Cheesecake Brownies

Got an invitation to Zaza's open house. Since the open house was on Saturday afternoon, I only had time to bake on that very morning. Normally brownies would be on the top of my list when I need to bake something within limited time or last minutes.

Choose a new recipe for this occasions since this is the best time to get opinions from many people. It was quite well received. Thanks for the support guys. This shall be a confirmed item on The TeaRoom menu under the brownies list.

Giving the brownies the marble effect.

Soft creamy cheese on a sticky rich chocolate base.

Walnut Brownies

I was invited to a housewarming cum "farewell" party. I was supposed to go with my two entourage - non other than MC and BIL - but they both got food poisoning the night before. Suspected the food they had at Jogoya. Hmm... how unbelievable, they should not have such bad standard, hey, this is in Starhil and the meal is VERY expensive, at least to us middle income earners.

Anyways, I was planning to make some party chocolate cupcakes, but that requires a lot of preparation time and I didn't have time at all last week during the weekdays, and on Saturday (the day of the party) I had to attend the cake decoration class. So, decided to make the brownies which can be transported almost immediately straight out from the oven.

Baked these on Saturday morning...

Then off I went to my cake decor class at Desa Sri Hartmas. Stopped by at The Curve to get the ice cream to go with the brownies. By the time I arrived at the SC and Bernsy's house, it was like almost 7.30pm. I thought I was quite late because we were invited for 7pm onwards. When SC opened her door with a rather surprised look, I thought to myself, "oh no, don't tell me I got the wrong date"... Okay, it's only because I was early. Yeah, haha... I was the first to arrive!

Did a quick tour and nose around SC and Bernsy's newly renovated house, cool and very tastefully decorated. Minimalist concept which might be because they are moving out soon? And look at this innovative way of displaying the wedding portrait! Still in it's shrink wrapped, ready to be shipped soon again.

So, since Bernsy offered, I might as well company him for a drink before the crowd arrived. And since I was extremely hungry, I feasted on some delicious jam tart while waiting for the rest of the food to arrive. Hehe ...

The size of our drinks are according to our erm... body weights. Just joking! Of course it's according to one's ability towards drinking alcohol.

Later, the fruits arrived, followed by the noodle salad, and the roast chicken, and ayam percik and some more wine. By then we had some famous gym instructors - Carebear's Big Blue Bike and Shades - and lets see, those I knew were Wookie and Faz. Made a few enemies, I mean friends, through a few rounds of UNO games, and got myself new Facebook friends too.

Thanks for the hospitality SC, Bernsy, great food, great company. Definately had a lot of fun! Must catch up again before you guys leave.

Kirsty's Brownies

This is a Dutch recipe specially translated to English by Kirsty, MC's best friend from London. MC first tried this from Kirsty's baking and was in love with it immediately. MC flew back from London the last time bringing containers of these brownies.

They are really delicious. However, there are several items to be explored and improved before we finalize this recipe.

The usual panel tasters had approved of this though, with Carebear being the only one who said it's a bit too sweet so far, but I did say though I might reduce more sugar. Or can I be so biased to say that since MFG is ok with the sweetness level, we consider this pass? :p

This is a double chocolate brownies which is very "cake-y" (flaky) and moist compared with normal brownies. This is unlike the previous brownies I made which was more sticky type. The brownies has a hint of crunchiness at the base due to the chocolate chunks. MFG did suggest to have the top made more crunchy. Will see how this can be done.

Sticky Chocolate Brownies

Decided to make this my weekend bake because I was reminded by Carebear about my own chocolate cake and have been feeling like baking something chocolate-base but not "the" chocolate cake. The other reason for baking this is because this would most probably make my other taster happy since this taster in question is a "chocoholic". :)

I think the last time I'd baked brownies was last year. That recipe was okay, but I thought I would like a stickier version. So this time I chose a recipe titled "sticky" chocolate brownies with the description of "gooey and delicious".

The brownies turned out to be really gooey indeed. Sticky and very "chewy" as well. This is a recipe for keep. My question was whether the thickness should be increased or not. I supposed if we want to serve this as a full portion of dessert with ice cream and sorts, it would be better if they are just slightly thicker and of course cut into bigger slices. However, if for munching, this cube size would be just nice - my aunt must have had like 5 pieces tonight. :)

Just baked

Stack them up to serve

Double Chocolate Brownies - Experimenting with internet recipe

I was browsing through some recipes from the internet and had decided to make some with the internet recipe instead of the one I got from my books. The last time I made brownies was a failure even though it was using ready mix pack. I bet Shen must have found it hard to belive since she had made numerous packs and were a hit among her family and office mates.

So I had put baking brownies aside. But, brownies are easy to make and I want to own a good brownies recipe. (easy to make because no need to use electric mixer :D). Hence some more experiment, also thinking some of my food tasters will help me out with both tasting, obviously, and also getting rid of the item in question.

I don't know what to say about the brownies... the ones at the sides were not so nice, too "cake-ky" but the ones in the centre sort of tasted better in terms of texture. I had changed the chocolate chips to dark chocolate chunks because my chocolate chips were expired. Added both pecan and almond, and I did increase the amount of the nuts.

Here is the original recipe.