Brownies with Caramel Flavoured Biscuit 'Nibbles'

I admit it - I only bought McVitie's 'Caramel Flavoured' Digestive Nibbles to make this batch of brownies more interesting for my blog post. I was scanning the biscuit and confectionery shelves in the supermarket, thinking that adding Oreos or Maltesers was no longer original enough, when I noticed Nibbles - little chocolate covered balls of biscuit a little smaller than Maltesers. This Caramel flavoured version also had a layer of caramel cream between the biscuit and the chocolate coating.

After tasting a few (for quality control purposes only, of course!), I just added the rest of the pack of biscuit pieces (around 110g) to my favourite brownie recipe:

For a 20cm (8") square tin: Melt 140g of butter and 140g of dark chocolate together in a large bowl, over a pan of simmering water. Allow to cool if necessary, so that you can add the eggs without cooking them. Add 300g light muscovado sugar, and stir until the sugar has dissolved. Next, add three eggs, one at a time, and beat in to give a smooth batter. Sift 160g plain flour and 3 tablespoons of cocoa into the bowl, and fold in, followed by the biscuit pieces. Transfer to the parchment-lined baking tin, level the surface, and bake at 180C for around 30 minutes. Cool in the tin, then cut into fingers or squares, whatever size you like.

What surprised, and pleased, me was that the two layers of coating around each little ball of biscuit kept their integrity during baking, so that you could both see and taste that the caramel flavour was part of the biscuit pieces, and not in the brownie mixture.  When I realised each 'Nibble' had the caramel flavour in a coating, I had expected it to melt away during baking, and just give a mild caramel flavour to the whole traybake.

I was also happy that the biscuits kept their crunch for the three days that the brownies lasted; I expect this was also down to the coatings not melting away, thus protecting the biscuit pieces from the moister cake surrounding them. The caramel flavour was quite mild, but noticeable, and when combined with the crunch of biscuit, certainly elevated this batch of brownies from basic to interesting.

Seeded Flapjack

made with caramelised condensed milk

After making the salted caramel and chocolate shortbread squares, I had half a tin of caramelised condensed milk to use up (this seems to be a constant refrain whenever I use condensed milk!). I wanted to make flapjacks, and decided to search for a new recipe, even though I have several recipes for flapjacks made with either condensed milk, or caramelised condensed milk already. I eventually found this one on a blog called Salutation Recipes; the photos attracted me initially, because the flapjacks looked dense and chewy, and when I read the description of 'fudgy', I knew I'd found what I was looking for! I didn't think substituting caramelised condensed milk for ordinary condensed milk would have any adverse affect on the recipe - if anything it would increase the fudginess (if that's even a word!).

To salve my conscience slightly, I decided to add 100g of mixed seeds - a mix of pumpkin, sunflower, sesame and linseed. I used light muscovado sugar instead of golden caster, and also left out the vanilla extract - it seemed like a waste of an expensive ingredient in this sort of thing.

The recipe is a bit vague about exact amounts and the cooking time, but these are the weights of the ingredients that I used - 125g butter, 100g golden syrup, 90g light muscovado sugar,  200g caramelised condensed milk, 280g rolled oats, 100g mixed seeds. After melting the butter, syrup and sugar together, I stirred in the caramel until smoothly blended, then added the oats and seeds to the saucepan (off the heat) and mixed thoroughly. After transferring the mixture to a lined 20cm square baking tin and spreading evenly and firmly, I baked for my usual flapjack time of 25 minutes at 180C (160C fan), and allowed the tray to cool for 10 minutes before marking into 16 squares.

The flapjacks seemed very crumbly at this stage, which was a little worrying, but once they were completely cold they had set into exactly what I was hoping for - dense, chewy, fudgy flapjacks. Almost perfect - they were still a little crumbly around the edges, but within acceptable limits!

I think all flapjacks benefit from some add-ins to counteract the uniformity of the oat base. In this case the seeds added some crunch to contrast with the chewiness, and also some extra flavour.

