Brownie Throwdown - Gary Mehigan

All of us are big fans of Junior MasterChef Australia so it was no surprise that on a recent quick trip to Sydney on work, The Lovely Wife bought me a copy of Gary Mehigan's cookbook. Over the weekend, I was in the mood to bake something and was rifling through Gary's book. I came across his Brownies and although I have my own tried and tested recipe, I thought why not try his out and see how it compares?
The kids also love watching Bobby Flay's 'throwdown' and so when I suggested that I make the Mehigan Brownie, the kids were game and likened it to a 'throwdown'! Okay, not quite the same as a real throwdown but it would be a fun thing to do. In any case, I really wanted to see how Gary's brownies would turn out.

A Baking Weekend

What could be more heavenly than a weekend that includes Brownies with Ice Cream and Cupcakes?

It all started with a trip to the Bicycle store to get my little princess a new bike. My son was at school - on a Saturday. You see, sometimes schools in Malaysia have 'Make-Up' classes for an optional or occasional holiday granted most often to lengthen the time off for the kids. As an example, the kids had the whole week off for Hari Raya when in actual fact the public holidays are only for two days. So the three days off had to be 'Made-Up' or paid back. Sometimes I explain all of this so that at least I remember how it works too!



So anway, while Michael was in school, The Lovely Wife and I took Sarah to get her a new bike. She chose the bike that then needed some minor adjustments to the brakes and training wheels. So while this was being done, we moseyed over to the new bakery next door.

We always like to try out new bakeries, especially the cakes, as its quite difficult to find bakeries that make really good cakes. The Lovely Wife and I shared a chocolate sponge ganache kind of cake that we both thought was pretty average since we both reckoned that mine was probably better. Sarah was torn between a cream eclair and cupcakes so I told her to try the eclair and if she wanted, I wuold make her cupcakes later at home. After eating the eclair, she proclaimed that my eclairs were nicer and insisted that I please make mini cupcakes when we got home.

So that was how I ended up making cupcakes on a Saturday afternoon. I made some mini vanilla cupcakes decorated with sugar sprinkles. I also made some normal sized cupcakes and spread some chocolate glaze on it. Rather tasty I must admit! Half the mini cupcakes were devoured immediately after baking them and the rest were polished off later that night when my parents, my two brothers and their families popped round for cupcakes!


The next day, the kids asked if they could have Brownies! Other than the fact that they "just felt like having brownies", they also wanted to take some to school for their break time too. How can a Daddy say no to a request from his kids? So I proceeded to make brownies on Sunday.


Later that night, I cut a large piece of brownie, zapped it in the microwave for a little bit and then placed a scoop of vanilla ice cream over it and served it to the kids. Sometimes presentation does make a difference and they were thrilled to have it served "just like in the restaurants".


I love my brownies with ice cream too and although I did make this for the kids, I am glad that they asked me to make it as I could indulge as well!!

Chocolate Brownies

Chocolate Brownies are without a doubt one of my children's favourite cakes. My son used to love taking it to kindergarten for his snack time and my daughter just cant get enough! They love their brownies so much that no birthday is complete without Chocolate Brownies. It's just one of those Must Haves!

This batch of brownies was made for Sarah's 4th Birthday. Fortunately for the kids, Chocolate Brownies are not limited to birthdays. They love eating these delectable, chocolatey morsels with a bowl of ice cream, maybe with a glass of milk or simply on its own.

This is my recipe for Chocolate Brownies:

Ingredients:
250gm butter
2 cups caster sugar
4 eggs
2 tsp vanilla
3/4 cup cocoa
1 cup flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
100g walnuts - chopped
100g chocolate chips

Method
Melt butter and let cool. Beat melted butter with sugar till nicely combined. Add in eggs one at a time and continue to beat until creamy.
Sift flour with bakign powder. Fold into cream mixture. Add in cocoa and mix well. Stir in vanilla, nuts and choc chips. Mix well
spread into a greased and lined rectangular pan and bake in a preheated 170C oven for 40 mins or till done.

The idea of arranging the brownies in a pyramid came from the Lovely Wife. Apparently "Nigella does it this way." I'm wondering when my wife got to be on first name basis with Nigella Lawson...



These brownies are very moist and chocolatey. The crust on top is nice and crunchy too. Most people dont believe that I only use cocoa in the mix and not melted chocolate. As I said earlier, the kids love these brownies and can eat them at any time of the day. The brownies never last too long as both The Lovely Wife and I also stuff our faces with it.


I think my daughter sums up these brownies the best. While stuffing her face she will announce "Daddy, I dont Like your brownies... I LOVE them!"