Five-Spice Brownie

STEP 1: TOAST AND GRIND THE FIVE-SPICE BLEND

Toast the star anise, cassia, Sichuan peppercorns, fennel seeds and whole cloves in a dry pan over medium heat, shaking, for two to three minutes, until the fennel darkens a shade and the pan smells of aniseed and warm bark. Tip them out at once onto a cold plate; carryover in a hot pan will take them to bitter. Cool fully, then grind fine and sieve out the cassia splinters. This makes about 3 teaspoons of blend, of which you need 1½. Pre-ground five-spice is the single most likely cause of a raw, dusty spice note, so grinding to order here is a correction rather than a refinement.

STEP 2: BROWN THE BUTTER AND STEEP THE SPICE

Melt the butter in a small heavy pan over medium heat and let it foam, subside, and come to a nutty brown with dark solids on the base, about six to eight minutes. Pull it off the heat, wait thirty seconds for the temperature to drop below scorching, then whisk in 1½ teaspoons of the ground blend. Leave it to steep for ten minutes, then strain through a fine sieve, pressing gently, and scrape the browned solids in too — they are half the flavour. Pour the hot spiced butter over the chopped dark chocolate and stir until smooth. Set aside to cool to just-warm.

STEP 3: WHIP THE EGGS TO THE RIBBON

Whisk the eggs, caster sugar, light brown sugar and vanilla extract on high for four to five minutes, until pale, tripled, and thick enough to hold a ribbon on the surface for three seconds. This is what produces the thin crackled top and stops the crumb setting solid. Fold in the just-warm chocolate mixture in three additions, then sift over the plain flour, Dutch process cocoa powder and salt and fold until barely combined. Stop while streaks are still visible.

STEP 4: BAKE AND CHILL

Heat the oven to 175 °C / 350 °F. Scrape the batter into the lined tin and level it with an offset palette knife. Bake for 24 to 28 minutes: the edges should be set and lifting slightly, the centre still soft, and a skewer two centimetres in from the edge should come out with moist crumbs clinging, not clean. Cool completely in the tin, then refrigerate for at least two hours before cutting. Cold brownie cuts to a clean edge; warm brownie does not, and the clean edge is most of the answer to the bake-sale problem.

STEP 5: MAKE THE BLACK SESAME CHANTILLY

Toast the black sesame seeds in a dry pan for two minutes, until they smell nutty and begin to pop. Reserve a tablespoon for garnish. Grind the rest to a paste with the neutral oil — three to four minutes in a food processor, scraping down; it will go from sand to a loose, glossy black paste. Cool completely. Whisk two tablespoons of the cold cream into the paste to slacken it, then add the remaining cream, the icing sugar and the salt and whip to soft peaks. Stop early; it firms as it sits. Refrigerate until needed.

STEP 6: MAKE THE SHARP LEMON CARAMEL

Combine the caster sugar and water in a wide heavy pan and cook over medium-high heat without stirring — swirl the pan if it colours unevenly — to a deep amber, about eight minutes. Take it further than feels comfortable; the lemon will mute it. Off the heat, stand back and add the lemon juice in three goes; it will seize and spit. Return to low heat and stir until every lump has dissolved, two to three minutes, then let it reduce for a further three to four minutes until it falls from the spoon in a slow ribbon. Off the heat again, whisk in the cold butter, the salt and the lemon zest. Cool to room temperature. It should taste distinctly sour before it tastes sweet, and there is no cream in it by design.

STEP 7: MACERATE THE BLACK VINEGAR CHERRIES

Warm the caster sugar, the Chinkiang black vinegar, the star anise and the salt in a small pan until the sugar dissolves. Add the halved cherries, bring barely to a simmer, then take the pan off the heat immediately and leave to macerate for at least thirty minutes. Lift the cherries out with a slotted spoon, reduce the syrup over medium heat to a light glaze, about three minutes, discard the star anise and pour the syrup back over. The cherries should stay whole-textured, not stewed. If you are using frozen cherries, thaw and drain them and skip the simmer entirely — pour the warm syrup straight over.

STEP 8: PLATE

Cut the chilled brownie into eight bars, roughly 9 x 4.5 centimetres, wiping the knife between cuts. If you are serving them warm, give each bar eight minutes in a 150 °C / 300 °F oven. Draw a broad stroke of lemon caramel across the plate and set the bar slightly off-centre. Quenelle the sesame chantilly alongside, spoon over five or six cherry halves with a little of their syrup, and finish with the reserved toasted sesame. Leave space on the plate; the point of the exercise is that this no longer looks like something cut from a tray.