Belated brownies

Last week was chocolate week in the lockdown baking group that I'm in (hence the truffles). I had originally intended to make brownies last weekend as well - but thought better of it after making such an absurd quantity of truffles. But I had bought ingredients for brownies, and also been subjected to photo after photo of frankly obscenely gorgeous looking brownies from the others in the group. So even though it's late (we're now at the end of pastry week, which I have missed entirely...), I'm bloody well baking brownies! The recipe is from Waitrose and is essentially unchanged apart from using dark soft brown sugar instead of muscavado.

Chocolate Pecan Brownies

Ingredients

• 225g Butter
• 350g Dark chocolate
• 4 Eggs
• 350g Dark soft brown sugar
• 1tsp Vanilla extract
• 200g Pecans
• 225g Plain flour

Method

1. Melt butter and chocolate together.
2. Whisk eggs, sugar and vanilla in a stand mixer until pale and fluffy.
3. Stir butter/chocolate into egg mixture.
4. Coarsely chop pecans.
5. Fold pecans and flour into mixture.
6. Pour into a lined tin and bake at 180C for ~30 mins.
7. Leave to cool (a bit!) before cutting.

Super easy with a stand mixer! I started whisking by hand initially, but decided that I was far too lazy for that. Pretty, no?

It's a little under baked (yes, I know brownies are supposed to be slightly under done, but I think it's a little too under), but my word, they're tasty.

I've been wanting to find a "go to" brownie recipe for some time - I think this one might be it!

Marzipan truffles

I like marzipan. I like truffles. Why not marzipan truffles?

Marzipan Truffles

Ingredients

For the filling

• 300ml Double cream
• 550g Dark chocolate chips
• 450g Marzipan

For the coating

• 400g Dark chocolate chips
• Chopped almonds
• 30g Icing sugar
• 15g Cocoa powder

Method

1. Make a ganache by scalding the cream and pour over the chocolate for the filling, and stir to melt the chocolate.
2. Look on in minor horror as the realisation of quite how much ganache you've just made hits you.
3. Refrigerate ganache overnight to set.
4. Shape the ganache into small marble-sized balls.
5. Roll out the marzipan and wrap around the ganache balls until it runs out.
6. Melt the chocolate and dip the truffles.
7. Roll them in the chopped almonds and set on a sheet of baking parchment.
8. When bored of dipping truffles, mix the icing sugar and cocoa powder, and roll the remaining truffles in the powder.
9. Refrigerate to set.

After one and a half hours of quenelling(ish), here are the truffle cores. Mistakes were definitely made when choosing quantities. I'm pretty sure that I've got some sort of chocolate-related muscle strain right now.

Done with marzipan wrapping.

The marzipan guys turned out nice!

Yup, mistakes were definitely made. The total ended up being 1.6kg!

Lockdown loaf take two

Sainsbury's finally had more bread flour in stock the last time I went shopping, so I can take advantage of the bank holiday and bake some more bread! I'm keeping it pretty simple still, but I'm going to try adding one extra step that I've been meaning to experiment with for a while, but never quite got around to - a short autolyse before forming the complete dough. We'll see how this turns out!

Lockdown Loaf Take Two
Ingredients
100g Aage
750g Strong white flour
400g Water
13g Salt

Method

1. Mix Aage, 100ml flour and water together, cover and leave in a warm place for ~3 hours. (12pm)
2. Mix 500g of the flour with 300ml water in a separate bowl, mix, cover and leave for a further two and a half hours. (3pm)
3. Combine the mixtures from steps 1 and 2 with the salt and knead with the dough hook attachment of a stand mixer for ~10 minutes (I'm feeling lazy, okay?). (5:30pm)
4. Cover and leave to rise for ~four and a half hours.
5. Realise that your dough is closer to liquid than solid and panic a bit. Add a further 150g flour and knead - first in the stand mixer, then by hand. (10pm)
6. Cover and place in fridge to prove overnight.
7. Preheat oven to max with Dutch oven inside. (9am)
8. Pour* dough out onto baking parchment and transfer to Dutch oven.
9. Bake at 220C for 20 minutes.
10. Uncover and bake at 180C for a further 30 minutes.

