And, what would a Traditional Brownie be without a Traditional Side-story tied in?
(I’m mentioning this story to tell you one thing. I will point out the obvious momentarily.)
About a week or two ago I made this delicious corn bread from scratch using a random recipe I found that was magnificent using fine cornmeal, flour, sugar etc. Pulling from an experience with a delicious Trader Joe’s corn bread mix, I decided to add fresh corn kernels to the mix by simply buying a cob at the Farmer’s Market and cutting them off right into the batter; super moist +YUMMY. Unfortunately, my taste buds are fickle and my stomach is small, so about 4 days into it I then had enough. My normal routine is to simply offer the unwanted food to my large hungry boyfriend who is usually waiting in the wings for me to tell him its okay to gobble up the rest, but this time it was different. Later on I found out that he was not particularly a fan of corn bread in general, this meant that by the 7th day or so it was still sitting there on the counter in its Tupperware, which meant it was time to go feed the birds.
So late that night my boyfriend tells me that he’s headed out with a friend for an event. About 5 minutes later his friend comes in and within minutes I hear rushing water and a loud frantic question… “Babe, did you put jalapenos in that cornbread you made!?” Instantly I jumped out of my sleepy daze and said, “GOOD LORD PEOPLE!! DID YOU BOTHER TO EVEN LOOK AT THAT BEFORE YOU ATE IT!!!!!” ….. you know what happened there, don’t you? . . .
Besides the fact that apparently not only do neither of them have a working set of eyeballs, they also do not have a working set of nostrils. Moral of the story folks is that you must remember that not all food comes out of “the machine” (interpret that how you like). The current world is so used to preservatives that getting a fresh loaf of bread is almost an inconvenience because it goes bad so fast. You want your food to go bad folks, it means that what you’re eating is real!!! If you could just stop shopping at the bargain warehouses buying the bulk food to last you through winter and shop for your meals day to day (it’s not that inconvenient) you might get used to the idea. Not saying that I’m able to do this all the time myself but its funny that two grown men wouldn’t bother to think that maybe the “CORNBREAD MADE FROM SCRATCH” might be bad after a week.
(This is the obvious part I mentioned I’d point out earlier in this story)
So do me a favor and remember that these ingredients are maybe a smidge “fresher” than normal when you enjoy these delightful brownies since they are “from scratch”… please try not to poison yourself people.
Onward! Here’s what you need:
9x13 pan or glass bakeware, greased and floured
1 1/3 cups All Purpose Flour
¾ cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 ½ cups sugar
½ cup boiling water
1 egg
1 tsp baking soda
2 x (1/3 cup vegetable oil)
1 tsp vanilla (you’ll thank yourself every time if you avoid the imitation junk)
¼ tsp or generous pinch of salt
So if you remember what your Grandma told you about the secret to making brownies, you’ll remember that you aren’t supposed to stir/mix it very much. In general with baking and pastry there is a lot of “folding” unless specified otherwise… seriously fold it as few times as possible!!!!!
Start by preheating your oven to 350 degrees, or if you using a glass Pyrex like I did you’ll want to lower that by 25 degrees --- you’ll do this every time since glass is a better conductor of heat. Also you’ll need to grease your pan/glassware (I like to use good ol’ butter!) and then put in a little bit of flour and move it around by picking up the pan and shifting it, to coat the pan. You can gently tap to move it all around to make sure your pan is evenly floured.
Now take your mixing bowl and put in the cocoa powder and baking soda. Mix to combine.
Next grab the freshly boiled ½ cup of water and pour it in along with 1/3 of a cup vegetable oil, mix until it has blended and thickened up.
Now stir in your sugar, egg, and remaining 1/3 cup of vegetable oil. This recipe originally called for 2 eggs but that made them really cakey, and to me it’s not a brownie if it’s not moist, chewy, and delicious; so we’re only using one egg here!
Finally it’s time to add your flour, vanilla, and salt. We do this last to avoid all that over mixing BS because the dreaded “over mix” will lead to cakey brownies as well and after all that fine work this my friends, is simply a travesty! Fold in the flour with a rubber spatula only until it is absorbed and then pour your batter into the prepared pan.
This recipe originally called for the ¼ tsp of salt, 2 cups of sugar, and 2 eggs. A fourth of a teaspoon is a “pinch” and I thought this wasn’t bold enough. Everyone can tell you that the best sweets have both sweet and salty elements to them. It’s almost like if you don’t add the salt you can’t really taste the sweet, it’s simply just bland. So I adjusted this to a larger pinch of salt but it may have been a necessity because of the fact that I only use kosher salt, which isn’t as salty, so you may want to keep the measurement the same if you are using the regular stuff. Besides being a little “bland” the first time around, in my opinion they were way too sweet so I also adjusted the sugar, and hopefully you remember the explanation on the egg adjustment from earlier in your reading.
Finally I adjusted the cook time. For me, good brownies are almost always UNDERCOOKED. Why? Because like anything coming out of the oven they continue to cook after wards and brownies are one of those fickle things that in my opinion just needs to be so you get that perfect balance of crusty outside and chewy gooey inside. When making cake you want your toothpick inserted into the center to come out clean. With brownies, you want it to come out so-so. This recipe originally called for them to come out after 35 to 40 minutes, so at the 30 minute mark I tested my center and took them out.
Here’s what the toothpick looked like:
Now, let them rest for at least 15 minutes. I guess a good description of the “done” sign for good chewy moist brownies is a toothpick that comes out relatively clean but may have a few bits clinging.
Add a little vanilla ice cream and you’ve got yourself another 30 minutes on the treadmill. Enjoy!
Up next: Ropa Vieja aka "Old Clothes" aka Beefy Magnificence Courtesy of "Daisy Cooks".
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