The Forbidden Brownie

Those Brownies.

This is not the best representation of how gooey these brownies really are.  Sorry about that.  We ate all the gooey ones before I could get out my camera.

Yes friends, we're going to talk about those brownies. I made two pans of these brownies for a recent family gathering. To say they went over well would be a bit of an understatement. They were still warm from the oven and deliciously gooey in the centre. (We won't talk about the pan that was still gooey in the centre but a little burnt on the bottom. It would seem that I don't get along well with my aunt's oven.)

Brownies
Taken from How To Be A Domestic Goddess: Baking and The Art of Comfort Cooking by Nigella Lawson

375 g soft unsalted butter (yup, almost a full pound of butter in these babies)
375 g best quality dark chocolate (to balance the butter of course!)
6 large eggs
1 T vanilla extract
500 g caster sugar
225 g plain flour
1 t salt
300 g dried cherries & white chocolate chunks (or all cherries, or nuts or whatever floats your boat)

Preheat the oven to 350F. Line a 9 x 13 inch pan with parchment paper.

Yes, I use Omega 3 eggs.  And yes, I should have moved them, and the watermelon, from my photo.  What can I say?  I was rushing.  Nothing new there!

Melt the butter and chocolate together in a large heavy based pan. In a bowl or large wide-mouthed measuring jug, beat the eggs with the sugar and the vanilla. Measure the flour into another bowl and add the salt.

When the chocolate mixture has melted, let it cool a bit before beating in the eggs and sugar, and then the cherries and flour. Beat to combine smoothly and then scrape out of the saucepan into the lined pan.

I'm not sure, even after making them this way several times, that I will continue to add white chocolate chips.  I may just stick with all cherries.   

Don't worry about the batter leaking over the edges.  It's very thick and you should have time to straighten the parchment paper if things go awry.  But, even if there should be a bit of batter that escapes, no worries.  It will clean up easily.  Thank you butter!

Bake for about 25 minutes. (I've always found that it needs more like 35 - 40 min but then again my oven is wonky so don't go by that.) When it's ready, the top should be dried to a paler brown speckle, but the middle still dark and dense and gooey. And even with such a big batch you do need to keep alert, keep checking; the difference between gungy brownies and dry brownies is only a few minutes; remember that they will continue to cook as they cool.

Makes a maximum of 48.

I once so severely undercooked a pan of these brownies that they had to be nuked, once cut into pieces, to be edible. It was actually all kinds of awesome. I froze almost the whole pan and then nuked the pieces just before eating so they were warm and gooey but properly gooey and not raw egg gooey.

This is what my kitchen looked like while I was making the brownies.  I was also making chicken pasta salad and beet salad.

Boston Cream Pie Cupcakes

For no particular reason, I decided to make Boston Cream Pie cupcakes.  Yup, no reason at all.
I started off wanting to bake a cake, found a recipe for Boston Cream Pie Cake and then decided to make cupcakes instead.

My cookbook of choice today How To Be A Domestic Goddess: Baking and the Art of Comfort Cooking by Nigella Lawson.

Step 1: Bake the cupcakes

Victoria Sponge

Adapted slightly from How To Be A Domestic Goddess

225 g unsalted butter, very soft

225 g castor sugar

1t vanilla extract

4 large eggs

225g self-raising flour (I used all-purpose flour - oops)

3T whole milk

Preheat the oven to 350F.  Grease or line muffin pans with liners.

Cream butter and sugar, add the vanilla and then the eggs, one at a time, adding a spoonful of flour between each. (I forgot that part and added all of the flour at once.)  Fold in the rest of the flour, and when it's all incorporated, add the milk.

Scoop the batter into the prepared muffin tins and bake for approximately 20 minutes, until they are beginning to come away at the edges, are springy to the touch on top and a cake-tester comes out clean.  Leave them in their tins on a wire rack for 10 minutes before turning out and leaving to cool completely.

Step 2: Make the Creme Patissiere

Taken from Boston Cream Pie in How To Be A Domestic Goddess

125 ml milk

125 ml double cream (aka whipping cream - I used half-and-half because that's what I had)

1 vanilla pod or 1t vanilla extract

3 large egg yolks

50 g castor sugar (approx. 1/4 c)

15 g plain flour (approx 1.5 T)

Warm the milk and cream in a saucepan along with the vanilla pod split lengthwise.  Bring to the boil, then remove from the heat, cover and let stand to infuse for 10 minutes.  If you're not using the pod (I didn't), add the vanilla extract later, when you've combined all the ingredients.  In a large bowl, whisk the yolks and sugar until creamy, and then beat in the flour.  With the point of a small, sharp knife, scrape the seeds out of the vanilla pod into the milk, and add this warm milk to the egg mixture and whisk until smooth.  Pour back into the saucepan and stir or whisk gently over a low heat until the custard thickens.  Remove from the heat and let the custard cool by pouring it into a wide bowl and tearing off some greaseproof paper, wetting it, then covering the bowl with it.  (I used a piece of saran.)  This stops it forming a skin.  Don't put this in the fridge; something goes horribly wrong with the texture if you do, and you want utter, smooth voluptuousness here.

