Double Chocolate Fudge Brownies

In honour of my mum's birthday yesterday, and also because I finally found the recipe I used to use all the time, I made some brownie muffins.  Really, it's just brownies, but instead of a big lump of brownie to be cut up, I make them in muffin tins because it's easier to deal with!  I love having the portion controlled for me in a muffin size! :D  

Argh why is this picture coming out sideways?  Does anyone know how to fix this?  Leave a comment if you do!

I LOVE this recipe, because it's super easy to make, and the brownies are always hugely chocolatey, and dense and moist and *drools* ok, so we get the picture, I love them.  However, they aren't the healthiest, this recipe uses heaps of butter and eggs and sugar, but oh my, it's totally worth it!  And if you wanted to kick it up a notch in the heart-attack stakes, serve it warm, with vanilla ice cream and some chocolate sauce, and you've got an amazing dessert right there!  Seriously, it's like mud cake.  

I can't rave enough about this recipe, you all just have to try it.

INGREDIENTS

250g butter

1 & 1/2 cups castor sugar

1 & 1/4 cups plain flour

1/8 tsp baking powder

3/4 cup good dark cocoa

4 eggs

1/2 tsp vanilla extract (I used vanilla essence, but this is optional)

chocolate buttons/chips/berries to top

METHOD

• Preheat oven to 180 deg C (fan forced)
• Place butter and sugar in a microwave safe jug, cover and microwave for 3 mins (800 watts).  Sugar should not completely dissolve
• Meanwhile, sift flour, baking powder and cocoa into a large bowl
• Make a well in the centre and add eggs and vanilla
• Pour in the butter mixture and gently mix until well combined, but do not over-mix (lumpy is good!)
• [EDIT] Put into square (or round) flat silicone dish - just found out that it makes them even better than in muffin tin omg.
• Place chocolate buttons/chips/berries on the top of mixture
• Bake for 20ish mins until just firm.  Stab with a toothpick - when it comes out clean, they're ready!
• Allow to cool for 10 mins before removing from the dish

INDULGE.

Seriously my favourite brownie recipe ever.  (Thank you, Tupperware... haha!)

Nannas Chocolate Chip Biscuits (aka Cookies)

There's a bit of a funny story to this recipe.  It was a recipe my mum always used when I was growing up, making chocolate chippies to go in my lunch box for school.  When I was a bit older, I noticed that the recipe she used was written in my Nannas handwriting, so assumed the recipe was hers.  I was quite thrilled, thinking here in my hands I had a great heirloom family recipe, passed down through generations of women in my family, and that it could become legendary, because these chocolate chippies had a reputation of deliciousness. 

 

One day, when I was talking to my Nanna, I asked her about it, wondering if it came from my great-grandma.  Boy, was I wrong.  Nanna turned around and said "Ohh that old recipe?  I got that off the side of a packet".  -_-  So much for family heirloom.  *dreams shattered*  But seriously, I was quite gutted!

Anywho... this is my all time favourite, go-to chocolate chip bikkie recipe.  It's practically never fail, and for my lazy self, it's perfect with few steps, few ingredients, and maximum taste!  Whenever I make these bikkies, I always seem to give some away to friends/family, and they always say what amazing bikkies they are, and how they wish theirs would turn out so well.  Well, friends/family, now you can make some yourself! :)

INGREDIENTS

1 tsp cocoa

125g butter

1/2 cup brown sugar

1/2 cup white sugar

1/2 tsp vanilla

1 egg

1 & 3/4 cups self raising flour

1/2 tsp salt

100g chocolate chips

METHOD

• Preheat oven to 180 deg C
• Cream butter, sugars and vanilla
• Add lightly beaten egg gradually, beating well after each addition
• Mix in flour, salt and cocoa
• Mix in chocolate chips
• Roll into balls and set on oven tray with baking paper
• Press with fork
• Bake for 10 minutes, or until they look done :)

So I was a bit dumb, and burned a tray of the cookies, which is why I'm only showing you half of the cooling rack!!  I'm learning the lesson the hard way to not use FANBAKE on the oven when baking cookies/muffins etc.!!!  Silly silly silly.  It bakes too fast and burns easier.  Fanbake is better reserved for casseroles and such.

But anyway, they still taste ok, they're just not that pretty, and they're VERY crispy haha.

Cranberry White Chocolate Chunk Oatmeal Cookies (aka Biscuits)

I didn't have the highest expectations for these biscuits if I'm going to be honest.  I thought "ooh white chocolate, that's mum's favourite chocolate, I might try this recipe"... but OMG it's going to be a new favourite recipe!

These biscuits came out SO amazingly delicious.  I couldn't believe it, so fluffy, and light and puffy.  I didn't think the cranberries would be so delicious either, as I'd never really eaten dried cranberries, but they're little nuggets of tangy chewy goodness!

This recipe was also made more amazing by the fact that one of my friends was here at my house for the first time, and we baked them together which was totally fun!

Normally when I make biscuits they go all flat and chewy, but these ones puffed up gloriously and didn't deflate after we pulled them out of the oven!

WARNING: be careful when baking them, because they go from golden to starting-to-burn-and-smoking-out-the-oven REALLY quickly.  So you want to keep a close eye on them to make sure they don't get TOO brown and your oven doesn't start to smoke.  

INGREDIENTS

2/3 cup softened butter (about 150g)
1/3 cup brown sugar packed
1/3 cup white sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
1 ½ cups oats
1 ½ cups flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
½ teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon cinnamon
6 ounces dried cranberries (about 170g)
1 cup white chocolate chunks/chips

METHOD

• Preheat oven to 190 deg C.
• Combine oats, flour, cinnamon, baking powder and salt in a small bowl.
• Cream butter white sugar and brown sugar until light and fluffy.
• Add vanilla and the eggs one at a time, mix after each addition.
• Add dry ingredients ½ at a time.
• Mix until just combined.
• Add dried cranberries and white chocolate.
• Flour your hands, and roll spoonfuls of cookie mixture and lay on a flat baking tray
• Bake for 10 - 12 minutes, until the cookies are just set and starting to turn golden
• Cool on a rack before eating!

I bet you can't resist eating more than one when you first have a cookie warm out of the oven!  SO gooooooood!

Recipe Inspiration: http://www.acooksquest.blogspot.co.nz/2010/06/recipe-49-cranberry-white-chocolate.html