Baked Explorations

Baked is one of my favorite cookbooks and I wrote about it back in April of 2009. Well, the Baked boys are back with a new cookbook. Matt Lewis and Renato Poliafito have another winner with Baked Explorations.

Baked Explorations features traditional American baked goods with exciting twists. Check out this interview at Eater for more incites into the Baked experience. To get a look at the actual bakery check out their Baked web site.

And now, without further ado...Wait! Let me just say here that the recipe is long and seems complicated. But here is the truth. The recipe has two components -- sweet and salty. Then the two components have to be assembled. So you really do not want a recipe that leaves out valuable sets do you? My advice is to read the recipe -- read it again -- and when you fully grasp the steps, you will see it is not nearly as complicated as you might think from looking at it.

So now, really, without further ado... a recipe.

Sweet & Salty Brownie

Caramel:
1 c. sugar
2 tablespoon light corn syrup
1/2 cup heavy cream
1 tsp fleur de sel
1/4 cup sour cream

Brownie:
1 and 1/4 cup flour
1 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons dark cocoa powder
11 ounces quality dark chocolate (60-72%), coarsely chopped
2 sticks unsalted butter, cut into 1-inch cubes
1 & 1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup firmly packed light brown sugar
5 large eggs, room temperature
2 teaspoons vanilla

Topping:
1 and 1/2 teaspoons fleur de sel
1 teaspoon coarse sugar


Make the Caramel:

In a medium sauce pan, combine the sugar and corn syrup with 1/4 cup water, stirring together carefully so you don't splash the sides of the pan. Cook over high heat, until a thermometer reads 350 degrees and is dark amber in color.

Remove from the heat and slowly add the cream (it will bubble up). Then add the fleur de sel. Whisk in the sour cream. Set aside to cool.

Make the Brownie:

Preheat oven to 350. Butter the sides and bottom of a 9 x 13" pan. Line the bottom with parchment paper. Butter the parchment.

In a medium bowl, whisk the flour, salt and cocoa powder. Place the chopped chocolate and butter in a bowl over simmering water. Stir occasionally until the chocolate and butter are completely melted and combined. Turn off the heat, but keep the bowl over the water. Whisk in both sugars until completely combined. Removed bowl from pan.

Add 3 eggs to the chocolate mixture and whisk until just combined. Add the remaining eggs and whisk until just combined. Add the vanilla and stir until incorporated. Do not overbeat the batter at this stage or your brownies will be cakey. Add the flour mixture. Using a rubber spatula, fold in the dry ingredients until there is just a trace of the flour mixture remaining.

Assemble:

Pour half of the mixture into the prepared pan and smooth the top with an offset spatula. Drizzle and 3/4 cup of the caramel sauce (not all of it) over the batter, trying to stay away from the edges. Gently spread the caramel sauce evenly. In heaping spoonfuls, scoop the remaining batter over the caramel layer. Smooth the brownie batter gently over the caramel.

Bake the brownies for 30 minutes, rotating the pan halfway through. Brownies are done when a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out with a few moist crumbs. Remove the brownies from the oven and sprinkle with the fleur de sel and the coarse sugar. Completely cool before serving.

What else? Oh yeah, Matt went to the University of Alabama so no wonder he knows how to bake. I know that many of you are quite distraught that Alabama has a "buy" this Saturday. I know I am at a loss for what to do. Well, here's and idea -- BAKE!!!

Brownies

Sometimes you start thinking about something and it just won’t let go. Since I was writing about brownies and since I talked about the lovely publishing firm of Ryland Peters & Small, it seems natural that another of their books should come up. It’s not hard to guess which one.

Brownies by Linda Collister is another fine book by of Ryland Peters & Small. Though there are not that many recipes, the ones that are in the book are fabulous. Collister is a master baker who makes her recipe accessible to home bakers.

If you like to have a little fruit with your brownies, this is the recipe for you. Here is all the goodness of big box of chocolate covered cherries in a classic brownie formula.

