First, let me just say that if I had to list my top 10 favorite desserts, brownies would not be on it. It’s not that I dislike them, it’s that I’m so ambivalent. It’s a bit like chocolate cake for me, it’s just not something that excites me in any way. But my husband is a big brownie fan, and if I don’t make things he likes I will end up eating all of it and that is just a bad situation for everyone. So I have learned to tolerate the brownie in all of its forms, and I keep trying new recipes thinking hey, this may be the brownie to change my mind. It may be the enlightening brownie, the epiphany brownie, if you will.

Internet, this may be the epiphany brownie. If you harbor no hatred for marshmallow, pecans, sugar, chocolate or butter, you really, really need to try this brownie. The government might lie to you, but I certainly won’t.

First, get your ingredients together:

For the brownies:

6oz unsweetened chocolate, chopped

2 sticks unsalted butter

1 1/2 c. all purpose flour

1/3 c. cocoa powder (dutch processed, like most of you will probably already have in your cupboards)

1/2 tsp salt

3 c. sugar

5 large eggs

3/4 c pecans (honestly, I used a half cup because that was what was in the package, and they were just fine – also, this is totally optional, it will not affect the chemistry of the brownie if you hate nuts, just makes it less of a mississippi mud brownie and more of a…brownie.)

For the topping:

3/4 c. marshmallow creme/fluff/whatever they call it where you are

1/4 c. semisweet chocolate chips

2 tsp. vegetable oil

(for what it’s worth, I think you could use milk chocolate chips here and be just fine, and I’m also convinced a single teaspoon of oil would thin out the chocolate enough for drizzling, too. not only that, but if you hate marshmallows I think this would be a great place for a good rich buttercream (made with butter, not shortening!) spread very thin.)

First things first, let’s get that chocolate chopped. If you have the bars like I bought, terrific, grab a knife and make it look like this:

You might think, maybe I could chop mine in a more uniform fashion? Yes, you probably could. I’m not good at uniform chopping and I freely admit that I chopped mine with a dull knife on a wobbly board and a toddler underfoot, which are not the best conditions for concentration. But it’s all getting melted anyway, the idea behind chopping is that it allows the chocolate to melt at a steady pace, and as you can see, it’s chopped! Let’s move on.

Go ahead and preheat your oven to 325 degrees, with the rack set on the middle position. Grab a 13 x 9” baking dish and line it with aluminum foil with a little hanging over (so you can lift it out later) and spray with cooking spray.

Here is where the recipe calls for a double boiler setup to melt your chocolate and butter, like this:

And it works, but there are a few things I don’t like about this particular method. One, while my $5.99 Ikea double boiler insert here works like a charm in the right size pan, this pan is a bit large for it and so I had condensation not only along the the sides of the outside of the boiler, but it was building up on the inside as well. Condensation + melting chocolate – DANGER WILL ROBINSON, the two are just not meant to go together.

(breaking here for a second to say if you are unfamiliar with what exactly a double boiler is, it’s a small amount of water, half an inch in this case, in a pan set to a slight,steady simmer with another heatproof vessel ((a stainless steel bowl will work just as well if you have one)) set over it – but not touching the water – to allow for a dry, steady heat for melting delicate things like chocolate or heating dairy without scorching)

An episode of Good Eats that involved tempering chocolate had Alton melting chocolate with a heating pad sandwiched between two bowls. This is an ingenious idea and I may very well try it when I have two heatproof nesting bowls, but another alternative is the tried and true, ultra gourmet microwave method. Microwaving is the easiest of all of them, but it’s also a great way to burn your chocolate so make sure you take it slow and steady. I might even suggest melting the butter first and then stirring the chocolate in, maintaining the stirring until your chocolate is completely melted.

At any rate, your goal here is for your chocolate to look like this:

Smooth and glossy, but do yourself a favor and resist the urge to taste it. Unless you have a mirror nearby and you are watching your face while you do, because it’d be worth the expression. Unsweetened chocolate is just not delicious at all. If you choose the double boiler method, it should take you about 5-7 minutes total.

