Remember when I ate 30 different veges in 30 days and vowed to post more recipes with vegetables? No, you probably don't because you're probably here for the brownies and ice cream. Me too. Unfortunately being healthy is important and balancing the food groups is key to a healthy diet. That's why today's vegetable (and fruit) recipe takes the shape of a muffin!
While cleaning out the freezer, I found 1/2 cup of shredded zucchini that got shredded and frozen just in the nick of time (meaning that it was probably too squishy for anything else but not yet moldy). "Bring on the zucchini bread!" I thought, only to realize that zucchini bread, zucchini cake, and zucchini blondies all require more zucchini than I had on hand. It seemed counter-productive to have to go to the grocery store to acquire more zucchini in order to salvage that measly 1/2 cup. I could have made zucchini cupcakes, but I wasn't feeling chocolate.
Meanwhile, in the fruit bowl sat a bunch of very sad looking bananas. Three of them became SoNo Baking Co. Cookbook's Banana Cream Tart. (You can find a copy of the recipe here.) The rest needed to be frozen or baked into something delicious, and since we are moving abroad in 30 days (um, exactly 30 days from now… what!), they certainly weren't going into the freezer. Enter: Banana Zucchini Muffins. Why? Because there is no such thing as "not enough zucchini" or "too many bananas." Zucchini is the gift that keeps on giving and banana is the fruit that's better to forget about until it's black and squishy. Paring them together is just plain thrifty, not to mention delicious.
Objective
Make banana zucchini muffins with [mostly] whole grains. Adapted from Taste of Home's Zucchini Banana Bread.
Materials
Dry:
1/2 cup whole wheat pastry flour
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon flaxseed meal
1/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
Wet:
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 egg
1/4 cup olive oil (light in flavor)
1/2 cup banana, mashed (about 2 small bananas)
1/2 cup zucchini, shredded
Optional:
1/2 cup walnuts, toasted and chopped
Methods
1. Preheat the oven to 325º. Prepare a muffin pan by lining with paper cups or greasing (or place silicone muffin cups on a baking sheet) and set aside.
2. In a medium bowl, stir together the dry ingredients. In another bowl, whisk together the wet ingredients. Stir the wet ingredients into the dry. Do not over mix, stir only until the ingredients are incorporated. Fold in the walnuts (if using).
3. Pour the batter into the prepared muffin cups. Fill the muffin cups 3/4 full.
4. Bake 20-25 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Cool completely on a wire rack, then flip out of the muffin pan.
Makes 10 small muffins.
Results
Incredibly moist, soft, and healthy? Ok that last part is stretching it. Best within 24 hours or they get sticky to the touch from all the moisture.
Discussion and Future Directions
When C got home from call, the first thing he did was walk into the kitchen and stuff an entire muffin into his mouth. "What do you think?" I asked. His response was a muffin-muffled, "Good!" I wasn't sure he could actually breathe, and since taste requires smell and smell requires breathing, I wasn't convinced. However, a few hours later when he woke up from his post-call nap, his eyes lit up. "Muffins!" he remembered, then walked into the kitchen and returned with three. He proceeded to butter them and eat them slowly. This time I believed him when he told me they were good.
26 June, 2014
22 June, 2014
Rhubarb Cocktails (Review)
People are often impressed that I can bake. Remember the yellow cake I made for one of my ESL students' 60th birthday? "You made this? Wow!" said the birthday girl after she realized that it was a real cake and not a plastic one. I have no idea why she thought I would bring a plastic cake, but hey, who knows? Maybe she received a plastic cake in the past!
A few weeks later, it was another student's birthday. Since I made vanilla the first time, I decided on chocolate cake with a Texan flair: Texas Sheet Cake from the Homesick Texan. I left out the chile powder because I wasn't sure how well that would go over. I assumed they would like it because 11 of the 12 students are from Central and South America. But, what if the birthday girl didn't like spicy food?
