Yet another Flavor Bible inspired recipe, brownies are really really easy to make. The only contentious issue is the final texture desired, I like mine soft & squidgy. That means I don’t bake them as long as others would.

This brownies go great with coffee. Enjoy!

To make this brownies you will need;

• 150 grams dark chocolate.
• 125 grams unsalted butter.
• 100 grams all-purpose flour.
• 100 grams macadamia nuts, roughly chopped.
• 25 grams cocoa.
• 3 large eggs.
• 100 grams sugar.
• 60 mls brandy.

Then just a few simple steps;

• Preheat oven to 160 degrees celsius.
• Line a baking tray with parchment paper.
• Melt both the dark chocolate & butter in a bowl over simmering water(a bain marie). When melted stir in the brandy.
• Sift together the flour & cocoa into another bowl
• In another bowl add 100 grams of sugar & 3 large eggs, beat it hard with a balloon whisk until pale.
• Stir eggs sugar mixture into the melted chocolate.
• Fold the flour & cocoa into melted chocolate.
• Fold in the chopped macadamia nuts into the brownie mixture.
• Pour the mixture into the prepared baking tray.
• Baking for 30 minutes.
• At the end of the 30 minutes, the brownie will be soft & look under done in the centre. Thats alright, it will firm up as it cools down.
• When you ready to serve, slice into rectangles using a knife that has been dipped in hot water. This will help you cut cleanly.
• Dust with icing sugar & enjoy.

I came across this recipe on David Lebovitz’s website, his blog is amazing & I have been lurking there for ages. Cooking something for the first time following a recipe can be nerve wracking but kudos to David for a really easy to follow recipe with pictures.

I made this ice cream by hand, because that was the only option I had, I don’t have an ice cream machine at home “yet”. Because I can’t seem find a non-industrial one in Nairobi, don’t know why. I would love to get a pacojet, I fell in love with the pacojet when I saw one in action in Sydney last year.

The recipe for the salted butter caramel ice cream is adapted from here, also available is tips on how to make ice cream without ice maker.

• 500 mls whole milk, divided in two. One part left chilled in a bowl in the fridge.
• 300 grams sugar
• 60 grams salted butter
• ½ teaspoon sea salt
• 250 ml heavy cream
• 5 large egg yolks
• ¾ teaspoon vanilla extract

First thing up was gathering up all my ingredients, all the dairy was from Brookside. They make some really great butter & cream. I used some fine sea salt. I was a bit worried about the salt I used, in the recipe there is an explicit caveat placed on the salt to use. I didn’t have maldon or fleur de sel, but some stock standard looking sea salt, fine off-white sea salt.

Everything in place, it was time to caramelise the sugar. Dumped all the sugar into a saucepan over medium heat, it took a while to get the sugar melting. Once the sugar started melted everything moved quickly. The recipe stated that the caramel is to be cooked until it started smoking, I had never taken a caramel to this point, so I cooked the caramel until I saw what I thought was smoke. It looked like light water vapour.

With caramelisation done, I took the saucepan off the heat then stirred in the butter & salt, then the cream. Some caramel seized, but this was no cause for panic unlike when I did the Pineapple Chop, then I didn’t know I could melt away the seized caramel over low heat, which I did this time. After working away the seized caramel, I stirred in 250mls of the milk.

Moved on to whisk the 5 yolks in a bowl, poured in some of the caramel while still whisking. Poured the egg yolks back into the caramel, stirring constantly. Cooked over low heat until the custard thickens, to be on the safe side I used a thermometer & stopped cooking once custard was at 77 degrees celsius. With custards don’t go over 82 degrees celsius unless you want an eggy tasting custard.

Once custard was done, strained it into the bowl with the other 250 mls of chilled milk. Kept stirring until custard had cooled down. Covered the bowl with cling film loosely, making sure the cling film touched the top of the custard, this prevents a skin from forming. chilled it overnight in the fridge.

To make the ice cream, poured the chilled custard on to a large shallow dish. Placed it in the freezer. Then at 40 minute intervals, took out the dish and gave the custard a good stir to break up large ice particles. After the third stir poured almost frozen custard into a one litre container, covered & placed it in the freezer overnight.

This is the result, beautiful caramel flavoured ice cream. That I had for breakfast, lunch & dinner.

Making ice cream at home without a machine is not impossible, it may take a while long but it is worth it.

I cannot say no to a lovely, creamy, wobbly panna cotta. I made some for my brother & I, the flavour inspiration was a cup of coffee. In this panna cotta is instant coffee, cream, milk, vanilla extract & sugar. The lime syrup idea was from the Flavor Bible, according to the book coffee & lime go well together. Since I was serving the panna cotta the lime  syrup, I did not sweeten it alot. My brother totally loved this dessert, I did too.

The recipe below makes two small portions, you can scale it proportionally to suit the number of panna cotta portions  you would like. You could also substitute the instant coffee for a shot of espresso.

