I found myself in the company of a small child the other day. She was to be in my company for 3 hours so i set about aiming to fill up every last second of those hours to keep her occupied ( and quiet ).
Its not that i don't like children, its just that i don't do enough things that interest them, small boys and girls don't seem to get the serenity i soak up when weeding my veg patch and my rather large collection of cook books generally don't tend to come with pop up pictures or buttons which make animal noises when pressed.
I decided to fill our time together with one of the things i know how to do best - bake .
This was also a perfect opportunity to do some experimenting which Ive been meaning to do for a while.
Ive been intent on bakingg with my home grown beetroot for some time now and the repetitive roasting and eating them in salads with some form of goat or sheep's milk cheese is becoming a little tiresome and samey.
I had our morning mapped out, firstly we were to go on a treasure hunt on the scavenge for blackberries in the hedgerows at the sides of the narrow time old lanes that surround our houses.
This was to have two advantages:
1. A good old fashioned breezy walk outdoors was a sure fire hit to make my young guest more than a little sleepy.
2. I could gather a small amount of blackberries to use in one of my baking recipes.
Killing two birds with one stone, came to mind as we smugly set of on our morning jaunt but within 20 minutes i was carrying the happily purple mouthed grinning child on my back, and no more than 4 blackberries got the chance to make it back to my kitchen.
Baking was also not to go quite as swimmingly as i had planned, wandering hands between the mixtures dipping far too easily from bowl to mouth in one swift movement, usually done when my back was turned, little eyes all too keenly watching where i turned my electric whisk on and off , my own eyes on red alert in case she over powered me and brownie mix was insanely whisked all over my kitchen.
The golden promise of licking the spoon and watching blues clues was too much of an allure for my little one, within seconds of placing the chocolate dripping spoon in her hands and placing her in prime position in front of one of her favourite programmes calm and cleanliness was restored to my kitchen albeit at the price of my favourite past time of licking the spoon.
However much calamity had been previously caused in my kitchen the addition of beetroot to my already proven to be exceedingly tasty brownie recipe was a complete and utter shock.My first jaw dropping moment was the enchanting deep ruby red colouring that had engulfed the mixture, it made the brownies look quite femine, a welcoming change from the thick brown mud colour that's the norm. The richness and the fudginess of the brownies had not been compromised, the beetroot had added another kind of density to the brownie, not sickeningly rich but intensely moist and dreamy.
Surely something that tastes this heavenly and oooz's pure pleasure through out your taste receptors can't possibly be in no way shape or form be good for you? I Think you'll find my friends with the help of our pungently coloured root vegetable its as good as one portion of your five a day!
Shockingly Amazing Beetroot Brownies
250g cooked beetroot - how you cook it is entirely up to you
200g dark chocolate ( i used green and blacks )
250g butter at room temperature
3 large free range eggs
250g golden caster sugar ( to make these more less sin full i used 250g fruit sugar )
150g self - raising flour, with one table spoon removed and replaced with 1 tablespoon cocoa powder - sifted.
Handful of freshly picked washed blackberries.( optional )
Heat the oven to 160 (fan ) and line a 30 cm x 22cm backing tray with baking paper.
Peel and puree your beetroot until smooth.
Melt the chocolate and the butter over a bowl that's placed over the top of a pan of simmering water. leave to cool slightly.
Whisk together the sugar and the eggs until the colour starts to go a little lighter, then whisk in the chocolate.
Fold the sifted flour into the egg and chocolate mixture and then add the beetroot and the blackberries.
Pour the mixture into a prepared tin and bake for 20 Min's. At 20 Min's check with a skewer, there should be a small amount of mixture stuck to it, if you think your brownies are still really under done then check them again at minute intervals. Don't get worried that their not cooked and end up leaving them in the oven for another 5 minutes as you will just end up with cake ( but a tasty one at that ). Just be brave and pull them out of the oven, leave to cool before dividing into dainty lady like squares or man fashioned brick sliced slabs, either way their not going to be hanging around long.
I really urge you to try this recipe as its unbelievably good but if like me you have the help of a young assistant i would recommend that the addition of the beetroot is added under its code name of ' The Magic Ingredient', just in case the whole beetroot thing puts them off. The mention that we would be baking with vegetables didn't quite bring the same kind of excitedness for the little one as it did for me.
