Chocolate and Hazelnut Brownies

I have included this recipe because apart from mine still being very raw in the middle – very probably my fault – the bits that were baked properly, were absolutely gorgeous. My oven doesn’t heat evenly and rarely runs at the correct temperature, often running 30˚C hotter or colder, sometimes even more than that. At times it works fine….. Annoying and frustrating thing, that it is. My baking tray was also 8”x8” instead of 9”x12” so the cake batter was much thicker than it was supposed to be. So with my oven and my baking tray I had already set myself up to fail – it was just the centre though and completely my own doing, I just cut around the raw central bit, there was still plenty of baked brownie left over. I try not to get too cross with myself over my baking mishaps, as Glen keeps saying, everything I do is new, until now I had never really tackled baking ever, my Mum never taught me and my Ex would have had a fit if I had tried to bake something and ended up having to throw it in the bin, so I never had the opportunity until now. So I do try to just kind of shrug my shoulders, “Oh well” it and carry on. This time however it really irked me because I know what I did wrong and the recipe really is too good to be making mistakes like that, wasteful.

Chocolate and Hazelnut Brownies

100g/3 ½ oz hazelnuts

175g/6oz unsalted butter diced

300g/10 ½ oz good quality dark chocolate, broken up

300g/10 ½ oz caster sugar

4 large beaten eggs

200g Plain flour

25g/1oz cocoa powder, + extra for dusting

1. Preheat the oven to 200˚C/400˚F, scatter the hazelnuts over a baking sheet and toast them being careful not to burn them, for 5 minutes. Once they are toasted vigorously rub them in a tea towel to remove the skins.
2. Roughly chop the hazelnuts so you have random sizes and set them aside, line the base of your tin, 23x30cm/9”x12” or similar type tin with parchment paper.
3. Put the butter and chocolate, in a heatproof bowl over a pan of simmering water, and melt the butter and chocolate stirring continuously until smooth. Remove from the heat and allow it to cool. Once cooled add the sugar and mix well until combined.
4. Now add the eggs a little time, mixing well between each addition. Making sure to lift the sieve well above the bowl to aerate, sift the flour and cocoa powder into the butter and chocolate mixture.
5. Fold in the flour until well combined and smooth, stir in the nuts and then pour into the baking tray. Bake for 15 minutes, it should be firm on top but soft in the middle, leave in the tray but place on a wire rack to cool.
6. Lift the brownie out of the tray using the parchment paper for leverage, then carefully cut into 24 pieces.

 

Moooohahahahaha....... She tries to bake...

I am a self professed rubbish baker, I mean like all out really, really, hit or miss, super rubbish, crazy bad. I choose baking recipes depending on ingredients, the fewer the better, this was an all out, hit, hit, hit. Oh my goodness calorific, my, oh my, brilliant – no exaggeration – cheesecake factory fantastic. Thankfully it tastes so good that the few minor mishaps, and I always have some minor mishap or other, don't matter too much. With my cheesecakes they tend to split – the first time because I didn’t use a water bath, then I did use a water bath but not very well – my baking pan didn’t fit in the receptacle that I was using very well. The other time I got it spot on, other than the fact that I was really, really drunk, so it was perfect right up until the point, I forgot to peel the edges of the cheesecake off the side of the baking pan, as it cooled and retracted, the edges pulled and it in turn split the cheesecake anyway, I was really upset about it, mostly because my alcohol consumption caused a really silly mistake on what should have been a perfect cheesecake!........ Like I said though thankfully taste negates from the fact I ruined it.

 Chocolate Brownie Caramel Cheesecake

 9oz Brownie Mix

3 eggs
1 tbsp cold water
1 can sweetened condensed milk (nestle stuff super thick and sweet)
16 oz whipped cream cheese
½ cup sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
Chocolate sauce for drizzling

1. Preheat the oven to 350˚F and grease a 9” spring form pan.
2. In a small bowl mix together the brownie mix, 1 egg and water, spread into your spring form pan and bake for 15-20 minutes.
3. Open your condensed milk and pour the contents into a pan, over a low heat and stirring continuously, cook for 10 – 15 minutes or until,  you can turn a cooled tablespoon of it upside down without it falling off.  The other way to do this is slightly more time consuming, but may give better results. Place the can of sweetened condensed milk in a pan of simmering water, for 2 – 2 ½ hours, you need to remember to keep toping up the water level, if it dries out the can could explode. When it’s done, let it cool before you open it, it should be very thick and caramel coloured.
4. Keep some of the caramel to one side, you are going to need it to drizzle over the top of the cheesecake, use the rest over your warm brownie crust.
5. Next you need to beat the cream cheese, sugar and vanilla extract in a large bowl until smooth. Then in a separate bowl, beat 1 egg and then mix it in with the cream cheese, making sure that it is well combined and then do the same again with the 2^nd egg. Pour your cream cheese mixture over the caramel and brownie crust.
6. Using a water bath bake the cheesecake for about 40 minutes, chill in the pan, don’t forget to run a knife around the outside edge to peel the cheesecake off the sides… Heat the saved caramel and drizzle over the cheesecake along with chocolate sauce.