Nothing much to write today, church, housework, knitting, whilst Tom
stripped our bannister of white gloss paint. Roast pork with the
trimmings for dinner tonight. Irrationally grumpy.
Let's find a prompt shall we? (On a side note, if there's anything in
particular, dear reader, that you'd like me to write about, please
tweet it, leave a comment, email etc...)
From George, over a year ago:
Take your favourite recipe, and make it read beautifully.
My favourite recipe? Now that's a hard one. For a foodie, I don't
enjoy cooking all that much. It stresses me out, and I find it
somewhat boring. If I had my way, I would fill the fridge with
delicious things that could be nibbled upon cold, with a glass of
champagne. Cold meats, olives, cheese, vegetables already cut into
crudités.
However, a recipe. I think the recipe below is probably my favourite
because it never fails to impress. Need to take something as a thank
you gift to a hostess? This is it.
Snow flecked brownies. Well actually, I think white chocolate is a
waste of space, not having any cocoa in it, so we will call them
'Death - on - plate - but - worth - it Brownies.'
Ingredients
To make the most of making this dish, one should select one's
ingredients from the kind of shop that makes one feel happy. For the
author, this is the worker's co-op of middle class pretensions,
Waitrose. A happy cook makes happiness inducing food, and happy
ingredients even more so.
375g of Divine dark chocolate or other fairly traded chocolate so that
your deadly brownies can be happy knowing that the workers involved in
their produce got a fair wage.
375g salted butter at room temperature at least. I like salted butter
as it adds tang to the sweetness, and I cut it in to chunky cubes to
aid with melting.
1 tablespoon real vanilla extract, or fake if you're cheating. Who has
the cash to buy the real thing when you're spending on chocolate? To
be honest, I normally forget about this bit. It's probably not needed
if you're not using the horror of horrors, white chocolate.
6 eggs from the happiest of hens
400g sugar, preferably golden caster, again fair trade or from British
sugar beet.
1 teaspoon salt
225g plain flour
250g dark chocolate, roughly chopped into chunks
baking tin measuring approx 33cm x 23cm x 5.5cm
METHOD
How to cook the brownies that are a heart attack on a plate, but melt
in the mouth and fabulous. These make a great dessert at a party,
especially when served with champagne.
1.Preheat the oven to 180C/Gas 4/350F.
2.Line your pan with greaseproof paper, or like me, use a silicon pan
to avoid faffing with paper and make washing up easier.
3.Melt the butter and dark chocolate together in a large heavy based
pan, stirring constantly to stop it burning. Try to stop yourself from
eating the dark glossy gorgeousness at this point.
4. Turn the chocolate butter mix off. In a bowl or wide mouthed large
measuring jug, beat the eggs with the sugar and vanilla.
5.Let the chocolate mixture cool a bit before, and then beat in the
eggs and sugar. The cooling is important to stop you getting chocolate
scrambled eggs, but I normally chuck it all in fairly quickly. Never
had any touble.
6.To stop making even more bowls dirty, measure the flour and the salt
into the saucepan, and beat in until smooth. Again, stop trying eat
the mixture.
7.Finally fold in the shards of dark chocolate. Scrape out of the
saucepan into the pan. Bake for about 25 mins. or until the top has a
dry rather than glossy looking top. Whilst it's baking find someone to
lick the saucepan out for you, as you will be feeling sick from all
the mixture you've already eaten.
8.The brownies are ready, when the top is dried to a paler brown not
glossy texture,, but the middle is dark and dense and gooey still;
remember that they will continue to cook as they cool.
9. If you're feeling really fancy, serve with a snowy topping of icing
sugar. You probably won't want to share.
The original:
This recipe is taken from the Christmas Special of Nigella Bites.
Nigella says: "Christmas food is the best sort of food because it's
about proper, unpretentious home cooking. Feasting isn't about
formality: it's about providing friends and family with good things to
eat."
Ingredients
375g best quality dark chocolate
375g unsalted butter at room temperature at least
1 tablespoon real vanilla extract
6 eggs
350g sugar
1 teaspoon salt
225g plain flour
250g white chocolate buttons, preferably Montgomery Moore, or just
chop same amount of good white chocolate
tin measuring approx 33cm x 23cm x 5.5cm
METHOD
How to cook snow-flecked brownies
1.Preheat the oven to 180C/Gas 4/350F.
2.Line your brownie pan base and sides.
3.Melt the butter and dark chocolate together in a large heavy based pan.
4.In a bowl or wide mouthed large measuring jug, beat the eggs with
the sugar and vanilla.
5.Measure the flour into another bowl and add the salt.
6.When the chocolate mixture has melted let it cool a bit before
beating in the eggs and sugar, and then the flour.
7.Finally fold in the white chocolate buttons. Beat to combine
smoothly and then scrape out of the saucepan into the lined pan. Bake
for about 25 mins.
8.The brownies are ready, when the top is dried to a paler brown
speckle, but the middle is dark and dense and gooey still; remember
that they will continue to cook as they cool.
© Nigella Lawson, Nigella Bites - Chatto & Windus, 2001
(Incidently, Nigella wrote what I consider to be the best named recipe
ever. Massacre in a Snow Storm, an eton mess type dish made with
pomegranate. Think about it.)
