The treat of the week for TWD? Brownies! Specifically Rick Katz’s Brownies for Julia, picked for us to try by Tanya of Chocolatechic, thank you Tanya! Be sure to check out her blog for the recipe and lots of other reasons to smile.
I loved the little back story about Rick Katz in the preface to the recipe, and was really excited to try his brownie technique, which requires some whipping of the eggs and sugar to equal some extra decadent ooey gooey brownies.
Lots of talk on the P&Q about adding extra time, using a different pan size, etc. I was planning to follow the recipe exactly, intrigued at Dorie's suggestion to use a 9 by 9 glass Pyrex baking dish for these instead of the metal pan lined with tin foil that I'm used to for brownies. I got out my one small square glass baking dish (seems like I have at least ten rectangular glass dishes, but only one square) and read the measurements on the bottom -- 8 by 8! I was nervous when I saw the amount of brownie batter than was I thought I might get away with in my pan that was a size smaller than called for, so I made a last minute decision to get out a 9 by 13 glass dish. I figured I'd end up with thinner brownies but would not run the risk of overflow while baking.
I checked the brownies at 25 minutes, minimum baking time suggested, added the additional 3 minutes taking us up to 28, check again, and they still looked underdone. I added another five minutes, bringing us to 33 (if I can still add correctly :) ) and I figured I'd pull them since they *should* be done at this point. After cooling for only ten minutes or so I spooned out a little corner piece and wow, what an intense chocolate flavor. My first thought was, this is brownie pudding cake! They did firm up a bit after cooling for an hour or so, I cut one for the kids and added a little whipped cream and sprinkles, they loved these! My four year old said these were the best brownies ever. The rest are sitting in the refrigerator uncut, but I'm thinking these are best served warmed up and with some whipped cream (or ice cream) and a spoon...mmm, brownie bowl!