Wednesday 29 April 2009

A Midweek Treat


There are a thousand different ways to say I love you. One of them is with food. The simple act of cooking a dish fulfills so many simple pleasures, even before the eating of it.

The recipe that follows resulted in the ambrosial brownies you see above. They were too luscious to eat (almost) so I thought I'd photograph them quickly in the spirit of Spring, just before they disappeared.

The recipe is from Bill Granger's new cookbook "Feed Me Now!" the only chef/restaurateur I pay attention to. He told me it would be "Killah" in his Australian accent and he was right. It is also, (gather round), much lower in fat than regular brownies. The moistness comes from the novel addition of dates. When I snapped Bill doing his thing below, one thing that struck me was how easy and fast it is. Do try this at home.


Healthy Chocolate and Date Brownies (makes 25)

140g butter
140g finely chopped dates
60g cocoa powder
90g plain flour
1tsp baking powder
95g soft brown sugar
3 medium eggs
1tsp vanilla
  • Line a 20cm cake tin with baking paper. Preheat the oven to 160 degrees centigrade.
  • Melt the butter in a saucepan, add the dates, stir well, take off the heat and stand.
  • Sift the cocoa powder, flour and baking powder into a large bowl, add the brown sugar and combine.
  • In a new bowl, whisk the eggs and vanilla. Stir in the dates and butter. Add to the dry ingredients until just combined.
  • Pour into the tin and bake for 20 minutes or until just set. Leave to cool and cut into squares. Enjoy!

Bill sees baking in this day and age as something special, like

letter-writing, I have to agree.

13 comments:

pve design said...

Thanks for the midweek treat - I needed that!

la cuisine bourgeois said...

oh yum...your blog is gonna kill me (in a good way). round robin is about a cute little robin that gets left behind in the winter (the migratory robins leave without him) and he has to fend for himself. haha

oh and as for Le Petit Prince...my quote on my blog is my fav from the book...LOVE IT!

Anonymous said...

Hey there little bird:)

Got your comment and thank you kindly. Mary is quite a doll:)

About the camera and flower photos: they are actually just a simple SLR on micro, with manual focus for shallow depth-of-field effects in natural light:)

I've always adored Dahlias. I see your imagery is quite brilliant... I'm going to read more about 'Clarity' now...

See you in the wind sweets!

Deidra said...

"Healthy" "Chocolate" and "Brownies" all in one recipe! Sign me up!

Anonymous said...

Oh, and the movie was worth the $15.00, mainly because I was sharing it with my little man... it's something I could of enjoyed more at a cheaper theater;)

Purple Flowers said...

In addition to looking at lovely purple flowers, I LOVE brownies!
You are welcome to stop by my blogsite anytime!

VanessasRunway said...

That sounds really delish! & I totally agree yummy food is always a great way to say I LOVE YOU! ;)

jennifer said...

The purple flowers and aqua dish are such a pretty combination...and then of course, there's the brownies!

Kim said...

YEEHAR! I've been looking for a good Brownies recipe for absolutely AGES. Thank you for visiting and leaving a message, I'm now looking forward to browsing your blog :)

Kim x

Honor Woodard said...

yum, indeed. i'm not much of a baker, but....
thanks for sharing the recipe!

Clarity said...

Thank you all, the flowers just felt like Spring to me and the brownies really did disappear... very quickly!

design for mankind said...

oh your blog is looking so so lovely!

The Sophisticated Aesthete said...

Oh, I am going to try that recipe, it sounds scrumptious!
Thanks for sharing.

By the way, check out my blogs if you have the time - cooking and letter-writing are both present. :)