Confession, When I get bored I have a tendency to cook. That can be good and bad. Calories in calories out right? I need to do some extra outage. Nevertheless, I believe that the greatest American dessert is (drumroll please)...BROWNIES.
I love them not only because they are chocolatey greatness, simple, and smell awesome but because I think the brownie's history is kind of interesting. The historic base of the brownie is that Bertha Palmer of the Chicago Palmer House Hotel where she believed that women should have desserts that were small enough to take into a purse and carried so the cooks at the hotel made chocolate squares covered in apricot sauce.
This however would converged with the fudge brownie that we all eat today. Tales say that a housewife in Maine (Bangor to be exact) I think named Mildred was attempting to back a chocolate cake and left out the leavening agent. Instead of tossing the lot into the garbage she decided to cut them into squares and make some money. Whichever one you choose to go with they both make me glad that we have brownies. Could it get more American?
I'm gonna hate for just a minute. Brownies are super simple to make from scratch so respect the brownie and kick the mix. I'll do you one better and give you the recipe that I use but I forewarn you it's not in the recipe its in the technique:
Awesome Brownies
1 2/3 cups granulated sugar
3/4 cup melted butter or margarine (that's 1 and half sticks)
2 Tbsp. water
2 large eggs
2 tsp. vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 cup Baking cocoa
1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
3/4 cup chopped nuts (you don't have to put these in I don't but I know some like nuts)
and Powder sugar
Technique
1. Preheat the oven to 350 F and you need to pre-treat the baking dish a 13 x 9 baking pan. You have two options you can you the typical sprays or the traditional way of buttering the bottom and dusting with flour. I think the spray is fine to use here unlike with cake batter. I feel like with cake batters the spray gets incorporated into your batter and that creates a situation where your batter is changed. Idk maybe I'm being ridiculous but I think a brownie batter is thick enough to withstand it.
2. As with any baking you have your "wets" and your "dries" that you always mix separately first. If you don't know, sugar is considered a wet because of its chemical composition. Nevertheless, you combine the sugar, melted butter, water, eggs, and vanilla extract in a large bowl. Make sure its completely homogenized.
3. You do the same with the dries in a separate smaller bowl: the flour, cocoa, baking powder, and salt. Yes salt, a tiny bit of salt is always used in desserts because it brings out sweetness.
4. Like always, fold in the dry ingredients into the wet ones little by little. I urge you to take your time. If you do it by hand then its a little slower but I think why rush a great thing? So take your time and make sure that it is uniform and homogenized that way you don't get lumps or white balls in your brownies.
5. Throw it in the pan and bake for 18 to 25 minutes but really I just go with two factors: the toothpick and the nose. I believe the nose knows and you test the center with a toothpick. When it comes out dry then you know it's ready.
6. Lastly, cut brownies with plastic not metal. Idk why this makes a difference but it does somehow. I heard about doing it and haven't stopped since.
7... Kind of, If you want, dust the tops with powdered sugar. I urge you to play with your food if you have the urge.
If your pan doesn't look like this after they are all done then you did something wrong for sure. For one reason if you have brownie stuck to the sides and bottom something went wrong or because nobody ate them and that's just a sad day.
Happy cooking peeps.