Now the cat is out of the bag. Chrissie is by far the superior baker. But I hope that what I lack in skill and craftsmanship, I make up for in frequency of posts.
My sister called from the other side of the planet recently and asked what I wanted for my 23rd birthday. I know, I’m getting on a bit now. Hear that creak? It was my bones. I immediately, without question, asked if she could send me some Cherry Ripes. They are an Australian chocolate bar with a cherry and coconut filling, with a bitter, dark chocolate outer coating that cuts through the sweetness of the cherries. They are the food of the Gods, but also the [junk] food of my childhood.
Although I’m so pale, I’m almost translucent, I was born in Perth, Western Australia. Both Chrissie and I were. We are Aussie and British Citizens. In group situations, when you are forced to introduce yourself to everyone, I use that as my ‘interesting fact’. At first, the new group of people are often impressed. But then their follow-up question is “but why did you move to England?” It’s most accurate if you imagine this being said in a confused, almost accusatory tone. I try to explain that I was 8 years old when my Mum brought me to rainy, misery island – I had very little say in it. But nothing I say helps at this point; they have already deemed me mad. As a homage to my roots, I thought I would put together this brownie recipe inspired by the deliciousness of the Cherry Ripes sent to me by my sister.
You want your top to be channeling a cracked, Sahara Desert vibe.
Brace yourselves. It is a semi-original recipe. I have used Nigella Lawson’s butter to sugar to flour ratio – long may she reign. I used her recipe as a springboard, as one of sound mind and body ought to do. Nigella’s cooking books and TV shows make me feel acutely alone. I have never had to rustle up a meal for ten at a moment’s notice. I don’t think I even know ten people who I could invite round to my house. When all other brownie recipes call for the use of baking powder, Nigella bravely forgoes it. I wanted to follow her brazen disregard for culinary rules, so kept it out too. But everything else it from the dark recesses of my mind. I used coconut flour to emulate the texture and flavour of a Cherry Ripe’s innards. I also used glacé cherries because the tinned cherries I opened and drained looked so soggy and pathetic they made me feel sad – I used less caster sugar accordingly.
I have a free standing gas cooker. It has been brought back to life countless of times. It laughs in the face of specificity; it howls at the suggestion that there is a difference between 180°C and 160°C. It has two primitive settings: big flame and small flame. To make matters worse, my oven is also a giver: it throws out heat and warms the kitchen rather nicely. But it selflessly doesn’t retain much heat for itself. Hence the unhelpful cooking time of 30 mins – 1 hour. My bake took an hour, but I believe that if you have a functioning oven it should only take 30 minutes.
Makes 12 mahoosive brownies
Ingredients:
2 Cherry Ripe chocolate bars, each cut into 6 pieces
200g glacé cherries
260g high quality dark chocolate
260g salted butter
300g caster sugar
4 eggs
130g plain flour
30g coconut flour
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