On the Road

There are just no two ways about it - I absolutely 100% (maybe even 200%) love to bake... yes, I love to cook, too, but if forced to make a decision (and if man could survive on cookies, cakes, and desserts alone - we can, can't we?), bake it would be. Even on an unseasonably warm day, I'm that crazy person in the kitchen with the oven cranked up (course this is after I'm also that person out on the tennis court and softball field enjoying them for the first of the season).

But something even better than just baking? Finding amazing new recipes that you fall in love with instantly. There are good recipes and then there are the "bake it and they will come" recipes. These two are some of the latter.

The first... Palmer House Brownies, a real 'find' - and from a quick search, apparently a lot of people are desperate for this recipe. Made me feel pretty fortunate to have chanced upon it. Rare or not, just take a chance and make these brownies - they are in a word, fabulous.

9 oz bittersweet chocolate, chopped
1 c unsalted butter
1 c plus 6 TBSP sugar
2 eggs
1 c cake flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
2 c coarsely chopped walnuts
1/2 c apricot preserves

Butter and flour an 8x8 metal baking pan. Melt chocolate and butter in small pan over medium heat; cool to lukewarm.

Beat sugar and eggs until well-blended. Whisk in melted chocolate mixture. Sift flour, baking powder, and salt; fold to blend and mix in 1/2 c walnuts. Transfer batter to prepared baking pan. Sprinkle remaining walnuts over and press gently into batter.

Bake brownies until edges are raised and cracked and tester inserted into center comes out with some moist batter attached, about 45 minutes. Melt apricot preserves in small saucepan over medium heat. Strain preserves and then brush melted jam over hot brownies. Cool 1 hour and then transfer to refrigerator and chill until cold, at least 2 hours.

Cut into 16 brownies (or more - they are RICH!). Serve chilled.

Bon Appetit, March 2009

And certainly not to be overlooked (i.e. some more time in the kitchen well-spent) were Smitten Kitchen's Oatmeal Raisin Cookies.

I took a page out of a few of Deb's commenters' books and added a handful of chocolate chips and these were great. The dough itself wasn't too sweet so with the raisins (golden raisins were in the cupboard and as such, they are in the cookies) and chocolate chips, it seemed like a match made in heaven. *as an aside, I've heard Deb's chocolate chip cookies are divine so those might be next up

This concludes my first "Hi, my name is Kara, and I'm addicted to baking" help session. The only problem is that along the way, I picked up a few new recipes that I'm dying to make plus I found a "cupcake crawl" (more on that - hopefully - to come) - neither of those sound like recovery to me, but I'm willing to risk it.