Bittersweet Brownies

Why, hello blog…it’s been awhile.

I’m sorry for the major hiatus these past couple weeks. I’ve been so busy with work and rehearsals and then Matt’s parents were in town and so everything I’ve made has been stuff I’ve made before…as I try not to experiment with new recipes when I’m cooking for house guests, haha.

But today I did some baking, as the remains of the carrot cake, apple pie and peanut butter cookies I made had finally disappeared.

It’s been a bit of a rough weekend, so I wanted something comforting.

Brownies are comforting. So I made some.

I used the recipe from my Pure Dessert cookbook by Alice Medrich. I picked it up on sale from Homesense about a month ago for like, $5 and I have to say…it may have been the best $5 I’ve ever spent. It’s a great book and even though I really try not to buy any more dessert cookbooks, I knew I needed to have this one.

Bittersweet Brownies
(Adapted from Alice Medrich’s recipe for New Bittersweet Brownies)
The secret to these brownies is whipping the eggs with the salt, as it gives them a texture between very moist cake and rich chocolate mousse.

Ingredients:

8 ounces unsweetened chocolate, cut into several pieces
6 tablespoons unsalted butter
3 large eggs
¼ teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 cup sugar
1/3 cup plus 1 tablespoon all-purpose flour

Directions:

Position a rack in the lower third of the over and preheat the oven to 350°F. Line the bottom and sides of a square baking pan with foil.

Place the chocolate and butter in a heatproof bowl and set in a wide skillet of almost-simmering water. Stir frequently until the mixture is melted and smooth and quite warm. Remove from the pan and set aside.


In a medium bowl, beat the eggs, salt, vanilla and sugar with a hand-held mixer on high speed until the eggs are thick and light colored, about 2 minutes.

Whisk the warm chocolate into the thick egg mixture. Fold in the flour.


Scrape the batter into the pan and spread evenly. Bake until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean, about 25 to 30 minutes.

Cool the pan on a rack. When cool, invert the brownies on a rack and peel off the foil.


Turn right side up on a cutting board and cut into sixteen 2-inch squares.

Sinful Gluten-Free Dark Chocolate Brownies

Sometimes, I get a little experimental in the kitchen. Sometimes, the results are delicious, whereas other times, it can get disastrous. However, that’s what experimenting is for, right? And what better way to do it than with food!

I have a friend staying with me this week. Her name is Sarah. She is gorgeous, crazy talented, continuously bouncy but unfortunately unable to digest gluten. Therefore, I’ve taken this as an opportunity to stretch my gluten-free baking muscles and start experimenting with different flours!

It’s almost pathetic how excited I get over this stuff…

Anyways, tonight I was craving chocolate. Good, dark, rich chocolate. So, I found a nice dark chocolate brownie recipe, threw some certified wheat-free oats into my Magic Bullet to make a fine oat flour and went a little crazy. And the results were…sinful.

(I also think it’s interesting that I’ve now made brownies for this blog more times in the past 2 weeks than I have in my entire life. Just sayin’.)

Gluten-Free Dark Chocolate Brownies
(Adapted from Joy the Baker’s Dark Chocolate Brownies)
I halved the original recipe and used a loaf pan just in case the brownies turned out awful, but since they didn’t, you should probably double it and use a full square cake pan.

Ingredients:

3/4 cup oat flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
6 tablespoons oil
6 ounces pure unsweetened chocolate, coarsely chopped
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line a loaf pan with parchment paper.

Whisk together flour, baking powder and salt and set aside.

Place oil and chopped chocolate in a medium sized heat proof bowl. Melt chocolate either in the microwave (keep a good eye on it!!) or in a double boiler (Place the bowl over a pot of barely simmering water, being sure that the bottom of the bowl does not touch the boiling water. Stir until chocolate and oil are completely melted & mixed. Use pot holders to remove the bowl from over the boiling water). Let mixture sit for a few minutes.

In a medium sized bowl, whisk together sugar, eggs and vanilla extract until pale and thick. Pour the chocolate mixture into the egg mixture. Whisk until completely incorporated. Add the flour mixture all at once and whisk to incorporate. Pour into the prepared pan and bake for 30-40 minutes, or until a skewer inserted in the center comes out clean.


These are super rich and super delicious. You might need some milk.

Vegan Baking Adventures with Jess

Vegan baking used to frighten me. I couldn’t imagine how any dessert could even come close to tasting good with the absence of butter. I love butter. I love it more than most things in life.


