Tuesdays with Dorie: French Chocolate Brownies

I was very excited this week because the TWD recipe, chosen by Di of Di's Kitchen Notebook, called for raisins flamed in rum. I figured that there would be some huge fireball in my kitchen, curling and rising and almost singeing the ceiling. As it turns out, the flame was tiny and blue and you couldn't see it unless you were looking straight down into the pan. Still kinda cool, but not nearly as dramatic as I'd imagined ;)



Anyway, the rest of the recipe was pretty straightforward. I thought the cinnamon was a nice addition and gave the chocolate a little something to play against. Even with just eggs to give it a rise, the result was definitely cakier than A. and I would have liked (see this post for A.'s favorite brownie texture... basically goo). It had a delicious flavor and tender texture, but you definitely need to be sitting by a glass of water while eating it — or, as Dorie suggests, eat it with a scoop of ice cream :) Even better!



As for the raisins, I normally don't like 'em in desserts at ALL, but I think they were a welcome addition here. The soaking and flaming in rum gave them moistness and flavor. I think next time I would try using fresh raspberries instead, though, as some of the other TWD'ers suggested.

--recipe--
French Chocolate Brownies

makes 16 brownies
Adapted from Baking From My Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan

Ingredients
1/2 cup (65 g) all-purpose flour
1/8 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon cinnamon (optional)
1/3 cup (50 g) raisins, dark or golden
1 1/2 tablespoons water
1 1/2 tablespoons dark rum
6 ounces bittersweet chocolate, finely chopped
1 1/2 sticks (12 tablespoons; 6 ounces) unsalted butter, at room temperature and cut into 12 pieces
3 large eggs, at room temperature
1 cup (205 g) sugar

Getting ready: Center a rack in the oven and preheat the oven to 300°F. Line an 8-inch square baking pan with foil, butter the foil, place the pan on a baking sheet, and set aside. (I used buttered parchment paper as a sling instead of foil, and it worked great.)

1. Whisk together the flour, salt and cinnamon.

2. Put the raisins in a small saucepan with the water, bring to a boil over medium heat and cook until the water almost evaporates. Add the rum, let it warm for about 30 seconds, turn off the heat, stand back and ignite the rum. Allow the flames to die down, and set the raisins aside until needed.

3. Put the chocolate in a heatproof bowl and set the bowl over a saucepan of simmering water. Slowly and gently melt the chocolate, stirring occasionally. Remove the bowl from the saucepan and add the butter, stirring so that it melts. It's important that the chocolate and butter not get very hot. However, if the butter is not melting, you can put the bowl back over the still-hot water for a minute. If you've got a couple of little bits of unmelted butter, leave them — it's better to have a few bits than to overheat the whole. Set the chocolate aside for the moment.



4. Working with a stand mixer with the whisk attachment, or with a hand mixer in a large bowl, beat the eggs and sugar until they are thick and pale, about 2 minutes. Lower the mixer speed and pour in the chocolate and butter mixture, mixing only until it is incorporated — you'll have a thick, creamy batter. Add the dry ingredients and mix at low speed for about 30 seconds — the dry ingredients won't be completely incorporated, and that's fine. Finish folding in the dry ingredients by hand with a rubber spatula, then fold in the raisins along with any liquid remaining in the pan.



5. Scrape the batter into the pan and bake 50 to 60 minutes, or until the top is dry and crackled and a knife inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean. (Mine were done at 50 minutes, and I probably could have gone even less, because of my dark pan.) Transfer the pan to a rack and allow the brownies to cool to warm or room temperature (A. had a hard time waiting for them to cool... they smelled great!)



6. Carefully lift the brownies out of the pan, using the foil (parchment) edges as handles, and transfer to a cutting board. With a long-bladed knife, cut the brownies into 16 squares, each roughly 2 inches on a side, taking care not to cut through the foil.

Serving: The brownies are good just warm or at room temperature; they're even fine cold. These are great with a little something on top or alongside — good go-alongs are whipped crème fraiche or whipped cream, ice cream or chocolate sauce or even all three!

Storing: Wrapped well, these can be kept at room temperature for up to 3 days or frozen for up to 2 months.
--end of recipe--



Please visit the TWD blogroll to see how everyone else fared! I'm super busy this week so I probably won't get around to looking at everyone's blogs until later in the week, but I'm excited to see all of the brownie action!

As a side note, I am now using a spankin' new domain name: scrumptiousphotography.com! All bookmarks and feed subscriptions to the old link will still work. Got to love seamless transitions :)