Ice Cream Sunday: Kahlua & Amaretto Ice Cream

I usually don’t have tons of alcohol hanging around the house, but I do keep a bottle of Kahlua on hand for the espresso ice cream I love to make. And during the holidays, I had purchased a mini bottle of Amaretto for a cookie recipe which I never got around to making. Lo and behold, the Ben & Jerry’s ice cream book contains a recipe using both types of alcohol, and boy is it delish! You get the coffee flavor from the Kahlua with a nutty kick from the amaretto. Yummy! If I can manage to not eat it all straight from the container, I have an idea or two for using this in other dessert recipes…

By the way, when I make Ben & Jerry’s recipes, the whipping of the eggs with the sugar makes for a very light and fluffy ice cream which is always super easy to scoop, even straight out of the freezer.

Kahlua & Amaretto Ice Cream

Printer-Friendly Version

INGREDIENTS

• 2 eggs
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 2 cups heavy cream
• 1 cup milk
• 1/4 cup Kahlua
• 1/4 cup amaretto liqueur

DIRECTIONS

1. Using a hand mixer, mix the eggs in a large bowl at low-medium speed until light and fluffly, about 1-2 minutes.
2. Continuing mixing, adding sugar a little at a time, until completely blended, about 1 minute more.
3. Pour in cream, milk, Kahula, and Amaretto; continue mixing until blended.
4. Transfer ice cream base to an ice cream maker and freeze according to manufacturer’s instructions.

SOURCE: Ben & Jerry’s Homemade Ice Cream & Dessert Book

Hot Cocoa Mix

About a month ago, a craving for hot chocolate hit…hard. I’m usually a tea drinker, so where this craving came from, I don’t know. But I began looking for hot chocolate recipes. I wanted rich, creamy hot chocolate. Not grainy. Not powdery-tasting. Not watered down. Just smooth and with depth of flavor.

I came across some recipes requiring melting the chocolate. Well, that sounded promising. But it didn’t knock my socks off. I found the chocolate didn’t blend with the milk enough, even after whirring it around in my blender. It just got all frothy and then the heaviness of the melted chocolate sank to the bottom.

Some called for semisweet as well as bittersweet chocolate AND cocoa powder all blended together into a fine powder using the food processor. The hot chocolate tasted fine, but it didn’t blow me away. Something was still missing.

I knew I had seen a recipe from the amazing folks at America’s Test Kitchen somewhere ages ago. Lo and behold, it showed up again in the midst of my hot chocolate cravings on one of their weekly e-newsletters. Don’t you just love how life magically works like that sometimes?

The recipe ingredients include nonfat dry milk, powdered sugar, and white chocolate chips. Luckily, I had all of those on hand. The dry milk and the white chips were leftovers from other recipes, and confectioner’s sugar is a staple in my baking pantry.

According to the ATK folks, the dry milk enhances the dairy flavor of the hot chocolate, and using milk rather than water creates an even richer, creamier product. The powdered sugar dissolves more quickly than granulated sugar and aids in thickening the drink. As for the white chocolate chips, they add that depth of flavor I was looking for as well as enhancing the overall creaminess. If you don’t usually stock these items, it’s worth buying them to make this hot cocoa mix. Even better, mix up a giant batch and package them up for gifts (make note of that for next year’s holiday gifts).

So here it is, a dreamy creamy  complex-flavored cup of hot chocolate. Well, it’s the  base powder mix for many cups of hot chocolate. Enjoy!

P.S. I saw a blog post in my perusals today in which the person added some chai spice to the hot cocoa, so I tried it. Yum! Like I said, I’m a tea drinker and chai is my favorite, so I always keep a chai mix on hand. I’ve added the chai to the recipe below as an option.

P.S.S. The treat pictured with the hot chocolate is a scrumptious Blueberry Muffin, a mighty fabulous recipe if you ask me!

