vegan brownies

This is a bit weird as a "recipe" because it's just a modification of a mix, but whatever. It's been really good both times I made it.

 -box of brownie mix (just regular cheap stuff from Aldi--mine called for two eggs)

-most of a single-serving tub of unsweetened applesauce 

-3 TBS natural/unsweetened almond butter

-additional 1/4 cup or up to 1/3 cup cocoa powder 

-1/2 tsp baking powder

 

Make according to directions but substitute the applesauce and the almond butter for the eggs.  

 

Spread into 8x8 pan and bake at 350 for about 40 minutes

 

You can also swirl 1/4 (or more; doing this again I'd use 1/2) cup of tahini onto it after putting it in the pan.  

yet another brownie recipe: Tartine bakery style brownies

I saw this recipe and I had to try it. I used Trader Joe's 72% dark pound chocolate pound plus bar.  (Some reading suggested that there is not a formal difference between "dark" and "bittersweet."

I had to beat the egg/sugar mixture for quite a while, and it never really reached the color/texture combo described. Perhaps the eggs were too old, but colorwise I'm no sure how brown sugar would ever let this be pale yellow.

Anyway. The results were good, but kind of too fudgelike for me. Very dense, but almost too dense, if that makes sense. I would prefer a little moist and cakey, perhaps, rather than simply solid.  But perhaps they are so solid because the eggs didn't go as planned. Hard to know.  I think, overall, I prefer cocoa-based brownies. They are less work, too.

almond brownies

Adapted from http://www.carascravings.com/2010/03/pps-best-brownies-ever.html

1 cup butter (salted)
8 oz unsweetened chocolate
~2 cups sugar
2 tsp almond extract
1 tsp vanilla extract
scant 1/2 tsp baking powder
3 eggs
1.5 cups almond meal

Melt butter and chocolate on stove. Stir in extracts and sugar. Let cool slightly. Add egg and baking powder. Stir well. Stir in almond meal. Spread into greased square (8x8?) pan and bake at 325.

We'll see what happens...

(white) whole wheat brownies

I'm going to try these: http://www.kingarthurflour.com/recipes/tasting-is-believing-whole-grain-brownies-recipe

1 cup (2 sticks) salted butter
2 cups light brown sugar
several (6?) Trader Joes unsweetened chocolate baking disks, broken into pieces
3/4 cup Dutch-process cocoa
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon espresso powder, optional but recommended
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
4 large eggs
1 1/2 cups White Whole Wheat Flour

It promises the shiny top crust, which I'm a big fan of.

Notes:
-omitted salt because I used salted butter
-used 1.5 c light brown sugar + 0.5c white sugar
-threw some trade joes unsweetened baking chocolate disks in with the melting butter because I wanted to use 'em up and because I wasn't sure how potent/fresh my cocoa powder was.
-sprayed the hell out of the pan with baking spray because I'm tired of having to chisel brownies out
-oven stayed at a pretty consistent 350 this time, miracle of miracles
-they rose a good bit, seem to have baked pretty evenly, and the toothpick came out clean after just 25 minutes, so I pulled them out of the oven.
-they're kind of cakey, and came out of the pan very easily - but maybe because of all the baking spray



Next on the roster is almond-meal-based brownies. My housemate brought one home from Whole Foods and it was pretty tasty. If I had a food processor I'd do this: http://www.hanneblank.com/blog/2011/04/22/elemental-chocolate-almond-cake/

placemarker

I made these a while ago:
http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Best-Cocoa-Brownies-108346

They were tasty and very rich and fudgy but hard to get out of the pan. I put them in a 9x13 instead of an 8x8.

3/11/17: made these again, in an 8x8, and they were good again.  I melted the butter + sugar + cocoa powder in the microwave in a glass bowl instead for convenience - I really did get it quite hot, stirring in between bouts of microwaving - and let it cool,eventually transferring to a metal bowl to help it cool faster.

yet another brownie recipe

I still don't have a hand mixer. Until I do...brownies!