Salted Caramel, Chocolate and Hazelnut Shortbread Squares

With the demise of the Clandestine Cake Club - which I think is continuing as just a Facebook page - a few of the local members decided to try and keep a group going on our own. For our first meeting I decided to stick to a familiar recipe rather than experiment. Now that we are no longer bound by CCC rules of large cakes only, and as the attendance wasn't going to be huge, I decided to make a traybake of shortbread squares filled with a fudgy layer of salted caramel and chocolate, following  this recipe which I have used before. Using this recipe also meant that any leftovers would keep for longer than a cake would - I already have too much cake in the freezer!

I followed the recipe exactly as written in the link above, so no need to write it out again. In the end, there were only a few pieces left for me to bring home, but they were as delicious as the first time round!

Edited to add that this recipe went to June's We Should Cocoa link-up, at Tin and Thyme.

Salted Caramel Flapjacks, with Chocolate and Hazelnuts

If I'm going to carry on baking regularly, I'm going to have to find recipes for smaller cakes, or experiment with halving some of the recipes I use regularly. Flapjack recipes are easy to divide, because there are no fractions of eggs involved, and the quantities of ingredients aren't critical to the nearest gram - a bit more or less of any of the main ingredients and you end up with a slightly crunchier, or chewier flapjack. Not a disaster, and a lesson for revised quantities next time.

This recipe was inspired by this Annie Bell recipe, which I've used once before, and was chosen to use up an open jar of salted caramel - mainly to stop me just dipping in with a spoon and eating it on its own. I used half quantities of all the ingredients, but rather than drizzle melted chocolate over the baked flapjacks, I added 40g of chopped dark chocolate and 30g of coarsely chopped hazelnuts to the oat mixture.

As I expected, the chocolate melted in the heat of the flapjack mixture, but I was careful to add the chocolate as the last ingredient, and fold it in quickly. This meant that most of the chocolate stayed in discrete areas, giving the flapjacks a marbled appearance. The chopped nuts added an extra texture of crunch to the very chewy flapjacks, as well as flavour.

I baked the oat mixture in a tin measuring 20cm x 12.5cm (8" x 5") - I used a deep adjustable cake tin - but finding the right size baking trays for brownies and other traybakes is proving difficult. Everything I look at is either too big or too small for half-sized recipes, but I'm not sure fiddling around with more complicated calculations is worth the effort!

Ingredients: 120g salted butter; 90g light muscovado sugar; 112g salted caramel*; pinch sea-salt crystals; 175g oats; 30g chopped hazelnuts; 40g chopped 70% chocolate.

*If you only have basic caramel, add a little extra sea-salt

It's the usual flapjack method - melt together the butter, sugar and caramel. Stir in the oats, salt and nuts, then lastly, quickly fold in the chocolate. Spread into a baking tray lined with baking parchment and press down well. Bake for 25 minutes at 180C. Mark into portions while still hot, but cool completely before removing from the tin.

There was a lot of butter bubbling on the surface of the flapjack when it was removed from the oven, but it was all absorbed back in as the mixture cooled. It does make me think that the amount of butter in the recipe could be cut back a little, though.

Salted Caramel and Chocolate Fudge Squares

I found myself with half a tin of caramelised condensed milk, and no idea what to make with it. One thing that kept coming up, however inventively I worded my internet searches, was Millionaires' Shortbread, and similar bakes. The problem with many ready-made caramel products is that they often aren't thick enough to work really well in things like Millionaires Shortbread - I hate cutting into something only to see the caramel squidge out all over the plate.

However, the recipes made me wonder if mixing the caramel with melted chocolate would mean that it set more solidly after baking, and decided that it couldn't hurt to try. I then decided to pair the chocolate-caramel mixture with my favourite, really easy, shortbread recipe - from Sue Lawrence's 'On Baking' - and ended up with the components of a Millionaires' Shortbread with much less work. I also added some salt flakes and some hazelnuts for extra flavour.