Hot Cocoa Mix

Printer-Friendly Version

INGREDIENTS

• 1 cup nonfat dry milk
• 2 cups confectioner’s sugar
• 1 1/2 cups Dutch-processed cocoa powder (I’m sure you can use Hershey’s but the fancier cocoa has a superior flavor)
• 1 1/2 cups white chocolate chips (I used Ghirardelli)
• 1/4 tsp. salt

DIRECTIONS

1. Place all ingredients into a food processor. Pulse until white chocolate chips are finely ground.
2. Stir 1/3 cup of the hot cocoa mix into 1 cup of hot milk. (For a subtle chai flavor, add 1/4 tsp. of chai spice. Make your own: 1/8 tsp. ginger, 1/8 tsp. cinnamon, pinch of cloves)
3. Garnish with whipped cream & chocolate shavings or with mini marshmallows.
4. Cocoa mix will last for up to 3 months in an airtight container.

SOURCE: adapted from weekly e-newsletter from America’s Test Kitchen

Great Granola (seriously!)

If you have yet to check out the blog thekitchn.com, please do! It’s chock full of fantastic articles, tips, and recipes. In the handful of months since I’ve discovered the site, I have found numerous tips and recipes that have made their way into my kitchen. One of my favorite recipes to grace my files from thekitchn.com is this granola recipe, from granola queen Megan Gordon, owner of Marge Granola. I’ve posted an almond granola recipe before, which I adore. However, this recipe I adore even more because it uses NO SUGAR and NO BUTTER yet still TASTES GREAT! Even better, this recipe provides a template for perfect granola every time. Use your favorite nuts, favorite dried fruits, change the spices–customize it to suit your desires. I’ve played around a lot, and my favorite combo thus far involves almonds and peanuts. The peanuts add a peanut-buttery taste which I love. As for fruits, I’ve used dried blueberries, cranberries, and tart cherries. All are fantastic.

And if you still haven’t tried making homemade granola, try it! It’s easy. It’s fun. It’s customizable. I love my granola with milk, in yogurt, and just plain ol’ by the handful when I need a quick snack. Try it. Let me know what combos you come up with.

Great Granola

Printer-Friendly Version

INGREDIENTS

• 3 cups old-fashioned rolled oats (the thick kind, not the quick-cooking style; I buy from bulk bins at Sprouts or Whole Foods)
• 2 – 2 1/2 cups nuts and seeds (if nuts are already roasted, add them after baking to avoid burning them) (you can use almonds, pecans, walnuts, peanuts, cashews, pistachios, hazelnuts, sunflower seeds, sesame seeds, pumpkin seeds…whatever you like!)
• 1 1/2 tsp. kosher salt
• 1/4 tsp. cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp. cardamom
• 1/2 cup oil, such as olive oil
• 1/2 cup + 1 tbsp. liquid sweetener, such as honey or maple syrup
• 3/4 tsp. vanilla
• 3/4 cups dried fruits, chopped (add dried fruits after baking; however, if using coconut flakes, add them during the last 15 minutes of baking)

DIRECTIONS

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line a half-sheet pan (18 inces X 13 inches) with parchment paper (definitely use the paper; otherwise, you will have a tough time removing the baked granola from the pan).
2. In a large bowl, stir together oats as well as untoasted nuts and seeds. Add salt, cinnamon, and cardamom; stir thoroughly to avoid any clumping of dry ingredients. FYI: definitely use the salt; don’t omit it. Salt enhances the flavor of the granola.
3. In a separate bowl, mix together oil, sweetener, and vanilla. (I used honey for the sweetener, and since it is so thick, I microwaved it for about 45 seconds to liquify it a bit; this made pouring and mixing it into oats far easier!) Mix liquids with oats and nuts; stir to combine and coat all oats/nuts.
4. Spread the granola onto a half-sheet pan that is covered in parchment paper. Bake for about 40 minutes at 350 degrees F until granola is light brown and toasty. Stir every 15 minutes or so for an even color and to make sure the granola cooks evenly.  FOR CHUNKY GRANOLA: Instead of stirring granola every 15 minutes during baking, pat the wet mixture into the baking sheet with a spatula and don’t stir at all during baking. After it has cooled and dried, break into chunks.
5. Remove from oven; add dried fruits and any roasted nuts at this point, stirring to combine.
6. Allow to cool before eating. The granola will continue to cook somewhat during this cooling process. It will also firm up and dry out, so if it seems on the wet side, don’t worry.
7. Store in an airtight container for 7-10 days (though I’ve stored it for 2-3 weeks and it tasted just fine). Alternatively, you can store granola in the refrigerator for even longer.

