Friday eggs and cake

It doesn't sound like a great combination... Thankfully it was eggs for breakfast and chocolate cake for an afternoon pick-me-up.

We had scrambled eggs for breakfast - a Friday treat. It really set me up for the day and I was barely hungry at lunchtime. I met my boyfriend for lunch in a Soho Thai restaurant but I was meeting someone in the afternoon and so I avoided all the great-looking garlic or curry dishes, unlike my boyfriend who had a sizzling dish of chili and chili squid. The smell permeated my clothes and hair and made me salivate like nothing else - my fried rice with prawns, pineapple and cashew nuts seemed extremely bland and boring in comparison.

I'd hardly slept on Thursday night and had a resulting low energy moment at about 5.00. I knew I wasn't going to get to eat until much later so I stopped by cafe nero as soon as I could and grabbed a slice of decadent chocolate chunk cake (or something). It was pretty gross. Why are bought cakes so dry and lacking any depth of flavour? The only thing to recommend it was the buttercream, which was the bit with the chocolate chunks (not like real chocolate though) but the icing was quite stale. I had another bit of the buttercream after I took this photo, then left the rest. Such a waste - I should learn not to order chocolatey things in cafes - I just don't get why they're always so horrid...

I can't even remember what we had for supper. Oh yes, another pork stirfry with noodles and chow mein sauce. My boyfriend cooked it for me as I collapsed on the sofa after we came - perfect.

Fairy cakes

When I was at school we used to go to my grandparents' for tea, once a week. My Mum disputes this, saying it wasn't anything like that often, but that's how I remember it. My grandmother would pick us up from school, give us a caramel bar each, and tell us not to tell our mother as we didn't have sweets very often at home. Then, almost without exception, we'd be spoiled with a feast of steak and homemade chips. The steak would be slathered in butter and grilled and the chips double-fried for extra oomph. We'd have something with Wall's vanilla ice-cream for pudding - usually tinned pineapple or other fruit.

But fairy cakes are the food I most associate with my grandmother. She seemed to make them all the time - squashed fly cakes (with sultanas and raisins), which were my elder brother's favourite, chocolate cakes for me. Everyone else seemed to like both. She also made butterfly cakes with whipped cream filling, scones, eclairs and lots of other amazing things for a greedy child to savour. I can't remember when I began 'helping' her bake cakes in the kitchen, but I really loved it and that experience played a great part in developing my deep passion for food.

Every now and then I feel the need to bake - I know my mum gets it too - and yesterday was one of those times. I realised I had all the right ingredients, which doesn't often happen, so I decided to bake a few chocolate fairy cakes. I didn't have any chocolate to hand to melt on the top as my gran would have done (it was always bourneville, with a cadbury's button squished in the top), but I made chocolate butter cream and added a smartie on each for a bit of colour. I've got a horrible cold so I'm not even sure I can taste them properly, but a bit of baking made me feel much better.

Angela's Christmas Eve Rum Truffles

I can't sleep. But 8.30 on Christmas morning in a child-free house is definitely a time for sleeping...

As I forgot to blog about the chocolate truffles I made last night, I thought I'd upload them now, before seeing what needs to be done in the kitchen. I made a similar batch to those I rolled for my friend's birthday on the 9th December, but this time I made sure there was a serious amount of booze in there - it is Christmas, after all. It's been sort-of a tradition over the last decade or so to make them every year if we feel like there isn't enough chocolate in the house at Christmas.

Angela's rum truffles (sadly without the rum)

Full of M&S lasagne, I set down to the task of making truffles. Earlier that day I'd melted the chocolate, added the butter, egg yolks and cream and realised, much to my horror, that I couldn't find any rum or whiskey or booze of any kind other than beer and wine to give the truffles a bit of a kick. As booze is usually a major ingredient in my chocolate truffles I was distraught. However, I counselled myself that I was giving these truffles to my friend as a birthday present (the reason why we were away for the weekend) and that I could hardly go wrong with a mixture of chocolate, butter, cream and egg yolks. I do apologise to her though - I know they are missing a certain something to help the flavours along.


So, I'd left the mixture to set in the fridge for a few hours, then after our lunch I sat down to roll the truffles and coat them in cocoa. Here's a picture of the essentials for truffle rolling (a teaspoon, cases for the finished truffles and cocoa) - of course you also need clean hands. Even without the booze they were dark and rich - just not as good as I know I can make so I'll have to remember the rum next time.

Lindt Lindor (in a bar)

What a brand! Lindt chocolate has it all - great products, attractive packaging and chocolate-craving-inducing adverts.

