Chocolate brownies for Easter!

The team at Food Obsession wishes everyone a very Happy Easter! We hope that you have had a good long weekend and a well-deserved break with the company of all your loved ones (surrounded by food of course!).

It has been a chocolate-filled week for me (chocolate Easter eggs, chocolate hot cross buns etc.), and to make matters worse, I've had this craving for chocolate brownies for awhile now. So, when I found this recipe, I just had to make it!

Chocolate Orange Cheesecake Brownie Squares

What do you think? Nothing better than some homemade brownies, yes? Make some and have them a bit warm with some ice cream, maybe?

Recipe (adapted from sortedfood.com) 
Chocolate base:
140g butter
200g dark chocolate 
225g caster sugar (I used a lot less than this!)
1 tsp vanilla essence
2 eggs 
60g plain flour 
60g cocoa 

Orange cream cheese filling 
75g cream cheese
50g caster sugar (once again, I didn't use as much sugar) 
1 egg
75g plain flour
zest of 1 orange

1. Preheat the oven to 170°C and line a rectangular baking tin with greaseproof paper.
2. Melt butter, chocolate and sugar in a microwave, stirring every 30 seconds or so.
3. Crack in the eggs and vanilla and mix until smooth and glossy.
4. Add the flour and cocoa into the chocolate mix and beat well.
5. Pour into the lined baking tin. 
6. Beat the sugar and vanilla into the cream cheese, then beat in the egg, flour and zest of the orange to create the cream cheese filling.
7. Spoon the cream cheese mix into the brownie in blobs and use a knife to move the mixture around, creating a marbled effect.
8. Bake in the oven for about 30 minutes and allow to cool fully in the tin before cutting into square pieces to serve. 

A big thank you to the guys at Sorted Food for coming up with this recipe! The only thing I might do differently next time is reduce the flour content for the cream cheese filling. Other than that, it would have been a perfect brownie.

This has definitely satisfied my brownie craving, even though it means that I will need to find a way to burn away all these calories. Meh, maybe another day!

The gift of food this Christmas

The team at Food Obsession wishes all our readers a very Merry Christmas, and an awesome new year ahead! Hopefully you have had a wonderful holiday season, celebrating with family and friends (and also celebrating over some food!)

As mentioned in an earlier post, we've been working on various number of projects this summer. One of my personal projects is making food gifts as Christmas gifts.

I stumbled upon this recipe at sortedfood.com and could not resist making them as they looked so easy to make. These Cranberry Florentines also made really cute gifts for colleagues and friends.

 

Cranberry Florentines fresh from the oven.

 

All these cookies are packed and ready to be gifted!

Recipe (taken from sortedfood.com)
75g butter 
75g caster sugar (I used less as I am not a fan of cookies being super sweet) 
2 tbsp honey
75g plain flour 
75g dried cranberries 
50g glacé cherries (chopped, optional)
50g mixed dried peel 
50 flaked almonds 

1. Melt butter, sugar and honey over simmering water.
2. Stir in the flour to create a batter. 
3. Tip all of the dried fruit and flaked almonds into the batter.
4. Mix well. 
5. Spoon mixture with a teaspoon onto baking trays and press slightly to flatten a little. 
6. Bake for 10 minutes at 180°C, then cool for 5 minutes before transferring onto a wire rack to cool completely. 

Enjoy and happy baking!

Friggingly overpriced banana muffins

Anyone in Australia would feel the same way I do, when bananas are no longer our perfect fibre source. With that, there is no way I would spend an average of AUD$10 per kg on bananas. I *hearts* my free bananas.

I dislike seeing kids wasting their overpriced bananas as they merely take a bite of it and having the rest in the bin. Having said that, I see it happening almost everyday.

Recipe (9 muffins)
2 bananas (if its not way expensive, 3 bananas would possibly be better)
1/2 cup of sugar or slightly lesser
1 tbsp olive oil spread (butter, margarine, etc)
1/2 egg, beaten
2/3 self raising flour, sifted
1/3 almond meal
pinch of salt
handful of walnuts

1. Preheat oven to 180C.
2. Beat eggs and bananas. Add other ingredients and mix well.
3. Fill muffin tray till 3/4 full and bake for 20 minutes.
I baked it for 15 minutes before turning it off, and then keeping them in the warm oven for another 5 mins.

They really aren't the prettiest muffins, I have to say and vanilla extract would also make the muffins more flavoursome. They tend to be a bit too sweet for my liking, but I still enjoyed it.

I actually love it more when its cold, straight out from the fridge. Having said that, I made these muffins as snacks on the go. I think I like it best because I have been deprived of bananas.

*wails* When will bananas prices go down like it used to?

Easter-->Bunny-->Carrot?

If there was ever a perfect excuse for a guilt-free weekend, mine has been "But its Easter!" Having said that, the weekend is over and its back to the 'Lets get healthy' routine.

So the decision was to bake carrot walnut muffins for breakfast before work! MUFFINS, but I never realised they were CUPCAKES till I took it out of the oven and go "Hey, these are not muffins. They are cupcakes!" Blame the holiday brain...

Here's the recipe to a buttery carrot and walnut cupcake recipe. AND it was the title written in my recipe book, I must be blind if my brain was functioning right.