Yield: about 6 cups granola

SOURCE: The Kitchn

Post shared on The Praire Homestead Weekly Barn Hop

Cinnamon Buns with Maple Icing

Stuffy nose. Swollen sinuses. Pulsing headache. Fever. Chills. Ugh. That’s been my life for the past 6 days and the end feels nowhere in sight. I just want to feel better!!! I haven’t had energy to do much. No cooking. No baking. Much reduced blogging. As a matter of fact, the only reason the banana oatmeal chocolate chip cookies got posted the other day is because I had already written that one a couple weeks ago. And this post was already written, too–I had forgotten about it. So, enough whining about my flu woes. Let me get to the recipe and give you some goodness.

The maple icing of these cinnamon buns caught my attention when I saw Ree Drummond make this on her cooking show, The Pioneer Woman, about a year ago. However, I rarely make cinnamon buns because of the time involved. Usually when winter sets in, though, I crave the comfort of warm, gooey buns. Winter in Southern California means temperate weather, for the most part, so we don’t really get a hardcore winter here. I was on winter break from teaching, though, and awoke one day to dreary, rainy weather. Perfect cinnamon bun morning!

The recipe is easy enough but still takes time. Compared to the Cinnamon Cream Cheese Rolls I made last year, these are just okay, in my opinion. They taste fine enough, but the cream cheese dough of the other recipe creates a more flavorful and tender dough.

The icing on this recipe, I must say, ranks high in flavor. When you add both coffee and maple flavoring to the icing, the flavor factor has to skyrocket–how can it not?! And don’t be afraid to drench these babies in the icing. You’ll regret it if you don’t.

The yeast didn’t proof properly for me (tends to be hit or miss when I bake, truthfully), so I popped the pot with the dough during its rising time into an oven that I had briefly heated up. Although it didn’t appear to help a whole heckuva lot, I proceeded with rolling the dough anyway. That’s why you see a ton of rolls in the pan. Normally, you’d squeeze 7-9 buns in a round pan. I figured we’d just have mini buns if they cooked up correctly, which they did–yay!

I do like that this dough can be made then stored in the fridge for several days. I only baked up half the dough and saved the rest for a few days later.

Cinnamon Buns with Maple Icing

INGREDIENTS

Dough

• 2 cups whole milk
• 1/2 cup vegetable oil
• 1/2 cup granulated sugar
• 1 package (2 1/2 tsp.) active dry yeast
• 4 cups + 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
• 3/4 tsp. baking powder
• 1/2 tsp. baking soda
• 3/4 tbsp. salt

Filling

• 4 tbsp. butter, melted
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 2 tbsp. packed brown sugar (light or dark)
• 1 tbsp. cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp. salt
• 1/8 tsp. ground cloves
• 1/2 cup chopped pecans (or walnuts), optional

Maple Icing

• 2-3 cups powdered sugar
• 1/4 cup milk (or buttermilk)
• 2 tbsp. melted butter
• 2 tbsp. brewed coffee (I used 1/2 tsp. instant espresso)
• 1 tbsp. hot water
• 1 tsp. maple flavoring
• pinch of salt

