Never gonna give you up
Never gonna let you down
Never gonna run around and desert you
Never gonna make you cry
Never gonna say goodbye
Never gonna tell a lie and hurt you
— Never Gonna Give You Up, Rick Astley.

Damn brownies!

Every time I think I’m over brownies (too rich, too chocolate, too over the top..) I suddenly discover new reasons to love them again. If it’s not the depressing weather (rain and more rain) or an exhausting new job that makes you feel like you need a pick-me-up, the brownie is always there, waiting to lift you up like a schmaltzy Rick Astley song.

Then, every time I think I’ve finally found my ultimate brownie recipe, I stumble across one that is amazing enough to warrant a little bit of trumpeting to the world at large.

This one by Alice Medrich, is my Rick Astley brownie. It also happens to feature a little extra something I have been using a lot of lately : cacao (or cocoa) nibs. These nibs are actually the beans from the cacao plant which have been roasted and lightly crushed. They have a beautiful bittersweet flavour and a texture reminiscent of coffee beans, and are fabulous added to biscuits and brownies especially due to the crunch factor. The nibs can also be used to infuse a milk for a pannacotta, or a custard to make ice-cream. In fact, you could sprinkle them onto almost anything, for a bit of a sugar-free cocoa hit.

As for the brownies? Well, they are definitely on my list of greatest hits because they are meltingly moist inside, with a crisp shell on top that stayed crisp even a few days after the brownie was baked.

Cacao nibs and bittersweet brownies are my contribution to this week’s WHB, hosted by Maninas of Food Matters.

Nibby Bittersweet Brownies :
(from Pure Dessert, by Alice Medrich)

226g 70% bittersweet chocolate, coarsely chopped
90g unsalted butter, cut into several pieces
3 large eggs
225g sugar
scant 1/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
34g plain flour
3 tablespoons cacao nibs

Position a rack in the lower third of the oven and preheat the oven to 176’C. Line the bottom and sides of an 8-inch square baking pan with baking paper. [I usually line with excess paper rising at least 2cm above the top of the pan. This will help you ease and lift the cooked brownie out of the pan]

Place the chocolate and butter in a heatproof bowl and set in a wide skillet of almost-simmering water. Stir frequently until the mixture is melted and smooth and quite warm. Remove from the pan and set aside.

In a medium bowl, beat the eggs, sugar, salt and vanilla with a hand-held mixer on high speed until the eggs are thick and light coloured, about 2 minutes. Whisk in the warm chocolate. Fold in the flour. Stir in two tablespoons of the cacao nibs.

Scrape the batter into the lined pan and spread evenly. Sprinkle the remaining tablespoon of cacao nibs over the batter. Bake until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean, 25 to 30 minutes. Cool in the pan on a rack.

Invert the brownies on a rack and peel off the paper. Turn right side up on a cutting board and cut into sixteen 2-inch squares. [Gripping the excess paper, I lifted the brownie out of the tin, rather than invert it, because I didn’t want to ruin any of the beautiful crust that had formed on top of the brownie]

“Steingarten is perhaps one of only a handful of food critics who routinely takes a gun when he goes for a pizza. The gun is a non-contact thermometer and it tells him the heat of the oven: the crucial factor, he believes, in the success of the pizza base. As we leave the dumpling restaurant he has it cradled under his arm. And this gun, he explains, is not his only weapon in his fight for American taste. He also packs an instrument that allows him to measure the amount of sugar in a liquid. This has been his key strategic tool in a concerted two-year campaign to find the perfect peach.”
— Tim Adams on Jeffrey Steingarten, in Eating in America.

Well, I missed out on Srivalli’s Dosa Mela, but was very keen to participate in the Roti Mela, because I love all kinds of Indian flatbread. That said, I don’t usually make Naan at home because the result is never as authentic as the stuff that comes out of a tandoor oven.

I came across this recipe recently, after making a batch of chicken curry, and because the time and the ingredients were ready at hand, I decided to give it a go. The authors of the Cinnamon Club Cookbook have proudly endorsed their new way of making naan, and while it’s ingredients and method are by no means truly authentic, I’ve found the end result to be a nice big step in the right direction.

While making this recipe, I was also reminded of Jeffrey Steingarten’s attempt at making authentic pizza in his home. He did this by trying to rig his oven to reach higher temperatures than a normal domestic oven would. I didn’t exactly do this (because if my oven broke down due to mishandling, I couldn’t exactly ask American Vogue to replace it for me), but I did employ a few tricks I learned from reading Steingarten’s article on making pizza. The first thing to do was to turn the oven up to it’s maximum setting, and then also have the top grill on, so that it will give you the nice brown patches on your bread. I preheated a Matfer tray, which is a thick, heavy duty, black steel baking sheet that absorbs and retains heat very well. It gets hot enough such that the bread dough doesn’t stick to it while cooking, and pockets of air rise up almost immediately when the dough is placed on the tray to cook (which was fun to watch, I’ll have to say!). The dough cooked fairly quickly this way and there was no need to turn it.

