Halloween – a new perspective
Eye of newt, and toe of frog,
Wool of bat, and tongue of dog,
Adder's fork, and blind-worm's sting,
Lizard's leg, and owlet's wing
For a charm of powerful trouble,
Like a hell-broth boil and bubble.
Double, double toil and trouble;
Fire burn, and caldron bubble.
William Shakespeare
Previously I’ve written about the hysteria around the rising popularity of Halloween and how I just don’t get it however, last week I had a fantastic week visiting an old friend in Atlanta, Georgia, (Hence no blog for a couple of weeks – sorry!). Already there, houses are decorated, gardens full of ghosts and zombies, restaurants selling Halloween fare and shops with cobwebs and spiders in the windows – already there is a sense of anticipation which comes with a great atmosphere – okay, I’m now with the programme!
So, tonight I’m going to be dressed as a witch, complete with hat and (toy) black cat, and I’ll be attending my first ever Halloween party – I can’t wait! However, before I do, I’m going to do a little Halloween baking!
Without bigging myself up too much, I’m told I make a mean brownie, soft, unctuous and most importantly, gooey so, I’m going to Halloweenify them with a buttercream pumpkin patch topping! Here’s how;
I’ve made these brownies many times and I must confess to being a little obsessed with the fudgy chocolate brownie base, topped with a delicious chocolate buttercream frosting, Oreo “dirt”, and now dressed with little buttercream pumpkins. If you’ve made brownies before, this recipe might seem a little familiar – in fairness, it’s pretty much a gold standard recipe for brownies however, the secret is in the preparation!
The Chocolate
It’s important when baking these pumpkin patch brownies to use at least 70% or richer dark chocolate so that you get the best bake. Don’t worry, they don’t taste “dark” at all as you have the additional sugar and chocolate chips to balance them out.
The Critical Bit
With these pumpkin patch brownies, it’s best to melt the dark chocolate and butter together until smooth, and let it cool whilst you carry on with the other bits. I always now use light brown soft sugar which I combine with the eggs and whisk them together using my Kitchenaid, (other mixers are available!) – this bit is so important as it’s how you get the goo in gooey! Once you’ve whisked the eggs and sugar enough, the colour will be much lighter and the mixture almost mousse like!
The Oreo “Dirt”
You need to make sure the Oreos are really squished down and quite firm, so that you can pipe the pumpkins straight onto the “dirt” base. If they are too loose, the pumpkins won’t stick. You can sprinkle on more Oreo “dirt” later though, depending on how you want your pumpkin patches to look.
The Pumpkin Piping
I used two random piping tips to make my pumpkins a bit, well, random – a jumbo round tip, and a 2d closed star piping tip. I then used a small round piping tip to create the green tendrils for the pumpkins. You can just use the one tip but, when did you see two identical pumpkins?!
Ingredients
Brownies
200 g dark chocolate
200 g unsalted butter
4 medium eggs
275 g light brown soft sugar
100 g plain flour
50 g cocoa powder
300 g chocolate chips
Decoration
200 g unsalted butter (room temperature)
400 g icing sugar
26 g cocoa powder
1 tsp orange food colouring
1/4 tsp green food colouring
75 g Oreos (finely crushed with the cream!)
Instructions
Brownies
Preheat your oven to 180ºc/160ºfan and line a 9x9" baking tin with parchment paper!
Melt the dark chocolate and unsalted butter together until smooth in the microwave or in a bowl over a pan of simmering water. Leave to cool for a few minutes
Using an electric whisk/stand mixer, whisk the eggs and light brown soft sugar together for a few minutes until the mixture has doubled in volume, is a lot paler, and leaves a trail for a few seconds when you lift the whisk out.
Pour the chocolate/butter mix into the whisked sugar and eggs and fold through very carefully.
Add in the flour and cocoa powder and fold through carefully again.
Add in the chocolate chips and fold in and then pour the mixture into the tin!
Bake in the oven for 25-30+ minutes or until there is a very slight wobble in the middle.
Leave to cool in the tin - and then 'set' the brownies in the fridge for 3-4 hours.
Decoration
Once the brownies have cooled and set - beat the unsalted butter on it's own for a few minutes.
Add the icing sugar into the beaten butter and beat for a few minutes to soften and combine.
Put half of the buttercream into another bowl and beat in the cocoa powder until smooth.
Add a couple of spoonfuls of buttercream into another bowl and colour this one green, and colour the rest orange. You should have three different buttercream at this point.
Spread the chocolate buttercream onto the brownies, and press the oreo crumbs into the buttercream quite firmly.
Portion the brownies now - I did 16 squares.
Using whatever piping tips you prefer - I used a jumbo round tip and 2d closed star piping tip, pipe some pumpkins onto each brownie.
Using a small round piping tip with the green food colouring, pipe some tendrils onto the pumpkins as well.
I hope you enjoy these Spooktacular, (sorry!) brownies just as much as I do!
What’s on this week?
Head & Eyes – LeLUTKA EvoX AVALON 3.0
Hair – DOUX - Blush Hairstyle [S]
AO – BodyLanguage SLC BENTO AO Mate
Shape – DeeTaleZ Shape for Lelu EVOX Heads "Nora" - Tweaked!
Necklace and Earrings – [ kunst ] - Alligator Set
Scary Nurse Outfit – Mug - Killer Nurse Dress, Hat, Mask & Syringe - White - Bloody!
Boots – **UTOPIA@Design** - "NIKITA" - (Maitreya) @ this round of Uber
Pictures Taken at the always helpful and on topic Backdrop City
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