Trail 3

If I thought the last recipe was a disaster I was wrong as these brownies were worse. I cooked the brownies for over an hour and they were still not cooked in the middle but burning on top. They also stuck to the pan, which I am not sure why as I greased the pan as I always do!

From the last trail I concluded that the mixture must be to wet and that is why it is not cooking. I therefore needed to decrease the wet ingredients and increase the dry ingredients. But I needed to be careful to not make the mixture to dry which would make the brownies too dry.

Trail 3

INGREDIENTS:
Butter: The amount of butter was decreased slightly to 125g.
Eggs: I decreased the amount of eggs back to 3 eggs, as 4 eggs gave the mixture too much moisture.
Sugar: The amount of sugar to egg was increased from 100g of sugar to 1 egg to 125g of sugar to 1 egg.
Chocolate: I kept the chocolate to 200g.
Flour: The flour was increased to 110g to make the mixture less wet.

METHOD:
To make these brownies the previous method was followed.

1. Melt the chocolate and butter together over a low heat.
2. Whisk the sugar and eggs together until just incorperated.
3. Pour the melted chocolate mixture into the sugar and eggs and then add the flour.
4. Cook at C180.

Royal Wedding Cookies

Wedding Cake Sugar Cookies

In honour of the Royal Wedding I made some wedding cake shaped cookies.
Wedding Cake Sugar Cookies

Ingredients:
200g unsalted butter
200g Castor sugar
1 medium egg
400g plain flour

Method:

1. Cream together the butter and sugar, until light and fluffy.
2. Add the egg and mix on a very low speed until just Incorporated. Over mixing will cause the cookies to spread when they cook.
3. Next add in the flour. Mix at a low speed until the mixture comes together as a dough. This will take about 5 minutes.
4. Cling film the dough and refrigerator for at least 1 hour. The dough can stay in the fridge for up to a week.
5. Preheat the oven to C200. Take the dough out of the fridge about 5 minutes before it is needed. This gives the dough time to warm up slightly so it is able to be rolled out.
6. Roll out the dough on a lightly floured surface to a centimeter thick. Cut out you desired shape, I used a wedding cake cutter.
7. Place the cut out dough on a greased baking sheet and cook in the oven for 6 - 11 minutes or until slightly golden.
8. If you want to ice the cookies cool for at least 45 minutes. Ice with royal icing or simple icing (icing sugar and water).

Brownie Recipe: Trail 2

So I made the Brownies from trail 1. I was a little disappointed, but it was only my first test recipe so I couldn't expect to much!

When I made the brownies I beat the eggs and sugar quite a bit which gave the mixture air, so it rose slightly. With hindsight this was not the correct thing to do as it made the brownies have a cakey texture instead of the desired fudgy and chewy texture. The brownies took 50 minutes to cook, which was a very long time!When the brownies came out of the oven the middle sunk slightly - again not a good sign!

Next was to taste the brownie. The flavour of the brownie was very good. The texture in the middle of the brownies were more like a flour less sponge, then a brownie. But at the edges the desired chewy texture was achieved. From this I think the sugar content and chocolate content are correct.

Trail 2
INGREDIENT:
Butter - I increased the amount of butter slightly from 110g to 150g. To make a cakey brownie a low butter content is needed. I did not want cakey brownies so increased the butter content to move away from that.
Eggs - To make a chewy brownie there should be an extra egg to the recipe, which I have already added. I was going to add another egg which would hopefully help make the brownies more chewy (4 eggs in total).
Sugar - I felt that the previous brownies had enough sugar so wanted to keep the same proportions. I therefore increase the sugar to 400g so there was 100g of sugar per egg.
Chocolate - The flavour of the brownies was very good, so I am not going to alter the amount of chocolate but keep it at 200g.
Plain Flour - I did not like the flour less chocolate cake texture of the previous brownies, so I increased the amount of flour to 100g.

METHOD:
As I said above beating the sugar and eggs was a mistake due it adding air to the mixture which causes the brownies to rise. Therefore I was going to just mix the sugar and eggs until incorporated, and try to keep any mixing at a minim. This should make the brownies more fudgy and chewy and not cakey. Except from that alteration the rest of the method I kept the same.

Brownie Recipe: Trail 1

Well I feel as though I have eaten and examined a lot of Brownie recipes and so now it was time to create my own recipe. So far, my favourite recipe for fudgy brownies was the Baker's Manual's Recipe, for cakey brownies the Mary Berry's recipe and for chewy brownies the Lowey recipe. After testing out the different recipe I wanted to follow the method of melting the butter and chocolate, whisking the sugar and eggs and then folding the ingredients together with the flour.

