Martha Stewart

I am in the process of forming my own definitive cookbook collection. This means that I own about 15-20 cookbooks, half of which are truly useful. The other half are gifts or hand-me-downs or book sale purchases that are pretty to look at, but haven't provided me with any solid recipes. Among the good ones I own: How to Cook Everything Vegetarian, The Joy of Cooking (a battered 1964 edition), Moosewood's Simple Suppers, and The New Food Lover's Tiptionary.

Books I still want to aquire: Heidi Swanson's cookbook, The Cake Bible, and Baking from My Home to Yours.

This post is about Martha Stewart! I have been desirous of her book, "Martha Stewart's Cookies," for so long, and have dropped so many hints, that my mother finally bought it for my birthday. I am in love with Martha's system of organization, and the beautiful pictures that accompany each recipe. While I'm not crazy about her level of perfectionism (I.E., "beat the eggs in electric mixer on medium until pale, or 4 minutes,"), these are some amazing recipes. This is the first one that I attempted, slightly revised.


Double Chocolate Brownies
Adapted from Martha Stewart's Cookies

6 Tbsp butter
6 oz semisweet chocolate, coarsely chopped
1/2 cup unsweetened, Dutch-process cocoa powder
3/4 cup flour
1/4 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1 cup sugar
2 large eggs
2 tsp vanilla extract

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Butter an 8-inch round cake tin. The original recipe calls for a square pan, but I wanted a sort of brownie-cake I could cut into slices.
3. Melt butter, chocolate, and cocoa powder in a pan. (TIP: I find that, when melting chocolate for baking purposes, it's sufficient to use a little butter and just melt it over a burner or in the microwave. The butter keeps it from scorching. Martha wants you to use a double boiler, or a "heatproof bowl over simmering water." In my opinion, this is totally unnecessary. As long as you keep stirring and make sure the butter has coated the pan, you'll be fine.)
4. Beat sugar, eggs, and vanilla together. Add cooled chocolate mixture.
5. Mix the dry ingredients with a whisk or fork. Add to the rest of the batter.
6. Spread the batter evenly into pan. Bake approximately 30 minutes, or until a toothpick or knife comes out with a few crumbs, but not wet. Allow to cool, and slice!


Here's another TIP: when you're making something like brownies, where the chocolate is the most important factor, use the best quality ingredients. Baker's chocolate will suffice if you're experiencing a major craving, but I would opt for something like Scharffen Berger, if possible. This goes for the butter and eggs, as well. You want to use fresh, good quality ingredients. Trust me. When I was in Mexico, I was persuaded to buy a giant glass bottle of pure vanilla extract. It has lasted me over a year and half, and has an incredible taste. I wish I could carry it everywhere with me. Anyway, the better your ingredients, the better the final product. This seems so simple, but I'm always forgetting it...

Next up on the brownie front: finding the best vegan brownie recipe out there!

Chocolate, Peanut Butter, and Monopoly

I found a recipe a while ago for Peanut Butter Swirl Brownies, but was inspired by the idea of Nanaimo bars, a Canadian treat, and decided to turn these into something similar. Normally these are made with a brownie or cookie base, a custard layer, and soft chocolate on top. I guess what I made could not be called Nanaimo bars for several reasons, one of which is that the center layer was not custard, but the baked peanut butter component of the original recipe.

To further complicate matters, I adapted the recipe for a muffin tin.

As you can see from the photo, the peanut butter layer was not as fully articulated as I would have hoped. However, I can assure you that the most important facet of any baked good (the TASTE) was, in this instance, on point.

Chocolate Peanut Butter Brownies

Brownie layer

1/3 cup butter
2 oz. unsweetened chocolate
2/3 cup flour
1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. salt
2 eggs, beaten
1 cup sugar
1 tsp. vanilla

PB layer

1/3 cup peanut butter
2 Tbsp. butter, softened.
2 Tbsp. sugar
1 Tbsp. flour
1 egg, beaten

Chocolate layer

4 oz. semisweet chocolate
1 Tbsp. butter

1. Preheat oven to 350. Grease a 12-cup muffin tin.
2. Melt the butter and unsweetened chocolate in a saucepan or the microwave. Let cool.
3. Beat the eggs and sugar together and add vanilla.
4. Mix the dry ingredients (flour, powder, salt) and incorporate. Lastly, add the melted chocolate mixture.
5. Combine all the elements of the peanut butter layer.
6. Spoon brownie batter into muffin tin. Then, spoon peanut butter batter onto the brownies, spreading with a spoon to create a layer in each muffin cup.
7. Bake for 10 to 14 minutes. Remove and let cool (I put them in the freezer for a couple of minutes).
8. Melt the chocolate and butter for the final layer, and spread over the cooled brownies. Place in fridge until firm. If, unlike me, you can wait that long.

Play monopoly (the General Mills version which purportedly is a collector's edition) and annoy everyone by getting chocolate on the board.

Yummm!

PS: The Pillsbury doughboy, while he did happen to mingle at times with the finished product, had no part whatsoever in the preparation of these brownies.