Good Grief Charlie Brown(ies)

Yeah thats right, i went there. (sorry schulz)

There are 3 reasons why i adore this recipe for peppermint pattie brownies:

1. brownies are probs in my top 5 baked goods of all time
2. i really really love anything peppermint
3. i really really REALLY love peppermint patties, ever since i fell in love with them on a ski-ing trip to killington a few years back. i can scoff a bag of them in a scary amount of time it wouldn't even be worth filming for man vs food they're gone that quick
4. all we have here are peppermint poppets which suck ass in comparison and you only get like, 5 in a box
4. i really really love anything snoopy related and peppermint patty is a boss
5. they come from the absolutely stunning food blog How Sweet It Is which i am currently obsessed with and my new blogging hero/inspiration is the very funny and lovely Jessica who runs it
6. i made them and they came out WELL good, giving me mega baking confidence booster points and the boyfriend agreed to help make them too which was a great way to spend a sunday afternoon
7. my friend Lucy once made me a 17th birthday cake with snoopy on and rachel (fellow blogee of this blog!) dropped the cake on the floor outside lucy's house. I don't think i've ever quite recovered but these seriously make up for missing Peanuts related baked goods in my life.

Okay, so thats er, 7 reasons why i adore this recipe.
This basically turned out to be the best brownie batch i have ever baked combined with the most fun and delicious topping you could want. Americans might say silly food things like scallions or chickpea mash or eggplant but by eck do they give good candy, this recipe is SOOO american and it works so, so well.
It wasn't dry, it didn't sink when i took it out the oven. The fondant turned out the most perfect consistancy. Maybe i under estimated my darling boyfriends cooking skills! (this didn't involve meat, pasta or caesar dressing so i thought we were in for a challenge)
I don't have too much waffling to do for once, this easy and delicious invention has sugar stunned me into silence for the first time ever.
It was incredibly easy to make- mixing time about 10 mins and baking time about 30. Fondant done in 10. Refrigerate for another 30 whilst you make the ganache. Eat entire block of them in about 5 seconds. I didn't even need my beloved kitchen aid for the batter its that easy!
I really cant remember the last time i ate something so good that i wanted to skip around my kitchen going weeeeee/OH MY GAD/guhhh im in food heaven at the same time. I think pancakes or pulled pork are the only things that make me go weak at the knees these days but these brownies may have just taken top spot.

I can't take ANY credit for these. Its all thanks to the amazing recipe from Jessica's blog.
Please go have a look, even if its just to drool over her fabulous food porn photos!
Follow the link for the recipe and don't get too confused with the cups you can look up conversions into grams. You can buy all the ingredients in good old tesco theres nothing complex about this recipe at all.
For some reason my peppermint fondant didn't come out as bright white as hers did which is a shame as the bright white icing looks great against the dark fudgey brownie, but it sticks all together perfectly in a big sticky minty chocolaty chunk of heaven.
I honestly don't think there's anything better than refreshing peppermint cutting through chocolate and theres something about fondant thats just so blissfully moreish you just can't help yourself. These will literally just make you go UGH (in a very, very good way). Make sure you use good quality dark chocolate for the ganache otherwise it will taste rubbish.

Enjoy!

Holly x

CLICK HERE FOR BROWNIE HEAVEN

Flour Free Gooey Goodness

Spying a metro over someones shoulder one december evening on my way home from work i saw Nigella was doing a signing of her new book at Selfridges the next evening. I thought: 

Ah an excellent christmas present for my mum, she'll love this!

The next evening i had about 5 minutes between finishing work in covent garden and getting there to get a good spot in the queue so legging it down a packed oxford street at the peak of christmas time i thought: 

She better actually be there. I better get a good spot in the queue. Man i wish i worked at Selfridges, this would be so much easier (guess where i ironically work now. Dreaming for another book signing of interest that i can be at the front of the queue for. ho ho ho)

Standing in an extremely packed lower ground floor in the middle of a very long queue, clutching my newly purchased Nigellissima book, the front pages bare and ready for a sharpie pen blessing i thought: 

This better be worth it, if all the recipe's are for salad i will be most annoyed.....

Et voila it was all worth it as the chocolate olive oil cake that i successfully baked last weekend was divine and there was a very happy momma Sax on christmas day when she opened her present and saw the message in the front pages. 

