Sour Cream Chocolate Hokey Pokey Brownie Recipe

Sour Cream Chocolate Hokey Pokey Brownie

Recently I received Arla Köket Smetana to test. I decided to use it to make brownies. The Smetana has a 42% fat content which is half of what butter has. Smetana worked well in a brownie. It added slight bitterness, a bit similar to dark chocolate.

The brownie was rich, not overly sweet and slightly bitter. During baking the hokey pokey melted and mingled with the brownie, creating a sticky gooey texture. Hokey pokey has a lot of air and this created gaps as they melted, giving it the 'rustic' look. But there were no gaps in the taste.

Sour Cream Chocolate Hokey Pokey Brownie

Brownie recipe adopted from here.

Ingredients

100 ml flour

50 ml butter or coconut oil

50 ml sour cream (I used Arla Köket Smetana with 42% fat content)

½ cup sugar

4 tablespoons cocoa powder

2 teaspoon vanilla sugar or 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

2 eggs

½ teaspoon salt

½-1 cup hokey pokey pieces (recipe below)

Directions

1. Heat oven to 175°C / 350°F
2. Melt coconut oil in a saucepan.
3. Add sour cream, sugar and eggs and mix well
4. Add the rest of the ingredients except hokey pokey and mix until incorporated. Stir in hokey pokey. 
5. Add to a baking tin and bake for 15-20 minutes.

Hokey Pokey Recipe

Recipe source: Chelsea. Originally published in the Edmonds cookbook

Ingredients

100 ml sugar

40 ml golden syrup

1 teaspoon baking soda

Directions

1. Put sugar and golden syrup into a saucepan. Heat gently, stirring constantly until sugar dissolves.
2. Increase the heat and bring to the boil. Boil for two minutes. Stir occasionally, if necessary, to prevent burning.
3. Remove from heat. Add baking soda. Stir quickly until mixture froths up rapidly. Pour into a buttered tin immediately. Leave until cold and hard then break into pieces.

Sour Cream Chocolate Hokey Pokey Brownie

Butter Chicken (Murgh Makhani) Recipe

Butter Chicken

There are so many different versions of butter chicken. I think the first butter chicken I had was made without tomatoes. I never realized butter chicken could be made with tomatoes until recently. I have even seen versions that include coconut cream. The recipe below has tomatoes but no coconut cream.

I was recently sent Arla Köket Smetana to sample. I decided to use smetana in place of yogurt to make butter chicken. Smetana has a fat content of 42%, much higher than yogurt. This made the sauce much richer and creamier. A pretty good outcome.

I made extra sauce which I froze in ice cube trays. This will be an excellent addition to other meals, not just chicken. The sauce is delicious, if you make extra it will certainly not be wasted. 

Recipe adopted from With a Glass. I have shortened the recipe significantly, both in terms of number of ingredients and procedures.  For a more elaborate recipe visit With a Glass.

Ingredients

25g butter

2 tablespoons oil

500 g boneless chicken pieces

1 onion, diced

1 clove garlic, minced

1 tablespoon fresh ginger, minced

2 teaspoon curry powder

Chili powder or fresh chilies (to taste)

30ml natural yogurt (I used Smetana)

40ml tomato paste (or 1 cup tomato puree) 

100 ml heavy cream

100 ml water or chicken stock (omit if using tomato puree)
Salt to taste

Directions

1. Heat butter and oil in a saucepan over medium heat.
2. Add the onion and salt and cook until translucent.
3. Add curry powder, ginger and garlic and cook until fragrant, about 2-3 minutes. Stir constantly
4. Add chicken pieces and cook until browned 
5. Reduce heat to low, add yogurt, tomato paste, cream, water and salt, and simmer covered for 30 minutes. Stir occasionally 

Butterscotch Banana Cake Recipe

Butterscotch Banana Cake

This butterscotch banana cake has a strong banana caramel flavor as well as a darker color. This is achieved by caramelising the sugar and cooking bananas in the caramel. 

Tuna Puff Recipe

Tuna puff

The ingredients and procedure for making tuna puff resembles bread and butter pudding, albeit less custardy and certainly not sweet. This is a delicious alternative to a simple tuna sandwich, though not as quick to prepare. And it looks quite different from a sandwich. The end result is crusty and moist. Unfortunately the pictures don't do it justice.

Note: the recipe suggests draining the tuna. I used tuna in oil, didn’t drain it and skipped the butter. 

Tuna puff

Source: Cooking Cache

Ingredients

2 small cans tuna

½ cup milk

2 tablespoon melted butter or margarine (skip if using undrained tuna in oil)

2 eggs, separated

3 tablespoons lemon juice

¼ onion, chopped

1 teaspoon salt

½ teaspoon pepper

4 slices bread, torn into pieces

Paprika

Directions

1. Mix tuna, milk, butter, egg yolks, lemon juice, onion, salt and pepper
2. Add bread and mix well
3. Beat egg whites until stiff, fold into tuna mixture.
4. Pour into greased two-quart casserole; sprinkle with paprika. Bake uncovered at 350°F / 175°C for one hour.

Tuna puff

Easy Puff Pastry Cinnamon Rolls Recipe

Cinnamon rolls

This is a really quick and easy version of the cinnamon bun or cinnamon roll. Using puff pastry instead of the bread dough saves a lot of time and effort. And it produces a different result. The rolls are crispy and buttery. And probably more tasty, but that’s debatable.

I also added chopped almonds and raisins to one batch. Nuts added crunch to the already crunchy puff pastry.

I used a square 10cm x 10cm sheet of pastry and ended up with mini cinnamon rolls. You can use a much larger sheet to get larger (or more normal sized) rolls.

Coconut Custard Cake Recipe

Coconut Custard Cake

Easy recipes producing great results are fantastic. This is one of them. The assembly is easy, mix all ingredients together in no particular order. What you end up with is a cake with an aromatic crusty coconutty outer layer concealing velvety smooth custard inside. 

Spinach Polenta Chili Crackers Recipe

Spinach Polenta Chili Crackers

These crackers are healthy, low fat and very simple to make. The spinach flavor is mild. If you don’t like spinach but want to eat it, this could be a way. The crackers are great on its own, with dip or as a replacement for nachos. And they are pretty addictive, even though they are healthy!

French Warm Lentil Salad Recipe

Warm Lentil Salad

This is a really simple and delicious salad. It’s a French creation going by the name of salade tiède aux lentilles.

The recipe suggests cooking lentils in stock. I didn’t have stock and instead used salted water with allspice. You can use pretty much any flavourings to suit your taste, even plain salted water will be fine since the vinaigrette will add flavour