Brownies from The Food Charlatan

Brownies - made June 26, 2020 from The Food Charlatan

You know all the directions in brownie recipes that call for baking the brownies until the toothpick comes out "clean" or "with a few moist crumbs"? I decided to illustrate that in this post so people know what I'm talking about when I blog it and the difference you can expect between "raw" and "underdone" or "done enough". Note: not overbaked.

But first a shout out to a new source for unsweetened chocolate. I normally buy them by the hefty poundage from Scharffenberber, a 10-lb bag that costs enough for me to mortgage a piece of my soul. It lasts a long time though so I usually don't mind once I work it into my budget. But this time around, when I was getting low and it was time to reorder, it wasn't available on the Scharffenberger site. Erk.

But google is my friend so I was able to poke around on the internet and find a 5-lb bag from Cacaoholic. A 5-lb bag of unsweetened chocolate goes for $40 shipped. While it still requires a piece of my budgeting soul, albeit a smaller one, I needed a good bulk source. Chocolate is life and I can talk myself into anything. Plus I've been eating ramen and such to make up for the expense.

Back to the toothpick test. The first picture above is what the toothpick looked like after the brownie had been baking for 25 minutes. Every oven is different so never take the recipe baking guidelines as gospel. They're just that - guidelines. My oven doesn't run as hot as I'm used to. Normally I would check the brownie after 20 minutes but since I knew my oven lagged, I checked at 25 minutes. You don't want to check too soon or too often because every time you open the oven door, you let heat out and the temperature drops, thereby setting your brownie baking time back further. As you can see from the pic above, this is what I mean when I put in the baking instructions that you want a few moist crumbs on the toothpick, "not raw batter". Above is raw batter.

The second toothpick picture (always use a fresh toothpick for each test for doneness) - and sorry for the blurriness, my camera phone wasn't cooperating - is a little closer to doneness but there's still raw batter at the end. Not done yet.

Success at last with the third test, between 6-9 minutes after the last test. No raw batter and a few moist crumbs at the end. I don't like to bake until the brownies yield a completely clean toothpick. By then I always think the brownies will be too dry.

Here's what the texture of the brownies looked like with that third toothpick test, after they had cooled completely. Not dry, still fudgy, not too raw or underdone.

Since chocolate sets when it cools, you do have a little leeway. If you want a more firm brownie, you can bake a few minutes longer. A cakey brownie, potentially even a few minutes more. But I'll stick with my third toothpick test result.

Oh and the chocolate from Cacaoholic worked just fine in these brownies. This was a good brownie with a nice fudgy texture and flavor.

1 1/4 cups butter
4 ounces unsweetened chocolate, chopped
2 1/2 cups granulated sugar
1 tablespoon water
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
4 large eggs
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 1/4 cups chocolate chips

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line a 9 x 13 baking pan with foil and lightly spray with nonstick cooking spray.
2. In a heavy duty saucepan over medium heat, melt butter, stirring until foamy and browned bits form. Turn off heat and immediately add unsweetened chocolate. Whisk until chocolate is melted and mixture is smooth and combined.
3. Add granulated sugar and mix until combined. Add water and vanilla extract, whisking until combined. Add eggs, one at a time, mixing until incorporated. Add flour and salt, mixing until no flour streaks remain. Do not overmix. Fold in chocolate chips.
4. Pour into prepared pan and smooth top with small metal spatula. Bake until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out with a few moist crumbs, about 25 minutes.  Cool completely before cutting and serving.

Beef and (Ramen) Noodles

Beef and (Ramen) Noodles - made June 20, 2020 from Salt and Lavender

We interrupt the bar cookie posts for a random real-food post.

I went back to a ramen noodle recipe as I consistently seem to prefer noodles over rice. This was easy to make because you just throw the sauce ingredients together, boil the noodles, quick-fry the meat and toss it all together.

I am predisposed to like simple dishes, especially involving meat and noodles so this was a no-brainer for me.

The only cautionary tale is not to overboil the ramen noodles because they'll get too mushy and don't overcook the beef either as it'll get too tough. I'm not a big fan of sriracha so I went skimpy on it but this still tasted fine.

1/2 tablespoon olive oil
1/2 medium onion, sliced
1 pound sirloin steak (I used flank steak), sliced thinly
3 packages ramen noodles, seasoning packets discarded

Sauce
1 tablespoon soy sauce
2 tablespoons hoisin sauce
1 tablespoon sriracha sauce
1 teaspoon toasted sesame oil
juice of 1/2 lime
1 clove garlic
1 tablespoon water

1. Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Add the noodles and boil for several minutes. Drain.
2. Whisk together sauce ingredients in a small bowl.
3. In a separate skillet, add olive oil and, when heated, saute onion until softened and lightly browned.
4. Add the steak strips and stir fry for several minutes, until desired doneness. Add sauce ingredients and ramen noodles. Toss together until coated. Serve warm.

