Which camp do you fall into? Or do you swing?
1) FUDGY- dense, with a moist, intensely chocolaty interior. I think of it as somewhere between a rich truffle torte and a piece of fudge.
2) CHEWY:moist, but not quite as gooey as a fudgy one. The chewiness seems to come from a couple of different factors: more all-purpose flour, and whole eggs.
3) CAKEY: a moist crumb and a slightly fluffy interior. When I mix cakey brownies, I use a bit of cake-baking technique by creaming the butter and sugar first and then whisking the batter to aerate the mixture and get a light crumb like my
Mascarpone Brownies.
After testing, tasting, and canvassing friends and colleagues I have officially, and maybe not temporarily, swung over to fudgy camp for these "caramely, salty, chocolaty" treats...
Mari Tuttle's Caramel Sea Salt Brownies. I have been happily converted!!!
I'll say right off the bat that I could never claim to be an expert on brownies—there are so many recipes, and everyone has a favorite. But there are definitely guidelines to follow so that you can make the style of brownie that suits your taste, whether it's cakey, fudgy, or chewy.
a) Start your brownies with melted chocolate. Whether you melt it with butter or not, use the gentle heat of a double boiler—there's no remedy for scorched chocolate.
b) All brownie recipes have enough chocolate flavor to satisfy a chocolate yearning, and they all have similar ingredients. Killer brownies don't need expensive chocolate!!! But because of the different proportions of these ingredients and varying amounts of chocolate, butter, sugar, and flour, the texture of each brownie is quite different.
c) In addition to ingredient proportions, baking time greatly affects the consistency of a brownie, so it's important to be attentive. Fudgy brownies baked three minutes too short can be unpleasantly gooey; chewy brownies baked three minutes too long become tough and dry.
d) Brownies will cook more quickly in metal pans than in glass, which is what accounts for the wide time windows in the recipes. If you're using metal, cooking times will be on the short side; with Pyrex, they'll be longer.
e) For all your brownie recipes, and regardless of the pan you're using, start testing for doneness after 20 minutes of baking. First, press your fingers gently into the center of the pan. If the brownie feels like it's just setting, insert a toothpick near the center.
-Brownies are underdone when smudges of wet batter cling to the toothpick.
-Brownies are just right when traces of moistness and fudgy crumbs cling to the toothpick.
-Brownies are overdone when the toothpick comes out perfectly clean.
f) For uniform squares, flip the cooled, whole brownie out of the pan. You'll have a much easier time cutting neat squares, with the option of cutting off the edges if you want to. Lining the pan bottoms with parchment makes it much easier to get the brownie out of the pan. If you don't have any on hand, waxed paper works, too.
g) Although it's awfully tempting to cut into a pan of just-baked brownies be patient. The flavor and texture of each type of brownie will be at their best when completely cool. Well worth waiting for!!!
Mari Tuttle is owner of Mari's New York, a New York based company that specializes in gourmet artisanal brownies. For more information about her company, please visit
her site here .
** Mari Tuttles Caramel Sea Salt Brownies**
1 stick (4 oz) unsalted butter
4 oz unsweetened chocolate
2 large eggs
1 cup sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3/4 cup unbleached flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup
caramel sauce, warmed*
1/4 teaspoon sea salt, preferably fleur de sel
Preheat oven to 350º. Grease an 8 x 8 square pan. Line with parchment; grease again.Sift flour; measure; resift with salt. Over double boiler, melt butter. Once melted, add chocolate; stir until melted. Remove from heat.
With hand or stand mixer, whisk eggs, sugar and vanilla extract together until fluffy and light in color; add chocolate mixture; mix until combined; fold in flour. Pour half the batter into pan; smooth top; pour half the caramel sauce over mixture; smooth evenly; pour remaining batter over caramel; smooth top again.
Drizzle remaining caramel sauce over top, in one continuous zig-zag pattern. Turn pan 90 degrees; with toothpick, drag tip through top caramel and batter layer making same zig-zag pattern.
Bake for 20 minutes, turn pan and bake for 15 minutes more.Remove from oven and sprinkle sea salt on top. When cool, cut into squares or bars. Enjoy!
**Caramel Sauce**
1-1/2 cups sugar
1/2 cup hot water
1 tablespoon butter
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Pour sugar into heavy skillet and caramelize over low heat; constantly stirring until it has completely melted and is light brown in color. Remove from heat and very slowly stir in hot water. Don't worry if sugar clumps, it will melt again when you reheat the mixture.Return the pan to medium heat; stirring to melt sugar clumps. Mixture will begin to boil. Continue boiling until mixture thickens and the boil isn't as rapid. Remove from heat; add butter, salt and vanilla. Strain if there are remaining sugar clumps.
Yield: 1 cup
As a member of BloggerAid-Changing the Face of Famine's project View and Review I was excited when I had the opportunity to receive products from the Loblaw's corporation. View and Review is a fun aspect of BloggerAid-CFF where our members have the opportunity to review cookbooks and products from the world over. All work and no play makes us all a little dull so we all get together and have a little fun while continuing to raise awareness for world famine. After all, most of our members are food bloggers and what's more important than food!!!!
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As a member of the Barefoot Bloggers I sometimes make sacrifices like making these "outrageous" brownies in the line of duty. These brownies are not for the faint of heart or for the heart conscious either since they use over a pound of chocolate as well as a pound of butter and coffee. But they sure are good!!!! Eva of I’m Boring had chosen Outrageous Brownies for this months Barefoot Blogger challenge. The recipe can be found in The Barefoot Contessa Cookbook.
**Neil's Shortbread Cookies**
If you're browsing your readers and looking for dinner ideas or something that will rock your foodie world move on quickly. I say quickly...!!!! This is not the post for you. What is for you, or perhaps for me, is a jaunt down memory lane through my childhood. The ever industrious Ben of What's Cooking -US has a monthly event Food for Plastic. I can only imagine what wonderful foods conger up memories from his childhood growing up with a family who owned a Mexican restaurant. Ben also sells Tupperware and this month Tupperware will be donating some of the profits from its sales to the Boys and Girls Clubs. 
Do you have a favourite holiday treat that requires little or no effort? This Almond Roca is one such treat. Not only is it easy, but, it is foolproof and over the top on flavour. This is one of those treats that the ladies have passed down from group to group...caramel, nuts, chocolate...you can't go wrong!!
After my post yesterday about a traditional Canadian treat of butter tart squares I had a few requests for another Canadian bar recipe... Nanaimo Bars. They are also pictured in the photo below.
