This is my first Heavenly Cake Baker challenge. The choice for this week is Barcelona Brownie Bars on page 367 of Rose Levy Beranbaum's new book "Heavenly Cakes". They are in the oven right now as I am typing this.
The brownies were a breeze to make, you could make them by hand if you don't have a mixer. For the chocolate I used Valrhona Caraibe which is a 66% chocolate. For the pinch of salt I used Fleur de Sel a French sea salt that I love. To add the cream cheese I took a small amount of the batter and mixed it into the cream cheese then returned the mixture to the remaining batter. This helps to incorporate the cream cheese better into the batter.
I did not have a financier mold, (go figure a pastry chef without a financier mold), but I did have that nifty Wilton brownie silicone mold. I bought that mold to use for other dessert preperations but it came in handy for this challenge. I used a mini muffin pan for the extra batter. The mini muffin pan baked the brownies in exactly 15 minutes but the silicone mold took 17 minutes.
I did put the ganache plugs in after baking which was optional but I thought it was a good idea.
The brownies are moist and delicious!!! Lots of chocolate flavor!!!
The recipe made 34 pieces of chocolate, pecan heaven. Thanks Rose for another great recipe!!
Oh my goodness. These look so beautiful. I think this is exactly how these brownies want to be made.
ReplyDeleteI was busy with a wedding cake this weekend, but I might make the bbs today... better late than never, right? Love your post, and thanks for the info on the mini muffin pan. I haven't received my Financier pan yet.
ReplyDeleteYour brownies turned out great. I can only imagine how extra-delicious they'd be with the ganache plug. Will have to put these on my Rewind list (I'm still in the middle of my kitchen remodeling project, so no baking for me yet).
ReplyDeleteOoh, I love those big, pretty ganache plugs! Mine were all small and messy so I covered the whole thing with ganache.
ReplyDeleteYour hint about mixing a bit of the batter into the cream cheese is great! It was difficult to do it the other way.
guess who went looking for a financier mold today? and guess again who is making brownies?
ReplyDeletehaven't heard from u in a while - hope ur new job is keeping u happy and busy. xo
Your brownies look really good. Baking the leftover batter in the mini muffin pan was a good idea, you got variety in terms of shape.
ReplyDeleteOh, I am so happy to have your expertise nearby, and enjoy the beauty of your creations. They always seem so absolutely delectable!
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDelete