Over the past few years, I have amassed quite a collection of recipes from various blogs and cooking websites. Until recently, these recipes were in a big messy pile, with no semblance of organization. I finally sat down and organized them into three categories and put them in folders, which Josh labeled A, B, and C. Folder A contains recipes that I have made many times (or if they are recent additions, ones I want to make again ASAP) and we really like; Folder B contains recipes that I’ve made and would possibly try again; and Folder C is full of recipes I still need to try. As soon as Josh sampled this week’s Tuesdays With Dorie treat, Classic Brownies, he told me to “put it in the A Group.”
These brownies have a deep chocolate flavor and are nice and fudgy, without being gooey. I also loved that they were a truly one-bowl recipe - awesome! The recipe says that they are best eaten within the two days, and that has not been a problem. I made them on Sunday and they are almost gone. These brownies rated an 8 for Deliciousness and I gave them a 2 for Effort, for an EDR of 4. Many thanks to Anne of Anne Strawberry for selecting this yummy recipe. You can find the recipe here on her site and visit the TWD site to see how they turned out for the other bakers.
Whenever I flipped past this week’s Tuesdays With Dorie recipe, Honey Nut Brownies, in Baking, I’d think of breakfast cereal – but I was always intrigued. It’s certainly not a flavor combination I would think of. Since we were a little uncertain about these, I made a half recipe, which seemed like a lot of brownie batter and these did bake up very thick. As far as brownies, go these definitely are on the cakey side, though I felt like they did have a bit of chew to them. I think a chocolate glaze would be stupendous on these and really bring the flavors together. You know, they just could have used a little something extra. However, they are being consumed just fine.
We rated this recipe a 7 for Deliciousness and I gave it a 2.5 for Effort, for an EDR of 2.8. Thanks to Suzy of Suzy Homemaker for giving us an opportunity to try this unique combination. You can find the recipe here on Suzy’s site and visit the TWD site to see what the rest of the group thought of this treat.
This week’s Sweet Melissa Sundays selection is Chocolate Walnut Brownies. Funny, I didn’t even think about the fact that we were making brownies for both SMS and TWD until I started making these yesterday. There have been a few other times when the two groups’ selections collided and making both seemed a bit problematic, but with something as simple and guaranteed to be eaten such as brownies, I didn’t consider skipping either recipe. The proportions of ingredients in this recipe seemed a little different than other brownies recipes (low on chocolate and high on both flour and butter). I was tempted to reduce both the flour and the butter, but decided I’d try the recipe pretty much as written. I did add two ounces of 71% chocolate in addition to the four ounces of unsweetened in order to ensure a chocolaty brownie. I’m not a crazy chocoholic who adds extra to everything; four ounces just didn’t seem like quite enough. I mean, when you bite into a brownie, you want to taste the richness from the chocolate, not the butter. The walnuts were listed as an optional ingredient and I opted not to use them (as Josh put it when he tried them, “why would you interrupt the deliciousness of chocolate with nuts?”). 
The recipe said to bake the brownies for 45-50 minutes, and in my experience, my oven usually bakes things a lot quicker than the times specified in The Sweet Melissa Baking Book, so I started checking at 30 minutes and pulled them out of the oven at 35 minutes. I thought they turned out excellent: fudgy and rich, and I loved the sturdy structure and texture of the brownies. I passed some on to Josh’s parents and they liked them a lot, and we’ve been enjoying them here, too. I made David Lebovitz’s vanilla ice cream to pair with the brownies, because seriously, what is better than homemade brownies and ice cream? I guess in Josh’s case, brownies, ice cream, and a vanilla cupcake.
Josh gave this recipe a 9 for Deliciousness and I gave it a 2 for Effort, for a very good EDR of 4.5. I guess I know which of the two brownie recipes I tried this week may see a repeat performance in this kitchen. Many thanks to Tiffany of A Spoonful of Laughter and a Heap of Fun for a yummy selection. You can find the recipe here on Tiffany’s site and visit the SMS site to see what the other bakers thought of this treat.
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.
