Halloween Monster Brookies

28-10-2016 Local Black Bookbaking, brookie, brookies, brownie, brownies, cake, chocolate, cookie, cookies, halloween, recipe2 Comments

Sure you can buy them in the stores, but there’s something special and fun about making your own Halloween treats.

As far as I’m concerned the spookiest day of the year is as good an excuse as any to bake a batch of favourite sweet treats… And everybody knows that brownies are the way to my heart.

Now, I’m a big fan of the traditional recipe, but trust me when I say Brookies, the genius crossing between brownies and cookies, are next level good.

Chewy, crumbly, super chocolate-y and just a tiny bit spooky, these Monster Brookies are the ultimate Halloween-win treat, and you definitely want a batch (or three) of those in your life ASAP!

Halloween Monster Brookies (makes 6 monster-sized cookies)

Ingredients:

120g 70% dark chocolate
15g butter
75g caster sugar
30g cornflour
1 tsp baking powder
1 egg
15g chocolate chips
30g Smarties
a few drops dark food coloring (or, even better, a food-safe black pencil)

1. Preheat the oven to 180°C.

2. Place the chocolate and butter in a bowl and set over a pan of simmering water. Stir until melted and combined, then remove from the heat.

3. In the meantime, combine the sugar, cornflour, baking powder and egg and whisk until light and fluffy. Add the chocolate-butter mixture and mix until well combined.

4. Spoon tablespoons of mixture onto baking trays lined with baking paper, making sure you leave enough space inbetween them (they spread A LOT while baking). Dot the top of the cookies with the chocolate chips and Smarties.

5. Bake for 12-13 min in the preheated oven, then set aside to cool before drawing eyes using the black food colouring.

Salted Caramel Brownies

17-08-2016 Local Black Bookbaking, brownie, brownies, cake, chocolate, recipe, salted caramel, salted caramel brownies, world's best brownies10 Comments

So, today’s the day.

The day when I’m officially closer to 30 than I am to 20.

Feeling old much? YOU BET!

Luckily, birthdays are nature’s way of telling you to eat more cake, and god knows that’s something I’m always up for!

Now, birthday brownies are a bit of a tradition in my house (find out why here), but this year’s needed to step it up a notch…

And what’s the best way to make any amazing dessert even better?

You know it: SALTED CARAMEL e’rythiiiiiiiiiiiing!

So here it is. Salted caramel brownies.

Now, I used to be a triple choc’ brownies kind of girl. And then I made those and I’m telling you: TOTAL GAME CHANGER!

100-billion-calories-a-slice game changer, but after all, birthday = ultimate cheat day, right?

(and if it’s not quiiiite your birthday yet, well, you could always celebrate your un-birthday instead! ??)

Salted Caramel Brownies (serves 6-8)

You’ll need:

For the brownies:

120g soft (but NOT MELTED!) salted butter
160g granulated sugar
3 big eggs
70g self-raising flour
200g dark chocolate

For the salted caramel sauce:

150g granulated sugar
40g salted butter
about 100ml pouring or double cream
a generous pinch of salt

1. Pre-heat your oven to 160°C. Butter and flour a brownie pan (I like to use a 21×21 glass roasting tray like this one)

2. Make your caramel sauce: In a medium saucepan, put the sugar and a little bit of water. Cook over a hot stove until it turns a deep-brown colour and doesn’t re-crystalised if taken off the heat for a few seconds. Add in the butter, mix well, then add the cream and mix again. Add the salt, then leave to the side to cool down.

3. Make your brownies batter: In a big mixing bowl, combine the butter and sugar, then add the eggs and the flour. Melt your chocolate over a double-boiler, then add it to the batter and mix until well combined.

4. Pour about half of your brownies batter into the buttered and floured pan, cover with a layer of salted caramel sauce, then top with the remaining brownies batter. Bake for 30-35 min.

5. Let the brownies cool down (they’re even better the following day!) before serving with the remaining salted caramel sauce drizzled on top.

Do you have any birthday traditions? I’d love to hear them in the comments!!

PIN FOR LATER:

Brunch at The Modern Pantry

15-06-2016 Local Black Bookbreakfast, brownies, brunch, Clerkenwell, coffee, eggs, London, omelette, recommendation, Restaurant, review, The Modern Pantry, weekend4 Comments

Some weeks just seem endless.

