Johnny Walker Brownies

Is it possible to have too much of a good thing - probably but who cares?
Either Brownies or kitchen gadgets fall into the never enough catergory. My darling daughter bought me a brownie pan for Mother's Day. She knows me so well.
If you need a reason for more of a good thing then the answer to that is my latest attempt at the Perfect Brownie.

Johnny Walker Brownies

125 grams dark chocolate
200 grams butter
125 mls Johnny Walker whiskey
1 teaspoon vanilla extract or paste
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1 cup brown sugar
1 cup white sugar
1/2 cup plain flour
1/2 cup Self Raising flour
2 tablespoons cocoa
2 beaten eggs

Melt the chocolate, butter, whiskey, vanilla, cinnamon and sugars together in a bowl over a pot of simmering water (do not allow the bottom of the bowl to touch the water) until the chocolate and butter is just melted. Stir well and remove from the pot and allow it too cool. It should still feel a little warm to touch but not hot enough to cook the eggs when you add them.

Sift the two flours and the cocoa together and stir into the chocolate/butter mixture with the two eggs.
Mix well and then pour into a lined baking tray like this one.

 Insert the dividers and cook for 50 minutes at 150° C.
Cool in the pan.
As soon as I took the brownie out of the oven I added a chocolate button to each piece. They melt but still hold their shape enough to look great.

Obviously you can have too much of a good thing but chocolate brownies are worth it.

Chocolate, Cheesecake and Raspberry Brownies

 What's better than a chocolate brownie? A chocolate brownie with lumps of cream cheese and raspberries of course.

• 150g plain flour
• 100g caster sugar
• 100 g brown sugar
• 50 g melted dark chocolate
• 40g cocoa
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 egg
• 1/2 cup baileys
• 1/2 cup milk
• 50ml vegetable oil
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1 teaspoon vinegar
• 250 g cream cheese
• 1 cup frozen raspberries

·        Preparation method

·        Prep: 10 minutes | Cook: 40 minutes

·        Preheat oven to 180 degrees C. Grease and flour or line with bake paper, a 17x33cm cake tin.

·        In a large bowl, combine the flour, sugar, cocoa, baking soda, baking powder and salt. Make a well in the centre and pour in the melted chocolate, egg, baileys, milk, oil, vanilla and vinegar. Mix until smooth: the batter will be thin.

·        Pour into prepared tin and cut the cream cheese into small squares and drop evenly into the batter.

·        Drop the frozen raspberries evenly into the batter.

·        Bake for 35-40 minutes, or until a skewer inserted into the centre of the cake comes out clean. Allow to cool in the tin before slicing and serving.

BEST BROWNIES EVER!!!

Three words friends – BEST BROWNIES EVER!!!

I have been involved in a serious search, a serious long search. At times I have become disheartened and other things have distracted me. Now I can say “Success is mine”. What have I been searching for? Just the secret to long term happiness!

Yes I can say I have found my pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. Dark brown happy pills - BEST BROWNIES EVER!!!

Quite fittingly they also go with this month’s Sweet Adventures Blog hop, because these are pecan brownies. Nic from Dining with a Stud is the hostess this month

Chocolate Pecan Brownies

Ingredients

2 cups (300 g) Self-raising flour

1/3 cup (40 g) Cocoa  

½ cup (90g) Dark brown sugar

1 teaspoon (5 g) Cinnamon

2/3 cup (100 g) Dark chocolate chips or chopped dark chocolate

2/3 cup Pecans chopped

½ cup Nutella or chocolate spread

1 egg beaten

¾ cup (180 ml) Milk

½ cup (125 ml) Sour cream or yogurt

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 tablespoon (30ml) brandy or whisky

70g Butter – melted  

Method

Grease and flour or line a 15cm x 25cm baking tin with bake paper.

Preheat the oven to 180 °C

Sift the first 4 ingredients into a large bowl. Add the chocolate and nuts

Place the wet ingredients in a food processor and blend until well combined.

Mix the wet ingredients into the dry and thoroughly combine.

Spoon into the tray and bake for 40 minutes. A skewer inserted into the middle should come out slightly sticky but not gooey wet.

Remove from the oven and cool in the tin. If you try to take it out of the tin it will most likely break. If you want to eat it hot and trust me it was amazing hot – Carefully lift it out using the bake paper slice and serve warm with ice cream and/or thick cream and berries. 

For the berries in the photo I put 200 grams of mixed frozen berries, 2 tablespoons of caster sugar and 2 tablespoons of water in a pot and heated it gently until the sugar melted and the berries heated through. Then I turned up the heat until the juices thickened.

the brownie is lovely topped with chocolate ganache.

In a double boiler or metal bowl over a pot melt together 100 grams of dark chocolate, 1 teaspoon of butter and 30 mls of pouring cream. Stir until it is smooth and glossy then pour over the brownie. Place it in the refrigerator and when the chocolate ganache is set slice with a hot knife.

I tend to take several recipes and play with them until I am happy. That is the case here, so if this recipe is exactly like someone else’s that is a coincidence and not deliberate.