This past week, I’ve experienced a succession of unfortunate events. Firstly on Monday, I come into work and wanted to check my financial situation, so I log onto my online banking and see a barrage of fraudulent activity beginning on Friday night and continuing through the weekend. There are about 12 transactions from FTD.com, dating sights, Skype calls in Luxembourg, online porn site memberships and a ton of other transactions to the tune of over two thousand dollars! The next few days consisted of my spending a lot of time at the bank disputing charges, signing affidavits and figuring it all out. On Wednesday night, here in New York we were experiencing awful bizarre weather, it was snowing, sleeting, thundering and lightening and FREEZING. Anyway, I get off the bus after work, head towards my car and notice my front-end driver’s side tire is totally flat. A couple of hours later, an AAA call, a donut on my car, I head home soaking wet, freezing and miserable. My immediate call to action is a hot shower, but I go into my kitchen and find what appears to be HUNDREDS of ants single file coming from a power outlet (from inside the wall!) parading through my kitchen into my cat’s food bowl. I was repulsed. Reaching for my vacuum, I took care of those critters like Bill Murray took care of Slimer in Ghostbusters. Anyway, I had to take Thursday off to take care of my finances, car, the ANTS and my taxes, which I did. By Friday, I was defeated and done with the week. I head to my personal training session at my gym at around noon, ready to get my ass kicked AND relieve some of the stress I had accrued from my week from hell. The combination of my trainer NOT listening to me (Uh, I usually lift HALF of that weight) and my obviously low blood sugar had me wiping out at the gym, embarrassingly. I awoke to an all-over body sweat, people in my face urging me to “drink water!” asking “are you okay?” Eh….
So yeah, I needed something to make me feel better. That something is chocolate or to be more specific, one of the best brownie recipes I’ve ever tried. A foolproof delicious, moist, chocolaty, bit of fudgy perfection with walnuts. The first time I tried this recipe I wondered to myself “why the HELL do people use boxed brownies?” They are that EASY and the result will make you forget all about those notions of what you think “good brownies” should taste like. One of the main ingredients is browned butter, which imparts a deep, nutty flavor. You bake them in your 8x8x2 dish that you line in foil, which allows you to lift the brownies out to let them cool leaving you with no extra clean up! Try these out, you won’t be disappointed and I can almost promise you, that you won’t go back to boxed after this!
Browned Butter Brownies with Walnuts
Prep Time: 20 Minutes
Total Time: 1 Hour
Ingredients
- Nonstick vegetable oil spray
- 10 tablespoons (1 1/4 sticks) unsalted butter, cut into 1-inch pieces
- 1 1/4 cups sugar
- 3/4 cup natural unsweetened cocoa powder (spooned into cup to measure, then leveled)
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 2 large eggs, chilled
- 1/3 cup plus 1 tablespoon unbleached all purpose flour
- 1 cup walnut pieces
Preparation
Position rack in bottom third of oven; preheat to 325°F. Line 8x8x2-inch metal baking pan with foil, pressing foil firmly against pan sides and leaving 2-inch overhang. Coat foil with nonstick spray.
Melt butter in medium saucepan over medium heat. Continue cooking until butter stops foaming and browned bits form at bottom of pan, stirring often, about 5 minutes.
Remove from heat; immediately add sugar, cocoa, 2 teaspoons water, vanilla, and 1/4 teaspoon (generous) salt. Stir to blend. Let cool 5 minutes (mixture will still be hot). Add eggs to hot mixture 1 at a time, beating vigorously to blend after each addition. When mixture looks thick and shiny, add flour and stir until blended. Beat vigorously 60 strokes. Stir in nuts. Transfer batter to prepared pan.
Bake brownies until toothpick inserted into center comes out almost clean (with a few moist crumbs attached), about 25 minutes. Cool in pan on rack. Using foil overhang, lift brownies from pan. Cut into 4 strips. Cut each strip crosswise into 4 brownies.
Recipe courtesy of Bon Appétit
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