TWD: Rick Katz's Brownies for Julia

How do you fancy your brownie? Generally, I'm a chewy girl. I'll a cut a bitch if anyone gets near the corner pieces. So, I have a trick up my sleeve. You see, when I make a batch of brownies, I cut all along the perimeter of the brownies, about 1/2 in from the edges. And then I cut my slices from the remaining inside. I tell people it's so that all the brownies have that pretty "just cut" edges, instead of some edge or corner pieces thrown in. But in reality, it's so that I can then proceed to eat all those edges and corners myself.

Sneaky, eh? It works though. I have good looking brownies and I have an excuse to eat my favorite pieces. It's a win-win.

Tanya of Chocolate Chic chose this week's Tuesdays with Dorie Recipe and after being an avid reader of her blog for awhile now (I almost feel like I know her, Superman, and the Chips because of all the cool photos and witty captions that she posts regularly), I knew that this recipe would be right up my alley: just pure blissful chocolate... no crazy Dorie add-ins. And boy, was I right.

So, this week is Valentine's Day week, right? What better week to bake up a batch of these fudgy, decadent brownies to share with the ones you love? Ummm... none. Sure, the recipe is a little weird in method and sure you have to pop these bad boys in the fridge for awhile before you can even think about cutting them, and sure they leave a sticky, thick chocolate residue all over your fingers. But they are sinful. Sinful, messy, sweet and delicious... and isn't that how all love should be?

Rick Katz's Brownies for Julia (Julia Child, that is).

Recipe from Dorie Greenspan's Cookbook, Baking: From My Home To Yours

Be warned, these are not dainty, tea-time brownies. These are heavy, sturdy, dense, chocolate-y squares of goodness. These are not the brownies that you take to a party. These are the brownies that you make with the intention of taking a fork to the entire pan and just going after it. They are messy. But, damn are they good. Rich and almost creamy. They're similiar to a truffle in consistency.

The preparation method is a little different than your standard brownie making, so be sure to read through the directions carefully before you start and then as you're working. There some weirdness going on with the eggs and some whipping, etc.

When they come out of the oven, let them cool (or, I suppose these would be heavenly scooped out messy and warm with a bowl of ice cream) and then pop them in the fridge or freezer to firm up for cutting. They even taste good cool and frozen!

Recipe here

 

TWD: Cheesecake Brownies

It occurred to me while I stood in my kitchen tasting these brownies... that i am a simple, boring girl. Well, at least culinarily speaking. (If you had been out with me on Saturday afternoon/night I think boring probably would have been the last word on your mind. But that's a whole other story for another blog... the drunken amy shenanigans blog*). I mean. Don't get me wrong. I LOVE cheesecake. But, my favorite cheesecake? Regular. Plain. Unadorned. I also love brownies. But, the only time I get wild and crazy with them is when I throw some nuts in the batter. Yum. So, if I love both parts of something... it only makes sense that I'd love them put together. Right?

Well, I didn't. At all. And here's the thing, folks... In my opinion, a really good cheesecake doesn't need a brownie base to make it better. And a really good brownie doesn't need a cheesecake topper to make it better. And the two together sure as hell don't need some weird sour cream icing on top.

This recipe was not my favorite. The brownie? Blech. Dry. Overcooked. Boring. The cheesecake? Flavorless (I skipped the Espresso and used Bailey's Liquor) and overshadowed by the huge amount of sour cream icing. And for me, the sour cream icing just threw the whole thing off. Mine was goopy and so sour cream-y. Like... almost buttermilk flavored. The flavors and textures just didn't do it for me.

Next time I'm craving cheesecake and brownies... I'll eat a slice of really good cheesecake, like this one... and a really good brownie... like this.

Dorie and I don't seem to have similar palates when it comes to chocolate goods. Her fruit recipes, however? I die for. Like...

