A Recipe Blog

I decided to vary my Dark Chocolate & Almond Brownies recipe by swapping the almond meal for hazelnut meal, and the almonds for hazelnuts. Yummy variation!

I also decided to ice them and write things on them with a red icing pen (store-bought) for friends & hubby. Below is the recipe for the chocolate icing I made, based on a similar recipe from bestrecipes.com.au. Very easy to make :-) Both the icing and brownies were well liked too by friends and hubby.

Note: Icing only is gluten free :-)

Simple Chocolate Icing

Ingredients

• 3 cups icing sugar, sifted
• 1/2 cup cocoa
• 50g dark cooking chocolate
• 1 tablespoon butter
• 1 cup boiling water

Method

1. Melt butter and cooking chocolate over low-medium heat, stirring frequently.
2. Transfer mixture to a large bowl, and sift in icing flour and cocoa.
3. Add boiling water to bowl.
4. Mix thoroughly. If too watery, add more icing sugar. If too thick, add more water.

Tags: chocolate, gluten free, nuts, pan fried, quick, vegetarian

This recipe loosely based on a coconut rice pudding recipe found on coconut rice pudding recipe found on bestrecipes.com.au. Good ratings from hubby, dad-in-law and Aiden (our pageboy at our wedding and James’s cousin ^_^). I’m fairly happy with the photo I got of it on my little mobile too! (see below)

Serves: 5-6

Ingredients

1 cup arborio rice

1 400ml can light coconut cream

2/3 cup water

30 g desiccated or shredded coconut

6 teaspoons sugar

1 egg, beaten

½ cup sultanas

Cinnamon sugar, to garnish.

Method

1. Mix 1/3 a cup of water with all the coconut cream.

2. Put rice, coconut, ¾ of the coconut cream mix, and sugar in a saucepan.

3. Cook mixture on low-medium heat for approximately 20 minutes or until thickened, stirring occasionally.

4. Add beaten egg.

5. Add remainder of coconut milk.

6. Continue cooking mixture for 10 minutes over medium heat, stirring more frequently to prevent burning.

7. Add the remainder of the water and the sultanas.

8. Cook mixture, stirring continuously, on medium heat for approximately 5 minutes or until thickened and creamy.

9. Remove from heat. Garnish with cinnamon sugar and serve.

Tags: coconut, gluten free, pan fried, rice, sultanas, vegetarian

Today I attempted to make brownies for the first time. I started with a brownie recipe from taste.com.au, but ended up modifying it quite a bit.  They turned out yum thankfully, they were a lot of work as I haven’t baked much, so it was all a bit new to me! James also enjoyed them and is happy we have leftovers for later :-) I made them for him really as he’s a bit fan of brownies with nuts (and I’m a big sweeth tooth, so it was totally for me too, hehe).

Ingredients (makes 12 slices)

• Melted butter, to grease
• 150g butter
• 150g dark cooking chocolate, coarsely chopped (I used Cadbury brand)
• 120g (3/4 cup) blanched almonds, coarsely chopped
• 3 eggs, lightly whisked
• 270g (1 1/4 cups) white sugar
• 60ml (1/4 cup) golden syrup
• 30g (1/4 cup) cocoa powder
• 75g (1/2 cup) plain flour
• 55g (1/2 cup) almond meal
• 125g (1/2 cup) light sour cream (I used Weight Watchers brand)
• Vanilla ice-cream or double cream, to serve (optional)

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 180°C. Brush a 20 x 30cm (base measurement) slice pan with melted butter to grease. Line the base and sides with non-stick baking paper.
2. Melt the 150g butter in a saucepan over medium heat. Remove from heat. Add the chocolate and stir together until the chocolate melts and is smooth. Transfer to a large bowl.
3. Spread the almonds over a baking tray. Bake in oven for 8 minutes or until toasted. Set aside to cool.
4. Add the egg, sugar, golden syrup, cocoa powder, flour, almond meal and sour cream to the chocolate and butter mixture. Stir well, and ensure you break up chunks of the sour cream and flour (see note 1 below).
5. Stir in the toasted almonds. Spread the mixture over the base of the prepared pan.
6. Bake in oven for approximately 30-40 minutes, or until the top of the mixture is spongy and fairly solid.
7. Remove tray from oven. Carefully cut into twelve (or however many) slices. Remove slices from pan (see note 2 below).
8. Set aside for 5 minutes to cool.
9. Cut into squares. Serve warm with ice-cream or cream if desired.

Notes:

1. To be honest, I don’t mind getting my hands dirty so I just kneading and mixed everything with my hands at first for this step; it was easy to feel the bumps this way. Then I used a spoon after I was satisfied it was smooth enough.
2. You may notice the underside of some of the brownies are not as cooked and solid as the top during this step. If so, just flip them and bake them for another 10 minutes, or until the tops are spongy and fairly solid. This resulted with the middle of the brownies being fairly moist… yummmm.

Tags: chocolate, not gluten free, nuts, oven baked, pan fried, vegetarian

This recipe is taken from the garlic bread recipe on simplyrecipes.com, but I’ve altered a few things and changed the measurements into Aussie standards (metric) for my (and your?) convenience. I made this for a bunch of friends when we got together to play Dungeons & Dragons one autumn weeknight and it was all gobbled up :-)

Ingredients (Serves 4 as a side)

• 1 x 450g French breadstick
• 1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, softened
• 2 tsp minced garlic
• 1 heaped tablespoon of freshly chopped parsley (or use Gourmet Garden tube of pasley, available from Coles)
• 1/4 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese

Steps

1. Preheat oven to 180°C.
2. Cut the bread in half, horizontally. Mix the butter, garlic, and parsley together in a small bowl. Spread butter mixture over the the two bread halves. Place on a baking tray and heat in the oven for 10 minutes.
3. Remove tray from oven. Sprinkle Parmesan cheese over bread. Return to oven on the highest rack. Bake for approx. 3-4 mins until bread begin to toast and the cheese bubbles a little. Check on bread once a minute during this step to avoid it getting burnt.
4. Remove tray from oven, let cool a minute. Remove from tray and cut into thick slices. Serve immediately.

Tags: bread, not gluten free, oven baked, quick, vegetarian

Another goodie, Spinach and Ricotta Filo Triangles recipe on http://www.taste.com.au/. The grated apple caught my eye at first as strange, but it really works! I didn’t alter anything really, just seasoned the mixture inside the triangles with cracked salt and pepper before baking. I also served them with small dipping amounts of tomato, bbq & sweet chilli sauce. My favourite was the sweet chilli with them. As well, I cut up some tomato, lettuce and cucumber as a side.

Enjoyed by my hubby James & Chloe, a dear friend I’ve known since Kindergarten. Chloe’s a big meat eater, so I was pretty happy this went down so well with her!

Tags: not gluten free, oven baked, pastry, vegetarian