Be brave: 5 bold recipes for the manliest dessert ever

On the eve of the most masculine and brutal day of the year, we managed to talk to the chef of a non-standard gastronomic project called Brave Goodies. For Anton Sadchikov the words “Be brave” are not just words, but a whole ideology. The mission of the project is to show people’s faith in themselves, to show that the limits exist only in the head, and getting out of the comfort zone is the right decision that will help to realize all dreams. If you are ready to experiment, then urgently save the recipes that will change your attitude to desserts, and maybe to life once and for all!

Brownies with bacon, cherries and almonds

Anton Sadchikov, chef of Brave Goodies: “Not many people know that if you fry bacon and sprinkle it with sugar, it becomes caramelized and very tasty. The idea of frying bacon with chocolate seemed crazy to me, but I thought no one would die and did it. It turned out so deliciously greasy that I wanted to slather myself in it. The only chocolate pies I knew of were brownies, so I made one with bacon bits inside, which didn’t turn out very expressive, so the brownies had cherries, nuts and the bacon itself on top of it all instead of inside. This way it’s free to brown and caramelize in the oven, and the biscuit soaks up all the flavors.”

1. In a water bath melt the butter and chocolate 200g, at the same time beat the egg and sugar, as soon as the chocolate mixture cools slightly, introduce the beaten egg with a spatula.

2. Add sifted flour, baking soda, salt, stir at slow speed. Spread into molds, garnish with cherries, almonds, bacon, and remaining chocolate.

3. Place in the oven for 25 minutes. The finished brownies should be slightly underbaked.

Wasabi cake with pistachios

Anton Sadchikov, chef at Brave Goodies: “It all started with a very popular dish in Asia – wasabi shrimp. They are specially fried and served with a sauce of wasabi, condensed milk, lemon juice, and sometimes mayonnaise. This combination seemed insanely flavorful and unusual to me, so when I was coming up with the menu, one of the first combinations that came to mind was that very sauce. I thought, why not make a wasabi bisque and then make a condensed milk sauce. And it would be cool if it came out green. And so it turned out, later I added poppy seeds to the condensed milk, because I find poppy seed stuffed buns quite tasty, and instead of the original peanuts on the muffin came noble pistachios, necessarily roasted with salt. They emphasize the taste of the biscuit and the color is more suitable”.

1. Separate the egg whites from the yolks, beat the egg whites with sugar to a thick foam, separately mix kefir, oil, wasabi, yolks. 2.

2. Add sifted flour, baking soda, salt, mix and combine with the protein with a spatula.

3. Pour into a mold, decorate with cleaned chopped pistachios, bake for 50 minutes at 180′ serve with sauce made of condensed milk and poppy seeds.

Beer muffin with marshmallows and raisins

Anton Sadchikov, chef at Brave Goodies: “I heard about beer cookies, so I decided to try a beer muffin, added some cocoa for color, orange zest for flavor, and raisins to make it chewy. The cupcake turned out very dense and distinctive. We had to come up with the decorations.

Everyone knows that Americans roast marshmallows on the fire and they taste very bright, smoked, and also look cool. I tried it, it was fiery. One of my favorite cupcakes now!”

1. Soak the raisins in beer.

2. Beat butter with sugar, add egg, beer, add sifted dry, knead, mold, add orange zest, black pepper and raisins evenly.

3. Decorate the top with marshmallow and put in the oven for 45 minutes at 180′

Strawberry brave with chili peppers

Anton Sadchikov, chef of Brave Goodies: “It’s simple, we had to make red jam for March 8, and the first thing that came to mind was strawberries + chili. I’m just a fan of chili pepper and its combination with sweetness”.

1. Bring the strawberries and sugar to the boil, turn down the heat, cook for another 5 minutes.

2. Remove from heat, add a small amount of finely chopped seedless chili pepper.

3. Let stand for an hour, put in the refrigerator.

Horseradish eclairs

Anton Sadchikov, chef at Brave Goodies: “I have long wanted to make something with horseradish. It’s a Russian product that everyone understands, not the bourgeois wasabi. How it got into the eclair – recently we were working on a new menu and cooked an eclair with raspberry cream, it seemed to me though tasty, but quite simple. That’s when I remembered the horseradish. I hardly believed that it would be tasty, but I found it interesting. I gave it to the guys, they said, “Man, this is awesome,” and I started tweaking the flavor and consistency. There were a few more versions of the spiciness until I found that optimal ratio.”

Dough:

1. Heat water, milk, butter, oil, salt sugar, mix with flour, make the dough for 10 minutes on the fire.

2. Transfer to a pastry bag with a star nozzle.

3. Shape the eclairs into 12 cm rounds. Bake for 35 minutes at 180.

Cream:

Mix cream cheese, raspberry puree (raspberries+sugar), powdered sugar and horseradish. Fill the eclairs with the cream.

Glaze:

1. Soak gelatin in cold water.

2. Sink chocolate with condensed milk, bring water+sugar+glucose syrup to a boil, remove, add the squeezed gelatin, mix the mass into the chocolate, add a few drops of raspberry puree until a suitable color.

3. Grease eclairs with glaze, decorate with beet chips.

For preparing the material and revealing the secrets we express our gratitude to the bravest guys from Brave Goodies.