Walnut and Macadamia Brownies

In the past week I've used 1kg sugar, 600g chocolate and 450g margarine in pursuit of the perfect vegan brownie.

In the past few years I've eaten various attempts at brownies by restaurants / cafes and only been impressed by one - Herbies in Exeter. They were kind enough to give me their recipe, however when I eventually tried it I found it to not work at all :(

They suggested they be cooked at 300^oC, which when I tried at my oven's max (260^oC) they burnt within minutes.

More interesting than the recipe itself is the technique - to take them out of the oven half way and knock the air out by banging a counter. I've not found reference to any other recipes using this technique through Google. If makes sense though - allow the mixture to rise creating texture but then knock the air out.

There seem to be many recipes online for what is essentially badly cooked cake mixture - not my idea of brownie! I've lost count of the number of forum posts I've read where people have claimed to have discovered brownie when their chocolate cake attempt went badly wrong.

To me a brownie should be crisp on the outside, cakey towards the egde then fudge (boarding upon gooey) in the centre. Not 'fudgy' - why make it fudge like when you can make real fudge?

The recipe I've created is essentially fudge (sugar + fat + chocolate) with enough flour and raising agent to separate out and form cake at the edges. I used Herbie's slamming technique, but increased the cooking time, lowered the temperature and added 2 slams.

I'm really pleased with the result - it excludes ingredients not generally found in British kitchens (egg replacer, specialist flours etc) and is simple to make. I used macadamias and walnuts, but any nuts can be used. I would recommend that you do use some form of nut though - my final test omitted them (for cost) and it didn't cook as well.

One important thing to note: these brownies improve with age. When you take them out of the oven the very centre will appear to be too gooey. Only when they've fully cooled (several hours later) will they have reached the right consistency. The first time I made them I thought the recipe was a failure - it wasn't until I tried them again a day later that I realised they were near perfect.

If you use a different size pan to me (e.g. they're thicker or thinner) then you'll need to play with the cooking time.

Wet Ingredients: 300g Soft Brown Sugar 50g Caster Sugar 150g Soya Margarine 1 tsp Vanilla Extract 120ml Soya Milk

Dry Ingredients: 125g Wholemeal Flour 40g Cocoa Powder 1/4 tsp Salt 2 tsp Baking Powder

Other Ingredients: 140g Chocolate 75g Walnuts 75g Macadamia Nuts

Start by melting the wet ingredients together in a pan over a low heat. Use a whisk to ensure they're fully combined and the sugar dissolved. Be careful not to overheat or take the mixture to the boil - it'll change the consistency if you do (e.g. you'll make toffee):

Leave to cool - if it's too warm when you add it to the dry ingredients then it'll melt the chocolate and again change the end consistency.

Mix the dry ingredients, then thoroughly combine in the wet:

Chop the chocolate into chunks if not using chips. Chop or break the walnuts. Chop the macadamias if whole. Add to the mixture and stir briefly:

Line an 11x7 inch pan with silicone sheet or baking paper, fill and even out with a spatula:

Place in a 200^oC (180^o fan) oven for 10 minutes, then remove and bang down on the top of the cooker. If it's risen at all you should see it deflate. Return to the oven for a further 10 minutes. Remove and bang again, then place back in the oven for its final 10 - it should have 30 minutes in total.

Finally remove from the oven, bang for a third time and place the tin in an ice water bath to stop the cooking (a larger pan with ice cubes and water will do the trick - just make sure the water doesn't go over the sides!).

Leave in the pan for a few minutes, then lift out:

Leave to cool for a few hours, then slice into 12, remove from the silicone/paper and leave to cool completely - overnight is best. If you don't you'll find it quite gooey in the centre (a good thing?).

I'll experiment with using the brownie in other recipes (ice cream, sundaes, cheesecake etc), but it's incredibly moreish on its own (I've eaten a lot of this stuff this week!). Today we enjoyed some with mint tea:

Something I don't make nearly often enough - handful of mint steeped in water with sugar. It's so much better than tea from bags!

Pistachio Macadamia White Chocolate Truffles

It is with great pleasure that I bring to you the best vegan truffles I've ever tasted.

I spent years trying to make white chocolate. Tracking down food grade cocoa butter in the UK was hard enough and eventually involved pretending to run a chocolatiers, setting up an account with a commercial supplier and paying the small order fee of £25. When I had the ingredients I made quite a few of what can best be described (and were subsequently used as) deliciously tasting massage bars - not chocolate.

Organica was a major let down for me. Some people love it, but it's not a great substitute IMHO. The dairy free white buttons that have surfaced recently however are awesome.

I've made several things with them so far and a few nights ago attempted a cashew cream ganache for another recipe I'm working on. It sort of worked, but wasn't as good as I hoped. I decided last night on the way home from work to try making macadamia cream instead, something I've not heard of before but hoped would work better.

As such I ended up making macadamia ganache which worked extremely well. I wanted to add another dimension - a bit of crunch, crack and complimentary flavour. Thus they got rolled in dark chocolate then lightly toasted, chopped pistachios.

Ingredients:

• 75g White Chocolate Buttons
• 75g Macadamia Nuts
• 100ml Water
• 75g Dark Chocolate
• 50g Pistachio Nuts

Soak the macadamia nuts overnight in water. This will make them softer and easier to blend. I should mention that this is a wasteful recipe - I needed to use at least this quantity for my my mini food processor to work properly. It does mean however that you can use this amount of macadamia cream to make more truffles.

Blend the drained macadamias with 100ml of water in a mini food processor until you have a mixture that looks a lot like cottage cheese. Transfer to another container and use an immersion blender to get it as smooth as possible.

Strain the mixture through a sieve to remove the larger pieces. Discard the nuts that do not pass through the sieve or find another use for. You should now have a mixture looking like the bellow, which has only fine grit left in it:

Melt 75g white chocolate gently in a microwave (4 mins at 50% in my 850w, stiring halfway through). Mix 25g of the macadamia cream with it and place in the freezer for several minutes, then move to the fridge.

Finely chop the pistachio nuts (rocking a large, sharp chef's knife back and forth over them is much quicker and far safer than using a small knife) and toast for 30 seconds under a hot grill on a baking sheet.

When the ganache has firmed up divide it into 7 or 8 spoonfulls. Roll each in your hands into smooth balls. You find that washing your hands in very cold water first (and drying) helps keep them cool and the surface smooth.

Place the balls in the fridge to firm up. Melt the dark chocolate and if you know how/can be arsed (I couldn't) temper the chocolate after. Tempering will help the chocolate set quicker and give a pleasing crack when bitten into. It also gives chocolate its shine, however as we're coating it this won't be appreciated.

Dip each ball in the melted chocolate and roll in the pistachios. Truffle dipping forks like the one in the photo cost less than a quid in cookware shops and are very useful, but you can use a fork if you've not got one yet (hint hint).

Ensure that you get the balls fully coated in chocolate and that you let excess drain away before coating. After rolling you may find that sprinkling extra pistachio on the surface and pushing gently helps get a full coat.

So many ideas to try and so little time. I am genuinely extremely pleased with how these turned out however and will certainly be making a larger batch next time.