Brownies - Irish adaptation

I made these when we were in Ireland. The flour I had was self-raising. Self raising flour has baking powder and salt added to it. So I didn't add the baking powder and salt to the recipe.

Such different flours in Ireland. Whole wheat flours are also different. Some recipes call for coarse ground whole meal flour as they call it. You can't get the coarse ground in Canada.

I had difficulty getting the right temperature, and figuring out when the recipe was done. Never mind that the temperature was registered in Celsius. 350 f is about 176 c, good grief.

The oven we had was a convection oven, and didn't seem to have a bottom element. I had a hard time understanding the different settings on the dial. Deciphering the little pictures was fun. And the Google didn't help. I should have taken pics of the dials but didn't think to.

The brownies seemed to be a bit softer inside than I would normally want. But they turned out great especially since there was so much fiddling to do to make them.

Ingredients

1/4 cup butter, softened
1 1/4 cups sugar (I think I used 1 cup of sugar)
2 large eggs (The stores don't seem to refrigerate the eggs in Ireland. Weird)
1 tsp. vanilla (I didn't use as I didn't have any)
1 tsp. instant  coffee, dissolved in 1 tsp. water
1 cup all-purpose flour (I used self raising as that was what I had)
1/2 cup cocoa
1/4 tsp. baking powder (I didn't use)
1/4 tsp. salt (I didn't use)

Directions

Preheat oven to 350°F.

In a large bowl, mix together butter and sugar until well combined. Add eggs, vanilla and coffee and stir until well blended and smooth.

In a medium bowl, combine flour, cocoa, baking powder and salt. Add to the egg mixture and stir by hand just until combined.

Spoon the batter into an 8X8 greased aluminum pan. Bake for 15 to 20 minutes, until puffed but still soft to the touch. Do not over bake Cool in the pan on a wire rack.

Makes 16 brownies.

Gluten free chocolate peanut butter cookies

Yesterday we took our sister Maureen out for her birthday. I brought my camera but forgot to take pictures. We were all too busy yelling at each other. That's what Maloneys do when they get together. They yell. We don't even have to be together to yell. We can also do it by phone. Friday I was talking to Barb on the phone downstairs. Fred was upstairs and he heard me. He thought there were three people in the same room as he was in having a fight. No. It was just me and Barb "talking" on the phone.

From Paula. Her yummy flour free chocolate peanut butter cookies. She have us each some yesterday, and Barb gave us some yummy chocolate brownies as well. Oh my goodness they were so good.

2.5 cups peanut butter (I use unsweetened/unsalted Kraft). The recipe says not to use natural p/b as they don't cook properly
2.5 cups brown sugar
1 cup unsweetened cocoa
2 eggs
2 tablespoons vanilla
2 teaspoons baking soda

Mix peanut butter, sugar, eggs and vanilla.
Mix cocoa with baking powder.
Mix it all together. It will be crumbly, so with clean hands, form balls and place on parchment lined cookie sheet. Press balls down with a floured fork to flatten a bit.

Bake 8 minutes at 350 degrees.  It made about 40 cookies I think.

If I make them again, I will cut down on the cocoa. Maybe 3/4 cup? That, and/or add a banana? They would still be chocolaty, but moister.  Plus the mixture wouldn't be so crumbly and the balls would form better.