Oreo brownies

I have a brownie pan that is calling out to me to be put to proper use. I bought it during lent whilst I was off chocolate and so clearly no brownies were going to be made then. It did not languish in my cupboard for months however, it has had a couple of outings, first to hold my cinnamon buns and secondly for foccacia bread.

But now the time has come, I want brownies, and the pan can at last fulfil its true purpose.

I had half a pack of oreos left from baking cupcakes at the weekend, and figured waste not want not, and lobbed them in too. If you want plain brownies just leave them out!

Oreo brownies (Adapted slightly from Hummingbird bakery cookbook)

200g dark chocolate

175g butter

300g caster sugar

115g plain flour

15g cocoa powder

3 eggs

Oreos broken up (optional)

Preheat the oven to 170^oC/fan 150^oC and line you brownie pan with baking parchment.

Melt the chocolate and butter until smooth (I did this in a bowl over a pan of barely simmering water).

Once melted, remove the butter chocolate mix from the heat and stir in the sugar until fully incorporated.

Add the flour and cocoa powder to the bowl and mix until combined.

Beat the eggs lightly with a fork and add to the bowl, mix until smooth and then finally stir through the oreos.

Pour the mixture into the prepared pan and cook for 30-35 minutes until lightly flaky ontop but not overcooked.

Leave to cool in the pan then cut into chunks.

A few notes, I only had 7 oreos left but I think 10 would be a good number to go in oreo brownies.

These brownies were lovely and fudgy in the middle, and I am one of those people who like a bit of a crisper edge, however my very corner pieces were maybe a tad crisper then even I like. I think next time I would cook them in my oven for 30 minutes. Every oven varies so it may be a case of trial and error with your brownies, even so I have no doubt that they will be delicious.

Finally my recipe says to cut into 12 chunks, even as an avid brownie lover that seemed large! So I cut into 20 chunks, I have no issues with people going back for seconds!

Easy Focaccia

This is a nice and easy focaccia bread that takes minimal effort from you, the bread does the rest of the work!

The recipe below is for a plain focaccia bread, feel free to tart it up with whatever takes your fancy.

You could use favoured olive oil to add a different taste, or sprinkle over some rosemary before cooking. Alternatively you could add ingredients to your dough before kneading, such as chopped olives, chopped sundried tomato, chilli flakes or any combination of the above.

Plain Focaccia bread (Hairy Bikers)


makes 1 loaf


500g strong white flour
7g sachet of fast action fried yeast
1 tsp caster sugar
1 tsp fine sea salt
2 tbsp olive oil + extra for greasing
300ml warm water


3 tbsp olive oil 
2 tbsp sea salt flakes
1 tsp ground black pepper


Put the flour, yeast, sugar and salt into a bowl. Mix the olive oil and water and add to the dry ingredients. 


Stir with a wooden spoon, then bring the dough together with your hands.


Knead the dough, on a lightly floured surface, for 5 minutes until smooth and elastic and then place into a lightly oiled bowl. 


Cover the bowl with clingfilm, leave in a warm place and allow the dough to rise and double in size  for about an hour.


Lightly oil a large baking tray (I used my brownie tin as my baking sheet does not have suitable sides). Tun the dough onto a floured surface and knock it back. Press the dough into a rectangle roughly the size of your baking tray. Carefully place the dough o the baking tray and ease it out to meet the sides.

Cover with oiled clingfilm and leave in a warm place to rise for a further 30 minutes. 


Preheat the oven to 220/200 fan. After 30 minutes your dough should look light and spongy. Remove the clingfilm  and use your finger to push dimples in the dough, right through to the bottom of the tray. 

Drizzle the olvie oil over the top of the dough, allowing it do trickle into the dimples. Sprinkle your salt and pepper over the dough along with any other toppings as you so wish.

Bake in the centre of the oven for 15-20 minutes, unti lwell risen and golden brown. 

This bread lends itself to dipping in olive oil and balsamic vinegar, or as part of a platter style meal.

We filled it with left over chicken, mozzarella, fesh basil and pesto and put it in a sandwich press to make a divine evening meal.

Raspberry champagne cupcakes

Phew I have just finished a marathon 3 1/2 hour baking bonanza. I wanted to make cupcakes as a thank you to someone, and not knowing what they liked I went for 3 different types!

I decided on raspberry champagne, cookies and cream and a rather special vanilla coconut (more on that in a later post).

If you are lucky enough to live in Edinburgh you may have heard of the cuckoo bakery and there seemingly never ending range of cupcakes. Check them out on facebook or visit their website here. The raspberry champagne cupcake recipe is courtesy of them, you can find it here.