I found the recipe in Bon Appetit (February 2011 issue). They were pretty good, very dense and chocolately, but I kind of messed up in following the recipe exactly.
-------------------

Ingredients

• Nonstick vegetable oil spray
• 10 tablespoons (1 1/4 sticks) unsalted butter, cut into 1-inch pieces
• 1 1/4 cups sugar
• 3/4 cup natural unsweetened cocoa powder (spooned into cup to measure, then leveled)
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2 large eggs, chilled
• 1/3 cup plus 1 tablespoon unbleached all purpose flour
• 1 cup walnut pieces

Preparation

• Position rack in bottom third of oven; preheat to 325°F. Line 8x8x2-inch metal baking pan with foil, pressing foil firmly against pan sides and leaving 2-inch overhang. Coat foil with nonstick spray. Melt butter in medium saucepan over medium heat. Continue cooking until butter stops foaming and browned bits form at bottom of pan, stirring often, about 5 minutes. Remove from heat; immediately add sugar, cocoa, 2 teaspoons water, vanilla, and 1/4 teaspoon (generous) salt. Stir to blend. Let cool 5 minutes (mixture will still be hot). Add eggs to hot mixture 1 at a time, beating vigorously to blend after each addition. When mixture looks thick and shiny, add flour and stir until blended. Beat vigorously 60 strokes. Stir in nuts. Transfer batter to prepared pan.
• Bake brownies until toothpick inserted into center comes out almost clean (with a few moist crumbs attached), about 25 minutes. Cool in pan on rack. Using foil overhang, lift brownies from pan. Cut into 4 strips. Cut each strip crosswise into 4 brownies. DO AHEAD Can be made 2 days ahead. Store airtight at room temperature.

aaand a post-mortem:
1. In a sudden fit of laziness, I measured the cocoa powder the wrong way - put the 3/4 c scoop (yes, we have one for that specific amount) into the jar of cocoa and leveled it off and dumped it in, without thinking. I was pretty sure this made it too bitter, so I added more sugar (maybe 1/4 or 1/3 cup.)
2. I used salted butter and did not add any extra salt
3. Melting the butter was weird. I got to the 5-minute mark and there were all sorts of different stages and kinds of foam, but it never *stopped* foaming, and I never saw brown bits on the bottom. Eventually, somewhere around 6-7 minutes, I felt it stick to the bottom a tad, and it started to smell different (maybe like browned butter), so I pulled it off the stove.
4. I didn't do the aluminum foil business; that seems wasteful. I just greased the pan with a mixture of butter and canola oil.
5. My fucked-up oven wasn't quite at 325 when I put them in (it had been, and then it randomly cooled itself off). It was at 325 about 10 minutes later. So I left them in the oven for between 30 and 35 minutes.

2nd post-mortem, 6/19/2011:
1. Browning butter is definitely weird and tricky. I think I let it go too long and noticed brown particles - wasn't sure if it was *burnt* or just browned, so I started over with new butter. Next time: read better instructions for browning butter.
2. I gave in and lined the pan. Definitely easier to get them out of the pan this way.
3. There was that nice flaky crust on part of the tray, not all of it.
4. They're not as thick/high as last time, oddly, especially since last time they seemed pretty solid.
5. Still needed 30-35 minutes and they don't seem dried out, but my oven was on crack again and the temp was inconsistent. Are all ovens so all-over-the-place or do I only notice it now that I have a good thermometer? It is a mystery.
6. Tasty. Oh yes.

another brownie recipe

I just made these using "pastry flour" (white, not whole wheat) from the bulk bins at Whole Foods (instead of cake flour) and the discs of unsweetened chocolate from Trader Joe (I used 38 of the discs.) I used salted butter and didn't add any additional salt, and I'm trying to keep the oven temp pretty exact, courtesy of my new thermometer. I didn't do the aluminum foil deal, I just greased a regular 9x13 with a mixture of butter and oil (because the only pan spray around here is faux-butter-flavored, ugh) and put the batter directly into it. To be updated when I see how they turn out...which is certainly not going to be after the two-hour waiting period suggested by the recipe.


