Friday Foodie-Project 52-Week 4: Someone's Baking Brownies

There are some things that I cannot make (For some reason, I cannot properly make Stove Top Stuffing),  some things I am afraid to make (anything deep fried or using a pressure cooker), and some things that I just never got around to making. 


Surprisingly for someone who is and is married to a major chocoholic, I have never made brownies from scratch.  I have made brownies with almost every mix on the market, but never went whole on homemade.

             Look at that yumminess- I want to rub it on my breasts and get it licked off-volunteers?

Anyway, since Hubman wanted brownie sundae's for his birthday dessert this week, I decided that now was a good time to break my scratch brownie cherry.


If you google 'brownie recipes' you get over 1.7 million hits.  I bounced around a little and decided on the King Arthur's Flour recipe. 

                                                          The stars of this post!

Fudge Brownies-Serves a Bunch

• 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter
• 2 1/4 cups sugar
• 4 large eggs
• 1 1/4 cups Double-Dutch Dark Cocoa or Dutch-process cocoa
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon espresso powder (I left this out, since you can't just buy 1 teaspoon and I never use espresso)
• 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
• 1 1/2 cups King Arthur Unbleached All-Purpose Flour
• 2 cups chocolate chips

Directions

1) Preheat the oven to 350°F. Lightly grease a 9" x 13" pan

2) In a medium-sized microwave-safe bowl, or in a saucepan set over low heat, melt the butter, then add the sugar and stir to combine. Or simply combine the butter and sugar, and heat, stirring, until the butter is melted. Continue to heat (or microwave) briefly, just until the mixture is hot (about 110°F to 120°F), but not bubbling; it'll become shiny looking as you stir it. Heating the mixture to this point will dissolve more of the sugar, which will yield a shiny top crust on your brownies.

3) While the sugar heats a second time, crack the 4 eggs into a bowl, and beat them with the cocoa, salt, baking powder, espresso powder, and vanilla till smooth.

4) Add the hot butter/sugar mixture, stirring until smooth.

5) Add the flour and chips, again stirring until smooth. Note: If you want the chips to remain intact in the baked brownies, rather than melting in, let the batter cool in the bowl for about 20 minutes before stirring in the chips.

6) Spoon the batter into a lightly greased 9" x 13" pan.

7) Bake the brownies for about 30 minutes, until a cake tester inserted into the center comes out clean, or with just a few moist crumbs clinging to it. The brownies should feel set on the edges, and the center should look very moist, but not uncooked. Remove them from the oven and cool on a rack before cutting and serving. These were really freaking delicious.   They were also moist, and fudgy and decadently rich.  I asked Hubman and the kids if they were better than brownies from the mix, and the answer was a resounding yes. So yes, they were better than brownies from a box, even the premium brownie mix. Were they harder to make than brownies from a box?   Not really.  Instead of dumping in eggs, oil and water, I melted butter and heated butter and sugar in the microwave and measured a few things.  The slight additional effort was completely worth the results. Would I make brownies from scratch over brownies in a box?  Not really.  I usually have eggs and oil in the house, and if I wanted quick brownies all I would need is a box of mix, which I can usually get for a dollar on sale at the supermarket. Dutch process cocoa?  Chocolate Chips? Sticks of Unsalted Butter?  While all are yummy and worthy items, due to the fact that Hubman and I are watching what we eat, they will not be found in our cupboard unless I make a special effort to buy them. I did like doing the comparision of conveniece product vs scratch. While it was not my initial intent, it was fun to think about.  I think I will have to try it again for another Friday Foodie, any suggestions?