Chocolate Brownies with dulche de leche and pecan nuts

Chocolate Brownies with dulche de leche and pecan nuts

I hope you have time to spare for me and my chocolate?

Have you ever felt that since were grown up now life has lost its magic? That somehow our guardian angels (if ever you believe they exist) have left or abandoned us? This was the topic that I had with my youngest sister, those rare occasions that I see her online. A person of few words as we often describe her, but online she metamorphoses into a talkative person that is much approachable that is easier to communicate with.

As we were saying, how things could be so ironic that when we were kids our life was in reality was a harsher life. But we never perceived it that way. Life always finds solution to our small worries. We were craving for ice-cream and there we found that shiny coin that fell from whosever pocket to the ground. It was raining outside we couldn’t play we drew images of sun on the floor then the mighty sun appears and the rain suddenly stops. There was this time we needed to bring frogs for our science project and it rained so hard it flooded even inside our house. And you probably guessed what happened next. Dozens of frogs were swimming in our living room, catching them wasn’t so hard after all. Oh And that day that we all had that big exam on Math (the subject we hated the most) and that we prayed so hard to avoid it. Next thing we knew there was a big typhoon and classes we’re suspended. How I wish things right now were a lot easier like before.

I am happy that I had that chat with my sister yesterday. Honestly since our dad passed away (not so long ago) we never really confronted the void he left on us. We all tried to live a normal life and deliberately avoided this emptiness and sadness. I guess it’s just really hard to realize we are grown up persons now on our own. A grown up person that needs to maturely face the cruel realities of life

That is why eating chocolate a lot of time is highly advisable for it wakes up the childness on us. This is my entry to Lore’s Original Recipes.

And by the way I’m sending three slices of this brownies virtually to 3 Pinay bloggers that I want to cheer up: Kala (lost in translation somewhere in the Middle East), to Makis (giving tutorials without electric fan that’s cruel!) and to Haze (building her cement factory in Corsica). Go girls!!

Chocolate Brownies with dulche de leche and pecan nuts

125 g (4 oz) of butter
125 g (4 oz) of dark chocolate
2 eggs
1 cup caster sugar
1 cup plain flour
2 tablespoons of selfraising flour
3/4 cup of chopped pecan nuts (leave some unchopped to decorate your brownies)
4 tablespoons of dulche de leche
I suggest go and check Gloria's recipe (Canela's Kitchen) she is the best dulche de leche maker I know!!

Put butter and chocolate in a saucepan over very low heat and stir until mixture becomes homegenous. Place eggs and sugar in a bowl and beat until mixture is pale and thick. Fold the chocolate mixture, sifted flour and pecan nuts. Mix well. Grease your square cake pan and pour the first layer with chocolate mixture. Add a layer of a dulche de leche on the layer and put the remaining chocolate mixture. See to it that the dulche de leche still floats on the surface. Decorate the surface with some pecan nuts. Bake in a preheated oven at 180° for about 20 to 30 minutes. I normally prepare my brownies a day before, keep them in the fridge and cut them once they have really cooled off.

Try my other chocolate recipes :
Nutella Tiramisu with Dulche de leche
Chocolate Mousse
Pecan nuts and Maple syrup Tart

Pecan nuts and Maple Syrup Tart: honey in the kitchen

Creamy and crumbly on the mouth, pecan nuts and maple syrup tart

As our vacation approaches hubby gets excited even more everyday like a kid. Before I met him I never really see the importance of the word "vacation". Probably because I grew up in a tropical country where everyday is set in vacation ambiance: sun, sand, beaches and coconut trees :-) Infact, I never imagined that French people can be obsessed (? I am not sure if it's the right word) on the number of weeks of vacations they can have. Considering the fact they are only working 35 hours a week, no Sunday work (even for the service industry) plus a total of six weeks of vacation in a year. Without counting the days they are on strike (which happens very often) as this is their favorite sport way far before tour de France or football :-) (oops just kidding). He always tells me its his hard earned reward for working diligently.

Anyways, as we were pulling our luggages stocked on the top of our closet we couldn’t helped but chat about the last vacation we had in Canada. We were so much engulfed by our conversation that we decided to stop what we were doing and look instead at our photo album. We spend the entire afternoon talking about all our happy memories, funny anecdotes and delicious food tripping in Canada. That day we decided to bake the sweetest memory left of this vacation, maple syrup tart.

Our complice in this sweet adventure

Pecan nuts and Maple Syrup Tart
for the pastry:
250 g of flour
100 g of butter
½ tsp of salt
3 tbsps of water

for the garniture :
500 ml of maple syrup
400 ml heavy fresh cream
2 tbsps of cornflour
½ tsp of vanilla extract
30 g of pecan nuts

Start by preparing the dough. In a bowl mix with your hands the butter cut in small cubes. Add salt and the water little by little. work on the dough until it becomes smooth. Form a ball and keep it covered and let it stand for an hour. While waiting for the dough, In a casserole mix the maple syrup and heavy cream and let it boil. Add the cornflour by diluting it in a tablespoon of water before adding up in the maple syrup-cream mixture. Simmer over low fire for 15 minutes until the mxiture thickens. Add the vanila extract and turn off the fire. Cook the dough first at 180° celsius for ten minutes. Then add the pecan nuts and pour over the syrup mixture. Cook slowly for 40 minutes

For my French readers, the french version of this delicieuse recette is here: http://www.lesfoodies.com/news/recette/tarte-au-sucre-derable-et-noix-pecan