Take it off the heat and let it cool a bit while you combine the flour, cocoa and salt in a separate bowl. Feel free to whisk it if you’d like, I knew I’d be whisking the eggs and sugar shortly so I opted to just stir it around until it looked like this:

Once that’s done, in another bowl, whisk together your sugar and eggs. If I may make a suggestion? Add the 5 eggs in first and whisk to combine, add the sugar and then give it a thorough whisking. I put the sugar in first and made it unnecessarily hard on myself, so if you’re a masochist feel free to do it that way. I don’t think it matters so long as they are combined. Once it looks pretty uniform, whisk in your melted chocolate until again, thoroughly combined.

Now we get to add the flour. If you happen to have a bionic arm lying around, here’s a good time to put it to use. You’ll want to add the flour mixture in increments – I found three to be good and easy to keep track of. It is really, really important to make sure all of it is incorporated, so I recommend folding it in first, then stirring to combine, checking the bottom and sides to make sure no
streaks of flour are around. Repeat until you’ve got a thick, delicious batter and your arm leaves your body in protest. Fold in your pecans if you’ve chosen to use them and spread the whole mess into your prepared baking pan as evenly as you can.

Chuck it into the oven and bake until a toothpick comes out with a few wet crumbs. The recipe says about 35 minutes, in my oven it took 45, so you’ll want to start checking at 30 minutes and keep on in 5 or 10 minute intervals. The texture is intended to be dense, fudgy and moist, so overbaking is not your friend here. Set your pan on a wire rack to cool and get to work on the fun part:

Mmm. I can’t lie, I have a close-up of this on my hard drive in high res just because it was so fun to do and so pretty to look at. Here’s how you accomplish a similar result. Spoon the marshmallow cream over the brownies while they are still hot and let it sit for a few minutes to soften up and become spreadable. While that’s happening, you can go ahead and microwave the chocolate chips and the oil for about 30-40 seconds, stirring after to melt. If you have an offset spatula (best. thing. ever.) use it to spread the marshmallow cream evenly across the brownies. If you don’t, use a knife or spatula to do the same thing. Once you’ve got it looking the way you want it to, spoon up some of your melted chocolate and sling it back and forth over the top in whatever pattern pleases you most. Decorating is not my forte and so I have no advice for you other than that I started by drizzling off the end of the spoon and switched to a rapid slinging motion shortly after just because I liked the looks of it better. So it really is entirely up to you.

Let your incredible-looking masterpiece epiphany brownies cool, at the very least for 2 hours, then lift them out of the pan using the foil. Cut into squares and serve. (the recipe recommends 2” squares and I think that’s a reasonable guideline.) Makes about 18-24 brownies depending on how large you cut your squares.

Bon appetit!

Man, just looking at the picture makes me need to make them again, immediately.

These were posted over at the Livejournal community bakebakebake and since I didn’t want to make just any old cookie, I wanted to try them myself. They are, indeed, outrageous. I slightly modified the recipe and so I’ll share with you what I did.

Ingredients

Makes 2 dozen

• 8 ounces semisweet chocolate, roughly chopped
• 4 tablespoons unsalted butter
• 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 2 large eggs
• 3/4 cup packed light-brown sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 package (12 ounces) semisweet chocolate chunks *

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Heat chopped chocolate and butter in a microwave safe bowl in 20-second increments, stirring between each, until almost melted; do not overheat. In another bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, and salt.
2. In a mixing bowl, beat eggs, brown sugar, and vanilla on high speed until light and fluffy. Reduce speed to low; beat in melted chocolate.Mix in flour mixture until just combined. Stir in chocolate chunks.
3. Drop heaping tablespoons of dough 2 to 3 inches apart onto baking sheets.* Bake, rotating sheets halfway through, until cookies are shiny and crackly yet soft in centers, 12 to 15 minutes. Cool on sheets 10 minutes; with a thin metal spatula, transfer to racks to cool completely.

* – I used 1/2 package semisweet chunks and 1/2 package white chocolate chunks to alleviate some of that chocolatey-ness. I mean, 20oz of semisweet is a LOT of the same chocolate flavor. These would also probably be incredible with peanut butter chips.