Butterscotch Toffee Blondies

Butterscotch Toffee Blondies - made June 25, 2020 from Spicy Southern Kitchen

Another toffee blondie recipe. If you're noticing a sameness to my recent posts, it's because all the brownies and bar cookies are still going in care packages for deployed military service members for Soldiers Angels and I'm still doing fewer chocolate desserts because of mailing in hot summer temps, both at their origin and destination.

I made a half recipe of this one (click on the post title for the full original recipe) as I was baking several things and wanted a good variety for each box.

At first the bar cookie raised uniformly and baked evenly. But towards the end, the sides continued to rise while the middle sank. It sank after I did a toothpick test in the center so I wonder if opening the oven door and poking in the toothpick released some air it shouldn't have.

But regardless of how it looked in the end, this was a pretty good blondie, especially if you like that brown sugar/butterscotch and toffee flavor combination. I also threw in the last of my pastel M&Ms to clear them out of my pantry so they added some chocolate and crunch.

1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened
1 1/2 cups packed brown sugar
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 tablespoon (1 1/2 teaspoons) baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup toffee bits
1/2 cup butterscotch morsels

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line an 8 x 8-inch baking pan with foil and lightly spray with nonstick cooking spray.
2. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat together butter and brown sugar until fluffy, about 2 minutes.
3. Add eggs, one at a time, mixing briefly after each addition. Beat in vanilla extract.
4. In a separate bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder and salt. Add to butter mixture in 2 additions, mixing briefly on low speed until just combined. Fold in toffee bits and butterscotch morsels.
5. Spread in an even layer in the prepared pan. Bake until toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean, 35-45 minutes. Cool completely before cutting and serving.

Coconut Toffee Bars

Coconut Toffee Bars - made June 17, 2020 from Chocolate Chocolate by Lisa Yockelson (originally called Classic Toffee Bars)

If you like coconut and toffee in a blondie bar that includes chocolate chips for a little chocolate fix, this is for you.

It's one of those easy, one-bowl recipes that take less time to mix than for the oven to preheat. It's also great for mailing in the summer heat as, barring the chocolate chips, it'll hold up in high temperatures. And even a little melty-chocolate chips add to the gooeyness of the bar cookies when they arrive.

This is definitely not something you want to overbake (none of them are) but especially this one as it can become cakey if baked too long and dry. Good flavor on this one and as always, I love the chewiness of the coconut. Use a heavy hand with the toffee bits if you like toffee.

1 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
8 tablespoons (1 stick) unsalted butter, melted and cooled
1/2 cup firmly packed brown sugar
1/3 cup granulated sugar
2 large eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
7 packages (1.4 ounces each) milk chocolate-covered toffee, such as Heath Milk Chocolate English Toffee Bar, chopped
1 cup sweetened flaked coconut
3/4 cup semisweet chocolate chips

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line an 8 x 8-inch baking pan with foil and lightly spray with nonstick cooking spray.
2. In a medium bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt; set aside.
3. In a large mixing bowl, whisk together the melted butter, brown sugar, granulated sugar, eggs and vanilla extract.
4. Add the dry ingredients, mixing in just until combined. Fold in toffee bits, coconut and chocolate chips.
5. Scrape the batter into the prepared pan and smooth top with small metal spatula. Bake until toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean or with a few moist crumbs, about 30 to 35 minutes. Cool completely before cutting and serving.

Oatmeal Toffee Bars

Oatmeal Toffee Bars - made June 15, 2020 from 125 Cookies to Bake, Nibble and Savor by Elinor Klivans

I was on a baking spree but exclusively making brownies and bar cookies for awhile. There were a lot of mail stop dates (MSDs) for deployed service members coming up on August 1 and, as volunteer bakers, we have to mail 30 days in advance of the MSD to make sure it'll get there in time. I had to switch to mailing in smaller priority mail boxes as it was getting cost prohibitive to mail in the larger boxes ($19.21 for a Regional B box vs $11.31 in a Regional A box to ship from where I live) but I wanted to mail as many boxes as I could afford.

