Barcelona Brownies

The Barcelona Brownies came off pretty smoothly...except for the little problem of forgetting to spray the pans before putting in the batter. With the slick silicone and the flexibility, though, all but one came out in (mostly) one piece.

The recipe was pretty straightforward--the main difference in the base recipe from my default scratch brownies (Fannie Farmer, of the vintage my mother had when I started cooking and baking) is the addition of cocoa powder and a little cream cheese to the batter. What made these special was using the financier molds to get individual finger-sized brownies, and then using the Brownie Puddle (that's the video link) technique of punching holes in the hot brownies and adding ganache until the brownies cool and quit absorbing it. I'd made the Brownie Puddle Tart from the Pie and Pastry Bible a while ago to great acclaim though I seem to have failed to blog about it, or even photograph it. I see that Rose noted that the Barcelona Brownie recipe is the same as the Brownie Puddle recipe, cut down for the financier molds instead of a tart pan.

Notes: remember to spray the pans first and you can avoid all these ragged edges. :) Mine took a lot longer to bake than the recipe said, which I can only attribute to variations in silicone molds. Piping the batter into the financier molds definitely was the way to go, though my large Ateco fabric pastry bag may never lose its tinge of brown from the chocolate. Piping was also best for the ganache--we tried it with spoons for the brownie puddle (I had a niece and a friend of hers helping that day, as I recall) and it was, shall we say, not easy.

Taste testers all liked the brownies, though there were 4 votes to serve them with whipped cream. OK, take that with a grain of salt, because 2 of those voters would want to serve almost anything with whipped cream. A glass of milk is plenty to cut the chocolate intensity, if need be.

Younger niece and I had seconds the day after I baked them, and we both thought the texture and flavor had improved. Good luck waiting, though!