Absolutely Fabulous Brownies

I was talking to Rebecca yesterday, and she mentioned posting recipes that she made and loved in her blog, as part of using it as a journal. I love this idea, so here's what I've made recently.

Toasted Almond Apricot Muffins (From Muffins A to Z, by Marie Simmons)

2 cups flour
2/3 cup brown sugar
1 Tbsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 C buttermilk
1/2 C (1 stick) butter, melted
1 egg
1/2 tsp vanilla
1/4 tsp almond extract (didn't have this)
1/2 c diced dried apricots
1/3 cup sliced almonds

400 degrees, spray 12 muffin cups

Combine flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Stir well.
In a separate bowl, whisk together the buttermilk, butter, egg, vanilla and almond extracts. Stir the apricots into the dry ingredients. Add the liquid ingredients and fold until evenly moistened.
Divide batter evenly between muffin cups (I love this direction - do some people put it all in one muffin cup? How else do you make muffins besides dividing the batter between the muffin cups?) Sprinkle the almonds on the top (again, recipe says evenly - in case I was planning to put them all on one muffin.) Bake until tops are golden, toothpick comes out clean - 20 to 22 minutes. (actually 18 in my oven, and they probably could have been baked a few minutes less.)

These are good, not great. Could be because my buttermilk was a little old. I have a hard time using the buttermilk right away, and it isn't good for that long. But the kids liked them pretty well. I would try them again, with more apricots in the batter, cooked not quite as long, with fresher buttermilk. The one great thing about these muffins is that S didn't pick out the "chunks" since he likes dried apricots.

Classic Brownies (From Baking: From My Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan)

5 Tbsp butter, cut into 5 pieces
4 ounces bittersweet chocolate, coarsely chopped (I used semisweet baking chocolate)
2 ounces unsweetened chocolate, coarsely chopped
3/4 cup sugar
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1/4 tsp salt
1/3 cup flour
1 cup chopped walnuts

325 degrees, 8 inch square pan, lined with foil, foil buttered, place on baking sheet (oops I forgot the baking sheet)

In a heatproof bowl over a saucepan of simmering water, put hte butter, topped with the chopped chocolate and stir occasionally, just until ingredients are melted. Remove bowl from the pan of water.
With a whisk, stir in the sugar. One by one, whisk in the eggs. Add the vanilla and give a vigorpus whisking. Stir in the salt and flour, only until incorporated. With a rubber spatula, fold in the walnuts.
Scrape the batter into the pan and smooth the top.
Bake for 30-33 minutes, or until the top is dull, and a knife inserted in the middle comes out clean. Cool on a rack until room temperature. Remove from pan, peel off foil and cut into squares.

These are incredible. Rich, fudgy without being icky, chocolately, dense, oh so good. S and I made them together, and I let him do much more than I have in the past. He helped melt the chocolate and butter in our "double boiler," he cut the chocolate and the nuts, he whisked, he mixed, he cracked eggs, he measured, and most importantly he tasted! And we got to share some with friends tonight when we had impromptu dinner guests.

And since I've realized recently that I really like to bake, enough to have it as a hobby and do multiple times a week, I'm glad to discover just how much help he can be. Of course there is a little more mess to clean up afterwards, but it wasn't that much today. So I see more baking in our future. Of course, I forgot to take pictures of our brownies in processe (which I've realized is a necessary part of blogging about food.) Maybe next time, when we make the chocolate banana bread that I've wanted to bake all week. (tomorrow maybe?)