**- here again is where I adjusted slightly. I always seem to have trouble with my cookies going flat and rather than waste some pretty pricey ingredients on flat, unappealing looking cookies, I took a note from Alton Brown’s “The Chewy” cookie and chilled the dough, and then rather than dropping teaspoons, I made balls instead, cooking only 6 at a time. They cooked up as you see in the photo above so I’m saying my strategy is a successful one. Take that, cookies! I win again!

This was an interesting experience for me – brownies made with chocolate pieces instead of cocoa powder. I used bittersweet discs from Guittard and it took me one or two brownies to really get used to the flavor. If you’ve only had box or store-bought, these are an entirely different experience.

I made another batch a few days ago with the intent of giving them to a friend, but something went horribly, horribly awry in the baking so the center just would not cook. I also used semi-sweet chocolate this time, as my husband commented that they could be sweeter, and the flavor was quite nice.

Julia Child’s White Bread

You Will Need:

2.5 cups water (between 105 – 115 F)

1 Tbsp active dry yeast

1 Tbsp sugar

7 cups bread flour or all-purpose flour

1 Tbsp salt

1/4 – 1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened

You Will Do:

Pour 1/2 cup of the water into a bowl and mix with yeast and sugar til foamy. Let sit for 5 minutes until creamy. (note to baking noobs: instead, just combine the water, yeast and sugar and then let it sit for 5 minutes, it’ll be foamy and creamy without stirring – see below).

Put the yeast mixture, rest of the water and 3.5 cups of flour into the mixer with the dough hook attached. Mix slowly until blended then add the rest of the flour. Increase the speed and scrape down the sides til the dough comes together (if it doesn’t come together, add a Tbsp of flour at a time until it does).  Add salt and mix at medium speed for 10 minutes til dough is smooth and elastic.

Add butter 1 Tbsp at a time (don’t be alarmed if your dough comes apart! Mixing will put it back together)

Turn dough out on a lightly floured surface and shape it into a ball then place in a large buttered or oiled bowl. Turn dough so it is completely coated in the fat, then cover in plastic or with a dishtowel for 45 minutes to an hour, til it has doubled in size at room temperature. Meanwhile, butter 2 loaf pans.

After dough has risen, deflate, cut in half and turn it out onto a lightly floured surface. Roll out a 9 x 12” rectangle, and with the short end facing you fold the dough into thirs, like a letter prepped for an envelope, creating a roll. Pinch the seam closed, and pinch the ends enough that it will fit in the loaf pan. (I tucked mine under, personally) Place into the pan seam-side down, recover and allow to rise a second time in a warm place for 45 minutes or until doubled in size.

Preheat the oven to 375 F, making sure oven rack is in the center of the oven. Bake for 35-45 minutes, until they’re honey brown. Immediately turn out of pans to cool on a rack.

First, let me just say that while I thought this was a good recipe to start with, in hindsight I’m not sure it was. I’m not sure if it was the reinterpretation of the instructions (it’s a dupe on Recipezaar) or what, but I could not get that yeast to foam with all the stirring in the world. So in frustration I went to research yeast and when I came back to it, it had foamed. So apparently the secret is not in stirring but in being patient.

Second, I cut my recipe in half because I felt like 7 cups of flour was insane and I didn’t think I needed two loaves. I’m not sure I did it right, because while the bread tasted just fine it was very dense and heavy for a loaf of white bread – I’m used to a softer, airier variety and have since found a recipe that more closely echoes my expectations.

Third, I really believe the preparation here is overly complicated. You don’t need to roll it out, it just needs to be pressed down lightly and shaped into a loaf. You have to go really light with the flour while you’re forming your loaf else your seams won’t pinch. You don’t need a heavy coat of fat in the bowl, just enough to lightly cover the dough and prevent it from sticking post-rise. In fact, I would say a wash of butter or milk on top right before you chuck it in the oven would give the same effect – fat browns, and that’s what gives your bread that golden brown crust.

That said, I totally lost my bread-making virginity on this recipe and all the frustration was ultimately worthwhile. I have made two other recipes since this one and refuse to be intimidated by bread flour again.