You know the feeling. Minutes feel like hours, days feel like weeks and by Wednesday, the only thing on your mind is brunch.

And if your week is anything like mine, I know a place you’re going to love come brunch day…

Overlooking Clerkenwell’s iconic St John’s Square, Anna Hansen’s The Modern Pantry is any brunch-lover dream come true.

And with exposed bricks, loads of light, and just enough quirky, charming little details, it is a very dreamy little café indeed!

⬆⬆ Dining room goals right there ⬆⬆

(needless to say, we’ll do that the second we have a place of our own)

But first, coffee!

Black & stromy, with just a touch of condensed milk, Vietnamese-style, for him.

And a hot, steamy cup of jasmine tea for her.

With a few of The Modern Pantry’s iconic dishes on the side…

Sugar-cured New Caledonian prawn omelette, green chilli, spring onion, coriander, smoked chilli sambal and toast

Sweet, soft prawns, punchy sambal and a kick of green chilli, all blanketed by the dreamiest of omelette…

A dish definitely worth its reputation!

And more than worthy of a close-up, too!

Poached eggs with grilled chorizo, slow-roast tomatoes and plantain fritters.

A sunny take on the traditional English Breakfast and #yolkporn at its very best.

Brunch at The Modern Pantry | Cake + Whisky

All washed down with the appropriate amount of ‘liquid goodness’.

And followed by a little bit of pudding action…

Sour cherry brownie with Greek yoghurt cream, malt & chocolate crumb and berries.

Soft, gooey, sweet, sour, rich and fresh all at once, it’s a masterpiece of a dessert.

An absolute triumph, much like the rest of the meal.

And the #1 reason to put brunch at The Modern Pantry on the agenda for next weekend.

It’s a truly eggcelent brunch spot, bu it gets busy so make sure you book ahead.

The Modern Pantry, 47-48 St John’s Square, Clerkenwell, London EC1V 4JJ

Candy Cane Brownies

20-01-2016 Local Black Bookbaking, brownies, cake, candy cane, chocolate, chocolate chips, Christmas, dessert, easy, mint, peppermint, recipe5 Comments

Come Christmas, I always buy loads of candy canes. Ridiculous amounts, really.

I use them for literally everything: I hang some in the tree, use a few as gift-toppers, feature them on every holiday-themed Instagram picture…

But I never, ever eat them.

Or rather, I never DID. Until this morning.

When I had candy cane brownies for breakfast #healthgoals

If you like the mint + chocolate combo, you’re in for a treat. Plus it’ll help you use up some of the leftover Christmas sweets. Less food waste, more cake. #winwin

Candy Cane Brownies (serves 2-4)

Ingredients: 70g melted baking chocolate, 70g dark chocolate chips, 1 candy cane, 1 egg, 50g granulated sugar, 40g melted butter, 30g self-raising flour (optional: a few drops of peppermint extract)

1. Pre-heat your oven to 180°C. Butter and flour a small cake tin (1 used a small enamel dish).

2. Whisk together the egg, sugar and melted butter. Whisk the flour in, then add the melted chocolate and the chocolate chips (and the peppermint extract if using).

3. Using a mortar & pestle, grind the candy cane down to a coarse powder. Add about 3/4 of it to the batter.

4. Pour your batter into the baking tray and bake for about 15 min. Sprinkle on the rest of your candy cane powder on your brownies as soon as they’re out of the oven.

5. Eat warm or cold (ideally with some mint + choc. chips ice cream on the side).

Radicals and Victuallers

04-09-2015 Local Black BookAmerican, Angel station, breakfast, British, brownies, brunch, hotdog, Islington, London, mac & cheese, pub, Radical & Victuallers, Restaurant, review3 Comments

Four-day weeks are always so confusing to me. I’m not sure what exactly my brain is so confused about, but I seem to never know which day it is, and for some reason, they seem longer than regular weeks (#nonsense).

But there definitely are silver linings to them. First of all, you get an extra day of weekend. Also, the next weekend is one day closer to the beginning than it is on regular weeks.

Which in my (admittedly food-obsessed) brain only means one thing: I’m one day closer to brunch day yay!

