When brownies grow up

Who knew you could take a simple brownie and turn it up a notch and serve it at your swankiest dinner party? This week's Tuesdays with Dorie recipe was chosen by Di of Di’s Kitchen Notebook. She selected French Chocolate Brownies, and Dorie gave my five year old's palette a time out long enough for me to get over the fact that though this is not my favorite brownie recipe it is still an excellent one, and the perfect upscale version of my favorite dessert. These are gonna kill at my next dinner party when I add the rum soaked walnuts.

Now initially I didn't care for these brownies for several reasons (the main one being I'm a picky bitch). They are cake like, The tops are EXTREMELY cracked which makes them unappealing (to me, and lets face it my opinion is the only one that matters here), I didn't care for the cinnamon, and they take forever to bake. But they are one of those foods which are the enigmas of life in that they taste absolutely FABULOUS the next day. The cinnamon becomes an understated flavor and makes them interesting. The bittersweet chocolate is rich, and draws you in delicately. Long after they were gone I found myself craving them, and they are far from what I look for in a brownie. It's like my favorite bar treat had a snobby make over and I'm loving it.




Their addiction factor sort of sneaks up on you. Similar to when you get a subtle whiff of your husbands cologne and you are immediately filled with goose bumps and perky nipples, and you realize that this is one intense bar snack. Make these tonight...the anticipation of how amazing they will be tomorrow is worth it.

Make sure you check out the Tuesdays with Dorie blogroll to see everyone else's treats.

XOXO
Stay sweet;)


I left out the rum soaked raisins (because raisins are gross and remind me of giant rat droppings), but I plan on adding rum soaked walnuts next time instead of the raisins to make them a little more grown up and exciting.

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

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.

The best of both worlds

Two of my favorite things in the world are chocolate chip cookies and brownies. So I had an epiphany! Wouldnt it be amazing to combine them?! (I'm sure they have been combined before, but dont be such a debbie downer. Let me enjoy my moment.) I mean, how can I go wrong with chocolate chip cookies and brownies, right? So in my attempt to take over the world and have the ground upon which I walk endlessly worshiped, and have you shout my name at this most amazing discovery I began my search for the ultimate chocolate chip cookie recipe. You see I already have a brownie recipe that I LOVE. Now because I don't think I have conveyed the love I have for my favorite brownie recipe let me elaborate further. If I were given a choice between never using this recipe again, or eating apple pie (which I hate as we have already established in my introductory post by my loathing of fruity desserts) I would eat apple pie for the rest of my life just to use this recipe one more time. THAT is how much I love this recipe.

I found it online in a search for the recipe for Mrs. fields brownies, and it was love at first bite. I swear its the most magical thing to happen in my mouth in a long time, well technically since last night (I'm talking about the flan, get your mind out of the gutter people). The brownies are fudgey and gooey and an absolute dream come true. Anyway I digress, lets get back to the issue at hand which was finding a great chocolate chip cookie recipe. One that would be as amazing as the brownie recipe. Now this was going to be tricky because my absolute favorite chocolate chip cookies in the world are the pillsbury ones that come in a roll and you bake them on a whim, and they are perfection. Every. Single. time. I briefly considered using them, but that would be cheating my amazing brownie recipe by not pairing it with a home made cookie dough so on I went to search the web. I came across this recipe on allrecipes.com for "the best big fat chocolate chip cookie" and with over 2,000 raving reviews I was sold, and the mission for world dominance began.

I have to admit that I was bit skeptical initially because I love the pillsbury ones so much, BUT this was one great cookie recipe (pillsbury it was not, but great none the less). I decided to make it a couple of ways so that I could decide how I liked it best. I made mini chocolate chip cookie brownie cupcakes and chocolate chip cookie brownie bars. Half of the cupcakes had brownie on the bottom and chocolate chip cookie on the top and Some had it the other way around with cookie on the bottom and brownie on the top. Both mini cupcakes were heavenly, but for some odd reason the chocolate chip cookie brownie bars were AMAZING!

I think the mini cupcakes were too small to get the full effect of both flavors since the the top layer was the more dominant flavor. The bars on the other hand...O.M.G. Please dont be deterred by the horrible picture above. I forgot to take a picture of them after they were done and I only remembered after I had already put them inside tupperwear and then proceeded to drop the tupperware on the floor so they survived quite an ordeal to say the least. The layer of cookie (bottom) and brownie (top) complemented each other perfectly. Each layer had its own moment in the spot light as each bite was an even combination of delightful chocolate chip cookieness (yes, I know that is not a real word) and fudgey brownie goodness. I seriously think I have hit the mother load. I highly advise you try this recipe because a life that never knows the beautiful love story of chocolate chip cookie brownies is a life not lived.

Chocolate chip cookie brownie bars (or mini cupcakes which ever you prefer)

Chocolate chip cookie recipe
Source: Allrecipes.com

2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup unsalted butter, melted
1 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 cup white sugar
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
1 egg ( I used two eggs because the thought of just yolks in my cookies kinda skeeves me out)
1 egg yolk
2 cups semisweet chocolate chips (I only used 1 cup because I don't like a lot of chocolate chips in my cookies, I'm a weirdo, I know).
1/2 cup of nuts if desired

Sift together the flour, baking soda and salt; set aside. In a medium bowl, cream together the melted butter, brown sugar and white sugar until well blended. Beat in the vanilla, egg, and egg yolk until light and creamy. Mix in the sifted ingredients until just blended. Stir in the chocolate chips and nuts by hand using a wooden spoon. Set in refrigerator while you prepare the brownie recipe.

Brownie recipe

6 ounces unsweetened baking chocolate
1 cup salted butter, softened
3 large eggs
2 cups white sugar
1 tablespoon pure vanilla extract
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup of chopped walnuts (optional)

Preheat oven to 300 degrees.

Combine unsweetened baking chocolate and butter in a medium saucepan. Melt over medium-low heat and stir until smooth.
In a large bowl, using an electric mixer on medium speed, beat eggs until light yellow in color, about 5 minutes. Add sugar and blend on low until thoroughly combined. Add vanilla and melted chocolate to the egg and sugar mixture. Blend on low speed until smooth. Add the flour and mix thoroughly by hand.

For mini cupcakes:

Grease mini muffin mold. Measure about 1/2 tablspoon of batter of each. bake at 300 F. for about 15 minutes. Start checking at 10 min since ovens vary. Brownies should be gooey when a toothpick is inserted. If you insert a toothpick and it comes out clean you've cooked them too long. Cool to room temperature.

For brownie bars:

Grease 9*13 inch baking, mold cookie dough evenly into the bottom of the pan. Try to get the cookie layer as even as possible. Pour brownie batter over cookie dough smooth top. Bake until cookie layer is done and brownie is gooey about 20-25 minutes, but start checking at 15 since all ovens vary. Warning over baking will result in rock hard brownies and cookies. Brownies should be gooey when a toothpick is inserted. If you insert a toothpick and it comes out clean you've cooked them too long. Cool to room temperature.

They are seriously like hot sex on a platter.

XOXO

Stay sweet;)