brownie and milk, sitting in a tree, k-i-s-s-i-n-g: a recipe

Meet my Valentine, my puggle, Bowie!

It's Valentine's Day so it's only fitting that I feature chocolate in this blog post. I attempted a homemade brownie recipe from Allrecipes.com a few days ago that did not pan out even though this particular recipe had over a thousand reviews at 4 1/2 stars out of 5... I blame my lack of baking skills for the result of my brownies. Boooooo!

I was inspired again after walking down the magazine aisle at my local Target and seeing the cover of Bon Appetit's February issue... "Best-Ever Brownies" it says! Well damn, might as well give it a second try...

Cocoa Brownies with Browned Butter and Walnuts:
From bon appetite's February 2011 issue by Alice Medrich

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 unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2 large eggs, chilled
• 1/3 cup plus 1 tablespoon all purpose flour
• 1 cup walnut pieces tossed in the 1 tablespoon of flour

Directions:

Position rack in bottom third of oven; preheat to 325 degrees. Line 8x8x2 inch metal baking pan with foil, pressing 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 treaspoon 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.

And you know what? They turned out awesome! Eat with a glass of icy, cold milk... or pair it up with a glass of red if you want to get fancy. Happy Valentines Day, everyone!