Rachel Allen's Gluten and Dairy Free Pecan Brownies

I made these Brownies a few weeks ago for a party we had for my auntie, who's coeliac. I couldn't put this post up before the party as it was a surprise. The party itself turned out to be a roaring success, all the food we made was gluten free and it was all delicious! 

Ingredients for these brownies are unusual, the amount of rice flour used is minimal and I was curious what they would turn out like.......

Ingredients and Measurements

125g Dark Chocolate

225g Soft Dark Brown Sugar

125ml Sunflower Oil

0.5tsp Vanilla Extract

2 Eggs

75g Ground Almonds

25g Rice Flour

0.5tsp Salt

0.5tsp Gluten Free Baking Powder

75g Chopped Pecans

Temperature

180 degrees Celcius

Cooking Time

45 minutes

This recipe is so easy! Everything is mixed together in one bowl so even the wash up is easy! Melting the chocolate is first up followed by adding all the wet ingredients and whisking together. Once these are well combined, fold in the dry ingredients until everything is mixed together.

The recipe says to take them out of the oven when "the middle of the cake wobbles slightly when you shake the tin and a skewer inserted into the centre should come out with a little moisture on it." Honestly, that scares me a bit as I was afraid to undercook them, so I 'technically' overcooked them. They turned out perfect and were sticky just as brownies should be. 

Leaving them out to cool before cutting, my sister suggested I dust them with icing sugar to make them look even better. I always think icing sugar gives a great 3D effect to the cakes on the plate so I didn't have to be persuaded too hard!

The Verdict

Dee-licious! Quite a nutty flavour off these brownies, not surprising as most of their ingredients are nuts! The plate was virtually licked clean and there was not a single brownie left. All the family commented on how delicious they were and my auntie was delighted to be able to indulge and not have to hold back on all the tasty treats!

Mary Berry's Fruit Scones

The first recipe up is from Mary Berry's cookery course - I purchased this book last week and have been perusing it for the last week as to where I would start - Fruit Scones are always a winner for me and seemed a good place as any to start! I have made scones many times before but the recipe my mam has does not use eggs so I was excited to try it out and see what difference they made. 

As you can see from the ingredients below, I don't buy the most expensive out there or anything like it; in fact I usually go for the own brand stuff...

Ingredients and Measurements

75g Butter

350g Self Raising Flour

1.5tsp Baking Powder

30g Caster Sugar

75g Sultanas

150ml Milk

2 Large Eggs; beaten

Temperature

220 degrees Celsius

Cooking Time 

10 minutes (mine cooked in 16)

In my baking adventures I like to use the cheats method; in step two Mary requests that I rub the butter and flour together as I learned in my Home Economics class - I decided to ignore this request and go ahead and use my food mixer to blitz the butter and flour in to a fine crumb! When I was pouring the caster sugar in, a large lump of sugar fell out at the last minute - separating when it hit the flour - this brought the weight up to 40g, I managed to reclaim some of it but ended up with 34g instead of 30g - I don't think it would have made that much difference to the recipe but at least I tried to be accurate. 

So, it turns out I'm useless with measurements. The recipe calls for the dough to be rolled to 'about 2cm deep' - I guessed what this looked like so who knows! Mary reckons I'll get 10 scones from my 6cm cutter, mine was about 5.5cm and I ended up with 16 (I realise there are only 14 in the picture - I got curious and my sister helped my curiosity along with the help of our friends jam and cream!). After the suggested cooking time of 10 minutes I reckoned they looked a bit pale, in total they were on for 16 minutes and turned out perfect. 

The Verdict

Delicious! Easy to make and I will be using this recipe for my scones from now on as I loved the light fluffy texture the egg gave to them and the golden brown colour it gave to the top. Well done Mary - we shall meet again!