DIRECTIONS

1. For the dough: Heat milk, oil, and sugar in large saucepan over medium heat to just below a boil (that’s called scalding). Set aside and cool until warm, about 30-60 minutes.
2. Once the milk/oil/sugar mixture cools to lukewarm, sprinkle the yeast on top and let it sit on the milk for one minute.
3. Add 4 cups flour. Stir until just combined, then cover with a clean kitchen towel and set aside in a relatively warm place for one hour for dough to rise.
4. After one hour, remove the towel; add the baking powder, baking soda, salt, and the remaining 1/2 cup of flour. Stir thoroughly to combine.
5. Dough can be used right away, but it will be sticky at this point. Or, refrigerate for up to 3 days, punching down the dough if it rises to the top of the bowl. (Dough is much easier to work with when it has been chilled for at least an hour or so.)
6. When ready to assemble rolls, preheat oven to 400 degrees F.
7. To assemble rolls: remove half the dough from the bowl. On a generously floured baking surface, roll the dough into a large rectangle, about 10 X 15 inches.
8. For filling, use a pastry brush to evenly spread about 2 tbsp. melted butter over the rolled out dough.
9. Whisk together the sugars, cinnamon, salt, and cloves. Generously sprinkle 4-5 tbsp. of the dry ingredients over the butter.
10. Then sprinkle 4-5 tbsp. of chopped nuts, if using.
11. Beginning at the long end farthest from you, roll the rectangle tightly towards you. Use both hands and work slowly, careful to keep the roll tight. Use a think spatula or baker’s blade to help lift any dough that stubbornly sticks to the rolling surface. Don’t fret if filling oozes out a bit. When you reach the end, pinch the seam together and flip the roll so the seam is face down.
12. Slip a cutting board underneath the roll and with a sharp knife, make 1-inch slices. One rolled log of dough will produce 20-25 slices (or cinnamon rolls).
13. Pour 1-2 tbsp. of melted butter into the baking pan and swirl to coat. Place the sliced rolls in the pans, careful to not overcrowd. Each pan should hold 7-9 rolls.
14. Cover pans with kitchen towel and set aside to rise for 20-30 minutes before baking.
15. Bake for 15-18 minutes, until light golden brown.
16. During baking, mix the icing. In a large bowl, whisk together powdered sugar, milk, butter, coffee, and salt. Splash in the maple flavoring. Whisk until very smooth. Add more wet or dry ingredients if you need to thin or thicken the icing or adjust the flavor. Icing should be thick yet pourable.
17. Remove pans from oven. Immediately drizzle icing over the top, making sure to get it all around the edges and over the top.

YIELD: about 7 pans of rolls with 7-9 rolls per pan; or 20-25 slices per log & you’ll get two logs following the recipe. IF I CUT THIS RECIPE IN HALF, I SHOULD GET ABOUT 2 DOZEN ROLLS.

SOURCE: The Pioneer Woman

Banana Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies

Sometimes when I get bored with making banana bread from those over-ripened bananas sitting on the kitchen counter, I’ll make these Banana Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies instead. With the natural sweetness of bananas, the recipe lightens the sugar load, making me think it’s okay to scarf on bunches of these (hah!).

Sweetened with banana, made hearty with oats, and perked up with chocolate chips, these cookies satisfy the sweet tooth at only 115 calories each, according to Cooking Light magazine, which is where I found the recipe. So, if you want something other than banana bread to make from those mushy bananas, give these cookies a whirl.

Banana Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies

INGREDIENTS

• 1/2 cup mashed bananas (about 1 medium)
• 1/2 cup brown sugar, packed
• 1/4 cup butter, softened
• 1/4 cup granulated sugar
• 1 tsp. vanilla extract
• 1 large egg
• 1 1/4 cups (5.6 ounces) all-purpose flour
• 2 cups old-fashioned oats (the thicker kind; I buy from bulk bins at Whole Foods or Sprouts)
• 1 tsp. baking soda
• 1/2 tsp. salt
• 1/2 cup semisweet chocolate chips

DIRECTIONS

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Prepare baking sheets by lining with parchment paper of silicone baking mats.
2. Combine bananas, brown sugar, butter, sugar, and vanilla extract in a large bowl; beat with mixer at medium speed until smooth.
3. Add egg; beat well.
4. In another large bowl, whisk flour, oats, baking soda, and salt. Add to banana mixture; beat at medium speed until well blended.
5. Stir in chocolate chips.
6. Drop batter by heaping tablespoons 2 inches apart onto prepared baking sheets. Bake at 350 degrees F for 15-18 minutes, or until golden. Cool for two minutes, then remove from pan onto cooling racks; cool completely.

Yield: 2 dozen

SOURCE: Cooking Light magazine, July 2009 issue

Liquid Gold: Chicken Stock/Broth & Various Methods of Making and Preserving

First off, let’s get the difference between stock and broth out of the way. When you think stock, think of liquid gold made from bones. When you think broth, think of liquid gold made from meat. To me, they are equal because I use both to make soups and stews, so I tend to use the words interchangeably.

Both taste rich and delicious–superior to anything you can buy canned or boxed at the store. They have a cleaner, richer flavor not impeded by chemicals and preservatives. Okay, I know this point is a bit muddy when you think of mass chicken farms and all the gross injections and who-knows-what type of “food” is fed to the critters, which kinda negates the chemicals point. The solution? Use organic chicken. Or just forge ahead anyway. I tell ya, even with the mass-produced chickens, the broth/stock still tastes great.

