Lazy Saturday crumbles

This is an easy one for a Saturday, for two lazy people! 

Preheat the oven to 170 Celsius. In two small ovenproof ramekins divide a cored, cubed eating apple (I left the skin intact) a handful of frozen blueberries, a squeeze of lemon juice

 and a sprinkle of white caster sugar. 

In a seperate bowl add 1tbsp each of fruit museli and white caster sugar. Next add 1.5tbsp butter. Then add 2tbsp plain flour. Use your fingers to make a rough crumble and pile on top of the fruit. This may seem like a lot of crumble but bear in mind the fruit will collapse as it cooks and the butter will melt down. 

Bake in the oven in a middle shelf for 25 minutes then gently break up the crumbly top with a fork to lighten it slightly and put back in the oven for a further 10 minutes until golden and bubbling. Serve with cream, ice cream, custard (as I did) or simply just as it is! 

Peanut butter brownies

Sometimes you start to make a recipe and realise you don't have all your usual ingredients, so frustrating! This happened to me a while ago when I was making brownies for my good friends Bronwyn and Rory, so I tweaked my ingredients and I'm glad I did, this is the best brownie recipe I've ever made! 

If you like your brownies dense and super fudgy these are for you! You can omit the peanut butter to make plain brownies, or perhaps replace with hazelnut spread if peanuts aren't your thing. I urge you to try these they are truly indulgent. 

Ingredients

450g unsalted butter, 700g dark chocolate (70% coco), 3 eggs, 2 tbsp cold espresso coffee, 1tsp good quality vanilla extract, 1 and 1/8 cup white caster sugar, 1/2 cup milk, 1 cup 00 grade flour, 1/4 cup coco powder, 1tsp baking powder, pinch salt, 8tbsp smooth peanut butter. 

Preheat the oven to 180 Celsius. Melt the butter and chocolate in a bowl suspended over a pan of gently simmering water to melt. As soon as it has melted, stir to combine and take it off the heat to cool. 

In a seperate bowl whisk the eggs, sugar,  coffee, vanilla and salt. Once the chocolate has cooled slightly tip in to the eggs  and stir very well to combine. (If you do this whilst the chocolate is too hot you will get scrambled eggs!)

Finally put the flour, coco and baking powder in to a seive and seive it directly in to the chocolate mix. Stir the flour in but don't beat it, you don't want to over mix, just gently fold until well combined. Add the milk and give it one final mix.

Tip the batter in to a buttered baking dish and smooth the top level.  Next, if using, put blobs of peanut butter over the top and using a knife swirl gently in to the batter, don't combine too much, leave the swirls visible. 

Bake on the middle shelf for 15 minutes, then turn the heat down to 150 Celsius and cover the top of the brownie lightly with greaseproof paper, bake for a further 10 minutes. Don't overcook it! A wooden cocktail skewer inserted in the middle should come out just clean. If it's still sloppy in the middle put back in to the oven for 5 more minutes. Remove from the heat and cool. Cut in to squares, ideally when still slightly warm and serve with ice cream and perhaps some toffee sauce. 

Hazelnut bomb chocolate brownie cupcakes with cream cheese vanilla frosting

I haven't posted a blog for a while because I was unwell last weekend, however I'm better now and back to baking!

Today was the six nations rugby England vs. Ireland and we had our friends over to watch the match and have burgers and beers. I didn't want to make a girly dessert as the lads were over, these cupcakes look a little dainty, however they pack a punch and are denser and manlier than normal cupcakes! I had some Hazlenut spread in the cupboard so decided to use this up and it worked a treat! They are more like little brownies with a secret surprise, a heart of fudgy hazelnut spread. It's fair to say that the guys enjoyed the food, and the rugby of course! 

Ingredients

Cupcakes; 100g plain flour, 50g coco powder, 150g White caster sugar, 50g unsalted butter, 125ml milk, 1 egg, pinch of salt, 8 teaspoons hazelnut spread. 

Frosting; 180g cream cheese, 25g butter, seeds of 2 vanilla pods, 3 cups icing sugar. 

Preheat the oven to 170 Celsius. In a large bowl add all the dry ingredients and butter and thoroughly mix until it resembles fine sand. In a jug whisk the egg and milk and gradually add to the dry goods stirring thoroughly to combine, but don't over mix. 

In a deep 8 hole rubber muffin tray add around a tablespoon of the muffin mixture to each hole, it should come up about half way up the tray. Next add one teaspoon of hazelnut spread to the centre of each muffin, and then top each one with another tablespoon of muffin mixture, this captures a little blob of hazelnut spread into the centre of each muffin when it bakes. 

Bake in the oven on the Middle shelf for exactly 22 minutes. They should have raised up slightly and the tops should have just started to crack. Please don't worry if they don't shoot right up, there is no baking powder on purpose in this dish to stop it raising too much so they stay denser like little brownies. Remove from the oven and allow to cool slightly before turning out on a wire rack to cool completely. 

Whilst they are cooling make the frosting by splitting the vanilla pods, removing the seeds, and beating them along with the icing sugar, butter and cream cheese until smooth and glossy. Chill the frosting until the cupcakes are completely cool. 

Dollop a big spoon of frosting on to each cooled muffin and arrange on a pretty tray ready for your guests!