When I mail in the larger box, I can fill it with a good number of cookies like Snickerdoodles, M&M cookies, and Chocolate Chip Cookies or even mini loaves of chocolate cake. When I switched to mailing in the smaller Regional A box, I didn't want to send that much less so I switched to brownies and bar cookies because it was easier to fit more of them in the smaller box. I made tried and true brownie recipes to include but, to mix it up and have something non-chocolate, I tried out this recipe for Oatmeal Toffee Bars. It was high time to go through my baking books and start using them again.

I'm glad I did because this turned out to be a great recipe. Surprisingly, out of all the things I baked for this round of care packages, this turned out to be my favorite. Yes, even eclipsing fudgy, rich brownies. I know, I was almost shocked. But this is a simple, just-plain-good bar cookie. Nothing fancy, just delicious.

1 cup unbleached all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
12 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened
1/2 cup granulated sugar
3/4 cup brown sugar, packed
1 large egg
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups old-fashioned oatmeal
1 cup pecans, coarsely chopped and toasted
2 cups (about 10 ounces) coarsely crushed toffee candy, such as Heath Bits

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line a 9 x 13 baking pan with foil and lightly spray with nonstick cooking spray.
2. In a medium bowl, stir together the flour, baking soda and salt; set aside.
3. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream together the butter, granulated sugar and brown sugar until combined. Add egg and vanilla extract; beat until combined. Stir in the oatmeal. Add the flour mixture and mix on low speed until just combined. Stir in the pecans and toffee bits.
4. Spread into an even layer in the prepared pan. Bake until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out sticky but not dripping with batter and the edges are lightly browned, about 25 minutes. Cool completely before cutting with a sharp knife and serving,

Seven Layer Bars

Seven Layer Bars - made June 15, 2020 from Shugary Sweets

This isn't really seven layers in a bar cookie. More like seven ingredients. But don't quibble because it's an excellent bar cookie and one of the easiest ones you can make, especially during summer when you don't want a lot of fuss.

Before baking

After baking

Melt the butter and mix with the graham cracker crumbs then pat into an even layer in the pan. Sprinkle and cover with the chips, nuts and coconut. Despite the measurements in the recipe, I never measure but just go by how much I want and how it looks. They need to thickly cover the graham cracker crust to make a bar cookie of decent depth. Plus, really, can you ever have "too much"? Spoiler: no.

Then cover the whole thing evenly with the sweetened condensed milk and bake for 20-25 minutes. Let it cool and enjoy some serious goodness.

1 1/2 cups graham cracker crumbs
1/2 cup unsalted butter, melted
1 cup semisweet chocolate chips
1 cup butterscotch morsels
1 cup shredded, sweetened coconut
1/2 cup pecans, chopped, lightly toasted
1 14-ounce can sweetened condensed milk

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line a 9 x 13" baking pan with foil and very lightly spray with nonstick cooking spray.
2. Combine melted butter and graham cracker crumbs in a medium -size bowl. Pat into an even layer in prepared pan.
3. Generously top with chocolate chips, butterscotch morsels, pecans and coconut, alternating handfuls of each. Pour sweetened condensed milk evenly over entire top. Bake for 25-30 minutes or until golden brown. Remove from oven and cool completely before cutting and serving.

Chewy Coconut Cookies

Chewy Coconut Cookies - made June 13, 2020, modified from Gouda Monster

Most coconut cookie recipes include macadamias and/or white chocolate. I tried this one because it was a straightforward coconut cookie and I love coconut.

I also loved this cookie. The dough was easy to work with and the cookies tasted great. I omitted the coconut extract that the original recipe called for and increased the vanilla extract, simply because I don't like the metallic taste of coconut extract. Just give me coconut.

It's very, very important not to overbake this cookie or else the texture will be too dry. The coconut makes this moist and chewy. You can err on the side of underbaking; just let it cool completely to let it firm up.

1 cup granulated sugar
1/4 cup brown sugar
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter
1 large egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 cups coconut
2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt

1. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream together the butter, granulated sugar and brown sugar. Add egg and vanilla extract; mix briefly to combine. Stir in coconut.
2. In a separate bowl, whisk together flour, baking soda and salt. Add to butter-coconut mixture in thirds, mixing on low speed just until combined. Do not overbeat.
3. Portion into golf-ball-size dough balls, cover and chill or freeze for several hours or overnight.
4. When ready to bake, preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line baking sheets with parchment paper. Evenly space dough balls on baking sheets and bake 15-17 minutes or until the edges are lightly browned and middles no longer look raw. Do not overbake. Remove cookies to wire rack and cool completely.

Double Chocolate Brownies

Double Chocolate Brownies - made June 9, 2020 from Martha Stewart's Cookies

I've been baking a lot of brownies lately. They're the easiest to package and ship in care packages and, once vacuum sealed, they have a better chance than cookies of staying fresh in transit, not to mention they're unlikely to crumble or break like cookies. They will also survive intense heat better.

