The Ultimate Brownie
The Baked Brownie

Every year, out of the many things I am responsible for at the Thanksgiving feast is the dessert selection. Some of the recipes featured on the dessert platter this year have been featured on my blog previously. Of the few that haven't, the first one I want to tell you about is the Baked Brownie. 

I found out about the Baked folks by accident when scrolling for recipes on another website. Since I found out about them, I have purchased both of their cookbooks and am eagerly anticipating their third cookbook of which they are currently working on! The cookbooks for purchase can be found here and here. I highly recommend both of them and bake out of them often. 

I am not a huge fan of Oprah Winfrey, well let's be honest, I'm not a fan of Oprah Winfrey at all! But, when I was scrolling the website of Baked some time back I found out that the Baked Brownie has been named, many times, as one of Oprahs favorite things. I guess it's been featured on one of her past programs where women's heads explode as they are made privy to what Oprah covets at that given moment. Ordinarily I wouldn't put much stock in what Oprah deems as good, but when I tell you this brownie is good - that adjective just doesn't seem to be enough to describe it. Grand would be more like it or rather, the best brownie you've ever tasted might be more appropriate. The brownie recipe I used can be found on page number 117 in the first of the Baked Cookbooks entitled Baked: New Frontiers in Baking. 

The recipe starts out with relatively simple ingredients, but it's all about the quality of chocolate and cocoa powder. The ingredients I used are displayed below. Please note that the bag of brown powder looking sinister is a bag of the greatest cocoa powder (in my opinion) which is Valrhona. When you're lucky, Central Market will carry it in their bulk section and these bags is how you buy it. It's expensive, but it is worth it! If you live outside of Dallas, several websites carry it as do several specialty markets. 

The combination of the ingredients using the double boiler method is really important. It is not necessary to purchase a pricey double boiler. A good medium sized pot with a metal bowl or pyrex bowl on top of the simmering water will work just fine. 

There aren't many other pictures to show you. The one tip that the Baked folks give in the cookbook is that an over baked brownie is not a Baked Brownie so keep a close eye on the brownies when cooking and for the love of God please do not over mix! 

I know in the picture above they look like a pyrex pan of any other brownies, but when you cut into them you will be a believer! What you end up with is a brownie that looks something like this. A welcome chocolate bite for the Thanksgiving dessert tray. 

A picture of the dessert tray is below. The orange-y loaf pictured is the Baked Pumpkin loaf that I have told you about previously on this blog. The other, well, you'll just have to wait for my next blog to read about it!