Receta Absolute Best Brownies, Chocolate, Chocolate and more Chocolate
It was a busy weekend.
Saturday was the Salon au Chocolat (see below); Sunday was the annual Fall Lunch at the village.
The Lunch takes care of the entire day. It starts at noon and finishes around 4:30. After all the food and wine and aperitif and digestif I’m not up for anything for the rest of the day.
The menu this year:
Aperitif with nibbles
Pumpkin Soup
Vegetable Salad with Poached Salmon
Sorbet with Calvados
Stuffed Pork with Rice
Cheese and Salad
Ice cream Profiteroles with Chocolate Sauce
Coffee and digestif
Wine included, of course.
I originally posted this Brownie recipe a few years ago….
In honor of the Salon au Chocolat I thought it worthy of a repeat.
Absolute Best Brownies
Total time: 45 minutes
Ingredients
- 6 tablespoons (3 ounces) unsalted or salted butter, cut into pieces, plus more for the pan
- 8 ounces bittersweet or semisweet chocolate, chopped
- 3/4 cup sugar
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 2 large eggs, at room temperature
- 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
- 1 cup walnuts, almonds, hazelnuts, or pecans, toasted and coarsely chopped
- Dark Chocolate Glaze
- 4oz dark chocolate (mine was 70%), broken into chunks
- 1/2 cup heavy cream
Instructions:
Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).
Line the inside of an 8-inch square pan with 2 lengths of foil or parchment paper, positioning the sheets perpendicular to each other and allowing the excess to extend beyond the edges of the pan. Lightly butter the foil or parchment.
In a medium saucepan over low heat, melt the butter. Add the chocolate and stir by hand until it is melted and smooth.
Remove the pan from the heat and stir in the sugar and vanilla until combined. Beat in the eggs by hand, 1 at a time. Add the flour and stir energetically for 1 full minute—time yourself—until the batter loses its graininess, becomes smooth and glossy, and pulls away a bit from the sides of the saucepan. The vigorous stirring is the key to these Brownies.
Stir in the chopped nuts.
Scrape the batter into the prepared pan and bake until the center feels almost set, about 30 minutes. Do not over-bake.
Let the brownies cool completely in the pan.
When cool, lift the Brownies out of the pan using the foil or parchment paper.
Glaze:
Heat the cream in a small saucepan over low heat.
Add the chocolate and stir just until melted
To Finish:
When the Brownies are cool, pour the glaze over the top.
When the Glaze has cooled, cut the brownie into squares
The French take their chocolate seriously.
This is a typical ‘chocolate bar’. They come in a few flavors (this one is filled with mint cream) and different percentages of cocoa. Normally they’re divided into ten squares, and one square would be eaten after lunch or dinner as a small dessert.
As to the serious, handmade chocolates……
Almost every village has at least one Chocolatier. The Salon au Chocolat features all of the local, and not so local, chocolate artisans.
Some of them do more than chocolate….
These 2-bite macarons are one of our favorite treats from the Salon.
The chocolates and the macarons are wonderful – but not cheap. The little macarons are about 50 cents each and that small plate of hand-made chocolates was almost $15.00.
Maybe that explains why they’re eaten so sparingly……
One treasures every bite.
My discerning French friend chocoholics agree that these Brownies are fantastic.
I found the recipe on Leite’s Culinaria under the title of David Lebovitz’s Absolute Best Brownie. The recipe appears in his book: Ready for Dessert | Ten Speed Press, 2010 |
There, I think that takes care of ‘credit where it’s due’.
Last update on November 16, 2014