Aaand they're done. Notes:
1) my oven's temperature fluctuates like crazy in a way that can't really be explained by heat loss from opening the door
2) these took 35ish minutes before I felt they wouldn't be too gooey in the center. But given (1), who knows how this would be in another oven.
3) I need to buy wooden toothpicks.
4) Butter + canola oil is fine for greasing a pan, at least for brownies and blondies. I think butter was fine when I made banana bread, too. Supposedly the water content is a problem, but in practice it's been fine. Project "I am too cheap and lazy to buy regular non-stick spray" is a continued success.

brownies, take II for this blog

Today I made this recipe:
http://www.scharffenberger.com/re0103.asp
with some modifications. They were good (with those ingredients, it would be hard not to be) but still don't have the elusive flakey top that I like on brownies. They were pretty cakey, not fudgey.

4 ounces SCHARFFEN BERGER 99% Cacao unsweetened Chocolate (2 scored sections) 2/3 cup butter 2 cups sugar 4 eggs 1 teaspoon vanilla extract 1 1/3 to 1 1/2 cups unsifted flour (less flour for moister brownie) *I used about 1 1/2 c. 1/2 teaspoon salt 1 teaspoon baking powder PREPARATION Preheat oven to 350 F. Melt chocolate and butter over low heat in a large heavy dutch oven. Remove from heat and mix in sugar with wooden spoon. Crack eggs into pot, add vanilla, and mix (dirtying a whisk is optional). Gently lay the flour, salt, and baking powder on top of the gooey chocolate mixture. Mix the flour, salt, and baking powder with a fork without digging into the chocolate. Mix flour, salt and banking powder in separate bowl. Pour into chocolate mixture. Grab your wooden spoon and stir everything together just until all flour is incorporated. Do not overbeat. Pour into greased 9" x 12" (or 8" x 12") pan. Bake for 25 minutes (check at 20). Brownies are done when toothpick comes out pretty clean. Cool for 10 minutes in pan, then cut into 2 " squares. Makes 24 brownies.

I baked almost exactly 25 minutes.

brownies

Last time I made brownies, I used the Brownies Cockaigne recipe from the old Joy of Cooking, and they didn't come out--in a big way. The ingredients separated out while they were baking, yielding a tray of...something...with a yellowish bottom and a dark chocolate colored top. I think the sugar was all in one of the layers as well. I'm not sure why that happened, but it could have been a few things--I substituted cocoa powder + oil for unsweetened chocolate squares (which I'd done with success before, but who knows). I used butter that was a bit old. I may have let the butter-chocolate mixture cool for too long. (In fact, I think that itself separated a bit before I mixed it with everything else.) I may have overbeaten the eggs.

That was my first brownie failure, but I figured I'd chronicle my brownie-making for a bit to avoid future failures. I make brownies because I want to be happy and have brownies to eat, not because I want to experiment. Failure doesn't mesh well with this.

Anyhoo, this time I followed a combination of the Joy of Cooking recipe and the classic one-bowl recipe from Baker's chocolate, which I've made with success before. Basically, I used the Joy of Cooking ingredient proportions and the Baker's instructions. Joy of Cooking wants you to beat the eggs with an electric mixer until they're fluffy. Baker's doesn't. I figured I'd try the easier, simpler directions first. If these don't come out the way I'd like, I'll move on.

What I did this time:

Preheated the oven to 350 °
Cracked 4 extra-large eggs into a bowl and let them warm up to probably less than room temperature
Melted 4 oz Ghirardelli 100% Cacao unsweetened baking bar + 1/2 cup of unsalted butter (which was kind of old and had been in the freezer) over the stove on very low heat (no double boiler) until just melted. I used a 3 qt pot.
Stirred in 2 cups of sugar and 1 tsp (real) vanilla and 1/4 tsp salt. I just put them directly into the pot I'd melted the chocolate and butter in.
Added the 4 eggs and stirred really really well with a fork. Used a spatula to make sure nothing was sticking to the bottom or sides of the pot, natch.
Stirred in 1 cup of unbleached white flour. Mixed a bit.
Poured the whole shebang into a 9x13 greased Pyrex and threw it into the oven. Which is where it is now. We'll see how it turns out.

And after ~32 minutes in the oven:

Respectable brownies, though nothing to write home about. Next time I'd like to get more of that flaky stuff that happens on top sometimes. Mmm.