brownies – Peaceful Reader

Weekend Cooking; What's good and right.

The family gathered.

Last week while the book fair was taking up all my waking hours I got a phone call from Teenage Boy, which is big in the first place as he texts but doesn’t “talk”. The reason for his anxious phone call was about dinner; specifically where everyone was for dinner? His voice belied that he was a teenager at all but more like the middle school boy I think of fondly. He was concerned that he was at home by himself and it was dinner time. At first I was less than amused because I thought he was asking why I wasn’t home to make his dinner. I kindly reminded him that he could easily make himself dinner, was quite capable of making a good meal for himself and tried not to sound annoyed. To that his response was “No, I can make my own dinner, it’s just that I didn’t know where everyone was and we usually eat dinner together.” Oh, yea, right.

We do usually eat dinner together. It does feel odd when one or more of us is missing from our vintage (old) linoleum table. And even though I think he’s listening as my husband and I make plans for the week he’s not always tuned in to the hum drum of what will transpire this week, like I’m won’t be home until after 8 on Tuesday and Thursday and my husband says I won’t be home Thursday night either and I’ll bring Groovy Girl to you at school. How he misses all that at said table I don’t know but we are making a new resolution to alert him to scheduling issues that will affect him.

The greater idea though was that he missed all of us being here at the same time, sharing a meal together. It is a tradition he’s had for the part of his life he remembers and I appreciate that this is important family time to him. He often is the one to start the “So what was the best part of your day?” even though when it comes back around to him he shrugs his teenage shoulders leaving that as his answer.

I made him happy this week by leaving 1/4 of a pan of these brownies at home when I made them for my 5th grade book club. Book club boys fought over the chocolate ones-I’d interspersed blondies I’d made for a funeral at church and Teenage Boy was thrilled to hear me say they were so easy I’d make more this weekend. He and his sister polished off the leftover goodies after school, leaving none for their dad much to his dismay. I guess I need to make sure big Daddy gets his fair share from this next batch.

I’m off to scrub potatoes for tonight’s dinner and once I have those boiling I will whip these up for late night happiness. What is your dinner hour like? Are you able to eat together or is it in shifts?

From The Mom 100 Cookbook by Katie Workman
(328-329)

Fudgy One-Pot Brownies

Makes 12 huge or 24 reasonably-sized brownies

1 cup (2 sticks, unsalted) butter, plus butter for greasing the baking pan
3 ounces unsweetened chocolate
1/2 cup unsweetened Dutch-processed cocoa powder
2 1/2 cups granulated sugar ( I used turbinado since the color wouldn’t matter)
1/2 tsp coarse salt
1 T pure vanilla extract
3 large eggs
1 1/2 cups all-purpose (unbleached) flour

1. Preheat the oven to 350*F. Butter a 13 X 9 baking pan.
2. Place butter sticks and chocolate squares in a medium-sized saucepan over low heat and let melt, stirring until smooth. Remove the saucepan from the heat and stir in the cocoa powder, sugar, and salt, then blend in the vanilla. Beat in the eggs one at a time, stirring to mix quickly so they don’t have a chance to cook at all. Blend in the flour.

3. Scrape the thick batter into the prepared baking pan and smooth the top with a spatula. Bake until the edges just begin to pull away from the sides of the pan and a wooden toothpick comes out clean, about 25-30 minutes.

4. Let cool in the pan on a wire rack. When completely cool, cut them into 12 or 24 squares.

(It should say hold the family back while they cool-they made the house smell delicious and people were hanging close to the kitchen.) Enjoy…

This post is linked to Beth Fish Reads Weekend Cooking post. Click to her link to find many other eclectic food-related posts.

