Wednesday, February 14, 2007

Coconut brownies for your Valentine



Valentine's Day hasn't really caught off in Estonia, unless you count the piles of red boxes of chocolate in supermarkets. I'm with Molly here - I prefer romance in small quantities, on a daily basis, if possible :) However, I'm also a chocoholic, so any excuse for eating chocolate is good for me. The imminent arrival of Valentine's day was a good excuse to bake a chocolate cake last weekend. I chose a recipe for chocolate brownies from an Australian booklet, Sweet & Simple: Chocolate (Australian Women's Weekly). I had to bake mine in a round cake tin, as I hadn't got a square one at the time (does that mean I cannot call these 'brownies' any more??). And as I wanted my coconut brownies to be really coconutty, I doubled the amount of coconut. A good idea, if I may say so myself - the resulting brownies scored high both on chocolate and coconut scale..

We had couple of slices left - simply because we made several cakes last weekend. As for leftovers, K. crumbled some into a bowl, covered with cinnamon-scented warm cherry compote and whipped cream for a simple trifle-like pudding. Also lovely..

Coconut brownies (or a simple coconut & chocolate cake)
(Kookose-šokolaadikook)
Adapted from Sweet & Simple: Chocolate (Australian Women's Weekly)
Serves 8




80 grams butter
100 grams dark chocolate (I used 72%)
300 grams soft brown sugar
180 ml water
75 grams plain flour
25 grams unsweetened cocoa powder (about 4 Tbsp)
100 grams grated coconuts
2 medium eggs, slightly whisked

Butter a 24 cm rectangular dish, line with parchment paper.
Mix butter, chocolate, sugar and water in a medium sized saucepan and heat on a medium flame until the chocolate and butter have melted and the mixture has sort of uniform consistency.
Sift flour and cocoa powder into a large bowl, whisk in the eggs and stir in the chocolate mixture. Finally, fold in the grated coconut.
Bake at 160 Celsius for about an hour, until the cake is set.
Let it cool in the dish, then cut into small squares (or slices).

Sprinkle with icing sugar and garnish with pretty coconut slices.

6 comments:

ScienceMel said...

Those sound amazing... and I think you can get away with calling them brownies even though the tin was round. =)

Evelin said...

jah, koguse kahekordistamine ongi vist kõige parem asi, mida kookoshelvestest üldset teha saab:)

Brilynn said...

It would be perfect with some coconut ice cream too!

Anonymous said...

Looks soooo good! Happy Valentines!

Paz

Anonymous said...

Hi Pille... Just wanted to say how much I enjoy your blog and drooling at the recipes.... Though I cannot try out most of the recipes you blog about( I don't have an oven :( ), I still like to come here just to see what you are cooking... Thank you and keep blogging... :)
Joyce

Pille said...

Sciencemel - I've now bought a special brownie-tin, so next time I don't have to worry about my non-square brownies:)

Evelin - võib-olla tõesti. Kuidas Sinu suhe kookoshelvestesse on? Ma kasutan kookospiima väga meelsasti, aga nt need ülimagusad kookoskommid (Ferrero Rocher ja Bounty'd) ei lähe üldse peale..

Brilynn - indeed! I still remember the fantastic coconut ice cream I had in Edinburgh a while ago.

Paz - happy Valentine's to you, too!!

Joyce - welcome to my blog:) I've lived in places without ovens, and it was hard to a baking-fan like me. I guess I must include some no-oven recipes?