Little Box Brownie

A Baking Blog from Melbourne, Australia

Sweet

Blackberry Slice

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A few weeks ago months ago (man times flies), I headed to the country in pursuit of an old 50’s bond wood caravan. I found one on gumtree which was 3 hours away. I know totally nuts, who drives 3 hours to look at a old caravan? Me, thats who! I put it down to my mid life no scratch that my quarter life crisis, most people buy fast red cars, not me I go looking for the old vintage stuff.
So I headed off to the country with my Mum, who I persuaded to come along with me for the company, that and I need a car with a tow-bar on it. See totally nuts I don’t even have a car that can pull a caravan!! Anyway we headed off and because we where out in the county I figured that would be the place to find an old caravan just incase the one we where off to see wasn’t right, which sadly it wasn’t. So this is how the trip went the whole way there and back, yep 6 hours of it, well something to this effect.
Mum is that a caravan?
No its a truck
Is that a caravan?
No its a sheet on someones clothes line
Mum is that a caravan?
Yes but too modern
Is that a caravan
No its a goat
Is that one?
No its a car
Is that one?
Yes but too modern
Until…
Is that a caravan??
No its not a caravan its just an over grown carport
Are you sure, it looks like a caravan to me?
So Mum jumps out to have a look and sure enough its an old wooden caravan.
The owner a older gentleman, Joe, happened to be in his garden and comes out. He shows me the caravan which sadly had been sitting there a very long time and the whole back of it had fallen out and the contents of the caravan were slowly finding there way to the great outdoors. It was a bit far gone for my handy woman skills.
Joe lives in a little town about 1.5 hours from Melbourne, where he has an amazing garden filled with all types of veggies. Joe and my Mum got on like a house on fire, as they both share a love of gardening, we were at Joe’s for about an hour with them discussing the way to plant different types of plants. We left Joe’s with a few rather large bags of plant cuttings for my Mum to plant.
Dotted all along the road side near Joe’s where blackberry plants which reminded me of where I lived as a child, there were no blackberries on the bush, however it gave me a craving for that sweet juicy taste that only blackberries have, so when I got back to Melbourne I decided I would whip this next recipe up for you, which unfortunately uses canned blackberries rather than fresh ones but hey, its sweet and delicious.
Blackberry Slice
 
Filling
 
1 can blackberries with liquid (415g)
1 cup sugar
 
Pastry 
 
200g butter
2 cups flour
1/3 cup almond meal
1/2 sugar
1 egg
1 tablespoon water
 
Pre heat oven to 150C
 
Place the blackberries and sugar into a saucepan and simmer until  the mixture starts to thicken. Remove from the heat and set aside.
 
Place the butter, flour, almond meal and sugar in a food processor and pulse until it resembles fine bread crumbs. Then pulse in the egg and water until a dough forms. Remove from the processor and knead a couple of times. Press half the dough into a lines 25X20 cm tin. Pour in the filling and then roll out the remaining dough and cut into strips, lay these over the top to form a lattice pattern. Place in the oven and bake for 30mins or until golden.
 
 

The easiest fruit loaf you will ever make

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My Mum doesn’t bake very much, well not at all really, but this loaf she has been making it quite a lot lately. She has been changing the recipe each time she makes it, she has made fig ones and cranberry ones, this one though was my favourite apricot and prune. The recipe hails from good old New Zealand and is from G, a lady who for all my life has always been there for me. Its her 1 cup loaf, she puts in one cup of everything, its pretty healthy, well its probably the healthiest baked good to make it to this blog. My mum took out some of the sugar which I think made it even better for the apricot and prune one as the fruit are very sweet themselves. I hope you enjoy, I’m pretty sure you will.

One cup wonder Fruit Loaf
 
1 cup oat bran
1 cup of raw sugar (you can reduce this to 1/2 cup depending on the fruit you use)
1 cup self raising flour
1 cup of dried fruit (anything you like)
1 cup milk
 
Pre heat a oven to 170C
 
Mix the dry ingredients together and add the milk, the mixture will seem very wet but this is normal. 
Pour into a lined loaf tin and bake for 1 hour or until cooked. Test with by inserting a skewer into the centre of the loaf, if it comes away clean the its cooked. Cool on a wire rack.

