Recipe: Fry-pan Brownie, Vanilla Ice-cream and Dried Raspberries

This is a simple, but well loved, dessert or afternoon tea that keeps very well, and tastes amazing. 


The warm, gooey, chocolate of the brownie - the cold, sweet, vanilla of the ice-cream – the intense, fruity, crunch of the dried raspberries – just amazing!

It’s a dish best served when the brownie is still warm from the pan, but can easily be made well in advance as the ice-cream and the brownie keep well. 


It also demonstrates the importance of using a small number of high-quality ingredients.

The key ingredients in this dish are: 

• the Doug’s free-range eggs; 
• Heilala vanilla beans (or vanilla paste); 
• Couverture dark cooking chocolate; 
• and the Fresh-As freeze-dried raspberries (all of which are available at Prego, of course). 
  

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Fry-Pan Brownie

Ingredients

• 300g Couverture dark chocolate
  
• 30g Milk chocolate
  
• 75g butter
  
• 85g soft brown sugar
  
• 120g caster sugar
  
• 3 fresh free-range eggs
  
• 1 teaspoon Heilala pure vanilla bean paste (or the scraped-out seeds from 3 vanilla beans)
  
• 55g flour
  
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
  
• 1/2 teaspoon sea salt
  
• 40g (1 packet) Fresh As whole dried raspberries
  

Method

• Preheat oven to 180°C.
  
• Melt the butter with 220g of the dark chocolate.
  
• Combine the brown sugar, caster sugar and eggs and whisk until fluffy. 
  
• To the egg mixture, add the 1 teaspoon vanilla bean paste. 
  
• Sift together the flour, baking powder and sea salt. 
  
• Add the melted dark chocolate and butter to the egg mixture and fold in the sifted flour mixture. 
  
• Chop the remaining dark chocolate and the milk chocolate into small pieces and fold this through the mixture, then fold in 3/4 of the dried raspberries. 
  
• Line 2  x 20cm fry pans with baking paper and bake in the 180°C oven for approximately 20 - 25 minutes.
  

 

Vanilla Ice-Cream

Ingredients 

• 6 fresh free-range egg yolks
  
• 125g caster sugar
  
• 400ml milk
  
• 1 Heilala vanilla bean, split (or ½ teaspoon vanilla paste)
  
• 300ml thick cream (48% fat content)

Method

• Place the egg yolks and sugar in a large mixing bowl and beat with electric hand beater until thick and pale. Place the milk in a saucepan, scrape the seeds from the vanilla bean and add to the milk with the pod, then heat over medium heat until scalding point. Remove from heat and set aside to infuse for 10 minutes. Discard the vanilla pod and reheat milk to scalding point, then strain over the egg mixture and beat until just combined. Return the mixture to a clean saucepan and place over low heat. Cook, stirring constantly, until the custard thickens enough to coat the back of a wooden spoon - don't allow it to boil (this can take up to 20 minutes).
  
  
• Pour the custard into a bowl and sit over a bowl of ice, stirring until cool. Cover the surface of the custard with plastic wrap to prevent a skin from forming and place in the fridge to chill completely. Once cold, whisk the cream into the custard until well combined, then pour into a shallow plastic container, cover and freeze until frozen at the edges (this can take up to 1.5 - 2 hours)
  
  
• Remove the ice-cream from the freezer, beat with electric hand beater until smooth, then return to the freezer. Repeat this step 2 or 3 more times (beating the ice-cream prevents the formation of ice crystals). Alternatively, churn the mixture in an ice-cream machine to manufacturer's instructions.
  

To Serve

Sprinkle the remaining dried raspberries on top of the brownie and serve with vanilla bean ice-cream straight from the fry pan.

The remaining brownie should be allowed to cool, then cling-wrapped and stored in an air-tight container for up to a week.