Turtle Brownies

Today is Sunday and I had no plans. I woke up, kissed my lover goodbye & settled in for a day of cleaning, cooking & watching bad Sci-Fi television. Then I remembered seeing this recipe that The Pioneer Woman put up on her blog last week & I knew I had to try it!

Turtle Brownies (as the Americans call them) are brownies with a middle layer of caramel goodness. I amended Ree's recipe to suit my tastes and what was available at the time. Here's my version:

Ingredients
■1 box Chocolate Cake Mix (I Used White Wings Chocolate Cake)
■1 cup Finely Chopped Walnuts
■⅓ cup Evaporated Milk
■½ cup Butter, Melted
■½ cup Nestle Caramel Top'n'Fill (adjust to your own taste)
■⅓ cup Chopped Dark Chocolate or Chocolate Chips
■¼ cups Powdered Sugar

1. Preheat your oven to 160C degrees.

2. In a large bowl, mix together cake mix, chopped walnuts, 1/3 cup evaporated milk, and melted butter. Stir together until totally combined. Mixture will be very thick & similar to cookie dough.

3. Press half the mixture into a well-greased 9 x 9 inch square baking pan. Bake for 8 to 10 minutes. Remove pan from oven and set aside.

4. Mix caramel until it is smooth. Layer over brownie base. Sprinkle chocolate/chips as evenly as you can over the caramel.

5. Turn out remaining brownie dough on a piece of baking paper. Use your hands to press it into a large square a little smaller than the pan. Flip the paper over the mix to easily lay the brownie top on top of the caramel and chocolate. You could also create the square top on your work surface and move it across with a spatula.

6. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes. Remove from pan and allow to cool to room temperature, then cover and refrigerate for several hours. When ready to serve, generously sift powdered sugar over the surface of the brownies. Cut into twelve helpings and carefully remove from the pan.

Enjoy! But remember, make the servings small as it is devilishly rich!

x Sunny x

Sunny's Easy Caramel Pie

This is a quick and easy dessert that is sure to please! Perfect for dinner parties as 3 ingredients is all it takes to have dessert ready, leaving you plenty of time to concentrate on your other courses.

Ingredients:
1 sweet tart shell (available in the freezer section, near the pastry)
400 g can Nestle Top n Fill Caramel
1 cup thickened cream



Method:

1. Preheat oven to 180C.

2. Cook pastry shell in the oven until it is golden brown. Allow to cool completely.

3. Pour caramel into a bowl and stir until smooth. Scoop into pastry shell & and smooth into an even layer. Refridgerate.

4. Whip cream until it creates firm peaks. Spoon whipped cream generously over caramel. Serve.

To decorate you could use cocoa powder dusted over the top, toffee chips sprinked on top or crumble a flake bar on top.

x Sunny x

Bourke Street Bakery

Check out my post on The Life of Sunny about the Bourke Street Bakery!

x Sunny x

Chocolate Fudge

I made this on the weekend for a bake sale & received rave reviews. It is the best fudge recipe I've ever come across & was given to me by my good friend Emily.

1 packet milk chocolate melts

1 tin sweetened condensed milk

1 cup nuts (macadamias, walnuts, almonds)

2 Tablespoon butter

Method:

1. Put chocolate melts, condensed milk and butter into a microwave container. Microwave in 1 minute lots, stirring in between, until you reach a smooth consistency.

2. Chop nuts, roughly. Add to smooth chocolate.

3. Line a tin or container with baking paper. Pour in chocolate mixture and refrigerate until hard. When hard, cut into small pieces and serve.

x Sunny x

De Pho, Chatswood

If you’re going to De Pho there is only one dish you should be thinking of ordering – number 33. Crispy skinned chicken with rice noodles in a beef broth for $11.

Ben & I went for some chicken-noodle-goodness during the week. It is a great place for a work lunch because your food comes out quickly & you usually don’t have to wait long to be seated.

We walked in to the tiny restaurant – and I mean it when I say tiny, they only have 6 communal tables – and were delighted to find ourselves at the front of the line. Because De Pho has communal tables you will usually be sat next to other families and couples all enjoying their meals. The atmosphere is social with people talking across tables & slurping noodles. We were directed to a two person table (very rare occurrence!) and said the magic words “Number 33 please”. Five minutes later our dishes arrived. I use chopsticks like a pro but I always ask for a fork to avoid having to use my fingers to peel the chicken flesh away from the bones.

Ben putting mint into his broth

The chicken skin is crispy and the flesh is soft and moist, falling away from the bones. The noodles are silky and the broth is deliciously beefy and salty. They give you a side dish of lemon, bean sprouts and mint to add to your taste preference but I prefer mine virgin. Ben puts all of it in his noodle soup. Whilst adding copious amounts of mint he says “Man, I hate mint” making me give him a very puzzled expression. He tells me it apparently it tastes great in the soup though! Personally, I prefer my mint to stay in my mojitos.

I like to alternate bites of chicken, noodles and broth but Ben likes to combine them all. By the time we are done Ben’s bowl is almost empty (he’s a man, and spends more time at the gym than I do!) and my bowl is probably only half empty. We are both full to bursting and consider the feasibility of having an afternoon nap. If you’re not starving you could quite easily consider sharing one & just asking for a second bowl. Once you’re done just head up to the counter to pay!


de_Pho
Shop 21 Lemon Grove Shopping Centre
427-441 Victoria Ave, Chatswood

x Sunny x

Pokemon Cupcakes!

This month was one of my best friend's birthdays. So in celebration I made her some pokeball cupcakes! Please excuse my crappy middle-of-the-night-phone-camera photography!

They were very simple to make. Here's how:

1. Make some regular vanilla cupcakes
2. Whip up some buttercream icing and colour half red, leaving the other half white. Gel colours are nest as a liquid will make your icing runny.
3. Ice half the cupcake with the white icing. If you have time, put in the fridge for 20 minutes.
4. Ice the other half of the cupcakes red. Leave in the fridge for another 20 minutes.
5. Melt some dark chocolate in the microwave. Put into a piping bag and pipe a straight line down the cupcake where the colours meet.
6. Place a round white lolly (I used koolmints) on top and pipe melted chocolate around it to keep it secure.

This recipe also works really well with BIG cupcakes, so when making the cupcakes try to fill the patty cases 3/4 of the way up before baking.

x Sunny x

My Favourite Nightcap

In winter I have this every other night before bed & it makes me endlessly happy!

Ingredients:
1 cup (250ml) skim milk
2 tsp Cadbury Drinking Chocolate
A few drops of vanilla essence
A sprinkling of cinnamon sugar

Method:
1. Heat the milk in either the microwave or over the stove. Pour into your cup.
2. Mix in the drinking chocolate. Stir until all dissolved.
3. Add vanilla essence & cinnamon sugar, adapting to your taste.

In a hurry? Just make the drinking chocolate with the milk & its still delicious!

x Sunny x