The Biggest Baddest Chocolate Cake Ever

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Ok so this past week I have been pretty quiet on the blogging front, the truth be told I have been living in denial, you see last week, last saturday to be precise I turned the big Three Zero. My plan was to let my thirtieth birthday slip away quietly, I had planed on a quite night with a bottle of wine and some take out. That however was very far from what was about to happen. You see little did I know my sister had planed a surprise birthday party for me. She must have spent days planning it, she had made and assortment of cupcakes, biscuits and cakes. She said she wasn’t letting me hideout that my thirties had to be celebrated with a bang. So thank you to all the wonderful people that came and helped me see out my twenties and celebrate the beginning of my thirties.

I had always thought that 30 year olds had there life’s together, but now that I have hit this milestone I can say its not the case, well certainly not for me. I don’t feel like I’m 30 I don’t feel like I have it altogether yet, I need more time!! My brother gave me some good advice, he said you can’t go backwards so you better enjoy what you have and embrace life, embrace your thirties and do what you want to do. So for the next decade I plan on doing just that embracing my thirties. And what better way to start than with the biggest baddest chocolate cake ever, made by my Mum who doesn’t bake, just for me, well maybe not just for me I promise to share some.
Chocolate Mud Cake
 
250g butter
250g dark chocolate
185ml hot instant coffee
550g white sugar
150g self-raising flour
150g plain flour
60g cocoa powder
1/2teaspoon baking soda
4 eggs
2 tablespoons vegetable oil 
125ml milk
 
Frosting
 
200g butter
300g sour cream
3 cups dark chocolate
4 cups icing sugar
3 tablespoons brandy
 
Pre heat the oven to 140C
 
Place the butter, chocolate, coffee and sugar into a saucepan and heat on a medium temperature until the chocolate and butter have melted, set aside.
 
Sift the flours, cocoa and baking soda into a bowl, and make a well in the centre. Combine the eggs oil and milk and pour into the flour mixture and stir to combine.
Pour in the chocolate mixture and stir through, then pour into three lines 23cm cake tins. Bake for 1 hour and 30minutes or until cooked, test with a skewer.
 
 
 
To make the icing, combine the butter and sour cream together with an electric mixer. 
Melt the chocolate in a double boiler or the microwave and then pour into the butter mixture white still beating. Sift the icing sugar in and fold through, pour in the brandy and combine.
Ice the cake when cooled

Chocolate pin wheel bread

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There is nothing more inviting than freshly cooked bread, that sweet aroma wafting through the house on a cold winters day. I remember many moons ago my parents were selling one of the many family homes I lived in as child, we moved around a lot. Dad decided to bake some bread, as after all thats what they tell you to do when selling a home. I guess its suppose to make it homely and invite you in and say sure sit down, this is where you can see yourself living. Well my dad isn’t much of a baker and he burnt the bread, so the house didn’t have that warm inviting smell instead it stank like a burnt oven. Luckily we had time to open the windows and let the burn vapours dissolve away. Someone did buy the house and we moved to our next home. When one door closes another opens they say.

3 1/2 cups plain flour 
1 teaspoon salt 
1/4 cup white sugar 
1/4 cup chocolate chips
2 teaspoons dry yeast 
1 egg 
1 cup milk 
50g melted butter
 
Filling
1 cup Nutella
 
Place the flour, salt, sugar, chocolate chips and yeast into a bowl and make a well in the centre. Add the egg, milk, and melted butter, and stir until the mixture forms a dough.
Remove from the bowl and kneed on a floured surface for 10 minutes or until smooth, sprinkle with flour as needed. Place in an oiled bowl and cover with cling wrap, let it rest in a warm place until it doubles in size.
 
Pre heat oven to 180°C
 
Roll the dough out on a floured bench into a rectangle with a thickness of about 1cm. Spoon the Nutella onto the dough, and spread it over. Roll the dough up from its longest end, and then cut into slices of about 2.5 cm in thickness.
Place the scrolls onto a greased oven tray so that they are grouped together and touching. Cover with a damp tea towel and let rise for 30 minutes.
Place in the oven and bake for 20-25 minutes.
 
Makes 9