Cocoa Brownies

Best spring break EVER!!

What a positive way to start off this post. Well, it’s true - WORLD’S BEST SPRING BREAK. I’m still on a high from the week’s events. I could just explode with happiness! Why, you ask? Well at the top of the list: I’m OFFICIALLY going to UBC next year! YEEEEEEEEEAAAAAAAAHHHHH! Housing is arranged, admission accepted and now I’m shopping for coffee makers and dorm furnishings! Too exciting, really - much too exciting. Alright, I know that really hasn’t much to do with the mediocre (yes, sadly only mediocre) brownies featured in today’s post, but I honestly couldn’t not mention that wee life changing fact. Actually now that I think about it I probably should have chosen a recipe that equals the EXCELLENTLY-BRILLIANT-MIND-BLOWINGLY-PERFECT quality of the week...oh well, not much is going to take away from this magic - not even mediocre brownies.

Right well, where to begin? Brownies perhaps, or possibly the delicious cookies I came across on campus? The brownies can wait, these need to be mentioned.

For those of you who are familiar with UBC you are no doubt already well acquainted with Blue Chip Cookies. For those of you who aren’t - well, let me tell you they are AMAZING! How would you like a marbleous, dark, fudgy, chewy, gooey, yet crisp, massive cookie, sinking in chocolate chunks and white chocolate heaven? So good they are sold by weight!! Yes, you choose the size (obviously the biggest one in sight), they stick it on the scale and there you are, delicious! I’ve featured my Java Nut cookie - the Marbleous didn’t last long enough to snap a photo (but it was oh so good! My favourite I think) Mmm...

Alright on to the brownies. Now, you see I have a tendency to mess around with recipes, sometimes they work extremely well (pardon my inflated head) but otherwise, well, they fail fearlessly. Ok, I admit I am being a little harsh, they were very good - excellent even - taste wise, though the texture was all wrong. They were more like a rich, moist, dense cake - not a fudgy brownie as I had hoped. I took the original recipe (which I made famous at my summer job, working in a golf course restaurant), figured 4 eggs was a titch too much, so decreased to 3, switched out some plain white sugar for brown and added a splash of coffee for flavour and moisture. I thought I had a bang on recipe, but alas I made cake...

Cocoa Brownies

adapted from Tantalizing Tuxedo Brownies (coming soon!)

1 cup margarine or butter, melted

1 cup cocoa powder

1 cup white sugar

3/4 cup brown sugar

3 eggs

2 tsp vanilla

1/4 cup black coffee, cold

1 tsp baking powder

1 1/4 cup flour

1/2 tsp salt

Preheat oven to 350℉. Line an 8x11-inch with parchment paper.

Melt butter, sift in cocoa powder and sugars. Add eggs, one by one, stirring well after each addition. Add vanilla and cold coffee.

Combine dry ingredients, stir into cocoa mixture. Pour into prepared pan and bake for 35 minutes or until a toothpick comes out with moist crumbs. Let cool, if you can.

Simple, eh?

04.12.2008

Cocoa Brownies & Blue Chip Cookies