Friday 20 April 2012

April Showers and Heartburn Brownies

Well we have been warned of a drought that could last until Christmas by some, had a hose pipe ban set upon us by the government and the day it comes into force the heavens open. This week has been very wet, a week of staying indoors and watching all that lovely rain falling to fill up the aquifers. I haven't been to the allotment since the Easter holidays, during which I planted all those lovely beans and peas. I paid one more visit after that and discovered the beans, marigolds and my new potato shoots all dead. Apparently a very hard frost came and it killed them all. The alliums are okay and randomly the peas are fine too, makes me wonder about how hard peas are to kill! It did make me feel that I wanted to give it all up, but having then received my formal letter asking me to become a permanent plot holder those feeling melted away.

So I'm planning to get down this weekend to have a look and see what weeds have grown with this rain. I did do some weeding amongst the raspberries which is looking tidier at least, more is needed but it's little and often I think that will win the day, 120 square metres is a lot to keep.

Baking
As you know this blog serves to marry my two previous blogs, so here is a baking recipe that I tried last week.


Bacon Brownies
I can't claim to have invented these, in fact it was Nigella Lawson tweeting her recipe to her followers that made me sit up and think, "hmm, I do enjoy bacon and marmalade, these may work". I took my trusty brownie recipe from Outsider Tart, and went to the supermarket to buy some 'American-style' bacon.
I also bought myself a new knife using up some vouchers that I was given for my birthday. It is Japanese steel so is light and very sharp, it made short work of the bacon which I cut into very small bites.


I basically threw these into a recipe and so adapted the Hepburn Brownie, christening it the Heartburn Brownie.

Heartburn brownie: Adapted from Outsider Tart's Hepburn brownies
Preheat an oven to 170C and grease and line a 30cm x 23cm x 5cm brownie pan.

1) Put 340g of butter into a pan and melt it slowly over a low heat.
2) When melted, add 200g of cocoa powder and 2 tablespoons of instant espresso powder (larger grained instant coffee doesn't work unless dissolved separately) I use Starbucks instant espresso.
It will become glossy and smooth, with that lovely mocha aroma.

Also I use that brand of Vanilla and bog-standard cinnamon :P.

3) Add next 675g of caster sugar, this will cool down the butter mixture enough to allow eggs to be added without them cooking.

It looks a bit like muddy-slushy-snow a few days after it has fallen and the weather has warmed up.

4) Add to this 6 large eggs, one at a time, mixing well after each addition. The batter will now become quite elastic like and smooth again.

5) Now add in 115g plain flour, 1.5 tsp of cinnamon, 3/4 tsp salt. Stir until only just incorporated.

Now this is the point that I added the bacon, however I would refrain from doing it raw as I did. I suggest frying the bacon up first, so it is very crisp, then drying, cooling and blitzing in a food processor to make little bacon shards (my Aunty Lynne's idea). Then mix this into the batter, pour into the pan and cook for 30 minutes.

When you take the brownies out of the oven they should have a solid wobble in the middle (as opposed to a sloppy wobble). Let them cool in the tin, and when cool enough put them into the fridge to set overnight. Fudgey brownies are essentially a very thick, set, chocolate custard, think of them that way and they will turn out delicious. 
These are very rich, so cut them up small.
Note, these aren't the bacon brownies, but just plain Hepburn's, which if you omit the bacon are what you will make.

I didn't think the bacon brownies were that great to be honest, but then again I didn't try them with pre-cooked and blitzed bacon, if you try them that way let me know. Otherwise, enjoy a tray of the best plain brownies.





No comments:

Post a Comment