Moist Beetroot Chocolate Cake or Brownie – putting a smile on my face

It was 10.30 pm on a Friday evening and hubs was in control of the remote control of our telly. He zapped to the Canvas channel that evening.

Canvas is a Belgian television channel, which forms part of Flanders or Flemish public broadcasting organisation (VRT). What’s great about any public broadcasting channels is that there are no advertisements interruptions 😉

That evening, we watched “Into the Wild”, a heart rendering story of Christopher Johnson McCandless, based on a non-fiction book of the same name written by Jon Krakauer.  The book was adapted to a film, directed by Sean Penn.

A summary of the story: Chris McCandless was an intelligent student who had just earned his college degree, but saw no future in a professional career. He decided to burn his money and ventured into the Alaskan wilderness with little food and equipment, hoping to live life simply, however, four months later, Chris’ remains were found, weighing at only 30kg in his “Magic Bus 142”!  He was only 24 years old. The memory of Chris McCandless today is the many cryptic quotes he left behind.

But, hey, wait a minute!

What has this story got to do with my Moist Beetroot Chocolate Cake or Brownies?!!

Huh?

Yes, huh??

Well, I am so lousy at baking that as soon as something good and almost perfect in my eyes, I just wanted to share it with you. Simple as that 😉

I will never forget one of Chris McCandless’ last quotes, “Happiness (is) only real when shared”

There you go!  I’m happy. It’s real and I’m sharing 😉

My telepathic first beet and the domino effect …

I have never bought or used beetroot in my kitchen until quite recently, although I have eaten these at salad bars zillion of times.  I love the natural sweetness of the vegetable.

I always thought that it has a tangy, citrusy taste, but how wrong and naïve could I be until I bought my first ever packet of organic pre-cooked beetroot. 

I’m bowled over by its most earthy and unique taste.  Love it!

By the way, the tangy and citrusy flavours were the addition of lemon juice 😀

The day I bought my first pack of cooked beetroot was really quite telepathic.  It was by chance that I spotted the autumn edition of the Delhaize magazine lined on a magazine rack in the lobby of the Delhaize supermarket. The Magoo in me never noticed any of the magazines until that day. Ha ha…

Pages 56 and 83 looked amazingly interesting… Brownie met chocolade en rode biet (Brownie with chocolate and beetroot).  Yep, that’s what I was going to make and I DID!

Ingredients –

400 g cooked beetroot

130 g butter

220 g black Swiss chocolate with 74% cocoa

250 g cane sugar

1 sachet baking powder (I used the Imperial brand of 20g per sachet)

3 eggs

½ tsp vanilla powder (I used Vahiné vanilla powder)

100 g self-raising flour

A pinch of salt

Method –

1. Pre-heat the oven to 175°C
2. Cut the beets into blocks or cubes and mix finely to form a puree
3. Melt the butter in a pan over a low heat and add the chocolate pieces while gently melting the mass.
4. Add eggs, vanilla powder and sugar in a large bowl (or electric mixer) and whisk until you get a light consistency. Then add the beetroot puree. Mix and pour in the melted chocolate.  Add a pinch of salt and baking powder. Again, mix.  Finally, add the flour and mix thoroughly.
5. Line a square or rectangular baking pan with parchment paper. Pour the dough in the pan and bake in the pre-heated oven for 45 minutes or longer. You will know when the cake is cooked by inserting a toothpick, or a wooden skewer into the centre of the cake.  If the skewer comes out clean, the cake is done. 
6. Let cool completely before removing from the pan.

Oh by the way, I was torn between baking this as a cake, first of all, but turned out having to cut the cake into little squares of brownies 😉

I cooled the cake on the rack. It WAS meant to be a cake, first and foremost …. but it sanked in the middle when cooled further 😦

The next morning… the once-upon-a-time cake was transformed into little brownies 😀

I dusted the brownies with icing sugar to give them a Chrismassy feel… Is this moist or is this moist? One word to describe – YUM!

By far the best chocolate cake or brownie I have ever made… worth repeating 😛

 Some nutritional facts about beetroots (found on the internet) –

• Beetroot is a close relative of spinach and chard and has an earthy flavour and a good nutritional content – it’s also reckoned to be a good detoxifier
• In preliminary research, beetroot juice lowered blood pressure and thus may help reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease. The effect is attributed to the high nitrate content of the beetroot.
• Beetroot can also be used to make wine.
• The consumption of beets causes pink urine in some people.
• Beetroot juice has been found to improve performance in athletes, possibly because of its abundance of nitrate
• And many more…

Ever since my first purchase of these beets, I’m hooked!  I hope you are, too 😉

I am linking this post to the following events –

Weekend Cooking hosted by Beth Fish Reads – Thinking, Reading, Photographing

And

Cook-Your-Books#6 hosted by Joyce from Kitchen Flavours

Enjoy the rest of the week!

Cheers!