TWD: Best Ever Brownies

We started out with fine Guittard chocolate. I used some of the chocolate from the first recipe (the chocolate truffle tartlets from back in February.)




Lots of sugar. It does call for unsweetened chocolate so you have to make it sweet.



Lots of butter.  The chocolate smelled so good as it was being melted.  




Sarah had her first sleep over the night before, one of her neighborhood friends.  The two of them helped me put these together.



The eggs were somewhat of a challenge to fold into the chocolate.  



The recipe was very forgiving; I was not very gentle in my folding technique.



I had to try them (almost) right out of the oven.  The inside was like chocolate lava cake - gooey, wonderful....




I cut the brownies in small rectangles and shared with the neighbors.  These are rich and delicious.  Brownies from a box have their place but if you want - decadence -  here it is.



The next day we heated the brownies up in the microwave for 20 seconds and had ice cream on the side - I paired it with coffee.  Not a dessert I could eat every day but a real treat. If making specifically for kids, I would use less "sophisticated" chocolate.  The younger folks liked these but for my daughter in particular, these were almost too rich.

Happy Thanksgiving my fellow Tuesdays with Dorie friends!

 - Broad Brook Bakers

TWD: Buttermilk Crumb Muffins

When Nathan was three years old he absolutely went crazy over the blueberry muffins shown on the next page of this recipe in Baking with Julia.  But for the past few years, Nathan has turned his nose up at them and has kept asking for a simple cinnamon muffin.  These muffins were exactly what he wanted and he loved them. Simply wonderful, these muffins.




We added a teaspoon of vanilla to the batter but other than that we kept to the recipe.  




We didn't add an overabundance of the crumb topping because we didn't want them to be too sweet. 




Sarah liked the muffin top the best; she thought that it tasted like a cookie. I'm thinking that a future Rewind might be buttermilk crumb muffin tops, I have one of those top only pans.

As I ate my muffin on this quiet Sunday morning, in the back of my mind was a familiar taste, memory and texture.  My husband remarked that he too had this same feeling and was it perhaps that they tasted - in a much more grown-up way - like Hostess brand Cinnamon Crumb Cakes. I begrudgingly agreed that he was onto something. Upon further thought, how wonderful to be able to remember a childhood food memory by tasting a grown-up version that has only improved on the memory of the original.

Cheers,
Broad Brook Bakers 

TWD: Rewind.....Sticky Buns and Popovers

I froze half of the brioche dough from back in May when we made the Pecan Sticky Buns. We loved this breakfast treat so much that I could hardly contain my excitement at the possibility of these flaky wonderfully gooey buns. I woke up earlier than usual to start the rising. 




I removed the dough from the freezer and performed the suggested steps.  Unfortunately, this brioche dough did not rise properly (even with additional time) or retain it's flaky texture when baked.  I take full responsibility for the fair result.  The recipe states that the dough can be kept in the freezer for up to one month.  Next time I will heed those instructions!



Hot out of the oven the buns were still pretty good.  But again did lack a good number of those flaky layers that were evident on the first go-round back in May.



We could not help ourselves but to whip up a batch of the perfect popover recipe from Baking with Julia.  Always a success and never any left...

Warmly,

Broad Brook Bakers