Korova Brownies: Final edition

The Korova Brownie was inspired by the Korova cookie, of course!

And more specifically by an eGer, Chris Amirault.

Another eGer rose to the challenge, and Kerry Beal's recipe can be found here. It was also Kerry's idea to do a Brownie Bake-off on eGullet.

I really was going to take a picture, but it couldn't happen, as my digital camera is on fritz, and my PDA's camera decided to take a holiday. Cameras, as my dear readers will find out, HATE me. Grrrr....

As for why I did go to the trouble of going to battle again with cameras? It's Brownie Babe of the Month, of course!

This is a fudgy brownie. I believe cakey brownies are not brownies and I don't do crunchy add-ins, especially not nuts, as much as I like nuts.

The cookie dough part is very very rich, and when you bite into it with the brownie...Sumptuous is the only word that can be used to describe the mouthfeel.

Ingredients:

Cookie dough:

50g butter

25g brown sugar
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp vanilla

75g flour
20g cocoa powder
1/4 tsp baking powder

Cream the butter. Add the sugar, salt and vanilla.

Then stir in the flour, cocoa powder and baking powder until it clumps together.

Chill for about half an hour.

Roll 16 little balls of cookie dough and chill--you can make this ahead and freeze. I usually have leftovers, which I bake off as my little Baker's Snack.

Brownie:

200g bittersweet chocolate (70% Valrhona Guanaja)
150g butter
50g or 1/4 cup sugar
3/8 tsp salt
1/4 tsp vanilla extract

120g or 1 cup flour
50g or 1/4 cup sugar
50g cocoa powder

4 eggs, separated
50g brown sugar

Melt the chocolate and the butter together. Stir in the first 50g of sugar, the salt and the vanilla extract. Set aside to cool a little.

Mix the second 50g of sugar, flour and cocoa powder in a bowl.

Instructions for stand mixer:

Whip the egg whites. Add the final amount of sugar when it reaches firm peaks, and then continue whipping until stiff.

Pour in the egg yolks with the mixer on. When fully mixed, it should be a lovely, pale yellow.

Slowly pour in the melted chocolate mixture. Scrape all of it in, and follow with all of the flour mixture.

Mix until it forms a thick, glossy batter that has no flour streaks.

Instructions for whipping by hand:

Whip the egg whites, adding the sugar it reaches firm peaks and continue whipping until stiff.

Whisk in the egg yolks one by one.

Fold in the melted chocolate mixture, then the flour. Continue folding until the batter is thick and glossy.

Pour into a 8 inch square pan.

Bake for 10 minutes at 160C.

Remove from oven, and insert the balls of cookie dough at even intervals. You should be aiming to cut 16 pieces, ie 4 by 4 squares, so insert the balls accordingly. I recommend chopsticks, or failing that, ice cube tongs.

Continue baking for another 20 minutes, or until the center stops jiggling--don't bother with the skewer test because it will be very wet.

Cool, slice and keep overnight before eating. They last 3-4 days here, because I'm one tiny person who eats only 3-4 2-inch square brownies a day.

Notes:

I've not tried whipping whole eggs for the brownies, but I plan to. Would save me the trouble of separating them each time.

I personally don't recommend mixing the egg yolks into the melted chocolate-butter mixture, like most recipes say to do. It thickens up, and it's not as easy, IMHO, to fold into the whipped eggs.

I haven't tried inserting the cookie dough into the brownie batter before starting to bake it yet. I might, but it won't be in the near future, as I am quite sure I won't be feeling like brownies in the near future. I still have more than a half-batch of these to go--second batch in two weeks, I think.

I find that whipping the eggs provides a rather silky, fudgy kind of texture. Stirring in the whole eggs, a la the Medrich recipes, gets you a chewy brownie, which I'm not keen on.

You may want to increase the sugar a little, or use a chocolate that's in the 50-60% range. I tend to bake very light on sugar.

They can be frozen. What I did the last time was slice, wrap in cling wrap, drop them all in a ziploc and chucked the bag in the freezer. To defrost, I put them in the fridge overnight, then left them outside for a few hours. As far as I am concerned, and I am fussy, they taste as good as fresh.

And finally, they taste better after aging at least overnight. Trust me on this. It's not very good on the day you bake them.

Rich Chocolate Cupcakes: First Edition

I want two different chocolate cupcake recipes, you see.

I like spongey cakes and rich, fudgey cakes, and so with chocolate, it's necessary to have two kinds of cake. ;)

200 gram bar of Valrhona 70% chocolate
275g butter
300g or 1 1/2 cups sugar
8 eggs
150g or 1 1/4 cup flour
25g or 1/4 cup cocoa powder, unsweetened
1-1/2 teaspoons baking powder
pinch of salt

Melt the butter together with the chocolate. Stir in the sugar and let cool.

Sift the flour with the cocoa powder, salt and baking powder.

Beat the chocolate mixture for two minutes, then add the eggs in one by one, mixing well in between additions. This is important, as there are no whipped eggs to help the cake rise.

Stir in the flour mixture.

Bake in cupcake pans for 170C.

Notes:

I think the butter to chocolate ratio is still too high. Even my brownie recipe is 1:1, not 1.5:1, and it's making the cupcake wrappers fall off. As some on eGullet said, "Their pants have fallen off."

I know, I know, you cannot believe I'm reducing the butter. But it's not a butter cake, it's a chocolate cake, you know.

I actually use 30g cocoa, which is a bit more than 1/4 cup, for you people who use cups.

Brownies: First Edition

In my world, brownies do not have nuts or chunks of anything (except maybe World Peace Cookie dough) and are not frosted.

I believe that Totally More-ishness can be achieved without the addition of that sort of thing.

Ingredients:

150g 70% chocolate--I used Valrhona Guanaja
120g flour
1tsp salt
100g brown sugar
40g cocoa powder
4 eggs--separated
125g butter

Melt butter with chocolate. Stir in salt and sugar. When cool, stir in 4 egg yolks (if you do this while it's hot, it may scramble).

Sift cocoa powder with flour.

Whisk egg whites to soft peaks, then stir in the chocolate mixture, then the flour.

Pour into 8 inch square pan and bake at 180C for 10 minutes, then turn down to 160C for 18-20minutes, or until a skewer comes out with moist crumbs.

Notes:

No crackly top. :(

Moist.

Not chocolatey enough, but I think this is partially due to the imbalance.

What imbalance? Too much salt, too little sugar. A touch of vanilla might be good--I did have the vanilla bottle out, but forgot.

I think I'm going to use the mixer next time. I'll whip the egg whites, add the egg yolks, then pour in the melted butter, chocolate and sugar mixture with the mixer still on.