Snowflecked brownies
The recent snow has inspired to do some baking, partly because I've been spending days cooped up in a not-so-warm apartment, working from home and staying away from the chaos outside. This recipe is from Nigella, one of those that you only do once a year (usually before Christmas, though!) for fear that doing it any more frequently amounts to making a choice between diabetes or a heart attack. Since the snow's gone, I didn't actually bother with the snowflecks, but here's the recipe anyway:
375g dark chocolate
375g unsalted butter
225g plain flour
350g sugar
6 eggs
250g white chocolate buttons
1tbsp vanilla extract
1tsp salt
375g of dark chocolate is really a ridiculous amount to request in a recipe, because good quality chocolate almost invariably comes in 100g bars. So once you've chopped up 375g, you have 25g left over, and let's be realistic, you're just gonna end up eating it anyway, so you might as well just use up the whole 400g. That's what I do, and the brownies taste all the better for it.... Melt the butter and chocolate in a pan over low heat until smooth, and leave to cool slightly. Meanwhile, beat the eggs, sugar and vanilla extract in a large bowl. Fold into the chocolate mixture and mix thoroughly. Add the flour and fold until all the flour is absorbed. Finally, fold in the white chocolate buttons. Using a spatula, pour onto a deep baking tray lined with greaseproof paper and spread evenly.
Bake in a pre-heated oven at 180C for about 25 minutes. The top should be crisp and speckled, but the centre should be goo-ey. Leave on a rack to cool. Cut up into squares. Serve with some icing sugar, vanilla ice cream and a sprig of mint. Or just eat straight out of the oven... incidentally, brownies make good smoothies. This might sound rather disgusting and, in fact, if you give some thought to what you're actually putting into your smoothie, I agree it sounds less than appealing, but seriously, it's chocolate and fat - how could it not taste good? Just add a little milk, ice cream, maybe even some peanut butter while you're at it, blitz to your desired consistency, and drink. You'll feel your blood turning to cement instantly.......
1. Mix melted butter and chocolate with eggs and sugar
2. Fold in flour
3. Bake at 180C, 25 mins
4. Drool.....
375g dark chocolate
375g unsalted butter
225g plain flour
350g sugar
6 eggs
250g white chocolate buttons
1tbsp vanilla extract
1tsp salt
375g of dark chocolate is really a ridiculous amount to request in a recipe, because good quality chocolate almost invariably comes in 100g bars. So once you've chopped up 375g, you have 25g left over, and let's be realistic, you're just gonna end up eating it anyway, so you might as well just use up the whole 400g. That's what I do, and the brownies taste all the better for it.... Melt the butter and chocolate in a pan over low heat until smooth, and leave to cool slightly. Meanwhile, beat the eggs, sugar and vanilla extract in a large bowl. Fold into the chocolate mixture and mix thoroughly. Add the flour and fold until all the flour is absorbed. Finally, fold in the white chocolate buttons. Using a spatula, pour onto a deep baking tray lined with greaseproof paper and spread evenly.
Bake in a pre-heated oven at 180C for about 25 minutes. The top should be crisp and speckled, but the centre should be goo-ey. Leave on a rack to cool. Cut up into squares. Serve with some icing sugar, vanilla ice cream and a sprig of mint. Or just eat straight out of the oven... incidentally, brownies make good smoothies. This might sound rather disgusting and, in fact, if you give some thought to what you're actually putting into your smoothie, I agree it sounds less than appealing, but seriously, it's chocolate and fat - how could it not taste good? Just add a little milk, ice cream, maybe even some peanut butter while you're at it, blitz to your desired consistency, and drink. You'll feel your blood turning to cement instantly.......
1. Mix melted butter and chocolate with eggs and sugar
2. Fold in flour
3. Bake at 180C, 25 mins
4. Drool.....Labels: brownies, Chocolate, food, Nigella Lawson, recipes, smoothies
posted by CCT at 9:00 pm
7 Comments:
What are white chocolate buttons? Are those chocolate chips? Or some other English baking ingredient not yet introduced into the Canadian market? Inquiring minds (and brownie fans) want to know...
Ooh... I think that I have made these before, but without the white chocolate. My friends called them the "crack brownies", since they are so addictive..
RS
Ooh... I think that I have made these before, but without the white chocolate. My friends called them the "crack brownies", since they are so addictive..
RS
I drooled over mix more than the final product - mainly because the photo was [more] in focus!
Dicho
Erm..... white chocolate buttons are like dark chocolate buttons, but white... but I've had some success using crack, too...
Oh, OK, so white chocolate buttons are button-shaped bits of chocolate. But you can just use a bar of decent white chocolate and chop it into small chunks. Or use white chocolate chips. Nigella recommends Montgomery Moore chocolate buttons, whatever they are. But really, life's too short.
The sad thing is that I can't get chocolate chips of any colour in India, or decent white chocolate. However, I'm sure I can score some crack...
Maybe I'll have to wait to make these delectable, addictive treats when I'm back in the land of baking.
Well, a little crack will go a long way....... you don't really need the chocolate chips, though. I usually can't be bothered with them. Or you could use nuts instead. But if you do manage to score some crack, I'm sure you can use it to get hold of some chocolate chips on the black market. Commodities trading and all that....
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