Russian Grandmother's Apple Pie Cake
Summer Fruit Galette
French Pear Tart
Fresh Mango Bread
Florida Pie

Sorry... I got off on a little tangent there, didn't I? Oh well. Live and learn. If you like decadence and like to have cheesecake with your brownie, then give this recipe a try. Plenty of people were raving about them over at Tuesdays with Dorie. They just weren't my cup of tea. But, I'm boring. Remember?

Espresso Cheesecake Brownies-- click the title for recipe from Melissa of Life in a Peanut Shell.
by Dorie Greenspan

I found these brownies really easy to make. I did skip the espresso and added an equal amount of baileys to the cheesecake batter, but I couldn't taste it (probably because all I could taste was sour cream from the topping).



* I don't have a drunken amy shenanigans blog. yet.

TWD: Brownie Buttons

I'm back, bitches.

Yes, I realize it's been like weeks and weeks since I've participated in a Tuesdays with Dorie. I have some good excuses though... among them: 10 day vacation in Montana, Preparing to run back-to-back marathons, cutting sugar out of my diet. None of these things are particularly conducive to belonging to a baking club.

But, vacation is over, marathons are completed, and while I'm back on the no-sugar train. I've got some occasions where I can bake for other people. Hooray!

This week Jayma of Two Scientists Experimenting in the Kitchen chose Brownie Buttons. Essentially, these are brownies baked in mini-muffin cups... I like this idea in theory... small portions= fewer calories. Except... when you eat 9 of them, you're getting the same calories as you would in eating 1-2 regular size brownies. Oh well.

My family really liked these. We served them with some vanilla ice cream. But, I had a bite of them (normally, I could have easily said no because they kind of looked gross (a master decorator, I am not) but, I was intrigued by the fact that there's orange zest in the brownies and I wanted to see how that tasted). I didn't like them, though. For whatever reason, I just cannot get my palate sophisticated enough to like fruit and chocolate together (except cherries. but then again, I can practically eat cherries with anything). I took a bite of these brownies and though they didn't taste "orange-y" they tasted... floral-y. Fragrantly floral. Like... someone had sprayed perfume on the brownies or something. Ehhh... not my cup of tea. Maybe if I didn't know there was orange zest in them, I might have enjoyed them more... but since I could easily identify that "floral whang" in them, I was like.. blech. Orange and chocolate! No thanks.

Oh well, I tried.

Even without the orange zest, the texture of the brownies weren't really my favorite either. Too cake-y... not fudge-y enough. Que Sera Sera.

Check out Jayma's blog if you like floral brownies, or if you just wanna try something different. (And by the way... the orange zest is optional in the recipe, but without it... they're just regular ole cake-y brownies).

The BAKED Brownie

If you're like me and you're really into food porn, then you've seen these brownies in the blogosphere a zillion times. And if you're not a food porn addict, then you might have either heard Oprah talking about them or writing about them in her magazine. These are her favorite brownies, apparently.

Even though I have about a trillion recipes bookmarked, printed out, post-it flagged, I knew it was only a matter of time that this recipe cut line. I made these over Father's Day weekend.

These brownies are good. My favorite? Nah. These are very similiar to my favorite though. They are thin and chocolatey and fudgy and borderline gooey. But, at least now I can cross this off my list. Now, I have about a 15 other recipes from the Baked cookbook that I want to try.

My favorite Brownie Recipe:
1st: Rich and Dark Brownies
Runner up: Dorie Greenspan's Tribute to Katharine Hepburn Brownies

The Baked Brownie
Yield: 24 brownies

"The Baked brownie is a beautiful thing. It has won the hearts and minds of many people, been featured on the pages of O Magazine as a favorite thing, and won best brownie by the folks at America’s Test Kitchen and the Today Show. Our brownie really owes many kudos to our friend and superstar pastry chef Lesli Heffler-Flick. She created the original ultimate brownie for us. It is dense, chocolatey, and slightly fudgy, and we are forever grateful to her for letting us adapt her recipe.

