Monday, August 31, 2009

Brownies for Ordinary Time

Inexplicably, my original post here disappeared. Well. Here it is again, and a pox on the forces that conspired against it!

The absolute best brownies on earth are made using a recipe by Nick Malgieri called Supernatural Brownies. The recipe appeared in the New York Times in 2007. These brownies are really, really good. And rich. As good as they are, sometimes a simple brownie is what you what. For those ordinary times, try the following:

Brownies for Ordinary Time

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

3/4 cup all purpose flour
1/3 cup cocoa powder
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp. salt
2 ounces bittersweet chocolate (the best you can afford)
2 Tbs. butter
1/2 cup white sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 tsp. espresso powder
2 Tbs. low fat sour cream
1 large egg
1 egg white
1-1/2 tsp vanilla extract

Line a 12-inch square pan with a length of aluminum foil, one length running horizontally, one vertically. Push the foil into the corners of the pan and allow a "handle" of foil to extend over the sides of the pan.

Combine the dry ingredients: flour, cocoa powder, baking powder and salt. Melt the chocolate and butter together in a medium bowl in the microwave. Let cool. Into this chocolate and butter add the brown sugar, white sugar, and espresso powder. Stir until well combined. Add the egg, egg white, sour cream and vanilla. Stir the dry ingredients into the chocolate mixture.

Spread the mixture into the prepared baking pan. Bake for 22 minutes and check. In my oven this recipe needs to bake 30 minutes.

Cool brownies in the pan.

Frosting

This is for a 13 x 9 pan of brownies; numbers in parenthesis are for half of the recipe.
1/4 cup butter (2 Tbs)
1 1/2 cup powdered sugar (3/4 cup)
1/4 cup cocoa (2 Tbs)
2-3 Tbs. milk (1-2)
1/2 tsp. vanilla (1/4 tsp.)

3 comments:

  1. Do they do well when mailed???

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  2. Gosh, one small pan of brownies just doesn't last long enough to get wrapped up and mailed, so, sadly, we'll never know ;-)

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