Tuesday, August 30, 2011

Recipe #1: Brooke's Best Bombshell Brownies

Recipe number 1 comes from allrecipes.com.  I love this website because I can search for new recipes and save them in my own personal recipe box without having to have a stack of recipe books lying around my house.

Brooke's Best Bombshell Brownies attracted my attention because it makes a 9x13 pan of brownies.  The simple list of ingredients also lead me to try this one first because I did not have to go to the store before making the treat.

I will admit that I had to make one ingredient substitution.  I did not have any semi-sweet chocolate chips in the house, so I chopped up some squares of semi-sweet chocolate instead.



I don't think one can go wrong with a cup of melted butter as a beginning for a recipe.
Three cups of sugar--yikes!

I went ahead and added the dry ingredients all at once.  In the future, I will be a good girl and at least whisk the ingredients first in order to break up the clumps of cocoa.  The cocoa did not remain in clumps once it was done baking, but I did have some moments of doubt about how it would all turn out.
I think my bowl is a little too small for this size of recipe.
The final product

The Review
on a scale of 1 to 5
  • Overall Rating: 3.5 
    • Recipe Difficulty
      • Rating: 1 (easy)
      • The recipe is simple and straightforward and the directions are easy to follow
    • Taste
      • Rating: 4 (pretty good)
      • The recipe has a good chocolate taste, but the brownies come out very sweet and almost candy-like (I think due to the three cups of sugar).  I prefer my brownies to be a little less sweet.
    • Texture
      • Rating: 3 (okay)
      • While not completely cake-like in texture, the brownies are not exactly fudge-like either.  They tend to fall in between both categories.  I also found the brownies to be a bit grainy (again I think due to all the sugar).
 
  • Hints and tips
    • The brownies taste better after they have had a chance to cool completely.
 
  • Would I make these brownies again?
    • I would make these brownies again if I needed to make a batch for a large gathering of people.
    • I might try making them with a little less sugar and see how they turn out.


Monday, August 29, 2011

Welcome to the Quest!

As a child, my mom typically made brownies from scratch.  She had a tried and true recipe that she always used that resulted in a cake-like chocolate treat.

Exposure to brownies made from a box mix introduced me to brownies with a more fudge-like consistency.  Since that time, I have desired to find a made-from-scratch recipe that more closely resembles the box mix. 

It would be simplest to just stick to the box mix brownie, but I prefer to make my treats from scratch.  Also, I do not always keep box mixes in my pantry, so I would like to find a great go-to recipe that I can make with the products I have on hand when the mood for a brownie treat hits.

Each week I plan to
  • try a new brownie recipe
  • follow each recipe exactly as they are written
  • critique each recipe

Don't be surprised if during the week I include some other new recipes and look at other baking related issued.  Please keep in mind that I am an amateur baker, so I hope to find recipes that the average baker can handle.  Who knows, perhaps my baking skills will increase with all this practice.

Please join me as I seek to create a list of great brownie recipes!