Briony Williams’ favourite lockdown bake is flourless chocolate and peanut butter brownies
Bake Off star Briony Williams is, of course, busy baking in lockdown, whether she’s working on quick and delicious all-in-one recipes or making cakes for the imaginary friends of her four-year-old daughter, Nora.
For Briony, this isn’t the first time baking has helped her through a challenge.
“I’ve always found baking very therapeutic. I first started baking when I was off work, ill, for about nine months. I was at home and didn’t know what to do with myself. One of my colleagues suggested I could try baking,” she told us.
“I started baking and found it so calming and beneficial. It always used to calm my mind - and you have a lovely end product.”
Baking still holds its restorative powers, for Briony.
“I still really enjoy it. I’m doing a lot of baking with Nora. Pre-coronavirus I was busy and working away a lot, so it’s nice that I can take the time and when she asks me if we can make a cake I can say: 'Yes, we’ve got time. Let’s do it,'” she said.
Like many of bakers, Briony’s had to get creative with replacements for flour, and one of the bakes she keeps coming back to in lockdown is her flourless peanut butter and chocolate brownies.
“They’re lovely and gooey and they happen to be vegan. They’re so tasty. It’s an all in one recipe – you put it all in one bowl and off you go. It’s quite good to keep you motivated when things aren’t too complicated,” Bryony said of the recipe, which contains store cupboard essentials including oats (blitzed into a fine powder as a flour replacement), peanut butter and instant coffee.
Follow Briony's recipe HERE
Flexibility is key when it comes to lockdown baking, according to Briony.
“Be open to trying new things and understand that they might not work but that’s okay,” she said.
“I didn’t realise that oats whizzed up worked as flour but I gave it a try and it worked really nicely.
“I made some biscuits and rather than using flour, I used whizzed up Rice Krispies. That was a trial and error sort of thing, but it worked in the end and it came out really nicely.”
If, like Bryony, you’re baking with children during lockdown, she has some top tips.
“Before you start, have all of your ingredients ready and weighed out in bowls because for the kids, that takes out the stress of trying to find the exact number that they need,” Briony said.
“If you can, do your baking in bursts rather than blocking out an hour because they get bored and want to do something else. When I bake with Nora, rather than getting her to make all of the cake with me, she helps me out with the beginning, then has a break and does something else, then helps me out with the decorating,” she added.
A post shared by Briony May Williams (@brionymaybakes) on Mar 27, 2020 at 12:04pm PDT
If you aim for perfection in the kitchen, Briony advises letting go of that idea and focusing on having fun with your kids instead.
“I had Nora piping for the first time recently, which she thought was brilliant. I like my bakes to look really nice… they looked like they had frosting poos on top of them but she had a lovely time. So letting go of the control is absolutely key.”
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