Heckuva Job, Browndie!

20 March, 2013 | | Leave A Comment

I’ve been haunted by the philosophical story my father always told about Buridan’s ass: A thirsty and hungry jackass is put between a bale of hay and a bucket of water. Unable to choose which one to have first, he starves to death. Which, simply put, inspired me to create the Browndie.

I didn’t want to be forced to choose which dessert I wanted more, a chocolatey brownie, or a chewy butterscotch-studded blondie. No no! After my success marrying brownies and banana bread, I thought I’d give a brownie-blondie wedding a try. What a happy couple!

If you can manage it, try to make both batters at the same time. I prep all the ingredients in advance and give each group of ingredients their own special part of the counter.  You could also enlist the help of a loved one to make the other recipe. Both of these batters are made by hand, so as the Castro convertible ads used to say: ‘It’s so easy, even a child can do it!”

Apologies for the ‘meh’ lighting. That’s what comes from a fiendish need to bake at night in a poorly lit kitchen.

I baked half of the browndies in a mini-muffin pan, and the other half in an 8 x 8-inch pan. You can do it however you wish. The ones baked in the muffin pan had crunchier tops and make a nice alternative to cupcakes for a kid’s birthday party; the ones in the square pans were fudgier and easy to prepare. If the thought of fussing with individual muffin cups makes you insane (it sort of did me), then just use a 10 x 13-inch pan and make the whole thing at once.

Getting the batter into the muffin tins was annoying, but if you are of a more peaceful nature than I, you will be pleased with the crun-chewy results.

I used only whole wheat flour in the blondies, plus two tablespoons of ground flax seed. Not only does it keep the blondies from being too cloyingly sweet, it also makes me feel less guilty about feeding them to my kids. If you can find whole wheat pastry flour use that. Arrowhead Mills—which I find at Whole Foods—is more finely ground than regular flour, so finicky kids (Shout out to my daughter!) won’t have any textural issues with the flour.

Even in the strange light of my night kitchen you can see the whole wheat goodness.

After a few of these in  my tum, I’m beginning to think my indecisive nature has its merits. Enjoy.

Blondies

You’ll Need:
  • 14 Tablespoons (7 ounces) unsalted butter
  • 1 cup whole wheat flour (I used Arrowhead Mills w.w. pastry flour)
  • 1 teaspoon baking powder
  • 1/8 teaspoon Kosher salt
  • 2 Tablespoons ground flaxseed
  • 1 ½ cups light brown sugar
  • 2 large eggs
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla
  • Butterscotch chips and semi-sweet chocolate chips  (I use about 1/3 cup of each)
What You’ll Do:

1. Preheat the oven to 350° Fahrenheit.

2. Grease the pan/s you’ll bake the browndies in (see note above).

3. Melt the butter in a large, heat-proof bowl over simmering water.

4. Meanwhile, in a small bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder and salt. Set aside.

5. When the butter is melted, remove from heat and stir in the brown sugar. You will need to beat the butter and sugar together with some real gusto in order to properly blend the two. For a minute or so the butter and sugar will not come together and you will think I have lied to you. Be patient but strong and keeping stirring. Soon all the butter will be absorbed and the mixture will look like slightly gritty caramel.

6. Add the eggs in, one at a time, beating until each one is absorbed. Stir in the vanilla.

7. Add the flour mixture in and stir until just blended. Add in the butterscotch chips and chocolate chips (if using–and why wouldn’t you?).

Brownies:

You’ll Need:
  • 3 ounces unsweetened chocolate
  • 1 stick (4 ounces) unsalted butter
  • 1 ½ cups granulated sugar
  • 2 eggs
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla
  • ½ cup all-purpose flour
  • Chocolate chips (I use Ghiradelli 60% cocoa)
What You’ll Do:

1. Melt the butter and unsweetened in a large, heatproof bowl over simmering water.

2. Remove the bowl from the heat, and stir in the sugar until thoroughly blended.

3. Add the eggs in one at a time, beating until each one is absorbed.  Stir in the vanilla.

4. Add the flour mixture in three additions. When blended, add in the chocolate chips.

Make the browndies:

If you are make them in mini-muffin tins, use about a teaspoon of each batter. I put the chocolate brownie batter on the bottom and then topped it with the blondie batter. The muffin cup will be about three-quarters full. Bake for 15-20 minutes until light brown on top and a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean, or with moist crumbs.