The cupcakes themselves are not hard to make, they just take a little longer as they are assembled in a few stages. First the cake is made and allowed to cool, it is then filled with a champagne raspberry jam mix and finally topped with a champagne buttercream frosting.

The recipe makes 12, so I halved it to get 6, my cakes rose a little too well, I reckon that I could actually get 7 from it. Besides the frosting covered the dome so it was no huge problem.

The cupcake is lovely, I can definitely taste the champagne in the frosting and it gives the raspberry jam such a lovely fizzy tang. I personally feel it does subtly flavour the sponge, though you may not be aware that the flavour is champagne.

Oh confession time, I did not use champagne (shock horror)  I chose instead a cava with a biscuity taste, similar to a champagne. If you wish to splash out go ahead, you could really elevate your cupcakes to the next level!

Caramel Biscuits

These are delicious little biscuits, another from the Hairy Bikers book of baking. They are relatively simple to make, don't be too daunted by the caramel, its surprisingly easy.

The only thing that I would not do, that the recipes suggests, is flattening your biscuits before they go in the oven. As they spread. A lot. I reckon they will flatten and spread by themselves without any help before they go in the oven.

So although my biscuits spread a little too much (thank heavens for palette knives or they would still be on the baking sheet!) and certainly will not win any prizes in a beauty contest they do taste divine. Crunchy caramel on the very edges of the biscuit and soft chewy caramel within the biscuit itself. These are just lovely. 

Caramel Biscuits

50g caster sugar

tbsp water

150g caster sugar (I used 100g caster and 50g light brown sugar thanks to not buying caster sugar)

125g butter

150g plain flour

1/2 tsp baking powder

First make the caramel, heat the sugar and water over a low heat, stirring occasionally, until the sugar has dissolved. Then turn up the heat and allow to simmer gently, without stirring, until the sugar turns a golden brown caramel colour.

Pour the caramel onto a baking sheet lined with baking parchment and tilt the tray so that a nice even layer of caramel forms. It does not matter what shape it is, it will be broken up. Mine looks like some sort of amoeba. Leave the caramel to harden and cool for at least 15 minutes. DO NOT TOUCH HOT SUGAR!

Preheat the oven to 180/160 fan

Cream together the butter and sugar with a wooden spoon until light and creamy. 

Add in the flour and baking powder and stir to combine. 

Take the cooled caramel and snap/bash into small (3-5mm) pieces and stir in to the dough. 

You will most likely need to bring the dough together with your hands, it is very short and crumbly.

Roll the dough into balls and place onto baking sheets lined with baking parchment. Makes sure they are placed well apart as they will spread a lot during baking. I found the dough was a little short to roll really well so I used a tbsp to scoop up balls of dough and gently deposited them on the sheets.

The recipe says to flatten the balls to 1cm thick but I would not recommend doing this as they spread really thin, maybe just a little squish with your hands to secure them to the sheet is best.

Cook for 10-12 minutes until golden.

Leave to firm up on the sheets then transfer the biscuits to a wire rack to cool 

Wholegrain spelt, chorizo and ham bread

Feeling all sugared out after the excess of Easter it was quite clear that my next project would have to be a savoury one. Thankfully the Hairy bikers once again came to my rescue with a delicious sounding wholegrain spelt, ham and chorizo loaf.

The first test was tracking down the spelt flour but I easily found it in Sainsbury’s, the first place I looked. I suspect the other supermarkets may stock it also.

You need a little time to make this but it is well worth the effort.

Wholegrain spelt bread with chorizo and ham (Hairy Bikers, Big book of baking)

450g wholegrain spelt flour

2tsp baking powder

7g sachet of fast action yeast

1 tsp salt

300ml water

75g sliced chorizo torn into pieces

100g sliced ham torn into pieces

Mix the flour, baking powder, yeast and salt in large bowl.  Add the water and mix well until a dough forms, I started with a spoon and then moved in with my hands. Tip the dough onto a floured surface and knead for 1-2minutes. The gluten in spelt is fragile so this is all the kneading that it needs.  Place the dough in a lightly oiled bowl and cover with clingfilm. Leave to double in size,~ 1 hour.

Preheat the oven to 180/160^oC and lightly flour a baking sheet. Tip the dough onto a floured surface, and knock it back. Roll out the dough into a rectangle 20cm by 30cm, and then scatter the dough evenly with the torn up meat. 

From the short side, roll up the dough, just like a swiss roll. Place the loaf onto the baking sheet, join side down. 

Cook for 45-50 minutes until that loaf sounds hollow when tapped underneath. Place the loaf on a wire rack to cool.

This loaf Is delicious served warm with cheese, apple slices and grapes. It would serve four for lunch ( or two very hungry people substantially for an evening meal with ample left over for the next days lunch)