I love to use Lindt's dark chocolate for cooking as it has such a high cocoa content yet is still sweet enough to nibble on if I don't use the whole bar. Their extra-creamy milk chocolate is delicious - just think of their gold Easter bunnies with solid ears and their Christmas reindeer, which have just started appearing in the shops again. I'm not a huge fan of white chocolate, but I could happily eat quite a lot of theirs. I remember as a child the delight I felt when our Swiss relatives sent us a perspex box stacked full of tiny rectangular Lindt chocolates with pictures of perfect Swiss mountain scenes, or colourful photos of Bernese mountain dogs with their tongues hanging out. And just think of those glorious television adverts which appear on our screens as Christmas or Easter approaches - you know the ones, a big vat of gleaming melted chocolate is swirled by a man in a comical chef's hat. I'm sure M&S's advertising agency were inspired by this to come up with their beautifully filmed food porn ads.

Anyway, as comfort (or treat yourself) chocolate goes, Lindt Lindor is stunning. It's very sweet, yet each piece melts in your mouth, and it has a gorgeous depth of flavour. The Lindor balls are lovely but very overpriced, so I was delighted when the bar versions appeared in the shops. Look out for them - you won't regret it...

The Rosslyn Delicatessen chocolate brownie

I can't believe it's over a week since I last regaled you with the contents of my stomach, and I can't pretend my silence has been caused by a surfeit of partying in the style of 'Lindsay Lohan hits London' or Keith Richards, er... at any time in his endless life. No, I'm sorry to say I simply haven't been eating very much. Last Monday morning I was struck down by some sort of gastric flu virus and, as I was projectile vomiting like some sort of animated Southpark character and laid up in bed with achy limbs and joints, I managed to live for 3 whole days having only eaten a couple of spoonfuls of yoghurt and a slice of toast. Very unlike me. My Dad read my blog and reckoned that Sunday's cuisine of pâté and prawns might have been a recipe for food poisoning, but I'm not convinced.

But, more importantly, I'm now back on my food. And what better way to reconnect my newly returned all-consuming passion for eating and my love for writing about it, than to describe the almost perfect brownie I had the pleasure to share with my boyfriend yesterday afternoon.

I bought it on a beautiful autumn afternoon in Hampstead village, having spent a wonderful couple of hours shushing through the fallen leaves and admiring the beauty that is an English autumn on Hampstead Heath. The only disappointment - that most of North London had realised that Hampstead Heath was the ideal place to go on a Sunday afternoon. Anyway, pressing our cold noses against the window of The Rosslyn Delicatessen I spied a pile of chocolate brownies neatly wrapped in clingfilm. They were a shocking £2 each, but you got a lotta brownie for your money. We bought two, split the first and now I'm nibbling the second and wondering whether I have, already, found the perfect brownie.

It's a bit crumbly on the outside yet dense and moist in the middle, but not gooey like the Kastner and Ovens' offering. The flavour is very chocolatey and rich and not too sweet at all. There is a strange, but rather nice, layer of sugar on the base which is a bit like that clearish icing you sometimes get on iced buns. If that's where the sugar's ended up it's fine by me. It has a smooth texture and no nuts and feels indulgent when you bite in, and it melts in your mouth to nothing quite fast, like sherbert drops. Half a brownie was easily enough so you're not going to feel hard-done-by. But, although yesterday having walked for a couple of hours the brownie tasted like nectar, I think I'm still going to give it just 4.5/5. Although it's flavour is better balanced than Kastner and Ovens - its nearest contender - I miss that moist squidgy texture that persuades you it's straight out of the oven and definitely home-made. This is just a little too smooth. But it is very very good.

The Barnsbury Grocer chocolate brownie

I realised I had to try this as soon as I saw it. It's a good, basic freshly made brownie - no nuts, no fancy orange flavourings, not too sweet, just fudgey and glorious. The top is slightly flakey and a lovely deep brown colour, as it should be, and the smooth texture and bitter dark chocolate flavour hint at a classiness not present in the other brownies I've tasted so far. And as it's not particularly sweet I don't have that gooey sick, overindulged feeling afterwards. In fact, I could probably have another one right now without regretting it later, and it doesn't break the bank at £1.50. Very nice, but slightly lacking in excitement - 4/5.

The Barnsbury Grocer

The Barnsbury Grocer, which opened just this week, is causing much excitement at Food Slut Towers. My boyfriend seemed even more ADHD than me when we went in this morning to check it out. I think it might because it's next to his favourite film shop in London - so he can spend hours browsing in there while I spend all our money in the grocer next door.

