Sourdough Sharing - Brownies

This month's sourdough challenge was brownies.  I decided to try a blondie recipe that I have made in the past and a new brownie recipe.

Now I love to eat them - both brownies and blondies but often seem to have trouble with the centres falling.  Help anyone?  It doesn't seem to matter which recipe I try (regular or sourdough) my brownies often have a cakelike texture around the edges and are almost sticky in the centre.  If I bake them longer, the edges get too dry with the centre usually not being much different from before (just a little more cooked).  Ideas?  Suggestions?

My brownies were taken from Rita Davenport's Sourdough Cookery book.  
Chocolate Peanut Butter Brownies.

Ingredients
1/4 c butter
2 squares unsweetened chocolate (I substituted 3 Tbsp cocoa and 1 Tbsp butter for each square.)
1 c sugar
1/4 c peanut butter (I used chunky)
2 eggs
1/2 c sourdough
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 c flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda

You are to melt the butter and chocolate over low heat.  Then add sugar and peanut butter.  For this step, I just used very soft marg. and my mixer.

 

Add eggs, sourdough and vanilla.  Mix dry ingredients and stir into batter.

 

Spread in a greased 9" x 9" pan.  Bake at 350°F for 20 to 25 minutes.  Cool and then frost, if desired.  I don't usually frost mine.

 

Here you can see the sunken middle.  :(

 

Here is one middle piece and one edge piece.  The brownies taste great with the chocolate and the peanut butter.  I will try them again, once I get help with the sunken middle problem.



The blondies are from a Robin Hood Flour pamphlet on sourdough.
Sherwood Blond Brownies

Ingredients
1 c brown sugar
1/2 c sourdough
1/4 c butter, melted
1 egg
1 c flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 c chopped nuts or coconut

Beat together sugar, sourdough, butter and egg.  Again I used softened not melted butter.  (You don't think that is my problem, do you?)  Add in the rest of the ingredients and mix well.

 

Spread batter in a greased 8" x 8" pan.  Bake at 350°F for 20 to 25 minutes. 

Again you can see the dropped centre.  It is not as bad as the chocolate ones, though.

Again you can see how much higher and drier the edge piece was compared to the middle piece.  These taste great with the brown sugar and nuts - a nutty butterscotchy flavor.

 

Check below for other great brownie and blondie recipes to try.  Enjoy!  ;)

  



Chocolate Zucchini Cake

I was given this recipe years ago when my boys were young.  It was a new way to use up some zucchini.  I was very moist and tasty and I made it every year when the zucchini took over the world.

Ingredients

1/4 c butter or marg
1/2 c oil
1 3/4 c sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 c sour milk
2 1/2 c flour
4 Tbsp cocoa
1/2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp cloves
2 c grated zucchini
1/2 c chocolate chips


Grate enough zucchini to make 2 cups.  I use unpeeled but know of some people who peel their zucchini to hide it from others eating the cake. 
 

 

Combine oil, eggs and butter.  Mix in sugar and vanilla. 

 

Combine all dry ingredients in a separate bowl. 

 

Mix well. 

 

Add dry ingredients, alternating with sour milk. 

 

Add chocolate chips and zucchini. 

 

Stir well. 

 

 Pour into greased and floured 9" by 13" pan.  Bake in preheated oven at 325°F for 45 minutes or until toothpick inserted comes out clean.

 

 I don't bother to frost the cake because it is so moist.  Enjoy!  ;)

 

 



Chocolate Cake and 7 Minute Frosting

Years ago, I used to make 7 minute frosting in a double boiler, beating it with a hand mixer.  I hadn't made it for quite a while and was remembering how good it was.  Unfortunately, I got rid of my hand mixer so I didn't think I could make it again.  I checked on the internet and found several recipes that didn't need the hand mixer and double boiler.  I decided to give it a try.  I like it on chocolate cake and had a cake recipe I wanted to try as well. So here they are.
http://www.bestmoistchocolatecakerecipe.com/   http://www.kingarthurflour.com/recipes/favorite-fudge-birthday-cupcakes-with-7-minute-icing-recipe

Chocolate Cake
Ingredients
2 c flour
2 c sugar
3/4 c cocoa
2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
2 eggs
1 cup buttermilk (I used 1 Tbsp vinegar in 1 cup, add milk to make 1 cup)
1 c oil
1 1/2 tsp vanilla
1 c boiling water or strong coffee (I used coffee)

Preheat oven to 300°F and grease and flour a 9" x 13" pan.
Mix all dry ingredients together to prevent lumping. (The sugar does the trick.)

Add rest of ingredients except hot water or coffee and mix for about 1 1/2 minutes.  Add coffee and continue to beat until smooth.

Pour into pan.  Bake for 1 hour at 300°F or until toothpick comes clean.

Cool on rack.

7 Minute Frosting

Ingredients

2 egg whites

1 c sugar

1/4 tsp cream of tartar

1/3 c water

1 tsp vanilla

Beat egg whites until foamy and thick.

Place sugar, water and cream of tartar in saucepan.  Stir well and bring to boil until sugar is dissolved.  Then boil without stirring for 2 minutes or until 240°F on candy thermometer.

Beat egg whites while slowly pouring in hot syrup.  Continue beating and add vanilla.  Then beat until icing forms peaks that hold their shape.

Spoon frosting onto cake and spread thickly.

Swirl with knife into peaks.

