![The Makings of a Perfect Brownie:
1) A perfect brownie should be crunchy on top that the surface cracks the minute you sink your teeth into it.
2) The texture should be chewy and moist and fudge-like that the act of chewing every morsel of it is equally pleasurable as that of having a foodgasm.
3) A perfect brownie should never contain any leavening agents such as bicarbonate of soda or baking powder (unless you want a cake-like brownie, then I believe one should just eat cake instead). Any brownie recipe that includes these sacrilegious additions is well, a sacrilege!
4) The proper mixing of all the brownie ingredients is also a factor. If you just mix all the ingredients together and dump everything into a baking pan, the brownie top won’t be as crunchy, unlike when you separate the egg whites from the yolks, beating the whites with sugar just until thick and frothy, much like a runny meringue before mixing with the rest of the ingredients is the secret to a crunchy top… I promise!
5) And lastly, of course a perfect brownie should taste like it is blessed by a Mayan god cacao connoisseur. It should be ooh-ing and screaming chocolate. So use the best quality chocolate bar or cocoa powder.
Crunchy Top Fudge Brownies
Ingredients:
1 cup unsalted butter
1 cup good quality cocoa powder (I use a German brand cocoa powder -Heintz, you can use a Dutch-processed cocoa powder… means it is alkalized)
1 1/2 cups brown sugar
2 cups granulated sugar
4 eggs (medium), separated
1 teaspoon salt
2 cups all purpose flour, sifted
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 cups dark chocolate chips
*2 cups whole walnuts (optional)
Procedure:
Preheat oven to 350’F. Line a 9”x13” rectangle baking pan with baking parchment.
- Melt butter in a medium sauce pan over low heat. When melted, remove from heat and add cocoa powder, mix until smooth.
- Add brown sugar, salt, vanilla, egg yolks and flour. Set Aside.
- Using a hand mixer/wire whisk/stand mixer, beat egg whites until frothy. Then slowly add the granulated sugar until meringue gets into a soft peak stage.
- Fold the meringue mixture into the chocolate mixture. Then mix in the dark chocolate chips and walnuts (optional).
- Pour into prepared baking pan and bake for 50 minutes to an hour or until when toothpick inserted in the center of the brownie comes out with moist crumbs (not wet brownie batter).
- Cool in pan for 15 minutes, then lift from the baking pan and cut into 24 square pieces. Cool cut brownies on wire racks.
- Store in an air tight container. Laid flat and layers separated by parchment paper.
Makes 2 dozens
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The Makings of a Perfect Brownie:
1) A perfect brownie should be crunchy on top that the surface cracks the minute you sink your teeth into it.
2) The texture should be chewy and moist and fudge-like that the act of chewing every morsel of it is equally pleasurable as that of having a foodgasm.
3) A perfect brownie should never contain any leavening agents such as bicarbonate of soda or baking powder (unless you want a cake-like brownie, then I believe one should just eat cake instead). Any brownie recipe that includes these sacrilegious additions is well, a sacrilege!
4) The proper mixing of all the brownie ingredients is also a factor. If you just mix all the ingredients together and dump everything into a baking pan, the brownie top won’t be as crunchy, unlike when you separate the egg whites from the yolks, beating the whites with sugar just until thick and frothy, much like a runny meringue before mixing with the rest of the ingredients is the secret to a crunchy top… I promise!
5) And lastly, of course a perfect brownie should taste like it is blessed by a Mayan god cacao connoisseur. It should be ooh-ing and screaming chocolate. So use the best quality chocolate bar or cocoa powder.
Crunchy Top Fudge Brownies
Ingredients:
1 cup unsalted butter
1 cup good quality cocoa powder (I use a German brand cocoa powder -Heintz, you can use a Dutch-processed cocoa powder… means it is alkalized)
1 1/2 cups brown sugar
2 cups granulated sugar
4 eggs (medium), separated
1 teaspoon salt
2 cups all purpose flour, sifted
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 cups dark chocolate chips
*2 cups whole walnuts (optional)
Procedure:
Preheat oven to 350’F. Line a 9”x13” rectangle baking pan with baking parchment.
- Melt butter in a medium sauce pan over low heat. When melted, remove from heat and add cocoa powder, mix until smooth.
- Add brown sugar, salt, vanilla, egg yolks and flour. Set Aside.
- Using a hand mixer/wire whisk/stand mixer, beat egg whites until frothy. Then slowly add the granulated sugar until meringue gets into a soft peak stage.
- Fold the meringue mixture into the chocolate mixture. Then mix in the dark chocolate chips and walnuts (optional).
- Pour into prepared baking pan and bake for 50 minutes to an hour or until when toothpick inserted in the center of the brownie comes out with moist crumbs (not wet brownie batter).
- Cool in pan for 15 minutes, then lift from the baking pan and cut into 24 square pieces. Cool cut brownies on wire racks.
- Store in an air tight container. Laid flat and layers separated by parchment paper.
Makes 2 dozens
Source: goddessofscrumptiousness
Most people fill their Christmas Stockings with trinkets and candy and other stuff…
I, on the other hand do not have stockings but jars! Jars I overfill with FUDGEY AND CHEWY BROWNIES! ;-)
- jeannie :)
Source: goddessofscrumptiousness
SANTA’S PB AND CHOCOLATE TRAIL BARS
As naughty looking as these cookie bars look, these have all the great and wholesome ingredients that are really nice for you… except for the M&Ms… well, a little naughty is nice! ;) -jeannie <3
Ingredients:
4 cups trail mix (peanuts, almonds, cashews, raisins, M&Ms)
2 cups quick cooking oatmeal
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup cocoa powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 cups packed dark brown sugar
2/3 cup butter, softened
1/2 cup creamy peanut butter
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 cup confectioner’s sugar (for dusting the baked bars)
Procedure:
Preheat oven to 350’F. Line a 9”x13” inch rectangular pan with baking parchment.
