A few weeks back, my family came to visit me in London for the summer and I took them to Borough Market for Bread Ahead's doughnuts. While we were there, we came across a stall selling assorted chocolate truffles and my mom bought a box of strawberry balsamic flavoured ones. It was love at first taste and I set about recreating this wonderful combination of sweet and tangy to satisfy my cravings and also to use up the massive amounts of flour and sugar in the cupboard since I'll be moving out to my new place soon.
I used my favourite chewy brownie recipe here, but I ran out of dark chocolate so I substituted some of it for Guido Gobino's Giandujottino chocolates we bought from Turin (my mom was horrified and said it was a waste of expensive chocolate).
Strawberry & Balsamic Vinegar Brownies
(makes 1 batch in a 9×9 inch pan)
Strawberry & Balsamic Vinegar Jam
1 cup - Chopped up strawberries
1 tbspn - Caster sugar
4 tspn - Balsamic vinegar
1 tspn - Cornflour
~ Cook the strawberries, sugar, 2 tspn balsamic vinegar and cornflour over medium heat until the jam thickens.
~ Remove from heat and stir in the remaining 2 tspn of balsamic vinegar. Allow to cool.
Brownie Batter
115g – 72% Dark chocolate
115g – Butter
2 – Eggs
225g – Granulated sugar
1/4 tspn – Salt
2 tspn – Vanilla extract
125g – Plain flour
2 tbspn – Cocoa powder
~ Preheat the oven to 180°C. Line a pan with baking paper and ensure that the sheet extends up the sides of the pan for easy removal of the brownie after baking.
~ Break the chocolate up and melt it together with the butter in a heatproof (eg. glass) bowl that is suspended over simmering water. Ensure that the chocolate does not come into contact with water. This is to prevent the chocolate from seizing and turning into a nasty mess.
~ Once the chocolate and butter have melted, remove the bowl from the heat.
~ Add in the eggs (one at a time), granulated sugar, salt, vanilla extract, sifted plain flour and cocoa powder (and optional nuts), mixing well after each addition.
~ Pour the batter into the pan and smooth it out so that it covers the edges and corners of the pan.
~ Drop blobs of jam onto the batter and run a knife through them to create swirls.
~ Bake in the oven for 30 minutes.