Really, they can be a tough crowd! We were learning adverbs this week and I was trying to think of an example of an annual event to teach the word "annually." Trying to give a relatable example, I used the World Cup assuming that my students were soccer fans. Plus, I'd walked away from the USA-Ghana game to go teach, so it was the first thing that popped into my mind. "El Copa Mundial!" I said, hoping to get a "VIVA MEXICO!" or "VIVA HONDURAS!" out of someone. Maybe if my argentinos had been there I would have gotten a stronger response; instead, I heard crickets chirping. Then I realized that the World Cup is quadrennial and well, I changed the subject. Thankfully, one of my students threw out "Rodeo." Whew! Since someone was able to give a better example than I was, I knew that they understood the word.
The moral of that story is that I can't make assumptions when it comes to my students. They are adults ranging in age from 25 to 60 with real life experiences. They certainly aren't the caricatures of people used as examples in my high school Spanish textbooks. They don't all love soccer and they probably don't all love spicy food. Instead of chile powder, I went heavy on the cinnamon. "Canela, no?" one of my students asked. "You made this? Wow," said my 60 year-old student, "You can get married."
Where am I going with all of this? I'm getting there. Whenever someone is impressed that I can bake, I tell them that baking is mostly about recipe selection. Baking differs from cooking because, for the most part, you can't taste and add along the way. What you put into your dough or batter and your baking parameters are going to dictate the outcome (well, that and the ambient temperature, humidity, amount of stirring, precision of measurement, etc.). I don't find baking challenging because baking is all about following the recipe. Sure, you can go on to adapt recipes or create your own, but for the novice baker, your goal is to follow the recipe exactly. Maybe that's easier said than done. I'm a scientist, so that's my job. Baking is a lot like chemistry lab (but hopefully only microbiology lab if you're using yeast or starter).
What I do find challenging is mixing drinks. C is a drink-mixing all-star. Really, I think he could make or reproduce anything. And if I mess something up, he can taste it, tweak it, and fix it into something delicious.
For the summer solstice, I wanted to make a summery cocktail. Enter the Rhubarb & Strawberry Collins. I muddled and poured and stirred. Exit a boozy rhubarb milkshake. My highball ended up watered down and lacking flavor. C was on call at the hospital (his last call shift for at least 13 months!!), so it was up to me to do the tweaking and fixing. I tried salvaging it by adding more rhubarb syrup but it wasn't quite right. Inspired by Rhubarb Floats from Not Without Salt, I added ice cream. It wasn't a knock-your-socks-off kind of drink, but I was happy to drink it.
Why rhubarb? I bought a half pound of rhubarb on a whim with the intention of baking. Instead, we (well, C) made it into rhubarb simple syrup. Basically, chop up your rhubarb (we used 3 stalks), add enough water to cover it and add an equal (or half for a longer infusion) portion of sugar, simmer 20-30 minutes until the rhubarb becomes mush and the liquid becomes a syrup, strain, and chill. Save the mushy "compote" for something else and use the syrup for cocktails. There aren't a ton of rhubarb cocktails to choose from, though it's not hard to find a rhubarb version for most of the classic cocktails. It's a little trickier to use than say grapefruit juice because the juice and flavor are in the simple syrup, so balance is key.
Our Rhubarb Cocktail Recommendations:
C's vote: Ginger Rhubarb Bees Knees from The Bonjon Gourmet
Ingredients: muddled ginger, rhubarb syrup, gin, lemon juice, and orange bitters, shaken with ice.
Tweaks: more lemon juice.
Flavor: tart and fruity, like a rhubarb drink should be (according to C).
A's vote: Rhubarb and Rose Ramos from Food52
Ingredients: London dry gin, lemon juice, lime juice, rhubarb syrup, cream, and rosewater, stirred then topped with ice and soda water.
Tweaks: left out the egg white for lack of pasteurized eggs.
Flavor: rhubarb ice cream in drinkable form.
Obviously the quality of the base spirit and liqueurs plays a role, but I think the secret to mixing drinks is the selection of ingredients: pairing flavors and picking up on the subtleties of each component. For example, I used the wrong base spirit when trying to make a melon infusion. I picked an aromatic, herbal gin instead of a milder dry gin, so the juniper and herbs overpower the melon. I suspect the other secret is practice by way of trial-and-error. I'm still a novice drinker let alone drink-mixer. Because I don't drink much and and I don't drink often, I'll probably just stick to baking! Anyway, I already have a resident "mixologist!"
