Smores brownies!

Do you love brownies? Do you love smores? Well then in that case your going to want me to introduce to you this super easy recepie for smores brownies. Layers of different flavours and textures compacted into one incredibly modish and delicious treat.

The idea for this recipe first came to me after the invention of my smores recipe series and after buying a new brownie pan I knew I had to come up with the recipe.

First a biscuit base made super easily with crushed digestives and melted butter and on top of that a thick layer of super easy and fudgey brownie made without the need for gluten free flour so perfect for when you don't have a lot of ingredients in! And then to finish a top layer of toasted marshmallows super melty and with that iconic toasted flavour.

So if you're craving smores or just can't decide between having biscuits or brownie I present to you my solution. But before we get into the recepie here are some answers to some common questions you might have...

Is this recipe dairy free?

No but with a few simple swaps you can make it dairy free!

• Ensure that your digestive biscuits are dairy free

• Swap the butter for a hard dairy free butter alternative

• Use a dairy free chocolate

Is this recipe Vegan?

No its not but there are a few switches you could make to try to make it vegan. Do all the changes listed above to make this a dairy free brownie and then use an egg replacement such as:

• A flax egg

• A chia egg

• Shop bought egg replacement

• Mashed banana

Is this recipe gluten free?

Yes of course it is! This ones naturally gluten free as no special gluten free flour is needed so ensure you use gluten free digestive biscuits and you will be good to go! Don't worry though I've tried this recpie on my non gluten free friends and no one could tell the difference!

I haven't yet tried making this vegan so if you try it share a picture on instgram and tag me @rubysgfkitchen to let me know how it goes!

Do you need any special equipment?

Just a bowl, a wooden spoon, a rolling pin and a brownie tin and your good to go. This ones super easy and quick to make for a delicious treat to share with your friends and family (or just to eat for yourself). Oh and make sure to weigh out your ingredients with electric scales to make sure all your measurements are acurate!

So lets get into the recipe if you do make this recipe make sure to tag me on instagram @rubysgfkitchen so that I can see all your fabulous creations!

INGREDIENTS

FOR THE BASE

140g Gluten free digestive biscuits

100g Butter, melted

FOR THE BROWNIE

170g Butter, melted

250g Chocolate, melted

175g Caster sugar

3 Eggs

150g Ground Almonds

3 Tablespoons Nutella

TO DECORATE

1 Bag of marshmallows

METHOD

1. Preheat the oven to 180 Fan and line a brownie tin with greaseproof paper.

2. Place the Biscuits in a sealable plastic bag and bash them to a large crumbs with a wooden spoon. Then place the crushed biscuits in a bowl and mix with your melted butter. Pour the contents of the bowl into tin and squash down until an even layer on the bottom of the tin forms. Place the tin in the freezer whilst you prepare the brownie.

3. In a bowl mix the butter and chocolate together and then crack in the eggs and add the Nutella and whisk until a smooth mixture forms.

4. With a spatula or wooden spoon fold in the sugar and ground almonds. Pour the Brownie mixture into the tin once the base is firm and bake in the oven for 30-35 minutes or until the brownie has darkened in couler and crisped around the edges (If the brownie darkens but still looks more like a batter cover the top of the tin with tinfoil to prevent it burning whilst it finishes to cook).

5. At this stage place an even layer of marshmallows over the top of the brownie and place the brownie back in the oven until the marshmallow has browned for 5-10 minutes.

6. Leave the brownie in the tin to fully cool and then take out and slice to enjoy!

Thank you for reading, I hope you enjoy baking and give these brownies a try!

Happy Baking,

Ruby x

Smores Cupcakes

Do you love chocolate cake? How about marshmallows? Digestive Biscuits? Well this is a recipe you need to try! Packed full of chocolate goodness topped with gooey marshmallow and a little crunch of digestives these are a super fun twist on the smores classic.

A perfect thing to bake for the whole family to get involved in making (and eating) together. The recipe is super easy, just mix all the cupcake ingredients together in a bowl, bake and drizzle on all the toppings.

The perfect bake for any time of the year!

