“Good friends, good books, and a sleepy conscience: this is the ideal life” - Mark Twain.
Well I am certainly blessed with all of the above! First of all blessed to have good friends in life. Thank you all! The rest just follows.
So a friend of mine gifted me Popina Book of Baking by Isidora Popovic a few years back and boy, was I thrilled. This is an incredible baking book with mouth watering recipes and to top it all such beautifully rendered photos!
Even today just looking at the pictures in this book is so therapeutic. Not just for me, but my girls love to browse through this book before bedtime. They also make plans on what to bake the coming weekend and so on.
Once such night, they came across this page and my little one who is a big fan of chocolate wanted me to bake these brownies. She asked me to read the recipe to her and the moment I said dark chocolate she was thrilled and declared we are going to bake these brownies this weekend. And so the adventure began...
Although I agreed enthusiastically, to be honest, the recipe gave me the quivers. Firstly, it uses very little flour, and expects us to whip the eggs and sugar to a pale-creamy consistency. I really wasn't sure until what point I was supposed to whip. There is no baking powder in this recipe and no vanilla essence either. So I was a little apprehensive, and rightly so, but for the wrong reasons! You will get what I mean, in just a bit.
The pictures here are from the second attempt at baking these brownies.
The first time around (a week before), I ran into a couple of hiccups.
First, I was short of about 80 grams of dark baking chocolate and ended up using some white baking chocolate, but that diluted the chocolate mixture.
Secondly, I had to wait for the chocolate mixture to cool down for a long while. During that time, the egg and sugar mixture had deflated almost.
On the whole the brownie mix, turned out a little dilute and on baking, yielded delicious, but gooey-in-the-middle brownies. I had to refrigerate it with the baking tin, and then slice it into squares.
Ok, lesson learnt the hard way.
I will never ever breach the following rules:
1. Never mix white and dark chocolate, they have different consistencies. So the end product will not have the desired consistency if you use the wrong kind.
2. Never overheat chocolate. It is extremely sensitive to heat and should not be overheated.
I used the tradition method of heating chocolate in a glass bowl on top of a saucepan with simmering water. However the glass bowl overheated and the mixture turned out lumpy and muddy.
The above page gives tips on how to salvage overheated chocolate. Unfortunately I did not have any more dark chocolate to fix this.
There is another method, using the microwave that can be used. In the second attempt I used the microwave method.
3. Always prepare the ingredients in the order specified.
In this case,
Step 1. Melt chocolate and butter and keep it aside to cool.
Step 2. Whip up the eggs and sugar.
Once the chocolate mixture is almost cool, start whipping the eggs.
Okay, now that we know what not to do, let us get on with what needs to be done, shall we?
Recipe (Makes 16 squares)
Baking tin: 7" square baking tin
Actually the recipe calls for a 7" square baking tin, but since I don't have an 7" square, I used an 8" tin.
Oven: 150 degrees C.
Baking time: 15 mins
The above specifications are from the recipe. For the settings that worked for me, please see the note on baking temperature and time below.
Ingredients:
Dark Chocolate - 240 g (70% cocoa solids) (I used dark baking chocolate, chopped fine)
Unsalted butter - 100g
Eggs - 3
Golden caster sugar - 135g (I used white caster sugar)
Plain flour - 55g
Cocoa powder, to dust
Method:
Keep all necessary ingredients out on the kitchen top atleast an hour before you start. The butter and chocolate should be kind of soft and easily melting with the slightest heat. The eggs should be at room temperature.
Line the baking sheet with parchment paper and keep aside.
Preheat the oven to 150 degrees C. My oven can only be set in 20 degrees steps and hence I either have to use 140 degrees C or 160 degrees C. I went with 140 degrees C and decided to increase the baking time.
Melt the chocolate and butter and mix into a smooth paste. I used the microwave method.
Microwave method to melt chocolate: Put the butter and chopped chocolate into a glass bowl and stick it into the microwave for 30 seconds, at half the power. Pull it out and give it a stir with a silicone spatula. Pop it back into the microwave for another 30 seconds. Keep stirring and microwaving at half-power until the chocolate melts and mixes with the soft butter. It took me about a minute to melt the chocolate this way. It certainly helps to have to the butter and chocolate soft at room temperature.
