Tech-La-La - French Chocolate Brownies : TWD

It's been a hectic last week in Casa Shebake. I almost considered opting out of this week's challenge, until I saw it was brownies. I spent the weekend at my brother's house in Michigan to partake in my future SIL's bachelorette party. On top of that, I finally broke down and ordered an upgrade to my computer collection. The computer I usually use for every day stuff, photo editing, etc, is about 8 years old. I've tossed in enough upgrades and maintenance to make it last, but I was outgrowing it, especially with my DSLR upgrade last winter. So I upgraded to a nice shiny new quad core system with 2 fresh new Hard drives for the OS and storage.

Of course, even when I save time by ordering a computer pre-built, the first thing I do out of the box is rip it open and customize it. In this case, It needed one of the SATA cables replaced (too short), and to put in my blu ray drive/burner. I also needed to copy over a lot of my older files, so that whole process has been pretty consuming of the last few days.

Back to the brownies, I'm not a big raisin fan, so I started to think how to mix it up a little. I thought of a cheesecake topping, or a glaze, but the idea of flambeing something again was exciting, so I finally settled for some thawed blueberries I had in the freezer.

The batter was quick to put together, though with the suddenly warm weather, the butter ended up quite soft within an hour or so, as compared to the 1/2 day it takes in winter.

Baking took closer to 1 hr 20 minutes, and the top formed a quite crisp crust that crackled when I cut it. Inside, the brownies were quite moist and decadent, with a bright punch of flavor when you get a blueberry.

French Chocolate Brownies

- makes 16 brownies -
Adapted from Baking From My Home to Yours.
Ingredients

1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1/8 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon cinnamon (optional)
1/3 cup Blueberries, fresh or thawed from frozen
1 1/2 tablespoons water
1 1/2 tablespoons dark rum
6 ounces bittersweet chocolate, finely chopped
1 1/2 sticks (12 tablespoons; 6 ounces) unsalted butter, at room temperature and cut into 12 pieces
3 large eggs, at room temperature
1 cup sugar

Getting ready: Center a rack in the oven and preheat the oven to 300°F. Line an 8-inch square baking pan with foil, butter the foil, place the pan on a baking sheet, and set aside.

Whisk together the flour, salt and cinnamon, if you're using it.

Put the blueberries in a small saucepan over medium heat and cook until the moisture almost evaporates. Add the rum, let it warm for about 30 seconds, turn off the heat, stand back and ignite the rum. Allow the flames to die down, and set the blueberries aside until needed.

Put the chocolate in a heatproof bowl and set the bowl over a saucepan of simmering water. Slowly and gently melt the chocolate, stirring occasionally. Remove the bowl from the saucepan and add the butter, stirring so that it melts. It's important that the chocolate and butter not get very hot. However, if the butter is not melting, you can put the bowl back over the still-hot water for a minute. If you've got a couple of little bits of unmelted butter, leave them—it's better to have a few bits than to overheat the whole. Set the chocolate aside for the moment.

Working with a stand mixer with the whisk attachment, or with a hand mixer in a large bowl, beat the eggs and sugar until they are thick and pale, about 2 minutes. Lower the mixer speed and pour in the chocolate-butter, mixing only until it is incorporated—you'll have a thick, creamy batter. Add the dry ingredients and mix at low speed for about 30 seconds—the dry ingredients won't be completely incorporated and that's fine. Finish folding in the dry ingredients by hand with a rubber spatula, then fold in the blueberries along with any liquid remaining in the pan.

Scrape the batter into the pan and bake 50 to 60 minutes, or until the top is dry and crackled and a knife inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean. Transfer the pan to a rack and allow the brownies to cool to warm or room temperature.

Carefully lift the brownies out of the pan, using the foil edges as handles, and transfer to a cutting board. With a long-bladed knife, cut the brownies into 16 squares, each roughly 2 inches on a side, taking care not to cut through the foil.

Serving: The brownies are good just warm or at room temperature; they're even fine cold. I like these with a little something on top or alongside—good go-alongs are whipped crème fraiche or whipped cream, ice cream or chocolate sauce or even all three!

Storing: Wrapped well, these can be kept at room temperature for up to 3 days or frozen for up to 2 months.

Brownie cups gone wrong...

UPDATE- The husband, oblivious to my plight, took matters into his own hands, thinking the wrapped plate of brownies was supposed to go to his office. I spotted the missing plate, and my heart sank with an "oh no..." thought.
Apparently I worried for naught- The plate of semi-broken brownie bites didn't even last the 8 hour workday in his office. I guess they were too interested in the prospect of baked goods to notice their appearance. Ahh well.

So, along the same lines of trying to cook homemade things to keep the hubby or myself getting preservative-packed unknown junk, I try to make one batch of baked goods on the weekend for lunches and desserts through the workweek.

This week, inspired by Slow Like Honey's "Warm your heart of darkness" brownies, I decided to make a batch of single serving brownie bites. I don't usually keep M&Ms in the house, so I opted to add 1 cup of pecans and 1 cup of chocolate chips to the mix. Otherwise, i kept true to the recipe (posted below).

The 'miss,' however, comes in after these little morsels come out of the oven. Even after greasing the pan, this buggers are STICKY. Armed with a knife to free the edges, I tried to pry a few free of the muffin pan. This was easier said than done. I managed to pry out almost a dozen free of the pan, but even of those, 1/2 of them came out missing their bottoms, cracked, etc.

Despite theproblems in removing the brownies, they were indeed tasty. I suppose if I were to make this again, it'd be in a parchment lined pan, or another method that leaves them easier to pry free. Because I had a little extra batter after filling my muffin pans, I opted to fill 2 heart shaped dishes I picked up for $1 at target. While these had the same sticking problem, at a larger helping, they were perfect for sharing with the hubby with 2 forks right out of the dish.

Chocolate lover brownie bites....
Adapted from Slow Like Honey who Adapted from Sticky Chewy Messy Gooey
makes around 24 to 26 brownie cups depending on personal preference

Ingredients:
1 and ½ cups (3 sticks) unsalted butter
6 ounces unsweetened chocolate
2 and ¼ cups granulated sugar
1 cup firmly packed light brown sugar
6 large eggs, lightly beaten
1 tablespoon pure vanilla extract
1 and ½ cups all purpose flour
½ teaspoon salt
1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
1 cup of chopped pecans

Directions:
Position a rack in the middle of the oven and preheat to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Spray two standard 12-cup muffin tins with nonstick cooking spray.

Melt the butter and unsweetened chocolate together in a small saucepan over medium-low hear and stir until smooth. Pour the chocolate mixture into a bowl and stir in the sugars, eggs, and vanilla. Sift in the flour and salt into the chocolate mixture and stir until just combined. Stir in the chocolate chips and the pecans but do not overmix.

Fill each cupcake cup halfway with batter. Bake until the surface of the brownies has a glossy, crackled surface, about 20 minutes. Transfer to a wire rack to cool just enough to handle, then remove from the cupcake cups, running a knife around the edge of each brownie to loosen it from the cup. Let it cool completely on the wire rack. Serve immediately, or store for up to 3 days in a covered container.