Extra-dark Brownies

I think that it could be safely said that I’m something of a fussy eater.  I know what I like, and if I do, I can’t get enough of it.  If I don’t like something, or I’m not in the mood for it, I just won’t do it.  Many people (Momma Bear and the sisters included) would go much further, and describe me as being downright picky.  I think that might be overstating it somewhat, and I like the sound of fussy better.

What does any of that have to do with brownies?  A lot of things!  I am very particular about my brownies.  They can’t be too sweet, and I don’t want a shit-ton of icing on there.  Sugar rushes have their place, but not in my brownie, thank you very much.  Also, no brownie of mine should ever be in any way, shape or form, cakey and dry.  I mean, if I wanted something cakey, I’d eat a piece of cake.  And who in their right mind wants a dry baked good?  Not anyone I want to be friends with.  So about a month ago, when I found this recipe at The Kitchn, for dark, not-too-sweet brownies, I had to give them a shot.  Since then, I’ve made them about seven or eight times.  That’s a lot of brownies!  But they’re soooooo good!

The original recipe at The Kitchn is actually for sea salt and lime extra-dark brownies.  For me, the combination of lime and chocolate isn’t an especially pleasing-sounding one (that’s my fussy side coming out).  So, I’ve never actually made these as the original recipe suggests.  I have however made two batches with a tablespoon or so of instant espresso powder dissolved in just-boiled water, and that was lovely.  The batch best so far, which is the one I’m sharing with you, includes cinnamon and a touch of cayenne, my rift on Mexican hot chocolate.  This was one of the (evil) sister’s suggestions, and I’m eternally grateful for the idea. 

Another difference between my version and the original; I don’t chop the last two ounces of chocolate to stir into the batter.  I just melt all 6 ounces of chocolate together with the butter, and it makes for wickedly rich, fudgey brownies.  Just like I like them.  I use 70-85% cocoa chocolate here; Lindt or the President’s Choice 85% chocolate are both great, but I’m sure any bittersweet chocolate will be good.

One last note; DON’T OVER-BAKE THEM!!  There is absolutely nothing worse than a dried-out brownie.  Ok, there are much worse things, but you want these a little gooey still when they come out of the oven.  And while you may be tempted to sneak a bite when they’re cooling on the counter; don’t.  Let them cool completely, and you’ll get the full, mind-blowing effect of these.

Super-extra-sexy, extra-dark chocolate brownies

adapted from The Kitchn

Makes 16 2-inch square brownies

1/2 cup + 2 tablespoons unsalted butter


6 ounces bittersweet chocolate, chopped coarsely

1 cup sugar


3/4 cup all purpose flour


1/4 cup Dutch process cocoa powder


Rounded 1/2 tsp cinnamon

Skant 1/4 tsp cayenne pepper

2 large eggs, lightly beaten


1 tsp vanilla


1/4 tsp kosher salt

1/4 tsp coarse, flakey sea salt

Preheat oven to 325°F and line an 8x8-inch baking pan with tin foil, leaving the paper extra-long and hanging over two sides.

In a medium saucepan, melt the butter and bittersweet chocolate over medium-low heat. Stir until smooth.

Remove pan from the heat and add the sugar, flour, cocoa powder, spices, eggs, vanilla and kosher salt.  Mix until combined.  Add the boiling water.  Stir to combine and pour into prepared pan. Sprinkle the sea salt on the top.

Bake for 30 to 35 minutes, or until a tester comes out moist. It will not be perfectly clean, but it shouldn't be sticky either. Allow pan to cool on a wire rack for 15 minutes before removing brownies from pan.  To remove the brownies, just lift out the foil. Place the brownies in the foil on the wire rack. Cool completely and cut into 2-inch squares.

La Poutine

Anyone reading this who knows me IRL, should know that I like cheese. And when I say "like," I really mean that if I were to suddenly become lactose intolerant, I would be the saddest person on earth. Needless to say, cheese+fries+gravy is my friend, and so when I saw that an all-poutine restaurant was opening on 109 street, I knew I needed to go at some point.

