Dulce, dulce, dulce.

It’s a weakness of mine, it’s true. This is the first post on Millys Mini Kitchen with a DDL theme, but it’s frequently found in my kitchen. I love to pop it into baking- such as brownies or cupcakes, or use it as a filling or topping to something.

But do you know what’s even better? Eating it by itself, with a spoon. Bliss. It’s my guilty pleasure… I’m sure others have worse.

So, I’m sure you’ve heard of dulce de leche. But if you haven’t, well boy are you in for a treat! I swear that once you try it, you’ll be a DDL fanatic like the rest of us.

Before I get onto the recipe, let me tell you how to make dulce de leche. Firstly, you must buy sweetened condensed milk. There’s a few different ways to cook what’s inside the tin, and what I do is often considered a bit risky, but personally I find it the easiest.

Put the can into a large saucepan and completely cover with hot water. Make sure the can is completely covered or it may explode. Bring to the boil and leave for 3 hours. I check on it every 20-30 minutes as the water evaporates and needs filling up.

Dulce De Leche Brownies
From David Lebovitz

115g butter
170g milk chocolate, chopped
25g cocoa powder
3 large eggs
200g sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
140g flour
Roughly half a can of Dulce de Leche – It’s your call how much you use/what you do with the rest of it

Preheat the oven to 175 C.

Line a baking tin/pan (it’s up to you, I used an 8-inch pan) with greaseproof paper. Make sure it covers the bottom and the sides. Grease the paper with a bit of butter.

Melt the butter in a saucepan over a low-medium heat. Add the chocolate and stir until the chocolate is melted.

Remove from heat and whisk in the cocoa powder. Add in the eggs, sugar, vanilla and flour.

Pour half of the batter into the pan. Now you can start having a bit of fun with the dulce de leche! In little pea-sized spoonfulls, dollop roughly a third of the dulce de leche all over the brownie. Scrape the rest of the batter on top, and then dollop the remainder of the dulce and swirl with a pallette knife.

Bake for 35 to 45 minutes. Keep checking to make sure you don’t over bake- remember brownies firm up when cool so I always take them out slightly prematurely.

These keep for a few days in the fridge!

Hi. It’s been a while. There’s absolutely no excuse! But I have been a busy girl.

I’ve still been baking though, and I have some recipes to post.

I’ll be a better blogger! Bloggers promise.

It’s been a crazy summer, and now it’s autumn… I’ve moved flat, I’ve got a new job, a lot of things have been going on and it’s meant I have neglected MMK. I’ve even lost track of following others blogs. My gosh I’ve got a lot of reading to catch up on!!

Lemon cupcakes. There’s nothing better than tasting a fine zesty cupcake complimented by buttery icing.

I love cupcakes, of course, and my boyfriend loves lemons. I made these for him.

I hope you enjoy them too!

Cupcakes:
120g plain flour
150g caster sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
2 tablespoons grated lemon zest
40g butter at room temperature
120ml milk
1 egg

Lemon frosting:
250g icing sugar
80g butter at room temperature
2 tablespoons grated lemon zest
Juice of 1 lemon
Yellow food colouring (optional)
25ml milk

1. Preheat the oven to 170°C/325°F and prepare a muffin tray with paper/silicone cases.
2. Beat the flour, sugar, baking powder, lemon zest and butter on a low speed until combined.
3. Gradually pour in the milk and egg and beat for 2-3 minutes.
4. Spoon the mixture evenly into the cases.
5. Bake for 20-25 minutes or until the sponge bounces back when touched.
6. Leave the cupcakes to cool slightly while you’re making the frosting.
7. Beat together the icing sugar, butter, lemon zest, lemon juice and food colouring on medium-slow speed on an electric whisk until it is well mixed.
8. Add the milk and turn the mixer to the highest speed. Beat for 5 minutes until fluffy.
9. Using a palette knife, frost the cupcakes!

I know, another brownie recipe. But trust me, this is a good one.

