15 Minute Brownies

It's the end of my last semester at university, so my last few weeks have been spent racing between filming locations, the editing suite, classes, work, and my bed. I've been eating an unfortunate amount of fast food, and if it wasn't for a close friend who's been bringing me the leftover sandwiches from his cafe the rest of my diet probably would consist toast and scrambled eggs.

It's safe to say that I haven't had much time to spend in the kitchen baking my heart away! So when a friend linked me this recipe for 15 minute brownies, I knew I would have to try it out. It's taken me about two weeks to get around to it, though, as I haven't had the time to run to the shops to buy chocolate. This morning I got home from the editing suite at 7 in the morning, slept until noon, headed back into finish off editing my movie, finished around 9, and then stopped at the gas station to pick up some chocolate. I knew that my reward to myself would be these fantastic sounding brownies.

Unfortunately, for me it took a bit longer than 15 minutes to make these brownies, as my oven takes about twenty minutes just to heat up. I probably could have whipped up a full batch of brownies up in that time. Still, it meant that I had more time to sit down and catch up on my favorite TV shows while the oven was heating up.

This recipe makes about six medium sized round brownies. Following these instructions the batter didn't really mix together well - the butter didn't absorb into the mixture. I thought that this might have been because there was too much butter in the recipe, but once baked I found the brownies quite dry.

This is great for a quick chocolate fix, but I think that once I have a bit more time I'll experiment with perhaps creaming the butter and sugar together, and then adding melted chocolate and see if that blends the ingredients together more effectively.

I don't have photos to share today, as these were gobbled up by myself and my house mate before I remembered to grab my camera. So I guess I'll just have to make this again!

15 Minute Brownies - from Lobstersquad

65g chopped chocolate

65g butter

1 egg

65 g sugar

40 g flour

Pinch of salt

Preheat oven to 180C/ 356F.

Melt chocolate and butter in the microwave on medium for a minute.

Beat in the egg, sugar, flour and salt.

Bake for six or seven minutes.

Eat!

To the kitchen!

Homemade Pasta

My little sister is taking a cooking class at school, and every weekend when she comes to stay with me she brings along heaps of enthusiasm to show off her new recipes. Her latest request was that we make homemade pasta.


I think the only other time I've actually made pasta from scratch I was 8 years old. I was expecting this to be really hard, but it actually was super easy.

Fresh pasta cooks in only a few minutes, so prepare the sauce before you toss the pasta in the boiling water. I must say, this tastes pretty good with just some olive oil and salt and pepper mixed through.

Homemade Pasta
Makes enough to serve 4-6

3 1/3 cups flour

4 eggs

a pinch of salt

Make a mound with the flour and salt on a clean work surface and make a well in the middle.

Pour the eggs into the well (crack them in a bowl first if you're worried about shells) and work the eggs and flour together until you have a smooth dough. Add a little bit of water if the dough is not mixing properly. Kneed the dough for about 10 to 15 minutes, until it is smooth, firm, and quite elastic.

Separate the dough into two pieces. Flour your work surface and start to roll out the dough, rolling from the middle. Flour as necessary to keep the dough from sticking.

If you have a pasta machine, roll the dough to a thickness that will fit through the machine on the largest setting. Push the dough through, fold it in half, and push it through again. Reduce the size of the pasta machine setting to the next smallest size, and push through the dough through. Continue with this until you are pulling the dough through on the thinnest setting. Then either run the dough through slicing attachment, or lay it out on your work surface and cut into your desired shapes.

If you don't have a pasta machine, then you're in for a bit more work. Using a rolling pin, roll the dough as thin as you can - remember that fresh pasta doubles in thickness when it is cooked. If you want to cut the dough into strips, roll the sheet of the dough up into a tube, then slice the tube into rounds of the desired width, then shake the sheet out with your hand to free the strands.

Boil the pasta as you would usually.

To the kitchen!

Cute Recipe Cards

One of the presents I was given for my birthday this year is this really cute collection of recipe cards from boygirlparty.com.

I am now filled with the urge to buy the whole range of cards - apart from these adorable owls they also come with cats, dogs, and hummingbirds!

Now I just need something equally pretty to store these in, and neater handwriting so that I can actually read my own directions...


To the kitchen!

Lemon and Sourcream Donuts

This recipe is grabbed from Tartelette, who I encourage you check it if only for Helen's absolutely beautiful food photography. She used Meyer lemons in her recipe, which aren't exactly easy to come across here in Perth, Australia. However, regular lemons are just delicious in this surprisingly easy recipe.

The preparation time is about ten minutes (I know because I was baking brownies at the same time and the timer was running), but the dough needs to sit for about an hour before it is used. Originally I thought that I should have made a double batch, as it looked like there was hardly any batter. Don't be fooled though, as the donuts expand hugely while they are frying.

