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prune and almond brownies – random recipes #29 – healthy and happy

1 June 2013 by Dominic Franks

… there really only could be one theme for June’s random recipes… i’d thought about being even more specific and asking for high-fibre recipes only but i kind of knew it would be taking liberties, so this month i’d like you all to gather your wonderfully summery, healthy and happy recipes… and there are countless ways you could make your selection… many books dedicate their first few chapters to soups and salads… or maybe you have a stack of diet cookbooks or summer cookbooks… or maybe you could do it by ingredient, choosing a combination of healthy items and then using an app or website such as eat your books, to come up with the recipe… however you chose, it needs to be a recipe that you consider to be healthy or one that makes you happy, the theory being that if it makes us smile and feel good then it can’t be bad for us…

… I was very specific about the recipes I selected for myself… I went through all my cookbooks and looked closely at ingredients that are on my list of ‘must-eats’… obviously there’s a lot of high-fibre stuff in there but I think it’s quite telling that one of the key ‘good’ foods I seemed to lock onto from the list was dark chocolate… strange that…

… but after a lovely rainy day of sifting through cookbooks I pulled together about 35 recipes all that fall under my healthy and happy theme… it was a great thing to do as I now have a bucket-load of yummy ideas from quite a wide range of books such as the brilliant, new Soup Can make You Thin by Fiona Kirk… River Cottage Veg Every Day… Complete Italian Food by Antonio Carlucci and of course the High Fibre Cookbook by Valerie Ferguson which I treated myself to earlier in the week…

prune and almond brownies
as you can imagine, i’ve been eating a LOT of prunes of the past couple of weeks… I actually quite like them but they do become a little chewy and tasteless after a while and I think I was getting prune fatigue… so when my random recipes lottery picker landed on this recipe from Delia Smith’s Vegetarian Collection I wasn’t all that excited… I think one of my lovely well-wishers on twitter had suggested prune brownies and as mentioned above, dark chocolate, prunes and almonds are all on the good food list, it’s as though these were invented just for me… as it happens I haven’t tried them yet, i’m a little scared my stomach’s not quite ready but The Viking tells me they are very good and I think they look damn fine…

makes 18 brownies – 9 of which I have frozen (i’m so good aren’t I?)
I used a 12inch x 9inch baking tray – greased and lined

75g dark chocolate – I used some incredible Fair Trade chocolate from my local Lincolnshire Co-op.
75g pitted prunes – chopped
75g skin on almonds – chopped
150g butter
3 large eggs – beaten
330g demerara sugar
75g plain flour
1 level teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt

prep your baking tin and set the oven to 180C

place everything but the butter and chocolate into a large bowl

in a small pan very gently and slowly melt the butter and chocolate and once melted simply pour onto all the other ingredients and combine then pour into your baking tin and bake for 30 minutes.  Let is cool on a wire rack for 10 minutes before turning it out and cutting into squares

the rules for taking part this month are simple:

1 – gather all your healthy and happy books and recipes 
2 – randomly select one book, then open that book at a random page
3 – cook the exact recipe on that page (dietary restrictions / availability / affordability taken into consideration) don’t cheat – you’re only cheating yourself!
4 – post about your recipe on your blog, linking back to my blog, including the random recipes logo
5 – email me the link to your post to dominic at belleaukitchen dot co dot uk
6 – tweet me @belleakitchen including the hashtag #randomrecipes and i’ll retweet all I see.
7 – entry deadline will be Fri 28th June
well go on then, what are you waiting for.. help me get healthy!

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Filed Under: Vegetarian Tagged With: brownies, chocolate, Delia Smith, healthy eating, prunes, random recipes

Previous Post: « random recipes #28 round-up – bread
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Comments

  1. Camilla @FabFood4All says

    1 June 2013 at 8:58 am

    After making the joke about Prune Brownies I was inspired by your fellow commenter and bought a tin of prunes to make Brownies LOL. Really must make a concerted effort to enter your challenge this month as I really love the theme:-)

  2. Please Do Not Feed The Animals. says

    1 June 2013 at 9:50 am

    I love this theme. I am slightly obsessed with trying to cram loads of fibre into my kids. I could probably be doing with some new recipes. Usually I just bung a load of veg and pulses together.
    I really love the look of the prune brownies. Am certainly going to give those a go. I love prunes especially with rice pudding. 🙂

  3. Stacy says

    1 June 2013 at 11:14 am

    I find that the secret to baking successfully with prunes is not telling anyone that you have. They eat the product gleefully with nary a thought of “Oh, yuck, prunes!” to color their opinion. Sometimes I choose to tell after. Sometimes I don't. Your brownies look wonderful with their almonds and chocolately richness. I am glad you are feeling a bit better, Dom.