Cut a piece and enjoy!  Eat leftover frosting with a big spoon.  ;)  It tastes like marshmallow cream.  Barry and I pigged out and enjoyed it immensely.

The cake was very moist and chocolaty.  Yummy indeed!  And the frosting was as good as I remembered it.  The only think about it was that it did not keep as well as the stuff I made in a double boiler.  That icing would get a thin crust that protected the rest.  This frosting did not get a crust so the frosting slowly deflated over time.  Maybe I didn't boil the syrup long enough (next time I'll use a thermometer)  All in all it was great and I would definitely make these both again.

Cereal Treats

My mom recently had her 80th birthday and I did the baking for the party.  Here are a couple of recipes I made that use cereal.

Chocolate Krispie Log

This recipe is originally from a Kraft Foods ad.

Ingredients
1 1/2 c chocolate chips
2 c mini-mallows
2 c Rice Krispies


Melt chocolate chips over low heat.

Stir in the marshmallows and cereal.

Spoon mixture onto wax paper.

Roll into log shape - about 18" long.

Refrigerate until firm.  Remove the wax paper.

Cut into slices.

This treat tasted nice and chocolaty but I found it a bit dry.  I know I've made something similar before but it must have been a different recipe because I remember it being more chewy.  I'll have to check through my recipes and see if I can find it.

I got the following recipe from my mom.  She makes it regularly and I like it as it is nice and gooey.

Mom's Corn Flake Squares

Ingredients

1/3 c marg

1 package of marshmallows (40)

1 c coconut

1 c sliced almonds

3 c slightly crushed corn flakes

Melt marg and marshmallows at medium heat.

Stir until melted then remove from heat.

Stir in the rest of the ingredients.  Press into a greased 8" x 8" pan. 

Cut into squares and enjoy!

My mom has several standard square recipes that she makes regularly and this is one of them.  It is very simple to make but one of my favorites.



Marshmallow Brownies

I cut this recipe out of a magazine years ago and finally got around to trying it out as I am busy making squares and dainties for my mom's 80th birthday party.  It was an ad for Kraft marshmallows.  They called the recipe Marshmallow Ooeys.

Ingredients

2/3 c flour

1/2 tsp baking powder

1/3 c butter or marg

2 squares unsweetened chocolate  (I substitute 3 tbsp cocoa and 1 tbsp butter for each square)

1 c sugar

2 eggs

1 tsp vanilla

Topping

4 c mini marshmallows

1 square semi-sweet chocolate (I substituted 3 tbsp cocoa and 1 tbsp butter)

1 tsp butter

I do not buy chocolate squares but use the basic substitution.  Mix the cocoa with melted butter.

Add the sugar.

Mix in eggs and vanilla.

To this mixture add the dry ingredients.

Spread into a greased 8" pan.  Bake at 350°F for 25 minutes.

Remove from oven and sprinkle on the mini mallows. 

Place under pre-heated broiler until golden brown.  Watch carefully so marshmallows don't burn.  It take about 3 minutes.  I turned the pan several times because the broiler didn't brown them evenly.

Melt chocolate square and butter (or in my case melt 1 tbsp and 1 tsp butter and mix with 3 tbsp cocoa).  Drizzle over the squares.

Cut into squares when cool.  The squares were hard to cut with the gooey marshmallows so they don't look picture perfect.  BUT - boy oh boy - they taste heavenly.  Yummy brownies with gooey marshmallows.  Enjoy!  ;)

Date Krispies and Blondies

Here are another couple of squares I made for my dad's 80th birthday earlier this year.

Date Krispie Squares  - This recipe was cut out of the newspaper (either the Saskatoon Star Phoenix or the Calgary Herald) a number of years ago.

Ingredients
1 c chopped dates
1/2 c butter or marg
1 c sugar
2 eggs
3 c rice crispy cereal
1 c chopped nuts
1 tsp vanilla

Chop dates and set aside.  Microwave marg until melted.   Add flour, sugar and eggs to butter and mix well.  Mix in dates. 



Microwave on high for 3 1/2 to 4 1/2 minutes until fairly thick. 



Stir in cereal, nuts and vanilla. 



Spread into a greased 9x9 square pan. 



Chill and then cut into squares.  Makes 16 squares.  Can also be cooked on top of the stove.



These squares are soft and chewy.  The dates make a tasty addition to to rice crispies.

Chewy Chunky Blondies‏

I got the recipe from the following link:

http://www.lovintheoven.com/2009/06/dorie-greenspans-chewy-chunky-blondies.html

Ingredients

2 c flour
¾ tsp baking powder
½ tsp baking soda
½ tsp salt
1/2 c butter or marg, at room temperature
1 1/2 c brown sugar
1/2 c sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
1 c chocolate chips
1 c butterscotch chips
1 c chopped walnuts
1 c coconut

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F. Butter a 9” x 13” baking pan.

Whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. 
Beat butter until smooth and creamy.
Add both sugars and beat again.
Add the eggs one at a time beating after each addition, then beat in the vanilla.
Add the dry ingredients, mixing just until they disappear into the batter.
Stir in the chips, nuts, and coconut.
Scrape the batter into the buttered pan and even the top as best as you can.

 

Bake for about 40 minutes, or until a knife inserted into the center comes out clean.

Cool the blondies and then cut into 32 bars.

These blondies are rich tasting with the chocolate and butterscotch.  They are filled with tasty morsels of goodness - chocolate, nuts, butterscotch and coconut.

Enjoy!  ;)