Monday, Day 1, WeightWatchers Bid Number 145
(Points permissible per day: 20)
8am, breakfast:
2 slices Irrewarra Sourdough casalinga, no butter (2 points)
1/4 avocado (approx 1.5 points)
salt, pepper
1 cup Irish Breakfast tea with low-fat organic milk (.5 points)
10.30am, morning tea:
1 Pink Lady apple (1 point)
1 cup coffee with low-fat organic milk (1.5 points)
1pm, lunch:
Homemade vegetable and Polish sausage soup (approx 4.5 points)
2.30pm:
Creamed butter and sugar clinging to Sunbeam Mixmaster beaters (7 points)
Brownie mixture left in Sunbeam Mixmaster bowl (10 points)
4.30pm:
Orange pecan brownie(s) plus crumbs (12 points)
11.30pm:
Orange pecan brownie (15 points—going to bed with a full stomach)
A declaration that may offend: I’ve always been ambivalent about chocolate. I always choose a fruit-based dessert over a chocolate one. Popcorn beats a choc-top at the cinema any day. My preferred junk food is fries or chips. (Shhhh...)
The combination of chocolate and orange, though, is quite another thing. Chocolate and orange mousse cake. Dark chocolate and orange tart with toasted almonds. Orange peel covered in dark chocolate. Chocolate Almond-Orange Cake. Boyajian orange oil truffles. I'm interested then, in the emotive debate that rages on the letters’ page of April’s Waitrose Food Illustrated magazine.
Under the headline ‘Agent Orange’:
‘I can only describe the combination of chocolate and orange as rancid.’ Jannah Britt-Green, Harpenden, Hertfordshire
‘Together, they repulse me.’ Samantha Craig, Great Malvern, Worcestershire
‘I’ve had to squash my feelings about this terrifying combination for some time.’ Joanne Coleman, London W3
‘It should be considered criminal.’ Charlotte Jones, London SW20
I tend to agree with Mary Grant, of Tilehurst, Reading, from a chorus of letter-page dissenters, who says:
‘Get a grip. If you must get in a rage, let it be over something more important than chocolate orange cake.’
The debate seems to have been sparked by a recipe for a chocolate orange cake in the previous edition of the magazine from Sophie Grigson, daughter of Jane and a great food writer. (I still have clippings of her old column in The Independent stashed away somewhere.)
Besides, there’s a fine, if mass-produced, tradition of the chocolate-and-orange combination. Think of Allens Jaffas, the iconic Australian confectionery of red-food-dye-covered chocolate balls, rolled down cinema aisles for decades, and Terry’s Chocolate Oranges, a ‘unique shaped ball made with real orange oil’. At the other end of the scale, the venerable Swiss brand Lindt is currently heavily advertising its new chocolate-orange product, I think called Excellence Orange. On a page headlined ‘Guilty Pleasures’ in the same Food Illustrated as the chocolate-orange argument, there’s a recipe for ‘Chocolate orange croque’: ‘Butter two slices of brioche and grate 4 segments of Terry’s Chocolate Orange onto the unbuttered side of one slice. Sandwich together and fry both sides. Press with a spatula until melted. Serve with crème fraiche.' (Incidentally, the recipe for Chocolate orange croque comes under one titled ‘Nigella’s deep-fried Bounty bars with pineapple’. Perhaps those letter writers should have held their adjectival fire for something more deserving.)
Alison Wall, pastry chef at Mo Mo restaurant in Melbourne, puts the chocolate-and-orange debate in context. ‘I don’t really get into milk chocolate and orange,’ she says. ‘But done with consideration, it’s a beautiful combo. I love orange and dark chocolate, which can have those really tropical overtones.’ She points to dark chocolates such as Valrhona's Manjari that ‘get a sort of tanginess in the top register that goes beautifully with orange’. She confesses also, to sneaking a little of the Belgian orange liqueur Mandarine Napoleon into chocolate petit pots.
My orange and chocolate indulgence is a recipe that's humble enough for my modest pastry skills to master, but still has a flash of brilliance. The basic brownie recipe is drawn from English food writer Nigel Slater’s delicious new book, The Kitchen Diaries (Fourth Estate, 2006) and then embellished. I've done it once with pistachios and the zest of three oranges; another time with freshly cracked pecans, the zest of four oranges and, as an experiment, about quarter of a teaspoon of finely diced Guangdong Jiabao Group Corp preserved mandarin peel discovered at the back of the pantry and bought during a trip to southern China. Each time, a luscious result—the second time, cooked for less time, even more so, the citrus tones offereing a lovely, lifted note.
It occurs to me that for a kooky result, you could add Allens Jaffas as well or instead of the orange zest. Or, to be a little haughtier, try Boyajian Pure Orange Oil. It’s tricky to get the cooking time right. I find it needs more than 30 minutes but too much more and you risk burning it.
Oh, and who else was going to lick those beaters?
Orange Pecan Brownies
300g golden caster sugar
250g butter
250g chocolate (70% cocoa solids)
3 large eggs, plus 1 extra egg yolk
60g plain flour
60g finest chocolate cocoa powder
½ teaspoon baking powder
1 cup shelled pecan or pistachio nuts
Zest of four oranges
You will need a baking tin, about 23cm square, preferably non-stick, or a small roasting tin. Set the oven at 180 degrees. Line the bottom of the baking tin with baking parchment. Put the sugar and butter into the bowl of a food mixer and beat for several minutes, till white and fluffy. You can do this by hand if you have to, but you need to keep going until the mixture is really soft and creamy.
Meanwhile, break the chocolate into pieces, set 50g of it aside and melt the rest in a bowl suspended over, but not touching, a pan of simmering water. As soon as the chocolate is completely melted, remove it from the heat. Chop the remaining 50g into gravel-sized pieces.
Break the eggs into a small bowl and beat them lightly with a fork. Sift together the flour, cocoa and baking powder and mix in a pinch of salt. With the machine running slowly, introduce the beaten egg a little at a time, speeding up between additions. Remove the bowl from the mixer to the work surface and mix in the melted and the chopped chocolate with a large metal spoon. Add the nuts and orange zest. Lastly, use a large stainless steel spoon to fold in the flour and cocoa mixture, gently, firmly, without knocking any of the air out.
Scrape the mixture into the prepared cake tin, smooth the top and bake for 30 minutes. The top will have risen slightly and the cake will appear slightly softer in the middle than around the edges. Pierce the centre of the cake with a fork; it should come out sticky but not with raw mixture attached to it. If it does, then return the brownie to the oven for three more minutes. It is worth remembering that it will solidify a little on cooling, so if it appears a bit wet, don’t worry. Leave to cool for at least an hour before cutting into squares. Enough for 12.
