Fig Jam and Lime Cordial

Dark chocolate is very good for you.

That’s my line, and I’m sticking to it.  Here are my recent adventures with this wondrous health food.

I’ve made a very dark blend of Callebaut 811, Callebaut 70% and Cacao Barry Tanzanie 75%, and stuffed it with cacao nibs. A dairy-free antioxidant boost…

. . . . .

This slightly sweeter blend (about 63% dark, from memory) was filled with almond slivers that had been tossed in Kirsch and sugar, and then roasted in the oven. Instead of bars, I spread the chocolate onto lined trays to create a flat bark. Nuts are good for you too, right?

. . . . .

Finally, my lovely friend Tania gave me a broken block of Amedei ‘9’ to play with. This dark 75% cacao chocolate – a mix of beans from nine different plantations – has a delicious, complex flavour that is quite unique. In an effort to exercise portion control, I tempered it into bite-sized pieces.

I find chocolate this dark and flavoursome to be extremely satiating, and a single square of the ‘9’ is usually enough to satisfy my chocolate cravings…

Are you a dark chocolate fan?  It’s very good for you, you know.

(That’s my line, and I’m sticking to it.)

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After the happy success I had with my experimental Guinness and treacle sourdough, I’ve been busy playing around with the recipe!

My first variation was a Guinness and treacle ciabatta, made with a very wet (80%) hydration dough. It was difficult to handle, but the elastic, holey crumb made it worth the effort. Based on our ciabatta recipe, I tweaked the quantities and ingredients as follows:

• 300g Guinness starter
• 650g fridge cold water
• 1kg Buratto flour (or bakers flour, but you might need to reduce water quantity)
• 60g treacle
• 19g fine sea salt

The dough was left to prove on the bench overnight, then shaped and baked the following day without a second rise, following the method we use for our regular ciabattas.

. . . . .

Aren’t these rolls adorable? They’re shaped into Essex huffers, as taught to me by my friend Anne at Life in Mud Spattered Boots.

The dough is the same as the original Guinness loaf, but formed instead into a flat circle, cut into wedges and baked in a round cake tin. Anne has detailed instructions on how to shape the huffers here. Small Man was particularly taken with these rolls – he ate three of them before dinner.

As always, the versatility of sourdough never ceases to amaze me!

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These brownies can be made two ways. This photo shows the cakier version…

I have the sugar shakes.

Quite badly, actually. But they’re worth it, because these new brownies are, to use the vernacular of Hollywood, amazeballs.

They came about because I suddenly found myself with a glut of 100% cocoa mass. My friend Christina had decided to use Callebaut 70% in her chocolate blend rather than the 100%, so she gave me her unopened two and a half kilo bag…

I went searching and found the most wonderful recipe in the most wonderful chocolate cookbook, Alice Medrich’s Bittersweet…

Not only did Alice’s classic brownie recipe use unsweetened chocolate, but it also provided two methods of cooking, one of which would result in a gooey brownie and the other in a slightly cakier version.

Naturally, I had to try both. And since there was so much cocoa mass, I doubled up both batches. Which explains why our house is now awash with brownies. I changed the methodology just a little, halved the salt, and have included metric measurements below…

• 230g (8oz) 100% cacao chocolate (unsweetened chocolate), chopped
• 250g (1 cup) unsalted butter, cut into pieces
• 550g (2½ cups) white sugar
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract (I used homemade)
• ¼ teaspoon fine sea salt
• 4 large (59g) free range eggs (cold from the fridge)
• 150g (1 cup) plain (AP) flour, sifted

1. Preheat oven to either:

• 200C (400F) or 180C (360F) with fan for gooey brownies (bottom photos)

or

• 175C (350F) or 160C (320F) with fan for slightly cakier brownies (top photo)

2. Line a 23cm x 33cm (9″ x 13″) metal baking pan with parchment paper.

3. Combine the butter and chocolate together in a large pyrex mixing bowl. Melt the mixture in the microwave until smooth, using 30 second bursts on high, stirring frequently.

4. Using a wooden spoon or silicon spatula, stir in the sugar, vanilla and salt. Mix in the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition, then stir in the sifted flour. Once the flour is incorporated, give the batter a good hard beating with your wooden spoon or spatula for a couple of minutes, until it is smooth and shiny and has stiffened up a little. Because I’ve doubled the quantities, this is quite hard work – you could use a handheld mixer if you prefer (I did for the cakier batch).

5. Scrape the batter into the prepared pan and smooth out the top.

Baking instructions:

1. Gooey Brownies: Bake the batter in the preheated 180C fan forced oven for 20 minutes. The brownies will look set on top, but will still be moist when tested with a skewer.

Before the brownies are done, create a shallow ice bath in the sink with a little cold water and ice cubes. Take the cooked brownies out of the oven and immediately (and carefully!) sit the pan in the ice bath. Allow to cool completely before removing from pan and cutting up.

2. Cakier Brownies: Bake the batter in the preheated 160C fan forced oven for 30 minutes, until a skewer comes out almost clean. Allow to cool on a rack.

Both versions are very good. Pete is undecided and really likes both of them, but I prefer the gooey ones. Please note that these quantities result in a lot of brownies. The original recipe uses a 20cm/8″ square tin and half the ingredients of my version (baking times remain the same) – a good option if you’d rather not be gorging yourself on brownies for days.

Neighbours, if you haven’t already done so, please come and get brownies!

*Bittersweet is now out of print, but a revised edition is on its way.

*If you don’t have 100% cacao chocolate, you might want to try our fudge brownies or chestnut brownies instead. The latter are Pete’s favourites!

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Earlier this week, my lovely friend Lizzy tweeted that she was trying this clay pot pork dish by fellow Aussie blogger, Ai-Ling at Blue Apolocalypse.

It looked and sounded so good that I had to give it a go!

My adaptations to Ai-Ling’s recipe were only minor – I used small perennial leeks instead of spring onions, and because our Emile Henry risotto pot is flameproof, I fried the meat in the same pot that I braised it in…

I cut the chillies back to four instead of ten (the dish still had a delicious gentle heat), subbed dry sherry for the Shaoxing wine, and added a handful of leafy garden greens with the leeks near the end of the cooking time.

The flavours in this dish – oyster sauce, soy, sesame oil – are the tastes of my childhood. My mother never made this dish, and yet every bite of the tender meat and rich sauce made me nostalgic. Big Boy and Small Man absolutely adored it – they ate it until all the rice ran out, and then continued eating it with bread. It’s definitely a keeper.

Thanks again, Ai-Ling!

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