Viennese brownies

These brownies were whipped up for a friend's birthday, and they were enjoyed by him and his workmates! I kept one for myself and B.B, they are just right - not too dense, a bit of fudgey, deliciously dark, and the cream cheese really lightened it altogether!

Brownie

60g dark chocolate

1/2 cup margarine

2 eggs

1 cup sugar (i used half cup, still nice and sweet)

3/4 cup plain flour

1/2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

sliced almonds

Filling

250g cream cheese at room temperature ( i used homebrand, worked out fine)

1/3 cup sugar

1 egg

1/4 tsp almond essence (optional, i left it out)

preheat oven to 180C

for the filling, combine and mix together all ingredients.

for the brownie batter, melt chocolate and margarine together (in a microwave on low level is fine). Cool.

Beat eggs, add sugar and chocolate mixture.

Sift together flour, baking powder and salt, add to chocolate mixture and mix well.

pour half the chocolate batter into a greased and lined 20 cm square pan, spread with cream cheese mixture.

top with remaining batter, sprinkle with almonds.

Bake for about 40-45 minutes. Cool in tin.

Green tea and cream cheese white chocolate blondies

Blondies, a white chocolate version of brownies! I only came to know this very recently hehe. It was my dear friend Natalie's birthday not long ago, so i surprised her with a batch of these babies early in the morning, so that she had something to share with her workmates that day.

I kept a piece for myself and one for B.B, the texture was dense, not cakey, but still fudge-like, the green tea and cream cheese paired well with each other, i quite liked it :D

I found the recipe from here, it's really easy to follow, if you have patience (un-like me) you could be abit more light handed when it comes to swirling the two mixtures together so that it looks abit prettier when you cut into it.

Green Tea Cream Cheese Swirl White Chocolate Brownie

Brownie base

8 Tbsp butter (1 stick), cut into 1-in pieces

5 oz. white chocolate, chopped

2 eggs

5 Tbsp sugar

1 tsp vanilla

3/4 C flour

Cheesecake swirl

8 oz bar of cream cheese, room temp

1 egg

3 Tbsp sugar

2 tsp green tea/matcha powder

About 2 tsp of water, hot but not boiling

Preheat the oven to 325ºF.

Mix the green tea powder with a bit of hot water to form a paste. Mix the cream cheese, egg, and green tea paste until smooth. Taste a bit and see if it's strong enough.

Melt the butter with the white chocolate. Mix in the sugar, eggs, vanilla, and flour (and baking powder if you want to experiment with it). Whisk until smooth but do not over mix.

Line a 8 x 8 square baking dish with a sheet of foil (with overhang for easy lifting) or grease and flour it. Pour in half of the white chocolate batter. Then drop half of the cream cheese mixture on top in spoonfuls. Top the batter with the rest of the white chocolate brownie batter, then finally add the remaining half of the cream cheese mixture on top. Use a knife and swirl the brownie and cream cheese together to create a marbled pattern.

Bake the brownies at 325ºF for 40 - 45 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out with moist crumbs. The center should be almost set. You don't want the toothpick to come out clean because that would mean the brownies have overbaked. Cool in the pan for 5 then lift the brownies out and cool to room temperature. They're best served cold so chill them in the fridge for about 3 hours.

Chocolate-less Brownies

I had come across a recipe for brownies - which only used cocoa powder (no chocolate needed). So whilst i am in my "try to use up all my baking ingredients in my pantry before they go off" phase, this recipe was perfect for using up my cocoa powder :O)

I found this recipe here, but you can also find it here, here & here.

I couldn't find my brownie pan & panicked (this is after i started mixing the ingredients together) so all i could find to use was a loaf tin... so i frantically jumped online to look for forums/blogs/anything that would tell me the baking time of a brownie if it was baked in a loaf tin instead (thanks Lorraine for replying to my email!! you were the first person i thought to ask hehe).

Then i found this link, and sighed a great sigh of relief hehe..