This week’s Tuesdays With Dorie selection is the much-anticipated White Chocolate Brownies. (I say that they’re much-anticipated because for months there has been a campaign to have them selected.) When I told Josh what the selection was, he said, “wouldn’t they be blondies?” Hmm, good question. I’d never seen a white chocolate brownie, either. Then he tried them and said they tasted more like cupcakes than brownies. 
There was much chatter on the Problems and Questions section this week about it being impossible to tell when the brownies were done underneath the layer of meringue, and also that they were difficult to get out of the pan. The latter problem was solved with a parchment paper sling and I lucked out with the baking time. I left them in about ten minutes longer than the recipe called for (even though I only made a half recipe) and they turned out well. The one problem I had was the meringue distribution. I plopped some on the brownies, then had trouble spreading it without mangling the entire concoction, so I whipped up more meringue in order to evenly coat the entire pan. Since I make a lot of ice cream, I almost always have extra egg whites on hand and I was happy to use up some more of my surplus.
So did we like them? Eh, they're good but I can definitely resist them and Josh even warned me they might not get finished, which NEVER happens with regular brownies in this house. I liked the addition of citrus (in the form of orange zest) with the sweet white chocolate, but didn’t think the meringue was a particularly special addition and I missed the chewy texture of a traditional brownie. We rated the brownies a 6.5 for Deliciousness and I gave them a 3.5 for Effort, for an EDR of 1.85. Many thanks to Marthe of Culinary Delights for ending the White Chocolate Brownie anticipation. You can find the recipe here on Marthe’s lovely blog and visit the TWD site to see what the other bakers thought of this recipe.
Since I’ve been a member of Tuesdays With Dorie, a handful of brownie recipes have been selected and I haven’t loved any of them. I mean, they’ve been okay, but nothing I would make a second time. Except maybe the Chipster-Topped Brownies, those were yummy. There are a lot of brownie recipes in Baking, though, and I figured that eventually one would be a hit for us and the one selected this week, Rick Katz’s Brownies for Julia, was. The brownies turned out soft and chewy and perfectly chocolaty. There were a lot of reports on the Problems & Questions section that they were extremely gooey in the center and difficult to cut, but I baked a quarter of a recipe in a 5-inch pan, so there was no real “center.” I also put them in the refrigerator to set, so that may have helped too. I decided brownies this wonderful deserved an equally excellent accompaniment, so I made David Lebovitz’s vanilla ice cream to go with them. (And you can see Josh added some Red Velvet Cake to the mix, too.)
For some reason, I had to read the recipe a couple times to understand how the sugar and eggs were divided and mixed, since part of the mixture is beaten separately, but other than that it was a pretty simple recipe. These brownies rated an 8.5 for Deliciousness and a 2.5 for Effort, giving them an EDR of 3.4. Many thanks to Tanya of Chocolatechic for selecting this great recipe. You can find the recipe here on Tanya’s site and visit the TWD blogroll to see what the other bakers thought.
I completed every recipe selected by the Sweet Melissa group in 2009. After the group’s holiday break I was excited to start up again at the beginning of the year, but then the second week of January I did not make a pie with the chocolate pie crust chosen that week. I got as far as the dough, and then just didn’t really feel like making a pie, so I didn’t (I still have pie dough in my freezer, which means I really should either make a pie very soon or cut my losses on the dough). Josh wisely reminded me that I do not need to pressure myself to make the recipes for both my baking groups every single week and I should skip a week here and there if it’s not something I want to make. 
The Black Bottom Brownies chosen for Sweet Melissa Sundays this week would definitely be a recipe I’d deem skip-able, as it has been well-documented on this blog that, though I don’t mind making them, there is not a huge demand for cheesecake around here, and we received some very yummy brownies in the mail from this round of Secret Baker. I happened to have exactly two ounces of cream cheese in my refrigerator, though, which would probably otherwise go to waste and is enough for one-eighth of the Black Bottom Brownie recipe, so I forged ahead.
