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The Batter Thickens

A food blog balancing sweet treats & healthy eats.

The Return of the King: The One Ring Brownies (Orange Chocolate Whiskey Brownies)

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In the final Lord of the Rings movie, they don’t do a lot of eating. And they really don’t eat much dessert. Not shocking, considering they’re waging war and trudging through Mordor. I don’t think Mordor has many great bakeries. (The Orcs are not a great market I guess?) You’d think they might have a little something to celebrate after, but I guess they had other things to be doing.

All this to say, I had to get creative with what would be a themed dessert. That meant attempting to decorate them in theme with the movie, rather than be something from the movie. And what better inspiration than when that silly ring finally hit the lava?!

I don’t think frosting decorating is in my future, but at least I figured out how to make fondant taste good. I made a mini batch to make the rings out of, and it actually tasted great. Far better than my typical experiences with fondant, which usually disgusts me. I’m not sure how this recipe would hold up on a large scale, like covering a whole cake, but it was certainly good enough for making some little rings. It’s odd, because fondant is truly just sugar. And this recipe was basically just different types of sugar combining. But somehow this recipe tasted better than the store-bought and mass produced kind. A bit of a mystery.

The frosting could obviously have stood to be more orange, but I never know how frosting colors are going to turn out. Sometimes they get deeper in color as they sit, and other times they just end up as pastels.

Oh well. At least I can tell you: these tasted excellent. The orange was amazingly strong considering it’s the zest of one orange versus all the chocolate flavor. The whiskey buttercream balanced it out nicely and lightened it up a bit, in addition to just being a good pairing. Much like orange in an old fashioned pairs well! But then also with some fudgy brownie. Best of both worlds.

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Orange Chocolate Whiskey Brownies

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  • Author: Audrey
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Ingredients

For the brownies:

  • 1/2 cup + 2 tbsp all-purpose flour
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 1 tablespoons dark unsweetened cocoa powder
  • 5.5 ounces dark chocolate, coarsely chopped
  • 1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, cut into 1-inch pieces
  • 3/4 cups granulated sugar
  • Zest of one orange
  • 1/4 cup packed light brown sugar
  • 2 eggs, at room temperature

For the frosting:

  • 1 stick unsalted butter
  • 3 cups powdered sugar
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 1 tablespoon whiskey

For the fondant:

  • 1 1/2 tbsp butter
  • 1 1/2 tbsp sweetened condensed milk
  • 1 cup powdered sugar
  • dash vanilla
  • food coloring

Instructions

  1. Preheat oven to 350°F. Butter the sides and bottom of a 9×9-inch baking pan. Line the pan with parchment paper.
  2. Zest the orange into the granulated sugar, and massage it in until fragrant.
  3. In a medium bowl, whisk the flour, salt, and cocoa powder together. Place the chocolate and butter in a saucepan (or using a double broiler) over medium-low heat, stirring occasionally, until the chocolate and butter are completely melted and smooth. Turn off the heat, but keep the pot on the stove and add the orange sugar and brown sugar. Whisk until completely combined, then remove pan from stovetop and allow to come to room temperature.
  4. Add 2 eggs to the chocolate mixture and whisk until combined. Do not overbeat the batter at this stage or your brownies will be cakey.
  5. Sprinkle the flour mixture over the chocolate mixture. Using a rubber spatula (not a whisk), fold the flour mixture into the chocolate until just a bit of the flour mixture is still visible.
  6. Pour the batter into the prepared pan and smooth the top. Bake in the center of the oven for 30 minutes, rotating the pan halfway through the baking time, until a toothpick inserted into the center of the brownies comes out with a few moist crumbs sticking to it.
  7. Let the brownies cool completely, then lift them out of the pan using the parchment paper.
  8. While they’re cooling, prepare the frosting: in a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, beat the butter and whiskey until creamy. Slowly add in powdered sugar and salt, and beat until light and fluffy. 
  9. Frost cool brownies with the orange frosting. If you want the lava effect, sprinkle a bit of cocoa powder on top and swirl it into the frosting in patches. 
  10. Place rings (see recipe below) into the lava frosting.
  11. Cut into squares and serve. Store at room temperature in an airtight container or wrap with plastic wrap for up to 3 days.

To make the fondant rings:

  1. Mix butter, sweetened condensed milk, confectioners’ sugar, and vanilla extract in a mixing bowl until fondant has the consistency of modeling clay. If fondant is too moist, knead in additional confectioners’ sugar.
  2. Dye with gold food coloring, and mold the fondant into ring shapes.

Notes

Fondant from AllRecipes