I doubt you remember me asking in a previous post for ideas and recipes for homemade brownies that are as good as my favorite store-bought mix.  I say that I doubt you remembering it because I got no replies on it.  *giggle* oh the pain of being a pee-on blogger!

Well screw you guys because I found the answer on my own!  Boy did I ever!

When I first set out to find a perfect homemade brownie, I turned to Ina Garten because I almost always love her recipes.  They are decadent and gorgeous and I really thought she could knock my socks off with a good brownie recipe.  For the most part, I was really wrong.  Only for the most part.  It only took a little imagination, a few tweaks to the recipe and I got an “OMG THIS IS EFFING AMAZING” brownie made from scratch in my own tiny kitchen.  You can find the recipe that I used here, but I’ll give you the recipe containing the changes that I made to it.

Ina’s Peanut Swirl Brownies à la Somer

An Ina Garten (Barefoot Contessa) Recipe Slightly Changed By Me

1 pound unsalted butter (butter and margarine are NOT interchangeable here.  It has to be BUTTER)

1 pound plus 12 oz. semisweet chocolate chips, divided

6 oz. unsweetened chocolate

6 eggs (Ina always specifies extra large, but I always just use large and it’s FINE, I promise)

1 teaspoon instant coffee granules (Ina’s recipe calls for 3 Tablespoons, but it’s just too much.  A little dab will do ya)

2 Tablespoons pure vanilla extract

2-1/4 cups sugar

1-1/4 cups AP flour, divided

1 Tablespoon baking powder

1 teaspoon salt

Preheat oven to 375 degreen F.    Butter and flour a rectangular 9X13 cake pan (Ina’s recipe calls for a shallow sheet pan, but these brownies need to be THICK!  They’re about 1-1/2 inches thick and moist and dense and wonderful).

Melt together the butter, 1 pound of chocolate chips, and the unsweetened chocolate in a medium bowl over simmering water.  Allow to cool slightly.

In a large bowl stir, don’t beat, together the eggs, coffee granules, vanilla and sugar.  Stir the warm chocolate mixture into the egg mixture and allow to cool to room temperature.

In a medium bowl sift together 1 cup of flour, the baking powder and salt.  Add to the cooled chocolate mixture. Toss the remaining 12 ounces of chocolate chips in a medium bowl with 1/4 cup of flour, then add them to the chocolate batter. Pour into the prepared pan.

Bake for 20 minutes, then rap the baking sheet against the oven shelf to force the air to escape from between the pan and the brownie dough.  Bake for another 20 minutes and then start checking every 5 minutes until the toothpick comes out clean.  I have to be honest, I haven’t got the time down 100% yet as I’ve only made it twice, but just keep checking and it does eventually get done and the brownies are SO worth it.

In Ina’s original recipe she swirls peanut butter through the brownies.  It’s good this way but I didn’t want the peanut butter with the Icing I’m going to add.  It wouldn’t have been a good match, but feel free to try the recipe with the peanut butter because it really is quite delightful.

As if these dense, fudgy lumps of chocolate orgasm weren’t enough, I iced them with a rocky road cake icing.  The recipe comes from an older cookbook that I took from my mother and I always thought that this particular icing would be awesome on brownies…more so than if it were on a cake.  I was right.  Really right.

Rocky Road Frosting

The Illustrated Encyclopedia of American Cooking (1986)

1 6-oz. package semisweet chocolate morsels

¼ cup butter

2-1/2 cups sifted confectioners’ sugar

3 Tblsp. scalded milk

1 tsp. vanilla

1 egg

1 cup chopped walnuts (I used almonds.  My husband is allergic to walnuts.  Pecans would work too.)

1-1/2 cup miniature marshmallows

Melt chocolate over hot, not boiling water.  Combine butter, sugar, milk and vanilla in mixing bowl; beat in egg.  (Here I put the bowl containing the butter sugar and egg over the double boiler and just got it warm so that the egg isn’t totally raw.  You can take the chance, but I suggest you get that egg warm and stir CONSTANTLY so it doesn’t curdle.)  Add chocolate, stirring until blended.  Stir in walnuts and marshmallows.  YIELD:  frosting for two 8 or 9-inch layer cakes.

Just ice the brownies with this lumpy, bumpy, gooey mess of sugar and enjoy.  These are so freaking good you will not want to buy boxed brownies anymore….until you see the mess in your kitchen from making this.  Seriously, it’s messy.  But worth it, I promise.

Enjoy!

Related posts:

1. Chocolate Cupcakes with Peanut Butter Icing
2. A “Holy Crap” Dessert
3. My Brownie Conundrum

Finally, I promised myself that I would make them for Christmas.  I went out and bought a standard set of Linzer cookie cutters and added them to my to-do list for my holiday baking.  I bought the necessary ingredients and went to it.

