Tuesday, July 13, 2010

Twosdays With Dorie: Brrrr-ownies and Tarte Noire


This week’s Tuesdays With Dorie selection is Brrrr-ownies: incredibly rich chocolate brownies with a refreshing mint flavor due to a healthy handful of peppermint patties. What a great dessert for warm weather (though I guess turning on the oven sort of cancels out the “coolness” of a mint treat and it’s really not very hot where I live right now). Every now and then, we are required to purchase fun ingredients like York Peppermint Patties for Tuesdays With Dorie baking and I will not lie: not all the peppermint patties made it into the brownies, I just couldn’t resist sampling one or two. This was a quick, easy brownie recipe and would be excellent with or without the candy tossed in. I was slightly horrified to see the candy filling had oozed to the top of the brownies, but apparently I was not alone with that problem. I didn’t get around to photographing the brownies until several days after I made them, so they look a little tired (Josh, not unkindly, told me they weren’t terribly attractive to begin with).





These were good brownies, but all things being equal, I think I’d rather consume my brownies and peppermint patties separately. This recipe rated a 7 for Deliciousness and a 2.5 for Effort, for an EDR of 2.8. Many thanks to Karen of Welcome to Our Crazy Blessed Life for a fun selection. You can find the recipe here on Karen’s site and visit the TWD site to see how these turned out for the rest of the bakers.



I am also rewinding all the way to last week’s selection, Tarte Noire. I was in Portland, Oregon running my first full marathon* over the Fourth of July weekend, so I fell a bit behind on my baking and blogging, but I couldn’t pass up this delectable tart when I returned. One of our favorite TWD recipes to date has been the Chocolate-Crunched Caramel Tart and this was essentially the same recipe, sans caramel and peanuts. That recipe rated a 10 and without the caramel and peanuts, this one rated an 8. The buttery shortbread crust and rich chocolate ganache are a winning combination by themselves. In small quantities, of course: it’s a very rich dessert. Many thanks to Dharmagirl of bliss: towards a delicious life for an excellent selection; the recipe can be found here.

*I’m happy to report that my marathon went very well and I am already planning on running a second one in December, which means I will resume training in about three weeks.

13 comments:

Cakelaw said...

Congratulations on your marathon effort! The brownies look pretty good to me. And the tart - perfection!

cocoa and coconut said...

tarts look delicious! look at that thick yummy chocolate

ps. good job doing a marathon!!

Kayte said...

Well, if running a marathon isn't worthy of praise, I don't know what is...congrats on that. Your brownies and tart are also praise worthy, they look wonderful. Guys here preferred Yorks and Brownies separate as well, but it was fun trying it.

Nichicakes said...

Both the tart & the brrrownies look delicious

Tia said...

They look so chocolatey, and fudgey and yummy! Great job!

the tart also looks wonderful.

Tia @ Buttercreambarbie

spike. said...

Nice work on the marathon! I'm training for one at the end of october (cancels out all the baked goods I consume). I agree, I prefer brownies and p.patties separated

JoAnn Freda said...

I'm going to try these for sure. I love York peppermint patties more than I like brownies so this would be an upgrade on brownies for me. In case I haven't mentioned it like 3 or 4 times I want to say how proud I am of you for running your marathon.

Pamela said...

Oh, man! I skipped last weeks tarte, but yours look sinfully good! Congrats on the marathon. That is fabulous!

TeaLady said...

These were not easy brownies to photograph. Dark isn't pretty.

Tart Noire looks wonderful

Anonymous said...

Oh I was going to say something about your brownies but then I saw the tarte noire just staring at me... and i completely lost ALL train of thought!

psssst... that's a fantastic thing!!!

Mimi said...

Congratulations on your marathon an impressive achievement! Both your tart and the brownies look perfect.
Mimi

Leslie said...

Way to go, Margot! I think you earned a Peppermint Patty (or two)!

The brownies did ooze a lot, but were tasty. I added chopped up Skor bars the second time I made them and we liked them much better. And I completely agree with you on the chocolate crunched caramel tart and the tarte noire.

Anonymous said...

Both look great - I think the brownies look neat with the white parts.

Great going with the marathon!!