I decided to take aspects from each of the recipes to start testing out different combinations of the 5 main ingredients; butter, sugar, chocolate, eggs and plain flour.

For my first test recipe I added the same amount of butter (110g) and plain flour (75g) as Lowey's orginal recipe, but alter the amount of sugar, chocolate and eggs. The low flour and butter content is suppose to make the brownies fudgy, which I really like! To make the brownies chewy an extra egg was added and there was a high sugar content. I therefore increased the amount of sugar from 225g to 300g which works out similare to Martha Stewart's proportion of eggs to sugar. Stewarts was around 150g of sugar to each egg whereas I chose to use 100g of sugar for each egg. I don't really have any guidlines on how much chocolate to add, but wanted to have a high amount to give the brownies a rich flavour. So I am going to take a flyer and add 200g as the chocolate I like to buy comes in 200g bars!

Well I have figured out the recipe so now all I need to do is try it! Wish me luck!

The Baker's Manual's Brownies



Baker's Manual's Brownies

For dense, rich and fudgy brownies these are it!



This recipe uses the same amount of sugar and flour as the Lowey's recipe but has a higher amount of butter, chocolate and eggs. Which makes them so fudgy and rich!

These brownies are also great or even better the next day, so can be made ahead of time.



Baker's Manual's Brownies

Ingredients: 

170g butter

300g chocolate, chopped

225g Castor sugar

4 eggs

75g plain flour

1/4 teaspoon salt

Method: 

1. Grease and flour a 9 inch square baking pan. Preheat the oven at C180. 
2. In a sauce pan, over a low heat melt the butter and then stir in the broken up chocolate. Still over a low heat mix the chocolate until it has all melted.
3. In a bowl mix together the sugar and eggs.
4. Stir in the melted chocolate and butter. Fold in the flour and salt until just combined and then pour into the prepared baking tin.
5. Cook for 35 - 40 minutes  or until a skewer inserted two or three inches from the centre comes out with only moist crumbs clinging to it.
6. Cool the brownies before removing from the pan and cutting.

Help, my ganache has separated!

Every cook has had the agonising moment when they pour the cream over the chocolate and as they whisk it together it separates. The ganache changes from a smooth creamy mixture to a  grainy mixture with an oil/fat liquid on top of the chocolate mixture in a matter of seconds.

When I make ganache I either melt the chocolate and pour over room temperature cream (not straight from the fridge as this will cause the ganache to separate) or I boil the cream and pour it over the broken chocolate. I find the results of both of these methods are very hit and miss. This is due to that fact that it is very difficult to get the cream and chocolate at the correct temperatures.

If the very cold cream is poured over the melted chocolate than it will seize. If the ganche is put straight in the fridge after it is made then it will also seize. The key is to get similar temperatures between the chocolate and cream. Chocolate has a low melting point between C31 - C32 (average room temperature is C27) so the cream doesn't have to be that hot.

My grandmother's method of making a ganache is to heat the cream first. Once it starts to boil take it off the heat and let is cool for about a minute or two (so it is at a luke warm temperature to the skin). Then the slightly cooled cream is poured over the broken up chocolate and whisked together. She also showed me a way to save a separated ganache. Pour the cooled separated ganche into a food processor and whiz it, slowly pouring in some more cool double cream until the ganche comes together again as a smooth mixture (think of the lint ads!)

Nothing's ever simple . . .

There is a saying which goes 'Nothing is ever simple . . .'

There is a cake sale at school tomorrow, so I had to make something to bring in. Before I tell you about this baking disaster I am going to mention two things; one I am not good at baking under pressure or time constraints and two anything that I bake for my school always turns out awful. (Evidence: I made and iced 32 cupcakes for my sister to take into school and they turned out perfectly. I made and iced 17 cupcakes for my brother to take into school, and they were amazing.After all this success I decide to make 12 cupcakes to bring to my school and disaster strikes - the cupcakes don't rise evenly and the icing turns out lumpy. There are many examples I could tell you but this was the most recent!)

So with that positive thought I raided the pantry for ingredients, to decide what to bake. I settled on making flapjacks as they were the only thing I had all the ingredients for. In theory they should be 'fool proof' to make and be quick and easy!

