The KBAL Brownie Initiative

Analysis

I figure any recipe that calls for me to buy a bottle of Chambord can't be all bad. I was a bit put off at first by the use of red raspberry vinegar (eeew, that sounds sooo wrong), but the rest of the ingredients made it seem ok. Hey, at least this one called for butter and didn't ask me to whisk anything. The double-boiler thing is still omni-present, though. I think making the cocktail before starting the brownies helped this time.

While there were 3 parts to this recipe, none of them were extremely complicated. The brownie part came first, with a wacky list of ingredients which included brown sugar, coffee crystals, chickory, and red raspberry vinegar. It sounded too gross to go on, but I hung in there. The batter turned out really thick and fudgy.

While the brownies were baking I made the "Icing in the Middle" (you have to call it that, because that is how it is referred to in the rest of the recipe. It's never just 'the icing'.) White chocolate, cream cheese, butter, powdered sugar and Chambord! The one questionable thing was the almond extract. I've avoided almond extract like the plague because it is always overpowering in a lot of recipes and I can't stand the flavor. I almost thought about leaving it out. But this is science, so I gave in and bought the almond extract. And the frosting was Yummy! Cream cheese frosting has never tasted so good.

When the brownies came out of the oven, I put raspberry jam over the top of them. It looked kinda yucky at first, like big lumps of jello, but it soon melted and I was able to spread it. After they cooled the "Icing in the Middle" put on top and the chocolate-raspberry glaze was made and put on top.

These went together really easily. There were no problems or parts where I just wanted to give up, unlike last week's debacle. I am looking forward to trying these.

• Prep time: 45 minutes
• Cooking time: 30 minutes
• Total time: 2 hours (includes cooling and frosting)

Modifications

Chickory?!? Where the heck am I going to find that? This is Michigan, not the south. I substitued extra coffee crystals instead. I melted the chocolate and butter in the microwave.

Improvements

Can't think of any, except finding a place to buy chickory.

My Rating - scale of 1-10

• PITA Rating: 2 (even with the 3 parts, this one didn't piss me off)
• Difficulty Rating: 4
• Recipe Complexity (over a basic no-frills brownie): 6
• Texture: 7
• Flavor: 9
• Overall Rating: 9