The Cooking Chook turns 2!

She’s back….. Those who have been following me for a while may have noticed that I’ve been a bit quiet of late. Not for any particular reason apart from life just….happening. I noticed in my calendar that The Cooking Chook was having an anniversary this week, so I thought it was a perfect opportunity to get back on the baking-cooking-eating-blogging bandwagon. But what could I make to mark this special occasion? I turned to one of my favourite foodie blogs, The Paddington Foodie. A couple of weeks ago, I receive an email notification that The Paddington Foodie had published a new blog post titled ‘A Classic Combination. Chocolate And Orange Jaffa Brownie’. It definitely had me at ‘chocolate’. It definitely had me at ‘chocolate’ but I was drawn in hook, line and sinker, at ‘orange jaffa brownie’. Chocolate and orange has got to be one of my all-time favourite flavour combos, and this particular recipe looked absolutely divine. Now, the intention was to bake this so I could have it all to myself to celebrate the anniversary, but on second thought, the brownie was too good not to share with my work colleagues. Since deciding to defer my studies and go back to full-time work this year, I’ve been getting into the habit of baking and bringing my creations into work to share. So far, I haven’t heard any complaints! The feedback on the brownies? Abso-friggin-lutely delicious! To ensure that there was enough to go around, I cut the brownie up into 36 pieces, but I think 16 pieces would be about right if you only wanted to share with a select few.

Chocolate and Orange Jaffa Brownie
Recipe by The Paddington Foodie, adapted from Slice Of Heaven, a recipe by Frank Camorra in The Sydney Morning Herald Spectrum Lift-Out August 9-10 2014.

180g butter
2 tbs coconut oil
200g dark chocolate, roughly chopped
Zest of 1 orange
1 tbs Cointreau
125g caster sugar
2 tbs cocoa powder
100g plain flour
1 tsp baking powder
4 eggs
120g hazelnuts, skinned

Preheat your oven to 170°C (fan forced). Line a 25cm square baking tin with baking paper.

In a large heatproof bowl, melt the butter, coconut oil and three-quarters of the chocolate over a saucepan of simmering water. Ensure the bottom of the bowl doesn’t touch the water. Zest the orange into the bowl and add in the Cointreau. Mix until smooth.

In a separate bowl, add the cocoa powder, flour, baking powder and sugar, and mix until they’re all combined. Sift the dry ingredients to remove any lumps. Lightly beat the eggs and add them, one at a time, to the chocolate mixture. Make sure that the chocolate mixture is reasonably cool so you don’t end up cooking the eggs when you add them. Stir in the dry ingredients until just combined, then fold in the hazlenuts and the rest of the chocolate.

Pour the brownie mix into the baking tray, and chuck it in the oven for around 25 minutes. If you insert a skewer into the middle and it doesn’t come out clean, don’t worry, brownies are best when they are a bit gooey on the inside. If gooey brownies are not your cup of tea, bake for an extra 5-10 minutes.

Allow to cool in the tin, then carefully transfer onto a large chopping board and cut into chunky squares.

Note: I haven’t made any amendments to The Paddington Foodie’s recipe, but if you would like to see the original recipe, click on the link provided above. These brownies are AMAZING served warm with the extra chopped chocolate oozing as you bite into them…NOMS!

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