If you are planning to bake them in a pan, layer the chocolate brownie on the bottom, then smooth the blondie batter over the top. Bake for 30-40 minutes until golden brown on top and a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean, or with moist crumbs.

 It’s the start of Browndie Stonehenge, of course.

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Watch this Space

19 March, 2013 | | Leave A Comment

Coming soon to a blog near you: The Browndie. Yes, folks, after two many days away from my beloved blog, I promise to return this week with a marriage made in dessert heaven. The union of which I speak? That of a chewy, butterscotch-y blondie and deep, dark, chocolatey brownie. Who’s with me? Check back soon!

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Brownie Cookies

25 January, 2013 | | Leave A Comment

I could’ve come up with a clever title for this post, but what could be more clever than a recipe for a brownie-like cookie? Or is it a cookie-like brownie? One taste of a warm one of these little chocolate beasts, and I don’t think you’ll care.

If only these were the Alps, I would climb them.

The cookies contain a solid pound of semi-sweet chocolate. I bought a hunk of Callebaut, which is one of the more expensive chocolates you can buy at your local grocery, but any cookie that calls for that much chocolate deserves the best you can afford. Hacking up the chocolate (use a serrated knife!) is about the most difficult thing you have to do.

I did my usual “swap-some-whole-wheat-flour-for-white-flour-and-toss-in-some-flax-seed-so-I-don’t-feel-so-guilty-and-feel-smug-instead-thing.”  Whole wheat flour tempers the sweetness of the cookie and boosts the chocolate flavor, and adding chocolate chips to the batter ensures no one will ever know there is flax seed in the cookies. Once prepared, the batter takes a 1-hour long nap in the freezer, which ensures a gooey center when baked. The texture of these cookies is what sets them apart: crunchy on the outside and chewy in the middle, with the occasional pleasant interruption of a chocolate chip.

The recipe for this cookie came from a new cookbook, Food &Wine: America’s Greatest New Cooks. I reviewed another recipe for the cookbook for Publishers Weekly (a luscious and worthwhile pesto and white cheddar lasagna), but could not resist trying a cookie Food & Wine editor Dana Cowen called “the most delicious cookie” she’s ever had.

My son couldn’t resist them, either.

For that matter, no one could.

 Chocolate Brownie Cookies

(from Food & Wine: America’s Greatest New Cooks)

Ingredients:

1 pound semisweet chocolate, chopped

4 tablespoons unsalted butter

4 large eggs, at room temperature

1 1/2 cups sugar

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup all-purpose flour, sifted

1/2 teaspoons baking powder

One 12-ounce bag semisweet chocolate chips

**I replaced the all-purpose flour with an equal amount of whole wheat flour, and added 2 tablespoons of ground flax seed to the mixture.

1. In a large bowl set over a saucepan of simmering water, melt the chopped chocolate with the butter, stirring a few times, until smooth, about 7 minutes.

2. In another large bowl, using a hand-held electric mixer, beat the eggs with the sugar at medium speed until thick and pale, about 5 minutes. Beat in the vanilla and salt. Using a rubber spatula, fold in the melted chocolate, then fold in the flour and baking powder. Stir in the chocolate chips. Scrape the batter into a shallow baking dish, cover and freeze until well chilled and firm, about 1 hour.

3. Preheat the oven to 350° and line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper. Working in batches, scoop 2-tablespoon-size mounds of dough onto the prepared baking sheets about 2 inches apart. Bake for about 10 minutes, until the cookies are dry around the edges and cracked on top. Let the cookies cool on the baking sheets for 10 minutes, then transfer to a rack to cool completely before serving.

