Cocoa Brownies

Father’s day is coming up, and for this year’s celebration at Kristen’s pre-school we’re collaborating with Cocoa Brownies, which is perfect because she’s really into baking now… if it were up to her she would have us baking goodies every day. It’s also a great opportunity for me to try these brownies made from cocoa. I already shared a recipe of Classic Brownies with you, but they are made with melted chocolate. According to Alton Brown, cocoa is the secret ingredient to make a really good batch of good old fashioned brownies. Quality is important, so get the best one you can, and make sure it’s baking cocoa (unsweetened), and not the drinking kind!

You probably already know that there is natural cocoa, and dutch processed cocoa. The difference between the two is the alkali process that the dutch cocoa goes through to neutralize its acids, making it darker. When you’re baking, natural cocoa is best, even though its flavor is bitter, it imparts a more “chocolatey” flavor which makes it ideal for brownies, cookies and cakes.

There are a few things that I learned about brownies with this recipe, which are really good ones: Use natural cocoa powder for baked goods, instead of dutch processed cocoa powder, which is more suitable for beverages. Rim your baking pan with parchment paper, which makes lifting brownies out of the pan a breeze. There’s also a tip I read from Gordon Ramsay that says you should let brownies cool in the pan for at least 2-3 hours, and then refrigerate them for about 1 hour before trying to cut them.

There is an important note about the baking time on this recipe. I did go for the 300 degrees F, and started checking it after 45 minutes, like it said. The toothpick still came out covered in batter. I added 10 more minutes of baking time… it still came out with some batter. 5 more minutes…. the toothpick was almost clean, so I thought that was good enough. Maybe they could’ve used an extra 5 minutes, but I don’t know if that would have made the edges too dry. Next time, I will try turning the oven to 325F and will start testing after 45 minutes.

I hope you can also use this recipe to make some brownies for Dad.

Happy Father’s Day!

Helga

Cocoa Brownies

Recipe from Alton Brown
Yields 16 brownies

Ingredients
Soft butter, for greasing the pan
Flour, for dusting the buttered pan
4 large eggs
1 cup sugar, sifted
1 cup brown sugar, sifted
8 ounces melted butter
1 ¼ cups cocoa, sifted
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
½ cup flour, sifted
½ teaspoon kosher salt

Procedure:

Preheat the oven to 300 degrees F. Butter and flour an 8-inch square pan. ( I used parchment paper to line the pan)
In a mixer fitted with a whisk attachment, beat the eggs at medium speed until fluffy and light yellow. Add both sugars. Add remaining ingredients, and mix to combine.
Pour the batter into a greased and floured 8-inch square pan and bake for 45 minutes. (See my notes above, it took me 60 minutes!) Check for doneness with the tried-and-true toothpick method: a toothpick inserted into the center of the pan should come out clean. When it’s done, remove to a rack to cool. Resist the temptation to cut into it until it’s mostly cool.

08:50 AM
2 Comments
- Brownies, Chocolate, cocoa, Dessert, father's day, homemade
0

20 Chocolate Recipes for Valentine’s

When you think about Valentine’s Day, the first thing that comes to mind (regarding food) is… Chocolate. To get a head start and get you inspired on treats for your significant other, or for your kids, we gathered the best Chocolate Recipes we’ve posted so far on our blog. To make it easier for you to see which picture goes with it’s recipe, we numbered them for you. Give them a try and treat yourself to some dark, sweet indulgence. You deserve it!

Kitty & Helga

Zebra Bundt Cake

I’ve seen several cake or cupcake decorations with the Zebra theme, but what if we could instead of having the zebra outside, it would be inside? I knew that this Zebra Bundt Cake was going to be a hit as soon as I started making it. At home, both my brother and dad are guys with down-to-earth, simple, no-fuss taste when it comes to desserts. They absolutely love chocolate, and they also love a simple bundt cake, specially Grandma Lucy’s Sunday Cake. I made it on a Friday, and by the following Tuesday there was only one slice left to share between them both.

This cake is light, almost as if it was made with cake flour, after you prepare the vanilla batter, you reserve 3 cups of it and add the chocolate to make your second batter. Now, for the zebra effect, it is a bit tedious, so don’t do it if you’re in a hurry. Take a good hour to prepare the cake (between mixing and spooning the batter). If you happen to have two Scoops with release bands like this one, use them! It makes the process so much easier and faster. I just have one, and it’s huge… like 5 tablespoons worth of batter, so I didn’t use it. But on the bright side, I added my scoops to my Amazon wish list so I can get them with my next purchase.

Kitty

Zebra Bundt Cake

Recipe from Bake me Away, adapted from King Arthur Flour

Ingredients

1 ½ cups granulated sugar
6 large eggs
1 ½ cups milk
1 ½ cups vegetable oil
1 ½ teaspoons vanilla extract
3 cups all-purpose flour
3 teaspoons baking powder
¼ + ⅛ teaspoon salt
4 ½ tablespoons dutch-processed cocoa powder

Chocolate Covering
6 oz. of semi-sweet chocolate
2 oz. of unsweetened chocolate

Directions

Preheat the oven to 350°F. Generously grease and butter a bundt baking pan and set aside.
In the bowl of your mixer, blend the sugar and eggs until lightened, about 2 minutes. On low-speed blend in the oil, milk and vanilla until well combined and smooth.
In a separate bowl, combine the flour, baking powder and salt. Whisk to remove any lumps. Add the dry mixture to the wet ingredients. Combine on medium speed 1-2 minutes or until the batter is smooth and lump free. Be sure to scrape down the bowl halfway through mixing.
Remove 3 cups of the vanilla batter and place it in the measure you used for the liquid ingredients. Sift the cocoa over this batter, and stir well to combine. Be sure to use a sifter to avoid cocoa lumps in the batter.
Spoon about 3 tablespoons of vanilla batter into a side of the cake pan. Next, spoon 3 tablespoons of the chocolate batter into the center of the vanilla batter. This causes the vanilla batter to spread out. Continue to alternate batters, in bulls-eye fashion until all batter is used.
Bake the cake in the center of the preheated oven for 50 minutes, or until the cake is lightly browned and a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Cool the cake in the pan for 10 minutes, and then turn out onto a wire rack to finish cooling.
For the Chocolate Covering, melt both chocolates in the top of a double boiler over simmering water until smooth and warm, stirring occasionally. Drizzle over the top of the cake.

Notes:

The original recipe recommends to use dutch processed cocoa with this recipe as natural cocoa will result in a heavy, soapy taste to the cake. However, I did use natural unsweetened cocoa (I like living on the edge, what can I say?) and the recipe came out great.
If you have two heavy-duty ice cream scoops like this one, the process will be much faster. Don’t use the same one as the chocolate batter will get mixed with the vanilla one and the zebra effect won’t be as noticeable.