Foolproof chocolate brownies

I needed to bake these for an afternoon tea my friend had yesterday so thought it would be a good opportunity to share the recipe as these brownies really are foolproof (and delicious!). Best eaten the next day (if you can wait that long - hats off to you if you can!) and lovely with some raspberries or strawberries for just a touch of nutrition to balance out all that butter, sugar and chocolate ;)

If you try this, let me know how you get on!

Foolproof chocolate brownies
Adapted from Felicity Cloake's recipe which you can find here (mine is basically the lazy girl's version)

250g 70% cocoa chocolate, broken into pieces
250g unsalted butter
300g golden caster sugar
3 large eggs, plus 1 extra egg yolk, lightly beaten
60g plain flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
Pinch of salt
60g cocoa powder
100g walnut pieces

1) Line a 23cm x 23cm baking tin with greaseproof baking paper and pre-heat your oven to 180C.

2) Put a bowl over a pan of simmering water (making sure the bowl and water don't touch) and add the chocolate. Melt slowly and stir occasionally. Once melted, remove from the heat.

3) Beat the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy (and if you're lucky enough to own one, thank the heavens for KitchenAids!)

4) Keep the mixer running and gradually add the beaten eggs. Beat well between each addition. Leave the mixer on a high speed for 5 mins. This will create that lovely thin, crunchy topping once they're baked).

5) Remove the bowl from the mixer and fold in the melted chocolate and then the sifted flour, baking powder and walnut pieces.

6) Pour the mixture into the tin and bake for 30-35 mins. Test it with a skewer and check that the mixture is coming out sticky but not raw.

7) When the brownies are ready, take out of the oven and leave to cool for an hour. Cut into squares and store in an air-tight container.

By the way, if you haven't tried Felicity's 'How to cook the perfect...' series for The Guardian yet then you must take a look and try some of her recipes. For a complete kitchen newb like me it is brilliant!

What Bank Holidays are made for...

I hope you had a wonderful Bank Holiday weekend! Here are a few highlights from our rather laidback few days that, now I'm writing this, seemed to consist mainly of food and shopping...

We finally got around to trying Homeslice in Neal's Yard and it completely lived up to the hype. After briefly debating about whether to get one slice each, we ended up going for the 20" pizza (ahem...), with the rocket and parmesan on one half and mushroom on the other. Absolutely delicious. Definitely worth a visit.

I came across this beauty in Urban Outfitters for the ridiculously low price of £25 so I snapped it up to replace the rather battered old Ikea paper lampshade that was in our hallway. I'm a little disappointed that I can already see a little of the copper paint coming off but it's in such a tiny corner and to be honest, is so high up that I think we can get away with it.

I also popped into Cos in Covent Garden and picked up quite a few items there. This jacket which suits me far better than the bomber jackets I'd tried on and this beautiful pink jumper (which must have been inspired by this post as it's my first item of pink clothing in my wardrobe). It goes perfectly with boyfriend jeans. And a lovely soft grey tee that annoyingly I can't find on their site but if you pop into the Covent Garden store soon you'll find it right by the main door!

As is the norm at weekends, I baked. This time I went for Nigella's Chocolate Guinness Cake and let me tell you, this is amazing. I'm trying to forget the scary amount of butter and sugar that went into this as we have already got through half in *let me check...* less than 12 hours but that is just testament to how moreish this is. I ended up splitting the mixture into two cake tins and sandwiched them together with the cream cheese topping. Lovely.

I hope you enjoyed that extra day. Don't you just love May and the two Bank Holidays we get?!

My favourite healthy pancake recipe

We’re coming up to Shrove Tuesday!!! I love pancakes. Looooove them. So I embrace this day with a lot of enthusiasm.

As I mentioned here, at the start of the year I decided to focus more on my health. No fad diets or strict rules; I just wanted to make sure that I was eating more meals that nourished me and made me feel good.

So I quite liked the challenge of trying to find a pancake recipe that would be filled with lots of healthy ingredients, would taste good (I still wanted it to feel like a treat) but wouldn't make me fall into a food coma 10 minutes later.

I didn’t hold out much hope to be honest, but Jenny from Healthy Crush came to my rescue (I love that girl - and hold her more than partly to blame for my move to healthier eating!)

This paleo recipe has just three ingredients: eggs, banana and almond butter. That’s it. You can get the recipe here.

They are delicious and AND ridiculously quick and easy to make. I personally like to serve them with maple syrup and berries. Yum. It definitely made me realise that there are recipes out there that make healthy eating taste so good.

P.S. Fun fact for you: did you know that the reason we eat pancakes isn’t just to use up the rich foods before Lent? The round pancakes were originally meant to symbolise the sun and by eating them, we would receive the sun’s light and power. How lovely is that :)

Healthy chocolate and banana smoothie

Come New Year's Day, "losing weight" was not on my list of resolutions and hasn't been for the past few years. But what I am focusing on is my health. Do I have enough energy? Is my body working the way I want it to? Can I play superheroes with my nephews without feeling like I've ran a marathon?

The answer unfortunately isn't always yes, so this year I'm addressing that. The challenge though has been to find recipes that are healthier - but that still actually taste good. I have tried soooo many healthy recipes that just taste, well, a bit blah.

But I have finally found one that does taste great. Really great. Plus, Imran likes it. And he is one fussy discerning eater.

Originally found here, this chocolate banana shake is seriously good. Plus it's free from added sugar and dairy.



Healthy chocolate and banana smoothie

1 ripe banana
1 1/2 tablespoons unsweetened cacao powder
1 tablespoon smooth almond butter
1/3 vanilla almond milk

Slice the banana. Add the rest of the ingredients into the blender and blend until nice and smooth. Boom. That's it!

As we don't have a blender, we just mashed up our bananas and then popped all the ingredients into the Kitchenaid at the highest speed for a few minutes. Worked a charm!

The original recipe suggests freezing the bananas before adding them to the blender. I decided not to do this as in this cold the last thing I want is a chilled smoothie, but I am 100% sure that will change come summer.

I hope you enjoy! Do you have any tried and tested healthy recipes?

Much love
Louise x