Ingredients
170g unsalted butter
85g caster sugar
170g SR flour
170g semolina
60g coarsely chopped hazelnuts
pinch salt flakes

filling - 200g caramelised condensed milk, at room temperature
100g of plain chocolate (the darker the better - I used Willie's Chef's Drops; although they are just 70% cocoa solids they are quite bitter when eaten on their own, so ideal for adding to caramel)
1/2 teaspoon salt flakes

Method
Pre-heat the oven to 190C and line a 20cm (8") square baking tin with baking parchment, using one piece of paper to come up the sides of the tin too.
Melt the chocolate in a bowl over a pan of simmering water and allow  to cool a little, if necessary, to around 40C (blood heat). Mix in the caramelised condensed milk and the salt.
Melt the butter and sugar together, either in a large bowl in the microwave, or a large pan on the hob. Add the flour and the semolina and mix everything together to give a crumbly rubble.
Put 2/3 of the mixture into the baking tin and spread evenly, pressing down firmly so that it looks like a sheet of dough rather than rubble.
Spread on the chocolate mixture, stopping just short of the edges.
Mix the hazelnuts into the remaining dough, and sprinkle this over the contents of the baking tin, this time only pressing down lightly.
Sprinkle over a pinch more salt, then bake for 30 minutes until the topping is firm and golden.
Leave for 30 minutes to give the chocolate layer time to set a bit, then mark into squares. Leave in the baking tin until completely cold, as the squares are too fragile to move while hot.

These were really tasty! The centre was rich and fudgy, but because it was a thin layer it didn't seem over-sweet. The shortbread layers were, as usual, crisp, but with a 'melt-in the mouth' delicacy. The added salt was just the right amount and the hazelnuts added to both the texture and flavour. 

These weren't quite successful as replacement for Millionaires' Shortbread, with it's separate layer of caramel, as the caramel flavour wasn't really strong when mixed with the chocolate, but what this means is that these could probably be made with basic condensed milk to give the same fudgy filling, without much loss of flavour.

I'm adding these to April's We Should Cocoa link-up, over at Tin and Thyme. Choclette doesn't set a theme for this link-up - any recipe, using any form of chocolate is welcome.

Salt Caramel Flapjacks

A few days ago, I opened a tin of ready made caramel to make a toffee apple and pecan cake, which needed just 200g of the caramel. It turned out to be a waste of caramel, because although the cake was just about edible, it took twice as long to cook as the recipe stated, and was very dense and stodgy, and not particularly well-flavoured, as the added ingredients of apples and pecans were in quite small quantities.

As I was so disappointed with the cake, I decided not to even write a blog post about it, but you can follow the link above, if you want to know what to avoid!

That left me with roughly half a tin of caramel to use, and I also had some really good quality Sainsbury's gluten-free rolled oats that I wanted to compare with ALDI porridge oats and Tesco everyday value oats. Obviously, finding a recipe for caramel flapjacks was a priority, but it had to be a recipe that used the amount of caramel available.

It didn't take long to find this Annie Bell recipe for Salt Caramel Flapjacks. I was a little flabbergasted by the amount of butter, but I've cooked enough of Annie's recipes to trust her, especially as I was a little short on the amount of caramel needed. I had to use unsalted butter for the recipe, so added extra salt, in the form of 1 teaspoon of vanilla flavoured salt I happened to have in the store cupboard.

The recipe was simple to follow and quick to put together and cook. I cut the finished flapjacks into 16 portions - 25 seemed ridiculously small, although they would have been less calorific per portion! The results were absolutely delicious; my only criticism of the flavour was that I couldn't taste the salt. If (or, more likely, when) I make them again I will increase the amount of salt added. The flapjack was chewy and fudgy flavoured, and very rich. They were perhaps slightly on the crumbly side, but I think a few minutes extra baking will take care of that.

