Brewer's blondies

These blondies are so rich, fudgy and delicious! The fudgy bit was only in the middle bit and totally accidental. I took them out before they were done and the squares in the middle turned out fudgier than the edges.

Still good though, I mean, how can you go wrong with Maltesers and chocolate chips in a recipe. The blondies didn't turn out to be too sweet when they were warm but when cooled, they are a bit on the sweet side.

I found the recipe in an article reviewing a recipe book - Baked: New Frontiers in Baking. It's a really simple recipe - easy to follow. The only difficulty I had was trying to spread the batter which was really stiff and thick into the baking tray. It eventually flattened and evened out whilst in the oven.

I cut down on the brown sugar and upped the Maltesers, Horlicks and walnuts. Below are the changes made to the recipe.

Brewer's blondies
makes one 9x13 inch

200g butter at room temperature
1 1/2 cups brown sugar
1 tsp salt

2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract

2 1/3 cups flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
2 heaped Tbsp malt powder (Horlicks)

1 cup chopped Maltesers
1 cup chopped walnuts
1 cup chocolate chips

1. Preheat the oven to 175 C. Butter the bottom and sides of a 9-by-13-inch baking pan.
2. In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat the butter , brown sugar and salt on medium speed until completely combined. Scrape down the bowl, add the eggs and vanilla, and beat until combined.
3. In a medium bowl, whisk the flour, baking powder and malted milk powder together.
4. Add the flour mixture in two batches until just combined. Add the malted milk balls, chocolate chips and walnuts and beat until just combined, about 10 seconds. The mixture will be thick. Turn the mixture out into the prepared pan and use an offset spatula to spread it evenly.
5. Bake in the center of the oven for 30 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the centre of the blondie comes out clean.

Lentils

My first cooking post! Not that I don't cook, I just haven't really gotten excited about cooking. After Y mentioned something about green lentils, I decided to give it a try. I got a packet of green dried lentils and gave it a go. Not having done this before, I read the instructions on the back - boil rapidly for 10 minutes and simmer for 30 minutes.

I did look at a couple of recipes online too and cumin seemed like a common spice that everyone else used. I did the whole cooking shows style where I laid all my ingredients in front of me. For some reason, I took out a can of chopped tomatoes but decided against it halfway through.

Lentils are awesome! Reckon it's going to be my new phase. I went through a whole couscous phase where there was usually a container of some version of couscous in the fridge 3/7 days a week. Well, that was mainly cause I made a huge portion and it just lasted that long because everyone else got sick of eating it and it was down to me to finish it.
It was fairly simple cooking the lentils and for the other ingredients, I just added whatever vegetables I had in the fridge. There isn't really a fixed recipe so I'll just list down what I added to the pot.

Lentils

250g lentils

4 cloves garlic
1 onion
2 tsp cumin (ground with 1/2 tsp salt)
2 cm knob of ginger
a couple chopped up carrots
4 stalks of celery
1 stock cube
some cauliflower

I started off boiling the lentils on a high fire on its own whilst peeling and dicing the other ingredients. In a separate pot, I fried off the onions in a tablespoon of olive oil and grated in the garlic and ginger, then added the ground cumin and salt. Then added in the stock cube, celery and carrots and covered with about a cup of hot water. All of this took about 15 minutes and for some reason, I decided to drain the lentils (which was boiling away in another pot) and added it to the pot with the vegetables.

Now I'm not really sure why I decided to do this separately but it turned out alright so I suppose it works this way. I left it to simmer for another 20 minutes, added in the cauliflower, let it simmer for another 5 minutes and switched the fire off. Added a bit more salt and tadaa. Yummm.

It's absolutely delicious! I really like the cumin taste. And I've got a pot of it which would probably last 5 meals? Actually, thinking back, I know why I don't post about cooking. Pictures of cakes and biscuits look so much more appealing than a picture of lentils.