It's hard to say which was the first of my happy accidents yesterday. Without a mobile phone--I forgot--or my friend's apartment number--I forgot--I was stranded on a sunny afternoon outside El Dorado Apartments, scanning the list again and again for my friend's name. I crossed out married couples and gay couples--this left me with about twenty apartments. I knew she was in one of them, expecting me. I began to ring each bell.
The unmistakable sound of an electric wheelchair came closer, accompanied by the smell of smoke, a throaty cough. Bob, a resident of El Dorado for the past thirty-three years, finished his afternoon cigarette and offered to help me find my friend.
"I have an idea," he said. He punched in his code.
"Get the door," he ordered as the buzzer sounded, putting forward a purple finger with a long, yellow nail.
Now I'm not one to follow the orders of strange, older men into their apartment buildings. But Bob, who was at least a hundred, and had no legs as far as I could see, was my only hope. We took the lift up to the second floor, to his flat, where he ordered me in to apartment 101, and dialed the manager's mobile phone. No answer.
We walked/wheeled down the halls saying my friend's name, commenting on the smells of people's cooking and volume level of their stereo. But three floors later, we still hadn't found my friend. Turns out Bob was in his late seventies, could pronounce my name right on the first try, and had an amazing collection of books. "Shut the door behind you," he shouted from the window, lighting another cigarette.
Once home, I began to wonder how I could thank Bob when I next returned to El Dorado. The urge to bake was overwhelming. So I made brownies.
After the brownies were baked and cool I made far too much frosting--I find it hard to make in small amounts. I left the pan of extra aside, and Glyn began to stir and taste. He walked away, leaving it on the heat, and the frosting caramelised--smelling like hot chocolate, toffee, and brown butter, and tasting exactly like a Daim bar.
Chopped up and sprinkled on the tender little squares of cake, swirled with peanut butter and iced with chocolate frosting, the chocolate toffee gives a perfectly salty, slighty bitter, caramel crunch.
What's that? Bob? I'm afraid I don't know of any--oh! Well, I realised, while eating a square with a cup of tea that "sugar, three ways" may not be the best offering for someone I suspect of being a diabetic. So perhaps a little note is in order.
For the brownies:
2 eggs
3/4 cup sugar
1/2 cup butter, melted
3/4 cup drinking chocolate
2/3 cup flour
1/4 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 cup peanut butter, melted
Beat the eggs and sugar together till smooth. Add the melted butter. Sift together the dry ingredients and add them in three parts. Pour into a cake pan or square brownie pan lined with parchment. Pour the melted peanut butter on top in a swirl and use a fork to mix it in slightly. Bake at 350 for about 30 to 40 minutes, or until done.
For the frosting and toffee:
2 tbs butter
4 tbs cream
4 tbs drinking chocolate
1 cup icing sugar
1/2 tsp salt
Melt the butter and add the cream. Once warm, whisk in the drinking chocolate and the icing sugar. Whisk until the chocolate and sugar are dissolved and the frosting is smooth. Pour half of the frosting into a bowl and once cool, use this to ice the cake.
Continue stirring the rest of the frosting over medium heat until the sugar caramelises and is beginning to smoke. Immediately pour onto a silpat or parchment paper. As it cools, roll as flat as you can. Once it's completely cool and hard, chop up into pieces and sprinkle on top of the frosted cake--saving some to snack on, of course.
I'm with you on everything but the peanut butter, but I'm just weird about chocolate and peanut butter together.
And by drinking chocolate, do you mean unsweetened cocoa powder or sweetened hot cocoa powder?
drinking chocolate=mix with milk to get hot chocolate, so it's already sweetened.
I didn't know that about you and peanut butter and chocolate.
Yeah, I only occasionally like peanut butter and chocolate together. Peanut butter isn't my all time favorite flavor to begin with, so I tend to think it overwhelms the chocolate. I mean, I like Butterfingers and Reese's cups, but those aren't exactly real peanut butter or real chocolate in the first place.
I'm not sure I like real peanut butter--I tried it at whole foods and it's not nearly as smooth.
I've actually got a "secret foodie confessions"post I'm working on where that is my first confession. I don't actually like natural peanut butter at all. I need sugar and oil to make the little legumes palatable.
Oooh! I can't wait...