Black Forest Brownies

8 oz. good bittersweet chocolate
9 Tablespoons butter
3 Tablespoons heavy cream
3 extra-large eggs
1 cup plus 3 tablespoons superfine sugar
2 Tablespoons Kirsch or juice from cherries in jar
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
3 1/2 oz. good bittersweet chocolate, roughly chopped or 2/3 cup chocolate chips
1 16 oz. can black cherries (6oz. drained weight)
confectioners' sugar, for dusting
7" X 11" brownie pan, greased and bottom line


Preheat oven to 350 F.
Break up the 8oz. chocolate and put it into a heatproof bowl. Add the butter and cream and set it over a saucepan of steaming water. Melt gently, stirring frequently. Remove from the pan and let cool until needed.

Break eggs into mixing bowl with electric mixer and whisk just until frothy. Add sugar and Kirsch (if using) and whisk until thick and mousse-like. Whisk in the melted chocolate mixture.

Sift flour into mixture and stir in. When thoroughly combined stir in the chocolate pieces. Transfer the mixture into the prepared pan and spread evenly. Gently drop cherries onto the top of the brownie mixture as evenly as possible.

Bake in preheated oven for 30 to 35 minutes until a skewer inserted comes out clean. Remove pan from oven.

Leave until cool before removing from pan and cutting into 24 pieces. Dusted with confectioners' sugar. Store in an airtight container and eat within 4 days.

Two things:

I never dust baked goods with powdered sugar. I just don’t like that layer of sweetness sprinkled over an already sweet pastry.

My cookbooks are gathered from many locations. This post and the one before it are good examples. Both books are published by Ryland Peters & Small, however, Edible Gifts is a British edition and Brownies is the U.S. edition. As we say, the recipes come directly from the book listed, so that is why one has grams and the other ounces.

Edible Gifts

I approach books about edible gifts the same way I approach picnic books. I buy them not so much for the recipes as any food can be a gift or a picnic, or even a picnic gift; I buy them to see how they are packaged.

Edible Gifts by Kay Fairfax is one of those slim volumes beautifully produced by the British firm Ryland Peters & Small. Their niche is to produce beautifully photographed books on a very specific subjects. They produce a series of food books are beautiful and small additions to any library. The major complaint about these books is the comprehensiveness of the recipes. Most of the recipe books linger between 25 and 50 recipes. A lot of people complain that there are just too few recipes, but in a book that is looking at Edible Gifts, truly the magic is in the photos.

I have recently been talking to several people about brownies. It is one of those serendipitous events where everyone you talk to, seems to be talking about the same thing. There was the over-cooked brownies in the convection oven, the blondies conversation, the discussion as to whether those “brownie pans” on the television really work, and my question, “When are they going to make a brownie pan that has NO edge?” as I like the chewy middle.

Here are some brownies that everyone should like, edges and all.

Brownies

170g butter
3 free range eggs
325g golden caster sugar
75g cocoa powder, sifted
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
75g plain flour, sifted
250g dark chocolate drops, or finely chopped if using a bar
150g nuts, such as walnuts, almonds, pecans, coarsely chopped (optional)

Chocolate Cream

100ml double cream
125g dark chocolate drops, or finely chopped if using a bar

Cake tin, 28 x 18 x 1 cm, lined with baking parchment extending 5cm beyond the long ends.

Method

1. Melt the butter gently in a small saucepan

2. Put the eggs in a bowl, whisk lightly, then whisk in the sugar. stir in the melted butter, cocoa and vanilla. Using a wooden spoon or spatula, stir in the flour, stir through the chocolate and the nuts if you are using them.

3. Pour into the prepared cake tin and bake in a preheated oven (160c) for 25-30 mins. until just firm in the centre and still moist at the bottom.

Do not overcook the brownies, they are not meant to have the consistency of a cake and should be moist and gooey in the middle. They will dry out as they cool.

4. Remove from the oven and let stand, still in the tin, on a wire rack, until completely cool.

5. Using the overhanging paper, carefully lift the brownies out of the tin onto a flat board and peel off the paper. Dust with cocoa powder or cover with chocolate cream. Cut into squares.

Chocolate Cream

1. Put the cream in a saucepan and heat until; just simmering. Add the chocolate and stir till smooth and glossy. Cool in the fridge for about an hour till firm enough to spread over the brownies.

I’ll eat the middle if you eat the edges.