Okay, let’s get down to the bones (ha ha!) of making stocks and broths. It’s surprisingly easy for such a rich outcome. I’ve tried a variety of methods and all work well. I’ve  used whole raw chickens cut up as well as chicken carcasses leftover from roasted chicken. I’ve even bought chicken bones frozen into a big block from the giant Asian superstore near our home. I’ve sometimes cut the bones into pieces, whacking a hammer onto a knife inserted into the bone as far as I can get it. This whacking business would be far easier with a cleaver, but as of yet we don’t own one. Other times I’ve left the bones intact. I read somewhere that the marrow from the bones flavors the stock even more, so that’s why I chop up the bones when I can.

I absolutely love, though, that you can get such tasty broth from the carcass leftover from roasting a whole chicken. Double duty! Even triple if you shred and save the meat for other meals, which I always do. And you can even freeze the leftover bones/carcasses until you have time to tackle making stock. Less waste is good but less waste PLUS liquid gold is great!

Speaking of less waste, veggie scraps are something else I stuff into resealable freezer bags and use when I make stocks. I just continue to collect scraps until it’s broth time, then the bag contents get dumped into the pot along with all the other goodies to make broths and stocks. I save the ends of onions and their skins, shavings from carrots, carrot and celery ends, stems from parsley and rosemary and thyme, even the bits of cauliflower I don’t use. Just stay away from veggies that will give a bitter taste to the broth, such as broccoli and brussels sprouts.

I’ve made broth using several methods: simmer all day in a large pot, simmer in a crockpot overnight, and cook in a pressure cooker/canner. All work well. The crockpot is easiest, but the downside is the limited size of the pot hence the limited amount of liquid gold you get. If you have a large pot, you can fill it with more water than a crockpot, but you have to babysit a simmering pot all day, which is okay if you are hanging out at home anyway. If you own a pressure cooker/canner, the process is greatly expedited–under two hours total.

If you plan to use your stock soon, just store it in the fridge tightly covered. If not, freezing in bags or containers works beautifully. Problem with freezing is remembering to thaw the broth. Defrosting in the microwave has worked well for me when I don’t plan ahead. Recently, though, I learned that you can preserve broth by pressure canning it. Woo hoo! Since we own a pressure canner (came with hubbster and his tuna making skills), I now use that method. I LOVE LOVE LOVE having jars of broth at the ready.

Homemade Chicken Stock or Broth

(stock made from bones; broth made from meat)

Printer-Friendly Version

INGREDIENTS

• 1 chicken carcass (not necessary to thaw carcass if it is frozen) or 1 whole chicken, rinsed, cut into 2-inch pieces but save breasts for last 20 minutes of cooking time  so you can shred the meat and use it in your recipes (I’ve also tossed in the gizzards, neck, etc. from a whole chicken) or 3 pounds chicken wings (or chicken parts: wings, backs, legs, necks)
• 2 medium onions, halved or quartered (yellow, white, or purple all work well)
• 3 large carrots, cut into 2-inch pieces
• 3 stalks celery, cut into 2-inch pieces (okay to use the leafy parts, too)
• a few sprigs of fresh rosemary and thyme
• 1 bay leaf
• 1 tbsp. kosher salt
• 1 tsp. whole black peppercorns
• other goodies I’ve tried adding: parsley, whole jalapenos with “X” cut into bottom, green onions
• 1-2 tbsp. apple cider vinegar (helps draw calcium out of the bones)
• 4+ quarts of cold water

