One of my best friends recently hopped on a plane to come and see me, which was awesome. Of all the things that we were looking forward to doing together one in particular stood out: we wanted to cook.
Some context perhaps. We used to live together, and while living together enabled each other's desire for good food and baking. Having now lived apart for awhile, we miss that. We still enable from a distance, but it's just not the same.....
Anyway. We spent some time at a coffee shop the other afternoon, and when we were leaving we contemplated taking home some of their brownies to enjoy later...until we saw the price! Five bucks a brownie after tax!! So we said no thanks and headed out the door and talked about what we could do to satisfy our chocolate craving.
Simple: we would make brownies instead.
Here's the math. One brownie from this particular coffee shop was $5 after tax, and so take home two would have set us back $10. Making brownies only ended up costing us $7...because I had flour, eggs, butter, cocoa and the rest of the basics in my pantry back at home. The $7 cost was for a bag of dark chocolate chips and some reese's peanut butter cups that completed a recipe yielding 16 good sized triple chocolate brownies.
Conclusion: $7 for 16 is better than $10 for 2.
Here's what you need to satisfy your own chocolate brownie craving:
-250g of dark chocolate
-1 cup butter
-1 cup all-purpose flour
-1/2 cup cocoa powder
-1 tsp baking powder
-pinch of salt
-4 eggs
-2 cups brown sugar (I used 1 cup brown sugar and 1 cup of splenda to lighten these up a touch)
-1 tbsp vanilla
-1 cup chocolate chips (or, in this case, chunks of reese's peanut butter cups)
The brownies are simple to construct.
1) Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
2) Melt butter and dark chocolate chips together. The cookbook that I got this recipe from suggests a heat proof bowl set over a pot of simmering water...but the microwave works just as well. (If you go the microwave route heat for about 30 seconds at a time to prevent the chocolate from burning.)
3) While the chocolate/butter mixture cools slightly, mix the flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, and salt together in a separate bowl.
4) Add the eggs, sugar, and vanilla to the chocolate/butter mixture and mix well. Add the flour and chocolate chips (or peanut butter cups, or chocolate covered peanuts, or just plain nuts.....) and stir until well incorporated.
4) Pour into a greased 9x13 pan and bake for 25 minutes. They're done when a toothpick inserted into the centre comes out with some crumbs still attached.....
Fear not the size of the pan: brownies freeze well. Makes a great treat....and costs a lot less than buying them one at a time!!
Some context perhaps. We used to live together, and while living together enabled each other's desire for good food and baking. Having now lived apart for awhile, we miss that. We still enable from a distance, but it's just not the same.....
Anyway. We spent some time at a coffee shop the other afternoon, and when we were leaving we contemplated taking home some of their brownies to enjoy later...until we saw the price! Five bucks a brownie after tax!! So we said no thanks and headed out the door and talked about what we could do to satisfy our chocolate craving.
Simple: we would make brownies instead.
Here's the math. One brownie from this particular coffee shop was $5 after tax, and so take home two would have set us back $10. Making brownies only ended up costing us $7...because I had flour, eggs, butter, cocoa and the rest of the basics in my pantry back at home. The $7 cost was for a bag of dark chocolate chips and some reese's peanut butter cups that completed a recipe yielding 16 good sized triple chocolate brownies.
Conclusion: $7 for 16 is better than $10 for 2.
Here's what you need to satisfy your own chocolate brownie craving:
-250g of dark chocolate
-1 cup butter
-1 cup all-purpose flour
-1/2 cup cocoa powder
-1 tsp baking powder
-pinch of salt
-4 eggs
-2 cups brown sugar (I used 1 cup brown sugar and 1 cup of splenda to lighten these up a touch)
-1 tbsp vanilla
-1 cup chocolate chips (or, in this case, chunks of reese's peanut butter cups)
The brownies are simple to construct.
1) Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
2) Melt butter and dark chocolate chips together. The cookbook that I got this recipe from suggests a heat proof bowl set over a pot of simmering water...but the microwave works just as well. (If you go the microwave route heat for about 30 seconds at a time to prevent the chocolate from burning.)
3) While the chocolate/butter mixture cools slightly, mix the flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, and salt together in a separate bowl.
4) Add the eggs, sugar, and vanilla to the chocolate/butter mixture and mix well. Add the flour and chocolate chips (or peanut butter cups, or chocolate covered peanuts, or just plain nuts.....) and stir until well incorporated.
4) Pour into a greased 9x13 pan and bake for 25 minutes. They're done when a toothpick inserted into the centre comes out with some crumbs still attached.....
 |
| Fudge-y, peanut butter-y, goodness. |
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