*Yes, "pour" - the dough was still halfway between solid and liquid at this point, and there was clearly no possibility of trying to shape it in any meaningful way...

So it was clear pretty early on that this one went a bit awry! The autolyse clearly did something, but in doing so, the dough just generally felt weird to me. I suspect that what happened was that the gluten developed much faster than I expected, and I accidentally made a very wet dough that didn't feel that wet - though I'm not sure that the measurements bear that theory out. In essence, I don't know exactly what happened this time around, but I did end up with a shear-thickening dough that would flow like a liquid, but stiffened up on kneading.

But look at the result! Don't try to tell me that that's not a beautiful loaf!

And how is it on the inside, I hear you ask. Well, not my best ever loaf, but not bad overall! I need to learn to keep my nerve and give it longer in the oven - it's a bit doughy and stodgy in the middle still, which I'm pretty sure another 15 minutes would have sorted out. But the crust has a lovely texture, the rise is actually not bad and the texture is lovely and elastic. A little more drying out and this would have been really lovely. As it is, it's just really good!

Lockdown loaf

Well, like everyone else, we're in lockdown, and trying to minimise shopping trips. What better excuse to bake some bread (as if an excuse were ever needed). Keeping it super simple this time around - it's a 50/50 wholemeal and white flour mix, and no frills. But I'm going for an overnight proof, and I guess we'll see how it turns out!

Lockdown Loaf
Ingredients

• 160g Aage
• 250g Strong wholemeal flour
• 250g Strong white flour
• 320g Water
• 10g Salt

Method

1. Mix all ingredients together and form dough.
2. Knead until bored.
3. Cover and leave to rise for ~2hrs.
4. Knead and shape into loaf.
5. Place on parchment paper and leave to proof overnight.
6. Preheat oven to 220C with Dutch oven inside.
7. Place dough in Dutch oven and lightly sprinkle with water.
8. Bake at 220C for 20mins.
9. Remove lid of Dutch oven and turn oven down to 200C for a further ~25mins.

Here's the dough post-proofing while I'm preheating the oven. I'm guessing by the way that it's flattened out entirely that I probably could have done with a bit more kneading. There are also some weird lumps in the surface that I'm guessing means that I've got some local, big air bubbles. Clearly my kneading and rising technique needs some work. It's also possible that leaving it to prove unsupported on a flat surface (I left it on the inside of the (cold) Dutch oven) might have been a bad idea - I guess this is why you're supposed to use proofing baskets...

Not a bad rise, all things considered. I had completely forgot to score the bread before chucking it into the oven, so perhaps it could have risen a little bit more - though given the general liquidness and lack of structure to the dough, I'm not sure how of a difference this would actually have made. The crust is a bit darker than I'd have liked, but it's not actually burnt at all, and it's got quite a pleasing colour to it. I suspect it might be a bit hard and a bit thick, but I've got to say, it's still quite an attractive looking loaf!

First, the bad: as expected, it's a flawed loaf - it's got the huge balloon of air at the top, which I suspect might be over-proofing at play. The thin skin left at the very top explains why it went so dark so quickly, and that in turn led me to underbake it - the inside is a bit overly doughy and excessively moist, and the crust could, if anything, do with being slightly thicker. But actually, despite the flaws, this loaf is quite wonderful still! The flavour is beautiful - complex and sour enough that you don't feel cheated of it being a sourdough, but not overpoweringly so. The crust has a lovely snap in the bits where it was sufficiently cooked - on the very thin top and the base (a side effect of the Dutch oven is that the bottom crust is thickened). All in all, it's a joy to eat, even if the flaws are glaringly obvious!

It's my party and I'll bake if I want to

I'm having some friends over for drinks this evening, and seeing as I'm now officially on holiday (though I might yet have to pop in to the lab tomorrow briefly), I thought it'd be a nice chance to bake something. Fiona reminded me the other week that I hadn't baked any cinnamon rolls this year, with no ulterior motive at all in drawing my attention to that fact, I'm sure. But she did raise a good point, and the cinnamon rolls are easy, satisfying to make and a bit of a crowd pleaser, so that's what I'm doing! It's the same recipe as ever (I mean, it's so good, why would I tweak it?!), though I went with apple juice to soak the sultanas rather than alcohol.

