Christmas brownies

It would seem I have lapsed in my blogging. But, this time I’m making up for it with a recipe for Christmas brownies. My first semester of grad school is over (at least until the grades are released) and I decided it called for brownies. Then I had some more realisations: it is almost Christmas, and the best part of Christmas is peppermint mochas. So I decided to modify my tried and true briwnie recipe into peppermint mocha brownies. I also decided that these brownies needed a little extra in the form of spiced rum. As always with brownies, you need to use a good quality chocolate that you enjoy eating on its own, as this is what your brownies will taste like. I used Ghiradelli’s 70% cocoa chocolate chips for mine, and it turned out delicious.

Ingredients for brownie:

• 4oz dark chocolate
• 1/2 cup butter
• 2 tsp instant coffee
• 1/2 tsp peppermint extract
• 2 tbsp dark, spiced rum
• 3/4 cup granulated sugar
• 2 eggs
• 3/4 cup flour

Ingredients for topping:

• 4oz dark chocolate
• 2tbsp heavy cream
• 1 candy cane, crushed

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees Fahrenheit. Melt the chocolate and butter in a pot over low heat. Stir carefully to make sure it doesn’t burn (if you are worried, melt it in a steel bowl over a water bath). Take the pan off the heat and stir in the instant coffee, peppermint extract and rum. Add in the sugar, and then the eggs, mixing carefully after each addition. Finally add in the flour. Pour the batter into a 9×9 inch brownie pan and bake for 20-25 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out with a few moist crumbs. Closer to 20 minutes will yield a more fudge-like brownie, and closer to 25 will give you a more cake-like one. Let the brownie cool completely before attempting to decorate it.

When it is cooled, melt the dark chocolate (on the stove or in the microwave) and stir in the heavy cream. Spread this over the brownie, sprinkle the crushed candy cane over it and then chill for about an hour. Cut into 9-16 pieces, depending on how big you like your brownies (the correct answer is as big as possible without getting sick from too much sugar). Serve room temperature or cold, possibly with some vanilla ice cream or whipped cream.

I didn’t realise how much a crushed candy cane sprinkled over the chocolate topping would add to the cake until after I took the pictures: hence the lack of red and white sprinkles there.

These are the perfect thing to enjoy on a rainy December evening with a good book. They are dense, chocolatey and with a certain oomph from the rum, coffee and peppermint. I’m currently obsessed with Ken Follett, and if my grad student budget allowed me to I would have bought all of his books as a Christmas present to myself. As it stands I have to ration them a little. But now I’m off to find any brownies my roommate and boyfriend haven’t eaten and finish Winter of the World. Enjoy your brownies!

Simple Birthday Cake

For my birthday a few days ago (finally 21!), I made a delicious cake, featuring some of my current favorite tastes. The first layer is a brownie like cake, covered in a very tart lime mousse, and then with a pile of strawberries on top. This cake takes a little while to make, mostly because everything has to cool and set in between layers. It’s very simple though, as long as you’re gentle with the mousse. It would be a good idea to make the brownie cake the night before and the mousse in the morning.

For the brownie cake you will need:

• 100 grams butter
• 4 tablespoons cocoa powder
• 1 pinch of salt
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 3 deciliters granulated sugar
• 1.5 deciliters flour
• 2 eggs

Set the oven to 160 degrees Celsius. Melt the butter. While it cools slightly, mix all the dry ingredients in a large bowl. Stir in the eggs one by one and then the butter. Transfer to a buttered springform pan (24 – 28 cm diameter), dusted with cocoa powder, and bake for approximately 35 minutes. A toothpick inserted in the center should still be sticky. This cake needs to cool completely before the next step. I would recommend removing the edge of the springform pan and cleaning it before making the mousse, to end up with a nice, clean cake.

The mousse is a little bit harder to make, but still fairly simple. You will need:

• 2 gelatin leaves
• 2 deciliters heavy cream
• 2 eggs, separated
• The juice of 3 limes
• 3/4 deciliter granulated sugar

Soak the gelatin leaves in cold water. Whip the cream until soft peaks form. Gently fold the egg yolks into the cream. In a separate bowl, whip the egg whites until hard peaks form. Heat up the lime juice mixed with the sugar, but don’t let it boil. Stir the gelatin leaves into the lime juice. Fold the lime mixture into the whipped cream. Finally, fold in the egg whites, a little at a time, very gently. Spread this mixture on the cake and let it set in the fridge for at least 3 hours.

• 2 cups of sliced strawberries
• (Powdered sugar)

To serve, cover the top with sliced strawberries and (depending on how sweet they are) dust some powdered sugar over the cake. Enjoy!