DIRECTIONS

1. Optional browning of veggies: You can saute onions, carrots, and celery in a tbsp. of olive oil over medium-high heat for 5-10 minutes to slightly brown them first, but I’ve never done this step.
2. Browning/sweating meat: If using chicken meat, heat 1 tbsp. olive oil in large pot and saute chicken for about 5 minutes, until no longer pink (cook in batches to avoid crowding the chicken in the pot). Return all pieces of chicken to pot, reduce heat to low, cover, and “sweat” chicken, meaning cook it until juices release, about 20 minutes. I’ve never used this method, but I imagine browning the meat intensifies the flavor hence intensifies the broth.
3. Simmering the stock: CROCKPOT METHOD: place chicken, veggies, aromatics, salt, peppercorns, and vinegar into 6-quart crockpot. Add cold water. Simmer on low for 8-12 hours. I usually simmer overnight. STOVETOP METHOD: place chicken, veggies, aromatics, salt, peppercorns, and vinegar into a large pot. Add cold water to cover ingredients by about 2 inches. Bring to a boil, cover, and reduce to a low simmer for 6-8 hours. PRESSURE COOKER METHOD: place chicken, veggies, aromatics, salt, peppercorns, and vinegar into pressure cooker. Add cold water to cover ingredients by about 2 inches. Place lid on pressure cooker and lock into place. Bring cooker to pressure over high heat (can take 20+ minutes); reduce heat to low and cook for 30 minutes at 15 pounds pressure. Allow to cool and pressure to decrease naturally before removing lid. In case you are wondering, I use a 21 1/2  quart All American pressure cooker, but doublecheck your pressure cooker guidebook for instructions/recipes on how long to cook stock and at what pressure.
4. Straining stock: When stock/broth has cooled a bit, remove large chunks of solids, then pour liquid through a cloth-lined sieve into a large bowl or pot to remove remaining solids. Cover and chill overnight in the refrigerator. The following day, skim off and discard any layer of hard, congealed fat that forms on the surface. If the broth turns gelatinous, rejoice! That means you have created an extra-rich stock that has extracted collagen from the bones and meat (usually happens when making broth from raw chicken).
5. Preserving: Stock/broth can be used within 3-5 days if stored in refrigerator. Or, transfer to airtight containers or resealable freezer bags, then freeze for up to 6 months. If you own a pressure canner, bring stock back to a boil after it has been refrigerated, then place stock/broth into pint or quart jars that have been washed in hot, soapy water, leaving a 1-inch headspace. Wipe rims of jars with a damp towel. Place lids that have been sitting in simmering, not boiling, water for 10 minutes onto jars, followed by screwing on the rings. Place in pressure cooker filled with 2-3 inches of water, then follow instructions in your pressure cooker guidebook for sealing and venting air. Process pints for 20 minutes at 10 pounds of pressure; process quarts for 25 minutes at 10 pounds of pressure. High altitudes may require processing at higher pressures; see your pressure cooker/canner guidebook. When pressure canner has cooled, remove lid and jars. Check that all have sealed properly before storing jars.

Sources from which I’ve adapted: Simply Recipes, Annie’s Eats, The Prairie Homestead (this blogger has useful links to her posts about pressure canning and pressure cookers), The Kitchn, The Paupered Chef, Food Network, Martha Stewart

Post shared on The Prairie Homestead Weekly Homestead Hop

Brownie Bake-Off

from L to R: Brownie A: Chewy Brownie from Cooks Illustrated; Brownie B: beloved old recipe; Brownie C: Ina’s Outrageous Brownie

For years and years, I had two signature desserts: Oreo Cheesecake and Brownies. The cheesecake I made every Thanksgiving, but the brownies joined me on outings to other gatherings. The beloved brownies–everyone requested them, everyone begged for the recipe, everyone devoured every last morsel.

Enter world of food blogs and new brownie recipes, exit old beloved brownies which I ignored in the face of newbies.

The new recipes call for several types of chocolates whilst the old brownies use just one ol’ bag of chocolate chips. Hence, I playfully dubbed the recipes Rich Man’s Brownies vs. Poor Man’s Brownies due to cost-of-chocolate differences. Curious, though, I wanted to see how the old beloved brownies would stack up against the newer versions. Would the ingredients really make that much difference?

from L to R: Brownie C: Ina’s; Brownie B: old beloved; Brownie A: Chewy from Cook’s Illustrated (reversed b/c I turned the plate around for the photo)

A book club meeting (a.k.a. Chocoholics Club) provided the perfect opportunity for my experiment, and what fun to taste all the samples!

I fussed over how to set up some kind of rating system. What would I ask participants to assess other than simply their favorite? I wanted reasons. I wanted blog-worthy material to share with you. After some google searching, I learned that brownies fall into categories: fudgy, chewy, cakey… Right there I realized this process would be a challenge. I mean, how do you rate brownies when some like chewy, some like fudgy, and some like cakey? Seems to me you would have to have brownies for each of those categories. Kinda like you have most humorous, most creative, most scary, etc. for Halloween costume contests instead of only best overall, you know?