I used the recipe provided by Joy of Baking which is actually a pretty reliable place to go online when looking for recipes for baked goods.  The recipe can be found here.  I’m not retyping it for you.  It’s really long and I’ve had a very long weekend.  I’m pooped, but I’m sure the people over at Joy of Baking will thank me for the additional page hits *cough cough brownies cough*.  It’s one extra small movement to click on the link to go to the recipe.  Go on, you can do it.

These cookies ROCK.  No, seriously.  People who don’t usually like cookies love these cookies.  People who don’t usually like to even EAT like these cookies.  That’s how good they are!  I used raspberry and peach jam for the middles of these and they turned out so good.

Try this recipe.  THIS VERY RECIPE.  I know some recipes for Linzer cookies are pretty much just shortbread jam cookies.  These cookies are special with the ground up toasted almonds in the dough.  Give it a try and make extra.  They go fast.

Enjoy!

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1. Christmas Cookies: New and Old

Don’t get me wrong, chocolate cupcakes are always welcome in my toothed face portal.  And peanut butter?  I have to buy that stuff in TUBS because we go through so much of it.  This should have been a great thing.  This should have made me cry little salty tears of sweet satisfaction.  I am underwhelmed, and that almost never happens with an Ina Garten recipe for me.

Here’s the recipe:

Chocolate Cupcakes and Peanut Butter Icing

2006, Barefoot Contessa at Home

12 Tblsp. (1-1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature

2/3 cups granulated sugar

2/3 cup light brown sugar, packed

2 extra-large eggs, at room temperature

2 tsp. vanilla extract

1 cup buttermilk, shaken, at room temperature

½ cup sour cream, at room temperature

2 Tblsp. brewed coffee

1-3/4 cups AP flour

1 cup cocoa powder

1-1/2 tsp. baking soda

½ tsp. kosher salt

Kathleen’s Peanut Butter Icing, recipe follows

Chopped salted peanuts, to decorate, optional

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.  Line cupcake pans with paper liners.

In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, cream the butter and 2 sugars on high speed until light and fluffy, approximately 5 minutes.  Lower the speed to medium, add the eggs 1 at a time, then add the vanilla and mix well.  In a separate bowl, whisk together the buttermilk, sour cream, and coffee.  In another bowl, sift together the flour, cocoa, baking soda, and salt.  On low speed, add the buttermilk mixture and the flour mixture alternately in thirds to the mixer bowl, beginning with the buttermilk mixture and ending with the flour mixture.  Mix only until blended.  Fold the batter with a rubber spatula to be sure it’s completely blended.

Divide the batter among the cupcake pans (1 rounded standard ice cream scoop per cup is the right amount).  Bake in the middle of the oven for 20-25 minutes, until a toothpick comes out clean.  Cool for 10 minutes, remove from the pans, and allow to cool completely before frosting.

Frost each cupcake with Peanut Butter Icing and sprinkle with chopped peanuts, if desired.

Kathleen’s Peanut Butter Icing

1 cup confectioners’ sugar

1 cup creamy peanut butter

5 Tblsp. unsalted butter, at room temperature

¾ tsp. pure vanilla extract

¼ tsp. kosher salt

1/3 cup heavy cream

Place the confectioners’ sugar, peanut butter, butter, vanilla and salt in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a paddle attachment.  Mix on medium-low speed until creamy, scraping down the bowl with a rubber spatula as you work.  Add the cream and beat on high speed until the mixture is light and smooth.  YIELD:  14-15 cupcakes

The above pictures inserted in the recipe should illustrate to you that things look as they ought to look.  The batter for the cupcakes was velvety and luxurious.  The fresh-from-the-oven cupcakes looked rich and moist, as they should.  Then I made the icing.

Maybe Ina used some sort of artisan peanut butter.  She does like to use more expensive and extravagant ingredients in her cooking.  But when I used my regular ol’ peanut butter and followed the recipes exactly, what I got was a globular mess.  I added a couple tablespoons of milk to try to thin it out just so I could spread it over the cupcakes, but it was still too thick.  I didn’t want to get in that battle of too much liquid/too much confectioners’ sugar and end up with something I couldn’t even use.  I tried to blob the icing on to the cupcakes, but the cupcakes were too moist and delicate that they crumbled.  So I basically just swiped on a knife-full and called it a day.  The cupcakes looked terrible.

They tasted good, though.  At least that first night they did.  Cupcakes and other confectionery treats tend to have at least a week shelf life.  These did not.  They pretty much need to be eaten fresh or they go to hell.  The cake dries out and turns into dust.  Not a good thing.

