Are you a fan of trying strange or unexpected food combinations? I'd like to think that I'm fairly adventurous, particularly if chocolate is involved!
I'm sure you've all seen the new Cadbury's Vegemite Dairy Milk chocolate. I think the idea is that the saltiness of the Vegemite should go well with chocolate, in the same way that sea salt and chocolate are a good match.
Initially I thought that the Vegemite would either be a thick paste in the middle of the chocolate, or that perhaps there would be Vegemite flavoured chips throughout the chocolate. In fact, the Vegemite comes as a Vegemite-flavoured caramel in the centre of each square. The caramel itself is a dark brown colour and smells quite strongly of Vegemite.
The best way to eat the chocolate is to put a whole square in your mouth at once and chew. This way, the caramel mixes with the chocolate and becomes a background savoury type flavour. You don't even really taste the Vegemite per se, but rather it adds an extra richness to the chocolate. Be careful though and don't do what I did the first time which was to eat the caramel on its own - it's quite strong and even a bit overpowering!
Anyway, it wasn't too bad overall, although I probably wouldn't eat more than a couple of squares at once, mostly because the richness becomes all a bit too much. I felt that having something to act as a foil to the strongly flavoured chocolate was what was needed. Something thick and cakey like a brownie to act as a cushioning for the bursts of flavour.
I decided to go with a more plain cakey textured brownie rather than my usually fudgey brownie, as I thought this would go better with the richly flavoured chocolate. The recipe itself was pleasantly simple and quick, which I very much appreciated!
The combination of the simple brownies and Vegemite chocolate was surprisingly good! The brownie mixture really did help to take the edge off the chocolate, resulting in a much more palatable sweet. In fact, some of my taste testers did not even know that it was Vegemite! As usual, Mr Duckie polished these off, eating six pieces in one go!
So, why not add some Vegemite to your usual brownie repertoire - you may be surprised at how much you like them!
Vegemite Chocolate Brownies
Adapted from taste.com.au
250g butter
1 cup caster sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
4 eggs
4 eggs
1 1/2 cups plain flour
3/4 cup cocoa
1 tsp vanilla essence
1/2 x 250g block of Cadbury's Vegemite Chocolate (or more if you dare!), chopped into squares
1. Preheat oven to 180 degrees. Line a 20cm x 20cm square pan with non-stick baking paper.
2. Melt butter in a saucepan over medium heat. Remove from heat. Stir in sugars. Add eggs one at a time and stir until mixture is thick and glossy.
3. Sift the flour and cocoa over the egg mixture and stir until well combined. Stir in vanilla. Spread into prepared pan. Top with Vegemite chocolate squares.
4. Bake for 30 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean. Set aside to cool in pan completely. Cut into pieces and serve.
1 tsp vanilla essence
1/2 x 250g block of Cadbury's Vegemite Chocolate (or more if you dare!), chopped into squares
1. Preheat oven to 180 degrees. Line a 20cm x 20cm square pan with non-stick baking paper.
2. Melt butter in a saucepan over medium heat. Remove from heat. Stir in sugars. Add eggs one at a time and stir until mixture is thick and glossy.
3. Sift the flour and cocoa over the egg mixture and stir until well combined. Stir in vanilla. Spread into prepared pan. Top with Vegemite chocolate squares.
4. Bake for 30 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean. Set aside to cool in pan completely. Cut into pieces and serve.
