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November 30, 2007

Week 36: Vanilla Chippers

Seems like we have a had a rash of recipes with the word 'chipper' in it lately. I want to know when the wood chipper brownies are coming. Anyway, this recipe has a bunch of cocoa in it and smells like a brownie, except for the white chocolate chips in the batter.


Vanilla Chippers in the pan.

Posted by jamm at 07:15 AM | Comments (3)

November 16, 2007

Week 35: Tarte au Chocolate

I guess giving the recipe a French sounding name is supposed to make it taste better. The whole thing looks like more trouble than it's worth to me.

New this week! A try before you buy feature, I've added photograph to the brownie blog. You can take a peek and see what the recipe of the week looks like and decide on your perceived yumminess factor before making the trek to the kitchen! Yes, I know I should have been doing this all along, but it didn't occur to me until about 4 weeks ago and it has taken me that long to remember to do it. I was going to do it last week, but the brownies were decimated by 10:30! (And, NO, I will not be going back and remaking all the recipes just to get pictures! I may be talked into remaking a few of them, but not the ones I didn't like.)

Note, the date is wrong on these pictures. I was too lazy to go back and change it!

Tarte au Chocolate full pan


Tarte au Chocolate brownie piece

Posted by jamm at 07:57 AM | Comments (3)

November 09, 2007

Week 34: Mocha Bourbonettes

Chocolate, meet my good buddy Jack. Jack Daniels, that is. These should be called bourbon bombs.

This recipe was picked by everyone's favorite commenter, olmsnj. I am saddened to let everyone know that this will be his last brownie recipe. He is leaving us for a way cool job at Merit. Maybe if he leaves a forwarding address, some brownies may show up at his door.

And the curse of the book is back.

I thought I had the curse of the book licked. I saved my shopping for last night figuring the closer to baking I actually did it, the less likely I was to forget something. I made a quick trip to the store to get candied pecans, Cafe du Monde coffee/chickory blend and paper towels to clean up my mess. I also made a stop by the liquor store to pick up the bourbon. Bourbon and I have a love/hate relationship, so I was less than thrilled to be working with the stuff.

Well, imagine my surprise as I'm standing at the kitchen counter unwrapping 16 squares of baking chocolate and glance down at the recipe and see the words 'semi-sweet baking chocolate' written in the recipe. I can't repeat what I said, but I was not happy, especially since I was already missing watching the South Park DVD to bake the brownies. I am thoroughly convinced the book is cursed. It probably would have been a good time to have some bourbon.

So it was off to the store. The two redeeming things about the trip were that the chocolate was on sale and there was no line at the check out.

Once back in my kitchen, things went relatively smoothly. Chocolate (semi-sweet, thank you) and butter were melted in the microwave, eggs and sugar were beat in the Kitcheaid, and the two were mixed together. The recipe then told me to add 1 Tablespoon of the 3 that it called for into the mix. At this point I'm thinking, 'What? Is this another editor error? Or is this a Julia Childs' recipe? Are the other 2 for me?'. Sadly, or maybe luckily, I turned the page to find that the other 2 (actually 4 because I had to double the recipe) were to be sprinkled over the top of the cooked brownies. These are truly going to be bourbon bombs.

The last thing I had to do was add the candied pecans. Now, I am all about not getting too much stuff dirty in the kitchen when I am cooking. I'm always trying to reuse things and the thought of getting out a cutting board to chop nuts was not making me happy. Fortunately, I had a brain storm and decided to try chopping the nuts right in the can. The chopper fit right in there, like it was made just for that purpose. One more reason to love the chopper!

The whole thing went into a greased and floured (ugh!) pan and plopped in the oven for 35 minutes, which is 10 more than called for. While the brownies were baking, I made the frosting. Melted butterscotch chips, butter, powdered sugar, coffee liquer AND more bourbon. Wow!

The brownies came out of the oven smelling fabulous and with a nice crinkly top. After letting them cool for a bit, I got to poke them full of holes with a toothpick and pour the remaining 4 Tablespoons of bourbon over the top. Sprinkle isn't quite the right word, it was more like pouring, but I think I did a fairly decent job of even distribution. Since it was late, I covered the frosting, put the brownies out of reach of the dogs and went to bed. The brownies were frosted in the morning and decorated with whole candied pecans.

These have been a hit! They were the first batch to be completely gone before noon and I had 3 drop-bys in my cube to tell me how awesome they were. I think they are ok. The flavors are pretty good and the texture is definitely nice and fudgy, but I think I like the frosting best, which is a big statement, coming from a non-frosting person. You definitely cannot eat more than one of these at a sitting.

Modifications

None.

Improvements

Dunno. I think the bourbon is so stunning, it makes you not able to think about anything else.

My Rating - scale of 1-10

Posted by jamm at 08:11 AM | Comments (2)

November 02, 2007

Week 33: Date Chipper-Brownies

Date puree, cocoa, chocolate chips and nuts. Don't know what else to say.

Analysis

Well, at least we are back on track with this recipe. It required a trip to the store during the making of it. I knew the last 3 weeks were too good to be true.

The one thing that I thought I had that was mysteriously missing when I went to get it out of the cupboard was dates. There had been a rather large container in there the last time we checked and nobody in my house eats them, not even me! My husband finally sheepishly admitted that, yes, he has been nibbling on them and had actually eaten them all. So I sent him to the store instead of me.

Making these was pretty easy. It was a bit yucky in that the dates got soaked in boiling water and then pureed in the blender. I reminded me of when I used to make baby food for the girls, or of something that was sometimes found in their diapers. At least these brownies had enough chocolate in them. And they were sized for a 9x13 pan.

After mixing everything together, they got plopped in the pan and cooked for 35 minutes. They look rather spongy and cake-like, but smell chocolaty. And since there is no frosting, you can eat them right away!


Modifications

None.

Improvements

None. Not that these are fabulous, I just cant think of anything that would improve them.

My Rating - scale of 1-10


Posted by jamm at 06:49 AM | Comments (1)