 

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High-Class Comfort Food

22 January, 2013 | | 2 Comments

My latest cookbook review for PublishersWeekly.com was for a pesto-cheddar lasagna and it’s everything winter comfort food should be. The recipe comes from  Food & Wine: America’s Greatest New Cooks and hits all the right notes. It’s perfect for a fancy dinner for guests, a Superbowl party, or to eat alone, hunched over the stove, picking the crunchy caramelized bits off the sides of the pan. That’s what I call versatile.

While it takes a little effort and a few more pans than what I call easy, it is well worth it.

You can find the recipe and review here. And please check back tomorrow and the day after for my reviews of the brownie-chocolate chip cookies (bless us all!) and the chicken thigh ragu which was also a star recipe.

Unfortunately, there is an error on the PW.com homepage and they haven’t printed the entire recipe. So until they fix it, I offer you the recipe in full here (courtesy of Food & Wine: America’s Greatest New Cooks). You shouldn’t have to wait to make this.

Pesto & Cheddar Lasagna

Ingredients

  • ¼ cup pine nuts
  • 4 cups packed basil leaves
  • 2 garlic cloves, chopped
  • 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil.
  • Salt and freshly ground pepper
  • 1 ½ sticks unsalted butter, plus more for greasing
  • ¾ cup all-purpose flour
  • 6 cups whole milk, warmed
  • Pinch of freshly grated nutmeg
  • 1 ½ pounds dried lasagna noodles
  • 1 pound sharp white cheddar cheese, shredded
  • ½ cup freshly grated Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese

1. In a small skillet, toast the pine nuts over moderate heat until lightly golden, about 4 minutes; let cool. In a food processor, pulse the basil with the pine nuts and garlic until finely chopped. With the machine on, drizzle in the olive oil and process until a paste forms. Season the pesto with salt and pepper.

2. In a medium saucepan, melt the 1½ sticks of butter over moderate heat. Whisk in the flour to make a paste and cook until bubbling, about 3 minutes. Gradually whisk in the milk until smooth and bring to a boil. Simmer over moderately low heat, whisking, until the sauce is thick and no floury taste remains, about 7 minutes. Stir in the pesto and nutmeg and season with salt and pepper. Cover and remove from the heat.

3. Preheat the oven to 400° and butter a 9-x-13-inch ceramic baking dish. In a large pot of salted boiling water, cook the lasagna noodles until al dente, 6 to 7 minutes. Drain the noodles and transfer to a baking sheet.

4. Spread 1/3 cup of the pesto sauce in the prepared baking dish. Arrange a single layer of the noodles over the sauce. Top with one-fourth of the remaining sauce and one-third of the cheddar. Repeat this layering twice, then top with a final layer of noodles and the remaining sauce. Sprinkle the Parmigiano on top.

5. Cover the lasagna with aluminum foil and bake for about 30 minutes, until heated through. Uncover and bake for 15 to 20 minutes longer, until the top is golden in spots. Cover loosely and let rest for 15 minutes before serving.

Make ahead: The unbaked lasagna can be refrigerated overnight. Bring to room temperature before baking.

 

 

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17 January, 2013 | | Leave A Comment

“There’ll be no butter in hell!”

–”Cold Comfort Farm”

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That’s the Way the Nutella Crumbles

3 January, 2013 | | Leave A Comment

I recently had the pleasure of interviewing New York Times‘ writers Julia Moskin and Kim Severson about their latest cookbook, “CookFight.”

In preparation for the interview, I carefully read through the cookbook.  I noted various recipes I planned to try some day when work deadlines weren’t looming. There was Moskin’s famous macaroni and cheese, a scalloped tomato recipe that made me yearn for summer and some bacon-fat gingersnaps that mystified (bacon fat in a cookie???) and intrigued (bacon fat in a cookie!!) at the same time.

