Brownies Cockaigne

When Joe finished taking Step 3, the last test for his state medical license, on Thursday, I wanted to make a little Congratulations dessert for him. His tradition for all of the different Step exams has been to go out for Mexican and margaritas afterward, so we did that with my parents as well. I love making brownies because I usually have the ingredients on hand, and brownie recipes can vary so much. I decided to try the Joy of Cooking recipe since that's always a good place to start.

The brownies came out wonderfully, perfectly fudgey in the middle but with a crisp top. My mom said these were the best brownies she'd ever had! I added in about a cup of chopped walnuts much to the delight of Joe and my dad. Sometimes I have trouble remembering who likes add-ins and who doesn't, so I was glad they went over so well!

Brownies Cockaigne
source: Joy of Cooking, 75th anniversary edition

Ingredients
1/2 cup butter
4 oz semi-sweet chocolate
4 eggs, room temperature
1/4 tsp salt
2 cups sugar
1 tsp vanilla
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup pecans or walnuts, chopped (optional)

Preparation

Preheat oven to 350°F.

Melt chocolate and butter in double boiler and then cool mixture *If you don't cool the mixture, your brownies will be heavy and dry.

Beat eggs and salt until light in color and foamy in texture and gradually add sugar and vanilla. Contine beating until well-creamed.

With a few swift strokes, combine the cooled chocolate mixture into the eggs and sugar. *Even if you normally use an electric mixer, do this manually. Before the mixture becomes uniformly colored, fold in the flour, again by hand. Before the flour is uniformly colored, stir the nuts in gently. Bake in a greased 9x13 pan for about 25 minutes. Cut when cool.

Turbo-Charged Brownies with Praline Topping

Oh wow. Look at all that delicious praline topping. Do you say pray-leen or prAH-leen? Joe and I have an argument going on that. I'm from Texas, so I say pray-leen. He went to college in New Orleans, so he says prAH-leen. Anyway, I grew up on pecans (the state tree of Texas!), and we even had a pecan tree in our backyard, so I love anything that calls for pecans. They're even better all mixed in with butter and sugar on top of a delicious fudge-y brownie.

When I first saw this recipe, I knew it would be perfect for two things: 1) using up the pecans and heavy cream I had left and 2) Super Bowl dessert. We went over to our friends' the C's to watch the Super Bowl game and eat chili and drink beer. They have a killer sound system and TV, and Mrs. C and I definitely share foodie interests. I thought these brownies would go over quite well, which they did. They're also kind of addictive, so watch out.

Turbo-Charged Brownies with Praline Topping
as seen on Dinner and Dessert

Ingredients

3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter
3 ounces unsweetened chocolate
1 cup granulated sugar
3/4 cup firmly packed dark brown sugar (I used light brown sugar.)
3 large eggs
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
1 tablespoon instant espresso powder
1 tablespoon boiling water
1 cup all purpose flour
1/4 tsp salt

Praline Topping
1 cup pecans
1/2 cup heavy whipping cream
1 cup firmly packed golden brown sugar
2 tablespoon unsalted butter
1 tablespoon light corn syrup
1 tablespon vanilla extract

Preparation

Preheat the oven to 350. Line a 9 x 13 inch baking sheet with foil, leaving several inches hanging over the short ends of the pan. Grease the foil with butter or cooking spray.

In a large metal bowl set over a pan filled with 2 inches of simmering water, melt the butter and chocolate. Stir until the chocolate has completely melted. Stir in both sugars. Add the eggs and vanilla all at once and stir until the batter is smooth and shiny. In a small bowl, combine the espresso powder and the boiling water; stir into the brownie mixture. Stir in the flour and salt.

Pour the batter into the prepared pan, smoothing it evenly. Bake about 30 minutes, or until the brownies have just begun to shrink slightly away from the sides of the pan. Do not overbake; the brownies should be slightly wet inside. Cool completely while making the praline topping, about 1 hour at room temp or 15 minutes in the freezer. Leave the oven at 350.

To make the topping: Arrange the pecans on a baking sheet in a single layer and toast for 5-7 minutes, until golden brown and aromatic. Break the nuts into large pieces.

Combine the cream, brown sugar, butter and corn syrup in a 2 1/2 quart saucepan and stir over medium-low heat until the mixture is smooth and the butter has melted. Bring to a slow boil; boil without stirring about 6 minutes. (If the mixture starts to boil over, you’ve set the heat too high. Turn the burner down a notch.) Remove the mixture from the heat and let cool about 5 minutes. Stir in the vanilla and pecans. Pour the topping over the cooled brownies, spreading it with a knife or spatula to cover evenly.

Let the topping cool at least 15 minutes at room temp. Lift the brownies, still in the foil, out of the pan and cut them into pieces.

Peppermint Cheesecake Brownies

Confession: I don't even like peppermint, but when I saw these brownies in Cooking Light, I knew I had to make them. Unfortunately, I was about halfway through the holidays when I realized that I didn't want any more sweets around. So I decided to save them to make for an open house we were going to on New Year's Day. Sure enough, they were a big hit. Reviews of the recipe said that the peppermint flavor wasn't terribly pronounced, so I doubled the amount of extract. Even I liked these!

