high-bar baking

My garden produced way too much basil last week. I suppose it’s like the stock market, how losses aren’t losses until you sell (or it hits zero, but that doesn’t work with my metaphor, ok?). So really I produced way too much basil, because I trimmed my plants. Thus cementing the leaves in reality. 

And requiring I do something with them. The recipe that comes to mind whenever I have to get rid of an abundance of basil is Sarah’s Chocolate Basil Brownies. They’re her classic brownie recipe (the one that’s a perfect dupe of boxed brownies, except taste like food) with a basil-infused Ermine frosting, topped with a layer of ganache. 

And the ganache is what I’m here to talk about today. Ganache is a combination of chocolate and cream, the ratio dependent on the application. More chocolate can be rolled into truffles; more cream can be spread as frosting or even poured over a cake in a mirror-type glaze. I attempted some fraction math as I tried to make work the amount of cream I had left. Then I started looking up creme fraiche ganache recipes, because I had some of that lying around too. 

Then I turned my brain on. I took a three point turn out of the rabbit hole back alley I was sprinting down. I’d made this recipe before. Did I even like the layer of ganache on top? Did I even want to spent 10 ounces of good chocolate on it? (We were not going to the store, so it was good chocolate or no chocolate). No. I did not. There’s already enough going on in the brownies. No one needs another layer of chocolate. 

This is my party, and I’ll cry if I want to!

Kidding. Mostly. But I will decide what chocolate goes where, at this party. I carefully zapped a little bit in the microwave, doing my best to keep it as cool as possible. I wanted to see if I could melt it without breaking the temper. I think I did ok. 

Then I drizzled it on top of the frosting and let the whole block chill. 

Frankly, the jury is still out for me on these brownies. That’s the note I wrote next to the recipe in my cookbook. It’s fancy, and it’s great for killing 20 grams of basil. I don’t know if I love it. But there’s a guy at work who does. I gave him the whole tray to do with as he would. 

But the point isn’t whether I like basil in a sweet application. The point is that it was fun to break the rules. I know them now. I kinda own them. So now I have the freedom to play some jazz.