But there on page 218  I saw something that made me run to the kitchen and start pulling ingredients out of my cupboard: The recipe for City Bakery’s peanut butter sandies. Deadline be damned. This was one of my holy grail recipes. I’d been trying to recreate this cookie since I first ate it many years ago, when City Bakery was still on 16th Street.  It’s a rough little ball of peanut butter cookie that crumbles effortlessly as you bite into it.  It seems dear Julia Moskin had also been desperate for the recipe, and throwing her Times credentials around did nothing for her:  Maury Rubin of City Bakery would not divulge his secrets. After trial and error in her own kitchen, she turned to Our Friend the Internet for help and found the recipe. And, bless her, she had the kindness and decency to share it in the pages of CookFight.

I got to work immediately. Flour and the brown and white sugars were quickly measured,  along with butter and salt. Then I grabbed for the peanut butter — only to find the jar nearly empty. A giant jar of Skippy All-Natural practically gone. How could that be?  Without blinking I reached for the jar of Nutella, thinking it an able replacement.  ‘Aren’t I brilliant?!’, I thought to myself. Singing as I cooked, licking Nutella off my spatula, I was giddy at the prospect of these cookies.

Fourteen ounces of pure Nutella.

In a flash the dough was done, scooped lovingly into little balls, with a sprinkle of salt on top (yes, salt) and put to bake in the oven. Soon peanut butter cookie mastery would be mine!

Here peanut butter and Nutella become one. And the world is a better place.

After twelve minutes I peered into the oven. What had started as perfect dough balls — and meant to stay that way — were now flat, crackly cookies which looked like tedious little gingersnaps. I was dejected. I knew better than to mess around with a cookie recipe. But I had. My dream had become the Icarus wings of the cookie world. I figured the higher fat content and random ingredients of the Nutella caused the cookies to melt.

I consoled myself by eating one. Then two. And then a third. The children were lured away from computers to eat some and then Husband came home. He pronounced them the “Greatest Cookies I’ve Ever Made,” which for a man known for his British understatement is quite a compliment.

While I might not call the them the best ever, they certainly are worth making. The flavor is a delicate blend of peanut butter and Nutella, but it’s the texture that sends them over the edge, with a crun-chewy outside and a melting, soft center. They bear absolutely no resemblance to the peanut butter sandies of CookFight and City Bakery, but it doesn’t matter a jot.

You can read my interview with Moskin and Severson here and find out what makes me love and admire them so much.

Nutella-Peanut Butter Crumbles

(Recipe adapted from CookFight, by Kim Severson and Julia Moskin. Ecco Publishing, 2012. Available for sale here.)

Ingredients:

1/2 pound (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened

2 cups granulated sugar

2/3 cup light brown sugar, packed

1 teaspoon salt, plus more for sprinkling

14 ounces Nutella (about 1 3/4 cups)

4 ounces smooth peanut butter (about 1/2 cup)

2 large eggs

2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour

What You’ll Do:

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper.

2. Using a stand mixer (or your really, really enormous forearm), blend the butter, white and brown sugars, and salt until light. This will take about 3 minutes. Scrape down the sides and add the Nutella, peanut butter and eggs and mix until evenly combined. Add the flour and mix until just combined.

3. Using a small cookie scoop or two spoons, spoon the dough onto the baking sheets. Leave about 2 inches between each cookie, because as I learned the hard way, these cookies will spread…Sprinkle with a teeny bit of salt if desired.

4. Bake 12-13 minutes until crackly and just beginning to firm to the touch. Do not overbake. Let the cookies cool on a rack. Or eat them as soon as you can without burning your tongue.

A note on “Cook Fight.” This cookbook has become my go-to book this winter. I have been cooking out of it non-stop, each time with happy results. Along with that dream peanut butter sandies recipe, it includes a recipe I want to make on nearly every page. Let me give a special shout-out to the lemon-anchovy dressing I haven’t stopped making since I got the book. (If eating more greens is one of your New Year’s resolution, this dressing will make that resolution a reality.)