It's more deli than grocer, with a fridge full of meats and cheeses, another fridge with organic juices and freshly made sandwiches, and shelves stocked with high-quality oils, chutneys, jams, mustards, crisps, biscuits and even (somehow classy looking) flavoured packet popcorn - it's a bit like Borough Market without the burger stalls. We bought a thick slice of somerset cheddar, which on sampling tastes as powerful as the stench of fresh manure piled in a farmyard - and that's a compliment. It's lovely, and shows how supermarket cheddar is an insult to the tastebuds.

I was delighted to see my favourite mustard - Pommery Moutarde de Meaux - which I've only previously been able to find in Waitrose. But while it has the same jar and label, it has a waxed top and the label is written in French, while the Waitrose version has a rubber stopper, the label's in English and it's imported through a company based in Oxfordshire (just something we noticed - I think the French version has a little more rustic charm). Try it if you see it. And the pot's good for storing wooden spoons etc when it's finished.

We also bought a jar of Suffolk Mud cider and horseradish mustard, which has no dodgy artificial ingredients and looks like it might pack a good punch, and some Ear to Ear salt and vinegar flavoured popcorn, made in Belsize Park Gardens, which has Innocent Smoothie style cheesy copy on the back saying you 'just have to smile' when you're eating their popcorn... I'll see if there's any truth in that later. And we bought a pot of mixed olives in lemon parsley and garlic marinade (I think) which looked good, and, of course, I had to try their chocolate brownie... more on that later.

It doesn't seem like it's fully stocked yet - I think they're waiting to see how different sections sell. They have a blackboard with a sign welcoming suggestions from customers and I'm already thinking of recommending my favourite products. It's that sort of shop - lovely and friendly and packed with a Food Slut's favourite things.

Chocolate peanut tart

Well, I had to have this to make me feel satisfied after my paltry salad. I was looking for a brownie but our cafe didn't have any, and this was enthusiastically recommended by the cafe staff. I wasn't sure when I saw it was a chocolate peanut tart, as I'm not a huge fan of snickers and chocolate/peanut mixes in general, but actually it's fantastic. It's filled with a rich and smooth ganache, which does taste quite strongly, but not overpoweringly, of peanuts, and it is very chocolatey. The pastry is thin and crisp - perfect really. At £1.19, it's pretty good value and I think I'll look out for it again.

Caramel slice

People say sushi is filling, but sadly they're wrong. It's only 3 hours since my 'deluxe' sushi meal and I'm already feeling pretty empty around the belly area. As I'm due to play netball in another 3 hours, I thought I owe it to my body to find something to raise my energy levels quickly. Intending to buy a Honeyrose Organic Brownie, I went downstairs to the cafe, only to find they'd run out. And there was a lonely looking caramel slice sitting just where the brownies usually reside. So it seemed like it was meant to be. It has a very thick, wonderfully sweet caramel layer; I would have liked the chocolate layer to be slightly thicker, as you can't really taste it much, but the shortbread underneath is light and crumbly and, although it doesn't have much flavour, it does its job - chiefly to support the caramel, just as the chocolate does its job topping it. Very sweet, very caramelly, very satisfying, and I imagine I'll feel very sick when I've finished it.

Caffé Nero organic 'gluten free' chocolate brownie

Looking at the size of this brownie, having paid £1.40 for it, I'm already a bit pissed off. It doesn't look great. Like the Pret and EAT offerings, it's like a snack-sized brownie, not a real, filling, chocolately treat. It looks old. But I crumbled a corner off it and it surprised me slightly. It doesn't taste how I expected it to - it's quite floury, which is interesting as it proudly displays 'gluten free' no less than twice on the front of the label, and has a texture and flavour as though it is made with ground almonds - although the only reference to nuts on its list of ingredients is the usual disclaimer re. traces of nuts. It's quite dense and not very moist. And you can definitely taste the Madagascan vanilla they mention as the final ingredient on the label. The chocolate chunks (they're bigger than chips) on the top are a bit stale-tasting, as with all these packaged brownies, that's why the Honeyrose brownie does so well - no stale chips. Chocolate chips may look good, but they don't taste great. The problem with this brownie is that it just doesn't appeal - it's just a typical sandwich/coffee chain's boring excuse for a brownie and I think it's outrageous to charge £1.40 for such a dull snack. 1.5/5

