easter baking

Time to do some baking for Easter - hot cross buns of course as the bought ones never compare to homemade. Also made a brownie recipe I have been wanting to try...part of the continuing search for the most perfect brownie recipe!

I tried a new recipe for hot cross buns, from the Foodlovers website, I usually make them a la Alison Holst. I didn't put any peel in as I hate the stuff, but added some grated orange zest. I baked them in a round cake tin for a change, which looked nice and kept the buns from forming too thick a crust while baking. For the crosses I made a frangipane mixture (added more flour than usual to stop it spreading too much) instead of that nasty flour and water paste that sticks to your teeth.

The Chocolate and macadamia nut brownies come from Belinda Jeffery's Mix and Bake. I love my brownies to be extremely gooey. These brownies are bordering on cakey with a moist centre, although I probably cooked them for 5 minutes too long for the way I like to eat them. I always find it a little frustrating with brownies that they never cook evenly - to get the middle a perfectly gooey consistency rather than raw, the outer pieces have to suffer for it and end up a bit dry. These brownies are a little sweet for my liking, maybe because there was no cocoa in the recipe? So I dusted them fairly liberally with dutch cocoa powder. Normally I am more of a purist with brownies, preferring them to be addition free, or at the most with a handful of raspberries to cut through the sweetness. But the macadamias worked well with this style of brownie. Not the perfect recipe though.

chocolate and macadamia brownies

180g dark chocolate - I used Cadbury Old Gold

250g butter

4 eggs

1 3/4c caster sugar

1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract

1 c flour

70g macadamia nuts, toasted and roughly chopped

100g dark chocolate, roughly chopped

Melt the butter and chocolate over a low heat until combined. Cool a little then ad he sugar. Whisk in eggs one at a time, then the vanilla. Stir in chocolate taking car not to overmix. Fold in nuts and chocolate. Pour into a 23cm square tin and bake at 180 for 40 minutes.

We are heading up the West Coast over Easter for a tiki tour, so hoping to eat some interesting food along the way, having dinner tonight at a restaurant that specialises in water buffalo (breeding and cooking it!)