Keep the chocolate-butter mixture aside to cool. This did not take long.
Beat the eggs and sugar with a hand mixer, until pale and creamy. this took about 4 minutes. The mixture was thick like whipping cream forming soft peaks.
Sift in the flour and fold in gently. I used the spatula for this. Finally fold in the molten chocolate mixture and mix until smooth. I used the hand mixer for just a few seconds to blend in the chocolate mixture into the egg-sugar-flour mixture.
The batter turned out thick and creamy like this:
Bake this in the oven for about 40 minutes. Check every 5 mins, after the first 20 minutes to see if the brownies are set inside. No one wants an overbaked brownie.
Note on baking temperature and time:
Recipe states 150 degrees C for 15 minutes, but since I had set the oven at 140 degrees C, I had to increase the baking time.
After 20 minutes, I used the toothpick method to check on the brownie and although the top had risen and formed the crust the inside was still gooey.
I baked it again for about 10 minutes and still found the brownies gooey, so I baked for another 10 minutes and this time the toothpick test passed.
The brownies should have risen slightly. Leave to cool completely and then dust with cocoa powder. Cut into squares and serve.
Baking tin: 7" square baking tin
Actually the recipe calls for a 7" square baking tin, but since I don't have an 7" square, I used an 8" tin.
Oven: 150 degrees C.
Baking time: 15 mins
The above specifications are from the recipe. For the settings that worked for me, please see the note on baking temperature and time below.
Ingredients:
Dark Chocolate - 240 g (70% cocoa solids) (I used dark baking chocolate, chopped fine)
Unsalted butter - 100g
Eggs - 3
Golden caster sugar - 135g (I used white caster sugar)
Plain flour - 55g
Cocoa powder, to dust
Method:
Keep all necessary ingredients out on the kitchen top atleast an hour before you start. The butter and chocolate should be kind of soft and easily melting with the slightest heat. The eggs should be at room temperature.
Line the baking sheet with parchment paper and keep aside.
Preheat the oven to 150 degrees C. My oven can only be set in 20 degrees steps and hence I either have to use 140 degrees C or 160 degrees C. I went with 140 degrees C and decided to increase the baking time.
Melt the chocolate and butter and mix into a smooth paste. I used the microwave method.
Microwave method to melt chocolate: Put the butter and chopped chocolate into a glass bowl and stick it into the microwave for 30 seconds, at half the power. Pull it out and give it a stir with a silicone spatula. Pop it back into the microwave for another 30 seconds. Keep stirring and microwaving at half-power until the chocolate melts and mixes with the soft butter. It took me about a minute to melt the chocolate this way. It certainly helps to have to the butter and chocolate soft at room temperature.
Keep the chocolate-butter mixture aside to cool. This did not take long.
Beat the eggs and sugar with a hand mixer, until pale and creamy. this took about 4 minutes. The mixture was thick like whipping cream forming soft peaks.
Sift in the flour and fold in gently. I used the spatula for this. Finally fold in the molten chocolate mixture and mix until smooth. I used the hand mixer for just a few seconds to blend in the chocolate mixture into the egg-sugar-flour mixture.The batter turned out thick and creamy like this:
Bake this in the oven for about 40 minutes. Check every 5 mins, after the first 20 minutes to see if the brownies are set inside. No one wants an overbaked brownie.
Note on baking temperature and time:Recipe states 150 degrees C for 15 minutes, but since I had set the oven at 140 degrees C, I had to increase the baking time.
After 20 minutes, I used the toothpick method to check on the brownie and although the top had risen and formed the crust the inside was still gooey.
I baked it again for about 10 minutes and still found the brownies gooey, so I baked for another 10 minutes and this time the toothpick test passed.
The brownies should have risen slightly. Leave to cool completely and then dust with cocoa powder. Cut into squares and serve.
Verdict: I should have had no misgivings about not having any leavening agent in this recipe. The whipping of the eggs and sugar is the key step here, and that takes care of giving the brownies the texture and leavening needed. Crispy outer crust, with soft melt in the mouth core and such chocolatey goodness, this was such a hit with the kids. It does have the texture of chocolate truffles and hence the name. Thank you, my friend for gifting me this treasure of recipes!
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