Since it opened a few weeks ago, other (more legit) bloggers, like Chris from Eating is the Hard Part, and Sharon at Only Here for the Food, had written positive reviews of La Poutine. My friend Rae and I made standing plans to go, and this past Monday, we made it there with our friends Shannon and Amanda along for the ride.

Others had mentioned that there was no real seating options inside, so Amanda grabbed us one of the two outside tables, while Shannon and I found our respective parking spots (a process that involved Shannon sending me colourfully-worded texts bemoaning the state of parking in the area).

Once we were all there, we took turns ordering. Rae got an Original, saying she was chickening out in the face of all the topping options, but also wanted to see how their poutine stood up by itself. Shannon and I both chose Canadians; Original poutines topped with bacon, while Amanda got a Quebecois, topped with Montreal smoked meat.

I ordered first, and honestly wasn't paying that much attention, which is how I ended up with a Large. Oh dear lord, the photo doesn't do it justice, but let me assure you that that is a bucket of poutine. A large is easily enough for two people.

We all really enjoyed our orders, the bacon on Shannon and mine was real, although larger bits may worked better, and the bacon was definitely really greasy. The curds were nice and sueaky, and held their shape quite well.

Rae really liked her Original, and said she will further expand her poutine horizons on her next visit. She's recently back from a holiday that included a stop in Montreal, and said that La Poutine holds up pretty well compared to the poutine she ate in La Belle Province. Amanda said the smoked meat on her's was good too. We all ordered our poutines with the default "Quebec gravy," but La Poutine also offers beef or vegan gravies, as well as vegan cheese.

As you can see from the photo, I didn't make it all the way through my bucket of poutine; I left behind about a third, and squeezed in a coconut-mango cupcake from Whimsical Cupcakes next door. ;D

La Poutine

8720-109 Street

Edmonton

(780) 757-7222

Whimsical Cake Studio Inc.

8716 109 Street

Edmonton

(780) 988-2253

Simple

More often than not, I'm more impressed by simplicity done well than by precious, over-complication of things. Case in point; sourdough bread, with homemade salted butter. My heart sang with every bite.

Sent from my iPhone

Super-awesome fun-times

Guess who scored free tickets to U2? This girl! That's who!

Hi, Bono!

As a side-note, over-priced Stadium beer is especially crappy. 7.50$ for a half-pint.

A Start to Summer

For me, summer is defined by its fruit; strawberries, peaches, nectarines, cherries, blueberries, rhubarb, raspberries. This summer, I have every intention of making the most of all of it.

The rhubarb plants in the backyard are perfect right now, so I was given the suggestion of making something delicious before they go to seed. While picking my rhubarb, I found a few spears of asparagus poking through the overgrowth. My dad decided last year, to grow his asparagus in a different part the garden, so his old plants, next to his rhubarb patch, have been ignored since last spring. The bed he had used before has very quickly, almost completely been taken over by chives, but in spite of that, four thin, perfect spears managed to poke through, and provided me with a bite of the freshest asparagus imaginable. I’m going to keep my eyes on that spot in the garden to see if any more brave asparagus rears its’ head. The new patch won’t be mature enough to harvest for a couple years, so this may be the only home-grown asparagus I’ll be getting for a while.

Back to the topic at hand, while strawberry-rhubarb is the better-known pairing, but the raspberries at my grocery store were, a) much nicer-looking than the strawberries for sale, and b) about half as much as the strawberries. That and Remedial Eating, one of my favorite blogs, recently posted a recipe for rhubarb and raspberry crisp. I found Molly and Remedial Eating only a few months ago, and it’s quickly become one of my favorites. Her photography is beautiful, her stories are funny and sweet, and her recipes make my mouth water.

