Sunday, August 29, 2010

Classic Fudgy Brownies

Have a friend's birthday coming up and he's got a sweet tooth like myself. So I know I could go all out and bake something rich and sweet for him. He saw a picture of one of my early bakes of a fudgy brownie and commented that it looks really yummy and why have I not baked that for our group of friends? He probably forgotten the casual remark, but I remember! heehee

I remembered I was complaining about how unattractive my bakes look on picture, he told me I could inform him in advance before I bake in the future, so he could come to help snap some pictures (he's into photography and he has got talent in it). Touched!!! Though it has never happened before since I bake at the spur of the moment most of the time, the gesture was much appreciated.

These fudgy brownies are the best I've made so far. Rich, dense and fudgy as the recipe promises. It's also tad chewy as well. Frosted them with a layer of ganache which makes it look even more so tempting and sinful, but it's good without it as well.

Happy Birthday Gabriel!! :)

Classic Fudgy Brownies (adapted from Sur La Table's The Art & Soul of Baking)
Recipe here is basically a conversion into metric measurements

Ingredients
Brownie:
113g semisweet chocolate (up to 56% cacao) (I use Valrhona Equatoriale 55%)
113g unsalted butter
56g unsweetened chocolate
200g sugar
2 large eggs
1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
70g all purpose flour
pinch of salt

Dark Chocolate Ganache (optional):
88g dark chocolate, finely chopped (up to 60% cacao) (I use Valrhona Equatoriale 55%)
90g whipping cream

Method
1. Preheat oven to 175°C & prepare a 8"x8" square baking tin
2. Melt semisweet and unsweetened chocolate & butter on a double boil
3. Remove chocolate from heat and whisk in sugar
4. Whisk in eggs one at a time, stirring well to incorporate each before adding the next
5. Stir in vanilla extract
6. Whisk in flour and salt and continue to stir until mixture changes from dull looking to smooth and shiny
7. Scrape batter into prepared pan and spread evenly
8. Bake for 35 - 40 mins and transfer to a rack to cool completely
9. For the ganache, place chocolate in a bowl
10. Heat cream in a saucepan until it begins to boil and immediately pour it over the chocolate
11. Let ganache cool for 1h then cover with plastic wrap and set aside to finish cooling at room temperature until it has consistency of frosting, 8 to 10 hours
12. Spread ganache over cooled brownie and proffittt

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