  4. Karen S Booth says

    1 June 2013 at 11:51 am

    GREAT theme Dom and I am SO in! I will try to make something high fibre too! Karen xxx

  5. A Trifle Rushed says

    1 June 2013 at 12:57 pm

    Hope your feeling better Dom, these look so fabulous you'll just have to try one, won't you? Jude x

  6. little macaroon. says

    1 June 2013 at 3:22 pm

    Brilliant! I have a very fibrous ingredient lurking in my cupboard that I need to find a recipe for… I think this is as good an opportunity as any 🙂

  7. Susan Lindquist says

    1 June 2013 at 3:38 pm

    Oh! I have just the cook book! I'll post very soon! Glad you're perking up and feeling like digging around for other things to eat! XO!

  8. Baking Addict says

    1 June 2013 at 4:39 pm

    This sounds like a great challenge – sorry I ran out of time last month. Hope you're feeling much better, will definitely join in this month 🙂

  9. Jean says

    1 June 2013 at 6:59 pm

    Healthy?
    I could do with some healthy right now……great idea for the challenge.

  10. Choclette says

    1 June 2013 at 7:41 pm

    Can't remember what I was going to say, but I'm glad you've got your blog back in good working order again. Prune brownies sound just fabulous. hope you get to try one soon.

  11. Caroline says

    1 June 2013 at 9:02 pm

    Hope you carry on feeling better and better and that changing your diets works wonders. I'll have to have a think about healthy….

  12. bellini says

    2 June 2013 at 5:41 am

    Healthy brownies work for me Dom. I imagine they would have an unexpected depth of flavour.

  13. Janice Pattie says

    2 June 2013 at 8:00 am

    We all need to take heed of your health scare and eat more healthy food. I love all the fibre type foods, but tend to eat them in phases, time for another phase! The brownies look divine, but I think you are right to be cautious

  14. The KitchenMaid says

    2 June 2013 at 8:06 am

    I am gingerly reading this from my own sickbed… After 24 hours of unpleasantness I'm not sure I am ready for prunes, but I'll do my best as soon as solid food and I are friends again!

  15. From Beyond My Kitchen Window says

    2 June 2013 at 11:00 am

    I'm so glad you are feeling better. The prune and almond brownies look delicious. What I like about brownies recipes is that you can always add something a little different or should I say healthy and they still taste good.

  16. Laura Loves Cakes says

    2 June 2013 at 4:08 pm

    These look great…and even better that they're healthy! The prunes must make them really moist and the almonds add texture…it's nice to see new takes on old classics 🙂

  17. Shu Han says

    3 June 2013 at 12:25 am

    I when I think prunes I naturally think old people/constipation remedy hehehe. But I think I will happily eat them now that they;re in brownies. Definitely gave them a makeover with this one! Healthy brownies are good because you can eat more of them. (I'm not exactly helping you am I? Hah.)

  18. Treatntrick Treat and Trick says

    3 June 2013 at 11:53 am

    I love this combo and it turns out great!

  19. Ruth Ellis says

    5 June 2013 at 9:10 pm

    These look fab – prunes and chocolate are a classic combo. Yum!

  20. Suzanne says

    7 June 2013 at 12:27 am

    Glad you're on the road to recovery. I've moved house now (at LAST) so am back in this month.

  21. Stalybridge Chiropodist says

    19 June 2013 at 11:55 am

    These looks delicious! Thank you for sharing!

  22. Charmi Shah says

    13 August 2013 at 12:55 pm

    Its very worth reading this blog, i liked it… thanks for sharing and even ill like to share one link of 'Indian Recipes cooking show', 'Indian Cooking Recipe', 'Indian Cooking' its awesome & helpful.

