The Results Are In, But Salt Is Not. :(

Sorry for the lack of graphics on our results post, but Salt is out on her vacation this week and without her mad graphic design skills, I'm kind of lost. But, anywhoo, here are the results of our brownie bake-off.

Salt: 3.6 Yums
Sugar: 4.4 Yums

Sugar gets her first win!! Yay. So, now we have a change in our Throwdown that will interest all 47 of our loyal followers. Salt will be choosing 3 things that she wants to make for the next Throwdown. We will post her choices as a poll next week and our followers will get to vote on what we make next. :) When she returns from getting tan and relaxing, the official ballot will be posted for you.


As for this week, since Salt is out I've decided to go with the Guy Fieri oatmeal cookie recipe and have it judged to make up for my baking sin from last week. We'll see how this one goes over. The recipe will be posted on Monday and results on Wednesday. Have a great weekend, everyone!

And mine were butterscotch!

My brain has been a total mess of work and vacation preparations this week, so I apologize that I forgot to write out my recipe. Let's just say that I already know I did not win, but my brownies were still pretty good. If you love butterscotch (which some people do and some people don't...my husband happens to like it very much which is why I went in this direction) I can pretty much assure you that you will enjoy these.

Plus they are a cinch to make, which made me enjoy them even more.

They are adapted from a Nestlé recipe.

Yield: 2 dozen brownies

Ingredients:

1 cup (6-oz. pkg.) semi-sweet chocolate morsels

1 cup (6-oz. pkg.) butterscotch morsels

1/2 cup (1 stick) butter or margarine, cut into pieces

3 large eggs

1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour

1 cup granulated sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/4 teaspoon baking soda

1. Preheat oven to 350.
2. Melt semi-sweet morsels in a saucepan with the stick of butter, stirring until smooth.
3. Remove from heat and stir in eggs.
4. Add flour, sugar, vanilla, and baking soda.
5. Stir in butterscotch morsels, saving out a few to sprinkle over the top.
6. Pour batter evenly into a greased 13"x9" baking pan.
7. Bake for 18 to 22 minutes or until toothpick inserted into center comes out slightly sticky.

Outrageous Brownies (That I Haven't Tried)

So, we are a day behind on baking this week and brought our brownies in for taste testing today instead of yesterday. We also changed our ballots a little this week to allow for a "comments" section. Our wonderful judges (coworkers) have offered some suggestions to recipes verbally, however, we thought that writing these down so appropriate corrective measures could be taken would be a great idea.

I chose to bake "Outrageous Brownies" by Barefoot Contessa on the Food Network website. They had awesome ratings, but the reason I chose them was because the prep for these brownies was different than any other I had made. I love how the butter and two chocolates were melted together first and then added to the batter, then more chocolate chips were added to the batter later on. Yum! I tasted the batter before adding nuts in and it tasted fudge-y and rich.

The recipe calls for a 12x18x1 pan, but as a warning to all: the batter will completely fill the pan. Completely, to the edge and just shy of overflowing. However, when the batter bakes, it rises perfectly straight up over the pan, so no worries. While the recipe shows melting the chocolates and butter in a bowl over boiling water, I just used a double boiler. This took probably about 30 minutes for everything to completely melt on medium heat. I did adjust the heat setting a few times to avoid chocolate burning. I suggest working on mixing the other ingredients while stirring and melting the butter & chocolate.

Outrageous Brownies
(Copyright 1999, The Barefoot Contessa Cookbook)

Ingredients:
1 lb. unsalted butter
1 lb. plus 12 oz. semisweet chocolate chips
6 oz. unsweetened chocolate
6 extra-large eggs
3 Tbsp. instant coffee granules
2 Tbsp. pure vanilla extract
2 1/4 c. sugar
1 1/4 c. all-purpose flour
1 Tbsp. baking powder
1 tsp. salt
3 c. chopped walnuts

Directions:

1. Preheat over to 350 degrees F.

2. Butter and flour a 12x18x1 baking sheet.

3. Melt together the butter, 1 lb. of chocolate chips, and the unsweetened chocolate in a medium bowl over simmering water. Allow to cool slightly.

4. In a large bowl, stir (do not beat) together the eggs, coffee granules, vanilla, and sugar. Stir the warm chocolate mixture into the egg mixture and allow to cool to room temperature.

5. In a medium bowl, sift together 1 c. of flour, the baking powder, and salt. Add to the cooled chocolate mixture.

6. Toss the walnuts and 12 oz. of chocolate chips in a medium bowl with 1/4 c. flour, then add them to the chocolate batter. Pour into the baking sheet.

7. Bake for 20 minutes, then rap the baking sheet against the oven shelf to force the air to escape from between the pan and the brownie dough. Bake for about 15 minutes, until a toothpick comes out clean (NOTE: I had to bake for an additional 5 minutes, 20 minutes total after releasing air). DO NOT OVERBAKE! Allow to cool thoroughly, refrigerate, and cut into 20 large squares

NOTE: This made 30 big brownies for me... not sure how big she is cutting the brownies, but the more the merrier :)

Happy Baking!!

XOXO,

Sugar

The way to a man’s heart is undoubtedly through his taste buds.