Recipe > Baking
Chocolate, Coconut and Cardamon Brownie
This has to be the sexiest brownie ever. Live it, love it, taste it, even do the wild thing with it.

And what's more its too easy to make. Truly a perfect recipe.

Serves...no, no, no! You're really trying to tell me you're willing to share this?

Ingredients
240g / 8.5oz butter or margarine
225g / 8oz dark chocolate
1 Tblsp vanilla essence
5 cardamon pods
2 Limes, juice and zest of
110g / 4oz desiccated coconut
340g / 12oz caster sugar
4 eggs
55g / 2oz plain flour
Pinch of salt

Mise-en-Place:
Preheat the oven to gas mark 3 / 170°C / 325°F
Line a baking sheet or roasting tray with non-stick baking parchment
Weigh all the ingredients
Zest and juice the lime
Crack the cardamon seeds open with the flat of a knife. Remove the seeds and discard the empty husks
Lightly beat the eggs

Method:
Either in the microwave or in a double boiler:
Melt the chocolate with the butter, vanilla, lime and cardamon.

When the chocolate mix has completely melted, remove from the heat.
Mix in the coconut
Beat in the sugar
Slowly mix in the beaten egg, bit-by-bit
Beat in the flour
Pour the mix into the prepared baking tray
Bake in the preheated oven for 25-30 minutes
To test if the brownie is cooked, insert a skewer or knife. If the knife, when pulled out, is wet with uncooked brownie mix return to the oven for another 5 minutes. If the knife or skewer is dry, the brownie is cooked.
Leave to cool for 20 minutes before cutting

Where you went wrong:
Odd texture: You added too much egg to the cake at once / You added cold eggs
Burnt: Oven temperature too high / Left for too long in the oven
Uncooked batter: Not cooked for long enough / You used a baking tray that was too deep and not wide enough

Presentation:
To remove the brownie from the baking tray:
Wait until the brownie is cool
Use a palate knife to release the brownie edges and corners from the baking tray
Place a chopping board or tray over the baking tray
Flip the tray over
'Bang' or strike the baking tray to encourage the brownie to drop
Remove the baking tray
The brownie should now be resting upside down upon the chopping board or tray
Place another tray or chopping board upon the brownie
Flip the brownie so that it now sits the right way up
Use a cookie cutter or mould to cut the brownie
Or if you prefer rectangles use a sharp knife to cut the brownie
To enrich the brownie apply a layer of ganache or icing to the brownie

Chef Insight: Cardamon, cardamom or cardamome is the seed of a plant native to the south of India. Cardamon is exceptionally expensive because it is a spice that is only suitable for harvest by hand. The middle east is the world's largest consumer of cardamon where it is used to season coffee