Week Sixty Six – Mary Berry’s Chocolate Chip Brownies

Posted on Jan 21, 2014 by kimsideas

Week clickedy click, oops I mean sixty six. Anyone would think I played bingo – and actually I don’t- honestly! I chose a chocolate fest of a recipe from Mary Berry’s Baking Bible – chocolate chip brownies.

Mary’s brownie recipe was really simple, add all the ingredients to a bowl and mix- not much to go wrong here! Then pour into a tray bake tin ( one of my trusty recycled Lakeland tray bake foil tins) and level. Pop into the oven and bake!

Once baked, allow the brownies to cool in the tin, then remove and cut into squares and store in an air tight tin. The smell of these cooking was mouth watering indeed and while they were cooling, my kitchen had the most amazing chocolaty smell about it.

My chief taster was home from his stay in hospital so I packed some into his tin for him to try and also made him some cheese scones which he loves s much to welcome him home. It was his birthday yesterday and as we weren’t sure if he would be home, I didn’t get to make him his birthday cake, so watch this space, that will be next week’s challenge recipe!

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Week Sixty Five and what a week this has been! My chief taster has not been well and had to spend some time in hospital and although this cake was made, not all of it got eaten in the rush of all that happened last week!

I chose the lemon yoghurt cake from Mary Berry’s Baking Bible as I thought it sounded quite interesting and was a bit of a change. You need 2 mixing bowls for this as you beat the sugar, butter and egg yolks together, add the lemon and yogurt and beat until smooth. Then fold in the flour. In the other bowl, whisk the egg whites until they form soft peaks and fold into the main cake mix. Pour into the tin and ……bake!

The cake took about an hour and a quarter to bake and then once cool, Mary asks you to mix some icing sugar with some lemon juice and spread over the top. This cake is best kept in a tin in the fridge. I found it quite a dense cake and you didn’t want too much.

I thoroughly enjoyed watching the Sport Relief Bake Off episodes and mostly managed to predict who the winning celebrity would be each time! I made my donation, there is still time for you to make yours- go on, you know you want to!

Week Sixy Four – Mary Berry’s Potato Scones

Posted on Jan 12, 2014 by kimsideas

When I delved into Mary Berry’s Baking Bible this week, I must admit that after the relative gluttony of Christmas food, I couldn’t face two recipes this week but mindful that I want to complete this challenge this year, I will aim to try harder next week!

Potato scones sounded unusual and it was nice to try something savoury for a change. The recipe is like Mary’s usual scone recipe except that you get to add some fresh mashed potato to it! Mary claims that you can make 12 scones out of this dough batch. Well I managed that but they were thinner than I would have liked so if I make these again or you decide to have a go, then roll the dough thicker if you like a deeper scone.

They tasted very yummy when split and eaten with a dash of butter while still warm from the oven.

I was very excited to see that The Great Sport Relief Bake Off is coming tomorrow. I have already set all four episodes to record and will sit and watch each one avidly! I have greatly missed The Great British Bake Off with Mary Berry’s kind words and Paul Hollywood’s stern looks.