We’re living through very strange times. With a pandemic sweeping the globe and entire countries on shut down, everyone’s spending significantly more time indoors. Based on my social feeds this means that people seem to be baking a whole lot more often. I’ve joined the masses in making my own sourdough starter, made vegan cookie dough that’s portioned off into batches and popped in the freezer, even tried making fresh pasta for the first time. All in all, I’ve been spending a significant time in the kitchen. It’s been a good way of escaping from staring at a screen while I’m tried indoors, but also being practical at the same time. It feels like a good time to get a few posts up too.
This is actually a recipe I baked long before all of this kicked off. It’s one I’ve had in the back of my mind, ready to be blogged if I ever got round to getting back writing. After buying the fantastic new Meera Sodha book ‘East’ at the tail end of 2019, I found a recipe for Miso Brownies. Now, hers are a little more involved than these, using flax seeds, but the concept sounded fantastic so it was something I wanted to try.
Using miso for something dense and fudge-y like a brownie is excellent. It adds to that fudge-like texture but also gives an additional caramel-like flavour to the brownie. Miso’s something you may have picked up as an additional long-life extra when you were at a supermarket, or for one individual recipe. This bake should help give you some ideas for other uses too, like miso mac and cheese, or miso caramel.
So what’s everyone been baking lately?
Miso Brownies
Ingredients
- 115 g Unsalted butter
- 115 g Dark chocolate (70%)
- 2 Eggs large
- 1 Egg white from a large egg
- 300 g White granulated sugar
- 2 tbsp Miso the type doesn’t really matter
- 1 tsp Vanilla extract
- 110 g Plain flour
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 180°C(160°C fan assisted) and line a 9x9inch square tin with baking paper.
- While the oven’s heating up, melt the chocolate and butter together. Do this by placing a heatproof bowl over a pan of simmering water. Don’t let the bottom of the bowl touch the water and stir until the butter and chocolate have melted together.
- Leave this mixture somewhere cool a little while you do the rest.
- In the bowl of an electric stand mixer, or using an electric whisk, beat together the eggs, egg white and sugar. This will take a while, so a stand mixer will be best. Whisk for 7-10 minutes. The mixture will have gone pale and yellow. If you pick some up on the whisk and dribble it across the top, it should take a couple of seconds for the line to disappear. This step is essential for getting the properly crispy meringue-like top.
- Stir through the miso and the vanilla.
- Carefully stir through the chocolate and butter mixture, making sure you don’t knock much air out.
- Carefully stir through the flour, again making sure you don’t knock the air out.
- Transfer the mixture to the prepared tin, and place in the middle shelf of your preheated oven.
- Bake for 17-22 minutes. You want the top to have crisped up and for there to be just a little jiggle when you wobble the tray.
- Place the tin on a cooling rack and allow to cool completely, and set, before serving.
