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Friday 17 April 2015

Easy like Sunday morning.

Maybe it's just me, but a warm, baked breakfast is pretty much the best thing ever.  I do love to head out to a sweet little cafe for weekend breakfast, but when you can have these lovelies baked and ready to eat in less time then it would take you to get ready and get in the car, why would you?  The gorgeously sweet cinnamon scrolls went down a treat with my morning English Breakfast and were a lovely treat for my beautiful family. Weekend perfection.

Sweetest Cinnamon Scrolls

Scroll Dough
2 cups plain flour, sifted
2 tsp caster sugar
2 tsp baking powder, sifted
1 1/4 cups thickened cream

Filling
30g unsalted butter, melted
 2 tbsp brown sugar
2 tsp ground cinnamon

Icing
1/2 cup icing sugar, sifted
1 tbsp milk

Preheat your oven to 180 degrees celsius.  To make the dough, combine all your dry ingredients before mixing in the cream.  Knead the dough until nice and smooth before rolling it out into a large rectangle (about 3-4 cm thick) on a floured bench or silicone mat.  Use a pastry brush to distribute the melted butter over the rectangle of dough.  Combine the brown sugar and cinnamon and then sprinkle evenly over the top of the melted butter.  Leave a 1 centimetre edge free of cinnamon sugar on the long edge of the rectangle.  Roll from the other long edge of the dough to make a log.  Cut the log into 8 scrolls and place, swirl up, on a lined baking tray.  Give each scroll a little 'squish' to flatten them slightly.  Bake for 20 minutes or until just beginning to brown.  While scrolls are beginning to cool, make your icing by combining the icing sugar and milk.  Drizzle around a tablespoon of icing as artistically as you like over the top of each scroll.  Don't wait for these to cool before you tuck in!

F. x

Ultimate Brownie Points

One of the 'joys' of this pregnancy has been an absolute inability to consume chocolate without being violently ill.  That is, until now.  Thirty-two weeks pregnant and I can now safely eat, and enjoy, chocolate.  I think this little bit of background must give you a slight insight into the pure elation that was exploding from my kitchen (and heart) as I created this recipe!
I often cook brownies (using a range of different recipes) and dislike the eggy taste that the majority of them have.  Last week, I was very generously given a vintage cookbook from the beautiful mother of a close friend who knew that I would truly appreciate it!  This cookbook contained a recipe for brownies that intrigued me - it contained no actual chocolate, just cocoa.  I doubted that it would be the brownie of my dreams but gave it a go anyway.  And do you know, it wasn't that bad. In fact, it was pretty darn good. 
So the recipe that I share with you contains the elements of this darling 'vintage' brownie with elements of other brownie recipes (read: chocolate!) that I love.  Given that my husband has just made himself sick, eating three: I'm thinking it's pretty good!
Ultimate Chocolate Fudge Brownies
300g good quality dark chocolate, chopped
150g unsalted butter, chopped
330g dark brown sugar
3 eggs
2 tsp vanilla extract
110g plain flour, sifted
140g white chocolate melts, chopped in half
120g sour cream
110g walnuts, roughly chopped
1 tbsp cocoa powder, for dusting

Preheat your oven to 170 degrees celsius and line a 25cm x 25cm slice or cake tin.  Melt chocolate and butter, either in the microwave or over a low heat on the stove.  Once melted, incorporate the brown sugar and vanilla.  Transfer into a mixing bowl and allow to cool for 10 minutes.  Add the eggs, mixing well after each addition.  Then stir in plain flour before adding sour cream.  Fold the white chocolate and walnuts through the batter.  Pour into your lined tray and use a spatula to spread and level.  Bake for 50 minutes.

Chocolate heaven,
F. x