Sunday baking: guilt free brownie in Thermomix.

I am going through my Thermomix baking section slowly but surely! I perfected banana bread and now moving on to an apple and pecan brownies. 

I must say, they tuned out so good and the best thing about this dessert, it is very low fat so I can have a few slices, right? 

 I did make a few substitutions though: used wholemeal self raising flour, didn't put any sugar (yep, non at all!), used juicy red apples and buttermilk instead of milk (just add tablespoon of lemon juice in one cup of milk and leave it for 2min and you will have a cup of buttermilk ready to use!).

So so yummy! 

You don't have to have a Thermomix to make them either.

Go here for the recipe. 

I would love to know your favourite brownie recipe!

Weekend baking: wholemeal shortbread cookies with macadamia nuts

100 gr of butter 

200 gr of sour cream

1 cup of sugar (I use brown sugar)

1 table spoon of vanilla sugar (or vanilla essence)

2 eggs

3,5 cups of  wholemeal flower

baking powder (according to the instruction on the box, I added 2 teaspoons per each cup of flour)

macadamia nuts 

1. In a medium bowl, sift together the flour and baking powder . Set aside.
2. Beat eggs and brown and vanilla sugars together. Add butter and sour cream and mix until combined. Roughly chop macadamia nuts and add to the mixture. Slowly add  flour and then mix briefly on low speed until just combined. Make sure all the ingredients are well mixed. 

3. Divide dough into logs, cover and place in the fridge for 2 hours.

4. In 2 hours, get the dough out and let it sit at room temperature for 10-15 min. Take a log of your dough and roll it out 1/8 to 1/4 inch thickness, depending on how thick or thin you would like your cookies to be. I didn't want to make them too thin because of macadamia nuts.  

5. Pre-heat oven to 180C. 

6. Dip the edges of one side of your cookie cutter into flour and cut out your cookie shapes.

7. Bake for about 20-25 min (depending on the thickness of the cookies) until they are golden brown. 

8. Remove from the oven and let them cool down on a rack for 10-15min. I sprinkled some vanilla sugar on the cookies to make the snowy trees;)

Once they cooled down, it's time for a cup of tea!


Join Weekend Baking theme here:

Tuesday baking - pumpkin, ginger and walnuts bread

I love pumpkin! Roasted, in risotto or in salad... here is a new recipe that I discovered on my favourite Russian cooking website - pumpkin, ginger and walnuts bread. It's super easy and yummy! 

Ingredients:

butter 100 gr

brown sugar 50 gr 

(or more depending on the sweetness of your pumpkin)

120 gr of flour

100 gr of  grated pumpkin

1 tea spoon of grated ginger

1 egg

small pinch of nutmeg powder 

(I didn't have any so I just mixed some walnuts into the dough)

walnuts

1. Melt butter and whisk it with sugar. Then add egg, mix, add flour and nutmeg (or walnuts). Mix until consistent.

2. Add pumpkin and ginger and combine all ingredients together. If it looks a bit watery, add a bit more flour but not too much as mixture suppose to be "slushy". 

3. Pour into a lined cake or bread tin, decorate with a few walnuts and bake for 40 - 50 min until golden and when a toothpick comes out clean. Let it to cool down before taking it out of the tin for about 5 minutes, then take out and cool on the cooling rack.

Can be served with sour cream, honey or vanilla ice-cream. I like it just by itself with a cup of Earl Grey;)

Next time I want to bake it in cupcake shapes so it's easier for a lunch box or I am thinking about adding some noodles in it to make a bake....

Bon Appétit!