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October 27, 2006

Week 3: Double-Double Brownies

When I saw this recipe sitting on my keyboard (they mysteriously materialize there on Fridays), I thought 'Wow! Double-Double brownies! We are finally going to get some chocolate!' Well, I was once again to be disappointed.


Coming next week: Trippple [sic] chocolate brownies

Analysis

These brownies are of the layered variety. A bottom layer of chocolate and a top layer of butterscotch (?). I was curious, but a little put off at the same time. It just didn't sound very butterscotch-y and once again, there was only 1/4 cup cocoa in the brownie part. When I am I going to get some CHOCOLATE???

These brownies immediately earned points on the PITA scale. First of all, there were 2 layers, which meant I would have to clean the bowl and beater between the batches. Secondly, there were nuts to chop. (I gave that one to my girls this time around, and they broke the chopper.) As you can imagine my tolerance for this recipe was fading fast.

Then came the instructions for the bottom layer. They called for melting the butter and the 1/4 cup of cocoa together on top of the stove in a pan. Like I was going to mess with that. That part was done in the microwave, thank you very much. Besides, this was the wackiest thing I've heard of. Why not just beat it all together in the Kitchenaid. That's what it is for.

The top layer, or 'butterscotch' layer, came next. The recipe looked less like a brownie recipe and more like the base for chocolate chip cookies, which made me a bit happier, because I absolutely love chocolate chip cookies without the chocolate chips. This part of the recipe was straight forward, standard creaming of butter and sugar, adding eggs and vanilla (2 TABLESPOONS), and then the dry ingredients and nuts. Beat together and drop on top of chocolate batter in the pan.

  • Prep time: 40 minutes (I had to wash the darn bowl!)
  • Cooking time: 35 minutes (needed an extra 5 in my oven)
  • Total time: 1.25 hours

Modifications

I can't think of any mods to this other than adding MORE cocoa. I also thought that making a peanut butter layer instead of butterscotch would be yummy.

Improvements

They need chocolate chips in the butterscotch part.

My Rating - scale of 1-10

  • PITA Rating: 9 (washing the bowl, melting the butter and chocolate and breaking the chopper helped to make this one pretty high)
  • Difficulty Rating: 4 (pretty straight forward)
  • Recipe Complexity (over a basic no-frills brownie): 6
  • Texture: 7 (much closer to brownie gooey)
  • Flavor: 7 (Tastes like gooey chocolate chip cookie. Not bad)
  • Overall Rating: 7 (I think I liked these. I could definitely eat more than 1)

Posted by jamm at October 27, 2006 09:10 AM

Comments

Very tasty, i liked the two layers together.

Posted by: tle at October 27, 2006 09:37 AM

This recipe merits inclusion in its source. I enjoyed these very much, perhaps even moreso than Week 1's Mud Bars because they didn't have the totally "in-your-face" sweetness that those had. Adding chocolate chips might have just turned these into a traditional bar cookie. They were unexpectedly hard to get out of the pan, but that's just me being nitpicky. Score: 7 out of 10.

Posted by: jsterben at October 27, 2006 11:05 AM

I really liked these! They taste like chocolate chip cookie dough with just a touch of butterscotch. Mmmmmm. I would even like them w/o the butterscotch. Just the chocolate chip cookie dough taste is perfect! But that's not really a brownie, is it? Hmmmmm....a mystery to ponder.

Posted by: sweston at October 27, 2006 12:21 PM

I liked the texture of these the best so far, and the flavor was yummy without being overwhelming. I prefer desserts that aren't a sugar-bomb and these certainly fit the bill. Very enjoyable. Might be good with some vanilla bean ice cream...not sure though, that might be too much.

Posted by: adamsc at October 27, 2006 05:21 PM

A delight to the senses. Just the right amount of sugar and chocolate to satisfy the palate without being overpowering. It had a very pleasing "cookie-like" texture.

Posted by: tonlin at October 28, 2006 07:02 PM

Wonderful! I think these are by far the best ones yet. I am not a fan of pecans, so was glad there were none present in this batch of brownies. I love love loved the contrast of light and dark. Nice.

Posted by: bpietra at October 30, 2006 10:26 AM

I really like these brownies as well... They were very tasty, and I really like the butterscotch/toffee taste included. I think that these were the best brownies to date.

Posted by: julicher at November 10, 2006 11:24 AM

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