I actually made these a few weeks ago, but I’ve been completely preocupied with many things… Firstly sorting out our new flat, which we move into tomorrow (eep!). Then, job hunting. I’ve actually been looking for a new job since April. It’s been… a challenge. I’ve been doing this course which I finished this month, and graduated with a distinction last week. Yay! I was offered a job today, which is great. In the meantime I went on a well deserved holiday last week to Rhodes, Greece. It was great to have a relax (or more like try to relax while I sorted out flat/job stuff)!

Anyway. These went down a treat. I couldn’t stop eating them! The cream cheese on the top gives a nice contrast to the chocolate, while the crunch of the choc chips give a hint of texture. Perfect!

PS. I won’t be updating for a month or so, as we have to wait ages for our phone line to be set up in the new flat. So, while I wait I’ll do lots of baking so I can update lots when I get back.

Marbled brownies
adapted from Deb’s cheesecake swirled brownies

Brownie Batter
115g butter
85g chocolate (milk or dark)
200g sugar
2 eggs
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
100g plain flour

Cream cheese batter
225g cream cheese
75g sugar
1 egg yolk
1/4 tsp vanilla extract
3/4 pack of chocolate chips (as many/few as you wish)

1. Preheat the oven to 180°C.
2. Butter a pan (Deb recommends an 8×8-inch in her recipe). Heat the butter and chocolate in a heatproof bowl over a pan of simmering water (make sure the bowl doesn’t touch the water) until melted.
3. Remove from heat and whisk in sugar, eggs and vanilla until it’s all well combined. Whisk in the flour until it’s just combined and pour into the baking pan.
4. For the cream cheese batter: Whisk all the ingredients in a small bowl until smooth. Using a spoon, dollop the mixture all over the brownie batter. Swirl around with a knife/spatular. It doesn’t have to be neat!
5. Finally sprinkle the chocolate chips all over the top. Pop in the oven for about 35 minutes.

We got the flat! Which comes with pros and cons of course. Pros; we have a bigger, nicer flat and we’re both very excited. Cons? Well, we’re going to have to pay an overlap of a month (£800) as no one has shown any interest in our little flat yet. Also on a stressful note, we have to pay around £2500 tomorrow for the new flat (deposit, month in advance, fees…). Ugh. Estate Agents.

There’s also been an interesting turn of events on the job front. I’ve had some interest from a brand in Dubai. Scary and exciting. Not sure if anything will come of it (or, indeed, if I could actually cope with living in the UAE. Without boyfriend of course.) but I wouldn’t say no to three times my salary over here plus… no tax.

I made this for a special someone, although the dough did not come out chocolately enough. Not sure why, as I put in more cocoa powder than needed… it came out slightly pasty compared to the original recipe. It meant I put in more chocolate, which made up for taste.

The banana gives a slightly moist texture to the bread, while also creating a slight tang to the chocolate bread. It’s good.

Chocolate banana breadAdapted from Joy the Baker

260g plain flour
90g cocoa powder
2 teaspoons baking powder
pinch of salt
120g butter
150g sugar
110g light brown sugar
2 eggs
2 bananas, mashed
180ml buttermilk
100g milk/dark chocolate, chopped

1. Preheat the oven to 180 degrees C. Butter a loaf pan with butter.

2. Sift together to flour, cocoa powder and baking bowder.

3. In a seperate bowl, beat the butter with an electric mixer/whisk for about one minute. Add the sugars and beat for a further two minutes. Then add the eggs and beat for another minute. (Joy at this point says if it looks curdled, it’s fine… mine didn’t look curdled, but if yours does, apparently it’s okay!)

4. On a low mixng setting ass the mashed bananas and the dry ingredients in three additions. When it’s all incorporated, add the buttermilk and mix it in. Finally, add the chopped chocolate (have it as chunky or fine as you wish).

5. Scrape the batter into the buttered pan and bake for 30 minutes. After 30 minutes cover the bread (loosely) with a sheet of foil to keep the top of it burning, and bake for a further 40-45 minutes (TOTAL TIME = 70-75 MINS), until a knife comes out clean. NOTE: my knife kept coming out with goo on it, even though I was sure it was cooked. It turned out it was the melted chocolate chunks which was the “goo”. So keep this in mind; if it looks ok on the top, check it in multiple areas in case you find a bit of gooey chocolate!