While Helen says that she uses a 2 tablespoon cookie scoop for spooning the donut batter into the pan, I think that this might be too big. I ended up using a teaspoon, and still ended up with donuts that were two bites large. I found that when I made larger donuts that their outsides would burn while the interior was still goopy. Of course, my candy thermometer decided to go on strike, so I just had to do some guesswork with the temperature of the oil. This may have contributed to my inability to make large donuts.

I used a large, shallow, heavy bottomed pan, which I think was a mistake. Next time I will use a pot, as it will mean that I won't need to use so much oil in order to generate the depth that these donuts need to fry in - I think I ended up using around 5 cups in the end!

One thing that you need to be aware of is that while these donuts have a very short preparation time, they do take a while to cook, simply because you can only fry 4 or 5 at a time. I served these as dessert for a dinner party, and ended up just passing them around in lots of three so that they could be enjoyed while they were still delicious warm and crispy. They were a huge hit - everyone was stuffed from the mains (it was a potluck style dinner and we had way too much food!), yet these all got gobbled up.

I'm quite keen to try out different flavorings with these donuts - other citrus flavors or shredded strawberries or maybe even lavender. I'd also like to experiment with injecting a little bit of lemon curd in the middle of these.

Lemon and Sourcream Donuts
Makes about 20

1 cup (125 gr) all-purpose flour

1 cup (140 gr) cake flour*

2 teaspoon baking powder

pinch of salt

1/2 cup (100 gr) sugar

4 oz (120 gr) sour cream

2 large eggs

zest and juice from one lemon

1 tablespoon (15 gr) olive oil

Canola oil for frying (about 1 cup or 250 ml)

Powdered sugar

In a medium bowl, whisk together the flours, baking powder and salt. Set aside.

In a separate medium bowl, whisk together the sugar, sour cream, eggs, zest and lemon juice, and the olive oil until smooth. Add the reserved flour mixture, and stir with a spatula until the mixture is smooth.

Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and refrigerate the batter for about 1 hour.

Heat the oil over medium heat in a large heavy bottomed cast iron pan or Dutch oven until it reaches 325F/162C. Scoop the batter using an ice cream/ cookie scoop, or a teaspoon, and fry 4-5 at a time without overcrowding the pan (reduces the oil temperature and makes the donuts greasy). Fry each batch for 4-6 minutes, flipping halfway through.

Allow to sit on a paper towel for a minute before coating with sifted powdered sugar.

*I didn't have any cake flour so I just substituted normal flour and cream of tarter - Place 2 tablespoons of cream of tarter at the bottom of a 1 cup measuring cup, then fill the rest with flour.

To the kitchen!

Potato and Leek Soup

This is one of my favorite soups. I actually went on and bought a blender specificially so that I could make this soup!

I've said before that I don't like brothy soups, and with this recipe I often make something that is closer to mashed potatoes than soup. Luckily it is extremely easy to turn this soup into whichever consistency you like best.

Homemade chicken broth is always fantastic, but I just use premade chicken broth. Get one without salt, though, otherwise the resulting soup will be very salty (especially if you add bacon).

There's not much else to say about this, as it is fairly straight foward. If you have the ingredients (which I didn't when I made this), garnish with creme fresh or sour cream, parsely and bacon bits (I didn't have any for this photo).

Potato and Leek Soup

Serves 4-6

Olive oil

1 large onion

3 large leeks

3 large potatoes

Chicken broth

Milk

Garnish:

Sour cream

Parsely

Bacon

Peel and dice onion. Sautee over a low heat in a large deep pan, or a heavy bottomed pot.

To prepare leeks, chop off the base and green leafy part. Cut leek in half lengthways, then peel the outside layer off and discard. Rinse the leek under water to remove any bits of grit or dirt. Dice the clean leeks and add to the onion.

While the leeks and onions are cooking, peel and dice potatoes to 1/2 inch sized chunks.

When the leeks have begun to soften, toss in the potato chunks. Pour in chicken broth until the potatoes are just covered.

If you are using bacon, dice it into small chunks and fry until crispy.

Turn up the heat and bring to boil. Boil until the potatoes are cooked through.

With a slotted spoon, scoop potatoes, leeks and onions into a blender. Blend until the mixture is smooth and creamy. Dispose of the leftover broth.

Spoon the mixture back into the pot or pan. Over a low heat, add milk slowly until the soup is the desired consistency and heated through.

Serve, and top with a scoop of sour cream, bacon, and parsely, if desired.

To the kitchen!