Coffee Panna Cotta

• 150 mls milk, full fat is best.
• 150 mls cream, chilled.
• 3 tsps caster sugar.
• 1 tsp granulated gelatin.
• 1 tsp instant coffee. I used Dormans, love their coffee.
• 1/4 tsp vanilla extract.

1. In a small bowl combine the gelatin & a little water(about 4tbsp / 60mls). This is to let the gelatin granules bloom.
2. In small saucepan, combine the coffee, sugar, vanilla extract & milk. Heat the milk to a rolling simmer, stir to make sure that coffee & sugar are dissolved. Pour the milk into a bowl.
3. Add the bloomed gelatin to the warm milk in the bowl. Stir to dissolve the gelatin into the milk. Set aside for about 30 minutes or until milk is about room temperature.
4. Stir in chilled cream.
5. Pour into molds, and put into the fridge to set. This takes about 4 hours, I usually just leave it overnight in the fridge.

Lime Syrup

• 2 limes
• 200 grams sugar
• 200 mls water

1. Grate the zest from the limes, set the zest aside
2. Combine the sugar & water in a saucepan, bring it to a boil, then simmer for a minute. Take the syrup off the heat.
3. Add the zest & the juice of the two limes.
4. Set the syrup aside to cool.

Putting it together

1. Unmold the panna cotta on to a plate. If you having difficulty unmolding, dip the mold with the panna cotta into hot water for about 10 seconds.
2. Drizzle the lime syrup on to the panna cotta… Done!

Brownies are supposed to be easy to make but the three brownies I have had recently at different cafes here in Nairobi have not done it for me. First one was very dry but very buttery(a good thing for me! hehe), second was dry with almost no chocolate, & third was a dry brick. I was thinking of naming the cafes but though against it, Nairobi is too small. I don’t need enemies now.

I like my brownies really gooey & fudge like, with intense chocolate flavour. I really love chocolate, but I will not admit it in public. Imagine a thirty something African male chocaholic, not likely.

Anyway, so instead of whinging about other people’s brownies, I just made my own.

My brownie is real easy to make, you should try it;

• Grab 160 grams of the your favourite chocolate & 75 grams of butter, melt them both in a bowl over simmering water(a bain marie)
• Sift together 50 grams of plain flour & 50 grams of cocoa into another bowl
• In another bowl add 100 grams of sugar & 3 large eggs, beat it hard with a balloon whisk. Until its pale & has soft peaks.
• Stir eggs sugar mixture into the melted chocolate.
• Fold the flour & cocoa into melted chocolate.
• Pour the mixture into a baking tray prepped with grease proof paper.
• Baking in 160 degree celsius oven for about 25 minutes.
• At the end of the 25 minutes, the brownie will be soft & look under done. Thats alright, it will firm up as it cools down.
• Slice it up, I like to have mine with creme anglaise(english custard), creme anglaise is easy to make, google a recipe…. brownies also go great with glace cherries.

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My version of Thai sticky rice with mango. The Thai version is done by serving fresh mango with cooked sticky rice soaked in sweet coconut milk. Using risotto rice rice gives this Thai dessert an interesting creamy twist & risotto rice cooked al dente could replicate the chewy texture of sticky rice.

I kept this really simple & it turned out pretty good…. It tasted amazing. I think I could stick tweak it. Any suggestions?

This is how I did it.

• 125 grams carnaroli risotto rice.
• 400 mls coconut milk.
• 600 mls water
• 50 grams sugar
• 1 Mango diced
• Butter

1. Combine coconut milk, water & sugar in saucepan then bring it to a boil. This will be the stock for the risotto.
2. In another saucepan melt some butter add the rice cook gently until rice almost translucent.
3. Add first ladle of coconut milk stock, keep stirring until stock is reduced, then repeat with another ladle of stock. Repeat until rice is cooked, it should be creamy & slightly al dente.
4. Cover & let it cool to room temperature, then serve with mango.

Dessert time…… This is the classic combo of strawberries & cream. Not much to say about this except that it is quite easy to make. It tasted quite good but I think I could tweak it to make it even better.

Now to make it.

• Roll out puff pastry as thin as you can, dust rolling pin & surface using icing sugar. Cut out round discs.
• Bake pastry discs in 180 degree celsius oven for about 20 minutes. Sandwich the pastry discs between two baking sheets. This stops puff pastry from rising.
• For the strawberry coulis. Roughly chop about about 10 strawberries add to a sauce pan along with 25 grams of sugar & 50 mls of water. Bring this to a boil, simmer for about a minute. Then set aside to cool. When cool, whiz it in a blender until smooth. Pass the coulis though a fine strainer, then set aside.
• Slice strawberries into halves, dip into strawberry to glaze.
• For the vanilla chantilly, add 100 mls of chilled cream, 1/4 tsp vanilla extract & 25 grams of sugar to a bowl. Whip it using a whisk to soft peaks.
• To assemble, place a pastry disc on plate, layer some strawberries then another pastry disc, more strawberries. Top with pastry disc and a dollop of the vanilla chantilly. Drizzle some strawberry coulis on the plate.

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