Barcelona Brownie Bars

Rose's Heavenly Cakes, page 367, Barcelona Brownie Bars

Recipe can also be found at Rose Levy's website.

I'm so envious of the 10 heavenly cake bakers who got Rose Levy's autographed book! They are so lucky! Congrats to all of you & you know who you are! ;) I wish i can get Rose's autograph too! I wonder if she can autograph on a piece of paper/postcard, mail to me and i paste it on my current book?? o_O ;P

I didn't have the Lekue silicone brownie mold mentioned in the book. I went all over town to look for similar silicone cake pans but they were all out of stock! :( I wanted to order online but realised it wouldn't arrive on time since it will probably take at least 2 weeks to reach Asia. So, in the end, i baked the brownies in a mini heart-shaped pans instead.

I mixed the batter using the Hand Method provided in the book. Baked the brownies for only 10mins since my heart shaped pans are much smaller and at a lower than stated oven temp of 150C (dark-colored pan absorbed more heat). I used my faux-ivory chopsticks to poke through the centre of the brownies. Initially i used the wooden one (the long huge ones i use for cooking) but the soft brownie centre kept getting stuck to the chopstick, so i got fedup and used the plastic one instead. Thereafter, I piped the ganache into the centre of brownies, but since i had lots of ganache left, i coated the top of the brownies with ganache as well.

Will the Heavenly Cake Bakers group flip if i mention again that i don't really like pecan nuts..o_O :p!? In case you all are wondering, i do eat nuts but just not walnuts, pecan nuts & pine nuts (that's all i can think of at the moment...lol!). Hence I am not sure if i bought a packet of rancid pecan nuts or if i didn't roast them long enough or it is just how pecan nuts is. To me, the nuts have this very distinct "oily nut" taste that seems to overwhelm the chocolate in the brownies, hence another reason why i coated the top of the brownies with more ganache. My family enjoyed the brownies, but they too did mention the weird taste in the pecan nuts. But since i hardly eat pecan nuts, i can't tell if it is rancid (but i just bought the nuts and expiry is only a year later!) or it is just how pecan nuts taste like..? *shrugs*

To get unbias opinion, i brought the brownies to office next morning for tasting. Well, my boss said there's nothing wrong with the brownies or the pecan nuts and he said it's very good. My office colleague who ate a piece liked the brownies and confirmed that it is the distinct flavor of pecan nuts. Again, even for my dislike for pecan nuts, i did eat a few pieces and i have to admit i love the soft & moist texture of the brownies. It's not overly sweet and it complements well with the chocolate ganache. I would definitely bake the brownies again but minus the pecan nuts..:p

For the next cake - the apple-upside-down-cake..i'm sooo gonna use almonds! LOL!