Delicious Gluten-Free Brownies

For about the past 5 months or so I've been on a gluten-free diet, not because I am resistant or anything other than I thought I'd just give it a try. I realised that it was so much easier than I imagined, especially with so many shops and restaurants becoming on board with it, and so I have kept it up, because in general my body just feels a lot "happier" now. I often felt quite bloated after large potions of wheat (gluten), and so in general, I just really feel healthier on this, and I think it's helped reduce my hayfever too weirdly enough! 

Okay, so that's why I made these gluten-free brownies. Let me start with a disclaimer: when I read of any form of baked good that is something-free (whether it be gluten, dairy, sugar, anything), I am hesitant. The idea of "healthy brownies" just contradicts the point in my mind, so let me just say, these are not healthy brownies, they are exactly normal except instead of normal wheat (gluten) flour, this uses corn flour! But anyway, I have been hooked on these because 1) I can eat them as much as I want (well not really, but you know what I mean) because they stick in my gluten-free eating plan and 2) they are actually like one of the best brownie recipes I've found!

So here's what you'll need:

• 2 eggs
• 3/4 cup of sugar
• 2 Tablespoons cocoa
• 3 Tablespoons cornflour (maizena)
• 1 teaspoon vanilla essence
• 130g of dark (or milk) chocolate
• 100g white chocolate
• Pinch of salt
• 6 tablespoons of butter

Start by melting the butter and sugar together in a pot, I tend to use a double boiler so when the chocolate is added, it doesn't curdle.

Once the sugar is completely dissolved, add in the dark chocolate (chopped roughly) and stir on low heat until it melts. 

That mixture can be set aside to cool for a little, while you chop up the white chocolate into rough, semi-large pieces. 

So put aside the chocolate for a little while, and go back to the mixture in the pot. Check that it is not boiling hot, it can be luke-warm or so. Add in the 2 eggs and whisk them in until combined.

(note, you could transfer the mixture into a mixing bowl before this step, but I chose to just make the batter in the pot I had used)

So now, sieve in the cornflour, followed by the cocoa and combine thoroughly with a whisk (side note: corn flour is our gluten-free substitute instead of ordinary flour).

Dip your finger in the batter and check that it's barely warm at all now. If it is, let it cool as bit first. Once cool-ish, add the white chocolate chunks and mix in.

Because the mixture is quite wet (due to little dry ingredients), make sure you grease your baking tin very thoroughly! And then pop them in the oven for about 20 mins at 180 degrees Celsius (I think that's 350F), but keep an eye on them, depending on your oven's strength. 

Annd that's literally it! So quick, so easy and so delicious, promise! 

I hope you enjoy this type of baking post, give these ones a try for sure!

This picture doesn't quite do them justice, think we ate them all before I got the chance to take a proper one!

More Belated Christmas Cookies

So, on the day that I made my Christmas Gingerbread Cookies I also made a huuuge batch of my absolute favourite type of cookies.

I made these delicious peanut and chocolate chip biscuits which were really so easy. It's basically a very basic recipe for butter cookies with a huge amount of chocolate and peanuts added in, but I have finally found the perfect basis (like the butter biscuit recipe) to make these. I cut them into christmas-sy shapes but they are not really specific to christmas at all, so you could just roll them into little balls and squish them lightly with a fork or use any other types of cookie-cutters.

1) Start by sifting all the dry ingredients into a large mixing bowl. These will include: 560ml (2 and a quarter cups) of cake flour and 1 teaspoon of bicarbonate of soda (baking soda).

2) In a separate mixing bowl, cream together 155g of very soft 

 butter, 175ml of muscovado (soft brown) sugar and 60ml of normal white sugar with a spatula. Whisk in 2 eggs and 1 teaspoon of vanilla essence.

3) Now add the wet ingredients (the egg, butter and sugar mixture) to the dry ingredients. Blend until a relatively thick dough is formed. 

4) Chop up very roughly (so in quite big chunks) 250g of milk chocolate and 140g of white chocolate. Add the roughly chopped chocolate into the dough as well as 150g of peanuts. Use your hands to mix them into the dough, to form a thick, chunky ball of dough. The chocolate and peanuts will look like they're far exceeding the amount of dough, but use your discretion, the mixture is meant to be very chunky. 

5) Now roll out the dough over a lightly floured surface. Note that this will seem pretty hard to roll out because of all the nuts and chocolate, but it will work. And cut them into the shapes you want with cookie-cutters. 

6) Place your cookies onto a greased baking tray, or a Silpat over a baking tray and cook them at 180 degrees Celsius (350F) for 8-10 mins. They burn easily so make sure to watch them and take them out when they're quite firm and golden. Let them cool for a few minutes and there you go. Delicious :) 

I hope you enjoy my chocolate chip and peanut cookies! 

Brownie Baking

I have had a craving to bake for quite a while now, and seeing that i have a retreat day at school tomorrow (i.e.: no homework today :D) I thought this was the perfect opportunity.

I lovve brownies, like way over cupcakes and all those other goodies, they just seem to be my favourites. And for a long time I have been looking for a good recipe to make from scratch because I am usually just lazy and use a box kit. So, I did lots of searching on cooking blogs, pinterest pictures and all that and found these amazing chic-chunk brownies on this blog. 

So here is the recipe, because it is too good for me to go without sharing with you all. They are really crunchy on the outside but all chewy and fudgey in the middle.

INGREDIENTS: 

1 Stick butter

About 200g dark/milk chocolate (I used a mixture)

3 Tbs cocoa

3 eggs

1 3/4 cups sugar

2 tsp vanilla essence

pinch of salt

1 cup of flour

1 slab of white chocolate

1 slab of milk chocolate

and any other chocolate (chic chips, etc)

HOW TO MAKE THEM: 

1) Preheat the over to 170 degrees celsius.

2) Melt the butter and chocolate in double boiler over stove or in microwave.

3) Sieve in the cocoa into this (now cooled) chocolate butter mixture.

4) In a bowl, whisk the eggs, sugar, vanilla and salt. 

5) Add chocolate/butter mix (cooled) into egg mixture and whisk. 

6) Sieve in the flour and mix.

7) Add into chocolate chopped quite roughly. 

8) Pour mixture (should be thick) into greased baking pan about 9" by 9".

Bake in over for 35-40 mins is what the recipe says, but mine took half and hour longer so depends on your oven. 

This makes about 16 good-sized ones.