Vanquishing foes

There are one or two baking (or in this case, bakingish) things that have always terrified me into not attempting. Croissants are an obvious example. Macarons as well, though I did sidestep that one by making a cheaty version that was never supposed to look like those beautiful pillows with perfect feet. (One day I'll summon the courage to make them properly, but who knows when that'll be?). Baguettes are also in the queue. Today though, it's not a classic, highly technical recipe that I'm finally going to attempt; in fact, it's possibly one of the simplest things I could make. Rather, it's an easy technique that I've always found a little intimidating - deep frying. It's entirely irrational, but there's something about having so much hot oil in a pan that seems a little scary. But I do also love doughnuts, and it feels like a perfect way for me to dip my toes (not literally) into deep frying, so here goes. I'm using this recipe, with only very minor modifications for laziness.

Doughnuts
Ingredients

• 1 Egg
• 90ml Water
• 150g Buttermilk
• 60g Butter
• 60g Caster sugar
• 450g Plain flour
• 1 sachet (7g) Fast action dried yeast
• Caster sugar for coating
• Ground cinnamon for coating

Method

1. Put all of the ingredients (except for the coatings) in a stand mixer with a dough hook and mix until a dough forms. Continue to mix for ~5 mins.
2. Place bowl in a bin bag and leave to rise for ~1hr.
3. Knead briefly. Shape into doughnut shapes and place on parchment.
4. Leave to rise in an (off) oven, with a tray of boiling water underneath.
5. Heat sunflower oil to ~180C.
6. Fry each doughnut until golden brown underneath, then flip and fry other side.
7. Allow to cool slightly on kitchen towel.
8. Roll in a mixture of caster sugar and cinnamon to coat.

Here are the freshly formed doughnuts at the end of step 3, before the final rise. I thought I'd better experiment with different sizes and shapes.

Disaster! So funny story - it turns out, I'm not very good at thinking sometimes. I decided to put the baking paper straight onto the oven's wire rack, and then put the pan of boiling water immediately below it. Obviously (at least it's obvious now that it's happened), the steam just soaked the paper entirely, meaning that I lost a couple of doughnuts from the edge when the paper just curled downwards and fell through the rack, and all of the others are very much wet and hideously stuck to the now sodden paper.

Here they are after rescuing as best I could. I went with flipping the whole thing over to expose the wet side, teasing the soaked paper off as best I could (some scraping was needed), and I'm just going to let them dry for a minute or two before frying. The original recipe said to use the steam to try to prevent a skin from forming on the doughnuts - I'm now doing exactly the opposite and relying on a skin forming to let me get them into the oil without sticking to everything!

I didn't set anything on fire, and didn't burn myself, so I'm counting this as a success. I suspect my doughnuts might be slightly over-done, and I have a sneaking suspicion that my oil was a bit too hot, so some of the big guys might be a little undercooked in the middle. But apart from that, they're looking pretty promising, if a little misshapen.

Of course, a bit of sugar and cinnamon makes anything look tasty!

So, what's the verdict? Well, suffice to say... OM NOM NOM NOM! NOM! NOM! And just look at that crumb! Despite the minor disaster midway through, these probably couldn't have gone much better. The texture is best described as pillowy - superbly soft, wonderful doughy goodness. The outside crust has just the right amount of crunch, and they taste great. I omitted the salt from the dough on the grounds that I ended up (mostly) using salted butter, and it probably could have done with a tiny touch more salt in the end, but it's a pretty minor point. I'm super happy with these though - they were definitely worth the hassle!

BraveTart Brownies

I saw these gorgeous brownies on Reddit a while back, and saved the link because I thought I absolutely had to try baking them. It's certainly not the first time I've tried doing brownies, but they have seemed a bit of a weak spot in my baking repertoire, and previous attempts have had a pretty mixed success rate. I also don't yet have a go-to recipe, so I've got my fingers crossed that these turn out like the ones that inspired me!

The recipe is the BraveTart recipe on Serious Eats. The only changes I made were to omit the instant coffee and to add an extra egg as the eggs I had to hand were relatively small.