A few other things to note, if you’re thinking of trying this recipe. I found the sugar to be irrelevant – in fact, it makes the bread a little less savoury than it should be, so either reduce it, or omit it altogether. Before baking the bread, I sprinkled some sesame seeds which I thought were a nice addition, and once the bread comes out of the oven, you can also brush a bit of butter over the top. Next time I make this, I’m also going to try replacing some of the egg with plain yogurt.

Naan Bread :
(makes 16; from The Cinnamon Club Cookbook by Iqbal Wahhab and Vivek Singh)

750g plain flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 tablespoon salt
400ml whole milk
2 eggs
3 tablespoons caster sugar
3 tablespoons vegetable oil

Mix the flour, baking powder and salt together in a bowl. Whisk together the milk, eggs and sugar, then add this mixture to the flour and knead lightly to make a soft dough (take care not to overwork the dough or it will become too stretchy). Cover with a damp cloth and leave to rest for 15 minutes.

Pour the oil over the dough and turn it a few times so it is evenly coated. Divide the dough into 16 pieces, roll out each one into a circle about 9cm in diameter, then gently stretch out one side to form the traditional teardrop shape.

Preheat the oven to 220’C, placing a baking tray in it to heat up. Place the naan breads on the hot tray and bake for 4-5 minutes, until they are starting to brown in patches. You might need to turn the bread to colour both sides.

There is a house built out of stone
Wooden floors, walls and window sills…
Tables and chairs worn by all of the dust…
This is a place where I don’t feel alone
This is a place where I feel at home…
— To build a home, The Cinematic Orchestra.

Whoosh. The sound of choux pastry in the oven, rising from zero to hero.

Hsoohw. The sound of the shrinking number of posts on this blog. Is that a collective sigh of relief I can hear? No more peppering you each day with the silly little things I have been madly churning out from my little kitchen at home. No, I haven’t actually grown tired and bored of baking. On the contrary, I’m going to miss it. But unfortunately, all good things have to come to an end, or in this case, slow down considerably.

I can’t believe how much time has passed since I resigned and then eventually left my last job. At first, it was hard to submit myself to being on Holiday Mode. I quite liked keeping busy in that way, but eventually I got the hang of my hiatus from working life, and started pulling various baking books off the shelves and bookmarking things I’d always wanted to try. Of all the many things I’ve been making and tasting, one of the greatest and most memorable discoveries have actually been, believe it or not, these simple but incredibly moreish cookies by Claudia Fleming.

But like I said earlier, such things which I’m going to have less time for, do eventually have to come to an end. Next week, I start a new job at this restaurant, and I’m incredibly excited because it’s one of my favourite restaurants in Sydney. Realistically, it’s going to be a return to the long hours, double shifts and everything else that restaurant work entails, but I’m also looking forward to it being as big and as useful a learning experience as it was working with the amazing, wonderful and ultimately rather crazy Andy.

(Sorry Mir, it looks like I won’t be able to meet you in London afterall! :/ )

In the meantime, I still have a few more things that I made recently, that I’d like to share with you. Don’t know about you, but I don’t think I’ve ever met a gougere I didn’t like. These cheesy “puffs of air” as David Everitt-Matthias dubs them, are no different, and I’m contributing these gougeres to HHDD #20, hosted by Suzana of Home Gourmets.

Gougeres :
(makes 30-40; from Essence, by David Everitt-Matthias)

100ml milk
50g unsalted butter, diced
100ml water
125g plain flour
3 eggs
85g Gruyere cheese, finely grated
85g aged Parmesan cheese, finely grated

Put the milk, butter and water in a heavy-based saucepan and bring to a rolling boil. Pull the pan to the side of the stove and tip in the flour, beating all the time with a wooden spoon. Place back on the stove over a medium heat and beat vigorously until the mixture is shiny and leaves the side of the pan. Continue to beat over a low heat for 1-2 minutes to dry out the mixture a little.

Transfer the mixture to a freestanding mixer, and using the K paddle, beat for 2 minutes to cool it down slightly.

Meanwhile, crack the eggs and whisk lightly to break them up. Add them to the dough a little at a time, fully incorporating them before the next lot is added. The mixture should be smooth, shiny and fairly firm; you might not need quite all the egg. Stir in the cheese and add some salt and pepper.

Transfer the mixture to a piping bag with a 1.5cm nozzle and pipe it in mounds of 3x3cm on a baking tray lined with baking parchment, allowing a 4cm gap between each one. Place in an oven preheated to 180’C and bake for 15-20 minutes, until well risen and a rich golden brown. Allow to cool slightly, then serve.