Weekend Cooking; S'More Brownies

I made these brownies last weekend under the ruse that they were for Teenage Boy. If he remains relatively respectful all week I make him a sweet treat. It is tough to keep any teenager happy and this seems to work for him. He loves to eat, needs to gain weight, and we get to see him smile. It’s not like he gets to eat the whole pan by himself; I ate ~~one or two~~ (three or four) myself and they were out-of-this-world delicious. I’m thinking about making them again real soon. I miss them.

This was a spur-of-the-moment recipe and some substituting occurred. Graham crackers aren’t a regular feature in my pantry except during the summer and early Fall s’more high season. Club crackers on the other hand are a staple plus I like that salty/sweet sensation.

Brownie S’Mores Bars (makes 36 treats)
adapted from So Sweet! (Sur La Table p. 30-31)

Ingredients:
Crust
1 1/2 cups fine graham cracker crumbs (Club Crackers)
1 T. sugar
6 T. (3/4 stick) unsalted butter

Brownie Filling
6 ozs. semi-sweet chocolate
1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, cut into pieces
3/4 cup sugar
2 large farm fresh eggs, at room temperature
2 tsp pure vanilla extract
1/2 cup unbleached all-purpose flour
1/8 tsp salt
1/2 cup milk chocolate chips (I used semi-sweet)
1 1/2 cups mini marshmallows (I used regular-sized and groovy girl cut them into fourths)

1. Position an oven rack in the center of the oven, and preheat the oven to 350*F. Turn a 9-inch square baking pan upside down and mold a piece of aluminum foil to the outside. You should have about an inch of aluminum foil overhang. Slide the foil off the pan bottom, and turn the pan over. Slip the foil inside the pan. Fold down any foil that extends past the top edges over the outside. Lightly butter the foil or use spray.
2. Place the crackers crumbs, and sugar in a medium bowl. Pour the melted butter over the cracker crumbs and stir with a silicone spatula until the mixture is evenly moistened. Smash any lumps (groovy girl’s job)
3.Scrape the mixture into the prepared pan and use your clean fingers to press it into an even layer over the bottom of the pan.
4. Bake for 10 minutes. Using oven mitts, transfer the pan to a cooling rack and let cool for 15 minutes. Leave the oven on.
5. Put the chocolate on a cutting board. Using a serrated knife, chop the chocolate into small pieces. Put the butter in a medium saucepan, place over low heat, and heat until it melts. turn off the heat, and move the pan to a heatproof surface. Add the chocolate to the pan, let it sit for 2 minutes, then whisk until blended. The chocolate should be very smooth. If it is still lumpy, let it sit for another minute or two, then whisk again. Scrape the chocolate mixture into a large bowl.
6. Whisk the sugar into the chocolate mixture until fully blended. Whisk in the eggs, one at a time, blending well after each egg is added. Whisk in the vanilla. Finally, whisk in the flour and salt. Whisk slowly at first, then fast until batter is smooth and shiny. It will be thick. Stir in the chocolate chips.
7. Using a spatula, scrape the batter into the crust and smooth the top. Bake for 25 minutes. Using oven mitts, remove the pan from the oven, set it on a heat proof surface. Carefully sprinkle the mini marshmallows evenly over the top. Gently press on the marshmallows so they mush into the brownies a bit.
8. Return the pan to the oven and continue to bake for another 15 minutes, or until the brownie mixture feels firm when lightly pressed, or do the clean toothpick trick. Transfer to the cooling rack and let cool completely.
9. To remove brownies from the pan, lift the foil out from opposite corners. Set brownies on cutting board and peel back the foil.
10. Spray a chef’s knife and cut into 6 equal strips. Then repeat across the other way to make even bars. Store in an airtight container or resealable zip-lock for up to 5 days.

Taste test: We waited for them to cool (almost) and sliced them with no problems. They were delicious and my husband (the only one in the house lacking a sweet tooth) went back for seconds. I would make them again using Club Crackers-I thought it added a different twist and graham crackers might make it over sweet for us. I hardly ever use milk chocolate chips preferring dark or semi-sweet. My environmentally-friendly self would use parchment paper in the pan instead of foil next time I make them. I think it would work just the same since I am not a fan of cooking with or in tinfoil.