Baked Note: A great brownie is easy to make, but you have to be aware of several factors. 1. Use a dark cocoa powder, like Valrhona. A pale, light-colored cocoa does not have enough depth. 2. Make sure your eggs are room temperature and do not overbeat them into the batter, and 3. Make sure you check your brownies often while baking. Once the brownies have been overbaked slightly, they have reached the point of no return."

Ok, now my commentary...
These are easy brownies to make and they are really good. But don't be like me and take their words too literally. You want to make sure that the eggs are mixed into the batter. Otherwise, you'll end up with cooked egg whites on top of your brownies. Not attractive or tasty, but luckily easily removable.

1 1/4 cups flour
1 teaspoon salt
2 Tablespoons dark cocoa powder
11 ounces quality dark chocolate (60-72%), chopped coarsely
8 ounces butter (2 sticks), cut into 1 inch cubes
1 tsp instant espresso powder
1 ½ cups sugar
½ cup light brown sugar
5 large eggs, room temperature
2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Butter the sides and bottom of a glass or light colored metal pan 9x13x2 pan.

In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, the salt, and cocoa powder.

Configure a large sized double boiler. Place the chocolate, the butter, and the instant espresso powder in the bowl of the double boiler and stir occasionally until the chocolate and butter are completely melted and combined. Turn off the heat, but keep the bowl over the water of the double boiler and add both sugars. Whisk the sugars until completely combined and remove the bowl from the pan. Mixture should be room temperature.

Add three eggs to the chocolate/butter mixture and whisk until just combined. Add the remaining eggs and whisk until just combined. Add the vanilla and stir until combined. Do not over beat the batter at this stage or your brownies will be cakey.

Sprinkle the flour/cocoa/salt mix over the chocolate. Using a spatula (DO NOT USE A WHISK) fold the dry into the wet until there is just a trace amount of the flour/cocoa mix visible.

Pour the mixture into the pan and smooth the top with your spatula. Bake the brownies for 30 minutes (rotate the pan half-way through baking) and check to make sure the brownies are completely done by sticking a toothpick into the center of the pan. The brownies are done when the toothpick comes out with a few moist crumbs.

Cool the brownies completely before cutting and serving.

TWD: KathArine Hepburn Tribute Brownies

I am sorry. I haven't exactly been burning up the blogosphere here lately, now, have I? And, unfortunately I don't have any awesome excuses like... I've been traveling (because I haven't) or I've been super busy (not really been that, either). No... my reason is basically the baking blogs worst nightmare: I've been trying to lose weight.

The latest weight loss plan for me? Eliminating sugar and alcohol. Which, if you know me... know that these two things are the reason I exist. Sugar and alcohol are what I live for, what I wake up for, why I exercise, etc. Sugar and alcohol are also the reasons that I carry around about 25 extra pounds mostly in my mid-section. But, I'm shunning them both for a few weeks. We'll see how it works out.

Meanwhile, it will be fairly quiet around these parts. Luckily, all us bakers have been given a hall pass on the summer recipes for Tuesdays with Dorie . The requirements have been relaxed for the summer and we have been encouraged to do as many as we can, but to not worry about being kicked out of the group. And for that, my waist-line thanks the admin peeps at TWD. I do have a couple of recipes already saved up to post, so it's not going to be entirely silent. And at some point, I might try to soothe my sugar deprived, cranky bastard soul with some sort of splenda-ed up recipe. But, who knows. For now and the next few weeks, I'm just going to be a real bitch that no one will want to hang around. Awesome.

Anyway... now that we have that out of the way... let me drool all over myself for a minute while I tell you about these awesome brownies I made a couple weeks ago. These brownies are excellent. They are fudgy and chocolate-y. I eliminated the cinnamon, the instant coffee and the walnuts that the recipe called for and I think I even overbaked them a little and they still turned out delicious. Sadly, they don't look that great, though, because I used dark cocoa in the recipe and black brownies just don't look as appetizing as brown brownies. Whatev. They still tasted awesome.

I'll see ya when I see ya.

