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February 23, 2007

Week 15: Banana-Fana Brownies

Banana-bana-bo-bana-fee-fi-fo-fana - BANANA!

Bananas, peanut butter and chocolate. The major food groups all rolled into one yummy package. And no nuts to chop!!! Smells good, lets see how it tastes!

Analysis

This recipe was extraodinarily simple and could have hit the one bowl mark if I used the hand mixer. Good thing too, because after the twin set of giant chocolate chip cookies, I was not in a creative mood and just wanted to 'get 'er done'. Although it did give me something to do while the cookies were baking.

Melt the chocolate and butter, add everything else and presto, brownie batter. Of course I had to grease the pan. The PITA factor went up there. I never realized how much I dislike greasing pans. Thank goodness for the 'mash' setting on the KitchenAid (#9). No more forks and banana mushing (Have I mentioned how much I adore my KitchenAid?). These came together in under 15 minutes.

These are definitely cake-y brownies. Not much fudge going on here. The texture is good and the flavor is nice. You can taste the banana and a hint of peanut butter and chocolate. To me, you can taste that the bananas weren't as ripe as they should have been, so you get a bit of that green banana sensation in your mouth. These would be a yummy, easy snack to take to a picnic or potluck.

Modifications

I melted the chocolate and butter in the microwave and added it to the peanut butter, sugar, egg mixture, instead of melting it on the stove.

Improvements

More peanut butter! Maybe a peanut butter frosting or glaze.

My Rating - scale of 1-10

Posted by jamm at 08:11 AM | Comments (5)

February 16, 2007

Week 14: Lemony Favorites Brownies

Hmm, lemon and chocolate. I wonder... but there is only a little bit of lemon and a little bit of chocolate. Can't wait to find out how the two flavors mix.

Analysis

All I can say is "Where's the lemon?" You would think I left it out. It is so well hidden as to almost be not there. I re-read the instruction three times and it definitely said only 1 1/2 teaspoons.

Between the 40 cupcakes for the birthday party, the 40 cupcakes for the Girl Scout meeting with custom chocolate candy toppers, wrapping birthday presents and final preparation for the Thinking Day ceremony, it is a wonder these brownies got made this week. And I'm still trying to taste the lemon. (It was a nice one too, not too tart and very lemony)

This recipe was pretty simple and almost hit the one bowl mark. (It would have been only one bowl if I used the hand mixer and not the KitchenAid.) Super simple brownie recipe, but only 4 ounces of chocolate. At least this one was sized for the 9x13 pan from the start. The one thing that was a pain was juicing the lemon. I know, I know, I could have bought the stuff in the little plastic lemon, but that always goes bad because you can't use it fast enough. The need to sell single serving lemon juices, such as a 12 pack of 1 teaspoon servings, each individually wrapped in little pouches, like string cheese. That way, you could freeze them and then thaw when you needed them and not end up wasting so much. But I digress.

As distracted as I was, I checked the amount of lemon again, because it sure as heck did not seem like enough. And it was only in the frosting, which was even weirder. Speaking of weird, the frosting was strange. It was like a cross between a true buttercream and a seven-minute frosting. There was an egg in it, butter and powdered sugar and the whole mess got cooked on the stove (minus the double boiler). I did forget to mix in the pecans, so those went on top. Hey, I was busy! Maybe they were the secret to bringing out the lemon flavor.

The taste was 'eh'. I will not eat a second one until someone returns the lemon flavor.


Modifications

Improvements

More lemon. Everyone repeat after me: 'More Lemon!' Lemon zest in the brownie would help.

My Rating - scale of 1-10

Posted by jamm at 08:20 AM | Comments (3)

February 09, 2007

Week 13: Strawberry Delight Brownies

Lucky #13! These brownies have lots of chocolate and strawberry. I'm hoping they are truly delightful.

Analysis

Well, here we go again with melted jelly and vinegar. I was just bummed I didn't get to buy and liquer.

These were really easy to make, just time consuming and requiring 3 bowls and chopping nuts and slicing strawberries. Wait a minute... I guess these were a bit more difficult than I thought. Plus, I left my husband with the shopping list and he purchased the smaller jar of seedless strawberry jelly, so I had to make the 10:30 run to Kroger to get another one. This just keeps getting worse!

Anyway, back to the baking. The basic brownie was simple, it just had many parts (and chopped nuts, ugh!). That went together pretty easily. The making of the jelly glaze on top was stymied by the lack of jelly and the trip to the store. This added another half an hour on to the time. Thank goodness for the timed cook feature on my oven, so I didn't have to wait around for the brownie part to cook before getting my jelly.

The brownies came out when "a knife inserted in the center comes out ALMOST clean". What does 'almost clean' mean? When does it go from being 'too dirty' to 'almost clean'? I've never encountered that one before, so I took my best guess. The jelly went on easy, I put the parts for the chocolate glaze in a bowl, left it in the microwave and went to bed. I was just too tired to wait for the whole mess to cool. I considered putting the glaze on while the thing was still hot, but then that would have been cheating.

Next morning the glaze was completed and spread over the top, strawberries were sliced and attractively arranged on top and it was done. I don't know if I should count the 5 hours of sleeping in the 'total time' count or not. It may be that this recipe causes sleepiness and I need to inform people to plan to take a nap between the jelly and chocolate glaze parts.

These were EXTREMELY fudgy brownies. The flavors were nice and subtle, and it wasn't a total sugar bomb like the Raspberry Supreme Brownies of two weeks ago. There was a hint of chocolate covered strawberry flavor that was good. I think the fresh strawberries sitting in a layer of chocolate frosting helped with that. I would make these again, except the next time, I'm going to do the shopping!

Modifications

I thinly sliced large strawberries for the top, because you can't get small ones in the store in the middle of February. Also, I doubled the recipe.

Improvements

More strawberry! These would be good with a strawberry frosting.

My Rating - scale of 1-10

Posted by jamm at 07:57 AM | Comments (5)

February 02, 2007

Week 12: Chewy Tropical Brownies

Chocolate, coconut and dates. Sounds pretty yummy (and chewy) to me.

Analysis

These were so simple, I have no comment. These are a one bowl recipe if you use a hand mixer and a microwaveable bowl. And finally, a recipe with no nuts and no frosting!

The brownies were very chewy, but lacking a bit in tropical flavor. The dates seem to have melted into the fudginess of the brownie, making them indistiguishable from the whole. The coconut added a nice bit of texture, but again, not much in the way of tropical flavor.

I would make these again for the texture and the ease of creation. Also, there are dates in it which are healthy and I could trick my kids into eating these (there's more than one way to force feed a child).

Modifications

I used chopped dates instead of whole ones. I didn't want to have to chop them and then roll them in flour. The chopped ones in the box are already rolled in something to keep them from sticking, so why waste my time.

Improvements

More tropical flavor. Maybe adding dried mango, papaya or macadamia nuts would help. Also, using the shaved coconut instead of the flakes to get a bigger coconut presence.

My Rating - scale of 1-10

Posted by jamm at 09:01 AM | Comments (2)