Baking Challenge 2: Cookies and Cream Chocolate Fudge Brownies

This post is waaayyyy overdue! I have finally had a chance to do another 'Baking Challenge' and this time it's from Lorraine Pascale's Baking Made Easy. In case you haven't read my blog post for the first baking challenge then I'll just explain a bit about it...

Basically I have set myself a challenge to bake as many cakes/pastries/puddings/tarts/desserts/traybakes (and so on) as I can over the next few weeks, whilst I have lots of spare time on my hands before being overwhelmed with my third year dissertation for Early Childhood Studies! I based the challenge on the Great British Bake Off books, but as you can see I have already branched out to other books and bakers.

delicious gooey centre

So last week I made a big batch of Lorraine's cookies and cream chocolate fudge brownies. I had just bought myself a new brownie tin and was dying to use it! I am not usually a big fan of chocolate brownies (particularly if they have nuts in, that is a big no-no in my book). But this recipe looked so delicious I just couldn't resist. I think it was the Oreos that persuaded me!

I have attempted brownies before but the recipe I used seemed quite dry and the brownies came out more like cake. In my eyes a good brownie should be moist and gooey in the middle, and this recipe gives you perfect results!

I doubled the recipe as my brownie tin is slightly bigger than the tin Lorraine says to use, so the recipe below is enough to fill an 8" square tin.

Lorraine Pascale's Cookies & Cream Chocolate Fudge Brownies

Ingredients

• 165g butter, plus extra for greasing
• 200g dark chocolate, grated or finely chopped (I personally found chopping easier- it takes forever to grate chocolate!)
• 3 eggs
• 2 egg yolks
• Seeds of 1 vanilla pod or 2 tsp vanilla extract
• 165g soft light brown sugar
• 2 tbsp plain flour
• 1 tbsp cocoa powder
• Pinch of salt
• 154g pack of oreo biscuits, broken into quarters

Method

Pre-heat the oven to 180C/350F/Gas Mark 6. Grease the tin and line with baking parchment.

Melt the butter in a pan then remove from the heat and add the chocolate. Leave the chocolate to melt then gently stir together.

In a large bowl whisk together the eggs, egg yolks and vanilla until fluffy. Then add half of the sugar, pouring it in down the sides of the bowl so you don't knock the air out of the egg mixture. Whisk together then add the rest of the sugar.

Whisk the mixture together until it becomes stiffer (note: I felt this was a really vague direction, I had no idea how to tell when the mixture was ready so I just crossed my fingers and hoped for the best! I did whisk it for about 5 minutes).

When the mixture is "ready" pour in the chocolate mixture (again around the sides of the bowl). 

Mix in the flour, cocoa powder, salt and a third of the Oreos using a wooden spoon. Pour into the prepared tin and scatter the remaining Oreos on the top, pushing them into the mixture slightly. 

Cook for 25-30 minutes. The middle should still be slightly gooey in the middle! As the brownie cools the top will crack a little, which I think gives it a nice homemade effect.

I served the brownie when it was still slightly warm. It tastes really good with a big scoop of vanilla icecream!

And there you have it! Delicious cookies and cream chocolate fudge brownies. You could substitute the oreos for other things such as dried fruit, chopped mars bar, marshmallows, or even nuts (if you reallllyyyyy have to). After trying these I have been inspired to try making blondies next! Watch this space...

 Happy Baking!

Love Becca