THE PERFECT BROWNIE - AT LAST!

If you've been reading for a while you know that I'm a confirmed chocoholic, and that I've been searching for the perfect brownie recipe for some time now. I have to wait until we have company so that I have an excuse to bake, and so that Art and I don't eat the entire batch. (Yes, even if a recipe is deemed 'not quite perfect', it's STILL chocolate, and of all the recipes I've tried, I've never found one that wasn't edible!) So....

Several years ago I discovered that substituting (American-style) brown sugar for all or part of the sugar will produce a gooey brownie, and that's a good thing. Additionally the brown sugar's caramel-y taste adds an extra richness and depth, so when I saw that this recipe called for equal amounts of brown and white sugar I was hopeful.

My ideal brownie is intensely chocolate, slightly gooey on the inside but with a shiny, thin crust on top. This recipe ticked all the boxes for me, and for now, this is the one, the brownie recipe I'll use until someone can convince I need to try another one! I used a combination of chocolate: half 60% Ghiradelli and half Lindt 85% chocolate, just because that's what I had on hand. I think using all 85% chocolate might have been too intense, but as I type this, I can't believe what I'm saying! Too intense?? Hmmm....maybe the next time I'll use all 85% chocolate just to see. I've also thought about using the drier brown sugar we buy here in Italy, just to see how much the gooiness is affected. For this recipe I loved the extra intensity of the dark brown sugar rather than light brown.

Here's the recipe, which I'm going to call

The Best Brownies EVER!

2 sticks (8 oz.) butter, more for pan and parchment paper
8 ounces bittersweet chocolate
4 eggs
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup dark brown sugar
1 cup granulated sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 cup flour

Butter a 13-by-9-inch baking pan and line with buttered parchment paper.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

In top of a double boiler set over barely simmering water, or on low power in a microwave, melt butter and chocolate together. Cool slightly.

In a large bowl or mixer, whisk eggs. Whisk in salt, sugars and vanilla.

Whisk in chocolate mixture.

Fold in flour just until combined.

Bake for 35 to 40 minutes or until shiny and beginning to crack on top. Cool in pan on rack.

Yield: 15 large or 24 small brownies.

As with most things chocolate, these are better if baked 1 day in advance.

LIFE IN THE STATES AND A CHOCOLATE RECIPE

Under normal circumstances, I would have already written about how much fun we had in the states, about how I indulged in some ‘only in America’ treats, and what special aspects of American life I really enjoyed. But these aren’t normal circumstances. When you’ve been sick so long that you start marking anniversaries, something’s wrong! Today marks the four week anniversary of whatever it is that has a hold of me. I’ve just taken the last of the second round of antibiotics, and although I feel hopeful, I’m remembering all the times in the past four weeks when I thought I was on the road to recovery. Apparently that road is as windy and curvy as the roads in Umbria!

As for what I enjoyed in the states, first and foremost would be the grandchildren. I didn’t get to spend as much time with Nick as I would have liked, but with school, hockey, my health, and his being a teenager, we just never seemed to connect. We did get to have a nice talk on Christmas Day, and I know we’ll be in touch via the phone.

Because we stayed with my son’s family for five days, we did get to connect with the grandgirls, who continue to amaze me. Miss M, at the ripe old age of 3 ½ can count to twenty in Spanish so fast it makes my head spin, is already learning about the presidents of the United States (and can name quite a few of them), and has the sweetest, most endearing personality….except of course when she’s having a meltdown, which makes me think she’s perfecting the “terrible twos” into the “terrifying threes”.

Our little redhead, on the other hand, continues to charm and to take charge. Six going on twenty six. Learning to read, excited about make-up, only too happy to put on an impromptu concert for her guests. Adorable, intelligent, amazing....the same things every grandparent says!


Winters here in Umbria are cold and gray, dreary and drippy. Visits to the United States remind me what a wonderful thing forced air heating is, and how much I love wall to wall carpet on a cold winter’s morning.

It seems that when we’re in Italy there’s always some item missing from my pantry….cilantro, or graham crackers, or grape jelly. Cheddar cheese seems to top the list of many, many expats as the thing they miss the most. And then we visit the states and all of a sudden I’m saying “Hey! I need some good pancetta!” I did take some new olive oil back with me… fresh, spicy oil that I couldn’t wait to share with friends! I guess I can find most of what I need in the states, but certainly not for what I’m used to paying for it! Even with the terrible exchange rate the cost of parmigiano, wine, and DeCecco pasta is double, maybe triple what it costs in Italy, because of course it has to be imported, but ouch!

While we were in the states my friend Judith wrote about her favorite new recipe of the new year: FUDGE PIE. Honestly, you know I was sick just by the fact that I didn’t make this recipe until today! It would have been a perfectly yummy, easy-to-make-in-a-tiny-kitchen-with-few-utensils recipe, but since we didn’t want to infect our friends who might still be healthy, we didn’t entertain like we’d planned to.

