I could only manage one post last week since we were off in Goa for a little break. But now it’s back to baking, full steam!
Brownies were one of the first things I learned to bake well. Back in the day, I’d use packaged brownie mix, but once I found a recipe that worked, I never looked at boxed mix again.
Since then, I’ve made different variations of brownies, drifted into blondie territory, and returned to the brownie zone with a 2-ingredient Nutella brownie. This made me realize, once again, how comforting a simple brownie could be. And that’s when it struck me: there’s been a lack of chocolate around here for a while.
I know Christmas calls for pumpkin spice lattes, hot apple cider, cranberry scones, and all kinds of spiced + fruity bakes and treats, but in my book, it ain’t a party until you’ve laid down some chocolate.
So I present to you the brownie cookie. A recipe I bookmarked eons ago when I discovered Purple Foodie. It lives up to its name: a cookie that’s crisp on the outside and along the edges, but a little underdone in the centre. These require a little patience, because you need to melt the chocolate using a double boiler. These are so, so good dunked in milk. How do I know? Because as I was trying to take a photograph, the cookie, teetering dangerously on the rim of the glass, fell in. (This happened with 3 cookies in successsion, FYI.)
I followed the recipe as is, but the quality of the chocolate was not top-notch: no Callebaut or Lindt, just regular Morde “cooking chocolate” from the baking aisle at Dorabjee’s in Pune. And it made for a pretty good cookie! So I can only imagine how decadent a cookie baked with Callebaut would be.
BROWNIE COOKIES (Via Purple Foodie.)
INGREDIENTS
- 225g dark chocolate
- 155g flour
- 50g cocoa powder
- 2tsp baking powder
- 110 g butter
- 225 g caster sugar
- 2 large eggs
- 1tsp vanilla extract
- 75ml or 1/3rd cup milk
METHOD
- Preheat oven to 175°C.
- Line a baking pan with parchment paper.
- Melt the chocolate using the double-boiler method, by putting the chocolate in a bowl and placing the bowl over a pan of simmering water. Once the chocolate has melted, set aside.
- Sift together the, flour, cocoa powder and, baking powder in a bowl and set aside.
- In a large bowl beat the butter until creamy.
- Slowly add the castor sugar until it’s dissolved in the butter.
- Add the eggs, one at a time, beating after each addition.
Next, add the vanilla and melted chocolate beat until well incorporated. - Add the milk.
- Fold in the flour mixture until no streaks of flour can be seen in the batter.
- Drop tablespoonfuls of batter onto the baking sheet and press down gently with the tines of a fork, if you want to. Leave at least an inch of space between each drop of cookie dough.
- Bake for 7 minutes at 175 C.
- Allow to rest and firm up before transferring to a cooling rack.
ON MELTING CHOCOLATE
♥ Double-boiler: Place a pot of water on the stove, allow the water to simmer. Put the chocolate in another bowl, and place this bowl above the pot of simmering water and melt the chocolate, stirring occasionally. (Make sure the bowl you put the chocolate in fits snugly onto the rim of the pot- you don’t want the pot shifting around too much.)
♥ Cooking chocolate: It’s best to use good-quality cooking/baking chocolate for recipes like these, dark chocolate with a higher percentage of cocoa solids.
♥ My chocolate is seizing up/coagulating/getting thick and crumbly/powdery: Don’t throw it out just yet. Lower the heat and add a little bit of fat- a spoonful of butter or a little drizzle of flavourless oil (pls don’t add coconut oil!) and your chocolate may smoothen itself out and melt evenly. If it still doesn’t work, it is best to start over- and avoid stirring the chocolate too much.
♥ Can I use Cadbury’s Dairy Milk? I love Cadbury’s Dairy Milk. I grew up eating it and still enjoy it. The thing is, since Dairy Milk is a processed milk chocolate (with a lower percentage of cocoa solids compared to something like a Lindt 70%) it isn’t the best chocolate for baking. However, I did use Dairy Milk once to make chocolate cake- I couldn’t find dark chocolate anywhere and I was in a hurry. I melted the Dairy Milk pieces in a double boiler, but added a shot of oil to help bring it together as it began to seize up. Since there was extra fat in the cake batter because of the oil, I had to add extra flour to bring the batter together. The cake still turned out well. So yes, I suppose one can use Dairy Milk, but it’s a matter of trial, error, instinct and (dare I say) luck!
Sugar, Spice, Etc 