Fear not.  I will try this recipe again.  I will increase the icing recipe by 50% because it didn’t make enough for my liking and I shall have to work extra hard to make it into an actual icing consistency instead of blobular peanut hell.  I will also make sure to make this recipe when I know that I will be having company and that they will be eaten almost immediately.  I won’t give up.  This first try just wasn’t all that great.

Related posts:

1. Banana Pancakes Smothered in Peanut Butter
2. Triple Chocolate Ice Cream
3. A “Holy Crap” Dessert

I, myself, have been a fan of the Food Network since I was a teenager.  It used to be that I would watch simply because I loved to watch people cook.  My first favorite show on food network was The Two Fat Ladies.  This is an old school Food Network show that hasn’t been on the air for years now, but I adored these two British ladies and their quirky personalities as well as the succulent dishes they prepared.  I also loved how they traveled in a motorcycle and side car.  They were awesome.

Also, in the old days, I used to watch Emeril before he got really really huge on TV and got all annoying with his catch phrases.  I’d like to meet that guy in a completely mellow environment.  I bet he’s cool.  He reminds me a little of my grandfather.  I bet he’s a little crass, but a great guy all the same.  My mother and step-father worship the man’s cooking, and my mother is probably one of the most infuriatingly picky eaters ever, so that says a lot.

Rachel Ray….I hesitate to talk about her.  I’m not a fan, ok?  To be fair, I can understand why she is a celebrity cook.  She has a gimmick that is a great idea for weeknight meals.  She also seems to have a fantastic work ethic, which is needed in her business to achieve notoriety.  She’s like nails on a chalkboard, though.  Her personality is so abrasive and overboard, and I realize that might be part of why she is so famous, but I can’t sit and watch one of her shows all the way through.  One thing I will say about her, though, she actually looks like she eats the food she is hocking on her show.  Some of these celebrity chef-ladies are rail thin but are trying to sell you recipes of cakes, cookies, pies, cocktails, and other fattening dishes and it really bothers me because you can exercise all you want and you won’t get THAT thin by eating those kinds of foods.  Not even a little bit.

Alton Brown:  I love to watch his show.  There is pure entertainment going on in that show.  There’s also a lot of learning to do on that show.  HOWEVER, sometimes I find myself shouting at my television because Brown’s anal retentive tendencies go too far.  Last night, for instance, he was doing a show on French toast.  I make French toast for my family nearly every weekend.  I have been doing so for about 5 years.  I KNOW HOW TO MAKE FRENCH TOAST.  And you know what?  It’s not this horrible, long, drawn out process that requires me to be in my kitchen half the morning.  Still, I love his show.  I love the man.  What can I say, I’ve got love for nerds.

Ina Garten:  Her recipes are my favorite on the network.  Her style and her tastes are right in line with my own and I really just love her.  Because she is so laid back and proper, her show can be a little boring, but watching her prepare all of those beautiful dishes is almost worth the loss of a half hour from my life.

Paula Dean:  She’s DEEP Southern.  I’m BARELY Southern.  Her food is way too rich for my blood and her personality is too loud for me.  Look, I’m sure she’s a peach and a delight to be around, but I’ve known her type before.  Here’s a tip: the next time she prepares a recipe on her show sent in by a fan, listen for the little jab she always includes.  There’s never 100% priase coming from her, she always makes one little comment that implies that if she had created this recipe it would have been different and therefore better.

Bobby Flay:  He’s an Iron Chef and he’s super duper rich.  Why?  The guy consistently uses the same 10 ingredients!  Every chicken, meat, seafood, and pasta dish all have the same ingredients.  I like his show Throwdown because he’s a good sport, but seriously.  Branch out, dude!

Giada De Laurentiis:  She’s very pretty and I’ve enjoyed a few of her Grandfather’s productions.  I can’t honestly say anything bad about her.  I feel bad that she was kind of strong-armed into making nothing but Italian food.  After so many seasons, there are really only so many dishes you can make before it starts getting weird.  Her food is always pretty, and while some of them turn me off (for my personal taste), I really think she has a good thing going on.

Sandra Lee:  Some of her dishes are AWESOME.  Seriously, she’s got a good thing going on.  But, she’s one of those super skinny ladies I was talking about before.  There’s no way that she eats the stuff she prepares.  She sits in the kitchen and drinks cocktails all day…she has to!  But she’s got a nice personality, she’s attractive, and she’s got a great and marketable gimmick.

If I left out any of the other famous Food Network people, it is because they all sort of start to look the same if you step back far enough.  Food Network likes a lineup of wholesome, mostly white, gimmicky, older cooks.  It works for them and at the end of the day they are still a television network that has to make money.  I’d like to see more Latin cooks, and more African American (I like the Neely’s) cooks rocking the scene.  If we’re to explore the foodie scene and Food Network wants to be one of our guides, we need a little more culture going on!