As for the oats - the gluten-free oats were miles ahead in quality - they were whole grains rolled flat, to make large crisp flakes. The Tesco everyday value oats were next in quality, with smaller, less crisp flakes ( I have to say that I've been using these for baking for years, with no complaints about the results). The ALDI porridge oats were very small pieces of flake, which probably make great porridge, but were too fine to give a good result if used on their own in baked goods. I think in future I will use a mixture of the Tesco everyday value and the gluten-free oats to improve the texture of things such as biscuits and flapjacks. But for things like cakes, where the coarser texture isn't as important, and perhaps not even necessary, I'll continue with just the Tesco oats.

I'm just in time to submit this recipe to this month's Tea Time Treats challenge, which is to produce food suitable for a bonfire night party. TTT is a cooking challenge hosted alternately by Karen of Lavender and Lovage, and Jane of The Hedge Combers, who is this month's host.

Buccaneer Shortbread

Another tasty twist on the more traditional Millionaire's Shortbread, from Shivi Ramoutar of The Rum Kitchen restaurants, via The Guardian's "Cook" supplement (scroll down to the fourth recipe). This time there are spices and coconut in the shortbread to increase the flavour components, and the caramel and chocolate layers are lightly salted too.

This is quite a rich recipe, and makes a big batch, but I felt justified in making it, as CT was coming to dinner and could take half home with him, to remove temptation. I had trouble making the caramel, which split as it was simmering, but
I rescued it with this tip about adding hot water.

All the layers were very thin, and I think it would have been better made in a slightly smaller tin. This would make the bars less fragile to handle after cutting too - the crumbliness of the shortbread and the gooiness of the caramel, combined with hard set chocolate did not make neat, photogenic bars!

All that aside, these were delicious! The spices and salt cut through the sweetness a little, and the coconut was definitely a good flavour to add to the shortbread base.

Caramel Hazelnut Layer Cake

I found a forgotten jar of Dulce de Leche at the back of the refrigerator last week. After a few days, I decided that the only way to stop me eating banana and caramel sandwiches for breakfast was to put the caramel into a cake. This Dan Lepard recipe has been on my mind a while, but it's not really the sort of cake CT should be eating. I decided though, that it would only last a couple of days with four of us eating it, so a little treat wouldn't hurt him too much. I didn't have enough caramel for the frosting, so decided to make a small amount of Nutella buttercream, just to fill the cake.

I made this cake when Dan first published it in the Guardian, before I started writing this blog, and really liked it - I think the only thing that's prevented me making it since is that light sponge layer cakes with filling and topping aren't really my thing. They don't last long, as people eat larger pieces, and I find it a bit too much of a fuss to wait until the cake has cooled before filling and assembling it. Once in a while, they fit the bill though, and a light cake on a hot weekend seemed just right.

The cake is hardly more difficult to make than a plain Victoria Sandwich, and the amount of batter rises to completely fills two sandwich tins when cooked, to give a good deep cake after assembly. The nut flavour is well pronounced, unlike many cakes using ground nuts.

The original caramel filling and frosting is gorgeous, but the cake was very good filled with Nutella buttercream too! I beat 60g softened butter with 120g icing sugar until light and fluffy, then beat in about 100g Nutella. After filling the cake, I dusted the top lightly with icing sugar.

Pear and Caramel Cookies

Another outing for the 'cookies made with olive oil' recipe from Cookie Madness. I jotted down the quantities of ingredients on a small piece of paper before going into the kitchen, then in my rush to get them into the oven, forgot to use brown sugar. This resulted in a rather pale cookie but as I'd added fudge chips there was still plenty of flavour.

As the additions to the dough, instead of nuts and chocolate, I used 50g of soft dried pears, cut into small pieces, 50g fudge chips and half a teaspoon of ground ginger.

This recipe is different everytime I use it! This time the dough was very dry, so that I could shape it by hand and the cookies also didn't spread very far when baked. Unfortunately, the fudge chips on the outside of the cookie melted in the oven, and left little blobs of caramel sticking to the cookies. Not very nice looking, but no-one really worried about it!

The fudge chips even managed to burst open the cookie in this photo on the left. Because of all the oozing caramel, it was hard to get three good  looking cookies for the top picture!

