Regular readers will know that I’m quite partial to the occasional brownie, and when it comes to favourites, I’m a big a fan of Paul A Young’s interpretation. Specifically, his Simnel Brownie with marzipan is still one of my all time favourite food creations, although it’s sadly no longer made.
Technically though, you could argue that Paul’s brownies aren’t brownies at all. They contain so little flour that they’re more like a dense, gooey block of ganache than a traditional brownie. But frankly, I don’t care. Rules are there to be broken and I love that moist, sticky gooeyness.
I’m always a bit wary when other companies want to send brownies for review. In my eyes, they’re really as nice and they’re nowhere near as gooey. So when I opened these two tray bake boxes of brownies from Galeta, I was very pleasantly surprised.
I was sent a tray (15 portions in each) of both chocolate brownies and salted caramel brownies and they’re really rather good. These are clearly proper brownies with a nice crisp top, but what made them stand out for me is just how soft and gooey they are inside.
They’r deliciously moist and really very tasty. Light in texture but rich and intense in flavour, these brownies are perhaps a little sweeter and not quite as chocolatey as a Paul A Young creation. But there’s no doubting that these little treats are most definitely proper brownies. Having tried a couple of slices of each, for me it’s the salted caramel brownie that wins the day. The extra flavour from the caramel really makes the difference.
This is my first experience of Galeta, and I’m impressed with the product and service. And it just £14.95 for a whole tray of chocolate brownies, they’re pretty good value too.
Just how does one even begin to write a review of a food encyclopaedia?
Well, how about with the letter “A”. Aardvark
Not was I was expecting, it has to be said. It might be the first word in the dictionary, but it’s hardly the first thing that springs to mind when I think of food.
“How about a nice aardvark sandwich?”
No?
Although The Oxford Companion To Food doesn’t go into too much detail, it does tell me that aardvark apparently tastes of pork. So I’ve learned something right off the bat. Oh, and apparently you can eat bats too. They taste of chicken and are quite popular in Mauritius.
I like this book. I’ve learned two amazing facts even before I’ve got to the the part I came for; Chocolate.
There’s about four pages worth of information on chocolate and as it’s a subject I know a fair bit about, it’s a nice way to judge the book as a whole.
The chocolate entry starts with a few paragraphs on the botany of Theobroma Cacao, before moving on to the history; a subject it covers in significant detail in a small space. There’s a nice explanation of the chocolate making process, and the process for making chocolate from the bean is well covered, as are some common techniques for making filled chocolates and pralines. There are descriptions of chocolate types, moulding, enrobing, couverture, tempering and more. It’s all good solid information – I even learned a few things myself.
I could very easily spend a day lost in The Oxford Companion To Food; flicking to random pages and learning about gallimaufrey, milkfish and khoshab. Its 900 pages are packed with fascinating facts and random information. As someone who got into food via chocolate, it’s a great way to actually figure out what my foodie friends are talking about too.
Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have to go and read the section on cake. And zwieback.
The Third Edition of The Oxford Companion To Food is published this week RRP £40 and available to buy now Amazon for £26.
When Magnum ice cream was launched 25 years ago, it made an immediate impression on me. There was nothing else quite like it in the shops; a big chunk of vanilla ice cream on a stick, coated in a crisp layer of dark chocolate that shattered and dripped down your shirt when you took a bite. It was awesome.
In the years since my first Magnum, my tastes have changed a little and I’ve also acquired my own ice cream maker, so it’s not something I tend to buy very often any more. But as mass produced ice cream in a bulk-chocolate shell goes, it’s still pretty good and if I’m offered one for free, I rarely refuse.
Naturally, when I was offered the chance to come and “design” my own Magnum at Selfridges last week, I thought about it for all of 0.4 seconds before deciding that sounded like a very good idea indeed.
The Make My Magnum experience is a concept store on the ground floor of Selfridges in London’s Oxford Street. For £4.50 you can pick your ice cream base (a “naked” magnum in vanilla, milk, or dark chocolate ice cream) along with up to three different toppings and your choice of milk, dark or white chocolate coating.
Your naked Magnum is then dipped in the chocolate coating (being a much respected VIP chocolate blogger, I was allowed to do the dipping myself), then placed into a small cardboard box that contains the toppings as they’re sprinkled onto the Magnum.
Finally, chocolate is dribbled onto the toppings to hold them in place in the form of a small mountain. Give it a few seconds to set, and your Magnum is ready.
Yes, it’s a Magnum that you have to eat sideways as the toppings will still fall off if you hold it upright, but it kinda works. And I have to admit, it’s a kind of fun experience that brought back lots of memories of Magnums past.
The Make My Magnum pop-up will be open at Selfridges until August 30th.
Photo Gallery
In the last week, we’ve been lucky enough to attend not one but two Paul A Young events. The first was the launch of his Christmas range (more of which in a moment), but this week he is also launching a “cream tea” to coincide with National Afternoon Tea Week.
Teas are available at Paul A Young @ Heals and include a selection of teas from the Rare Tea Company, freshly baked salted caramel scones with Rodda’s Clotted Cream and Salted Caramel Sauce to spread on them.
If the thought of a full afternoon tea is too much for you, then this might be right up your street. The scones were rather delicious (despite not looking much like a traditional scone that I’m used to), and the clotted cream and caramel works surprisingly well, especially with a nice cup of tea to cut through the sweetness.
If you’re in a hurry and can’t spare time to sit down with a cup of tea, you can also get the scones, cream & caramel to go. Great if you happen to work in Central London and want something a little more indulgent for lunch – or just fancy making your fellow commuters jealous on the way home.
The tea includes your choice of truffle (I opted for the Pimms truffle), although at £12.50 per person I do think it’s a little on the high side. If you’re in the area or in need of a rest after a heavy shopping spree at Heal’s, it is a rather tasty option though.
Christmas Range
It’s always a bit strange writing about Christmas products in summer, but with the rain and gales we’ve had in London over the past week, the delicious mulled wine hot chocolate that was waiting for me at Paul A. Young’s Islington Shop was very welcome.
With the Christmas range laid out around the shop, it was difficult to know where to start, but the most striking part of the range was definitely this Advent Calendar, made of 24 individual wooden houses, each with a chocolate inside.
Not included are the white chocolate snow or giant chocolate baubles, although these may be available separately closer to Christmas. What will be definitely available to buy are smaller milk, white and dark chocolate baubles, chocolate footballs with essential citrus oils and sparkling chocolate stars.
For the grown-ups, there’s a rather tasty new fruit & nut brownie made with hazelnuts, raisins, almonds and muscovado. Paul’s “Brownie Mince Pies” are also back this year. Both of which would be fabulous with his new Rum & Salted Caramel Sauce – something which improves just about every food I’ve tried it with so far!
There’s a bit of an old-school Fruit & Nut theme to several products in the Chistmas rang, but there’s also an emphasis on Persian spices. Both themes are present in three new chunky bars; White chocolate with cardamom, pistachio, rose petal & safron; Milk chocolate with hazelnut, almonand and currants; Dark chocolate with orange essential oil and candied orange zest.
But the stars of the range have to be eight new filled chocolates, which together with the much loved salted caramel form this rather spectacular box.
They are: Persian Spice & Baberries, Rum & Tonka Bean, Brewdog Porter & Ginger Molasses Cake, Caravan Coffee & Praline, Port & Cheese, Fruit & Nut, Sweet Potato Pie, Orange Preserve With Sacred Rosehip Cup.
Phew. Quite an extensive (and very tasty) range, I’m sure you’ll agree. It’s almost enough to get me excited about Christmas… but a little bit more summer wouldn’t go amiss first!
