Brownies & Bars by Liz Franklin

Cake makers fall into two camps: the Victoria sponge variety (perfectly iced) and the squidgy brownie sort (roughly hewn chunks of goodness). brownies & bars by Liz Franklin ably addresses the latter category with its dense and sticky offering of recipes to tease tea time taste buds. Here are brownies and bars that are fail safe in their making; their success doesn't depend entirely on the performance of your cooker. Their mixing doesn't require a degree in gastronomy and you can just pop ‘em in the oven and pop ‘em out with ease. And the beauty of brownies and bars is that they double up as puddings, are perfect for picnics, as well as keeping mid morning hunger at bay.

If you really thought about it, there is a different flavoured brownie for each day of the year and some may find the offering of twelve a little disappointing, given that the title of the book has been given over to the immortal brownie. The upshot though is favourable, as Liz Franklin has chosen some jewels for her brownie crown. The recipes range from the standard chocolate and nut (but think pistachio instead of the regular walnut) to more exotic numbers like prune, Armagnac and almond and cardamom and orange.

Bars refer to tray bakes, which are fruity, chocolatey and in the main, sticky. They can be sliced up and easily handled into mouths, picnic boxes and are perfect when you are on the move. Our favourites are the unusual Earl Grey tea squares, a sponge base flavoured with this delicate tea and then iced. Fudgy lemon bars are made from a shortcake base with curd topping.

As you would expect, these are just the icing on the cake and the book has hidden depths with a collection of seventy recipes, all begging to be baked. With Tara Fisher's juicy photographs, you won't need much persuading.

Publication details:
96 pages. Photography by Tara Fisher. £12.99
Published by Conran Octopus
ISBN 1840914157
2005

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