Never mind - the flavour made up for any shortcomings in the appearance. Chewy and fudgy with just a hint of spice to compliment the flavour of the dried pear. CT didn't notice the pear, but that's not surprising - sometimes I think his palate only recognises chocolate and chilli! FB thought chocolate would be a good extra addition, and I thought some nuts would be good. But we all liked them as they were, too! Must remember the brown sugar next time!

Caramel Brownies (Low Saturated Fat)

AKA the brownies that were so good I made them again!

Not much to write about here. We really enjoyed the Ultimate Makeover: Chocolate Brownies from Good Food, so I used the same recipe again. The only difference this time was that, after putting half the brownie batter into an 8" square tin, I dotted roughly 200g of caramelised condensed milk over the surface, before spreading over the remaining batter.

This did have an effect on the brownies - they didn't rise as much as before, but this was compensated by the gooey pockets of caramel in the finished brownie. It's the first time I've succeeded with this type of recipe - previously the caramel has been absorbed by the brownie batter.

Chocolate Sponge

This recipe used to be one of my favourites when the children were small. It's foolproof (at least, I've never known it fail!) and in my opinion, is better than a chocolate Victoria Sandwich cake if you want a light sponge.  The only reason I don't make it more often is that I prefer sturdier everyday cakes which last a bit longer - for some reason people always take larger slices from a sponge cake!

The basic recipe uses oil and milk instead of butter, and then a variable addition to give colour and/or improve flavour and texture. In some recipes it's a tablespoon of  black treacle or golden syrup, but here it's two tablespoons of caramelised condensed milk.

I didn't want to go over the top with a frosting, so halved the recipe and just filled the sponge layers. The chocolate and condensed milk made a lovely fudgy mixture - I'm sure it would have made a great frosting!

The frosting/filling can be varied to suit the occasion - black cherry jam and fresh cream would make a nice gateau for a special occasion, although the sponge is very light, so may not take a really heavy filling well. I don't think the caramel made much difference to the flavour of the cake, so if you want to try the sponge without opening a tin or jar of caramel, try it with the black treacle, or molasses, instead.

Sticky Toffee Pudding

Winter has come early this year, with sub-zero temperatures here and snow in many other parts of the country. It's very rare for this to happen before late December, or even January. Here is one of the joys of winter - not feeling guilty about the occasional hot, calorific pudding! Sticky toffee pudding could even make you feel almost virtuous, as puréed dates replace some of the fat in the pudding itself. If you are restrained with the toffee sauce and cream (HA HA!) then it's not so bad. ;)

The original of this recipe made seven individual puddings, but I bake it in one 9" square dish and get at least 9 servings from it - which brings me to the other great feature of this pudding - it reheats beautifully, either in the oven or as individual portions in the microwave. This recipe was once online, on the GoodFood site, under the name The Ultimate Sticky Toffee Pudding, and I think it is published in The Ultimate Recipe Book from GoodFood. I've made a couple of small changes in both the method and ingredients, but want to acknowledge the original.

Ingredients

225g stoneless chopped dried dates

175ml boiling water

1 tea bag

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

175g SR flour

1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda

2 medium eggs

85g softened butter

140g light muscovado sugar
2 tablespoons black treacle
100ml semi-skimmed milk

For the Toffee Sauce:
175g light muscovado sugar
50g butter

225ml double cream

1 tablespoon black treacle

Method

Cut the dates into halves (a good way of checking for missed stones) and place in a small bowl. Add the tea bag and the boiling water. After ten minutes, remove the tea bag, but leave the dates soaking until cold - most of the liquid will be absorbed. Whizz briefly in a blender or mini-chopper to give a coarse purée.

Preheat the oven to 180C and grease a 9" square baking dish which is at least 2" deep. Mix the flour and bicarbonate of soda together. Beat eggs in small bowl.

