Sunday 8 June 2014

I have my life back!!!!

So Uni is over, and I've loved it but it's been stealing my baking time.

At our ball on Friday, as a goodbye gift, the New society presidents gave me a hummingbird bakery book (cake days). There was a little thrill that ran through me, which reminded me of how much I love baking.

So first post uni bake: Cornish fudge brownies

Starting with the hummingbird bakery traditional brownie recipe, I swapped out the sugar for 300 g condensed milk, and 100g icing sugar, then added 175g chopped fudge.

The result is gooey fudgey goodness. I think I would add the fudge after about 10 mins in the oven next time, as all the fudge must have sunk to the bottom at the start, so the bottoms of each brownie has a lush fudge layer. Not a problem, but not what I intended.

Recipe

200g dark, good quality chocolate (don't scrimp here, it's where money will be well spent- I used Tesco's finest swiss dark chocolate ans it's on offer at the moment!)
175g fudge - I went with Tesco's Cornish dairy, nothing special. Chop into 1cm ish sized cubes
1 tin of condensed milk (397 g)
50-100g icing sugar depending on your taste.
130g plain flour
3 eggs
175g margarine/butter

Melt chocolate and butter together in a bowl above simmering water. Take your time here; enjoy watching the transforming chocolate. 

Add condensed milk and sugar. It'll thicken and become a bit strange to stir. This is normal. Carry on.

Add in flour. Being lazy and not using a sieve is totally fine. Stir stir stir.

Add eggs one at a time, and remember to crack each one into a glass first - there is no worse feeling than cracking a bad egg into an almost-finished mix.

I hate adding eggs into brownie mix- the just never want to be absorbed easily. Persevere if you are doubting.

Stir through the fudge. Or maybe sprinkle over a part cooked mixture. Your choice!

Butter your tin (33X23 cm is recommended), pour in, and pop in the oven. I had it in for 30ish mins - it looked firm with no wobble when shaken.

LET IT COOL IN THE PAN. Then cut and lift out. They get better the longer they are left, so if you have the willpower to wait 24hrs, you'll be rewarded!!

Enjoy!!

Tuesday 18 March 2014

Book making

After hand-binding my dissertation, I got hooked on making sketchbooks. It's amazingly satisfying, and today I completed my first successful one, after many mediocre outcomes.
So here's a couple of my dissie and Of this first sketchbook. Happy happy girly.

P.S. Some of the pages in this sketchbook are tracing paper. Such fun!