These brownies were soo quick & easy to make and bake, were superbly dense, and i had positive comments from everyone who tried them :O)

Cocoa Brownies

150g (5oz) unsalted butter

1 1/4C (255g or 9oz) sugar

3/4C (80g or 2 7/8 oz) cocoa powder

pinch salt

1t vanilla extract

2 eggs

1/2C (75g or 2 1/2oz) plain flour

1C chopped nuts, such as hazelnuts, almonds, walnuts or pecans, optional

Preheat oven to 160C (325F). Line a loaf tin 24cm x 12cm (approx 9 1/2in x 5in) with baking paper or foil so that it overlaps the sides.

Melt butter in a medium saucepan. When just melted, remove from the heat and stir through sugar. Add cocoa powder and stir until well combined and any lumps are gone.

Add vanilla, salt and eggs and mix well. Gently fold through flour until only just combined – don’t over mix. Stir through nuts if using then pour into the loaf tin.

Bake for 50 minutes to and hour. Or until the top feels just set and a skewer inserted into the middle emerges slightly moist.

Cool in the tin then either cut or refrigerate overnight and cut the next day.

White chocolate macadamia brownies

These brownies are the most moist that i've ever had - and i prefer them moist actually! SOOO simple to make, a quick & easy foolproof brownie mix that anyone can have a go at making.

300g dark choc, chopped

115g unsalted butter, chopped

150g castor sugar

2 eggs, beaten

1 cup plain flour

180g white choc, chopped

100g unsalted macadamias, chopped

Preheat oven to 180'C. Line a 20cm square tin with non stick baking paper.

Place dark chocolate, butter & sugar in a stainless steel bowl over a pan of simmering water. Stir until ingredients have melted.

Remove from heat and leave to cool for 5-10 minutes.

Stir in the beaten eggs. Mix in the flour, then stir in the white chocolate and macadamias until well combined.

Spoon into prepared tin, bake for 20-25 minutes.

Remove, cool before cutting into pieces.

I had it in the oven for 22 minutes- for a very fudgey & gooey brownies. Leave for an extra 5 minutes for a more firm but still moist brownie.

Dulce De Leche Brownies

After seeing a post long ago here, then recently here, i decided to bake my first batch of brownie with this recipe here (which actually came from here).

Dulce de leche in Spanish or Dolce de leite in Portugese is a milk based sauce made from either boiling a can of consdensed milk in a pot of water, or baking in the oven (this takes longer though).

I boiled my two cans in a pot of water for about 3 hours (about half way i totally forgot about them, and they almost boiled dry (and if they do, expect an explosion me thinks!). So just make sure you check it every half an hour, & top up with more water (cans need to be completely emerged in water).

I made these on a Friday night (i was watching the footy & making name placement cards, hence getting side tracked hehe) and i planned to make some brownies & cupcakes over that weekend, but just didn't have the time to. Ended up making my brownies on a Wednesday afternoon to bring to a mini foodie meet up! Everyone liked them, & i'm hugely proud of myself, but i've still yet to taste the *perfect* brownie, so i really can't compare mine to any besides the crappy dry one i bought from starbucks a while ago.

So here we go..

Ingredients

115 g salted or unsalted butter

200 g of any dark chocolate (i used cadbury's dark cooking chocolate)

1/4 cup cocoa powder

3 eggs

1 cup caster sugar

1 tablespoon vanilla essence

1 cup sifted self raising flour (i think i was meant to use normal flour here)

1 can dulce de leche

Line your 20cm cake pan with foil & lightly spray with some cooking oil.

Melt butter in a bowl over simmering water, then add roughly chopped chocolate, stir until melted, remove from the heat.

Whisk in one at a time the cocoa powder & eggs (one by one)

Stir in the sugar, vanilla then flour

Pour half the batter into your pan, place big spoon fulls of your dulce de leche into the batter (i did it 3 by 3)

Pour the rest of the batter over the top, then spoon the rest of your dulce de leche over the top.

Bake for about 40-45 minutes. I checked mine at about 34 minutes, and my chopstick came out still wet, so another 10 minutes did it for me.

Leave them to cool completely.

I actually couldn't wait so i tried them while they were half way cooling, and the dulce de leche was pretty hot haha!

I found mine cakey (probably cos they were still warm) but i had some the next day and they weren't bad!