Brownies

Every year when my girls were young I would make brownies on the first Friday of the first week of school. I figured they deserved a treat and they usually had arranged to have friends over to spend the night. The whole group was always excited to come home to a sweet treat.

They are so easy to make and they don't destroy the kitchen in the process. They are perfect to make while everybody is at school so that they have time to cool completely before somebody grabs one.

My youngest is starting her senior year in college and she attending school close to home so I decided to treat her. This time after seeing so many brownie recipes claiming to be the best, I decided to bake three different ones and let she and her friends decide which recipe is the best. I am making the ones I always make which should take her back to her childhood, another recipe using semisweet chocolate instead of the unsweetened one I am already making and one that I first saw in one of my cooks illustrated magazines that I recently saw adapted on the internet. I had made the cooks illustrated one a few years ago and I didn't care for them. They were just too gooey and you couldn't carry them with yours hands-they needed a plate.

I think the cooks illustrated brownies turned out almost exactly the same as the last time I made them, way to gooey and really hard to cut and plate. I cooked them a bit longer than last time but they didn't firm up at all. They don't have any leavening in them so maybe that is what I don't like. They remind me of some brownies that I made for a Christmas party, it was a Nigela Lawson recipe and they just wouldn't set up so I kept putting them back in the oven with no luck. When I finally had to serve them we scooped out the brownie with a plastic spoon, put a dollop of whipped cream on top and called them reindeer poop. Everybody loved them anyway.

Scarlet definitely recognized her childhood brownies and they are still her favorite. The semisweet version was popular for those that like a lighter chocolate flavor. All you have to do is substitute the Bakers unsweetened chocolate with the Bakers semisweet chocolate.

Brownie Recipe
3 oz. Bakers unsweetened chocolate
2/3 C butter
3 lg. eggs
1 1/2 C sugar
2 t vanilla
1 C all purpose flour
1 t baking powder
1/2 t kosher salt
1 C nuts opt.
Melt the chocolate with the butter in a pot on a a very low heat and whisk constantly till smooth. In a bowl beat the eggs, sugar and vanilla together with a whisk. Add in the chocolate and whisk till smooth. In a measuring cup, measure the flour then add the baking powder and salt then mix. Add this to the chocolate mixture and stir with a spatula just enough to incorporate. Add the nuts if you are using them.
Pour batter into a greased 9x9 or a small rectangle brownie pan. Bake at 350 for 28-30 min. Cool in pan on wire rack completely then cut in squares.

Here is a picture of all three brownies: orange plate are the brownies that is the recipe above, red plate are the brownies that used the semisweet chocolate, and the blue plate are the cooks illustrated brownies.

Banana Rum Coffee Cake with Browned Butter and Rum Drizzle

I had just made a pound cake that I had been dying to try, it was the pound cake from Chickens in the Road blogger with a pound of everything in it not just a pound of butter. It was delicious even though I opted not to put any kind of frosting or glaze on it but I don't think it needed it at all, it totally stood on its own.
My daughters told me they still preferred my pound cake which is posted on this blog as a citrus pound cake. It originally just had vanilla and nutmeg for flavoring which is delicious but I like the variation of citrus in the summer or the holidays.
Both Alexandra and Scarlet were leaving so I packed up what was left of the cake for them to take in the car. Scarlet and her boyfriend John were driving Alexandra up to Dallas to catch a flight to Spain to visit Samantha, my eldest.
My neighbor, Janis, had surgery and I had intended to take some of the cake over to her to aid in her recovery. Now with nothing to take over, I looked around the kitchen and saw an abundance of aging bananas so I started researching recipes looking for inspiration and this is what I came up with. The original recipe was a barefoot contessa banana cake that I spun off of. This coffee cake is scrumptious and just what I think Janis needed to help her feel better!

Cake
3 very ripe bananas
3/4 C sugar
1/2 C brown sugar, lightly packed
1/2 C canola oil
2 lg. eggs
3 T dark rum ( I used Zaya12yr. aged)
2 C all purpose flour
1 t baking soda
1/2 t kosher salt
1 t cinnamon
1/2 t  nutmeg, freshly grated

With a paddle attachment beat the bananas on low speed until mashed then add the next 3 ingredients and incorporate. Now add the eggs and beat until smooth. Next add in the rum. Mix the next 5 ingredients together then add to the wet ingredients in the mixing bowl. Beat until smooth. Pour into a greased and floured 9 in. round cake pan. Sprinkle crumble on top.

Crumble
3 T flour
5 T brown sugar
2 T butter
Cinnamon
In a bowl use a fork to make the crumble pressing the ingredients together into the size of large peas.

Bake in the oven at 350degrees for 45 min. Or until a toothpick comes out almost clean.
Cool for 15 min. Then using a plate turn out the cake and then put a plate on the bottom and turn over right side up to cool.

Drizzle
1/2 stick butter
About a cup or cup and a half of powdered sugar
1t vanilla
1 T dark rum
Put the butter in a small pot over med. heat and boil until brown stirring with a spoon occasionally. Take off the heat and add the powdered sugar whisking smooth. Pour into a bowl and add the vanilla and rum. Whisk smooth. Add more powdered sugar until it is a drizzle consistency. Drizzle over the warm cake.

The cake is super moist and fluffy in case you can't tell from the photographs. Really good on the second day too!