This is quite an embarrassing post… but instead of sweeping my mistake under the rug I will go ahead and come clean with you. After all we learn from our mistakes and no one is perfect, right?
It was Saturday afternoon and all was well. That is, until my nose caught a whiff of something burning in the oven. I opened the door, faced the disaster and ran to grab a sheet pan to catch any future brownie spillage. I closed the oven door and proceeded to run and grab my camera so I could capture this precious moment and share it with you.
Monday was my husbands birthday. Now, just so you know my husband doesn’t really have a sweet-tooth and doesn’t usually care for dessert, but since he knew he would be blowing out candles sitting on some sort of sweet on Monday he went ahead and humored me and requested a “simple brownie” when I asked him what he wanted me to make for him.
Once I got the request the dessert dreaming wheels in my head started turning, aha! I why not make him a “grown-up” brownie a drunken brownie if you will.
The plan was to take an amazing brownie recipe and transform it with a little Godiva Chocolate Liqueur into a fancier grown up version.
I don’t even know why I stuck this in the oven… I totally should have known better. But since I had melted the butter instead of creaming it with the sugar I was hoping this would prevent the brownie from rising much. Boy was I wrong..
As soon as I placed the pan in the oven I remembered that I had forgotten to add the Godiva Chocolate Liqueur… great, strike one!
As I said before, I’m placing all the cards on the table, so…
It’s a fact, I do enjoy cooking and baking with a little glass of wine on hand from time to time. But, for the record it had nothing to do with my fiasco. :p
Dark Chocolate Brownies adapated from A year in Chocolate by Jaques Torres
Makes about 35
12 ounces 72% bittersweet chocolate, chopped
1/4 cup dutch-processed cocoa powder
1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cups (3 sticks) unsalted butter, melted
3 cups sugar
6 large eggs, at room temperature
10 1/2 ounces 60% bittersweet chocolate, chopped
2 cups walnuts, toasted and roughly chopped
Chocolate ganache, optional1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F, line a
9 x 13″ pan13 x 18 x 1 (half sheet pan) with parchment paper and lightly spray with non-stick cooking spray.2. Microwave bittersweet chocolate in 4 – 5, 1 minute intervals at 50% power, until completely melted. Stir in cocoa powder and melted butter. Set aside.
3. In a bowl whisk together flour, baking powder and salt.
4. In the bowl of a stand mixer add sugar and add 1 egg at a time as you beat on low speed just util incorporated. Beat in melted chocolate (brownie base) on low until just incorporated. Beat in whisked flour on low until just incorporated.
5. Remove bowl from mixer and stir in chopped walnuts and chocolate. Pour into prepared pan and bake for 30 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean when inserted into the brownie.
Note: If you happen to insert the toothpick into the center of a chocolate chunk clean the toothpick and try a different spot. (I realize this might be a somewhat difficult task because of the number of chocolate chunks we added…)
Preheat oven to 350 degrees f
8 1/2 ounces 60% bittersweet chocolate, chopped
1 cup heavy creamI took some pastry molds, cut a few rounds, stacked them up and voilà Brownie Birthday Cake!
Per the Birthday Boy’s instructions, I was asked to leave out the chocolate ganache… (boo!)
After all was said and done, the brownie actually tasted amazing! I will be making this again… perhaps next time I will “remember” to add the Godiva Chocolate Liqueur.
{ 21 comments… read them below or add one }
Yay! All's well that ends well! I love this post, and love that it has a happy ending, despite the brownie flood.
LOVE that last picture.
LOL, that totally reminds me of my first Thanksgiving on my own. I was making this delicious Pumpkin Praline Torte, and either my round pans were small, or I needed a third pan (I started using three pans, though I wish the recipe would have mentioned it).
Anyhow, as I was dashing throughout the apartment to get ready for the family for dinner, I too smelled something burning. I came into the kitchen to see flames in my oven. The cake had overflowed out of the round pans and settled on the exposed element in the bottom of the oven.
I've never forgotten that incident, it was a mighty way to make a first Thanksgiving memorable. At least it wasn't the only snafu. My now ex didn't defrost the turkey long enough and we had half-frozen deep fried turkey to go with it…
it definitely looks like it came out delicious!
Yum! Brownie spillover – nice problem to have!
LOL- ohh man, I have been there before. Fortunately, as far as chocolate goes it's easy to overlook a little presentation imperfection. Love it.
The best part about a chocolate mess is licking your fingers as you clean up.All's well that ends well.
Brownies are brownies, even if they overflow the pan.
Dark chocolate is my favorite!
I have the worst luck with brownies not sure why.
Haha, this was a great post! Totally been there before! Glad to see it ended well!
Oh no! It must have taken quite some time to clean out your oven. It looks as though your husband appreciated the dessert all the same.
That last pictures sums it all up – it was a success despite the behind the scenes action
What a yummy looking mess, I am sure that wasn't fun to clean up!
Yum, we need more messes like that in the world…it looks delicious.
A delicious mess is the best kind of mess! Despite the little disaster, I'm glad it all worked out in the end. Great post!
What a delicious mess! All the more for you to snack on. Those broken off pieces and crumbs don't have any calories!
You are hilarious, glad to see your hubs b'day was still a great success. How come sometimes the simplest tasks can be so complicated?? Baking messes can be the tastiest! xo
Oh, I hate when things rise just enough to spill over in my oven. What a mess to clean up. But usually the food still tastes good and I've burned some calories from the clean up, right?
Love your brownie mess story, sometimes those darn brownies just have a mind of their own! It's nice your story had a happy ending and you probably ended up with a clean oven, not so bad!
Heh, I'm glad this story had a happy, chocolaty ending
(and I hope the wine made the clean up effort seem less painful) 
It happens but how it ends is lovely.
Way to save it at the end and pull out a brownie cake; we've all handled messes before. It's how we fix them that matters