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A Confession

17 November, 2012 | | Leave A Comment

Confession: I bake a lot. I’ve been known to bake professionally .I have a blog all about baked goods. But I grew up eating Yodels and Ring Dings. I have fond memories of carefully picking off the chocolate outside, and slowly peeling back the layers of cake and creme. And I do it on occasion even now. So when I heard the news yesterday that Hostess, which owns Drakes Cakes, was filing for bankruptcy, I dropped everything and went to the grocery. I hurried my way to the Drakes Cakes display to find an older lady carefully inspecting a box of Funny Bones. I nearly pushed her out of the way (perhaps it was the guttural growl in the back of my throat that made her think she should step away?) to get at my beloved (there I said it) Yodels and Ring Dings. One box sits in my pantry, and the rest have been laid down for safety in my freezer.
Woe betide the child who violates the sanctity of these boxes.

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Aren’t You Glad I Said Banana Peanut Butter Cup?

18 October, 2012 | | Leave A Comment

Ever searching for new and better things to do to banana cake, and desperate for an excuse to by a giant bag of Reese’s peanut butter cup miniatures, I decided to marry them all together.

What a happy wedding. Tender banana cake, studded with pieces of peanut butter cup and frosted with a dark chocolate icing.

There are people out there who think putting chocolate frosting on top of a cake that already has candy in it, is lily-gilding. I don’t think so. (And I don’t think much of such people.) The dark chocolate frosting brings out the banana flavor and makes for a more satisfying chocolate experience if you ask me.

Look how beautiful I am. And how unassuming. Go on, it teases, try to get me out of the pan.

I should also add–in the interest of full disclosure–I needed the icing to disguise the fact that some of the cake had the nerve to remain in the pan when I tried to turn it out. The cake looked a mess. After the icing, no one knew. Except you. But that’s only because I told you.

It looked messy alright. But the bits remaining in the pan that I scooped out with my finger were delicious enough to make me forget.

Some Reese’s sprinkled on top gives the eater-to-be a nice visual clue as to the surprise inside. And if you decide not to ice the little darling, then eat it while it’s warm.

I look for reasons to bake this cake. It seems to make everyone (who isn’t allergic to peanuts) very happy.

The recipe for banana cake is a little more fiddly than I like to offer you, but the method ensures a tender, moist cake and is well worth the effort.

Banana Peanut Butter Cup Cake

For the Cake, You’ll Need:
  • 2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
  • 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
  • 1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
  • 1/4 teaspoon salt
  • 1 1/2 sticks (6 ounces) unsalted butter, softened
  • 1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
  • 3 large eggs
  • 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
  • About 2 very ripe, mashed bananas
  • 1/4 cup plus 2 Tbsp sour cream or plain yogurt
  • 1 3/4 cups chopped peanut butter cups (reserve 1/4 cup for sprinkling on the cooled cake)  *
What You’ll Do:

1. Preheat the oven to 350° F.  Butter and flour(or better yet, use non-stick spray that contains both) a smooth Bundt cake pan.

2. In a small bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt and set aside.

3. Using an electric mixer, beat the butter until light. This may take a few minutes. Be patient. Reduce the speed to low and gradually add the sugar. When all the sugar has been added, raise the speed to medium-high and beat the mixture until fluffy. Beat in the eggs, one at a time. Add the vanilla.

4. On low speed, add half the flour mixture alternately with the banana mixture. Add the other half of the flour alternately with the sour cream. Stop the mixer just after the last addition. You do not want to overmix this. Rubbery cake is not so nice. Even with icing and peanut butter cups in it.

5. Fold in 1 1/2 cups of the  peanut butter cups and when just blended, carefully spoon the batter into the Bundt pan.

6. Bake for 45-55 minutes, depending upon your oven. A toothpick stuck in the center of the cake should come out clean. Let cool on a rack for 10-15 minutes. Loosen the edges with a knife before attempting to invert the cake. I hope you are luckier than I was. (My problem comes from the fact that I believe I am smarter than the cake and continue to use a fancy Bundt pan with a design and the cake gets hopelessly trapped in the various interstices.)

