Very Chocolate Afgans

I got home from a long day at work on Saturday and found the husband pining after biscuits. Of course, I jumped at the chance to break out the new KitchenAid. Lester thought that all sounded like way too much hard work after my day at work, but for me, the 15 minutes baking these treats was enough to relax and unwind after a full on day... I have to keep reminding him that this is my relaxing hobby :)

Anything containing breakfast cereal as an ingredient is always going to sound a bit like a children's lunchbox treat, so I make my afghans slightly more 'adult' by taking the chocolate up a notch. You don't need actual chocolate to do this - just some decent Dutch-processed Cocoa - Equagold is my favourite, or Valhrona do a great one too. Just compare the colour to your old cocoa and you'll see why this stuff is the business for making your baking rich and very very chocolately.

I also add Vanilla paste to the biscuit and the icing, and that really brings out the chocolate flavour further.

Chocolate Afgans

Adapted from The Edmonds Cookbook

For the Biscuits:

200g unsalted Butter, at room temperature

1/2 cup Caster Sugar

1 cup Plain Flour

1/2 cup Dutch Cocoa powder

pinch of salt

1 tsp Vanilla paste or real vanilla extract

2 cups Cornflakes

For the Icing:

25g unsalted Butter, melted

4 tablespoons Dutch processed Cocoa

1/2 teaspoon Vanilla Paste

2 tablespoons hot water

2 Cups Icing Sugar

Thread coconut

Directions:

Preheat your oven to 170 degrees fanbake (or 180 degrees normal)

Cream the butter and sugar with a hand mixer, or preferably in the bowl of a stand mixer, until really light a fluffy - a good 5-10 minutes or whatever your arm can handle. Add salt and vanilla and beat again.

Sift flour and cocoa into butter mixture, and mix with a spatula or wooden spoon until almost incorporated. Add cornflakes and mix again.

Roll tablespoon-fuls into balls on a lined oven tray, and press gently with a fork.

Bake for about 15 minutes, or until set. You want to avoid them getting brown or burnt (which is suprisingly easy to do when they so dark from the cocoa), so keep checking from about 10 mins onwards, and remove as soon as they have firmed up.

Transfer to a cooling rack, and ice when cool.

To make your icing - mix the melted butter, vanila, cocoa, icing sugar and hot water together, adding more water and/or icing sugar as needed to make the right consistency (quite stiff). You also want it to be as dark as the biscuits, so add more cocoa if needed. It really helps if you sift your icing sugar first, then you get a really smooth icing.

Ice the biscuits with a generous amount of icing (I piped mine on to get a smooth finish), and top with coconut thread.

Warning - these are completley addictive - and very very good with a cup of tea. We finished these off last night watching Homeland, and I almost want to leap up now and make another batch!

Worth your investment - Equagold Dutch Cocoa and Heilala Vanilla Paste. These Breville scales are awesome too.

This is the colour your creamed butter and sugar should be - this will make them  melt in your mouth

All ready to be rolled

Fresh out of the oven

Red Velvet Cheesecake Brownies

So I'm not going to win any points here for variety (yet...give me some time), but seeing as Hayley commented and asked for the recipe for the sneaky picture at the end of my last post, I'm indulging you all again with some Red Velvet goodness.

Trust me, it is completely acceptable to bake these the same day as Red Velvet Cupcakes. Plus, you just feel SO good using ingredients twice in one go (food colouring - I'm looking at you)

These were for Aimee's mum Jackie, who was a stunning model for our makeup night at work a few weeks ago.

These tick all the right boxes - brownies - tick! Red velvet - tick! Cream cheese - tick! It's the perfect match if you ask me :)

Red Velvet Cheesecake Brownies

Ingredients:
120g unsalted butter
60g dark chocolate, coarsely chopped (I used Cadbury Old Gold). I know this doesn't seem like much, but remember Red Velvet is only supposed to have a hint of chocolate.
1 cup sugar
2 large eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract or paste
1 1/2 teaspoon red food coloring
2/3 cup plain flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
250g Philadelphia cream cheese, room temperature
1/3 cup sugar
1 large egg
1 tsp vinegar
1/2 tsp vanilla extract or paste
Directions:

Preheat oven to 180C. Butter or spray-oil the bottom and sides of a brownie or slice pan (just your normal sponge-roll sized one). Put a long piece of baking paper in the pan, extending up the sides so you can lift the whole brownie out afterwards.

In a small, heatproof bowl, melt butter and chocolate together (I did this stove-top, but you could microwave in short bursts) Stir until combined and very smooth. Set aside to cool for a few minutes.
In a large bowl, whisk together sugar, eggs, vanilla extract, vinegar and red food coloring (preferably use your brand new KitchenAid mixer :). Add chocolate mixture and stir until smooth. Add flour and salt and stir until just combined and no streaks of dry ingredients remain.
Pour into prepared pan and spread into an even layer.
To prepare cheesecake mixture, beat cream cheese, sugar, egg and vanilla extract in a medium bowl until smooth. Distribute the cheesecake mixture in 8 dollops over batter in the pan. Swirl in with a knife or spatula.
Bake for 35-40 minutes, until brownies and cheesecake are set. Watch out that it doesn't get too brown - it looks prettier on the cheesecake part if it stays cream coloured.
A knife inserted into the cheesecake mixture should come out clean and the edges will be lightly browned.
Let cool completely in pan on a cooling rack before lifting out the parchment paper to remove the brownies. Careful - it's pretty soft and delicate.

Cut up and devour. I highly recommend cutting of the edges, then cutting into squares (because then you get to eat all the edges - bonus!)

Don't you love the colour? This would be great at Christmas. Actually, I think i'll put this straight onto the Doctor's Christmas Shout list.

Enjoy, 

Gem