7.4.10 Outrageous Brownies

I love Ina Garten. She's so cute! She's such a nice, sweet, plump lady. That makes it sound like I want to eat her, but that's not what I mean. How can you not like her? Plus, she gets extra points in my mind for not being afraid of butter, even if the amount she uses can be a bit excessive at times.

I was excited to try out this recipe. I saw it on tastespotting and Smitten Kitchen, and everyone was raving about it. The only problem was that the recipe makes a lot, which means that I need a lot of people to eat it. So, when I was invited to a 4th of July bbq, I knew I had to make it.

To make the brownies, I halved the recipe. Why? The amount of ingredients required to make the whole thing is RIDICULOUS. A pound of butter, a pound of chocolate, 6 ounces of unsweetened chocolate, 6 extra-large eggs, 2 1/4 cups of sugar, 1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour. That's only part of the recipe, but I'm sure you can tell why I think it's ridiculous. Oh and 3 cups of walnuts. It sounds delicious and awesome, but I couldn't make myself to use all those ingredients so I opted to make half a recipe. Ina also used a 12 by 18 by 1-inch baking sheet. I don't have that; the only baking pans I have are an 8 by 8 and a 9 by 13. I thought that, with a halved recipe, the 8 by 8 pan would be perfect... but I was wrong.

I messed with the recipe a little, intentionally and unintentionally, as usual. Instead of actual unsweetened chocolate, I used unsweetened cocoa. I melted the chocolate chips, butter, and the cocoa in a bowl over simmering water, and the cocoa powder clumped in the melted chocolate. I used flaky sea salt for the 1/2tsp of salt and 1 1/2 cups of toasted walnuts. I measured out 5/6 cups of chocolate instead of 3/4 cups of chocolate chips to put in the batter (1/3+1/2cups). Then, I used 1/4 cup flour to coat the walnuts and chocolate chips because I forgot to halve that part of the recipe. When the batter was ready to dump in a pan, I switched to using the 9 by 13 pan because there was so much. Half a recipe and the 9 by 13 pan was perfect! I can't imagine how much batter the actual, unhalved recipe makes, but it must be A LOT. I baked the brownies for 15 minutes, rapped the pan on the rack, then baked for another 15 minutes.

The brownies were good, but I think I wanted to like it more than I actually did. I should have sprayed the pan better since the brownies stuck a little. The brownies were also delicate, so when I cut them into pieces they tended to fall apart a little. Also, the coffee taste was apparently a little uneven throughout the batter since some pieces tasted a lot more coffee-y than others.

I am willing to give this recipe another try. I'm pretty sure I overcooked the brownies a little, and I didn't completely follow the recipe anyway. I love Ina, and I can't give up on her! Hopefully next time, they will turn out as heavenly as everyone says they are. Besides, everyone else liked it so much that I didn't have the chance to take a picture of a piece of brownie. That says something, right?

Next time:
1. bake for less time, maybe 15+10 minutes
2. maybe mix the coffee with the melted chocolate mixture
3. use actual unsweetened chocolate instead of cocoa

recipe by Ina Garten from foodnetwork.com