Nothing against cupcakes, we know they're the in thing these days, but who doesn't love brownies?
It'll be fine with me if I never see another flake of snow and it looks like I'm going to get my wish soon. Forty degrees outside is good enough reason for me to rush and get to The Cellar at Macy's for a baking demo. Rose and I met at the Church of St. Francis of Assisi for some much needed blessing before our attempt at breaking bread with the great chefs of NY.
It's a baker's dozen at The Cellar this month. The list of culinary talent showing off their best is long, unfortunately we're not one of them, but 'will work on it, he he! At today's demo it was the team of Nato and Matt of Baked bakery in Red Hook, Brooklyn. They whipped up some heavenly brownies. Not just your ordinary brownie, my friend, it's decadent chocolatey, fudgy and as Noris would say - puedo levantare el muerto!
It'll be fine with me if I never see another flake of snow and it looks like I'm going to get my wish soon. Forty degrees outside is good enough reason for me to rush and get to The Cellar at Macy's for a baking demo. Rose and I met at the Church of St. Francis of Assisi for some much needed blessing before our attempt at breaking bread with the great chefs of NY.
It's a baker's dozen at The Cellar this month. The list of culinary talent showing off their best is long, unfortunately we're not one of them, but 'will work on it, he he! At today's demo it was the team of Nato and Matt of Baked bakery in Red Hook, Brooklyn. They whipped up some heavenly brownies. Not just your ordinary brownie, my friend, it's decadent chocolatey, fudgy and as Noris would say - puedo levantare el muerto!
For that bakery-perfect cookies and such, skip all the food networks and specialized cookbooks (although I'll admit that I love Cook's Illustrated Magazine, it's all science stuff for those folks at the magazine), according to some people in the audience Baked has the best recipe.
It's not so much the recipe and the instructions but the essential dos and don'ts that the partners at Baked shared with us that really counted. To scoop-and-sweep or not that is the question. How many times to rotate the pan while baking. Bittersweet chocolate or just plain dark. These little things and there's lots of them that matter big. I kid you not. Or else you'll end up with a heap of hockey pucks or slabs of mishaps not even fit as toys for your pet!
The road to perfect baking is threatened with plenty of pitfalls. Believe me I have horror stories I could tell you from my past as a rookie. There's that dough that just refused to rise, the cookie that wasn't so smart, the cake that was neither an angel nor a devil, and so on.
Watch it. From the looks of it, I think Rose is going to embark into a bake-a-thon as soon as she gets home. She grabbed a few baking tools from Macy's, this is dangerous. Let's see what she can come up with aside from her favorite biscuit. I have yet to taste that. Hey Rose, Matt said to rotate the pan inside the oven not outside. I hope you didn't buy the salad spinner for that purpose - rotating. Just kidding, or not!
These brownies are to die for. Easy to make, even Angie at the Zoo can whip it up. I get it that she's not into wasting precious time in the kitchen and that's okay too. No mixer necessary, just start off with your very best chocolate after all that's what makes brownies a hit.
Here it is, from the folks at Baked adapted from their new book Baked New Frontiers in Baking:
The Baked Brownie
Yield : 24 brownies
Baked Note: A great brownie is easy to make, but you have to be aware of several factors. 1. Use a dark cocoa powder, like Valrhona. A pale light colored cocoa does not have enough depth. 2. Make sure your eggs are at room temperature and do not over beat them into the batter. 3. Make sure you check your brownies often while baking. Once the brownies are over baked slightly, they have reached the point of no return.
1 1/4 cups flour
1 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons dark cocoa powder
11 ounces dark chocolate (60-70%) cut into 1 inch cubes
1 teaspoon instant espresso powder
1 1/2 cups sugar
1/2 cup light brown sugar
5 large eggs at room temperature
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
Preheat oven to 350 degrees
Butter the sides and bottom of a glass or light colored metal pan 9x13x2
In medium bowl, whisk together the flour, salt and cocoa powder.
Configure a large sized double boiler. Place the chocolate, butter, and instant espresso powder in the bowl of the double boiler 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 the sugars until completely combined and remove the bowl from the pan. Mixture should be room temperature.
Add 3 eggs to the chocolate/butter mixture and whisk until just combined. Add remaining eggs and whisk until just combined. Add vanilla and stir until combined. Do not over beat the batter at this stage or your brownies will be cakey.
Sprinkle the flour/cocoa/salt mixture over the chocolate. Using a spatula (Do not use a whisk) fold the dry into the wet until there is just a trace of the flour/cocoa mix visible.
Pour the mixture into the pan and smooth the top with your spatula. Bake the brownies for 30 minutes (rotate the pan half-way through the baking) and check to make sure the brownies are done when the toothpick comes out with a few moist crumbs.
Cool the brownies completely before cutting and serving.
That wasn't so difficult, was it?