A few weeks later, it was another student's birthday. Since I made vanilla the first time, I decided on chocolate cake with a Texan flair: Texas Sheet Cake from the Homesick Texan. I left out the chile powder because I wasn't sure how well that would go over. I assumed they would like it because 11 of the 12 students are from Central and South America. But, what if the birthday girl didn't like spicy food?
Really, they can be a tough crowd! We were learning adverbs this week and I was trying to think of an example of an annual event to teach the word "annually." Trying to give a relatable example, I used the World Cup assuming that my students were soccer fans. Plus, I'd walked away from the USA-Ghana game to go teach, so it was the first thing that popped into my mind. "El Copa Mundial!" I said, hoping to get a "VIVA MEXICO!" or "VIVA HONDURAS!" out of someone. Maybe if my argentinos had been there I would have gotten a stronger response; instead, I heard crickets chirping. Then I realized that the World Cup is quadrennial and well, I changed the subject. Thankfully, one of my students threw out "Rodeo." Whew! Since someone was able to give a better example than I was, I knew that they understood the word.
The moral of that story is that I can't make assumptions when it comes to my students. They are adults ranging in age from 25 to 60 with real life experiences. They certainly aren't the caricatures of people used as examples in my high school Spanish textbooks. They don't all love soccer and they probably don't all love spicy food. Instead of chile powder, I went heavy on the cinnamon. "Canela, no?" one of my students asked. "You made this? Wow," said my 60 year-old student, "You can get married."
Where am I going with all of this? I'm getting there. Whenever someone is impressed that I can bake, I tell them that baking is mostly about recipe selection. Baking differs from cooking because, for the most part, you can't taste and add along the way. What you put into your dough or batter and your baking parameters are going to dictate the outcome (well, that and the ambient temperature, humidity, amount of stirring, precision of measurement, etc.). I don't find baking challenging because baking is all about following the recipe. Sure, you can go on to adapt recipes or create your own, but for the novice baker, your goal is to follow the recipe exactly. Maybe that's easier said than done. I'm a scientist, so that's my job. Baking is a lot like chemistry lab (but hopefully only microbiology lab if you're using yeast or starter).
What I do find challenging is mixing drinks. C is a drink-mixing all-star. Really, I think he could make or reproduce anything. And if I mess something up, he can taste it, tweak it, and fix it into something delicious.
For the summer solstice, I wanted to make a summery cocktail. Enter the Rhubarb & Strawberry Collins. I muddled and poured and stirred. Exit a boozy rhubarb milkshake. My highball ended up watered down and lacking flavor. C was on call at the hospital (his last call shift for at least 13 months!!), so it was up to me to do the tweaking and fixing. I tried salvaging it by adding more rhubarb syrup but it wasn't quite right. Inspired by Rhubarb Floats from Not Without Salt, I added ice cream. It wasn't a knock-your-socks-off kind of drink, but I was happy to drink it.
Why rhubarb? I bought a half pound of rhubarb on a whim with the intention of baking. Instead, we (well, C) made it into rhubarb simple syrup. Basically, chop up your rhubarb (we used 3 stalks), add enough water to cover it and add an equal (or half for a longer infusion) portion of sugar, simmer 20-30 minutes until the rhubarb becomes mush and the liquid becomes a syrup, strain, and chill. Save the mushy "compote" for something else and use the syrup for cocktails. There aren't a ton of rhubarb cocktails to choose from, though it's not hard to find a rhubarb version for most of the classic cocktails. It's a little trickier to use than say grapefruit juice because the juice and flavor are in the simple syrup, so balance is key.
Our Rhubarb Cocktail Recommendations:
C's vote: Ginger Rhubarb Bees Knees from The Bonjon Gourmet
Ingredients: muddled ginger, rhubarb syrup, gin, lemon juice, and orange bitters, shaken with ice.
Tweaks: more lemon juice.
Flavor: tart and fruity, like a rhubarb drink should be (according to C).
A's vote: Rhubarb and Rose Ramos from Food52
Ingredients: London dry gin, lemon juice, lime juice, rhubarb syrup, cream, and rosewater, stirred then topped with ice and soda water.
