Tag: Double

Doesn’t Valentine’s Day seem to get bigger each year? I see red and pink flowers, heart-shaped decorations, and of course … chocolate everywhere! Restaurant-review sites rave about best places to celebrate while cooking shows and food blogs suggest special dinner and dessert menus for the holiday. I allow the not-so-subliminal messages to get me into the spirit. I mean, why not? In the midst of this winter’s grey, snow’s blinding white, along with the blustery cold wind, I welcome a nice distraction. To me the holiday gives me an excuse to do something special like having dinner date on a Tuesday night and… making a chocolaty dessert. After seeing chocolate everywhere, on TV ads and cooking shows, at the market, and on food blogs I feel the huge urge to create something with the ingredient.

I found a Chocolate Bouchons (The New Double-Chocolate Brownie) recipe by chef Stephanie Izard (of the Girl and the Goat in Chicago) in my InStyle magazine’s January edition. Every food I have tasted at chef Izard’s restaurant has been incredibly delightful. So I got excited to try one of her recipes.

As usual, I deviate 🙂 Here’s a version adapted from chef Izard’s recipe:

We will need:

• A 24-mini muffin tray
• 3 eggs
• 1 1/2 cup of sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon of vanilla extract
• 3/4 cup of all-purpose flour
• 3/4 cup of cocoa powder
• 1 teaspoon of salt
• 2 sticks of butter
• 1 cup of Ghirardelli milk chocolate chips
• 3 squares of Ghirardelli dark chocolate bar (I happen to have the 72% cocoa. Next time I’ll go with 60%.)
• 1 tablespoon of pistachios (I happen to have them around)

• Melt the butter
• Whisk eggs, sugar, and vanilla in a bowl
• Add flour, cocoa powder, salt, and melted butter. Do it slowly and one by one while keeping the whisking going. Mix well until all ingredients become one thick chocolate mixture.
• With a food processor, chop the pistachios and the dark chocolate squares
• With a spatula, gently mix the chocolate chips, chopped dark chocolate, and chopped pistachios into the mixture
• Scoop the mixture to fill the muffin tray all the way to the top (or use a ziplock bag with one corner cut off )
• Bake for 20-23 minutes in a preheated 350 degrees F  and let the brownies cool outside for 30-40 minutes. Mmm… imagine the wonderful chocolate aroma in the air. Oh…la…la…

The mini brownies come out very chocolaty. Intense! Each bite represents a combination of dark and milk chocolate and a little pistachios. The chocolate chips melt after being baked inside of the brownies. They give such wonderful texture to the tiny chocolate goodness. For sweet lovers, dust with confectioner’s sugar and serve with a scoop of vanilla or coffee ice cream. Jeff and I like ours without the added sweet just fine.

Unfortunately, I did not find chef Izard’s original recipe online so I could not link it here. But I found a similar one (click here) for those who’d like to get to know chocolate bouchons better.

Happy Valentine’s Day, readers!