As I was paging through the main courses section to see what else I had left, I discovered a few non-main-course outliers hiding in there. Of course. One of them was for 'Disgustingly Rich Brownies' from one of my best friends, Andy, and his wife, Elizabeth.
Andy and I met on the first day of college orientation, when we were sitting next to each other at the back of the mandatory financial aid lecture. Another new friend, Rachel, wound up getting a ride with him somewhere and pronounced him a 'nice guy,' so when we kept running into each other after school started we quickly became friends. This was surely aided by the fact that I had a hot roommate and lived on a floor of all girls, the company of whom he surely enjoyed when we hung out. As Andy was initially a commuter, we quickly established a pattern of 'Heather night', where he would stay late on campus one night/week and we'd have dinner or hang out or I would do headstands by the mailboxes or something equally as normal. A tradition that extended through the years, after he moved onto campus, and then later into weekly Heather night phone calls after we graduated and moved away.
Fast forward 10 or so years later and we were in each other's weddings--his a very cool one in downtown Detroit (cool places in Detroit! who knew?) to the beautiful Miss Elizabeth. As of today, Elizabeth is just a few weeks away from popping out their first baby, so I think it is an appropriate time to celebrate their impending son with some of Elizabeth's fancy brownies. That sort of thing. And since amongst her other good qualities, Andy has always extolled her cooking talents, I was excited to try the recipe out.
There isn't much to report on the baking front. There were no fires or other major disasters. The brownie recipe was very straightforward and easy to follow, which I appreciate greatly. Plus--and this is completely amazing--I had all the ingredients in house. I'm not sure I like anything more than being able to try out a new recipe without having to make a grocery store run.
Of course, Josh took one look at the brownies I'd made and accused me of trying to make him fat, so perhaps that wasn't the desired outcome. Then he ate one, and pronounced it a little more 'cake-y' than 'moist brownie-y,' which he thinks may be because I over-baked them. I baked them for the requisite 40 minutes, but he might be right: not a speck of crumb so much as threatened to come off when I checked the center, so....
Regardless, I could possibly add something to them to make them moister (although what that would be I have no clue), or just bake them for less time. Or I could just realize that they are chocolatey and lovely and people are going to love them and this mix probably makes a great from-scratch chocolate cake mix, too, which isn't exactly a bad thing.
Jealous?1 cup butter (or, in this case, I Can't Believe It's Not Butter, which might be part of the reason it could be moister. Stupid butter substitute.)
2 cups sugar
4 eggs
3/4 cup cocoa
1 1/4 cups flour
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/4 tsp salt (kosher!)
8" or 9" square baking pan (the lovely silicone one I recently realized is best for this sort of thing)
Preheat oven to 350. Check.
Grease pan. Check.
Stir together cocoa and sugar. Be smug that you have cocoa in the house, and extra sugar when it looks like you are going to run out. Check.
Stir in butter. Or crappy butter substitute, which at least if nothing else gets rid of all the butter substitute. Check.
Add eggs and vanilla. Stir. Decide 'stir' means mix in mixing bowl. Check.
Add flour and salt. Mix 'til smooth (not too much). Check.
Bake at 350 in oven 'til toothpick comes out clean in center, which Elizabeth says is about 40-50 minutes, but might have been a little too much in my oven.
Leave brownies out to cool, prompting Josh to declare they were overbaked and accuse you of trying to kill him with fatness before even eating them. Cut into brownie squares, take picture, and then put plate into refrigerator because the dog loves chocolate and has stolen himself some brownies before and you distinctly do NOT need that hassle.
Forget that you put the plate int the refrigerator so the brownies dry out by the next morning. Salvage them by putting them into tupperware and heating in the microwave for 40 seconds before you eat them for breakfast. Check.
Elizabeth notes: So yummy! And fudgy!
Heather notes: You can probably put nuts in these, too, if that's your bag.
How much cocoa?
ReplyDeleteDoh! Forgot the cocoa! Adding that in now!
ReplyDelete