Brave Tart Brownies
Ingredients

• 340g Unsalted butter
• 170g Dark chocolate chips
• 450g Caster sugar
• 55g Soft brown sugar
• 4g Salt
• 7 Eggs
• 1tbsp Vanilla extract
• 125g Plain flour
• 115g Cocoa powder

Method

1. Melt the butter in a saucepan over a low heat. Once melted, brown the butter by simmering over a medium heat, stirring continuously, until the hissing stops.*
2. Remove from the heat and stir in the chocolate.
3. Mix the sugar (both types), salt, eggs and vanilla in a stand mixer on a medium-high setting for ~8 minutes until very thick and fluffy.
4. Turn the stand mixer down to low and pour in the chocolate/butter mixture.
5. Sift the flour and cocoa powder together. Add to the mixer in one go, then finish the mixing by hand with a spatula.
6. Pour the batter into foil-lined pans and bake at 180C for ~30 mins until barely firm.
7. Allow to cool in the tin before cutting and removing.

*The butter foamed up and tried to escape the pan much like pasta water does - this was when I decided that the butter was browned enough!

Check out this action shot! This is the finished batter (and it smells amazing!).

Ready for the oven. There's quite a lot of brownie...

Pretty gorgeous straight out of the oven. Lovely glossy top.

Insomnia bread

I've been sleeping pretty dreadfully this last week, and while it's been getting better over the last few nights, I've still been waking up at unpleasant hours of the night and being unable to sleep. Last night, I woke up about 4am, and by about 6am it was clear that I wasn't getting back to sleep in a hurry, so I decided to get up and get a sourdough loaf going. Given that I started this at silly o'clock, and it's been a while since I last tried baking bread, I thought I'd better keep this one simple, but it's nice to get back to doing bread. I think this is also my first loaf since getting my hands on a stand mixer, which makes life much, much easier!

Insomnia Bread
Ingredients

• 200g Aage*
• 300ml Water
• 400g Strong wholemeal flour
• 6g Salt

Method

1. Mix Aage, 200ml water and 200g flour in a bowl.
2. Wrap in a bin bag and leave to rise for ~8.5hrs.
3. Add the remaining 200g flour and 100ml water, and the salt.
4. Knead in the stand mixer with a dough hook until the dough comes together and stops sticking to the sides.
5. Knead briefly by hand**, return to the mixing bowl and rewrap in the bin bag.
6. Leave to prove in a warm place for ~3.5hrs.
7. Place a Dutch oven*** in the oven and preheat to 220C (as hot as the oven allows).
8. Transfer the dough to the Dutch oven, sprinkle with water and close up.
9. Turn the oven down to 180C and bake for ~25mins.
10. Uncover and bake for a further ~10 mins.

*In case anyone is new or has forgotten, Aage is my sourdough starter. He's fed entirely with wholemeal flour, and is typically about 50% hydration, though I always feed him by eye, so this does vary quite a bit...

**I find that once the dough has reached a certain point, the stand mixer doesn't really do anything because the dough wraps itself around the hook and just whirls around as a solid ball. By this point though, the hard work has been done, and it's pretty easy and quick to finish off the kneading by hand.

***My Dutch oven is actually a Lodge combo cooker. It's absurdly expensive in the UK (£74 on Amazon UK at the time of writing), but also absurdly cheap in the US ($34.90). Definitely worth getting at the American price, but almost certainly not at the British price!

This one tasted absolutely lovely - just the right amount of sourness - but the texture wasn't quite right. I had noticed that the dough was a bit overly wet (I think I was being a bit overly optimistic on hydration levels this time around), but I failed to account for it in the bake. As a result, it was really rather doughy in the middle - it could really have done with much longer in the oven uncovered to help dry it out - but not unpleasantly so. Not a perfect loaf, but still pretty darned tasty!

More cinnamon

We're having a weekend away with Fiona's family for her birthday. As it's a celebration, I made some cinnamon rolls, as Fiona quite likes them. Same recipe as ever- they've gone down pretty well!

