TWD: French Chocolate Brownies & My Blog's Birthday!

This week's recipe was french chocolate brownies, chosen by Di of Di's Kitchen Notebook. I wasn't too intrigued at first, but I'm so glad I made them! And I just realized that June 3 (today) is my blog's birthday! So it's a good thing I made brownies to celebrate. ;) I can't believe it's been a year already. I feel like I should say something more but I'm not quite sure what. I can say that I love being a part of the food blogging community and that there are so many amazing, caring and inspiring food bloggers!

I had my first taste of these brownies at 5:30am the day after making them. I wanted to bring some brownies to work, and the first piece I cut for myself ended up kind of falling apart. So I just ate it which was not so smart in retrospect considering the fact that I was barely awake and not able to totally enjoy it.

I was skeptical of adding raisins to a brownie, as I'm sure many other people were. But I thought I would trust in Dorie, and just see how it turned out. Well I was right about the raisins - kind of weird. You're supposed to flambé them, but my rum wouldn't light on fire (I thought it was supposed to be easy to light alcohol on fire?) so I kind of want to try the brownies again if I can figure out how to flambé properly. Aside from that though, these brownies were so very delicious. They're incredibly moist and somewhere between a chocolate cake and a brownie. Not the dense kind of brownie though, which usually I favour. At first I thought they could've been more chocolate-y but really they're quite perfect just the way they are, and they're not too sweet. I have no idea if the 1/8 teaspoon of cinnamon really made a difference in flavour.

I had to take the brownie photos with my cute new dish! I have no idea what I'm going to use it for but I had to have it.

Other TWD recipes I've made:
Pecan Honey Sticky Buns
Orange Berry Muffins
Pecan Sour Cream Biscuits

French Chocolate Brownies
Baking: From My Home to Yours

Makes 16 brownies

1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1/8 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon cinnamon (optional)
1/3 cup raisins, dark or golden
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 raisins in a small saucepan with the water, bring to a boil over medium heat and cook until the water 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 raisins 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 raisins 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.

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

Chocolate Fudge Soufflé Bars

As promised, here is another delicious baked item! This time it's chocolate fudge soufflé bars. I wasn't sure quite what to expect but the blurb before the recipe described it as "a chocolate fudge filling sandwiched between a crunchy brown sugar crust and a thin, crisp chocolate top". I just couldn't resist.

Since I used an 8x8 pan instead of 9x9, my bar ended up half crust and half chocolate fudge souffle, which was okay with me because I really love crust. The crust part was like shortbread, and the chocolate part was very soft and fudgey, with the promised slightly crisp top. Quite a delicious little bar that's something a bit different!

If this sounds good, you might also like:
Andes Chocolate Mint Cookies
Chocolate Pots de Crème
Chocolate Orbit Cake
Cream Cheese Brownies

Chocolate Fudge Soufflé Bars
125 Cookies to Bake, Nibble, and Savor

Makes 12 to 16 bars

Crust
1 cup unbleached all-purpose flour
1/4 cup packed light brown sugar
1/8 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup (1 stick) cold unsalted butter, cut into 8 pieces

Topping (Fudge Soufflé)
3 tbsp unsalted butter, cut in pieces
5 oz semisweet chocolate, chopped
2 large eggs, separated
1/8 tsp cream of tartar
3 tbsp sugar
1 tsp instant coffee dissolved in 1 tsp hot water
1 tbsp unbleached all-purpose flour

Make the crust: Butter the bottom and sides of an 8x8x2 or 9x9x2 baking pan. Put the flour and packed light brown sugar and the salt in the bowl of an electric mixer and mix on low speed just to blend the ingredients, about 10 seconds. Add the butter. Increase the speed to medium and mix until fine crumbs form, about 1 minute. (Some large crumbs, about 1/4 inch in size, will remain.) Transfer the mixture to the prepared pan and press it evenly over the bottom.

Position a rack in the middle of the oven. Preheat the oven to 350F. Bake the crust until the top is golden, 20 to 25 minutes.

Make the fudge souffle: Put the butter and chocolate in a heatproof container and place it over, but not touching, a saucepan of barely simmering water. Stir over the hot water until melted and smooth. Pour the chocolate mixture into a medium bowl and set aside.

