TWD: Clasic Brownies

I tend to prefer cakelike brownies over fudgy brownies, but these fudgy little gems were pretty darn good. Dorie Greenspan in "Baking from My Home to Yours" describe them as "Fudgy but not gooey, intensely chocolaty, dry on top and melty in the middle." That about describes them perfectly.

Many thanks, Anne, of Anne Strawberry for making this week's TWD selection. Go to Anne's web page for the recipe and check out TWD - Tuesdays with Dorie for links to the other "Classic Brownies" renditions.

TWD - Rick Katz's Brownies for Julia

I know I'm a little late but here is my posting of "Rick Katz's Brownies for Julia", which was due on February 9. This recipe was selected by Tanya of Chocolatechic for the weekly Tuesday with Dorie challenge.

I'm a chronic procrastinator, but you know what? Sometimes procrastination pays off! I took all the lessons learned by the "on-time" TWD bakers and tweaked the recipe to conform to my taste (I prefer cakey brownies). Several of the TWD bakers commented that the finished brownies were VERY gooey, and others stated that they were almost impossible to cut. To combat the gooeyness some bakers added more flour and others increased the baking time. I did both.

Ta Da! My version of "Rick Katz's Brownies for Julia"


Mixing wize, this brownie batter was one of the most involved I've encountered. In one bowl you melt the chocolate and butter, in another bowl you whisk together the eggs and sugar. Slowly drizzle half the egg-sugar mixture into the melted chocolate, stirring all the while to keep the eggs from cooking in the warm chocolate.


Beat the remaining half of the sugar-egg mixture until it doubles in volume.

And then gently fold the fluffy sugar-eggs into the chocolate mixture.

Sprinkle the flour over the chocolate mixture and fold with a spatula to incorporate. Spoon the batter into the pan. I opted for individual ramekins instead of one large pan. I figured the ramekins would solve the problem of un-cutable brownies (as reported by other TWD bakers), and the individual servings would reduce the gooeyness of the brownies because there would be more crunchy edges and less soft center.

Just out of the oven. I baked them for 30 minutes at 350 degrees.

Still hot from the oven the center of the brownie was pleasantly moist, but as it cooled the center hardened and became cakeier (sp). If I had to do it over I would reduce the cooking time to 25-27 minutes.

But there probably won't be a next time.

While the brownies were good, they weren't good enough to justify the involved mixing process and the number of dirty bowl and utensils that littered my counter top. Not only am I a procrastinator but I'm a lazy procrastinator.

TWD: Milk Chocolate Mini Bundt Cakes

This week' assignment at Tuesdays with Dorie was one of my favorite so far: Milk Chocolate Mini Bundt Cakes. Chocolate batter, chocolate filling, chocolate topping, could a chocoholic ask for anything more?

But I do have one gripe---where is the line between fudgy cake and brownies? This dessert is called "cake", but I found it very brownie-like in consistency. It was dense and crumbly with a wet, fudgy layer. The taste was out of this world (I ate two of those little suckers myself), but my analytical mind wants to know: is it a cake or is it a brownie?



The recipe instructions start out with the filling. Simply whisk the nuts, sugar, and cocoa until combined.



Next melt the milk chocolate and allow to cool. The recipe calls for 7 oz of milk chocolate, but I had read some of the messages on TWD that the cakes weren't chocolaty enough so I used 5 oz of milk chocolate and 2 oz of special dark chocolate. The recipe also calls for "premium" chocolate, but I just used run-of-the-mill Hershey bars. Call me unsophisticated, but I love the way Hershey taste.



The batter was quick and easy to combine, but very thick, almost like cookie dough in texture. Here it is after the flour was added, but before the chocolate.



Chocolate!!!!!



The addition of the melted chocolate thinned the batter somewhat, but not a whole lot.



Next came the assembly. Batter, filling, batter. I should also mention that I search in 4 different stores and couldn't find the 6-cavity mini Bundt pan that Dorie used. I found a 12-cavity Bundt, but not a 6-cavity. In the end I used a jumbo muffin pan. The end product wasn't as cute as Dorie's but my family didn't seem to care.



Just out of the oven. I baked my muffins for 20 minutes, but I think they would have been perfect at 19 minutes.