Check out Lisa's blog Surviving Oz for the recipe for these brownies.

TWD: Chipster Topped Brownies

I have this small problem. I'm the type that usually thinks that when you take two seperate good things and put them together... that you get an even more amazing thing. Confused? Let me give you some examples...

Biscuits? Awesome. Sausage Gravy? Awesome. Put them together? Totally awesome.

or...

Warm Brownie? Awesome. Ice Cream? Awesome. Warm Brownie with a scoop of Ice Cream? Totally awesome.

It makes sense. Which is why I thought that this week's Tuesdays with Dorie recipe was going to be a knock-out. It was essentially a chocolate chip cookie baked on top of a fudgy brownie. How genius is that, right?

I made a half recipe and made the recipe exactly as written (except I used pecans instead of walnuts in the brownies) and what I ended up with was so rich, after a few bites, I couldn't handle it anymore. (If I'd had some ice cream to go with it, incidently, I could have polished off the whole pan, I think. But by itself, it was just too much for me).

I felt like the cookie part didn't have enough flour in the recipe. Even when I tasted some of the dough, I thought to myself... hmm... this doesn't taste like regular cookie dough. It wasn't nearly as good as cookie dough generally is.

And when it baked, the top hardened, but the inside never really set up. It was gooey (which, in my book is generally a good thing). The brownie set up nicely and was so intense and fudgy. The other issue I had, was what the chocolate chips from the cookie all sunk down to the brownie. Which, I think contributed to the fact that it was too rich for me.

If you like rich desserts, then this is right up your alley. And I think if I had had some ice cream to eat with this, I would have LOVED it. But, by itself... it was just a little too much for me. Sometimes... two parts are better off alone than they are together, I guess....

You can find the recipe on Beth's blog: Supplicious

TWD: French Chocolate Brownies

Fruit? Good.
Chocolate? Good.
Fruit and Chocolate together? Not good.

Or so I used to think. You know how it is… it’s hard to shake your childhood palette sometimes. In my head, some things just aren’t supposed to go together and to illustrate that… I present the following evidence…
Russell Stover’s Boxed Chocolates.

Oh sure, they are innocent looking enough, with all the deliciously draped milk and dark chocolates. But beneath that luscious, silky chocolate… lies potential secret grossness. Oh, sure there are a couple in there that have caramel in them.. (my bet was always on the milk chocolate square shaped ones… and I was usually right) and there are a few nutty type ones that were good. But, the majority of these are filled with yucky orange, strawberry, lemon, or raspberry creams. Presenting a tastebud game of roulette that I could never resist, but always regretted (sounds eerily familiar to the vegas roulette, no?).

Whenever I hear of chocolate and fruit, I think back to those chocolates.

There was one exception though. The cordial cherry. For whatever reason, a chocolate covered cherry got a free pass in my culinary world. My argument would be that the chocolate didn’t actually touch the cherry… the syrupy goodness served as a buffer between the two.

As I’ve grown older, I’ve slowly warmed up to some fruit and chocolate marriages. For instance… chocolate covered strawberries. While, I’d probably enjoy them more, if they were separately on their own, I do like chocolate covered strawberries and will eat them happily.

So, when I first saw that Di of Di's Kitchen Notebook chose something called French Chocolate Brownies, I was initially very excited. Yum. Brownies. Then I read the recipe…

RAISINS? WITH CHOCOLATE? WHO EATS RAISINS AND CHOCOLATE TOGETHER??