Tweaks: left out the egg white for lack of pasteurized eggs.
Flavor: rhubarb ice cream in drinkable form.
Obviously the quality of the base spirit and liqueurs plays a role, but I think the secret to mixing drinks is the selection of ingredients: pairing flavors and picking up on the subtleties of each component. For example, I used the wrong base spirit when trying to make a melon infusion. I picked an aromatic, herbal gin instead of a milder dry gin, so the juniper and herbs overpower the melon. I suspect the other secret is practice by way of trial-and-error. I'm still a novice drinker let alone drink-mixer. Because I don't drink much and and I don't drink often, I'll probably just stick to baking! Anyway, I already have a resident "mixologist!"
 |
| My highball attempt. Note the beautiful rhubarb syrup! |
12 June, 2014
Espresso Milkshake from Summermoon (Austin, TX)
One Saturday in late March, we ditched Houston and headed to Austin. It was a beautiful sunny morning with hardly a cloud in the sky; there was enough of a breeze to stay comfortable in the 80°F weather. We saw plenty of bluebonnets and wildflowers along the highways and I even convinced C to stop for pictures along highway 36. I was shocked he stopped after we'd spent a whole Saturday the prior weekend driving around looking for bluebonnets, with success!
Just like our first trip to Austin, our first stop in town was at Summermoon Coffee Bar. Last November, C had a "golden weekend," those coveted two days off in a row that only come around every few months, so we visited his best friend from high school who lives in Austin. As soon as we arrived, we stopped at a coffee shop for a "study date" so that C could knock off a few sets of practice questions for his third (and final) medical licensing exam (which he passed! Woo hoo!). While he studied, Elliot and I goofed off.
At one point, Elliot disappeared and returned with an espresso milkshake for C. I'm not a coffee drinker (nor is Elliot), but C convinced us to try it. It was amazing. Creamy, but not from ice cream, sweet, ever-so-slightly chocolatey, with an earthy, coffee flavor. Summermoon fire-roasts their coffee in-house, so their coffee has a distinct woodiness. Every time I bring up that milkshake, C laughs at me because I claim that I don't like coffee. He also got a kick out of me finishing all of his lattes in Guatemala. Ok, I'll admit it: coffee is growing on me. Now, can I have another espresso milkshake, please? I set off to recreate it at home.
This second time we were at Summermoon, I watched the barista make the milkshake. First, he put ice cubes and a tiny bit of moon milk in the bottom of the blender. He grabbed a to-go cup and drizzled in chocolate syrup. Then, he poured hot espresso into the blender. After that, I got distracted, but I'm pretty sure he added more moon milk (and maybe more ice cubes), blended it, and poured it into the plastic cup. I started drinking it, and the rest is history. It was gone by the time we made it to the Barton Creek Green Belt for our walk.
According to Summermoon's Facebook page, an espresso milkshake is "espresso, moon milk and ghiradelli sweet ground chocolate, blended with ice." So, what is moon milk? Summermoon's top secret, homemade creamer/milk made of 7 ingredients. Coupled with the wood-fired coffee, moon milk gives their drinks a uniquely delicious flavor that their devotees can't get anywhere else. Though many of their patrons are convinced it's made of crack cocaine because it's so addictive, I have the impression that moon milk is made of cream, sweetened condensed milk, other milks and vanilla.
Materials
ice cubes
sweetened milk?
espresso
chocolate syrup
Methods
1. In a blender, combine the ice cubes and milk. Pour in the hot espresso. Blend.
2. Drizzle chocolate syrup into a cup and pour in the milkshake.
Ok, that's not a helpful recipe. I don't even know what one of the ingredients is. So, I tried another route. I stopped at Whole Foods and picked up a jug of double espresso iced coffee with almond milk. I tried blending it with both ice and ice cream but neither gave me the desired result. To be fair, I wasn't digging the flavor of the coffee (I like almond milk, but apparently not with coffee). When I told my mom about the experience she asked, "Why do you always try to recreate things? Why not make it a treat for yourself whenever you're in Austin?" Though I don't want to, I will listen to her. Next time you find yourself in Austin, Texas, head over to Summermoon and try their milkshake!
