Happy 2nd Birthday Mia!

Happy Birthday Mia, lots of love Aunty Lauren xx

 

Vanilla white and pink layered cake, with buttercream and jam filling and sugarpaste icing.

"Death by Chocolate Raspberry & Orange Brownies"

Makes 24 brownies

Diet Tip!!! Freeze some of the brownies individually, to ration them out and limit the amount you eat at once.

Serving Suggestions: Eat on their own, with fruit, sorbet, frozen yoghurt, or for the ultimate Ben & Jerry’s style treat, use chunks of brownie as part of a sundae, to homemade ice cream recipes.

INGREDIENTS
200g dark chocolate (85% minimum cocoa solids), broken into chunks

100g milk chocolate, broken into chunks

250g unsalted butter

400g soft brown sugar

140g wholemeal plain flour

50g cocoa powder (raw cacao powder for healthier results)

400g fresh raspberries

The rind of 1 large orange

YOU WILL NEED

An oven

A stove

Baking tray (20cm by 30cm, at least 3cm deep)

Greaseproof paper

Wooden spoon

Large saucepan

Hand whisk

Knife

Sieve

METHOD

1.      Heat oven to 180°c (or 160°c for a fan assisted oven) or Gas Mark 4.

2.      Line the baking tray with greaseproof paper.

3.      Put the chocolate, orange rind, butter and sugar in the pan and melt on a gentle heat setting.
Stir occasionally with wooden spoon.
Remove from heat when chocolate has melted.

4.      Stir the eggs into the melted chocolate mixture, one by one, with a whisk.

5.      Sieve the flour and cocoa into the mix and whisk in.
6.      Whisk in half the raspberries

7.      Scrape the mix into the lined baking tray.

8.      Scatter the rest of raspberries over the mix.

9.      Bake on the middle shelf for 30 minutes. The mix will still be gooey, but should be cooked on the top and firm to the touch. If it isn’t yet done, keep checking on it every 5 minutes. (Mine took 45 minutes total)

10.      Cool for a few hours or overnight if possible, before slicing into squares (around 5cm by 5cm). Wipe the knife between each cut to get clean edges on your brownies.
The brownies are very rich so smaller squares are better, it’ll also help you control how much you eat, as these are strictly treats!

STORAGE

The brownies can be stored in an airtight container for up to 3 days.

FREEZING

To limit the number of brownies you can eat, or save them for a special occasion, they can also be frozen for up to 3 months.

1.      Either freeze the brownies individually, if you just want to take one or two out on days when you feel like you need a pick me up treat, or freeze the entire baked slab, with the greaseproof paper still attached for additional support.

2.      Wrap the brownies in double layers of clingfilm, and make sure they don’t get squashed before they are fully frozen.

3.      When you are ready to use the brownies, unwrap them and let them stand at room temperature for 3-4 hours before cutting up.

Death by Chocolate?

“All you need is love, but a little chocolate now and then doesn’t hurt.” – Charles Monroe Schulz (1922-2000)

Since starting this blog, with great intentions, life has taken over and I’ve not since had a chance to carry it on. I have passed my driving test, drank way too much alcohol, joined a gym and baked birthday cakes and yummy treats for my friends and colleagues. Finding the first real topic for my blog was a difficult task, so I have decided to write about one of our favourite things - chocolate.

Chocolate is bad for you. Isn’t it?

We think it gives us spots, turns taut tummies into muffin tops, clogs up our arteries, and rots our teeth. But, it is still the nation’s favourite guilty pleasure - we eat 8kg chocolate each year.

But, should we really feel so guilty about it?

“Death by Chocolate” is the innocent name and commonly used marketing term for deliciously decadent chocolate desserts worldwide. But has anyone ever actually died as a direct result of eating chocolate?

Sure, there are those with severe allergies, and there’s always the possibility of food poisoning. Your stomach might stretch and eventually rupture if you eat too much of anything (please don’t try this at home!), you might choke on a Rolo, or concentrate too much on opening that Mars bar and get hit by a bus, but is chocolate really such a problem?

Not necessarily... There are plenty of excuses to pig out on the brown stuff.

Chocolate is made from Theobroma cacao beans. Theobroma literally means “food of the gods” and it contains lots of lovely natural chemicals that actually benefit our bodies: cacao is a superfood.

