Brownies Part 2 - Two ways... Cooking With Oliver- FOODBUZZ #5 1/3/12

What kid doesn't love brownies ? Oliver and I baked brownies this morning at his special request....

Well - the kitchen was already like a war zone and the floor practically flooded (see the last blog post) - so I reckoned adding a bit of chocolate to the equation really wouldn't make too much difference to the amount of clean up required.

Unsurprisingly, after this lot, Oliver ended up 15 minutes late arriving to nursery, and I was 15 minutes late for work. But then again, when you arrive with platefuls of brownies - all tends to be forgiven and forgotten.

This recipe will make 16 man-food sized brownies, but if you aren't looking to overdose on chocolate brownie, you may want to cut each into two rather daintier ones. After all - brownies are rather rich.

This is a new mould design, due for launch around end of April and currently being design registered and now going into mass production. I originally designed it to make 100g soap bars - but then decided it would be PERFECT for large individual brownies and flapjacks.

I made two different types of brownies. One normal batch and one decidedly sticky dulche de leche batch. 

I had a tin of condensed milk that was about to go out of date. Determined not to waste it, I heaped a good spoonful of the stuff over the second load of brownie mix and swirled it in. A lot of it sank down the sides of the mix - which was no bad thing. Other than that - there is no difference in the recipe between the batches....

Apart from the taste of SOAP that is. Uh huh - I used one of the prototype moulds (I've got two) for soap making first. I thought I was going to get one tray of brownies and wasn't expecting the mix to do two. So.... I used the tray I'd been using for experimenting with soap to make the Dulche De Lche brownies. Washed it first of course - but there was still a soapy after taste. Therefore, I MUST advise that you don't use the same mould for soaping and baking. It's not nice !

Saying that - these moulds made a really nice job of the brownies. I greased and floured first and they came out cleanly when cooled and firmed up a bit.

Yummy - brownie batter tastes good - licking the spoon is the treat reserved only for the chef !

You can see Brownies Part 1 from 2010 here - with Oliver...

RECIPE - makes 16 large brownie bars (or 32 small ones)

Preheat fan oven to 160deg C, 180deg C electric

185g salted butter

185g dark chocolate (I used Belcolade Belgian)

85g plain flour

50g cocoa powder

100g milk chocolate (chopped)

3 eggs

275g caster sugar

1 tsp vanilla extract

2tsp espresso coffee powder (optional)

condensed milk - (for Dulche De Leche Brownies)

Melt the dark chocolate and butter together in the microwave in short bursts - then set aside.

Cream the eggs and caster sugar until light coloured, thick and foamy.

Add the sieved flour and cocoa, plus vanilla and espresso powder to the sugar / egg mix and fold to combine. Add the chocolate chips in the last few strokes.

Note that the brownies don't taste like coffee. The purpose of the coffee is to enhance the depth of chocolate flavour.

Grease and flour 2 x 8 cell rectangular bar silicone bakeware moulds. If you want to make some Dulche De Leche ones, put a great bit heaped teaspoon of condensed milk on top of the brownie batter and swirl it in a little on top with a teaspoon handle.

 Bake for approx 20 mins until JUST set and cake tester comes out clean. Allow to cool thoroughly before turning out and allowing work colleagues and a little cake tester to devour.

Give the soapy ones to those with no sense of smell. They might taste ok (ish) but certainly smelt floral !!!!!

In case you haven't noticed.... my batter photos and baked photos are round the opposite way !

Sarah-Jane Nash, www.siliconemoulds.com - February 2012