Honeycomb and Hazelnut Brownie
These Cadbury Crunchie inspired brownies were totally delicious and are a huge hit in the office and with friends.
Layer One: Hazelnut and White Chocolate Brownie
1 large eggs
110g caster sugar
55g dark chocolate
55g unsalted butter
40g plain flour
15g cocoa powder
1/4tsp salt
1/4tsp baking powder
50g hazelnuts
50g white chocolate chips
Whip eggs and sugar for 5 mins til light and fluffy
Melt chocolate and butter, leave to cool slightly before adding to eggs and sugar
Add dry ingredients, combine well and put in lined 7inch square tin
Bake at 160 for 15-20 minutes
Layer Two: Honeycomb
125g golden syrup
125g caster sugar
2tsp bicarbonate of soda
Heat golden syrup and sugar in a high sided sauce pan until melted and reaches 149C
Take straight off the heat and stir in bicarbonate of soda
Pour over the cooled brownie
Layer Three: Chocolate
125g milk chocolate
Melt chocolate and pour over set honeycomb
Cookie Dough Brownies
Inspired by the incredible Cupcake Jemma, I embarked on the mission of recreating her Cookie Dough Brownies. Pieced together from bits of her other recipes, I think I nailed it — they were delicious at least — and the recipe was a little too complex for an instagram caption, so, here goes:
Layer 1: Brownie
Ingredients
3 large eggs
330g caster sugar
165g chocolate
165g unsalted butter
120g plain flour
45g cocoa powder
½ tsp salt
½ tsp baking powder
Method
Melt the chocolate and caster sugar in a bowl over simmering water
Whisk the eggs and sugar til light and fluffy
Pour in the butter and chocolate mixture
Fold in the dry ingredients
Pour in to a 35 x 24 cm baking tin (greased and lined)
Bake at 170C for 18-22 minutes
Cool
Notes
This recipe comes from the Ultimate Caramel Crunch Cornflake Brownie video, which includes a much better guide on how to make it:
Layer 2: Caramel
Ingredients
300g caster sugar
200ml double cream
100g unsalted butter
2 tsp flakey sea salt
Method
Melt the sugar in a high sided pan until golden
Take off the heat and pour in the cream, stirring as you go
Stir in the butter and sea salt and return to the heat
Heat until the mixture reaches 118C and pour in to a bowl to cool
Once cooled slightly (but still warm enough to pour), pour the mix on top of the cooked and cooled brownie, and place in the fridge to cool completely
Notes
Jemma’s Caramel Masterclass video is essential for getting this right if you’re new to caramel like me — just follow the guide below, and throw in the sea salt with the butter as an extra bonus
Layer 3: Cookie Dough
Ingredients
100g unsalted butter soft
100g soft light brown sugar
100g caster sugar
6 tbsp yoghurt
1 tsp vanilla
280g plain flour
2 tsp salt
120g chocolate chips
Method
Beat the butter and sugars together until combined
Beat in the yogurt and vanilla
Fold in the flour, salt and chocolate chips
Layer on top of the now fully cooled (and firm) caramel topped brownie, and place in the fridge to firm up
Notes
This is scale up (four times the amounts) of the cookie dough Jemma uses in her cookie dough cookies — video guide below.
Layer 4: Chocolate Ganache
Ingredients
150g dark chocolate
150ml double cream
Flakey sea salt (to decorate)
Method
Warm the cream in a sauce pan then pour over the chocolate
Stir to combine, until smooth and shiny
Allow to cool slightly
Pour over the cooled cookie dough topped, caramel topped, brownie, and sprinkle with a little sea salt
Notes
This is the same way Jemma tops her Peanut Butter Cookie Dough Brownies, and, frankly, if you like peanuts, then probably just make these, as she explains everything way better than my hodgepodge attempt…
iPhone Vlogs: May Half Term
Recently I've been quite tough on myself creatively: only wanting to release more and more polished ideas. This lead to forgetting how much fun it is to simply capture moments as they fly by, imperfect though they may be, and ended up simply making less stuff. So this week, I've tried to shake that feeling off, and gone back to where this blog started: one minute videos and soundtracks — all created on my phone.
Video Blog: Westquay Science Day
A couple of weeks ago, my sister and I took our niece and nephew out for the day.
We headed over to the science day that Winchester Science Centre were running at Westquay. As the snow started to fall, we popped in to Byron Burger for lunch, followed by cookies for pudding. Finally, a trip to Mayflower Park ended with warming hot chocolates back home before saying goodbye.
Instagram Story
Video Blog: Festival of Lights 2018
Last year, Westquay hosted the first Festival of Lights, and looking back on the video blog and soundtrack from an evening trip, it's one of my favourites of the year. This year we took another trip, along with another dinner at Wahaca too.
Vlogmas 2017 (Week Four): Christmas Day with Family, Food and Presents
The final week of vlogmas includes the lead up to, and the big days its self.
In the lead up up the big day, there's lot of food to be prepared, and celebrations with friends. On Christmas Day, there's more food, plus time with family enjoying time together and some gifts.