However, a very close friend of mine eats vegan. Her name is Jess. She is beautiful, talented, ridiculously energetic and a great vegan cook. But sadly, she does not have an oven in her house.

So, I kindly offered up my own kitchen today in exchange for a vegan baking lesson. And let’s just say that the results were surprisingly delicious.

There were some crazy shenanigans along the way…but that’s bound to happen when the two of us get together in the kitchen.

We made vegan brownies and (mostly) vegan pumpkin cookies.

And I gained an entirely new appreciation for coconut oil. I might start cheating on butter.

Vegan Tofu Brownies

Tofu is great because it absorbs flavours so well. It also gave the brownies a nice moist texture. P.S. You can make this recipe gluten-free by eliminating the carob chips.

Ingredients:

1 12 oz (300 g) package soft tofu
½ cup water
½ cup oil
2 tsp vanilla
½ cup cocoa powder
1 cup sugar
½ tsp salt
½ tsp baking soda
1 cup spelt flour
½ cup carob chips


Directions:

Preheat oven to 350°F. Grease an 8x8 inch square baking pan (once again, we had to use a circle pan…I really need to eat that casserole).

Blend tofu in a blender or food processor to smooth (I used my Magic Bullet). Whisk tofu in a large bowl with water, oil and vanilla.

Add cocoa, sugar, salt, baking soda and flour to the wet ingredients. Mix until smooth.

Pour into prepared pan. Sprinkle chips on top.

Bake for 45-50 minutes.

Cool, cut and serve.


Supposed-to-be-Vegan Pumpkin Cookies

We had big plans for these vegan pumpkin cookies until we realized we had no flax seeds (to act as an egg substitute). Therefore, we just used real eggs…so these cookies are dairy-free, but not animal-product-free.

Ingredients:

1 cup coconut oil, softened
1 cup pumpkin puree
1½ cups sugar
½ cup flax seed, blended (or 2 eggs)
1 tbsp vanilla
3 cups oat flour (we used 1 cup each of oat, spelt and whole wheat flours)
1 cup rolled oats
¾ tsp baking soda
¾ tsp salt
4 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp ground ginger
½ tsp nutmeg

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350°F.

Mix coconut oil, pumpkin puree, sugar, flax seed/eggs and vanilla in a large bowl.

Add flour, oats, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, ginger and nutmeg to the wet ingredients. Mix until smooth.

Drop dough by rounded spoonfuls onto an ungreased baking sheet. (We added the remaining carob chips to the cookies as well)

Bake for 12-15 minutes.

Let cookies cool for 5 minutes on the baking sheet, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

Makes about 2 dozen large cookies.

*Note: These cookies are pretty fluffy…we’re going to work with the recipe some more to perhaps make muffins with it. They would be great muffins.

DELICIOUS!!

Peanut Butter Brownies

I don’t bake brownies very often. In fact, despite the fact that I really love them, they are probably one of the desserts I’ve baked the least. However, I thought I would give this peanut butter brownie recipe a try to bring for dessert for a family dinner tonight and after a series of minor kinks, I think they turned out alright. I like the peanut butter and chocolate balance, however they are fairly cakey. There was no oil in the recipe so I think when I try them out again, I’ll replace the butter with oil. Otherwise, they’re pretty yummy – especially if you like chocolate and peanut butter.

I’ll also use a legit square cake pan next time. My only one is currently filled with vegetarian casserole in my freezer so I used 2 loaf pans instead…and wax paper, cus I was out of parchment.

Peanut Butter Swirly Brownies
(Adapted from my November 2010 Canadian Living magazine)

Ingredients

1/2 cup smooth peanut butter
1/2 cup butter, softened
2/3 cup granulated sugar
3 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
5 oz bittersweet chocolate, melted and cooled (I used 3 oz bittersweet and 2 oz dark)
3/4 cup all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking powder
pinch salt

Directions

In large bowl, beat 1/4 cup of the peanut butter, the butter and sugar; beat in eggs, 1 at a time. Beat in vanilla. Beat in chocolate.

Stir in flour, baking powder and salt. Spread in parchment paper–lined 8-inch (2 L) square metal cake pan.

By spoonfuls, drop remaining peanut butter over top. Run knife through batter to swirl; smooth top. Bake in 350°F (180°C) oven until tester inserted in centre comes out with a few moist crumbs clinging, about 20 minutes. Let cool in pan on rack. Cut into squares.


Make sure you have a big glass of milk for these!!