  23. Best Grinder Reviews says

    28 May 2014 at 2:44 pm

    These look delicious and perfect! I'd love for you to share them at Mix it up Monday:

  24. Best Ice Maker says

    10 June 2014 at 2:20 pm

    This sounds fantastic! Can't wait to give it a try.

  25. Larry Burton says

    2 October 2015 at 5:51 am

    Thanks so much for your recipe. I'll try this weekend with my daughter.

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About Dom In The Kitchen

My name is Dominic, I am a cook, food writer and creative event producer. I write the food blog Dom In The Kitchen and also write a monthly recipe column for Lincolnshire Life Magazine and Good Taste Magazine. I also run creative event production company The Persuaders, producing global events for brands since 1997. I am based both in the small village of Belleau in Lincolnshire and the smaller village of London! Read More…

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Tomato, Feta and Strawberry Salad with my Slightly Tomato, Feta and Strawberry Salad with my Slightly Pickled Pink Onions

I wanted to share the pics of this salad the moment I made it cos it’s just so vibrant and summery. 

The real star of the show are the amazing slightly pickled pink onions… but… (and I hate to be a tease) you’ll have to wait till next week for the recipe!

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Apricot & Strawberry Frangipani Pudding (recipe be Apricot & Strawberry Frangipani Pudding (recipe below)

This pudding is like a bowlful of summer. It’s light and fruity and sweet and so easy to put together.  I think it’s also quite unexpected to serve a pudding when fresh fruit is in abundance and a simple fruit salad would suffice but that’s what I adore about this.  Plus, this pudding makes very good use of those punnet’s of strawberries that look great in the supermarket but in fact taste all spongy and gloopy when you get them home.

Here’s the #recipe:

🍓 200g butter
🍓 200g golden caster sugar
🍓 3 large free-range eggs
🍓 200g ground almonds
🍓 100g strawberries – quartered
🍓 4 apricots – sliced into wedges
🍓 the finely grated zest and juice of half a lemon
🍓 2 tablespoons @fage_uk Greek Yoghurt
🍓 1 teaspoon @little_pod Vanilla Bean Paste

I greased a 20cm fluted ceramic pie dish and pre-heated the oven to 160C

beat the sugar and butter together in a large bowl until light and creamy… a stand mixer will do this in 4 minutes, a hand held electric whisk will do it in 6 minutes and a wooden spoon will do it in 8 minutes.

add the eggs and 1 tablespoon of ground almonds and beat in, then add the rest of the ground almonds and gently beat in, followed by the Greek Yoghurt, lemon zest and juice, vanilla and half the strawberries and beat in – the strawberries will become mush – which is exactly what you want.

lay half the remaining fruit into the bottom of your dish and cover with the frangipane batter, then scatter the remaining fruit on top

bake for 45 mins or until darkly golden brown, then remove from the oven and let it cool to set

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Is there anything more ‘Sunday Brunch’ than a crispy rosti with a delicately fragile poached egg on top? This Traybake rosti is a twist on a Jewish potato cake made with potatoes, carrots and onion. It’s amazing and really does make the perfect brunch. 

What are you having for brunch today?

for the kugel:
🍳 5 medium potatoes
🍳 2 large onions
🍳 2 large carrots – roughly grated
🍳 2 eggs – beaten
🍳 2 tablespoons flour
🍳 salt and pepper
🍳 a large handful of fresh rosemary
🍳 2 tablespoons of olive oil

for the poached eggs:
🥚 2 eggs per person
🥚 water
🥚 salt
🥚 a ramekin or similar

pre-heat the oven to 180C and butter your baking tin… i’m using an oblong swiss roll tin but any metal pan will do, a quiche or tarte tin is good.  Earthenware will work too but there’s something about the metal tin that makes it more ‘roasty’

Cut the potatoes and carrots into large chunks and par-boil till just beginning to yeald, drain and place in the fridge for one hour.  I usually do mine the night before.

Once the potatoes and carrots are cold, grate them and add them with the rest if the ingredients to a large bowl and mix together well.

Tip into your cake tin or roasting tray and roast in the oven on 190C till golden and grisp around the edges, roughly 40 mins

To make the poached eggs I prefer to use my large shallow cast-iron casserole dish.  There’s something about the cast-iron that holds the heat and cooks them evenly.  Fill the pan with water and heat it till it’s rapidly boiling, then turn down the heat until it is just steaming. 

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