The delicious, chocolate-y roundup for this week…
a sweet journey through baked: frontiers | explorations | elements | occasions
by Sheri
The delicious, chocolate-y roundup for this week…
by Sheri
Post your links for the spicy brownies here!
by susan
Posting date is Sunday, December 9th!
Spicy Brownies
Baked Elements – p. 136-7 (See the Baked Note for a Peanut Butter variation.)
Yield: 12 large or 24 small brownies
Ingredients
1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
2 tablespoons dark unsweetened cocoa powder (like Valrhona)
1 tablespoon ancho chile powder
2 teaspoons freshly grated cinnamon
1 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon freshly grated ginger or
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
9 ounces good-quality dark chocolate (60 to 72%), coarsely chopped
2 ounces good-quality milk chocolate, coarsely chopped
8 ounces (2 sticks) unsalted butter, cut into 1-inch cubes
1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
1/2 cup firmly packed light brown sugar
5 large eggs, at room temperature
Assembly
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Butter the bottom and sides of a 9-by-13-inch glass or light-colored metal baking pan. Line the pan with parchment paper and butter the parchment. In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, cocoa powder, chile powder, cinnamon, salt, and ginger and set aside. Place the chopped chocolate and the butter in the bowl of a double boiler over medium heat and stir occasionally until the chocolate and butter are completely melted and combined. Turn off the heat, but keep the bowl over the water of the double boiler, and add both sugars, whisk until completely combined.
Remove the bowl from the water and let the mixture come to room temperature. Add 3 eggs to the chocolate mixture and whisk until just combined. Add the remaining eggs and whisk until just combined. Do not overbeat the batter at this stage or your brownies will be cakey. Sprinkle the flour mixture over the chocolate. Using a spatula, fold the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients until there is just a trace amount of the flour mixture visible. Pour the brownie mixture into the prepared pan and smooth the top with a spatula.
Bake the brownies for 30 minutes, rotating the pan halfway through the baking time, until a toothpick inserted in the center of the pan comes out with a few moist crumbs. Remove the brownies from the oven and transfer to a wire rack to cool completely before cutting and serving.
The brownies can be stored at room temperature, tightly covered, for up to 4 days.
Excerpted from Baked Elements: Our 10 Favorite Ingredients by Matt Lewis and Renato Poliafito. Copyright © 2012 by Matt Lewis and Renato Poliafito. Excerpted by permission of Stewart, Tabori & Chang, an imprint of Abrams. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
by Sheri
For our first week baking out of Baked Elements, we’ve got a lot of beautiful Brooksters! But first: the winner of our giveaway is Mark of Neufangled Desserts! Congratulations, Mark – please send an email with your address and t-shirt size to cake at bakedsundaymornings dot com.
by Sheri
Leave your links for Brooksters here! Bakers for this week earn an entry to our Baked giveaway.
by Sheri
No more having to decide between a chocolate chip and a brownie – these are the best of both combined into one! This is our first recipe out of the new Baked Elements. Posting date for Brooksters is September 16.
Plus, everyone who bakes along with us this week will be entered into our giveaway! Win a Baked goodies including a Baked t-shirt, tote and packaged mixes, courtesy of Baked!
A winner will be chosen at random on Monday, September 17, 2012. Here are the contest rules:
Brooksters
Yield: 6 Brooksters
For the Chocolate Chip Cookie Filling
2 1/4 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
8 ounces (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
1 cup firmly packed dark brown sugar
½ cup granulated sugar
2 large eggs
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
12 ounces (about 2 cups) good-quality semisweet chocolate chips
For the Brownie Tart Shells
3/4 cup all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon dark unsweetened cocoa powder (like Valrhona)
1/2 teaspoon salt
5 ounces good-quality dark chocolate (60 to 72%), coarsely chopped
4 ounces (1 stick) unsalted butter, cut into 1-inch cubes
3/4 cup granulated sugar
1/4 cup firmly packed light brown sugar
3 large eggs, at room temperature
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
Make the Chocolate Chip Cookie Filling
In a large mixing bowl, whisk together the flour, salt, and baking soda. Set aside.
In the bowl of a standing mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat the butter and sugars together on medium speed until smooth and creamy. Scrape down the sides and bottom of the bowl and add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. The mixture will look light and fluffy. Add the vanilla and beat for 5 seconds.
Add half of the flour mixture and beat for 15 seconds. Add the remaining flour mixture and beat until just incorporated.
