Brownies

This is probably the best recipe I have ever had for brownies. It is pretty much fail proof. You will ALWAYS have soft chocolaty delicious tasting brownies with this recipe.

Enjoy!





The things you will need




Melt the butter "bain Marie" style. I fill a pan with water and put a bowl with my broken chocolate in it. Dont let the water boil or it will go into the bowl.

its ready, sit and chucks will melt

break the eggs in your bowl


nice and fluffy

add the sugar and beat together till fluffy
put the butter in bowl and melt
done
add flower and stop beating now just stir


add baking powder
add salt and vanilla if you like



add your rich melted chocolate :))


add butter

chop up your nuts


add them
once all ingredients are mixed pour into your baking dish,
the French always line their bowl with parchment or wax paper,
I started doing this and it's so much easier, nothing ever sticks

bake at 150c for 20 min




with your chocolaty fingers set the timer, set it for 15 minutes then check on the brownies, Dont over cook, knife should come out slightly wet for moist brownies. Cook another

5 min if not done.



Forgot to take a picture of it when it came out of the oven,
here is whats left of them, these are seriously good

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You can also use 100g of walnut or any nut you like.

(100g) dark chocolate (75 per cent cocoa solids)

4 oz (110 g) butter

2 large eggs, beaten

8 oz (225 g) granulated sugar

2 oz (50 g) plain flour

1 level teaspoon baking powder

¼ level teaspoon salt

or

3/4 cup or any nut you want or a mix of nuts  

about 1/2 cup (3.5 oz)  dark chocolate (75 % cocoa ) 

1/2 cup butter  

2 large eggs, beaten          

1 cup granulated sugar      

1/4 plain flour      

1 level teaspoon baking powder     

¼ level teaspoon salt        

1/4 tsp of vanilla optional 

Pre-heat the oven to gas mark 4, 350°F (180°C)

Begin by chopping the nuts roughly, not too small, put the chocolate and butter together in a large mixing bowl fitted over a saucepan of barely simmering water, making sure the bowl doesn't touch the water.

Allow the chocolate to melt, mix it until smooth, remove it from the heat and simply stir in all the other ingredients until thoroughly blended.

Now spread the mixture evenly into the prepared tin and bake on the centre shelf of the oven for 25 minutes or until it's slightly springy in the centre. Remove the pan from the oven and leave it to cool for 10 minutes before cutting

Lemon tart

This is a very simple but absolutely delicious lemon tart



beat eggs


lemon rind

add very soft butter


add sugar

I put wax paper so it wont stick, then spread your pastry

pour the mix into the pastry





place sliced lemons on top
put in oven then cook at 150c till golden brown


let it cool down, slice and enjoy!

Lemon Tart

Ingrédients (for 6 person ) :

- 1 pate "brisée" or Feuilletée –

-150 g or 1 cup of sucre (sugar)-
- 100 g de beurre doux fondu (soft butter)
- 3 Oeufs (Eggs)
- 2 citrons ( lemon zest and juice)

Préparation :

Préchauffer le four à 200°C (Pre-heated your oven)
Mettre la pate dans le moule et piquer avec une fourchette

(put the pastry into your baking dish and prick holes with fork)

Battre les oeufs avec le sucre en poudre jusqu'à l'obtention d'un mélange blanc mousseux avec le mixer (robot) .
(Beat the eggs and the sugar with a mixer until light and fluffy).

Rapper le zest des citrons et puis presser les citrons

(zest your lemons then juice them).

Ajouter le jus de citrons ainsi que le beurre fondu et le zest

(mix the lemon juice, zest and melted butter )

Verser le tout dans le moule sur la pate

(Mix everything together, then pour into pastry and add few thin slices of lemons on the top.)

Enfourner et faire cuire environs 30 min. La préparation doit doré .

(bake for about 30 min until it is golden caramelized)

Voila c'est prèt !

Cabara vide grenier

Vide Grenier means "empty barn" which is where people
would store there junk. In the States they are called garage sales.
It's only allowed once a year and each town has their designated day.
This weekend was the Cabara vide grenier.

Tatiana was a stellar sales woman, she worked the vide all by herself, selling
homemade brownies and lemonade and of course some of our junk.


This lady stopped and told us she lived in our house for 30 years,
got married in the little church up the hill. I invited her in and she
started crying when she saw the fireplace in the kitchen. She said it
brought back many memories.


Our friends the Fricks from New York came for lunch.
It was so nice to see them we will surely miss them when they go back.
The other couple is Doug and Fiona Storrie
who are our business partners.

Art exhibit

Tatiana's art school had an exhibit. They used the old convent
(which is now the public library)
to display all the students art work.




all the hallways and stairs were filled with art from the school


a peek at Tatiana's work on the wall


hers is the top left


the artist



chaotic and messy just like the artist, she was probably
talking and painting at the same time
love the feel of the building

can you picture the nuns walking around?

News flash....

We just heard that Tatiana won best artist in her age group, the judges
looked at all the art and felt hers (chaotic and messy) represented a
true artist. She got a gift certificate to an art store in Bordeaux.
Yeah Tatiana chaotic and messy finally paid off..just dont apply that
to your bedroom :)

First Summer guests

Ann and John came for a visit.

Tatiana's highlight was being able to swim with her grandfather