Brownies but as a Cookie!

This is a heavenly recipe, for very chocolaty cookies which have a brownie texture. They are made like a brownie but cooked like a cookie.

Brownies but as a Cookie

Makes 24 small cookies.
Ingredients:
200g dark chocolate
50g butter
2 eggs
150g Castor sugar
25g plain flour
1/4 tsp baking powder
1 tbsp cocoa powder

Method:

1. Preheat the oven to 150 degrees C. Line 2 baking sheets.
2. Melt the chocolate and take off the heat.  Then add the butter to the melted chocolate and mix. Cool 
3. Beat the eggs and sugar for 5 minutes, until a light colour and foamy.
4. Add the cooled chocolate, and mix.
5. Add the flour, cocoa powder and baking powder, and mix.
6. Spoon the mixture onto the baking sheet, and cook for 10minuites or until slightly risen and cracked on top. Take out the oven and cool before eating.
7. Enjoy!

Coffee and Walnut Cupcakes Recipe

Makes 12 cupcakes

Ingredients:
1 tbsp instant coffee granules
1 tbsp boiling water
115g butter
140g self raising flour
140g caster sugar
2 tbsp milk
2 large eggs
25g pecans, chopped
FOR THE COFFEE ICING:
1 tbsp instant coffee granules
1 tbsp boiling water
50g butter
110g icing sugar
12 pecans

Method:

1. Heat oven to 180 degrees C and line 12 muffin tins with paper cases.
2. Mix the coffee granules and boiling water, in a large bowl.  Add the butter, flour, sugar, milk and eggs. Mix until smooth then stir in the chopped pecans.
3. Spoon the mixture into the prepared muffin cases and cook for 20-25 minutes or until risen and golden brown. Cool on a wire rack.
4. To make the icing, beat the butter. Mix the coffee granules and boiling water, then add the coffee and icing sugar to the butter. Stir until smooth and free of streaks.
5. Ice the cupcakes with this icing and decorate with a pecan on top.

Coffee and Pecan Cupcake

The Tea Party

What fun the day was!

So, yesterday I prepared a tea party. I personally really enjoy the idea and the eating of a tea party. As you can probably tell I have a sweet tooth, so it is very appealing to me.



Meringues, scones, and cupcake

Firstly I made the meringues. The mixture did not hold in peaks when I piped it, so the meringues were blobs! Besides that they looked really good and I drizzled them with chocolate and put cream in the middle. It was my first time but I was quite impressed with the results.

Next I attempted the scones (Paul Hollywoods Recipe) and Lemon iced buns. The scones rose beautifully and where quite straight in their rising. I was very impressed. I had a fear of cooking the scones in the aga so I cooked half in the aga and the other half in the oven. Amazingly the ones in the aga turned out the best. The Lemon Iced Buns where a different story altogether. The turned out rubbery and hard on the outside and dense and sticky in the middle. The only up shoot was that they tasted very lemony!



The Coffee and Pecan cupcakes and Victoria Sponge where very tasty and rose like little fairies!




Coffee and Pecan Cupcake



Victoria Sponge

 



A Scone filled with cream and jam!



Scones and Merigues









Reciepes comming soon . . . 

The First Post!

Hello there fellow bakers!

This is going to be the first ever post on ‘Nuala’s Kitchen’. (I better make it good!)

So as you can guess from the blogs name, it is a blog aimed at other enthusiastic bakers like me. It includes cooking challenges, recipes and tales from the things I have attempted to bake. Hopefully you will feel inspired to have a go at some of the recipes on this blog and give me some feedback!

Like many other Brits I am hooked on the Great British Bake Off (Tuesday, BBC 2 9pm). After watching the program I felt inspired to have a go at some of the technical bakes. I had a go at producing the Scones and the Victoria Sponge.  I then set myself the challenge of producing an afternoon tea, which I could include (Mary Berry’s) Victoria Sponge, (Paul Hollywood’s) Scones and (Jonathan’s) Iced Lemon Buns. I will also make meringues cover in chocolate with whipped cream and coffee and walnut cupcakes. This would give me another chance to have a go at baking these, and try to perfect my mistakes.

My reservations are I have never cooked meringues, and my scones have a tendency to rise unevenly! HELP!! I followed the general advice of only egg washing the top and not the sides as the egg prevents to rising of the scone which causes uneven rising. I was very careful not to let this happen, but they still rose unevenly. I thought that it might be the oven as the temperature could be uneven, or the way I cut out the scones. On my next attempt I will try to change the way I prepare the scones and use a different oven, and see if this works.   

One last thing: Should I set my self a time limit? The contestants in the Great British Bake Off had 6 hours to complete an array of Petit Four. (Petit Four is an arrange of meringues, éclairs and macaroons) And I leave this, with an open end question!