Tollhouse Brownies

I knew that if I made a batch of brownies, that I would probably eat the entire batch on my own..not that I do not enjoy sharing but because I've been that brownie-hungry.  I had been restraining myself from baking brownies because I was worried about my expanding waist line (they are worse in the winter!  have you noticed?) but in the end I gave in.

I read up on 'brownies' and apparently there are three types of brownies in general.  The fudgy kind, the cake-y kind, and the chewy kind.  I vote for the chewy kind - always.  And that is what I got.  Crispy top and the chewy, chewy middle....
ahhhhh.......the joy............

The Tollhouse Brownies

• 1 2/3 C granulated sugar
• 3/4C cocoa powder (I used a brand called Sun Valley - these have worked really well in all my brownies and other bakings)
• 3/4C butter (170g)
• 2 Tbsp strong coffee or water (I made very strong coffee with instant coffee)
• 2 large eggs
• 2 tsps vanilla extract
• 1 1/3 C all-purpose flour
• 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1/4 ts salt
• 3/4 C chopped walnuts
• 1/4C chocolate chips or coarsely chopped chocolate bar (I used Nestle dark choc bits..they were awesome! I also added more than what's asked)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (176 degrees C).  Grease and flour a 9x13 inch baking pan.

Combine butter and cocoa powder in a small bowl, and place over a pot of simmering water.  Ensure that the water does not touch the bottom of the bowl.  Add the coffee or water and stir to melt the ingredients.

In a medium sized bowl whisk together the eggs and the sugar.  Add the vanilla.  When the butter and chocolate have melted and come together, slowly stir the chocolate mixture into the sugar mixture.  (Have the chocolate mixture cool down a bit before you do this so the eggs don't cook when you mix  them together)

Add the flour, baking powder and salt in a separate bowl.  Stir this into the chocolate and egg mixture and combine.  Fold in the nuts, saving a handful to sprinkle on top.

Pour the batter into the pan, sprinkle chocolate chips or chocolate chunks and walnuts.  Bake for 18-25 minutes depending on your oven.  Remove from the oven and let it cool down before cutting it into bars.

Wicked Chocolate Brownies

Hello.  How have you been?
I'm great.  A bit busy but fantastic.  You know why I'm great?  I have two weeks until my summer vacation starts.  Oh~ Yeah~~~~ :)  If I may, I do have a grumble, though.  The weather is totally playing mind games with me.  It's like summer is playing babyish peek-a-boo, ya know?  I'm over it.  But what can I do?  I can't force it out of its peek-a-boo state.  I just have to be patient and let it come when it's ready.  But I know when it does come, it's going to be fantastic. 

I've realised that I talk about weather a lot here.  They say, that one of the best small talk topics is weather.  Small talk = Convo with strangers.  I'm trying to think how I can get past being acquaintances with you so we can get past the small talk phase.  It'll come.  I'm sure.  :)

In the meantime, I've got a recipe for ya. 

As novice baker, I try to follow the footsteps of the greats.  There are a few (as you've noticed) that I totally look up to in the baker's blog world.  And there's something that I've noticed about these bakers.  It is that they get their amazing recipes from almost anywhere including....food packets.  It is not the 'where' that counts but the final product, right?  So...that's what I did.  There was a chocolate brownie recipe that I've noticed on the packet of Champion Flour and I decided to try it out.

Apologies for the shaky photos.

I seem to have shaky hands these days.  

I'm wondering if I'm lacking in certain nutrition.  Hmmm...

 

This recipe is chock-full of cocoa and sugar (dang, it had a lot of sugar!) and I absolutely loved the texture of it.  A bit of moist and gooey with a crispy top...my kinda brownie, baby~ 

Enjoy.  :)

Wicked Chocolate Brownies

From Champion Flour packet

•  200g room temp butter, softened (I used unsalted.  Packet didn't specify)
• 1 1/2C sugar
• 1C cocoa
• 3 eggs - room temp
  
• 1/2C standard flour (I sifted)
  
• 150g roughly chopped white chocolate or 3/4 C roughly chopped walnuts (I used 3/4C of chopped macadamia nuts because it is what I had.  It was awesome but I would definitely add the chocolate next time)
  
• Icing sugar to dust

1.  Preheat oven 150 degrees C (about 302 degrees F) and grease a 20cm (about 8 inches) baking tin/pan.
2. With an electric mixer on high speed beat butter, sugar and cocoa for 4-5 minutes until creamy.  (The batter will be super crumbly but it'll come together)
3. Add eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition.
4. Stir in flour and chocolate (or nuts) and transfer mixture to greased baking tin.
5. Bake for 1 hour or until the surface of the brownie appears cracked.  The centre should appear almost uncooked.
6. Cool in the tin and cut into squares.
7. Dust with icing sugar before serving.
   

Blondies

Another two-week holiday has started. It is raining cats and dogs and elephants outside.
We have a tsunami warning in New Zealand today. Did you know that? It is scary, folks.
I live about 15 minutes from the nearest beach. This used to be a good thing. But not today. Not good. I had to briefly think about what I'd miss if I died today. Oooohhh....too much serious thinking for the holidays.

'Nuff seriousness. Here's some sweetness.
I made blondies today. Blondies. haha...
I'm tempted to make a lame joke about how someone who has the opposite of blonde hair (total, pitch black hair) has made blondies today..(and loved them.) But such wit escapes me.
I had four pieces already. I may have to freeze them or something before I take another to my mouth.

Here's the recipe from 'Joy of Baking.'

As strange as this sounds,
the yolk looks really 'cute' to me.
Does it to you?

