Store-bought from Scratch

Happy Fourth of July!!

Our town has fireworks the third, and the neighboring towns do it the fourth...so we get double!! Everyone's got their favorite ones: I love the ones that branch and the ones that trickle down like weeping willows, other people flip for the ones that change colors or the smiley faces or the hearts. Either way, fireworks are special because you don't get to see them most of the year.

So few things are rare anymore, given the internet. You could watch someone's youtube video of fireworks, I guess. Knock yourself out. But it's not the same! You don't get the whole perspective of their huge-ness.

And it's pretty rare, as families get older and children move across the country, to see each other.

In person. Not skype or facetime or google hangout.

Celebrate the rare moments of life!

A bench scraper makes cutting brownies super easy!

For our Independence day gathering, I made homemade brownies and homemade ranch dressing.
Two things that yes you can get from a box/bottle, but that's not rare! That's what happens in real, everyday life. Today, you have time to throw some ingredients in a bowl and have it taste miles better than a corporate chemical concoction (which, by the way, is darn good).
Both of these are one bowl, one whisk commitments.

So don't be shy! They won't bite.

From ingredients you most likely have in your pantry, these come together in a snap.

For the ranch, sub in what you like! I tried to use yogurt in place of sour cream (which was fine) and mayo (since I don't like mayo but without it the dressing was too tart and watery, for my taste), but then decided to add a bit of mayo. Experiment, taste with some carrots as you go, and don't sweat it.

P.S. If we had had some cream cheese open, I'd have been all over putting some in the ranch. I think it would have been great! Alas, we didn't, but you might!

See that crackly coating?

Chewy Brownies


Ingredients:

1/3 cup (1 ounce) Dutch-processed cocoa
1 1/2 teaspoons instant espresso powder (optional but delicious)
1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons boiling water (boil, then measure)
2 ounces unsweetened chocolate, chopped fine
1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
4 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
2 large eggs plus 2 large yolks
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 1/2 cups (17 1/2 ounces) sugar
1 3/4 cups (8 3/4 ounces) all-purpose flour
3/4 teaspoon salt
6 ounces bittersweet chocolate, cut into 1/2-inch pieces (or 6 ounces chocolate chips--that's 1 cup!)


Method:

1. Adjust oven rack to lowest position and heat oven to 350 degrees. Make sling by folding 2 sheets of parchment paper so that they are as wide as 13 by 9-inch baking pan (one 13-inch sheet and one 9-inch sheet). Lay sheets in pan perpendicular to one another, with extra hanging over edges. Push parchment into corners and up sides of pan, smoothing flush to pan (it doesn't have to be perfect!) Spray with non-stick spray and set aside.
2. Whisk cocoa, espresso powder, if using, and boiling water together in large bowl until smooth. Add unsweetened chocolate and whisk until chocolate is melted. Whisk in oil and melted butter. (Mixture may look curdled.) Add eggs, egg yolks, and vanilla and continue to whisk until smooth and homogeneous. Whisk in sugar until fully incorporated. Add flour, salt and chocolate pieces, and mix into batter with rubber spatula until combined. 
3. Transfer batter to prepared pan spread batter into corners of pan and smooth surface. Bake until toothpick inserted in center of brownies comes our with few moist crumbs attached, 30 to 35 minutes, rotating pan halfway through baking. Transfer pan to wire rack and let cool for 1½ hours. If your pan is glass, take the sling out of the pan after 10 minutes of cooling, so the heat-retaining glass doesn't overcook them!
4. Remove sling from pan (if you haven't already), peel sides of sling down, cut and serve. A bench scraper cuts the brownies nicely, just press down, don't drag it through the brownies. Store in airtight container at room temp for 3 days, if they last that long.

Recipe from Cook's Illustrated.

Ranch Dip
Yield about 1 1/2 cups dip


Ingredients:
1 cup greek yogurt (or combo of mayo and sour cream)
Buttermilk (or milk) to desired consistency
about 1/4 cup mayonnaise
1 teaspoon lemon juice
1 teaspoon Dijon mustard (my favorite thing in the world)
1/2 teaspoon onion powder
1/2 teaspoon salt (or to taste)
Black pepper (to taste)
1/2 teaspoon dried parsley (use fresh if possible)
1/2 teaspoon dried chives (ditto)
1/4 teaspoon dried dill (double ditto and a lot of alliteration)

Method:

Mix together the yogurt, buttermilk, and mayo first to the desired consistency, then add the rest of ingredients. Stir, taste, adjust, using what you have on hand!
Keep refrigerated and enjoy with everything!

Based off recipe from Serious Eats.

Chocolate Brownie Cookies

Today, I did everything you're not supposed to do.

