Sunday, February 19, 2012

Magical Brownies

I know what you are thinking. I'm not Colorado or California. There is nothing "herbal" in these brownies. Really, they're just brownies. 







I cut it off the picture, but if you look closely you can tell that the corner piece is gone. I couldn't help but have one before snapping the picture. So that's why they are magical. They are magical disappearing brownies.


They are the best brownies EVER. Now I wish I could take credit for them, but it's Mrs. Goldfarb's brownie recipe. It took years of begging my sister-law's friend who brought them to many gatherings for the recipe. Currently my rule is I only share the recipe with friends who share a coveted recipe with me. 

So I will share some general brownie information/tricks I do:
  • This recipe has only 1/4 cup of flour.
  • The brownie recipes I used in the past you would add sugar to melted chocolate and butter. This recipe I melt the chocolate and the butter. Then temper beaten eggs and stir them in. THEN you add the sugar. The consistency of the batter at this point looks very different than other recipes.
  • After baking, the tops of the brownies crackle and when you try to remove the brownies, they like to fall apart. I do Alton Brown's technique: spray the bottom of the glass square pan with butter PAM. Then line the pan with parchment paper so it hangs over the edge of the pan. Then spray butter PAM on the paper. When the brownies are cool, I pull the paper out and use a pizza cutter to cut them.

Don't know how to temper eggs? First know that it takes time, but it's worth it.
  • Poke the whisk into the hot liquid and then stir it in the eggs. 
  • Repeat until it looks like the mixture is half chocolate and half eggs. 
  • Then you slowly add the chocolatey egg mixture into the rest of the chocolate, whisking the whole time.

Sunday, February 12, 2012

I'll take it with a side of double stuf.

I know, I'm not very original making Chocolate pie in February. But I like chocolate!! Besides, it's not like there is a seasonal fruit to mash up in my kitchen to slide in a pie shell.




Pie 2: Chocolate Cream Pie

This recipe is from Saveur. Go here. You know you want to: 
http://www.saveur.com/

The frustrating part was I could not find chocolate nilla wafers. I checked several stores, swearing under my breath because I swore I saw a box of those sneaky cookies someplace. Grr! So I bought a pack of Oreos and proceeded to use my best untwisting skills to make a pile of just chocolate cookies. This left me a pile of single cookies with a chunk of icing on each one. I decided to smash those two half oreos and make my own double stuf oreos. Why waste chocolate?



Comments:
The crust turned out tough, presumably due to my lack of nilla wafers. The rest of the pie: FANTASTIC! 

Plus it tastes good with a couple of double stuf oreos. 

Now Bake That!