Beat the butter, sugar, black treacle and vanilla extract together. Add the eggs in three portions, together with a teaspoon of flour with each portion, and beat until well mixed. Fold in the rest of the flour alternately with the milk, then stir in the date purée. Transfer the batter to the prepared baking dish and bake for 40-45 minutes until well risen and firm (a probe should come out clean).

Meanwhile make the toffee sauce by bringing the sugar, butter, and half of the cream to the boil, in a small saucepan, stirring continuously. When boiling, add the treacle and cook for a few minutes, until it begins to thicken. Remove from the heat and beat in the rest of the cream.

When the pudding is cooked, prick all over with a cocktail stick and pour over about 1/3 of the sauce. The pudding can be served immediately with extra sauce poured over, and with cream or custard.  It will also reheat well if required, as will the extra toffee sauce. I reheat individual portions of the pudding for about 45 seconds in the microwave and reheat the sauce in 30 second bursts until it is hot and runny again. 

This pudding is surprisingly light, and the dates melt into the texture of the sponge, unless you have left any really large chunks when puréeing. The addition of black treacle to both the pudding batter and toffee sauce cuts through the sweetness so that it's not too sickly.

The photo doesn't do this justice - I don't have the best equipment for taking photographs with no natural light, for one thing. It's also not a pretty dessert when made in one dish.

We Should Cocoa - November Challenge

We are all feeling slightly unwell, at the  moment. I don't think it's anything too serious, but no one feels like eating rich cakes, and I don't feel much like baking. I think I'm going to run out of time to try anything else for the We Should Cocoa challenge. This month's challenge, set by Chele at Chocolate Teapot, was to use caramel in a chocolate goodie, so I'm submitting the Chocolate Hazelnut Caramel Bars I made earlier in the month. The rules, for anyone interested in joining the We Should Cocoa challenge, can be found here, at Chocolate Log Blog

Chocolate Hazelnut Caramel Bars

This might be a 'We Should Cocoa' entry for this month, but it seems a bit of a cliché to cook a Caramel Bar. My excuse is that I've only made caramel this way once before and it was a disaster, as it didn't set. In preparation for November's challenge of using caramel in a chocolate goody, I thought I ought to have another attempt at a basic caramel. I was fairly sure that jars and cans of ready made caramel wouldn't work in this sort of recipe - they are all fairly runny.

I chose this recipe from Rachel Allen, as it added a couple of extras to the basic Millionaire's Shortbread recipe - a chocolate base and hazelnuts in the caramel. I couldn't tell from the recipe whether the chocolate base was going to be like a brownie or a cookie, but I could tell that it wasn't going to be the usual biscuity shortbread. In the end, it seems to be more like a cookie than a brownie - soft, chewy and slightly crumbly.

The recipe was straightforward to follow and I didn't encounter any difficulties. I guess it's always a little tricky to make caramel of the right texture without a sugar thermometer - I stopped the cooking when I could see that the caramel was thickening and it was starting to pull away from the sides of the pan as I stirred. I was anxious that it didn't become hard and brittle when it cooled. The hard part was waiting for each stage to cool before going onto the next. I started at around 1pm, and only got the bars ready to cut and eat  at 6.30pm by setting the chocolate in the fridge.

These were delicious, and considering the amount of sugar in the chocolate base and caramel, not as sweet as I expected them to be. The caramel was just right - soft and chewy but still holding it's shape. I wasn't completley happy with the way the chocolate topping had set - I think in future I might use an idea from other recipes - marble a mix of milk, plain and white chocolate together so that it doesn't matter if it isn't smooth and shiny.

One point to remember is that you need to use chocolate that you like to eat on it's own, as the flavour really comes across -  I ate a piece of the Green and Black's plain chcocolate that I often use in cooking but decided it was too bitter on it's own. I ended up using Waitrose Continental Plain Chocolate.

If I decide to use this as my We Should Cocoa entry, I will edit this post, but I have one other recipe which I want to try before making up my mind.

