It’s a
rainy day in Vancouver and I spent a good part of the day enjoying my
birthday gift from Colin. I was pampered
at the spa downtown and then met Colin for an amazing lunch at
Nightingales. The tapa style restaurant serves small share
plates and Colin and I indulged in roasted maitake mushrooms with hazelnut
butter, butternut squash tortellini with sage and goat gouda and roasted cauliflower
with green harissa. In the theme of decadence
I decided to spend the rest of my child free day baking from Yotam Ottoleghi’s new
cook book Sweet which I got as a birthday gift from my parents.
Flipping
through the pages of the book many recipes called to me but I couldn’t resist trying
the Tahini and Halva Brownies. Such an interesting
combination and a chance for me to use a new ingredient, halva. I was able to find the sweet sesame cake in
my closest little grocery store but could see it easily being substituted for
any number of fillings or nut butters.
We have our
second baby on the way and have yet again moved. New baby, new house and new
kitchen. My kitchen is spacious with a
large island in the middle allowing my 1.5 year old to “help out” with
baking. This recipe called for close
attention to bake time and gentle folding of ingredients, two things toddlers aren’t
great at. With that in mind I thought it
would be the perfect recipe to try out on a rainy day in on my own.
The brownies turned out super rich and dense with little nutty bursts from the halva and tahini. Colin and I were glad we had friends over for dinner the next day so we didn't end up eating them all.
Tahini and Halva Brownies (from Sweet by Ottolenghi and Goh)
1 cup unsalted butter
260 g dark chocolate
4 eggs
1 1/3 cups sugar
3/4 cup plus 3 tbsp flour
1/3 cup cocoa powder
1/2 tsp salt
200 g halva broken into pieces
1/3 cup tahini paste
Pre heat oven to 400 F. Grease 9 X 9 baking plan and line with parchment paper
Place butter and chocolate in a double boiler and leave to melt for about two minutes. Remove bowl from heat and stir until thick and shiny. Set aside to cool.
In separate bowl beat the eggs and sugar until they are pale and creamy, about 3 minutes.
Fold chocolate into egg mixture
In separate bowl sift the flour, cocoa powder and salt and fold into chocolate mixture.
Fold in halva pieces and pour batter into prepared baking pan.
Dollop the top of the batter with the tahini paste and use a skewer to swirl it through the top.
Bake for about 23 minutes. The middle should "wobble" a bit and may seem under done but will firm up as it cools.
Let cool, cut into desired portions and enjoy!
