hot chili brownies

Ahhh, chili and chocolate. A celebrated combination of flavours - one of which I love, the other I don't. It's the chili that has my heart. The chocolate? It can take a hike. But as I've mentioned before, sometimes I get so inspired by an idea that I must bake, even though I have little to no desire to eat anything (a rare occurrence, to be sure - but it does happen. Usually when my jeans feel tight). Given my lack of willpower around desirable and delectable baked goods - the usual suspects being pastries with cream, fruit desserts, meringues, cakes, et cetera - the usual solution is to bake something made of chocolate. I do an objective taste test, and give away the rest. It's a perfect solution (much like the salt-shaker trick. If you've ever eaten out at a restaurant with me, you know what that's all about).

The inspiration for these brownies came from the chili oil I made this weekend, from Fuchsia Dunlop's Land of Plenty (here's an online version of the recipe at Better Me, Better World). I love the way dried chilis, unlike cayenne powder, have a slow heat that takes a few seconds to hit you. With cayenne, it's an instantaneous fiery blast. Dried chilis seduce you slowly and have a cumulative effect - one that can leave your mouth on fire by the end of a meal. For this reason I love the idea of cutting these brownies really small - an inch by an inch squared, say - and serving them as a novelty food item. That's not to say the depth added by the chili is only good for the fun of it, the chili chocolate combination is celebrated for a reason... because it works.

cookies 'n cream brownies

I've said it before and I'll say it again: I can't stand chocolate desserts. Wow, I really hate them for real. Sometimes though, I get the urge to bake them and prove to myself that I don't like them. Last night I did both of those things. Again.

This is no warning against these particular brownies - feedback from others indicated that they were delicious - it's just my own personal weird thing. I think that chocolate is just inherently too rich for me. Strike one. And further, if there's actual unsweetened or bittersweet chocolate in a recipe, it requires a metric ton of sugar to be "tasty" and for me, that's strike two. Just... blech. Still though, these brownies were whimsical, fun to make and popular with friends and coworkers alike. They were also worth it for the icing, which I licked off and enjoyed immensely.

rocky road pudding cake

 

A year or two ago, I never would have made this cake.  Since I was a kid, I've disliked rich chocolate desserts.  You could catch me eating junky milk chocolate bars or Reese's peanut butter cups, but I would turn my nose up at chocolate cake and eat around the chocolate chips in cookies. These days I generally stay away from junky candy (I had an epiphany when a friend of mine saw a squashed Reese's peanut butter cup on the street and thought of me - this was a shockingly recent development) though I certainly don't let Easter go by without a Cadbury Creme Egg or two, or five. 

However, my disgust for rich chocolate cakes and other desserts is still going strong, particularly for cakes made with actual chocolate and not cocoa. This cake pushed my boundaries. I did like it, kind of, but in very small quantities given its richness and sweetness. It is sweeter and more chocolatey that I care for... but hey, I'm kind of a freak like that.

black forest pudding cake

Have you ever made a pudding cake? No? OH MY... that's a problem that needs to be fixed right now. Pudding cakes are awesome. Dash away any fears you may have about jello crystals because I'm going to let you in on a little secret: there is no actual pudding in a pudding cake. These magical wonders occur when you pour boiling water over a thick batter before baking. The end result is a moist cake that has developed its own sauce as part of the baking process. It's kind of like a delicious, cherry chocolatey science experiment!