“The distinction between cookies and brownies is often blurred, with soft, melt-in the-middle cookies – and light, fluffy, cakey-at-the-edges brownies having become equally popular. The morphing of the two is a culinary travesty: cookies should revel in crunchy-crinkly chewiness, whereas brownies should be unapologetically dense!” says chef and food writer Gurdeep Loyal.
“I want a brownie with a texture so rich it’s like biting into a cold block of butter, with obscenely concentrated cocoa that coats the mouth with its cloying fudginess. These intensely gooey, chocolatey and treacly brownies do all of these things – with the flavour enhancing magic of bitter espresso amplifying the effect.”
Treacle, mocha and blonde chocolate brownies
Makes: 16
Ingredients:
Olive oil, for brushing
5 large eggs
200g caster sugar
250g dark chocolate (at least 60% cocoa), snapped into pieces
225g butter
2 heaped tbsp instant espresso powder
65g cocoa powder
125g black treacle
125g blonde or white chocolate
75ml soured cream
150g plain flour
¼ tsp bicarbonate of soda
1 tsp fine sea salt
Method:
1. Preheat the oven to 175C fan/195C/385F/gas mark 5½. Brush a deep-sided 23cm (9in) baking tin with olive oil, then line with baking paper.
2. In a stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, beat together four of the eggs and the sugar for 5-6 minutes until the mixture has doubled in volume.
3. Put the dark chocolate, butter and instant espresso powder in a heatproof bowl over a pan of simmering water to melt together, stirring to combine. Remove the bowl from the pan, then stir through the cocoa powder and treacle. Leave to cool for 2 minutes.
4. Meanwhile, melt the blonde chocolate in another heatproof bowl over the same pan of hot water. Remove the bowl from the heat then stir through the soured cream. Cool for 2 minutes, then crack in the remaining egg, whisking thoroughly. Set aside.
5. Slowly pour the dark chocolate-butter into the stand mixer bowl, gently folding it by hand into the whisked eggs using a spatula to retain as much air as possible.
6. In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour, bicarbonate of soda and salt. Add a quarter of the dry ingredients to the batter, folding it through fully, then add the rest, a quarter at a time.
7. Pour half of the batter into the lined tin, drizzle over half the blonde chocolate cream and swirl with a cocktail stick. Then pour in the rest of the batter, drizzle with the remaining blonde chocolate cream, again swirling into a nice pattern.
8. Place the tin on top of a baking sheet and bake for 25 minutes until cakey on the rim and puffed up in the middle. Remove from the oven and leave to cool in the tin to room temperature. Then chill for at least 12 hours, allowing it to turn from molten-gooey to fudgy. Slice into 16 squares and enjoy!
Recipe from ‘Flavour Heroes: 15 Modern Pantry Ingredients to Amplify Your Cooking’ by Gurdeep Loyal (Quadrille, £27).
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