The one-eighth of a recipe (which is not as ridiculously small as it sounds – I have made many quarter recipes in the same five-inch pan) yielded four good-sized brownies and took about forty-five minutes to bake. The cheesecake layer was disproportionately smaller than brownie layer, which was the desirable outcome in this household. I had a couple bites and didn’t taste much cheesecake, just lots of chocolate and sugar! Josh enjoyed one while he was watching football this afternoon and is wondering how they’ll be with ice cream later tonight. He rated these brownies an 8 for Deliciousness and I gave them a 2.5 for Effort, giving them an EDR of 3.2. Many thanks to Cynthia of the Baking Therapist for hosting this week and getting me to use an ingredient that otherwise would have been thrown away. The recipe can be found here on Cynthia’s site and be sure to stop by the SMS blogroll to see more brownies.
This week’s Tuesdays With Dorie treat was Espresso Cheesecake Brownies. I know the union of brownies and cheesecake is probably dessert bliss for a lot of people, but I’m not a huge fan of cheesecake. In fact, I have only skipped two weeks since joining Tuesdays With Dorie last November and one of those was the Tall and Creamy Cheesecake, though, since most other people like cheesecake, I have since gone back and made it (Floating Islands, I promise to get to you someday). Anyway, I went into this one anticipating not liking it very much. I thought about filling a graham cracker crust with brownie batter and calling it a brownie cheesecake, but ultimately decided to make a quarter of the original recipe, sans the sour cream topping, as I planned on freezing three out of the four brownies – too many treats around.
As I was putting the brownies together, the smell of the cheesecake layer reminded me a lot of tiramisu, which I enjoy quite a bit, so I was feeling a bit more optimistic about the outcome. Over the past few months I have gotten pretty good at scaling down recipes and need a cheat sheet much less often than I used to. However, I don’t always get the baking time quite right and I think the brownie layer turned out a little overdone. Normally dry brownies would make me cranky, but the cheesecake layer was moist enough, so it balanced out. My boyfriend and I sampled a brownie last night and concurred that they deserve a 7 for Deliciousness (better than expected) and I gave them a 2.5 for Effort, giving them an EDR of 2.8. I’m sure Mr. Penpen will enjoy the frozen brownies on some rare occasion when we don’t have fresh baked goods in the house and I don’t feel like making any. Many thanks to Melissa of Life in a Peanut Shell for selecting this recipe (we're going to be don with the brownie section before you know it). You can find the recipe HERE on Melissa’s site and visit the TWD site to see what the other bakers thought of these brownies.
This week’s Tuesdays With Dorie treat was Tribute to Katherine Hepburn Brownies. I have to confess, I felt a little sorry for them. You see, there are some weeks when I would have been really excited about brownies (especially almost flourless ones) and these were yummy brownies, but they came in the wake of a lot of other chocolate concoctions, so I didn’t muster up my usual brownie enthusiasm. The flavors of cinnamon, chocolate, and espresso in these brownies reminded me a lot of the Cinnamon Squares TWD made at the beginning of June. I said it then and I’ll say it again – it’s a terrific combination! And due to the low flour content, these are infallible brownies: you can give them a short amount of baking time for a gooey brownie or leave them in a little too long like I did and still have a chewy brownie.
This recipe gets a 7 for Deliciousness and a 2 for Effort, giving them an EDR of 3.5. Many thanks to Lisa of Surviving Oz for selecting these and designing TWD’s awesome new logo (which I need to figure out how to put on my sidebar)! You can find the recipe on Lisa’s site and see what the other bakers thought via the TWD site. I’m leaving for vacation on Thursday, so I will be attempting to bake next week’s treat in a strange kitchen. Luckily I have a couple rewinds on reserve if it doesn’t work out.
This week’s Tuesdays with Dorie recipe was Chipster-Topped Brownies. I think this recipe ties with the Sweet Melissa Sundays brown-out cake, which was a chocolate cake covered with brownie crumble, for most ridiculously decadent combination dessert. If you haven’t depleted your chocolate and butter supply and are in the mood for another fudgy treat, the recipe can be found here on Elyse's Confectionery Creations. Chipster-Topped Brownies are type of concoction that I would normally make a quarter or a third of a recipe just to try it out, but Mr. Penpen was going to see his friends on Saturday night and I figured these would be a terrific follow-up to the cheese steaks they were having for dinner.