The sponge in super soft and light packed with chocolate and the topping of the marshmallow drizzle adds a lovely texture topped with hard set chocolate and crunchy biscuits.

A few Questions You might have before baking...

1.Is it Gluten free?

Yes it is off course gluten free but don't worry I've tried them on my non gf friends and they haven't been able to tell the difference! Just ensure you pick up gf flour and gf baking powder and your good to go!

2. Is it Dairy free?

No but with some simple switches you can easily make some dairy free smores cupcakes!

• Switch the butter for a hard dairy free butter alternative

• Switch the milk for a dairy free milk

• Switch the chocolate for a dairy free milk or dark chocolate

• Ensure that your cocoa powder is dairy free

• Use a dairy free Nutella substitute

• Ensure your digestive biscuits are also dairy free

3. Is it Vegan?

No but you could try making all the substitutes to make it dairy free and then for the egg using an egg replacement such as :

• 3 Flax eggs

• 3 chia eggs

• Applesauce

• Egg replacement

I haven't tried making it vegan myself so if you do let me know what you thought!

So lets get into the cupcakes! If you have any other questions or you make the cupcakes tag me on instagram @rubysgfkitchen to let me know how they turned out.

175g Gluten free self raising flour

175g Butter, softened

175g Caster suger

3 Large eggs

4 tbsp Milk

1/2 tsp Zanthem gum

1tsp Baking powder

1 tsp Vanilla extract

9 Squares of dark or milk chocolate

25g Cocoa powder

2 1/2 tbsp Nutella

A pack of digestive biscuits

100g Butter

50g Suger

150g Mini marshmallows

200g Dark or Milk Chocolate (I use Dark)

1. Preheat the oven to 180 fan, and line a 12 hole cupcake tin with cupcake cases.Take your digestives and break them so that an even layer of biscuits covers the Bottom of each cupcake case.

2. Beat all your cupcake ingredients in a bowl with a electric whisk until smooth (Be careful not to over beat as cupcakes may be rubbery!)

3. Using a spoon or ice cream scoop evenly disrepute your batter between your cupcake cases, lightly flattening the top with a tea spoon, moving in circular motions and place in the oven for 10 - 15 minutes or until brown and a skewer inserted in the middle comes out clean ( if you have any extra batter you could do a few more cupcakes or I like to use fairy cases and make small ones!)

4. Leave the cupcakes too cool for five minutes in the tin and then take them out to let them cool completely.

5. To make the marshmallow drizzle melt the butter, marshmallows and sugar in a pan on a low heat until well combined and all the marshmallows are melted. Pour the mix into a bowl and let it cool until it thickens to a spreadable consistency.

6. Melt your chocolate in a microwavable bowl heating in 30 second intervals and stirring between each one.

7. Once your cupcakes are fully cool decorate your cupcakes with the drizzle, chocolate and leftover digestive biscuits!

Thank you for reading and I hope you enjoy baking them (and eating them to!)

Ruby x

The Ultimate Cookie Review!

Now I know we've all been thinking, there's so many gluten free store cookies out there now just which one is the best?? So I offer you a solution! I've come up with a list of all the gluten free shop bought cookies that I could think of that I've tried and I've tried my best to rank them as accurately as I can to see which one really is the best.

Now I am a firm believer in homemade all the way, you can make whatever flavour you want and you can adjust the recipes to get that perfect texture that you've been looking for. But I know that not everybody is a fan of baking or sometimes you don't have time to make those homemade cookies but you still need a cookie fix. So here it is a list of the best cookies ranked from best to worst (I'm sorry last place cookie) with all the details so you can find out which one you should stock your cupboards with!

(Also just a little disclaimer this is just my personal opinion and all these cookies are good, I've ranked them according to which I think is the best so you can see the differences between each one to see which suites your tastebuds the best!)

So lets get into the cookies...

12. At Number 12... M and S Dark chocolate and ginger cookies

I can see where this was trying to go but I'm just not a fan of the whole ginger and chocolate in a cookie, although it was packed with flavour so if that sounds like your flavours it definitely provided them. It was also less of that soft in the middle crunchy on the outside texture and more just...crunchy. Very biscuit like in texture so would serve as a good tea dunking biscuit. Right onto the next cookie!

