Brownies and Blondies - Rachel Allen

I sometimes feel that I shouldn't bake too much as, you know, I'd only eat it all myself...  But I have recently solved that problem by rediscovering the satisfying glow caused by the giving of cake as a gift, specifically to 2 friends who have recently had babies.  After all, what's a more welcome gift in that sleep-deprived and mind-numbingly-exhausting time than cake?!  Not a cake that you need to find a knife to cut and plates on which to serve it - no, all too much to deal with when you have a newborn baby - you need a cake that you can grab, ready cut, from the bag, box or tin in which it is presented.  Brownies seemed to me to fulfil that brief.

A few months ago I bought 'Cake' by Rachel Allen.  It's a lovely book with many recipes that I have bookmarked as 'must makes'; my only criticism is that I wish there were pictures to accompany every recipe.  However, I'm willing to forgive that as every cake I have made from it so far has been good.  Really good. 

With a bunch of bananas quietly getting blacker by the day in my fruit bowl, I was quickly drawn to the recipe for Banoffee Blondies.  This requires the extra step of making an almond praline (just melting sugar in a pan with the almonds, then tipping it onto a tray to cool before blitzing it to rubble in a food processor) but believe me, it's an extra step well worth taking; the nutty crunch that results provides a fantastic texture within the moist cake.  I also, purposely, didn't completely melt the white chocolate so there were some chunks remaining within the mixture. 

The recipe can be found here, although to be ever-so-slightly smug, I can't help but feel that mine look a lot nicer than the ones in the link.  To me they look too dry and cakey, whereas mine had the requisite 'squidge' that any blondie or brownie worth its salt should have.

Next on my list was Cheesecake Brownies.  This isn't a new idea, but a cream-cheese layer swirled onto the top of a brownie mix makes a classic combination.  I have found previous attempts at this idea tricky to 'swirl', as the two different batters can be of different consistencies, but I had no such problem with this recipe.  Mine didn't look quite as artistic as the ones in the book, but they tasted great.  I love the tang of the cream cheese with the sweetness of the brownie.  Again, these turned out dense and squidgy, just perfect.  The recipe can be found here.  

I was really pleased to find two recipes in one week that I could mentally bookmark as 'keepers', I'll definitely be making both again.  Next however on my list from this book is (a request from my husband) Peanut Butter Brownies... watch this space!

The Cookie Project - Part 3

Bloody Men

Bloody men are like bloody buses

You wait for about a year

And as soon as one approaches your stop

Two or three others appear.

You look at them flashing their indicators,

Offering you a ride.

You're trying to read the destinations,

You haven't much time to decide.

If you make a mistake, there is no turning back.

Jump off, and you'll stand there and gaze

While the cars and the taxis and lorries go by

And the minutes, the hours, the days.

Wendy Cope

This poem always makes me smile, and sometimes I feel like re-writing it to fit various other situations... right now it should be 'Bloody Blogs'. I write nothing for what seems like months, and then all of a sudden I feel inspired to write several posts all at once.

Contrary to appearances I have been baking recently, but I have also been working full time. Just as one might assume that supply-work would be winding down for the end of the year, it's actually building to a crescendo - I'm feeling very in demand! I think that teachers are getting tired, busy writing report cards, and generally can't wait to get rid of their classes after 10 long months, so just as the children start to get hot and fractious they call in a supply teacher to spend the day with 30 kids in a non-air-conditioned classroom when the temperatures are in the high 30s. No, I exaggerate... slightly... I have had a few days like that, but generally I am loving my job and beginning to feel quite sad at the prospect of leaving the schools in which I have become a regular supply teacher.

Anyway, back to the baking... poor old Martha has lain rather neglected recently, but a few weeks ago I did try the Cream Cheese Swirl Blondies. I have long been intrigued by Brownie recipes that contain cream cheese - the tartness of the cheese would, I imagine, be a perfect foil to the intense chocolately sweetness of the brownie batter - but as I had all the ingredients for these blondies to hand, these are the ones I decided to make. I am too lazy to type out the recipe, but I found some much more conscientious blogger here who has already done so! Thanks Joe in Minnesota.

We enjoyed these blondies, but the whole 'swirling' business was a little tricky. The cream cheese mixture was really quite liquid, but the blondie dough was much denser, so the finished effect was less 'swirl' than 'splodge'. The difference in the batters also proved tricky as I think I must have plunged my cake-tester into some cream cheese batter when the allotted time was up. As it was still very sticky I decided that they weren't quite cooked... but 5 minutes later the blondie batter was slightly over-cooked. Maybe it was the extra cooking time, or maybe it was the recipe, but I found the finished items to be much more like cake than blondies, which I would have expected to be more moist and dense. Having said that, I'm being pretty critical - they tasted delicious. The cream cheese did indeed form a marriage made in kitchen-heaven with the sweet cake. I will definitely be trying Nigella's Cream Cheese Brownies based on the success of these.