The Ultimate Chocolate Brownies ... Gooey, fudgy and yummy!

There are two kinds of people in this world, one who like cakey brownies and other who like fudgy brownies... I fall in the latter kind. Before today, i had never baked brownies, because honestly I can't stand cake like brownies or cake served in square shapes and called brownies. Brownie is brownie and cake is cake! 😂. Two totally different things ! Right?

I was always looking for the perfect Brownies recipe, but most of them felt like square shaped cakes, therefore, after a lot of reading up, comparing recipes, pinterest-ing, i finally decided to follow one recipe which i felt wouldn't go wrong.... And oh boy oh boy... Was i right or what !! I found exactly what I have been looking for since ages. Perfectly fudgy, gooey, cracked tops brownie... Martha Stewart, I love you !. It was sooooo delicious that I couldnt even take a picture of the full ready brownie out of the oven because I was too busy drooling over it and then eating from the pan. Took one pic from my daughter's plate when I served her.

Did I mention how fudgy and gooey this was .... loveeeeeee!!!

And you know the best thing? the recipe is so easy and it is ready in less than 60 mins !

Recipe:
1 stick (113gms) unsalted butter, cut into large pieces
6 ounces bittersweet chocolate, chopped. I used semisweet chocolate from Hershey's
1 1/2 cups sugar (if you are using semisweet chocolate you can use 1 cup of sugar only)
3 large eggs
1/4 cup unsweetened Dutch-process cocoa powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour, sifted

Preheat oven to 180 degrees. Line an 8-inch square baking pan with parchment paper
Melt butter and chocolate in a double boiler or a heatproof bowl set over a pot of simmering water, stirring until smooth. Remove from heat, and whisk in sugar.
Whisk in eggs, one at a time, until combined. Whisk in cocoa and salt. Fold in flour until combined.
Pour batter into pan. Bake until set and a toothpick inserted into the center comes out with moist crumbs, 25-30 minutes. Let cool slightly in pan, about 15 minutes.

Basic difference between a cakey and a fudgy brownie is quantity of flour and butter. if you want cakey, increase the flour and decrease the butter quantity and in fudgy brownies, butter is always more!!

Do try this out and let me know how did it go !!

KitKat & MnMs Chocolate "overdose" cake !

By now many may have guessed how much I love chocolates !! I can have them anytime of the day, in any form, may it be icecream, plain, cake, frozen dessert, in a biscuit etc etc. Has to be CHOCOLATE !

I was in Karachi past two weeks and my cousins were constantly after me to make some desserts for them and honestly, I love baking for them because they are the best and praise generously ! They fight over second helpings and that just made me super happy.

During my stay 12 day stay I made 3 desserts, a triple layered chocolate Mousse cake (will share the recipe in coming weeks), Chocolate Éclair Dessert (Recipe here) and KitKat MnM Chocolate Cake. All of them were super duper hit.

The cake inside is a basic chocolate MALT cake (Recipe here). You can use any chocolate cake recipe you are comfortable with.

After the cake has baked and cooled down. You need to do the frosting. This is my personal favorite Chocolate Frosting recipe which you can follow blindly. Beat well, frosting needs to be thick, not runny.

1/2 cup (1 stick or 100grams) butter (room temp)

2/3 cup Cocoa (I prefer Hershey's)

3 cups Icing sugar

1/3 cup milk

1 teaspoon vanilla essence

Beat butter really well until it changes color to off white. Add in cocoa and icing sugar and beat well. Alternately keep adding milk, beating to spreading consistency. It shouldn't be runny. Stir in vanilla. About 2 cups frosting.

Spread the frosting in between the cake and cover the whole cake with it. Now carefully press the KitKat bars against the sides of the cake. Cover the entire cake sides with KitKats and tie a ribbon around so it can hold the chocolate bars.

Generously put MnMs (or smarties or local bunties available) on top of the cake in the center. Cover the entire top. Refrigerate and ENJOYYYYYY

Chocolate Malt Cake = Nandos CopyCat

This is one cake that we used to order for every colleague's birthday  back when i was working !! Chocolate Cake from Nandos. I tried a lot of recipes trying to replicate the cake. I will not say i succeeded in doing it, but i can say that i did pretty well, veryy similar to the chocolate cake thats available at Nando's.

I found this recipe on a blog by buddingbaketress. However to achieve icing similar to nandos, i made a few changes.

And if you havent tried Nandos cake yet, dont worry, this one is equally good. You dont need to benchmark this against some other cake. Its great on its own. A very moist, soft and delicious cake.

The major ingredient in this cake is "Malt chocolate powder". Like, Milo, Ovaltine, Horlicks. The packaging will state "malted drink". Unfortunately you cannot use Nesquik, Cadbury drink etc, because they arent MALT. Please dont use Pediasure, Complan etc - lol

I had shared this recipe earlier in one of the very famous Karachi cooking groups on facebook and a lot of ladies tried this out, testifying how similar it is to Nandos or those never tried the nandos one termed it as an amazingly delicious cake! On my own facebook page, a very dear friend, Mehreen, tried this out and was quite delighted with the result

Please do try this out. It is super easy. No rocket science, trust me!

Sour cream is available in big stores in Pakistan, however if you cant find it, you can replace it with yogurt. Serves the same purpose. Or, you can take one cup cream add 1tbsp lemon juice and let it stand for 10-15 mins, sour cream is ready.



RECIPE:

Chocolate Cake:

2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/4 cup sugar
3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup milk
1 cup Chocolate horlicks Or Ovaltine Or Milo or any malted milk powder
1 cup vegetable oil
3 large eggs
1 cup sour cream
1 teaspoon vanilla essence

Chocolate Malt Frosting
1 cup butter, softened
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
3/4 cup thick cream OR tetra pack cream
1/2 cup malted milk powder
3 cups icing' sugar
4-5 tbsp cream cheese

Preheat oven to 180c. Grease and flour 2 (9-inch) cake pans.

In the bowl, combine flour, sugar, cocoa, baking soda, baking powder, and salt.

In a small bowl, combine milk and malted milk powder, stirring to dissolve. Add milk mixture, oil, and eggs to flour mixture, beating at medium speed until smooth. Add sour cream and vanilla essence, beating just until combined. Pour batter evenly into prepared pans, and bake for 20 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Let cool in pans for 10 minutes. Remove cakes from pans and let cool completely on wire racks.

To make the frosting, in a large bowl, beat butter and cocoa powder at medium speed with a mixer until creamy. combine cream and malted milk powder, Add cream mixture to butter mixture, beating at low speed to combine. Gradually beat in confectioners' sugar(icing sugar) and cream cheese until smooth.

Spread frosting between layers and on top and sides of cake. This cake tastes great when slightly cooled. So do pop in the refrigerator after you have done the icing.