Sorry that this week's newsletter is a bit tardy! I had a busy Friday and Saturday. Nirali and I had the privilege to bake for a very special party for Sarah and her husband.
I made some cheddar gougères (the ultimate easy party snack), coconut and cardamom madelines, and I sort-of recreated our finale-episode technical challenge with savory cheese scones with smoked salmon and a horseradish-dill cream, and two fresh-fruit tarts (strawberry and vanilla bean pastry cream and a raspberry/blackberry tart with lemon pastry cream). Nirali made the most stunning, luscious spiced pumpkin bundt cake, among other tasty treats.
Spoiler alert: If you haven't watched episode four of the Great British Baking Show, stop reading now!
Episode 4: Chocolate Week
Who loves chocolate?! I crave chocolate. And by that, I mean a piece of bitter dark chocolate. I always keep some dark chocolate in my desk drawer for when the craving hits. It's called my "office chocolate."
By this episode all of the bakers have settled into the tent. They’re comfortable, loosened up, and seem to be having even more fun. The goofiness has arrived!
Hot Takes
I love a chocolate torte, and this challenge was great. But flourless chocolate cakes/tortes, especially those just made with almond flour, tend to be dense and fudge-like. I don't understand why the judges took issue with fudgy tortes. They're delicious!
This might be an unpopular opinion: Leave working with chocolate to the professionals. You can temper chocolate at home, but it's annoying. (And this comment comes form someone who craves dark chocolate daily.)
Saku scarfing the raspberries is TV gold. (This was me in the tent. I snacked on any and all leftover fruit at my bench. Bakers need energy!)
I would have made a buckwheat and hazelnut chocolate torte with a cranberry or lingonberry jam.
Favorite Bakes
Christy's stunning chocolate box. White chocolate is so hard to temper, and her box was absolutely gorgeous.
Dan's chocolate box dessert sounded delicious, with all of the bright tropical flavors! Yum.
Lemon and chocolate is an under-rated flavor combination.
For Heaven's Sake
Mother Nature watches the Baking Show and plans to heat up the tent anytime the bakers have to temper chocolate (or make ice cream).
Caramelizing white chocolate in the microwave seems like a smart, time-saving move (doing it in the oven takes a long time), but this seemingly simple task caused so many problems.
I felt very meh about the technical challenge. I really don't like baked cheesecake. The blackcurrant jelly would be nice, but overall it’s definitely not something I'd make.
Prue’s outlandish outfit. It walks the line between amazing and horrific.
Orange Marmalade Brownies
For chocolate week, I went with a twist on an absolute classic. Brownies satisfy. They're rich, deeply chocolatey, sweet, but with that bitter edge of dark chocolate. Bitter is one of my favorite flavors. I find bitterness both challenging and refreshing. (How can bitter be refreshing? Think about hops in beer.) Bitter chocolate balances out the richness and sweetness of brownies so perfectly. Chocolate is the prime example of a bitter-sweet balance, but classic British marmalade is another.
Here in America, orange marmalade typically contains sweet oranges, creating a rather sickly sweet preserve. Proper British marmalade, on the other hand, is made with bitter Seville oranges, and their bitterness balances the sweetness giving you a bracing, assertive preserve. Every winter, I splurge and order Seville oranges from California to make my own marmalade, and it's one of my favorite mid-winter activities. My homemade Seville orange marmalade reigns as one of best things to slather on buttered toast.
Orange and chocolate isn't a as common of a flavor combination here in the States, but the British love it. And so do I! (I adore Jaffa Cakes.)
Makes one 9-inch square pan of brownies, or about 16 small brownies.
200 g (1 cup) sugar
Zest of 1 large navel orange
113 g (1/2 cup) unsalted butter
2 large eggs
56 g (2/3 cup) Dutch-process cocoa powder
1/2 teaspoon fine sea salt
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
6-7 dashes orange bitters or 1/2 teaspoon orange extract (optional, but really boosts the orange flavor)
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
90 g (3/4 cups) all-purpose flour
50 g (about 1/3 cup) candied orange peel, finely diced
85 g (1/2 cup) semi-sweet chocolate chips or chopped dark chocolate
100 g (about 1/3 cup) Seville orange marmalade (proper bitter British marmalade)
40 g (1/4 cup) slivered or sliced almonds, optional
Heat the oven to 350F with a rack in the center. Lightly butter a 9-inch square metal baking pan and line it with parchment paper.
Add the sugar and orange zest to a small saucepan rub the zest into the sugar with your fingers until the sugar looks moist and smells orangey. Add the butter and put the pan over medium heat, stirring until the butter is totally melted and the mixture looks shiny. Turn off the heat.
In a medium-sized mixing bowl, add the eggs, cocoa powder, salt, baking powder, orange bitters or orange extract, and vanilla extract. Using a wooden spoon, stir the mixture until well combined and smooth. It will be thick. Add the melted butter mixture to the cocoa mixture and stir to combine. It will become glossy and runny. Add the flour, candied orange peel, chocolate chips, and stir to combine. Scrape the batter into the baking pan, and smooth out the top. Dollop the orange marmalade in 1/2 teaspoon-sized dollops all over the brownies. Sprinkle with almonds.
Bake the brownies at 350F for 27 to 30 minutes. Ok, it's hard to tell when brownies are totally done. You can't go by color. If a toothpick comes out clean, they're probably overdone. They should look puffed and shiny, and they shouldn’t jiggle when you shake the pan.
Let the brownies cool completely. For the cleanest and easiest cutting, put the room-temperature brownies (still in the pan) into the refrigerator for at least 2 hours. Then remove them from the pan, place them on a cutting board, and slice with a large chef’s knife. These brownies are rich, so I like to cut these into small pieces. Let them come to room temperature before serving. These last, covered in the refrigerator, for 3 days after making.
Happy Baking,
Martin