Interested in making an espresso milkshake on your own? Here's the closest recipe I could find based on the ingredients I saw added (though it uses espresso powder instead of espersso). Give it a shot (pun intended) and report back!
At one point, Elliot disappeared and returned with an espresso milkshake for C. I'm not a coffee drinker (nor is Elliot), but C convinced us to try it. It was amazing. Creamy, but not from ice cream, sweet, ever-so-slightly chocolatey, with an earthy, coffee flavor. Summermoon fire-roasts their coffee in-house, so their coffee has a distinct woodiness. Every time I bring up that milkshake, C laughs at me because I claim that I don't like coffee. He also got a kick out of me finishing all of his lattes in Guatemala. Ok, I'll admit it: coffee is growing on me. Now, can I have another espresso milkshake, please? I set off to recreate it at home.
This second time we were at Summermoon, I watched the barista make the milkshake. First, he put ice cubes and a tiny bit of moon milk in the bottom of the blender. He grabbed a to-go cup and drizzled in chocolate syrup. Then, he poured hot espresso into the blender. After that, I got distracted, but I'm pretty sure he added more moon milk (and maybe more ice cubes), blended it, and poured it into the plastic cup. I started drinking it, and the rest is history. It was gone by the time we made it to the Barton Creek Green Belt for our walk.
According to Summermoon's Facebook page, an espresso milkshake is "espresso, moon milk and ghiradelli sweet ground chocolate, blended with ice." So, what is moon milk? Summermoon's top secret, homemade creamer/milk made of 7 ingredients. Coupled with the wood-fired coffee, moon milk gives their drinks a uniquely delicious flavor that their devotees can't get anywhere else. Though many of their patrons are convinced it's made of crack cocaine because it's so addictive, I have the impression that moon milk is made of cream, sweetened condensed milk, other milks and vanilla.
Materials
ice cubes
sweetened milk?
espresso
chocolate syrup
Methods
1. In a blender, combine the ice cubes and milk. Pour in the hot espresso. Blend.
2. Drizzle chocolate syrup into a cup and pour in the milkshake.
Ok, that's not a helpful recipe. I don't even know what one of the ingredients is. So, I tried another route. I stopped at Whole Foods and picked up a jug of double espresso iced coffee with almond milk. I tried blending it with both ice and ice cream but neither gave me the desired result. To be fair, I wasn't digging the flavor of the coffee (I like almond milk, but apparently not with coffee). When I told my mom about the experience she asked, "Why do you always try to recreate things? Why not make it a treat for yourself whenever you're in Austin?" Though I don't want to, I will listen to her. Next time you find yourself in Austin, Texas, head over to Summermoon and try their milkshake!
Interested in making an espresso milkshake on your own? Here's the closest recipe I could find based on the ingredients I saw added (though it uses espresso powder instead of espersso). Give it a shot (pun intended) and report back!
05 June, 2014
Mexican Chocolate Brownies
The we-move-in-less-than-2-months-so-we-better-start-eating-from-the-cuboards time crunch has begun! So far, we've successfully eaten through most of the canned goods (by canned goods, I mostly mean refried black beans and tomatoes). Still, there are random things that need eating like oats, dates, millet, de puy lentils, sunflower seeds, pine nuts, and a ton of flour (whole wheat, whole wheat pastry, all-purpose, buckwheat, rye, potato, tapioca, etc.). Also, we have at least 15 bags of chills from the Chili Cook-Off that we hosted over Easter weekend in 2013. If you can think of a dried chile pepper, we probably have it! Ancho, cayenne, chipotle, cobanero, guajillo, Japonese, morita, mulato, New Mexico, pasilla, pequin…
The other thing we bought for the chili cook off was a bright yellow and red box of Mexican chocolate for C's chili. I think I used it for something after the chili cook off, but I don't remember exactly what I made. It might have been ice cream. Whatever it was, it didn't turn out, so the box has been sitting in the cupboard taunting me since. I haven't known what to do with the rest of it. The obvious solution would be to make hot chocolate. However, it's currently June in Texas and there is no chance we'll have a day below 80ºF in the next two months. Iced Mexican hot chocolate? I don't know about that.
