For a Better Brownie Recipe, Just Add Eggplant

Following that logic, I’ve been dreaming up recipes that use greens in desserts. It’s not so far-fetched. You most likely already love carrot cake, the place the veg brings sweetness and moisture to the combination. Many greens will lend a singular sweetness or pop of coloration, however conserving issues moist, even ooey gooey, is the important thing purpose veggies work so nicely in desserts.

In my case, it helps in no small half that I fell in love with and married an natural vegetable farmer, whose associations with consuming greens are nearly totally constructive. There may be palpable delight and pleasure on the farm when the crew is harvesting. They’ll are available from the sector with brimming crates of purple, shiny eggplants and bushel baskets overflowing with glowing candy peppers. One in every of my favourite issues to do is harness that harvest and form it into joyful meals. Now that the aforementioned partner and I’ve a seven-month-old child, and she or he has began to eat cooked greens, I wish to guarantee constructive associations for her—to not point out make good use of what’s so abundantly readily available.

Utilizing beets in pink velvet cake wasn’t my very own invention. Certain, it’s much more fashionable so as to add just a few drops of pink meals coloring, however classically, the basis vegetable was used to deliver an earthy depth, some sweetness and a refined pink coloration to the cake batter. I’ve been making use of this considering to all types of different greens. One in every of my present favorites is the eggplant.

Just a few seasons in the past my spouse handed me a crate of eggplants on their approach to the compost pile and requested if I might save them by cooking them. Eggplant is a clean taste canvas. (It’s additionally technically a fruit, however few individuals consider it or use it as such.) It takes on what touches it in a recipe. In the event you fry it in olive oil, it tastes like olive oil. In the event you mix it with chocolate, it tastes like chocolate. In order that’s what I did. Then I added eggs, honey and almond flour, and the lowly eggplant was reworked into what I ended up calling eggplant brownie cake, a dense, fudgy dessert that’s nonetheless largely eggplant. It stays one among my favourite recipes to observe individuals take a primary chew of. I introduced it to the farm for the crew to attempt. There was honest skepticism adopted unexpectedly and eventually delight.

Since then I’ve been taking part in variations on the theme each time eggplant is in ample provide. I’ve headed down caramel trails and lemon tracks and, lately, a peanut butter path, which makes for a moist, sweet-salty brownie by which the principle ingredient is the vegetable. It’s a mind-bender of a dessert.

As soon as I descended into this veggie dessert rabbit gap, it was exhausting to cease arising with new concepts. Parsnips in custards. Sorrel in panna potta. Zucchini in desserts.

I hope to show my daughter that greens will not be only a factor you need to eat. Possibly some day when she is requested about her favourite meals, as a substitute of chocolate she’ll have realized to say beets, or eggplant, or parsnips.

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These wealthy caramel-topped flans get a singular earthy depth from their essential ingredient: parsnips.

F. Martin Ramin/The Wall Avenue Journal, Meals Styling by Kim Ramin

Components

• ½ pound parsnips, peeled and finely chopped
• ¾ cup sugar
• 2 tablespoons water
• ½ cup half and half
• 2 massive eggs
• ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
• ¼ teaspoon salt

Tools:

• 8 (⅓ cup) ramekins
• 1 (13-by-9-inch) roasting or baking pan

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 350 levels. Convey a pair quarts of water to a boil.
2. Place parsnips in a medium saucepan and canopy with ½-inch water. Cowl and produce to a boil. Cook dinner parsnips till very tender, 5-6 minutes. Reserve 2 tablespoons cooking water, then drain parsnips.
3. Warmth ½ cup sugar and a couple of tablespoons reserved cooking water in a 10-inch skillet over excessive warmth till sugar liquefies. Proceed cooking over excessive warmth, swirling pan sometimes, till sugar caramelizes to a darkish amber. Instantly divide caramel among the many ramekins.
4. In a blender, purée parsnips with half and half, eggs, vanilla, salt and remaining ¼ cup sugar till easy. Pour combination via a medium-mesh sieve right into a bowl, then divide amongst ramekins.
5. Place ramekins in roasting pan and punctiliously pour boiling water into pan, avoiding splashing, till it reaches midway up ramekins. Bake till flans are set however barely wobbly within the middle, 15-20 minutes. Switch ramekins to fridge and chill utterly, 3 hours.
6. To serve, run the tip of a knife round inside fringe of ramekins and invert flans with their caramel onto dessert plates.

—Tailored from Ian Knauer

Along with moisture, the beets on this batter deliver a wealthy mahogany hue to the completed cupcakes.

F. Martin Ramin/The Wall Avenue Journal, Meals Styling by Kim Ramin

Components

For the cupcakes:

• 2 medium beets (about 10 ounces complete), peeled and diced
• ½ cup entire milk
• 2 teaspoons pink wine vinegar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 ⅓ cups all-purpose flour
• ¼ cup cocoa powder
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• ¾ teaspoon salt
• ½ teaspoon baking soda
• ½ cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, plus extra for greasing pan
• 1 ⅓ cups sugar
• 2 massive eggs

For the frosting:

• 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature
• 8 ounces cream cheese, at room temperature
• 1 ½ cups confectioner’s sugar
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Instructions

1. In a medium saucepan, cowl beets with ½-inch of water and produce to a boil, coated. Cook dinner till very tender, about 10 minutes. Drain beets and let cool to heat.
2. Preheat oven to 350 levels. Switch beets to a meals processor or blender together with milk, vinegar, and vanilla. In a separate bowl, mix flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, salt and baking soda. Beat butter with sugar and eggs. (Combination will look damaged, nevertheless it’s fantastic.) Mix the whole lot.
3. Divide batter amongst buttered cupcake tins and bake till a tester comes out clear, 25-Half-hour. Let cake cool barely, then take away from baking pans and let cool utterly.
4. Make the frosting: Beat butter, cream cheese, sugar, vanilla and ¼ teaspoon salt collectively till easy and fluffy, 2-3 minutes.
5. Unfold frosting over cupcakes and serve.

—Tailored from Ian Knauer

Eggplant has a superpower: It holds these brownies collectively with out the assistance of flour, making this dessert naturally gluten free.

F. Martin Ramin/The Wall Avenue Journal, Meals Styling by Kim Ramin

Components

• 1 pound eggplant
• ¾ cup entire milk
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 (16 ounce) jar unsalted creamy “pure” peanut butter
• ½ cup cocoa powder, plus further for dusting
• 1 tablespoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon kosher salt
• 3 massive eggs
• 1 cup peanut butter chips

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 350 levels. Line a 13-by-9-inch baking pan with parchment paper and evenly brush base and sides with a bit oil.
2. Convey a pot of water to a boil and match with a steaming basket. Peel and trim eggplant, then lower into 1-inch cubes. Place eggplant in steaming basket, cowl and cook dinner till very tender, about 20 minutes.
3. Switch eggplant to a blender and purée with milk. Switch combination to a big bowl. Whisk sugar, peanut butter, cocoa, baking powder and salt into eggplant combination, then whisk in eggs.
4. Pour batter into pan and bake till a crust types however middle continues to be moist, about Half-hour. Take away pan from oven and let brownie cake cool utterly in pan. Invert brownie cake onto a serving plate and sprinkle with further cocoa powder. Slice into rectangles and serve.

—Tailored from Ian Knauer