Peppermint Cheesecake Brownies
adapted from Cooking Light, December 2008

Ingredients

Cheesecake Batter:
1 8 oz block of 1/3 reduced fat cream cheese
1/3 cup granulated sugar
1/2 tsp peppermint extract
1 large egg
1 large egg white
1 tbsp all-purpose flour

Brownie Batter:
4.5 oz all-purpose flour (about 1 cup)
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa
1/2 tsp salt
1 1/2 cups packed brown sugar
1/4 cup canola oil
1/4 cup buttermilk
2 tsp vanilla extract
1 large egg
2 large egg whites
Cooking Spray

Preparation

1. Preheat oven to 350°.

2. To prepare cheesecake batter, place cheese in a medium bowl; beat with a mixer at medium speed until smooth. Add granulated sugar and peppermint extract; beat well. Add 1 egg and 1 egg white; beat well. Add 1 tablespoon flour; beat mixture just until blended.

3. To prepare brownie batter, weigh or lightly spoon 4.5 ounces (about 1 cup) flour into a dry measuring cup; level with a knife. Combine 4.5 ounces flour, cocoa, and salt in a medium bowl, stirring with a whisk. Combine brown sugar, oil, buttermilk, vanilla, 2 egg whites, and 1 egg in a large bowl; beat with a mixer at medium-high speed until well blended. Add flour mixture to brown sugar mixture; beat at low speed just until blended.

4. Reserve 1/2 cup of brownie batter. Pour remaining batter into a 9-inch square baking pan coated with cooking spray. Carefully pour cheesecake batter over top; spread evenly to edges. Dot cheesecake batter with reserved brownie batter. Swirl top two layers of batters together using the tip of a knife. Bake at 350° for 26 minutes or until top is set. Cool completely in pan on a wire rack.

Nutritional Information

Calories: 213 (32% from fat)

Fat: 7.5g (sat 2.6g,mono 2.3g,poly 1.1g)

Protein: 4.4g

Carbohydrate: 32.3g

Fiber: 0.7g

Cholesterol: 37mg

Iron: 1.3mg

Sodium: 169mg

Calcium: 32mg

A Tale of Two Brownies

To celebrate all that we had accomplished that semester (3 papers, 2 exams, and 15 books read), my pastoral care and theology class had a party during part of our last class this past Thursday. After seeing Ginger Brownies on Reservations Not Required, I thought that this party would be the perfect opportunity to make them. Ginger is one of my favorite flavors, and I liked the idea of jazzing up regular brownies with a little unexpected flavor.

But Joe always gets a little sad when I make baked goods and then whisk them away before he gets to eat his fill, and I had been eyeing a brownie recipe in a cookbook that I rediscovered on my shelf that looked like a great go-to brownie recipe, so I decided to make a batch of those and throw in some walnuts for Joe and me to have.

Both brownies turned out really well. I guess it was the recipe I was using before, but my previous brownies always looked ugly and were too fudgey for my taste. Joe preferred the pure chocolate taste in the regular brownies on a blind taste test, but I really enjoyed the ginger brownies. I was curious to see, besides the added flavors in the ginger brownies, how the different amounts of the basic ingredients affected the brownies. Using more chocolate in the classic brownies definitely made them fudgier, and they had a more pronounced chocolate feel in the mouth.

Ginger Brownies
source: Reservations Not Required

Makes 16

• 1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, plus more for baking dish
• 3 ounces bittersweet chocolate, coarsely chopped
• 1 cup sugar
• 2/3 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/4 cup unsweetened Dutch-process cocoa powder
• 2 large eggs
• 1 teaspoon grated peeled fresh ginger
• 1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
• 1/4 teaspoon coarse salt
• 1/8 teaspoon ground cloves

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Butter an 8-inch square baking dish. Line bottom with parchment paper, allowing 2 inches to hang over 2 sides. Butter parchment; set aside. Melt butter and chocolate together in a medium saucepan over medium-low heat, stirring until smooth. Remove from heat, and stir in remaining ingredients.
2. Pour batter into prepared dish. Smooth top with a rubber spatula. Bake until a cake tester inserted into center comes out with moist crumbs, 30 to 35 minutes. Let cool in pan on a wire rack 15 minutes. Lift out, and let cool completely on rack. Cut into sixteen 2-inch squares. Brownies can be stored in an airtight container at room temperature up to 4 days.

New Classic Brownies
source: Alice Medrich's Cookies and Brownies
Yields 16 brownies

Ingredients
8 tbsp unsalted butter
4 oz unsweetened chocolate
1 1/4 cup sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/4 tsp salt
2 large eggs
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
2/3 cup walnut or pecan pieces (optional)

Preparation

Preheat the oven to 400-degrees F. Position a rack in the lower third of the oven.

Melt the butter with the chocolate in the top of a double boiler or in a medium heatproof bowl set in a pan of barely simmering water. Stir frequently until the mixture is melted and smooth.

Remove the top of the double boiler (or the bowl) from the heat. Stir in the sugar, vanilla, and salt. Add the eggs, one at a time, stirring until each is incorporated before adding the next. Stir in the flour and beat with a wooden spoon until the batter is smooth and glossy and comes away from the sides of the pan, about 1 minute. Stir in the nuts, if using. Scrape the batter into the pan. Bake for 20 minutes, or until the brownies just begin to pull away from the sides of the pan. The surface of the brownies will look dry but a toothpick inserted in the center will still be quite gooey.

When cool, slide a knife between the pan and the brownies on the unlined sides. Lift the ends of the parchment or foil liner and transfer the brownies to a cutting board. Cut into 16 squares. May be stored, airtight, for 2 or 3 days.