Brownies

Apparently I make brownies once a year, in February. This year's brownie recipe is a new one to me: the best vegan brownies via mostly foodstuffs. The gimmick here is that these contain melted vegan ice cream. Specifically you want a vegan ice cream that has added food gums and things to help with the texture.

I was a bit worried that the ice cream we had (So Good Vanilla Bliss) might not work because it's quite low fat, but these were really great brownies: chewy and candylike on the edges, and fudgy in the middle. Waiting an hour for them to cool down was quite an achievement. I think it might be less than a year before I make these again.

A happy accident

Last night's dinner: steamed kale with caramelized onions, chickpeas and pine nuts, served over pasta. But here's where it gets interesting: the pasta was tossed with the leftover cranberry chutney from the other night. This was a very spur of the moment decision, but it turned out perfectly. I really loved how the slight bitterness of the kale tasted against the tangy sweetness of the chutney.

For dessert we had brownies. I have yet to bake a brownie that I am completely happy with, but these were pretty close. The recipe is from Peter Berley's The Modern Vegetarian Kitchen. (I was out of WW pastry flour, so used WW bread flour instead. I like chewy brownies so I didn't think the extra gluten would be a problem, and it seems I was right.)