For the last several years of my life, I’ve really wanted to properly celebrate the wonder that is Mardi Gras, and finally, I thought, the year had come. I picked out some recipes, rolled up my sleeves…and realized I had lab reports to finish writing up. I spent most of my waking hours yesterday in the lab itself, and all my dreams of making monkey bread for breakfast shattered along with some poor soul’s glassware (I broke nothing, Ithankyou). That, and I had an 8:30 lab today, too. Gah. Anyway. Not one to give up without a fight, I decided to make a quick, completely non-Mardi Gras dessert in the evening regardless.
… and what’s faster than brownies?! My mother begged me to use up leftover sale truffles from Christmas instead of chocolate chips because “[she was] honestly sick of eating those damn things.” Only this was said in Bosnian, not so much in English. I’ll be honest, half-decent, 2.77$-a-box truffles weren’t a thing my mother and I could resist…until 3 boxes and 3 months later rolled around. So. The truffles met their fate in a melty vat of goodness.
Not Remotely Mardi Gras Brownies (a very loose adaptation from Good Life Eats):
3/4 cup unsalted butter
1 1/2 cups sugar
1 tbsp vanilla
1/2 cup cocoa powder
5 random truffles
3/4 cup chocolate chips
3 eggs
3/4 cup flour
Instructions:
Since I’m ghetto, I use a butter-greased, rectangular casserole dish, but you can use a square baking tin lined with parchment paper.
Melt the butter in a saucepan over medium-high heat, and stir in the sugar, followed by 1/2 cup of the chocolate chips (and truffles). Once that’s become a nice, melty concoction, take it off the heat, and stir in the cocoa powder (or hot chocolate mix, really).
In a separate bowl, lightly beat the eggs, and add the chocolate mixture to them. I did this really slowly just to make sure the temperature wouldn’t cook the eggs (though I’m sure it wasn’t that hot by this point). I could’ve said I tempered the eggs and tra la la, but I’m not a fancy chef, nor do I pretend to be.
After you have unified the two parts, add in the flour and the chocolate chips, stirring with a wooden spoon. Pour the batter into your batter receptacle, whatever it may be, and bake it for approximately 40 minutes. When a toothpick inserted into the middle comes out clean, let the brownies cool in the pan. When you’re done prowling the kitchen, waiting for thermodynamics to work, take them out of the pan, and cut them into squares.
Nom away!
***
Brownies and I have a long history; they’re among my favourite desserts to eat, but I can never quite make them to my taste. Either I underbake them to the point where I’m eating brownie pudding, or they’re cakey…and I think cakey brownies are an insult to browniedom and refuse to acknowledge them. This is why my quest for the perfect brownie has been a long and arduous journey. As far as this recipe is concerned, I’m not entirely sure that I enjoy it as much as some of the others I’ve tried, simply process-wise, but the results were delicious!
As a side note, I want to invest in – get this – MEASURING CUPS, and see if exact measurements actually make a difference. Hmm. For the record, how I cook and bake is exactly how I work in the lab. It’s been working pretty well for me, but I’m always down to try new things! I’m currently laughing at my own ridiculousness, but there’s that.
Never trust a chemist that can’t cook!
-V
P.S. Happy International Women’s Day!
CONFUSED DIASPORA 