… oh yeah…apparently lots of people do (raisinetes. duh). And then I realized… my palette has grown, but it hasn’t grown quite that far yet. So, instead of raisins, I subbed dried cherries. Problem solved. .
The only other issue I had with the recipe, is that while I do love rum, rum doesn’t love me. In fact, it hates my body so much, that I can have one rum and coke and about 15 minutes later… well… I’ll just leave it with the comment, that I need a ponytail holder close by. I realize that by baking with rum, I’d not have a problem… but, I didn’t want to make a special trip to the liquor store to buy a mini bottle of rum (basically, because instead of leaving with just the one mini bottle of rum, I’d presumably leave with 5-6 bottles of wine, some tequila and maybe some vodka, oh yeah and hopefully I wouldn’t forget that mini bottle of rum. Okay, you’re right, I would). At first I thought, well I’ll just plump the cherries in some water and skip the flambéed part. But, I started snooping around in my cabinets and fridge looking for a sufficient cherry plumper. That’s when I saw the unfinished bottle of Cabernet Sauvignon sitting on my counter. People drink wine with chocolate, don’t they? So, that’s what I used instead of rum.

These brownies are what I would call sophisticated brownies. These are the type of brownies that you’d bake for your significant other’s snooty sister that lives in some up and coming chic neighborhood outside of Seattle or Chicago or Austin or something. You know what I mean… these are pretentious brownies. They present a multi-leveled flavor buffet for your palette. I think it has more to do with the cinnamon than anything else. I’ve never had cinnamon with chocolate, and the jurys still out on whether or not I actually like the two together.

Try these brownies sometime when you are looking to serve something that looks simple, but tastes different. I might make these again sometime, especially as a dessert for a wine tasting party or something.

Be sure to check out everyone elses over at Tuesdays with Dorie.


French Chocolate Brownies
- makes 16 brownies -Adapted from Baking From My Home to Yours.


Ingredients
1/2 cup all-purpose flour

1/8 teaspoon salt

1/8 teaspoon cinnamon (optional)

1/3 cup raisins, dark or golden

1 1/2 tablespoons water

1 1/2 tablespoons dark rum

6 ounces bittersweet chocolate, finely chopped

1 1/2 sticks (12 tablespoons; 6 ounces) unsalted butter, at room temperature and cut into 12 pieces

3 large eggs, at room temperature

1 cup sugar


Getting ready: Center a rack in the oven and preheat the oven to 300°F. Line an 8-inch square baking pan with foil, butter the foil, place the pan on a baking sheet, and set aside.


Whisk together the flour, salt and cinnamon, if you're using it.


Put the raisins in a small saucepan with the water, bring to a boil over medium heat and cook until the water almost evaporates. Add the rum, let it warm for about 30 seconds, turn off the heat, stand back and ignite the rum. Allow the flames to die down, and set the raisins aside until needed.


Put the chocolate in a heatproof bowl and set the bowl over a saucepan of simmering water. Slowly and gently melt the chocolate, stirring occasionally. Remove the bowl from the saucepan and add the butter, stirring so that it melts. It's important that the chocolate and butter not get very hot. However, if the butter is not melting, you can put the bowl back over the still-hot water for a minute. If you've got a couple of little bits of unmelted butter, leave them—it's better to have a few bits than to overheat the whole. Set the chocolate aside for the moment.
Working with a stand mixer with the whisk attachment, or with a hand mixer in a large bowl, beat the eggs and sugar until they are thick and pale, about 2 minutes. Lower the mixer speed and pour in the chocolate-butter, mixing only until it is incorporated—you'll have a thick, creamy batter. Add the dry ingredients and mix at low speed for about 30 seconds—the dry ingredients won't be completely incorporated and that's fine. Finish folding in the dry ingredients by hand with a rubber spatula, then fold in the raisins along with any liquid remaining in the pan.
Scrape the batter into the pan and bake 50 to 60 minutes, or until the top is dry and crackled and a knife inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean. Transfer the pan to a rack and allow the brownies to cool to warm or room temperature.


Carefully lift the brownies out of the pan, using the foil edges as handles, and transfer to a cutting board. With a long-bladed knife, cut the brownies into 16 squares, each roughly 2 inches on a side, taking care not to cut through the foil.


Serving: The brownies are good just warm or at room temperature; they're even fine cold. I like these with a little something on top or alongside—good go-alongs are whipped crème fraiche or whipped cream, ice cream or chocolate sauce or even all three!


