Salted caramel and pecan brownies

A brownie is the ultimate chocolate cake indulgence. I'm slightly obsessed by salt and chocolate and salted caramel so why not combine them all together?! I saw a picture on a similar brownie on Twitter and so had to try and recreate them. Not content with just the salted caramel, I thought that buttery pecans would add a bit of a crunch and texture to the moist gooeyness of the brownie. I took the finished result to a friend's for to have with coffee. We decided that clotted cream would be lovely with it...well, if you're going for it, why not really go for it!!

Ingredients

200g unsalted butter with a little extra for greasing the tin

100g milk chocolate broken into squares

100g dark chocolate broken into squares

6-8 additional squares of chocolate for decoration

I don’t usually worry about using high quality chocolate in these brownies and tend to use supermarket own brand such as Aldi or Sainsburys.

200g from a 397g can of Carnation caramel

¾ tsp – 1 tsp of flaked sea salt depending on how salty you like your caramel

200g golden caster sugar

4 medium eggs at room temperature

130g plain flour

50g cocoa powder

pinch of salt

75g pecan nuts roughly chopped

edible gold glitter (optional)

Method

1.     Heat the oven to 180/Gas Mark 4 and grease and line a baking tin. The tin I use is 10” by 7” as it gives a nice thick brownie which is needed for this recipe. Any tin of a similar size will work just as well.

2.     Melt the butter in saucepan then remove from the heat and add the chocolate, allowing it to melt so you have a rich buttery, chocolatey mixture

3.     Put the caramel and salt into a small bowl and mix so that it loosens up

4.     Put the sugar and eggs into a large bowl and use a hand or balloon whisk to combine

5.     Whisk in the melted butter and chocolate to the sugar and egg mix

6.     Sift over the flour, cocoa powder and salt and briefly beat the mix together until it is all combined and smooth

7.     Fold in the chopped pecan nuts

8.     Pour half of the brownie mix into the tin

9.     Dot over the caramel mix and very gently smooth it over the base

10.  Pour over the remaining brownie mix and gently smooth to cover the caramel. Try not to let the caramel poke through. If it does it doesn’t matter as something this tasty can’t really be wrong!

11.  Bake in the centre of the oven for 30-40 minutes. You want the top to have a nice crust, but still feel soft underneath. If you insert a skewer it will come out with some caramel mix on and bits of squidgy brownie

12.  Cool in the tin

13.  Melt the retained chocolate and drizzle over the top

14.  For a bit of extra bling, I lightly dusted the top with edible gold glitter

I find chilling the cold brownie still in the tin in the fridge for an hour or so allows the caramel to firm up a little making it easier to cut into pieces without the top breaking.

Serve hot, cold, but itself or with cream, ice cream or my favourite, clotted cream – let’s face it, if you are being naughty with this brownie, clotted cream is not going to make it THAT much worse…is it?!

Pear, cardamom and dark chocolate frangipane

Ok, so I'm slightly frangipane obsessed. I seem to make it on a regular basis, especially since I swapped to using a shortbread base rather than pastry -I love the way it stays crisp even after a couple of days. I also find that it never sticks to the tin when baking. The only drawback is that it only covers the base and not the sides of the tin - this just makes me be more careful when removing from the tin and then trimming!
My baking buddy Amanda makes an amazing pear and cardamom loaf - we discovered this combo on a day trip into the Cotswolds. I wondered how this would work as a frangipane as I had loads of ground almonds and pears. Jam wouldn't work on the base I knew. Chocolate seems an odd addition but pear and chocolate go well together as do other combinations of two ingredients so I decided to try all three! Just the thin layer of finely grated chocolate just gives a bit of depth and richness to the tart that I really like. The cardamom is a perfumed taste in the background rather than an in-your-face overload.
Try it and see what you think...leave a comment and let me know!