Remove the bowl from the mixer and fold in the chocolate chips until evenly combined. Cover the bowl tightly and chill in the refrigerator for 3 hours.
Make the Brownie Tart Shells
Butter the bottoms and sides of 6 individual (4-inch) pie plates, or lightly spray with nonstick cooking spray, and place the pie plates on a baking sheet. (See below for alternative baking instructions.)
In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, cocoa powder, and salt.
Place the chocolate and the butter in the bowl of a double boiler over medium heat and stir occasionally until the chocolate and butter are completely melted and combined. Turn off the heat, but keep the bowl over the water of the double boiler and add both sugars, whisking until completely combined. Remove the bowl from the water and let the mixture cool to room temperature.
Add one egg at a time to the chocolate mixture, whisking after each addition until just combined. Add the vanilla and stir until combined. Do not overbeat the batter at this stage or your brownies will be cakey.
Sprinkle the flour mixture over the chocolate mixture. Using a spatula (do not use a whisk) fold the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients until there is just a trace amount of the flour mixture visible.
Fill each pie plate with brownie batter until it is just under halfway full. Place the baking sheet in the refrigerator and chill for 3 hours.
Assemble the Brooksters
After the cookie dough and brownie batter have chilled for 3 hours, preheat the oven to 375 degrees F.
Using an ice cream scoop with a release mechanism, scoop out the dough into 4 tablespoon–size balls and use your hands to shape the dough into perfect balls. Gently flatten each ball into an oblong disk. The disks should be slightly smaller than the tops of the pie plates.
Remove the baking sheet containing the brownie batter and gently press a cookie dough disk into the batter in each pie plate.
Place the baking sheet in the oven and bake for 20 to 25 minutes, rotating the sheet halfway through the baking time. The Brooksters are done when the cookie part is golden brown.
Cool to room temperature or serve warm with ice cream.
Baked Note: This recipe is fairly straightforward and easy; however, it does require some plan-ahead time. Make sure to read through the whole recipe first, as there are many steps (simple ones, but quite a few). Don’t be tempted to rush the specified refrigeration time—it’s important for the dough and batter to cool and thicken slightly for a perfect bake. You can do all the prep work ahead of time, then bake at your leisure.
You may or may not have some leftover chocolate chip cookie batter. If you do, feel free to scoop into 2-tablespoon sized balls and bake on a separate cookie sheet.
How to Make Brooksters in Muffin or Cupcake Pans
If you are having trouble locating 4-inch pie plates or if you wish to make smaller Brooksters, you can easily bake these in a standard 12-cup muffin or cupcake pan. Simply follow the directions as specified in the original recipe, but make these modifications:
Excerpted from Baked Elements: Our 10 Favorite Ingredients by Matt Lewis and Renato Poliafito. Copyright © 2012 by Matt Lewis and Renato Poliafito. Excerpted by permission of Stewart, Tabori & Chang, an imprint of Abrams. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
by Sheri
by Sheri
From the original Baked Sunday Mornings, by Seattle Pastry Girl.
Here we go with the 2nd recipe in our schedule-BROWNIES. Not just any brownie-a Sweet and Salty Brownie,oozing with caramel sweet stickiness. Brownies are delicious plain but dress them up with caramel and Fleur de sel-you get that ohhhh and ahhh taste explosion in your mouth. Dark decadent chocolate, buttery caramel and the taste of salt-add an ice cold milk chaser -perfection.
Brownies have been around for quite some time,however there is some debate about the origin. One thing for certain-they were as THE BOSS would sing “Born in the USA”. I’ll bet he would love these. I found some information at the web site “The Nibble” and what they concluded was: “Culinary historians have traced the first cake “brownie” to the 1906 edition of The Boston Cooking-School Cook Book, edited by Fannie Merritt Farmer. This recipe contains two squares of melted Baker’s Chocolate and is a less rich and less chocolaty version of the brownie we know today. According to The Oxford Encyclopedia of Food and Drink in America, the proportions are similar to Farmer’s 1896 chocolate cookie recipe, but with far less flour and baked in a “7-inch square pan”
And did you know that Sears is credited with publishing the first known recipe in the 1897 Sears, Roebuck catalog. Most sources say that recipe was actually for molasses candy. The candy was called brownies. And that name “brownies” honored the elfin characters featured in popular books at the time by Palmer Cox. The Eastman Kodak Brownie camera was also named after the elves. Somewhere along the line the “brownie” name became associated with these tasty morsels of chocolate.
