Tuesday, July 13, 2010

{TWD} Brrrrr-ownie Ba-rrrrrs


Dorie Greenspan's book Baking From My Home to Yours is admirably comprehensive, but brownies might be the category best represented. No matter what your taste, there is a brownie to fit (unless of course you don't like chocolate!) This week's recipe for Tuesdays With Dorie is designed for mint lovers. Called Brrrr-ownies, the name indicates the frosty flavor contributed by peppermint patties stirred into the batter.

n.o.e.'s notes:


- Karen of the blog Welcome to our Crazy Blessed Life chose the recipe this week - click over to her blog post to find it.

- I baked 1/4 recipe of the brownies in a small loaf pan, and cut the brownies in bars when cooled.

- Although the recipe call for unsweetened and bittersweet chocolate, I used a bar of 85% chocolate bar instead of the two other kinds. The way I looked at it, 85% is the average of the 70% bittersweet and the 100% unsweetened chocolate I would otherwise use.

- I'm getting spoiled by these easy recipes lately; this one used just one bowl.

- After 22 minutes in the oven my brownies registered done using the knife test.

- The brownies looked a bit alarming when they came out of the oven. Some of the peppermint patty pieces had erupted through the chocolate as the brownies baked.

- I chilled the brownies before cutting them. When I cut them, I could see how dense and fudgy they were. There were empty pockets in the baked brownies where the peppermint patty pieces had been before they melted and oozed elsewhere.


the verdict:

These brownies were chewy, fudgy, almost candy-like. Even though I rarely like the chocolate and mint combination, I loved it in this recipe!

To make the "brrrrr" part of this recipe complete, it would be fun to chop the brownies into pieces and churn them into a batch of ice cream. I might try that with the leftover bars that are currently in my freezer.

11 comments:

Welcome to our crazy blessed life said...

Putting these in the freezer and churning them into ice cream sound like delicious ideas. :) Thanks for baking with me this week!

Di said...

Mmm, what a great idea--might be time to make some more ice cream. And I like the bar shape--they look really delicious.

Peggy said...

Glad you are back and glad you had a great trip. Loved reading about it. Your brownies are so delicious looking and dark. I think ice cream sounds wonderful with them. I used peanut butter cups in mine.

Kayte said...

Gotta love that math calculation on the chocolate...you are so funny with all the math in food. They look really fudgy (like a mud pie from good old black Iowa soil, I would know). I am sure they tasted far better to you than a mud pie, however. Good to have you back home and baking again. Scones this morning were delicious, I hear tell, as I didn't actually get one this morning, but I had a half a one yesterday and they were great, thanks for asking me to bake them with you!

Valerie Harrison (bellini) said...

Who doesn't love a good, fudgey brownie:D

Nichicakes said...

ooh yours turned out dark & lovely.

steph- whisk/spoon said...

i had a lot of those empty melt holes in my brownies. one of the best ice creams i ever made at home was a mint base with plain brownie stirred in, so i'm sure that these would be fab in ice cream!

Tia said...

They look so chocolatey, and fudgey and yummy! Great job!

Tia @ Buttercreambarbie

Eliana said...

Hmmmm - what a great idea Nancy. These would be perfect churned into a batch of vanilla ice cream.

Pamela said...

Oh, yes! Churning them in to some ice cream and then enjoying with a healthy dose of hot fudge! They look fabulous, Nancy.

Nickki said...

I just took my leftover brownies and stirred them into vanilla ice cream - delicious! So I can confirm that is a brilliant idea! Your brownies look so delicious, really fudgy!