Verdict: Skolebrød and Macarons

The skolebrød were the main event, so we should probably start there first. I was a bit disappointed here, because they could have been amazing but definitely weren't. The lack of rise (I'm still blaming the yeast) meant that they were incredibly dense, and that really wasn't helped by being undercooked too. But probably the biggest disappointment was the custard - I had doubts when I read the recipe, but afterwards I am absolutely convinced I should have ditched the custard recipe and just done an ordinary custard. (Cornflour! In custard?!! Why wouldn't you just increase the egg:milk ratio and cook it like a proper custard?!). As a result, the custard filling is so bland and watery, you kinda wonder what the point of it is.

But the good: The cardamom tastes great, and even though it's dense and uncooked in the middle, it's still actually quite nice (particularly warm, straight from the oven). The coconut works well, and they are very pretty. And having just trashed the custard so much, dipping them in the leftover custard actually worked pretty nicely. All in all, I think skolebrød deserves another go at some point - but what I've essentially made this time around is some weird pulla with a disappointing filling.

On to the macarons. They're really not bad at all! Essentially all that's wrong with them is that they're a little overcooked (and burnt in places), but they've got the core essence of almondy goodness, that lovely crisp, crunchy exterior and a hint of chewiness on the inside. But then I was following a recipe from the Bible, so what would you expect! One day I will not wuss out and try doing macarons again in an effort to make beautiful, perfect pillowy macarons with feet, but that may not be for a very, VERY long time - until that time though, these will do nicely!

It's a double header!

Well, it's been a heck of a long while since I baked anything, but then I did go away to Korea for a large chunk of the summer, and it's been a manic term since I got back. But that doesn't really matter, what matters is I'm baking again! I've been wanting to try making skolebrød since we went to Oslo back in 2016, and today's finally the day. "What's skolebrød?" I hear you ask - it's a lovely sweet cardamom bread, filled with custard and topped with desiccated coconut, and it was delicious. Of course, making custard means that I need egg yolks, which leaves the eternal dilemma of what to do with the leftover egg whites. I don't particularly like eating meringue, and nor is it fun to make, so I thought I'd finally make some macarons (up until now, I've always been a little scared of them, but I've realised that as long as you don't want picture perfect ones with beautiful feet, they're actually really quite simple). I used this skolebrød recipe, and the macaron recipe comes from Leith's Cookery Bible (I also note that the first edition is available super-cheaply).

Skolebrød
Ingredients
For the dough

• 2 level tsp Cardamom pods
• 650g Strong white flour
• 2 sachets Dried yeast
• 1tsp Salt
• 160g Caster sugar
• 80g Butter
• 300ml Milk
• 125ml Water

For the custard

• 2 Egg yolks
• 60g Caster sugar
• 1tsp Vanilla extract
• 175ml Double cream
• 75ml Milk
• ~2tsp Cornflour

For the topping

• Icing sugar
• Water
• Desiccated coconut

Method

1. Shell the cardamom and grind the seeds using a pestle and mortar.
2. Mix the cardamom, flour, yeast and salt together in a large mixing bowl.
3. Place the sugar, butter, milk and water in a pan and heat gently until the sugar is dissolved, butter is melted and the mixture is warm.
4. Add to the dry ingredients and form a dough. Knead the dough until smooth(er).
5. Return the dough to the mixing bowl and wrap in a bin bag. Leave to rise for an hour.
6. Knead the dough again and divide into 12 pieces. Roll each piece into a ball and leave to prove, covered.
7. Make the custard. Whisk the egg yolks, sugar and vanilla extract together.
8. Heat the cream and milk together, then pour slowly into the egg yolk mixture while whisking continuously.
9. Return the custard to a low heat and whisk in cornflour as needed to thicken the mixture slightly.
10. Poke a well into the centre of each ball of dough and fill with custard.
11. Bake at 200C for 30 mins.
12. Mix some icing sugar with a little cold water to make a loose icing and brush onto the bread, then sprinkle with desiccated coconut.

Here's the dough before it's first prove. Looks just like any other enriched dough to me. Incidentally, the red thing that you see in shot is a silicone scraper, and is the best tool for dough handling that I've come across. I don't know how I coped with handling wet doughs before I got one (actually, that's a lie, I do know - not well!).