After reading the Problems and Questions section on the TWD site, I was a little nervous about how these would turn out; there seemed to be some problems with the cookie dough sinking and/or baking quicker than the brownie layer. The top looked done after about forty-five minutes, but the brownies weren’t even close; I put foil over the pan and baked it for another fifteen minutes. The brownies ended up pretty moist, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing, and I liked the crispy cookie layer. If I ever had the occasion to make these again, I would probably bake the brownies before adding the cookie layer for a more even consistency. These brownies reminded me of the Ben & Jerry’s Ice Cream flavor Half Baked, so I decided I should make ice cream to accompany them. I thought about making vanilla ice cream and mixing in bits of the brownies, but in the “playing around” section of the recipe, Dorie mentions adding peanut butter chips to the cookie layer, so I made Peanut Butter Ice Cream from The Perfect Scoop.
This is the second week in a row that I have liked the TWD recipe more than I anticipated. Unlike Mr. Penpen, who thought I should add peanut butter cups to the ice cream, I am not normally one for over-the-top gooey desserts, but I thought these were delicious. However, they are a bit dangerous to have around, so I am happy I sent most of them out of the house! I gave this recipe an 8 for Deliciousness and a 3 for Effort, giving it an EDR of 2.66. Many thanks to Beth of Supplicious for choosing this fun treat. You can find the recipe on Beth’s site and see what the other bakers thought via the TWD blogroll.
Oh, so not exactly relevant to baking, but to this post: I lost all my process photos. I don’t always take process pictures, but I was baking on a relaxed Saturday afternoon, so I did. I recently acquired a DSLR camera, which I still haven’t mastered, but I have yet to purchase a decent-size memory card. I had a Canon Elph before the Rebel, and I could go for months before filling up my two one-gigabyte cards. However, this new camera eats up memory almost as fast as my dog devours her dinner, so I’m constantly erasing photos and reformatting the cards. Anyway, today I hit reformat, forgetting that I hadn’t transferred my pictures from Saturday to my computer. My devoted boyfriend diligently researched ways to recover the photos and found a couple programs that will do the job. Naturally, the free software he found didn’t work and we’re not about to spend $40 to recover pictures of brownies and our dog: I had a few treats left for the plate shot and Eloise is still cute. 
The recipe selected for the second week of Sweet Melissa Sundays was Brooklyn Brownout Cake, which is a chocolate cake with chocolate ganache frosting and a brownie crumble. Well, today is a holiday; and if you can’t indulge on holidays, when can you? (Our Easter dessert is actually a pound cake, though.) Mr. Penpen finished the Banana Cream Pie from last week’s TWD on Monday, so I decided that in order to keep him in desserts for a few days, I would bake the brownies Tuesday and then make the cake over the weekend. I made the brownies from Baked – totally the best brownies ever – figuring I’d save the Sweet Melissa brownies for when they are selected. I will get on with the cake in a moment, but the Baked brownies were such a hit that Mr. Penpen had to tell me to set aside the amount I needed for the cake so he wouldn’t gobble them all up before the weekend. BTW, half did go to work – even Mr. Penpen can’t finish an entire 9x13 pan of brownies in four days.
I made a third of a recipe of the cake in two four-inch springform pans. They baked up into nice chunky layers, and I thought the cake was very tasty: dense, sweet, and fudgy, plus a nice hint of coffee, which I always love. I usually like cookbooks that have photos so you can see what the finished product looks like, but since I’m baking the recipes from The Sweet Melissa Baking Book with a group, I think it’s kind of fun to not know ahead of time and then see how the desserts look when everyone posts them on Sundays. That being said, I think I may have been a bit too aggressive when combining the brownie chunks with the ganache (I used a fork rather than my fingers), so I’m not sure if my brownie crumble turned out right. I managed to coax it onto the sides of the cake just fine, though, and it was yummy! Mr. Penpen thought the finished product looked like an alien chocolate concoction.
This recipe gets a 9 for Deliciousness and a 3 for Effort, giving it an EDR of 3. Many thanks to Elyse of Confectionary Creations for choosing this amazingly decadent cake and providing me with the opportunity to bake two awesome treats this week . If you would like the recipe for Brooklyn Brownout Cake, head on over to Elyse’s site. Also, be sure to check out the Sweet Melissa Sundays site to see what the other bakers thought of it, and perhaps even join us!
