Black & White Brownies


When I was 20 years old I got my first job in public relations, working for a boutique consultancy in Paddington, Sydney. Our office was in Underwood Street, which is parallel to Oxford Street, the main drag of Paddington and a major culture hub for the Eastern Suburbs.

After working for a year in very boring and hum drum North Rocks, lunch times in Paddington were an exploratory delight. Apart from great shopping for nic naks at Opus (which is still there today) there was also a world of food that I was keen to sample. And because I was a mere slip of a girl in those days, I thought I could eat anything I liked, and dance it off at the clubs I went to four or five nights a week.

One of my favourite destinations was the deli next door to the newsagency. They had a plethora of fillings to put on continental bread, but the thing they sold that I enjoyed most were Black and White Muffins. These were a black, squidgey, chocolate muffin topped with a gooey, cheesey white bit. The flavours were intensely heavenly. It wasn't something I bought all the time, because they were an extreme indulgence. But every now and then, I'd get one, and struggle to enjoy eating it while Kevin, the white samoid dog who lived where I worked, sat with his head in my lap.

Those muffins seem to have disappeared from the cafes of Sydney now, replaced by cupcakes and brownies. I've been craving one lately, so here's my hybrid recipe - B&W brownies.

Ingredients
250g good quality dark cooking chocolate
250g butter
1 1/3 cups caster sugar
4 large eggs
2 tblsp cocoa powder
2/3 cup plain flour
250g light cream cheese
3 tblsp caster sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 large egg yolk

1. Pre-heat the oven to 180 degrees celcius. Line a brownie tin with baking paper, ensuring you extend it up and over the sides.
2. Melt the chocolate and butter in the microwave oven - about 2 minutes - then stir to combine. Do not overheat or you'll burn the chocolate.
3. Add the sugar and stir to combine. Then add the eggs, two at a time, stir thoroughly after each addition.
4. Add the cocoa and flour and fold gently through the chocolate mix until all ingredients are combined. Pour the mixture into the brownie tin and smooth it out to fill the corners.
5. Combine the cream cheese, sugar, vanilla and egg yolk in a small bowl. Mix until thoroughly combined.
6. Drop spoonfuls of the cheese mixture over the top of the raw brownie mix. Take a butter knife and whirl the cheese mixture into the chocolate mixture to lightly combine.
7. Bake for 40 minutes then allow to cool in the tin. Remember, brownies are meant to be squidgey, so don't over cook it!
8. Cut into 18 squares and enjoy!

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Marshmallow Sherbet Cones

Image
I have always been a big fan of sherbet in the many forms it comes in. As a kid, I loved those sherbet cones you bought from the corner store – semi solidified sherbet in a stale cone, with chewy marshmallow on the top, coated in hundreds and thousands. I also loved Wiz Fizz – fruity sherbet in a glassine bag with a little plastic shovel. I’d most often buy these on the way home from the pool, because they were only five cents. Unfortunately, my hands were usually still wet from the pool, turning the bag to a sloppy mess before I could eat its entire contents. For my 10th birthday my mum decided to include homemade sherbet cones on the menu. Thanks to The Australian Women’s Weekly recipe cards, we had the recipe for sherbet and marshmallow, albeit, on different cards. My clever mum bought flat bottomed square cones, half filled them with sherbet and then topped them with pink or green marshmallow. Of course each had a liberal sprinkling of hundreds and thousands. In my explo
Read more

White Chocolate Ganache

Image
I don’t think there is an occasion more joyous than a wedding. Of course, once a wedding has taken place, many more joys follow, like the arrival of a long awaited baby. But it all starts with a wedding, and I find weddings to be chock-filled with hope. If you’re lucky, you only ever need to have one wedding – although some people have more than one, if not several! So the trick to getting your fill of wedding joy is to know lots of people who are planning on getting married. As a cake baker, I am getting to participate in weddings, baby showers, naming days and even funerals (although not too many of those, thank goodness)! I consider it a privilege to be invited to create cakes and cupcakes for these landmark occasions in people’s lives. We (my darling husband and I) always try extra hard to come up with something special that fits the occasion and the people who we’re baking for. And what we’ve discovered is trying extra hard allows us an opportunity for continuous improvement. When
Read more

Road Test: Sunbeam Mixmaster v Kenwood Patissier

Image
Back in 2003 when I began my most recent baking odyssey, I acquired a Sunbeam Mixmaster – the remake of the classic retro mixer from the fifties. My mother had a Mixmaster which she bought in the seventies, and which I did most of my cake baking with as a teenager (when the obsession truly took hold). She still has that Mixmaster today, although it is significantly worse for wear – the plastic cover over the light is broken and they haven’t made the bulbs for years, so there’s a “live” cavity where the light bulb should be. I can vouch for that because I stuck my finger in there accidentally last year and got a nice shock from it. I paid quite a lot of money for my Mixmaster and it held pride of place on my kitchen bench for three years. That is until I had it running one Sunday and one of the motors blew up! I discovered that the twin motor “600 watt” power it claimed worked in two ways: 1. to run the beaters; 2. to turn the turntable the bowl sits on. After seeing flames shooting fro
Read more