There's something really pleasing about dough that's been portioned out into small balls. I don't know what it is, but it's definitely pleasing. These are the individual dough balls just before proving.

Unfortunately, this is after leaving them to prove for about 1hr30. I read somewhere that the final rise is called proofing, because you are proving that the yeast is active. This sounds like a made up fact to me, but I think in this case, I've actually proved that the yeast I used (last two sachets in quite an old pack) was dead. These might be a bit dense...

Forming decent sized wells is harder than you might think. I guess the lack of rise might have made this harder, but you're also fighting the elasticity of the dough. This is the best that I could do...

Which meant that there's a pathetic amount of custard in each skolebrød. I used about 1/4 of the custard that I made, though I also harbour deep, deep suspicions about the custard recipe.

They don't look bad out of the oven!

I really should not have followed the recipe quite so closely. You need the icing to be moist for the coconut to stick, so you should probably sprinkle each one with coconut as soon as it's been brushed with the icing - I brushed all of them with icing first, and by the time I was done, so much moisture had dried/been absorbed that I couldn't really get the coconut to stick very well.

Looks (and smells) gorgeous!

But minor disaster! It's raw around the custard well. It's still edible, but defintitely needed longer in the oven. I wonder if I should have made sure that the custard was piping hot before pouring it in to the skolebrød - that might have helped.

In an effort to save matters, I put them back in a low oven (~150C) for as long as I dared, given that it was already iced. It definitely helped - still distinctly undercooked in the middle, but at least now it's undercooked rather than completely raw!

Macarons
Ingredients

• 110g Ground almonds
• 170g Caster sugar
• 1tsp Plain flour
• 2 Egg whites
• 2 drops Vanilla extract
• Whole blanched almonds

Method

1. Mix the almonds, sugar and flour together in a mixing bowl.
2. Add the egg whites and vanilla extract, then beat thoroughly.
3. Leave to stand for 5 minutes.
4. Beat well for a further minute.
5. Spoon onto trays lined with baking paper and top with a blanched almond.
6. Bake at 180C for 20 minutes.
7. Leave to cool on a wire rack.

Here's the mixture post beating. Nothing special here...

And you can see how little care I took while spooning the mixture out. As I said, they're not supposed to be picture perfect!

I really need to clean the oven glass. But look through the murk, and you can see how satisfyingly round and plump these guys look!

Ooops. I took my eye off the ball and they got a little singed. They're just the right side of edible, but definitely are a little burnt.

Despite the slight amount of burning that happened, I'm actually pretty pleased with these!

It's brownie time!

Why, you may ask, is it brownie* time? Well, two reasons: First, I've been thinking for quite some time that it's something that's been somewhat lacking in my baking repertoire and I need to up my brownie game and find a really good recipe  (see, for example, this previous not-a-disaster-but-not-amazing effort). Secondly, and of course more importantly, because I stumbled across a recipe that piqued my curiosity. The reason it caught my attention isn't actually that great - I've totally been swept up in the hype and am now a huge fan of my cast iron skillet (for reference, it's this one: an absurd £99 from Amazon UK, but if you are willing to cart it back from America like I did, a very reasonable $35 from Amazon US - about £27 at current exchange rates. Be warned though, it's bloody heavy!) and the opportunity to find another use for it was too good to pass up! Nonetheless, it looks really good, does it not, and Serious Eats has generally been a pretty consistently excellent source of recipes and ideas. There's no intentional tinkering with this one, as I really have no idea what is really going on with this recipe!

*Yes, the recipe I used calls it a cookie, but it's very clearly more a brownie than a cookie.

Cast Iron Skillet Brownie
Ingredients

• 225g Butter
• 115g Caster sugar
• 235g Soft dark brown sugar
• 25g Ovaltine powder**
• 1 1/2 tsp Vanilla extract
• 1 tsp Table salt
• 1/2 tsp Baking powder
• 1 tsp Bicarbonate of soda
• Some grated nutmeg***
• 1 Egg
• 355g Plain flour
• 200g Cooking milk chocolate, roughly chopped
• 140g Assorted plain chocolate, roughly chopped

Method

1. Mix the butter, sugar, Ovaltine, vanilla, salt, baking powder, bicarbonate of soda and nutmeg in a food mixer with the paddle on medium speed for ~5 mins until fluffy.
2. Add the egg and mix until smooth.
3. Turn mixer down to slow and add the flour and chocolate. Mix to form a stiff dough.
4. Press the dough into a well-greased cast iron skillet.
5. Bake at 200 C for ~35 mins until golden brown
6. Allow to cool in skillet for ~45 mins until crumb sets before removing from skillet.

