GOOEY AND FUDGY STRAWBERRY CHOCOLATE BROWNIES

Weather was beautiful outside yesterday evening. Drizzling rain drops and popping rainbow was making me eager to whip up something quick and easy to enjoy this beautiful weather with my cuppa.

Jumped up from the couch and hurriedly stepped down to the kitchen and my eyes went straight to the chocolate buttons in my pantry. The first thing that came up to my mind was, “ah I haven’t made my famous classic brownies in a while which are always my family and friends’ favorite!” Opened the fridge and pulled out the butter and eggs, and while I was grabbing them I saw a strawberry punnet and thought of putting it to a great use! Chocolate and strawberry is a classic combo and pairs so well...grabbed that to make them part of my classic recipe. Now brownie isn’t complete without adding a crunch of the nut, opened the freezer and pulled out the bag of pecans which I always stock up as they are one of my favorite nuts. Worked up the brownies batter and within in no time my gooey fudgy brownies were ready to gobble down...

If you yearning to eat something indulgent but don't want to stand up in kitchen for hours to curb your cravings, this classic brownies recipe modified with strawberries is just the perfect one for you to try which will be ready in minutes...

I’m sure you’re already drooling as who doesn’t love brownies - read the recipe down below!

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YIELDS: 9 large/16 small pieces

PREP TIME: 15 minutes

BAKE TIME: 30 minutes

INGREDIENTS

• 185g dark chocolate buttons ( you can use semi-sweet)

• 125g butter, cubed

• 1 cup caster sugar

• 1 cup all purpose flour

• 1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract

• 2 eggs, lightly beaten

• 3/4 cup pecan nuts, roughly chopped

• 6-8 strawberries, sliced
  

METHOD

1. Preheat the oven to 180°C. Line 8x8 inch square baking pan with parchment paper.

2. Bain-marie the chocolate buttons and butter together in a heat proof bowl over a pan of simmering water. Make sure your bowl is not touching the hot water.

3. Remove bowl from the pan, add sugar and vanilla; stir to combine. Add lightly beaten eggs to the chocolate mix, stir to combine well.

4. Gradually add flour to the chocolate mix, in three batches, fold gently to a lump-free batter. Fold in the pecan nuts. Transfer the brownie batter to the prepared pan, place sliced strawberries on top and bake in preheated oven for 25-30 minutes.

5. Leave to cool in pan for 20 minutes. Remove from the pan and cut them into slices and serve warm with a dollop of ice-cream on top.

COOK'S NOTES:

• Bain-Marie is a technique of melting or cooking something over a pan of simmering water. You can also do this step in the recipe using the microwave, but I prefer to do it over a pan of simmering water.

• Strawberries on top makes the brownies bit more gooey. The extra moisture which oozes from strawberries after baking makes them more moist hence they become more gooey.

• Do not over bake your brownies if you feel after 30 minutes of baking they are still soft from the center. They will firm up slightly and will become fudgy once cooled down.
  

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VEGAN QUINOA PECAN PEANUT BUTTER COOKIES

After many days in the kitchen experimenting to create the perfect atta chocolate chip cookies, the entire family kept munching onto my experiments, which were no doubt delicious and healthier because of the atta, but it certainly wasn’t the healthiest!

So I challenged myself to make cookies that were as delicious as they were healthy: VeganQuinoa Pecan and Peanut Butter Cookies! They were gluten free, were refined sugar free, and had lots of flax seeds and pecan nuts, and honestly they were sooo indulgent and addictive! They were golden and crisp on the outside, and slightly chewy in the inside, so lovely. And within 2 days, they were all gone!

Fall in love with these imperceptibly healthy cookies just as we did. What are you waiting for, just grab the bowl and whip up these super easy and healthy cookies. It's baking time!

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YIELDS: 12-13

PREP TIME: 15 minutes

BAKE TIME: 15 minutes

INGREDIENTS

• 1/2 cup/4oz/115g smooth peanut butter

• 1/3 cup dark brown sugar

• 1/3 cup maple syrup

• 1 cup quinoa flour

• 1/2 tsp salt

• 1 1/2 tsp baking powder

• 1 tsp baking soda

• 1/4 tsp xanthum gum powder

• 2 tsp vanilla essence

• 1/8 cup flax seeds and a tbsp extra

• 3 tbsp coconut milk

• 3/4 cup pecan nuts, toasted and roughly chopped

METHOD

1. Preheat the oven at 170°C. Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper.

2. In a bowl, cream peanut butter, sugar, maple syrup and vanilla with the spatula. Add coconut milk and combine well to make the batter.

