Jersey Royal season has kicked off – we try them in a brownie and they’re actually amazing
By Ella Walker. Published 2020-04-13
BOLD-FoodYep, chocolate and potatoes – together. Ella Walker tests it out.
Jersey Royals are the epitome of springtime. Give them to me steamed and doused in butter; just warm and dunked in salt and pepper; served alongside – or inside – a spring quiche; as an accompaniment to salmon, or as part of a grown up potato salad. With chocolate though? Perhaps not.Sure, there’s a current culinary bent towards veggies in puddings, from courgette cakes and beetroot brownies, to avocado chocolate mousse, but so far, potatoes have not had much of a look in.So, when challenged to bake and try Jersey Royal brownies, it would have been churlish to refuse…
The baking:
The basic mix is classic brownie: chocolate, cocoa powder, sugar, butter, flour, eggs, but with the addition of Jersey Royals. It’s very bizarre grating boiled potatoes (I discard the skins) into molten dark chocolate – think Rachel’s cottage pie trifle in Friends. The potato made the batter quite lumpy too, and strangely sticky, but in the oven it puffed up exactly like a normal brownie – and all you could smell was cocoa, not baked potato, which was a relief.The taste:
Cooled and sliced, the lumpiness vanished, the middles were suitably gooey, and there’s absolutely no visible sign of potato. Biting into them, you genuinely can’t even taste the potato – and there’s no weird starchiness. The brownies do have an extra softness to them (no, not like mash), which means a not too-crisp top, which does seem to owe itself to the Jersey Royals, but overall, they’re pretty delicious (so much so, I accidentally ate half the tray in one sitting…).Here’s how to make Jersey Royal brownies with peanut butter…Ingredients:
(Makes 12 pieces) - 275g Jersey Royal potatoes, scrubbed but left whole - 75g butter - 75g crunchy peanut butter - 200g dark chocolate, chopped - 200g brown sugar - 2 eggs, beaten - 110g self-raising flour - 40g cocoa - 25g salted peanuts, roughly chopped - Salted caramel to serve (optional)