It can:

·         Help Manage DiabetesSubjects that consumed more cacao, had lower blood glucose levels, through improved insulin sensitivity, and lower blood sugar spikes after eating.

·         Protect Our Bodies
Raw cacao has the highest antioxidant content of all natural foods – nearly twice that of red wine, and three times that of green tea. Antioxidants stop naughty free radicals damaging cells in your body, causing cancer, nerve damage, and aging skin, so limiting this can only be a good thing! This is especially good news for smokers as they are at higher risk of free radical damage from tobacco smoke.

·         Prevent Blood Clots and Reduce Need for Medication
Flavanols in cacao make blood platelets less likely to stick together and cause blood clots, strokes and heart attacks, without the negative effects of aspirin and other blood thinning medications.

·         Lower Blood Pressure & Sexes You Up!
Arginine causes blood vessels to relax, reducing your blood pressure, and improving sexual function.

·         Makes You Smile :)
Magnesium in cacao calms us. Phenylethylamine promotes mental alertness and aids concentration, while quickening your pulse, causing a similar feeling to that of being excited or in love! Anandamide, known as “chocolate amphetamine”, is not addictive like caffeine or illegal like amphetamines, but creates feelings of elation, without nasty side effects.

·         Aid Weight Loss
Appetite-suppressant properties means it is often added to weight loss products to control hunger.

·         Make You Pretty

As well as slowing down the aging of skin through antioxidants, cocoa is a good source of sulphur which helps build strong nails and hair, and promotes healthy skin.

·         Helps You Sleep
Tryptophan helps you relax, and get to sleep. Zzzzz...

A Snickers bar won’t cure cancer or turn you into a supermodel. It isn’t a miracle, or a substitute for a balanced diet, and with every good deal, there are terms and conditions - you need to be careful about what type of chocolate you choose!

It is the cacao in chocolate that contains all of the good stuff. So, you need to make sure the chocolate you choose contains as much of it as possible, and less of the sugary, fatty, unpronounceable ingredients that don’t do us any favours.

Ultimately, the darker the chocolate, the better it is.

50g a day of organic, dark, sugar-free chocolate is beneficial for your health and enjoyable!

Eat it, melt it, cook with it, drink it!

Follow my bite size steps to make chocolate work for you – rather than working out after eating it!

1.       Once you go black you never go back.
Swap milk and white chocolate for dark chocolate.

2.       More, is more.
Choose the highest percentages of cocoa solids (70-100%) for the biggest benefits.

3.       No added extras.
Choose bars without added caramel, nougat, nutty fillings that bumf up sugar and transfat content.

4.       Take your time. Slow down and savour it! This stops you eating more than you need to.

5.       Drink it.
Replace one of your cups of coffee with a raw cacao drink, loaded with antioxidants and bliss chemicals.

6.       Aid antioxidants.
Avoid milk-based drinks when consuming chocolate, as it stops the antioxidants being absorbed into your body.

7.       Do it yourself!
Bake your own chocolate desserts where possible so that you know what is actually in your pud, and make sure the chocolate used will benefit you.

8.       As always...
Enjoy as part of a balanced diet (too much of anything is bad for you!).

 

References: World Atlas of Chocolate, 2012 / http://www.naturalnews.com/021961.html / Tomaru M, Takano H, Osakabe N, Yasuda A, Inoue K, Yanagisawa R, Ohwatari T, Uematsu H. Nutrition. 2007 Apr;23(4):351-5. Epub 2007 Mar 13. / Katz DL, Doughty K, Ali A (2011) “Cocoa and Chocolate in Human Health and Disease” Antioxid Redox Signal, Epub 2011 Jun 13 / Cousens, G & Mayell M (2001) “Depression-free for Life” Harper Collins / Corti R, Perdrix J, Flammer AJ, Noll G (2010) “Dark or white chocolate? Cocoa and cardiovascular health” Rev Med Suisse / www.livestrong.com / Grassi (2005) “Short-term Administration of Dark Chocolate is followed by a significant increase in Insulin Sensitivity and a decrease in Blood Pressure in Healthy Persons” American Journal of Clinical Nutrition / Langer et al (2011) “Flavanols and methylxanthines in commercially available dark chocolate: a study of the correlation with nonfat cocoa solids” J Agric Food Chem