The one issue I had with the recipe was the "Glaze", which was just chocolate and corn syrup. Sounds easy enough, but mine didn't work. Chocolate seizer set in as soon as I put the corn syrup into the warm chocolate. Yikes! I tired reheating the supposed glaze, but it just got even harder.


But a lot of other bakers at TWD had the same problem with the glaze, so I didn't feel completely foolish. In the end I just whipped up some ganache and squeezed it on top of my mini cakes.


So all-in-all another tasty Dorie recipe. I haven't had one fail yet.

Snowy Chocolate (Brownie) Baby Cakes

Last year in Southern Living's December 2008 issue there were the cutest little Christmas cupcakes called Snowy Chocolate Baby Cakes. These little gems were simply upside-down chocolate cupcakes topped with white glaze and garnished with red cinnamon candies and fresh bay leaves.

I didn't get a chance to make them in 2008, but I put them on my list of "Things to Bake for Christmas 2009". And surprise, surprise I actually made something on my list. Here they are…


Too cute.

The original article in Southern Living used a doctored devil's food cake mix for the cupcakes, but I already had Birthday Cake on my Christmas menu so I decide to make baby brownie cakes. I used a Curtis Stone brownie recipe adeptly named "Best Fudge Brownies". And believe you me they are indeed the best fudgy brownies I've baked (so far). They are not fudgy to the point of goo, but not cake-like in the least. They are just right.

Even the batter looked yummy...



Baby Brownie Cakes just out of the oven...



One of the brownie cupcakes stuck to the pan, but the rest dropped out without a problem...



I iced the brownie cupcakes using the Winter White Glaze recipe given in the Southern Living article, and I garnished with mini M&Ms and mint leaves (I didn't have any cinnamon candies or bay leaves). I had a little trouble with the mini M&Ms bleeding into the white glaze, so make sure the glaze is completely dry before topping with the candies. The M&Ms may not melt in your hands, but they sure do melt on wet sugar glaze. The mint leaves also caused a bit of crisis because they started to wilted after just a few hours. Next time, I'll solve all the problems by making the garnishes out of fondant.



Best Fudge Brownie Cupcakes
from Relaxed Cooking with Curtis Stone: Recipes to Put You in My Favourite Mood

Yield 8 cupcakes

6 ounces good quality bittersweet chocolate, (60-70% cacao). Chopped
6 tablespoons unsalted butter
1 tablespoon Lyle’s Golden Syrup or light corn syrup
Pinch of salt
3/4 cup sugar
2 large eggs1/2 cup all purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
2/3 cup coarsely chopped walnuts


To make the cupcakes:

• Position an oven rack in the center of the oven and preheat the oven to 350F.
• Using a standard 12 wells cupcake pan, generously spay the top of the pan and 8 of the wells with non-stick cooking spray (or line with paper cupcake liners)
• Stir the chocolate and butter in a small heavy saucepan over low heat until they melt and the mixture is smooth.
• Stir in the syrup and salt. Remove from the heat and set aside.
• Using an electric mixer, beat the sugar and eggs in a large bowl for 2 minutes or until the mixture is thick and light.
• Slowly stir in the cooled chocolate mixture.
• Add the flour and baking powder, and stir just until blended; then stir in the walnuts.
• Divide the batter equally among the 8 cupcake wells, filling them completely.
• Bake for about 25 minutes, or until the cupcakes puff and crack on top and a skewer inserted into the center of one comes out with fudgy crumbs attached.
• Remove the cupcakes from the tin and let them cool completely on a wire rack.
  

Winter White Glaze

Yield: 2 cups

4 cups powdered sugar
1 Tablespoon meringue powder
1/4 cup (or more) hot water

• Beat together all ingredients with an electric mixer until smooth. Add more water as needed to achieve a pourable consistency.
• Use immediately. Cover the glaze surface directly with a damp paper towel or plastic wrap to prevent a crust from forming.
  

Enjoy.

Hot Fudge Brownie Cake

The weather was horrible this past weekend, so I decided I needed chocolate to lift my spirits. I combed through my file of "to-do" recipes and found one I had clipped from Southern Living's January 2009 magazine: Hot Fudge Brownie Cake.

