Homemade Peanut Butter Cups - and Brownies !

Love peanut butter cups ? Well - you'll ADORE mine !

Not only are these easy to make, but they knock spots off store bought and look fantastic as part of a chocolate box or on top of cupcakes, brownies etc.

To make approx 45 peanut butter cups, you will need :

3 x 15 cell chocolate / caramel cup wheel silicone mould

150g belgian milk chocolate (preferably couverture)
100g crunchy peanut butter

50g salted butter - at room temperature

100 > 125g of icing (powdered) sugar

200g belgian white chocolate

70mls of double cream (scalded)

coloured sprinkes to decorate

First of all, put the milk chocolate in a plastic bowl. Microwave at 50% power for 30 second bursts, stirring each time. When the chocolate is about 3/4 melted, take out and just keep stirring until it is all melted and you cannot feel it if touching a tiny bit to your upper lip.

The good thing about melting couverture chocolate this way is that as long as the chocolate does not get too warm, it will stay in temper. Out of temper chocolate goes horrible - either 

Use a small paintbrush with non-shedding bristles (kept for kitchen use only) and coat the sides of each cell in chocolate. Allow to start to harden, then make a second coat. Excuse the rubbish photo from my mobile !

After making a second coat of chocolate, place the mould upside down on a cooling rack. This allows the chocolate to settle nicely on the inside and gives a nice even coating.

Once the chocolate starts to set, pop the moulds in the fridge for about 10 mins or so, so the chocolate gets really hard whilst you make the filling.

Put the peanut butter and butter in a bowl and whip until creamy. Add the icing sugar and beat some more until thick, but fairly smooth. If it's a bit like rubble, add a tiny amount of boiling water (approx 1 tablespoon will do)

Put into a disposable piping bag, and pipe a little of this mixture to a couple of mm below the top of the cell. You can then seal the top of the chocolates with some more melted milk chocolate, or make the whipped white chocolate ganache....

For the white chocolate ganache, scald the cream in a pot on the stove - or in a bowl in the microwave. Pour the hot cream over the chopped white chocolate. If it doesn't totally melt, pop the bowl of chocolate and scalded cream in the microwave and stir every few seconds until melted.

Take out the microwave and allow to cool for a few minutes, then using a hand held electric whisk, beat until the ganache starts to hold in peaks. It can now be piped on top of your chocolates and decorated with a few sprinkles.

Theses are so cute, they're irresistible.....

So - what can be better, but to pair them with some thick fudgey frosting and seriously delicious, decadent peanut butter cup brownies ? I wouldn't waste the homemade peanut butter cups in the batter though - far easier to use Reese's for baking.

RECIPE - makes 9 large brownies

For this, you need an 8" square silicone pan / mould, lightly buttered.

Pre-heat oven to 180deg C

175g of salted butter

175g of dark chocolate

3 large eggs
300g sugar
2 tsp instant coffee granules
60g cocoa powder
75g plain flour
226g pouch of Reeses Mini Peanut Butter cups - or other candy if preferred

Melt the butter and chocolate together with the coffee granules in a large pot.

Combine eggs and sugar together until just combined. Add into pot and whisk with electric whisk. Add dry ingredients and then whisk again for a short time until combined and no lumps can be seen,

Place the 8" square silicone baking pan on to a tray and use a silicone spatula to scrap the mix into the prepared pan. Pop in the peanut butter cups and press into the batter. Keep the candies 1 > 2cm away from the sides of the mould (as this bit will get trimmed off later)

Bake in middle shelf of the oven for approx 35 mins. The outside should all be set, but it will still be a little wet and have a bit of a wobble in the middle.

Remove and leave to cool, then refrigerate over night before cutting.

When chilled and firm, the brownie will release easily from the silicone pan.

Simply bend the sides down and lift out the brownie.

Place on a cutting board, and using a sharp knife, trim the outsides of the brownie off.

Cut remaining brownie into 9 squares.

FROSTING AS SHOWN

100g of Sunpat ChocoNut Spread, 75g of butter, icing sugar (quite a lot) and a little hot water - whipped together until a fudge like consistency achieved.

Pipe a swirl on top of each brownie square and top with a homemade peanut butter cup.

Sarah-Jane Nash - www.siliconemoulds.com

Brilliant Banana Brownies - A Little Cake Tester's Idea !

Me : "Would you like to go to the beach today ?"

Oliver : "No - I'm going with Emma next week Mummy. I want to ride my new gocart a long long way and then you can make me some brilliant banana brownies...... That is an alliteration I can eat you know !"

That did make me laugh as he'd obviously been thinking that one up. Oliver is due to start school in a few weeks and really is ready to go. He does love to make up alliterations with big bad burps probably being one of his all-time favourites.

Well - I haven't actually baked in ages and there were some very ripe spotty bananas in the kitchen. 

