Wednesday, February 14, 2007

Baked Goods for V-Day

UPDATED

I wanted something chocolatey and raspberry-y for Valentine's Day dessert. Chocolate and Raspberry go together like Chocolate & Peanut Butter, Gin & Tonic, Fred & Wilma...you get the point. I think this flavor composition is what of the greats!


To accomplish this treat, I figured brownies would be the best way to get my Choco-Rasp flavors. For the brownie, I went to my favorite English-muffin, Nigella Lawson. In How To Be A Domestic Goddess, Nigella has a great recipe on page 193.

For the next part of my treat, I needed to get the Raspberry in there somehow. I didn't want to have fruit bits in the brownie, so I thought a Raspberry sauce would be a good medium. I made the sauce by taking a 12 oz bag of frozen berries, sent them into the blender with some sugar (to taste) and the juice of 1/2 a lemon. After they were pureed, I sent them through a sieve to remove most of the seeds. Done!

I knew that a full 9x13x2 pan would be too many brownies for our house. So I made 1/2 a batch. This took me a few minutes to do and since I'm not that great with fractions so pardon my notes.

Brownies by Nigella Lawson
(this is the 1/2 recipe with my measurements)

7 oz butter
7 oz dark chocolate chips
3 eggs
1 TB vanilla
7 oz sugar
3/4 scant cup flour
1/2 tsp salt

Preheat the oven to 350. Line your pan, 9x9 in this case, with parchment paper. Lightly butter.

Melt the butter and chocolate together in a double boiler. In a bowl, beat the eggs, vanilla and sugar together. Measure the flour and add the salt.

When the chocolate is melted, let it cool slightly. Slowly pour into the egg/sugar mixture, while stirring with a whisk. Add the flour and fold into the chocolate mixture. Take care not to over mix the batter, or you'll get tough brownies. Pour into your lined pan.

Raspberry Time. Gently spoon or drizzle the Raspberry Sauce over the top of the brownie mix in the pan. If you're feeling creative, drizzle the sauce into a pattern and maybe twirl it with a toothpick or skewer.

Bake for about 25 minutes. When it's ready, the top should be dried to a pale brown speckle and the middle will still be dark, dense and gooey. (I over baked a wee bit.)

Allow the brownies to cool before cutting.

Such simple ingredients CAN'T be bad for you, right?

The final Raspberry Sauce, ready for making naughty chocolate raspberry brownies...and other goodies.

The chocolate/butter/egg/sugar and vanilla mixture!

The flour has been added and carefully stirred in.

My raspberry web of desire! :o)

After a short rest in the oven, your patience will be rewarded.

Dark Chocolate & Raspberry Brownie with Raspberry Ice Cream and Raspberry Sauce...overkill? Perhaps. The brownie and the sauce are required! The ice cream...vanilla would have been sufficient.

The ice cream used up most of the extra raspberry sauce. Make the ice cream base. Add in as much raspberry sauce as you like-too taste. Make per your machines instructions. I did do one flub. Through a few year's worth of trial and error, I found that the best mix for ice cream is about 2 cups of milk and 1 cup of cream. Ooops, I wasn't thinking when I made my ice cream and used only cream. The final treat had the texture of a frozen berry mousse. Not bad, but not the ice cream I wanted.

4 comments:

Dancer in DC said...

I know you all hate me right about now.

And you should. :)

Stef said...

Oh, sweet mama. If I ever have to request a last meal, then that's it!

Dancer in DC said...

Web of desire? Growl!

DC Food Blog said...

mmmm...for Valentine's day we went to Safeway, got a log of sugar cookie dough, some red icing our of a tube and some chocolate and vanilla frosting.