Ma Niche : White Chocolate- Blood Red Orange Brownie Bars topped with Lemon Mousse (A Cake A Week #5 )

So this week's cake is coming in a little late. in fact i did not bake a cake this time. i baked brownies. Blood Orange White-chocolate Brownies topped with Lemon mousse. and it was all eggless. the brownies were inspired by the white-chocolate lemon brownies, that i had baked many moons ago and the hope that the blood red oranges would share some of their gorgeous red with the brownies. but they did not. so i whipped up some mousse, colored it orange and topped the brownies just so that they look handsome and taste awesome. and that they did. even without that extra scoop of whipped cream that i put on the side just for the photograph.. :)

First let me tell you about the Eggless White Chocolate Lemon Mousse. It is lovely as a topping and even otherwise. i smudged my brownies with some and enjoyed the rest chilled in a bowl. The recipe is adapted it from Sangtheetha's guest-post in Cook Like Priya and this is what i did...

Ingredients

1 cup Mini Marshmallows

1 tablespoon unsalted butter, softened

2/3 cups white Chocolate chip

20 ml Boiling water

1/2 cup whipped light cream

Juice from 1 lemon, freshly squeezed

1 teaspoon blood orange zest

orange food coloring

what i did.

i chopped the marshmallows in halves. then put them in a large saucepan along with the water, butter and white chocolate chips, and melted the contents by putting the pan over medium-low heat and stirring them occasionally. the marshmallows were the last to melt.once all the marshmallows melted i stirred the lemon juice and orange zest into it, then switched off the heat and set the mixture aside to cool.
next, in a separate bowl i added the food coloring to the whipped light cream. then folded it into the cooling lemon-white chocolate mixture until the two were well combined.

then refrigerate and enjoy it in a bowl or use it as a topping for a citrusy brownie like these....

Blood Red Orange Brownie Bars

Ingredients

6 tablespoons unsalted butter
1 cup Hershey's white chocochips
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup soft tofu pureed
juice of 2 blood red oranges
2 teaspoon orange zest
1/4 teaspoon salt
3/4 cups all purpose flour

what i did.

i preheated the oven to 350 degrees F ; greased and floured a 8x8-inch baking pan; sifted the flour and salt together and kept it aside.
next i combined the butter and sugar in a microwave safe bowl and microwaved it for 45 seconds. then i added the chocochips to the butter-sugar mixture and whipped the 3 ingredients together. with the whipping I had expected the mixture to become smooth and creamy but it this point the mixture looked curdled and it remained that way even after being whipped for sometime. i remembered that this had happened earlier when i was trying some other cake so without loosing hope i added the pureed tofu to the batter and whisked the batter. soon enough the batter became creamy and i was happy :)
i then added the orange juice and the zest and whisked. at first the batter became pink and i got excited thinking that my brownie would actually be pink in color. but with the whisking the pinkish hue subdued and by the time i started adding the sifted flour mixture to the batter, the pinkish tinge had almost vanished. anyway adding a little at a time, i folded in the flour mixture into the batter and whisked till all the ingredients were well combined.
then transferring the batter to the prepared pan, i baked it for 25-27 minutes, till the surface looked firm. ( the usual doneness test of an inserted wooden toothpick coming out clean does not work in this case. even when done, a toothpick inserted in a tofu-brownie comes out with moist crumbs and not totally clean.) anyway once it the brownie was baked, i left it to cool overnight. and next morning i cut it in 16 small squares and smudged each with some Lemon White Chocolate Mousse, drizzled some grated almond on top and served.