feb, 4th - weekend....

day 701:

with A. away sailing all weekend, Limi and i had a weekend just the two of us.......playing in the snow, cozy lunches with friends and having breakfast, crumpet picnics on the floor. it was a good weekend.

Limi helped me mix the batter for the crumpets, it's the quickest recipe to remember:

1 egg

1 cup wholemeal flour

1 cup milk

whisk together and throw in some fruit if you feel like it.

we had ours plain, with delicious strawberry jam from the neighbourhood deli.

hope your weekend was just as fun. x

jun, 23rd - baking....

day 498:

i love baking. i used to do a lot more of it......... i'm not particularly patient....i'm more of a sift-ingredients-together-throw-in-some-liquid-and-cross-my-fingers-that-it-will-rise type baker.....my sister, on the other hand, is brilliant........the produce-a-batch-of-meltingly-light-fairy-cakes-in-a-spare-moment-during-a-busy-afternoon type baker.....but i do love the ritual of separating eggs, scraping batter....and hoping for magic......and of course, licking the spatula is something that i want Limi to remember from her childhood the same way that i remember it from mine......

 so, to keep my folding-wrist in practise, i made some brownies today....adapted from a recipe by Small Food, it a simple recipe that produces dense, chewy-centred brownies that give you a serious chocolate-jolt.....they're not the healthy option but definitely worth a try.

Pecan Chocolate Brownies

2/3  (two-thirds) of a cup of plain flour

1 cup cocoa powder

3 cups demerara sugar

1 cup muscovado

2 cups roughly chopped pecans

125 g good dark chocolate, roughly chopped

125 g good milk chocolate, roughly chopped

500 g butter

4 teaspoons vanilla essence

8 eggs, lightly beaten

if making it for a dinner party, then:

substitute 2 teaspoons of vanilla essence with 1 dessert spoon of good quality Rum

1. preheat the oven to 180 C. grease two baking tins with butter and line with baking paper. 

2. sift the flour and cocoa together and add the sugar and pecans

3. make a well in the dry ingredients and add the chocolate

4. gently melt the butter and add to the ingredients with the eggs and vanilla essence (and Rum, if adding)

5. fold together, pour into the tin and smooth the surface

6. bake for 50 mins or until the top has a thin crust and the centre in spongy

7. leave to cool a bit and either cut roughly and serve warm with creme fraiche or ice-cream or alternatively, refrigerate  for 2 hours and cut neater wedges.

makes about 25 rectangular wedges, depending on how big you cut them.

i loved baking them....now to resist eating them........fancy some tea?