Christmas Day Food:
This year's dinner was very similar to last years feast, with a few changes:
- Turkey
Local, organic, free-range bird from Uptons of Bassett, roasted with rapeseed oil, lemons, clementines, garlic, onions, carrots, celery, sage and thyme - Gravy
Made from roasting juices and organic chicken stock - Pork shoulder stuffing with red onion, chestnuts, sage and cranberries
A Jamie Oliver recipe with some modifications, including dried cranberries added and gf bread crumbs - Sausages in bacon
Use thinly slice pancetta for wrapping for extra flavour and crunch - Roast potatoes
Par-boiled, left to cool, then roast in rapeseed oil, with rosemary - Roast parsnips
Par-boiled, left to cool, then roasted with honey - Carrots with butter, sugar and star anis
Cooked in butter, sugar and star anise from a Tom Kerridge recipe - Cauliflower cheese
Gently roasted cauliflower covered in a basic béchamel sauce, with lots of cheese in, and cheesy breadcrumbs over the top - Brussels sprouts with bacon and chestnuts
A BBC Good Food recipe - Red cabbage with apple and balsamic vinegar
An amalgamation of a number of recipes, including spices, red onions, apples, brown sugar and balsamic vinegar - Cranberry and apple sauce
Another amalgamation of recipes from all over, following the basics of this Jamie Oliver recipe, but with my own spices added - Green beans with lemon
Lightly boiled and dressed in fresh lemon and rapeseed oil - Butternut squash mash with spiced roasted seeds
Roasted the squash whole, mashed the flesh and served with the seeds roasted in cumin and paprika - Steamed Spinach
Simply steamed and served
Christmas Gifts
I got some amazing gifts, including my favourite scent (Givenchy Pour Homme Blue Label) and a Hans Zimmer Masterclass.
I got my family all kinds of bits. Particularly successful gifts were books for my Dad (including Post-Capitalism: A Guide to Our Future by Paul Mason — one of my favourite reads from 2017), and "Strong Girls Club" tops for my nieces from Muthahood.
Vlogmas 2017 (Week Three): Finishing Work For Christmas
Week three of vlogmas includes lots of songwriting, food, and finishing work for Christmas.
Weekly Vlog: First Week in a New Job
I started my new job this week, as an associate lecturer in Popular Music Production at Solent University. Back at my other job, it was a busy week of teaching, and getting the business plan finished and sent off. Somewhere in between all that, there was time to make music, preview the new Nuffield Southampton Theatre City venue, and start making my annual Christmas cake.
Knowing it would be a busy week, I decided to film a little bit of each day, and then sit down at the weekend to see what that footage would become. Together with some audio experiments and soundtrack clips from other projects, it turns out I had a weekly vlog to upload.
Family Birthday Party
I felt very spoilt this weekend, getting to spend time enjoying family, food and presents.
Birthday Games
My wonderful friend Ellie hosted a night of food, games, and a surprise birthday cake on Saturday night.
iPhone Summer Vlogs
iPhone vlogs filmed, soundtracked and edited on iPhone in the Summer of 2017.
They say the best camera is the one you have on you. And so, as moments flew by this summer, I tried to capture them using just my iPhone. To me, the moments I was able to record were more personal and more spontaneous as a result.
Film Photo Blog: A Sunny Day in Winchester
During the May half term holiday, I spent the day in Winchester with Alice. I took my point-and-shoot film camera, and, after a little delay, I got the photos processed last week. Here's the results:
Lydia's 5th Birthday Party
A trolls themed party for a special fifth birthday celebration!
An Adventure on the Isle of Wight
At Christmas we promised my niece and nephew a trip to the Isle of Wight, two weeks ago, we got to go on that adventure.
A Day in Brighton
On the last day of half term, Pip and I took a trip down to Brighton.
After a journey of sing-along songs, we grabbed a light lunch at Plateau, followed by ice creams at Boho Gelato (totally worthy of the hype). After wondering around the lanes we found ourselves on the beach, totally chilled out, and, before heading home, we had dinner at Jamie's Italian.
Video Blog: Abbotsbury
During half term, I drove west along the south coast, to meet my very good friend Corrie in Abbotsbury.
Corrie works at The Clock Workshop, just at the bottom of St Catherine's Hill. After meeting her for work, we walked up, past St Catherine's Chapel, and sat overlooking Chesil Beach.
We walked back down for dinner at the village pub — a halloumi, pepper and humous burger, followed by a chocolate brownie for me — before going to watch the sunset from Chesil Beach.
Video Blog: A Sunny Afternoon in Winchester
Last week seems like a million years ago — it's been a busy first week back at work — but it was so good to spend a lazy, sunny afternoon in Winchester with Alice.
Eggs in Clouds
Never one to shy away from an Instagram food trend, I tried my hand at Eggs in Clouds this week.
The making is fairly simple: you separate the eggs, whipping the whites in to clouds which you bake briefly — 7ish minutes, so I'm told — and then add the yolks for another short flash in the oven — 3ish minutes, apparently. I chose to fully embrace the hipster food trends, and serve mine along side mashed avocado, sour dough toast, halloumi and grilled tomatoes on the vine, all of which, frankly, were by far the better elements on the plate.
Video Blog: Saturday 20 May 2017
After a walk around Ocean Village, I took myself for a late night treat at Five Guys...
Video Blog: Five Guys Friday (Friday 28 April 2017)
What better way to start a Bank Holiday Weekend than with a Five Guys (burger and fries)?