The Quest for the Perfect Brownie
30 Apr 2011 1 Comment
in Recipes, Traybakes Tags: baking, brownies, chocolate, recipe
For months (well, weeks), I have had the urge to try a number of different brownie recipes. Some people quest for the perfect chocolate chip cookie, but to be honest the perfect brownie is a search for which there is much more likely to be a solution. Now, I’ve tried a fair few brownie recipes in my time as a person who is alive on planet earth, but had managed to collect several which I wished to try. I though the fairest way to test them would be to buy a tonne (well, a kilogram) of cheap choccy from Sainsbury’s Basics, 12 eggs from Iceland, and check the sugar supplies, then go for making a half batch of each of the recipes, baked in a mish-mash of loaf and cake tins.
I made 5 different recipes: banana brownies, brownies with 100% cacao, Nigella Lawson’s recipe, charlieissocoollike’s recipe, and a friend (shout-out to Andy Ritson – the person, not the dog)’s recipe, which involved crumbling some cookies into the mix; he used Oreos, I used maryland ‘cos that’s what I had.
And after all that? Personally, I prefer the recipe I already had (available here). The banana ones had an interesting consistency – they only took half a small banana, so the flavour wasn’t too strong, but they were very gooey. The Nigella ones are very cakey. Charlie’s were incredibly sweet, even using dark chocolate chips. The 100% cacao ones were, by comparison, really quite bitter, though interesting and satisfying with only a tiny bite. Andy’s were quite nice, though I wasn’t convinced by the addition of the cookies… might try them with oreos one of these days if I’ve got any going spare.
Most brownie recipes are variations on a theme: melt some chocolate and butter, whisk lots of eggs and sugar, add a little flour, gently fold together, bake until just set so they’re still a bit gooey, cool in tin and then cut when cold. And yet even so, they’re all so different… odd how they can all be called brownies!
Right, so without further ado, the recipes. Each makes about 20-25 brownies depending on how big you want them, and each should half well enough if you want to make less.
Tomato Pasta Sauce
26 Apr 2011 1 Comment
in Recipes, Vegetarian Tags: meal, recipe, sauce, student meal, thinking ahead
If you’re in the middle of revising and don’t have time to spend many hours each day slaving over a hot stove, because if you leave your seat in the library for 45 minutes at quarter to 8 in the morning then it’ll get stolen (true story), here’s your answer 
Make up a big batch of this sauce, store in jars [sterilise first by shaking some boiling water about in them - with the lids on], seal when warm, keep in fridge, spread on pizza, add extra veg and serve on pasta, brown some mince and add this and some carrots for making spag-bol, schlop a bit into chicken fajitas… it’s is amazingly versatile.
Life without Social Media
25 Apr 2011 Leave a Comment
in Musings Tags: anti-Facebook, bloggy, internet, interwebs
[No twitter, facebook, or tumblr for 47 days... in my life as an internet addict, this will be tough.]
Day 1: I’m surviving. Pretty tricky, hence why I’ve decided to keep a record of my state of mind. Twitter’s trying to entice me back already… forgot to turn off email notifications about new followers; bad move on my part. Surprisingly easy not to go on the ‘book in lecture today. This may be a productive month and a half. 4pm – first instance of the reactionary “oh, I’m finished reading unread blog posts so I’ll just click on facebook and see what’s new”… good thing I’ve removed the bookmarked facey-b button.
Day 6: I finished a book yesterday in 4 hours that I’d been “reading” (at a rate of 10 pages a month or so) since October – Shades of Grey by Jasper Fforde. A brilliant book once you get into it and get your head around his alternate reality; I’m just annoyed that the next one’s not out until 2013! Definitely worth checking out, along with The Big Over Easy, which is a nursery-rhyme-crime based book… bizarre subjects, but great writing. 10.37 – massive urge to share the Jonas Brothers’ cover of Poor Unfortunate Souls which I came across on Spotify.
I felt such an urge to share http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=uWD0vMrCc6Y#at=126 – After watching this kid’s bar mitzvah video, I certainly do wish I was as fabulous as he.
Treacle Cookies
23 Apr 2011 Leave a Comment
in Cookies, Recipes Tags: afternoon tea, baking, cookies, recipe
The trick is to make these quite small, otherwise they become too gooey and fall apart.
Tortilla Pizza
19 Apr 2011 Leave a Comment
in Meals, Recipes, Vegetarian Tags: easy, food ideas, grill, meal, quick, recipe, student meal
If you’ve no time for proper pizza, or just have some tortillas to use up, this is really tasty.
Treacle Round
16 Apr 2011 Leave a Comment
in Cake, Recipes, Traybakes Tags: afternoon tea, baking, recipe
Quite gingerbread-esque. My granny’s recipe… serve warm, and, optionally, buttered.
Tuna Spaghetti
11 Apr 2011 1 Comment
in Fish, Meals, Recipes Tags: meal, pasta, recipe, spaghetti, student meal, tuna, vegetables
Quick and easy. Fish is good for you, ergo meal is good for you. Throw in some other veg if you fancy.
Condensed Milk Chocolate Chip Cookies
09 Apr 2011 3 Comments
in Cookies, Recipes Tags: afternoon tea, baking, chocolate, cookies, eggless, recipe
Condensed milk, otherwise known as divine nectar, is normally used in my house for making the wonderful Scottish confection of Tablet. For once, however, I decided to break free from by routine and try making something new, and the results were pretty sweet (pun very much intended 
). It may be relatively expensive, but there’s no denying that condensed milk makes delicious cookies.
Chocolate Chip Cut-Out Cookies
03 Apr 2011 Leave a Comment
in Cookies, Recipes Tags: afternoon tea, baking, chocolate, recipe, require chilling
These are a pretty fun and yummy alternative to basic sugar or gingerbread cookies if you’re wanting to make shapes.