I usually use Lorain Pascale's recipe (which always works for me!) which is equal amounts of butter, light muscovodo sugar, golden syrup and then double the amount of oats and a pinch of ground ginger. I followed the recipe to the letter as I always do, cooked the flapjacks for the correct amount of time, let them cool in the tin for 15 minutes before cutting them and low and behold it was a catastrophe. The flapjacks were crumbly and didn't stick together. They should have been described as sticky granola.

As well as the frustration and disappointment that the flapjacks didn't work out, I was confused. I followed the recipe exactly as I always have but this time it didn't work out for me. It could just be a curse I have on making things for school but I don't believe in witches and wizards!

Does anybody know what I have done wrong or what causes flapjacks to not stick together?

Mary Berry's Brownie

After trying Martha Stewart's recipe with the espresso coffee, I wanted to try another recipe which had espresso coffee in it. Then I would be able to compare the effect the addition of espresso coffee had on the brownies. I found a recipe by Mary Berry which had the same amount of espresso coffee as Stewart's recipe.

Mary Berry's brownie recipe produced brownie which were very dense and very chocolaty! The flavour of the brownie was amazing! The only problem I had was the texture, I found that the brownies were very cakey (similar to a flour less torte).

The recipe used a raising agent and equal amounts of margarine and sugar.

Another interesting comparison is that the brownies used margarine and not butter.

Mary Berry's Brownies Recipe
Makes 16 large brownies

Ingredients:

350g dark chocolate, broken

225g margarine

2 teaspoons instant water

2 tablespoons hot water
3 extra large eggs
225g Castor sugar
75g self raising flour

Method:

1. Preheat oven to C190. Line and grease a 12 x 9 inch baking tray.
2. Melt the chocolate and margarine in a heatproof bowl over a pan of simmering water, slowly. When melted allow to cool.
3. Dissolve the espresso in the hot water.
4. In another bowl mix together the coffee, eggs and sugar at a low speed. Gradually beat in the chocolate mixture. Fold in the flour.
5. Pour the mixture into a prepared tin. Bake in the oven for 30 minuites to 45 minutes or until firm to the touch and a dull crust has formed.
6. Leave to cool in the tin and then cut into 16 squares.

Martha Stewart's Brownies made with Margarine

Martha's Brownies wrapped in a bow



After reading Marry Berry's Brownie recipe which uses margarine. I wanted to try another recipe that originally use butter so I could substitute it with margarine to see how this effected the texture of the brownies.

I decided to use Martha Stewart's recipe. I followed Martha Stewart's recipe the same as before when I made it with butter but substituted the butter with margarine.

 After cooking the brownies I found that when they came out of the oven there wasn't the same cracked top. Also the texture was very different. These brownies were more gooey and cakey inside and not chewy like the ones made with butter.


Martha's Brownies with a Daffodil

Overall I preferred Martha Stewart's brownies made with the butter due to the more chewy texture which I preferred for brownies.

Even though I didn't love the brownies  . . . I still had fun photographing them!



Martha Stewart's Brownies

Martha Stewart's Brownies

The next recipe I decided to try was Martha Stewart's. I figured that her recipe was a very classic American recipe. The brownies were chewy and had that lovely cracked top.

The recipe had a low flour content, no leavening and the butter was melted rather than creamed, so the brownies were dense and fudgy in the middle. There was a high sugar content so they were also chewy at the edges.

Another interesting part to this recipe is that it includes instant espresso. Personally I did not like how strong the coffee flavour came across  when the brownies were cooked as it detracted from the chocolate flavour.

 Martha Stewart's Recipe

Martha Stewart's Brownies



Makes 16 large brownies

Ingredients:

225g butter

225g dark chocolate

5 large eggs

700g sugar
2 teaspoon instant espresso powder
185g plain flour
1/2 teaspoon salt

Method:

• Preheat the oven to C200. Line and grease a 9 x 13 inch and set aside.
• In a double boiler over a pan of simmering melt the chocolate and butter together. Stir with a rubber spatula until smooth. Set aside.
• In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a whisk attachment, beat the eggs, sugar and espresso at a high speed for 10 minutes.
• Reduce to a low speed and pour in the melted chocolate and butter. Mix until combined. 
• Slowly add the flour and salt; and beat until just combined.
• Pour the mixture into the prepared tine and put in the oven on a middle shelf. Cook for 30 minutes until the edges are dry and the middle is still soft.
• Cool and then cut into 16 squares.