Obviously, the discovery of the little gem that is Radicals and Victuallers makes things even more exciting on that point…

Continue reading “Radicals and Victuallers” →

White Chocolate & Matcha Blondies Recipe

26-07-201520-07-2015 Local Black Bookbaking, blondies, brownies, cake, chocolate, dessert, easy, green, green tea, matcha, party recipe, recipe, sweet, tea, white chocolate12 Comments

I’m a bit of a cookbook addict. I spend hours browsing through any I can put my hands one, be it in Waterstones, my GP waiting room or the comfort of my grandma’s home.

Trying out new recipes and seeing how they measure up to my current favourites is something I find terribly exciting.

For that reason, there are very few recipes I’ve sworn allegiance to. But it’s no secret I made an exception for the best brownies’ recipe of all times.

This recipe truly is perfect: it’s easy and quick to make, there’s almost no dishes to clean and you get the densest, moistest, perfect brownies at the end of it.

Unfortunately, all this perfection doesn’t prevent me from experimenting and wanting to change things up a little from time to time, and last week, the idea of matcha and white chocolate blondies simply wouldn’t get out of my head and I knew I had to give my favourite recipe a re-vamp.
And once again, the recipe proved itself to be perfect in every way.

White chocolate matcha blondies (serves 6-8)
You’ll need: 70g self-raising flour, 130g of sugar, 120g of soft butter, 2 big eggs, 200g of white chocolate, 3 teaspoons of matcha powder, 1 teaspoon of vanilla powder.In a mixing bowl, combine the butter and the sugar and whisk until smooth and well combined.Crack in the eggs and mix. Add the flour, the matcha powder and the vanilla powder and mix thoughroughly. Melt the white chocolate (I’m lazy so I do this in the microwave) and add it to your cake batter and whisk once again.
Pour the batter into a buttered and flour tin and bake for about 35 minutes at 150°C. Let your blondies cool down completely before cutting them into squares.

Add some berries on the side (both the colour and flavour contrast make that combination a winner!) and try not to eat it all in one go (I dare you!)

Recipe – The BEST brownies EVER

06-02-201504-02-2015 Local Black Bookbrownies, cake, cooking, dessert, Oreo Brownies, recipes9 Comments

I met my boyfriend because I could bake. We were just two weirdos invited to a birthday party, and we started talking about food, then planned to meet again to bake cakes for a bake sale he was organising to fundraise for one of his many many MANY projects. My brownies were apparently the most succesful of the lot that day. So succesful in fact that he didn’t even get to taste it. So I came around to bake more brownies, and the rest is history…

sndguerin-best-brownies-ever-oreos

As weird as it might sound, I find baking to be the most relaxing thing in the world. When revising for my Baccalauréat, I baked up to 3 cakes a day! My sister was over the moon, my parents, not so much…

Over the year I experimented quite a bit, with various degrees of success (I’m looking at you macaroons!), but today’s recipes is probably the one I use most. I could tell you it’s because it’s very adaptable, and easy, and quick, and there’s very little washing-up to do in the end. But the truth is, it’ll produce the densest, fudgiest, most decadent brownies. Doesn’t get much better in my book.

Best brownies ever

Ingredients: 2 big eggs, 160g of sugar, 120g of butter (soft), 70g of flour, 200g of baking chocolate (melted) + whatever toppings you like in/on your brownies (here I used an entire pack of double-stuffed Oreos, but that’s just because I was feeling particularly peckish that day!)

1. Pre-heat your oven at 150 °C (gas mark 5).

2. Butter and flour your brownie tin.

3. In a big bowl, beat the butter with the sugar until well incorporated.

4. Add the eggs. Mix.

5. Add the flour. Mix.

6. Add the melted chocolate. Mix again.

7. Add about half of your toppings and mix thouroughly.

8. Pour the brownies batter in the baking tin. Sprinkle the rest of your toppings on top (hellooooo Instagram-ready beauty!).

9. Cook for about 30 minutes (you can check by inserting the tip of a knife into your brownies).

You should wait for it to cool down completely before wolfing down half of it, but then, I didn’t do it either! So much so that I didn’t even managed to get a picture of the cooked brownies (bad blogger!). Want to definitely put me to shame? What about you bake up a tray this weekend and send me the pictures over Twitter @cakeandwhisky? Come on, you know you want to!

Cake and Whisky

Life in London and other almost-grown-up tales

Menu

brownies