Maybe I should just let tasters judge/rank by favorites and not have any other criteria, and then have them give me their reasons why. Why not keep this simple, after all? In the end, I made a form which provided some descriptors and a chart to jot down some evaluations. Though we didn’t thoroughly use them, it provided some guidance about evaluating the brownies.

Now, which recipes to select? I had tons saved. However, I wanted just plain ol’ chocolate brownies with no fancy additions or flavors. No nuts, either. Just trying to keep this as simple and streamlined as possible.

After typing a chart of recipes with ingredients and directions side-by-side (I needed the visual), I narrowed the selections to a total of 3, each with ever-so-slight differences in ingredients:

• Brownie A: Chewy Brownies from America’s Test Kitchen (the folks at Cook’s Illustrated magazine)
• Brownie B: Double Chocolate Brownies, the recipe I have used since I was in high school, which I think came from the back of the Hershey’s chocolate chips bag
• Brownie C: Outrageous Brownies from Ina Garten, the Barefoot Contessa

By the way, I used Ghiradelli chips for all recipes to maintain a standard across the board.

from L to R: Chewy Brownie from Cook’s Illustrated; Double Chocolate Brownie; Ina’s Outrageous Brownie

Now comes my total anal nerdy side: I carefully poured over the chart and made notes of differences. I wanted to have some understanding of how the recipes differed:

• all use melted butter but in varying amounts w/ Ina using most and Double Choc least
• Chewy & Ina use espresso powder but not Double Choc
• Chewy & Ina use unsweetened chocolate but in varying amounts
• all use chocolate but with vast differences in total amounts: Chewy @ 8 oz. (cocoa powder used to make up for least amount of solid chocolate); Double Choc @ 12 oz; Ina @  whopping 17oz!!
• only Chewy uses cocoa powder & oil; as a matter of fact, this recipe has the largest ingredients list hence most pricey to make
• all use eggs & vanilla & sugar & flour & salt but in varying amounts (Fine Cooking explains how amounts affect brownies)
• only Double Choc uses baking soda; Ina uses baking powder; Chewy uses neither
• all use melted chocolate of some sort and add choc chips into batter

FYI: After making the brownie batters, I noticed that Ina’s is the thickest, most dense. It doesn’t pour like the other batters; you really have to evenly spread it in the pan. Therefore, I guessed that her recipe would come out the fudgiest, especially because it uses the least amount of flour, and a flourless cake I’ve made before was super duper fudgy.

So what did the taste testers have to say? Which recipe was most Fudgy? Chewy? Chocolatey? Dense? Moist? Gooey? Rich?

Of all testers (10), 80% voted Ina’s Outrageous Brownies as BEST. It earned accolades for tasting most dense, most fudgy, most chocolatey, and most rich. Well, no wonder with a whopping 17 ounces of chocolate in it!! And a few bites sufficed for most because of it’s outrageous richness (although that didn’t stop me from scarfing all the leftovers in the next few days ; )

Most of the testers have eaten the beloved brownie recipe over the years and were quite surprised at the so-so quality of it after this experiment. After setting it up side-by-side with the others, it sure looks wimpy in stature–notice how flat it looks, poor thing. You can also tell by the coloring of the brownies how full of chocolate Ina’s Outrageous Brownie is–just look at its deep, rich brown coloring (best viewed in the opening two photos).

Brownie B: Double Chocolate Brownie, my former beloved recipe now falls flat against the other contenders

Most tasters voted the Chewy Brownie 2nd place for flavor. And only two people chose the old standby as the #1 pick.

Brownie A: Chewy Brownie from America’s Test Kitchen, ranked #2 by tasters

So, if you want a killer brownie, definitely try Ina’s Outrageous Brownies, oh-so-very aptly named!

Brownie C: Ina’s Outrageous Brownies and the clear winner!

I’ve provided a link above to the chart with all three recipes, but if you want them each typed up separately, here are the links:

• Chewy Brownie from America’s Test Kitchen (I posted about it many months ago)
• Double Chocolate Brownie
• Ina’s Outrageous Brownie from Ina Garten, the Barefoot Contessa