through as much as I’d like so I think I would add more next time.  Another success I look forward to repeating in the near future.

Lastly I made some chutney as we had just finished off last years supplies so it was the perfect time to get out the Maslin pan and my collection of old jam jars.  I used a recipes from my river cottage handbook that I used last year for a Apricot chutney, and although the results look good and initial tasting was good we will have to wait a couple of months while it matures for the final verdict.

While reading some magazines I found some lovely recipes for dishes using courgettes, including pizza and risotto, so as long as my plants are giving me the courgettes I will continue to experiment.