Two Brownie Recipes in Two days..

I love brownies! To know me better, know me as a gal whose favourite desserts is warm brownie top with ice-cream. :P I simply adore baked warm desserts top wth ice-cream, such as waffles, apple crumble...etc. But brownies would be my favourite. Just that I may need to go running the next day after indulging in it. LOL :D


We had our girly gathering last week at Kexian's house...I promised to bake some brownies for them, which they recalled was one of my 'specialty'...I had tried a few brownie recipes in the past, most of them were pretty good. I decided to try out this perfect fudgy brownies from Nic - Bakingbites which I had been wanting to try out for a long time.

In this recipe, Nic introduces a special technique that would deliver something which is what I'd like in a brownie...fudgy, chocolately, not cakey, with a good crust. The special method involves baking the brownies at a high temperature for about 20 minutes, then dunking the pan in an ice bath. This recipe originated from Alice Medrich's Cookies and Brownie, whom through many floggers, that her chocolate recipes are good. Forget about the fat and calories, I knew I had to try it! For detailed explanation of the methods, do visit her blog. :)

The result? It was truly chocolatety and dense. I brought over to Xian's house. She had it warmed and we had it with raspberry ice-cream! However, they felt that it was a tad too soft. It kinda crumbled easily. They commented that my previous brownie seemed to be better. My previous recipe actually came from Happy HomeBaker's Nut and Chocolate Chip Brownies.

Since I had decided to give the remaining brownies to my colleagues and there wasn't enough, I decided to bake another batch using Happy Homebaker's recipe again so that I can have a direct side to side comparison! So here I am, with another batch of bronwies the next day.

Notice the difference in colour tone? The lighter brown colour, with shiny flaky crust is the recipe from Happy Homebaker's. Very easy to identify the difference right? :) I'm sure you would like to know my verdict after testing out these two recipes. Ok, here's my comparison. ;)

Perfect Fudgy Brownies

• Uses Butter
• Without choco chips
• Rough, dry top
• more chocolatety & buttery
• Sweeter
• Denser, shorter
• Granulated sugar

Nut & Choco Chip Brownie

• Uses Oil (healthier)
• Addition of choco chips
• Shiny, flaky top
• Less chocolatety, milder flavour
• Less sweet
• Puffed up more - higher
• Brown sugar

Personally, for me and my permanent gourment taster who has a sweeter tooth, and really likes chocolates, would prefer the darker one, i.e. the perfect fudgy brownie. However, I do find it on the oily side when warmed. It's best to refrigerate it least for a few hours. My mum and one colloague who preferred not too sweet stuffs actually preferred the other one.

I would say both are really good brownie recipes. They are definitely not the cakey type. I brought it to my colleagues and be it either one of them, they said it was nice nice! :D

So which one would you prefer?? ;)

Chocolate Truffles

Having seen all kinds of truffles popping out in the recent mooncake market, like champagne choco truffles, rum and raisin..etc...I was tempted to be 'creative' and make my own truffles and add them into mooncakes as well. Anyway, I dropped the idea later as I only have red bean paste and don't think red bean would pair well with chocolate. So, i made the truffles for consumption alone and was pretty satisfied with the results :) Yummy! I can now make my own 'Rocher". When i gave some to my friend, she was asking me what is truffles? Well, I replied her that i just know that it is a kind of chocolate, and most often made by your ownself. Hehe very lame right. A net search for its meaning defined it as a group of chocolate confectionary, traditionally made with a chocolate ganache center coated in chocolate or cocoa powder, usually in a spherical, conical or curved shape. Nowadays, other fillings such as nuts, caramel or melted chocolate may replace the ganache (Source: Wikipedia). They are named for their resemblance to the truffle fungus. There are 3 main types of chocolate truffles. This method is the swiss truffles method. For more info, you can refer to the link.

I got the recipe from Sweet Indulgences and made some modifications myself.

Ingredients:

• 55g of milk chocolate
• 35g of dark chocolate
• 80 ml of heavy cream
• 15g of almond meal (ground almond) - original recipe called for ground hazelnut
• 1 1/2 tbsp of butter
• Hazelnuts/whole almonds toasted (optional)

Method:

1. Melt chocolate over double boiler and set aside.
2. Heat cream till simmer.Stir cream into melted chocolate and stir in widening concentric circles.
3. Add butter, stirring gently.
4. Add ground almond and stir gently.
5. Pour into a pan and refrigerate for about 2-3 hrs.
6. Toast some hazelnuts (about 20)
7. Use a melon scoop to scoop moulds of ganache and wrap it over 1 hazelnut - note: Be sure to let the nuts cool before wrapping otherwise the ganache will melt and turn soft
8. Dust with cocoa powder or chopped peanuts before popping back into the refrigerator

Makes about 18 truffles

Note: For more variations, you can coat it with melted chocolate or white chocolate before dusting it for additional chocolate layer

Must be consumed within a few days