Rolo Brownies

Yes you did read that right! Rolo Brownies!

Stand by...here comes a cookery step by step blog.

First of all I should say that I have no idea if Rolo's are available anywhere else in the world apart from the UK, so for anyone reading this who is not familiar with the Rolo they are a small individual caramel centred chocolate, if you have access to something fitting that description you could use those instead. A packet of Rolo's look like this, (just in case you're wondering!)

As you can see from the top picture above I have this recipe written down, how very old skool!  I have no idea where it originally came from but once created it is sweet chocolatey heaven!

Now....ingredients....you'll need:

1 square cake tin measuring 20cm (8 inches) per side

100g of dark chocolate. (I used 74% cocoa but it's up to you, use what you like)

2 eggs

2 packets of Rolo's (or 16 individual caramel chocolates)

75g unsalted butter

150g caster sugar

Half a teaspoon Vanilla Extract

58g plain flour

Half a teaspoon Baking Powder

Salt - just a pinch!

Ok, got these?
Then here's what you do:

Pre-heat your oven to 170 degrees C

Break the chocolate into an ovenproof bowl and then measure the butter cut it into bits and add this into the bowl with the chocolate and put it in the oven so these two ingredients melt together while the oven is heating up. Keep an eye on it!

While the melting of chocolate and butter is happening in the oven line your tin with baking paper.

Then in a mixing bowl cream together the eggs, sugar and vanilla essence with an electric mixer until they are all combined and light and fluffy looking.

Is the butter and chocolate melted together? Yes? Then take it out of the oven and let it cool down a bit. Do NOT just tip it straight into the eggs and sugar as it may possibly turn the eggs to scrambled eggs (not nice)! So once it's cooled a bit pour it into the eggs and sugar mix and mix again with the electric whisk until everything is nicely combined.

Then measure out the flour, baking powder and salt and sieve these onto the top of the chocolately egg mix. This time use a metal spoon or spatular and fold the flour into the chocolatey mix. Fold until everything is mixed together nicely, no flour left showing, then STOP! Don't over mix!

Pour this into your tin.

Now the fun bit. Open your packets of Rolo's and place them on top of the mix in a 4 x 4 pattern. Like this:

And just let them sink into the mix. Like they're sinking in a chocolate swamp!
I actually pushed my Rolo's into the mixture, upon reflection I wouldn't do this, just let them sink in.

Then pop this in the oven and set your timer for 25 minutes.

Now do the washing up while they're baking!

When your timer buzzes, check to see if they are cooked. I do this by inserting a wooden skewer into the centre and if it comes out with a bit of the mix attached...they're done! The skewer doesn't want to have uncooked wet looking mix on it, if that happens put them back in for another 5 minutes. Nor does the skewer wasn't to come out with no mix on it - then the brownies are basically cake! It's a fine line to know when they're done...but be brave, you'll know!

Leave to cool a bit in the tin on a wire rack then when you can touch the tin, turn out and peel off the baking paper, and turn back over onto the rack to cool completely.

I'm not going to lie I could not wait for them to cool completely, come on the smell of warm chocolately yumminess was too much! So I cut them up while still warm, made a cup of tea and did some quality control!

Here's the exterior and interior shots!

See how you can't see the Rolo? Just a little dimple in the top! So when you bite into it and discover the surprise caramel centre...oh the joy!

Now, a quick "post script": remember I said don't press the Rolo's into the mix? Well if you do this is what happens! They touch the bottom and when you peel off the baking sheet you take off the bottom of the Rolo and when you flip them back over the caramel runs out! Not good. But panic not, if this happens just scrape the missing bit off the baking sheet with a spatular and put it back where it should be! As they cool the caramel will stick back together again. Plus it'll be underneath, nobody will ever know, your secret is safe!

Please leave a comment on this blog if you give these a try and let me know how they turned out.

Happy Baking!

GD*BG

A New Year.

It's been a while but we're still here creating new things to share with you.

More soon!
GD*BG

Zebra cake.

Yeah you did read that correctly! Don't panic though, it doesn't contain Zebras!!

In the hiatus between the awesome Olympics tv coverage finishing in the UK (the whole country seems to be in a sort of sporting limbo!) and the Paralympics starting, the foodie programmes have begun; a sure sign autumn is approaching!

One of the new generation of tv chefs is the gorgeous Lorraine Pascale, her new series (her second I believe) started last week and in the first episode was her "Crouching Tiger Hidden Zebra Cake" here's a link to the recipe. Of course I'm always up for a baking challenge and so was super excited to see this one on the show.

The recipe is enough to make two round 20cm diameter cakes. I a) don't have two 20cm cake tins and b) only really wanted to make one cake as if it turned into a disaster I hadn't wasted too many ingredients or too much money. So I figured...I'll just halve all the ingredients thus making enough for just one cake. Then I got paranoid that maybe that's not what you're supposed to do.... I know I'll Tweet Lorraine herself and ask - I never expected to get a reply but at least I'd have tried to find out if halving the quantities was ok. Holy cake batter I got a reply! She said "unfortunately not really....:(" What? Why? Oh what the heck, I'm too excited at the prospect of making a stripy cake....I'm doing it anyway.