Can't remember last time we had cake in the house. Given Steve and Michael were off out today and given Oliver wanted to stay home - gocarting and brownies it was.

I've made the BBC Best Ever Brownies recipe a few times before, and very good it is too. I decided to use it as a starting point on this occasion and work around what I thought may work best and what we had in the cupboards.

185g salted butter
185g milk chocolate

3 large eggs

250g white sugar

85g plain flour

75g cocoa powder

130g mashed ripe bananas

65g milk chocolate (chopped)
65g white chocolate (chopped)

2tsp vanilla extract

Melt the salted butter and milk chocolate together in the microwave (takes approx 1min) and then set aside.

Beat the 3eggs and sugar plus vanilla together with an electric mixer for about 6 or 7 mins until really thick and fluffy.

Fold the melted butter / chocolate mix into the whipped eggs and sugar to combine..

Sieve in the plain flour and cocoa powder, then fold in until just combined. 

Now fold in the banana and chopped chocolate.

Put into an 8" square silicone baking pan. For brownies, I like to prep this with a big strip of baking parchment covering the base and up two sides - it just makes it really easy to lift out later.

Bake in a fan over at 160deg C for approx 30mins. The top will be set, but the brownie will still be a tiny bit wobbly in the middle. A tooth pick will come out sticky from the centre.

Allow to cool, then transfer to the fridge for an hour or so before cutting. It should be a bit squidgy in the middle.

Serve as it is with a cup of coffee or glass of milk - or warm and serve with vanilla ice cream.

Sarah-Jane Nash, August 2013 - www.siliconemoulds.com

Brownies Part 2 - Two ways... Cooking With Oliver- FOODBUZZ #5 1/3/12

What kid doesn't love brownies ? Oliver and I baked brownies this morning at his special request....

Well - the kitchen was already like a war zone and the floor practically flooded (see the last blog post) - so I reckoned adding a bit of chocolate to the equation really wouldn't make too much difference to the amount of clean up required.

Unsurprisingly, after this lot, Oliver ended up 15 minutes late arriving to nursery, and I was 15 minutes late for work. But then again, when you arrive with platefuls of brownies - all tends to be forgiven and forgotten.

This recipe will make 16 man-food sized brownies, but if you aren't looking to overdose on chocolate brownie, you may want to cut each into two rather daintier ones. After all - brownies are rather rich.

This is a new mould design, due for launch around end of April and currently being design registered and now going into mass production. I originally designed it to make 100g soap bars - but then decided it would be PERFECT for large individual brownies and flapjacks.

I made two different types of brownies. One normal batch and one decidedly sticky dulche de leche batch. 

I had a tin of condensed milk that was about to go out of date. Determined not to waste it, I heaped a good spoonful of the stuff over the second load of brownie mix and swirled it in. A lot of it sank down the sides of the mix - which was no bad thing. Other than that - there is no difference in the recipe between the batches....

Apart from the taste of SOAP that is. Uh huh - I used one of the prototype moulds (I've got two) for soap making first. I thought I was going to get one tray of brownies and wasn't expecting the mix to do two. So.... I used the tray I'd been using for experimenting with soap to make the Dulche De Lche brownies. Washed it first of course - but there was still a soapy after taste. Therefore, I MUST advise that you don't use the same mould for soaping and baking. It's not nice !

Saying that - these moulds made a really nice job of the brownies. I greased and floured first and they came out cleanly when cooled and firmed up a bit.

Yummy - brownie batter tastes good - licking the spoon is the treat reserved only for the chef !

You can see Brownies Part 1 from 2010 here - with Oliver...

RECIPE - makes 16 large brownie bars (or 32 small ones)

Preheat fan oven to 160deg C, 180deg C electric

185g salted butter

185g dark chocolate (I used Belcolade Belgian)

85g plain flour

50g cocoa powder

100g milk chocolate (chopped)

3 eggs

275g caster sugar

1 tsp vanilla extract

2tsp espresso coffee powder (optional)

condensed milk - (for Dulche De Leche Brownies)

Melt the dark chocolate and butter together in the microwave in short bursts - then set aside.

Cream the eggs and caster sugar until light coloured, thick and foamy.

Add the sieved flour and cocoa, plus vanilla and espresso powder to the sugar / egg mix and fold to combine. Add the chocolate chips in the last few strokes.

Note that the brownies don't taste like coffee. The purpose of the coffee is to enhance the depth of chocolate flavour.

Grease and flour 2 x 8 cell rectangular bar silicone bakeware moulds. If you want to make some Dulche De Leche ones, put a great bit heaped teaspoon of condensed milk on top of the brownie batter and swirl it in a little on top with a teaspoon handle.

 Bake for approx 20 mins until JUST set and cake tester comes out clean. Allow to cool thoroughly before turning out and allowing work colleagues and a little cake tester to devour.

Give the soapy ones to those with no sense of smell. They might taste ok (ish) but certainly smelt floral !!!!!

