Finally, here is my dessert course for the Tabasco #FunWithFlavour challenge! As you know, I am not the best at baking (a little out of practice, as I usually focus on savoury dishes). So for my Tabasco dessert recipe, I adapted a standard chocolate brownie recipe from the BBC Good Food website, and they turned out a treat!
The recipe takes about 1 hour in total, and makes 16 squares of brownie. You’ll also need a brownie tin, approx. 20cm by 20cm works best.
What you need:
- 185g unsalted butter (room temperature)
- 185g best quality dark chocolate
- 85g plain flour
- 40g cocoa powder
- 100g milk chocolate, chopped into small chunks (for chocolate chips)
- 4 tsp Tabasco Chipotle
- 1 tsp cinnamon
- 3 large eggs
- 275g golden caster sugar
What to do:
- Cut 185g unsalted butter into small cubes and tip into a medium bowl. Break the 185g of best quality dark chocolate into small pieces and add to the same bowl. Fill a small saucepan about a quarter full with hot water, then sit the bowl on top so it rests on the rim of the pan, not touching the water. Put over a low heat until the butter and chocolate have melted, stirring occasionally to mix. Once melted and combined, remove the bowl from the pan and leave the mixture to cool to room temperature.
- While you wait for the chocolate to cool, position a shelf in the middle of the oven and turn on to 160C Fan, 180C conventional or Gas mark 4. Coat your 20cm square tin with butter and add a some flour – tapping the tin and turning it on each side until the inside of the pan is completely coated in a very thin layer of butter then flour (this will help prevent the brownies sticking). Alternatively you could line the pan with greaseproof paper.
- Next, sieve 85g plain flour, 40g cocoa powder and the 1 tsp cinnamon into a medium bowl (to get rid of any lumps).
- Break 3 large eggs and 275g golden caster sugar into a large mixing bowl. With an electric mixer on maximum speed, whisk the eggs and sugar until they look thick and creamy, like a milk shake. This can take 5-8 minutes, depending on how powerful your mixer is. You’ll know it’s ready when the mixture becomes really pale and about double its original volume.
- Pour the cooled chocolate mixture from earlier over the eggy mousse, then gently fold together with a rubber spatula. Continue folding in a ‘figure of eight’ motion, moving the bowl round after each fold, until the two mixtures are one. The idea is to marry them without knocking out the air, so be as gentle and slow as you like – you don’t want to undo all the work you did in step 4.
- Hold the sieve over the bowl of eggy chocolate mixture and resift the cocoa/flour/cinnamon mixture in, shaking the sieve from side to side to cover the top evenly. Add the 4 tsp of Tabasco Chipotle sauce. Gently fold in the sieved powder using the same ‘figure of eight’ action as before. The mixture will look dry and dusty at first, but if you keep going gently and patiently, it will end up looking gungy and fudgy. Stop just before you feel you should, as you don’t want to overdo the mixing.
- Stir in the milk chocolate chunks until they’re dotted throughout.
- Pour all of the mixture into the prepared tin, ensuring it is level. Place in the oven for 25 minutes. When the timer goes off, open the oven, pull the shelf out a bit and gently shake the tin. If the brownie wobbles in the middle, it’s not quite done, so slide it back in and bake for another 5 minutes until the top has a shiny, papery crust and the sides are just beginning to come away from the tin. Take out of the oven.
- Leave the whole thing in the tin until completely cold. Remove from the tin using a knife to gently ease it away from the edges. Cut into quarters, then cut each quarter into four squares.
- These brownies will keep in an airtight container for a good two weeks and in the freezer for up to a month.
