New Favorite Brownies
There are good brownies. And then there are OMG-THESE-ARE-SO-GOOD brownies.
These are the latter.
The recipe comes from Dorie Greenspan's Baking: From My Home to Yours and are entitled "Tribute to Katherine Hepburn Brownies." I've seen the introductory blurb to the recipe quoted on other people's blogs, and basically, the Oscar-winning actress was famous for her brownies and was noted in a story to impart the wisdom of not putting too much flour in brownies.
Dorie adapted versions of the famed recipe and added the variation of cinnamon, instant coffee, and bittersweet chocolate chunks.
Have I mentioned that I love cinnamon?!
Maybe a couple of times.
Figure 1. Dark, rich brownie batter.
Figure 2. Fresh out of the oven.
Figure 3. Intense, chewy, studded with nuts and chocolate chunks, fragrant with cinnamon and coffee.
Tribute to Katherine Hepburn Brownies (adapted from Baking: From My Home to Yours)
Ingredients:
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon (optional)
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 stick (8 tbsp) unsalted butter (recipe says to cut it into 8 pieces, but I didn't do this)
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
2 teaspoons finely ground instant coffee (I used instant espresso)
2 large eggs, preferably at room temperature
1 cup sugar
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 cup broken or chopped walnuts or pecans (I used pecans)
4 ounces bittersweet chocolate, coarsely chopped
Instructions:
Preheat oven to 325 degrees F. Grease and line an 8-inch square baking pan with parchment paper. (It might be easiest to cut two long strips of parchment paper just wide enough to fit in the pan, and put the first sheet in one direction, and the other sheet on top in the opposite orientation. That way you have overhangs to pull the brownies out and also there's no space for the brownies to stick to the pan. Greasing the pan and the paper first helps the paper stick down.)
Sift flour and cinnamon and salt together, put aside.
Put butter in a medium sized saucepan over low heat and let it start melting. Once it begins to melt, sift cocoa over the pan and add instant coffee. Stir everything together. Take pan off heat and let cool for about 3 minutes.
Then beat in eggs one at a time into the cocoa-butter mixture using a whisk or rubber spatula. It will look kinda lumpy and curdled. Then stir in sugar and vanilla. It will look granular but smooth now. It is recommended not to beat these things too vigorously because you don't want to add too much air to the batter.
Add the dry ingredients, fold them in. Lastly, add the chopped chocolate and nuts and stir them in. Pour/scrape batter into your lined baking pan. Try not to eat all the batter before you do this.
Bake for 30 minutes. The top surface will look a little shiny, reminiscent of boxed brownies. I gave the pan a shake to make sure the middle does not jiggle--that would mean the center isn't set. If you don't like ooey-gooey brownies, it's probably best to add about 5 minutes of baking time to make sure it's past that point.
Let the brownies cool in the pan a little, then transfer it using your parchment paper "handles" to a cooling rack to cool more completely (about 30 min) before peeling off the parchment paper. After that, it's probably best to let them cool down completely before cutting, or you risk getting melted chocolate from the chocolate chunks all over your knife.
Cut into 2 inch squares, makes 16.
These are the latter.
The recipe comes from Dorie Greenspan's Baking: From My Home to Yours and are entitled "Tribute to Katherine Hepburn Brownies." I've seen the introductory blurb to the recipe quoted on other people's blogs, and basically, the Oscar-winning actress was famous for her brownies and was noted in a story to impart the wisdom of not putting too much flour in brownies.
Dorie adapted versions of the famed recipe and added the variation of cinnamon, instant coffee, and bittersweet chocolate chunks.
Have I mentioned that I love cinnamon?!
Maybe a couple of times.
Figure 1. Dark, rich brownie batter.
Figure 2. Fresh out of the oven.
