Beetroot Brownies

I made these before and swore never to make them again. The other day I made a beetroot risotto and the beetroot was so sweet that I was convinced to make these with the one remaining beetroot from the bunch.  

 I couldn't remember which recipe I used last timebut when I googled it there appeared to be only one, a Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall one so I went with that.

 Mr VST and I made them together which made them super easy to make. He first melted the butter and chocolate together and then grated the beetroot while waiting for these to melt.

 I mixed the beaten egg and sugar together and then added the melted chocolate and butter to that before folding in the flour and the beetroot.

 The recipe says that you have to use cooked beetroot, which I did, and then it says you can either grate or purée it.

 We grated it but I think I would try pureeing it next time. Anyway I mixed it all together and popped it in the oven.

 I popped it in the oven after the I took the pasta bake out and did so without realising that I had switched the oven to 'grill'. Halfway through eating our pasta bake I could smell burning and realised that I'd grilled the brownies rather than baked them. 

 I cut the burnt top off and Mr VST and I ate it with some ice cream, it tasted fine. I thought the brownies were cooked but they were still a bit soft inside and so I popped them back into the oven to cook through. 

 They turned out fine. The beetroot didn't ruin the brownies by giving out an earthy flavour as it had the last time. I took them down to Cornwall and had them tested by the masses and they went down well. Maybe beetroot brownies have earned a reprieve. 

Birthday Cupcakes

As I mentioned yesterday I made some cupcakes for my friend's 30th birthday. I chose to make the lemon cupcakes from the Hummingbird Bakery book. They are so easy to make. I used my new lemon zester gadget and peeled the zest from two lemons, I'm not sure that it was quite the three tablespoons that the recipe required but it was certainly easier with this gadget than using a grater. 

It made a lovely light, lemony sponge.

I topped the cupcakes with some home made bramley lemon curd...

...and some lemon butter icing which I made with lemon juice not zest as recommended in the recipe.

I also made a batch of my favourite vegan chocolate cupcakes too and hey presto! Birthday Cupcakes.

The Best Vegan Chocolate Cupcakes with Chocolate 'Buttercream' Icing

On Friday night I was lazily surfing the web, the Post Punk Kitchen site in particular, and I came across this recipe for dairy free chocolate mousse cupcakes. I had cooked with tofu for the first time last Sunday when I made another of PPK's recipes, the moussaka with pine nut cream and this recipe for chocolate cupcakes gave me something to so with the left over tofu. Despite being really tired on Friday night I couldn't get these out of my head and decided to make them. I am SO glad I did. 

I didn't have 340g (12oz) of tofu left, I only had 234g (8.5oz) so I reduced the recipe by a third. It made more than enough icing and I had some left over although I didn't decorate them as the recipe suggested. I have adapted the recipe slightly.

For the icing:
235g dark chocolate, melted
235g silken tofu (I used this one it is the soft version and it worked fine!)
60ml plain soy milk (hint 60ml = 60g)
2 tablespoons/30ml agave syrup or maple syrup
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

1 tablespoon cornflour (if needed to thicken)

4 tablespoons icing sugar

Method - Icing
1. Crumble the tofu into a blender. Add the soy milk, agave, icing sugar and vanilla extract. Puree until completely smooth. Set aside.

2. Either using a bain marie or in the microwave (in 30 second blasts) melt the dark chocolate. Once melted, let cool for 5 more minutes, stirring occasionally.

3. Add the chocolate to the tofu and blend until well combined, use the spatula to scrape down the sides of the blender every so often.

4. Let the icing cool in the fridge for about an hour.

For the cupcakes:
240ml soy milk
1 teaspoon apple cider vinegar
160g granulated sugar
63ml cup canola oil
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon almond extract, chocolate extract, or more vanilla extract
125g plain flour
30g cocoa powder
3/4 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt

Method (cupcakes)

1. Preheat oven to 350°F and line a muffin pan with paper liners.

2. Whisk together the soy milk and vinegar in a large bowl, and set aside for a few minutes to curdle. Add the sugar, oil, vanilla extract, and other extract, if using, to the soy milk mixture and beat until foamy.

 

3. Sift in the dry ingredients, flour, cocoa, baking powder, bicarbonate of soda, salt into the wet ingredients and whisk together. 

 4. Lightly spray the liners with cooking spray and pour batter into liners, filling 3/4 of the way. Bake for 18 to 20 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into the centre comes out clean. Transfer to a cooling rack and let cool completely.

 5. Assemble! Either you can do the classic big swirls of icing or as I did make butterfly cakes by cutting out the top and cutting it in half and filling the hole with icing.

These are the best vegan cupcakes I have ever tasted but they're pretty amazing when compared to non-vegan ones too. The sponge is dense and chocolatey, the icing, I adapted by adding cornflour to thicken it up as I was concerned it would be runny because of the comments, and then some icing sugar to sweeten it so that it is like butter icing. I initially added too much cornflour and no icing sugar and although the icing looked right, it didn't quite taste right. Once I watered it down a bit and added the icing sugar it became the right consistency and the sweetness of the sugar brought out the chocolatey taste. 