I love fruit crisps, and I’ve made a lot of them, but they’ve only ever been just “okay.” Something was always a little (or sometimes a lot) off; the fruit would be too sweet, or too sour, too dry, or undercooked, not jammy and tart. The topping would be greasy, or sandy, and would rarely properly crumble. Sigh… The results weren’t ever BAD, per se, just not what I was expecting, and I’d eat my crisp feeling a bit defeated. I had a really good feeling about this recipe though. Maybe it was the photo of the perfect, slumped serving, juices pooling prettily on the plate, topped with whipped cream. Maybe it was how Molly took the time to advise you on how a particular amount of cornstarch in the filling would thicken the juices just so. Whatever the case, I was sold! I made it Saturday night, and again the next day for the Family’s Epic Lobster Dinner (To be described in further detail another time!). It was very much loved, and now I have a new go-to dessert!

A few notes on some adaptations I made for my crisp; I used whole-wheat all-purpose flour in my crisp, because I try to use whole-wheat flour wherever I can get away with doing so. The first time I made the crisp, I discovered that my brown sugar was granite-hard, and I did not have the emotional wherewithal to fix that (I have since found a nifty list of ways to soften rock-hard brown sugar.). I used an equal amount of white sugar, which worked out quite well, but I’m sure the crisp would have been even better with brown sugar. Also, I forgot about my first crisp while it was in the oven (surprise, surprise), so mine baked for about 50 minutes, instead of the recommended 30-40 minutes. Oops. It was fine though! In fact, as you can see in the photo below (I forgot to take any pics before we dug in) the topping is fine! No burnt topping here!

This would be great with a scoop of vanilla ice cream, some barely-sweetened whipped cream or some crème fraiche!

Rhubarb-Raspberry Crisp



(adapted from Remedial Eating)

4 cups rhubarb, sliced ¼” thick


12 ounces raspberries

¾ cup granulated sugar

3 tablespoons cornstarch


¾ cup whole-wheat, all-purpose flour


¾ cup Old-fashioned oats

1 cup sugar
(light brown is best, but white works fine)

Pinch of kosher salt

8 tablespoons (1/2 cup) salted butter, cut into 8 pieces, at room temperature

Preheat oven to 350°.

In a bowl, combine the fruit, the first amount of sugar and the cornstarch and toss lightly to combine, then pour into a baking dish.

In the same bowl (don’t worry about washing it out. I didn’t!), combine the flour, oats, sugar and salt. Using your (clean) hands, rub the soft butter into the dry ingredients, picking up handfuls and sliding it all between your fingers and palms. Keep going until there isn’t any dry flour lurking in the bottom of the bowl. The mix should now be an assortment of sandy clumps and loose crumbs.

Pick up small handfuls of topping, and squeeze gently to form large crumbs (peanuts to marbles in size). Scatter over surface of the fruit as evenly as possible, making sure you don’t have a big sand-hill of topping in the middle of the dish.

Bake for about 35-45 minutes, until your fruit is bubbling and jammy around the edges and the topping is golden-brown.

Allow your crisp to cool before serving, since the juices will be like napalm right out of the oven. I tend to prefer my fruit crisps at room temperature, because the topping gets a chance to soak up some of the juice.

Perfection on the Road

Nothing beats a nice cup of tea after being trapped in the truck for hours with my aunt's elderly dachshund.

Do-Over

I think I need to get some focus on here. At the suggestion of my (evil) sisters, I'm going to start doing something productive with my rather unwieldly recipe collection. I have more cookbooks than is entirely decent, and 200+ recipes saved in my bookmarks on the ol' Lappy 3000. I read food blogs the way normal people read the paper.

So, I'm setting myself some rules here:

• I must post at least once a week. We'll make Sunday my go-to posting day (no classes, and I'm not necessarily at work).


• Posts must include photos, since let's be honest, that's the best part of a food blog. I'm not allowed to use this as an excuse to buy a Cannon Rebel, as much as may I lust for one.


• I need to start cooking more, and start making headway through my stack of recipes, and I want the emphasis to be on healthy cooking, so that this does not turn into some kind of butter fest that goes straight to my ass. That being said, I love butter. :D

See you soon,

Kates