6. When cool (20 minutes or so) run a knife around the edges and turn pan upside down to remove.

Those of you who have ever moved house or flat know how much of a complete and utter pain it is. Two weeks and 182427103 flats later (the exact number right there) and we’ve put a holding fee and offer down for a one bedroom flat a little further out of London (an extra 15 minutes on the bus). It may well be rejected as it’s under the asking price, but we’re still waiting on a response. Fingers Crossed.

It’s a lovely newly refurbished flat which even though is only a one bed, is much much bigger than where we live now. There’s even a separate kitchen! Even if it’s a little on the pokey side, I don’t care, at least it’s in a separate room to the living room.

It’s still a pain in the bum though; giving offers, negotiating, talking with estate agents, getting screwed over by your current estate agents (grrr)… I hope wherever we find we stay there a bit longer, because I don’t want to go through this again anytime soon!

On a separate, more upbeat, note (!) it was my boyfriend’s birthday recently, which gave me an excuse to go baking crazy. I decided to make him a key lime pie instead of a cake, as he prefers pies rather than cakes. I used to make this recipe all the time, but haven’t now for a good few years. So I decided to whip the recipe out and give it a go. The lime and sweetness of the condensed milk sit perfectly together, it’s magical!

Key lime pie
Adapted from Delia Smith

For the base:
95g butter
225g digestive biscuits

For the filling:
Grated zest of 3 limes
Juice of 4-5 limes
3 large egg yolks
400g condensed milk

1. Preheat the oven to 180C
2. Melt the butter in a pan over a low heat. Meanwhile crush the digestive biscuits*
3. When the butter has melted, pour into the crushed biscuits and mix well.
4. Transfer this into a flan tin and press down evenly and firmly with your fingers and palm of your hands. Make sure it’s packed down tightly. Bake in the centre of the oven for 10 minutes until lightly browned.
5. While that’s baking, whisk the egg yolks and lime zest for about 2-3 minutes. Then add the condensed milk and whisk for a further 4 minutes. Finally add the lime juice and whisk it quickly so it’s incorporated.
6. Pour the filling into the flan tin and smooth it with a spoon or knife so it’s flat and covering the base.
7. Bake in the oven for 20 minutes until it’s just set (test by pressing your finger on the filling) and serve when completely chilled.

*Each person has their own method to crush biscuits, but I prefer to put them in a big mixing bowl and pound them with the end of a rolling pin. This leaves fine crumbs with bigger crunchy chunks.

For me, brownies are difficult to get absolutely perfect. It’s not just the ingredients, it’s the baking time. I’ve been known to not only overcook, but undercook my brownies also. It’s usually just me, being a perfectionist and all! I strive to get the perfect brownie.

The Hummingbird Bakery comes to the rescue with their recipe, which is so simple to make with lots of room to adapt. I brought these in for my last day at college, and people loved them! I personally thought I had undercooked them, but maybe because I popped them in the freezer overnight this could have helped.

I’ve changed the dark chocolate to milk chocolate. This may be too sweet for some, even though i’ve taken a bit of the sugar out, but for everyone they were really good. If this isn’t for you, and you want a bitter edge to your brownie, just change it back to dark chocolate! This recipe can be adapted to add nuts or whatever you want too.

Traditional Brownie
Adapted from The Hummingbird Bakery Cookbook

200g milk chocolate
175g butter
300g caster sugar
130g plain flour
3 eggs

1. Preheat the oven to 170C
2. Put the chocolate and butter in a heatproof bowl over a saucepan of water on a medium heat. Don’t let the bowl touch the water. Leave this until everythings melted and remove from the heat.
3. Add the sugar and stir. Add the flour and stir until everything’s encorporated. Finally, mix in the eggs until everything is thick and smooth.
4. Transfer the mixture into a baking tray lined with greaseproof paper. Bake for 30-35 minutes until it’s flaky on top but soft in the centre. If you put a toothpick or knife in, it should come out without any gooey mixture, but not 100% clean. Just so a few bits cling on. Leave to cook until you cut it.