Figure 3. Intense, chewy, studded with nuts and chocolate chunks, fragrant with cinnamon and coffee.Ingredients:
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon (optional)
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 stick (8 tbsp) unsalted butter (recipe says to cut it into 8 pieces, but I didn't do this)
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
2 teaspoons finely ground instant coffee (I used instant espresso)
2 large eggs, preferably at room temperature
1 cup sugar
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 cup broken or chopped walnuts or pecans (I used pecans)
4 ounces bittersweet chocolate, coarsely chopped
Instructions:
Preheat oven to 325 degrees F. Grease and line an 8-inch square baking pan with parchment paper. (It might be easiest to cut two long strips of parchment paper just wide enough to fit in the pan, and put the first sheet in one direction, and the other sheet on top in the opposite orientation. That way you have overhangs to pull the brownies out and also there's no space for the brownies to stick to the pan. Greasing the pan and the paper first helps the paper stick down.)
Sift flour and cinnamon and salt together, put aside.
Put butter in a medium sized saucepan over low heat and let it start melting. Once it begins to melt, sift cocoa over the pan and add instant coffee. Stir everything together. Take pan off heat and let cool for about 3 minutes.
Then beat in eggs one at a time into the cocoa-butter mixture using a whisk or rubber spatula. It will look kinda lumpy and curdled. Then stir in sugar and vanilla. It will look granular but smooth now. It is recommended not to beat these things too vigorously because you don't want to add too much air to the batter.
Add the dry ingredients, fold them in. Lastly, add the chopped chocolate and nuts and stir them in. Pour/scrape batter into your lined baking pan. Try not to eat all the batter before you do this.
Bake for 30 minutes. The top surface will look a little shiny, reminiscent of boxed brownies. I gave the pan a shake to make sure the middle does not jiggle--that would mean the center isn't set. If you don't like ooey-gooey brownies, it's probably best to add about 5 minutes of baking time to make sure it's past that point.
Let the brownies cool in the pan a little, then transfer it using your parchment paper "handles" to a cooling rack to cool more completely (about 30 min) before peeling off the parchment paper. After that, it's probably best to let them cool down completely before cutting, or you risk getting melted chocolate from the chocolate chunks all over your knife.
Cut into 2 inch squares, makes 16.
Do i get to taste these????
ReplyDeleteSure--as soon as you make them! The recipe is so easy, I sure hope you wouldn't have to wait for me to visit to make them with you or to mail you a box of them =) That's why I post recipes.
ReplyDeleteYou can probably swap out stuff like butter for oil and stuff like the instant coffee and pecans and chocolate chunks you can either swap with whatever you have on hand or you probably can omit them without sacrificing the texture of the brownies by themselves. So you don't need to go out and buy a whole slew of things just to make them. The cinnamon is also stated to be optional, although I would argue really makes these brownies special.
i found your blog through your comment over at OCG. i made the cranberry crunch cookies tonight. have you tried any others yet?
ReplyDeletehave you seen dorie's cinnamon squares? as a huge fan of cinnamon, you should definitely check them out. i can't wait to make it! here's the link to the recipe: http://traceysculinaryadventures.blogspot.com/2009/06/twd-cinnamon-squares-two-ways.html
Are these better than the other world's best brownies? Because the other ones were awesome!
ReplyDeleteJess-- I liked the other ones a lot, but I was not estatic about the texture. It was more fudgy and crumbly almost. Michael really enjoyed them though. These ones are exactly the texture I want--chewy edges, soft center, and the cinnamon and coffee and chocolate combo is out of this world, so yeah, these are much better in my book.
ReplyDeleteSweetie--hi! Thanks for visiting. I have only tried the Cranberry crunch cookies and the Samoa copycat cookies. Both were so awesome, and everyone I shared them with enjoyed them immensely. The samoa copycat ones are a bit fussy to make, but it results in a whole ton of cookies and everyone loved them. See my post on it, entitled "Girl Scout Cookies on Crack"
I think I remember coming across that recipe from Dorie but have not yet tried them. They sound great though. I think I need to buy myself Baking From My Home to Yours sooner or later, seems like a very worthy investment.