I made twelve but there are only two left now!

As for our dairy free experiment this week we broke it yesterday with an ice cream (which was delicious) not really thinking that it had made that much difference to Mr VST. I had noticed that I was much less bunged up. Last night I had a sore throat and a headache, not sure if these were dairy related but I feel better today. Anyway, Mr VST, woke up all bunged up today so it seems as though it must be having some impact. He has decided to continue with the oat milk instead of dairy and only really eating dairy in baking although he won't have to if I keep making batches of these!

Full Fat, non Vegan, Chocolate Brownies

I attended a family wedding at the weekend which was lovely. When the invitation came a few months back it came with a request for a batch of sweet treats for serving at the reception to keep everyone going before dinner. I thought long and hard about it and then decided to go for a batch of the best brownies. Nigel Slater is very coy when he calls this recipe his 'very good chocolate brownie recipe'. I think I might die if I tried his very best brownie recipe!

I recommend reading the article even if you have no intention of making the brownies. It is gastro-porn!

Ingredients (makes 12 brownies)

300g golden caster sugar
250g butter
250g chocolate (70 per cent cocoa solids)
3 large eggs plus 1 extra egg yolk
60g flour
60g finest quality cocoa powder
½ tsp baking powder

Method

1. Set the oven at 180°C/Gas 4. Line the bottom of the baking tin with baking parchment. 

2. Put the sugar and butter into the bowl of a food mixer and beat for several minutes till white and fluffy. You can do it by hand if you wish, but you need to keep going until the mixture is really soft and creamy. - I had forgotten why I needed the food processor for this recipe - this is why!

3.Meanwhile, break the chocolate into pieces, set 50g of it aside and melt the rest in a bowl suspended over, but not touching, a pan of simmering water. As soon as the chocolate has melted remove it from the heat. 

4.Chop the remaining 50g into gravel-sized pieces.

5. Break the eggs into a small bowl and beat them lightly with a fork. 

6. Sift together the flour, cocoa and baking powder and mix in a pinch of salt. With the food mixer running slowly, introduce the beaten egg a little at a time, speeding up in between additions. 

7. Remove the bowl from the mixer to the work surface, then mix in the melted and the chopped chocolate with a large metal spoon.

8. Lastly, fold in the flour and cocoa, gently and firmly, without knocking any of the air out. Scrape the mixture into the prepared cake tin, smooth the top and bake for 30 minutes. The top will have risen slightly and the cake will appear slightly softer in the middle than around the edges. Pierce the centre of the cake with a fork - it should come out sticky, but not with raw mixture attached to it. If it does, then return the brownie to the oven for three more minutes. It is worth remembering that it will solidify a little on cooling, so if it appears a bit wet, don't worry.

I had intended to cut the brownies into heart shapes but my cutter wasn't deep enough and I'd forgotten how crumbly they were so I cut them into bite-sized squares instead.

One of the benefits of the failure to cut the brownies into heart shapes was the left overs. There were some brownie bits that couldn't be served to the guests so they sustained Mr VST and I on our long journey north. 

When we got there we had some carrot and coriander soup, home made bread, crackers and cheese for dinner. 

Easter Chocolate Cake

Last week at work I was requested to make an Easter treat for my colleagues at the office. I had seen this easy one-bowl chocolate cake on Not Quite Nigella's blog last week. I was going to make it for the weekend but the rhubarb cake took my fancy instead. I thought I'd turn this chocolate cake into an Easter one by adding some mini eggs.

You may notice that I have returned to full fat, non-vegan cakes this week! With a recipe full of eggs, chocolate and butter I couldn't really go wrong. The recipe was extremely easy to follow although I ended up making two bowls messy rather than just one and the large bowl I have is metal and so I couldn't melt the chocolate in the microwave in it.

I also made a bit of chocolate icing to make sure the mini eggs stuck onto the cake. I guess that makes it a three-bowl cake!

I'm blaming my fan assisted oven but I think I left my cake in too long as well and it wasn't quite as moist as NQN's. It still went down very well at work though and was amazingly dense.

Vegan Chocolate Blueberry Cake

Trying to satisfy my sweet tooth in a low calorie way is sometimes difficult. I came across the Fat Free Vegan Blog and the picture on the top of the amazing looking cake on the top banner. I found the recipe for it in the top ten recipes of 2010 section and as I had most of the ingredients at home or good substitutes. Blueberries were on special offer but still massively expensive but hey-ho, anything in the name of sweet-toothedness. The recipe was VERY easy to make. I may have overcooked it slightly in my fan assisted oven. It was a little dry. Mr VST had his second slice with some ice cream and liked it better than on it's own.

Blending the blueberries, water and balsamic vinegar

Chocolatey mix

Chocolate pear crisp

This recipe is the result of another search of the BBC Good Food website with the vegetarian, dessert and low calorie boxes ticked. It was closer in calories in real life to what was stated in the recipe than the chocolate tart but still 184 rather than 140, it all adds up!

