January 2017 almost ends and yes, I know I’ve been kind of slacking. It surprised me that the last time I posted anything was August last year. One of my resolutions this year is to blog more and I hope I can keep to this promise.
Brownies is a relatively easy to make and honestly it’s hard to fail it because brownies itself is already like a messed up chocolate cake (no offense to brownies lover, it’s just my opinion). It’s one of my sister’s favorite dessert and I always made it to her request: not too sweet, not too crumbly, but fudgy. To be honest, even until now I still fail at making it not too sweet but I really need all the sugar to make it fudgy (such dilemma).
Because I don’t want to sacrifice the sugar, I adjust the level of sweetness through the chocolates. I use 70% dark chocolate from Ghana beans (my favorite!) combined with milk chocolate, with ratio 5:3. But honestly, you can do whatever you like here. If you like sweet, use all milk chocolate, or if you love dark chocolate so much, you can use all dark chocolate ranging from 60-90%. Don’t worry we still have sugar so you won’t eat bitter brownies, ever. But remember, dark chocolate contains different amount of cocoa butter compared with semi-sweet or even milk chocolate, so it may affect the texture of your brownies.
The recipe I’m about to share in this post is by far my sister’s favorite. It’s really different from all the brownies I’ve tried. It is fudgy, rich of chocolate, and yes it melts in your mouth. It’s the genuine brownies only for those who sincerely love rich brownies. The secret is no longer a secret, using chocolate bars is the key. You can’t depend on only cocoa powder to make a real brownies.
I like my brownies shiny and I read somewhere to make the surface shines, add the sugar to the butter/melted chocolate mixture while it’s still warm (not too hot, but don’t cool it too much). Also, never skip brown sugar if you want the brownies chewy. Sure you can substitute it with granulated white sugar in emergency need of brownies and you don’t have brown sugar, but brownies is not complete without its brown sugar.
INGREDIENTS:
- 1/2 cup (115 gr) unsalted butter
- 143 gr 70% dark chocolate (I used ghana chocolate)
- 85 gr milk chocolate/semi sweet chocolate
- 3/4 cup (150 gr) granulated sugar
- 1/4 cup (50 gr) brown sugar
- 3 eggs
- 1 tsp vanilla extract (or if you like unique flavors, try rum flavor)
- 80 gr all purpose flour
- 2 tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder
- 1/4 tsp salt
Toppings (choose either/both):
- 1 cup of chopped milk chocolate/semi sweet chocolate
- 1 cup of chopped almonds
To check if your brownies is done, insert a toothpick to the middle part of the brownies, it should come out dry with a few brownies crumbs sticking. If the toothpick comes out still wet, it’s not done baking while if the toothpick comes out completely clean, it’s over-baked.
Now go make some rich brownies!
EATING CANVAS 