On Sunday, while C was on call in the hospital, I decided to bake him Mexican chocolate brownies. He says he "hates" chocolate. I find this suspicious because he loves brownies and recently came home with a pint of Steve's Mexican Chili Chocolate Ice Cream "for me," yet only gave me a few bites. Adding to my suspicions, the chocolate ice cream appeared just a day after I made cobanero chili chocolate dairy-free "oat cream." I believe that when he says "I hate chocolate" he really means "I hate chocolate cake." His hatred of cake has somehow tainted his view of chocolate.
Anyway, last time I made brownies, he gave me a little grief. I told him that I had a brownie recipe that I was excited to try and he told me not to bother, that he had gotten the best brownie recipe from his friend Nick. He asked me how many eggs my recipe called for and told me that since it called for fewer eggs than his recipe, my brownies wouldn't be as good. We decided to have a brownie bake-off. When he pulled up the recipe from his friend Nick, he told me it was the Baked brownie recipe, the exact same recipe I was planning to make. (Clearly he didn't remember how many eggs Nick's recipe called for!)
Objective
Make the Baked brownie recipe with part dark chocolate and part Mexican chocolate.
Materials
1/2 cup + 2 tablespoons flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon cocoa powder
pinch ground cinnamon
pinch ground hot chile pepper (ex. cayenne, cobanero, or chipotle)
4.5 ounces dark chocolate
1 ounce Mexican chocolate, grated (ex. Ibarra or Abuelita)
1/2 cup butter, cubed
1/2 cup + 2 tablespoons sugar
1/4 cup brown sugar, packed
2 1/2 eggs (crack three, whisk together and remove 1 tablespoon)
1 teaspoon vanilla
sliced almonds, for topping (optional)
flaked sea salt, for topping (optional)
Methods
1. Preheat the oven to 350ºF. Grease an 8x8 inch square pan and set aside.
2. Sift together the flour, salt, cocoa powder, cinnamon and chile powder. Set aside.
3. Set up a double boiler (bring about an inch of water to boil in the bottom of a saucepan and set a tight-fitting glass or metal bowl over the water but not touching). Melt the dark chocolate, Mexican chocolate and butter.
4. Whisk in the sugar and brown sugar. Add half of the eggs, whisk, then whisk in the rest. Stir in the vanilla. Do not over mix (unless you like cake-like brownies; if that's the case, whisk away).
5. Sprinkle the sifted flour mixture over the top of the batter. Fold in the flour until just combined. The mixture will be a bit lumpy from the eggs but not from clumps of flour.
6. Pour the batter into the prepared baking pan. If desired, sprinkle with sliced almonds and sea salt. Bake 20-30 minutes (mine took 22 minutes), rotating the pan after 15 minutes of baking. The brownies are done when a toothpick inserted into the center comes out with a few crumbs on it (so that it still has moisture but isn't still gooey batter).
Results
Yum! Moist, creamy, and a little spicy. A nice crunch (and flavor) from the almonds.
Discussion
When I first met C, he was disappointed to learn that I liked pickles. He joked that his dream girl was one who hated pickles so that he'd always get to eat two. While we agree on pickles, we disagree on brownies. He's a crust guy, I'm a gooey-center girl. Thankfully we're both in the fudgey not cakey camp, so our brownie sharing partnership is nearly perfect. The only problem is that C is a purist and I like a little crunch now and again (like nuts or chocolate chips or candy canes). Even without that crunch, I'll happily leave him the crusts and dive right into the center.
To give C credit, the Baked brownie recipe makes good brownies. You do have to be mindful of your stirring or you can easily ruin a masterpiece. My only complaint about the brownies is that they are thin. Why not double the recipe for a nice, thick chuck of chocolate gooey goodness? It's possible that it would take too long for the heat to get to the center and leave you with burnt edges and gooey, uncooked, eggy centers. Once I have the heart to try wasting that much chocolate (if it doesn't turn out), I'll let you know and report back with the results!
The other thing we bought for the chili cook off was a bright yellow and red box of Mexican chocolate for C's chili. I think I used it for something after the chili cook off, but I don't remember exactly what I made. It might have been ice cream. Whatever it was, it didn't turn out, so the box has been sitting in the cupboard taunting me since. I haven't known what to do with the rest of it. The obvious solution would be to make hot chocolate. However, it's currently June in Texas and there is no chance we'll have a day below 80ºF in the next two months. Iced Mexican hot chocolate? I don't know about that.