1. Sift together, all-purpose flour, cocoa powder, bicarbonate of soda and salt. Set aside.
2. Combine the trail mix and oatmeal. Set aside.
3. Using a wire whisk, beat softened butter and peanut butter together. Then add packed brown sugar and vanilla (beat the butter and sugar until light and fluffy). Add eggs one at a time beating after each addition.
4. Using a spatula/rubber scraper, mix in the flour mixture. Once the flour mixture is well incorporated into the butter mixture, then add the combined trail mix and oatmeal. And thoroughly mix until cookie dough is well combined.
5. Press the cookie dough onto the prepared baking pan.
6. Bake for 40-45 mins. Cool in the pan for 10 minutes then lift and transfer to a wire rack to cool completely. Once cooled, cut into bars. Dust with confectioner’s sugar.
Makes 36 (2-inch) bars
Source: goddessofscrumptiousness
SANTA’S PB AND CHOCOLATE TRAIL BARS
I mean really, these peanut butter and chocolate chunky bars have everything you ever wished for to Santa in a wholesome yet decadent cookie bar; raisins, peanuts, cashews, almonds, oatmeal, peanut butter, chocolate and even a generous scattering of M&M’s! I believe everyone deserves to indulge in these… whether you were naughty or nice!
-jeannie ;) <3
Source: goddessofscrumptiousness
CHAMPORADO (Chocolate Rice Porridge)
I am posting this to share to everyone (not only to my Filipino followers who of course love Champorado) one of the mainstays of Filipino breakfast table. We usually have Champorado specially during weekend mornings where it can be enjoyed by the whole family.
Although I photographed this bowl of Champorado in sort of a “space age” kind of styling :D (I just wanted to have fun with the editing!) it is after all the 21st century! This chocolatey breakfast porridge is traditionally (though it seems odd) paired with salted dried fish (Tuyo). I believe it is because you have to have something salty to offset the sweetness of this porridge. I personally love the pairing, not only because I love to have balance on my palate but also because this breakfast always reminds me of when I was a kid and when I always used to have breakfast with my grandmother and back when my younger brother (who today celebrates his birthday) and I were just kids and how our world back then only revolves around breakfast-cartoons-snack-lunch-play-snack-cartoons-dinner-sleep. So I guess, this is one of my comfort foods after all. -jeannie
Source: goddessofscrumptiousness
THE VERY WHOLESOME BUT VERY NAUGHTY LOOKING CHOCOLATE BARS
These bars are my version of an UN-BORING BREAKFAST OATMEAL… beats the crap out of a boring bowl of porridge.
Made of oatmeal, raisins, German cocoa powder, low sugar strawberry jam, vanilla and canola oil. These are chewy, not so sweet but very chocolatey bars anyone can grab-and-go for an instant snack throughout the day or indeed for breakfast!
But honestly, and maybe quite obvious, I’m just making excuses to eat chocolate in the morning… I would’ve used chocolate covered raisins for this, but the darn little (equally tricky) bastards will just ruin my alibi. ;) -jeannie
Source: goddessofscrumptiousness
FUDGE! FUDGE! FUDGE!
Today is NATIONAL FUDGE DAY! Go and grab your spoons! :)
Source: goddessofscrumptiousness
Ultimate Brownies
I believe that anything that is good, great even, should be shared.
I came across this absolutely wonderful and the easiest one pan brownie recipe a couple of years ago. It is now my all-time and ultimate brownie recipe that I treasure. It doesn’t have any leavening (baking soda or baking powder) which a few brownie recipes have (makes the brownie cake-like and not really that fudgey and chewy).
This recipe can be doubled or even quadrupled.
All you need to do is melt the butter and chocolate first in a sauce pan. Then into the same pan, with the chocolate-butter mixture, add the sugar followed by the egg(s), vanilla, flour, salt and walnuts (optional). Dump the brownie batter onto a parchment lined baking pan, and bake at 350’F, for 20 mins if you made a single recipe, 25-30 mins if doubled, and 40-45 mins if quadrupled.
This kind of brownie has a crunchy top and fudgey and chewy all around.
Source: Simple Pleasures (Soothing Suggestions and Small Comforts for Living Well Year Round) by David Greer, Susannah Seton and Robert Taylor
Tip: To check if your brownie is perfect. Insert a toothpick, when the toothpick comes out with a few moist crumbs (not wet), your brownie is perfectly baked. :)
Source: goddessofscrumptiousness
BLACK FOREST BREAD PUDDING
I always feel an unabashed pride every time I make something out of a few ingredients, even, out of some ingredients that were either in a coma or were almost about the end of existence. It’s like I just did a fabulous make-over!
I love stale bread. I think it’s the only thing in the world that becomes even more versatile as it gets past its due.
I made this bread pudding from a stale black forest loaf of bread (overcast by that one loaf of freshly baked coffee cake I made). I just added chocolate chips, vanilla extract, eggs, and half and half. After it baked, I anointed it with raspberry puree and dusted with powdered sugar… you see, happily ever after does come from all sorts of ways, and it’s specially even more well received when it has a “Cinderella story” behind it.
Source: goddessofscrumptiousness
I made these cupcakes for my nephew’s birthday party tomorrow.
I didn’t picked up this very cupcake just to take a photo of it (although I did grabbed my camera and took a snap).
My true intention was to put a small candy heart on top before eating it- just to make sure it is as good as the last 100th time I made it! ;)
Source: goddessofscrumptiousness