Pret chocolate brownie

Now, I'm not sure if I've got a bit of a rotten apple here. As you will see from the photo, my Pret brownie (£1.10) definitely got the end of the chocolate chip barrel - it's more like mini chocolate shavings on the top of it. As I broke the corner of it it felt moist and I was pleasantly surprised - I always think of pret brownies as being pretty crumbly and lacking goo. But then the real surprise - I tasted it and I realised why it's different from usual - it's very eggy and undercooked. It also has an overpowering flavour of vanilla, which I could do without. But at least it doesn't taste stale. I'm not sure if this is a true representatative sample as I have had Pret brownies before and I'm pretty sure they weren't like this one, but as I bought it in a Pret I should review it as it is. Disappointing, but for unexpected reasons - 2.5/5.

Chocolate and walnut brownie - Kastner and Ovens

I seem to have unwittingly found myself on a quest for the best brownie. It feels like a challenge I can't refuse.

While my friend Nicole assures me that Leon do the best brownie in London (I'll try that another day), today I already had my sights set on an offering by Kastner and Ovens in Floral Street, Covent Garden.

It's a very pleasant little deli, which does hot food and soups at lunchtime, a few sandwiches and chilled food and has an amazing array of cakes, tarts, biscuits and all things sweet. And you can choose your own delicacy from the arrangement of plates - I always like that.

And the brownie? Well, it's a nutty type - it contains chunks of walnuts, the perfect amount in fact, if you are to have nuts at all in your brownie (I'm not always convinced they're necessary). It looks home-made, like it was turned out of the tray this morning. It's slightly crumbly and flaky on the outside, but it is the inside that kills the competition. It's cloyingly sweet, so moist and chewy it glistens in the light and is sticky on your fingers like a perfectly-made meringue.

Wow, this is very, very nice. The only downside I can see to this brownie is that at £1.80 it's pretty pricey, and it is verging being too sweet for me. Sadly I haven't got my camera today, so it seems I'll have to go back to obtain photographic evidence. Shame. I give it a rating of 4.5/5 - it loses its 0.5 as it is on the cusp of being too sweet, and I'm not sure about the walnuts - I would prefer it without. The best so far.

Cookies

I disappointed myself today. I had to pick up some eggs and bread on the way home so I popped in to my local Sainsbury's Local - and I thought I'd buy some chocolate as I fancied baking some double chocolate cookies. But when I picked up the chocolate, looked at the price for one bar (fairtrade dark chocolate - £1.05)and realised I also had to buy a bar of white chocolate it all went wrong, as my eyes fell on a packet of Sainsbury's Taste the Difference 'slowbaked all butter cookies - chocolate, chocolate and more chocolate, milk, plan and white'. Yes, that is really what they're called. They were also priced £1.05. Maybe it's because I'd had a long day, or because the clocks had gone back this weekend and it felt much later than it was as it had been dark for hours, but I felt baking-fatigue, and persuaded myself it was much more economical to buy the cookies rather than the ingredients. I hate that - I can't believe I did that - home baking is always worth it. When I got them home and tried them they were quite nice, but not outstanding. Home-made are much better - I'll give you the recipe when I've got the energy to dig it out. Anyway, here's a photo - they've got a layer of milk chocolate underneath each cookie, the occasional chocolate chunk and... that's about it.

Honeyrose organic fudge brownie

Now, this is a real brownie. It puts EAT's concoction to shame. Rich, chocolately, just the right balance of goo/crumble, it tastes freshly made and indulgent. It looks fairly plain but makes up for that in flavour. Just like a real homemade brownie, the inside is darker and gooier that the dryer, lighter coloured outside. And the organic ingredients list is short but sweet - cane sugar, chocolate (21%), wheat flour, butter, free-range eggs and wheat syrup. (But why the wheat syrup?)

The Honeyrose Organic Handbaking's Organic fudge brownie is quite simply delicious and I'd say with confidence it is the best shop-bought, packaged brownie I've ever tasted. Heavenly - 4/5

EAT chocolate brownie

Bought from Paddington Station branch of EAT and consumed on a train to Reading at about 12 o'clock lunchtime. It had a fairly crumbly texture and the chocolate chunks on the top were slightly stale-tasting and had bloom. It's a shame the chunks weren't inside the brownie - they may have been more protected from the heat/cold exposure that I'm told causes blooming. Overall it had a nice, rich flavour and, although crumbly on the outside corners, the inside had an element of goo - necessary for all brownies in my opinion. The verdict? A pretty good product if you need something to keep you going when you're on the run, but do not expect a fresh-tasting brownie - 3/5