Jamaican Coffee Brownies with Pecans

This week, the secret ingredient for BSI is flour, an ingredient, most of us use, even the Gluten Free Blog.  The hostess for this week Veronica from Recipe Rhapsody.  That was a good choice.

Be prepared when you eat these.  They are hard to walk away from but that taste.  Coffee and chocolate are natural together but in this brownie, they compliment each other to make the best brownie.  You use fresh ground coffee to get the taste and I did not use the full amount and still it was rich with coffee flavor.

Jamaican Coffee Brownies with Pecans Bon Appétit ( adapted)

Ingredients:   My flour mix.  This makes three cups.   Rice Flour Mix:  for 3 cups 1 cup white rice flour 1 cup brown rice flour 2/3 cup potato starch 1/3 cup tapioca starch Nonstick vegetable oil spray 2 cups sugar 15 tablespoons (2 sticks minus 1 tablespoon) unsalted butter 3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder 3 tablespoons finely ground coffee beans 1/2 teaspoon salt 3 large eggs 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract 1 1/4 cups gluten free flour (above) 3/4 cup pecan pieces 1 cup bittersweet or semisweet chocolate chips (6 ounces) 6 tablespoons freshly brewed Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee 30 thin strips crystallized ginger Method: Preheat oven to 350°F. Spray 13x9x2-inch metal pan with nonstick spray. Combine sugar, butter, cocoa, ground coffee, and salt in large metal bowl. Place bowl over saucepan of simmering water and whisk until butter melts and ingredients are blended (texture will be grainy). Remove bowl from over water; cool mixture to lukewarm if necessary. Whisk in eggs and vanilla. Sift flour over and fold in. Mix in pecans. Spread batter in prepared pan. Bake brownies until tester inserted into center comes out clean, about 25 minutes. Cool brownies in pan. Place chocolate chips in small bowl. Bring brewed coffee to simmer in small saucepan; pour over chips and stir until melted and smooth. Let ganache stand until cool and beginning to thicken, about 1 hour; spread evenly over brownies. (Can be made 1 day ahead. Cover; let stand at room temperature.) Cut brownies into 15 squares. Top each with 2 ginger strips.

Corn Soup with Potatoes

This recipe originally was made with lard and ham steak but being kosher, I eliminated these from the recipe.  To give the recipe some additional flavor, lacking the “treif” ingredients, I used a frozen container of  Tyler Florence’s corn soup.
 

Corn Soup with Potatoes Bon Appétit | May 2006    This photo is a small amount of soup to show you all the delicious vegetables in it.

Yield: Makes 8 servings   1 cup chopped white onion 1/2 cup chopped red bell pepper 1/2 cup chopped green bell pepper 2 cups fresh corn kernels (cut from about 4 ears of corn) or 2 cups frozen corn kernels 1 medium Yukon Gold potato, peeled, cut into 1-inch pieces 5 cups water

The soup was delicious and I give Tyler a great deal of the credit.  This is a Caribbean recipe although I am not sure what makes it so.  I have to do some research and see if it is the corn and the peppers that give it the flavors of the Virgin Islands. I am submitting this to Super Sundays.