Chop Pot Choc Top Treat

Nearing the end of a week where I'm flying solo, more treats were in order.  I was also in a very efficiency minded mode today trying to pack as much in as could like dog walking, food shopping, multi cooking, kid napping & house cleaning, not to mention a playdate with a top treat.

Todays experiments were the No-Knead Bread, from Toxic Oil & modified Chocolate Brownie, from Sweet Poison Quit Plan.

The latter I've tried numerous times, both in a tin & individual muffin cases.  It has to be my favourite recipe from the book, not only because its so yummy & satisfies the chocolate fix, but because its so quick (about 20min all up!).  There have been some flops along the way, but I think I've nutted out the process & today felt game enough to add some Macadamias.  I substitute with gluten-free flour, & now add the magic xanthum gum for that bit of extra of "normalcy".  If you melt the butter first its easier to mix with just a hand blender & save getting out a food processor, thus avoiding all the extra clean up - especially as my hand blender attachments all fit nicely in the dishwasher.  Its quite a stiff mix, so liquifying the butter puts less stress on the blender (mine tends to stop if it works too hard).  I now reduce the amount of cocoa to about 1/3 cup as found it too intense for my adapted palette.

The engineer in me is always trying to tweak & streamline the process - not just from a taste perspective, as I'm no chef, but more from a ease of making or remembering point of view.  So reducing equipment & simplifying measurements was the name of the game today.  My blender has the "chopping pots" for want of a better description, in 2 sizes, I used the larger one & a glass pyrex jug.  I melted the butter in the jug, poured into the "chop pot" & added the dextrose, mixed, added eggs, mixed, added flour, xanthum gum, cocoa, mixed, added whole macadamias & mixed just a very wee bit more.  "Spoonulaed" into buttered tin, baked for 12mins (then another 5 as still really gooey).  Job done.  Had I used the silicon case I could have gotten away with the suggested 12mins (muffins take no more than 10).  During the cooking time, I quickly washed up the chopping pot, blade, cup, spatula & jug I'd used.  Thinking about that now I could have meted the butter in the cup, which just necessitates a quick clean & dry before using it to measure the dry ingredients, but maybe 1 cup is also the same amount of melted butter required - will check next time!  See, ever the engineer looking for process improvements.

The equipment

The cooking

The result

The pleasure

The No-Knead Bread is still in progress as its now set aside for 12 hours.  I'll cook that in the morning & report back later.  I have high hopes as I also slow cooked a lamb casserole which I plan to have again tomorrow, but with the bread.