Sunday, September 9, 2007

Brownies

I made brownies to serve with the peanut butter ice cream. Chocolate and peanut butter are a match made in heaven. It was a mix, so no recipe for me to share. However, the mix employed a method that I haven't used before with brownies. I liked the technique enough that I think I might try it the next time I make brownies from scratch. By the way, the mix was from Williams-Sonoma.

The mix came in two pouches. There was a sugar pouch and a cocoa pouch. From the ingredient list, I'm guessing that there was nothing more than sugar in the sugar pouch. The cocoa pouch had the cocoa, chocolate chunks and flour. The baking powder and vanilla may have been hidden in either pouch. As I recall, that was it. To the mix, I added 4 eggs and a stick and a half of cooled, melted butter. Sounds like the typical brownie recipe so far. The odd part was that you're instructed to beat the sugar pouch and eggs in a mixer for 5-7 minutes until it's more than doubled. It gets very fluffy kinda like a meringue, but there are yolks, so not a meringue. Then you stir in the melted butter and cocoa pouch just until combined.

I wish I knew more about the chemistry behind brownie baking. These were good brownies. Their only downfall was they lack that flaky top crust that brownies are supposed to have. I bet Alton Brown knows the answer to how to bake the perfect brownie.

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