Anyway, today after talking with Judith, I decided to try her recipe. After all, if I was going to be sick forever I figured I might as well indulge while I could. If you read the entire post, you’ll see that Judith substituted brown sugar for ½ cup of the white sugar, and since this is something I often do to make my brownies a little gooier, I decided to do the same. I also skipped the 1 teaspoon of milk, figuring that the extra moisture in the brown sugar would cover that missing bit of moisture. I also made one change to the recipe itself before I printed it out, and I’ll mention this one for all inventive cooks out there who make up new recipes: I listed the ½ teaspoon salt BEFORE the ½ teaspoon of vanilla extract. I mean, it’s soooo maddening to be following a recipe line for line, ingredient by ingredient, and discover that I now need a measure of a dry ingredient AFTER that same measuring spoon has been used for a liquid ingredient! AARRRGGHH!

And how did we like this recipe for FUDGE PIE? YUM! It was more like a big warm (because of course we ate it while it was still warm!) gooey brownie than fudge, but let’s not get picky, okay? If it lasts long enough to have a piece when it’s at room temperature, I’ll let you know about that too, It’s just soooo quick, so easy, 2 bowls, one pie pan, 40 minutes (watch closely check it after 35 minutes just to be sure), and you’re ready to grab a spoon, snuggle up on the couch with the latest DVD you’ve rented and ENJOY! Let me know what you think…..and you might want to post on comment on Judith’s blog too!

BROWNIE OVERLOAD....WAIT! IS THAT POSSIBLE???

Over at ONCE UPON A TART, a yummy, yummy blog, Myriam has declared the winner of her Browniebabe competion, and believe me, we're ALL winners! Brownie recipes abound, each accompanied by pictures that will make you want to lick your computer screen. You can almost smell the chocolate!

My suggestion is to bake up several different recipes, invite a few friends over, break open a few bottles of red wine and let the fun begin!

A MICROWAVE MIRACLE!

Anyone over the age of 50 or so will remember the hype when microwaves were first mass-marketed. Microwaves were gong to be the answer to every cook's dreams...we'd be able to prepare everything from soup to nuts in the microwave, all while keeping the kitchen cool and saving hours and hours of time.

Amana's RadarRange looked like something out of "The Jetson's", and cooks everywhere bought into it. Cookbook after cookbook specifically for microwaves hit the shelves...then were quickly shoved to the back of the cabinet. Those cookbooks can now be found at second-hand stores and yard sales, relics of a marketing campaign that was more hype than practicality. Chicken was rubbery in taste and looked disgusting! Who wanted to eat a chicken that looked raw?

Eventually we all discovered what microwaves are good for:

• Defrosting stuff, but you still have to rotate and turn meat so that there aren't any hot spots,
• making microwave popcorn,
• heating up Lean Cuisine,
• reheating leftovers,
• melting butter
• heating water for coffee or tea

Anything else? I have to admit, that's about it for me. Oh, maybe I have heated Velveeta cheese to make queso, but since I haven't seen Velveeta since I moved to Italy, that one's no longer in my repertoire.

But today all of that changed, and I've actually found a recipe that BAKES in the microwave!!! This is a REAL recipe for a REAL dish....and the fact that the dish is brownies makes it that much, uh, sweeter!

My friend Janet Smith gave me this recipe. She told me that she used to make it when her kids were little, so I knew it was tried and true, but still, old habits die hard. When I think of making a pan of brownies, pre-heating the oven is still the first thing on my list. With this recipe you can have brownies in the heat of summer, and also in record time. I figure from start to finish, less than 10 minutes! Yes, you could make your standard brownie recipe and just eat the batter raw in less time, but if you actually want to have BAKED brownies in record time, this one's for you:

Microwave Brownies

3 oz butter (add a pinch of salt if using unsalted butter)
8 oz brown sugar (I used 4 oz light brown sugar and 4 oz dark brown sugar)
2 eggs
a few drops Vanilla extract (I used about 1/2 tsp)
3 oz plain flour
2 oz cocoa powder
1/4 tsp baking powder

Melt butter and sugar in a glass bowl in microwave.

Beat in eggs and vanilla.

Sift flour, cocoa, and baking powder into a bowl and mix in egg mixture.

Pour into lined microwaveable dish and on place an up-turned saucer in the microwave.

Microwave 4 1/2 to 5 minutes. Should still be sticky on the top.

If you do not have a turntable, 1/4 turn after 2 minutes.

These brownies turned out moist and delicious, with some nice, gooey spots as an added bonus.

If you have a brownie (or blondie) recipe you love, check out IS MY BLOG BURNING? to find out how to share your recipe with the world.