I used roasted, salted peanuts instead of pecans.
I was trying to use the peanuts up before they go stale.
They were delicious (I had no problems gobbling these babies down)
but I'd still like to try pecans next time...
oh and of course white choc chips which I also omitted
cuz I didn't have any...
(It was a spur of the moment baking...)

The before.....

And after....

I saw another renowned baker blogger
baking brownies in a cake pan...
So, I tried it, too. hee hee
They look pretty good, don't they? ;p

Cheesecake-marbled brownies

In all honesty, peeps, I'm not a fan of 'marbled' stuff. It seems too ambiguous and hypocritical to me, ya know? Either be chocolate or vanilla but don't try to be both. Be honest! Be pure!
But when a great minded baker like Smitten Kitchen posts it on her blog and says it's bakable I humbly abide. I must. 'Tis the duty of a novice baker: Listen. Follow. Adjust.

I had to commit the sacrilege of not going by the recipe exactly. (Yeah, I'm very guilty of this in many of the bakings I attempt.) But, I have an excuse. I have this thing where I buy ingredients for a certain recipe and then am left with the remaining ingredients with fast approaching expiry dates. So to avoid the cycle of being left with left-over ingredients, again, I had to go ahead with what I had, hence the inevitable deviation from the original recipe.

Anyhoot, I was trying to find a recipe that would use up both the chocolate and the cream cheese that was about to expire - trying to kill two ingredients with one recipe. I had cupcakes in mind. Also cookies. Then I came across Smitten Kitchen's newly posted recipe. And I was done for.

The changes I made to the recipe are:
1. I used only 5 oz of cream cheese instead of 8 oz (because that's what I had)
2. I used a heck of a lot more chocolate then called for. I used ALL 230g of my Whittaker's Dark Mocha Chocolate. (I bought these to snack on, but the espresso in them were a bit too strong for snacking)

The result.
Whatcha think? Hm???
Totally awesome.
I absolutely loved the mocha chocolate in this. Not only that, the brownie itself was so moist and lovely. I would use less chocolate for the sprinkling on top next time (yes, less is more!) but the brownie was yumdy dum!! I was gonna take this to church tomorrow but......I'm thinking may be not. heee heeee.

Here's the recipe from Smitten Kitchen.

May I interest you in the story of the below photographed knife?
'Twas my mother's and we've had it for about 10 years now.
My mother grew up in the sixties in Korea (post-war)
as a pastor's kid. So. She doesn't know how to 'discard' anything.
I still shock her with the things I throw out.
I sometimes tell her about what I'm trashing just to get a kick out of it.
Is this mean? :)
But really. I will never throw away this one (the knife, I mean).
It still works beautifully thanks to mom's diligent sharpening.

I sometimes would use a glad wrap again
or clean the take-out box to use as tupperware.
I never unconsciously FIND myself doing this.
I only do it when I'm thinking of my mother.

The below Mocha Chocolate will definitely be making
many more appearances in my baking.

The before....

...and after.

...I really need to work on my food presentation...
...true beauty lies within...but beautiful food still gets more attention....

S'mores Brownies

So, here's another great concoction by one of my favourite baker bloggers "Joy the Baker" S'mores Brownies. S'mores is American. And luckily I've actually had an authentic s'mores in America with American marshmallows cooked on an American campfire. So. I deem myself totally qualified to make this divine creation.

I have to say, I was so, so, sooooooo excited to be making this. This is my second recipe tried from Joy the Baker.

• 1 1/2 C all-purpose flour
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 C unsalted butter
• 6 oz unsweetened chocolate, chopped (I used bittersweet Whittaker chocolate - a very wonderful NZ brand)
• 5 large eggs
• 1 1/4 C dark brown sugar (I couldn't find 'dark' brown sugar so I used regular brown sugar...how dark are these anyway??)
• 1 C granulated sugar
• 2 tsp vanilla essence
• 1 C graham cracker, roughly crushed with your hands (I used Digestives as Kiwis don't eat graham crackers. I personally prefer Digestives over graham crackers for regular snacking, although, they are virtually the same kind of crackers)
• 12 big marshmallows (Joy the Baker says she diced 6 additional marshmallows and stirred them into the batter and that these dissolve when baked. I didn't use these. I thought the batter was sweet enough as it is)
• (I chopped up about 2 oz of chocolate and folded them in with the graham crackers because I like chocolate in brownies and also I'd bought an 8 oz chocolate bar, which means I had 2 oz left after melting the required 6 oz. :-P)

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Butter 9x13 inch baking pan with 2 inch sides. (butter bottom and sides with a brush) Combine the first 3 ingredients in a small bowl. Stire butter and chocolate in medium sized bowl over a heavy saucepan of simmering water. Stire chocolate and butter in this double boiler until melted and smooth.
2. Beat eggs, sugar and vanilla in large bowl to blend. Stir in warm chocolate mixture, then dry ingredients. Fold in graham crackers. Pour batter into prepared pan. Dot with 12 large marshmallows. Bake until toothpick inserted into center comes out with moist crumbs attached, about 30-40 minutes.
3. Marshmallows will be browned and puffy but will deflate as the brownies cool. Cool for at least 20 minutes then slice with sharp knife, cleaning the knife with hot water if it gets too messy and sticky.

My entire house smells of brownies right now. I just cut them up and put'em in a container. It was so hard not to take a bite while doing this. Mmmmmm~~!! :)
The brownie was surprisingly not as sweet as I imagined. I mean, check out the sugar content! But the crackers were very plain so I think that balanced it out. I was really looking forward to a crispy bite of the crackers but they became like bread once baked. The marshmallows: Kiwi marshmallows are very different from the American ones so I was a little apprehensive about these but these added the unique flavour and fun to the brownies. I liked them. (edit: These are actually superbly sweet. A couple of glasses of milk should be in session when you're indulging in them.)