The original recipe would make these as plain but I dressed it up a bit by adding chopped up chunks of Mounds bars to turn them into coconut brownies.

These were moist and fudgy, the two things I require in any brownie. The best way to bake brownies is to do the toothpick test in a corner first and the center of the brownie second. If it comes out clean in the corner but with a few moist crumbs in the middle, the brownie is at the optimal bake. The corners and ends won't be too dry and the middle will have baked enough to be fudgy when cooled but not too underbaked or mushy.

Every oven is different so I can't give you exact times when this optimal point will be reached. And you don't want to keep opening your oven door to poke the brownies and keep checking or too much heat will escape. I'd advise not even trying to test it until at least 20 minutes have passed. If the corner or edge isn't clean but has raw batter, then your brownie has longer to go.

I liked this recipe because it made brownies of a good thickness and the combination of melted bittersweet chocolate and cocoa powder ensures it has a fudgy texture and a deep chocolate flavor.

6 tablespoons unsalted butter
6 ounces semisweet chocolate, coarsely chopped
1/4 cup unsweetened Dutch process cocoa
3/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup granulated sugar
2 large eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line an 8 x 8-inch baking pan with foil and lightly spray with nonstick cooking spray.
2. Melt butter, chocolate and cocoa powder in the top half of a double boiler over hot water, whisking to combine until melted and smooth. Cool slightly.
3. In a separate bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder and salt; set aside.
4. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, beat together sugar, eggs and vanilla on medium speed until pale, about 3-4 minutes. Add chocolate mixture and beat on low speed until combined. Add flour mixture and mix on low speed until just combined.
5. Pour into prepared pan and smooth top. Bake until toothpick inserted near the center comes out with a few moist crumbs, not raw batter, about 35 minutes. Cool completely before cutting and serving.

Chewy Molasses Crinkles

Chewy Molasses Crinkles - made June 13, 2020 from Martha Stewart's Cookies

I haven't had a cookie failure in awhile. So the Baking Gods decided it was time to give me the finger. I'm a little up in my feelings about it too because this recipe is from Martha Stewart and I didn't expect failure to come from one of her recipes. Possibly user error? But I've been doing this for awhile and I don't think I made any mistakes with the recipe.

Then again, I don't like molasses cookies well enough to make them very often so I don't have the same level of expertise with molasses cookies that I do with chocolate chip cookies or snickerdoodles. I tried out this recipe just to have a different kind of cookie to include in care packages. That'll teach me.

First of all, the dough was too soft. After mixing it, I had to chill it just to firm it up enough to form it into dough balls. Always a bad sign. Even after I had chilled it for several hours, it wasn't that firm. I portioned into dough balls and froze them overnight.

Then I baked them. And you can see for yourself how much they spread. First World problem #2. I didn't make the dough balls that big either but the cookies spread like they were bent on thwarting me to turn themselves into a bar cookie mass.

The real insult to injury though - problem #3 - is the texture was way too chewy. I've made molasses cookies before that were actually the texture of - you know - cookies. These were more chewy than that. The tragedy is, in my baking hubris, I had vacuum sealed all but the taste test cookie AND packaged them up for mailing (seriously, they were already taped up in the boxes with shipping labels and everything) before I tasted the taste test cookie. Oops. Too late to undo everything. Sorry, soldiers, this wasn't my best work. Eat the other stuff in the boxes instead.

1/2 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
1 cup packed light brown sugar
1/2 cup granulated sugar plus 1/4 for rolling
2 large eggs
1/2 cup unsulfured molasses
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground ginger
1 teaspoon ground allspice
1/2 teaspoon salt

1. Put butter, brown sugar and 1/2 cup granulated sugar in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Cream on medium speed until smooth and combined, 2-3 minutes. Mix in eggs, one at a time, followed by the molasses and oil.
2. Reduce speed to low and gradually add the flour, baking soda, cinnamon, ginger, allspice and salt. Cover dough with plastic wrap and refrigerate until firm, about 1 hour to overnight.
3. Portion dough into 1-2 tablespoon(s)-size dough balls, cover and freeze for several hours or overnight.
4. When ready to bake, preheat oven to 325 degrees (I baked at 350) F. Line several baking sheets with parchment paper. Place 1/4 cup granulated sugar in a shallow bowl. Roll dough balls in sugar, coating completely, and evenly space on prepared baking sheets. Bake for 15-17 minutes, until cookies are flat and set. Cool completely.