Storing: Wrapped well, these can be kept at room temperature for up to 3 days or frozen for up to 2 months.

Brownie Peanut Butter Cups

Ohhhhh... Jennifer . I don't know you. But somehow... somehow, you manage to read my mind. Somehow you manage to post the most delicious looking chocolatey, peanut buttery, pecan-filled, hazelnut laced recipes and for that, I thank you. I also hope that you find imitation to be a form of flattery instead of a nuisance, since I tend to make the recipes you've blogged about and then immediately put them on my blog, as well.

Digressing... I know that I've gone on ad nauseum about how much I love chocolate and peanut butter together. So, I won't go into the fact that it's a veritable divine partnership of flavors. No, I'm just going to say that if you, too, like Chocolate and Peanut Butter together... then you should try this recipe.

Supernatural Brownies

I have a bad habit. Whenever I find a recipe for something that I like, I generally feel like I don't want to try any other recipes. Like, other recipes aren't going to be better, right? Well, this is something that I definitely need to get over. As made apparent to me by these brownies.

I saw this recipe on Jennifer's Blog and immediately printed the recipe out. But, it's been sitting in my recipe folder since then. For whatever reason, I don't bake brownies that often. Probably because I know how dangerously tempting they are.

This weekend I'm heading to Isle of Palms, SC for my friend Leigh's Bachelorette Weekend Extravaganza. I volunteered to bring baked goodies and I thought some brownies would be the perfect goody, since they travel well (we're talking a 9 hour drive, folks). I went through my recipe folder and picked this recipe and thought... hmmm.. "well I have all the ingredients.. maybe they'll be okay."

Holy crap!!!!! These brownies are delicious! I mean seriously. Moist and fudgy and chewy all at the same time! And incredibly simple to make!! (I just zap my chocolate and butter in the microwave, instead of using the double boiler method).

I baked them in a glass 9x13 inch pan that I had laid a piece of parchment paper in (so that I could lift the brownies out of the pan and cut them easily) for about 40 minutes, but I started checking at 35 minutes. Nobody likes an overcooked brownie, right? After I let them cool on a wire rack, I pulled them out of the pan by the parchment paper and trimmed all the edges off. Nobody likes to see the edges, right? (Okay, I'm totally lying, I don't cut the edges off for aesthetic reasons, I actually cut the edges off, because that's my favorite part and so I gobble that up immediately and just use the excuse... ohhhh the edges are so ugly and you just can't serve brownies with an ugly edge! It's a good thing that I don't own this pan).

Now I understand the title of these brownies... They certainly are Supernatural! I can't wait to serve them this weekend!

Chocolate Stuffed Peanut Butter Brownies

Halloween. What a great holiday. You get to dress up and people give you candy. I mean, what genius thought that up??? Brilliant! But, when you become an adult and no one you know throws a costume party, the best part of halloween is... getting candy for 50% & 75% off. I stocked up this year, with the intention of using the candy in some recipes!

The first recipe I came up with is for something I printed awhile back. It's for Chocolate Stuffed Peanut Butter Brownies. They are basically peanut butter cookies made in bar form with bits of reese peanut butter cups and chocolate chips (I used cut up hershey bars).

Let me take a moment to talk about peanut butter. I like peanut butter, but I'm not crazy over it, unless it has chocolate with it. The mixture of chocolate and peanut butter is awesome, but I'm not one to just eat peanut butter cookies. I mean I'll eat them, but I won't choose them over chocolate cookies. So, these brownies were an interesting pick for me. They are super rich and pretty gooey, but yummy! I think if I make them again, I might add more chocolate to the recipe, but overall. A delicious take on brownies and a great way to use up Reese Peanut Butter Cups and hersey bars!

Ugghh.... sometimes I hate blogger, like when it won't accept new paragraphs. Uggh..

