Best Ever Brownies (D-F)

I know that I've sung my avocado brownies from every rooftop, and won't shut up about them, but I may have found something better (I have)

A little while ago my mum and I popped over to our friend's for dinner. She cooked us an amazing meal, lamb tagine with apricot and black olive cous cous, I was in absolute heaven.

Then she brought out pudding. Apple Kuchen (oh my goodness!) and brownies.
Now, I've had my fair share of brownies, toffee brownies, peanut & cake batter brownies, oozy brownies, brownies made with avocado, slutty brownies, cakey brownies, raspberry and white chocolate brownies and ooey gooey ones, but this was the best brownie I have ever had.

Just as I thought it couldn't get better, H announced that they were dairy free.

After bugging her daughter for days, E finally gave me the recipe, I tweaked it a bit after doing some googling and calculations (confusing to say the least) so that it only contained dark chocolate (check the allergens to make sure there's no milk!) so there was no way anyone could go wrong with it.

I can't get across how good these are so whack on the oven to 180C

125g dark chocolate

150g prunes, pureed

200g soft light brown sugar

3 egg whites

1tsp vanilla essence

65g plain flour

First weigh and puree your prunes, once they're pureed, have an open mind because they'll taste delicious.

Mix the pureed prunes into the soft brown sugar, the add the vanilla.

Weigh and melt your chocolate,

Then add the prune mixture to the chocolate and stir until smooth and silky.

Finally, sift in the flour, add a few handful of nuts if you wish then pour into a 6inch square tin and bake for 1 hour or until firm to touch.

After you've waited for that cruel hour to pass, whip them out and let them cool in the tray, when they've solidified a little, cut them up and gorge yourself, after that long hour of waiting, you deserve it.

I thought this was especially fitting after the most recent GBBO episode!

I made these for a girlie sleepover with two of my best girlies before we headed off to uni and Ellie headed off to Australia, snuggled in duvets, watching classic films and eating so much we were groaning and holding our tummies!

The prunes in these make these deliciously rich, moist and fudgey, they tick all of my brownie boxes, the only thing they don't do is tap dance!

Just look at Wispy asking..

Skinny Veggie Egg Fried "Rice"

Bloglovin' is full to the brim with cauliflower rice recipes, I've already given my 2 cents, but here's another 2, this time inspired by Rose's recipe, just in case fish didn't tickle your taste buds.

I hate cauliflower. The smell of it cooked makes me think of smelly, old socks, and although I eat odd things, they're not really what I'd like to scarf down  snaffle.

But this isn't just a game changer, it's a game changer and a half. 

This cauliflower was £1, and once you've blitzed it all up, there's tonnes of the stuff, so if there's just you, pop some of it in a tupperware box and then you can make another meal in a few days.

Perfect for a student budget.

For a feast for two:

1 cauliflower

1 tsp sesame oil

2 spring onions

Frozen sweetcorn

4 button mushrooms, sliced

Tofu (optional)

Soy sauce

Hot sauce

1 egg

First grate your cauli, you can pop it in the blender, like I do, or get a large cheese grater and get grating.

This was my first time cooking with tofu, I did really like it, but I guess it's an acquired taste so it's not everyone's first choice.

Cut it open...

Then wrap with lots and lots of kitchen roll and squeeze firmly, but gently to remove as much of the water as possible.
Cut how much you want or need, gently though because it slices like butter, and not out of the fridge butter, butter that's room temp, so good luck.

  
Heat a frying pan, add a dash of soy sauce and throw (gently) your tofu in and cook until lightly browned.

Whilst the tofu is browning, chop up two spring onions and add the frozen sweetcorn with the sesame oil into the cauliflower rice.

Put this pan on the heat and add the mushrooms.

Add some soy sauce...

Keep stirring around about now because you don't want anything to get stuck to the bottom because crunchy rice ain't nice.

Create a little well in the rice, and crack in your egg.

Sort of beat it with the wooden spoon then scramble it as it cooks on the bottom of the pan.

This is one of my new found loves, Sriracha, it's a hot sauce that I found via Cassey Ho, it's so delicious, thicker than Tabasco and packs a huge punch of flavour, I got mine from Tesco.

I only added a teensy bit of this because I didn't want to go crazy!
Stir in your tofu and then serve!

Look at how full these two bowls were! This wasn't even all of it!

And if there's any leftovers (which there were), you can just polish them off (which I did)!

This recipe probably could have fed three, but I'm a bit of a feeder (I'm not actually, for those who don't know me) and it's better to have some left over, than not enough!

Cauliflower is the best source of vitamin C, after citrus foods, has tonnes of fiber, potassium (which gets your kidneys to get rid of waste products), and folic acid, so, if you're wanting to get pregnant, get your cauliflower oooon.

Blackberry & Apple Crimble Crumble

Last week I posted a messy pie you're probably bored of the combination of blackberry and apple, luckily, I've added a couple of variations for the crimble crumble (as I sometimes call it), but the beauty of this dish is that you can make it with literally any fruit, take Emily's Strawb and Rhubarb crumble!

This is one of my personal favourites, with rhubarb and apple coming a very close second place.
Again, like my chilli , everyone has their own little twist on the crumble topping, but whatever goes into it, one thing stays the same, the top must remain crumbly!

Generally, the crumble recipe works to half the sugar and fat to the flour.

8oz plain flour
4oz butter at room temp
4oz soft brown sugar (light or dark)
2 1/2 handfuls rolled oats
3/4 tsp cinnamon

Weigh all of your ingredients out, then place the flour and the butter in a bowl together.
Now isn't the time to worry about your nails, get your hands in there and start rubbing the butter and flour together.

Once the consistency is similar to that of breadcrumbs, go and wash your hands (stirring isn't fun with buttery paws), pour in the sugar and work it in. I used brown sugar, just because it goes more caramelly than say, caster sugar, and it gives it more depth and makes it more of a snuggly pudding to eat.

Now, this is when you freestyle.
I like to add oats because it breaks the otherwise simple crumble mixture up.

Then I also add cinnamon.

Cinnamon is one of my favourite spices, it reminds me of autumn and crunchy leaves, so that's how I think of it, perhaps if I was making a plain apple crumble with some sultanas hidden away under a crispy crumble layer, I might add a little ginger, just to jujj things up a little, but now we're officially in Autumn, and now that Tesco are officially selling Lindt Father Christmases(!?), I'm using cinnamon.

For the fruity layer:

3-4 bramley apples (you don't have to add the extra fruit, flying solo is just as good!)
As many or as little blackberries as you desire, if you don't have blackberries, try using several handfuls of raisins or even some chopped dates, because as you cook it, the dates will go deliciously, and innocently toffee like, without the added calories.
1/2 cup caster sugar

Peel and chop those apples, cut them into sort of 1 inch chunklets, sprinkle this and the extra goodies (the blackberries or raisins or dates, whatever you choose) into the bottom of a good sized wide dish.

Evenly pour the sugar over the fruity bits, you may need slightly more.

Once that's done, toss on your crumble so it's nice and thick, with no fruit peeping through.

Put this in the oven for about 30-45 mins at about 200C, depending on how deep you've built your crumble.
Take it out when the top is toasted lightly, and some of the fruity juices might be seeping through.
Obviously, if it's blackened, take it out too, but don't eat that!

I served this for pudding at Josh's surprise birthday party, with buckets of double cream and big scoops of lovely vanilla ice cream (so underrated), making it utterly decadent for such a simple, traditional pud.