Thursday's challenge

Matt, my husband, had requested no more cake until August 10th. I was a bit disappointed but was happy enough to encourage him in a mini-health kick; it would just have to be inventive salads for a few weeks. But I was thrilled when my friend Katie requested a bake to celebrate her birthday.

Katie doesn't live close to me, but a happy coincidence meant that I would have the chance to see her just a couple of days after her birthday. The challenges of this bake were:

1. Katie had requested something chocolaty (not very restrictive) 
2. I would have transport the bake on a 4 hour, 2 change train trip across south west England (more restrictive) 
3. I left myself with limited time to make the bake due to a late finish at work and lots to do the night before the aforementioned train trip (not as restrictive as it should have been).

I decided that brownies would be the thing. The chocolate criteria would definitely be met plus they are not delicate and don't require icing so would be ok for the transport restrictions. I wasn't sure about the time thing. The brownies I usually make are gluten free, require significant separation of eggs and are not that quick. I wanted to try something different, probably with white chocolate. I felt reasonably confident that I could find something suitable. I also had it in mind that I wanted to use cranberries, in the belief that I had a pack at the back of the baking cupboard.

I found a few recipes for white chocolate brownies (I think the trendy name for these is blondies) and chose the one that looked both easiest and most adaptable for my requirements.

I made a start and swiftly realised that I had less than 50g of the 400g of white chocolate that I needed. On further inspection the main bake only required 300g; the rest was for chocolate chunks. Fortunately Matt was keen for a break from his DIY so took a walk to the local shop to get some white chocolate while I made a start on the tea.

The first phase was to melt the (300g) chocolate with 75g of butter. I was a bit worried about this because the only proper butter we had was the stuff that smelt like cheese, but I tasted a little bit that was left on the knife that I had portioned it with and it didn't taste at all cheesy. Very weird.

Once this has melted the recipe states that you should allow it to cool and then mix in the eggs (3, which was lucky as that's all we had) and sugar (90g) and vanilla. But I didn't fancy my chances of mixing in the bowl that I had melted. So instead I pre-whisked the eggs, sugar and vanilla and then whisked the butter / sugar into this. I wasn't really sure if I should have whisked or mixed with a spoon but whisking seems more efficient.

Next I added 200g plain flour. Since I already had the whisk out I thought I may as well whisk this in too. Finally it was time to add the chocolates chunks and cranberries. I decided to use plain chocolate here. And what I thought was a bag of cranberries was actually a mixed bag of raisins, sultanas and cranberries, but this wouldn't really matter. I laid off the whisk for these final additions and stirred gently instead.

The recipe said to pour the mixture into a lined baking tray. As time goes by I am becoming less and less convinced about lining baking trays so I just greased it thoroughly and hoped for the best.

A significant challenge with brownies is that you can't use the skewer test to see if they're cooked as they're supposed to be a bit gooey in the middle. The recipe said to bake for 20 minutes, but obviously every oven is different. I think mine were in for a bit longer than this, just until the top looked a little bit cracked.

It would have to wait until the morning to be chopped and removed / chiselled out of the tray, I still had my packing to do and it was only 10 minutes until bedtime.

Fortunately the copious greasing was satisfactory and the brownies packed beautifully into a tin ready for transportation (with one little bit left for Matt - his health kick isn't that extreme!). 

And they made the journey ok. It was lovely to see Katie, and I think she and her baby girl both enjoyed the brownies (although the baby did seem determined to put the whole lot on the floor). A few crumbs were dropped on the ground which were dealt with by my mother-in-law's Yorkshire Terrier - I just hope it doesn't poison him as I think that both chocolate and dried fruit are bad for dogs. I suppose if it does poison him there are worse ways to go.