Best Chocolate Brownie Recipes

Part 1 - Cocoa Brownies

We like to think we have a pretty refined and difficult to beat chocolate based brownie recipe. Yesterday, we experimented to find a cocoa brownie to rival it's more extravagant sibling! The results... let's just say the proof is in the pudding and there aren't many left!

Chewy, dense brownie with a good crust - makes 12 good sized brownies

Used to using 70% callebaut chocolate, we wondered whether we would achieve the same richness using cocoa. Not only is the result rich, but it has a really lovely texture. There are a few caveats, you need to buy the best cocoa powder, we used Green and Blacks, and we added hazlenuts to add some crunch to the texture. The recipe has a good pinch of Maldon Sea Salt - this made the result deliciously moreish.

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The recipe is based on a recipe from Seriously Bitter Sweet by Alice Medrich.

First of all set up a double boiler, and melt the butter. Then add cocoa, salt and sugar. We found that the mixture at this point looked a little grainy. Don't worry - it sorts itself out.

You can see the mix looks grainy half way through the recipe....

Beat in the eggs one by one, and stir until the mixture looks smooth and glossy. Then mix in flour. The recipe says to beat with 50 strokes - we think this helps keep the mix light. Then throw in a handful of nuts.

...and now glossy and smooth

Then tip into a 8" square tin and bake at 170 degrees C, until set. Mix should be slightly wet still.

Ingredients

140g unsalted butter
250g caster sugar
80g Green and Blacks cocoa
1/4 tsp Maldon Sea Salt
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
2 cold large eggs
65g plain flour
65g pecans or hazlenuts

A celebration of taste

I wanted to write a blog about the brilliance of taste. At the moment one half of Pickle (Sarah) is stuck at home on painkillers for a sore back. The biggest side effect is that I can't taste anything....

I first realised when I treated myself to a Lindt chocolate and couldn't taste the chocolate - horror! I decided to have a strong coffee, and again nothing, although I could sense it was bitter. Over supper I mentioned it to my husband and he said that as I could sense salty vs sweet etc, that it was my sense of smell that wasn't working not my taste buds!

Interesting, I thought and promptly shoved a load of Vicks up my nose - nothing!

It is amazing how important actually tasting your food is, toast & marmite with out taste is like chomping on cardboard (don't even get me started on hob-nobs), chocolate and ice cream is pointless, and to be honest I can only actually be bothered to eat when my tummy starts to protest! I think I might have spotted a new diet opportunity, take away people's sense of taste - that'll slow the snackers out there down!

I have been totally taking taste for granted. The things I cannot wait to taste again are the simple things:

Toast & marmite; coffee; bacon; bananas; spices

It is a good job I am out of the kitchen for the moment, as I would be doing dreadful things to food! I can't want to get my taste back again, make sure you savour every mouthful!

Pickle feeds The Saracens Rugby boys

What better way to start the day than hanging out with a bunch of beefy rugby lads!  This week the Pickle chefs were asked to provide breakfast for The Saracens rugby team to celebrate their link up with one of our regular clients, CME Group.

I didn't know camels liked smoked salmon

An early start was required to get the breakfast for 100 guests ready in time for the 9am start and in between ogling the rather tall and athletic rugby players we served up bacon and eggs sandwiches, blueberry and pumpkin seed muffins and smoked salmon bagels.  

Everything was devoured by the hungry hoards before the staff at CME enjoyed some speeches from the team. The Pickle chefs and waitresses even managed to take some time out to bond with the team mascot, Sarrie the Camel.  It took us a while to realise he was a camel.....

Here comes the Sun.....

It may be grey, wet and windy outside, but the Pickle chefs have been feeling distinctly summery this week.  This is thanks, in no small part, to catering at the Amazon summer press event held on Wednesday at the Vinyl Factory near Soho.

Loving the ball pit! Is that for adults too?

With no kitchen to speak of at the venue, or indeed access to running water, the event did provide some logistical challenges for us.  But here at Pickle we love being kept on our toes and the excellent team of chefs and waiting staff managed to successfully feed and water over 200 journalists and 60 staff.

Lamb and mango burgers, A mouthful of summer!

The Pickle chefs provided canapés throughout the day and evening to match the summer theme; strawberry tartlets, pavlovas with cream and raspberries, sticky orange and pomegranate cake, griddled courgettes with lemon ricotta and slow roasted tomatoes and everybody's favourite, mini lamb and mango burgers with caramelised onions and rocket - yummy yummy.  It got us dreaming about the sun on our faces and exchanging the big winter boots for sandals, bliss!

New year, new recipes and new menus

January is a tricky time for inspiring ingredients, and here at Pickle we are putting lots of energy into our new menus, using as many seasonal ingredients as possible. Seville and blood oranges, curly kale, sea bass and clams all feature heavily.

One of our favourites this week has been 'Winter pavlova with blood oranges, pomegranate seeds, Grand Marnier cream and toasted almonds'. It is such a pretty dessert and really simple to create. We especially love it as it uses up all our leftover egg whites.

Please see our menus for all the other dishes we have been cooking:

and in the meantime here is the pavlova recipe...

Recipe for 6 people

3 egg whites
150g caster sugar
150ml double cream
1/2 tsp white wine vinegar
1 tsp cornflower 
2 tbsp Grand Marnier (optional)
1 tbsp icing sugar
50g pomegranate seeds
2 blood oranges
A scattering of toasted flaked almonds
Icing sugar for dredging

Heat oven to 140 degrees C. Line a baking sheet with greaseproof paper.

Beat eggs until stiff, add sugar 1/3 at a time. Once stiff, add white wine vinegar and cornflower and beat briefly.
Pipe or splodge 6 baskets on to the greaseproof paper, and cook for 1 1/2 hours. Meringues are ready when they easily peel off the paper and are dry and hollow sounding when you tap underside.
Allow to cool.
Beat cream, once soft peaks, add Grand Marnier and icing sugar.
Toast almonds in a frying pan - be careful will burn quickly.
Cut peel from orange and cut segments, they should be pith and pip free.

To serve: Dollop cream onto meringue basket, arrange orange segments, scatter with pomegranate seeds and almonds. Dredge with icing sugar

This week we have been mostly cooking...

Fish, fish and more fish.  Sometimes we have weeks where it seems that every client is having the same thoughts when selecting their menus.  This week was one of those and the ingredient in question was fish.  We've whipped up delicious Morrocan fish cakes with pickled cucumber and a spicy red pepper relish, scrummy smoked trout salad with quails eggs and peashoot and finally seared loin of cod with salsa verde - yummy yummy yummy.  Charlie in particular likes weeks like this as the more fish the better!

Figs, figs and more figs

Here at Pickle we recently had a glut of figs... what to do? We jammed, we relished and we pickled! For a quick simple starter we quartered the figs to half way down from the top, wedged in some goats' cheese, drizzled with balsamic vinegar, olive oil and salt and pepper. Roasted for 10 mins and served with walnut bread. Delicious!