Warm, gooey and chocolaty. The perfect recipe for a dreary Sunday afternoon.



You start with a basic batter that is spread into a greased pan. (Grease the pan really, really well. This stuff is stick-kkkyyyyy.)

Then a simple topping made of sugar and cocoa is sprinkled on top of the batter. I added pecans to my topping, to give it a little crunch.



Next comes the interesting part. You carefully spoon a cup and a half of boiling water over the batter and topping. (It is the water that creates the pudding layer while the cake bakes.) I was a little hesitant about pouring the whole 1-1/2 cups of water. My pecans started floating and it just seemed like an awful lot of liquid to pour on the cake. At the last minute I chickened out and just used 1 cup. But I was sorry in the end because my cake didn't have quite enough fudge goodness. It was fudgy, but not FUDGY.

Note to self: next time use all 1-1/2 cups of boiling water and may be even up it to 1 -3/4 cups!



Bake for 45 minutes at 350 degrees and then cool for 25 minutes before serving.



Yummm.... Hot Fudge Brownie Cake

TWD - Brownie Bites

This is my first Tuesday's with Dorie baking challenge, and what a yummy challenge it was. Brownies are my favorite food, and little brownie bites are my favorite form of brownie. No mess, no crumbs, just pop the whole thing in your mouth and enjoy. Pure chocolate bliss, want one?



The Brownie Bites were also a breeze to prepare. Melt the chocolate, butter and sugar over a low fire.


After the chocolate mixture cools, add the egg and vanilla.



Blend the chocolate-egg mixture with the flour. I added nuts too.



Bake in a mini muffin pan for 14 minutes, carefully remove the BB's from pan and allow to cool on wire rack.



Dip the tops of the BBs in melted white chocolate. This was the only part of the recipe that I had problems with. I used white chocolate chips and they would never melt to a "dipping" consistency. I finally just spread the white chocolate on top. Not perfect looking, but still very tasty.



Side note: While roaming around my backyard snapping pictures of my BB's, I noticed something in my viewfinder…


Did you see him? Upper right corner of the picture. A beautifully butterfly sipping nectar from a bougainvillea. I think it is a Swallowtail, but I'm not positive. Here is a close-up. Isn't he/she beautiful?

Open Wide - Incoming Brownie

I have tried hundreds of brownie recipes with tempting names like Outrageous Brownies, Ultimate Brownies, Better-Than-Sex Brownies, and honestly my favorite (don’t tar and feather me) is Betty Crocker’s Triple Chuck Supreme Brownie Mix. Yep, just rip open the box, stir in some water, oil and eggs, and bake for 40 minutes. That's it.

Look at those hunks of chocolate...

That moist, cakey texture...

Thank you, Betty. I'm in brownie heaven.

Crawfish Boil

Every year on the weekend before Memorial Day my brother, David, has a big crawfish boil. Here is a batch jut coming out of the pot and in the background is the second batch of live crawfish waiting for their turn in the sauna (poor things).
















This year my brother bought a big "pirouge" serving boat. He was so proud of that thing.


















And here is a scoop of crawfish waiting to be eaten by me. Traditional accompani-
ments to the crawfish are corn on the cob, potatoes, sausage, garlic and mushrooms. And BUTTER, lots and lots of butter squirted on the corn and potatoes.




My contribution to the party was of course the desserts. Pralines, brownies, red velvet sandwich cookies, and burger cupcakes. I also made deviled eggs, not a dessert but still damn good.


Here are the pralines. Yum....
I use a typical praline recipe: white sugar, brown sugar, butter, milk, pecan, etc. The real "art" of praline cooking is temperature. Too low and the pralines are gritty, too high and the pralines are brittle. Like Goldilocks, the temperature needs to be just right.







The brownies... Actually brownie - chocolate chip cookie combo with chocolate icing...



The Red Velvet Sandwich Cookies... this is a Paul Deen recipe that has become a family favorite. I make it without the pecans because one of my brothers is allergic to nuts. PS: the Paula Dean recipe makes waaaaayyyy too much icing. I cut the icing recipe in half and still have leftovers.



The burger cupcakes and sugar cookie French fries... A favorite with the kids.





The deviled eggs... Made with olives - a family recipe.