I like it when I can create something this yummy with supplies I already have on hand. Too often recipes call for two to ten odd ingredients that I have to shop for which is fine sometimes but it is always nice to whip something up without that added shopping trip. As I grow as a “chef” I’ve learned what will make good substitutions, even in baking.

This post is linked to Beth Fish Reads Weekend Cooking meme. Click the link to see other food-related posts. I posted about So Sweet!
for another Weekend Cooking post about whoopie pies.

Weekend Cooking; Gluten-Free Girl and the Chef and other menu ideas

I browsed the new nonfiction shelves of my local library and came up with two cookbooks and two parenting books in under two minutes. I had to quickly walk away after that because I go on these binges and bring armloads of nonfiction home only to let it sit and sit and sit until I return it two days late.

This time one recipe stuck out like a yummy thumb just waiting to be cooked. I had a beautiful small pie pumpkin from the last farmer’s market and I didn’t know what to do with it; no one here really likes pumpkin pie. So I thought what the hey, I’m sure they’ll love pumpkin soup. Ha.

I’ve enjoyed reading Gluten-Free Girl’s blog a few times on my recent quest to explore and understand celiac disease so her name popped out at me as my neck twisted sideways at the new cookbook spines. I would own this book if I were to indeed become gluten-free just for the stories splattered among the recipes. I’ve enjoyed understanding more about Shauna’s journey and their sweet love story.
How can you resist headings like; Grocery Shopping as Foreplay and Honey, remember to eat.

Many of the recipes are too complicated for me or include ingredients unavailable to me in my sleepy small town but there is much more to this cookbook than just recipes. In a small section at the front Daniel explains the importance of “mise en place”-a perfect three paragraph summary of my cooking life. He describes Shauna in the beginning like this “she’d put a hot pan on the burner and then start chopping her onions with the oil getting hot in the pan. She’d run from the stove to the refrigerator while a dish was simmering, always a bit frantic.” (14) That’s me-most of the time. I do not set up ingredients first. I want to be that organized and now I can name it; mise en place. Daniel gently reminds the reader that is why the ingredients list tells us what to do; chop, dice, cups, tsps so it can be there ready! I feel enlightened.

If you are gluten-free this book would make a great holiday gift to yourself!

I made pumpkin muffins last night while I put the finishing touches on the soup and on Wednesday afternoon I had a brownie craving and made a pan of them just like my mother used to. I thought her recipe was magic when I was growing up. She admitted to me just a few years ago that she peeled that recipe from the back of the Hershey chocolate can. How deflating. I’ve cleaned it up a bit and made it my own.

Click for recipes:

Pumpkin Soup
Chocolate Chip Pumpkin Muffins
Judy’s Chocolate Brownies
Butternut Couscous (tonight’s menu with salmon from the co-op)

p.s. my kids disliked the soup but loved the muffins even though I told them (after the fact) that the muffins also had pumpkin in them. They didn’t care. It’s all about the dark chocolate! My husband, with a more discernible palate, had several bowls of soup and then, three muffins.

I discovered a new foodie blog this week while searching for the above butternut and Israeli couscous recipe. Meet Peter and Keith at Feast. I scrolled through a few recipes and they all look wonderful. I hope they keep going.

This post is linked to Weekend Cooking. Click over to Beth Fish Reads for more food-related posts. Happy eating!

Rocky Road Brownies

I did make the brownies. They are delicious. I groaned three times while eating my one little square. I forget all the time to photograph my cooking but this time I snapped two pictures as we were dishing them up. Here for your viewing delight…

They are yummy dense squares of chocolate delight. I will make them again. My kids ate them even though they had pecans on them. My daughter and I shared a second one quietly in the kitchen. It’s been a good day and now I’m going to bed, to read. See last post for recipe.