** Original recipe Ovaltine - the stuff you add hot milk to
*** I didn't even try to measure this. It's supposed to be 1/8 tsp, but I have no idea how much I actually added!

A pretty darned straight forward recipe! It's a bit weird though - here's what it looks like before going into the oven:

Fresh from the oven. I may have let the top get slightly singed...

On cooling, it sank a bit - I guess I probably overdid the baking soda/powder.

It's denser and fudgier than expected...

Well, it wasn't quite what I expected, but it was not bad overall. The biggest fault is that there's just too much butter - it ended up quite greasy, and far too rich. But the texture was really nice - fudgy and chewy, and there was a really nice caramel taste to it from all the brown sugar (the Ovaltine probably helped too). It was quite nice served warm with a good dollop of vanilla ice cream, but I think my search for an excellent brownie recipe continues...

Chocolate babka

I've seen so many pictures of people baking these gorgeous-looking chocolate breads that I finally decided that I had to get to it and try baking one for myself. I'm using this recipe, but they all seem pretty similar; the major difference being quite how much butter, chocolate and sugar goes in. Also, we inherited an old Kenwood Chef recently(ish), so it was a good opportunity to try it out!

Chocolate Babka
Ingredients
For the dough

• 530g Plain flour
• 100g Caster sugar
• 1 sachet Fast-action dried yeast
• Zest of 1 small lemon
• 3 Eggs
• 120ml Water
• 3/4tsp Table salt
• 140g Butter
• 2tbsp Vegetable oil

For the filling

• 130g Dark chocolate
• 120g Butter
• 50g Caster sugar
• 30g Cocoa powder
• 1/4 tsp Cinnamon

For the syrup

• 80ml Water
• 75g Caster sugar

Method

1. Mix the flour, sugar (for the dough), yeast, lemon zest, eggs and water in a food mixer using the dough hook to form a rather dry dough.
2. Add the salt and butter (for the dough), spoon by spoon.
3. Mix on a low speed for ~10 minutes until smooth.
4. Turn into an oiled mixing bowl, cover and leave to prove in the fridge overnight.
5. Melt the chocolate and butter (for the filling) together.
6. Stir in the sugar, cocoa powder and cinnamon.
7. Divide the dough into two portions and roll out into a rectangle ~25cm x 30cm.
8. Spread the chocolate mixture onto the rolled out dough, leaving a 1cm edge at the end uncovered.
9. Roll the dough up, dampening the end to seal.
10. Chill in fridge for ~10-15 mins.
11. Cut in half lengthways, then plait/twist the two halves together, trying to keep the cut faces outwards, and pinch the top and bottom together.
12. Place into a greased loaf tin.
13. Cover and prove for 1-1/2 hours.
14. Bake at 190C for 25-30mins.
15. Place the water and sugar (for the syrup) in a pan and heat until the sugar dissolves.
16. Brush the syrup over the babkas as soon as they are removed from the oven.

I remembered a bit too late that I only had one loaf tin, so put both babkas into a brownie tin instead. This proved to be a bit of a mistake; they're already prone to being underbaked, and baking it in a single tin only exacerbates the matter. In the end, I baked them for around 50 minutes, and they were still pretty under done. But they still look amazing, don't they?

Aside from the fact that they were rather doughy (and possibly still raw in places...), they're pretty good. I think they definitely look better than they taste, which is always unfortunate, but that's mostly because they look gorgeous. The lemon zest really comes through, and is intially a bit startling, but is nice once you get used to it - I do think that orange would probably work better though. With a food mixer, this was surprisingly little effort, so I might give it another go next time I need to bring a dessert to a party or something. Without a mixer though, this would have been quite a lot of work - lots of kneading!