My melted chocolate seized up so I added some water (why does it do that in the microwave? maybe too much stirring?) from our hot water spigot.
These cookies have water in them they shouldn't, long story short.

Ooooh, crinkly crust. How I love thee.

After the eggs and butter had been warming up on the windowsill, the eggs dropped on the counter and all three cracked. So I cracked them into another bowl and went on with life.

I didn't wait the full hour for the dough to chill.

I used Nestlé chocolate chips, not good chocolate. Oh and it was semisweet, not bittersweet.


Oh right. Plus it's January, and everyone's resolutions to eat well, be nice, exercise, not procrastinate, and save the whales.
Does the fact that these cookies only have three tablespoons of butter in them make them better?


When they came out of the oven, I plopped a droople of nutella on top of one and scraped the battery cookie onto a plate to scoop it up with a fork.
Into my mouth.

Photoshop could not fix the blurry, awkward coloring of this hastily taken camera phone photo...

Then I realized they were underbaked so, after eating half raw hot batter with nutella on top, the sheets of cookies went back into the oven after they had already sort of almost maybe cooled.

So what?

You know what the world said? The world is indifferent.
But my parents...my parents loved the cookies.

Common Scents: you don't have to do the recipe right for it to turn out delicious. And don't apologize for something you don't have to.

And,
put nutella on it.

Recipe from Joy the Baker.

Harvey Mudd Brownies

My brother's girlfriend, Courtney, is visiting for the holidays. There she is, in the picture, smiling and looking perdy!

This pan of deliciousness was hatched up by her inspiration. We were talking about Harvey Mudd College (since I'm a senior and college is sort of a ubiquitous topic these days). Her reaction:

"Harvey Mudd...that sounds like a brownie. You know what I mean? Like, maybe a brownie with peanut butter."

Thus was born the Harvey Mudd Brownie.

This recipe is from Brown Eyed Baker. My notes are in blue, and my suggestions for next time are in green!

Harvey Mudd Brownies

Yield: 24 brownies
Prep Time: 35 minutes | Bake Time: 30 minutes

For the Brownies:
1¼ cups (6.25 ounces...we just got a new scale!) all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons dark unsweetened cocoa powder
11 ounces dark chocolate, coarsely chopped
1 cup (8 ounces or two sticks) unsalted butter, cut into 1-inch pieces
1 teaspoon instant espresso powder
1½ cups (10.5 ounces) granulated sugar
½ cup (3.5 ounces) packed light brown sugar 

(or do like we did and make your own...you want a total of 14 ounces of granulated sugar plus 1/2 tablespoon molasses)
5 eggs, at room temperature
2 teaspoons vanilla extract

For the Peanut Butter Swirl: (We thought there was too much...hardly any brownie showed through the top)
1/4 cup (8 tablespoons) unsalted butter, melted
1/2 cup (2 ounces) powdered sugar
3/4 cups (6.75 ounces) creamy peanut butter
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Butter the sides and bottom of a 9×13-inch glass or light-colored baking pan. Line the pan with parchment paper.

2. In a medium bowl, whisk the flour, salt, and cocoa powder together.

3. Put the chocolate, butter and instant espresso powder in a large bowl and set it over a saucepan of simmering water, stirring occasionally, until the chocolate and butter are completely melted and smooth. Turn off the heat, but keep the bowl over the water and add the sugars. Whisk until completely combined, then remove the bowl from the pan. The mixture should be room temperature.

4. Add 3 eggs to the chocolate mixture and whisk until combined. Add the remaining eggs and whisk until combined. Add the vanilla and stir until combined. Do not overbeat the batter at this stage or your brownies will be cakey.

5. Sprinkle the flour mixture over the chocolate mixture. Using a rubber spatula (not a whisk), fold the flour mixture into the chocolate until just a bit of the flour mixture is visible.

6. Pour the batter into the prepared pan and smooth the top.

7. In a medium bowl, whisk together all of the peanut butter swirl ingredients. Using a spoon, place dollops (Courtney called these drooples) of the peanut butter mixture all over the top of the brownie batter. It's very important to droople it. Using a butter knife, swirl the chocolate and peanut butter, running the knife crosswise and lengthwise through the batters.

8. Bake in the center of the oven for 40 minutes (We needed some extra time, you might need anywhere from 30 to 40 minutes if you use a half batch of the swirl), rotating the pan halfway through the baking time, until a toothpick inserted into the center of the brownies (not the peanut butter part, since it stays gooey) comes out with a few moist crumbs sticking to it. Let the brownies cool completely, then lift them out of the pan using the parchment paper. Cut into squares and serve.

9. Store at room temperature in an airtight container or wrap with plastic wrap for up to 3 days.

And, it's New Years! What a way to celebrate! Do you have any traditions?
My family always watches the Rose parade the next morning, since my Dad hails from SoCal.