Turns out it was fine!

This is the batter in the tin ready to go in the oven. I didn't think to take pics to blog this until I got to this point, sort of convinced that because Lorraine had said it wouldn't work, well, it wouldn't. But once I got to this stage and it almost looked right I decided it may just work!

The batter.

Then there's always that moment that you dare to look in the oven (or is that just me?) when it's baking....just to check it's working! It was..see:

 The oven 

Cooked and out of the oven to cool...still looks ok!

 I don't normally cut my cakes completely in half buy it was the only way to see if it had worked. 

Not bad for a first attempt I'd say.

It went down very well with a cup of tea, sat in the parents garden, in the sunshine. 

One thing not mentioned on the recipe, but Lorraine did on the tv, is that she put the batter mixes in piping bags (instead of using spoonfuls as the recipe states) and piped big dots one on top of the other. So I did that too.  (I was ambidextrous piping - don't ask - it was messy!) That's why my mix in the tin looks a bit swirly, it's amazing how much the "centre dot" moves around the tin as you pipe one onto the next. When I have another attempt at this, oh yes there will definitely be another! I will try and keep it more central so the stripes in the cake are more defined.

"The Great British Bake Off" is this evening foodie tv viewing choice, then "The Hairy Dieters" I do love a good foodie programme!

If you give this zebra cake a go, please post a comment on here and let me know how you get on.

Happy baking!

GD*BG

Giant Bubbles

This weekend was my friend's birthday, she lives by the beach (in Hove on the south coast of England) and was having a social gathering and picnic. I decided to risk taking some entertainment with me as well as a bit of picnic food. The entertainment of choice: Giant bubble wands and bubble mixture. Who cares if it was only adults attending?!

The bubble mix and the "wands" are so simple and super quick to make. I looked for the instructions on various websites but these two have proved the best; this one for the bubble mixture and this one for the instructions on how to make the wands.

It had crossed my mind that I had to take two trains and then a 20 minute walk from my home to the location of the beach picnic with a litre of liquid sloshing about in a container in my bag - but what the heck - I did it anyway. I made everything the night before and put the bubble mix in a container (allegedly airtight! Um yeah!) and the next morning packed it into my bag and off I went. The mix actually did survive the journey relatively well, it leaked but only a tiny bit! Below you can see evidence of the bubbles in action!

Thanks to Beth - that's her in the top picture - for the photo's!

The long bubbles don't tend to float away, they are there and then they burst. With a bit of practise though you can make a giant bubble, by bringing the sticks of the wand together; sort of sealing the bubble, and then off it floats. (see third picture above) these were a lot of fun. It wasn't hugely obvious who on the beach was creating the bubbles so when they sailed over the heads folk enjoying a day out it was fun to watch them suddenly notice the bubble and try to work out where it had come from! 

At one point we had giant bubbles floating across the walkway, the Prom (short for Promenade) as we Brits call it, that runs along behind the beach and about 20 little children squealing with delight as they chased the bubbles and tried to burst them. One mum asked me where I bought the equipment from, when I told her I made it and it's soooo much cheaper than buying the things pre-made, she was surprised. I also said to do an internet search for "Giant Bubbles" so I hope she discovers this blog post!

GD*BG

Curd

What does one title a blog about making curd? I figured keep it simple and state the obvious this time! If you can think of something witty be sure to post a comment and I'll consider it.

So today I made curd! Never done that before. Never made jam, well that's not exactly true I made a killer sweet chilli jam a couple of years back but can I find the recipe now...no! Anyway, I've never made sweet jam or curd of any sort before, my mum is the queen of jam making in the family and keeps me supplied so I've never felt the need to make it for myself, that is until mum gave me a whole load of fresh root ginger - on sale at the parents local market - thanks, I think! Not wanting to let it go to waste I checked my "Recipes to try" file (yes I have one of those!) on the old laptop to see if I'd saved anything worthy...and there it was....this! Great, let's give that a go I thought to myself.

I had nearly everything I needed except the grapefruit so I went and purchased, recipe read: twice (I never normally do that), then measured/squeezed/weighed/separated all the ingredients (again I never normally do that either, think my addiction to watching Masterchef Australia is having an effect on me!) and set to work.

Here's the evidence (not the fanciest of food styling photography but informative none the less I feel):

 As you can see from the carnage on the chopping board it took 2 grapefruit, a lemon and I'd say about a 4cm piece of ginger. Also for anyone from the UK/Europe that butter measurement in the recipe is 2 1/2oz or 71grams

 Double boiler - that I know how to do...tick!

 "stir until it coats the back of a spoon" well, that seems to have happened, this is promising! 