It had mixed reviews on the website but I thought I'd give it a go. I put the pears on with lemon juice from a bottle rather than a lemon as I didn't have any and the sugar and let it all bubble away while I prepared the other ingredients. I must have been destined to whisk this weekend. I didn't have any idea how long it would take to whisk an egg white and stupidly decided to try doing it by hand. After quite some effort I gave up and used the electric whisk instead.

Pears with lemon juice and sugar

I sifted the icing sugar and cocoa powder together and added the ground almonds. I did my best impression of folding the egg white into the ingredients but there didn't seem to be an awful lot to go between the ramekins.

After baking them for about 30 minutes altogether I served them with ice cream. The pears were very tasty but I wasn't that impressed with the topping. I'm not sure I'd bother making them again, especially as I could have a slice of Mr VST's chocolate tart for only a few calories more.

Low calorie chocolate tart

I have been calorie counting lately and I regularly search the BBC Good Food website for low calorie meals and it is usually great. As everyone counts calories differently and uses different brands of ingredients I then put the list into the myfitnesspal.com recipe tool and check before making whatever it is.

Being a sweet tooth I searched for low calorie puddings on the site and it came up with this chocolate tart. Awesome I thought! A whole decent sized chocolate tart full of chocolatey goodness with only 184 calories per portion.

So I popped the ingredients list into the recipe tool and it was coming out with something a lot higher. It was more like 250 calories a portion even when I split it into eight rather than four portions. I know that doesn't seem like a big difference but when you're on 1200 (net of exercise) calories a day believe me it makes all the difference.  I was quite disappointed. I have no idea how they came up with that calorie count unless the portions are a quarter of one of the four tarts. I had already drooled over this recipe and became obsessed with making it closer to the calorie count I was originally expecting. I couldn't mess with the main chocolatey ingredients of course but I thought I'd play with the pastry. Using eight sheets of filo pastry instead of the shortcrust I managed to get it down to 190 calories for a portion 1/8th of a whole big tart. That was more acceptable so on Tuesday evening, having returned home briefly I set about putting the filo pastry in layers in a tin and gathering all the ingredients for the middle. I knew I was going to be called out again but did not anticipate it being for quite so long. I returned home just after 10pm to find that Mr VST had made the filling and finished it off. A piece of chocolate tart was music to my weary soul when I returned home.

It is good and chocolatey, as you would expect when it has two bars of dark chocolate in it! You don't really need eight sheets of filo pastry and in fact you could probably make it without the pastry at all and it would make lovely chocolatey brownie-type things.

It's amazing how resourceful you become when you are calorie counting. I enjoy succeeding in the challenge of eating like a (vegetarian) king on such a low calorie budget. Maybe I'm just sad but it is rewarding to see the scales tipping back towards their pre-Christmas marker.

Chocolate Filo Tart - maybe a bit OTT with the filo?!

Calories in Christmas Chocolates

I've just done a VERY brave thing! I had rather a lot of chocolate and other goodies for Christmas (my nearest and dearest know how sweet my sweet tooth is!) and have quite a lot of it still left to eat. As I have started calorie counting again today I decided to go through said sweeties and write on the packets in black marker pen the amount of calories and fat in each. Everything in moderation...

Toad in the hole

Surely there isn't anything better than Yorkshire pudding?  I am more of a Jamie than a Delia in the kitchen but I use Delia's Yorkshire pudding recipe and it works every time. To make my mini toad in the holes I make Delia's batter and use her hot oven technique (using olive oil instead of beef dripping), I grill some Linda McCartney sausages and then cut them in half, and put them in with the batter in a Yorkshire tin.

I served them with mashed potato, Anna's onion gravy, some carrots and broccoli.

For pudding this evening it was my Mum's chocolate pudding floating in it's own sauce. I made this over the weekend and we had some of what was left this evening.

Superjack

Mr VST has been off mountain-biking this weekend so I thought I'd make him some high energy snacks to take with him. This super-flap-jack I am naming Superjack for short has the usual oats, golden syrup, sugar and butter but is also packed full of raisins and nuts and topped with melted chocolate.

For a normal amount (i.e. half of what is shown in the photo) you will need:

150g butter
75g golden syrup
75g sugar (light soft brown or demerara)
250g oats
100g mixed nuts
60g raisins/sultanas (this is a guesstimate I'm afraid as I didn't measure)
50g white chocolate
50g milk chocolate

1. Put butter, golden syrup and sugar in a saucepan and heat until liquid and all the sugar has dissolved.
2. Line a baking tin with greaseproof paper.
3. Mix the oats, nuts and raisins into the liquid (having taken it off the heat).
4. Put the mixture into the baking tin and squash it down with the back of a spoon and then bake at 175°C/gas mark 4 for 25 to 30 minutes.
5. Cut into pieces while still hot and leave to cool.
6. Melt white chocolate over a bain-marie (bowl of hot water), spoon over cool flapjack and then do the same with the milk chocolate and voila - superjack!