Survival Sunday 19

I baked today! And that's why this blog is late.

Because guys, I suck at baking. I like to have all of my ingredients premeasured, but that's just not possible at my home base (we have no prep bowls and I don't want to hear it when the dishes aren't miraculously done five seconds after the actual baking commences...). I found this recipe here.

I omitted the frosting because I don't want instant diabetes, despite what the recipe itself looks like.

For those who don't want to open up the link, I'll write the ingredients and the steps here!

INGREDIENTS:

• 1/2 Cup butter
• 1 Cup white sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract (use the real stuff, especially if you're vegan)
• 1/3 Cup unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1/2 Cup all-purpose flour
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon baking powder (DO NOT USE BAKING SODA)

I'm pretty happy with this tableau.
Also, we need to get more vanilla extract...

STEPS:

1.) Preheat your oven to 350℉ (175℃), grease & flour your 8-inch square pan. I think I overdid it with the flour, but that's just what happens when you're just learning to bake. It won't really cause too many problems.

Well, It's certainly floured!
For greasing, I use Crisco vegetable shortening.
Smear it onto the baking surfaces (including the sides!) with a paper towel!

2.) Grab a large saucepan and melt your butter. 1/2 Cup of butter is equivalent to one stick of Land O Lakes, but check your butter container to see what they say! I cut my butter up so it melts faster.

Do this on the lowest flame or heat setting possible.
We just want the butter to melt, not to brown.
Though browned butter brownies would probably be amazing...

3.) As soon as your butter is all melted, remove it from the heat and add your eggs, sugar, & vanilla.

My lovely blurry eggs.
These weren't the easiest to crack, but I didn't see any eggshells in there!

I should've been a little more careful and taken the spoon out.
Some of the sugar got stuck to the spoon, rather than incorporating.
Live and learn!

That's how big a teaspoon of vanilla looks in a cup of sugar!
Also, this already looked like something I'd eat.
I'm a glutton

Mix all of this together, by the way, and make it as smoothly incorporated as possible. This is all the liquid we're adding. The butter is plenty with the eggs. Do not panic.

4) Now we're adding in our drier ingredients: cocoa powder, flour, salt, baking powder. I beat all of this thoroughly between ingredients, and if I were to do it again, I'd add the flour last to limit the beating it received!

Cocoa Powder will go everywhere if you don't stir carefully.
Not that it's that big a deal.
Your kitchen will just always smell like chocolate.

Like I said, this already looks pretty darn edible!

Our flour gives a nice contrast.
It also makes the batter much, much thicker!

It's so much lighter in color with the flour in it!

Now for the salt and baking powder.
Again, make 100% sure that you're using baking powder instead of baking soda.
If you use the wrong one, the brownies will taste vile.
Trust me.

5) Now that your batter is incorporated, plop it into your greased & floured pan and make it as level as possible. Don't be too worried if there are a few small peaks or smears - the baking will even out a lot of that and give you some nice bubble action, too!

Unfortunately, I was a little distracted by the heat and stress (don't let yourself get stressed out, guys, it's no good, and it's silly to stress over brownies that only you wanted to make), so I forgot to take a picture of the brownies before they were baked. Trust me, though, it was a lot like what you see in the pot, but in an 8 inch square pan.

6) Bake that goodness for 25 to 30 minutes. I only put it in for 25, but I could have maybe gone with about 23, since the edges got pretty chewy/crunchy. Fortunately, I love brownie bones, so that's pretty good :)

While your brownies bake, check on your pets.
They're probably being cute.

My first ever batch of brownies from scratch!
Also, the baking soda thing? I did that with cookies once.
I haven't made cookies since...

To test for doneness, take a toothpick and poke the center with it.
Go all the way down.
When you pull it out, if it has mushy crumbs or streaks on it, put your brownies back in the oven.
If it comes out clean, turn off your oven and let them cool.

And that's how I spent my morning!

As for the Spice of the Week, let's talk about:

This stuff is great for making baked goods with, and like with most extracts and essences, you only need a little to go a long way. This is the good stuff. You absolutely want your almond extracts to be all-natural, pure, and to remind you of cyanide.

Uh...

Yeah. Cyanide, the poison. It smells like almond extract. It's actually a plot point in a movie I watched once. And the poisoner was the good guy. Er. Gal. It was complicated.

Right, this went dark fast!

I think that'll do it for me this week.

Go Enjoy Make Something!

FC