Thrifty Tip

An 'issue' that's faced us a couple of times recently has been egg wash for scones.  Being of a thrifty Northern persuasion, I hate 'wasting' an egg on this task.  Sous Chef J commented that we rarely use a whole egg's worth for use with the amount of scones we bake.  So, our thinking on the matter began.  Last year, we'd learned that eggs can be frozen and, when we see some reduced in the supermarket we will buy them and freeze them, beaten, in one or two egg amounts (we just place the beaten egg in a labelled plastic bag and freeze).  These are great for using, once de-frosted, in recipes. 

Our lightbulb moment happened when we spotted our silicone mini muffin cases.  They're the perfect size for a small amount of egg.  What we did was beat an egg, divide it between the silicone cases, place the cases in a container and then froze them.  The next day, we removed the egg 'portions' from the cases, bagged and labelled them and returned them to the freezer for use next time we need a small amount of beaten egg for our scones.








 To use, remove frozen, beaten egg from freezer and allow to defrost at room temperature.  Use as normal.  

Chocolate Brownies

Whilst searching online I came across this recipe which, amazingly, we had all bar one of the ingredients to make.

We substituted walnuts for the pecans in the original recipe so what we had was:-

100g Dark chocolate
100g Unsalted butter (softened)
150g dark soft brown sugar
150g caster sugar
2 eggs (we used large ones)
¼ teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
150g ground almonds
50g marshmallows (we used large ones, chopped into 4s)
100g walnut pieces (optional)

The chocolate and butter were melted in a stainless steel mixing bowl over a pan of boiling water.  

Having been mixed and removed from the heat, the sugars were added.  Then the eggs were beaten in one at a time.  By this time, it was quite thick and had the salt and vanilla mixed through before we folded in the almonds.

Finally the walnuts and then the marshmallow pieces were stirred through the mix.

Having prepared the baking tin by lining it with foil and oiling it carefully, the mix was poured into the tin. 

It was time to bake! So the tin was placed in a pre-heated fan oven at 170ºC for 20 minutes, then we tested the centre with a skewer and returned it for another five minutes. 

After this time, it was smelling delicious and we had to be very disciplined to leave the tray to cool completely on a cooling rack.

Finally, it was cool enough to turn out of the tin, carefully remove the foil and cut into pieces.  We halved the traybake, cut one half into 9 and the other into 16.  Tasting by Sous Chef J confirmed it was "very good indeed".

 Being mindful of the need for easy Gluten Free day out treats, we hastily bagged some up to freeze in individual portions....

Well worth the effort although cannot bear to think of the calorific value. Definitely an "eat me as a treat"