 Arty shot of my whisk, because I love that whisk!

 In the last 30seconds of the 10minutes of stiring, this happened. Is that right? Who knows but let's roll with it - looks like custard, and that's I think what curd should look like. Then I got paranoid that the mixture was too runny, Googled "does lemon curd thicken as it cools?" Answer according to the www = yes it does! OK, that's good, but do you let it cool before pouring into jars or not? Go with your gut instinct girl! Which was let it stop steaming and pour into jam jars. 

Ta-da!! Not bad for first ever attempt eh?

This recipe has now been moved to the "sucessful recipe" file (yeah I got one of those too, I know you're jealous!)

Next try at curd may have to be this, which GD sent me the other day....we'll see!

Happy weekend.
GD*BG

Welcoming the world

Here in London we are preparing to "welcome the world" via the 2012 Olympics. The whole city seems to be in a bit of a frenzy - it's not obvious, we are reserved Brits after all, but you can feel it.

Along with all the venues for the games being constructed and set up there are also lots of other events happening in the city in celebration of global arts and culture. Today - because of a cancelled train, I had a bit of time to kill so I ventured to London's south bank (The Festival Hall, BFI and National Theatre area) and had a wander around the Festival of the World event happening there. It was nice, lots of different and inspiring things to look at. As time was limited I didn't stop and read all the information provided I just went with the visual stimulation. Here's a few pics I took:

These structures provided outdoor seating and shelters on the upper level of the South Bank Centre (Festival Hall). I'm guessing, inspired by traditional African mud huts. They were very tactile and constructed (see second picture of the interior) from what looked like sand bags and then covered in the sandy clay-like outer skin surface. They also reminded me of traditional wood fired bread ovens.

These two figures are giant - sadly I couldn't get anything in the photo to give a sense of scale. Made of many scrap pieces of wood and are climbing up the side of the building. If you happen to be going over Waterloo Bridge on foot, or on a bus, you can see them on the south side of the Hayward Gallery. 

This was an ice like cave constructed entirely from recycled milk cartons. A homage to a, now uninhabited, South American shanty town which was built on a rubbish dump and whose residents used anything and everything they could find to construct shelters for themselves and their families. 

Then a roof garden, this bought me A LOT of joy! Living in an urban environment myself (but secretly yearning for a countryside lifestyle) I love discovering any sort of "green space" in a city and innovative ways of growing things are always an inspiration. As well as the vegetable garden I photographed here, there was a meadow which has over 100 native species of plants and flowers in it and a grassed area for sitting on to eat your lunch or meet and talk with friends or just relaxing and watch the world go by.

From the roof garden I spotted this down below on the pedestrian area alongside the Thames.....a rainbow sandpit.....come on, that is genius!! Designed by Polish artist Adam Kalinowski called Rainbow Park. Even on a day with not the bluest of skies it was a lovely thing and little under 5's were loving it, picking up the sand and letting it run through their fingers. It was making everyone stop and smile. The integrated seating was pretty neat too. I couldn't help but think how much by blogging partner GD's son (see the cookie baking blog post earlier on here) would have loved to play in this space. I wished they were here.

Of course the skate park area under the South Bank Centre remains, I love the ever changing street art here.

And finally outside the National Theatre No Fit State Circus were setting up and rehearsing for their nightime show "barricade". I'm not gonna lie, having done gymnastics and trampoline for about 12 years during my childhood and teens, I just wanted to have a go on the trampoline! It looks like a crazy fun show.

Hope you enjoyed my little review/tour of the events going on today on the South Bank, London.

GD*BG

Ready for royalness...

So this weekend we Brits get a 4 day public holiday...well I say 4 days, 2 of them are the traditional weeknd: Saturday and Sunday but the other 2 are Monday and Tuesday!! Yeah we finished work today, Friday, and (those who have a regular 9 to 5 type day job) don't go back til Wednesday!! Yes I will be partaking and enjoying some of that thank you very much.

But why this generous amount of time off you ask? Well... the Queen is celebrating her diamond jubilee (commemorating her reigning for 60 years ) and the whole country gets to celebrate. Street parties are being held, there's a huge royal pageant along the River Thames, a parade through the streets of London and the city, if not the country, has gone union jack crazy! So in honour of all things red, white and blue as I have been pacing the streets this week (all in the name of setting up a theatre production you understand) I have been snapping away on the old iPhone collecting images of all the different ways the union flag and it's colours have been used and portrayed.

Here for your visual pleasure and delight they are, along with a couple of images of her royal highness that I particularly liked.

Patchwork bunting

Very tiny beaded bunting flags

My particular favourite, the flag jacket

Cupcakes

Shop window displays (Zara)

And whole shop fronts

Flags pinned together and flags hung in roof space.

And finally the lady herself:

Happy bank holiday jubilee weekend.

GD*BG

Oh and as if on cue it's started raining!