Now, I can’t mention celebrity chefs without talking about Anthony Bourdain.  I’ve watched him since the beginning.  I watched his show “A Cook’s Tour” on Food Network all those years ago.  When he moved to the Travel Channel, at first I watched him every week for quite a few seasons.  After watching him for so long, I think that it is inaccurate to refer to him as a celebrity “chef.”  Yes, he was a chef and he has earned that title, but he is not really a celebrity for being a chef.  If anything, he is a celebrity FOODIE.  The man is actually foodie royalty.  A chef?  Not so much.  If you’ve ever watched his show, you’ll notice that people who have worked with him in the past take great pleasure in ripping on his cooking skills.  There was an episode where he went to Tuscany and horrified the locals with his cooking.  Let’s not insult the real celebrity chefs and put Bourdain where he belongs.  He’s a foodie.  And he’s a fantastic foodie from whom we have much to learn.  Eating for him is not so much a necessity as it is a pleasure.  He has no fear of strange foods, he relishes in the possibilities of trying new things, and he makes his eating a full-on sensory experience.  His personality stinks a little bit, he’s a snob to other American regions, and he won’t let go of his über-fandom of the Ramones.  In his niche, that doesn’t matter.  He’s a writer, world traveller, and foodie.  He’s famous for these things.

Andrew Zimmern is the guy who would take the dare to eat the yellow snow cone when he was a kid.  I like his show.  I’ve hidden my face behind my throw pillow more than once during his show so as not to watch him eat something horrifying (such as raw camel meat).  He also eats semi-normal things that I would like to try.  He has a great personality and he rocks the bald guy look.  He, too, is not really a celebrity for being a chef.  He’s a food critic and, again, the guy who will stick anything in his face hole.  What’s not to like about that?  He’s our generations version of Mikey (don’t get that joke?  He was the kid who would eat anything in the Life Cereal commercial and who apparently died eating pop rocks and soda..which of course was an urban legend).

I think that perhaps there is a little too much emphasis being put on these people on television.  I think that perhaps they are being placed high on pedestals that needn’t be there at all.  As foodies, home cooks, chefs, caterers, and curious neophytes, we all have the right to be level with these people.  Don’t be so quick to make idols of someone simply because they are on your television.  You have a kitchen, be it a hot plate and a microwave or a tricked out $80,000 kitchen that you never use, and you are just as capable of creating culinary gold as any of these people on the television.  Learn a little from them, if you like, but see them as a possibility of your future self.

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I decided to try an ice cream that I’ve heard of many times and never tried.  Boy am I glad that I made this because it was amazing!  This is a recipe from Ina Garten and I will definitely be making this many more times.  Unlike the candy bar ice cream I showed you earlier this week, this ice cream has a custard base so there is a little more prep time but the ice cream is creamier, richer, and thicker.  Here’s the recipe:

Espresso Ice Cream

Copyright, 2002, Barefoot Contessa Family Style, All Rights Reserved

Ingredients

* 3 cups half-and-half

* 6 extra-large egg yolks

* 2/3 cup sugar

* Pinch salt

* 2 1/2 tablespoons ground espresso coffee beans, decaffeinated or regular

* 1 tablespoon coffee liqueur (recommended: Kahlua)

* 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

* 4 ounces (1/2 cup) chocolate-covered espresso beans, chopped

Directions

Heat the half-and-half until it forms bubbles around the edge of the pan and steam starts to rise. Meanwhile, in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat the egg yolks, sugar, and salt until mixed. Slowly add the hot half-and-half until combined. Wipe out the pan and pour the mixture back into the clean pan. Cook over medium-low heat, stirring constantly with a wooden spoon, for 5 to 10 minutes, until it’s thickened and the cream coats the back of the spoon.

Pour the cream through a fine-meshed sieve into a bowl. Add the ground espresso beans, coffee liqueur, and vanilla and refrigerate until completely chilled.  (Somer’s NOTE:  When you put the plastic wrap over the mixture, put the wrap right on top of the liquid so that a skin doesn’t form.)

Pour the espresso cream into an ice-cream freezer and freeze according to the manufacturer’s directions. Mix in the chopped espresso beans, spoon into a container, and allow to freeze for a few hours. Soften slightly before serving.

This is an elegant ice cream.  I wouldn’t be afraid to serve this at a nice dinner, it’s that good.  You might not want to let your kids have any of this though, unless you enjoy have super hyper children bouncing off the walls.  Enjoy!

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1. Candy Bar Ice Cream