Blackcurrant Caramel Brownies with Hazelnut Semifreddo

There is nothing special going on in my mind today … at least not that I know of. But, when I don’t know, who else should?!?

However, while shopping I got some chocolate and some blackcurrant jam. I thought I would need those things at some point of the month for the “We Should Cocoa” blog challenge from Chocolate Teapot and Chocolate Log Blog. And indeed I did use those things as you well see in a moment.

Already the day before the desire to produce some semifreddo bore fruit. I learned how to make it when I read The Naked Chef from Jamie Oliver. Since then it comes over me from time to time and I don’t feel sorry in any kind of way.

Depending on how you flavour it, it goes really simple. Separate four eggs. Beat the egg yolks with 50 g sugar and vanilla extract. Beat 400 ml of whipping cream. Beat the egg whites with a pinch of salt. Yes, you are absolutely right, there is a lot of beating involved, but that is not the reason why I love it so much.

Well then, mix together the creamed egg yolks with the cream. I added 100 g of hazelnut brittle. Finally, fold in the beaten egg whites and then freeze! No, sorry, I didn’t mean, you should stop moving, but you should transfer the bowl of not yet semifreddo to the freezer in order to let it become semifreddo (you might have guessed already, this is Italian and it means “half-cold”, but I have no problem with making it totally cold). This will take  a few hours. So relax!

 

Let us come back now to “We Should Cocoa”!

In order to make things work we are going to use the nice blackcurrant jam and the chocolate I bought. As you have read, this hasn’t happened so far. Apart from being keen on preparing semifreddo, even before I got to that point, I fancied making some chocolate brownies.

The weeks before these things kept coming up while reading foodie things. All these amassed thoughts now go into these Blackcurrant Caramel Brownies.

Ingredients:

150 g butter

200 g chocolate

150 g soft caramel toffees

150 g blackcurrant jam

80 g cocoa powder

80 g flour

One teaspoon baking powder

300 g sugar

4 eggs

Preparation:

Line a 30 x 20 cm baking tray with baking parchment.

Now you need a bowl that will hold the butter, the toffees, the chocolate, and the jam and that you can place over simmering water (somehow you will manage to solve that problem). So then, place the just mentioned ingredients to the just mentioned bowl and let it melt all together. I first of all melted the butter, toffees, and chocolate and added the jam later.

Sift the cocoa powder, the flour, and the baking powder to another bowl and add the sugar as well.

When everything has melted in the bowl above the simmering water, unite the content of both bowls in whichever of the two bowls you like or can, only making sure that everything will be mixed together thoroughly (not that you have to discover later, that some of the flour is still sticking to the base of the bowl).

Take the four eggs and beat (Yes, again! And stop that thoughts of yours) them or whisk (if you prefer that expression) them together. After that, they are ready to join the chocolaty mix. Do your best to have a nice shiny and smooth mass to make your brownies.

Did I mention, that you should have your oven ready at 180°C at this point? No, well I keep forgetting. In some recipe books they do so right at the beginning, but then the oven usually is ready before I am ready to put things into it. Now it would be better for the environment, when the oven is ready just when you need it and that it doesn’t have to wait for you unnecessarily. Good! Is it ready now. Then put your brownie mass to your baking tray and bake it for about 25 minutes, depending on your oven. We want to achieve a soft and gooey texture of the brownies on the inside. Go for it!

After cooling down, that is when the brownies are ready and have cooled down and the semifreddo has cooled down sufficiently you can serve it and eat it.

But beware! It could be quite sweet and chocolaty and it could affect your waistline. Remember, “Hips don't lie!”. Still I hope, you will be able to enjoy these Blackcurrant Caramel Brownies. Let us know, if you have a try!