Mayonnaise Secret Ingredient Brownies

Mayonnaise Brownies

Hellmann's recently had a bloggers event in London. I wasn't able to make it but they were kind enough to send me a brownie kit! I couldn't decide what to title this post without it sounding gross!Mayonnaise Brownies, Secret Ingredient Brownies, Peanut Butter Mayonnaise Brownies?

Mayonnaise Brownies

I saw the pink bowl and made the brownies the very next day! It had everything needed to make the brownies (except the eggs).

Mayonnaise Brownies

I was a bit skeptical at first of how they would taste, but as I thought about it mayo doesn't have an overly powerful smell, so I figured it wouldn't affect the taste of the brownies and I was right.

Mayonnaise Brownies

The mayo only contains eggs, vinegar and rapeseed oil which makes it creamy. The purpose of the event and the kits are to show Hellmann's as a versatile ingredient for both sweet and savory dishes. I've seen the brownies in quite a few magazine adverts this month.
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Mayonnaise Brownies

I do love a taste test! This fared 100% more tasty than the last secret ingredient I tasted. The brownies tasted really chocolaty as it uses melted chocolate and cocoa powder. I added half a bag of my precious peanut butter chips from the US instead of nuts for fun. I think these would also make fantastic brownie cupcakes! I think I'll have to add those to make list of things to bake.

Mayonnaise Brownies


Ingredients
40g plain flour
1 tsp baking powder
140g plain chocolate, broken into small pieces
3 eggs
225g caster sugar
1 tsp vanilla
8 tbs Hellman's mayonnaise
55g walnuts (or chocolate chips)

1. Preheat oven to 160 C. Grease a 9x9 inch brownie pan and line with parchment paper (I have an excellent non stick dish and simply greased it). Sift the flour, baking powder and cocoa powder into a small bowl and set aside.

Mayonnaise Brownies

2. Melt the chocolate in the microwave at 30 second intervals stirring in between until melted and set aside.

Mayonnaise Brownies

3. In a large bowl whisk together the eggs, caster sugar and vanilla until thickened. Whisk in the melted chocolate.

Mayonnaise Brownies

4. Fold in the flour mixture, mayonnaise and nuts (or chips). Pour batter into the greased baking pan and bake for 30-35 minutes. Cool completely before cutting into squares.

Mayonnaise Brownies

Thanks to Hellman's for my Brownie Kit

· brownies, chocolate, peanut butter, secret ingredient

Secret Ingredient Revealed

The secret ingredient was revealed to me yesterday morning (click here for the taste test). I was right! The slightly orange and not so tasty cupcake sent to me by We Are Social (a PR agency) were made with Heinz Tomato Ketchup. I'm really excited that I was spot on. I had such a great time writing the review. I hope more exciting opportunities like this come up in the future.

Why did they send me a ketchup cupcake though? Heinz are running a "Secret Ingredient" campaign. Check it out on facebook here or their web page here. I prefer to use ketchup as the secret ingredient in my meatloaf rather than cupcakes personally.

Pittsburgh

In case you didn't know the HQ for Heinz is in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania which is where I was born and my family are from. Maybe it gave me an unfair advantage in the taste test!

Little secret about Heinz. Ever go to a restaurant where they have the glass bottles and the ketchup is always stuck inside? Hold the bottle upside down and hit the embossed number 57 with your open palm a few times and the ketchup will come out every time!

· cupcakes, secret ingredient

Cupcake Taste Test with Secret Ingredient


I was contacted earlier this week by We Are Social and asked if I would participate in a cupcake taste test for them. The catch was that the cupcake was made with a secret ingredient.

Wrapped up nicely

All prepared to take notes 


Unwrapped

I wrote down some criteria to think about while I tasted the cupcake. Things that I think make or break a cupcake. I'm still not 100% sure what the secret ingredient is but I took a good stab at trying to figure it out. 

Smell
I spent a good 5 minutes giving the cupcake a good sniff. The frosting smells nice and sweet but the cake not so good.  It had a funny aroma that wasn't cake like at all. The frosting has to be cream cheese.

Decoration
The cupcake was very neat and nicely decorated. I love a nicely decorated cupcake.

Texture
Cake is heavy and dense and it's orange in color. 

Moisture
Outside was a little hard. The inside was OK but it wasn't fluffy. I really like my cupcakes fluffy. 

Flavor
Not sweet, definitely a savory ingredient used. The cake isn't overly flavorful. I thought it tasted rather plain and that it smelled strongly and had absolutely had an aftertaste that I didn't like.

Overall Impressions
The taste built up as I took each bite. I ate half of the cake on it's own so I could have a better idea of what the secret ingredient is. Eaten with the frosting the cake flavor doesn't come through at all.

This cake isn't something that I would go out of my way to buy. I didn't like the way the cake smelled. The texture of the cake isn't the way I like it. I think the best cupcakes are light and springy. I think as a novelty creation it might be something I would try at a fair or festival. Could possibly be a practical joke!

Secret Ingredient Guesses
This was really hard to determine what the secret ingredient is. I had deduced that it was savory not sweet. I was racking my brain to place the sent. In conjunction with the orange tint my best guesses are
  1. Ketchup
  2. Something tomato based
  3. Some other kind of vegetable (pepper maybe?)
I think that certain savory ingredients lend themselves better to baking than others. Tomatoes are very tart and some tinned tomatoes and spaghetti sauces have a lot of added sugar. I think something like tomato and goats cheese would make a nice muffin but not a cupcake!

Hopefully We Are Social will fill me in and let me know what the secret ingredient is. I hope that my taste buds lead me in the right direction.

*UPDATE* - Click here for the results

· cupcakes, secret ingredient

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