Its not that i don't like children, its just that i don't do enough things that interest them, small boys and girls don't seem to get the serenity i soak up when weeding my veg patch and my rather large collection of cook books generally don't tend to come with pop up pictures or buttons which make animal noises when pressed.
I decided to fill our time together with one of the things i know how to do best - bake .
This was also a perfect opportunity to do some experimenting which Ive been meaning to do for a while.
Ive been intent on bakingg with my home grown beetroot for some time now and the repetitive roasting and eating them in salads with some form of goat or sheep's milk cheese is becoming a little tiresome and samey.
I had our morning mapped out, firstly we were to go on a treasure hunt on the scavenge for blackberries in the hedgerows at the sides of the narrow time old lanes that surround our houses.
This was to have two advantages:
1. A good old fashioned breezy walk outdoors was a sure fire hit to make my young guest more than a little sleepy.
2. I could gather a small amount of blackberries to use in one of my baking recipes.
Killing two birds with one stone, came to mind as we smugly set of on our morning jaunt but within 20 minutes i was carrying the happily purple mouthed grinning child on my back, and no more than 4 blackberries got the chance to make it back to my kitchen.
Baking was also not to go quite as swimmingly as i had planned, wandering hands between the mixtures dipping far too easily from bowl to mouth in one swift movement, usually done when my back was turned, little eyes all too keenly watching where i turned my electric whisk on and off , my own eyes on red alert in case she over powered me and brownie mix was insanely whisked all over my kitchen.
The golden promise of licking the spoon and watching blues clues was too much of an allure for my little one, within seconds of placing the chocolate dripping spoon in her hands and placing her in prime position in front of one of her favourite programmes calm and cleanliness was restored to my kitchen albeit at the price of my favourite past time of licking the spoon.
However much calamity had been previously caused in my kitchen the addition of beetroot to my already proven to be exceedingly tasty brownie recipe was a complete and utter shock.My first jaw dropping moment was the enchanting deep ruby red colouring that had engulfed the mixture, it made the brownies look quite femine, a welcoming change from the thick brown mud colour that's the norm. The richness and the fudginess of the brownies had not been compromised, the beetroot had added another kind of density to the brownie, not sickeningly rich but intensely moist and dreamy.
Surely something that tastes this heavenly and oooz's pure pleasure through out your taste receptors can't possibly be in no way shape or form be good for you? I Think you'll find my friends with the help of our pungently coloured root vegetable its as good as one portion of your five a day!
Shockingly Amazing Beetroot Brownies
250g cooked beetroot - how you cook it is entirely up to you
200g dark chocolate ( i used green and blacks )
250g butter at room temperature
3 large free range eggs
250g golden caster sugar ( to make these more less sin full i used 250g fruit sugar )
150g self - raising flour, with one table spoon removed and replaced with 1 tablespoon cocoa powder - sifted.
Handful of freshly picked washed blackberries.( optional )
Heat the oven to 160 (fan ) and line a 30 cm x 22cm backing tray with baking paper.
Peel and puree your beetroot until smooth.
Melt the chocolate and the butter over a bowl that's placed over the top of a pan of simmering water. leave to cool slightly.
Whisk together the sugar and the eggs until the colour starts to go a little lighter, then whisk in the chocolate.
Fold the sifted flour into the egg and chocolate mixture and then add the beetroot and the blackberries.
Pour the mixture into a prepared tin and bake for 20 Min's. At 20 Min's check with a skewer, there should be a small amount of mixture stuck to it, if you think your brownies are still really under done then check them again at minute intervals. Don't get worried that their not cooked and end up leaving them in the oven for another 5 minutes as you will just end up with cake ( but a tasty one at that ). Just be brave and pull them out of the oven, leave to cool before dividing into dainty lady like squares or man fashioned brick sliced slabs, either way their not going to be hanging around long.
I really urge you to try this recipe as its unbelievably good but if like me you have the help of a young assistant i would recommend that the addition of the beetroot is added under its code name of ' The Magic Ingredient', just in case the whole beetroot thing puts them off. The mention that we would be baking with vegetables didn't quite bring the same kind of excitedness for the little one as it did for me.
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