Step 3: Make the Ganache

Taken from Boston Cream Pie in How To Be A Domestic Goddess

I used half of this recipe for the cupcakes.  I'm sure the whole recipe would be a step up from decadent.

150 ml double cream (again, I used half-and-half)

1t vanilla extract

1t unsalted butter

150 g dark chocolate

Warm the cream, vanilla extract and butter with the chocolate, chopped into small pieces, and bring to the boil in a thick-bottomed saucepan (Nigella: I find a non-stick milk pan the best for this), by which time the chocolate should have melted.  Remove from the heat and whisk till smooth and thickened.  Let cool a little before using, but you want it still runny enough to ice with.

Step 4: Assemble the cupcakes

Cut each cupcake in half and place a heaping tablespoon of the creme patissiere on the bottom.  Gently place the top on back on.  Drizzle a spoonful of ganache on top of each one.

Enjoy!

Beautiful Beet Salad

I never ever thought that I would be writing about beets.  I have hated them, and rutabaga, for my entire life.  My mom still waxes poetically about how I left the teaspoon of rutabaga on my tongue as a baby.  I really don't like it.  Turnip - the white and purple taproot - are delicious.  Or at least I think so.

Anyway, this post isn't about rutabaga or turnip but rather beets.  I've always loved the colour of beets but never ever the taste.  Not in a house, not with a mouse.  I did not like them here or there, I did not like them anywhere!     And, unlike character Sam hounded in the famed Green Eggs and Ham, I had tried beets.  Over and over again.  My parents weren't ones to let us get away with not eating something just because we didn't like it.  We had to have a small serving regardless of our preference.

The kids and I went to a friend's for a play date a few weeks ago and she asked me if I liked beets and how about a beet salad for lunch.  And so I decided to give beets another try.  I don't know if I love beets in all of their forms but I certainly like beets like this.

Beet salad with Balsamic Vinaigrette  and goat cheese.  Yum!  I liked it so much that I bought more beets at the farmer's market this week so I can make it again.

Balsamic Beets with Goat Cheese

1 bunch of beets
goat cheese to taste
Balsamic Vinaigrette to taste - I used Oh She Glows Better Than Bottled Balsamic

Boil the beets until tender.  When cool enough to handle, peel and cut into bite sized pieces.
If you like your beets more on the pickled side, pour the dressing over the beets while still warm.  If you go for less pickled-like beets, wait until the beets have cooled before pouring the dressing.
Add goat cheese to taste when serving.

Enjoy the beety goodness!

Farmer's Market Friday - On Sunday...Again

Here's our haul from this week's farmer's market: 13 ears of corn, HUGE basket of white flesh freestone peaches, watermelon, baby English cucumbers, apricots (of which there are only 9 left), apples, strawberries, plums, orange and red grape tomatoes (the bowl is almost empty) and beets.

There is my very full fridge!  Our fruit and veggies drawers are so full that the produce is taking over the rest of the fridge.  I love it!

Scalloped Potatoes

I had a hankering for scalloped potatoes after reading about them on a food blog.  I no longer remember which of the multitude of food blogs it came from but it doesn't really matter.  Except that you're not going to be able to read the blog.  I apologize for that.  I also apologize because I'm not going to list the 40ish (ok so maybe it's more like 50ish) food blogs I try to follow.  Call me lazy.  It's most appropriate.

I think every family has their own scalloped potato recipe.  This is the one that I use most often.  And by that I mean the once or maybe twice a year I make this.  I confess: we're not big potato eaters.  Please don't hold it against us.  It's not that we don't like them but rather that I rarely think of making them.

Scalloped Potatoes
slightly adapted from Lighthearted Everyday Cooking by Anne Lindsay

8 medium potatoes, thinly sliced (I used the 2mm blade on my food processor)
1 large onion sliced
2 T flour (I used heaping tablespoons)
Salt and pepper
2 c hot milk (I used P's whole milk rather than K's 1% because his was running low.  I say use whatever floats your boat.)
1 c shredded part-skim Cheddar cheese (I used Swiss cheese because it was starting to become one with my freezer)

Preheat oven to 350F.
Oil a 9 x 13 baking dish with olive oil.  I'm not convinced that this has made my pan any easier to clean but, olive oil is good for you so give it a try!
Arrange one-third of the potatoes over the bottom; sprinkle with half of the onion, then half of the flour.  Season with salt and pepper to taste.  Repeat layers; arrange remaining potatoes over top.  Pour hot milk over.  Sprinkle with cheese.
Bake, uncovered, in oven for 1 hour or until potatoes are tender.

Banana Bread Disaster

I took a stab at being supermom today and kind of fell flat on my face.

