Monday 19 February 2007

A Tower of Brownies

Made these brownies last night. I have refrained from baking anything with chocolate lately, as both my kids have been unwell for the past weeks. Upon their request, I baked these for their breakfast today.

I followed the recipe from Alice Medrich's Chocolate Holidays: Unforgettable Desserts for Every Season. It recommended a ice bath method...a special but simple technique to a perfect brownie. This involves baking the brownies at a high temperature of 200 degC for 20 mins, and once out of the oven, submerge the pan straight into an ice bath (a bigger pan filled 3/4 full with ice & water). Let the brownies cool in the ice bath before cutting into squares.

Cleaning up after the baking session was really easy. The main utensils I used were only a saucepan and a wooden spoon! I melted 4 oz butter and 4 oz unsweetened chocolate in the saucepan directly over low heat(although the instructions says to melt them in a bowl set over a pan of simmering water). Then, I simply stirred in the rest of the ingredients: 200g sugar, 1/4 tsp salt, 1 tsp vanilla essence , followed by 2 eggs (adding one at a time) and finally 70g of plain flour directly in the saucepan. I also lined the baking pan with foil, and if you are really not fussy, you don't even have to wash it ;]

The top half of the brownie is rather crispy while the bottom half has a softer texture. In fact, you could see a clear distinction of the 2 layers from the photo above. They are rather rich and a bit too sweet for my liking, although my kids find the taste just nice. Anyway, I'll definitely cut down the sugar next time.

Note: This recipe yelds 16 squares.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hi hi

I am really fascinated by your bakes. They look wonderful and delicious...

Can I ask you some question as I have failed in my brownies several times. It is really disheartening because everybody says brownies are easy to bake. And also a blogger uses the same recipe as me and her brownies are so nice.

This is my problem : The base is very wet. It stick on to the pan and it is very diffucult to take out. Is it because of too much melted butter?

Your method here about putting the pan to cold water after baking is for what purpose?

Many many thanks....

Happy Homebaker said...

Hi keen baker, thanks for dropping by :)

Actually I am still a novice in the area of baking...as such I can't really comment much why your brownies base is wet. It could be that you under-bake the brownies...and it could also be due to the oven temperature...too low?

You will have to line your baking pan with parchment paper or foil, otherwise the brownies will stick onto the pan. The ice bath method is recommended by Alice Medrich in her book. It's suppose to be the secret to making the "perfect" brownies :)

I started baking brownies with a brownie mix. Ready-mix are actually very good start for those who are new in baking. You may want to give it a try. hope this helps!

Anonymous said...

try resting in the fridge, easier to take out ^^

Charenn29 said...

i love the photo of your tower of brownies. its so cute! ^_^