Lavender brownies – just a hint of summer

Simone (junglefrog) — Wed, 28 Sep 2011 08:00:31 +0000

Gorgeous chocolate brownies with a hint of lavender

If you live anywhere near our tiny little country, the chances are that you had the same amount of sudden sunshine as we did. Just when we all thought summer was over (after having never really arrived) it all of a sudden gets to be gorgeous weather. The kind of weather that makes you want to go out and be outdoors all day long. The kind of weather we should have had months ago. The kind of weather also that leaves you guessing what on earth to wear today. Should I dress for autumn weather (sunny but chilly) or should I pretend it really is summer and dress appropriately? O the utter confusion!

Whatever the case; we should enjoy this small round of summer while it lasts. It might just be over before we know it. Being in London for the past couple of days we were ofcourse extremely fortunate that the weather was as good as it was. Apart from the fact that the subways were also swelteringly warm, we loved being outdoors all day, walking along, enjoying the sunshine, sitting on a terrace and watching the London world go by. I didn’t tell you yet, but we also had dinner on friday night at Gordon Ramsay at Claridges. While an experience all on it’s own, it also posed us for a couple of ridiculous problems. Being the casual kind of folks that we are, we forgot to pack something suitable for a fancy dinner. So all of a sudden we had to start shopping for a pair of pants for Tom and some shoes to go with it. We did bring the shirt, but then forgot the rest (how convenient…) So the dinner turned out to be a bit more extravagant then we had intended it to be. It was worth it though; we had a brilliant meal and we also got to see the kitchen from the inside. I hadn’t expected them to agree to us taking a peek in the kitchen but they immediately said yes and we were soon asked along for a little tour of the heart of the restaurant. I also noticed the chef’s table while we were in the kitchen and while it is really expensive to do that (150 GBP pp) I would love to do that one day! Maybe if we win the lottery..

Now these lavender brownies have nothing to do with Gordon Ramsay but they do have everything to do with summer. If you look at the color you might have guessed that this is the last dish that we did for the chocolate jewels photoshoot of which the blueberry chocolate cake and the strawberry devil’s chocolate cake have already been featured here. I had only once used lavender while cooking before and that was when making lavender macarons. But since that was lavender sugar and only sprinkled on the macarons it was not as pronounced in flavor as these brownies were. These have actual crushed flowers in them and the lavender taste is quite noticeable. I had to get used to it, but after taking the first bite I totally loved them. Beautiful chocolatey and that lavender give it just a bit extra.

Lavender brownies

Print recipe

Serves	10
Prep time	30 minutes
Cook time	30 minutes
Total time	1 hour
Meal type	Dessert, Snack
Misc	Pre-preparable

Ingredients

120g Good dark chocolate
90g butter
2 Egg
200g sugar
25g lavender flowers (dried)
90g flour (all purpose)
50g almonds (whole, coarsely chopped)

Directions


Heat the oven to 180C. Grease a brownie tin or baking tin lightly with oil and cover with aluminiumfoil (also grease this lightly).

Melt the chocolate with the butter au bain marie and once all incorporated and smooth, leave to cool off.

Put the lavender and some of the sugar in a pestle and mortar and grind together.

Add the briefly whipped eggs, sugar mixture and flour to the chocolate mixture. Mix everything together well but don't overmix it. Once there are no dry spots stop mixing. Put the batter in the tin and bake for about 30 minutes in the hot oven. Leave to cool in the tin before taking it out and onto a cake rack to cool further

Note

Not your average flavor but once you get used to the taste after the first bite... you're gonna love it!

Eggsalad

Simone (junglefrog) — Thu, 12 Mar 2009 08:30:20 +0000

Egg salad

As I told you we had made fresh mayonnaise at the cooking class last Saturday but other then eating it with fries I couldn’t really come up with a good way to use it until I read this by Julia as a guestpost on The Perfect Pantry and voila; here it is!! I didn’t follow the recipe that was given by Julia, but basically used whatever leftovers I still had in the fridge.

I used 6 eggs, one shallot, some pesto, pepper, salt, half a chili pepper and some spring onions and it is very tasty! O and I added a splash of lime to give it a little bit of freshness. You have to boil the eggs, leave them to cool while you chop up the other ingredients. Make sure that you do not leave large chunks of onion as that is not so tasty in a salad (I think), peel the eggs, chop them up and mix everything together with three tablespoons of homemade mayonnaise and you’re good to go!

I think this will make for a perfect snack together with some toast for the evening. On Tuesday night we have our tv-night normally since that is with “Mijn tent is top” (I know you have various versions in various countries. People get their own restaurant and have to proof they are worthy of keeping it after the show is over) and Gordon Ramsay’s Hell Kitchen. Ok, lots has been said about Gordon Ramsay; some good and some not so good, but I just love him… Just there is a lot of swearing, but if you can see past that; he is a brilliant chef and while I realize that part of the show is well… just show… I still think it is very entertaining to watch. We just don’t take it too seriously, but it’s more or less the only thing we ever watch on tv. We had to tape it this week since we weren’t home Tuesday night, so now we get to watch it tonight!!

Junglefrog Cooking » gordon ramsay