In exchange for his killer salsa recipe, I made a homesick Hawaiian short-order chef some chocolate brownies as he had talked about them with almost as much affection as his far-off home. They were deeply disappointing, all gooey and chewy. I handed them over with an apology and a promise to amend the recipe.
“Chewy? Gooey? That’s
what a brownie is supposed to be!” he exclaimed and pronounced them “Pretty!
Damn! Good!”
I’ve since discovered that brownie aficionados fall into one of two
camps: chewy, gooey; or cakey. My
blondie recipe is somewhere in between so I have reworked it into a
bitter chocolate brownie that manages to be light without being too cake-y with hits of orange
peel and pockets of dark chocolate to satisfy the chewy, gooey camp too.
For approximately 16 foot-in-both-camps brownies you will need...... to base-line a 23cm square cake tin and to pre-heat your
oven to 160°C
150g butter
100g muscovado sugar
100g bitter orange
marmalade (with peel)
2 teaspoons grated orange
zest
2 teaspoons of (good quality)
instant coffee dissolved in 2 teaspoons boiling water
3 eggs, beaten
150g plain flour
50g good quality cocoa
powder (I used a gorgeous Fair Trade cocoa)
1 ½ teaspoons baking
powder
½ teaspoon bicarbonate of
soda
100g good quality (70%
cocoa solids) dark chocolate
50g toasted almonds,
roughly chopped
Icing sugar to dust
1
Place
the butter and sugar in a bowl and using an electric mixer, cream together
until light and fluffy. Add the marmalade and orange zest mix until combined
with the butter mixture.
2
Mix
the coffee in with the beaten eggs and add this mixture to the bowl in three roughly
equal amounts, beating until well combined with the butter mixture.
3
Now,
add the flour, cocoa powder, baking powder and bicarbonate of soda and mix
until just combined.
4
Stir
in the chopped chocolate and almonds to distribute them evenly throughout the batter.
5
Transfer
the batter into the prepared cake tin and bake for 35-40 minutes until risen
and a cocktail stick inserted in the centre comes out clean.
6
Remove
from the oven and leave to cool for about 5 minutes before removing from the
tin. Serve warm with good ice cream or cool completely before dusting with
icing sugar and cutting into squares.
They’ll keep for up to a week (in someone else’s house maybe!)
if sealed in an airtight container or cling wrap.
UPDATE: They get even more chocolatey and orange-y and luscious overnight. Alchemy at work...
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UPDATE: They get even more chocolatey and orange-y and luscious overnight. Alchemy at work...