Tuesday, September 12

SHF23 Surprise Inside - Brownie Explosion...

Surprise!
I’m joining in the greatest Food Blogger’s sweet-tooth event: Sugar High Friday. This month’s theme is, big surprise!, Surprise Inside and is hosted by Alanna from A Veggie Venture.

I love my sweets but yet I had a hard time choosing what to enter.
What is the ultimate surprise?
Finding a broken nail from the hostess in your dessert is also a surprise, but not really the one I was hoping for…
But what then?
What’s the best base and what’s its best surprise?
The answer was actually rather simple: chocolate.
chocolate, chocolate and... chocolate!

I began a bit of experimenting and ended up making these dense and dark brownies. Very rich, pure, oozy and delicious. Instead of making one big one, I put them in individual little muffin-tins, and for the big surprise…
I buried cherry liqueur pralines inside them.

Can you really think of a nicer surprise than finding a soft kirsch centre, an explosion of flavour, inside the best brownie you’ve ever tasted?

The whole thing went quite well actually - I made the batter, placed the surprise-filling in the tins, covered them up and placed them in the oven… - but let’s just say it was a real surprise to find that after 20 minutes 12 little chocolate volcano’s had arisen in my oven, very angry and spewing out their lovely sugary-kirsch lava

OK, this was not really the surprise I was hoping for(!)

One tip, (in retrospect quite logic, but still…) make sure you completely cover up the bonbons - I used two different kinds of liqueur pralines (see photo above) and left the ones with those nice stems a bit uncovered…not my best move.
If you leave them uncovered, the alcohol will run out easily and vaporize when it’s chocolate layer melts…and they will turn out like this!

But luckily -surprise!- this didn’t ruin them at all (!)
they still looked very beautiful and they tasted absolutely amazing. Dark and dense, so rich and overwhelmingly chocolaty with still a delicious soft oozy kirsch centre…
Definitely worth a try!

I’ve added of course, - no surprise here - the recipe for you to try (and love)

Brownie Explosions (makes 16)

- 250g butter (2 sticks/1 cup)
- 250g best quality bittersweet chocolate (1,5 cup) chopped
- 4 eggs
- 325g (1 2/3 cup) fine granulated sugar
- 150g (1 ¼ cup) all-purpose flour
- pinch of salt
- 16 Cherry Liquor pralines.

1. Preheat the oven to 180° C (350° F) and grease and flour a muffin-tin

2. melt the butter and chocolate on low heat, stirring once in a while. In a large bowl, whisk together the eggs and sugar. Mix in a different bowl the flour and salt.

3. Take the chocolate mixture away from the heat when it’s completely melted, and let it cool off a bit before adding it to the eggs.

4. Add the chocolate mixture to the eggs and mix well. Add the flour and mix until you’ll have a smooth batter.

5. Place in every muffin tin a praline and cover them COMPLETELY with the batter. Fill every form. bake for 20 to 25 minutes, until done. The top will be dark and dry, but the centre still sweet, dense and compact. Be alert; the difference between a nice sticky brownie and a dried out one is just a couple of minutes!

6. Let them completely cool in their forms and keep in an airtight box.


15 comments:

Alanna Kellogg said...

Ah Julia, I'm so glad you've joined the blogging community! Your "voice" is just lovely and you had me laughing out loud, this whole post. "No surprise" ~ it is simply perfect for Sugar High Friday.

And I'm so glad you're proud of lessons from the kitchen ~ sometimes we learn as much from the almost-failures as the triumphs!

Keep cookin', girl!

Anonymous said...

Great idea for SHF, Julia! I imagine that they were simply delectable! Thanks for sharing your insights as well!

Julia said...

Thank you so much for your nice comment, Alanna! =)
Yes, maybe even more…And this will definitely not happen to me twice…(!)

Hi Gilly! =)
Are you entering something as well? Hope you do!

Deb Schiff said...

Oh! Poor Julia!

The brownies still look yummy, surprise or not. Better luck next time.

By the way, your blog is coming along very nicely. Good job! You're a natural!

d

Jen said...

Definitely not the kinda surprise you were hoping for, but I think they still look really tasty and the volcano erruptions look pretty dramatic and cool : )

Anonymous said...

With a surprise inside like this, how can one resist!

Anonymous said...

'k heb ze geprobeerd: ze zijn echt heel erg lekker!

alpineberry said...

Cute name for your brownies. Kirsch is a nice suprise inside.

Mademoiselle Différentielle said...

When I saw the photos, I did not recognize that these brownies are supposed to be an accident!
Uhm, and yes, I've found a little theoretical background of what has happened in Julias oven:

http://mademoisellediff.blogspot.com/2006/09/julias-accident-oder-physiker-wagen.html
(And no, I am not bored...)

Julia said...

Haha, thank you Deb! =)

JenJen - yeah, it was certainly a bit over-the-top… but probably the tastiest lava ever (!)

Hi Bea, yes - I sure know I can’t… ! =)
I think it’s best I keep it to myself how many I exactly had…

Thanks Mary!

Hi MD - your post sure helped me to improve my German! =)

Libbycookie said...

They look absolutely divine! But, yes - a little angry... I may have to scramble something together by Friday, it's such a great theme. My first SHF effort a few months ago was kind of a disaster, but there's always a next time, right? Kudos on your chocolate volcanoes!

Julia said...

Hi Libby, thank you!
did you joined this months SHF? couldn't find your entry!
the Double Soy Chocolate Chip Cookies With Cranberries & Currants look great though! =)

Josie said...

I love it when you experiment, something seemingly goes wrong but ends up delicious all the same! Now that's a great surprise! These look wonderful....and have inspired me with what to do with those left-over chocolates in the chocolate box...You know, when you are lucky enough to receive a mixed box of chocolates there are invariably some you enjoy less than others and so they languish...now they will become part of something decadent and delectable! *smile*

emily said...

Julia -
Great minds think alike, do they not?
i adore the brownie recipe (it's quite similar to one i already use!).
lovely photography on your blog overall.

Anonymous said...

doet denken aan 'biscuit de chocolat coulant' van michel bras