3. Add quinoa flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, xanthium gum powder and flax seeds. Mix it well with the spatula until well combined. It will feel bit dry but it’s perfect. Mix 1/2 cup chopped pecan nuts to the cookie dough, leaving the rest to dredge on top.

4. Scoop the cookie dough on to the prepared cookie sheet, placing them 2 inch apart. Press them down slightly with the back of fork, sprinkle few flax seeds and dredge pecan nuts on top. Press it down slightly more with fork keeping 1 cm thickness of the cookies.

5. Bake them in preheated oven for 14-16 minutes until golden brown. Make sure you turn the cookie sheet around after 7-8 minutes during baking.

6. Leave the cookies on the baking tray to cool completely.

7. Store and keep in airtight jar for a week.

COOK'S NOTES:

1. I have used xanthum gum to bake these cookies which helps in stabilzing the cookies and gives them a similar texture as the traditional (gluten-filled ) version. The gum provides the tackiness that gluten lends to doughs and batters and prevent them from crumbling. A small amount is more than enough to bring that elasticity which a gluten provides in traditional gluten filled flours.

2. If you do not have the xanthum gum, a tbsp of soaked chia seeds will also do the trick.

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ALMOND PISTACHIO CRANBERRY ORANGE BISCOTTI

How many times have you tried to make something in the kitchen, but it doesn’t go as expected and you have to trash it? Recently, I was quickly whipping up some Eggs Benedict to go with my homemade sourdough, and the Hollandaise sauce unfortunately split. Instead of tossing out the bad batch, I decided to use the split sauce creatively and recover it!

So here’s what I made... a gorgeous Almond, Orange, Cranberry and Pistachio Biscotti! I totally saved the day and you seriously wouldn’t be able to tell that this was made from a kitchen failure!

I used the split hollandaise and a few ingredients I had at home and it was so easy to make, which went so well with Blackcurrant tea.

How do you salvage your kitchen nightmares?

YIELDS: 28-30

PREP TIME: 15 minutes

BAKE TIME: 50 minutes

PASSIVE TIME: 30 minutes

INGREDIENTS

For Split hollandaise sauce:

3 egg yolks

1 tsp white vinegar

125g unsalted butter

Other ingredients added for biscotti :

3 egg whites (saved from eggs used for hollandaise sauce)

75g unsalted butter, room temperature

1 orange, zested

1 tsp vanilla extract

3 cups all purpose flour

2 1/4 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

1 cup plus 2 tbsp caster sugar

110g pistachios, unsalted and shelled

120g almonds, unsalted

80g dried cranberries

METHOD

1. Line a large baking tray with parchment paper. Preheat oven to 180°C.

2. Let the split hollandaise sauce cool down to room temperature. Add butter and blend together with hand blender until lightly pale and creamy. Add sugar, orange zest and vanilla, beat until just blended.

3. Add egg whites, blend until well combined and little fluffy.

4. In a separate bowl, sieve flour, salt and baking powder, add it to the butter mixture in three batches, blend on low speed to just combine. Do not over blend. Drop in the pistachios, almonds and cranberries and stir to combine.

5. Divide the biscotti dough in two halves, shape them in two 12” inch long and 3” inch wide logs. Slightly flatten the logs keeping them about 1.25” inch tall. Keep them about 3 inch apart as the logs would expand when they bake.

6. Bake them in preheated oven for about 30-35 minutes. Turn the tray once half way during the baking. Remove from oven, let it cool for 25-30 minutes. Using the sharp sedated knife cut the logs carefully into 3/4 inch thick slices. Arrange the biscotti, keeping cut side down on the baking tray. Bake them again for about 15 minutes until light golden in color, turning the tray once halfway through baking.

7. Remove from the oven and transfer them on a cooling rack to cool completely. Store in airtight container for up to a week..

COOK'S NOTES:

1. This recipe is created keeping in mind to utilise your ingredients used in your kitchen failures rather than tossing them in the bin. I made these biscottis using my split hollandaise sauce ingredients while preparing Eggs Benedict.

2. If you are preparing biscotti from scratch, keep all the proportion of ingredients same as is in the recipe above including hollandaise sauce ingredients except vinegar. No need to separate the yolks from the eggs, instead use the whole eggs and add them after beating the butter sugar vanilla and orange zest. The total quantity of butter used will be 200g for the recipe made from scratch. Do not use vinegar for this recipe.

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