Chocolate and Marshmallow Brownies

So it's a brand new year and thus begins a brand new set of dessert challenges over at Lady Behind the Curtain.  There are certainly some interesting ones coming up, that's for sure (bacon and maple?!).  Anyway, this month starts us off with something fairly simple: chocolate pudding (or cocoa) and marshmallows.  Admittedly, I was not entirely sure what it meant by 'chocolate pudding' so I opted for the cocoa option.

I decided I to kill two birds with one stone with this bake.  Not only would it be my challenge bake but it would also be the bake that I would give to my friend Jess when I saw her on Saturday.  I know Jess likes brownies so that seemed like an ideal choice for both categories.  What did we do Saturday?  Well, we went to see The Lion King in Edinburgh!  It was so cool!  All the costumes and singing.  I was grinning like an idiot throughout the whole thing.  Jess also brought along the other part of my Christmas present which was a handmade doll of one of my characters.  It's amazing!  It has bendy hands and removable clothes and is just wonderful!  So I felt extra guilty as I did a very stupid thing and forgot to bring the brownies with me!  They were made and bagged up and everything.  I just didn't take them out of the fridge and put them in my bag in the morning.  I only realised when I was sitting in Kirkcaldy station waiting for the train.  Very stupid of me indeed!  So I posted them to her first thing Monday morning and she got to enjoy them Tuesday instead.  Better late than never I suppose.

The idea for these was sparked by the idea of hot-chocolate, since cocoa and marshmallows invokes that image.  So I could make chocolate brownies and have marshmallows on top.  But when I think hot-chocolate, I also think cream.  The classic image comes with a lovely swirl of cream on top of the drink upon which the marshmallows sit.  But I didn't want to put cream on the brownies but there should be something to represent it.  That's when I stumbled across Love and Olive Oil's Peppermint Bark Brownies (thank you Pinterest), with their layer of white chocolate on top.  That would be perfect!  Plus the brownie recipe itself looked to be a good one to work with, with a little tweaking so it wasn't peppermint of course.

Now, someone out there may remember that I am not a brownie aficionado.  I do not like them and hence have not really baked them.  I did make one attempt at blondies last year but ended up with something more akin to cakes due to making a mistake with my choice of flour.  This meant I was a little apprehensive going in to this bake, and throughout as I had no idea what each stage should look like.  However, there didn't seem to be any disasters and when the brownies came out and were cut up I thought they looked right (very compacted and moist looking).  

Turns out they taste really good too.  The fiancé says I always bake well with chocolate and that all the parts melded together well.  And I got very excitable texts from Jess saying how yummy they are and that she had already eaten a number of them.

Recipe - adapted from Love and Olive Oil

Makes 18

Brownies:

• 115g/4oz milk chocolate
• 115g/4oz dark chocolate
• 115g/4oz butter
• 85g/3oz plain flour
• 2 tbsp cocoa powder
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 125g/4.5oz caster sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1 tsp vanilla extract 

Topping:

• 170g/6oz white chocolate
• 1.5 tbsp vegetable margarine / vegetable shortening (I used Stork)
• 150g/5oz small marshmallows

1. Preheat the oven to 180°C/350°F/Gas Mark 4 and grease and line a 20cm/8inch square cake tin with baking parchment, making sure to leave a slight overhang so you can lift it out later.
2. Break up the chocolate and cut the butter into cubes.
3. Place a medium sized glass bowl over a pan of gently simmering water (without letting the bowl touch the water) and melt the chocolate and butter together, stirring occasionally.
4. Meanwhile, sift together the flour, cocoa powder and salt into a small bowl and put to one side.
5. When the chocolate and butter are completely melted, whisk them until smooth and remove from the heat
6. Whisk the sugar into the chocolate mix until it has dissolved and the mixture has cooled slightly.
7. Add the eggs and vanilla extract and whisk until just combined.
8. Add the flour mix and gently fold in using a rubber spatula until incorporated.
9. Pour the batter into the prepared tin.
10. Bake for 25-30 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean.
11. Transfer the pan to a wire rack and allow to cool completely.
12. Melt the white chocolate and margarine/shortening together in a glass bowl placed over a pan of gently simmering water.  Be careful not to overheat it so stir once in a while to keep the temperature down.
13. Remove from the heat before completely melted and stir until it finishes melting.
14. Spread over the top of the cooled brownies in a thin, even layer.
15. Decorate with marshmallows.
16. Chill in the fridge overnight.
17. Remove the brownies from the pan and use a large knife to cut them into 9 squares.  Cut each of these squares in half diagonally so that you end up with 18 triangles.