Butterscotch Blondies - Take 3

I'll skip right over the disastrous attempt at making a courgette and pineapple cake - it was too bad to even photograph! Although the flavour was the sort of thing I'd been trying for - delicate and fruity - the texture was awful. Almost inedible - except I don't believe in wasting anything, so we're eating it as a warm pudding, like it or not! Needs more work!

But that disaster left me with a hole to fill, so today, I've been baking again. I think I've cracked the base recipe for blondies at last. Previous efforts have been too light, too thin, too biscuity, too cakey or too sweet, but this was just right. A little on the cakey side but still quite dense and chewy. After one of my previous attempts, I said I'd found a selection of nice looking recipes on Ice Cream Before Dinner which needed further investigation - the recipe I used was based on this recipe, for Sea Salted Blondies,  from there.

I intended to use the basic dough from that recipe without change, but found I only had small/medium eggs. so I used two eggs and increased the flour to the equivalent of 1 1/3 cup. I added 100g chopped 74% plain chocolate, 75g butterscotch chips and 50g chopped pecans.

I've almost finished the butterscotch chips I brought back from Canada, so probably won't make butterscotch blondies again in the near future, but this is the base recipe I'll be using for other types of blondies from now on.

Chocolate Chip Butterscotch Blondies

Ingredients

180g plain flour

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1/8 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda

200g light muscovado sugar

115g salted butter

2 medium eggs

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

100g plain chocolate  - chopped or as chips

75g butterscotch chips

50g chopped pecans

Method

Line a 8" (20cm) square tin with baking paper, pre-heat oven to 170C.
Sift flour, baking powder and bicarbonate of soda into a small bowl.
Melt the butter in a large bowl in the microwave, being careful to just melt it. If it gets too hot, allow to cool a little.
Mix the sugar and vanilla extract into the melted butter, then mix in the eggs until thoroughly blended.
Stir in the flour, then the chopped chocolate, butterscotch chips and the nuts.
Transfer the batter to the baking tin and  spread evenly.
Bake for about 30 minutes, until an inserted probe comes out just clean.
Cool completely before cutting into squares or bars in a size of your choice - I got 16 squares.

Chewy Chunky Blondies

Having brought butterscotch chips back from Canada, it seemed appropriate to use some of them in my first baking session since returning home. While catching up on the blogs on my regular reading list, the Chewy Chunky Blondies, from the Tuesdays with Dorie baking group, caught my eye. Fortunately the recipe was given on the Cookies on Friday blog, so I was able to use it almost as written there.

I  used a mix of 100g  of each of white and dark chocolate chips and 150g of butterscotch chips, instead of just dark chocolate and butterscotch chips, but was a little short of the full amount of walnuts, so there was only 500g of add-ins instead of 540g as per the original recipe. I also used the smaller amount of brown sugar and unsweetened desiccated coconut. The recipe was simple to follow, and didn't cause any problems, except that I used a slightly smaller baking pan, which meant a longer baking time - almost an hour. When I turned out the blondies to cool, I was worried about the amount of grease left on the baking paper, and the bottom of the sheet of blondies, but once they had cooled properly everything was fine.

These blondies were a little too sweet for my taste, even after reducing the sugar in the recipe, but the texture was very good. With a more careful selection of add-ins - say, no white chocolate and more dark chocolate with a higher percentage of cocoa solids - to reduce the sweetness, these could be really great!

I've also learned that not having access to Hershey's Butterscotch Chips here in the UK is no great loss - they taste and smell very artificial!

Sea Salt Fudge Brownies

I'm in two minds about this Waitrose recipe for Sea Salt Fudge Brownies; it gave a lovely textured brownie - rich, gooey and moist without being too heavy or sugary - but the fudge and white chocolate pieces added to the batter completely melted into it, and the salted peanuts added a note which was just a little too salty, especially if you ended a mouthful chewing on just a nut. The fudge and white chocolate sprinkled on top was still evident after baking, but that was only half the ingredients. To me it seems a waste of quite expensive ingredients if they disappear into the bulk of the batter, and it unbalanced the brownies, as the peanuts were then too dominant.