On Sunday, while C was on call in the hospital, I decided to bake him Mexican chocolate brownies. He says he "hates" chocolate. I find this suspicious because he loves brownies and recently came home with a pint of Steve's Mexican Chili Chocolate Ice Cream "for me," yet only gave me a few bites. Adding to my suspicions, the chocolate ice cream appeared just a day after I made cobanero chili chocolate dairy-free "oat cream." I believe that when he says "I hate chocolate" he really means "I hate chocolate cake." His hatred of cake has somehow tainted his view of chocolate.
Anyway, last time I made brownies, he gave me a little grief. I told him that I had a brownie recipe that I was excited to try and he told me not to bother, that he had gotten the best brownie recipe from his friend Nick. He asked me how many eggs my recipe called for and told me that since it called for fewer eggs than his recipe, my brownies wouldn't be as good. We decided to have a brownie bake-off. When he pulled up the recipe from his friend Nick, he told me it was the Baked brownie recipe, the exact same recipe I was planning to make. (Clearly he didn't remember how many eggs Nick's recipe called for!)
Objective
Make the Baked brownie recipe with part dark chocolate and part Mexican chocolate.
Materials
1/2 cup + 2 tablespoons flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon cocoa powder
pinch ground cinnamon
pinch ground hot chile pepper (ex. cayenne, cobanero, or chipotle)
4.5 ounces dark chocolate
1 ounce Mexican chocolate, grated (ex. Ibarra or Abuelita)
1/2 cup butter, cubed
1/2 cup + 2 tablespoons sugar
1/4 cup brown sugar, packed
2 1/2 eggs (crack three, whisk together and remove 1 tablespoon)
1 teaspoon vanilla
sliced almonds, for topping (optional)
flaked sea salt, for topping (optional)
Methods
1. Preheat the oven to 350ºF. Grease an 8x8 inch square pan and set aside.
2. Sift together the flour, salt, cocoa powder, cinnamon and chile powder. Set aside.
3. Set up a double boiler (bring about an inch of water to boil in the bottom of a saucepan and set a tight-fitting glass or metal bowl over the water but not touching). Melt the dark chocolate, Mexican chocolate and butter.
4. Whisk in the sugar and brown sugar. Add half of the eggs, whisk, then whisk in the rest. Stir in the vanilla. Do not over mix (unless you like cake-like brownies; if that's the case, whisk away).
5. Sprinkle the sifted flour mixture over the top of the batter. Fold in the flour until just combined. The mixture will be a bit lumpy from the eggs but not from clumps of flour.
6. Pour the batter into the prepared baking pan. If desired, sprinkle with sliced almonds and sea salt. Bake 20-30 minutes (mine took 22 minutes), rotating the pan after 15 minutes of baking. The brownies are done when a toothpick inserted into the center comes out with a few crumbs on it (so that it still has moisture but isn't still gooey batter).
Results
Yum! Moist, creamy, and a little spicy. A nice crunch (and flavor) from the almonds.
Discussion
When I first met C, he was disappointed to learn that I liked pickles. He joked that his dream girl was one who hated pickles so that he'd always get to eat two. While we agree on pickles, we disagree on brownies. He's a crust guy, I'm a gooey-center girl. Thankfully we're both in the fudgey not cakey camp, so our brownie sharing partnership is nearly perfect. The only problem is that C is a purist and I like a little crunch now and again (like nuts or chocolate chips or candy canes). Even without that crunch, I'll happily leave him the crusts and dive right into the center.
To give C credit, the Baked brownie recipe makes good brownies. You do have to be mindful of your stirring or you can easily ruin a masterpiece. My only complaint about the brownies is that they are thin. Why not double the recipe for a nice, thick chuck of chocolate gooey goodness? It's possible that it would take too long for the heat to get to the center and leave you with burnt edges and gooey, uncooked, eggy centers. Once I have the heart to try wasting that much chocolate (if it doesn't turn out), I'll let you know and report back with the results!
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