Tag: indulgent

Mmmmint Oreo Brownies

You can’t say “mint Oreo brownies” without saying “mmmm”. Nor would you want to, as these are mmmmarvellous.

As if a chocolate brownie wasn’t gorgeous enough, adding the Oreos brings new, and welcome, texture to this chocolatey party.

This recipe is egg free. For the simple reason that I was fresh out of eggs. Undeterred, I substituted 4 eggs with 4 tablespoons of thick Greek style yoghurt. The resulting brownies were as smooth, rich and gooey as ever so I share it now with you.

Mmmmint Oreo Brownies

Recipe

Ingredients

  • 150g butter
  • 300g soft brown sugar
  • 75g cocoa powder
  • 150g plain flour
  • 1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
  • 4 tablespoons Greek style yoghurt (or 4 beaten eggs if you prefer)
  • 1 teaspoon peppermint extract
  • 120g milk chocolate, chopped
  • About 8 mint Oreos, broken up a bit

Method

  • First, preheat your oven to 180C and line a square tin with foil (my tin is 20cm square).
  • In a pan which can hold all of the ingredients, melt your butter over a gentle heat. Then stir in the sugar.
  • Next add the flour, cocoa and bicarbonate of soda and roughly mix. Take off the heat.
  • Now plop in the yoghurt and mint extract and stir again.
  • Stir in the chocolate chunks and pour your unctuous mixture into the waiting tin.
  • Scatter over those broken Oreos and press them down very slightly.
  • Pop in the oven to bake for 25 minutes. It’s worth having a check at 20 minutes as you don’t want to over cook and miss out on that gooey loveliness. When ready, the brownie will look set on top but will still have a wobble underneath.
  • Once cooked, take out of the oven and cool on a wire rack, still in the baking tin.

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Sweet & Salty Choc-o-nut Cookies

Delicious, delovely, delectable, divine! To quote the utterly degroovey Deee-Lite. The surprising friendship of salty nuts and sweet chocolate is a true delight…though I can’t take credit for its conception.

My middle child, who has always had a knack for sensational flavour twists, fancied doing a bit of baking. These moreish morsels were his winning creation.

Normally, I find it hard to stop at 1 or 2 cookies, but the salty nuts make these gorgeously satisfying. And this, my friend, is a good thing because one bite of these and you will be hooked.

Choc-o-nut Cookies

Ingredients

  • 50g soft butter
  • 25g peanut butter
  • 160g light muscovado sugar
  • 1 egg
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 125g plain flour
  • 50g cocoa
  • 1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
  • 50g dark chocolate, chopped
  • 50g milk chocolate, chopped
  • 60g salted peanuts

Method

  • First of all pop your oven on to 180C / 160C fan. Line 2 baking sheets with baking paper.
  • Beat your sugar and butter until light and fluffy.
  • Now beat in your egg and vanilla.
  • Gradually add the flour, bicarbonate of soda and cocoa (we added 1/3 at a time).
  • Finally stir in the chocolate chunks and nuts.
  • Now just dollop tablespoons of the cookie dough onto your prepared baking sheets, leaving a few centimetres in between each cookie.
  • Pop them in the oven for 10-12 minutes.
  • Once they’re baked to perfection, remove from the oven. Give them a few minutes to cool slightly before you move them to a wire rack.

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Super Simple Salmon Chowder

Chowders are like the posh cousins of the soup family. A good fish chowder feels a bit grander than, say, a classic tomato soup or a chicken broth. To me, it’s a bit of an indulgence. I dare say a proper restaurant chowder would indeed be somewhat of a treat with lashings of cream and butter. This version, while tasting divine is, brilliantly, rather good for you. A definitively lighter rendition – posh and saintly.

Made mostly with chicken stock, it finds its delicate creaminess from a good glug of milk added near the end of the cooking. I tend to use full fat milk for this but I can’t imagine semi skimmed would taste noticeably inferior. I wouldn’t advise skimmed milk though, unless you want the creaminess in colour only. But then, why bother?

If you want to boost your veg intake, add sweetcorn, peas or chopped spinach. And finally, don’t scrimp on the bread. Big hunks of wholemeal or granary are spot on with a fish chowder.

Super Simple Salmon Chowder

Serves 4

Ingredients

4 medium potatoes, peeled and diced
1 onion, diced quite finely
700ml chicken stock
300ml whole milk

1 pack of smoked salmon, chopped
1 lemon – zest of whole lemon and a squeeze of juice to taste
A handful of parsley, chopped
A few sprigs of dill, chopped (optional)

Method

Pop your potatoes, onion and hot stock in a pan and simmer for about 15 minutes with the lid on.

Once the potatoes are tender add the milk, heat through over a low heat then add the smoked salmon and lemon zest. Gently simmer for a couple of minutes.

Turn off the heat and add a spritz of lemon juice and the herbs. If you can wait, leave the chowder to sit for a few minutes so that all the flavours can merrily mingle.

Serve with an extra scattering of herbs and more lemon juice if you like.

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