Cooking
February is my birthday month, so of course, we had to have brownies for my birthday. Choosing this particular recipe for this month made a lot of sense - in it's original listing, it makes 40 brownies and uses 750 grams of chocolate! No way was I going to find myself with that much cake around ALONE. I scaled the numbers back to 8/15 (original recipe calls for 15 eggs, hence the weird conversion), and even so, we had PLENTY of cake - even some for the fridge for a couple of days later. For some reason, they state in the recipe that the cake will keep for 2-3 weeks in the fridge. Yeah, not around here.
METHOD
Procedure-wise, this recipe has you melt chocolate and butter and add that to whisked together eggs and sugar. This is slightly different from my standard method, were the sugar is dissolved with chocolate/butter, and the eggs then added afterwards.
INGREDIENTS
The chocolate:egg;sugar ratio in my standard recipe is 110:2:300. The Meyer recipe has a lot less sugar, weighing in at 100:2:125. It also uses only caster sugar, whereas the standard uses a mix of brown and caster. (I use cane sugar, as that is my standby, not regular white caster sugar) Also, a lot less flour in this recipe. I should have put in chopped walnuts, but I just couldn't do it. I told you, not a big fan of bits and bobs in my brownie.
THE VERDICT:
At first mouthful, this brownie was more airy than expected, the chocolate/flour ratio in mind. I'd expected dense. Not at all. In fact, Martin deemed it a 'chocolate cake'. A good one, yes, but a chocolate cake. Not a brownie. We then proceeded to put a single piece in the fridge, and after a couple of hours had a taste. Crazy difference! Way more fudgy and dense, not nearly as fluffy or cakey. Definitely improved the overall mouthfeel to us. This brownie has a more full taste, it's very chocolate-y and dark, compared to what we're used to. Bearing in mind the lesser amount of sugar, it makes sense that we got a more full-on chocolate taste. It's not my preference, but it was a very nice brownie, that texture wise improved immensely from a rest in the fridge.
Meyer's Brownie
(measurements scaled down, hence the weird numbers)
400 g. chocolate (I used Valrhona Guanaja 70%, as suggested in the recipe)
213 g. butter (I used salted, as always)
8 eggs
608 g. sugar
104 g. flour
1/4 t. baking powder
1/4 t. salt
3 T. + 2 t. cocoa powder (I used Valrhona)
(160 g. walnuts, coarsely chopped)
Preheat your oven to 170 degrees Celsius. Line a baking pan measuring roughly 40 x 20 cm with parchment paper.
Coarsely chop the chocolate and melt it together with the butter in a bain marie.
Gently whisk together sugar and eggs - you merely want it to blend, not go airy or light. Stir the chocolate/butter mixture into the egg/sugar mixture.
Sift flour, baking powder, salt and cocoa powder into the batter, gently mixing. If using, stir in the walnuts.
Pour into the prepared baking pan and bake for about 40 minutes. Leave to cool completely in the pan, before unmoulding. Cut into 20 squares.
- Perfect Brownies Recipe
Everyone likes their brownies just so, and so it comes as no surprise that there are untold thousands of brownie recipes. How do I know this? The web site Recipe Source has 569 recipes alone for brownies. The recipes on that site include such varied...
- The Clock’s Ticking…
Chocolate Cherry Quick Bread My cherries arrived about a week and a half ago and I know they can’t last forever. They’re still holding up pretty well, but I have almost two pounds left! This evening I made a light and tasty quick...
- A Year Of Brownies - May
For the month of May, I'd decided to try a cakey brownie. I should probably let you know - and I guess I already have - that I much prefer my brownies fudgy, rather than cakey. But you know - science. Perhaps I was missing out, not ever trying...
- A Year Of Brownies - April
Unsweetened chocolate. Oh, the woe is me. Unsweetened chocolate was the key ingredient in this months brownie, coming to you from Deb, over at Smitten Kitchen. Not easy to come by around these parts, let me tell you. Back when I started this project,...
- A Year Of Brownies - January
Like I said, I already have a brownie recipe I find pretty perfect. It has no add-ons, save for extra chocolate, when I feel like it, it comes together in no time, and I almost always have all the ingredients at the ready. Come to think of it, this recipe...
