"Give me my usual!"

Okay, so they don't actually know me at the local Le Pain Quotidien.  But if they did, they'd know I want a mint lemonade and a (giant) brownie.

May I also take a moment to name-drop and say that it was (the inspiring) Bob Woodruff's amazing wife, Lee, who introduced me to these brownies?

Thanks, Lee!

-------

Bittersweet Bon Voyage

The other day, I had to say goodbye to Ms. Revelie, as well as to her mom and dad.  They're moving on to greener pastures (literally greener than NYC).  That they provided going-away goodies (mini chipwiches and fancied-up Two Bite brownies from Whole Foods) for our office before taking off didn't make their bittersweet farewell any more sweet than bitter.  But, as is my habit, I managed to eat through the pain.

Take care and fare well, friends!  Keep those baby pictures coming.

 
(photo taken by ?? on Rev's first visit to the office in November, 2008)

-------

I ate in the dark again.

Happy birthday, DMP! It turns out I don't like apple brandy, but I do like you.

Also, thanks for the brownies, Jessica. Their texture was tops -- silky and soft.



I hear the cupcakes, which were good, but entirely too enormous, were from The Blue Stove.

Happy (dense, sweet, frostinged, chocolate) Birthday to me!

Mint brownie from Flying Monkey Patisserie
Reading Terminal Market
Philadelphia, PA.

Dare I Say It? Better than Boxed?

I've had some irreverent thoughts about brownies. The one that feels most like blasphemy? I usually find boxed or bagged brownie mix to make a better batch. But these babies are the best I have made in a long, long time (should I have said "a bazillion years" to keep the accidental alliteration going?).

Kelly at Eat Make Read posted this recipe. I think you'd do well to bake them yourself. That little bit of Maldon sea salt goes the extra mile. I happened to have most of a box in the pantry because of last year's margarita cookies (that recipe was from Smitten Kitchen), and boy am I glad.




They don't carry the recommended Valrhona chocolate at Whole Foods, so I used Green & Black's organic baking chocolate (72% cocoa). The resulting brownies were rich, thick, and dense. They also managed to be flaky on top, with a crackly crust, but soft and chewy and tender of crumb. Win-win!

This is a big statement, but... if I were forced to only make one brownie recipe for the rest of my life (boy, I am glad this is just a hypothetical situation I posed to myself), I think I would choose these.

It's scary to have one's world turned upside down, but my boxed mix days may be over.

Monkey See (brownies made into waffles), Monkey Do (make brownies into waffles).

I am so suggestible.

It only took one blog post about making brownies in a waffle iron to convince me to do it myself.



This video was posted on Serious Eats at 11am. I unplugged my waffle iron at 9:55 pm and settled down with my last brownie. That's not a bad turnaround time.

The changes I made to the recipe?

• I used instant espresso powder instead of instant coffee powder or brewed coffee.
  
• I stirred the espresso powder into the melted chocolate and butter instead of into the wet ingredients that were mixed together in the recipe's second step.
• I sprayed my waffle iron with cooking spray before each round of waffles. The video does not specify whether to do this once or before every batch.
• I topped my brownies with leftover CSA sour cherries and powdered sugar.
• I only had 5.7 oz of chocolate, and I think it was semi-sweet or milk chocolate (the label was gone), rather than bittersweet chocolate.
  

My ingredients (in case the video goes haywire):

1/2 cup (1 stick) butter
5.7 oz (should have been 6) of whatever chocolate is wrapped in foil in the freezer (should have been bittersweet)
3/4 cup granulated sugar
2 eggs
1 T. water
1/2 tsp. instant espresso powder
1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 tsp. salt

My waffle iron does not have power levels. It took about 5 minutes to cook two medium-sized waffles at a time.

Freebies at work

Someone gave Dave a free Triple Mocha Shock Coffee drink on the street. I'm the guinea pig. It tastes like (in this order) coffee + chocolate + dirt + licorice + poppy seeds crossing my tongue. Three of those flavors were a shock, so perhaps it should have been Triple Shock, not Triple Mocha. I also disagree with this drink's slogan, "Sleep is overrated." No it is not.