A helpful hint; as soon as you take the brownies out the oven, put them in the freezer. This gives it a cleaner cut, as well as sorting out the texture if you’ve slightly undercooked them. Undercooked is better than overcooked with brownies!

Macaroni cheese, mac & cheese… it depends where you’re from as to what you call this. It can be boring or it can be very exciting. This is definitely the latter! I often make macaroni cheese as one of my “quick” dinners, when I don’t feel like slaving away for hours in the kitchen. It can happen.

This recipe is so SO good. It’s definitely tasty, and gives an extra something to a can-be-boring dish. The original recipe has tomatoes in, which I can agree with. My boyfriend however insisted that I “shouldn’t mess with a good thing”… Next time I’m cooking for myself I’m definitely adding the tomatoes in they don’t offend me, and sound like they’re gonna do good things to this dish.

Another thing, this gets better with age. Left-overs (If there are any) will go down really well!

Macaroni Cheese
Adapted from Jamie Oliver

25g butter
2 heaped tablespoons plain flour
4 cloves of garlic, peeled and crushed
3 bay leaves
500ml milk
300g dried macaroni
100g freshly grated Cheddar cheese
90g freshly grated Parmesan cheese
3/4 tsp grated nutmeg

1. Boil a large pan of water and add the macaroni to its cooking instructions. Drain when cooked.

2. In a separate pan over a medium heat, melt the butter and add the flour. Stir this constantly until it makes a paste. Add the garlic and cook until golden and the garlic is sticky.

3. Add the bay leaves and slowly whisk in the milk until it’s all encorporated with no lumps. Bring it to the boil then leave on a low heat, stirring every now and then until it thickens.

4. Put the oven on to 220C.

5. Add the pasta to the white sauce, and stir, taking it off the heat. Stir in both cheeses (leaving a little bit of cheddar for the topping) and nutmeg. Season to taste.

6. Transfer to an ovenproof dish, top with remaining cheddar, and bake for 30 minutes until the top is crispy. Done!

Sorry about the lack of posts. I’ve been suuuper busy but i’ve now finished my diploma, which means lots of baking from now on! I’m so glad all the work is over, I put in an awful lot of effort so lets just hope it pays off. Fingers crossed.

So. Whoopies?! I’ve often heard of these, yet never really thought much about it until last months Sainsbury’s Magazine, where the whoopie graced the cover. Apparently they were invented by the Amish community, and are named by the children opening up their lunchboxes and exclaiming “Whoopie!” when they see what’s inside. I think thats kinda fun.

These are absolutely yummy, and a twist on the cupcake. Also the addition of melted marshmallows in the icing gives it a different texture, in a totally good way. These are easily adaptable; I’ve made almond whoopies with almond extract and ground almond. You could add nuts, chocolate, fruit… much like adapting any cake recipe.

Whoopies
Adapted from the Sainsbury’s Magazine (June 2010)

1 egg
150g caster sugar
75g butter
125 soured cream
25ml milk
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
275g plain flour
200g  icing sugar

Marshmallow Cream
100g marshmallows
20ml milk
125 soft butter
(I also needed to add a touch of flour to thicken the mixture up. You may need this too)

1. Line a baking tray with baking paper and turn the oven to 180C
2. Whisk the egg with an electic whisk until light and fluffy. Beat in the sugar a third at a time.
3. Melt the butter and beat this into the egg, along with the soured cream, milk and vanilla.
4. Sift in the bicarbonate of soda and flour and beat until smooth.
5. Using a wide piping nozzle or spoon, pipe/spoon the mixture onto the tray in walnut-sized balls 3/4 cm apart. You’ll need to do this in batches or use a couple of trays.
6. Bake for 13-15 minutes and leave to cool.
7. For the marshmallow cream, heat the marshmallows and milk in a saucepan over a low-medium heat, stirring until smooth and then cool. Beat the butter until smooth then add into the mixture, beating until combined. Add any flour here until its thicker.
8. To assemble, get two whoopie cakes and sandwich them together with the marshmallow cream. Decorate how you wish.

