Cookies and Cream Fudge Brownies

Cookies and cream on the left. Chocolate orange on the right.

The cookies and cream brownies come from a Lorraine Pascale recipe, the chocolate orange is a variation I like.


Ingredients

165g butter, plus extra for greasing

200g dark chocolate, broken up

3 free-range eggs

2 free-range egg yolks

1 vanilla pod, Scrape out the seeds (or 2 tsp vanilla extract)

165g soft light brown sugar

2 tbsp plain flour

1 tbsp cocoa powder

pinch of salt

155g Oreos, broken up (or chocolate orange)

(tsp orange essence for chocolate orange fudge brownies)

icing sugar, for dusting

Pre-heat your oven to 180oC. Melt the butter in a saucepan then remove from heat and add chocolate. (the heat from the butter will melt it). In another bowl whisk the eggs and egg yolks until fluffy. Add the sugar gradually in instalments so that you keep the air in your mixture. Pour the chocolate around the edge of the bowl so that you keep as much air in as possible. Add the flour, cocoa, salt and 2/3 of the biscuits. Mix it all together and then pour it into a baking tray. Scatter the remaining biscuits on top. Bake for 25-30 minutes again depending on your oven. The middle will be slightly gooey once cooked. Allow to cool and then sprinkle some icing sugar on top.

An alternative is to replace the oreos with chocolate orange and add a tsp of orange essence to make a chocolate orange fudge brownie.

Enjoy. 

Beetroot Chocolate Fudge Cake

This recipe comes from Cook Yourself Thin.

Ingredients

250g Dark Chocolate

3 Eggs

250g Light Muscovado Sugar

1 Vanilla Pod. (cut in half length ways and seeds scraped out)

2 tbsp Maple Syrup

2 tbsp Honey

40g Self-raising Flour

40g Plain Flour

1/4 tsp Bicarbonate of Soda

1/4 tsp Salt

25g Cocoa Powder

50g Ground Almonds

250g Raw Beetroot (peeled and grated)

100ml Strong Black Coffee

30ml Sunflower Oil

To decorate

150g  Dark Chocolate. (I use 2/3 milk 1/3 dark)

3 tbsp Strong Black Coffee

1tsp Vanilla Essence

3 tbsp Honey

Preheat your oven to 150oC. Melt your chocolate in a bowl over a pan of hot water and set aside to cool a little. In a large bowl beat the eggs, sugar, vanilla, mayple syrup and honey together for about three minutes. Gently fold in the flours, bicarbonate of soda, salt, cocoa and ground almonds. Mix until all combined.

Dab the beetroot with kitchen roll to remove excess liquid. Mix the beetroot, cooled chocolate, coffee and oil into the mixture. Put the mixture in a tin and place on the middle shelf of your oven for 1 hour 30 mins. After this put tin foil over your cake and bake for another 30 mins. Your can check your cake is ready by inserting a skewer. (This being a moist recipe might not come out completely clean so use your own judgement on wether you think it's too runny.) Leave the cake to cool.

For the icing melt the chocolate and mix in the coffee and vanilla. This will make your chocolate seize up a bit but then add your honey and it will relax agian. Allow to cool slightly (5mins) then spread over your cake. Add any decoration you want.

I'll let you decide if you think it's a healthier option ;-)