I am an awesome christmas present buyer and world renowned attempted cake baker daughter extraordinaire. Aren't my family lucky to have me living with them still.

Baking with olive oil may seem daunting or slightly weird- you may think the cake will be greasy or have a strange taste or that nutty smell that comes with (good quality) olive oil but this wasn't the case at all. It meant the cake retained just the right amount of soft gooeyness you need whilst its in a hot oven without been raw or undercooked in the middle.

You can substitute the ground almonds with flour. However even with no allergy sufferers in the house i still went with the almonds- and the complete lack of butter, milk and flour in this cake makes it seem just a teeny bit healthier doesn't it? (I asked my parents if almonds had dairy in them before writing this. I've said before Rachel is the brains behind this operation.) meaning its also the perfect tea time treat if you have guests who suffer from those allergies. 

Finally standing in front of the beautiful and talented Nigella herself i thought:
Er, nothing. I thought nothing. My mind went completely blank in a way i thought i was far too cool for it to go when around people from the tele. When she said hello and i er'd and ummm'd like a complete and utter loon until she finished signing the book in silence and handed it back to me where i then proceeded to walk away impersonating the blue one from finding nemo. A kind looking Selfridges employee then looked at me and asked if i needed any assistance. Great.

Holly x

Recipe link below to reduce blog post waffling length-

Rachel's Devil Food Cake

By nature, I am a savoury cook; give me roast dinner for 10 over baking cupcakes any day. However, a combination of my boyfriend’s sweet tooth and my desire to master this art that has long escaped me, I’ve recently started trying to get over “the fear”. And so in this blog you will be able to see me recreating certain recipes to some disastrous consequences- although hopefully getting better. Bored of seeing fancy multi-tiered baked goods that look like they’ve been crafted by Michelangelo himself? Then come and have a laugh at my first attempts!
First off, and my boyfriends favourite; Devil’s Food Cake.

*280g Plain chocolate

*100ml milk

*50 g cocoa power

*180g unsalted butter

*140g light Muscovado sugar

*3 eggs separated

*8 tbsp Crème Fraiche

*200g plain flour

*1tbsp Golden Syrup

*1 tsp Bicarbonate of Soda

200g icing sugar

1.     Preheat oven to 160 Celsius; grease two 8 inch cake tins and line with non-stick baking paper. Top tip: Follow Delia’s guide to lining cake tins to ensure the edges are smooth here: Delia's how to line a cake

2.     Melt 140g chocolate with milk and 2 tbsp of cocoa powder in a heatproof bowl over a saucepan of hot water until smooth. Remove from heat.

3.     Beat together 140g butter with the muscovado sugar until pale and fluffy, then beat in the egg yolks, crème fraiche and melted chocolate mixture.

4.     Sift the flour and bicarbonate of soda, and then fold this into the mixture lightly and evenly.

5.     Beat the egg whites into firm peaks, and then fold this into the mixture lightly and evenly.

6.     Divide the mixture between the two cake tins and smooth level- DO NOT PRESS DOWN otherwise the cake will be too dense. Cook for 35-40 minutes.

7.     Once cooked, leave to cool in the tins for 10 minutes before turning out onto wire racks.

For the frosting:
melt the rest of the chocolate, cocoa powder, crème fraiche, golden syrup and butter with 4 tbsp of water in a saucepan over a low heat until smooth. Remove from the heat and sift in the icing sugar, constantly stirring. Set aside to cool.

The mistake I made here was not to let it cool enough- it needs to be thick and gloopy, otherwise it will just run off the side of the cake and look messy (Like you can tell from my pictures!)

9.     Cut each cake in half horizontally, and sandwich the cakes together with some of the icing, then spread the remaining icing over the top and sides. This is easier if you have a palette knife, but if not use anything with a smooth side.

So this cake was absolutely decadent; moist, chocolatey and light. Just the presentation that needs some work I think! To mix it up, trying adding raspberry puree in the sandwiched layers, or make white chocolate icing; in these cases you can probably withhold a bit of the icing sugar as these components are sweeter.

Certainly looks like my boyfriend enjoyed it!

Recipe from The Big Book of Baking by Love Food

Rachel x