Cooking for me is fun, exciting and very rewarding and it brings out my creative side, it’s about taste and texture, trying new foods and experimenting with new and fresh ingredients and seeing the delights on family and friends faces when trying out my concoctions.
I love to bake as well as cook. Baking gives you a certain satisfaction, after a few hours in the kitchen using some ingredients and bringing them together, creating lovely aromas wafting through the house, comforting, inviting and homely, taking you back to your childhood.
When baking I like to try different things, for instance at the end of August while Alex and I were walking the dog, and in one of the most unlikeliest places off the main road, we noticed a bountiful supply of brambles, we stopped and thought, mmmm, let’s go and get a dish and start picking these lovely fruits, so that’s exactly what happened, and as we walked and picked, on this gorgeous late summer evening, we talked about how to use these freshly picked goodies, a crumble perhaps, served with lashings of homemade custard or some jam, no, some bramble shortie,(shortbread biscuits) as I mentioned before I do like to bake and even if I say it myself I make a mean shortie; I also included succulent bramble muffins, biting into this muffins, the full flavour of the brambles exploded in the mouth, the texture soft and light, so that was it, experimenting happened, a couple of batches later here it was, crisp short sweet biscuit with pieces of zingy bramble’s, and muffins, sweet, light full of late summer tastes perfect with coffee, sitting in the garden on a sunny afternoon, ah bliss!
I try and use as much vegetables that are home grown, I used to have a vegetable patch, but have moved house recently, and this garden does not have a vegetable patch, not yet anyway, it will do by next spring, but hey that’s another project, lol, as I said I try and use as much home grown produce as possible and luckily Alex’ father has a large allotment, and he is very generous in giving us his produce, we swap vegetables for home baking, this seems to work out well for all concerned!! The produce we have received so far has been varied and the one vegetable I will be using right now is the mighty beetroot, this vegetable I feel is slightly under rated and is used mostly for pickling and in salads, it is very versatile and can even be used in cakes, yes you read right cakes, it’s funny when you see how much people enjoy these rich, moist chocolaty cakes and when you tell them they are full of this delightful vegetable, the reaction is “what”, “beetroot”, oh really I would never have guessed; ha ha, it’s the shock factor that makes me laugh; so I would like for you to try this recipe so you to can give your friends and family that shock factor to.Grease a baking tray (25cm) with oil or a little melted butter and dust with flour or line with greaseproof paper.
Luscious Chocolaty Beetroot Brownies
What you’ll need;
Unsalted Butter, 250g, cubed
Milk chocolate, 200g, broken into smallish pieces
Cooked Beetroot 200g, grated and excess juice squeezed out
Cocoa Powder, 80g
Plain flour, 65g
Baking powder, 1 teasp
Eggs, 4
Walnuts, 50g, broken into smallish piecesHere's how;
Melt the chocolate and butter together in a large bowl over a pot of simmering water stirring until melted and blended together.
Add the squeezed grated beetroot to the chocolate mixture.
Mix together the dry ingredients in a separate bowl and add to the chocolate mixture, mi x well.
Gently whisk the eggs and then add a little at a time the chocolate mixture until smooth.
Pour the mixture into prepared tray and bake for approx., 25 minutes, use a skewer to test the middle, it should be a little moist but not wet.
Leave to cool and serve with a drizzle of double cream or on its own with a frothy cappuccino.
Enjoy!
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