En français ici
I love a good brownie but let's face it, they're calorie bombs, especially the good ones.
Brownies made their appearance in France about twenty years ago, in the form of supermarket-sold, individually-wrapped pieces of crap. Then recipes sprouted everywhere in magazines and books. My first brownie recipe, still usable and good, came from my then favourite teeny mag, 20 ANS, then a schoolfriend (male) teased me with his butter-laden and quite authentic recipe -also good, but I won't tell you what I had to do to get it (joking). Then many moons later, I discovered Nigella's, and (sorry Nigella) lately, Nigel Slater's unbeatable 24-carat, very good brownie recipe.
For brownies, like for cookies, every cook has their own recipe. Try every forum and launch a thread about them, you'll end up with as many suggestions as there are posts. Some include chocolate, some just plain cocoa, some both, most recipes are indulgent and buttery, one may add nuts or not. Another debate is fudgey or not?
Well, I'll leave that to the experts....
These days, I'm trying to be good, but the baking itch took over so I ended up searching the www for hours trying to find a suitable low-fat version and stumbled upon this. The picture said it all, I had to try them. So I had to make my own prune purée, then fumbled to find an adequate sub for maple syrup, as my supply was very low. So in went golden syrup diluted in much hot water (maple syrup is way less sugary and thick than GS). I used semi-wholewheat flour instead of part wholewheat and white flour, light brown sugar for plain brown, and a bit more chips than the recipe called for (ah, but no nuts). Phew. Then, as I stirred the ready-to-bake mix, I realized there were no eggs in it. I double-checked, but (bear with me), not only is it dairy-free, it's also egg-free (or do eggs fall under the dairy category ?-forget my non-native speaker ignorance). So yes, it's a vegan brownie. I had my doubts, but it turned out really interesting, "sticky," was my boyfriend's verdict, but "good" nonetheless. That was before their sojourn in the fridge. Afterwards, they became dense and crumbly. On its own, a piece has a strange taste, that must be the taste of the absence of eggs and butter, but dunk it in hot chocolate or eat it with a scoop of gelato and all his forgotten, you end up with dense cocoaness, melt-in-the-mouth goodness.
I won't copy the recipe, it's here for all to read. I will write it in French though...
Comments
Me voilà de retour sur ton site, en forme, et, comment dire, euh, ouais. Mon amie, tout a commencé le 13 juillet dernier quand, à bord de mon camping-car Rapido( oui, je sais), j'ai pris deux jeunes femmes en stop sur l'A6, direction St tropez (ah oui! Je t'imagine, la bave aux lèvres: eh oui, mon Koba, il a pas peur, le scar-la, direct y va à St Trop! Bon calme-toi, por favor, et attends la suite). donc, pause sur l'autoroute, je leur offre un café chez Crocade-je sais, je sais, tu connais une personne âgée qui y va aussi, mais bon, hein -Juste un café, mon amie, car je n'ai pas braqué tous les Shopi de Normandie pour gaspiller cette bonne maille pour deux, euh, amies, pas vrai?
Mais, alors que je suis en train de sucer mon morceau de sucre et qu'il dégouline le long de mon bridge, j'apprends qu'elles se rendent sur un spot lesbien de la côte d'azur. Imagine, mon amie, moi qui pensais enfin réaliser mon fantasme de dormir au côté de deux (2) filles sur la banquette recouverte de fourrure mauve de mon camping car manouche, me voilà pris de dysentrie soudaine. Bon, je les laisse en plan, non sans avoir réglé l'addition en roubles (eh!) et leur avoir signé un autographe (car elles ont cru que j'étais Phil Barney et j'ai même du leur chanter "un enfant de toi"), je suis donc reparti. Bon, je te laisse soufler: 1,2,3, c'est ti-par! Mon Koba en route vers la grande bleue, Mephisto tunées aux pieds, t-shirt Che Guevara (car celui de Bruce Lee était sale), je fonce sur l'asphalte. Bon, je te laisse, je mixe ce soir à la soirée Michèle Torr à la MJC. Je te raconterai la suite demain mon amie seule et unique. Bien à toi.
Will catch up with your blog now - I'm so glad you have English too!!
xx
ILY
XXX