7. While the cake is cooling, eat a few of the remaining peanut butter cups you have sitting on the counter, and make the chocolate fudge frosting below:

Very Fudgy Frosting

What You’ll Need:
  • 1 stick (4 oz) butter, softened
  • 3/4 cup confectioners’ sugar (sifted)
  • 1/2 cup + 2 Tbsp cocoa powder
  • 1 Tbsp vanilla
  • 1-2 Tbsp milk
What You’ll Do:

1. Beat the butter until soft and creamy. Add the sugar, and cocoa and vanilla and mix well. The mixture will get sludgy looking. Add 1 Tbsp of milk, blend and add more if necessary to achieve a creamy, frosting-like consistency.

2. Spread the frosting on the cooled cake and decorate with chopped peanut butter cups.

This is a very happy mess. 

*If you have the pleasure of living near a Trader Joe’s that sells their house-brand mini peanut butter cups, by all means use these! Drop them in as you would chocolate chips. Buy two containers. One for the cake and one for eating on the way home from the store.

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Drool Britannia

14 September, 2012 | | 1 Comment

We go to England once a year to visit my husband’s parents who live deep in the rolling green countryside of Herefordshire. Their neighbors are a bunch of sheep who live a quiet life in an apple orchard.  And like the sheep, we spend much of our holiday outside, eating a lot.  Every year I promise to bake my in-laws a cake; the solid English kind that goes so nicely with tea. My in-laws, who grew up during World War II, still react to sweets as if rationing were still on and glorm them up with such gusto and delight it’s tempting to make them a cake every day.

This year I opted for a chocolate cake. A good, old-fashioned chocolate cake. The kind I imagine saftig grannies made on a daily basis, back in the day when people had a proper dessert each dinnertime. The first cake I ever made was indeed a chocolate cake, with my Grandma Jenni at my side.

Cooking in another person’s kitchen always poses a challenge, and cooking in my mother-in-law’s (bless her cotton socks), was such an experience. To find “sandwich tins” (there was much head-scratching when I asked for layer-cake pans, until I remembered the lovely British term for a two-layer cake), involved taking apart a cupboard that smelled so much of rising damp (aka mold) I really wondered if I could overcome the odor to bake in them. Then there was the question of ingredients. Dear M-i-L doesn’t do a lot of baking these days, so that involved further head-scratching and yet her squirrel-like tendencies were rewarded and all was found.

I am pleased to say my cake earned me a kiss on the cheek from my otherwise non-effusive father-in-law.

This cake is simple to make. It’s ideal if you plan on sitting down with a grandma to make your first cake, or sitting down with your grandma to eat it. It also stays moist for days, just plopped happily on the counter with a bowl over it to keep the flies off.

In the back you see the London Olympics mascot beloved of my children, leering at the cake with his one good eye.

Perfectly Simple Chocolate Fudge Cake
What You’ll Need:
  • 1/2 cup cocoa powder, sifted
  • 6 Tbsp boiling water
  • 3 large eggs
  • 1/4 cup milk
  • 1 1/2 cups SELF-RAISING flour **
  • 1 tsp baking powder
  • 1 tsp vanilla
  • 1 stick (4 oz) unsalted butter, softened
  • 1 1/2 cup granulated sugar
What You’ll Do:

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.

2. Butter 2 8-inch cake pans and line the bottom with a round of parchment paper. (You can butter and flour these if you prefer.) (Or make cupcakes…)

3. In the bowl of an electric mixer, blend the cocoa and boiling water together to create a smooth paste. I recommend you do this by hand to make sure it’s not all lumpy, as then it won’t blend well with the other ingredients. I know this from firsthand experience. I was too lazy to do it this way, used the stand mixer and feh.

4. Add the rest of the ingredients. All of ‘em. That’s right. All at once. (I told you this was easy). Beat the mixture on low speed until just blended. Then raise the speed to medium and continue to mix for a few more minutes until a smooth batter has formed.