So the delicious morsels you are baking today were named after little elves-appropriate for the holiday season , don’t you think ?
Sweet & Salty Brownie
Yield: 12 large brownies or 24 small brownies
Ingredients
For the caramel filling
1 cup sugar
2 tablespoons light corn syrup
1/2 cup heavy cream
1 teaspoon fleur de sel
1/4 cup sour cream
For the Brownie
1 1/4 cups all purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons dark unsweetened cocoa powder (like Valrhona)
11 ounces quality dark chocolate (60 to 72 %), coarsely chopped
1 cup ( 2 sticks) unsalted butter, cut into 1 inch cubes
1 1/2 cups sugar
1/2 cup firmly packed light brown sugar
5 large eggs, at room temperature
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
For the Assembly
1 1/2 teaspoons fleur de sel
1 teaspoon coarse sugar
Make the Caramel
In a medium saucepan, combine the sugar and corn syrup with 1/4 cup water, stirring them together carefully so you don’t splash the sides of the pan. Cook over high heat until and instant read thermometer reads 350 degrees F, or until the mixture is dark amber in color (keep a close eye on the caramel at all times, as it goes from golden brown to black and burnt very quickly), 6 to 8 minutes. Remove from the heat, and slowly add the cream ( careful, it will bubble up ) and then the fleur de sel. Whisk in the sour cream. Set aside to cool.
Make the Brownie
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
Butter the sides and bottom of a glass or light colored metal 9 by 13 inch pan. Line the bottom with a sheet of parchment paper, and butter the parchment.
In a medium bowl,whisk together the flour,salt and cocoa powder.
Place the chocolate and butter in the bowl of the double boiler set over a pan of simmering water, and stir occasionally until the chocolate and butter are completely melted and combined. Turn off the heat, but keep the bowl over the water of the double boiler, and add both sugars. Whisk until completely combined and remove the bowl from the pan. The mixture should be at room temperature.
Add three eggs to the chocolate mixture and whisk until just combined. Add the remaining eggs and whisk until just combined. Add the vanilla and stir until combined. Do not over beat the batter at this stage, or your brownies will be cakey.
Sprinkle the flour mixture over the chocolate. Using a spatula, fold the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients until there is just a trace amount of the flour mixture visible.
Assemble the Sweet & Salty Brownie
Pour half of the brownie mixture into the pan and smooth the top with a spatula. Drizzle about 3/4 cup of the caramel sauce over the brownie layer in a zigzag pattern, taking care to make sure the caramel does not come in contact with the edges of the pan or it will burn. Use your offset spatula to spread the caramel evenly across the brownie layer. In heaping spoonfuls, scoop the rest of the brownie batter over the caramel layer. Smooth the brownie batter gently to cover the caramel layer.
Bake the brownies for 30 minutes, rotating the pan halfway through the baking time, and check to make sure the brownies are completely done by sticking a toothpick into the center of the pan. The brownies are done when the toothpick comes out with a few moist crumbs.
Remove the brownies from the oven and sprinkle with fleur de sel and coarse sugar.
Cool the brownies completely before cutting and serving.
The brownies can be stored, tightly wrapped at room temperature, for up to 4 days.
Baked Note: Don’t be tempted to add more than the amount of caramel called for in the recipe. If you build too much of a caramel layer, it more than likely will seep out and burn during baking. You can drizzle your leftover caramel on the brownie post baking if you are a caramel addict.
The Sweet & Salty Brownie is Baked’s most requested recipe owing to the brownie’s featured moment on the Food Network, where it was lauded with praise as one of the best salty foods in the United States.
Brownies freeze well-allow the brownies to cool to room temperature. Wrap them in two layers of plastic wrap-wrap the brownies directly as opposed to wrapping a pan of brownies. Place them in the freezer.
When you are ready to defrost, remove them from the freezer and place in the refrigerator for 8 hours or overnight. Then remove them from the refrigerator and let them sit at room temperature for at least 1 hour.
Unwrap and eat your brownies.
They should keep in the freezer for up to 1 month.
Excerpted from Baked Explorations: Classic American Desserts Reinvented by Matt Lewis and Renato Poliafito. Copyright © 2010 by Matt Lewis and Renato Poliafito. Excerpted by permission of Stewart, Tabori & Chang, an imprint of Abrams. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.