Free snacks abound! I got a heads-up that Ethan would be bringing in leftover brownies from his fiance's bachelorette party. Rich, dense, and tasty. Also, congratulations on the impending marriage, E!

Don't hate me because I'm brownie-full.

Homemade is best, right? In most cases I do think so, and sort of snobbily, but perfect homemade brownies elude me. I've made dozens of brownie recipes and dozens of batches from store-bought mixes, and I just plain prefer the kind out of a box. But I can't stop believing that someday I will discover "that" brownie recipe that will knock me off the box forever. So if you're reading this and you have a good brownie recipe, please share.

Personally, I like brownies moist and chewy and fudgy, without nuts or chocolate chips, and a little underdone. I don't want cakey brownies because I can make a cake if I want to eat something that is like cake. Brownies should be easy to smoosh into a ball with your fingers while they're warm.

This time, Pillsbury Brownie Classics Traditional Fudge (Family Size) met my needs. Beat that, homemade brownies! Please?

Half-Baked

My beloved chocolate chip cookie at Paradis has fallen on hard times. Some days it is perfect, just underdone enough in the center and crisp around the edges. Some days it is hard and dry and not too flavorful. A few times it has seemed so raw I've felt a little ill (but not ill enough to stop!). I'm a baker, so I know it can be hard to get it right every time. I intend to keep giving the cookie second (etc.) chances, but I decided to vary that by giving some other desserts there a chance.

The brownie I tried was rich and sweet, but barely holding a form. It almost existed in some confectionary netherworld as both brownie batter and bar cookie at once. The richness was more a result of the density than an expensively deep cocoa flavor.

The top of the brownie was a dark, warm teddy bear brown turned slightly craggy and flaky in the oven and topped with a sprinkling of powdered sugar. It and the bottom of the brownie formed the thinnest structural crust.

In the center: almost black granular brownie batter, slightly hardened into a fudgy, large-grained rectangle. Milky chocolate flavor, fudgy and moist texture melting under the tongue. There are lumps in this brownie -- chocolate chips in the batter, perhaps, but no nuts that I detected.

I am guessing that the brownies' quality/density/chewiness may vary as the cookies' do (from batch to batch or day to day). If you're in the mood for a nearly raw brownie (as I sometimes am), try one and let me know how you find it.


p.s. I should have heated it up a little. I bet it's even better warm.

Adventures in advertising

When I see "Now with xx% less fat!" on a package, I always wish I'd gotten to try the original full-fat variety. Because what if the situation is like that of 3 Musketeers bars, which are nowhere near as good as when they had more fat? These Nik Naks (sent from the UK) claim that although they contain "50% less saturated fat than in 2005" they still have the "same great taste." I wonder.

Another claim on the packaging is: "Nice 'N' Spicy Flavour Knobbly, Freaky Sticks of Corn." I assume that this means that Nik Naks come in other flavors.

Me? I'd say this one is better described as "Not Bad Sweet 'N' Sour Flavour Knobbly, Freaky Sticks of Corn-Flavored Foam." There's a slight onion flavor under the vinegar sour-sweet coating, and the texture is that of a lighter-weight Cheeto. But they're maybe more "loosely inspired by corn" (like Capitaine Achab, the odd little French film I saw last night at Lincoln Center, was "loosely inspired" - or some such wording in the credits - by Moby Dick).

I might eat these again, but overall I prefer NicNacs.


-------------


p.s. In other snacking news, we've been eating a whole wheel of cheese at work. Seems to be cheddar. Yum. And today Wendy brought two kinds of brownies (which reminds me, the name "No Pudge" embarrasses me as much as the idea of a no-fat brownie offends me, but I have made them myself in desperation - once, it was the only mix in the store - and the brownies are actually pretty good), while Caitlin returned from a trip with assorted See's chocolates.