Julia Child's Orgasmic Brownies

Brownies, before and after.

 I wanted to make another batch of Julia Child's delicious brownies, but decided to put a spin on them since it's Valentine's Day.  The "spin" was inspired by Smitten Kitchen's gorgeous brownies, although I decided to stick with the brownie recipe i enjoy so much.

So i made two different batches, which i must say took a number of pots, pans and bowls (yes, and a lot of cleaning!).  Then i realized my heart-shaped cookie cutter was too large, so i figured i'd find a new cookie cutter on Sunday.  Wrong!  Who would have thought how difficult it is to find a small, 1" heart-shaped cookie cutter.  Since i needed something to "cleanly" slice through the brownies, i decided to use an apple corer.  So i didn't have hearts in my brownies, i had a circle.  Or, as Elliot declared, they're more like the "circle of life" brownie.  The fun part is you have dark chocolate brownies with white chocolate centers, or white chocolate brownies with dark chocolate centers.  Keeps everyone happy!

I gave my niece, Jessica, a box of the brownies and told her to share them with Annie and Emily (i've been promising Annie some of these brownies).  She texted me this morning and said I'm free to quote them --

"HOLY $HIT- your brownies are THE $HIT. Hands down best brownie I've had. Honestly, and you can quote me on that. Also you can quote Emily- 'it's orgasmic', and Annie stood up as to give you a standing ovation!  (I think Julia Child would smile knowing her brownies are "orgasmic".)

The following ingredients and recipe are for one pan of 16 brownies.  To do black & white brownies, you need to duplicate the recipe using white chocolate and a little less sugar.

Ingredients:

• 1 1/4 cups sifted all purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 8 ounces unsalted butter
• 4 ounces unsweetened chocolate, coarsely chopped
• 2 ounces bittersweet chocolate, coarsely chopped
• 2 cups sugar
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 4 large eggs

Center a rack in the oven and preheat the oven to 350°.
Sift the flour and salt together and set aside.
Melt the butter and chocolate in a double boiler over simmering water (water should not be touching the upper bowl).  Add 1 cup of sugar to the mixture and stir for half a minute, then remove the pan from the heat and stir in the vanilla.
Pour the mixture into a large bowl.
Put the remaining 1 cup sugar and the eggs into a stand mixer bowl and mix or whisk by hand just to combine.
Little by little, pour half of the sugar and eggs into the chocolate mixture, stirring gently but constantly with a rubber spatula so that the eggs don't set from the heat.
Fit the whisk attachment to the mixer and whip the remaining sugar and eggs until they are thick, pale, and doubled in volume, about 3 minutes.
Using the rubber spatula, delicately fold the whipped eggs into the chocolate mixture.
When the eggs are almost completely incorporated, gently fold in the dry ingredients.
Pour and scrape the batter in to an unbuttered 9-inch square pan. (If you want thin brownies, use a considerably larger pan; say, 9 x 13).
Bake the brownies for 35-40 minutes, during which time they will rise a little and the top will turn dark and dry.
Cool the brownies in the pan on a rack.

Buon Appetito, and happy Valentine's Day!

Thick & Chewy Oatmeal Raisin Cranberry Cookies

This post is actually coming from Auntie Lollie's soul since anyone that knows Lori knows she never cooks on weeknights, let alone baking for the office.

I've often thought of oatmeal cookies as boring but can "hit the spot",  just as a scoop of vanilla ice cream or a shortbread cookie is acceptable at times.  But today, after lunch, the guys and I stopped into Border's for our afternoon dopio and they happened to have samples of their cranberry raising oatmeal cookie.  Kevin was our "Mikey" and gave it a try and was surprisingly impressed.  So i decided to brave the world of coffee house samples and i, too, thought it was great.  So i'm now determined to find a delicious oatmeal cookie.  I checked some of my fellow bloggers and decided that Smitten Kitchen had what sounded like the best -- the Thick, Chewy Oatmeal Raisin Cookies with a little tweaking by Auntie Lollie.  My modifications were:

• i used natural demerara instead of brown sugar.  Demerara is a natural, unrefined cane sugar so it's coarser that regular brown sugar and provides more texture.  Also, because it's unrefined you can taste the molasses.
• i like to make sure the butter and eggs are closer to room temperature.  I keep the egg out as long as it takes the butter to soften.
• i figured no need to stop with raisins.  I LOVE golden raisins and happened to have just enough that i bought at the farmer's market last week.  I also decided to add dried cranberries.  
• i'm thinking that adding some chopped up semi-sweet chocolate pieces could also be a nice touch.  

Light Demerara (natural cane sugar)

Chewy little nuggets with golden raisins and cranberries.

Because i have now made them, i think i should have used more sugar, or perhaps the demerara isn't as sweet as regular brown sugar.  I like them, but they're not as sweet as the coffee house cookie i had yesterday.  Also, they didn't puff up as much as i would have thought.  They're thick, but they're a small cookie.  I did use a small scooper.  I'll let the judges at my office decide if there are any issues with this cookie.  One piece of advice that Smitten Kitchen gives is the importance in chilling the dough before baking the cookies in order to get a really thick, chewy cookie.  So, while writing the post my dough is chillin' in the fridge.  She doesn't say how long to chill, so i'll play it by ear.  Ok, i've decided it will chill overnight.

1/2 cup (1 stick or 4 ounces) butter, softened
2/3 cup light brown sugar, packed (i used natural demerara)
1 egg (i suggest room temperature)
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
3/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon salt (i used a dash more because i like a little more salt in my baked goods)
1 1/2 cups rolled oats
3/4 cup raisins (i used 1/2 golden raisins and 1/2 dried cranberries)
1/2 cup walnuts, chopped (optional)

Preheat oven to 350° F.

In a large bowl, cream together the butter, brown sugar, egg and vanilla until smooth.
In a separate bowl, whisk the flour, baking soda, cinnamon and salt together.
Stir this into the butter/sugar mixture.  Stir in the oats, raisins, cranberries, and walnuts, if using them.

At this point you can either chill the dough for a bit in the fridge and then scoop it, or scoop the cookies onto a sheet and then chill the whole tray before baking them.  I opted for the former.  You could also bake them right away if you're impatient, but Smitten Kitchen suggests chilling them for the extra thick cookie.

Place the cookies two inches apart on a parchment-lined baking sheet.  Bake for 10 to 12 minutes, taking them out when golden at the edges but still a little undercooked-looking on top.  Let them sit on the hot baking sheet for five minutes before transferring them to a rack to cool.

Hopefully I (or someone from my office) will post reactions.