Fudge Brownies

I know I have a few brownie recipes on this blog, but can you really have too many brownie recipes?  These are my go-to brownies right now because they are easy!  You an give or take the instant coffee powder, but I always prefer to use it if I have it on hand.

Fudge Brownies (adapted from King Arthur Flour)

Ingredients:
4 large eggs
1 1/4 cups Special Dark Cocoa or Dutch-process cocoa
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon espresso powder or instant coffee powder (Starbucks VIA are yummy)
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter
2 1/4 cups sugar
1 1/2 cups King Arthur Unbleached All-Purpose Flour or White Whole Wheat Flour
2 cups chocolate chips

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 350°F. Lightly grease a 9" x 13" pan.  Crack the 4 eggs into a large bowl, and beat them together.  Next, add cocoa, salt, baking powder, espresso powder, and vanilla and mix untill the batter is velvety smooth.

In a medium-sized microwave-safe bowl, melt the butter by slicing it into tablespoons and placing it in the bowl.  It should take about 1 minute to melt.  Next, add the sugar and stir to combine. Continue to  microwave briefly, just until the mixture is hot (about 110°F to 120°F), but not bubbling; it'll become shiny looking as you stir it. King Arthur Flour claims that heating the mixture to this point will dissolve more of the sugar, which will yield a shiny top crust on your brownies.  Add the hot butter/sugar mixture to the egg/cocoa mixture pouring slowly into the bowl, stirring until smooth.  Add the flour and chips.

Spoon the batter into a lightly greased 9" x 13" pan.  Bake the brownies for about 30 minutes, until a cake tester inserted into the center comes out clean, or with just a few moist crumbs clinging to it. The brownies should feel set on the edges, and the center should look very moist, but not uncooked. Remove them from the oven and cool on a rack before cutting and serving.

Gluten-Free Brownies

OMG!  These are way better than I ever imagined they could be!  I have a friend who recently found out she cannot tolerate gluten and dairy.  We are going to her house tonight and I've been itching to try a GF recipe for her.  I bought a bunch of ingredients to make my own all-purpose GF flour a month ago, so I finally had the opportunity to make it for these brownies!

Let me just say that I LOVE www.kingarthurflour.com!  They really do have amazing flour and amazing recipes!  I go there time and time again for great recipes, so I found a recipe for the GF flour and these brownies with great reviews!  As I've mentioned before, I really love fudge brownies.  When I first started baking back in High School, I always opted for cake-like brownies, but my tastes have changed as I've 'aged.'  Although I have an appreciation for all brownies, I much prefer the fudge kind that are still a bit gooey!

I doubled the recipe so that I would have enough for both of our families, so the recipe makes enough for a 8x8 pan, but I used a 9x12 with double the batter.  I adjusted the brownies to make them dairy free as well as GF.  The brownies turned out very thick, moist and they had a nice crunch from the chocolate chips.

Gluten-Free Brownies (Original Recipe from KAF)

Ingredients:
1 1/2 cups sugar
1/4 cup oil

1/4 cup applesauce
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon gluten-free vanilla extract
3/4 cup Dutch-process cocoa or baking cocoa
3 large eggs
3/4 cup King Arthur Gluten-Free Multi-Purpose Flour or brown rice flour blend
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 cup chocolate chips, optional
1 cup chopped nuts, optional

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 350°F. Grease an 8" square pan.

In a microwave safe bowl, combine oil, applesauce, sugar and salt and heat for 1 minute on high.  Mix and transfer to a large mixing bowl.

Now, blend in the cocoa powder and vanilla extract and mix until the batter is smooth and well blended.  Add eggs one at at time until fully incorporated.

Pour the flour and baking powder into the mix and mix on low at first, then move to medium speed. Stir in the chips and/or nuts, if you're using them.

Pour the batter into the prepared pan, spreading it all the way to the edges.

Bake the brownies for 35 to 38 minutes.  Check with a toothpick and make sure that a bit of crumbs comes off.  I started checking it at 35 minutes, but I had to add an extra 4 minutes and then it looked great.  These puffed up quite a bit, but stayed a bit gooey in the center.

Remove from the oven and cool for about 15 minutes before cutting. Store on the counter or they also taste yummy in the refrigerator.

Yield: 16 brownies.

Vermont Honey Wheat Oatmeal Bread

The smell of bread rising and baking in my kitchen is so comforting to me!  While browsing the web, I found this recipe on the King Arthur Flour website.  I love their flour and they have a wonderful database of great recipes.  They also make a good gluten-free flour mix from what I've heard from my GF friends.  This is actually an oatmeal bread (one of my personal favorites), so I couldn't resist trying it this past weekend!  I made one loaf in the bread pan and one round loaf because I didn't have another bread pan of the right size.  The round one was good, but burned a bit on the bottom, but the bread in the loaf pan was amazing and it really made the best sandwich bread!

This bread tastes so amazing with a little bit of marionberry jam from Oregon (thanks to my BIL and SIL who provide us with our stock whenever we get a chance to visit).  I'm told the Marionberries are grown in the Pacific Northwest and that they are similar to blackberries, but much larger.  I think I will be making another 2 loaves tomorrow because I've got to have more of this stuff!  :)

Vermont Whole Wheat Oatmeal Honey Bread (adapted from King Arthur Flour - original recipe)

Ingredients:
2 cups boiling water
1 cup rolled oats
1/2 cup brown sugar (or maple sugar if available)
1 tablespoon maple syrup or honey
1/4 cup (1/2 stick) butter
1 tablespoon kosher salt
1 teaspoon Saigon-type cinnamon
1 tablespoon instant yeast
1 1/2 cups King Arthur 100% White Whole Wheat Flour
4 cups King Arthur Unbleached All-Purpose Flour

Directions:
In a large mixing bowl, combine the water, oats, maple sugar, honey, butter, salt and cinnamon. Let cool to lukewarm.

Add the yeast and flours, stirring to form a rough dough. Knead (about 10 minutes by hand, 5 to 7 minutes by machine) until the dough is smooth and satiny. Transfer the dough to a lightly greased bowl, cover the bowl with lightly greased plastic wrap, and allow the dough to rise for 1 hour.

Divide the dough in half, and shape each half into a loaf. Place the loaves in two greased 8 1/2 x 4 1/2-inch bread pans. Cover the pans with lightly greased plastic wrap and allow the loaves to rise till they've crowned about 1 inch over the rim of the pan, about 1 hour.

Bake the loaves in a preheated 360°F oven for 33 minutes.* Remove them from the oven when they're golden brown, and the interior registers 190°F on an instant-read thermometer.

Yield: 2 sandwich loaves.