Despite all this, I decided to take a day off from my diet. I kept with my workout schedule and today I am back on track ! sometimes you just got to indulge, right? Besides, if you had seen the picture of this cake, you just had to try it!!!!
Going back to this recipe, some months ago, I bought Dorie Greenspan book " Baking from my home to yours". There are zillion recipes, but there are more than a couple that have caught my eye. This one specially, I had never seen around a cake like this. The picture of this cake is so tempting, imagine a moist and rich brownie cover with peanuts an avalanche de caramel dripping out of them... enough to be mouthwatering
The recipe is quite easy to follow. I was so happy I got almost all ingredients, just missing the salted peanuts which hubby was so eager and helpful to go get some after seeing the picture. I'm telling you, the picture is...mmm yum!!!
Ingredients:
For the brownie cake:
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 tsp. baking soda
¼ tsp. salt
8 tbsp. unsalted butter, cut into 8 pieces
5 oz. bittersweet chocolate, coarsely chopped
3 large eggs
½ cup packed light brown sugar
¼ cup sugar
3 tbsp. light corn syrup
½ tsp. vanilla extract
For the topping:
2 cups sugar
½ cup water
1½ tbsp. light corn syrup
2/3 cup heavy cream
2 tbsp. unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 cup salted peanuts
Making the cake
Center a rack in the oven and preheat the oven to 350° F. Butter an
8-inch springform pan, dust the inside with flour, tap out the excess
and line the bottom of the pan with a piece of parchment paper. Place
the springform pan on a baking sheet.
To make the cake, combine the flour, baking soda and salt in a small
bowl; whisk together and set aside. Add the butter and chocolate to a
heatproof bowl set over simmering water. Heat, stirring occasionally,
until the ingredients are just melted – do not let them get so hot that
the butter separates. Remove the bowl from the heat and set aside.
In a large mixing bowl, whisk together the eggs and sugars until well
blended. Whisk in the corn syrup, followed by the vanilla. Add in the
melted butter and chocolate mixture, and whisk until combined. Gently
whisk in the dry ingredients, mixing only until they are just
incorporated. The batter should be thick, smooth and shiny. Pour the
batter into the prepared pan and jiggle the pan a bit to even out the
batter.
Bake the cake at 350 degrees F for 40-45 minutes, or until a knife
inserted into the centre comes out almost clean. Transfer the pan to a
rack and cool he cake for 15 minutes, then run a knife between the cake
and the pan and remove the sides of the pan. Cool the cake to room
temperature.
Making the topping
Put the sugar, water and corn syrup in a medium heavy-bottomed
saucepan, stir just to combine the ingredients and then put the pan
over medium-high heat. Heat, without stirring , until the caramel turns
deep amber, 5-10 minutes.
Lower the heat a bit and, standing
back from the saucepan add the cream and butter. When the spatters are
less vehement, stir to calm down the caramel and dissolve any lumps.
Stir in the peanuts, and pour the caramel and peanuts into a 1-quart
Pyrex measuring cup or heat-proof bowl.
Spoon the peanuts on
top of the cake. Then spoon the caramel on top of those. You’ll have a
layer about ¼-inch high. Allow the topping to set to room
temperature-about 20 minutes before serving.
To serve, run a
blunt knife between the caramel and the pan and simply remove the sides
of the springform. If this isn’t the case, hit the sides with some hot
air from a hairdryer or wrap the sides in a towel moistened with hot
water.
Serve either with whipped cream (chantilly) or ice cream!!!
Deliciousssssss!!! worth braking my diet for one day!