Light Milk Scones

These scones are delicate and fluffy, and very easy to make. It really helps to have a food processor, otherwise simply work the chilled butter cubes into the dry ingredients by using two knifes and crisscrossing them through the mixture. I actually find that using two forks works a little bit better, as it makes the whole process simpler.

Be careful not to overwork the batter, as it will lead to tough scones. Bake them as soon as they are cut, or formed using rounds - the secret is to work as quickly and as lightly as possible. Make sure that the oven is properly preheated, as it is the intense heat that makes the scones rise.

You can brush scones with a little beaten egg or milk just before they go into the oven if you are after a shinier top.

I tend not to use sugar in this recipe, as I prefer a delicate scone flavor that can be added to with toppings. These are delicious served with whipped cream and jam, (Australian style!) or just with butter. Also, they can be mixed up a bit with the addition of some citrus gratings or some candied ginger.

Light Milk Scones

Makes 8 or 9 scones

2 cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon cream of tartar

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

1-2 tablespoons sugar (optional)

4 tablespoons unsalted butter, chilled and cut into 1/2 inch pieces

3/4 cup whole milk

Adjust oven rack to middle position and heat oven to 450 F/ 230 C.

Whisk flour, cream of tartar, baking soda, salt and sugar (if using) together in a large bowl. Alternatively, measure into workboal of a food processor fitted with steel blade and pulse until blended.

With fingertips, pastry blender, 2 knives or forks, or the steel blade of a food processor, cut or process butter into flour mixture until mixture resembles coarse meal with a few slightly larger butter lumps.

If making by hand, make a well in the center and pour in milk. Working quickly, blend ingredients together with a rubber spatula into a soft, slightly wet dough. If using a food processor, pour milk through feed tube and pulse until dough starts to gather into a rough ball.

Turn dough onto a well-floured work surface.

Quickly roll or press dough to thickness of 1/2 inch. Use a light greased and floured 3-inch biscuit cutter to stamp dough with one decisive punch, cuttin close together to generate as few scraps as possible. Or you can just use a sharp knife and cut the dough into even squares. If there are any scraps, push them together so that edges join, and firmly pinch edges to make a partial seal. Pat the remaining dough till it is 1/2 inch thick, and continue to cut into rounds or with a knife.

Place dough rounds 1 1/2 inches apart on a greased baking sheet. Bake until scones are lightly browned, 10 to 12 minutes.

Serve immediately.

To the kitchen!

Creamy Ham and Mushroom Risotto

Risotto is a classic Italian short-grain rice dish filled with smoked meat, vegies, and most importantly, cheese. Some recipes turn the risotto cooking process into an exhausting effort requiring constant stirring. Luckily, this one adapted from The Best Recipe requires only a little bit of effort, is pretty quick, and is always delicious.

When the rice is done, stir in a little bit of extra liquid (water or stock), as the sauce will set up a bit when served. Abrorio rice is the typical risotto rice, but you can use any other medium or short-grain rice, if you like. Risotto really is a flexible dish - any flavour combination can be added. I like ham and mushroom because it is fairly simple, but I have made risotto with all sorts of ingredients - including prawns (which I fry in a seperate pan, and then add at the very end).

One of my favorite things about this dish is it gives me a perfectly valid reason to crack open a nice bottle of white, even if I'm home alone!

Creamy Ham and Mushroom Risotto

Serves 4 as a main course, or 6 as a first course

2 tablespoons butter

4 ounces fresh wild, or portabello, mushrooms, trimmed and sliced thin

3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil

1 medium onion, diced

2-4 ounces country ham, pancetta, prosciutto, or other flavorful cured meat, minced

2 cups Abrorio rice

salt

5 cups chicken broth (or 1 can low-sodium broth mixed with 3 cups water), room temperature

1/2 cup dry white wine

1/2 - 1 cup grated Parmesan or Asiago cheese

Heat 2 tablespoons butter in a large skillet. Add mushrooms, and saute until almost tender, about 7 minutes. Set aside.

Heat oil in a heavy pot 10-12 inches in diameter. Add onions and ham; saute, stirring occasionally, until onions soften, 3-5 minutes.

Stir in rice and 1 teaspoon salt or to taste.

Add 3 cups broth and bring to boil, stirring occasionally. Reduce heat to simmer and cook, stirring occasionally, until pan bottom is dry when rice is pulled back with spoon, 8-10 minutes.

Add wine, stirring frequently until absorbed. Then add 1/2 cup broth at a time, stirring constantly, until each addition is absorbed.

Cook until rice is creamy but still somewhat firm in the center (add water in 1/2 cup incrememts if broth runs out), 10-12 minutes longer.

Stir in mushrooms and cheese.

Serve either on a wide platter or individual plates, with extra cheese passed seperately.

To the kitchen!