White Chocolate & Macadamia Brownies with Warm Caramel Sauce

Woooaahhhh.  I need some serious stretchy pants. Two weeks of holidays has seen me drink many coffees, eat copious slices of banana bread and stuff anything remotely delicious into my mouth at a rapid pace.

This holiday has been great. Time in the garden. Time at the gym (shocking!). Time in front of the television. Time with friends. Lots of time eating, however, not much time spent in the kitchen.

For the final weekend of the break I figured I should make something epic. These have been in the pipeline for some time and I am so happy they happened in my kitchen tonight. Think chewy, chocolatey goodness.

White Chocolate & Macadamia Brownies
2 x 3/4 cups white chocolate bits
70 grams butter
2 eggs
1 cup white sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla essence
1 cup plain flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup macadamia nuts chopped

Melt one lot of the the white chocolate and the butter in a small bowl over a saucepan of boiling water until smooth.

In a large bowl mix the eggs, sugar and vanilla until smooth. Add the white chocolate and butter mixture to the egg mixture and beat until well combined then add the flour, baking powder, salt, nuts and extra white chocolate. Mix until just combined. Cook in a 180 degree oven for approx 23 minutes. Allow to cool before cutting.

Warm Caramel Sauce
125ml thickened cream
95 grams brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla essence
10 grams butter

Combine all ingredients in a saucepan. Bring to the boil then let simmer for around 10 minutes until thickened. Caramel will continue to thicken while cooling.

Serve warm brownies drizzled in caramel sauce with ice cream.

Diet starts...................Tuesday.

Mum's Icing

Icing has typically been an issue for me. I've nailed butter cream but that's about it. I have always wanted to be able to just make an icing that I can just spread onto whatever and not have to worry about it dripping or being too thick or too thin or having to add mountains of water and then mountains of icing sugar to balance it all out.

We are seeing some friends tomorrow and have been tasked with bringing along dessert. I decided I would remake my Brownies as they were previously very well received. Of course, true to form, as soon as I had to cook something for an actual occasion as opposed to simply for stuffing my own face, my brownies came out dry instead of fudgey (I attribute this to the lack of chocolate - I only had 150 grams instead of 200).

In a pit of brownie despair, my only glimmer of hope was to add some icing to the top. I very nervously came to this decision. Icing and me just don't go well together (see Disaster Bunnies). My mum was around so I very cautiously asked, "Could you please help me put icing on my dried out brownies.....since my last icing escapade didn't turn out so well."

Now, my mum hates the kitchen and we have very rarely cooked together but she very readily accepted  to help me out and she showed me how to make perfect icing.

Mum's Chocolate Icing
1 cup icing mixture
3 teaspoons cocoa powder
1/2 teaspoon butter*
splash of milk*

*can be substituted with warm water

Put the icing sugar and the cocoa into a small mixing bowl and use a wooden spoon to lightly combine. Place the butter and milk into a microwave proof dish and microwave for 20 seconds on medium heat until butter has just melted in to the milk, stir to combine.

Using a 1/2 teaspoon measuring spoon, gradually spoon the wet mixture into the dry. Mix well after each addition. You well end up with a thick icing that is easy enough to spread and won't drip off.

Using the milk and butter icing means that your cake will need to go into the fridge (which is why the water option is sometimes good). You can substitute cocoa powder with any other flavour icing you want. The major key thing here is gradually it is a little bit of a slow process but, seriously, this icing blew my mind. I can't thank my mum enough for teaching me something so useful.

Sweet Chocolate Brownies

There's nothing wrong with sitting on the couch for 3 days watching Breaking Bad and eating brownies right? I LOVE school holidays.

Brownies have been on my mind for a while. It all began with a trip to Max Brenner and then a super chocolate smothered brownie sundae at the Gold Class cinema. Both times were the ultimate over indulgence. Over the past few weeks I have been throwing together some different ideas - white chocolate brownies with butterscotch sauce for example or caramel brownies?! However, having never made an original brownie I thought I might be best to start there. All of the recipes I looked at asked for dark chocolate, being Easter, however, I had a store of dairy milk that I decided I would sacrifice for the great good. I ended up with sweet, fudgey deliciousness.  Eat this. And watch Breaking Bad, it's amazing.

Sweet Chocolate Brownies

200 grams milk chocolate 

120 grams butter

1 teaspoon vanilla essence

140 grams brown sugar

2 eggs

150 grams plain flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

2 teaspoons cocoa powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

50 grams chopped almonds

Melt the chocolate and butter over boiling water. Once melted and smooth remove from the heat. Add the vanilla and the sugar. Stir until the sugar is dissolved. Add the eggs, one at a time, whisk after each egg. Sift the flour, baking powder, cocoa powder and salt over the chocolate mixture add the almonds and fold in with a spatular. 

Cook in a 170 degree oven for 20 minutes. When removed from the oven the top of the brownies will be cracked and the middle will still be fudgey. 

Chocolate Sauce 

80 grams milk chocolate

20ml thickened cream

Melt the chocolate over boiling water, add cream gradually while stirring the chocolate as it melts down. Top the brownie with the sauce.