The KBAL Brownie Initiative

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.

• Prep time: 60 minutes (the trip to the store, making the coffee/chickory all added up)
• Cooking time: 35 minutes (10 minutes extra)
• Total time: 3.5 hours (includes cooling and frosting without the overnight break)

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

• PITA Rating: 8 (The trip to the store, missing South Park and having to make frosting contribute to this.)
• Difficulty Rating: 4
• Recipe Complexity (over a basic no-frills brownie): 6
• Texture: 7
• Flavor: 6 (the frosting was the best)
• Overall Rating: 6