I recently had the pleasure of visiting Violet, home of innovative American-baker-in-London Claire Ptak. While Claire may be best known for making the wedding cake for Meghan Markle and Prince Harry, she is also well-known in baking circles for her seasonal baking. Having tried her delicious molasses cake - scented with citrus - in the flesh a few weeks ago, I can agree that Ptak's baked goods are really something!
I have to admit though that I wasn't that hard to win over because I had already tried one of Claire Ptak treats - albeit of the homemade variety. My re-creation of her Chocolate Rye Brownies were a fudgy, fudgy treat - dense, gooey and slightly salty from my first use of Maldon sea salt flakes.
The thick batter whipped up pretty quickly, particularly because I melted the butter and chocolate together in the microwave, instead of on the stovetop. Somewhat annoyingly though, the batter prep process required three separate bowls so wasn't the shortest baking-to-clean-kitchen brownie recipe I've made.
I then baked the brownies for 20 minutes, the lower end of the recipe baking time. I took the brownies out of the oven at that point, fearful of overbaking, because the middle no longer seemed wobbly, which the recipe stated was the desired bake end. When the brownies cooled though, they did seem a bit under-baked so I think closer to 25 minutes may be the best next way to approach these.
I do think these are great "adult" brownies - caramel-y and bold. They will be made for an office potluck or party in the future!
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