Tuesday, June 3, 2008

Tuesdays with Dorie

This week's assignment for Tuesdays With Dorie was chosen by Di of Di's Kitchen Notebook. She chose French Chocolate Brownies. However, my grandmother passed away Sunday morning after a long battle with Alzheimer's and I will not be able to make them. I am going to try to make some Toll House Cookies because those were her favorites. Be sure to go check out all of the wonderful bakers who did make the French Chocolate Brownies over at Tuesdays With Dorie.


French Chocolate Brownies

- makes 16 brownies -Adapted from Baking From My Home to Yours.
Ingredients
1/2 cup all-purpose flour1/8 teaspoon salt1/8 teaspoon cinnamon (optional)1/3 cup raisins, dark or golden1 1/2 tablespoons water1 1/2 tablespoons dark rum6 ounces bittersweet chocolate, finely chopped1 1/2 sticks (12 tablespoons; 6 ounces) unsalted butter, at room temperature and cut into 12 pieces3 large eggs, at room temperature1 cup sugar
Getting ready: Center a rack in the oven and preheat the oven to 300°F. Line an 8-inch square baking pan with foil, butter the foil, place the pan on a baking sheet, and set aside.
Whisk together the flour, salt and cinnamon, if you're using it.
Put the raisins in a small saucepan with the water, bring to a boil over medium heat and cook until the water almost evaporates. Add the rum, let it warm for about 30 seconds, turn off the heat, stand back and ignite the rum. Allow the flames to die down, and set the raisins aside until needed.
Put the chocolate in a heatproof bowl and set the bowl over a saucepan of simmering water. Slowly and gently melt the chocolate, stirring occasionally. Remove the bowl from the saucepan and add the butter, stirring so that it melts. It's important that the chocolate and butter not get very hot. However, if the butter is not melting, you can put the bowl back over the still-hot water for a minute. If you've got a couple of little bits of unmelted butter, leave them—it's better to have a few bits than to overheat the whole. Set the chocolate aside for the moment.
Working with a stand mixer with the whisk attachment, or with a hand mixer in a large bowl, beat the eggs and sugar until they are thick and pale, about 2 minutes. Lower the mixer speed and pour in the chocolate-butter, mixing only until it is incorporated—you'll have a thick, creamy batter. Add the dry ingredients and mix at low speed for about 30 seconds—the dry ingredients won't be completely incorporated and that's fine. Finish folding in the dry ingredients by hand with a rubber spatula, then fold in the raisins along with any liquid remaining in the pan.
Scrape the batter into the pan and bake 50 to 60 minutes, or until the top is dry and crackled and a knife inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean. Transfer the pan to a rack and allow the brownies to cool to warm or room temperature.
Carefully lift the brownies out of the pan, using the foil edges as handles, and transfer to a cutting board. With a long-bladed knife, cut the brownies into 16 squares, each roughly 2 inches on a side, taking care not to cut through the foil.
Serving: The brownies are good just warm or at room temperature; they're even fine cold. I like these with a little something on top or alongside—good go-alongs are whipped crème fraiche or whipped cream, ice cream or chocolate sauce or even all three!
Storing: Wrapped well, these can be kept at room temperature for up to 3 days or frozen for up to 2 months.

15 comments:

Mari said...

My condolences to you and yours.

Nikki57 said...

Oh hun I'm so sorry about your grandmother

Melissa said...

Thinking of you and your family :)

The Kitchen Vixen said...

I'm very sorry for your loss. I hope you'll join us again soon.

Di said...

I'm sorry to hear about your grandmother. I hope you do get to make something that will make you think of her. Take care.

Amy said...

I am so sorry about your grandmother.

PheMom said...

So sorry about your sweet grandmother. Hugs to you and yours!

Gretchen Noelle said...

Sorry to hear about your grandma. Losin a loved one is always tough.

CB said...

Thinking about you and your family during this sad time. ((H+L))
/Clara

ostwestwind said...

Oh, I am sorry to hear about your grandmother, it's always hard to lose someone you loved.

Ulrike from Küchenlatein

Shari@Whisk: a food blog said...

So sorry to hear about your grandmother. Take care.

Andrea said...

What a lovely thing to do, make her favorite cookie.
My condolences.

Susie Homemaker said...

How touching to make her favorite cookies - I'm sure you will always remember her through your baking. Hope to see you keep your posts up in the future...

CRS said...

I'm sorry to hear about your grandmother, and it's so sweet of you to make her favorite cookies!

Jaime said...

i am so sorry for your loss :( i can only begin to understand what you are going through, as the doctors think my grandmother may have some early signs of alzheimer's...it was devastating when i went to visit her and she did not remember me.

*big hugs*