Dulce de Leche Brownies

Well if you have already made Dulce de Leche, then you have got to make Dulce de Leche brownies! These brownies are fudgy, chocolatey and the Dulce de leche toffee like pieces in between make them incredibly tempting, it is difficult to stop just after one brownie.

(Recipe adapted from David Lebovitz)
Ingredients:

115g unsalted butter cut into pieces
170 g semisweet chocolate, finely chopped
25 g cocoa powder
3 large eggs
180 g granulated sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
140 g plain flour
1 cup of Dulce de Leche (but if you are like me and love Dulce de Leche, you might want to use more than a cup!)
You can throw in about half a cup of roasted. chopped walnuts as well.

1. Pre heat oven to 175 ˚C fan oven.
2. Line a 20cm square or about a medium rectangular baking tin with foil and grease the foil all the way from bottom up to the sides with some butter.
3. Melt the cubed butter in a sauce pan and add the chocolate pieces, stir on low heat till all the chocolate melts. Remove from heat and whisk in the cocoa powder.
4. Add the eggs one at a time and whisk them in.
5. Add sugar, vanilla extract and flour and mix it in. Do not over mix, just enough to get a smooth batter.
6. Pour in half the batter into the prepared foil lined tin. Add dollops of a third of the Dulce de Leche and use a knife or a skewer to swirl it around. Now pour in the rest of the brownie batter and then top it with dollops of the rest of the Dulce de Leche and swirl again.

1. Bake in the pre heated oven for 35-40 minutes. Do not over bake or the brownie will come out dry.You can check it with a skewer, it should come out with a few crumbs stuck to it.
2. Cool and cut into squares.These brownies keep for 2-3 days.

Thanks for stopping by and please leave comments below.

Cookie Oreo Fudge Brownie

Cookie oreo fudge brownie topped with ice cream-yumm

I had made this a while ago and it had been lost among the several batches of biscotti and breads I had been making for the last couple of months. It is a delicious combination, an indulgent dessert and is so easy to make. Layering a cookie with a brownie seems to be such a simple idea; it is surprising it is not done very often. May be because this combination does not have a name? What will you call it, a brookie or a crownie??  Well, it is such a versatile cakey thing to make- the crunch of cookie, the fudgey chewiness of brownie; throw in some nuts, the indulgence of chocolates, endless possibilities!

The recipe is adapted from Kevinandamanda.com and bbcgoodfood.com. For the cookie base you will need,

113 g unsalted softened butter
110 g granulated sugar
65 g light brown sugar
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla extract
262 g plain flour
½ tsp salt
½ tsp baking soda
about 100-150 g of chocolate chips- this is variable in amount and variety, you can use a mix of plain,milk , white chocolate chips.
2 packs of oreos

For the brownie you will need,
185 g unsalted butter
185 g good quality dark chocolate, chopped into pieces
85 g plain flour
40 g cocoa powder
100 g of mixed chocolate chips
3 large eggs

1. Pre-heat the oven to 170 ˚C (fan). Line a rectangular baking tin, I used a about 9” by 6 ½ “ tin, with foil and grease it with vegetable oil.
2. For the cookie layer, cream butter and sugars with an electric mixer or by hand for 3-5 minutes till it is light and fluffy.
3. Add the egg and vanilla extract and mix it in.
4. In another bowl whisk the flour, baking soda and salt. Combine this with the butter egg mixture till just mixed in and stir in the chocolate chips. Do not over mix or the cookie will become dense.
5. For the brownie, cut the butter in cubes. Set a bowl on top of a pan of water such that the bowl does not touch the water. Add the chopped chocolates and butter and melt it in the bowl above the pan of boiling water on low heat till the chocolate is melted.
6. Cool the chocolate butter mix to room temperature.
7. Sieve the flour and cocoa together and keep it aside. In another bowl, whisk the eggs and sugar till it is pale and creamy and has doubles in volume. This takes about 5-8 minutes.
8. Pour the chocolate mixture into the egg mixture and fold it in till they are combined into a smooth mixture.
9. Sift the sifted flour and cocoa again onto the chocolate+egg mixture and fold it in. Stir in the chocolate chips.
   

   Brownie mixture

10. Now to assemble, spread the cookie mix onto the prepared tin. Layer it with oreos and pour over the brownie mix.
    

    Top the cookie layer with oreos

    

    Top the oreo layer with the brownie mixture

    

    Brownie-baked

    Cover the tin with foil and bake in the pre heated oven at 170˚ C for 25-30 minutes. Remove the foil and bake for another 20-25 minutes. The brownie will have cracks on it and a skewer will come out with crumbs stuck to it. Do not over bake else the brownie will become very dry and loose its fudge like texture. Cool the cookie-brownie completely on a wire rack.

Cookie-oreo-brownie layer cut into squares

Once cooled, you can cut the cookie-brownie into squares. These are great on their own but the super indulgent way to enjoy it is of course to top it up with vanilla or chocolate ice cream, splattered with caramel or chocolate sauce with walnuts on top of it. Yummm…azing. I did not have any sauce to top but nonetheless it was divine!

Cookie oreo fudge brownie topped with ice cream and walnuts

Pistachio Ice cream (Pista Kulfi)

This pistachio ice cream is wonderfully creamy and absolutely divine. Plus it is amazing with desserts like brownies, warmed up gooey chocolate cakes, sticky toffee pudding and of course it is the ultimate late night sweet tooth craving filler and an absolute mood lifter.

I do not have an ice cream maker so it is a little bit of an effort to make the ice cream creamy. You can use evaporated milk or whole milk, I have made the ice cream with both and personally I like it made with whole milk. You will need:

½ tsp corn flour
2 tbsp milk
200ml/7¼ fl oz evaporated milk/whole milk
200ml/7¼ fl oz condensed milk
200g/7¼oz thick double cream
seeds of 2-3 cardamom pods, crushed
2 tbsp almond powder
handful of pistachios and almonds

1. In a non-stick pan heat the whole milk or the evaporated milk. Add crushed cardamom seeds. Reduce it to almost half or until it appears to get thick and creamy. Keep scrapping off the milk-skin from the sides and bottom of the pan every few minutes and putting it back in the simmering milk. This gives this ice cream the layered creamy texture. 
2. Add the condensed milk to the reduced whole milk and keep it on medium heat, stirring.
3. Mix about a table-spoon of cold milk and corn flour to form paste and add it to the milk mixture. Stir continuously and boil for a further 5-10 minutes, until the mixture is thick like custard. If it is not getting thick, add another half tsp of cornflour paste. Add the almond powder to the milk mixture.Remove from heat and bring it to room temperature.
4. Soak almonds and pistachios in warm water for few minutes and remove their skin.  Chop them and add to the thick milk mixture. This is really yummy on its own, has a toffee like flavour and can be used a sauce for cakes and puddings (its very similar now to ‘rabri‘ , an Indian sweet dish). 
5. Whisk double cream until thick and fluffy, add to the cooled milk mixture, and fold in gently. 
6. Set it in an ice cream maker if using one or else set in a container in the freezer. When making the ice cream without an ice cream maker, take the container out after an hour and whiz the mixture in food processor , it would have been semi frozen. Freeze it again and take it out and whiz it again in the processor again after 30-45 minutes. Do this at least 2-3 time- it will make the ice cream smoother. Leave it to set in the freezer.

Once set, scoop it out and enjoy!