Little Box Brownie

A Baking Blog from Melbourne, Australia

Recipe

Chocolate Mocha Cookies

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Afternoon pick me up? I always need one, don’t you? It baffles me how some people have so much energy all the time, they’re like little energiser bunnies, always go, go, go. I used to think maybe its the food they eat but you know what I think its just the way they’re programmed.
If you’re like me and need a pick me up or suffer from three-thirtyitis and need something to get you through the rest of the day, well at least until dinner, I’ve got the thing for you. I have combined all the wake me up foods into one cookie, coffee, chocolate and sugar. Drum roll please………
Mocha Cookies. They’re soft and gooey, just the way I like my cookies. Be warned they do have a bit of a coffee hit though.
Enjoy xx
Sophia

Mocha Cookies
 
200g butter
1 1/2 cups sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 eggs
2 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 cup cocoa powder
1 tablespoon instant coffee
 
Cream the butter, sugar and vanilla together until light and fluffy the add the eggs in one at a time beating after each addition.
 
Sift in the flour, baking soda, cocoa and coffee together and add to the mixture. Stir to combine. Cover and refrigerate for 4 hours.
 
Pre heat the oven to 150C
 
Roll the dough into balls and place on a lined baking tray, bake for 10 minutes or untill cooked.

Peanut Butter Oat Cookies

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Oh boy, oh boy, oh boy do I have a treat for you today. Peanut butter oatty cookies, she says as she devours the last one. These were so good, I am dreaming about making them again. And bonus they really can’t be that bad for you, lets see.
Peanut butter – good
oats – good
egg – relatively good
chocolate- super good
brown sugar- not so good, but way better that white sugar
This is my kind of super food.
Ahh who am I kidding this is after all a baking blog, you wouldn’t be here if you didn’t have a sweet tooth and enjoyed the odd baked good once in a while.
So enjoy!!
 
Oat Cookies
 
1/2 cup peanut butter
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla essence
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
2/3 cup oats
3/4 cup chocolate chips
 
Pre heat the oven to 180C
 
Cream the peanut butter and brown sugar until light and fluffy, then beat in the egg and vanilla essence. Stir though the baking soda, oats and chocolate chips. Roll in to balls and place on a baking tray, press down lightly with the back of a fork, place in the oven and bake for 10-15 minutes or until cooked.

Chocolate Pavlova

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So I made Julie and Julia’s chocolate pie in the last post with 3 egg yolks and I had the whites remaining. So naturally I had to find a way to use them up, and really what on this earth could be more delightful than a pavlova? Nothing, nothing at all, well I thought maybe chocolate pavlova but I’m a traditionalist at heart and do prefer a plain pavlova, I know!! How can that be being the chocoholic that I am, but come on who messes with a good pavlova? Me, I do, but I wish I hadn’t. Its good don’t get me wrong but it’s not like Mum’s pavlova, which you can find here.

Anyway my great scheme to uses up the egg whites resulted in me having too use more eggs thereby having left over yolks again, but don’t worry I solved this by making some ice cream. Waste not.

 
Chocolate Pavlova
 
6 egg whites
2 cups sugar
1 tablespoon vinegar
2 teaspoons vanilla essence
2 teaspoons cornflour
1/4 cup cocoa powder
 
Pre heat the oven to 180C
Place the egg whites in a clean dry bowl. With an electric beater whisk until the eggs form peaks, then slowly pour the sugar in, while still whisking. Sift in the cornflour and cocoa powder and pour in the vinegar and vanilla and fold through.
Draw a 20cm circle on three pieces of baking paper and place on baking trays. I do this so they all end up about the same size. I also put a little blob of the meringue on the down side of each corner of the baking paper so it doesn’t move. Place the pavlova’s in the oven and turn down the temperature to 100C. Bake for 1 hour then turn off the oven and leave the pav in the oven until cooled.
 
I have decorated the pavlovas with whipped cream, pomegranate and black berries from a tin. I also reduced the juice from the berry’s with about 3/4 of a cup of sugar then swirled it on top.

Chocolate Pie

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Has anybody out there seen the movie Julie and Julia? I’m sure there are a few, if you haven’t you need to crawl out of that rock you have been hiding under and go and rent it! What are you still doing here, go!! 🙂 Its brilliant, I happen to love it. I’m sure the movie introduced many into the world of blogging and some of the amazing blogs out there where inspired by or started because of it.

I personally have never cooked a Julia Child’s recipe, I know how can that be! The way people talk about her beef bourguignon I really must try it. I have looked at the recipe and thought, wow thats a bit full on, so have gone for something simpler.
I’m  sorry to tell you that today I’m not bringing you a Julia Child recipe, I am however bringing you the first thing you see Julie make in the movie when she has had a pretty depressing day, she comes home and says “I love that after a day when nothing is sure, and when I say “nothing” I mean nothing, you can come home and absolutely know that if you add egg yolks to chocolate and sugar and milk,it will get thick. It’s such a comfort”.Yep thats right folks I made that irresistible chocolate pie!!! 

Every time I watch the movie thats the recipe I want to make, forget Julia’s recipes, I want chocolate pie! So last week when the movie aired on TV, I saw that pie and could resist no more. I did a quick google search and stumbled upon a blog that said they had the recipe and it happened to be the actual director of the movies chocolate pie, Nora Ephron. Sooooo there was no stopping me now that I had this hot little recipe in my hand. If you would like the true recipe find it on Sleepless Foodie blog, or use my slightly adjusted version, which of course is more chocolatey and an absolute winner. I think I might just have to make it every time the movie is on, I couldn’t get enough of it.

 
Chocolate Pie
 
Base
1 packet (250g) of arrowroot biscuits
150g butter
 
Filling
 
3/4 cup sugar
3 tablespoons cornflour
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 cups milk
250g dark chocolate
3 egg yolks
 
Melt the butter in the microwave. Place the biscuits into the food processor and pulse until find bread crumbs. Pour in the butter and pulse until combined. Press the mixture into a round 20cm tin. Set aside
 
Place the sugar cornflour and salt into a bowl and set aside.
Place the chocolate and milk into a saucepan and heat until the chocolate melts, then pour in the sugar mixture and whisk. Continue whisking until the mixture becomes thick about the consistency of melted chocolate. Then whisk in the yolks while still on the heat, do this quickly so you don’t get scrambled eggs. Keep whisking till it thickens then pour into the base. Place in the fridge for 3 hours. If you can wait that long!