Best brownies by far!
Hear ye, hear ye! Canaday Library's own Barbara Ward Grubb won the top prize in the brownie category at the recent Bryn Mawr Bake-Off! Congratulations, Barb!
Baker Barb, who moonlights as the Visual Resources Specialist in Special Collections, has graciously offered to share her special recipe....
From Barbara Grubb: “Not my Mother’s Brownie’s”, based on “Palm Beach Brownies” from Maida Heatter’s Book of Great Chocolate Desserts
Ingredients:
- 8 ounces (8 squares) best quality unsweetened chocolate (I used Scharffen-Berger, available from Williams-Sonoma, which is 99% cocoa. Acceptable versions of this recipe have been made by Baker’s unsweetened chocolate.)
- 8 ounces (2 sticks) sweet, unsalted butter
- 5 large eggs
- 1 tbsp vanilla extract
- 1 tsp almond extract
- ¼ tsp salt
- 2 to 2 ½ tbsp dry instant coffee or espresso (the better the chocolate, the less coffee you need)
- 3 ¾ cups granulated sugar
- 1 2/3 cups all-purpose flour
- 8 ounces walnut pieces, if desired
Adjust rack one-third up from the bottom of the oven and heat oven to 425 degrees. Line a 9 x 13 x 2-inch pan with aluminum foil and very carefully butter the foil with soft or melted better. The easiest way is to place a piece of butter in the pan, place the pan in the oven while it is warming up, and when the butter is melted use a pastry brush to spread it all over the sides and bottom of the foil. Set the pan aside.
Cut the chocolate and butter into pieces and place in the top of a large double boiler over hot water on moderate heat, or in a 4 to 6 cup heavy saucepan over very low heat. Stir occasionally until the chocolate and butter are melted. Stir to mix. Remove from the heat and set aside.
In a large bowl, beat the eggs with the vanilla, almond extract, salt, coffee powder, and sugar at high speed for 10 minutes. On low speed add the chocolate mixture and beat only until mixed. Then add the flour and again beat only until mixed. Stir in nuts if desired.
Turn into prepared pan and smooth the top.
Bake for 35 minutes, reversing the pan front to back as necessary during baking to insure even baking. Cover loosely with foil for about the last half of the baking time to prevent over browning. At the end of 35 minutes the cake will have a thick, crisp crust on the top, but if you insert a toothpick into the middle it will come out wet and covered with chocolate. Nevertheless it is done—do NOT bake it any more.
Remove the pan from the oven and let stand at room temperature until cool. Then cover with a rack or a cookie sheet and invert. Remove the pan and pull off the foil lining. Cover with a cookie sheet and invert again, leaving the brownies right side up.
It is best to refrigerate the brownies as a solid piece overnight before cutting. If you don’t want to wait, you can still cut it (once it’s cooled) with a serrated bread knife. It will be necessary to wash and dry the blade several times while cutting. First cut the cake in half. If the brownies were baked correctly the edges will be dark and dry; trim about ¼ inch or so as necessary from the edges. The original recipe suggests that the edges will be too dark and dry to eat, but testers in the kitchen, supplied with milk or ice cream, had no problem devouring the trimmings.
Store in an airtight container. The original recipe says to serve cold, but there seems to be no reason why they can’t be eaten right out of the container.
Comments
betsy reese said on September 27, 2006 11:01 AM:[link to this]
Okay, more than three steps in the directions, like empty contents of pouch in bowl, add eggs, mix and pour, so how much does Barbara charge to make a batch?????
I had a tiny bite and it was the best brownie I ever had.