Ingredients

For the shortbread base:

95g                  unsalted butter

45g                  caster sugar

135g                plain flour

For the frangipane topping

165g                unsalted butter

165g                caster sugar

3                      medium eggs

120g                ground almonds

45g                  plain flour

¼ tsp               ground cardamom

2                      pears peeled, cored and sliced

50g                  dark chocolate, finely grated

A rectangular baking tray measuring around 25cm x 15cm, preferably loose bottomed, greased

Method

To make the shortbread base

1.     Pre-heat the oven to 190/ Gas Mark 5

2.     Make sure that the butter is nice and soft and beat with the caster sugar until it is a smooth paste

3.     Mix in the flour until it is well incorporated and the dough starts to come together

4.     Bring the dough into a ball with your hands and tip onto a floured surface

5.     Roll out to a depth of around 2-3mm and shape to the same size as the base of the baking tin

6.     Put the rolled out dough into the tin and fork it well to stop in rising

7.     Bake in the pre-heated oven for 10-15 minutes until golden

8.     Set aside to cool

To make the frangipane

1.     Put all the ingredients except the pears into a bowl and mix well using a hand mixer or wooden spoon until well combined

To put it altogether

1.     Pre-heat the oven to 170/ Gas Mark 3

2.     Spread the grated dark chocolate over the cooled shortbread, leaving it in the tin, tapping to get an even cover. This only needs to be a very thin layer

3.     Gently spread over the frangipane mixture, making sure that it goes into the corners. I often use a piping bag to start off with and then spread out using an offset palette knife.

4.     Gently press the slices of pear into the topping so that the tops are still showing

5.     Bake in the oven until the topping is golden brown and springy, about 30-40 minutes

6.     Leave to cool in the tin for 10 minutes before removing and cutting into the desired size.

My day on a bread making course!

I always enjoy reading the reviews of cookery schools in Delicious magazine, so after spending a great day baking bread at the weekend, I thought I'd have a go at my own...

Where: The Richard Hughes Cookery School, The Assembly House, Norwich, Norfolk

The course: European Breads £150 for the day including a two-course lunch and wine. At the end of the day your bakes and a pack containing all the recipes are all packed up and ready to take home.

What it’s like

The Cookery School forms part of The Assembly House in Norwich City Centre. This is home to the restaurant and rooms owned by Richard Hughes. The School itself lies just off the main courtyard but is accessed through the very grand and impressive entrance hall that gives a tantalising glimpse at the function rooms and restaurant. This is where we waited with coffee as we arrived. The school has an individual work station for each of the eight participants on the course. All had an excellent view of the demonstration bench and also the ovens – a source of interest and delight during the baking process and where ‘oohs’ could be heard as the bread baked.

The focus of the course was on making European bread and was led by Richard Hughes himself, aided by one of the kitchen staff, Brandon. Each of the breads we made were demonstrated and we had a go at making them. The demonstrations were very clear and well explained; some of the technicalities of bread baking were explained but the real focus was on hands-on enjoyment.

Within half-an-hour our focaccia were ready to bake and we moved on apace through fougasse, flatbreads, treacle and ale bread and cinnamon buns.

The small number of participants allowed the conversation to flow and all our questions were answered. If things didn’t seem to be going quite right, Richard was always there to support and guide. Any special requests or requirements such as a participant who was dairy-free were met without a quibble.

We worked from 10.00am to 1.30am and the time flew by, aided by the wine, beer and coffee which were opened at 11am! Whilst the last loaves were baked, we retired to a private lounge for a sumptuous two-course lunch. My vegetarian Spanish omelette was lovely but it was the dessert of a brulee-top lemon tart with raspberry sorbet that stole the show!

What I learned

The biggest revelation and learning point for me was the use of fresh yeast over dried. None of the breads we made required proving, knocking back and a second prove and so the bread making process was quick and easy. I have already bought fresh yeast ready to get baking again. I didn’t know that fresh yeast can also be frozen and that when defrosted it becomes a liquid – I shall make sure that the left-over yeast is frozen in an appropriate container!

We were shown kneading techniques meaning that for these breads, I won’t be using my stand mixer again.

It was also the conversation that took place between the participants and with Richard that was wonderful; we all shared ideas and experiences. I will definitely be staying in touch with some of my fellow bakers!

At the end of the day, all our goodies had been bagged up and we were given a pack with the recipes for the breads we had baked.

The verdict

The course had been bought for me by my sister for Christmas, but I would quite happily have paid for it as it was worth every penny! The small group, the discussion, the breads, the support and guidance and the lunch made it a day to remember. I will certainly be looking to go back to another course with Richard! Now to work off all the carbs…!