Put the egg whites and cream of tartar in the large bowl of an electric mixer and beat on low speed until foamy. Increase the speed to medium-high and beat until soft peaks form. Reduce the speed to medium and slowly beat in the sugar, 1 tablespoon every 30 seconds.

Whisk the egg yolks, dissolved coffee, and flour into the chocolate mixture until blended thoroughly. Fold in half of the beaten egg whites, then fold in the remaining egg whites. Spread the filling evenly over the baked crust.

Bake just until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out with a few crumbs clinging to it, and the top looks firm, about 15-20 minutes. Cool thoroughly in the pan on a wire rack. Use a sharp knife to cut into 12 to 16 individual bars.

Eggnog Bars

More than a year ago, I took 125 Cookies by Elinor Klivans out of the library and fell in love with it. I had to have it! It was full of so many different kinds of cookie recipes with a little story before each one, general tips for packaging and sending cookies, and every recipe has some general tips including freezing and doubling guidelines. I think it's not a very popular cookbook as Amazon.ca didn't have it in stock at the time, and when I just checked now Amazon.com didn't either. (I ordered mine through the "used & new" link on the Amazon page). You'd probably recognize Elinor Klivans' other cookbooks, Big Fat Cookies and Cupcakes! And oh my I just discovered another cookbook I want while looking her up on Amazon, The Essential Chocolate Chip Cookie Cookbook.

Anyway, even though I've had this cookbook for a while, I've yet to make anything from it. I came across the eggnog bar recipe and thought it would be a perfect addition to our Christmas goodies. It's actually more of an eggnog cheesecake bar, but is delicious whatever you call it! It has no eggnog in it, but does have rum, nutmeg and cinnamon. The crust to eggnog cheesecake ratio is about 50/50 which I love, as I am a real crust lover. As for how it tastes, yes it is delicious but it's not super eggnog-y. Next time I'd add more spices, and make sure that I use dark rum (I used light rum). Maybe even add extra rum. The recipe also suggests that it makes 12 servings, but I cut it into about 30 little squares, which are just big enough to nibble on while also being able to eat other treats!

Eggnog Bars
slightly adapted from 125 Cookies (Elinor Klivans)

Nutmeg Graham Cracker Crust
2 3/4 cups graham cracker crumbs
3/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
10-12 tablespoons (1.25-1.5 sticks) unsalted butter, melted*

Eggnog Filling
12 ounces cream cheese, softened 3 to 4 hours at room temperature
1/2 cup sugar
1 tablespoon unbleached all-purpose flour
1 large egg, at room temperature
1 large egg yolk, at room temperature
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 tablespoons dark rum
1/4 cup whipping cream
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg

Make the crumb crust:
Position a rack in the middle of the oven. Preheat the oven to 325F. Line a 13 x 9 x 2-inch pan with parchment paper, letting the parchment paper extend over the ends of the pan.

Put the graham cracker crumbs, cinnamon, and nutmeg in a large bowl and mix together. Add the melted butter and stir until the crumbs are evenly moistened with the butter. Transfer the crumbs to the prepared pan. Using your fingers, press the crumbs evenly over the bottom and 1/2 inch up the sides of the parchment paper. Bake the crust for 8 minutes**. Cool the crust while you make the filling.

Make the filling:
Increase the oven temperature to 350F.

Put the cream cheese in the large bowl of an electric mixer. Mix on low speed until smooth, about 1 minute, and blend in the sugar and flour. Add the egg and egg yolk and blend in until smooth. Stop the mixer and scrape the sides of the bowl. Mix in the vanilla, rum and whipping cream. Pour the filling into the crumb crust. Sprinkle the nutmeg evenly over the top.

Bake about 25 minutes, or until the filling looks set when you give the pan a gentle shake.

Cover the pan loosely with paper towels or a tea towel and cool for 1 hour at room temperature. Take the paper towels or tea towel off of the top and refrigerate for 1 hour. Cover with plastic wrap and chill thoroughly in the refrigerator at least 6 hours or overnight.

*Original recipe calls for 8 tablespoons (1 stick) of butter, which is what I tried originally but the crust was so crumbly even after baking it. So I drizzled and spread more melted butter on top. In my notes I wrote 10-12 tablespoons butter.
**I ended up baking it for probably 15 minutes, but I'll leave the original suggested baking time in there because I did the crust a bit differently. Just bake it until it's firm and at a point where you'd want to eat it, as it's not getting any more baking after this.