Cooking
A Year of Brownies - February
February is my birthday month, so of course, we had to have brownies for my birthday. Choosing this particular recipe for this month made a lot of sense - in it's original listing, it makes 40 brownies and uses 750 grams of chocolate! No way was I going to find myself with that much cake around ALONE. I scaled the numbers back to 8/15 (original recipe calls for 15 eggs, hence the weird conversion), and even so, we had PLENTY of cake - even some for the fridge for a couple of days later. For some reason, they state in the recipe that the cake will keep for 2-3 weeks in the fridge. Yeah, not around here.
METHOD
Procedure-wise, this recipe has you melt chocolate and butter and add that to whisked together eggs and sugar. This is slightly different from my standard method, were the sugar is dissolved with chocolate/butter, and the eggs then added afterwards.
INGREDIENTS
The chocolate:egg;sugar ratio in my standard recipe is 110:2:300. The Meyer recipe has a lot less sugar, weighing in at 100:2:125. It also uses only caster sugar, whereas the standard uses a mix of brown and caster. (I use cane sugar, as that is my standby, not regular white caster sugar) Also, a lot less flour in this recipe. I should have put in chopped walnuts, but I just couldn't do it. I told you, not a big fan of bits and bobs in my brownie.
THE VERDICT:
At first mouthful, this brownie was more airy than expected, the chocolate/flour ratio in mind. I'd expected dense. Not at all. In fact, Martin deemed it a 'chocolate cake'. A good one, yes, but a chocolate cake. Not a brownie. We then proceeded to put a single piece in the fridge, and after a couple of hours had a taste. Crazy difference! Way more fudgy and dense, not nearly as fluffy or cakey. Definitely improved the overall mouthfeel to us. This brownie has a more full taste, it's very chocolate-y and dark, compared to what we're used to. Bearing in mind the lesser amount of sugar, it makes sense that we got a more full-on chocolate taste. It's not my preference, but it was a very nice brownie, that texture wise improved immensely from a rest in the fridge.
Meyer's Brownie(measurements scaled down, hence the weird numbers)
400 g. chocolate (I used Valrhona Guanaja 70%, as suggested in the recipe)
213 g. butter (I used salted, as always)
8 eggs
608 g. sugar
104 g. flour
1/4 t. baking powder
1/4 t. salt
3 T. + 2 t. cocoa powder (I used Valrhona)
(160 g. walnuts, coarsely chopped)
Preheat your oven to 170 degrees Celsius. Line a baking pan measuring roughly 40 x 20 cm with parchment paper.
Coarsely chop the chocolate and melt it together with the butter in a bain marie.
Gently whisk together sugar and eggs - you merely want it to blend, not go airy or light. Stir the chocolate/butter mixture into the egg/sugar mixture.
Sift flour, baking powder, salt and cocoa powder into the batter, gently mixing. If using, stir in the walnuts.
Pour into the prepared baking pan and bake for about 40 minutes. Leave to cool completely in the pan, before unmoulding. Cut into 20 squares.
- Perfect Brownies Recipe
Everyone likes their brownies just so, and so it comes as no surprise that there are untold thousands of brownie recipes. How do I know this? The web site Recipe Source has 569 recipes alone for brownies. The recipes on that site include such varied...
- The Clock’s Ticking…
Chocolate Cherry Quick Bread My cherries arrived about a week and a half ago and I know they can’t last forever. They’re still holding up pretty well, but I have almost two pounds left! This evening I made a light and tasty quick...
- A Year Of Brownies - May
For the month of May, I'd decided to try a cakey brownie. I should probably let you know - and I guess I already have - that I much prefer my brownies fudgy, rather than cakey. But you know - science. Perhaps I was missing out, not ever trying...
- A Year Of Brownies - April
Unsweetened chocolate. Oh, the woe is me. Unsweetened chocolate was the key ingredient in this months brownie, coming to you from Deb, over at Smitten Kitchen. Not easy to come by around these parts, let me tell you. Back when I started this project,...
- A Year Of Brownies - January
Like I said, I already have a brownie recipe I find pretty perfect. It has no add-ons, save for extra chocolate, when I feel like it, it comes together in no time, and I almost always have all the ingredients at the ready. Come to think of it, this recipe...