Dulce de Leche and Chocolate Brownies

 I first made these delicious brownies straight after watching a Sunday Brunch episode floopin years ago and made them reasonably often as my children would demand them with menaces - they ARE pretty good if I say so myself. 13 or so years later and my children have long flown the nest so these just really don't get made anymore - shame - they are still a lovely chocolaty indulgence and with a couple of tweaks the recipe has really stood the test of time. 

125g carnation caramel condensed milk
150g dark chocolate
115g butter
25g cocoa powder
3 free range eggs
200g Light brown demerara sugar
140g plain flour

If you can't get hold of carnation caramel condensed milk then you can make your own dulche de leche like this, fill a saucapan with water and boil  tin of condensed mik for 4 hours. Don't let your pan run dry.After 4 hours, take tin out of the water and leave to cool completely.

Preheat oven to 175c./325f/Gas3.Grease and line a 20cm ( 8inch) square cake tin.
Place chocolate and butter into a heatproof bowl over a pan of bubbling water and melt together. Once melted take off the heat and whisk in the cocoa, eggs and sugar then fold in the flour.

Pour half this mixture into your tin, dot over blobs of the dulce de leche and pour over the rest of the chocolate mixture.

Place tin into the centre of your oven for about 30-35 ( anything up to 45 minutes depending on your oven )  minutes or until a skewer pushed into the centre of your cake comes out clean. Set aside to cool.

Theres' a lovely crackle to the top and the perfect squishyness inside, still a great recipe!

Generally healthier recipes coming soon to the blog ..... Honestly....

Debs

Long time no see

On a rather wet day here in Wales, and twiddling my thumbs as I can't get out in the garden, I thought I'd see if this little blog was still anywhere to be found...big surprise... it' still here and still getting views after all this time. Amazing!

So much has happened in the last 12 years since we started this as a way to keep in touch, house moves, two marriages ( one each I hasten to add ), grandchildren but more importantly - an allotment. 

Now this takes a huge amount of time that honestly sometimes we just don't have so it seemed like a fabulous idea - to take on another one. Allotments have an addictive quality which, I think, could prove counter productive, the produce though brings its own reward. We just need to get to grips with the planning as the inevitable glut due to lack of any sense of proportion is quite overwhelming.

I am NOT growing runner beans next year as I can't face another bloody jar of chutney.

On the plus side we'll never have to buy chutney again.

So, to the blog, winter is on it's way so it seems like a nice idea to while away the grey winter months with a little bloggyness - why not?

Onwards and upwards, today seems like a good day to resurrect a chocolate brownie recipe that I haven't tackled in about six years but always put's a smile on everyone's faces.

Chocolate dulce de leche recipe to follow .....

Debs

Nigella Lawson's Chicken and Barley Stew

 This recipe caught my eye at the start of what seems like the longest of all winters. It's very reminiscent of a chicken soup that my grandma used to make a million years ago and tastes very similar with the exception that ours used to be served with huge fluffy ( mostly ) dumplings.

Its beyond easy to make and has that wonderful starchy wintery goodness that makes you long for winter during a warm summer. I'm not a lover of parsnips so I cut mine quite small in order that I didn't have to wrestle with them while otherwise tucking in, otherwise I follow this recipe pretty much to the letter.

Ingredients:

• 300 grams peeled carrots,
• 300 grams sliced and cleaned leeks
• 300 grams peeled parsnips
• 175 grams pearl barley
• 6 chicken thighs chopped into large chunks
• 1 1/2 litres of hot chicken stock
• 4 teaspoons English mustard
• 25 grams flatleaf parsley

Tip all the chopped and peeled vegetables into a heavy based lidded casserole, add the pearl barley and the chicken, mix the stock with the mustard and pour over the mix. Bring to the boil, skim off any pesky froth and then simmer for an hour.

It almost feels as though there isn't enough pearl barley in this recipe and its going to watery and thin but it's perfect, I would say that it needs a good wallop of salt and loads of black pepper but its so flippin tasty ( considering the dearth of ingredients ) and this recipe serves 5/6 easily.

Its lovely, thanks Nigella !

Easy Pancakes

 Its pancake day so - it's pancakes! This is probably the easiest recipe ever for lovely succulent buttery pancakes - makes about 8. 

Ingredients

• 175 grams plain flour
• 1 nice big free range egg
• 325 mls milk
• 30 grams nice butter
• Pinch salt

Melt butter gently in a small pan and leave to one side for a moment, mix flour, egg, salt and milk in a large bowl, whisk like mad until all the lumps have gone.

Add melted butter to the batter and whisk for a few seconds - batter done!

melt a tiny amount of butter in a large crepe pan ( I just used my frying pan - when the pan is nice and hot add half a ladleful to the butter, swirl around until it covers the bottom in a nice thin layer and cook until it wants to break away from the bottom , don't poke it and jiggle it just let it do its stuff , ( maybe a minute ). Turn over - I really can't toss pancakes - and cook on the other side until lightly golden.

Turn out onto a warm plate and serve however you like, we had ours with lemon , sugar, raspberries and a squirt of vegan cream!

Yum.