Makes 1 1/2 dozen

225g unsalted butter, softened

225g caster sugar

225 self-raising flour

4 eggs

1 tsp mixed spice

100g chopped walnuts

150g freshly grated carrots

2 tbsp sultanas (which i just did a handful)

I also added some toasted flaked almonds

Preheat oven to 175C. Place baking cases in muffin tins. Combine butter, sugar, flour and eggs in large bowl and beat with an electric whisk until smooth. Stir in the rest of the ingredients and spoon batter into the cases. Bake for 20 minutes. Remove tins from the oven and cool for 5 minutes. 

No longer muffins for breakfast, but cupcakes for tea! They were good, although a bit too buttery for my liking because I am just not a big fan of butter.

Pistachio Cookies

These were special cookies I baked for a special someone. Using only 4 ingredients, I hope they serve their intended purpose. I will only find out a few days later though. =(    

Recipe from Trissa (a cupcake or two) World's Best Pistachio Cookies
90 g + 100 g pistachios (raw, shelled)
100g almond meal
120g caster sugar
50g egg whites (1-2 eggs)
green food colouring (optional)

1. Lightly toast nuts, preheated 160C. Chop 90g finely (food processor makes the job done in 2 seconds) and 100g roughly.

I did not buy enough pistachios, and had about 60g roughly chopped. It worked well for me still.

2. In a bowl, mix well fine pistachios, almond meal, sugar and egg whites. Few drops of food colouring can be put in and mix until paste is formed. *I did not add in green colouring. Scoop and form little balls. If too sticky, add almond meal then roll them in the remaining roughly chopped pistachios.

3. Place on baking sheet, 2 cm apart and bake for 13 minutes in 190C. I learned my lesson and preferred  slightly flatter balls next time instead of perfect ones.

4. Dust with icing sugar when cool. I did not, however, because I thought they were sweet enough. As mentioned, I think they would be much better flatter (which I did with the second batch-but only photos were taken on the first batch).

Anyway, they are off with me on a jet plane in 12 hours time. =D

note: They are a bit heavier than usual cookies, due to the almond meal.

Choco Banana Cookies

First attempt of chocolate banana cookies without having rolled oats in them. These were not as yummy as those with rolled oats (as I'd like to think) but they remind me lots of my childhood memories-little snacks I get from school. I've cut the recipe into half due to 'limited' resources and tweaked little things here and there.

Recipe (full portion)
1/2 cup unsalted butter, room temperature (used dairy free spread instead)
1 cup of sugar
1 egg, room temperature
1 cup mashed bananas (definitely used more than recommended)
1 tsp baking soda
2 cups flour
pinch of salt
1 1/2 mixed spice
1 cup nuts or chocolate chips (I used whatever I have left-possibly less than half a cup)

*Full portion recipe was given. Again, I halved the recipe.

1. Preheat 350F (180C). Cream butter and sugar together till light and fluffy. Add egg and continue to beat.
2. Mash banana with baking soda. Sit for 2 minutes
3. Mix banana into butter. Flour, salt, and spices sifted into mixture.
4. Fold nuts or chocolate chips and bake for 11-13 minutes.

The mixture looked a bit runny due to the 'extra' bananas. Had to use up the bananas some how or another.

I didn't like it because it didn't taste like crispy crunchy cookies. Having said that, I loved it because it had that 'memory' attached to it, although the ones I used to have were deep fried instead. They were extremely addictive, however. Who can possibly say no to the combination of banana and chocolate chips!?!

They stayed moist till the next day. Confession ( you possibly realise I have heaps of confession), my measurements while baking weren't exactly accurate although I've provided the actual measurement from the recipe. The texture might end up different if you were being truly precise. Yours truly, on the other hand, was racing against time but still wanted to bake. =D

Psst... They were gone the next day!

My sugar-filled day

Ingredients for a supposedly 'foolproof' chocolate fondant recipe (taken from womans&home)

Serves 2 jumbo texas muffin pan (or 3 ramekins)

70 g   dark chocolate

56 g   unsalted butter

100g  caster sugar

2 eggs, beaten

     50 g   sifted, plain flour

    1tbsp  apple chocolate liqueur

Melt chocolate and butter before adding sugar, liqueur and vanilla extract, if preferred. Remove from heat to cool slightly. Whisk in eggs, a little at a time and then, fold in sifted flour. Bake in a preheated oven at 180C  (160C fan forced) for 10 minutes.

These are obviously shots from two different times, one during the day and one at night. I am still mastering how to use my 'not-so-savvy' digicam. It didn't hold up the way it should be but it definitely had the ooze any chocolate fondant should have. But boy, was it too sweet for my liking especially when I'm not one with high tolerance for sugar (so Jin said)

Was it a fool-proof chocolate fondant recipe? For now, I have to disagree but I will certainly attempt a fondant again. Not for some time, as the sugar is getting to me! 

A short review on the Christmas product of Cadbury's, the Magical Elves. Both Jin and I tasted this product for the very first time today. Both of us found it to be extremely sweet, with popping candy in their usual Dairy Milk. As listed in the ingredients, popping candy is just more sugar and glucose! 

I thought the popping candy was an interesting bit for that mere one second, merely because I miss the popping sensation in the mouth. All I need is one fun size Magical Elf.

A blue background was attempted to see how the image goes =) Anyway, I think I will be bouncing off walls tonight!!!

"note: to be eaten away from the company of others, unless you want to explain the suspicious explosion from the corners of your teeth" Jin said