The KBAL Brownie Initiative

Analysis

The ingredient list on this one made me cringe. It has one of my most hated baking ingredients - almond extract. And something really weird called sweetened almond filling, which I was sure they wouldn't have at Kroger. All I could think of was something like marzipan. But, surprise! The stuff actually exists, it comes in a can and it looks like the frosting for a German chocolate cake without the coconut. It actually didn't taste too bad either.

This recipe was pretty much a snap. I was on top of my game on this one and had got everything I needed at Kroger the night before, including an extra bottle of almond extract, which I actually needed for some reason. The only thing I can think of is that my kids used it all up in some weird baking experiment. Actually, most of my extracts are empty. I certainly don't want to know what their creation tasted like.

The chocolate and butter were melted in the microwave. The almond filling was mixed into this. Eggs and brown sugar were beat together and everything was added to that. The only pain was the ground almonds. I had to use my chopper to chop them up. I certainly was NOT putting them in my coffee grinder and there was no way I was going to have to wash the food processor for a measly 1/2 cup of almonds.

The batter went into a greased and floured pan and into the oven for 45 minutes. While this was cooking, I made my weekly trip to the corner store to pick up the alcohol d'brownie for the recipe. The Irish whiskey was for the frosting, along with whipping cream, coffee crystals and some sugar. Just like a true Irish Coffee! Too bad it was so late, or I would have had a real one myself. It was at this point that I had to stop everything and get a bath ready for the kids. Which didn't matter too much since the brownies had to cool. After the bath scene, I made the frosting and stored it in the fridge overnight, since I figured it would have melted on the warm brownies and ruined the effect.

The brownies were frosted at 5:50am and popped on the back of the bike for the trip to work.

• Prep time: 55 minutes (includes the 10 minutes I had to take out to get the bath ready and the 15 minute trip to the corner store)


• Cooking time: 45 minutes (10 minutes longer than called for)


• Total time: 9.5 hours (includes cooling overnight and frosting)

Modifications

None.

Improvements

My Rating - scale of 1-10

• PITA Rating: 5 (I had to chop almonds AND use almond extract)


• Difficulty Rating: 2


• Recipe Complexity (over a basic no-frills brownie): 5


• Texture:


• Flavor:


• Overall Rating: