Friday, August 22, 2014

Baking Friday - Cookie # 8

Mt. Vesuvius Day is Sunday!  And what better way to celebrate than with a mountain of brownies?! 

Ok, so maybe a chocolate lava cake would be more appropriate, but this is cookie week, so cut me some slack here, folks!  This was G's own personal little brownie mountain.  Isn't that cute?

 Those mountains actually represents 3 different base brownie recipes finished up in 5 different ways!  

What?  You say I went a little brownie crazy?  

No such thing.  

Our first recipe is this one from my mother – although I don’t have any memories of ever making this recipe.

The instructions are on the back - but she doesn't tell us when to add the corn syrup so I just lived on the edge and added it with the powdered milk, cause I'm crazy like that.

This recipe is rather unique, and if you like a mildly flavored cake-like brownie, you might want to try it.  If you are a fudgy brownie person, no need to bother no matter how much you may have loved my mother.  Mother liked her chocolate on the mild side and her brownies on the cake-like side, so this was just about a perfect recipe for her.  You can even tell from the batter that these are mild and cake-like.


I actually rather failed on baking these, because I forgot to set the timer plus I had doubled the recipe, so I was really guessing on the how-much-longer-do-I-bake-these question…and I did get a bit overdone on the edges as you can see.
Sigh.  Oh well, we’ll just cut off those edges and still redeem the middle!  (G gave the overdone edges about a 6, so they weren’t altogether inedible, but a fail nonetheless.)

So what to do with the middle?  How about this?
That there is a browned butter icing (my first attempt at such a thing) with an almond chocolate crunch on top.  I used this recipe from KAF for the icing and the crunch, and you know what?  These turned out pretty good!  One taster said that he could simply eat that crunch from a bowl with a spoon.  And others said that the crunchy stuff with the icing was sort of like a heath bar – pretty much my mother’s favorite candy bar, so I am pretty sure that she would have liked these!  Happy Mt. Vesuvius Day, Mother!

I will share the pics of making the icing and the crunch farther down, but let's talk about the other 2 brownie base recipes.

This one uses a melted chocolate bar – pretty standard and a solid contender, no doubt.  G asked for some Mississippi Mud Brownies when I asked him for his most favorite brownie of all time, so I had to include a MMB in the mix!  
Just look at that luscious mixture of marshmallows and pecans and chocolate glaze over a fudgy brownie!  

And then we have this recipe humbly referred to as The Best Brownies of Your Life.  No oversell there, right?  I did white chocolate, dark chocolate and caramel chips on one side and chopped toasted pecans on the other half.
And then I went even crazier after they were baked by added icing in the middle half, leaving the outsides on each end naked cause one of my tasters says that he likes his brownies plain, that he is a bit of a purest like that.

That icing pattern is sort of my stand by for brownies - regular buttercream icing and then drizzle chocolate sauce and/or caramel sauce in lines across.  I finish it with a quick drag in both directions with a spatula to give it that flow look.  Super easy for a quick fancy!

What is unique about this recipe is that it uses cocoa powder instead of melted chocolate.  And the method takes a bit longer.  I got a pot of water simmering...
...while I combined the butter, cocoa powder, sugar and salt in a metal bowl.
Then I set that bowl over the water and mixed until the butter melted.
It probably took me a good 7 - 10 minutes for the butter to melt, but I was so busy trying not to overcook the first batch of brownies (my mother's recipe) that I really don't know how long it took.  Once that was done, the rest of the steps came together quickly.  

The jury may still be out, but I think I liked these the best.  Are they the best brownies of my life?  Not sure about that, but I definitely want to play with this recipe a bit more.

I had fun with these brownies, but I still haven't satisfied my brownie spot yet.  I may need to make a few more before Sunday!  Especially if I stop and drool over this pic....anybody else with me here?

So now for that browned butter icing.  I was afraid that I would burn the butter so I probably didn't brown it as much as I could, but I simply melted the butter...
...and then stirred it until the milk solids started to turn brown and the butter was golden or nuttier if that makes any sense.
Then I added the brown sugar and boiled it for 2 minutes.
Here is how it looked when I removed it from the heat and was ready to let it cool a bit before mixing in the powdered sugar.  
I forgot to take a pic of the finished icing, but will this do instead?
And finally for that almond chocolate crunch.  This couldn't be easier.  Slivered almonds added to melted chocolate chips...
Stir until the almonds are well coated.
And then spread on a parchment lined cookie sheet.
Now for the feast de resistance!  Sprinkle this with a bit of Demerara sugar and just a touch of sea salt.  The recipe says to use Maldon Smoked Sea Salt, but I just used regular everyday sea salt.
I let that harden (slipped in the freezer to speed up the process!) and then pulverized it in the food processor.  Simple!

Happy Mt. Vesuvius Day!  I hope this Sunday's celebration is your best Mt. Vesuvius Day celebration EVER!!

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