5. Divide the mixture between the two cake pans, smoothing the batter to the edge.

6. Bake in oven for 25-30 minutes, or until the center springs back when pressed lightly with your finger.

7. Let cool on racks for 10 minutes, then invert and remove pans. Let cool.

Ice with:

Very Fudgy Frosting

What You’ll Need:
  • 1 stick (4 oz) butter, softened
  • 3/4 cup confectioners’ sugar (sifted)
  • 1/2 cup + 2 Tbsp cocoa powder
  • 1 Tbsp vanilla
  • 1-2 Tbsp milk
What You’ll Do:

1. Beat the butter until soft and creamy. Add the sugar, and cocoa and vanilla and mix well. The mixture will get sludgy looking. Add 1 Tbsp of milk, blend and add more if necessary to achieve a creamy, frosting-like consistency.

Note: I have never been a big fan of confectioners’ sugar-based frostings, always finding them too sweet and and unpleasantly gritty. Not this one! Upon first taste this one seems sort of okay, not great. Wait an hour, or a day. The chocolate flavor blooms with age. I like to think I am like that chocolate flavor.

This makes enough icing to fill the middle and frost the top of the cakes. It doesn’t make enough to ice around the sides if you want to make it look like a proper American layer cake. This is a proper English sandwich cake, after all. If you want enough icing for the sides, merely double the recipe.

**Self-raising flour can be found at nice stores like Target. It’s worth having around. Makes things a cinch to bake. I will include a recipe for making your own shortly. If you need it urgently, contact me below!!

 

 

 

 

 

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Back-to-School Blondies

7 September, 2012 | | Leave A Comment

Maybe I watched too many afterschool specials when I was little, but the image of a kid coming home from school to a plate of warm baked goods still makes me feel warm and fuzzy.

So, though my house be disorganized, the laundry may sit in (clean) drifts on my bed and the paid work doesn’t get done, I returned from dropping my kids off for their first day of school and baked something for an afterschool treat.

To reinforce the housewifely image of perfection I seem to be trying for, I went to my mother’s blue three-ring binder of recipes she’d collected over the years for inspiration. In and amongst recipes written in my grandmother’s Edwardian longhand for Matzoh Charlotte, and ideas for onion soup mix clipped sometime in the early 1960s, I found the blond brownies my mother used to make. The recipe was from my father’s assistant secretary, Helen Shulman, who had typed it out very neatly on what was known as a (say it with me) typewriter.

To bring it up to 2012 suburban standards and add that sanctimonious factor I enjoy so much, I improved the nutrition of the recipe, substituting whole wheat flour and then adding 2 whole tablespoons of flax seed. But I also doubled the amount of chocolate chips. I have to eat these things, after all.I even used a wooden spoon, instead of my fancy Kitchen-Aid mixer, for the old-fashioned echt-itude. Quaint, no?

I am pleased to say they came home from school and glormed them up with a nice cold glass of milk. And I will admit, I felt a little warm and fuzzy inside.

Recipe note: You can subsitute an equal amount of all-purpose white flour if you don’t have whole wheat on hand. And leave out the flax seed. Or substitute wheat germ to up the B-vitamin content.Brownies as tan and golden as any of us would wish to be at the end of the summer. That said, I am pale and chocolate-filled.

Back-to-School Blond Brownies

What You Need:

1 cup whole-wheat flour

1 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

2 Tbsp ground flaxseed or wheat germ

1 cup unsalted butter, melted

1 1/2 cups light brown sugar

2 eggs

1 tsp real vanilla extract

1 tsp orange zest (if you wish)

1 cup chocolate chips

What You Need to Do:

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Butter a 9 x 9-inch square baking pan. (8 x 8 is fine too. Just bake them a little longer.)

2. In a large bowl, stir together the melted butter and the brown sugar until well-blended. Add the eggs, one at a time, and mix. Add the vanilla and stir for 30 seconds.

3. Add the flour, baking powder, salt and flaxseed/wheat germ and stir until blended. Fold in the chocolate chips and pour into the prepared pan. Smooth the batter evenly.

4. Bake for 30 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out with just a few crumbs attached.

5. Cool. Slice. Pile on a plate. Place in middle of table and roll cameras. Probably time for a Calgon bath now.

 

 

 

 

 

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