Let me explain: K & P are registered for 2 weeks worth of Monday to Friday lessons.  Which is great except the lessons start at 5:30 pm.  That's half an hour after we sit down to eat and a mere 1.5 hours before their bedtime.  Eek!  In preparation for the chaos I decided to bake some banana bread so my water logged children would have a snack after swimming.  No worries, right?  I got the bread in the oven with lots of time to spare, only it didn't bake.  ARGH!  They had supper at 4 so there would be plenty of time to eat before we needed to rush out of the house and brave the rush hour traffic to get to the pool.

Half an hour after the the banana bread should have been ready the thin knife I use for testing came out clean.  Woohoo!  Then, when I tried to turn it out on to the cooling rack, disaster struck.

The inside of my banana bread fell out of the pan and made this mess.  And left me with:

Isn't that depressing?  I ended up tearing the shell of the banana bread into pieces for the post-swim snack.  K & P didn't seem to notice.

I think tomorrow I'll try some muffins.

A surprise treat

Last night our neighbours brought over 6 of these delicious faux Starbucks blueberry bars.  There are two left and the kids haven't had any.

You can bet I'm asking for the recipe!

Farmer's Market Friday

Woohoo!  Here I am on a Friday with a Farmer's Market Friday post.  Our busy summer has been getting the better of me but here I am with this week's haul from the market.

We bought a large basket of nectarines, a small basket of peaches - I so wanted a large basket but there's no way we'd eat through it all and I don't have time to process them for freezing right now, green beans, mini English cucumbers, grape tomatoes, sugar pears (2 baskets), strawberries, zucchini, red potatoes, white potatoes and broccoli.  YUM!

Rustic Plum Tart

Tomorrow is Farmer's Market Friday - which I intend to post on Friday this week - so I though it time to inventory the fridge and see what we need.  Know what I found?  An empty fridge.  Almost empty anyway.  Save for the condiments, of course.  Aside from leftovers from todays lunch, mini pizzas on naan bread, there are some yellow plums and lonely beets left.  Conclusions to be drawn: the kids are off plums for the moment, and I'm a little intimidated by the beets but that's a story for another time.

What to do with approximately 1.5 pounds of yellow plums?  Make a rustic plum tart of course!  I was inspired by a recent blog post over at Dinner with Julie.

Rather than type out the recipe  I'm just going to link to it: Dinner with Julie   Her tart looks so much nicer than mine.  I had delicious sugary pie juices all over my parchment paper.  Some of it was salvageable but other parts are burnt to a crisp.  It was bound to happen.  Really, it was.  I am a pie crust novice.  As I was rolling out the crust it was getting all the cracks that didn't seem to want to be fixed.  I could have put the dough back in the fridge and started again in another hour but my audience, was demanding that I finish in time for tonights dessert.  I think my mistake was not making the disk large and flat before putting it in the fridge to chill.  This will all make sense if you hop over and read Julie's recipe.

See, look at that.  This should be called a Rustic Plum Tart, Heavy on The Rustic.  Oh well, it's still yummy.  Very tart (no pun intended); some of the plums weren't ripe.  I think M will really enjoy it.  And he won't judge me on its looks!

Now, if you'll excuse me, I've got some very rustic plum tart to eat.

Farmer's Market Friday

OK, so I know it's Monday but I still wanted to share my farmer's market purchases.  Clockwise from the top: peaches, nectarines, strawberries, plums, beets, red and orange grape tomatoes, peaches and cream and white corn, zucchini and peppers.  YUM!  We've already devoured half of the plums.

Prior to last Thursday I hated beets.  Now I think I'm in love.  Or at least not in hate.  I'm going to attempt to make my friend's beet salad and see if I like mine as much as hers.  Should be interesting.

New Favourite Breakfast

Let me introduce you to the Green Monster.  Sounds odd, no?  This delicious beverage is really a spinach smoothie.  I never thought I would be regularly enjoying a spinach smoothie for breakfast.  But I am.  And so is P.  And it's teaching her how to drink from a cup.  Woohoo!

Start with 2 large handfuls of spinach.  I used organic baby spinach because that's what we buy at Costco.

Add a little water and steam in the microwave for 3ish minutes and then put into the bottom of an empty blender.

Next I added 1 cup of milk, a banana, 1 cup of frozen blueberries and 1T of chia seeds.  Here comes the fun part: Blend your little heart out.  When it looks smooth and delicious, add some ice and blend some more.  I usually add about six ice cubes.  (Please excuse the messy kitchen.  Hard as I try entropy always wins.)

And there you have it, my new favourite breakfast.  This recipe, if you can call it a recipe, makes approximately 2 glasses this size.  I have about 1.5 glasses and P finishes the other half.  If K has some too then I'm down to about 1.25 glasses.  No matter, it's very filling and I don't feel the need to snack or eat anything until lunch time.

If you'd like to read more about these marvelous green concotions, check out: greenmonstermovement.com