Blog Archives
tuesdays with dorie / baking with julia: best-ever brownies
Homemade brownies… I’ve tried many different recipes over many years. Though this might be sacrilege to say, at my house, the boxed version typically wins. The brand varies over time. The current favorite is Ghirardelli Triple Chocolate Brownies from Costco. When I saw that this week’s recipe for Tuesdays with Dorie was “Best-Ever Brownies”, I knew I’d have to try them out and see how they matched up.
I love how the recipe starts out by stating if your brownie preference is cakey (vs. fudgy) to just move onto a different recipe. Fortunately, we are firmly in the fudgy camp.
This recipe starts by melting bittersweet and unsweetened chocolate with butter. Then, an egg and sugar mixture is slowly mixed into the chocolate. More of the egg and sugar mixture is whipped until it turns a lovely pale yellow shade which gets gently folded into the chocolate. Finally, the flour is gently folded in as well.
The brownies bake until they are just set. I checked them after the recommended 23 minutes, but let them go for 25 minutes. Then, we had to wait for them to cool (torture!). When it was time to cut into them, the brownies were moist and fudgy. There was the slightest of crust of top. There would have been even less if I’d taken them out on initial checking at 23 minutes.
The judges at my house are tough. How did this recipe match up against the box mix? Howard said they were pretty good, better than most from scratch recipes we’ve tried, though maybe not “best-ever”. Were they better than Ghirardelli? It was a close matchup. While both fudgy, they were different kinds of brownies. These brownies were all about the fudgy center, without much regard for the edges. Personally, I’m an edge eater. I love the chewy (not cakey) edges and especially the corners of brownies. Ghirardelli has more edges to balance the fudgy interior. But, even if these weren’t best-ever, they were still damn good.
If you want to try for yourself, visit this week’s host Monica’s site A Beautiful Mess where she shares the recipe. The recipe can also be found in Dorie Greenspan’s book, written with Julia Child, Baking with Julia. You can also visit the Tuesdays with Dorie LYL post for this recipe to find links to other baker’s brownie experiences.
Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!
ffwd: top-secret chocolate mousse
I doubt this is the first time I’ve made this confession on my blog. I am not a chocoholic. I like, but am nowhere close to loving, chocolate. For French Fridays with Dorie, this week’s recipe was Top-Secret Chocolate Mousse. This was bound to make Howard, the resident chocolate fiend, happy. Plus, I don’t think I’ve ever made mousse before, or at least not in many years, so I welcomed a new challenge.
What’s top secret about this recipe? According to Dorie, every French home cook knows this recipe from the back of the chocolate package. The recipe is hiding in plain view. Sort of like home-baked Toll House cookies in the U.S., maybe?
This recipe couldn’t have been easier, so no wonder it’s a go-to recipe in French homes. You melt the chocolate, you whisk in egg yolks, you beat egg whites with a tiny bit of sugar, and you fold that into the chocolate. Voila! A 4-ounce chocolate bar is just the amount for the recipe plus one square leftover to grate on top plus have a mini-snack. And, because we get super-fresh eggs from a neighbor down the street, the barely warmed eggs didn’t concern me.
I took Dorie’s tip and served the mousse in (stemless) martini glasses. As promised, they looked cute.
The recipe got the Howard seal of approval. I liked that the mousse was light and not overly chocolate-y. I opted for 62% dark chocolate, but I think it could have handled the 70% dark bar that I left on the shelf. Next time. This would be a great dessert to whip up for company. Not too much effort, but elegant taste that anyone would enjoy.
I’m looking forward to next week’s goat cheese mini puffs, much more up my alley.
We don’t post the recipes, but consider getting your own copy of the book, Dorie Greenspan’s book Around My French Table. I’m off to enjoy a weekend on Cape Cod with college friends, so won’t get a chance to catch up on the other Dorista’s posts until after the weekend. If you want to check them out, follow their links here to read all about it.
Happy Friday!
A Plateful of Happiness 