Mocha Brownies with crystallised violets
This week I decided to move on from biscuits to brownies and for these I turned again to ‘1001 cupcakes, cookies and other tempting treats’ ed Susanna Tee, pub. Paragon Books, 2009 and messed around with the recipe there.
Ingredients
100 g/ 3 and a half oz butter (plus extra for greasing)
150 g/5 and a half oz plain chocolate
1 teasp strong instant coffee (or expresso)
1 teasp vanilla extract
100 g/ 3 and a half oz ground almonds
175 g/ 6 oz caster sugar
4 eggs separated
150 g/ 5 and a half oz white chocolate
Preheat oven to 180 degrees C/160 degrees C for fan oven/ 350 degrees F/ Gas Mark 4. Grease and line the base of a 20cm / 8 inch square baking tin (or rectangular of similar area). I let my baking paper extend beyond the tin at either end which made it easier to remove from the tin).
Put butter and chocolate into a saucepan and stir over a low heat until melted. Leave to cool slightly, then stir in the coffee and vanilla. Add almonds and sugar and mix until combined.
Put egg yolks in a bowl and beat lightly, then stir these into the cooled chocolate mixture.
Whisk egg whites in another bowl until the stiff peak stage and gently fold spoonfuls of this into the chocolate mixture until you have added it all. Now spoon this mixture into the baking tin.
Bake in a preheated oven for 30-40 minutes until firm on top but slightly gooey within. Leave to cool in the tin.
When cool, melt 100g white chocolate in a bowl over simmering water (the bowl shouldn’t touch the water beneath). I then marked out squares on the cooked brownie with a long knife before I added the melted white chocolate. The grid pattern was then visible through the white chocolate and made cutting easier when the white chocolate had set. A few home made crystallised violets made the slab of brownies look pretty but I can’t say they tasted of anything much (back to the drawing board for the violets).
Mocha brownies with crystallised violets
Verdict: soft and very very chocolatey. Jolly good.