Rich & Dark Brownies

So, Friday I closed on my first home! A cute 1 bedroom, 1 bath condo in Midtown and I couldn't be happier! Once I get my kitchen all squared away this week, I'll post some photos! But for now, I'm limited to what can be microwaved or cooked on the stove or in the oven that doesn't require refrigeration or freezing. Although, that issue will be remedied tonight when my refrigerator is delivered! Yay!

This has been a long process, I first reserved this unit back in April of 2005. And so yesterday, in the midst of running, shopping, putting an entertainment center together, packing, doing laundry, and moving, I decided to bake some brownies to mail to my Realtor's office and my Banker's office. They were both really great and answered all my dumb questions without making me feel like I was asking dumb questions and I wanted to show my appreciation.

The Nashville newspaper, The Tennessean, recently asked readers for Brownie submissions. Now, the print edition came out in last week's Food Section, but being the wonderfully connected person that she is, Anna, over at Cookie Madness somehow got a hold of the recipe the week prior and made them. So, after seeing how hers turned out, I cut the recipe out of the paper and whipped them up this weekend.

They are delicious and extremely easy! Normally, I like chewy, thick brownies. But these brownies are fudgey. But they are so good, I mean really rich and gummy, but still light. Hard to explain, but these will definitely be made again, next time I might add some chocolate chunks to the batter, just for some added chocolate.

Rich & Dark Brownies
from Wanda Thompson, printed from the Tennessean

2 sticks of butter
4 1 oz squares of unsweetened chocolate
3/4 cup of semi sweet morsels (I actually used 1/2 cup and then 1/4 cup milk chocolate)
4 beaten eggs
2 cups of sugar
1 cup plain flour
1 tsp vanilla
1 cup of nuts (optional)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease a 13x9 inch pan.

Combine butter and both chocolates in a saucepan and slowly melt on top of stove, stirring frequently.

Separately in a bowl combine the eggs and sugar and mix well (she said to use a mixer, but I dont have one and I just beat with a whisk for awhile and that worked fine). Now, if you like a shiny, cracked top on your brownies, you need to do this step for awhile. Beating the eggs with the sugar really well is what produces the shiny, cracked top on a brownie.

Add the flour and vanilla to the sugar and eggs and mix to combine. Once the butter and chocolate have melted, make sure it isn't too hot and pour into your bowl. Stir to combine. Pour into greased pan and bake for 15 minutes. After 15 minutes check the brownies and turn down to 325. Bake for 5 more minutes and then check doneness.

Once cooled, use a plastic knife to cut the brownies (keeps things cleaner).

Orange-ies

I've had this recipe printed ever since I saw Paula Deen make them on her show. I love Paula Deen's recipes. I've made a ton of her cookies, cakes, etc. Hell, she practically catered my friend April's bridal shower... I used like 3-4 of her recipes for that party (all delicious). And this one doesn't disappoint either.

The thing is though... I didn't really get a big orange flavor from it, it was more of a citrusy-lemon flavor. Really refreshing though and definitely the texture of chewy brownies. It features a cream cheese icing which is of course delicious. It was a nice summery dessert for my family's cookout this afternoon. Try it when you are craving a refreshing but rich citrus dessert.

I made a half recipe in a circle pan and then I used a biscuit cutter to cut out little rounds and then sliced them in half to serve.

I also thawed a bunch of my previously made cookies and brownies for dessert, too.

Brownies

I have never, not once considered making brownies from scratch. Why? Because of this: I've found that brownie mixes are so delicious... why bother with trying to make them from scratch?

Well, I decided that it would be nice to have a recipe for homemade brownies (even if they aren't likely to be as good as the mixes). So, I found a recipe on Cookie Madness for these brownies. She had lots of brownie recipes, but I chose these because I already had all the ingredients. And 28 minutes was wayyy too long to cook these brownies (at least for my taste), I should have taken them out after about 20-22, I think. I like my brownies moist and slightly undercooked. Mine were dry and overcooked. Damn.

I will try these again, I think though. They were easy and they make huge, thick brownies... I just wish I hadn't overcooked them.