Thursday, September 22, 2011

Raspberry Ganache Brownies


Doesn't the title of these brownies alone make your mouth water? These are wonderful! This is a recipe created by my sister, Amy, and they really are as good as they sound. Keep reading for Amy's post about these brownies and to get the recipe! Thanks, Amy, for sharing!

"At a bakery here in town, I heard the words raspberry ganache brownie and thought “yumm!” and of course, had to try to make them for myself. I started with Martha Stewart’s Double Chocolate Brownie recipe and just added my own filling. They turned out really well! These are rich so I cut the squares smaller than normal. I didn’t have one in the bakery that day (I chose the peanut butter one instead) so I’m not sure how they made theirs or how it tasted. But these are very good."

These are so easy to put together, but very impressive in the end. You can really wow people with these! It all starts with some beautiful chocolate.

All you do is melt the butter, chocolate, and cocoa together. Whisk until it is smooth and luscious looking, like this. (Forgive the background on this one!)

Whisk together your flour, baking powder, and salt in a separate bowl.

With your mixer, beat the eggs with the sugar and vanilla until it is light in color and frothy-looking.

Add the chocolate mixture first, blend, then add the flour mixture. Voila! The brownie batter part of this treat is done! Here is what it should look like:
Put half of this batter into the bottom of your prepared pan.

Now you are ready to make the raspberry ganache. Simply heat the cream, then add the chocolate and whisk to smooth perfection. Resist the urge to dip into it with a spoon or your fingers!

Warm the raspberries in a small saucepan before you push them through a strainer to remove the seeds and add the resulting smooth sauce to the chocolate mixture.

Now, depending on how juicy your raspberries were, you may have a thin or slightly thick ganache. If yours is thin, simply chill it a bit in the refrigerator or let it sit at room temperature until it thickens up. You will want to dollop it onto the batter in the bottom of your pan and spread it around without going all the way to the edge. Mine was pretty thin. I poured it on anyway because I was impatient and couldn't stand to wait for it to thicken! This is a rough pic, I know, but you can see what happened.

There was no controlling that ganache. It went all the way to the edge! And it was so thin that it was impossible to neatly cover it with the remaining batter. So, instead I just put the batter on the top and swirled it all together with a butter knife. It still worked! Check out the finished product, cooling still on it's parchment.

And, finally, all plated up!

I actually also scattered some fresh raspberries on top of the brownies and sprinkled it all with a bit of powdered sugar. But, I was in a hurry and forgot to take that one last picture! Sorry! It looked spectacular, though! You can trust me on that one!

Here is the recipe so you can impress all of your own family and friends! Enjoy!!


Dark Chocolate Raspberry Ganache Brownies

Batter:
6 tablespoons unsalted butter, plus more for pan
6 ounces good-quality dark chocolate, coarsely chopped
1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
3/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup sugar
2 large eggs
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

Ganache filling:
1 heaping cup fresh or frozen raspberries
2 ounces good-quality dark chocolate, coarsely chopped
¼ cup heavy whipping cream

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line a buttered 8-inch square baking pan with foil or parchment paper, allowing 2 inches to hang over sides. Butter lining (excluding overhang); set pan aside.

Put butter, chocolate, and cocoa in a heatproof medium bowl set over a pan of simmering water; stir until butter and chocolate are melted. Let cool slightly. Whisk together flour, baking powder, and salt in a separate bowl; set aside. Put sugar, eggs, and vanilla in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, and beat on medium speed until pale, about 4 minutes. Add chocolate mixture; beat until combined. Add flour mixture; mix, scraping down sides of bowl, until well combined.

To make the ganache filling, heat cream in a small saucepan over medium-low heat until steaming. (You can also do this in the microwave. Just put it in for short bursts until the cream is hot. Be careful not to burn the cream!). Remove from heat and add the chopped chocolate. Stir until the chocolate has melted and the mixture is smooth. In another small saucepan, heat raspberries on medium-low heat until they are softened. Begin mashing them when they start to warm. Remove from heat and push through a mesh sieve to remove the seeds. Add the seedless raspberry puree to the chocolate mixture. Stir to combine. If the resulting ganache is thin, chill in the refrigerator or at room temperature until it thickens.

Pour half of batter into prepared pan; spread evenly with a rubber spatula. Drop dollops of ganache on top of batter. Carefully spread ganache evenly over batter leaving a 1/2-inch border. Place the remaining batter on top and gently spread over the ganache. There shouldn’t be any ganache showing through the top.

