One evening, on my way home after work, I visited Tifa, a chocolate cafe down the road from school. This is not an ordinary candy shop such as See's, Fannie Mae's or Godiva. Tifa is seriously devoted to chocolates from all over the world, many with unusual flavor combinations. There are tables and chairs that invite you to linger and savor your purchases. They even have tasting parties available, something I have yet to experience.
Besides chocolate bars and candies, Tifa serves coffees, hot chocolate and drinking chocolate. It was the drinking chocolate that sent me to heaven. You select a particular chocolate (I chose a dark chocolate laced with cardamom), then the barrista stirs the freshly-grated chocolate into hot cream and pours it into a demitasse cup. It's so rich, you need a spoon to consume it. I thought the cardamom married so well with the chocolate that tonight I baked a batch of brownies with the spice and, well, it turned out exquisitely.
BROWNIES WITH CARDAMOM
2 ounces unsweetened chocolate
8 ounces unsalted butter
1 cup organic sugar
2 eggs
3/4 cup unbleached flour
1/2 t ground cardamom
Preheat your oven to 350 degrees F.
Melt the chocolate and butter in a medium-size saucepan. Whisk in the sugar, then the eggs, one at a time, until thoroughly blended. Sift the flour over the chocolate mixture one quarter cup at a time, stirring after each addition until blended. Stir in the cardamom. Turn into a buttered 8-inch square metal baking pan. Bake for 20 t0 25 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out dry and clean. Cool on a wire rack. Cut into 16 squares and store in an air-tight container.
No comments:
Post a Comment