11. Tesco salted caramel mini cookies

Coming in a box of 12 they give you loads, but these are just not for me. They are way to sweet with no slightly salty sensation that is expected of a salted caramel cookie and the pieces of white chocolate doesn't help its case either. It does however have a crunchy on the outside and chewy in the middle texture so maybe I just need to try a different flavour (That will hopefully someday be created!) So sorry but these ones aren't my cup of tea.

10. Coming in at number 10...The M and S Triple chocolate cookies

To me these ones had an unusual after flavour which I couldn't quite place, anyway aside from that they didn't have much of a soft cookie texture and really it was saved form number 12 by the big chunks of chocolate, maybe I just caught it on a off day- everything does deserve a second chance (On second thought maybe not).

9. Morrisons Triple Chocolate cookies

You can see a running theme here for my second favourite cookie flavour being a triple chocolate cookie ( The first will always be white chocolate and cranberry)- These ones had a good chocolaty flavour and big chunks of chocolate but I would have liked to taste more of a soft in the middle and crunchy on the outside again.Right next!

8. Tesco Triple Chocolate cookies

What made these ones for me was the light coating of milk chocolate so when you dunk them they go super melty. I would definitely choose to eat these if they were in the house, big chunks of chocolate and a little softer in texture so they soften even quicker when you dunk them in a hot drink!

7. Sainsbury's triple chocolate cookies

Another triple chocolate cookie option because they are the best and also the supermarket ones that I have tried so far (part 2 with the 2022 trys?) These ones were super chocolatey and rich with a softer texture- They were really good definitely fitted the bill for a triple chocolate cookie.

6. The gluten free Hob Nob

Whats this I see a 'glutenus' brand providing a gluten free option? I' ve never tried a 'normal' Hob Nob so I didn't really have any expectations but it was surprisingly really good, a oaty base topped with a thin layer of milk chocolate the perfect middle ground biscuit (for this one is definitely in the biscuit and not cookie catagorey) not to sweet and not to savoury! And it wasn't to crunchy- No broken teeth were present over here!

5. Into the top 5 we have...Rhythm peanut butter cookies

Now I love any cookie that contains any sort of nut butter, It is the best feeling to bit into a cookie and find a glorious centre of nut butter. This cookie is super soft and chocolatey topped with crunchy peanuts and filled with a smooth peanut butter it definitely hits those peanut butter cookie cravings!

4. Ryhtem choclate cookie minis

Isn't everything better when its mini? These cookies are not only super cute but delicious as well, full of choclate chunks they are packed full of flavour and a little crunchy but 10 seconds in the microwave and there like there fresh out of the oven. The perfect cookie snack for when your craving the chocolate but don't want a full cookie.

3. Down to the top three...Deliocusly Ella cookies

Now whilst these are frozen so take a little bit of extra time as they have to be cooked, they come out super soft in the middle and crunchy on the outside. I usually love to make the cookie recipes on delicously Ellas app but these are great for when I don't have time to bake but still want to enjoy a yummy treat. And with me they will always be dipped in almond butter for that extra wow factor.

2. Oreos

Number two has to be the famous gluten free Oreos, tasting exactly like I remember normal Oreos to taste like they are rich in there choclate flavour with a smooth cream filling however there definitely on my list for being a certified biscuit for there are no soft centres here. These ones also soften super quick in hot drinks and look good to!

1-Now the spot of cookie number one goes too.....Livias cookies!!

Whilst they may not be the softest they are packed full of flavour, served with a little dipping pot of nut butter these biscuit/cookies are reventlutinary. The perfect sized snack, and there are some new ones on the rise which I'm forever looking to find (might have to be an online order).

I hope you enjoyed reading my cookie ratings, What did you think, did you agree with me? What would you have changed about my ranking? Go and comment your thoughts on @rubysgfkitchen on instagram!

Happy cookie testing,

Ruby x