Gordon Ramsey's Giant Crumpet

 I think I caught this recipe watching a programme ( one of so many cookery programmes ! ), now, who doesn't like a crumpet?? and , if you like a crumpet you'll love a mahoosive one right? Ok, so feeling rather gluttonous I decided to give this a go. 

It was really easy and this is how it went.

Ingredients :

• Ingredients:
• 175g strong white flour
• 1/4 teaspoon of salt
• Small pinch of caster sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
• 1 teaspoon dried yeast
• 125ml warm milk 
• 150ml warm water 
• Nice quality butter

1. Sift the flour, salt, sugar and bicarbonate of soda into a bowl. Make a small well in the centre and add the yeast. Gently pour in the warm milk and water, ensure it is not too hot or you'll kill the yeast.
2. Bring the flour from the outside of the bowl into the liquid and mix until you have a batter. It is quite thick  but if too thick you can add up to another 100ml of warm water. Cover and leave to rise in a warm place for about an hour - it will have almost doubled in size.
3. Heat a non-stick frying pan  over a medium heat and add a little butter. Stir the batter and then pour into the pan. Turn down the heat and cook for 10-15 minutes
4. Once the batter is dry on top place a little butter around the edges of the crumpet and then flip over and cook for another 1-2 minutes.
5. Thats it, turn out and serve with whatever takes your fancy, honestly, I just like butter - but - I do rather like a smear of marmite on my crumpets too!!

Hmmm, it smelled and looked flippin lovely but, it was stodgy and not great, back to individual crumpets next time I think !

Gluten Free Mini Cheddars

 I'd almost forgotten about this recipe blog that actually started so long ago. I posted so many recipes that in actual fact I still use. 

Food blogs are in themselves quite time consuming and so much has happened in the last 5 years that it has been easy to neglect ( abandon ! ) this and power on with all manner of other pursuits - however - given the rather strained environment in which we now live, it may be an idea to revisit this little blog and give it some love - maybe - I'll see how I get on with a couple of new posts .....

Having experimented with a gluten free diet for the month of January, this recipe just seemed to  pop up on my Instagram and .... given my love for all things cheesy, it was an easy step to hop into the kitchen and make these with gay abandon.

I actually can't remember the page I nicked the recipe from unfortunately ( I can always pop a thank you in late if I find it ) but its dead easy and the whole house smelt of cheese - absolutely nothing wrong with that. 

Ingredients:

• 100g plain gluten free flour 
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 35g cold unsalted butter
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1/4 tsp caster sugar
• 2 tbsp cold water
• 2 tsp vegetable oil
• 35g finely grated mature Cheddar cheese
• 1 tsp Xanthum Gum

Add all the dry ingredients to a clean bowl and stir to mix. Chop the butter into small chunks and rub in to the flour mix until it resembles fine breadcrumbs - a la pastry -

Add the grated cheese to the mix then the oil and water , bring the mix together to a nice doughy ball, knead just for a minute wrap in cling film and pop into the fridge for an hour.

Now , I got a little - distracted here and collected my sad ball of dough the next day, it was pretty crumbly and hard to manage but - with a pair of warm hands and a little love , it became quite soft and rollable again - phew!

Roll the dough out to about 4mm thick ( slightly less than a pound coin ) and cut out with teeny cutter. I scratched around and found a little vodka shot glass - perfect -

Pop into a preheated oven for about 8 - 10 minutes at  220'C / 200'C Fan / Gas 6 

Wait until you can't stand it anymore and eat like its your last meal

AMAZING !! 

Salted Caramel Macaron's

Well, it's been an awful long time since I gave any love to my blog as I have spent the last couple of years devoting most of my time to my online jewellery shop, however, having just deactivated another squeeze on my time (namely FB ) here we go again - yipeee!!

I bought this lovely book a couple of months ago with the intention of baking LOADS - hmmm, great intentions but so far only only recipe attempted and it was this one for Macaron's.

Now, I have wanted to make these for the longest time but always been put off by the skill set needed as they look really tricky. They are tricky - but I was astonished at the result and this is how it went..

Makes 40 Macarons

Ingredients:

195gms Ground Almonds
195gms Icing Sugar
75gms Egg White

Italian Meringue:

190gms Caster Sugar
50mls Water
75gms Egg White
Pinch Cream of Tartar

Sieve the icing sugar and ground almonds together, beat in the egg white until a smooth paste is formed with no lumps.

Make an Italian meringue cooked to 121 c. ( Thanks to the food network for this )

Beat the Italian meringue into the almond mixture until shiny.

Place into a piping bag and pipe 1cm small rounds onto a non stick mat.

Tap the tray to even the mixture.

Leave to stand in a warm place for 30 minutes to form a crust on the surface.

Bake at 150c for 10 minutes.

Not half bad for a first attempt - but - I have to admit, these started life as strawberry macaron's but I added far too little food colouring and they came out pale beige!! With a quickly added filling of dulce de leche mixed with a little cold butter they morphed into salted caramel macaron's.

They taste delicious!! However, I made rather too many so most of them were quickly transferred to the freezer to run by Sam when he next comes home ( for his valued cheffy opinion ).

Debs