Brownie Points

Campers, I am so glad to be here! I half expected to be struck down by lightning after yesterday's posting, in which I had the temerity to offer readers a new and improved version of one of Eric Ripert's sacred recipes. Fortune smiles on the brave and foolish, however, so I am pleased to report I am still a going concern despite my presumptuousness.

Followers of my latest story arc will recall that, while frantically attempting to produce an acceptable Caramelized White Chocolate Panna Cotta, I became convinced that I would have no dessert to serve my dinner guests and, in  desperation, embarked on The Backup Plan.

What was The Backup Plan, you ask?

I used my large mixing bowl, electric handmixer, and a roll of silicon parchment (immortalized in a previous post) together with an heretofore unrecognized and anonymous square baking pan to make gluten-free chocolate chestnut brownies. The recipe came from the excellent people at Dowd and Rogers, whose chestnut flour and lemon cake mix I so admire.

Of course, given the sort of morning I was having, disaster followed disaster. I didn't have the right size baking pan so I used a smaller one than that required by the recipe. Needless to say, the batter ended up all over the bottom of my precious Wolf oven (I subsequently halved the recipe and baked it in a square pan, which worked a treat). The recipe called for a 35-minute cooking time, which was inexplicable: when I pulled my first batch out and cut them an hour later, they were revealed to be almost totally raw in the middle. Another batch was baked for 55 minutes and emerged with the appropriate degree of chewy gooeyness. Finally, I did not have sufficient chocolate on hand to make up the required two ounces and was forced to break into the Kid Squid's Christmas stash - hence there was some milk chocolate together with the bittersweet in the final mix and quite delicious it was, too.

When I finally got everything right (recipe below) after two batches I was rewarded with delightfully soft brownies characterized by a complex, somewhat smoky flavour. Rather more adult, I would venture to say, than the usual sticky-sweet confection. I served them as a second dessert course and everybody loved them. They were excellent the next day, too, heated for a few seconds in the microwave.

Gluten-Free Chocolate Chestnut Brownies

• one-quarter pound (1 stick) unsalted butter
• 2 oz chocolate (I used 1 oz milk and 1 oz bittersweet)
• 2 eggs
• 1 cup granulated sugar
• 1/3 cup sifted D&R chestnut flour
• 1/4 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/3 cup of whatever nuts or bits you like in your brownies (we prefer ours au naturel, but I could see the merit in some finely-chopped marrons glaces - or maybe even some dates or figs)

Preheat the oven to 350 deg F. Butter an 8"x8" baking pan and line the bottom with silicon parchment - butter that, too. Put the butter and chocolate in a microwaveable bowl and zap them, stopping and stirring every 30 seconds or so, until they're smooth and melted. Set them aside to cool.

Beat the eggs and sugar together in a separate bowl until they are thick and pale. Beat in the vanilla. Fold in the cool chocolate mixture.

Sift together the flour and baking powder and fold them into the egg/chocolate mixture. Fold in any other bits.

Pour into the prepared pan and bake for 55 minutes (the D&D recipe says 35, but this was totally inadequate in my oven. I know you are supposed to be wary of overbaking brownies, but there is a limit as to how raw they can be, am I right?) Anyway, when they are as done as you like them to be, allow the pan to sit on a cooling rack for 30 minutes before turning them out and cutting into squares.