Brownie Basics
This was a cute little café in central Leicester, which I decided to visit for lunch today. It once again proved that old (not that old) adage (not an adage either): “Where there’s coffee, there’s a brownie.” They called it their ‘Double Decker Brownie’.
Brownie Backstory
In a way this is the reverse situation to the ‘curly whirly‘ brownie. In that scenario, the name immediately made me think of a chocolate bar (the Curly Wurly natch) and only upon eating it, then closely checking the spelling, did I conclude that said moniker referred to the features of the brownie but not really to its ingredients or to any chocolate bar inspiration.
This brownie, on the other hand, sucked me in with a name that implied, well, twice the deckage. It wasn’t until I started eating it and considered what I was eating that it occurred to me that this brownie is probably named after the Double Decker bar. For those who may not know – which is probably most of the people who don’t live in the UK, to be fair – the Double Decker is a Cadbury chocolate bar that contains (quick tab to Google to check the ingredients) a nougat layer on top of a crispy cereal layer, all covered in chocolate. Apparently it used to contain raisins, and once upon a time some versions included nuts as well, but that’s your O.G. Double Decker right there.
Also, here is a fun story for you. I went here at lunch time and ordered: a Cheddar and pickle sandwich; a black coffee; a Double Decker brownie. The man behind the counter began making my coffee. The woman behind the counter said “That’ll be £4 then, whenever you’re ready” and although I thought that was less than I expected, I tapped my card on the pad nonetheless. It turns out I accidentally paid for the latte and popcorn belonging to the lady behind me in the queue. Whoops. At least we all had a good laugh about it. They are friendly people in this café!
I brought my sandwich, coffee and brownie back to the office, where I discovered the partners had bought too many sandwiches from the same place and there were a bunch going free. This was also amusing to me. Still, it was worth going for the brownie at least.
Brownie Points
Taste: There’s white chocolate in this, which I don’t think was part of the original Double Decker recipe, but it’s a good addition. Overall this tastes really nice, with the different ingredients all complimenting each other and making a very decadent brownie. I’m not actually a huge fan of the Double Decker bar – it’s alright, but Cadbury’s chocolate is not my favourite – but this doesn’t seem to have Cadbury’s chocolate in it, so it is all good! 8/10
Texture: I expected from looking at it that you’d get a sort of ‘perfect centre, crappy outside’ effect that plagues lots of brownies. You get a little bit of that, but not nearly as much as I expected – the outside edge is still pleasantly soft and the insides are excellent. The chunks of chocolate, nougat, cereal etc. add a lot of textural interest. 8/10
Presentation: There’s not much of interest to say about this: it looks fine, pretty good cross-section, I like the effect of different colour chunks. There’s maybe a missed opportunity here for it to look physically like a ‘double decker’ of some description as well as just having the ingredients from the bar. 2/5
Value: Do you know, this is another brownie where I forgot the exact price, partly due to that whole mishap with accidentally paying for the lady’s latte. Based on my back calculating it must have been in the £2-£2.50 range. And it wasn’t massive, but it was pretty tasty, and felt thick and satisfying to eat, so I reckon that’s good value. 8/10
Fudge Factor: It’s a homemade brownie that looks homemade, but in a good way; it’s based on a chocolate bar and is better (to me) than that chocolate bar; I like this brownie quite a lot. 3/5
Brownie Score: 29
Should I Buy And Eat This Brownie?
Bread & Honey seems like the sort of place where what’s on sale varies day-to-day or week-to-week, because they’re probably baking the night before with whatever they had lying around the kitchen. But if it’s as good as the Double Decker, I wholeheartedly recommend whatever brownie they have on the counter!
Closing Thought
Seriously, why was Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping not a billion-dollar hit?
BROWNIE POINTS 