I had intended to follow the recipe faithfully, but I didn't buy enough fudge - I just assumed only one pack would be needed - so I made up the weight with white chocolate. I've never had problems with chunks of white chocolate melting during cooking, but haven't tried this brand before. Now I know to avoid Waitrose Belgian White Chocolate when I want to keep chunks!

Rocky Road Brownies

I feel this is something everyone needs to try at least once in their life, and this in my 'once'!

I won't be making it again unless someone else requests it. There's nothing wrong with the recipe, which I took from Joy of Baking; in fact the brownie base was excellent - dark, rich, fudgey and a little bitter because of the chocolate I chose to use (I used chocolate with 85% cocoa solids as I didn't have any unsweetened). I just didn't like how sweet it got with marshmallows on top - the sweetness overwhelmed everything, even the bitterness of the base, and the only thing which came through was the flavour of too sweet chocolate and the crunch of the nuts.

So it's a personal thing - I'd certainly recommend the recipe to anyone who wanted to try them, but the final result wasn't to my taste.

The only change I made was to increase the weight of chocolate chips to 120g, but I used half chocolate and half fudge chips. The nuts I used were a mix of large pieces of macadamias and finely chopped hazelnuts.

My one mistake was to leave the topped brownie in the oven a minute or two too long - my rocky road looks like melted tarmac!

Butterscotch Blondies - take 2

This was a much better result than my first attempt a few weeks ago, but it still isn't quite what I'm looking for. I based the recipe on this recipe for White Chocolate Blondies, using more butter and some soft toffees instead of the melted white chocolate. The recipe was very tasty, but too light and cakey to match my expectations of a blondie. I'd like something more like a dense brownie in texture. Fortunately, since baking these, I've found several good looking blondie recipes on Stephanie's Ice Cream Before Dinner, so I think I'll try out some of those next.

In the meantime, if you want a tasty butterscotch flavoured cake, here is the recipe:

Ingredients
115g unsalted butter
115g soft toffees or vanilla fudge (I used Werther's Original Chewy Toffees)
100g light muscovado sugar
2 tablespoons water
2 large eggs
130g plain flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
3/4 teaspoon baking powder
80g white chocolate, chopped roughly
80g macadamia nuts, toasted and chopped roughly

Method
Pre-heat the oven to 160C, line an 8" square baking tin with baking parchment. Sift the flour, salt and baking powder together.

In a large saucepan, gently heat the butter, toffees, brown sugar and water until the toffees have completely melted. Stir well, to give a smooth amalgamated mixture. Allow the mixture to cool until it is barely more than hand-hot (otherwise you will scramble the eggs).

Beat in the eggs, one at a time, then stir in the flour mix, followed by the nuts and white chocolate.

Pour into the prepared baking tin and bake for about 30 minutes, or until done when tested.

Cool in the tin, and cut into 12-16 pieces when completely cold.

Butterscotch Blondies

After a lot of research into the subject of blondies, which I've been meaning to try for a long time, I selected this recipe for Butterscotch Blondies from Cookie Madness, which in turn was a Richard Sax recipe published on Joy of Baking. I added 50g fudge chips and 65g chopped toasted and salted Macadamia nuts, instead of the additions suggested in the recipe.

I haven't been as disappointed with a recipe for a long time. It's the closest I've been to throwing something away for a long time, too.

I don't know whether something went wrong with the recipe, or if I just don't like blondies. The first disappointment was the depth of the blondies when cooked. It's difficult to see from the photo, but the bars were only around 1cm (less than half an inch) deep - more like a biscuit than a brownie.

From the more risen edges, visible on the photo, it looks as if the blondies rose more initially but then collapsed. The texture was like a fallen meringue - chewy and sugary in a very unpleasant way.

The only redeeming feature, and what stopped me from binning them, was the macadamia nuts. I'd love to use them more in baking but they are soooo expensive! My son hasn't tasted them yet - if he doesn't like them, they may still end up feeding the birds!