Chewy Crunchy and Fudgy Chocolate Brownies

Can anyone not like chocolate? Especially when heaps of the cocoa goodness is mixed with egg, butter and sugar - that's simply an irresistible combination. Thanks to the likes of Max Brenners and Oliver Browns we've been exposed to some good variety of chocolate fudges and brownies. Thanks to the school holidays kids and I - this time it was just the boys who wanted to experiment some brownies at home. While researching I realized there were 2 schools of brownies - the fudgy and the cakey. I thought why not introduce a 3rd school which lies somewhere in between and also crunchy as well. So without further ado, here comes the recipe.

Ingredients

1. Chocolate chips - 225 gms
2. Butter - 170 gms (3/4 cups)
3. Brown Sugar - 250 gms (1 1/4 cups) (I used brown sugar for the extra moistness / fudginess - you can use normal sugar too)
4. Eggs - 2
5. All purpose flour (Maida) - 95 gms (1/2 cup)
6. Cocoa powder / Hot Chocolate - 30 gms (1/2 cup)
7. Vanilla essence - 2 teaspoons
8. Salt - 1 teaspoon
9. Walnuts and pecans - 1/2 cup

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 180 deg C (or 350 deg F) - slightly less if it is fan forced
2. Boil water in a medium sized sauce pan.
3. Place a ceramic bowl on top of the boiling plan and melt the butter and half of the chocolate chips.
4. Once well mixed and melted keep aside and mix the sugar and vanilla essence in. Keep stirring until the sugar is all mixed up.
5. Leave the mixture to cool down for about 10-15 minutes.
6. Mix the eggs one at a time - not beating / mixing it too hard. The key here is not to overmix.
7. Sift the flour, cocoa powder and salt and fold it in slowly into the chocolate mixture.
8. Mix the remaining chocolate chips, walnuts and pecans and fold it in. Do not mix it too hard.
9. Line a baking tray (preferably square) with baking/parchment paper and transfer the batter into the parchment paper.
10. Bake for 20-25 minutes - as always using your nose as an indicator. Stop baking when you can insert a tooth pick and it comes out fairly clean.
11. Let it cool for at least 1-2 hours.
12. Use a sharp knife to slice it nice and thick squares (or rectangles).
13. Chewy crunchy and fudgy chocoloate brownies are now ready to be devoured.

Enjoy Baking!!

C

Chocolate Lava Cake

While I have heard of chocolate lava cake many times, the first time we actually had one was as a dessert in room service at Crowne Plaza in Canberra few years ago. Since that incident Nandha always wanted to stay in a hotel that has lava cake for dessert. Needless to say we were disappointed in quite a few of our other hotel stays since not many had it in their menu. So as always with my culinary experiments when I can't find something to eat - make them. So here's an attempt at simple pure chocolate lava cake. There could be other versions of this coming up in future. 

Ingredients

1. Dark chocolate chips or melts - 200 gms
2. Butter - 200 gms + 50 gms 
3. Eggs - 5 (3 whole eggs and 2 egg yolks)
4. Sugar - 1/4 cup
5. Salt - 1/2 tea spoon
6. Plain flour - 4 table spoons
7. Vanilla essence - 2 tea spoons
8. Cocoa powder - for dusting cup
9. Powdered sugar - optional for dusting
10. Vanilla ice cream - optional as accompaniment 

Method

1. Chop up the 200 gms of butter into small cubes.
2. Melt the butter and chocolate together on a glass / ceramic bowl over boiling water until you get a smooth silky ganache.
3. Set it aside to cool to room temperature.
4. In a large bowl crack open 3 whole eggs and 2 egg yolks and beat them for a few minutes.
5. Add the sugar, salt and blend them well using a blender until you get a pale yellow custardy texture.
6. Add the vanilla essence and blend it well.
7. Once the chocolate ganache has cooled down (gives you an excuse to have a quick lick) blend it slowly with the egg and sugar mixture pouring maybe about a cup at a time.
8. Add the flour and slowly blend it in without any lumps. Do not use an electric mixer for this step. The batter is now ready.
9. Now would be a good time to pre-heat the oven to 150 deg C.
10. Coat the inside of the ramekins (or any oven proof ceramic bowls) with butter generously until every part of it is covered.
11. Dust the inside with the cocoa powder so that a thin layer of cocoa layer is formed. Make sure you tap and remove any excess cocoa. Note - your kitchen could and will get messy - just clean it up. ;)
12. Pour the batter into the ramekins for about a quarter of the cup. Add a chocolate melt or a few chips and cover them up with some more batter until you fill about half the ramekin. Repeat the same on all ramekins until you have the batter left. I used one with 4 inches x 2 inches depth and got enough batter for 4 ramekins.
13. Bake the batter in ramekins on an oven tray for about 10 minutes. Some tips:
• It is not ready yet if you take it out and shake the tray and the batter wiggles.
• It is ready when you see some other crust solid with a few holes formed.
14. Once baked remove the tray and set it aside to cool for a few minutes.
15. Place a plate over the ramekin and tilt it upside down. If everything goes well the ramekins should come out clear and smooth. Some tips:
    
• If you let it cool down for too long the butter will solidify and make the cake stick to the ramekin. If that happens microwave it for about 5-6 seconds to warm it up.
• Make sure you don't microwave for too long or you will see the lava bursting up prematurely.
16. Dust the top with powdered sugar.
17. Cut open and slice to see the chocolate lava oozing out. 
18. Serve warm along with a scoop of vanilla ice cream.

Happy Baking!!

C