Times are busy at the moment, I’m cooking but I have no time to write here, which makes me sad. I try though, I try. This is a tasty tasty dish, and so easy to make. I’m a fan of all the ingredients in this, and being vegetarian friendly definately helps.

Of course, a bit of meat could easily be added to this! Don’t ask me what though, I wouldn’t have a clue. But if you’re a fan of the meat, don’t be put of this dish because of the lack of it. The stickyness of the rice along with the egg, ginger, garlic and leeks (don’t forget the spring onions too!) makes it so moreish – It made me go back for seconds thirds.

Sticky fried rice
Adapted from Jean-Georges Vongerichten’s Fried Rice
Serves 2

2 cups rice
3 tablespoons olive oil
3 cloves crushed garlic
1 thumb sized piece of ginger
salt
Half a leek (white and light green only), washed, dried and sliced
2 eggs
soy sauce
2/3 spring onions, finely chopped

1. Add the rice to a pan of boiling water. This needs to be OVERCOOKED to become sticky, so keep adding more water and cook for about 15-20 minutes until the water around it has become sticky.
2. In a pan over a medium heat, add 1 tablespoon olive oil, garlic and ginger. Keep stirring while it cooks until brown; then transfer to paper towls to absorb the oil.
3. Reduce the heat slightly, and add another tablespoon olive oil with the leeks. Cook for 7-10 minutes until nice and tender.
4. When the leeks are done the rice should be too. Add the rice (there shouldn’t be much excess water by now, but if there is just drain it) to the leeks and take off the heat.
5. In a hot frying pan add a tablespoon of olive oil and fry the eggs.
6. Divide the rice and leeks into two bowls, and top each with an egg. Add soy sauce, crisped garlic and giner, and spring onions. Serve!

I’ve been a very busy little bee lately, as I’ve taken slightly too much work on for myself for my final major project (for my diploma). At the moment I do not have much time to cook and bake, which makes me sad. Very sad. Luckily for you I’ve scheduled some ready-made posts for the next few weeks. Yay!

The weekend is baking and cooking time- my “rest” time. These are my favourite cupcakes. I feel that vanilla cupcakes with no filling need to be amazing. They need to have the perfect taste and the perfect texture and the perfect consistency. These are just that. I found them last year, and whenever I need to make a quick and easy cupcake this is what I bake.

The frosting is from the same article but difference recipe. It’s good. Very good. I like sweet frostings, so for those of you who do not have a sweet tooth (you shouldn’t really be eating cupcakes then, should you?!) you might want to make a different icing, or miss it out altogether, as the cupcake is good enough to eat by itself.

Vanilla cupcakes
Adapted fromDan Lepard at the Guardian
125g caster sugar
125g softened butter
2 eggs
2 tsp vanilla
150g plain flour
2 tsp baking powder

1. Pre-heat your oven to 180c.
2. Beat the sugar, butter, eggs and vanilla with an electric whisk for three minutes on the highest speed until nice and fluffy.
3. Sift in the flour and baking powder and beat.
4. Spoon into muffin cases (or cupcake cases, which I used on this occasion- it’s up to you) placed into the pockets of a muffin tray.
5. Bake for 20-25 minutes.

Creamy vanilla frosting
Adapted from the Guardian
2 tbsp plain flour
50ml milk
225g butter
225g icing sugar
1 tsp vanilla
4 tbsp blue food colouring*
*This is an estimate, as I added it bit by bit. Because of the butter you need quite a bit so it’s not a greeny-blue colour. Use as much as you wish, until the colour is as desired.

1. Mix everything together (sift it!) and whisk with an electric whisk for about 5-8 minutes.
2. Using a flat knife spread onto the cooled cupcakes, starting from the outside and working your way in.