In case you haven't noticed.... my batter photos and baked photos are round the opposite way !

Sarah-Jane Nash, www.siliconemoulds.com - February 2012

Chocolate Brownies - PART 1 - Rubbish photo - but picture the scene !

About 2 weeks ago, I made some chocolate brownies....

I'd found what looked like an amazing recipe and had stacks of top class reviews. It was this recipe HERE from BBC Good Food . Brownies are really easy to make and a GOOD brownie will store well in a air tight container in the fridge for two weeks. I had the last bit very late last night with a cup of tea !

 Actually - I made not one but two batches of these brownies as the first lot ended up in the bin. So did some of the second lot - but that was totally accidental.

 I SHOULD have read the reviews. They may all give this recipe 5 star - but I'll warn you now THE TIMING IS WAAAAY OUT.

The photo on the link makes them look dry - but  they are actually very moist, rich and morish. The only reason there was one left is because I fogot it was at the back of the fridge ! If you like brownies - do make these. They are AWESOME - but watch the cooking time.

See how bad the photos are ?

 Well.... I wanted to try taking some arty photos like you see on other blogs and magazines of someone holding out a plate... There was only Oliver on hand. Cue a 22 month old standing holding a plate of brownies that he so badly wants to eat and Mummy won't let him until we take photos.... Duh !

Poor little sausage. I feel so guilty now ! I did only put 3 brownies on a small side plate - but Oliver did find it difficult to balance it. I sat down on the kitchen floor to try and get a photo from the right height. Oliver copied me and sat down too; so I had to get us both up again. Repeat..

Oliver really really wanted a brownie. "Please Mummy - cake Mummy !"

Oliver wobbled. The plate wobbled. The brownies rocked and wobbled some more. They tettered on the edge of the plate as it tilted forward when Oliver bent over to get a closer view of the brownies before crashing into a broken mess on the floor.

One of the three was still intact. Oliver grabbed it and ran into the living room shouting "Thank you, thank you" as fast as his little legs would carry him.

Photo shoot over. Time to hoover the floor !

I cooked these in our 8" square fudge / silicone brownie bakeware pan. I did lightly butter and flour before use and it released beautifully as always.

 Like other reviewers of this recipe, I found the timing was miles out. 25 minutes was not enough. My brownies took a little over 40 minutes before they were ready. Wait until there is no wobble and DO use a cake tester. The brownie is quite thick - it will fill on baking to nearly the top of the mould.

Sarah-Jane Nash - the evil Mummy to Oliver (cake boy !) 

http://www.siliconemoulds.com/ - silicone bakeware / cake mould specialists - October 2010

Chocolate & Ginger Frosted Brownies

I'm a bit late with this one - it was last Saturday's bake-up for taking to work. However, just as I'd finished frosting it, Oliver gave me a real scare and it resulted in a hospital trip to A&E. The brownies therefore never made for a tea-time treat for customers .... I did however give some to our next door neighbours.

Oliver had about 1/4 of one after his tea and polished the whole lot off !

The "lads" - (or should I say lad and old man :-P) at work helped polish the rest off today. Given the fact that one wasn't enough, I think these turned out a good success.

The recipe for the brownie bit is adapted from a Martha Stewart recipe. The frosting is something I've been tweaking for a while. I'll warn you now - the combination is subtle but rich.

INGREDIENTS

120 grams SALTED butter
100 grams chopped plain / bitter chocolate
1 cup sugar
2/3 cup plain flour
1/4 cup cocoa powder

2 large eggs

2 tsp ground ginger

1 tsp vanilla extract

pinch ground cloves

1/4 teaspoon coarse salt (Maldon)

Preheat fan oven to 170deg C. Cook for 25mins approx

Line an 8 x 8 tin with buttered parchment - or use an 8 x 8 silicone tray mould. We're due 8 x 8 tray moulds to arrive end of April - early May - so I use a silicone liner (cut to size) inside my  8 x 8 standard tins at the moment. 

Melt butter and chocolate together at a low heat and stir until smooth. Remove from heat and stir in other ingredients.

Pour batter into prepared tray.

Bake until skewer comes out with moist crumbs.

Leave to cool for about 10 mins in the tin - then turn out on to a wire rack to cool fully before frosting.

FROSTING

100g cream cheese

70g of salted butter

50g of cocoa powder
75g melted bitter chocolate

220g icing sugar

1 x finely grated ball of stem ginger in syrup

beat cream cheese, butter and icing sugar and cocoa until smooth. Beat in melted chocolate and ginger

1/2 finely grated ball of stem ginger in syrup (to decorate). Refrigerate for 15 mins and beat again before spreading.

The frosting amount here is exactly what I put on top of the brownie pictured and was pretty thick ! Saying that - it's light and fluffy, and not overly sweet.

Sarah-Jane Nash - http://www.siliconemoulds.com/ - March 2010