Bake until a cake tester inserted into brownies (avoid center and edges) comes out with a few crumbs but is not wet, about 35 minutes. Let cool slightly in pan, about 15 minutes. Lift out brownies; let cool completely on a wire rack before cutting into squares.

5 comments:

  1. Wow! This sounds rich & yummy!! Reminds me of the Chocolate Cherry Bars/cake with the cherry pie filling, tho different : ) That pushing the raspberries thru a strainer sounds like alot of work tho, but yeah, it would be better without the seeds! I would have a hard time making the brownies completely, I'd be eating the melted chocolate and the ganache like fondue before it could make it to the pan. : )

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  2. whoa, 8 inch pan, I may need to go find some good chocolate & cream and make these this weekend, then take them to work so I don't OD on them. What brand do you recommend as "good-quality dark chocolate", and cocoa? I've read about different ones in the past in my cooking magazine but don't want to go searching out the articles now.

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  3. You won't be sorry you made them, Pati! I had to share mine, too, or that would have been my lunch. Lately, I have been using Trader Joes "Pound Plus" Belgian chocolate bars, 72% cacao. I also really love the Dove Chocolate Discoveries chocolate, which my friend Carol has sold. It's nicer than the Dove chocolates you can buy anywhere. Two of the best quality (pricey but so good!) are Callebaut and Vahlrona (not sure if I spelled that correctly). Those might not be as readily available. If you have a cake or candy supply store near you, they will probably have some quality chocolate (just make sure you get real chocolate and not "candy melts" which aren't really chocolate at all). For dark, I would get the 72%. Oh, I've also gotten Ghirardelli bars in the baking aisle at the grocery store and those were good too. I also don't recommend chocolate chips, which are formulated to keep their shape when baked/heated and so don't work as well with ganache.

    Pushing the berries through the strainer wasn't hard at all! I use a little handheld fine-mesh metal strainer and a spatula to do it. Took only a few minutes.

    If you make these, let me know what you think!

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  4. Ok I tried these last week : ) First, I used unsweetened chocolate, not alot of variety at the store that day, and boy were these RICH and strong! Second, the mesh on my sieve was too fine, all I got was juice, so thin and couldn't taste it that strong of chocolate. With the brownie part stiff and the ganache thin, I ended up sort of mixing the top layer with the ganache like Amy did above : ) They came out rather dense but rich/strong. After a few of them I got used to un-sweetness and liked them (not being a coffee drinker, I'm not used to that). They were good with milk, would have been great with ice cream but didn't have any, and I heard they were great with coffee. I forewarned people at work, one sweet tooth did listen to my warning and he (also not a coffee drinker) was in for a big surprise, it was funny!! More funny, his wife asked for the recipe for these "low-sugar brownies". I bought semi-sweet chocolate and want to make these again, while I have the cream. I'm thinking of trying a different flavor ganache. You had a recipe for peanut butter ganache, what do you think of that with this? Any suggestions?! : )

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  5. I'm glad you tried them, Pati! Try using dark or milk chocolate, in bar form (make sure it's real chocolate and not the "bark"). Both have sugar in them, where unsweetened does not. If all you have is unsweetened, you can add some sugar to the ganache, just dissolve the sugar in the liquid and add it that way.

    The recipe is written such that you do only really use the juice from the raspberries. But the pulp should be broken down enough to impart a lot of flavor to the juices. If the ganache is runny, like mine was (yes that was mine - my sister's wasn't so runny) you can add more chocolate or just add less juice next time. It is hard to tell how much juice a cup of berries will produce. Another option is to put the juice back in the pot and reduce it to concentrate the flavor a bit more.

    Another option for the raspberry flavor is to use good-quality seedless raspberry preserves instead of the fresh raspberries. Just mix it into the ganache in place of the juice. I would probably use a 1/4 cup to start then taste the ganache and test the thickness of it. Add a little more if needed.

    Peanut butter ganache (or pretty much any fruit in place of the raspberries - use the fresh fruit or preserves) would be really good in these. Actually, Amy has a recipe for peanut butter swirl brownies all ready for a post here on the blog. I just need to make them and take pictures. Keep an eye out for that one because it is spectacular! If you do try the PB ganache in this recipe, though, let me know how it turns out!

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